Really Awful Movies: Ep 74b – Black Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to everyone. In the spirit of giving, we at the Really Awful Movies Podcast, are giving our listeners a holiday treat — what is arguably the first slasher ever, Black Christmas.

Featuring a POV killer, pre-Carpenter’s Halloween, and a whole lot of mouth- breathing dirty phone calls, Black Christmas is a lovely film which still has the ability to shock. It’s well worth a look, especially as an alternative to the ubiquitous ELF or It’s a Wonderful Life.

On this episode of the show, we delve into Canadian horror…and the impact of Black Christmas.

In the mid-70s, director Bob Clark (Porky’s/Murder by Decree) gave us this, a film which features tropes later beaten like a dead horse and requiring dental identification in the slasher boom: you’ve got the threatening phone calls, the sorority sisters trapped in a house, disbelieving authority figures, a killer with a murky backstory and of course, blood.

To heck with Bing Crosby, we’re dreaming of a Black Christmas. This one may haunt your nightmares, although it’s been usurped by later films and somewhat stripped of its influence as years have gone by. However, its place in the horror pantheon is undeniable.

Don’t forget to check out new episodes of the Really Awful Movies Podcast every Friday.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 74 – The Fly

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, what is arguably the greatest horror remake of all time, The Fly (not that we want to argue, but if anyone wants to step up to the lectern and make a case for The Thing or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, we’d be happy to entertain it).

Flies and death are synonymous.

This wasn’t news to our man David Cronenberg, who gave new life to a fly-man hybrid, Dr. Seth Brundle. The genius doctor, played by Jeff Goldblum, builds a tele-porting device and manages to move matter from one place to another, only getting into trouble when he puts himself in the machine and a fly gets in with him, creating something monstrous in this, a film that came about during the infancy of recombinant DNA technology.

Along for the ride is a science journalist Veronica (Goldblum’s then girlfriend, actress Geena Davis) and what we get is essentially a love story set against this very odd backdrop: a man pushing the limits of the human form, transmogrifying into something truly terrifying.

There are many interpretations of what this film is about, the most prominent of which is the insect change as AIDS subtext. Watch it and see, as it remains as fresh and shocking as it must’ve seemed to movie-going audiences back in 1986.

Let us know what you think and if there are any films you’d like to see us explore on the show: really awful movies [at] gmail dot com

For a full review, please read this:

The Fly (1986)

Really Awful Movies: Ep 71b – Slither and Squirm with Scott Drebit of Daily Dead

Two times the worms! Twice the ooze. Last time we spoke with Scott, we had double the Shatner, two times as much Captain Kirk as anyone could justifiably handle.

One of our favorite podcast guests is Scott Drebit of the Daily Dead. He’s the brains behind Drive-In Dust Offs,a column that look back at some of his favorites from the mid 70s to early 80s such as Race with the Devil and Willard. He loves animal attack flicks as much as we do, so he was the perfect guest to talk slithery slimy flicks.

On this special episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, the three of us break down two very slimy films: Slither and Squirm. The former is a 2006 comedy horror hit starring Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Elizabeth Banks (40-Year Old Virgin). The latter is a fun, under- the-radar 1976 nature run amok film directed by Jeff Leiberman and starring Don Scardino.

We love ’em both – lots. They’re undeniably fun, goofy, gory and smart. You don’t get much better than that folks. Be sure and follow us at @awful_movies and Scot at @phantasm2