Movie Oubliette

Joe Lipsett and Trace Thurman of Horror Queers dig up The Relic (1997) and drag us on a wild museum tour with two of the most unlikeable characters in monster movie history: Penelope Ann Miller, who's so entitled she shrieks about job losses in the middle of the office when someone has the gall to apply for a research grant, and Tom Sizemore as the superstitious cop wearing a raincoat big enough for two. It has Stan Winton creature effects, early CGI, decapitations galore and Linda Hunt in full Edna Mode mode. But should it be restored and put back on display, or shoved back into the archives and never mentioned again? Check out Joe and Trace's writings on Bloody Disgusting, follow them on Twitter, join their lively Facebook Group and listen to their podcast. Because they're awesome. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Support us on Patreon to nominate future films and access exclusive bonus content

Jacob Gentry, director of The Signal and Synchronicity, returns with another 70s conspiracy thriller for us to explore: the little-seen, star-studded enigma Winter Kills (1979). It stars Jeff Bridges as the pampered younger brother of an assassinated president, sent on a wild goose chase by his domineering father (John Huston) to discover the identity of the killers. Along the way, he's helped and/or hindered by the likes of Anthony Perkins, Toshiro Mifune and Sterling Hayden. And Elizabeth Taylor has a non-speaking cameo in a flashback. Go figure. The film was funded by weed sales and might make more sense whilst utterly baked, but does it deserve to be let out of our oubliette?

Duncan Skiles, director of 'The Clovehitch Killer', returns to discuss a popular source of childhood nostalgia: Disney's Flight of the Navigator (1986). It focuses on David Freeman, who falls into a ravine in 1978 and wakes up 8 years later to discover he hasn't aged, while his parents look like they've been in quarantine the whole time and his bratty little brother is now a 16-year-old hottie who says 'rad' a lot. Everything makes more sense when he's reunited with a UFO shaped like a Guylian chocolate driven by a robot who sounds suspiciously like Pee-Wee Herman and goes on the run from a strangely authoritarian NASA. This has everything you want in a kid's sci-fi movie: pioneering CGI effects, a giant eyeball that screeches like Yoko Ono and Sarah Jessica Parker hitting on a 12-year-old because he's, you know, technically 20. But does it live up to the fond memories or should it be forgotten forever? Find out by listening! COMPLIANCE!

To celebrate our 50th episode, Conrad and Dan explore a film that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year: Dario Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage. The Giallo maestro's first outing often gets overlooked in favour of his more supernatural and outlandish masterpieces, but there's a lot of fun to be had here. Highlights include a black-gloved serial killer, a painter who eats cats and the most unprofessional police inspector in movie history. As the latter would say, "Bring in the perverts!"

For a bit of escapism, Dan and Conrad watch a far-fetched science fiction film in which the UK falls victim to a deadly virus... oh dear. In Doomsday (2008), director Neil Marshall (The Descent) prepares us for what lies ahead: basically, a combination of 28 Days Later, Mad Max and Duran Duran's Wild Boys music video. With a dash of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But should it be given herd immunity and allowed to roam free or should we all socially distance ourselves from it?

Dan and Conrad join Bill Pullman on a khaki-clad tour of Haiti in search of a powder that turns people into zombies, in Wes Craven's often overlooked dark fantasy thriller The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988). It has everything you want in a travelog: candlelit processions to a cathedral of waterfalls, exploring a vibrant culture torn by revolution, and getting your scrotum nailed to a chair. Is it an under-appreciated serious work from a director keen to grow beyond his type-casting as a master of horror, or is it a crusty cadaver that should have stayed buried?

Conrad and Dan discover the first ever Marvel movie in the oubliette, and cannot believe their eyes as the screen is filled with naked feathered breasts, would-be rapists, a sex sauna and Lea Thompson seducing a wildfowl. Yes, it's Howard the Duck (1986) – George Lucas's next project after the Star Wars saga, and it's like an 80s cocaine-fuelled fever dream. But is it actually all that bad? Should it be MCU canon? Join us as we find out.

In anticipation of Leigh Whannell's forthcoming horror film The Invisible Man, we take a look back at Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man, which unbelievably celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! Kevin Bacon stars as the arrogant genius Sebastian Caine, who invents an invisibility serum and volunteers to be the first human test subject... only for it to drive him into a naked murder spree. How does the film stand up 20 years on and in a post-Weinstein era? Does it deserve to escape the oubliette?

Something Ghoulish's Anthony Derington takes us on a tour of our first ever non-English-language horror film: the original version of Shutter (2004) from Thailand! In it, a young couple is terrorised by the spectre of a creepy girl in white with wet black hair – so it may seem like familiar territory for Asian horror fans. But it has quite a sting in the tale... Is it a genre-defining classic or a soggy afterthought?

