Tag: horror classics

Really Awful Movies: Ep 71 – Hellraiser

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Clive Barker’s Hellraiser will send a chill up your spine.

In Episode 71 of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we decided to tear our souls apart and break down what makes this such a classic.

Pinhead has become a bona fide horror icon. Liverpudlian Doug Bradley, though not as well known as Robert Englund, has made quite a career of portraying ol’ pin cushion face. Although, in this first film of the series, he’s not even the chief antagonist. He does, however, steal the show.

The film predated torture horror and has multi-genre elements. There’s loads of subtext, gore and weirdness to satisfy every taste. Unlike some of its brethren, it gets better and better with age.

The 1987 classic British horror film, written and directed by Clive Barker, was based on his own novella The Hellbound Heart and unlike other adaptations, this one benefited from Mr. Barker not only intending to spawn a film from it, but taking his seat in the director’s chair as well.

It’s Hellraiser…it has many sights to show you.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 63 – Phantasm

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An otherworldly mortician, The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), re-animates the dead as little people zombies in Phantasm, a weird and wonderful Don Coscarelli film.

But have no fear, for on the case is a young boy named Mike. He has the task of trying to convince townsfolk that the absurd plot above is legit.

His older brother and family friend (Jody and Reggie) are finally convinced and they do battle with The Tall Man, who can telekinetically fire deadly metallic baubles.

Phantasm is a decidedly unique experience. It’s an hallucinatory horror film that explores lots of different themes, and the soundtrack is one of the all-time greats.

For a budget that’s only a third of a million bucks, the movie looks incredible and has had a lasting cultural impact, namely making The Tall Man one of the most memorable antagonists in horror history.

Several sequels of varying quality followed, but here we focused on the one, the only…Phantasm.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 62b – H.G. Lewis

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Herschell Gordon Lewis is a maverick. He’s the man behind the splatter genre, directing what is arguably the first of its kind, Blood Feast.

The “Godfather of Gore,” spoke to Jeff from Florida.

His movies were groundbreaking. Without his low budget shlock, we wouldn’t have Friday the 13th or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Lewis and partner David Friedman ventured into uncharted territory with 1963’s very bloody Blood Feast, considered by many to be the first “gore” film (if you’d like to hear our take on that film, check out Episode 61 of the podcast).

The duo was doing juvenile delinquent films, and nudie-cuties and then was able to cater to the the drive-in theater market with Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965).

The self-effacing Lewis discussed how he got into exploitation films. Blood Feast, had “a lack of any talent, from acting to production…and zero budget.” And yet people “clamored to see it!”

Lewis weighed in on the 80s splatter boom, which he reluctantly helped usher in.

He also talked about the movie, The Wizard of Gore and star Ray Sager. They shot the film in 1969 in Chicago, for a pittance. It’s about the mad, Montag the Magnificent, a magician who performs mutilation tricks.

Lewis has recently made a film titled Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Bloodmania,  a horror anthology film involving him and Canadian filmmakers. It was filmed in Alberta.

Lewis is an interesting fellow. He took a lengthy hiatus from movies and wrote business/marketing books! He’s something of a pioneer in the field of direct marketing; something you would not expect. But he speaks to us directly, through his quirky, bloody movies.