PsychotroniCast: Recent Episodes
PsychotroniCast
A bi-weekly podcast dedicated to the films of the psychotronic genre. Partake in the madness & embrace the sleaze.
PsychotroniCast is BACK with a 1950’s science fiction quadruple feature! Kicking it off with a Rod Serling feeling masterpiece, The Incredible Shrinking Man. Followed by this campy 65 minute blast with one of the greatest posters in movie history, Attack of the 50 foot woman. The penultimate in this black and white rocket ship is, I Married a Monster from Outer Space and closing out the episode we have the bleak Big Bear monster himself: The Werewolf!
What happens when you throw: Phantom of the Opera, the legend of Faust, The Picture of Dorian Gray, the devil, rock n’ roll, and voyeurism in a blender and have a young ambitious Brian De Palma feed it to you thru a straw because you’ve had all your teeth pulled? You get the Rock n’ Roll masterpiece: Phantom of the Paradise!
PsychotroniCast cranks The Juicy Fruits for episode 130 and dives deep into the genius and madness of this 1974 cult classic!
PsychotroniCast concludes it’s 70’s John Waters Series with 1977’s Desperate Living. Dreamlander Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a psychotic house wife who, with the help of her maid, Grizelda Brown (Played by Jean Hill) murder her husband and embark on a journey to their new lives that await them in Mortville.
John Waters really lets his freak flag fly with Mortville. An off the grid society populated by homeless burnouts who are ruled by a fascist queen named Carlotta, played by Dreamlander Edith Massey whose leather daddy gestapo rule with an iron fist!
Sadly, with the death of David Lochary prior to the production of Desperate Living, plus the absence of Devine due to scheduling conflicts, Waters casts Liz Renay and Susan Lowe to provide the filth. Their valiant effort does not go unnoticed, but the absence of the two most important Dreamlanders is felt.
PsychotroniCast continues it's 70's John Waters Series with possibly the greatest coming of age story ever put on film! When a teenage Dawn Davenport doesn't get her cha cha heels for Christmas, the world suffers... as it should!
We follow Dawn on her journey through life as: a mother, cat burger, prostitute, and fashion model. Where it all ends up, is purely John Waters gold.
Female Trouble also gives us one last look at the brilliant and insane David Lochary, whose death would follow shortly after the release of this film.
This is the Dreamlanders last ensemble piece. What an electric way to go out!
49 years ago today, John Waters and his troop of Dreamlanders unleashed what is undoubtedly the filthiest movie in the world. Lead by a legendary star making performance from Divine who proves she will go to lengths unimaginable to achieve the perfect scene. Accompanied by her son Crackers (Danny Mills), glamorous traveling companion Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce) and her mother The Egg Lady (Edith Massey), Divine will combat her greatest adversaries Raymond and Conny Marble (David Lochary and Mink Stole) in a shocking battle to prove who is truly the filthiest person alive! On its way to becoming one of the biggest midnight movies in history and one of the most memorable of cult films Pink Flamingos would challenge censorship around the globe (and usually losing), but that hasn’t stopped it from triggering, traumatizing, and tickling depraved audiences for nearly half a century, while managing to lose none of its shock value or hilarity over the years.
Decades before becoming a beloved elder statesman and the darling of Broadway with Hairspray, John Waters and his troop of Dreamlanders ushered in the 1970’s with their first all talking feature film Multiple Maniacs! Taking inspiration from the thriving art and underground film scene from the era, as well as healthy doses of radical politics, deranged Hollywood glamour and the drive-in movie shock value of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Waters was setting the stage for a series of midnight movies that featured acts so limitlessly tasteless the censors had been too unimaginative and unprepared to previously outlaw. You will be shocked by the degenerates in Lady Divine’s Cavalcade of Perversion. You will puke as you witness the Stations of the Cross as never before. You will forever quake with fear whenever you encounter a lobster.🦞 You will never forget your encounter with Multiple Maniacs!
Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan stars as one of Interpol’s Most Wanted Men the ruthless Bombay crime boss Don. Roma is a beautiful woman with expert judo and Karate skills bent on avenging the murder of her brother. Jasit is an expert safecracker and tightrope walker with a grudge against the officials who put him behind bars. And finally Vijay a lowly street performer who is devoted to caring for a couple of orphans and has more than a passing resemblance to Don. This week we watch the 1978 Bollywood classic Don and find how this group of larger than life characters cross and double cross each other’s paths with action, dance numbers and polyester to spare. Available to stream on Amazon prime.
PsychotroniCast concludes its Seagal Six Series with his best and worst film in the collection. Most people have heard the elevator pitch to Under Siege: Die Hard on a boat. But we at PsychotroniCast believe that it is in fact better than Die Hard. Blasphemy?! Both Seagal and Willis are equal parts douche bag on screen, with the edge going to Bruce for his actual charisma. Even though Alan Rickman created the white collar terrorist archetype as Hans Gruber; Under Siege has Tommy Lee Jones taking over a naval ship in a leather jacket and bandana while simultaneously being the hype man / harmonica player in his blues rock band of terrorists named: Bad Billy and the Bail Jumpers. Oh yeah, Gary Busey is showcased in drag. Give us the U.S.S. Missouri over the Nakatomi Building Plaza any day of the week!
PsychotroniCast then closes the door on Segal with his directorial debut (and finale) On Deadly Ground. Even though this film is shittier than then the last 500 yards of Andy Dufresne's escape from Shawshank, it still has it's awesomely bad moments.
PsychotroniCast continues its Seagal Six Series with Jamaican drug dealers invading small town USA followed by a Mafia nomad crackhead reeking havoc in Brooklyn. Marked for Death and Out for Justice were two more hits for Seagal at the box office with the heavies in both films upstaging Seagal and stealing the show. Basil Wallace plays the Jamaican drug kingpin Screwface in 1990's Marked for Death while William Forsythe plays possibly one of the most off the rails, evil bastards in movie history (not an overstatement) in 1991's Out for Justice.
PsychotroniCast begins the new year with a new series: The Seagal Six. The boys will be covering the first six films of Steven Seagal in 3 double feature installments. They will also be discussing Seagal's personal life which is nothing above sub human. There are countless stories and records of Steven Seagal being an absolute monster which puts a different lens on how you interpret his work on screen. The first two films on the docket are: Above the Law and Hard to Kill. With both, Seagal plays a holier than thou cop who is on a mission to clean up the scum in the world. He's the toughest, bravest, most enlightened, and biggest bad ass on the planet. Truly the antithesis of the real Segal, who is somehow still not behind bars. Buckle up, this series is taking you to the bank... the blood bank.
