Movie Meltdown

Movie Meltdown - Episode 460 This week we sit down for an extended discussion of David Gordon Green's Halloween. The latest in the series is sort of an attempt to be both a sequel and a reboot... but does it end up being successful at either?   And while we try to decide if we ourselves are suffering from PTSD from watching so many horror movies over the years, we also address… Tales from the Hood 2, survivor guilt, Fright, Judy Greer, new Loomis, Rob Zombie, comments from the audience, creepy mental asylum, what was great about the one woman that he killed that had the baby, becoming urban legend, missteps and poor choices, Black Christmas, the post-credits monster we’ve created, Snoop Dogg, amazingly well choreographed, it's like breathing for the rest of us, Donald Pleasence, it's not for the development of the characters it's for the development of the screenplay, John Carpenter, Andi Matichak, little kids watching horror movies, Jamie Lee Curtis, a killing machine, Trick ‘r Treat, well-funded podcasts, t

Movie Meltdown - Episode 459 (For our Patreon supporters.) After rounding out our showcase of "bad movies" for a live event at the public library, Tracy and Bryan sit down to not only recap some of their choices but also to discuss what makes a bad movie "bad". And more importantly, the perspective that makes people want to watch movies that certain other people would consider to be terrible. And while we cover things that are both beautiful and hideous all at the same time, we also address… John Waters, Wild and Woolly Video, Universal horror monsters, Blood Freak, Roger Corman, continually setting people on fire, Sleepwalkers, a bunch of people from Florida, Ed Wood, because it’s bad… it has lasting appeal, Female Trouble, they are a trainwreck of a couple of dudes, Wes Craven, movie geek research, horror goes to space, John Carpenter, Don't Look Now, I only want to deal with what’s on the screen, montage of gore, it's threatening to your worldview in order to feel safe, your geeks are crossing over here, s

Movie Meltdown - Episode 458  Our Halloween madness fully sets in as we lower ourselves into the caves of insanity that are Neil Marshall's The Descent. And as we break down all the fun of being a wendigo, we also mention… Carrie, Pet Sematary, like weird but I’m into it, Flannery O'Connor, it all comes back to tuberculosis, The VVitch, The Shining, Mammoth Cave, rods through the face, they show him in his beast-personality, it’s just darkness into darkness, boom… bam… Doug Jones, Game of Thrones, Navajo forklore, Fred Gwynne or John Lithgow, I jumped off of my couch and screamed… and the dogs freaked out… it was a whole thing… because that was the most effective jumpscare, Fear Itself, so weirdly of the 1600’s, Doomsday, it’s the most effective thing you can have, for being like - nothing, jonin’ for Reesie cups, I’m ready for it… come at me skinwalkers, would you like to be buried alive… because that can be arranged, I’m ready for it… come at me skinwalkers, you don’t remember Zelda?, Centurian, having extr

Movie Meltdown - Episode 457 This week we hang out in the spooky outdoors as we reminisce about some of our favorite Halloween costumes, collecting VHS tapes, the first time watching a horror movie and even trying to make our own movies. And as we weave through enough tangents to de-rail even the Terror Train, we also cover… Drive-in Theater, Siskel and Ebert, Michael Myers mask, tracking lines, the box with the slide, here’s blood and some jingle bells, Spotlight, super 8, mom and pop video stores, Joe Bob Briggs, they made this huge creature out of bubble gum and latex, hiding behind the sofa, Dark Vader, there’s a little Samhain in all of us, milk, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, having your candy X-rayed,The Movie Channel, Ben Cooper, Night of the Living Dead, there’s definitely a werewolf in there, they took a Polaroid picture of me, Elvira, Spencer's Gifts, Hammer Films, plastic hoses spraying blood, Fangoria Magazine, our console television, plastic fangs, Yoda blood on your log, I was talking abou

Movie Meltdown - Episode 456  As the daylight starts to slip away… we gather together for a grand discussion on all things horror… and sort-of horror… and Halloween and of course - pumpkin-spiced. And as we kick off the season by seeing how many Smarties we can eat, we also bring up… the slow retail shuffle, A Quiet Place, Heredity, folk horror, The Mummy, Runaway, monster in the woods, mariachi band of the undead, Brazil, the last great epic Francis Ford Coppola movie, a cornucopia of underwear, a 70s light show in his dungeon, There’s a Ghost in my Bathroom, the dime store version of Johnny Depp, Mindhorn, yellow #5 vs yellow #2, The VVitch, Mother!, Digital Underground, The Rockford Files, you know… I’ve gotta say… it’s just action-packed gore and… stupid, Bad Ronald, Nothing but Trouble, and by good she means it’s so awful it’s funny, the horror of William Shatner’s mustache, squirrel funerals, Gary Oldman, patience is a virtue… when you’re a murderer, Clue, Beyond the Black Rainbow, unleashed from the sa

