Sean's "got to dig" because a ghost commands it with Stir of Echoes (1999), a working class ghost story set in Chicago, in which Kevin Bacon's doors of perception are blown open after he volunteers to be hypnotized and a specter from beyond the grave attempts to make contact. Listen as we discuss unfair comparisons to The Sixth Sense, creepy kids, …

Colin scrambles to escape from the fish people who worship Dagon (2001), director Stuart Gordon's long gestating adaptation of HP Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." A shipwrecked couple end up running from their lives after seeking help in a rainy, Spanish seaside town that holds a terrible secret. Listen as we chant "Ia! Ia! C'thulhu Fh'taga…

Michaela trains to become a cyberhacker on a night when all crime is legal with The Purge: Anarchy (2014), a sequel that takes the action out onto the mean streets of Los Angeles during the annual dystopian holiday. Listen as try to survive the night with action star Frank Grillo providing defense, all the while dreaming up scenarios for future Pur…

Holly wanders into an underworld just as real as ours, but not as brightly lit with Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990). The spiritual third Creepshow movie boasts stories by George Romero, Stephen King, and Arthur Conan Doyle, and includes mummies, cats from hell, and lovetorn gargoyles. Listen as we tally off screen cat deaths, eat the rich…

Sean tries not to lose his head while visiting the haunted hamlet of Sleepy Hollow (1999), which recasts schoolteacher Ichabod Crane as a police inspector investigating murders committed by a headless horseman. Listen as we delve into the big screen version of America's first ghost story, witness Christopher Walken's first on-screen kiss, and visit…

Colin dances with the body-and-wife-swappin' Devil in The Mephisto Waltz (1971), in which Alan Alda plays a pianist who's body is taken over by a dying Satanist and his wife doesn't care who's in that body - she just wants more! Listen as we talk horny housewives, suburban black magic, Shakespearean dog acting, aging backwards, and blue goo on this…

Michaela says 'Do your thing, cuz!' and cheers on her cannibal cousin Leatherface with Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013), a direct sequel to Tobe Hooper's horror classic which finds statuesque Alexandria Daddario inheriting a plantation manor with a chainsaw-wielding psychopath hidden in the basement. Listen as we imagine Clint Eastwood beaming with pride a…

Holly thinks we all go a little mad sometimes with Psycho II (1983), a belated sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's classic shocker that brings Anthony Perkins back to the Bates Motel, supposedly cured... but is he? Listen as we talk the path from Psycho to Halloween to Psycho II, honoring a horror classic, and overbearing mothers on this week's exciting e…

Sean goes on a limb-from-limb ripping rampage to get back the Body Parts (1991) that were stolen from him in an unethical medical experiment! Jeff Fahey is the unlucky recipient of one appendage after losing an arm in a horrifying car wreck; he soon begins experiencing the dreams and nightmares of a serial killer. Listen as try to determine the phy…

Colin returns from the dead to tap at your window, begging to be let in with Salem's Lot (1979), Tobe Hooper's classic adaptation of Stephen King's small-town vampire story as a writer who returns home and finds the arrival of two mysterious antique dealers presaging a bloodsucker apocalypse. Listen as we talk picket fence drama, childhood traumas,…

Sean goes batty for Bats (1999), a late 90s eco-horror flick that turns a cloud of genetically engineered killer bats loose on an unsuspecting town, and it's up to sheriff Lou Diamond Phillips and bat scientist Dina Meyer to stop them. Listen as we fawn over puppet bats, discuss the best potato bats in cinema history, and react in horror as we find…

Holly uses fairy magic to battle an evil bog witch in Eyes of Fire (1983), in which American settlers follow an adulterous preacher away from civilization and into a haunted woodland where they are bedeviled by evil spirits. Listen as we learn about dirt you can eat, get chased by naked mud covered ghosts, get our souls sucked into trees and more o…

