Movie Oubliette

Happy holidays, listeners! As a little treat, we'd like to give you a bonus episode for the holiday season: a collection of interviews with the cast and composer of Disney's One Magic Christmas. It includes a full version of our chat with the lovely Elisabeth Harnois, who played Abbie Grainger, as well as new interviews with Rob Magwood, who played her older brother, Cal, and the celebrated composer Michael Conway Baker, who provided the score. All of them were a delight to speak to and so generous with their time, sharing hilarious and heartwarming memories from the making of the movie.We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, sharing time with loved ones however you can while keeping safe. We can't wait to share more with you again in the New Year!– Dan and ConradFollow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To get a bit of festive cheer, Dan and Conrad explore Disney's One Magic Christmas, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. But this is from Disney's 'dark period', so they're in for a shock. A harmonica-playing stalking angel played by Harry Dean Stanton teaches depressed working mum Ginnie Grainger (Mary Steenburgen) to appreciate the holiday season by forcing her to live a nightmarish alternate Christmas Eve in which her whole family is slaughtered in a bungled bank robbery. We kid you not. For all that, it turns out to be one of Conrad's favourite Christmas movies, and has a social realism and heartwarming message that marks it out from your standard Hallmark special. It also features some stellar performances, including that of special guest Elisabeth Harnois, who shares her memories of playing little Abbie Grainger at the tender age of 5! The result is – dare we say it – quite magical! Happy holidays!Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and

Dan and Conrad visit the strangely familiar world of Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, a groundbreaking 3D animated sci-fi fantasy adventure celebrating its 35th anniversary this week! It tells the story of a callow blonde youth who discovers a magical sword and goes on a quest to free the galaxy from a tyrannical empire lead by a sinister man with a penchant for black capes and throttling people. They're joined by the composer of the film's lavish score, Andrew Belling, who enthusiastically shares many behind-the-scenes memories and fascinating anecdotes, while being a generally wonderful man. But is the film an undiscovered 80s sci-fi gem or should it be consigned to the VHS bargain bin?Find out more about Andrew Belling at http://www.morbroproductions.com Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scott Drebit, Senior Columnist at Daily Dead, joins us to share Burnt Offerings... which doesn't sound very appetising until you discover it's a 1976 haunted house chiller starring Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Frikkin' Davis and Burgess Meredith, and co-written and directed by Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis. It finds your typical all-American family renting a suspiciously cheap, old dark house in the middle of nowhere and slowly going insane while stuck there over the summer. Sound familiar? Is it the usual family strife or is the house evil? Will the mysterious old lady living in the attic room ever come out? And why is the swimming pool so turbulent? Join us as we tour this forgotten relic to decide if it's a unique fixer upper opportunity or fit to be condemned...Read Scott Drebit's columns on Daily Dead, or follow him on Twitter.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more i

