Movie Oubliette (Dan and Conrad)

Conrad fights his way through a swarm of flies to pluck the second Amityville movie out of the oubliette, unwittingly exposing Dan to a tale of possession, pulsating arm bulges and inexplicable incest. Should Damiano Damiani's 1982 sequel be exorcised or excommunicated?

Dan takes Conrad on a visit to his home country, but the duo is surrounded by flesh-eating bundles of wool! Will they let the Kiwi horror comedy Black Sheep (2006) back into the fold?

Conrad and Dan are joined by Serge Bodnarchuk (writer/director from Cold Crash Pictures) and discover that their maiden voyage to Mars aboard Capricorn One is all a lie! Should they give this 1978 sci-fi conspiracy thriller clearance to launch?

Conrad and Dan are joined by director David Bruckner (The Ritual), who resurrects Cemetery Man: a surreal horror comedy gothic romantic fantasy from 1993 starring Rupert Everett. Should it be released from the graveyard?

Dan and Conrad celebrate the 30th anniversary of Dead Calm: the first movie in which Billy Zane was unpleasant on a boat. He terrorises a 19-year-old Nicole Kidman and hubby Sam Neill in Phillip Noyce's nautical thriller. Does it hold water or is it a wash out?

Dan unleashes a horde of Demons from the oubliette, exposing Conrad to Lamberto Bava's 1985 action horrorfest Dèmoni for the first time. There's hysterical wall patting, seat removing and punks driving around Berlin listening to Go West. There has to be an explanation! Will our heroes infest the world with this demonic plague?

Happy Halloween! We celebrate the season and our 13th episode by revisiting Halloween H20. Does Jamie Lee Curtis's (first) final battle with Michael Myers stand the test of time, or did it deserve to be retconned?

Dan and Conrad venture into 80s fantasy Ladyhawke to discover a medieval Ferris Bueller monologuing to God, Rutger Hauer brooding on a dressage horse and Michelle Pfeiffer morphing into a bird of prey. Will they break the curse?

Catherine Mary Stewart brings Melancholia to the Oublietteers... that is, the Lars von Trier apocalyptic sci-fi drama, not a case of the blues. The gang have more fun talking about depression and the end of the world than one might reasonably expect, but does the film deserve to be set free or should it be set on a planetary collision course with oblivion?

Happy New Year! In this special end-of-year episode, we take a look back over our first year of podcasting and answer all of your #AskMeAnything questions. Have a great 2019, everyone!

Conrad and Dan awake from hypersleep to discover they're stuck in a noughties sci-fi flick with Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster. Should 'Pandorum' be released to colonise a virgin planet, or thrown into the cargo hold to be devoured by pale humanoid cannibals?

Conrad and Dan venture into Don Coscarelli's dream-like Phantasm (1979) and find themselves dodging flying balls and homicidal jawas in the Tall Man's mausoleum. Is it genre-bending genius or a shaggy gopher-on-heat story?

Dan and Conrad are pushed into watching Push (2009), the first ever listener's choice movie from the Oubliette Roulette! It features Chris Evans in his second superhero role as a telekinetic on the run in Hong Kong. Is the film pushing it or are our hosts a pushover?

Dan lets Razorback out of the oubliette so that Conrad can experience the fine Australian tradition of being hunted by a maneating pig the size of a Rhino. Should Russell Mulcahy's 1984 revenge-of-nature shocker be released into the wild? Wakey, wakey, hands off snakey!

Dan and Conrad Return... to Oz! Disney's belated and berated sequel to the beloved musical classic bombed in 1985, but does it deserve a re-evaluation?

Conrad plucks Saturn 3 out of the oubliette and Dan has to contend with Harvey Keitel with his voice dubbed, Farrah Fawcett turning on a homicidal robot and Kirk Douglas getting into naked fist fights. Neither of them notice they've picked a film with '3' in the title as their third episode. Will they give this sci-fi oddity access to the escape pod?

Conrad introduces Dan to Society, and it's quite the coming out party. Our antipodean adventurer has to contend with 1989 hairstyles, tea with a splash of urine, and yuppies taking the concept of mergers to a whole new level. Blanchard! Will our heroes allow Brian Yuzna's film to go forth and shunt the world?

