Episodes
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Sordid Cinema Podcast #570: Ready or Not Seeks Horror/Comedy Fun
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Monday Feb 15, 2021
Ready or Not Review
After catching the world premiere of Ready or Not at the 2019 Fantasia Film Festival, co-host Ricky D wondered if the film’s thrills would hold up away from the adoring crowd. Thus, this week the Sordid Cinema Podcast counts down from 100 and fans out in all directions down the labyrinthine hallways to find both the overt and hidden fun in the wonderful premise of a bride participating in a deadly wedding-day tradition. Sure, there could have been a more clever script, and maybe the lore could have used a bit more (or less) fleshing out, but there’s no denying Samara Weaving’s great performance, or some biting scenes involving a nail and the mystery of a possible curse.
Patrick Murphy and Simon Howell join Rick to talk about the entertainment one can get from questioning screenplay choices, debate over which characters could have been expanded or further hidden, and revel in the blood-soaked finale. Along the way they make numerous comparisons to similar films (The Hunt may come up once or twice), enjoy the ambiguity of the supernatural, and wonder just why this incredibly wealthy family owns goats. For all that and more, have a listen!
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Monday Feb 08, 2021
Sordid Cinema Podcast #569: Joe Begos’ Psychotropic Nightmare 'Bliss'
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Monday Feb 08, 2021
Are you losing your mind in quarantine? Need to freak out, break shit, maybe attack a stranger? Now you don’t have to, because Joe Begos’ hallucinatory, wild, and loud Bliss is here to do the job for you. (To be clear: this is the 2019 horror movie Bliss, not the new sci-fi film starring Owen Wilson, which we’re sure is fine.) This week, the lads take a deep dive into Begos’ film, discuss the merits of practical effects, the enduring appeal of DIY genre filmmaking, and how one key prop can make all the difference.
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sordid Cinema Podcast #567: The Hunt is Killer Thriller Entertainment
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
After much controversy surrounding its premise and the timing of its original release, Craig Zobel’s The Hunt finally dropped into theaters before suffering an unceremonious death due to pandemic closures. But did this tongue-in-cheek story of rednecks being hunted by elitists deserve better? Was misleading marketing a factor in its ultimate demise? This week, Rick and Patrick are joined by returning Sordid Cinema Podcast host Simon Howell to give this entertaining genre film its due. Sure, the satire might be toothless, but it’s hard not to appreciate all the humor and bloody kills that The Hunt does so well.
From gleefully dispatching expected protagonists to a knockdown brawl in a rustic manor, there is a lot to love here. Perhaps more than anything else, however, fans of this type of film will want to savor a fantastically restrained, physical performance by Betty Gilpin (GLOW) as a reticent former soldier who finds being tracked down by self-righteous psychos as a form of stress relief from her daily life as a car rental agent. Streamlined and more mainstream than many of the ads and rhetoric would have suggested, The Hunt should be on the radar for anyone looking for a fun movie night where a guy gets stabbed by a stiletto heel, a woman is doubly impaled by a spiked pit, and a pig names Orwell runs rampant (at least for a while). For a discussion on all this and more, have a listen!
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
On this episode of the Sordid Cinema Podcast (which was recorded back in 2012), Julian Carrington, Simon Howell, and Ricky D reviewed Compliance, a thriller written and directed by Craig Zobel, and based upon a strip search phone call scam that took place in Mount Washington, Kentucky, in which the caller, posing as a police officer, convinced a restaurant manager to carry out unlawful and intrusive procedures on an employee.
Thursday Jan 21, 2021
Sordid Cinema Podcast Rewind: David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and The Fly
Thursday Jan 21, 2021
Thursday Jan 21, 2021
David Cronenberg Special
On episode 252 of the Sordid Cinema podcast (then named Sound on Sight), we invited Sean Dwyer and Jay Cheel from the Film Junk Podcast to discuss David Cronenberg’s visually audacious, revolutionary, and utterly strange sci-fi thriller, Videodrome— as well as The Fly, possibly his most triumphant and accessible film to date. Enjoy!
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Sordid Cinema Podcast Rewind: Cronenberg’s Antiviral
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
Tuesday Jan 19, 2021
In our sixth Cronenberg-themed show (recorded in 2012), we expanded our scope to include David Cronenberg’s very own spawn, Brandon, whose debut feature Antiviral had just gone wide in Canada. Ricky, Edgar, and Simon tackled the flick, to see how it stacks up against one of daddy’s earlier efforts, 1981’a sci-fi actioner Scanners.
