Horror Movie Podcast Ep. 185: Top 10 Horror Movies of the 2000s

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Posted on October 30, 2019 by producer

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HORROR FANS! Just as we have in years past, your horror hosts are bringing you weekly Halloween month releases of Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Instead of our typical Franchise Reviews (you can still find all your favorites on the sidebar of the main page at HorrorMoviePodcast.com) your horror hosts are bringing you the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s! We’ll focus on a different decade each week. This week it’s the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 2000s from Dr. Shock, Gillman Joel, and Wolfman Josh! Let us know what you think and leave your own lists below, in the comments section. We’d love to read them.

We’ll also be bringing you listener-sourced Campfire Tales from Michael and a follow-up from Coleman and his brother Chris! Plus, a SHUDDER-sponsored Screaming Online segment review of Haunt (2019) and plenty of Halloween tricks and treats for some lucky listeners!

Horror Movie Podcast is typically bi-weekly show that is going weekly for the month of October. If you’d like to support our show, try a 30-day free trial of SHUDDER with Promo Code: HMP It costs you nothing and helps us a lot! Also, please subscribe to our show for free in Apple Podcasts and leave us a review! It really helps our visibility. Or just tell a friend. We’d really appreciate it. Thanks for your support and thanks for listening to Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies!
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Horror Movie Podcast Ep. 184: Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1990s

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Posted on October 23, 2019 by producer

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HORROR FANS! Just as we have in years past, your horror hosts are bringing you weekly Halloween month releases of Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Instead of our typical Franchise Reviews (you can still find all your favorites on the sidebar of the main page at HorrorMoviePodcast.com) your horror hosts are bringing you the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s! We’ll focus on a different decade each week. This week it’s the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1990s from Dr. Shock, Gillman Joel, and Wolfman Josh! Let us know what you think and leave your own lists below, in the comments section. We’d love to read them.

We’ll also be bringing you listener-sourced Campfire Tales from Coleman and his brother Chris! Plus Halloween tricks and treats for some lucky listeners!

Horror Movie Podcast is typically bi-weekly show that is going weekly for the month of October. If you’d like to support our show, try a 30-day free trial of SHUDDER with Promo Code: HMP It costs you nothing and helps us a lot! Also, please subscribe to our show for free in Apple Podcasts and leave us a review! It really helps our visibility. Or just tell a friend. We’d really appreciate it. Thanks for your support and thanks for listening to Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies!
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Horror Movie Podcast Ep. 183: Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1980s

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Posted on October 12, 2019 by producer

177

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HORROR FANS! Just as we have in years past—for the entire month of October—your horror hosts are bringing you weekly releases of Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. Instead of our typical Franchise Reviews (you can still find all your favorites on the sidebar of the main page at HorrorMoviePodcast.com) we’re bringing you the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s! We’ll focus on a different decade each week. This week it’s the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1980s from Dr. Shock, Gillman Joel, and Wolfman Josh! Let us know what you think and leave your own lists below, in the comments section. We’d love to read them.

We’ll also be bringing you listener-sourced Campfire Tales from Raul and Maurice, Halloween tricks and treats for some lucky listeners, and a vicious visit from an old fiend, Jay (Back From) the Dead.

Horror Movie Podcast is typically bi-weekly show that is going weekly for the month of October. If you’d like to support our show, try a 30-day free trial of SHUDDER with Promo Code: HMP It costs you nothing and helps us a lot! Also, please subscribe to our show for free in Apple Podcasts and leave us a review! It really helps our visibility. Or just tell a friend. We’d really appreciate it. Thanks for your support and thanks for listening to Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies! Continue reading →

Horror Movie Podcast Ep. 182: Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1970s

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Posted on October 1, 2019 by producer

143

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HORROR FANS! Just as we have in years past, for the entire month of October, we are bringing you weekly releases of Horror Movie Podcast, where we’re Dead Serious About Horror Movies. We’re trying something different this year. Instead of our typical Franchise Reviews (you can still find all your favorites on the sidebar of the main page at HorrorMoviePodcast.com) we’re bringing you the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and early 2000s! We’ll focus on a different decade each week. This week it’s the Top 10 Horror Movies of the 1970s. Let us know what you think and leave your own lists below, in the comments section.