Ring in 2021 with a little New Year's Evil. PsychotroniCast concludes it's holiday series with this 1980 Cannon Films classic. Since we all couldn't really party, let aging rock LA DJ and TV host Diane Sullivan help you party into 2021. Her show is a hit, but her son is a wreck and her husband is in Palm Springs dust busting bags of coke and popin' ludes with the ladies. All the while, theres a killer on the loose striking victims on the hour of each time zones New Year and calling into the station to boast about it. New Years Evil is available for free on Amazon Prime.
PsychotroniCasts' Holiday Series continues with an 80's B sleaze slasher that carves up anyone in Santa Drag. 1984's Dont open Till Christmas takes body count to the next level with Santa's getting sliced left and right! Directed and starring Edmund Purdom (Pieces, The Fifth Cord) this video nasty has a stocking stuffer runtime of 86 minutes. Now available for rent on Apple TV.
PsychotroniCast kicks of its new holiday season with a Horror/Comedy from Finland released in 2010 and available for streaming on Shudder and Amazon Prime. Rare Exports centers around a small group of reindeer farmers in the Korvatunturi mountains who has their livestock slaughtered by Russian wolves due to a group of Americans (so they think) who are blasting the hell out of a mountain top to unearth the frozen remains of Santa Claus. this film is equal parts: creepy, original, naughty, and nice.
Butt Boy is new film available for free on Amazon Prime and featured in John Waters' 11 Best Movies of 2020 list. This micro budget gonzo film about a man who takes anal kinks to another level has droppings of Noir, Sci-fi, Horror, and Comedy with its main themes being mostly centered around addiction and the lies we tell ourselves and hide from others. Does this film pass the smell test to Alec and Derek? Listen and find out!
Gyms in the 80's just had more going on. First, they were open. Second, fashion over comfort. And third, sometimes you lost more than just weight... you lost your life! Oh yeah, and cocaine. This Thanksgiving, PsychotroniCast brings you two helpings of 80's fitness horror to whip you back into shape. From 1987, Killer Workout and from 1989, Death Spa.
Hey kids! Tired of geezers over 30 running the world? It’s time to get hip and take charge. This is the day it all happens Baby! After you cast your ballot, join us and watch Barry Shear’s revolutionary 1968 classic Wild in the Streets. Rock superstar Max Frost together with his band The Troopers lead a generational revolution to lower the voting age to 14, putting the kids in charge and the grown ups out to a psychedelic pasture. With an all star cast including Shelley Winters, Hal Holbrook, Richard Pryor, Christopher Jones, Diane Varsi and Ed Begley and a psych-rock soundtrack featuring the classic “Shape of Things to Come”, Wild in The Streets is a timely movie to cap an election year like no other.
Paying homage to the Hollywood Theater in Portland, Oregon and all the other movie theaters around the world unable to host all night horror movie marathons of their own; PsychotroniCast has programmed a marathon to keep the scene dead-alive! First up: the William Castle/Vincent Price classic, The Tingler. Followed by the James Mason narrated Edgar Allen Poe short, The Tell-Tale Heart. The next feature length centers around a news caster turned vigilante, a Miami serial killer, and a very young and very blind Jennifer Jason Leigh. Its 1981's criminally under viewed, Eyes of a Stranger. Afterwards, the boys finally embrace the Sleaze with this Italian feeling, early 80's Los Angeles B horror diamond in the rough: Mortuary. The penultimate movie in the lineup is a Canadian creature feature about giant Ants in a hospital. For some reason this film is called Blue Monkey. And finally, a lesser known slasher to come out at the tail end of the 90's/early 2000's slasher renaissance. The film is 2001's: Valentine.
Boris Karloff’s monster is one of the most iconic images in all of cinema. Though often imitated and parodied, the potent mixture of horror, wry humor and pathos have been inspiring audiences and artists for nearly 90 years. In this weeks episode Alec and Derek dive into the three electrifying Karloff performances in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Rowland V. Lee’s Son of Frankenstein (1939). Each film is currently streaming on Peacock.
Fade to Black
Episode 113: Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher) is a socially inept movie buff who after being stood up by a Marilyn Monroe lookalike and after being constantly badgered and bullied by his Aunt, his boss, his co-workers, a hooker and a slimy movie producer, snaps and begins an elaborate murder spree inspired by the classic Hollywood films he’s obsessed with. Rounding out the cast are Tim Thomerson (Trancers) as a coke snorting harmonica playing social worker, Eve Brent as the wheelchair constrained aunt Stella , and in one of his first roles a young Mickey Roarke. Currently streaming on @shudder and coming soon from
We close our Nicolas Cage series with the big budget, 3D extravaganza built for drive in movie theaters! Unfortunately for everyone involved in the making and distribution of Drive Angry, 2011 wasn’t the right year for this movie to drop. Although it flopped at the box office, like a number of Cage films, it found a second life on cable TV where it continues to live on. One word comes to mind when trying to sum up Drive Angry, “fun”. In times like these, everyone can use a little fun. So buckle up, and treat yourself to Drive Angry.
For this weeks Nic Cage movie we check out The Color Out of Space, adapted from the classic H.P. Lovecraft story and marking a return to filmmaking after more than 25 years for cult favorite Richard Stanley (Hardware). Cage plays Nathan Gardner a family man who moves his convalescing wife and three children into his ancestral home in the country outside of Arkham Massachusetts in search of a more peaceful life, only to face an indescribable, malevolent force unleashed by a meteorite from the beyond that in true Lovecraft fashion transforms everything in its proximity and literally tears his family apart! Currently streaming on Shudder!
For this weeks Nicolas Cage film we totally go all the way back to 1983 for Martha Coolidge’s trippendicular classic Valley Girl! Julie is a popular Valley girl on the rebound, and Randy is a sexy Hollywood punk with grody sculpted chest hair. Will they make a totally bitchin’ couple, or will the pressures of Julie’s friends reunite her with her ex-boyfriend, the popular Val dude Tommy? Set to a pulsing new wave soundtrack featuring Josie Cotton, The Plimsouls, Modern English, Sparks and more, Valley Girl is a Romeo and Juliette tale for the mall rat is all of us.