Movie Meltdown - Episode 455 This week as we return to our wrap-up of ScareFest, we are also joined by actor/writer Nicholas Vince to discuss the horror movie Hellbent directed by Paul Etheredge. And as we ask the burning question - how old is Nathan Fillion? We also mention...  Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, pumpkin-spiced something or other, what’s up with Cameo, John Schneider, Book of Monsters, Larry Wilcox, reverse-engineering filmmaking, if you’re young and pretty, a three-way with Ava Gardner and Lana Turner, For we are Many, For we are Many, the danger of the witch hunt, such a butterfly, men are predatory creatures, Paintball Massacre, Clive Barker, a days filming in Italy, key lime, people is people, Necessary Evils, outing celebrities, power and youth, the high school crush, The Rookie, doing many of these special projects, the zero Fs is turned to 11, F you Immortality, young men are horny bastards, Dancing with the Stars, Black Gloves, the Me Too movement, the way sexuality works, Ke

Movie Meltdown - Episode 454 This week we begin our coverage of ScareFest as well as talking with actress Shawnee Smith about a wide array of things like... the Saw franchise, The Blob, Summer School, dancing orphans, Meathead, the Olympics and hanging out with John Candy. Plus we discuss Creepshow 3, not spoiling movies back in the day as well as a rundown of the many different people we've met at conventions over the years. And as we cover the most jarring moment of your life, we also cover… Felissa Rose, some kind of zombie-robot, cats will suck your breath out, he’s hilarious as a trainwreck, more boils and ooze-iness, there’s a hot dog involved, it ate two of my tapes, Daniel Roebuck, Holliston, don’t be stupid I’m a radio, The Raft, they decide to find all the working bits in the perfect woman, that’s the end of the season arch that didn’t quite get filmed, you have to know the face that accompanied it, at one point he stabs the homeless ghost, Deadbeat, the muscle-calf lady, a tulle dress, students fro

Movie Meltdown - Episode 453 (For our Patreon supporters.) This week we hang out and watch the Netflix original feature Little Evil. And while we pin down just which one of the cast is usually I’m jacked up on Robitussin, we also discuss… Truth or Dare, Clueless, a coked-up unicorn, Party Down, Sally Field, she’s just oddly likable, Ray Wise’s birthday party, Space Truckers, iZombie, stunt programming, Meredith Salenger, Sock and Sam, a bus-load of dead kids… I’m sticking with it, every movie needs more Clancy Brown, being a happy horse, somebody’s got to conduct that Derby, Patton Oswalt, edited Showgirls, Debi Mazar, Parks and Rec, that was before he hit her with the 2x4, Conan the Barbarian, Tyler Labine, Lucy Hale and he’s a bad cop… so he’s a good hit man. Spoiler Alert: General spoilers for “Little Evil”... so go watch it before listening. “Who doesn’t enjoy a movie where they talk about killing a kid?! I mean… it’s good fun for the whole family!”

Movie Meltdown - Episode 452  This week we sit down with actor Jeff Kober to learn the secrets of not just life... but also to surviving in the entertainment industry. And while we decide which celebrities we plan to pretend to have a relationship with, we also bring up… La La Land, China Beach, Devon Sawa, Taserface, Tank Girl, dark endings, that was my target audience, The First Power, Debra Granik, Beauty Mark, James Remar threw a bottle at my frickin’ face, I followed a woman to California, Sully, everything happened for the reason… the way it was supposed to, Catherine Curtin, Billings, Montana, it’s all perspective, Chris Sullivan, I was the leader of a cult, Corey Haim, my first, last and only office job, Richard Ramirez, coming through the mask, perfectly awkward, Lori Petty, it was entirely based on being a dog and slightly damaged, The Walking Dead, not as therapy but as expression, Bruce Greenwood, the guy who had seen too much, Crazy Stupid Love, Auden Thornton, Hereditary, I really went into the

Attack of the Killer Soundtrack - Episode 54 This week we welcome special guest co-hosts Catherine Mary Stewart and Lance Guest as we play and discuss some songs featured in their movies over the years as well as some of their favorite soundtracks. So join us as we put together one of the weirdest things to ever be committed to the airwaves, we also discuss… African dance, the orgy scene, showing up on her doorstep, shopping and shooting guns, if you're a hippy… and you’re living in a park in Berlin… you get to go to Heaven with God, they wrote the original code, lots of guitars, I don’t want anything to do with my mom, suck on the mic a lot of the time, a computer the size of a room, there’s a lot going on in every scene in that movie, the change in pop culture, developing of texture mats for the computer rendering of the space scenes, what is this movie?, I always say… it’s not 1973, not 1975… it’s 1974. It’s very specific… the filmmakers… might dispute me on that, The Apple, being lovers all these years, i