Sean conducts unethical medical experiments and tries to turn Holly into a snake with Sssssss (1973), in which crazy herpetologist Strother Martin tries to do just that to his unwitting lab assistant. Freak Show wall-of-famer Reb Brown co-stars as a football meathead who ends up confronting a Black Mamba in the shower. Listen as we relate tales of …

Colin opens the atrocity exhibition that is The Crow: City of Angels (1996), a cynical cash grab that followed the original monument to Goth/Industrial subculture. This time, a mechanic is resurrected to get revenge on the goons who killed him and his son. Listen as we talk about the lost art of "crowfitti," detail uncomfortable moments in a peep s…

Michaela claims she cried three times witnessing Godzilla Minus One (2023), Japan's latest but Oscar-winning entry in the 70 year old monster series. It's really about a cowardly kamikaze pilot who finds a reason to complete his mission after the Big G threatens those he loves. Listen as we contemplate Godzilla's cat-like appearance, question black…

Holly wants to see if she's got what it takes to be Best of the Best (1989), by representing Team USA in a Korean martial arts tournament. James Earl Jones is the coach, and the team of karate superdudes consists of Eric Roberts and Christopher Penn. Send prayers! Listen as we explore the dubious methods of winning gold in the high-stakes world of …

Sean takes us to the beach so we can grow Old (2021) together, since vacationers who visits said beach never leave. Instead, they age rapidly, children grow to adulthood, psychological and biological medical conditions bloom, and Abbey Lee wears a swimsuit. Listen as we put Benjamin Button on the island, overexplain the plot until we're blue in the…

Colin sees psycho killers in double double after watching Wicked, Wicked (1973), the world's first movie presented in Duo-Vision (that's "split screen" to you). A murderer is preying upon statuesque blondes at a seaside resort and it's up to the hotel detective to stop him before he targets the hotel's new lounge singer. Listen as we split our atte…

Michaela won't let anything stop her from being a Hollywood star, following in the footsteps of Ti West's antihero, Maxxxine (2024). Porn star Maxxine Minx tries to go legit with a role in a low-budget horror film but events from her past and the Night Stalker's murder spree threaten to derail her career. Listen as we talk scrotum skewering, cocain…

Holly's not sure if she she may have photographed a murder with Blow Up (1966), a movie set in "mod," Swinging London, about an easily distracted photographer trying to find something to stimulate him out of his boredom. Listen as we give legit film criticism the old college try as we surround ourselves with a gaggle of "far out" and "groovy" model…

Sean celebrates our 600th episode with a rewatch of Tango & Cash (1989), the adult action cartoon that partners Sylvester Stallone with Kurt Russell's hair, about two wrongly accused rivals who have to take down the syndicate that set them up. Listen as we break out our measuring sticks in the prison shower, send rats through a desktop maze, and vi…

Colin thinks just by wearing a hockey mask he can call himself Jason, since it was so easy for a guy named Roy to do it in Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning (1985). Listen as we yell "He hurt me, ma!" while riding our motorcycles in circles, serenading each other with renditions of "Ooh Baby" and cursing "those damn enchiladas" as we trot to …

Michaela cuts the cake while surrounded by corpses of her friends, and finds herself singing Happy Birthday to Me (1981)! Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Sue Anderson is a prep school student plagued by repressed memories and blackouts as members of her rich-kid clique are murdered by a black gloved killer. Listen as our brains explode fro…

Holly becomes a fire whisperer with Backdraft (1991), Hollywood's ode to firefighters, with Highlander/The Prophecy scribe Gregory Widen pitting two adversarial Irish brothers against each other and a serial arsonist who's been terrorizing Chicago. Listen as we turn to a Hannibal Lecter stand-in to gain psychological insight on the anthropomorphic …

This week, we took a Freak Show Field Trip to see In A Violent Nature (2024), a indie Friday the 13th-style slasher shot almost entirely from a 3rd person perspective of it's Jason-like monster. Listen as we go stomping through the woods turning campers into curly-Qs in an effort to determine if the movie is having a go at us as a deadpan comedy se…

