Talk Horror To Me

This episodes theme is young bands on tour who find themselves in peril, so we've brought our friend Josh Young, who both loves horror movies and has driven a van into the great unknown in search of audience and the elusive cash to keep the van running until the next town.

This is one of my favorite episodes yet.  Largely because Green Room is a film that resonates with me in several powerful ways.  It speaks to my nostalgia in a strange and horrific way, and I enjoyed discussing it on this episode.  That said, the film is a taught political thriller, so politics creep into the discussion.  This isn't something I generally look to engage in, but in covering this film it was necessary, and this was a film that I've known I needed to discuss for a long time.  I'm excited to have finally done it.  As always, I'm grateful to my cohosts and listeners.  The fact that Uncle Peckerhead is a delightful, splattery romp doesn't hurt either.

We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it.  

Love and Respect,

Shonny Constant

2.26.2021

If you've read all this and you're on Facebook, PLEASE join us at our Group to discuss the movie and share your horror love.  We REALLY want to hear from you.  We REALLY REALLY do!  

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's permaculture projects on Instagram, visit @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

The unnecessary episode years in the making.  Shonny's Gremlins 2 Christmas episode. 

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's permaculture projects on Instagram, visit @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's permaculture projects on Instagram, visit @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's permaculture projects on Instagram, visit @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's permaculture projects on Instagram, visit @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

As we approach Halloween, a season of stories in a more storied year than any I can remember, it brought me great joy to discover these two recent releases.  As Chuck says when discussing anthologies, at worst if you don't enjoy what you're watching you can at lease embrace the fact that a new story isn't long in waiting.  When anthologies are done to their best, however, they open a whole series of doors with which a director can explore themes in overlapping cascades, something I felt both of these films do very well.  That these are both stories examining the nature of story in direct ways, it made for an easy choice to consider these movies together.  Yet...they are both very different films.

Tonally, the visions could not be more different.  Befitting a Clive Barker inspired film, Books of Blood carries an ominous presence throughout, it's characters bearing their flaws to scars as their psychological torment ultimately leads to physical desecration.  Befittingly, it draws us through a puzzle box of horrors that had an ending that will impact most viewers deeply as a moment of ultimate release or ultimate despair.  It delivers, in my humble opinion, what one would hope for in a Clive Barker piece, deliciously and without remorse.  

The Mortuary Collection, on the other hand, has a sense of whimsy but do NOT be fooled by the poster (or the font, as Elizabeth points out in the episode) as it's meant to lure you into the belief that what you're to see isn't going to be horrific.  Horror abounds in this place, and with remarkable and unexpected visuals that will make the horror fan alternately cheer, squirm, and outright fawn over.  The movie reminds me explicitly of Peter Jackson's Braindead (1992), Dead Alive as it was released in the states, in many ways, but perhaps most importantly in that it's grand and colorful characters populate a world in which there is no fate too twisted, or gross, or bombastic by which they might meet their gory end.  It's a fun and beautiful film, and one that will probably stand as my favorite of the year.  I really hope this episode turns some folks onto it.

Love and Respect,

Shonny Constant

10.27.2020

If you've read all this and you're on Facebook, PLEASE join us at our Group to discuss the movie and share your horror love.  We REALLY want to hear from you.  We REALLY REALLY do!  

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's permaculture projects on Instagram, visit @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

Halloween is upon us, and once again we here at Talk Horror To Me are unprepared.  The unparalleled strangeness of 2020 has knocked me off kiltler more than even usual, so we're left to release an episode that was recorded months ago.  Thankfully, having gone through the editing process this week, I think it's a good one, and certainly features two films that, while not specifically horror, are bloody romps with plenty for horror fans to embrace.  These two films both feature the fabulously talented Samara Weaving, along with wonderful casts around her and scripts which continue to highlight her brilliance as a genre star perpetually on the rise.  

We hope you enjoy these films as much as we do, and look forward to hearing your opinions on the selections as well as our take on the material!