Movie Meltdown - Episode 451 This week we hang out at The Bastion and talk about movies... and other random things. And while we try our best to not get shived, we also bring up… We are Still Here, visiting abandoned places, Jeremy Irons sleeping in a teepee, golden harvest, hanging out in old prisons, The Bissman Building, The Amulet of Sauron, cell 13, the delightful and ever-so-stalkerish Lisa Marie, The Shawshank Redemption, it's no longer oozing it's no longer yellow, Dead Last, possessed Woody, order your home from Sears, Tango and Cash, the ability to see ghosts, eating lead paint, having a cool girl in your band, the weird coincidences of The Lone Gunmen, Argentinian television, reassembling Jem, killing weeds, Barbara Crampton, Lake Mungo, Tyler Labine is on a plane, here I am in a hole, while in the sub-basement of the floor, eating lead paint, so much Forensic Files, Air Force One, Vampire Steve, The Lady in White, fright film night of the days dead, Mr. Dark, the Devil is infected, the planet of R

Movie Meltdown - Episode 450 (For our Patreon supporters.) This week we get together to trade pitches from some unusual movies we've watched lately. Who has the more alluring project?? Listen and find out for yourself... And while we try to decide who has the weirder semi-post-apocalyptic future,  we also discuss… Streets of Fire, Future Cops, Christopher Robin, Immortals, Mozart in the Jungle, The Disaster Artist, Babylon 5, Ray Harryhausen, double tweed-on-tweed green with a bow tie, if you point him to a limb he will go out to the furthest tip of it… every single time, it gets deeper into the teenage years, a karaoke version of some song… and he seduces a high school girl… using electricity that comes out of his eyes, future… on a shoestring, Tommy Wiseau, Monica Bellucci, all of that together...if you’re not sold already I don’t know what the hell you are waiting for, the most brilliantly written self-critique I've ever seen, there's some great images of him as a beach ball, fireballs blazing onto the str

Movie Meltdown - Episode 449 This week we welcome our friend Nora to lead an over-all history and general discussion about the way mental illness is portrayed in the movies. So join us as we hit some key films over the decades as well as some unusual personal favorites on how we look at “crazy people” and therapists on the big screen. So as we work toward finding the most healthy way to deal with what we’re messed up about, we also mention… Isle of Dogs, he got a road trip out of it, he wanted to troll your dad but there was no technology to do it yet, it was actually banned by the Army, mechanized version of a person, dissociative identity disorder, let’s get ourselves a robot and get emotionally attached to it, post-suicide recovery, Wes Anderson, forgotten events in their early childhood, healthy coping mechanisms, she's a very predatory therapist, John Huston, tics and movements and speech, nervous conditions, crazy families, it's almost more of a parlor trick than a mental disorder, Doug Jones, touching

Movie Meltdown - Episode 448  This week we wrap-up Flyover Film Fest as we sit down with director Brett Simon to discuss his latest feature Better Start Running. Brett has devoted many years to studying film, art practice and creative writing as well as teaching film history, film theory and video production at UC Berkeley. As well as building a successful career as a commercial and music video director for bands like The Killers, Hoobastank and Queens of the Stone Age. So listen as we discuss everything from his early days as a movie fan all way up to directing his first feature film, Assassination of a High School President starring Bruce Willis and Mischa Barton. Plus we hear stories about coming to shoot his latest film in our own hometown as well as bringing along his cast including Analeigh Tipton, Alex Sharp and Jeremy Irons. Plus as we ponder just how the more they drive - the less they travel, we also mention… the Cinematheque guys, Snow Patrol, Michelle Gondry, I’m the log cabin guy, the old model i

Movie Meltdown - Episode 447 This week we're coming to you "live" from Harry Dean Stanton Fest as we sit down with Drago Sumonja the co-writer of Harry Dean's last film (Lucky) as well as director of the documentary Char·ac·ter. So listen as we discuss his time spent with Harry Dean as well as the artistic collaboration and friendship he has built over the years with actor Dabney Coleman. And while we realize that the whole world eventually comes together at Dan Tana's, we also bring up… Private Benjamin, he made his own weapon, we’d just kind of play the parts really, Daveigh Chase, Cloak and Dagger, they mounted this giant antenna-looking thing onto your house, it’s own weird special little world, Unwigged and Unplugged, something about him showing up in a dress one day, it turned out to be what I wanted to be, Ron Livingston, docudrama, Facebook and their darn algorithms, David Lynch, by necessity, crossing from PG to PG-13, and I would just start typing, racy movies in conservative households, Sydney Poll

