Really Awful Movies: Ep 121b – Death and Horror Movies

Death. We’re all scared, well…to death of it.

In this episode, we look at the concept of death, about which Mark Twain said, “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. Easy for him to say. Not so much for the rest of us.

We examine how different cultures deal with death, how we’d like to meet our makers, what scares us the most…and of course, horror movie deaths.

Join us, for what is a bit of a morbid episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 121 – The Pit

Little Jamie has a problem. Well, he’s got a lot of problems. For starters, he’s got an unhealthy obsession with his babysitter. He’s got no friends. He’s ignored by his parents, who basically aren’t in the picture. And then there’s all this business about the pit.

The Pit is an underseen 1981 horror, in which a 12-year old kid finds a hole in the middle of a forest. In it dwell furry creatures that, in his mind, need to be fed or else will emerge to feed on people. Jamie feeds them, first by procuring meat from the local butcher, then by resorting to other, very devious means.

The Pit is a very odd Canadian production lensed in Wisconsin, and features a pretty terrific performance by Sammy Snyders as the youngster. It’s achieved cult status for it’s very uniquely bizarre premise.

Take a listen and try and track down this film. You’ll be glad you did.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 120 – Zardoz

On this week’s episode, the insane Sean Connery sci-fi oddity, Zardoz.

In a dystopian future, 2293, humans are subdivided into Eternals and Brutals, and live in The Vortex. The latter is all Id: acting like rampaging Vikings or Mongols. The former, peaceniks who lead an agrarian sexless, dull existence, but with the added benefit (or curse) of being immortal.

Sean Connery is Zed, a Brutal Exterminator, who hides aboard Zardoz, a giant floating head, temporarily “killing” its Eternal operator-creator Arthur Frayn. And then things get weird!

Slap on your codpiece, show off that chest hair and join us for a journey to planet weird for the oddly fun Zardoz.