Happy Halloween! We're going into an extreme form of lockdown with special guest Meagan Navarro, lead critic at Bloody Disgusting, to revisit Tom Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this week! Starring Patricia Tallman and Tony Todd, this update remodels Romero's classic into a siege thriller for our times, with updated effects, a few twists and a kick-ass Barbara. But is it a worthwhile entry in the zombie apocalypse tradition worth revisiting or is it a shambling, rotten shadow of its former self? Find out!Check out Meagan Navarro's writings on www.bloodydisgusting.com and follow her on Twitter.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad take a trip to Ireland and learn all the customs of quaint village life in 1986: digging up ancient pagan demi-gods, burning their hands on tablecloths and urinating on vicars in graveyards. That's right – we're exploring Rawhead Rex, the first of Clive Barker's Books of Blood stories to be adapted for film. But is it a hitherto unrecognised saint or is it the spawn of evil? Find out!Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conrad and Dan try not to get deja-vu as they watch a rag-tag bunch of futuristic soldiers on an alien planet battling bio-mechanical monsters, discovering a pre-pubescent kid clutching a toy is the only survivor, and getting to the escape ship only to realise there's one more monster to kill! No, it isn't Aliens – it's Screamers (1995). It stars Peter Weller as a grizzled philosophical man of war, Jennifer Rubin as a black market trader who greets people by stripping and sponge-bathing in front of them, and Andy Lauer as a solider called 'Ace'. Based on a Philip K. Dick story and a screenplay by Alien co-writer Dan O'Bannon, this has a serious pedigree – but should it be allowed aboard the escape ship or should it be eviscerated by semi-autonomous buzzsaws?Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad dose themselves up with Antiviral (2012), Brandon Cronenberg's debut film set in a near future in which celebrity illnesses are the latest must-have consumer product. Forget Gwyneth Paltrow's genital-scented candles, now you can get infected with the athletes' foot she picked up at her pilates class. Starring the fearless and riveting Caleb Landry Jones as a new breed of viral marketer, and Sarah Gadon as the hottest celebrity with the hottest fever, Antiviral is a clinical body horror fashion shoot of glossy black humour. But should it become a global pandemic or should we self-isolate ourselves away from it?Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conrad and Dan visit one of the scariest places in the world right now – a suburban grocery store – to check out a lesser-known horror thriller from the creative team behind The Evil Dead movies: Intruder (1989). The night shift staff of Walnut Lake Market are being picked off one by one by a bloodthirsty maniac, but is it the leatherclad bad boy ex-boyfriend of plucky final checkout girl, Jennifer, or someone much more unexpected? Featuring notorious gruesome death sequences and small roles for Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell, is Scott Spiegel's tongue-in-cheek video nasty a bargain bin gem or a footnote in the Book of the Dead? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the moment the star of the Resident Evil franchise stepped out of a blurry forest screensaver and announced "I am actress Milla Jovovich", Dan and Conrad knew that special guest Isaac Sutton had dredged up a real gem from the oubliette for us to enjoy. The Fourth Kind (2009) is a half found footage, half dramatised, all fictional tale of the innocent all-white townsfolk of Nome, Alaska being plagued by alien abductions. Can Milla Jovovich's hypnotherapy prowess uncover the truth behind these experiences before she is randomly arrested by the town sheriff for... something? Will she too be whisked away by pale tale figures for an evening of anal probing? And, more crucially, is the film as good as the teenaged Isaac thought it was when he watched it at a sleepover? Find out!Check out Isaac's video essays on Youtube and his bog at www.isaaclastname.com, and follow him on Twitter.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Host

Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins us on an adventure to the world of Krull (1983) – a unique blend of swashbuckling fantasy and laser blasting science fiction starring Ken Marshall and Lysette Anthony as star-crossed lovers whose wedding is cruelly interrupted by an alien invasion. Armed with the coolest and most impractical weapon ever, our hero teams up with robbers, inept wizards and a cyclops to rescue the damsel. Among his merry band is a young Liam Neeson – before he had a special set of skills. But does Serge's childhood favourite hold up 37 years later? Or should it be cast into the swamp of unconvincing cork chippings?Check out Serge's amazing YouTube channel and follow him on Twitter.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Actor and producer Lotta Losten (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation and Shazam!) takes us on a tour of The City of Lost Children (1995), the unique science fantasy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. It's a surreal steampunk fever dream featuring a circus strongman, evil conjoined twins and hypnotic mechanical fleas, but does it deserve to be overshadowed by Jeunet's international breakthrough hits Delicatessen and Amélie?Follow Lotta Losten on Instagram and Twitter, and check out the horror shorts she makes with husband David F. Sandberg on the Ponysmasher Youtube channel.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robert Picardo joins us as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Joe Dante's Explorers, the wistful and wild tale of three school friends who build a spaceship and set off for a close encounter of the Wak-y kind. Featuring the debuts of both Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, this sci-fi adventure also includes not one but three memorable performances from Robert Picardo. He shares his memories of making this underrated cult classic, the challenges of working in Rob Bottin's elaborate make-up effects and his thoughts on the tonal differences between the film's two halves.All this, plus our usual review of the film, which is one of Conrad's childhood favourites, but completely alien (pun intended) to Dan. Does it live up to Conrad's hype? Does it have the same effect without the filter of nostalgia goggles? Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content, including an extended version of our interview with Robert Picardo. Hosted on Acast.

