On this week’s episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, a look at the Oregon regional horror, Unhinged.

Undoubtedly one of the more obscure films to end up on the Video Nasties list, Unhinged (1982) is a really solid, very low-budget effort from the Pacific Northwest.

Three college co-eds are on a road trip through the back country, when a dispatch comes on the radio about…traffic problems ahead, and offering a detailed alternate route as a time saver. Just kidding. It’s an announcement about, what else? An escaped lunatic. If you don’t love that right off the bat, you have no heart.

A sudden downpour occurs, and the girls’ little vehicle spins into a ditch (rather unconvincingly, it should be said, but hey…what do you want for $100K?). They awake, and are being tended two by a spinster Olive Oyl-like figure, her domineering mother, and a caretaker with a ridiculous mustache.

So..will the girls be held in the remote mansion against their will, tormented by this creep-triumvirate? Will they be tied to the bed like Procrustes did his victims? Will there be some kind of Stephen King Misery set-up? Are you tired of an endless barrage of rhetorical questions?

Unhinged is not your typical slasher film. There’s a lot more here than meets the Fulci eye (while not Italian, there are definitely some nods to that neck of the woods in these neck of the woods).

Despite some akimbo acting, and some pacing issues, this is a film that’s not only oddly compelling, but also weirdly endearing. There are only a few scenes that would indicate this would be Video Nasty-bound, but overall it’s fairly tame and lets the story do the talking.

With a fabulous synth soundtrack and a very memorable Barbara Bush-styled matriarch, you need to check out Unhinged (and please go and subscribe to the Really Awful Movies Podcast, where we tackle genre films of all stripes).

A Killer Crocodile creature feature, that’s Italian to boot? No need to say that twice. We’re there. As straightforward a concept as you could possibly devise, this one is about…you guessed it…a killer crocodile (lest you thought this was a rom-com about a shy teacher who meets a beau in fin-du-siècle Paris).

In an undisclosed location (wherever was cheapest to film in 1989) Killer Crocodile was directed by the multi-named Fabrizio De Angelis (sometimes rendered as Larry Ludman), an oft-collaborator with Italian genre legends, Umberto Lenzi, Lucio Fulci, etc.

An amorous twosome is on a beach. The guy breaks  out a classical guitar and woos his lady friend with song. But Leonard Cohen he is not, and she doffs her top and runs into the water. Bad move. There’s a…well…killer crocodile about.

Radioactive waste is discovered in a swamp: in barrels marked “toxic waste,” so there can be no confusion whatsoever. Ecologists are floating down the river Joseph Conrad-style, collecting samples of river water. And when the body count begins to rise, they surmise that the radioactivity created a monster-sized croc. What a croc!

The film stars Richard Anthony Crenna (son of actor, Richard Crenna) and was followed by an unheralded sequel, Killer Crocodile II, in 1990.

There’s atonal weirdness lost in translation, gobs of bal-peen hammer exposition, a croc that looks like it was constructed as an after-thought for a soap box derby, and a wildly unhinged investigative journalist. In other words, extraordinarily fun.

So, how does this one fare as compared with Lake Placid, Alligator, or Rogue? That’s where you come in, dear listener.

On the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we absolutely love nature run amok movies, aka natural horror flicks. They’re so wonderful, even if they unabashedly rip off the Top Dog of the genre, Jaws.

Send us suggestions for animal attack movies we should cover!

A Disney movie where Ben Stiller runs a fat camp? What’s this movie called, “Box Office Poison”? (to quote an infamous Norm MacDonald appearance on Conan O’Brien).

It’s hard to believe someone actually green-lit Heavyweights (or Heavy Weights as it’s sometimes known). This 90s-era comedy came and went with little fanfare.

Like many flicks that are not successful theatrically, the film has since garnered a cult following, probably because of the involvement of co-writer Judd Apatow along with Stiller.

Ben Stiller plays fitness guru Tony Perkis, an excitable send-up of infomercial gym hucksters. He’s also a yoga aficionado as well as an up-with-people peddler of lifestyle trends

As a new owner of a fat camp (which he has purchased from a kindly, if ineffectual elderly duo), Tony Perkis is tasked with whipping a bunch of teen boys into shape.

The boys (who include among their ranks, Fat Albert and Saturday Night Live standout Kenan Thompson) are none too happy about this and decide to stage a coup along with camp counselor and co-conspirator, Pat (played by Frasier’s Tom McGowan).

