The HorrorBull Podcast

Every month, we at The HorrorBull Podcast will be releasing an extra free episode of the podcast to subscribers to our newsletter. The newest piece of free content this month is an audio commentary for one of my favorite movies of the 80s, They Live. It has all the things a movie about an alien invasion needs: a dystopian near-future (or current future), aliens posing as yuppies, super cool sunglasses, fight sequences, gunplay, and curse words.

It’s hard not to love this satire of Reagan’s super messed up trickle down economic policy from that most electro of decades. In fact, it has been deemed a “satirical science fiction movie” by the establishment at large, and I think I agree with that assessment of this John Carpenter sci-horror flick.

Jeremy and Krista from Lopez Radio joined me for this hilariously dark episode. We met under the auspices of talking about John Carpenter’s vicious (and lovably goofy) sci-fi flick but ended up talking about the 2016 election and Donald Trump for a good chunk of our hour-and-a-half discussion. It’s not that this cult classic wasn’t interesting; we just happened to think that it coincided a little TOO closely with the recent election, so yeah, we kind of threw our frustrations at the wall.

They Live is most notable for a few things: Rowdy Roddy Piper. The wrestler didn’t even know who John Carpenter was but signed up for They Live anyway. He’s one hell of a presence in the film, and his one-liners, including the oft-quoted ‘I’ve come to chew bubblegum and kick ass and I’m all out of bubble gum’, carry the movie from hellish sight to hellish sight.

And there’s the fight. Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David duke it out for, like, ten minutes at a certain point in the movie, a scene so famous it even got parodied by South Park. (Now you KNOW it’s famous!) If you are really into realistic brawling (with a little unrealistic grappling thrown in for drama’s sake), then you’ll dig that sequence, especially.

So, this episode is titled The Purge: Election Year. HOWEVER, what was supposed to be a discussion about a satire of a weird and horrible political future, one where the government is run by a set of psychopaths, instead became an hour-long bitch-fest about the election.

Weird, huh?

You get it, right? You understand that horror movies sometimes too closely reflect reality. Trigger warning: some of you might have voted for Donald Trump, but you don’t really believe in safe spaces, so you’ll love this episode of the HorrorBull Podcast.

We understand, too, though. We are a horror movie podcast and not some high-faluting fake news site where rumors and innuendo can get spread like political plague. Still, we had to take a little bit of time to vent. We’ll be back to our normal horror movie shenanigans next week, we promise.

Here is a brief synopsis of The Purge: Election Year:

Years after sparing the man who killed his son, former police sergeant Barnes has become head of security for Senator Charlie Roan, a Presidential candidate targeted for death on Purge night due to her vow to eliminate the Purge.

The overall consensus was that The Purge: Election Year is totally fine. It’s not great, it’s not bad, and I, personally, think it’s way too close to nonfiction at this point to be just a horror movie. Director James DeMonaco has a pretty great ability for looking into the heart of what makes human beings evil and dredging that out for our entertainment. Frank Grillo is great, as always — and he should still be The Punisher in another world — and the plot turns The Purge on its ear.

Anyway, if this is our last podcast episode, then you know we’ve been taken to Guantanamo. Or somewhere even scarier. See you in our concentration camps — I mean, re-Americanization camps!

 

Halloween III will forever be known not by its subtitle Season of the Witch but as ‘Oh, is that the one without Michael Myers?’

That being said, the movie doesn’t fair terribly on a re-watch. Certainly, it has some major plot…confusions, but the movie overall is not bad.

For those who don’t remember: Halloween III features Tom Atkins as an emergency room doctor who gets embroiled in a worldwide plot to kill all children on Halloween and replace them with robots. It involves witches and Druids and corporations, not unlike Election 2016, but it does have a pretty kickass score.

It was meant to be a departure for the series, in part because John Carpenter was distancing himself from the Akkads’ attempts to monetize Halloween for every dollar that could be squeezed out of the moviegoing public. Carpenter is involved in a limited capacity — he did the music — but this particular sequel is the brainchild of Halloween regular Tommy Lee Wallace, who wrote and directed the film.

Did I mention that this one doesn’t have Michael Myers in it? (Note: he’s on the TV at a few certain points. I get it. Don’t email us.)

This movie begs the question: What would the Halloween franchise have been like had Halloween III been an absolute hit? I believe the original run of the film grossed $14 million, which definitely outsized its $2.5 million budget, but it was at that point the lowest grossing of the series.

But what if it had been successful?

Would they have put Michael Myers back in the closet and trotted out even more apocalyptic plots? Thankfully, it’s something we don’t have to contemplate, because Mr. Butcher Knife himself returned in Halloween 4. At least we have an example of what else the filmmakers involved had up their sleeves.

Also, too bad H2 wasn’t huge, or else we might have seen Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween III at some point. Weird to think about, eh?

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

* Tyler would also like to plug his newest novel, Dirt Merchant, which is available for pre-order on Amazon right now for $5.99!