God created Sean, but science turned him into a god after getting programmed by The Lawnmower Man (1992), the best remembered 90s cautionary tale about the horrors of virtual reality. Simple-minded Jobe becomes a tyrannical terror after he's given VR brain chemistry enhancements by unscrupulous scientist Pierce Brosnan. Listen as we discuss how wel…

Colin kneels at the throne of Stirba, the werewolf queen of Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985), following Freak Show man of action, Reb Brown, into battle alongside werewolf hunter Christopher Lee into deepest, darkest Transylvania to infiltrate an orgy of punk lycanthropes. Listen as we discuss full moon sex rituals, monkey wolves, and t…

Michaela wishes to explode over the local ruffians as a gelatinous mutant after watching X-Men (2000), the movie often credited with kick-starting the Marvel movie takeover. Listen as we reminisce about a simpler time when wire-stunts and small scale disasters were the order of the day, have nightmare flashbacks of cramming for the high school exam…

Holly finds all the boys think Nicole Kidman is To Die For (1995) playing a narcissistic, media obsessed weathercaster who seduces an idiot teen (Joaquin Phoenix) into killing her husband (Matt Dillon) in Gus Van Sant's fictionalized version of the Pamela Smart case. Listen as we discuss true-crime documentaries, 90s TV talk shows, and discover we'…

Sean tries to catch the invisible sex predator at large in Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man (2000), which casts Kevin Bacon as a narcissistic scientist who discovers invisibility allows him to pursue his darkest impulses. Listen as we discuss invisible peen, God complexes, science battle montages, and more on this week's exciting episode! Hosted on Acas…

"Into the light I command you," Colin exclaims, drawing out the occult investigator Constantine (2005). Keanu Reeves plays the very American version of the DC Comics exorcist, caught up in a battle between angels and demons on the streets of Los Angeles. Listen as we learn shocking things about intelligent crabs, the TV series "Lucifer," and debate…

Michaela says she will never ever drive on a highway again after witnessing the catastrophic calamity that opens Final Destination 2 (2002), the movie that did to road trips what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean. Listen as we learn about Sean's real-life horror movie cat scare, challenge each other to build a red-string evidence board, and philos…

Holly waits for the Blood Moon to bring the return of the "Dark Stranger" from the ocean's depths with Messiah of Evil (1973), in which a woman goes searching for her missing artist father in a seemingly abandoned seaside town where residents await the fulfilment of a centuries old curse. Listen as we revisit the first film from the Howard the Duck…

Sean creates ripples through time and fractures his mind with the time-travel mind-bender The Butterfly Effect (2004), in which childhood friends experience a catalog of traumas that one of them tries to fix as an adult when he discovers his power to warp time by uncovering repressed memories. Listen as we rate the Misery Index as "High" on this on…

Colin gets caught in the middle of warring factions of angels battling it out on Earth in The Prophecy (1995), with Christopher Walken having the time of his life as the archangel Gabriel, searching for "the darkest soul" to lead his army against heaven. Listen as we wonder what an angel smells like, suck souls out of corpses, experience apocalypti…

Michaela downloads the latest in high tech CD-ROM interactive horror, Brainscan (1994), in which Edward Furlong gets immersed into a virtual murder simulator emceed by a big-hair Freddy Krueger wannabe named The Trickster. Listen as we discover our mail demon's secret Hollywood history, normalize mutual window peeping flirtations, and realize (with…

Holly stares into the sun at close range and gets space madness in Sunshine (2007), Danny Boyle and Alex Garland's follow up to 28 Days Later and The Beach, which fires a crew of scientists toward the dying sun in hopes of rekindling it with a nuclear device. Listen as we find dozens of new space travel related anxieties, reduce humans to dust, wor…

