Optimism Vaccine

THIS WEEK: The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), Road Games (1981) and Fair Game (1986)

Roadvember heads Down Under, where four wheels and thin sheet metal are all that stand between you and imminent, excruciating death.

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THIS WEEK: Duel (1971), Freeway (1996) and Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)

It didn't take long for us to foul up our road-centric theme, as the deceptively titled Freeway series sends us hurtling down a winding road toward... Danny Elfman?

And we also watched Duel. For some reason.

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THIS WEEK: The Hitcher (1986), The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting (2003) and The Hitcher (2007)

No, we haven't immediately abandoned our proposed annual foray into artful smut... it's just rather overwhelming to curate. So outside circumstances have dictated a temporary pivot to a different sort of pistoning action. And let's face it, Rutger Hauer is steamier than any vintage pornography we were going to dredge up anyhow.

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THIS WEEK: Onibaba (1964) and Kuroneko (1968)

For the final episode of Shawntober 2024, we expose Mr. Glinis to the gorgeous Japanese folk horror of Kaneto Shindo.

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THIS WEEK: House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Tingler (1959), Homicidal (1961)

Sometimes called the P.T. Barnum of Hollywood, William Castle made his mark in the world of cinema by promoting his kitschy horror films with one of a kind gimmicks.

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THIS WEEK: The Devils (1971), Gothic (1986), The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

We're taking Shawn on a trip across the pond to discuss transgressive auteur Ken Russell's contributions to the horror genre. Will we cure Shawn of his disdain for grand theatrical hijinks and flat British production? Probably not.

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THIS WEEK: The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), Army of Darkness (1982)

Like an incurable rash, SHAWNTOBER returns again so we can subject respectable film lover and Wiseman Cast host Shawn Glinis to all the horror films he's managed to avoid watching for decades. This year, we're starting off with a big blind spot: Evil Dead.

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THIS WEEK: Baby Cat (2023) vs The Towel Man (2021)

We're taking a little break from your regularly scheduled OpVac episode to prep for our favorite yearly tradition, Shawntober.

But don't worry, we won't leave you hangin'. Enjoy a little treat from the PATRON EXCLUSIVE feed: The debut episode from Caustic Content: Season 2 - The show where Steve and Miros compete head to head to find the absolute worst thing streaming on the internet.

And boy do we have a couple of beautiful specimens for you in this episode. It's a classic battle of an animal cosplay fetish film against a dollar store slasher.

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THIS WEEK: Caged Heat (1974), Crazy Mama (1975), Last Embrace (1979)

Before Jonathan Demme was hanging out with David Byrne and winning Oscars, he was pumping out exploitation flicks for Roger Corman and doing weird Hitchcock homages

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THIS WEEK: Manhunter (1986), Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002), Hannibal Rising (2007)

After covering Jonathan Demme's Silence of The Lambs last week we decided to keep the ball rolling and cover the rest of the film adaptations of Thomas Harris' Hannibal Lecter novels. Not that any of us need an excuse to watch Manhunter for the 74726587432 time. Maybe we could have done without Bret Ratner, Hannibal's silly Italian hat, and the Samurai training montage though. Oh well.

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