Halloween Kills, the latest edition of the Really Awful Movies Podcast. Another installment, another wasted opportunity, and more evidence David Gordon Green can’t really direct horror, and only marginally improved on the 2018 flick. There are a few decent bits, which we’ll get into on this episode of the show, but largely – this one is unnecessary and sullies the legacy of the Carpenter original.

And that’s not a boomer spoilsport take.

We are in a Golden Age of horror now: Hereditary, Back Country, The Rental, Baskin, The Witch, Bone Tomahawk, Terrifier, Possession, Haunt, 13 Cameras…we could go on…any one of these is better, and apart from 2-3 of the entries, each received far less hype and attention than Halloween Kills but provide far greater entertainment value.

This series has lost the plot. Halloween 2018 was a dumpster fire. You can listen to Jeff and I’s discussion of that one first, although there are references to the film here too.

It needs someone at the helm with a better understanding of the horror genre.

On today’s podcast, The Babysitter! 

This one is one of those home invasion-styled horrors, a bit like Home Alone but sending up some of the genre conventions. It’s glossy, tongue in cheek, and occasionally funny. If this is your thing.

There are hot babes, a game of Truth or Dare, some juicy quips, and a bit of atmosphere. Nothing earth-shattering, but not too bad, actually.

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, what do you do when creative juices have run dry? You tap weird, 70s TV properties of course! Fantasy Island aka Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island is one such film.

The Jeff Wadlow-directed effort starts Michael Pena as the Svengali Mr Rourke (the movie’s version of the Ricardo Montalban character from the 1977 TV Show), Maggie Q, and a bunch of other people.

What happens when contest winners arrive at a stunningly beauty Caribbean locale? (which can also grant wishes, as a strange, godlike entity). It turns out, not anything good.

Join us!

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, the very capable psychological thriller, Fractured. It’s directed by Brad Anderson, who’s done movies we’re quite fond of, including The Machinist and the somewhat underrated Session 9.

Here, a family returning from a Thanksgiving road trip runs into trouble at a Minnesota rest stop. And the dad has to seek medical attention for his young daughter. What happens next, is a true healthcare horror.

He faces a Byzantine scenario at a rural hospital, in which twists and turns prevent him from checking in on his daughter, who is admitted for a CAT scan.

Join us!

On this week’s episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a bit more Italian horror for ya.

Welcome to a discussion of Absurd, which goes variously by Anthropophagus 2, Zombie 6: Monster Hunter, Horrible and The Grim Reaper 2 in keeping with the title multiplication common to Italian exploitation genre cinema.

It’s a batty 1981 slasher directed by multi-talented director Joe D’Amato and starring the towering figure of George Eastman (all 6’9 of him) who wrote the story and the screenplay – though that’s not exactly anything you’d really want to cop to.

Eastman plays Mikos, the subject of a mysterious Vatican experiment from which he’s on the lam. The monsignor who helped create him, Frankenstein-style, is chasing after him. The madman gets impaled on a high fence, kinda like Hell Night (which we podcasted a while back). But, like Mike Myers, he’s hard to kill (or rather, like Steven Seagal, he’s hard to kill!).

Mikos is revived at the local hospital, which is bad move. They should not have resuscitated him. The priest informs the hospital and authorities that the only way to kill Mikos is to ‘destroy the cerebral mass,’ whatever the hell that is.

On this week’s episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, not enough sax and violins together, but plenty of the latter, as we visit Italian horror and Paganini Horror.

The plot revolves around a failing female rock band, whose manager is beside herself about their inability to drum up, so to speak, a hit. Desperate, she solicits a strange piece of music, via the group’s producer called Le Streghe, aka, The Witches.

It’s a long lost piece by the eponymous and infamous in some circles, Italian composer and musician, Niccolo Paganini.

Paganini, like Robert Johnson much later, apparently sold his soul to the devil in order to totally shred on his instrument. Ah, the classic Faustian bargain horror. Join us. Grab your bow, rosin it up, and play along with.

Is this movie a Stradivarius, or is more of a cheap dime-store fiddle? You tell us!

This week on the Really Awful Movies Podcast, perennial favorite, Steven Seagal. The portly aikido master has been a prominent fixture of our show, whether it’s efforts (if you’ll forgive the term) such as Submerged or Half Past Dead, or flicks made during the action star’s (widow) peak.

In Exit Wounds, lensed in Canada, Seagal portrays a world-weary (though isn’t he always?) cop on the mean streets of Detroit (actually, Toronto, Hamilton and Calgary). And one particularly precinct, the 15th, is corrupt as they come. And Seagal has to beat down a bunch of seedy criminals and crooked cops, which is great – as that’s how he earns the big bucks.

This one represents the actor’s last legit film, before being relegated to Euro purgatory and direct-to-video ham-fisted offerings.

So, put up your dukes, enjoy Bill Duke (and to a much lesser extent Tom Arnold) as well as Jill Hennessy and DMX, and tune into our podcast. Also, pick up a copy of our book, Mine’s Bigger than Yours! The 100 Wackiest Action Movies, our paean to all things butt-kickin’.

On this episode of the podcast, a little bit of Italian horror – but not THAT kind of Italian Horror. Usually on the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we dive into the work of Bava, Fulci and Argento. This time around, it’s 2021’s A Classic Horror Story, a modern Italian horror flick that’s a hicksploitation/folk horror hybrid that’s moderately effective.

The plot? A rideshare trip through the mountains of Calabria, in Southern Italy, takes a dangerous turn – literally. What will happen to the vehicle’s occupants? You know the drill…and that’s not a veiled reference to Driller Killer.

A Classic Horror Story borrows elements from The Ritual, Rituals, The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but is its own beast. There’s a split between detractors and supports, and this discussion reflects that.

Tune in, and subscribe…and pick up a copy of our first book, Death by Umbrella! The 100 Weirdest Horror Movie Weapons (foreword: Lloyd Kaufman, from Troma). It’s a must-read for the horror-obsessed, of which we are.

On today’s episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, Sorority House Massacre. Talk about a title steeped in straightforwardness. Truth in marketing, right there. There’s a sorority, a sorority house, and yes, a massacre. And of course, an escaped killer from a lunatic asylum. What more could you ask for, especially in the 80s?

That, and so many more questions answered in this episode.

Lensed by a female director, this one appeared toward the end of the slasher boom, and asks “who will survive the final exam?” And, not to be confused with the other 80s slasher, Final Exam. Between this and Sorority Row, The House on Sorority Row, Splatter University, it’s tough keeping all this straight. But let us put it into context for you!

On today’s edition of the Really Awful Movies podcast, the Shudder-produced low budget, Superhost.

Superhost refers to a duo, Claire and Teddy, who are travel vloggers who occupy an Air BnB style sprawling home, a quid pro quo arrangement in exchange for a very positive review of the rental property.

Soon, they find out their host is not so super…

In today’s episode: