Horror Explorers

From the writer and director team behind pretty decent Hammer flick Wake Wood comes... well, not that good a follow up. Too many ideas, not enough film, essentially. Continuing the "pastoral" schtick from Ben Wheatley's ouvre but sans Wheatley cuz I need a break from that guy.

The triumphant (???) return of Horror Explorers continues the Ben Wheatley exploration with "Romantic Murder Comedy" Sightseers. Unsurprisingly, I'm both entertained and annoyed. Seems like Wheatle's M.O. with me...

Body takes place on Christmas Eve. It doesn't seem particularly holiday-related but whatever. Your reliably grumpy and seemingly impossible to please host is unsurprisingly frustrated by this indie thriller that owes much of its plot to Very Bad Things. I only wish it was half as funny. Or well written. One of these days I'll have another unqualified recommendation, I promise! (uncertain shifty eyes)

The Ben Wheatley investigation continues. I thought I would like this one more than Kill List because of the pastoral/period horror nature of the story. Nope. Greatly mixed feelings lead to a bit of a longish, rambling episode.

Huh? What? But why? And more burning questions about wtf I just watched. (By "just watched" of course I mean "watched two weeks ago and didn't upload the episode until now because I'm a jackass")

After much resistance to hop aboard a bandwagon, I gave nu-horror wunderkind director Ben Wheatley a shot and was pleasantly surprised! Not a bad first (as far as I know) effort! A little uneven but impressive. I look forward to diving into his other work for the podcast!

A groovy 1970s pastoral cult horror flick that doesn't *quite* work due to some interesting backstory on the development of the movie. Available (strangely) on Youtube.

Hey, it's Ser Davos Seaworth! In a Celtic police station horror flick! This one is a really interesting small-budget philosophy/theology thinker. Solid stuff! (Not without its share of ultraviolence, of course...)

For our (unexpected) 50th episode (is anyone still listening to this podcast?) I give you the Turkish occult cop horror movie Baskin. More interesting than good. I talk a bit about my fascination with religious supernatural horror.

The long-awaited (?) return of Horror Explorers sees us watching a found footage flick about a team of paranormal investigators. It's... well, it sure is a movie. Not terrible, not great, just sorta *there*.

An interesting horror comedy premise reminiscent of Last Action Hero with a pretty great cast. Unfortunately could've used a few rewrites. Available on VOD/DVD.

Watching the Netflix series Darknet got me in the mood for an anthology flick so I went with this recent Direct-to-Streaming movie. Were there great segments? Bad segments? Well, it's an anthology, soooo.... Anywho, find it on your various On Demand streaming services.

In a first for the podcast, I watched a documentary. It came recommended from a horror website (can't remember which) so I thought I'd give it a shot. FASCINATING premise but ultimately fairly infuriating film. It appears that the things I enjoy in fiction make me angry IRL (ie: people who genuinely believe in demon possession)

Wow, do I ever RAMBLE in this one! It's a longer episode because of all the rambling. But the movie is pretty great. Lots of ground covered, including my own writing, Neil Jordan's style, and why in the hell is Gemma Arterton not a bigger star cuz hotchie motchie!

I couldn't remember if I'd seen this one or not. Having now watched it, I still couldn't tell you if I'd seen it before. A decent premise for a movie that was much better when it was Twelve Monkeys. But hey, it's got Kiera Knightley and Daniel Craig doing HORRIBLE American accents! And Kris Kristofferson! And Jennifer Jason Leigh! Um... and you get to see Kiera's breasts briefly? I dunno, man...

An admirable faux-doc adventure/horror film that *just* doesn't quite work. I like it, but it has issues. If you're feeling adventurous and/or you like faux-doc style, give it a shot. It deserves attention.

On Easter Sunday, I present to you a movie about resurrection! Also thematically relevant: I suffered for you. Cuz this movie? HOT. GARBAGE. I prefer it when you guys watch the movie before the podcast, but... yeez, I dunno. Maybe don't.

A ghost story/grief drama/romance written and directed by Neil Marshall's wife that makes an admirably attractive effort but falls woefully short due to some truly disappointing bad writing. I get surprisingly worked up in this episode, particularly about properly structuring your tension/raising stakes.

Movie currently in theaters and boy howdy is it a good one! More like The Babadook or We Are What We Are in that it is a very compelling family drama with horror undertones/touches. HIGHLY recommend! I spoil the shit out of it, so be warned as always.