This week, we couldn’t resist discussing Five Nights At Freddy’s, along with the video game series that inspired it. Despite negative critical reviews, it seems to be a hit with audiences. How many of you have played the games? If you’re a fan of the games, how did you feel about the film? Let us know, because it seems like there will be at least two more coming down the pike.
It all started 10 years earlier in 1989 with The McPherson Tape (aka U.F.O Abduction), which was lost to the world until it suddenly resurfaced within the UFO-tracking community as purportedly genuine evidence of a family’s alien encounter (it’s not). Once TV news organizations got ahold of it 5 years later, director Dean Alioto was tasked with remaking it for Dick Clark Productions. It’s this 1998 version – just a year ahead of The Blair Witch Project – which showed on TV and fooled a generation of young viewers with some of their first exposure ever to found footage horror. We ended up discussing both over Thanksgiving turkey this year. Dig into yours and enjoy this week’s find along with us!
Long-time listeners of the podcast know and understand why we tend to shy away from covering such iconic films. What can we possibly say that hasn’t already been said about one of the most notorious films of all time? So we ended up with more of a celebration of the legacy of the film (as one of our Patrons put it) than a typical play-by-play review. But oh boy, was it fun to revisit this film after so long, and be reminded of just how good of a FILM it is overall – horror or otherwise. Enjoy!
We’re taking our 367th episode to celebrate our 366th! Why, you may ask? Because at 366, you now have enough episodes to watch an episode a day for a full year – even on a leap year. To christen this milestone, we chose this Hulu-exclusive that came out around the pandemic days. It’s a charming little zom-com that isn’t afraid to pop a handful of zombie children in there. Very reminiscent of Cooties, and fun for the whole family, really. More or less. Just don’t confuse it with the Fred Savage / Howie Mandell film of the same name.
This fascinating movie was a labor of love for 19 year-old writer-director Daniel Erickson, who seemed to bring together the entire acting community of Austin, Texas, to fulfill a piece of his vision. Starring a fresh-faced John Hawkes, Butch Patrick (Eddie Munster) and a supporting cast of nobodies, the film has a lot of grit and heart, but ultimately…well, we thought it was a bit of a slog, despite the shock ending.
Still, Halloween spirit abounds. If you’ve ever enjoyed a haunted attraction in rural America during this time of year, this will at the very least transport you right back to that place.
Happy Halloween, everyone! Stay safe out there.
We put it to our Patrons to choose the last two movies of the month. We’re happy to announce that the first of those films is this Mexican flick from the 80’s that is almost like two movies in one: It begins life as a standard slasher, and wraps up as a Thriller-inspired kid’s flick. It’s not perfect, and it’s certainly derivative, but Cemetario del Terror hits the mark when it comes to pure Halloween-style joy. Thanks once again to the collective wisdom of our loyal Patrons!