Sean's head explodes fighting the good fight against the evil telepaths of Scanners (1981), David Cronenberg's first real hit about a mind reader sent on a covert mission to infiltrate a group of other ESPers and kill their leader. Listen as we link our nervous systems, polish our holes, eat Hot Pogo Dogs, apologize for our "O" faces, and more on t…

Colin studies up on the occult to do battle with the Goat of Mendes in The Devil Rides Out (1968), in which Christopher Lee and friends discover Satanism is being practiced by a wealthy cabal of astronomy geeks and their best pal is in danger of losing his soul! Listen as we attend summonings, conjurings, woodland revels, step into protective circl…

Michaela warns that if you create a sexy feminine creature in your lab you should not have sex with it with Splice (2009), a movie that stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley as scientists in Cronenbergland who do exactly that. Listen as we talk about tongue flowers, sex in the proximity of children, mommy issues, and science run amok on this week's e…

Holly chucks grenades and ten-thousand bullets at Reb Brown but nothing can touch him cuz he's a Strike Commando (1987), a Rambo clone from the Italian Ed Wood, Bruno Mattei. Former TV Captain America Brown sets out to avenge his teammates on the corrupt general who abandoned them. Listen as we talk childhood electrocution, violent innocence, and t…

Sean gets his heart broken with a pickaxe with My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009). Ten years after an initial killing spree, a demented miner returns to pick up where he left off. The bloodbath coincides with the return of the town pariah (Supernatural's Jensen Ackles), who's come back to sell the mine and rekindle a romance with his former sweetheart, …

Colin's got to get to the Witches Sabbath in City of the Dead (aka Horror Hotel, 1960), in which an intrepid college student goes to a spooky coastal village where a witch was burned in the 17th Century, and discovers witchcraft may still be afoot in the 20th. Listen as we discuss 60s shapewear, accidental summonings, and possessed digital devices …

And the most requested movie of Listener Choice month is: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), in which an alien lifeform threatens to replace humanity by birthing clones from giant seed pods. Listen as we discuss wearing "backhand gloves", how to ruin a hypnotist's charades, and wonder 'if you kill a pod person can they grow another one?', on th…

You voted for it, so we watched Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991), a Hong Kong adaptation of a Japanese Manga that might be one of the goriest movies ever made. A super-strong man is sent to a maximum security prison and discovers its a cover for a heroin operation, and punches, kicks, pulverizes and dismembers a couple of dozen bad guys. Listen a…

We're back live and in person as Listener Choice month continues with Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006), a mockumentary that provides self-analysis of the slasher film. In a world where Jason, Freddy, and Michael exist, a camera crew follows an up and coming serial killer as he chooses his 'survivor girl' and prepares for a homecomi…

The listeners have spoken! The first of four listener choices we're watching this month is Witchery (1988), also known as La Casa 4 in Italy, a team up of David Hasselhoff and Linda Blair as visitors to a Massachusetts island resort that's haunted by a witch and a centuries old curse. Listen as we take jets of blood to the face, witness selfless de…

It's that time of year again where we venture out of the dank, dark basement for our annual love and hate fest as we rank the Best and Worst Movies of 2023. We say "movies", but pleas for decency fell on Sean's deaf ears and he went and picked a Netflix stand up comedy special. The rest of us stuck to the mission at hand and each deliver our favori…

Michaela tries to survive 30 Days of Night (2007) in an Alaskan town where the sun doesn't rise for a month and vampires show up. Josh Hartnett is the small town sheriff trying to keep people alive in an attic without food, or pee or poop buckets, while vampires send their Renfield to collect all the cell phones and cut the power. Listen as we take…

Holly spends Christmas in the Netherlands to find out the horrifying origins of St. Nicholas with Saint (aka Sint aka Saint Nick, 2010), as Dutch madman Dick Maas envisions Father Christmas as a murderous zombie who visits Amsterdam every 32 years as part of an evil curse. Listen as we uncover the legend of Black Peter, strange college mating ritua…