The Naschycast returns to the world of Jess Franco for an erotic ramble through late 1960’s Lisbon and Berlin. Bob Sargent joins Troy and I to examine SUCCUBUS (1968) because Bob wanted to rewatch the film. Two of us had not watched it in years and the third had never even seen it before! We turned this into a trip to the unwatched DVD pile again to take a look at the starting point for a certain type of Franco cinema. Your tolerance for the director’s sense of humor and the absurd will determine your level of enjoyment.

We use Stephen Thrower’s excellent book on the work of Franco named ‘Murderous Passions’ to guide us and to provide a brief synopsis. We waffle through a discussion touching on the cast connections to Paul Naschy but mostly talk about our reactions to the often surrealistic events involving S & M stage performer Lorna (). She seems to navigating a strange period in her life with reoccurring visions of a different life impinging on her supposed reality. We see her interact with various romantic partners who end up dead at her hands. Or is that really what is happening? Along the way we get striking images, amusing commentary on arthouse pretentions and philosophical silliness draped in an encroaching ennui that seems to define Lorna’s confused life. Can cinema be therapy?

Along the way we are reminded to always fear mannequins but we also take heart from the Algernon Charles Swinburne poem Faustine that seems to have been a major influence on the film.  Of course, we all wish a for a Blu-Ray release complete with multiple versions of this important effort. It clearly signposted many future Jess Franco films that fans laud to this day.

If you have and comments [email protected] is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and we’ll be back soon.

Troy noticed that the mailbag had collected several new pieces of correspondence so we decided to find out what was on your minds. Strangely, Paul Naschy seemed to be a major subject of these missives! Will wonders never cease? 

The email folder held five emails to read out and we respond to them to the best of our ability. My crushing inability to correctly pronounce several names is noted and corrected by a longtime listener and I promptly find other names to destroy. I should not be allowed near a podcast! We discuss keeping the Naschy flame burning and note recent online articles that a helpful fan of the show has provided. (See links below.) We also talk a bit about some upcoming Blu-Ray commentary tracks that are being released soon while giving a piece of bad news concerning a hoped for extra on another. Sometimes we have to hold on to older releases to sooth our collector minds. Our sick, sick collector minds. 

If you want to be part of our next email show [email protected] is the place to send your thoughts. Thank you for listening!

We take a deep dive into Jess Franco’s THE SADISTIC BARON VON KLAUS (1963) and hope we can avoid the quicksand. Bob Sargent returns and joins Troy and I to discuss this krimi-like murder mystery. It even has a little comedy relief. Luckily, very little of that! 

Just in under the wire – a Naschycast episode! We wanted to get at least one more show out to everyone before 2025 strikes so here is out latest run through several emails.

The concept of Naschycast goat plushies is submitted and both Troy and I love the idea! See the image attached to this episode for an example from Don Cunningham. Don also brings up the idea that perhaps all of the Daninsky werewolf’s victims are deserving of their fates but we think that requires some deep surmising. We then discuss the strange origin story of the show’s theme music complete with our clueless wondering about a CD release. Then Stephen Follows writes in to point the way toward his incredible and fascinating Horror Movie Report! This amazing study of (all?) horror films and the various revealing and noteworthy pieces of information that can be gleaned from even a surface examination of them is endlessly eye-opening. I recommend the curious to check out the full report here and Stephen’s website here. And Zach Lewis writes in to point all good Naschy fans to his excellent article about our beloved filmmaker on MUBI called Werewolf of Madrid. It’s well worth a read and could serve as a good introduction for newcomers curious about our hairy subject.

We end the show with an unexpected pleasure – Troy presents his book report on the legendary novelization of WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN! This begins a discussion of film novelizations in general and possibly points the way toward a future aspect of shows over on The Bloody Pit. As soon as Troy finishes the doorstopper version of Hell of the Living Dead!

Thank you for listening and please send your comments to [email protected] where we will eventually respond. This episode is proof, right?

Independent filmmaker Don Cunningham joins Troy and I to talk about Paul Naschy and how he has influenced Don’s work. We discuss favorite Naschy movies with our guest naming some surprising choices. I love getting different perspectives on the icon’s career and this conversation has a few curves I was not expecting.

Of course, we could barely wait to ask about Don’s wonderful short film THE CASTLE OF BARON FINCH (2024). For this movie Mr. Cunningham writes, directs, produces and stars making him very much a man following in Paul Naschy’s footsteps. We dig into the production process, the genesis of the film’s story and the influences other than Naschy. The film is a (mostly) black & white silent movie featuring a vampire or two and a poor lovestruck soul with a moonlight and hair problem, so naming Jacinto Molina’s work as a major touchstone is perhaps a bit obvious. But this atmospheric little cinematic love letter stands on its own just fine. Don gives some details on the film’s release and places to see it. Oh! And I’ve scattered a bit of the fantastic score by Andreu Jacob into the latter half of the show as well.

If you have any comments or questions [email protected] is the place to send them. If you want to reach out to Don’s you can message him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CastleBaronFinch or through email at [email protected] – thanks for listening!

The Naschycast opens the podcast mailbag, dusts off the cobwebs and answers a few questions. Like, why have we waited so long to respond to emails! We could plead a combination of busyness and laziness but that is not an excuse worthy of our fine listeners so we simply apologize and get on with the show. 

Troy and I are joined by fellow podcaster Robert Kelly, host of Record All Monsters and author of Record All Monsters: the Book of the Essays from the Podcast. Don’t worry – he eventually explains the book’s title and his fascination with kaiju films.

The Naschycast returns for a brief overview of the Paul Naschy Blu-Rays that are currently available in Region A. Troy and I decided to record this show to give our North American listeners an indication of the wealth of high-definition offerings still on retail shelves – as long as you search the right retailers! Consider this also a warning that these wonderful discs don’t stay available forever and, in many cases, when they’re gone they are gone for good.

We tried and failed to do a chronological rundown of the Blu-Rays that have come out over the last eight years or so with nods toward some blank spots in Naschy’s career we’d like to see filled with HD glory. The individual companies that have been releasing these Spanish horror classics have been doing us all a good service and let’s hope the releases continue past next year’s long awaited DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLF MAN!

If you have any comments [email protected] is the place to send them. We hope that you have had a good 2023 and that 2024 will be even better! Thank you for listening.

This episode we are joined by Jon Kitley to talk about his love of and history with Paul Naschy! Readers of Horror Hound magazine are aware of his regular column ‘They Came from the Krypt’ but he has also published the book ‘Discover The Horror’ which is part genre exploration and part autobiography. Both Troy and I recommend it.

Marc McCloud drops by the show to discuss Naschy’s tale of the Inquisition in France. Marc is the owner of Orbit DVD and a longtime friend of Troy and I, but this is the first time we’ve ever talked about our mutual love of the films of Paul Naschy. Our guest chose Naschy’s directorial debut as the topic and we were happy to oblige.

Religious hypocrisy is a big part of our conversation and this gets us into the thorny area of what to call the subset of exploitation films of which this is a part. We note the influence of the Catholic Church on the nature of the fears that undergird the horrors of the film and wonder about the connections to the Nunsploitation genre. The villains of the story come under scrutiny with an eye toward how they use their relative places of power to extract their desires from those around them. And we speak a little about the ways that women had to work to accomplish things in the society ruled by male religious leaders. Join us for what I will refuse to call a ‘romp’ through INQUSISTION.

We end the show with a short email from Kurt and if you’d like to send us your thoughts [email protected] is the address. Thank you for listening!