Writer, actor, comedian and all-round wonderful human being Mary Jo Pehl joins us as we try to untangle the twisted tale of Brian De Palma's Sisters (1972). Starring Margot Kidder (of Superman and The Amityville Horror fame) in the dual roles of demure French Canadian model Danielle and her psychotic, groin-stabby twin Dominique, and Jennifer Salt as the hard-boiled investigative journalist determined to prove the murder she witnessed from her apartment window, Sisters is at once a delirious...

Conrad and Dan discover the 1995 sci-fi fantasy drama Powder cowering away in the oubliette basement and drag it whimpering into the sunlight to see if it's the sort of baby you want to immediately disown in the maternity ward, or a misunderstood marvel that's "too beautiful for this world". The tale of a mysterious young man with a whiter-than-white complexion who seems to have supernatural powers, Powder could be a religious allegory or a heartwarming fable. But given that its...

Dan and Conrad explore the late George A. Romero's personal favourite and, until now, most elusive film, Martin (1977), courtesy of Second Sight Films, whose stunning 4K remastered edition of the available to order in the UK now. It bears some narrative similarity with Vampire's Kiss (1988), the topic of our previous episode, in that its central character believes they are a vampire... but might not be. But whereas Robert Bierman's film is a meme-worthy black comedy phenomenon with an...

Writer, director and actor Lars Henriks returns to help us through another odd 80s film featuring fangs and eccentric performances: Vampire's Kiss (1988). That's right! Long before Nicolas Cage portrayed the most famous vampire of them all in this year's horror comedy Renfield, he played Peter Loew – a yuppie literary agent who becomes convinced he's a bloodsucking creature of the night after a terrifying one-night stand with the alluring Rachel (Jennifer Beals). But is it real, or is he an...

One of our Patreons nominated Eddie Murphy's notorious 2003 sci-fi action 'comedy' The Adventures of Pluto Nash for this episode, which on paper should have been promising. Its star was coming off a string of family-friendly comedies like The Nutty Professor, Dr. Dolittle and Shrek. Its supporting cast includes Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Pam Grier and John Cleese. It's directed by quirky action/comedy wunderkind Ron Underwood of Tremors fame and has a budget north...

A new Dungeons and Dragons movie arrives in theatres this month, so we thought we'd take a look back at the very first attempt to bring the beloved role-playing phenomenon to the screen. As two first-level novices, Dan and Conrad needed an expert Dungeon Master to guide them through this early 2000s CGI-fest, so the sage-like Michael French of RetroBlasting joins them. At least, he does until his Internet took pity and set him free from the spectacle of PlayStation 1 cut-screen establishing...

Conrad and Dan are down under again, celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Spierig Brothers first feature film, Undead, a chucklesome zombie-and-alien-visitation action extravaganza made on a shoestring budget with a "she'll be right" attitude. This 50s B-movie made in 2003 has wit and inventiveness galore, a vivacious ensemble cast and a score so cheesy it should come with a lactose-intolerance warning, but, crucially, does it stand the test of time or is it better left buried alongside a...

Conrad and Dan find themselves in the Arizona wilderness, watching the genre-defying, fast-and-furious road racing, sci-fi fantasy horror revenge thriller The Wraith (1986). It features Charlie Sheen as new boy in town Jake, who just may or may not be the reincarnation of murdered local hero Jamie and may or may not be the alter ego of a mysterious black-clad racing driver who's picking off the members of the gang who killed him while driving his super futuristic concept car. Is anyone...

Dan and Conrad venture into the Forbidden Zone in stunning 80s 3D for this episode, with only a 14-year-old Molly Ringwald as their guide,Peter Strauss as their store-brand Han Solo hero and Ernie Hudson as... I dunno... someone who is also there? It's 80s b-movie sci-fi at its finest, as the world-weary bounty hunter Wolff (with two 'f's) drives across a desert planet to rescue three supermodels from the clutches of the mutant dictator, Overdog, played by Michael Ironside, whose attempts to...

We're back! For our first episode of 2023, we're joined by our good friend Isaac Sutton, who invites us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Guillermo del Toro's first feature film: the Christmas/New Year steampunk vampire tale, Cronos. As the great man explained, a director's first feature sets out their cinematic universe – and this is never more true than in this case. We have a mute central character, a child and a grandfatherly figure, a mystical insect, and the humans are the real...

Simon Barber, co-host of the Sodajerker on Songwriting podcast, joins us for our festive finale to 2022: and it's a doozy! The producing team behind the original Superman: The Movie (1978), its first two sequels and the spin-off Supergirl (1984) turned their attention to another origin story for a much-loved supernatural hero in 1985, and brought us Santa Claus: The Movie. Featuring Dudley Moore as a cheery elf determined to modernise the North Pole, David Huddlestone as the titular jolly...

Dan and Conrad venture into the deep dark woods of Ireland and explore Corin Hardy's The Hallow (2015), where British conservationist Adam and his wife Claire come under attack from ancient faerie folk, parasitic fungus and – worst of all – unpleasant monosyllabic locals. It's a love letter to the director's favourite genre icons and delightfully practical in its execution, and was largely overlooked in the folk horror booms of the 2010s. But crucially, is it any good? Find out! Follow us on...

Conrad and Dan are exposed to Elvira for the very first time in this Patreon's Choice episode, and watch with delight as the busty horror movie host scandalises the small, conservative town she visits in search of her past... and the money she needs to fund her Vegas debut. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) stars Cassandra Peterson as the irrepressible Elvira, E. Morgan Sheppard as her scheming great uncle Vinnie, Daniel Green as the naive town hunk, Bob, and Edie McClurg as the hilariously...