Episode 109 opens up a new PsychotroniCast series dedicated to a living, breathing embodiment of psychotronic: Nicolas Cage. The fun begins on uncharted territory for Alec and Derek, as they discover a true hidden gem: Red Rock West. Disregarded by the studio, but praised by Critics and art house cinemas from Coast to Coast, writer/director John Dahl’s 2nd in a trio of neo noirs turns out to be his finest. And if you’re a David Lynch fan, you’ll see quite a few Lynchian themes and actors making their way on screen. Most notably Dennis Hopper, as a carbon copy of Frank Booth; his iconic character from Blue Velvet.
In honor of the late great Olivia de Havilland we skip over the obvious classics and award winning performances to look at her unheralded gonzo masterpiece Lady in a Cage. Olivia is Mrs. Cornelia Hilyard a sheltered middle class poet recovering from a hip injury who gets trapped in a cage like elevator during a scorching 4th of July weekend. Her calls for help set off a chain of events that seem to herald the coming fall of civilization, and eventually lay bare her own dark secrets. Supported by fellow Hollywood legends Ann Southern, Scatman Crothers as well as in his debut performance a young James Caan, Olivia delivers one of her bravest and most unusual performances. #ladyinacage #oliviadehavilland #jamescaan #annsouthern #scatmancrowthers #psychobitty #hagsploitation
Episode 107: Opening night. Most people say without hesitation that Meryl Streep is the greatest actress alive. Don't get us wrong, Meryl is dynamite... but Gena Rowlands is a nuclear bomb eviscerating the screen every time our eyes and ears are fortunate enough to be in the same room as her. Her power was best channeled thru her meatiest rolls working along side her husband and possibly the rawest, realist mother fucker you'll ever see on film: John Cassavetes. Opening Night is smack dab in the middle of Gena's best rolls (A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria). Both John and Gena never received an Oscar for their work which is reason 4,080 why the Oscars are bullshit. Opening Night is a masterpiece. Gena and John are electric. If that doesn't get you firing it up on HBO Max we have two more words for you: Ben Gazzara.
Ep: 106 The Devil's Advocate. We can't determine what is more insane: Keanu's accent, Pacino's teeth, it's run time, the Donald Trump tie ins, or everything Charlize Theron. The Devil's Advocate is currently streaming on Netflix.
Episode 105 concludes PsyhotroniCast's sequel series with a quad of movies from the 90's that were originally tv shows that began in the 60's. The Addams Family and The Brady Bunch weren't outliers in the 60's TV to 90's big screen reboot; they were just the best of the crop that included: Wild Wild West, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Flintstones, Lost in Space, The Avengers, My Favorite Martian, etc.
PsychotroniCast is back after a month hiatus and continuing its sequel series with Maniac Cop 1 & 2. This episode was recorded before the murder of George Floyd. There is a full disclosure at the intro to this episode.
Episode 103 continues PsychotroniCast's sequel series with with a pair of films that leaves fans of the franchise into choosing one graduating class of Rydell High over the other. Are you with class of '58's Danny and Sandy? Or are about class of 61's Stephanie and Michael?
Alright, Alright, Alright... fact is, episode 102 you cannot touch! But I think I see a lotta lawbreakers out there. It only took two episodes in PsychotroniCast's sequel series to have its subject's predecessor outperform their inception. With possibly the best sequel name ever, Magic Mike XXL strips its baggage and hits the road with moon rocks and protein shakes.
Episode 101 begins PsychotroniCasts' new series: sequels. We start with with two back to back 20th Century Fox popcorn action flicks from the 80's directed by John McTiernan, Predator and Die Hard. We then move to two 90's sequels directed by two directors who directed Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, Die Hard 2 and Predator. Stick around, because this episode is one ugly mother fucker.
Episode 100! Alec and Derek conclude the Russ Meyer Marathon where PsychotroniCast all began. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was Meyer's introduction into big studio (20th Century Fox) film making. Russ and Fox didn't last much longer. After his courtroom drama flop, The Seven minutes, Russ was back to independently funded pictures. Once again, Russ Meyer switched genres and tried his hand at Blacksploitation and Black Snake was yet again another bomb for Meyer. Russ's final three films were his return to the busty bosom sexploitation comedies that built his empire. Supervixens (a financial mega hit), Up!, and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens were the final chapters in his storied career.
Episode 99: Russ Meyer Marathon Part 3. Alec and Derek talk the Meyer films leading up to his contract with Fox Studios. Out of the the six discussed: (Mondo Topless, Common Law Cabin, Goodmorning... and Goodbye!, Finders Keepers, Lovers Weepers!, Vixen!, Cherry, Harry & Raquel!) Russ's biggest success was 1968's Vixen! With a lead performance that rivals Tura Satana's in: Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Erica Gavin's psychotic sex banshee character Vixen Gavin jumps out of the screen and into your pants!
Episode 98 is a Russ Myer six pack! Moving on from Nudie Cuties and into Roughies, Lorna and MotorPsycho! are two top tier Meyer flicks while Mudhoney is a slog. The boys also touch on his Benny Hill style period comedy feature filmed in Germany, Fanny Hill; while briefly discussing the worst of his releases Europe in the Raw. The boys save the best for last with what is possibly his most beloved film: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Episode 97 begins a new series in which the boys uncover the Russ Meyer filmography! Part one is devoted to his first available three films otherwise known as: the nudie cuties (The Immoral Mr. Teas, Eve and the Handyman, and Wild Gals of the Naked West). Besides the films previously mentioned, the boys also discuss his contribution in the military during WW2 and the risks he took into funding and releasing his first features in late 50's, early 60's America.
Episode 96: Tremors. On this pod, Alec chooses the flick and brings another friend along for the ride. The boys get low down and dirty talking about 1990's: Tremors. Kevin Bacon may be the lead, but its Fred Ward's movie. If you want the best bacon in the film; look no further then Fred Ward's sweet ass.
Episode 95: The boys compile their lists for their ten favorite Psychotronic films of the decade. This epic episode is spoiler free podcast; so throw caution to the wind and proceed!
Episode 94: Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. This film has a lot of similarities to David Lynch's Eraserhead. Both films are bat shit crazy. They were extremely low budget , they took years to make, both filmed in the 70's, and they both have wild sound design. The main difference between these two is David Lynch had the knowledge and resources (i.e. actors) while Death Bed director George Barry had Detroit hippie burnouts.
Three ways to support this podcast:
1. Shout us out on your social media account
2. Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
3. Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 93: Don't go in the House. Originally (and more fittingly) titled The Burning, 1979's Don't go in the house is part Psycho, part Maniac, part Driller Killer, and all disco. Filmed in what looks like to be a fucking freezing New Jersey winter; this blue collar regional horror gem deserves much more attention then its been given over the years.
