Really Awful Movies: Ep 87b – The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

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Mad ambitions and desire! This is a mad scientist movie…with a beauty pageant thrown in for good measure (hey, gotten lighten things up a bit).

On this episode of the podcast, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, a film from 1962 that most people know from the now iconic movie poster. Sure, this is a shlocky production, but there’s much more bubbling beneath the surface (and in those test tubes).

It’s about a mad scientist who finds a way to keep human body parts alive. He eventually has to perform an unethical, quite fiendish experiment on an unsuspecting victim. The film’s working title was The Black Door (thankfully they changed it).

We step across the threshold and discuss what the Frankenstein-like film has to offer on this episode of the podcast.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 87 – The Toolbox Murders

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The Toolbox Murders. With a title fraught with ambiguity like that, what could this one possibly be about?

Not surprisingly, this one is about a series of murders, committed using toolbox implements. The Toolbox Murders made its way onto the Video Nasties banned list in the 80s, quite rightly, as it’s a lurid and sleazy affair.

There’s an apartment complex in LA, not unlike the cheesy one in the awful soap, Melrose Place. And its occupants are being picked off one by one by a masked, giallo horror type killer.

And it’s up to the LAPD to solve the spate of crimes, something they’re unable to do and what the viewer can, about 10 minutes in.

Then, The Toolbox Murders take a strange, psychological turn.

There’s much more to this than squalid killings. What exactly? Take a listen to this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast and don’t forget to tune in for new episodes of the show every weekend.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 86 – My Bloody Valentine 3D

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My Bloody Valentine 3D is a reboot of a Canadian fave, the original MBV from the 80s.

My Bloody Valentine 3D is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Patrick Lussier, and starring Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Betsy Rue, and Kerr Smith (the first man to have an on-screen gay kiss on U.S. television, in season three of Dawson’s Creek).

This one focuses on residents of a Podunk mining town (again) that is (again) plagued by a serial killer on Valentine’s Day. We all know the story: Harry Warden, who narrowly escaped a mining disaster on Valentine’s Day, comes back to wreak havoc on townsfolk and mine workers alike with his trusty pickax (among other weaponry).

Filmed on location in Pennsylvania, the film was given a 3D theatrical release through its distributor, Lionsgate, premiering in the United States on January 16, 2009. It was the first R-rated film to be projected in RealD technology and to have a wide release (1,000 locations) in 3D-enabled theaters. It earned $100 million at the United States box office, and had a budget of $14 million.

Does the remake stand up to the original, that fun bit of classic Canadian horror?

Instead of a bunch of unknowns, we get Smallville and Dawson’s Creek TV stars. Instead of Nova Scotia, Canada, it’s Harmony, Pennsylvania. But the key difference in this incarnation of My Bloody Valentine is, of course, the 3D.

This gory slasher looks bloody awesome with stuff comin’ at you, but it also hides a lot of the film’s flaws.

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast…Put on your hard hat and come underground with us as we break down My Bloody Valentine 3D.