Send us a text

Another pull from one of The Malden Chronicles episodes that's worth a revisit. 

Send us a text

Jacob’s Ladder is part psychological horror, part spiritual breakdown, and all sweaty paranoia. Tim Robbins nails it as a Vietnam vet whose post-war life turns into a fever dream of demons, flashbacks, and truly bad subway etiquette.  It's the kind of movie that makes you question reality, mortality, and why anyone would trust a chiropractor named Louis with existential advice. 

Come for the psychological trauma, stay because you can’t tell what’s real anymore.

Send us a text

People, places and things. 

Send us a text

Grab your flamethrower and your blood test kit, because we’re thawing out John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) — the frosty freakshow where Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, and the gang learn the hard way that trust is dead and the dog is definitely not okay. And remember, it’s not paranoia if your best friend’s head just grew spider legs.

And that Entertainment Tonight intro music I used just happens to be from June 25, 1982. Youtube is a strange and wonderful place.

Send us a text

Groovy.

Send us a text

This is a special double header is brought to you hot from theater to loft. Bask in the greatness of a franchise that we're glad to see propagate through the decades. From Leslie to Liam, and Priscilla to Pam. Chef's kiss.

Send us a text

July 3, 1984, 5:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time.

"Burt, I...I think things are gettin' outta hand!"

If that isn't the understatement of the '80s. Return Of The Living Dead is serving up more brains, just in case all that mystery meat in them hotdogs you ate on the 4th whet your appetite. James Karen, Linnea Quigley, Clu Gulager and Don Calfa bring the heat in this comedy horror. Sure, pitting punks against zombies might be a staple of the genre now, but at the time it was a radical idea. Like chocolate and peanut butter, give me more please. Now!

The heat in the barn made us a little lethargic on this July episode. If I didn't know any better, I might have thought there was some 2-4-5 Trioxin in the air.

Send us a text

"My name's Louden, Louden Swain. Last week I turned 18. I wasn't ready for it. I haven't done anything yet. So I made this deal with myself. This is the year I make my mark."

What to say about Vision Quest? It's a staple of any well rounded '80s film diet. Unless you're cutting weight at an unhealthy rate. And let it be known, since I don't think I quite drove it home during this episode....this is one of my all time (unlikely) favorite movies.

Matthew Modine and Linda Fiorentino make this a most pleasurable trip into making one's mark on the eve of adulthood. Michael Schoeffling delivers as Kuch in one of the better roles of his short film career. Frank Jasper as Shute! A nicely stacked cast against a fantastically stacked soundtrack, with Tangerine Dream bringing up the rear on the score. 

As Elmo would say "it's ain't the one hour and forty seven minutes....it's what happens in the one hour and forty seven minutes." Fairly profound. He also said "A cooze doctor in outer space?", so...

Send us a text

This scientific romp was part of the ultimate trio released in August 1985. Real Genius, Weird Science, and My Science Project were released within one week of each other and just one month after Back to the Future. With Martha Coolidge at the helm, this movie spared the usual sophomoric fare we all love the '80s for. I love those sentence-ending prepositions. I ain't know much, but I know what I like. And I likes me some Val Kilmer. 

With no pandering to the usual bully/nerd tropes, this movie was rewritten and executed in a way that reveres the nerds and underdogs, full stop. 

Send us a text

Just some low key stories for posterity in this episode. Linden love and the lumps along the way.