Three ways to support this podcast:
1. Shout us out on your social media account
2. Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
3. Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 92: Alice, Sweet Alice. Next stop on the regional horror tour is Patterson, New Jersey. Filmed in 1976, Alice, Sweet Alice is a period piece set during the Kennedy administration in 1961. Packed with: Roman Catholicism, family issues, rapey landlord with cats, Brook Shields, whodunits, creepy kid masks, and dead bodies. Alice, Sweet Alice plays like a family melodrama packed with murder.
Three ways to support this podcast: 1. Shout us out on your social media account 2. Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on. 3. Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 91 Criminally Insane 1972. This week Alec and Derek watch Nick Millards compact grindhouse nasty Criminally Insane aka Crazy Fat Ethel. Priscilla Aldean is Ethel Janowski a mentally unstable woman with a compulsive eating disorder who unleashes her appetite for destruction after being released from a sanitarium, and is placed on a forced diet by her well meaning grandmother leading to her brutal murder. The bodies pile up in the San Francisco townhouse as nasty relatives and unfortunate delivery boys make the deadly mistake of crossing Ethel’s doorway. Though barely an hour in length, Criminally Insane would inspire multiple sequels and live as a scuzzy grindhouse classic.
Three ways to support this podcast: 1. Shout us out on your social media account 2. Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on. 3. Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 90: (H.B. Halicki: The Car Crash King) Gone in 60 Seconds (1974), & The Junkman. H.B. Halicki was a actor/director/stuntman like no other. He didn't need Hollywood. He built his empire in Long Beach, California owning a junk yard and collecting cars. So, when he had a half baked idea about making his own movie, he didn't need financial backing, or the Hollywood Machine to make his movie. He shot his films in his own backyard, getting the city behind him, crashing his own cars, performing his own stunts, and directing his own pictures. He bet on himself, and he hit the jackpot with his first feature: 1974's Gone in 60 Seconds. Making millions by playing in drive-ins across the country for the next decade it gave Halicki validation and a bottomless pit of cash to make his next film, 1982's: The Junkman. Both are available for free to watch on you tube.
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 89: Burt Reynolds Bootleg Double Feature
This week, we pay our respects to the stud of 70’s car chase movies Burt Reynolds with two of his most entertaining roles as bootleggers leaving the law in his dust in the hit films White Lightning and Smokey and the Bandit. First up we see the more dramatic performance as the sweat-drenched underdog Robert “Gator” McKlusky a convicted Arkansas bootlegger who is released from prison to assist the feds in taking down the corrupt Sherrif J.C. Connors (Reynolds Deliverance co-star Ned Beatty), who is responsible for the murder of his younger brother. Next up Burt is driving “Eastbound and Down” as the devilishly charming Bo “Bandit” Darville, running blocker in a candy red Trans Am to distract the police from a truck filled with 400 cases of bootleg Coors from Texas racing its way to Georgia in 28 hours. Along the way Bandit picks up sexy runaway bride Carrie (Sally Field) and attracts the attention of the blustery Sherrif Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason). The result is one of the infectiously crowd pleasing films of the 1970’s. So crack open a cold one and 10-41 to Psychotronicast!
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 88 (Drive In-sanity Double Feature) Peter Fonda is once again behind the wheel, and this time as Larry Rayder who with mechanic Deke Sommers (Adam Roarke) are a couple NASCAR hopefuls who’s execution of a supermarket heist is thrown into jeopardy by Larry’s clinging and chaotic one night stand Mary Coombs (Susan George). Forced to team up, our heroes lead a high speed pursuit in both a souped up ‘66 Impala and ‘69 Charger while the pursuing Capt. Everett Franklin (Vic Morrow) takes the chase into the sky in a Bell JetRanger Helicopter in the classic vehicular chase film Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. Next up we leap to the dystopian future in Roger Corman and Paul Bartel’s action packed pitch black comedy Death Race 2000! The totalitarian American regime stationed in Moscow and Beijing have found a way to pacify the masses with a bloody Transcontinental Road Race featuring five theatrical drivers Machine Gun Joe (Sylvester Stallone), Calamity Jane (Mary Woronov), neo-Nazi Matilda the Hun (Roberta Collins), Nero the Hero (Martin Kove), and the Masked and disfigured national hero Frankenstein (David Carradine) who must try to survive a race from coast to coast, and splattering blood of civilians all over the national highways, while dodging the sabotaging resistance lead by Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin) as well as the overbearing media hosts Junior Bruce (Don Steele) and Grace Pander (Joyce Jameson). Who will survive these films? Listen to find out!
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 86 (Chang Cheh: Grandmaster part 4) This week we conclude our Chang Cheh series with three of his most outlandish and entertaining films. First up is The Crippled Avengers. The Venom Mob return with head spinning choreography, for this action packed dose of violence and revenge. A group of maimed villagers train to work around their disabilities and to avenge the brutal warlord who inflicted their afflictions. Next up we get The Masked Avengers, a group of warriors seek to discover the identities and quash of a gang of trident carrying masked menaces, who have been terrorizing the countryside, and bringing their victims to a secret torture party palace. Finally we watch Five Element Ninja’s an extravaganza of action packed lunacy featuring kung fu students who are forced into an existential battle with a series of ninjas trained in methods representing various elements. Cheh turns things up to 11 with this film featuring some of the most insane violence and costuming of his career. Five Element Ninjas stands as one of his last great masterpieces.
Three ways to support this podcast: 1. Shout us out on your social media account 2. Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on. 3. Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 85 (Chang Cheh Grandmaster part 3) This week the guys check out a couple of Shaw Brothers classics that would each kickstart their own Kung fu franchises. Adapting Louis Cha’s popular Condor Trilogy novels Chang Cheh and his newest protégé superstar Alexander Fu Sheng delivered The Brave Archer an action classic that seems to pack in everyone and everything that could possibly fit into its 2 hour run time with the notable exception of actual archery! Second up is the film that he is probably the most remembered for in the west, the wildly popular 5 Venoms (aka 5 Deadly Venoms) featuring a group of wildly costumed Peking Opera alumni collectively known as The Venom Mob that would blast their way into a series of deliriously entertaining films that continue to amaze for their guignol laced violence as much as their jaw dropping choreography.