Star Trek: Voyager's Manu Intiraymi joins us for our Christmas special to discuss Space Station 76, a retro-70s sci-fi comedy drama starring Liv Tyler and Patrick Wilson in which a meteor strike threatens to break up the most awkward office Christmas party ever. Do they deserve to escape certain doom and the oubliette?

Writer/director Jacob Gentry introduces Conrad and Dan to Brian De Palma's The Fury (1978) and tries to convince them that the world needs to see 61-year-old Kirk Douglas's shirtless parkour and Amy Irving exploding people with her mind. Will he win the movie's freedom from the oubliette?

Sarah Daly of Hex Studios joins Conrad and Dan as they venture into Hill House to experience The Haunting, which celebrates its 55th anniversary today!

Dan and Conrad gaze long into the oubliette, and 'The Hole' gazes back at them! It all gets a bit meta as they revisit Joe Dante's sprightly 3D horror extravaganza, which disappeared without a trace in 2009. Do they conquer their worst fears?

Conrad and Dan find The Stuff (1985) oozing out of the oubliette. Will they get addicted to Larry Cohen's evil dessert, which threatens to enslave America? Or is enough really enough?

Dan and Conrad dig up The Vanishing (1993), the scorned Hollywood remake of a dark psychological thriller, and re-appraise it with writer/director Travis Milloy.

In their first childhood nostalgia special, Conrad and Dan take a look at Willow – a 1988 fantasy adventure directed by Ron 'Solo' Howard. It has everything: robotic baby stand-ins, the first ever CGI morphing effect and Val Kilmer. Is it a classic deserving release from the oubliette or a travesty best viewed through nostalgia goggles?

Only two British horror films were released in theatres in the 80s. The second was the seminal classic Hellraiser (1987). Alas, the oubliette presents Dan and Conrad with the first: Xtro (1982). It has a shocking alien birth scene, a black panther and a future Bond girl. But is it worth saving from obscurity?

Belated sequels to monumental, genre-defining classics always walk on a knife edge! They can be a worthwhile elaboration upon the original, recontextualised for a new era, or they can be cynical cashgrabs forever consigned as a footnote to cinema history. Australian director Richard Franklin's Psycho II (1983) benefits from returning cast members Vera Miles and, of course, Anthony Perkins, a twisty turny psychological mystery script from Fright Night's Tom Holland, a disturbing score from Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography from John Carpenter regular Dean Cundey. But is it just a pretender in a classic movie's clothes? Or should it be released from custody to set up a new franchise? Find out!

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Matt Swaford of the Endless Bullets: The Action Movie Podcast joins us for this special Iconicon 2022 crossover event, and brings with him a buddy cop zombie action movie we've never heard of: Dead Heat (1988). It stars Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Lindsay Frost and Vincent Price – yes, you read that right – is directed by legendary editor Mark Goldblatt (The Terminator) and written by Terry Black (brother of Shane 'Die Hard' Black), with incredible special effects by Steve Johnson. But is it a gem that should be reanimated in Vincent's resurrection machine, or a deservedly forgotten relic that should dissolve into human slime? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad find themselves exiled to a leafy island that looks suspiciously like Queensland in this episode, where they explore Martin Campbell's No Escape (1994) – an airy, outdoor adventure set in the distant future of 2022. It stars Ray Liotta as the scarred military vet convicted for shooting his CO after he covered up a war crime, who teams up with fellow inmates Lance Henriksen, Ernie Hudson and Kevin Dillon to defeat the evil Stuart Wilson's 'tribe' of sadistic killers and expose the greater evils of private prisons. Produced on a $20 million budget by Gale Anne Hurd, the movie got Campbell the gig directing GoldenEye (1995), but quickly vanished from theatres. But does it deserve early release from the oubliette to ease 90s prison movie overcrowding? Or should it be hurled back in with no chance of parole? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad find themselves in the neon purple and green world of Vamp (1986), the often overlooked eighties vampire movie starring Grace Jones, Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler, Dedee Pfeiffer and Gedde Watanabe. Fortunately, they have an expert to guide them: Heather Wixson, Managing Editor of Daily Dead and co-host of its excellent podcast Corpse Club. Vamp features an indescribable performance by the iconoclastic Jones, cinematography that defined the 80s for a generation of graphic designers and one of the best buddy relationships captured on film... but does it deserve to be resurrected or will it burn into nothingness when brought into the light? Find out!