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter

Audio Player

This year, we decided to make it a Madea Halloween by watching (take a deep breath) Tyler Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween, which is in and of itself a mouthful.

In fact, a lot about this movie is a mouthful. The plot — don’t get Tyler (not-Perry) started on it — takes minutes to wade through, and Madea, well, isn’t she always just a mouthful anyway?

That is also to mention our feelings on the movie. A Madea Halloween makes us feel complicated. It’s not a good movie. That, we can say with almost objective certainty.

Is it funny? You bet your weed prescription on it. Madea herself is a fleshed-out character (and not just for sheer size of her). Even though the film is completely and utterly broad in its characterizations of people, events, and just about everything, she herself — or Tyler Perry as her — commands the screen.

Otherwise, we spend our time trying to suss out exactly whether or not Tyler Perry was playing to his audience with his portrayal of the frat party, or if he doesn’t actually know what one looks like in 2016.

You can follow the podcast on all sorts of social media. We are probably most active on the HorrorBull Podcast Twitter account. All of that information is posted below.

In addition, feel free to join the newsletter. We release an exclusive episode for subscribers once a month, and we delve into topics as wide-ranging as murder and, well, murder. So far, we only have the one episode, but it’s a great exploration of the World’s Most Famous Mama’s Boy, Ed Gein.

Subscribe on the site or just email ust at wolfmansgotnards at thehorrorbullpodcast.com.

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

* Tyler would also like to plug his newest novel, Dirt Merchant, which is available for pre-order on Amazon right now for $5.99!

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter

Michael Myers is back, and your favorite horror podcast has review THE film we’ve discussed more than all the others combed: John Carpenter’s Halloween.

This 1978 classic deserves all the plaudits we can levy upon it. The pacing is phenomenal, the direction is unparalleled, and the big bad…well, I think you know how we feel about Michael Myers.

Our Halloween podcast episode features a wide-ranging discussion on John Carpenter’s career, the master of horror’s legacy, and the films themselves. Can’t wait for you to listen.

Eventually, our goal is to work through all of the movies in the Halloween franchise, starting with the original John Carpenter’s Halloween and going all the way through Rob Zombie’s H2 [shudder] and beyond, if they decide to make more movies.

Here’s some Halloween trivia to accompany the episode. Now, you’ve probably heard by now that the mask used in the film was that of William Shatner, then of Star Trek, but you probably won’t be as aware of the rest of this list. Enjoy!

* Halloween wasn’t the original title of the film. The film was initially called ‘The Babysitter Murders.’

* Though the film was set in Illinois, it was actually shot in California.

* Donald Pleasance’s character is named after Sam Loomis in ‘Psycho.’

* The Myers house used in the film was 100% abandoned at the time.

* It only took John Carpenter 3 days to complete the film’s score.

* ‘The Shape’ is played by three different actors in the film: Nick Castle, Tony Moran (for the unmasking), and production designer Tommy Lee Wallace.

* One of the films playing on-screen is Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World, which Carpenter would go on to remake and re-envision in 1982’s The Thing.

* The opening shot from Michael’s young POV was inspired by the opening from A Touch of Evil.

* The film only took 20 days to shoot in 1978 and was released later that same year.

[Warning: For some reason, the audio on the episode was clipping pretty badly in the beginning, so we cut a few minutes out of the beginning banter. It clears up (mostly) a few minutes in, so we’re releasing it as it. Just know that it probably won’t sound the best. All apologies.]

Our Top 10 Horror Movies of the Last Decade will shock and amaze you…unless you’ve actually listened to the podcast, in which case you’ll definitely know what movies we thought were amazing.

In addition to the Top 10 Horror Movies of the Last Decade list we’ll publish here on the site, we are each going to post our own Top Ten Lists. That way, those little gems — I SAW THE DEVIL — that didn’t make the total list could find a place for discussion.

We had a good time arguing about the best movies of the last decade, which WOULD have come out in the episode, had it not recorded in a super weird way. (Something tells me this is the universe trying to keep our truth from reaching the ears of the anointed.)

Here is the list of all the movies we culled from to make our Top 10 Horror Movies of the Last Decade. What we did was, we each created a top 10 list and then performed soul-eviscerating cuts to the list until we had ten movies, and then we ranked them.

* 30 Days of Night

* American Mary

* Black Christmas

* Drag Me to Hell

* Evil Dead

* I Saw the Devil

* Inside

* Let the Right One In

* Lords of Salem

* Slither

* Spring

* Starry Eyes

* The Battery

* The Descent

* Trick r Treat

* The Strangers

* It Follows

* A Serbian Film

* The Witch

* The Babadook

* Paranormal Activity

* Martyrs

* House of the Devil

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter

Rob Zombie 31 Podcast

This week, the gang discussed Rob Zombie’s 31. It feels like a sequel that is not quite a sequel to all of Rob Zombie’s other movies. You can bet there will be plenty of white trash characters talking incoherent bullshit about things that don’t actually relate to the plot.