Three ways to support this podcast: 1. Shout us out on your social media account 2. Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on. 3. Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 84 (Chang Cheh: Grandmaster part 2) Continuing our trip through Chang Cheh’s career at the Shaw Brothers studio, Alec and Derek watch a trio of triad gangster films starring Kung fu stars David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-tai, beginning with 1970 film Vengeance a stylish and brutal revenge tale reminiscent of John Boorman’s neo-noir Point Blank. David Chiang plays Guan Xiao Lou a man with a single minded drive to avenge the people responsible for killing his brother and Peking Opera dance partner Ti Lung. Next up The Duel sees Ti Lung and David Chiang face off in a series of crosses and double crosses setting up a number of unhinged fight scenes that clearly foreshadow the mayhem of The Crazy 88. Concluding this episode with The Boxer from Shantung starring Kung Fu legend Chen Kuan-Tai in his first leading role as Ma Yongzhen a lowly laborer who climbs his way up the ranks from the gutter to triad gang leader only to be met with increasing bloodshed ending in one of the most spectacularly relentless battles in film history.
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 83 (Chang Cheh: Grandmaster) Alec and Derek begin a journey through the career of one of the undisputed masters of action films and one of the greatest directors of the famous Shaw Brothers Studio, Chang Cheh. Beginning with the film that started it all 1967s The One-Armed Swordsman. Following the success of King Hu’s Wuxia classic Come Drink with Me, and taking influence from Rebel Without A Cause, Cheh and star (Jimmy) Wang Yu present a brooding teenaged swordfighter who’s coming of age is complicated by the need to kill a horde of trained killers while defending the very people who cut off his arm. With its vivid color palate and displays of graphic violence, The Shaw Brothers had their first million dollar smash hit, lighting the fuse for the Kung Fu craze of the 1970’s, ensuring Hong Kong cinemas would never be the same. Only four years later Cheh would reboot the idea with The New One-Armed Swordsman this time with stars David Chiang and Ti Lung (more about them later) and would amplify the melodrama and violence to dizzying heights creating a film even more memorable (and homoerotic) than its beloved predecessor. All of the films we will be discussing in this series are currently streaming on Amazon Prime and we encourage our listeners to watch along and share their thoughts!
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 82 (Yuppie Nightmares) Alec and Derek conclude the series with a trip to L.A. and watch John Landis’s 1985 Into The Night. Learning of his wife’s infidelity, depressed insomniac aerospace engineer Ed Orkin (Jeff Goldblum) takes a drive to LAX hoping to find escape, incidentally he runs into a beautiful jewel smuggler Diana “Like the Princess” (Michelle Pfeiffer) who is also trying to escape, but in her case from the four Iranian assassins (including director Landis) hot on her trail. Ed is quickly embroiled in the ensuing chase across Los Angeles meanwhile encounters a murderers row of cameos highlighted by David Bowie, Dan Aykroyd, Richard Farnsworth, and Vera Miles as well as more great directors than a DGA meeting, including Don Siegel, Jim Henson, David Cronenberg, Jonathan Demme, Paul Bartel, Roger Vadim, Amy Heckerling to name only a few. Set to a score by legendary B.B. King, Into The Night is a playful snapshot of 80s Hollywood.
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 81 (Yuppie Nightmares) This week Alec and Derek watch Martin Scorsese’s Kafkaesque 1985 masterpiece After Hours. A long night begins for bored word processor Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne) after meeting the attractive Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) in an uptown cafe, and is invited to spend the night with her at artist friend Kiki Bridges’ SoHo loft. But instead of the one night stand Paul was hoping for, fate sticks out a foot sending our midtown interloper into the chaotic late night world below Houston, where to quote the great Dick Miller “Different rules apply”, and where every character Paul encounters including the various artists, waitresses, cab drivers, punks, ice cream truck drivers, park cruisers, and burglars (featuring Teri Garr, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Verna Bloom, as well as Cheech and Chong) threaten his sanity as well as his life. Will Paul ever make it home, will he escape the angry mob and live to see the dawn, and will he ever get that plaster of Paris bagel and cream cheese paperweight? Stay up and find out.
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 80 (Yuppie Nightmares Pt. 2) This week Alec and Derek check out Jonathan Demme’s 1986 Something Wild. Things take a turn for the wild for banker Charlie Diggs (Jeff Daniels) after encountering the alluring, impulse and mysterious Lulu (Melanie Griffith) at a downtown diner, leading to an unexpected weekend crossing multiple state lines full of robbed liquor and convenience stores, roadside motels, class reunions and colorful roadside characters (peppered with a veritable who’s who of cameo appearances featuring John Waters, John Sayles, and Charles Napier) as well as Lulu’s volatile ex-husband Ray (Ray Liotta in his terrifying screen debut). Set to an electrifying soundtrack of new wave and world influences such as David Byrne, Celia Cruz, Jimmy Cliff, New Order as well as a memorable performance from The Feelies. Not unlike Dorothy’s trek down the yellow brick road, Charlie’s trip through roadside America offers a voyage to self discovery through encountering the various lives along the path.
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 79 (Yuppie Nightmares Pt 1) Alec and Derek kick off a series of cautionary tales of Yuppies in danger - particularly those that set foot in the netherworlds of The East Village or SoHo in the mid 80s. Kicking things off with Susan Seidelman’s 1985 Desperately Seeking Susan. Bored New Jersey housewife Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette), finds escape imagining the passionate lives of people she reads about in a series of personal ads proclaiming to be “Desperately Seeking” the titular Susan (an impossibly hip Madonna in her screen debut). While taking a trip to Battery Park hoping to encounter her lovers, Roberta tumbles outside the boundaries of her suburban existence, throwing her life and identity into chaos. Featuring a colorful supporting cast of Aidan Quinn, Laurie Metcalf, John Turturro, John Lurie, Richard Edson, Rockets Redglare, and Richard Hell, not to mention great locations like the legendary Danceteria, Seidelman merges the NY underground flair of her debut Smithereens with 1930’s screwball logic and a magical dose of Jacques Rivette, creating a film that is as much a time capsule of a thriving urban culture and the denizens that inhabit it, as it is a timeless ode to living a life less ordinary.
Three ways to support this podcast:
-
Shout us out on your social media account
-
Rate us on the podcast platform you listen to PsychotroniCast on.
-
Subscribe to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 76 (Franco-files part 4) Bringing things full circle Alec and Derek watch Jess Franco’s 1969 Eugénie...the story of her journey into perversion, not to be confused with Franco’s subsequent Eugénies including our first in this series. This film comes at the peak of his relationship with producer Harry Alan Towers and the polish that’s their collaborations achieved. With the staggeringly glamorous location and loungedelic Bruno Nicolai score, the scene is set for one Jess’s first great Sadian adaptations. This time talking inspiration from De Sade’s Philosophy in the Boudoir, wealthy siblings (Franco regulars Maria Rohm and Jack Taylor) initiate curious ingenue Eugénie (Marie Liljedahl) into a cult of De Sade worshiping glitterati, lead by the sinister Dolmance (played with utmost gravitas by Christopher Lee) What begins as a trip to an island of decadence becomes a fantasy for the privileged and perverse.