We’ll also be bringing you listener-sourced Campfire Tales from Chris Excess and Jesse, Halloween tricks and treats, and more!

AND NOW … THIS IS HALLOWEEN, THIS IS HALLOWEEN …
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 31: Happy Halloween!

Posted on October 31, 2019 by producer

Happy Halloween, horror fans!

We want to hear how you spent your Halloween 2019 … the tricks and treats, what you watched, what you did … what you ate!

We hope you’ve enjoyed our written reviews this Halloween Season from Dr. Shock and the HMP listeners. Thank you to everyone who contributed reviews and to the brave few who continued to read and comment all month long. We appreciate you.
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 30: Double Exposure (1983) – by Dr. Shock

Posted on October 30, 2019 by producer

Dave “Dr. Shock” Becker is a host on Horror Movie Podcast, Universal Monsters Cast and Land of the Creeps horror podcasts. He is also the mastermind behind DVDInfatuation.com, a movie review blog where he watched one movie and posted one movie review nearly every day until he reached 2,500. Follow Doc on Twitter @DVDinfatuation.

Title: The Monster That Challenged the World
Country: USA
Year: 1982
Writer/Director: William Byron Hillman

The pre-title sequence that opens 1983’s Double Exposure, in which an undercover cop, posing as a hooker, is stabbed to death by an unknown assailant, convinced me I was in for yet another ‘80s slasher film. The very next scene, however (which plays during the credits), had a dream-like quality to it (slow-motion, stuttered movements, etc), and all at once I changed my mind; clearly, Double Exposure was going to be a psychological thriller.

Ultimately, the movie has elements of both subgenres scattered throughout it, and there are moments when it is simultaneously chilling and brilliant.

But more than anything, Double Exposure is a Goddamn jumbled mess.
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 29: The Monster That Challenged the World (1957) – by Dr. Shock

Posted on October 29, 2019 by producer

Title: The Monster That Challenged the World
Country: USA
Year: 1957
Writers: Pat Fielder (screenplay), David Duncan (story)
Director: Arnold Laven

The Monster that Challenged the World, a sci-fi / horror film directed by Arthur Laven, has the look and feel of a “B” picture (it was released as part of a double bill with 1957’s The Vampire). Yet thanks to an engaging story this movie manages to overcome the limitations of its budget, and, in the end, is a very entertaining creature feature.

Based on a story by David Duncan (who would later write the screenplays for The Time Machine and Fantastic Voyage), The Monster that Challenged the World is set in the Salton Sea area of California, and concerns the U.S. Navy’s battle with a group of underwater creatures, man-sized mollusks that act (and eat) like the common snail.
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 28: Mutant Girls Squad (2010) – by Dr. Shock

Posted on October 28, 2019 by producer

Title: Mutant Girls Squad
(Sentô Shôjo: Chi no Tekkamen Densetsu)
Country: Japan
Year: 2010
Writers: Jun Tsugita (screenplay), Noboru Iguchi (story and characters)
Directors: Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tak Sakaguchi

So what happens when Yoshihiro Nishimura (director of Tokyo Gore Police) and Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl) team up with Tak Sakaguchi (who, along with acting in films like Azumi and Godzilla: Final Wars also directed Yakuza Weapon)? Why, you get Mutant Girls Squad (2010) of course, a blood soaked blend of comedy, action and horror that’s as imaginative as it is insanely violent.

It’s been quite a 16th birthday for young Rin (Yumi Sugimoto). Aside from being bullied by her classmates, she’s experiencing a strange sensation in her arm that won’t seem to go away. Later that night, during her birthday dinner, Rin’s father (Kanji Tsuda) makes a startling confession: he’s not entirely human! He is, in fact, a mutant, and what’s more, now that she’s 16, Rin’s dormant mutant genes will soon begin to surface (which explains the unusual feeling in her arm). While she’s trying to process this sudden and unexpected revelation, a group of heavily-armed Samurais, a sort of Anti-Mutant league, attack Rin and her family. Rin’s mother (Maiko Ito) is killed instantly, and her father holds off the assailants just long enough for his frightened daughter to escape.