Follow Heather Wixson on Twitter, read her articles on Daily Dead and check out the Corpse Club podcast! 

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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.

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Retrospective reviewer extraordinaire, documentary filmmaker and action movie editor Oliver Harper joins us to probe the dark recesses of The Shadow (1994) – Russell Mulcahy's would-be summer blockbuster superhero adventure starring Alec Baldwin, Penelope Ann Miller, Jone Lone, Peter Boyle, Tim Curry and Ian McKellan (pre-Sir!). It has an action packed soundtrack from Jerry Goldsmith, a hero with mind control abilities locked in mortal combat with the last descendent of Genghis Khan, and a Taylor Dayne end title power ballad. What more could you want?! Well, moviegoers in 1994 who were hooked on Speed wanted a lot more, and stayed away in droves. But were they wrong? Who knows? The Shadow knows!

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Continuing our theme of exploring sequels to films we cover in the main feed, it was only natural that we'd want to follow the surprisingly good Psycho II (1983) with the surprisingly bad Psycho III (1986) in our Patreon feed. On paper, it looked like a slam dunk: Anthony Perkins was returning to his iconic role as Norman Bates and taking up the director's chair for the first time; the writer is Charles Edward Pogue, who was simultaneously drawing attention for his take on The Fly (1986); and it picks up at the motel barely weeks after the shocking finale of the second film. What could go wrong? Pretty much everything, it turns out.

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Dan and Conrad join the ranks of the best and the brightest (and bored billionaires) as they blast off into low Earth orbit with Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson, Tate Donovan, Larry B. Scott, Kelly Preston and a Leaf-like Joaquin Phoenix (yet to fully bloom in this early role). Yup! Our Patreons forced us to sign up for SpaceCamp (1986), the sci-fi adventure whose release was timed to capitalise on the teacher-in-space excitement of the Space Shuttle Challenger's 10th mission... but sadly limped out into the box office in the wake of a national tragedy. But, crucially, is this tale of teenage teamwork and survival against the odds an overlooked inspirational boost or just a painful memory? Find out!

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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!

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RetroBlasting's Michael French beams Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) out of the oubliette and forces Conrad and Dan to explore this sci-fi riff on The Seven Samurai (1954) starring Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Sybil Danning and Darlanne Fleugel. It's exploitation entrepreneur Roger Corman's transparent attempt to cash-in on the Star Wars phenomenon, with a naive farm boy blasting into space to find mercenaries who will protect his peace loving, beige-wearing planet from the evil Sador and his planet-killing superweapon. But crucially, is it any good? And what does Michael make of it? Find out!

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Conrad and Dan strap on asbestos leggings and propel themselves back in time to 1991 for the nostalgic family action/adventure The Rocketeer. Set in the Art Deco glamour of 1938 Los Angeles, it stars Bill Campbell as the daredevil pilot who stumbles upon a prototype jetpack and puts himself and his partner, Jenny (the breathtaking Jennifer Connolly), in the crosshairs of a mob gang lead by Paul Sorvino and the Nazis, led by secret spy and silver screen icon Neville (dashing but dangerous Timothy Dalton, in one of his first post-Bond roles). It has an adventuresome score by James Horner, VFX by ILM and is helmed by ILM-alumni and future Captain America director Joe Johnston. But why didn't it take off in 1991? And does it soar now? Find out!

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In this Patron's Choice episode, we're venturing into the territory of sword and sorcery master Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane (2009), M. J. Bassett's largely forgotten action adventure film starring James Purefoy as the brutal privateer turned Puritan avenger on a quest to rescue a young pilgrim girl from an evil sorcerer. This one vanished without a trace after a bungled release in the US, where it was held up by legal issues, so few genre fans had a chance to witness its glorious locations, gritty tone, bone crunching action and stunning stunts on the big screen. But does it stand the test of time, or is it an unremarkable addition to the post-Lord-of-the-Rings high fantasy boom of the noughties? Find out!

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Happy Halloween! We're going into an extreme form of lockdown with special guest Meagan Navarro, lead critic at Bloody Disgusting, to revisit Tom Savini's remake of Night of the Living Dead, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this week! Starring Patricia Tallman and Tony Todd, this update remodels Romero's classic into a siege thriller for our times, with updated effects, a few twists and a kick-ass Barbara. But is it a worthwhile entry in the zombie apocalypse tradition worth revisiting or is it a shambling, rotten shadow of its former self? Find out!

