Movie Oubliette

Dan and Conrad join Bill Pullman on a khaki-clad tour of Haiti in search of a powder that turns people into zombies, in Wes Craven's often overlooked dark fantasy thriller The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988). It has everything you want in a travelog: candlelit processions to a cathedral of waterfalls, exploring a vibrant culture torn by revolution, and getting your scrotum nailed to a chair. Is it an under-appreciated serious work from a director keen to grow beyond his type-casting as a master of horror, or is it a crusty cadaver that should have stayed buried? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conrad and Dan discover the first ever Marvel movie in the oubliette, and cannot believe their eyes as the screen is filled with naked feathered breasts, would-be rapists, a sex sauna and Lea Thompson seducing a wildfowl. Yes, it's Howard the Duck (1986) – George Lucas's next project after the Star Wars saga, and it's like an 80s cocaine-fuelled fever dream. But is it actually all that bad? Should it be MCU canon? Join us as we find out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In anticipation of Leigh Whannell's forthcoming horror film The Invisible Man, we take a look back at Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man, which unbelievably celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! Kevin Bacon stars as the arrogant genius Sebastian Caine, who invents an invisibility serum and volunteers to be the first human test subject... only for it to drive him into a naked murder spree. How does the film stand up 20 years on and in a post-Weinstein era? Does it deserve to escape the oubliette? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Something Ghoulish's Anthony Derington takes us on a tour of our first ever non-English-language horror film: the original version of Shutter (2004) from Thailand! In it, a young couple is terrorised by the spectre of a creepy girl in white with wet black hair – so it may seem like familiar territory for Asian horror fans. But it has quite a sting in the tale... Is it a genre-defining classic or a soggy afterthought?Check out Something Ghoulish at www.somethingghoulish.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sodajerker host Simon Barber takes us on a tour of his favourite House (1986), but it turns out it has a bad case of haunting, alternate dimensions in all the closets and cabinets, and Norm from Cheers lives next door. Norm! Is Steve Miner's first directing venture outside the Friday the 13th franchise ripe for renovation or ready to be condemned? Put on your deep, man cleavage-revealing v-neck sweater, grab a speargun and join us to find out! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Now that Episode IX is out of the way, you probably think you've seen all of the Star Wars movies. Think again! Matt Conley, Community Director at hitRECord, takes us on a journey to a galaxy far, far away to experience an Ewok spin-off TV movie from 1985 that features everything you expect from the iconic franchise: a shapeshifting witch, a 6-year-old watching her family being murdered, and Wilford Brimley in prescription glasses. Is 'Ewoks: The Battle for Endor' a starry war or a minor shootout best left to obscurity? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kelli Maroney, star of Chopping Mall and Night of the Comet, joins us for a festive retrospective review of the first horror movie she saw in a theater: Black Christmas! The original 1974 slasher thriller has everything you want in seasonal cinema: screaming prank phone calls, unicorn stabbings and plastic bag suffocations! But does it deserve to be rescued from relative obscurity? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jonathan King, director of Black Sheep (see episode 11), joins us to explore The Dead Zone (1983) – a Stephen King adaptation directed by David Cronenberg that's often treated as a footnote in both of the horror maestros' careers. Christopher Walken stars as a disturbingly morbid English teacher who becomes even more disturbing after he emerges from a 5-year coma with psychic powers. Does this episodic paranormal drama deserve to escape The Dead Zone or should it be sent back into a coma? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Conrad and Dan go back to 90s high-school in this listener's choice episode, revisiting Robert Rodriguez's alien invasion thriller The Faculty (1998). It has an eclectic cast, including Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Salma Hayek, Usher and Jon Stewart, and is probably the first teen movie to suggest that drugs are the answer to an alien invasion. Does it deserve to escape the oubliette or should it be left to drown in a sea of loose-fitting blue denim? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don Mancini – writer, director and creator of Child's Play – joins us for our Halloween Special, and offers us a bewitching concoction that promises to take you back to your youth: Death Becomes Her (1992), a deliciously dark supernatural comedy starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and something that looks like Bruce Willis but must be an animated special effect because it's emoting too much. Should it sempre viva and live forever, or should it be pushed down a flight of stairs? Join us in our spooky special to find out!   