Movie Oubliette

Dan and Conrad don their tightest neon cycling outfits and strap themselves into a gyroscope to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Lawnmower Man. Directed by Brett Leonard and starring a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan as a neuro-scientist and Jeff Fahey as his gardener and unwitting lab rat, the film is most definitely not based on anything written by one of the most famous horror authors of all time. Certainly not after the lawsuit. It's a classic tale of a well-intentioned scientist whose combination of nootropic drugs and virtual reality gaming sessions results in a vengeful telekinetic cyber god. But do its ground-breaking CGI sequences and subtle character development stand the test of time, or should it be relegated to a landfill in China, alongside floppy disc drives and novelty mice? Find out!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad retreat back to their comfort zone of 80s cheese, only to be confronted by the relentless exuberant strangeness of W.D. Richter's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984). It has an incredible cast. Peter Weller stars the titular Buckaroo – a daredevil neuroscientist particle physicist new romantic rock star and secret agent – with none other than Jeff Goldblum and Clancy Brown in his A-Team like crew. Ranged against them are John Lithgow as an alien-possessed Italian scientist and Christopher Lloyd as his side-kick John Bigbooty (it's pronounced Bigbooté!). Nothing could prepare them for the dense, unfathomable world building of this anarchic sci-fi romp, but crucially... is it actually any good? Or it is just a relic of the cocaine-fuelled 80s? Find out!

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're delving into new territory, thanks to our Patrons' nominations of a wide selection of pre-80s films! In this episode, we're looking at Crypt of the Vampire – a 1964 Italian/Spanish gothic horror movie based on Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 novel Carmilla and starring the iconic Christopher Lee in a fetching dressing gown. It's got castles, thunderstorms, suits of armour, drippy candles, satanic rituals that involve lying naked face down on a marble floor (not great for the nips), lesbian eroticism, decidedly 60s eyeliner and some fantastic dream sequences. But does it make any sense? Does it actually have in vampires in it? Find out!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Director Mark Pellington joins us to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of The Mothman Prophecies, a quietly disturbing supernatural thriller starring Richard Gere as a grief-stricken journalist who finds himself in a small West Virginia town helping a local police officer, Laura Linney, investigate a series of escalating unexplainable events. Based on a true account of a tragic disaster in Point Pleasant, the film's unique visual and audio style was hugely influential, but how does it hold up 20 years later? Find out!

Follow Mark Pellington on Twitter and be sure to check out his new dance film The Severing, with premieres at the Slamdance Film Festival this week!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're celebrating the New Year with literal fireworks, re-igniting the smouldering embers of Firestarter (1984). It stars a very young Drew Barrymore as a pyrokinetic super child on the run with her psychic 'pusher' dad (David Keith... definitely not to be confused with Keith David). They're trying to escape shady government types like Martin Sheen, reprising his role from The Dead Zone as a power-crazed authoritarian, who wants to turn little Charlie into a weapon, and ethnically inappropriate George C. Scott as John 'Rain Bird', who wants to karate chop her nose into her brain while stealing her powers or something. Because he's native. Erm... Thank goodness we're joined by Felicia Lobo of the Girly Gore YouTube channel and Sinister Sisters podcast to help us navigate the conflagration of this often-overlooked Stephen King adaptation! But is it a hot classic or a dumpster fire? Find out!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duncan Skiles, director of The Clovehitch Killer, returns for our special festive episode, in which we review a yuletide tale of a plucky kid who uses booby traps to repel a home invasion. No – not that one! It's the French horror/thriller Deadly Games (1989) – also known as 3615 code Père Noël and about a dozen other titles. It was released a year before Home Alone and is a lot darker. As in 'irreparable child trauma' darker. But bizarrely, it also features a cute grandpa and a gauzy montage set to an original Bonnie Tyler Christmas song. But is it a delightful, previously unwrapped Christmas gift or is it a bag of coal? Find out! And have yourself a happy, happy holiday season and a fantastic New Year!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the classic fairy tale were laced with complex psycho-sexual drama between the king, the stepmother and the child cosplaying as her dead mum? What if the dwarves were mostly full-sized, scarred outlaws fleeing religious persecution? What if it starred Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill and was full of 90s gothic intensity? We're about to find out as we explore 1997's Snow White: A Tale of Terror – an attempt to cash in on the success of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) that got eviscerated in post-production and dumped on cable TV. Is it a dark, glistening gem that should be rescued from the oubliette or an unsalvageable train wreck? Find out!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a special Patrons' Choice episode, we take a look back at Starman (1984), John Carpenter's romantic sci-fi fable starring Jeff Bridges in an Oscar-nominated role as a visiting alien and Karen Allen as the widow whose husband he impersonates. Kicking off with a disturbing alien birth sequence that showcases the combined talents of Rick Baker, Stan Winston and Dick Smith (yes, you read that right), Starman shifts gears into a road movie with a fish-out-of-water comedy and an odd couple romance thrown into the mix. But does it hold up 37 years later? Does it point towards a more nuanced career for the 'Master of Horror' that was not to be? Or does it collapse under its disturbing abduction romance tropes and reliance on post-ET sentimentality? Find out!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad are swept away by the 1993 science fiction mystery Fire in the Sky, which is based on Arizonan logger Travis Walton's personal account of an alien abduction experience in 1975. Starring D. B. Sweeney (Memphis Belle), Robert Patrick (the T-1000 in T2), Craig Sheffer (Nightbreed), Peter Berg (Wes Craven's Shocker), Henry Thomas (Elliott from E.T. no less!) and veteran James Garner, and featuring jaw-dropping special effects from Industrial Light and Magic from the same year they were working on Jurassic Park, this film failed to reached its audience... or more accurately, it's audience failed to reach it because of a freak snowstorm across the US on its opening weekend. But is it a hidden gem with a serious exploration of the abduction phenomenon, or is it an uneven mix of drama and heavy hitting fantasy effects? Find out!

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Halloween! Emmy-nominated actor Michelle Ang (The Tribe, Outrageous Fortune) joins us as we celebrate the spooky season with a look back at The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), a found footage possession thriller directed by Adam Robitel (Escape Room). In it, our guest plays a student, Mia, who gets more than she bargained for when she tries to make a documentary focusing on Deborah Logan (Jill Larson), a sufferer of Alzheimers. As Deborah's behaviour becomes more disturbing and strange events plague the house, Mia joins forces with the patient's daughter, Sarah (Anne Ramsay), to uncover the town's dark secret, and a shadowy force that may be trying to complete its terrifying reign of terror from beyond the grave! But is this an undiscovered thrilling gem or forgettable found footage fodder? Find out!

Follow our special guest, Michelle Ang, on Twitter and Instagram.

Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!

Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.

Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.