Tag: Famous directors

Really Awful Movies: Ep 315 – Murder by Decree

~ reallyawfulmovies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:46 — 37.9MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

On this episode of the really Awful Movies Podcast, some more Jack the Ripper fodder!

Today, it’s Murder by Decree. And we invite interested parties to check out our accompanying podcast we recorded while visiting London, Hands of the Ripper.

This one is a fictionalized account of what it would’ve been like if Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigated the infamous Whitechapel murders back in 1888.

And this is not too far-fetched a premise, as at least the novels were popular at the time. Christopher Plummer, that good ol’ Canadian icon stars as Holmes, with James Mason as Watson. And for more Canadian content, Donald Sutherland plays a psychic.

The film was an early favorite of one of the hosts of the Really Awful Movies podcast, even if the film takes significant artistic license and deviates far off course from known Ripper facts.

Still, a fun one. Listen!

Really Awful Movies: Ep 310 – Starry Eyes

~ reallyawfulmovies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:34 — 28.6MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

Directed by the team behind the reboot of Pet Sematary, Starry Eyes (Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer) is an ambitious fantasy horror offering about a young starlet and part time waitress at a tacky restaurant, who gets a big break in a role of a lifetime – provided she does something unseemly first.

Set in LA, and featuring a bunch of Hollywood wannabes in competition with one another, there’s one among them whose drive and determination stands out: Sarah Walker (Alexandra Essoe).

After Walker disappoints in a lead role for The Silver Scream, the young woman has a complete meltdown in the bathroom shortly thereafter, only to be spotted by one of the casting agents, who is so impressed by her psychological breakdown, she asks Walker to recreate it in a second audition (before meeting the film’s degenerate producer, a Harvey Weinstein-esque figure, at his mansion for the third).

Starry Eyes has atmosphere and ambition to spare (appropriately). And Essoe in the lead is the driving force behind the interest in this one.

Check it out, as it’s a solid effort and subscribe to the Really Awful Movies Podcast!

 

 

Really Awful Movies: Ep 308 – Antiviral

~ reallyawfulmovies

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:02 — 30.3MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Email | RSS | More

This week on the podcast, Brandon Cronenberg’s Antiviral.

Unlike most virus / outbreak / contagion films, where there’s a security breach at a lab and the virus gets loose, turning the populace into rampaging drooling creatures, the horror in Antiviral comes from a rogue employee who is smuggling out pathogens to sell on the black market.

And the viruses in question are ones derived from celebrities, so that people can experience “biological communion” with them.

As you might gather from the surname and subject matter, this one is an icky body horror effort, directed by David Cronenberg’s son, Brandon.

It’s quiet, discomfiting, and claustrophobic with an austere bichromatic colour palette.

The performances, especially by the very gaunt and captivating Caleb Landry Jones, are top-drawer.

On this episode of the podcast, putting both Cronenberg’s work in context, and exploring interior/body horror in Crash, The Brood, Shivers, and Dead Ringers.