Love and Respect,

Shonny Constant

10.20.2020

If you've read all this and you're on Facebook, PLEASE join us at our Group to discuss the movie and share your horror love.  We REALLY want to hear from you.  We REALLY REALLY do!  

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

We're a bit behind schedule, but we think the wait was worth it.  This week we've invited our friend Elizabeth onto the show to talk about the second film in the Nightmare On Elm Street series, as well as the recent documentary about this unique film and it's star Mark Patton.  We go deep into themes and context on this episode, but we don't forget to talk about the kills and discuss what the Abominable Doctor Phibes would think of the movie, so hopefully there's something here for everyone!  We really enjoyed this conversation, and hope you do too.

Love and Respect,

Shonny Constant

6.30.2020

If you've read all this and you're on Facebook, PLEASE join us at our Group to discuss the movie and share your horror love.  We REALLY want to hear from you.  We REALLY REALLY do!  

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

If you'd like to see pictures of Elizabeth's fruit plants and cats on Instagram @Our_Friend_Elizabeth

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!

Over the years, when I see political unrest and public disruption of what is perceived as a broken system, I inevitably wonder what director John Carpenter might be thinking about the state of affairs.  Aside from being legendary as perhaps the founding father of the slasher genre for his creation of the Halloween franchise and the ubiquitous horror icon Michael Myers, not to mention the cosmic horrors of The Thing, he also wrote and produced films with an unmistakable focus on class and justice.  We first see this in his early film Assault On Precinct 13, but it really blooms into a considerably more ambitious world with Escape From New York.  Additionally, while by 2020 standards characters of color in his films can be scoffed at as being relegated to "token" rolls and side characters, I think it's important to acknowledge that in a time when Hollywood was largely at BEST shoehorning actors of color into tiny rolls, John Carpenter appeared to be giving thought to this dynamic, and writing characters intended to at least give the actors filling those minor rolls reason to be in the film.  Their very presence spoke to the inequities in the system in a meaningful way.  It wasn't much, perhaps, but it was something, and I think it was something he gave real thought and emotion to.

Indeed, by 1988 when Escape From New York was set, Ronald Reagan's America hadn't reached the level of authoritarian desperation portrayed in the film, yet seeing the protests in the streets in the year 2020 suggests to me that John Carpenter was on to something with his vision of an America headed towards a more profound feeling of separation between "polite society" and those who were deemed unfit to be a part of that society.  Manhattan is currently trying to recover from being the literal epicenter of a global pandemic, and people do feel they're being targeted in the streets by an overbearing and too often lethal police force who appear intent on making it clear that they do have a sense of who does and doesn't belong.  The idea was shocking and disturbing in 1981, and for many of us, it's no less bewildering and horrific today.  The island hasn't become a penal colony, but it's clear to many of us that the fear and bewilderment of the police and prison systems as they do exist are such a dark specter in the lives of people who come into or even near contact with it carry an indelible anxiety with them in their daily lives, and I believe John Carpenter was tapping into that fear with his films.  

Maybe I'm reading too much into things, and if that's the case I apologize.  But maybe, just maybe, it's time to dig deep and make the difficult decision that we can do better.  For a lot of us, dystopia is a phantom to be feared for it's looming presence on the horizon, but for many it's a considerable reality in their day to day affairs.  That's not only problematic, it's a moral injustice that needs to be addressed by all of us.  

Love and Respect,

Shonny Constant

6.10.2020

If you've read all this and you're on Facebook, PLEASE join us at our Group to discuss the movie and share your horror love.  We REALLY want to hear from you.  We REALLY REALLY do!  

Talk Horror To Me Facebook Group

And here's a bunch of other links! 

Instagram

@TalkHorrorShow

@Shonny.Constant

Twitter

@ChzuckBean

Old Man Plays Old Games on Twitch @Chzuck

Cover art for this episode by Crystal Mielcarek!  Find more of her work on Facebook, Instagram, or Smushbox.net.

SHE IS THE BEST!