Support PsychotroniCast by subscribing to our Patreon!
www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 77 lets its freak flag fly... in space! Claire Denis's new film: High Life starring Robert Pattinson is a film about a father and daughter struggling to survive in a waning space ship where they both live in isolation. Its better to go into this film ignorant on its mission than to know the facts so we'll just leave it at that. High Life is still in select theaters and if you're fortunate enough to live in a city that is screening it, we highly suggest you get your freak on.
Episode 75 (Franco-Files part 3) Once again Franco takes inspiration from De Sade with his delirious 1973 film Plaisir à trois aka: How To Seduce a Virgin. Returning home from a mental institution after castrating a previous lover, Countess Martine de Bressac (Alice Arno) is reunited with her slinky and kinky husband Count Charles de Bressac (Robert Woods) who entices her with the prospect of sullying the virginal daughter of a neighboring diplomat. Joined by the dwarf groundskeeper Malou (Alfred Baillou) and the inarticulate house maid Adèle played by Franco’s greatest muse Lina Romay in one of her earliest appearances. What follows is a surreal and wickedly enjoyable trip with the beau monde of perversity as only Jess Franco can deliver.
Episode 75 (Franco-Files Pt. 2) Next stop on our journey through the world of Jess Franco is his haunting 1971 fever-dream A Virgin Among The Living Dead. Traveling to Portugal, naïve orphan Christina Bentham (Christine von Blanc) arrives at Montserrat Mansion for the reading of her father’s will, and is introduced to her family of decadent layabouts (including Franco regulars Britt Nichols, Howard Vernon, Paul Müller and Franco himself as the retarded manservant Basilio), and the mysterious Queen of the Night (Anne Libert). Like Alice’s trip through the looking glass, Christina’s voyage will tempt her beyond the boundaries of the logical. Without entirely abandoning the necessary sleaze, Franco creatively infuses this gothic premise with some of the most memorably poetic and surreal images of his entire career.
You can Support PsychotroniCast by subscribing to our Patreon! www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode 74 isn't breaking new ground with its subject; but Jordan Peele's new film Us deserves the over saturation of takes and analysis that it is currently receiving. This episode is also a simulcast with PsychotroniCast's Patreon feed. If you don't know, now you know. for $5 a month, you will a receive bonus podcasts such as this to infiltrate your ears. Sign up now to help us keep the lights off, and the TV on!
Episode 73 (Franco-Files part 1) We begin our look at the films of the incredibly prolific Jesús “Jess” Franco with his 1970 film Eugénie (aka Eugénie de Sade). Taking advantage of the loosening of film censorship at the end of the 60s and coinciding with the termination of his working relationship with producer Harry Alan Towers, which had provided Franco with the biggest budgets and star studded casts of his career, Franco boldly made use of his new freedoms by adapting a segment of the Marquis de Sade’s Crimes of Love, turning sharply away from the mainstream in developing his idiosyncratic style that would be as notable for hypnotic rhythms as much as the abundance of female nudity and subversive sexuality. Starring his spellbinding muse Soledad Miranda and featuring Franco regulars Paul Muller and Alice Arno, Eugénie is a fascinating example of cinematic libertinism, featuring incest, murder and thigh high boots.
Help support that pod by going to: https://www.patreon.com/psychotronicast
Episode seventy-two concludes PsychotroniCast's 3rd Annual Blaxploitation Month with the cold mush that is 2018's Super Fly. There is nothing worth remembering or revisiting with this film but there is plenty to discuss as to WHY it didn't work.
Episode seventy-one tackles one of the most iconic Blaxploitation movies ever made (and with good reason) Gordon Parks Jr.'s 1972 classic: Super Fly. Like Shaft, the soundtrack is more popular than the film itself; thanks to the Chicago born soul legend, Mr. Curtis Mayfield. But don't sleep on this film, forty-seven years later you can still see the influence into popular culture and subcultures alike.
Episode seventy continues PsychotroniCast's 3rd Annual Blaxploitation Month with the 2000 John Singleton sequel Shaft. This movie may not be the topic of much discussion these days but looking back at the cast of this film, its a whos who of Hollywood stars. Samuel L. Jackson as John Shaft. Vanessa Williams as his trusted confidant. Christian Bale and Jeffery Wright as the villains. Rounding out the cast are supporting roles by: Toni Collette, Dan Hedaya, Andre Royo, Mekhi Phifer, Busta Rhymes, and the original John Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree.
Episode sixty-nine kicks off PsychotroniCast’s 3rd Annual Blaxploitation Month with one of the most iconic films from this genre, Shaft. Released in 1971, this was the first Hollywood financed Blaxploitation movie. Spawning four sequels (the fifth to be released this summer) and a theme that is one of the most recognizable in movie history. Directed by Gordon Parks, an acclaimed photographer for Life magazine from the 1940’s-60’s and starring Richard Roundtree in his first on screen roll.
Episode sixty-eight is by far the longest episode to date for PsychotroniCast; but when the subject is Lars Von Trier, there's a plenty to be said. With every Lars Von Trier film comes it's share of controversy, and The House that Jack Built is no exception.
Episode Sixty-seven. Alec Hijacks programming for his birthday and selects 2014's Nightcrawler. Written and directed by Dan Gilroy, Jake Gyllenhaal gives the performance of his career as Louis Bloom: a sociopath with drive and ambition that will stop at nothing to become the best at his craft, audio journalism. Co staring the then up and coming Riz Ahmed, Rene Russo, and the late great Bill Paxton.
Episode 66 concludes our psychotronic trip through acid Westerns (though in this case opium western -if you can mix your substances), Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Hot off the heals of the success of MAS*H director Robert Altman and reining Hollywood “it” couple, Warren Beatty and Julie Christie set up camp the woods of the Pacific Northwest to create a Western unlike anything before or since. Enhanced by the haunting music of Leonard Cohen, and the innovative and dreamlike cinematography of Vilmos Zsigmond, as well as Altman’s signature overlapping dialog and sound design, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a masterpiece of atmosphere and texture and one of the crown jewels of the New American Cinema.
