Reel Deep Dive

One could plausibly argue that Halloween is one of the most imitated movies ever made. It was hardly the first horror film whose plot points drive it to what is now known as the slasher subgenre, but it created or calcified most of the tropes that define the idiom. Its impressive feat of reaping massive returns on its tiny investment guaranteed an onslaught of sequels, reboots, remakes, rip-offs, and parodies. Halloween's shadow extends to the present day and it's unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.

Found footage is a film genre where some (or all) of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. The events on the screen are shown through the perspective of one of the characters, often with commentary presented in real time. This approach is often used in horror movies. Rachel is a big fan of found footage; Ryan considers it a storytelling crutch frequently used by lazy filmmakers on cheap productions.

Being an aficionado of schlocky horror movies from the 80's, Cheryl picked Waxwork when it was her turn to select the subject for an installment of Reel Deep Dive. While digging up background info on the film for his notes, Ryan stumbled across the fact that Waxwork is supposedly a remake of Waxworks, a German Expressionist film from 1924. He asked Cheryl if it'd be cool if they compared and contrasted the two movies for the episode. Cheryl was keen on the idea, setting up a dilemma over the fact that, aside from the title, these two movies don't actually have all that much in common.

At the apex of 1980's action excess, Jean-Claude Van Damme carved out a niche for himself in this low budget martial arts film. Bloodsport was a moderate success at the box office, but grew a much bigger following through home video and basic cable broadcasts. Its most prominent features include amateurishly hammy acting, choppy cinematography, and Van Damme's penchant for silly gesticulations, humorously odd facial contortions, and finding any pretext he can to do a split. Ryan and Rachel touch upon each of these points in their deconstruction of Bloodsport, but they also discuss its drawn-out production, gloriously cheesy soundtrack, surprising level of (intentional) humor, and the chemistry-free "romance" scenes with Van Damme's token love interest.

The titular character of Matilda is a precocious little girl who contends against corrupt, neglectful parents and a tyrannical school principal. Directed by Danny DeVito and based on the 1988 book by beloved children's author Roald Dahl, Matilda was a box office disappointment that gradually became a cult classic through home video and TV broadcasts (a popular subject for this podcast). Ryan is joined by Sarah and Toby for this episode. They talk about why Matilda connected so deeply with Sarah when she was the same age as the protagonist. They go into detail about the movie's infamous chocolate cake scene. The post-child star career of lead actress Mara Wilson is talked about, as is the directorial approach of DeVito. The discussion then turns to how Matilda is an adolescent wish-fulfillment fantasy for young girls; parallels are drawn between Matilda Wormwood and comparable figures such as Lisa Simpson and Daria Morgendorffer.

Run Lola Run has a pretty straightforward premise: The titular character needs to acquire 100,000 Deutschmarks in twenty minutes in order to keep her boyfriend from getting killed by the mob. She seems to be stuck in a Groundhog Day-styled time loop until she can manage to accomplish this feat. The film itself is as lean, propulsive, and tightly-edited as that premise implies.

Being a movie nerd podcast where movie nerds talk about movie nerd stuff, it was probably inevitable for Reel Deep Dive to do an episode about the Star Wars saga at some point. On the other hand, it's a bit less expected for this program to go with a minor, disposable TV movie centering on the cosmic teddy bears for its maiden outing in this particular franchise.

One of the landmarks of cinema, Fritz Lang's Metropolis is a 1927 German Expressionist science fiction drama about a huge, futuristic city where the wealthy live a life of decadent privilege on top of the backs of the struggling masses. Freder, its main protagonist, is shaken from his complacency by the ethereally-beautiful labor organizer Maria and her revelations about the cruelty found in the lower levels of Metropolis. Things go sideways when Freder's wicked father disguises a killer robot as Maria and sends her to infiltrate a group of workers attempting to unionize.

Producer/director Roger Corman is arguably the biggest name in the wide, varied landscape of cinematic schlock. His massive catalog, including 55 films he directed and at least 385 he produced, ranges from Little Shop of Horrors (1960) to Sharktopus (2010). Corman was also something of a cinematic kingmaker; James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese, and William Shatner are among those who paid their dues on Corman movies before moving on to bigger and better things.

Writer and television producer Rod Serling attained his status as a 20th century pop culture icon due to The Twilight Zone, the sci-fi anthology program that he created, oversaw, narrated, and frequently scripted from 1959-1964. That show has made Serling an impressively enduring figure in the ever-shifting landscape of American media, but it's not the only anthology show that he curated. We're going to be talking about the other one on this episode.