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Two wholly different subgenres of horror, two totally different films. On this week’s episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, Wendigo and Psycho Cop.
The former is a supernatural offering from the early 2000s, inspired by Indigenous legends. It’s directed by genre actor and stalwart, Larry Fessenden.
A family of three goes to a rural New York state home to get some respite from work and to bond together as a family. Things take a turn, after the young son meets a man at the local pharmacy, bearing a unique gift.
Wendigo is remote, wintry, gloomy and at times surreal, with clear elements of guerilla style filmmaking.
By total contrast, the direct-to-video 80s flick Psycho Cop is a Ten Little Indians stalk-and-slash. It’s set in sunny California.
And it’s your typical “college students getting away from it all to go party,” style of slasher flick. There are quite a few like these, including The Mutilator, Spring Break Massacre, Cabin Fever, April Fool’s Day. You get the drift. The major difference? It’s a member of law enforcement.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the show, and pick up a copy of our book, Death by Umbrella! The 100 Weirdest Horror Movie Weapons.
On today’s episode, a demonstration of just how diverse the horror genre is. You can’t get any different properties than The Brain, a low-budget sci fi creature feature horror and Dark Night of the Scarecrow, a from beyond the grave revenge thriller that has more in common with Of Mice and Men than it does with say, The Changeling.
If you love horror like we do, you love all kinds of horror and that includes Canadian tax shelter films from the 80s, but also made-for-TV horror like Dark Night of the Scarecrow. And look at just how awesome these posters are. So sublime. Dark Night almost conjures up The Town that Dreaded Sundown…
Imagine being trapped in an underground parking garage with some lunatic? Horror movies, of course, exploit fears of all stripes. And for women, particularly, clutching keys in the dark trying to find your car…well, that’s what director Franck Khalfoun (Maniac) has envisioned and positioned his horror film around in P2.