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Happy holidays, listeners! As a little treat, we'd like to give you a bonus episode for the holiday season: a collection of interviews with the cast and composer of Disney's One Magic Christmas. It includes a full version of our chat with the lovely Elisabeth Harnois, who played Abbie Grainger, as well as new interviews with Rob Magwood, who played her older brother, Cal, and the celebrated composer Michael Conway Baker, who provided the score. All of them were a delight to speak to and so generous with their time, sharing hilarious and heartwarming memories from the making of the movie.

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, sharing time with loved ones however you can while keeping safe. We can't wait to share more with you again in the New Year! – Dan and Conrad

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The incredible Vincenzo Natali, director of Cube, Splice and In the Tall Grass, joins us to explore Paul Verhoeven's final Dutch-language film before he launched his Hollywood career: The Fourth Man (1983). It's a visually stunning, darkly erotic thriller, with a Hitchcockian blonde, eye-popping and leg-crossing effects, and some subversive religious imagery. But is this hard-to-find tale of a drunken writer encountering a sultry widow of not one but three husbands a mischievous treasure... or a fever dream best forgotten? Find out!

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Happy Halloween! Duncan Skiles, director of the chilling The Clovehitch Killer and the forthcoming comedy thriller Neighborhood Watch, went trick or treating into the oubliette and brought back a Peeping Tom. This proto-slasher from Michael Powell, one half of the famous British duo Powell and Pressburger, emerged in the same year as Hitchcock's Psycho and explores similar territory: a handsome, unassuming man with a homicidal compulsion spurred by parental abuse.

But while one film was an instant box office sensation that became a landmark in horror history, the other was savaged by scandalised critics and destroyed its director's career. Rescued from obscurity over a decade later by Martin Scorsese, Peeping Tom has become an influential cult favourite. But does it deserve to escape the oubliette with a fulsome sack of calorific treats? Or should it be thrown back with some candy corn and a rotten apple? Find out!

Follow Duncan Skiles on Instagram, Facebook or his website! Look out for Neighbourhood Watch in Spring 2025.

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Conrad shows Dan the little-seen supernatural psychological drama, The Sender (1982) – a British production starring Kathryn Harrold, Željko Ivanek, Shirley Knight and Paul 'Belloq' Freeman, and directed by Oscar-winning production designer Roger Christian. Ivanek plays John Doe 83, a mysterious young man admitted to a psychiatric hospital after walking into the sea with rocks in his pockets. Suffering from amnesia, but obviously the victim of some trauma, Doe fascinates Dr Gail Farmer (Harrold), who discovers the boy is able to project his nightmares into other people's minds. Who is he? Who is the mysterious woman who keeps appearing randomly and claiming to be his mother? And is this film obscure for a good reason? Find out!

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Michael French of RetroBlasting joins us on a quest to Valhalla with Erik the Viking (1989) – Monty Python alumni Terry Jones' fantasy film starring Tim Robbins, Samantha Bond, Imogen Stubbs, Eartha Kitt, Mickey Rooney and John Cleese. This is the second historical adventure film from ex-Pythons we've covered this year that attempts to avoid treading on the comedy troupe's large coat-tails and trips rather spectacularly, stumbling out of the box office top 20 in under a week with less than $2 million on a $15 million budget. But is Erik's earnest quest to end the violent days of Ragnorok an overlooked rib-tickling masterwork or a tedious misfire? Find out!

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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!

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Conrad and Dan find themselves in the Arizona wilderness, watching the genre-defying, fast-and-furious road racing, sci-fi fantasy horror revenge thriller The Wraith (1986). It features Charlie Sheen as new boy in town Jake, who just may or may not be the reincarnation of murdered local hero Jamie and may or may not be the alter ego of a mysterious black-clad racing driver who's picking off the members of the gang who killed him while driving his super futuristic concept car. Is anyone following this? No? Neither are we, frankly, but luckily we have Sherilyn Fenn, Randy Quaid, Clint Howard, Nick Cassavetes and a killer 80s soundtrack to distract us!

