Tuesday, December 29, 2020

WUH: Tunes (2020)


"In Heaven (The Lady in the Radiator Song)"--Lynch/Ivers

"Little Rascal's Theme (Good Old Days)"--Leroy Shield

"Charleston"--Johnson/Mack

"Dueling Banjos"--Weissberg/Mandell

"Tonight is Prom Night"--Zaza/Zittrer

"Fan, Fan, Fanatisch"--Rheingold

"F.A.N."--Rheingold

"Where There's A Whip"--Glenn Yarbrough

"The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins"--C.R. Graen (performed by Leonard Nimoy)

"The Rockford Files Theme"--Mike Post

"Creeque Alley"--The Mamas and The Papas

"Shivers"--Boys Next Door

"Freedom of Choice"--DEVO

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Guest Spot: Crumbs (2015) on The Projection Booth Podcast

Here's my last TPB appearance of 2020 (and the last one till December 2021!). From TPB's site:

Special Guest: Miguel Llanso
Guest Co-Hosts: Mark Begley, Chris Stachiw


We're looking at Miguel Llanso's Crumbs (2015), the story of a post apocalyptic future where items from the past are given special significance as our hero, Candy (played by Daniel Tadesse), goes on a quest, first to see the witch and then to see Santa Claus.

Chris Stachiw and Mark Begley join Mike to talk about Crumbs as well as Llanso's Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway from 2019.

Sunday, November 29, 2020

WUH: What a turkey!


A mish-mash recipe for your Thanksgiving holiday festivities. Two parts Why Didn't I Rent This, one part Cleo, a sprinkle of watch list recs, and a dash of DEVO. Happy(?) Thanksgiving from the WUH Family to yours! 

And enjoy this TV spot for Motel Hell, and the video for DEVO's Freedom of Choice. Did both of these put the whammy on my 11-year-old brain in the Summer of 1980? We may never know the answer, but I'd like to think so.

 

Friday, October 30, 2020

Guest Spot: The Brood (1979) on The Projection Booth Podcast

WUH x TPB + Cronenberg = An Awesome October (Part 2)!

Just four years and two films later Cronenberg would direct what some consider to be his first masterpiece, The Brood (1979). Drawing from his own tumultuous divorce and custody battle Cronenberg chills viewers via the frigid Toronto landscape and disquieting imagery of Frank and Nola Carveth's upended world.

The Brood is the story of the Carveth family and how the sins of the past visit the children of the next generation. Frank (played by Art Hindle) and his wife Nola (played by Samantha Eggar) have separated. She’s under the care of Dr. Hal Raglan (played by Oliver Reed). He’s the head of the Somafree clinic and has mastered the art of psychoplasmics where negative thoughts and feelings are manifested physically. These come in the form of rashes or lesions or, in the case of Nola, a group of odd creatures who go on a murderous rampage when her ire is raised.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

WUH x TPB + Cronenberg = An Awesome October! (Part 1)

I've teamed up with Mike White yet again, this time for a crossover event between WUH and TPB on two films by acclaimed director David Cronenberg. First up is Shivers (1975). 

After directing two experimental films (Stereo and Crimes of the Future) David Cronenberg realized that if making movies would be his vocation he would need to do something "commercial." And at the time commercial, more often than not, meant exploitation. Inspired in part by a nightmare he'd had Cronenberg set about to write a screenplay for the Canuxploitation Pioneers at Cinepix. What emerged was Shivers, which introduced audiences and critics to a new kind of horror film and courted controversy not only for its subject matter but also for its manner of funding. In Shivers Cronenberg's secular world view and body, or venereal, horror is present from the start. 

Shivers stars Paul Hampton as Dr. Roger St. Luc, Lynn Lowry as Nurse Forsythe, Susan Petrie as Janine Tudor, Allan Kolman as Nick Tudor, and Barbara Steele as Betts, all residents of the luxury apartment complex Starliner Tower. The film also features the inimitable Joe Silver as Rollo Linsky. Dr. Emil Hobbes’ experiment with "helpful" parasites has gone awry and now the tenants of the Starliner are under attack by the polyamorous creatures. Can the residents of the Starliner stop the infection from spreading to nearby Montreal and beyond? Or do they even want to?

This episode also features an interview with Luke Aspell, author of the Shivers monograph from Auteur Publishing. Purchase your copy here

Music: "Shivers"-Boys Next Door


Tuesday, October 13, 2020

WUH: Cronenberg Clinic


No, I'm not giving a clinic on Cronenberg (I wouldn't presume to be an expert all of a sudden) although, since March of this year I think I've taken one myself! This is more of a primer for the upcoming Cronenberg Crossover event with The Projection Booth Podcast. Having read, watched, and absorbed so much Cronenberg over the last seven months it only seems natural that all the connections in his work would settle in and demand exploring. Plus, the title is a nice little pun since so many of his early films feature a Clinic of one sort or another. And I like puns! AND I get to use this awesome player image again! Win, win.

Friday, October 2, 2020

Guest Spot: The Antenna on The Projection Booth Podcast


Look Ma, I made it! Here it is, my first appearance on The Projection Booth podcast. Here's the description from their site:

"On this special episode of The Projection Booth we're looking at the 2019 film from director Orçun Behram, The Antenna. The film stars Ihsan Önal as Mehmet, an overseer of an apartment building in Turkey. We begin the film on the day when a new satellite dish is being installed that is part of a new era for the country where the government can now broadcast directly to its citizens’ televisions. Let’s just say that this isn’t the utopia that was promised.

David Rodgers and Mark Begley join Mike to discuss the the film which will play in select theaters starting October 2, 2020 and on VOD starting October 20, 2020."