Attack of the Killer Soundtrack - Episode 53 This week we are coming to you "live" from Forecastle Music Festival as we welcome our co-host Bryan Hamilton from the band Tsunami Samurai. Join us as we discuss the goings-on of the event all the while assembling a makeshift soundtrack from the bands playing there that weekend. And while we shun sunlight and other humans, we also mention… some art on a tree, here’s Johnny,the welcome overcast, they saved the best for the sequel, no one is curating, open invite to Jenny Lewis, the vibe that’s going on, do 13-year old kids care about that, The Slint reunion, this shows you how long they’ve been a band, gives us historical context, so grassroots, The 40 Watt in Athens, an 80’s night dance at school, the undead creature that I am, Justin Long, it’s their reference, YouTube just puts it on mix, a double-headliner with Built to Spill, something popped in it’s mechanical brain, this humid bowl that he was sitting in, at The Fox in Atlanta, I wasn’t sure he was going to

Movie Meltdown - Episode 446 This week we round out our coverage of this year's WonderFest as we talk with Rick Sternbach about space, art and the movies and projects he's worked on. (Including Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Last Starfighter, The Black Hole, Solaris and Star Trek: The Next Generation.) Plus we are joined by our somewhat annual, reluctant co-host Eric Chu. And while we work on building our own Cray supercomputer, we also bring up… Deadpool 2, Better Watch Out, the new Lost in Space, doing artwork for science fiction and astronomy magazines, Larry Niven, set design, Alan Tudyk,you create something and then it goes back into it’s raw form, water slide decals, Harold had worked with Hitchcock, Juggernaut, Mars Attacks trading cards, Hal Clement, a different hand/eye skill set, we didn’t have computers in 1978, Theodore Sturgeon, she’d worked on the B-1 bomber, the early days of digital, his pencil drawings of the Gunstar, geometry, I got to see the evolution of the whole

Movie Meltdown - Episode 445 (For our Patreon supporters.) This week we sit down for a simple movie discussion and suddenly we are knee deep in an examination as to whether or not we are in fact - a culture of despair? But after hammering out the finer points of Thanos' plan for the universe vs. Roddenberry's vision of the future... we quickly fix all the world's problems. And while we try to figure out just what it takes to assemble the lair of a podcasting super-villain, we also mention… Guillermo del Toro, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Hateful Eight, dragons can, in fact, be defeated, a genuinely weird movie, more concentrated death... in a more productive way, the creative and constructive power of the imagination, escapism for poor people, when your real world has crossed over into what you thought was dystopia, non-likable characters, a zero sum game, a loss of faith in ourselves and each other, escapist literature, co-creators for the new world we live in, hanging out at one of Dali’s

Movie Meltdown - Episode 444 This week we are coming to you "live" from Days of the Dead: Indy as we talk with Ray Wise. You may know him Leland Palmer or The Devil himself. Or maybe as the Swamp Thing or Leon Nash from RoboCop... or the multitude of other roles from his impressive career. So join us as we hang out with Ray and discuss these roles and so much more! And as we fight the powers that be at the CW Network with all our might, we also mention… Winchester, The Rock version of Jumanji, Conan the Barbarian, an Orlando dentist, according to playground rules, Windom Earle, buckled and got both, Love of Life, Wes Craven, Patton Oswalt, Karen Gillan, Dead End, Dwight Yoakam’s chicken fries, Beastmaster, I get attachment issues, if it’s from Bill Moseley… it’s ok, the new Marlon Brando, Meredith Salenger, Chucks vs Vans, they’re either ice cold or leaking, Gene Hackman, Wishes, the swamps of Charleston South Carolina, Soldier of Orange, you know it was 95 degrees temp and 90 percent humidity and we had alli

Movie Meltdown - Episode 443 This week we return to our coverage of WonderFest as we sit down with actor John Amplas and discuss this week's Sofa Theater feature On the Waterfront. John is not only an actor (and part of many of George Romero’s early productions including Martin, Dawn of the Dead, Knightriders, Creepshow and Day of the Dead) but he has also spent the majority of his life teaching acting. So who better to delve into the acting style of Marlon Brando and the complex director that was Elia Kazan. And while we try to decide which order to place Eva, Marie and Saint we also mention… Daphne & Velma, a Lake Placid marathon, Rule 34, it’s ok to pretend, that alluring mystique, Betty White, working-class people, faux geeks, where American realism became the path for a lot of actors, Karl Malden, Bill Pullman wins, Stanislavski, completely therapeutic, vintage cereal, a lot of those folks came out of what then became the Actor’s Studio… which I’m not sure I’ve ever bought into… as a process, Lee J.