Related: Listen to our episode about Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem

The plot goes like this: Some stanky 70s carnies get caught up in a web of murder hosted by a group I call The Antoinettes. They have to survive for twelve hours in order to…survive? I don’t know. It’s kind of a murky premise — and a simple one — but it gets the job done.

If you’ve seen The Running Man, Surviving the Game, or The Purge, then you’ve got a pretty general idea of what we’re talking about here. What separates this movie from the rest is that this one features some pretty specifically horrific imagery.

We ended up being relatively mixed on Zombie’s fourth(?) feature. Tyler ended up liking it a lot, but the rest of the podcast seemed sort of lukewarm on the whole thing. The biggest problem, it seemed, is the script-writing. Zombie’s use of the cliche hasn’t really improved, and it’s a real detriment to the film, overall.

If you like our Rob Zombie 31 podcast episode, be sure to check out the rest of our podcasts, well, here on the site at thehorrorbullpodcast.com. (We were around way back when Lords of Salem was released.)

Join the newsletter to get exclusive access to our monthly true crime podcast, The HorrorBull Podcast Presents Great American Nightmares.

Otherwise, you can check out Great American Nighmares on our BandCamp page. We’ll be discussing one true crime story each month, so be prepared for some violence.

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter

Join the HorrorBull Podcast Newsletter!

If you’ve made it to the site, then no doubt you’ve already seen the pop-up for our newsletter. Gain access to exclusive content, including a monthly extra episode and first notice of our monthly giveaways. If you have Ad Blocker Plus installed, simply email us at wolfmansgotnards@thehorrorbullpodcast, and we’ll take care of the rest. Now, on to the post.

Blair Witch. Whoo. This one caused a lot of anxiety in the podcast. We didn’t even quite know how to go about talking about the movie without talking about what frustrated us.

Thing is, we LOVE Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard. As a podcast, we can very easily say that You’re Next and The Guest are two of our favorite movies of the last several years.

But Blair Witch, it just squandered so much potential. Here was a real opportunity to revitalize the “brand” of the Blair Witch Project and establish Adam Wingard as THE go-to horror director of this generation.

C’est la vie. C’est la vie. Still, there was plenty to like about this movie. There is plenty of bombast and lots of jump scares. The problem is that none of it really means anything. Not only that, the movie barely acknowledges the history of the franchise, except for exposition’s sake early on in the first act.

Honestly, The Forest is probably a better looking-for-a-sibling-in-a-wooded-area film. Think about it. This one is just all hype based on the name. If Blair Witch weren’t the title, then this movie would pretty quickly rush to VOD and Redbox. Oh wait…

We spent most of the podcast talking to Bryan about why he’s such an empath and what prevents him from being able to stay awake during (any) movies.

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter

Of all the new horror releases coming in Fall 2016, Antibirth kind of creeped up on us. We were looking ahead to Blair Witch and 31 and all manner of new horror movies, so we skimmed right past this one.  With all of the bloody good stuff coming out in the heat of this season, it wasn’t a difficult thing to do.

Anyway, I kind of stumbled into this one based on a few articles I read about upcoming horror movies, just doing some research for upcoming podcast episodes. I saw the cast — Natasha Lyonne, Chloe Sevigny, Meg Tilly — and thought it would be a good fit for us.

Plus, there was the potential for pregnancy jokes. We had to do this movie.

Overall, Antibirth falls into the tradition of other preggers movies, like Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, The Exorcist, and newer flicks, like Hell Baby and Bad Milo, among others. Except it has a twist: the main character doesn’t really give a shit that she’s pregnant. She continues to take huge bong rips and smoke cigarettes like she was in a 28 day program, and it doesn’t seem to have any sort of effect on the movie.

Still, we managed to squeeze this one in during what is going to be a competitive Fall for horror movies, and yet we managed to spend half the episode talking about how Lona can only take pills with a veritable fuck-ton of applesauce.

It was an episode full of awkward silences related to gender stereotypes, pregnancy, folic acid, and what to do when you’re carrying a science fiction baby. If you think we couldn’t get any grosser than we already are, then you haven’t heard this episode. Check it out.

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter

‘Don’t Breathe’ is the kind of horror movie that makes a horror movie podcast like us drool…or gag. Either way, we give our most honest movie review chutzpah to the test with this cum-guzzling entry into the genre. Fede Alvarez made us sit up and take notice with his horror remake Evil Dead from a few years ago, which we reviewed way back in 2013.

This movie is a home invasion story, more or less, with a few noticeable twists and turns. You’ve got all the elements that normally make a movie like this successful: a broken down town, desperate people, desperate circumstances, poverty, thuggish white dudes, and one PTSD-wrecked military man. You might be able to guess the twists, but you’ll probably still flip your lid at how the movie plays out.

FaceBook:

* The FaceBook Page: Facebook.com/horrorbullpodcast

* Tyler’s Rolson McKane Series: Facebook.com/BoogieHouseNovel

Twitter:

* The Podcast: @horrorbullpcast

* Bryan: @bryncntr

* Tyler: @blakebraddy

* Drew: @moviegoer878

* Lona: @mizzpanter