Following a violent confrontation in the shopping district (during which she mauls several people with her newly-found mutant powers), Rin meets up with Rei (Yuko Takayama), who introduces the young girl to Kisaragi (played by director Tak Sakaguchi), the leader of a band of mutants whose goal is to wipe out the human race. With Rei as her trainer, Rin learns to control her powers, and along with fellow mutant Yoshie (Suzuka Morita), is sent into the world to eliminate their “enemies”. But the question is: will the half-human Rin carry out her mission of death, or will her compassionate nature win out in the end?
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 27: Attack of the Puppet People (1958) – by The Gray Man

Posted on October 27, 2019 by producer

Editor’s note: Once again, we’ve asked our listeners to participate in our 31 Days of Halloween by contributing written reviews. This review was submitted by listener The Gray Man. You can follow The Gray Man on Twitter @Qua419 and on Letterboxd @GBensch.

Title: Attack of the Puppet People
Country: USA
Year: 1958
Written: George Worthing Yates and Bert I. Gordon
Directed: Bert I. Gordon

I needed a film for Shocktober from the 1950s and with the recent Tiny Terrors discussion on Horror Movie Podcast Episode 181, this film about a “lonely and deranged puppet-master who shrinks people” seemed fitting.

One day Sally Reynolds (June Kenney) answers an advertisement for a secretary at Dolls Inc. The previous secretary left suddenly, according to Dr. Franz (John Hoyt) of course, he is owner/operator of Dolls Inc. The phone rings, Sally answers, only after Dr. Franz awkwardly stands there acting phobic to the phone.

Plenty of dolls fill the shelves, either in the front room, the middle/factory workroom or the back “No Admittance” room. Some immediately look more lifelike than others. A salesman, Bob Westley, arrives and is immediately smitten by Sally. Bob conducts business with Dr. Franz and stays for several weeks.

Bob is a smooth operator and at the drive-In with Sally, he proclaims his love for Sally and proposes marriage. The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) plays in the background as Bob tells Sally the plan. They’ll leave the next morning for Las Vegas and then move to St. Louis, where Bob conducts his business. Sally unsure how to tell Dr. Franz about her leaving, Bob reassures her that he will take care of it, since he needs to finish his business deal with Franz.

The next morning, Sally’s phone rings and it’s Franz wondering where Sally is and that if she was still coming in for work. She inquires about Bob and the Dr. says Bob left for St. Louis since he has neglected his business there. Sally arrives to Dolls Inc and confronts Dr. Franz of her suspicions of foul play. It’s at this point all is revealed, but I do not want to spoil anything further.
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 26: Bliss (2019) – by Bill Van Veghel

Posted on October 26, 2019 by producer

Editor’s note: The hosts of Horror Movie Podcast are always impressed by the knowledge and insights of our listenership in the tweets, emails and voicemails that we receive, and especially the comments here at HorrorMoviePodcast.com. Once again, we’ve asked our listeners to participate in our 31 Days of Halloween by contributing written reviews. This review was submitted by HMP listener Bill Van Veghel, who is now a regular on Land of the Creeps and was recently a guest on our “Funhouse of Horror” episode. You can follow Bill on Letterboxd @billhorrorguy or friend him on Facebook @bvanveghel.

Title: Bliss
Country: USA
Year: 2019
Writer/Director: Joe Begos

I have seen less 2019 films than I care to admit and need to catch up badly. Tonight I took a deep dive and found the movie Bliss. I knew nothing about this film (which can be rented on Amazon, ITunes, Vudu and VOD) but decided to take a chance. Boy, am I glad I did.

Bliss is unlike any I have seen for quite some time. This may not necessarily always be a good thing, but in this case it was for me. The film centers around an artist named Dezzy, played by Dora Madison (Dexter, Chicago Fire, Friday Night Lights) who has not sold any paintings for quite some time and needs some cash badly. Her agent has dropped her, she is behind in her rent and her life seemingly is in a tailspin. She decides to call up her drug dealer, who hooks her up with a new strain of cocaine, “bliss” that gives her a high unlike any she has felt before.