Joe Lipsett, film critic and co-host of Horror Queers, joins us on the eve of the millennium for some Strange Days (1995) with Ralph Fiennes, who saunters about in leather trousers, Juliette Lewis, who wears nothing most of the time, Tom Sizemore, who sports a very unfortunate wig, and Angela Bassett who... well, just kicks ass frankly. It's a cyberpunk Blow Out, with Fiennes' burned out ex-cop unwittingly getting hold of evidence of a politically significant murder that could destroy L.A. –...

Happy spooky season! Actor and producer Lotta Losten makes a welcome return to the oubliette for our Halloween Special and weaves some Practical Magic on us! This bewitching rom-com, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the enchanting Owens sisters, failed to cast a spell on the box office when it was released during this week 24 years ago (!), but has found a special place in the hearts of many viewers since. Should it be given a broomstick and allowed to soar off the roof this...

RetroBlasting's Michael French beams Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) out of the oubliette and forces Conrad and Dan to explore this sci-fi riff on The Seven Samurai (1954) starring Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Sybil Danning and Darlanne Fleugel. It's exploitation entrepreneur Roger Corman's transparent attempt to cash-in on the Star Wars phenomenon, with a naive farm boy blasting into space to find mercenaries who will protect his peace loving, beige-wearing...

Actor, filmmaker and theatre director Lars Henriks makes a return visit to the oubliette and plucks out Ken Russell's 1988 adaptation of Bram Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm. And what a sight it is to behold: future timelord, Peter Capaldi, charms a vampire/snake monster by playing the bagpipes in regulation kilt; a pre-Four Weddings Hugh Grant chops a woman in half with a broadsword; and the stunning but bewildering Amanda Donohoe drowns a Boy Scout in her jacuzzi and slinks around in...

Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins us as we explore a wild time in New York City's history: the 1980s! Back then, real estate moguls and their fur-and-pearls-wearing wives were savaged in Battery Park by an unknown, monstrous assailant. Luckily, Albert Finney, Diane Venora and Gregory Hines are on hand to solve the case and uncover the secret of Wolfen – a non-werewolf movie released in 1981, the year of the werewolf movie, and directed by Woodstock documentarian Michael Wadleigh...

Oscar-winning special effects genius Tom Woodruff, Jr joins us and takes us on a whirlwind tour of his first steps into the wonderful world of monster movies via The Thing With Two Heads (1972) – a blaxploitation sci-fi adventure starring Ray Milland as a racist mad scientist hellbent on perfecting his head transplanting technique before he succumbs to a terminal illness, and Rosey Grier as the innocent death row inmate who unwittingly volunteers for his experiments. The result? About three...

Mikey Neumann and Zoe Wells of FilmJoy join us as we scoop up Kevin Costner's sci-fi action adventure Waterworld (1995) from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Yes, it's the film that reunited him with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) director Kevin Reynolds and then, $175 million dollars and a box office bomb later, caused their second acrimonious split. But can a film with Dennis Hopper in an eye patch be all that bad? Is Jeanne Tripplehorn playing a character or is she merely extant? Is...

Conrad shows Dan the little-seen supernatural psychological drama, The Sender (1982) – a British production starring Kathryn Harrold, Željko Ivanek, Shirley Knight and Paul 'Belloq' Freeman, and directed by Oscar-winning production designer Roger Christian. Ivanek plays John Doe 83, a mysterious young man admitted to a psychiatric hospital after walking into the sea with rocks in his pockets. Suffering from amnesia, but obviously the victim of some trauma, Doe fascinates Dr Gail Farmer...

Dan and Conrad slip into some chunky knit sweaters and go underground to explore City of Ember (2008), a post-apocalyptic science fantasy starring Harry Treadaway, Saoirse Ronan, Bill Murray and Tim Robbins. Based on a popular series of novels by Jeanne DuPrau, which became the focus of an intense bidding war when it came time for the film adaptation, the film seems to presage the explosion of young adult dystopian adventures that would follow in the wake of The Hunger Games in the 2010s. But...

Matt Swaford of the Endless Bullets: The Action Movie Podcast joins us for this special Iconicon 2022 crossover event, and brings with him a buddy cop zombie action movie we've never heard of: Dead Heat (1988). It stars Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Lindsay Frost and Vincent Price – yes, you read that right – is directed by legendary editor Mark Goldblatt (The Terminator) and written by Terry Black (brother of Shane 'Die Hard' Black), with incredible special effects by Steve Johnson. But is it...

In a childhood nostalgia special, Dan revisits Johnny Mnemonic (1995) – the other cyberpunk action thriller Keanu Reeves made in the 90s after hitting the big time in Speed (1994). It's the one everyone forgets. Maybe our cybernetic implants were loaded with more than 320GB of data, like Keanu's black market data courier, Johnny? Directed by artist Robert Longo in his debut (and so far only) mainstream film and based on a short story and screenplay by cyberpunk grandaddy William Gibson, this...

Melinda Mock of RetroBlasting joins us to revisit one of her teenage favourites: Wes Craven's Shocker (1989) – a bizarre attempt to create a new slasher franchise with The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi as psychotic serial killer Horace Pinker, who gains supernatural possession abilities after being executed in the electric chair. Future director Peter Berg plays a college football star player whose adoptive family and girlfriend fall victim to Pinker's homicidal urges. Can he figure out how to stop...