Movie Oubliette

Duncan Skiles, director of The Clovehitch Killer, returns for our special festive episode, in which we review a yuletide tale of a plucky kid who uses booby traps to repel a home invasion. No – not that one! It's the French horror/thriller Deadly Games (1989) – also known as 3615 code Père Noël and about a dozen other titles. It was released a year before Home Alone and is a lot darker. As in 'irreparable child trauma' darker. But bizarrely, it also features a cute grandpa and a gauzy montage set to an original Bonnie Tyler Christmas song. But is it a delightful, previously unwrapped Christmas gift or is it a bag of coal? Find out! And have yourself a happy, happy holiday season and a fantastic New Year! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

What if the classic fairy tale were laced with complex psycho-sexual drama between the king, the stepmother and the child cosplaying as her dead mum? What if the dwarves were mostly full-sized, scarred outlaws fleeing religious persecution?   What if it starred Sigourney Weaver and Sam Neill and was full of 90s gothic intensity? We're about to find out as we explore 1997's Snow White: A Tale of Terror – an attempt to cash in on the success of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) that got eviscerated in post-production and dumped on cable TV. Is it a dark, glistening gem that should be rescued from the oubliette or an unsalvageable train wreck? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

In a special Patrons' Choice episode, we take a look back at Starman (1984), John Carpenter's romantic sci-fi fable starring Jeff Bridges in an Oscar-nominated role as a visiting alien and Karen Allen as the widow whose husband he impersonates. Kicking off with a disturbing alien birth sequence that showcases the combined talents of Rick Baker, Stan Winston and Dick Smith (yes, you read that right), Starman shifts gears into a road movie with a fish-out-of-water comedy and an odd couple romance thrown into the mix. But does it hold up 37 years later? Does it point towards a more nuanced career for the 'Master of Horror' that was not to be? Or does it collapse under its disturbing abduction romance tropes and reliance on post-ET sentimentality? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Dan and Conrad are swept away by the 1993 science fiction mystery Fire in the Sky, which is based on Arizonan logger Travis Walton's personal account of an alien abduction experience in 1975. Starring D. B. Sweeney (Memphis Belle), Robert Patrick (the T-1000 in T2), Craig Sheffer (Nightbreed), Peter Berg (Wes Craven's Shocker), Henry Thomas (Elliott from E.T. no less!) and veteran James Garner, and featuring jaw-dropping special effects from Industrial Light and Magic from the same year they were working on Jurassic Park, this film failed to reached its audience... or more accurately, it's audience failed to reach it because of a freak snowstorm across the US on its opening weekend. But is it a hidden gem with a serious exploration of the abduction phenomenon, or is it an uneven mix of drama and heavy hitting fantasy effects? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Happy Halloween! Emmy-nominated actor Michelle Ang (The Tribe, Outrageous Fortune) joins us as we celebrate the spooky season with a look back at The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), a found footage possession thriller directed by Adam Robitel (Escape Room). In it, our guest plays a student, Mia, who gets more than she bargained for when she tries to make a documentary focusing on Deborah Logan (Jill Larson), a sufferer of Alzheimers. As Deborah's behaviour becomes more disturbing and strange events plague the house, Mia joins forces with the patient's daughter, Sarah (Anne Ramsay), to uncover the town's dark secret, and a shadowy force that may be trying to complete its terrifying reign of terror from beyond the grave! But is this an undiscovered thrilling gem or forgettable found footage fodder? Find out! Follow our special guest, Michelle Ang, on Twitter and Instagram. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Meagan Navarro – Head Critic and Chief Content Creator for Bloody Disgusting – returns with a special treat for us to explore: the 1986 haunted house monster zombie horror film Spookies. With three directors, two separate casts, a reshoot that accounts for more footage than the original film and a plot that defies explanation, it's fair to say the story behind the movie is more compelling than the story in the movie. But is there a hidden gem in here or just a cautionary tale? Find out! Follow Meagan on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Director Bernard Rose joins us for a look back at his first theatrical feature film, the dark fantasy Paperhouse (1988). It features Charlotte Burke as a British schoolgirl who, while bedridden with glandular fever (or 'mono' for those across the pond), finds herself experiencing recurring dreams in which she visits an isolated house she drew herself. She soon discovers that she can add additional things to the drawing and they appear in the house, but sometimes they don't come out as benign as she intended... An atmospheric, stark film that dissolves the boundaries between dream and reality, Paperhouse bears all the hallmarks of the director who would bring us Candyman (1992) a few years later. But is it a dream to treasure or a nightmare best forgotten? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Conrad and Dan are doing battle with dragons again, but this time it's in London during the fateful futuristic year 2020. Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale and Gerard Butler – possibly the manliest of manly line-ups cinema could produce in 2002 – are joined by ace helicopter pilot Izabella Scorupco in Reign of Fire. It's a post-dragon apocalypse and mankind is reduced to living in castles, riding horseback, wearing sackcloth and mounting community theatre productions of The Empire Strikes Back to entertain frightened children. Can brash, tank-riding American Denton Van Zan and cautious, world-weary Brit Quinn learn to cooperate to defeat the horde of winged serpents that rains fire down from the sky? Will everything be alright, alright, alright? Or will this be the smouldering husk of a noughties CGI-fest? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars is celebrating its 20th anniversary today, and we're lucky enough to be joined by its producer, Sandy King-Carpenter of Storm King Productions, for a look back at the master of horror's sci-fi horror action extravaganza. It's got a kick-ass cast of Natasha Henstridge, Pam Grier, Clea DuVall and Joanna Cassidy, plus Ice Cube and a very young and strangely hairy Jason Statham! But is this tale of a mysterious fog assimilating humans and mounting an assault on a precinct a fun Carpenter mash-up, or is it best left buried on the red planet? Find out!   Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins us to explore... New Zealand! Yes, Dan's homeland – but it's a bizarre alternate universe version of NZ, and not just because it's 1985. Zac Hobson wakes up naked in a motel bed to discover he may be the last man on Earth. He gets to engage in a few fantasies: driving a train, moving into a mansion, running rampant through a church wearing a nightie and brandishing a shotgun... until he meets Joanne and Api. The three quickly discover the commonality between them that could unlock the mystery of the quiet Earth, but is Zac secretly responsible for what happened? And is it going to happen again and erase them all? We wander this largely forgotten land to decide if this little-seen sci-fi gem from down under should be out and proud in its nightie! Subscribe to Serge's YouTube channel and follow him on Twitter and Instagram Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Space botanist Bruce Dern murders his crewmates and hijacks his spaceship on a joyride through Saturns rings after he finds out his gardens are scheduled for destruction in Silent Running (1972), an eco-sci-fi film directed by special effects mastermind Douglas Trumbull. But will Dan and Conrad slip into a comfortable bathrobe and enjoy digging into this 70s cult classic, or will Joan Baez's vibrato drive them into a Dern-style, wide-eyed mania? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Melinda Mock and Aaron Harper of Dreamland, the RetroBlasting podcast, join us for the second half of our Iconicon crossover event! We're exploring one of the lesser-known underwater sci-fi epics released in 1989: Leviathan. It's directed by George P. Cosmatos (Rambo II), stars Peter Weller (RoboCop) and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), has special effects by Stan Winston (Aliens) and a score by Jerry Goldsmith (Alien). With that pedigree, what could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, it turns out. Easily one of the most hilarious episodes we've ever recorded – check it out! Follow Dreamland's exploits at http://www.retroblasting.com/dreamland Find out more about Iconicon at https://www.iconicononline.com Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