Conrad and Dan set their joy to 11, mount their BMXs and set off to explore the delicious 80s smoothie Turbo Kid, which unbelievably celebrates its 5th anniversary this year. With more retro references than you can shake a gnome stick at, inventive gore and a soundtrack that's screaming to be spun on vinyl, is Turbo Kid the best 80s kids' movie we never had or a relic of a nostalgic wasteland? Find out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad find themselves in the neon purple and green world of Vamp (1986), the often overlooked eighties vampire movie starring Grace Jones, Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler, Dedee Pfeiffer and Gedde Watanabe. Fortunately, they have an expert to guide them: Heather Wixson, Managing Editor of Daily Dead and co-host of its excellent podcast Corpse Club. Vamp features an indescribable performance by the iconoclastic Jones, cinematography that defined the 80s for a generation of graphic designers and one of the best buddy relationships captured on film... but does it deserve to be resurrected or will it burn into nothingness when brought into the light? Find out!Follow Heather Wixson on Twitter, read her articles on Daily Dead and check out the Corpse Club podcast! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman of Horror Queers dig up The Relic (1997) and drag us on a wild museum tour with two of the most unlikeable characters in monster movie history: Penelope Ann Miller, who's so entitled she shrieks about job losses in the middle of the office when someone has the gall to apply for a research grant, and Tom Sizemore as the superstitious cop wearing a raincoat big enough for two. It has Stan Winton creature effects, early CGI, decapitations galore and Linda Hunt in full Edna Mode mode. But should it be restored and put back on display, or shoved back into the archives and never mentioned again?Check out Joe and Trace's writings on Bloody Disgusting, follow them on Twitter, join their lively Facebook Group and listen to their podcast. Because they're awesome.Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and InstagramSupport us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jacob Gentry, director of The Signal and Synchronicity, returns with another 70s conspiracy thriller for us to explore: the little-seen, star-studded enigma Winter Kills (1979). It stars Jeff Bridges as the pampered younger brother of an assassinated president, sent on a wild goose chase by his domineering father (John Huston) to discover the identity of the killers. Along the way, he's helped and/or hindered by the likes of Anthony Perkins, Toshiro Mifune and Sterling Hayden. And Elizabeth Taylor has a non-speaking cameo in a flashback. Go figure. The film was funded by weed sales and might make more sense whilst utterly baked, but does it deserve to be let out of our oubliette? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duncan Skiles, director of 'The Clovehitch Killer', returns to discuss a popular source of childhood nostalgia: Disney's Flight of the Navigator (1986). It focuses on David Freeman, who falls into a ravine in 1978 and wakes up 8 years later to discover he hasn't aged, while his parents look like they've been in quarantine the whole time and his bratty little brother is now a 16-year-old hottie who says 'rad' a lot. Everything makes more sense when he's reunited with a UFO shaped like a Guylian chocolate driven by a robot who sounds suspiciously like Pee-Wee Herman and goes on the run from a strangely authoritarian NASA.This has everything you want in a kid's sci-fi movie: pioneering CGI effects, a giant eyeball that screeches like Yoko Ono and Sarah Jessica Parker hitting on a 12-year-old because he's, you know, technically 20. But does it live up to the fond memories or should it be forgotten forever? Find out by listening! COMPLIANCE! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To celebrate our 50th episode, Conrad and Dan explore a film that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year: Dario Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. The Giallo maestro's first outing often gets overlooked in favour of his more supernatural and outlandish masterpieces, but there's a lot of fun to be had here. Highlights include a black-gloved serial killer, a painter who eats cats and the most unprofessional police inspector in movie history. As the latter would say, "Bring in the perverts!" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For a bit of escapism, Dan and Conrad watch a far-fetched science fiction film in which the UK falls victim to a deadly virus... oh dear. In Doomsday (2008), director Neil Marshall (The Descent) prepares us for what lies ahead: basically, a combination of 28 Days Later, Mad Max and Duran Duran's Wild Boys music video. With a dash of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But should it be given herd immunity and allowed to roam free or should we all socially distance ourselves from it? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.