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.

Where to watch • IMDb listing • Wikipedia page

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

Where to watch • IMDb listing • Wikipedia page

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.

Where to watch • IMDb listing • Wikipedia page

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."