This is a movie that is being pulled in opposing directions. As a New York Times critic put it, “One…is a no-holds-barred spoof of a Tony Little- or Susan Powter-style fitness merchant […] The other …a conventional family comedy that pokes lighthearted fun at the chubby young campers.”

It’s tonally very odd, but it’s also an interesting look at the comedy star Ben Stiller would soon become. Perkis’ is a fantastically over-the-the-top workshopping of a character. When Heavyweights focuses on him, the film comes to life, otherwise, it sags.

Still, there is surprisingly enough to recommend it even if it falls into the trappings of other summer camp-type movies, Meatballs, etc.

Join us on this unique episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast!

So, here we are. Suspiria 2018 is a remake of the all-time great Dario Argento 1977 film. The Argento one is one of our mutual favorites. It’s definitely in our Top 15 Horror Films of All Time, if we were to make such a list (to get a sense of our sensibilities, the other entries would include Maniac, Martyrs, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, to cite a few).

So, we faced this one with some trepidation, some anticipation, but mostly that time-honored sensation felt by many a gore-hound: PLEASE, for the love of all things holy, don’t F this up!

Luca Gadagnino is apparently also a great lover of the Argento film. And you can tell. He does a loving tribute, but does so in a way that’s so different from the original that it can operate as its own entity.

Apart from the American student, the German locale, the ballet school, and the coven therein, there is not too much tying this 2018 Suspiria to the original one.

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we do a deep dive comparing the two. On the show, we talk about:

And much, much more (including some Goblin whistling!)

Check it out, and please subscribe and leave a comment on iTunes.

Part artist, part huckster, William Castle is a name a lot of people know in the horror world. He produced Rosemary’s Baby (and would’ve directed too, were it not for health issues) but he’s best known for the gimmicks he deployed to promote the living heck out of his movies.

The Tingler, starring the legendary Vincent Price (check out our interview with his daughter, Victoria Price) is one such movie. Castle used “percepto” technology, a buzzer installed beneath some theater seats that literally shocked members of the audience!

The cost of this equipment added $250,000 to the film’s budget, which was negligible by comparison. Percepto was used sparingly and in predominantly larger theaters for logistical reasons.

The premise is delicious: Price stars as Dr. Chapin, a prison coroner responsible for doing autopsies on prisoners on death row (this seems like a waste of time and money, but that’s neither here nor there). A side of interest of his: how humans experience fear. He and a lab assistant speculate that there’s a structure on the spinal cord that is associated with fear responses (hence, “spine-tingling” fear).

Dr. Chapin uses his wife as an unwitting participant, scaring her with a starter pistol and doing an examination on her spine.

The Tingler is a fun movie, a corny monster movie / creature feature from the 1950s. And there’s the bonus of Castle himself introducing the film, and warning of the terrors to come. Hilarious!

On this episode of the Podcast:

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast we tackle a Canadian classic, David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers.

Twin gynecologists, the Mantle brothers (based on the true-life demise of monozygote physicians, the Marcus brothers) share 100% of their genetic material. They also share scientific discoveries, and women.

In a tour de force performance by the incredible Jeremy Irons, we get a look inside the psyche of genius, and a concomitant look at their madness (as is often the case). The docs Elliot and Beverly are, of course, identical. However, Elliot is a bit taller, more outgoing, more comfortable in his own skin. And Beverly lives inside his own head. They comprise a drammaturgical dyad (thanks, Simpsons).

The Mantle bros’ practice is booming, they’re highly regarded in their field, and seem to have everything together. Of course, that’s just on the surface. Pull back the curtain and there’s tumult.

This is another instance of inside-out David Cronenberg body-horror. Dead Ringers is a difficult film to like, but is nonetheless fascinating. And it’s aged incredibly well. It’s a remarkable technical achievement, in addition to being a terrific showcase for Irons’ subtlety and mannerisms.

On the podcast, we examine the following:

and much, much more.

This is our third discussion of a David Cronenberg film on the Really Awful Movies Podcast. Interested listeners can check out Videodrome and Rabid. Thanks for listening! And be sure to write reviews if you like what you’re hearing. And to support the show, pick up a copy of Death by Umbrella! The 100 Weirdest Horror Movie Weapons (foreword by our pal, Lloyd Kaufman of Troma).

Finally, we get around to tackling one of the most infamously bad movies out there, Reefer Madness. A dim-bulb overly melodramatic propaganda film (Snarky Editors’ note: like Forrest Gump or Titanic), this 1936 crap-show suggests that “men die for it.”