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Sordid Cinema Podcast #566:Scanners: So Good, It Will Blow Your Mind
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Scanners Podcast Review
This week the Sordid Cinema Podcast takes a deeper look at the 1981 cult classic Scanners to see if there’s still more in this tale of telepathic intrigue than a nifty exploding head GIF. Goomba Stomp writer/editor Mike Worby joins Rick and Patrick on their dive into director David Cronenberg’s first commercial hit, discussing where the film stands in his pantheon, debating the effect a rushed production schedule had on the script, and wondering just why the film’s lead actor comes across as a robot. Along the way here are comparisons to Hitchcock and the X-Men, praise for the incredible practical effects, a chuckle over a phone booth that gets blown up but good, and some questions about that twist ending.
Does Scanners still stand the test of time? What sort of tweaks could be made if this film was ever reimagined? And just how many times will that exploding head actually be mentioned? For all this and more, have a listen!
Editor’s Note: We’ve included our original review of Scanners from 2012 at the one hour and fifteen-minute mark of the episode.
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Sordid Cinema Podcast #564: Black Christmas Continues to Give Horror Thrills
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Tuesday Dec 22, 2020
Though director Bob Clark may be most remembered for helming the brilliantly sentimental holiday favorite A Christmas Story, his 1974 slasher classic Black Christmas is just as unforgettable, though for very different reasons. The story of a psychopathic murderer who terrorizes the residents of a sorority house just as everyone is about to leave for Christmas break might come to seem like merely a seedy premise for some cheap thrills, but excellent craftsmanship and standout performances result in one of the most unnerving home invasion films ever made. Where’s a Red Rider carbine action BB gun when you need one?
This week Rick and Patrick are joined by filmmaker Keir Siewert to break down exactly what makes this precursor to the slasher genre explosion so effective. Along the way we touch on the film’s creepy use of POV, discuss how the characters enhance the tension and go into how the film inspired John Carpenter to make his own seminal classic, Halloween. But how does that ending hold up? Is Olivia Hussey’s Jess a true ‘final girl’? Could changing one line of dialogue have made an already superb experience even better? For all this and more, have a listen!
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Sordid Cinema Podcast #561: The People Under The Stairs Still Hides Horror Fun
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
The People Under The Stairs Podcast Review
After our discussion of Scream 2, we couldn’t help returning to director Wes Craven’s library. This week the Sordid Cinema Podcast is taking a look at one of the odder entries in the horror master’s oeuvre, 1991’s The People Under the Stairs. A mashup of different genres that spans everything from genuine chills to slapstick comedy, this heist/home invasion film might inspire some conflicted thoughts, but there’s still plenty of entertainment to be had, as well as craft to be admired.
Joining Rick and Patrick is returning guest Sean Colletti, co-host of Goomba Stomp’s very own TV podcast The Mid-Season Replacements. We plunge into the intriguing premise, the fantastic performances, and all the tonal shifts that make this movie such an interesting watch. Along the way there are debates over the suitability and state of horror for children, plenty of mentions of a certain black leather outfit, and where this fits into Craven’s pantheon. For all this and more, have a listen!
Wednesday Nov 04, 2020
Sordid Cinema Podcast #559: Is Scream 2 The Best In The Series?
Wednesday Nov 04, 2020
Wednesday Nov 04, 2020
Scream 2 Podcast Review
‘Sequels suck! By definition alone, sequels are inferior films!’
So, says Scream’s resident movie geek Randy Meeks, but is he right?
Since the original Scream was so groundbreaking with its pop-culture references and discussions of horror movie formulas, director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson seemed bound to fail when they released Scream 2 just a year later, in 1997. But to the surprise of movie audiences everywhere, Scream 2 features more suspense, more scares, more false alarms, and more red herrings than one can count. And while the sequel may have lacked the original’s element of surprise, one could easily make a strong argument that Scream 2 is as scary and smart as the original, if not more.
And that’s just what we try to do this week…
In this episode of the Sordid Cinema podcast, Tilt Magazine’s Caitlin Marceau joins Ricky D and Patrick Murphy to discuss why Scream 2 is a better movie than its predecessor and how it at times, expertly ratchets up the suspense to unbearable levels. All this and more!