This week the crew finds itself still minus Becca thanks to the crazy world we live in right now. However, good friend of the show and familiar voice to the listeners Issac Cain stepped in to help John, Jerry, and Richard discuss 1986’s horror classic, The Fly.
This week on The Assignment: Horror Podcast the gang is minus Becca so John, Jerry, and Richard make a go of it on their own. Tonight’s pick is one of John’s favorite movies ever, 1978’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. From a weird dog face thing to a fantastic ending, there is a lot to talk about with this sci-fi/horror thriller.
2020 is largely turning into the year without a fan convention. We saw a few conventions take place just after the New Year, but then the Big Bad Bug hit America’s shores and con after con started announcing their closures. If it wasn’t already apparent to everyone before it got to this point, the idea that this was going to be a year where fan gatherings had to fall to the needs of public health came when SDCC announced they were shutting their doors for 2020.
So, starting with the shameless plug… We did an episode of The Assignment: Horror Podcast focusing on 1977’s The Haunting of Julia. As we were going over the films many attributes, another film came up as we were discussing films that had a very well executed aspect of intentional ambiguity about them. When done right, it’s something I love to see in a film.
(This was originally written as a part of the Needless Things 31 Days of Halloween series for October 2015. The article was removed from the site along with various other contributions and is now being republished here.)
In this hyper-political age, we’ve seen what seems to be an almost unending debate among the political class of this land over the highly charged topic of immigration reform. Countless hours are spent arguing whether this person or that person should be allowed citizenship for this country, whether still others should even be allowed into the country at all, and of course whether or not we’re giving some “a free pass” to citizenship. But what we have not seen, my friends, is the much more important question addressed. Should these people be able to bring their monsters with them?
Because, let’s face it, until this is addressed they will continue to come and eventually you will be faced with a kill or be killed situation with a creature that doesn’t follow the rules as you know them. Since we can’t count on legislation, we’ll have to turn to education. To that end, this series will give you the basics on the monsters that you only think you know but in fact play by other cultural rules. Today we look at the Blemmyes.
(This was originally written as a part of the Needless Things 31 Days of Halloween series for October 2015. The article was removed from the site along with various other contributions and is now being republished here.)
In this hyper-political age, we’ve seen what seems to be an almost unending debate among the political class of this land over the highly charged topic of immigration reform. Countless hours are spent arguing whether this person or that person should be allowed citizenship for this country, whether still others should even be allowed into the country at all, and of course whether or not we’re giving some “a free pass” to citizenship. But what we have not seen, my friends, is the much more important question addressed. Should these people be able to bring their monsters with them?
Because, let’s face it, until this is addressed they will continue to come, and eventually you will be faced with a kill or be killed situation with a creature that doesn’t follow the rules as you know them. Since we can’t count on legislation, we’ll have to turn to education. To that end, this series will give you the basics on the monsters that you only think you know but in fact play by other cultural rules. Today’s monster is the Romanian Vampire.
Where do you even start with a film like this? I’ll start with the man who was the film’s director, co-writer, and co-producer. This was one of a long line of low budget films by infamous schlockmeister Larry Buchanan. Buchanan, perhaps best known for 1967’s Mars Needs Women, made films that transcended bad and entered into a realm almost all their own. This is actually a shame as some of his films would have been pretty damned good if they’d only had better actors, better budgets, better script doctors, better FX, and a better director at the helm. Basically, they would have all benefited greatly by not being Larry Buchanan films. The Loch Ness Horror is a prime example of one of these films.
On April 16, 1988, 31 years ago in Japan, an animated film, an early film for the just shy of three-year-old Studio Ghibli, opened in movie theaters in Japan. The film was based on a 1967 semi-autobiographical short story, Hotaru no Haka, from writer Akiyuki Nosaka. The story itself had become well known in Japan, and Akiyuki Nosaka had reportedly turned down several offers to turn his story into a live action movie or television film believing that live action would not capture the intended spirit of the story. He had never considered animation, but first the pitch from Studio Ghibli and then the early storyboards convinced him that the story could not be properly told at that time in any medium other than animation. There are probably a lot of people all around the world who are glad he came to that conclusion, because had he not done so we would never have seen Grave of the Fireflies. Of course, that’s as much a blessing as a curse for some.
The lineup for films in the ConCarolinas Short Film Festival. Actual times will be posted soon.
Chandler's Bar & Grill 