Episode 65 Alec and Derek continue riding this Acid Western trail to talk about The Hired Hand (1971). Banking on the wild success of Easy Rider in 1969 Universal offered Peter Fonda full artistic control to create his directorial debut. Reversing the previous films youthful lust for the open road, Fonda delivered an elegiac western chamber-drama meditating on the longing to return home. Showcasing the work of legendary cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond in his debut feature, the innovative editing from Frank Mazzola (Performance), the music of multi-instrumentalist Bruce Langhorne (the inspiration for Dylan’s Tambourine Man) not to mention show-stopping support from Warren Oates and a particularly unforgettable performance from Verna Bloom. The Hired Hand is in itself a return home to the legendary westerns Peter’s father Henry made with John Ford, as well as a worthy successor, though one that brings with it a new and at times feminist perspective on the genre.
Visit PsychotroniCast on patreon.com to get 4 bonus podcasts a month! Only $5!
Episode sixty-four. Next stop on Alec and Derek’s acid western trip is Jim Jarmusch’s stunning 1995 film Dead Man. As if hearing the Horace Greeley call to “Go West, young man” naive Ohio accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp) journeys west to the industrial town of Machine only to be met with the gravest of misfortune. The incredible ensemble cast includes Crispen Glover, Gabriel Byrne, Gary Farmer, Iggy Pop, John Hurt, Alfred Molina, Billy Bob Thornton, Lance Hendrickson and Robert Mitchum in his final role. Ravishingly photographed by legendary Robby Müller, and with a haunting improvised score by Neil Young, Dead Man subverts the promise of Manifest Destiny with a vision of the west dominated by brutality, decay and poetry.
With Episode sixty-three Alec and Derek begin a hallucinatory journey through Acid Westerns. Few films could more appropriately don the acid label than Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1970 film El Topo. Through a series of gunfights with desert masters representing a variety of philosophical and religious beliefs, Topo accrues the keys to enlightenment and eventually atonement. This unforgettably surreal and violent odyssey inaugurated the era of midnight movies, by turning one the most robust of Hollywood’s genres inside out.
Donate $5 a month and get a bonus podcast a week on our Patreon. Just search PsychotroniCast on patreon.com and subscribe!
Visit our Patreon page for bonus episodes!
Episode sixty-two will cause you to reflect on all of your most degenerate moments as a young adult. 1987's Withnail and I is set in 1969, mostly taking place on an English country side focusing in on two substance-abusing unemployed London actors in their early twenties trying to survive the rain, lack of survival skills, their lack of preparation, and Withnail's uncle Monte who's cottage they're staying at on holiday. On the surface this doesn't sound like a relatable story but after viewing Withnail and I's lifestyle throughout the film, it conjures up the days when all you survived on was cigarettes, booze, dreams, and rebellion. But with that age and lifestyle comes poverty, anxiety, paranoia, and holes in your boots.
Episode sixty-one brings PsychotroniCast back from the dead with a MEGAPOD! They explain their sudden hiatus along with discussing a slew of movies they watched throughout their break including: Suspiria (1977 & 2018) Halloween (2018) as well as the film lineup from the Hollywood Theater’s “All Night Horror Movie Marathon” Piranha (1978) New Year’s Evil, Tourist Trap, and Nightmare City. The Boys also preview the new Patreon episode and discuss changes to PsychotroniCast moving forward. All in all, PsychotroniCast is back! and keeping it purely casual.
patreon.com/psychotronicast for $5 a month you will recieve 4 bonus podcasts a month! Help us keep the lights off and the TV on!
Episode sixty is a satanic panic double feature! First up, Joe Dante’s 1989 cult classic The ‘Burbs. Shot entirely on a studio lot, this film is Joe Dante’s love letter to genre film (Look no further than his Spaghetti western style of shooting a score). This film is packed to the gills with big time movie stars and drizzling with Roger Corman players: Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Corey Feldman, Henry Gibson, and Dick Miller. The next feature: 1975’s The Devil’s Rain has its fair share of famous faces. Starring a thin full head of haired William Shatner, this critically and commercially panned incoherent horror flick is still an absolute delight to watch. Along with the Shat, you get: John Travolta’s first film role, Ernest Borgnine as the devil himself, pre Alien Tom Skerritt, and Ida Lupino. Sure, this film doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but that cast plus the effects in the final ten minutes alone makes the journey itself worth while.
Episode fifty-nine might be the flavor of the week for psychotronic fans out there, but the taste that Mandy leaves in your mouth will stay for some time to come. With Mandy and his feature debut Beyond the Black Rainbow, writer/director Panos Cosmatos has a thing for: 1983, color distortion, slow warped dialogue, and drugs. Late period Nicolas Cage is perfect for the crazy world in which Panos creates. Availble on VOD and unfortunately showing in a few select cities, Mandy should be a film you experience in a movie theater.
Episode fifty-eight is a film so sleazy, it is the literal definition of schlock: Cheap or inferior goods or material; trash. 1976’s The Incredible Torture Show, better known as Blood Sucking Freaks when Troma acquired the film and rereleased it in the 80’s is a flick that was eventually banned during its original release following protests by the group Women Against Pornography. Troma had the film cut to gain an R rating but sneakily sent the unrated print to theaters behind the MPAA’s back. The films star, Seamus O'Brien was stabbed to death by a male prostitute in his apartment less than a year after filming wrapped. The female lead Viau Krem was “accidentally” shot on a hunting trip in 1983. Luis De Jesus, the fun loving murderous midget died in the mid 80’s as well. This movie in not safe for work, and also not safe for society.
Episode fifty-seven is the final bite in PsychotroniCast's Cannibal Series. Released in 1973 and starring Marianna Hill (The Baby, High Plains Drifter), Messiah of Evil is a low budget masterpiece of mood and atmosphere. Taking inspiration from the booming art house films of the 1960's director/writer duo: Willard Huych and Gloria Katz (the writers behind American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as well as Howard the Duck) infuse their directional debut with a healthy dose of H.P. Lovecraft and Michelangelo Antonioni turning their locations of Malibu, Burbank and Los Angeles into a gothic vision of southern California that looks forward to the mysterious world of David Lynch.
Continuing our journey through cannibal films with a double dose of human carnage! Starting off with one of the most influential horror films most people haven’t seen, the grisly 1932 masterpiece The Most Dangerous Game, from the same team who would unleash King Kong on world a year later. This tale of Russian Count Zaroff living on a remote island, and his perverse desire for new game to hunt has had countless imitators, possibly even including the Zodiac killer. Made over 40 years later, our second feature Countess Perverse, is one of these imitations. Though far from being a lazy remake, the brilliant Jess Franco turns the material into something truly his own, with gorgeous barely clad babes, eye popping locations, and the most succulent meals. Bon Appétit!
