We look at one of the all-time great horror classics, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Johnny Depp stars, and amazingly, Charlie Sheen was originally cast in the lead.
John Saxon co-stars (Enter the Dragon) as the local cop and of course there’s Heather Langenkamp. And who could forget the then unknown actor, Robert Englund?
New Line Studios (Lord of the Rings) is called “The House that Freddy Built.” This film made them and made Wes Craven and Bob Englund.
The gloved one (not Michael Jackson but Freddy Krueger) has become an indelible pop culture icon and we break down what makes this such an unforgettable classic.
We look at two Rob Zombie classics, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects in this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast.
Zombie is a polarizing figure, and some of his later work has been underwhelming. Still, the man knows his horror and showed some incredible talent with these two films.
On the show, we talk about how House of 1000 Corpses is a bit of an unofficial sequel to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They have a very similar aesthetic sensibility.
It has a lot of detractors, people who say it’s a self-indulgent music video-style production, but it’s really incredible in our estimation.
Discussion also focuses on how the Marx brothers vaudeville comedy troupe influenced the character names.
Also, our talk focuses on the cast: genre legend Sid Haig, who’s been in Foxy Brown, House on Haunted Hill and The Big Bird Cage; and Karen Black who starred in Easy Rider and Nashville. And many don’t know that Rainn Wilson (aka Dwight from American version of The Office) was in House of 1000 Corpses.
Zombie’s wife, Sheri Moon and the absolutely incomparable Bill Mosely discussed as well.
The Devil’s Rejects is way more vicious. The film features an incredible performance by William Forsythe (who played murderer John Wayne Gacy in another film, as well as a bad bad biker in Stone Cold, starring Brian Bosworth). He portrays a psychopathic cop here who’s nearly as nuts as the murdering family. Bill Mosely undergoes a big physical transformation and there’s a tonal shift between his performance in House VS Devil’s.
Mike Mayo joins us on the program. He is one-half of Max and Mike On the Movies and the author of American Murder: Criminals, Crime and the Media, VideoHound’sVideo Premieres and Really Awful Movies’ favorite reference, The Horror Show Guide: The Ultimate Frightfest of Movies.
Whether it’s Jaws, Sharknado or Piranha, everyone loves a good animals run amok movie.
We talk about how we got into horror, why people are drawn to the genre and naturally (no pun intended) eco horror.
The RAM guys and Mike explore The Swarm, Piranha, The Nest, Jaws, Alligator, Rogue, Sharknado, Lake Placid and the truly awful killer bunny movie, Night of the Lepus.
We discuss why creature features are made and their appeal. And we also look at what scares us personally, the work of David Cronenberg, horror generally and where the genre is heading.