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad investigate a distress signal and discover Isaac Sutton, filmmaker and movie blogger, who diverts their course to investigate Sunshine (2007) – Danny Boyle's largely overlooked but arguably most influential film. It features Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans and Michelle Yeoh among a diverse crew on a mission to restart our ailing sun and save the planet. Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. But does it bomb? Or did it reignite serious sci-fi? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Something's wrong with you. More than you being just... female," says angsty teenager Brigitte to her suddenly feisty, pet-hungry sister in Ginger Snaps – a 2000 Canadian horror film written by Karen Walton and John Fawcett and directed by the latter. Dan and Conrad try desperately to avoid mansplaining while deciding if this is a strangely overlooked landmark in the werewolf genre with a unique perspective on the female experience of puberty and high school... or whether it should be sent back to the oubliette with its hairless tail between its legs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The new Dark Crystal series on Netflix has given us an insatiable appetite for the fantasy worlds of Jim Henson, so we've plucked another of the company's films out of the oubliette. It's the tale of a young girl who argues with her parents and, after making a terrible wish about a family member that shockingly comes true, sets off on an adventure into a wild fantasy world to set the world to rights. No, it's not Labyrinth – it's MirrorMask (2005), written by none other than Neil Gaiman, featuring cutting-edge CGI and set in a post-apocalyptic hellscape: Brighton. What could go wrong? Quite a lot, actually. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad are stranded on an alien planet with Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr. and some remote control turtles. Yes, it's Wolfgang Petersen's 80s sci-fi epic Enemy Mine. Will they learn to get along to survive? Or will they get dragged into what looks suspiciously like the sarlacc pit? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Duncan Skiles, director of 'The Clovehitch Killer', joins us to discuss the 80s remake of 'The Blob', directed by Chuck Russell and co-written by Frank Darabont. It creeps. And leaps. And, indeed, glides and slides. But does this gloopy body horror-infused update of the 50s classic deserve to ooze out of the oubliette? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeff Palermo of the SciFi Onscreen podcast invites Conrad and Dan to the basement of an old church, where they discover John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (1987) sealed in a canister of green goo. Is it this combination of quantum physics and biblical disaster a mind-blowing jewel in the horror master's crown, or a forgettable bunch of lame zombie kills in beige corridors? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad go on a lovely pleasure cruise for a summer break, but find themselves trapped in a (Bermuda) Triangle time-loop purgatory with Melissa George and a barefoot nondescript beach bum who apparently morphed into Liam Hemsworth. Will they escape the twisty psychological terrors of Christopher Smith's sci-fi horror thriller?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lance Guest, star of Halloween II and The Last Starfighter, join Dan and Conrad as they seal themselves in sensory deprivation tanks and regress to 1980, where they discover the trippy world of Ken Russell's Altered States. William Hurt and Blair Brown play academics who explore the far reaches of human ancestral memory – that is, when they're not interrupting sex to talk about cancer and exploring Mexico in fetching knee socks. Is it a groundbreaking, psychedelic sci-fi or "quantum, friggin' dumb limbo mumbo jumbo!"? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's get small! Dan and Conrad are injected into the butt of the 1987 Spielberg-produced summer blockbuster with the incredible shrinking box office: Joe Dante's Innerspace. Starring Dennis Quaid, Martin Short and Meg Ryan, this sci-fi comedy adventure about an Ant-Man style miniaturisation experiment gone awry has all the ingredients of a crowd-pleasing hit but vanished without trace. Did it deserve its fate, or should Innerspace be re-enlarged for all to see? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad venture into the lair of Guillermo Del Toro and George R. R. Martin's favourite dragon: Vermithrax Pejorative, the undisputed star of Disney's 1981 fantasy adventure, Dragonslayer. It has everything you want in a family movie: full-frontal male nudity, Emperor Palpatine being torched to a cinder, and a Disney Princess getting her foot gnawed off by a sock puppet. But does it deserve to escape from its lair to terrorise small villages, or should it be felled by an exploding wizard? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.