Episode fifty-five: Emanuelle and The Last Cannibals! Fifty episodes later, the time has come for Alec and Derek to pick back up with nymphomaniac photojournalist Emanuelle (Laura Gemser). Taking place shortly after the globe trotting escapades of Emanuelle in America, this time director Joe D’Amato sends our horny heroine and her stylish squad (including Gabriele Tinti and Nieves Navarro) to bang their way through the remotest jungles of Brazil in search of a lost tribe of cannibals. As an early entry in the Italian cannibal bonanza, Emanuelle And The Last Cannibals stands apart for peppering the gut-munching with a heaping dose of gonzo sex scenes, and trades the usual stomach turning animal cruelty for a chimpanzee with a smoking habit! Buckle up and listen! psychotronicast.com
psychotronicast.com Episode 54 kicks off a series of films about those with an appetite for humanity. Alec and Derek begin this trek though anthropophagy with Paul Bartel’s classic comedy Eating Raoul. Paul and Mary Bland -Paul Bartel and Mary Waronov respectively, are a couple of straight laced gourmands with big dreams of opening a country kitchen in Valencia, yet can barely scrounge money for rent. To make matters worse their apartment building is infested with unhinged sex-crazed swingers, as well as a sexy young burglar Raoul - Robert Beltran. Will Paul and Mary answer when opportunity knocks? Will they succumb to the immoral vices of early 80’s L.A.? Will they finally open their restaurant in Valencia? And what exactly are in those tacos? Listen to find out!
Episode 53 Alec and Derek conclude their series of queer films with the Wachowski’s 1996 Lesbian neo-noir debut Bound.
Ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) begins a new life after a stint in prison when she encounters neighboring thug Caesar - a psychotronicast theme! (Joe Pantoliano) and his seductive moll Violet (Jennifer Tilly). The ladies heat things up in short order and in true James M. Cain fashion, the conspiring lovers hatch a plan to secure the fate of their futures as well as a mob owned suitcase filled with two million dollars. With a white-knuckle script, striking visual flair that would put the Wachowski’s on the map, and star turns from the incredible Tilly and Gershon, Bound succeeds in being both a gripping erotic thriller and one of the best crime films of the ‘90s.
Episode fifty-two takes Alec and Derek underground on this journey into the outer reaches of queer cinema. Thundercrack! the mutant lovechild of director Curt McDowell and legendary underground superstar George Kuchar, combines hoary old dark house conventions, soap opera melodrama, with anything goes hardcore pornography, and witty whip-cracking dialogue that leaves the viewer in a constant state of joyous disbelief. Despite its epic roadshow length of 160 minutes that justifies a 10 minute intermission, Thundercrack! never seems to run out of new ideas that keep it continually entertaining. Truly a singular piece of psychotronic sleaze!
sode fifty-one picks up where we left off exploring queer focused cult films. This time Alec and Derek take a look at Toshio Matsumoto’s 1969 kaleidoscopic reimagining of Oedipus Rex, Funeral Parade Of Roses (薔薇の葬列). Eddie, played by Japanese trans star Peter, works her way up the hierarchy of late 60’s Tokyo gay bars, by dancing, screwing and serving killer looks with her band of fellow queers and hippies, while gradually sinking into the depths of familial tragedy. This experimental masterpiece of the Japanese new wave, mixes genres and cinematic techniques, and would prove a major influence on Stanley Kubrick’s classic A Clockwork Orange. It’s power hasn’t dimmed in the fifty years since its release.
June being the month of Pride Alec and Derek will be watching a small group of queer cult films, each one worth checking out! Beginning with a film which courted controversy before the cameras even began rolling. William Friedkin’s American giallo Cruising. Al Pacino huffs poppers and sweats his tank top in the pre-AIDS New York leather scene, hunting for serial killer targeting gay men. Protested, heavily edited, championed and even partially reimagined, Cruising continues to be a fascinating piece of queer oriented film.
Episode forty-nine is a double feature unlike any other. 1973's Black Caesar and 1931's Little Caesar vaguely follow the same plot outline, but nothing else seems to share the same characteristics. Except the two lead actors in their respected film do one thing in correlation: being badass mother fuckers. Edward G. Robinson as Little and Fred Williamson as Black are the Caesars you should build statues for, like their boy Julius.
Episode forty-eight covers a film that is still in theaters, which is a first for PsychotroniCast. You Were Never Really Hereis an instant classic directed by the brilliant Lynne Ramsay and starring the greatest actor working today (Daniel Day Lewis is retired) Joaquin Phoenix. Without giving anything away, we believe the best way to go into this movie is blind. Please go see this film while it is still in theaters and then listen to this podcast.
Alec takes over programing for an episode and has Derek sit down and watch his favorite episode of Atlanta.
Alec and Derek cover no doubt the darkest movie in this history of PsychotroniCast; but still have a good time doing it.
The Post Apocalyptic Sci-Fi movie black has officially begun! Derek explains why he would go anywhere to anytime with Rod Taylor, while Alec would be just fine with Yvette Milieux on the isle of lazy idiots.
The pirates at PsychotroniCast talk bad ass babes in turtle necks running through the hot jungle and making prison their bitch in the final installment of Blaxploitation Month.
Alec and Derek talk taking over LA in twenty minutes and being stranded on a beach with a samurai.
Alec and Derek get down on one of the best midnight movies and a soundtrack compared to none in this Hall of Fame episode of PsychotroniCast.
Alec and Derek begin their 2nd annual Blaxploitation month with Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained.
Alec and Derek conclude their Italian Crime saga Fernando Di Leo's 1974 classic: Shoot First, Die Later
With a director this nice, Alec and Derek have to do a podcast on him twice. Mario Bava returns for part three of PsychotroniCasts' Italian Crime Series.
Part two of PsychotroniCasts' Italian crime saga jumps in a car with Fabio Testi and rolls down a hill.
There's not enough white drugs in America to make Alec and Derek get on Thomas Milian's level in the Italian crime thriller Almost Human aka The Death Dealer.
Alec and Derek feel so good, feel so good, feel so good, feel so good, feel sooooooooooo good after watching the Polish masterpiece, "The Lure". Fuck La La Land, this is the musical everyone should be taking should of been talking about in this last decade.
Santa's little helpers talk Santa Drag, Christmas kink, and who's been naughty and nice. The 1980 film, "Christmas Evil" will bring that out of you.