In which HJDoom spends far too many words talking about The Asylum’s 2009 creature feature that does more or less what it says on the tin. There’s a shark. There’s an octopus. There’s no money. Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus stars Debbie Gibson, Lorenzo Lamar, Vic Chao, and Sean Lawlor. It was written and directed by Jack Perez under the pseudonym Ace Hannah.

Who knew that you could avoid infringing the copyright of The Terminator by simply sticking a letter S on the end? The Asylum that’s who. This was far from their first rodeo and it’s an effort to cash in on Terminator Salvation a film that looks better in retrospect only because everything got much worse after that point. The Terminator takes the core premise of a robot uprising but adds a little of that low budget magic by relocating most of the action to a small town in the middle of nowhere. Is it any good? No. Obviously not but is it any good by the peculiar standards of Asylum movies? Listen along to find out.

The Universal Monster movies are one of my absolute favourite things so the obvious thing to do was watch a deeply cynical attempt to cash in on their unique visual aesthetic whilst spending as little money as possible. What a glorious time to be alive.

Snakes on a Plane was arguably 2006’s biggest disappointment, a film that promised so much more than it was able to deliver despite the presence of noted charisma haver Samuel L Jackson. Fortunately all was not lost as The Asylum bravely decided to tackle the idea of reptiles on public transport with Snakes on a Train. It’s got no budget but can it manage to deliver some slithery thrills regardless? Listen along to find out what opinions HJDoom has on the matter.

Zombie movies. The finest art form known to humanity or only the second finest art form known to humanity? This is one of the questions that may or may not be answered as HJDoom takes on The Asylum’s first movie produced in house and a rare foray originality (insofar as a zombie movie in 2004 could be called original). It’s certainly very cheap but is it also rubbish? Listen along to find out.

Episode 2 of our deep dive into The Asylum sees us tackle the company’s first and arguably most successful mockbuster, H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds from 2005 which just so happened to come out at the same time as Spielberg’s riff on the classic novel. It’s obviously incredibly cheap but it does have H Thomas Howell in it. Will that help? Listen along to find out.

The Asylum is perhaps the most hated movie studio in Hollywood, churning out extremely cheap movies which are usually based on an existing and more popular film. They are the undisputed masters of the mockbuster and their films are typically derided as parasitic cash ins. We’re going to find out if all that hate is deserved by watching as many Asylum movies as I can stand. We start with one of their early films from 2002, the simple tale of a bullied weirdo who turns into a murderous scarecrow for reasons that are deeply unclear.

HJDoom examines the infamous fanfic by Jim Thiess

issue 5 of Animal Man, a DC superhero comic written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Chas Troug and Don Hazlewood with colours by Tatjana Wood and letters by John Costanza. The cover art is by Brian Bolland.

Join HJDoom has we explore the work of a forgotten master of the weird tale, Allison V Harding. A curious and elusive figure who wrote over a short period but left behind a fascinating body of work.