Sodajerker host Simon Barber takes us on a tour of his favourite House (1986), but it turns out it has a bad case of haunting, alternate dimensions in all the closets and cabinets, and Norm from Cheers lives next door. Norm! Is Steve Miner's first directing venture outside the Friday the 13th franchise ripe for renovation or ready to be condemned? Put on your deep, man cleavage-revealing v-neck sweater, grab a speargun and join us to find out!

Now that Episode IX is out of the way, you probably think you've seen all of the Star Wars movies. Think again! Matt Conley, Community Director at hitRECord, takes us on a journey to a galaxy far, far away to experience an Ewok spin-off TV movie from 1985 that features everything you expect from the iconic franchise: a shapeshifting witch, a 6-year-old watching her family being murdered, and Wilford Brimley in prescription glasses. Is 'Ewoks: The Battle for Endor' a starry war or a minor shootout best left to obscurity?

Kelli Maroney, star of Chopping Mall and Night of the Comet, joins us for a festive retrospective review of the first horror movie she saw in a theater: Black Christmas! The original 1974 slasher thriller has everything you want in seasonal cinema: screaming prank phone calls, unicorn stabbings and plastic bag suffocations! But does it deserve to be rescued from relative obscurity?

Jonathan King, director of Black Sheep (see episode 11), joins us to explore The Dead Zone (1983) – a Stephen King adaptation directed by David Cronenberg that's often treated as a footnote in both of the horror maestros' careers. Christopher Walken stars as a disturbingly morbid English teacher who becomes even more disturbing after he emerges from a 5-year coma with psychic powers. Does this episodic paranormal drama deserve to escape The Dead Zone or should it be sent back into a coma?

Conrad and Dan go back to 90s high-school in this listener's choice episode, revisiting Robert Rodriguez's alien invasion thriller The Faculty (1998). It has an eclectic cast, including Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Salma Hayek, Usher and Jon Stewart, and is probably the first teen movie to suggest that drugs are the answer to an alien invasion. Does it deserve to escape the oubliette or should it be left to drown in a sea of loose-fitting blue denim?

Don Mancini – writer, director and creator of Child's Play – joins us for our Halloween Special, and offers us a bewitching concoction that promises to take you back to your youth: Death Becomes Her (1992), a deliciously dark supernatural comedy starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and something that looks like Bruce Willis but must be an animated special effect because it's emoting too much. Should it sempre viva and live forever, or should it be pushed down a flight of stairs? Join us in our spooky special to find out!  

Dan and Conrad investigate a distress signal and discover Isaac Sutton, filmmaker and movie blogger, who diverts their course to investigate Sunshine (2007) – Danny Boyle's largely overlooked but arguably most influential film. It features Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans and Michelle Yeoh among a diverse crew on a mission to restart our ailing sun and save the planet. Eight astronauts strapped to the back of a bomb. But does it bomb? Or did it reignite serious sci-fi?

"Something's wrong with you. More than you being just... female," says angsty teenager Brigitte to her suddenly feisty, pet-hungry sister in Ginger Snaps – a 2000 Canadian horror film written by Karen Walton and John Fawcett and directed by the latter. Dan and Conrad try desperately to avoid mansplaining while deciding if this is a strangely overlooked landmark in the werewolf genre with a unique perspective on the female experience of puberty and high school... or whether it should be sent back to the oubliette with its hairless tail between its legs.

The new Dark Crystal series on Netflix has given us an insatiable appetite for the fantasy worlds of Jim Henson, so we've plucked another of the company's films out of the oubliette. It's the tale of a young girl who argues with her parents and, after making a terrible wish about a family member that shockingly comes true, sets off on an adventure into a wild fantasy world to set the world to rights. No, it's not Labyrinth – it's MirrorMask (2005), written by none other than Neil Gaiman, featuring cutting-edge CGI and set in a post-apocalyptic hellscape: Brighton. What could go wrong? Quite a lot, actually.

Dan and Conrad are stranded on an alien planet with Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr. and some remote control turtles. Yes, it's Wolfgang Petersen's 80s sci-fi epic Enemy Mine. Will they learn to get along to survive? Or will they get dragged into what looks suspiciously like the sarlacc pit?

Duncan Skiles, director of 'The Clovehitch Killer', joins us to discuss the 80s remake of 'The Blob', directed by Chuck Russell and co-written by Frank Darabont. It creeps. And leaps. And, indeed, glides and slides. But does this gloopy body horror-infused update of the 50s classic deserve to ooze out of the oubliette?