Wake Up Heavy

My little family is test-driving Disney+ before taking the streaming plunge with the new service, and one of the films I was most excited to visit was RETURN TO OZ. Having passed this one by as a teen, and knowing it's not-so-stellar reputation, I was curious to see if it was actually as "bad" as I'd heard. Since my daughter has read many of the Oz books I wanted us to watch it together. Then I thought, "Hey, this might make a fun episode for her and me to do together!" So that's what we're doing! Hope you enjoy this Very Special Episode.

For more info: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/12/wuh-vsep-cleo-on-return-to-oz-1985.html

A lot of Slasher fans don’t like this one, but I dig it. Directed by J. Lee Thompson (best known, by me at least, for his sleazy flicks with Charles Bronson) and starring Glen Ford, Susan Acker, and Melissa Sue Anderson this one is kind of a mess. The ending was changed at the last minute and makes no sense, but for me that’s part of the charm. The set-piece kills are fun, there are red herrings galore, and it’s Canadian! Minus points for having a plethora of asshole characters, but I'll let it slide for this one.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is MY Friday the 13th. As well as being my favorite of that franchise, it is one of my favorite slashers (I placed it at No. 3 on my Slasher Top Ten list) AND one of my favorite horror films in general. The film's similarities to Halloween, something I hadn't really thought much about prior to doing this episode, may play a big part in that. What could have been a quick cash-grab ended up being one of the more humorous, human, and effective entries in the series. There's no hate here, this is a slasher I love.

And finally here's the wrap up episode for the Stephen King series. It's a quickie (relatively speaking) where I rank some books, rank some movies, and throw in some recs for films I didn't hit on in the previous shows. Don't be a lunkhead, give 'er a listen!

My Bloody Valentine is a Canadian entry into the slasher genre (you can really hear the accents in this one) and a prime example of Holiday Horror (still waiting for a Flag Day Slasher). We’ve got all the staples of an ‘80s slasher—a masked killer, decent amounts of gore (in the uncut version), misdirection, and humor—but instead of teenage babysitters or camp counselors we’ve got 20-something coal miners, and I like that divergence from the norm.

For more please visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/10/why-do-i-hate-slashers.html

I was recently asked by Sam Panico to submit a Top Ten Slashers list for his site B & S About Movies, and it got me to thinking about a series I had considered awhile back called Why Do I Hate Slashers (I Don't Actually)? Some of the films from my top ten list have been discussed on the show (Black Christmas, Alice, Sweet Alice, etc.) so we'll skip those for this series. Everything else is fair game, starting with the gonzo Pieces (1982).

For more info please visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/10/why-do-i-hate-slashers.html

The Blood on Satan's Claw was released in 1971 by Tigon Pictures, a short-lived competitor of Hammer and Amicus in the late 1960s and early '70s. It stars Peter Wymark (Repulsion) and Linda Hayden (Taste the Blood of Dracula) and was directed by Piers Haggard.

In a field in 17th century England a local farmhand plows up the rotting corpse of a strange creature. Although the older towns people fear something sinister might be at play the youth seem intrigued by the discovery. Angel Blake (Hayden) finds a claw in the field and starts to assert a strange power over her classmates...

For more please visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/10/wuh-blood-on-satans-claw-1971.html

Between 1977 and 1984 Stephen King published five novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Though many fans and critics surmised that Bachman was King, which he would deny, the truth wasn’t uncovered until Washington, DC bookstore clerk Steve Brown noticed similarities to King’s writing and did some investigating. He found copyright info for one of the Bachman books in King’s name at the Library of Congress. Brown went to King’s publishers to ask what he should do with the information and King himself told him he should write an article about it and gave an interview to Brown.

For more please visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/10/wuh-stephen-king-bachman-books.html

As in Extra Special! Along with my own ramblings on a handful of films that didn't get the full treatment on previous episodes (Creepshow, Children of the Corn, Maximum Overdrive, Stand By Me, etc.) there is an interview with horror film journalist and filmmaker Jerry Smith regarding his Dollar Baby Deal.

For more visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/09/wuh-stephen-king-extras.html

Part two of my discussion with Simon Fitzjohn about FULL CIRCLE.

For more please visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/09/wuh-special-report-on-full-circle-1977.html

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