A middling morality tale about the supposed dangers of weed, the film is now (of course) watched ironically.

Recreational marijuana became legal in our home country (Canada) in mid-October. It’s an interesting time to be living here, to say the least…

So on this episode, we (sorta) delve into the film, watching it in real time (what other kind of time is there?).

So, is this film as ridiculous as it’s cracked up to be? Certainly, but it doesn’t inspire gale-force laughter like some of the insane duds we’ve covered on this program, the likes of Shotgun, One Tough Bastard, Birdemic, etc.

We divulge probably more than we should of on this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast. We don’t usually record as we watch, preferring instead to do a bit of (gasp) research…but we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to change the format, if only temporarily.

Some of what we discuss:

(and probably a lot more that we can’t recall).

Join us on the Really Awful Movies Podcast, with smart genre film chat about dumb movies.

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, Spookies. Spookies is a 1986 American indie horror flick that has a lot of fans, despite its total ineptness.

The film was directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran (and probably several others). The plot, such as it is, follows a lost kid and a group of folks looking to party.

They find an abandoned, sprawling mansion and decide to explore. Inside, there’s an aging, decrepit warlock who needs souls to keep his young bride alive.

A teen boy, Billy, is running away from home ’cause his folks forgot his birthday. This a pretty pointless plot device, but anyway…

He encounters a drifter, who is violently killed after the two make awkward banter.

Billy stumbles on an old mansion where a room is decorated for birthday celebrations. Thinking it is a surprise by his parents, he opens a present to discover…(no spoilers here!!). He’s attacked by a werecat with a hook for a hand, and that’s that.

At the same time, a group of teenagers and some older adults come across the mansion intending to have a party, believing the mansion to be abandoned. They discovered a Ouija board and start to play.

However, the warlock is pissed. And that’s when shit started going down.

BadMovies.org said, “The center of the movie chronicles people stumbling through a very dark house. Every so often a creature or ghost menaces the disarrayed cast, but the audience’s chief enemy is the lack of lighting.”

Join us!

He’s back…Michael Myers is hunting Laurie Strode again in this new Halloween film.

Forty years have passed. “The Shape” has been confined to a mental hospital. Not only have forty years passed, Dr. Loomis has has well. In his stead, Dr. Sartain (a name, as forgettable as many elements of his film). The doc allows two Brit investigative journalist/podcasters to see if they can connect with Michael, who has been conspicuously mute for seemingly forever. They are allowed into the facility for the criminally insane. Michael Myers is not having any of it, and remains uncommunicative. One of the podcasters starts brandishing a replica mask, goading him.

Here we are folks. It’s Halloween, a film with big boots to fill. The original is a stone-cold classic, one of the best horror films of all time.

How does this one stack up? Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a grandmother now, still haunted by fears of Michael. She is a survivalist, estranged from the family, holed up in an armed compound with provisions, tons of arms, etc. Seems like she has a right to be worried. You see, in that time honored cliche tradition, there’s a prison transfer. Michael is being sent to another facility. You know what happens, right?

If you don’t, it’s disclosed in the trailer.

So now it’s up to Laurie Strode to put an end to the Bogeyman forever. Will she? Tune in!

Not heralded upon release, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child was a film we deemed worthy of a revisit to see how it’s aged.

So, is this the Tom Cruise of sequels? Or is this an installment that needs to be shot full of Botox? Interestingly (and this came as a shock to both hosts of the Really Awful Movies Podcast), this one is not only not half-bad, it’s actually a very worthy entry into the iconic Springwood Slasher series.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5 sees a return to form for the gloved one, a nightmare to children everywhere (Michael Jackson jokes at this point are a little passe). Less quipster, more killing, this Freddy is one we came to know and love.

In this one, there’s a fetus, a dreaming baby that’s the conduit for Freddy’s return to wreck havoc on the denizens of Elm Street. It’s a bizarro conceit, but hella-cool too. You gotta just accept and run with it.

Are the performances great? Not particularly, but Freddy’s kills and the audaciousness of the plot carries the day. Who would’ve thought? A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge was not one we fondly remembered either, and yet we found some nuggets of cool therein as well. So, tune in and check out the Really Awful Movies Podcast. This is the third Nightmare on Elm Street film we’ve discussed. Dig through our archives and unearth the others, you’ll be glad you did.

THANKS FOR LISTENING!