It's killer virus time again! Isaac Sutton, writer and film blogger, joins us as we explore The Andromeda Strain (1971) – Robert Wise's adaptation of Michael Crichton's first best-selling techno thriller novel. It has all the ingredients of a great night out: a deadly epidemic from space; crotchety scientists in an underground lab; screen after screen of diagrams and data; and shocking amounts of monkey torture. But is it a forgotten yet timely sci-fi nailbiter or a tedious PowerPoint presentation? Find out! Check out Issac's work at www.isaaclastname.com and follow his non-pregnancy porn YouTube channel. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Lars Henriks, filmmaker and host of the Mysterium Pictorum podcast, joins us to explore the first and possibly only horror film made in Russia during the Soviet era: Viy (1967). It's a retelling of Nikolai Gogal's classic but probably fake folktale, which also inspired Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960) and a recent Russian-Chinese CGI-fest that has a sequel starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jackie Chan. No, we're not making that up – Google it! It tells the tale of a feckless seminary student who is called to hold a vigil over the body of a young girl for three nights, during with increasingly terrifying, coffin-surfing things occur to test his faith. Is it a relatively undiscovered jewel of spooky Soviet cinema or an unfathomable unorthodox oddity? Find out! Find out more about Lars Henriks at www.larshenriks.de Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Neil Jordan's second and often overlooked venture into vampire lore, Byzantium (2012), features Saoirse Ronan and Gemma Arterton as daughter and mum succreants who have been on the run from centuries. They settle on a dilapidated coastal town and quickly join in with local hobbies to blend in: daughter Ellie begins a romance with a waiter (Caleb Landry Jones) and takes up creative writing; mum Clara opens a brothel. But will they elude The Pointed Nail of Justice? Will Caleb settle on a regional accent? And does the film deserve to be immortalised? Find out!   Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

RetroBlasting co-founder and Dreamland podcast co-host Melinda Mock guides us through the red-tinged comet zombie apocalypse of Night of the Comet – a 1984 cult sci-fi comedy horror written and directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring former guests Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney, with Robert Beltran, Mary Woronov and Geoffrey Lewis. But did these valley girls inspire many of the resourceful, capable action heroines (in cheerleading outfits) that followed, or is this a Mach-10 misfire? Find out! Follow RetroBlasting on Youtube and listen in to the Dreamland podcast now! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Dan and Conrad hit the crime-ridden streets of 80s New York, only to be menaced by a Maniac Cop – an action/slasher hybrid starring Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree and Robert Z'Dar. With a screenplay by Larry Cohen, one might expect William Lustig's film to have a little more bubbling under the surface of this low-budget quickie about a zombie Dirty Harry menacing the streets at night. Certainly, the themes of police brutality and homicide without consequences feel disturbingly timely, but is the film itself an under-appreciated classic or a forgettable VHS video rental? Find out! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Jonathan McIntosh, creator of the Pop Culture Detective Agency, joins us to explore Barry Levinson's 1992 fantasy/comedy Toys, which features Robin Williams as the childlike son of an eccentric toymaker, Joan Cusack as his manic pixie sister, Robin Wright as his manic pixie love interest, Michael Gambon as his militaristic uncle and LL Cool J as his camouflage-obsessed cousin. This modern fable about the incursion of the military industrial complex into the sacred innocence of childhood imagination has wildly surrealistic visuals and an inventive soundtrack from legendary composer Hans Zimmer and legendary pop producer Trevor Horn, but does it bear up to scrutiny almost 30 years later? Find out! You can check out Jonathan McIntosh's YouTube channel for mind-blowingly insightful video essays and support his work via Patreon. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Brian Sheehan of TV Trivia Pod joins us for a dinner party in which four couples have to contend with a comet flyby, the fracturing of reality into multiple dimensions and... just a whisper of ketamine. It's James Ward Byrkit's surreal sci-fi thriller Coherence (2013), starring Emily Baldoni, Nicolas Brendon and Nicolas Brendon's twin brother, Kelly Donovan. But is it a pioneering, low budget/high concept classic or is it a befuddling mirror universe? Find out! Check out, follow and support Brian's TV Trivia Pod via his Link Tree. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

RetroBlasting's Michael French joins us as we venture into Outland (1981), Peter Hyams' sci-fi thriller loosely based on High Noon and starring none other than the late Sean Connery and the great Frances Sternhagen. It's a tense tale of one man's fight against a corrupt system, laced with explosive decompression and enough blue-collar snark to fill a saloon. But is it a previously unmined gem or should it be blown out of an airlock into the frozen wastes of Io? Find out! Follow RetroBlasting on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and everywhere else because they're awesome! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content