Monday, August 10, 2020

WDIRT V4E2: The Sender (1982)

The Sender (1982) is a horror film directed by Roger Christian and starring Zeljko Ivanek as The Sender, Kathryn Harrold as Dr. Gail Farmer, and Shirley Knight as Jerolyn. Two years before Freddy terrorized the kids on Elm Street, John Doe 83 would project the power of his dreams onto the patients and staff of a mental hospital in the town of Corinth.

John Doe 83 aka The Sender tries to commit suicide by walking into a lake with rocks in his pockets. He ends up in a mental hospital where Dr. Gail Farmer instantly sympathizes with him. John Doe’s mother, Jerolyn, has convinced her son that his was a virgin birth and keeps him locked up at home in fear he will leave her. The Sender can telepathically transmit his dreams into others, which causes the receiver to hallucinate.

Most of the WDIRT episodes have been about movies I passed on in the VHS days, or like last time with Visiting Hours, didn’t remember seeing. In this case, though, I thought I had seen it, but nothing hit my memory banks when I finally got to watch it. 

Sunday, May 17, 2020

WUH: Notes from Home


It's strange, strange times right now, and it's affecting everyone in myriad ways. For me, it's made it a little more difficult to record regular episodes, so I'm fashioning these shorter hodge-podge shows to keep in touch and say howdy. There will generally be some movie recs, maybe a chat with my daughter about things we've watched, and even some feelings about sheltering-in-place. All episodes will be posted here.







Monday, April 20, 2020

S4E2. JOIN US: The Evil Dead (1981)


In 1983* Sam Raimi and Co. took the horror world by the neck and shook it until it begged for mercy. The Evil Dead caught the attention of Stephen King at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival and his pull-quote, "The most ferociously original horror film of 1982," placed it on every genre fan's must-watch list. Coverage from Fangoria, along with great notice from a string of festival appearances, helped solidify its notoriety.

Made on a shoe-string budget in the woods of Tennessee by a bunch of friends from Michigan, the movie was an exercise not only in scares and gore, but in moxie and gumption. Before the film was even begun the trio of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert formed Renaissance Pictures and took the business side of low-budget films seriously. They produced an instant classic that has withstood the test of time and spawned a franchise that has lasted 35 years.

Ash, his sister Cheryl, his girlfriend Linda, and they're friends Scott and Shelly take a little vacation to a dilapidated backwoods cabin and accidentally summon demonic forces. By the end of the night only Ash survives. Or does he? The Evil Dead may be short on story but it's long on dread, gore, and inventive film-making. Whether you're a die-hard fan of the original, like me, or a lover of the "better in every way" requel, like my guest, or even if you prefer Army of Darkness for some reason, you'll find something to like in this episode. Heck, I even like the 2010 reboot!

For this episode I am once again joined by Mike White from The Projection Booth Podcast. As mentioned in the episode you can also listen to Mike, along with Chris Stachiw, jaw on about Barney Miller and '85 Twilight Zone. And here's a video about the "Bollywood Evil Dead" Mike mentioned in the episode. Enjoy!




*The date of The Evil Dead is a bit confusing. The copyright date, which is what I'm using, is 1981. The film wasn't officially released until 1983. It played Cannes, and other festivals, during 1982.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

S4E1. I am not Simone Choule: The Tenant (1976)


The Tenant was directed by Roman Polanski, who also stars as Trelkovsky a mild-mannered file clerk looking for a new apartment in Paris during a housing shortage. He finds a not-quite-vacant room in an American-owned building, but the last tenant, Simon Choule, is clinging to life after throwing herself out of the apartment's window. When the apartment becomes available Trelkovsky moves in and his life becomes a nightmare of paranoia and delusion.

Much like Polanski himself, and Roland Topor who wrote the source novel, Trelkovsky is a Polish-Jew who has immigrated to Paris. His "otherness" becomes a source of derision for his neighbors, the apartment's management, the police, his coworkers, and even the denizens of a local cafe. Trelkovsky becomes convinced that everyone is trying to change him into Simone Choule and make him suffer the same fate. He finds solace with Mlle. Choule's friend Stella, played by Isabelle Adjani, but comes to believe she is in on the conspiracy as well. Are they trying to change him into Simone, or is it all in his head?

The Tenant has been lumped together with Polanski's other films, Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby, to form the so-called Apartment Trilogy. All three deal with isolated and insulated characters whose sanity cracks until they can no longer tell what is real and what is only in their imaginations.

For this episode I am joined by film journalist Anya Stanley. Ms. Stanley's work has been seen in Birth Movies Death, Rue Morgue, Dread Central, and several other film publications. She's currently a columnist for Fangoria, exploring horror from a gendered perspective with her column Rated XX/XY. You can find her on Twitter as @BookishPlinko. And here is her great piece Who Gives a Shit if the Oscars Don't Respect Horror?

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

WUH: London Semester (1990)


It's the 30th anniversary of my semester in London and I've recently been thinking a lot about my time there. For a budding cinephile the repertory cinemas were a revelation to me and I formed many of my fondest movie going memories during my stay.

In this episode I run through the films I saw, and some I didn't, at those marvelous movie houses: the Scala, Electric, Phoenix, Riverside, and Everyman cinemas.

As I recorded the episode I noticed a few running themes based on my viewing history: American Indie films of the late '80s, New American Cinema classics from Scorsese and Coppola, and a slew of Wim Wenders, Russ Meyer, Jack Nicholson, and David Lynch flicks.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

WUH: Twenty nineteen



A brief look back at Wake Up Heavy's first full calendar year on the ol' podcast trail. A hazy look forward, plus some of my favorite "first time watches" from the year.

I mentioned Peter Ivers in the episode, and instead of making you chase down the articles I read, here they are:
And here are the different lists of films I watched during 2019: