The Pod and the Pendulum: A Horror Movie Podcast

We close out the Blade series with a wild one. Mike and Devaughn talk about a movie that has more going on behind the scenes than in front of the camera. We take our time to discuss and maybe even debunk the stories of improper behavior of series star Wesley Snipes on the set of Trinity, his animosity towards writer/director David S Goyer and costars Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel, how Patton Oswalt's off the cuff remarks became accepted truth, and Snipes legitimate frustrations as both an executive producer who felt ignored and the franchise star who felt the series being taken away from him. There's also a whole ass move it discuss, and, well it's not great. Yet it's not as bad as people who have you believe. With a stacked cast, including indie darling Parker Posey having the time of her life, decent action set pieces and sweaty one liners delivered by Mr. Reynolds, this one has more going on for it than we remembered, despite the presence of one of cinema's weakest portrayals of Dracula. We also speculate on the future of the series, and ask with everything being so up in the air, "Why not Snipes?"

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This week Mike, Devaughn & Steven are back to talk about BLADE II and the return of everyone's favorite vampire killer. Directed by Guillermo del Toro, it might be the perfect mix of horror and comic book heroics and offered the Spanish auteur his first bonafide hit in the United States. Our trio of hosts break down the troubled path the future Oscar winner traveled to land the movie, and how his encyclopedic knowledge of comic book lore and monsters helped elevate the second Blade during a time when X-Men and Spider-Man movies began raising expectations for what comic book movies could be. We talk about A LOT here, including what might be the worst piece of film criticism ever to enter the public sphere via Ain't It Cool News, why Blade is the asexual hero for our times, the continued bromance between Blade and Whistler, just how early 00s this movie is (if you know, you know) and marvel (no pun intended) at the massive step up in the action set pieces. So strap in, grab a stake, load up on some garlic and settle down for another supersized episode.

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We're back with the second half of our talk about 1998's BLADE. Jay Kreiger from the Genre Haze podcast is back with Mike and Devaughn to talk all things Daywalker. We talk about why Wesley Snipes was such an inspired choice to play the character and how he made it his own. On the other hand, the hero is only as good as the villain they go up against, and Stephen Dorff absolutely eats as Blade's adversary Deacon Frost. Wouldn't it have been great to keep Deacon around for a some sequels and buck the comic book movie trend of killing of the bad guy? Plus, we talk the Blade/Whistler chemistry, and how this hints at where actions movies will go in just a year when The Matrix hits the screen and goes even further with blending genres. It's time for some superheroics, so strap on your shades and best black trench coat, because it's all about BLADE.

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It's bedtime for suckheads in the first part of our double episode on 1998's horror and superhero hybrid, BLADE. Wesley Snipes steps into a role he seemed born to play as the vampire killing "Daywalker" in an R-rated romp that owed just as much to martial arts and gun-fu films as it did comics. The end result was a smart, violent, over the top bloody thrill ride that was world's ahead of the campy histrionics that marked so much of the superhero fare that made its way into theaters at the time. The global success of BLADE made it possible to bring the X-Men to the silver screen just two years later and Sam Raimi's genre defining Spider-Man two years after that. 

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This week we mark five years of bringing you the Pod and the Pendulum by having a fun little roundtable discussion. Mike, Brian, Devaughn and Stephen got together to talk for awhile about what has caught their fancy as of late, as well as to reflect on some of their favorite moments on the show these past dew years and to throw out some pitches for franchises to cover in the future. Since t just wouldn't be an episode without an unhinged rant of some sort, this time around Mike offers the sort of  full-throated defense of the critically lambasted Jerry Seinfeld vehicle UNFROSTED that it left his cohosts feeling more than a little uncomfortable, and Mike doing some self-reflection that maybe it's time to get himself back into therapy for a short spell. In all seriousness, thank you to each and every one of our listeners these past five years. We couldn't do the show without you (well technically we could, but what would be the point?)

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It's time to put this franchise to bed, and what better way to do that thank to put it all in order? Mike, Rachel, Ariel and Devaughn are on hand to rank the Paranormal Activity series from the dregs to the top tier. Will Devaughn be our chaos agent again when it comes to rankings? Will there be a surprise pick at the top? Will Ghost Dimension get knee capped like Micah at a feminist book club? Tune in and find out!

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The episode brings a riveting discussion about the final installment of the Paranormal Activity series, its backstory, the impact of COVID-19 on its production, and Ariel's passion for the "found footage" format. The hosts also share intriguing behind-the-scenes insights, including the studio's unique priority list for permissible movie content. After six movies and diminishing returns, it was time for a change of scenery, and that's what Next of Kin delivers, as the action shifts to Amish country, leaving Toby, Katie, and Kristie behind. We talk the new location, the new mystery, the odd choice to dump this straight to streaming, and whether you can really call this a "found footage movie"-did they try something different or just fail at sticking to the format?

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Get ready to enter the frightening world of the Paranormal Activity series with your favorite horror hosts. In this  episode, we dissect the supposed final movie, 'The Ghost Dimension,' along with an analysis of the film's corporate maneuverings, & 3D technology use. We provide a brutally honest review of the film's reception, plot twists, and the unusual combination of high-end 3D technology within a found footage movie.

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This week we talk about the time the Paranormal Activity series took a deliberate turn away from focusing on wealthy, white, upper middle class families and turned toward the Latino communities of Los Angeles. Writer / director Christopher Landon called The Marked Ones more of a “cousin” of the previous four films rather than a true sequel, and perhaps making that diversion allowed or something looser and unbound by the formula that had gotten stale by the previous entry. The Marked Ones shifts the focus directly onto witchcraft and possession horror while being far less about a haunted house where things that go bump in the night. It also gives us much more of a communal feel, introduces more comedic undertones and offers up three of the better protagonists in Jesse, Hector, and Marisol. 

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This week it feels like we’re covering familiar territory. It feels like we’re playing the greatest hits. It feels like the activity is less paranormal and more all too familiar with its fourth entry in the series Paranormal Activity gives us a true sequel for the first time, but instead of forging ahead, the series feels stuck in neutral for the first time. Despite an excellent early performance from Kathyrn Newton, it relies on the same tropes and scares of the first three movies while rehashing and recycling plot lines like a day-old meatloaf. Did fans still want to get this served up to them? We discuss all the above, plus so much more this week.

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