Before you know it, she is back on her feet parting, meeting old friends, and living the life someone in their mid 20’s must only dream of. She also becomes reacquainted with her friend Courtney and her boyfriend, a musician with a local band of some note. They party it up, all have sex together and enjoy themselves, After a few days of this, Dezzy starts to reacts poorly to the drug, and begins to get strange cravings she can’t explain, and she blacks out frequently. Turns out her strange cravings include blood and murder. A tale of vampirism, killing, sexual promiscuity and artistic angst ensues. In other worlds, strap yourself in, as it is a bumpy yet fun filled ride!
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 25: Castle Freak (1995) — by Sal Roma

Posted on October 25, 2019 by producer

Editor’s note: The hosts of Horror Movie Podcast are always impressed by the knowledge and insights of our listenership in the emails and voicemails that we receive, as well as in the comments here at HorrorMoviePodcast.com. Once again, we’ve asked our listeners to participate in our 31 Days of Halloween by contributing written reviews. Today’s review* was submitted by listener Sal Roma, who you can follow on Twitter @JTalley986 and Letterboxd @Sal_Roma.

*THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Title: Castle Freak
Country: USA
Year: 1995
Writers: Dennis Paoli (screenplay), Dennis Paoli and Stuart Gordon (screen story), H.P. Lovecraft (adapted from “The Outsider” and “The Rats in the Walls”)
Director: Stuart Gordon

I don’t think there’s a single filmmaker who is a bigger fan of or influenced by HP Lovecraft more than Stuart Gordon. While Gordon is best known for directing the most famous of the Lovecraft adaptations – 1985’s Re-Animator, his entire film career is littered with other adaptations of various quality and attention. Following the popularity of Re-Animator and his follow-up, From Beyond, Gordon finally got another chance to be at the helm of a Lovecraft adaptation with the Full Moon direct-to-video release of Castle Freak.

Castle Freak was based loosely on Lovecraft’s short stories of The Outsider and The Rats in the Walls. Neither short story supports the majority of the story in Castle Freak, instead just focusing on creature living in the castle and the secrets that a family has kept for generations under their estate. From my recollection of Lovecraft stories, this is pretty standard where someone will take one of his short stories, identify a certain element from it that could garner some interest and then build a new story around it. Indeed, Castle Freak tells the story of a married couple John and Susan, played by Lovecraft adaptation regulars Jeffrey Combs and Barbara Crampton, already in the midst of serious troubles in their marriage due to a semi-recent car accident caused by John’s drinking that killed their young son and blinded their older daughter, Rebecca. At the start of the film, they inherit an old castle belonging to a relative of John, but soon after arriving, something seems off. John begins believing that the castle may contain the spirit of his deceased son while Rebecca is sure that they’re not alone in the old castle.
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31 Days of Halloween — Day 24: Killer Party (1986) – by Dr. Shock

Posted on October 24, 2019 by producer

Title: Killer Party
Country: USA
Year: 1986
Writer: Barney Cohen
Director: William Fruet

The camera glides through a dark, foggy graveyard towards an old church, where a funeral is being held for an elderly woman. Only a few relatives are in attendance, and when the service is over, the deceased’s daughter-in-law stays behind to shout insults at the coffin. As she does so, the coffin’s lid pops open and the dearly departed grabs a hold of her, pulling the now-screaming griever inside. It’s a creepy sequence, but it’s not what it appears to be, because mere seconds after two workers push the shimmering casket into the crematorium, the action shifts to a drive-in theater, where April (Danielle Kiraly) and her boyfriend Stosh (Scott Coppala), are watching these events play out on the big screen.

Yes, we’ve been had… the church, the funeral, everything, is nothing more than a movie-within-a-movie!

A bit agitated by the film, April excuses herself and heads to the concession stand. When she gets there, she finds that she’s all alone. She calls out for an employee, but none respond, so she helps herself to some popcorn and strolls back to the car. Surprisingly, Stosh is now missing as well. But we do see him a moment or two later, transformed into the walking dead!

Not to worry, though, because as we soon discover, Killer Party (1986) isn’t quite done pulling the wool over our eyes.
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