Really Awful Movies: Ep 370 – Knife of Ice

On this episode of the podcast, venturing into giallo territory with Knife of Ice.

Il coltello di ghiaccio, as it’s also known, is directed by site favorite Umberto Lenzi, who gifted us Nightmare City, Cannibal Ferox and many others.

In this one, there’s the conceit of a mute character, a woman who is traumatized by the death of her parents in a train crash and who cannot speak at all as a result. Which makes for a nifty, albeit silly, plot device. No matter! In a Spanish hillside town, a black gloved assailant is laying waste to the townsfolk. And cops need to investigate, in this fun, spirited who done it.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 369 – Wendigo and Psycho Cop

Two wholly different subgenres of horror, two totally different films. On this week’s episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, Wendigo and Psycho Cop.

The former is a supernatural offering from the early 2000s, inspired by Indigenous legends. It’s directed by genre actor and stalwart, Larry Fessenden.

A family of three goes to a rural New York state home to get some respite from work and to bond together as a family. Things take a turn, after the young son meets a man at the local pharmacy, bearing a unique gift.

Wendigo is remote, wintry, gloomy and at times surreal, with clear elements of guerilla style filmmaking.

By total contrast, the direct-to-video 80s flick Psycho Cop is a Ten Little Indians stalk-and-slash. It’s set in sunny California.

And it’s your typical “college students getting away from it all to go party,” style of slasher flick. There are quite a few like these, including The Mutilator, Spring Break Massacre, Cabin Fever, April Fool’s Day. You get the drift. The major difference? It’s a member of law enforcement.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the show, and pick up a copy of our book, Death by Umbrella! The 100 Weirdest Horror Movie Weapons. 

Really Awful Movies: Ep 366 – Black Christmas 2006

Merry Christmas, everyone.

On this episode, the bad, but not overly bad 2006 iteration of Black Christmas. Of course, the Bob Clark 1974 version is a bona fide classic, and slashers of today owe it a debt. How does this compare? Well, on this show, a breakdown of stylistic differences and artistic choices that make the first Black Christmas so good…and this one…not so much.