Movie Oubliette

Conrad shows Dan the little-seen supernatural psychological drama, The Sender (1982) – a British production starring Kathryn Harrold, Željko Ivanek, Shirley Knight and Paul 'Belloq' Freeman, and directed by Oscar-winning production designer Roger Christian. Ivanek plays John Doe 83, a mysterious young man admitted to a psychiatric hospital after walking into the sea with rocks in his pockets. Suffering from amnesia, but obviously the victim of some trauma, Doe fascinates Dr Gail Farmer (Harrold), who discovers the boy is able to project his nightmares into other people's minds. Who is he? Who is the mysterious woman who keeps appearing randomly and claiming to be his mother? And is this film obscure for a good reason? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad slip into some chunky knit sweaters and go underground to explore City of Ember (2008), a post-apocalyptic science fantasy starring Harry Treadaway, Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray and Tim Robbins. Based on a popular series of novels by Jeanne DuPrau, which became the focus of an intense bidding war when it came time for the film adaptation, the film seems to presage the explosion of young adult dystopian adventures that would follow in the wake of The Hunger Games in the 2010s. But should the film be rekindled, or should the ember be extinguished in the oubliette forever? Find out!

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Matt Swaford of the Endless Bullets: The Action Movie Podcast joins us for this special Iconicon 2022 crossover event, and brings with him a buddy cop zombie action movie we've never heard of: Dead Heat (1988). It stars Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Lindsay Frost and Vincent Price – yes, you read that right – is directed by legendary editor Mark Goldblatt (The Terminator) and written by Terry Black (brother of Shane 'Die Hard' Black), with incredible special effects by Steve Johnson. But is it a gem that should be reanimated in Vincent's resurrection machine, or a deservedly forgotten relic that should dissolve into human slime? Find out!

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In a childhood nostalgia special, Dan revisits Johnny Mnemonic (1995) – the other cyberpunk action thriller Keanu Reeves made in the 90s after hitting the big time in Speed (1994). It's the one everyone forgets. Maybe our cybernetic implants were loaded with more than 320GB of data, like Keanu's black market data courier, Johnny? Directed by artist Robert Longo in his debut (and so far only) mainstream film and based on a short story and screenplay by cyberpunk grandaddy William Gibson, this bizarre footnote features Dolph Lundgren as an evangelical street preacher/cybernetically enhanced assassin, Takeshi Kitano as a big Pharma bad guy, Dina Meyer as a streetsmart bodyguard and Ice-T as the leader of an underground organisation called the 'Lo-Teks'. Oh, and Henry Rollins is a doctor, Udo Kier is a small time crime boss and there's a cybernetic dolphin in the mix somewhere. It's the kind of thing that could only have happened in 1995... but is that a bad thing? Find out!

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Melinda Mock of RetroBlasting joins us to revisit one of her teenage favourites: Wes Craven's Shocker (1989) – a bizarre attempt to create a new slasher franchise with The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi as psychotic serial killer Horace Pinker, who gains supernatural possession abilities after being executed in the electric chair. Future director Peter Berg plays a college football star player whose adoptive family and girlfriend fall victim to Pinker's homicidal urges. Can he figure out how to stop the electrically charged menace before he strikes again? Can he do it with a late 80s hair metal soundtrack raging in the background? And is this a hidden gem overshadowed by Craven's monumental franchises? Find out!

Follow RetroBlasting at www.retroblasting.com, on YouTube or Twitter.

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Dan and Conrad were spelunking in the oubliette's indoor pool and resurfaced M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water (2006), a fairy tale for adults starring Paul Giamatti as a melancholy caretaker in an apartment building who discovers a 'narf' in the community swimming pool. That might sound like a euphemism for something revolting, but it turns out to be an ethereal nymph-like creature played by Bryce Dallas Howard, whose mission is to inspire a great writer to create a work that will change the world before she is ravaged by magical wolves called 'scrunts'. In a questionable move, the director casts himself in the role of the inspirational writer, and various fantasy hijinks ensue. The film is widely regarded as part of Shyamalan's precipitous downfall after his smash hit The Sixth Sense (1999), but is it as bad as people think, or does it deserve a re-evaluation? Find out! 

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For our 101st episode, we're covering our oldest film yet: 1955's Conquest of Space, the speculative science fiction adventure from the producer/director team that brought us the seminal War of the Worlds two years before. It's widely thought that George Pal and Byron Haskin's depiction of the first manned mission to Mars – crucially brought to the screen 6 years before we got off the planet and 14 years before we got to the moon – was a heavy influence on the sci-fi genre and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in particular. But is it any good? Find out!

The film for this episode was graciously donated by Via Vision, who Imprint label releases amazing special editions of cult classics for collectors to enjoy. Check them out!

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We celebrated our 100th episode with a special livestream extravaganza where, for the very first time, we review a film that one of us worked on: The Witches Hammer (2006), a no-budget British vampire action movie starring Stephanie Beacham and graced with Conrad's music. And if that wasn't enough, we were joined by two wonderful special guests: Isaac Sutton, who brings the infectious joy to the Moublie Awards, and Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures, who hosts an 'ask us anything' chat. It was an amazing morning/day/night (delete as per continent) and you can watch it on our Youtube channel, but if you missed it and you want it in pure audio-only podcast form, here it is!

Find out more about Isaac at isaaclastname.com

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Conrad and Dan strap on asbestos leggings and propel themselves back in time to 1991 for the nostalgic family action/adventure The Rocketeer. Set in the Art Deco glamour of 1938 Los Angeles, it stars Bill Campbell as the daredevil pilot who stumbles upon a prototype jetpack and puts himself and his partner, Jenny (the breathtaking Jennifer Connolly), in the crosshairs of a mob gang lead by Paul Sorvino and the Nazis, led by secret spy and silver screen icon Neville (dashing but dangerous Timothy Dalton, in one of his first post-Bond roles). It has an adventuresome score by James Horner, VFX by ILM and is helmed by ILM-alumni and future Captain America director Joe Johnston. But why didn't it take off in 1991? And does it soar now? Find out!

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Heather Wixson, Managing Editor of Daily Dead and author of Monsters, Makeup and Effects – Volume 1, joins us on a tour of Clive Barker's sophomore film Nightbreed, a dark fantasy horror film based on his novella Cabal and starring Craig Sheffer, Anne Bobby, director David Cronenberg as a suave serial killer (!), Hugh Quarshie and Doug Bradley. The film notoriously flopped on release in 1990, largely thanks to studio malarkey, reshoots and a compromised theatrical cut... but does the recently restored director's cut reveal a hidden gem of a movie? Is it a mysterious but beautiful freak living undiscovered in an underground city? Find out!

Check out Heather Wixson on Twitter, buy her book Monsters, Makeup and Effects and get all your horror entertainment news from Daily Dead.

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