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Conrad and Dan visit one of the scariest places in the world right now – a suburban grocery store – to check out a lesser-known horror thriller from the creative team behind The Evil Dead movies: Intruder (1989). The night shift staff of Walnut Lake Market are being picked off one by one by a bloodthirsty maniac, but is it the leatherclad bad boy ex-boyfriend of plucky final checkout girl, Jennifer, or someone much more unexpected? Featuring notorious gruesome death sequences and small roles for Sam Raimi, Ted Raimi and Bruce Campbell, is Scott Spiegel's tongue-in-cheek video nasty a bargain bin gem or a footnote in the Book of the Dead? 

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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.

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Conrad and Dan are down under again, celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Spierig Brothers first feature film, Undead, a chucklesome zombie-and-alien-visitation action extravaganza made on a shoestring budget with a "she'll be right" attitude. This 50s B-movie made in 2003 has wit and inventiveness galore, a vivacious ensemble cast and a score so cheesy it should come with a lactose-intolerance warning, but, crucially, does it stand the test of time or is it better left buried alongside a triple-double-barrell shotgun? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad visit the strangely familiar world of Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, a groundbreaking 3D animated sci-fi fantasy adventure celebrating its 35th anniversary this week! It tells the story of a callow blonde youth who discovers a magical sword and goes on a quest to free the galaxy from a tyrannical empire lead by a sinister man with a penchant for black capes and throttling people. They're joined by the composer of the film's lavish score, Andrew Belling, who enthusiastically shares many behind-the-scenes memories and fascinating anecdotes, while being a generally wonderful man. But is the film an undiscovered 80s sci-fi gem or should it be consigned to the VHS bargain bin?

Find out more about Andrew Belling at http://www.morbroproductions.com

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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!

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One of our Patreons nominated Eddie Murphy's notorious 2003 sci-fi action 'comedy' The Adventures of Pluto Nash for this episode, which on paper should have been promising. Its star was coming off a string of family-friendly comedies like The Nutty Professor, Dr. Dolittle and Shrek. Its supporting cast includes Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, Joe Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Pam Grier and John Cleese. It's directed by quirky action/comedy wunderkind Ron Underwood of Tremors fame and has a budget north of $100 million. What could possibly go wrong?! A lot, it turns out. Quite a lot. But despite being the biggest box office flop of all time when it was released, it hasn't emerged as either a reclaimed cult classic or a so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure... it's been largely forgotten. So, let's take a look at this curio and decide whether we're over the moon with it... or hitting the abort button before it causes collateral damage!

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Stuart Gordon's post-apocalyptic sci-fi featuring gladiatorial battles between giant mechs has to be one of Empire Pictures' most instantly recognisable titles, sitting proudly on video rental stores worldwide. Starring Gary Graham and Anne-Marie Johnson as the brave robot jockeys and Paul Koslo as their ruthless enemy, Robot Jox could be the brightest and breeziest dystopian action movie ever made. It was also one of the most ambitious film Charles Band's mini-major studio ever attempted, and may have precipitated the fall of his Empire! But does it live up to our childhood memories? Or is it as cringe-inducing as a fondly remembered Saturday morning cartoon? Find out!

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Melinda Mock of RetroBlasting takes us back to 1912 to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Somewhere in Time (1980), the time travel romance starring Superman-era Christopher Reeve and radiant beauty Jane Seymour, directed by the late Jeannot Szwarc based on a novel by Richard Matheson. Should these star-crossed lovers be re-united in the afterlife of their box office obscurity, or should they be doomed never to wander the shores of Mackinac Island?

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Chris McKay, director of the thrilling horror comedy Renfield, joins us for our Halloween special for a tour of one of his favourite haunted house movies: The Legend of Hell House, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. It features a rag-tag group of psychics and physicians investigating a notoriously evil abode once inhabited by a deranged megalomaniac whose hobbies included bestiality, necrophilia and "a gamut of sexual goodies". Based on a novel by Richard Matheson and directed by John Hough, this 70s take on The Haunting stars Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill and Gayle Hunnicutt and features homicidal chandeliers, ninja cats and Roddy slapping a naked woman. But crucially, is it a spooktacular des res or a footnote in the haunted house listings? Find out!

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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?

Bloody Disgusting's Joe Lispett joins us to share his love of 90s erotic thrillers and revisit one of the most-overlooked entries in the genre: A Perfect Murder (1998), Andrew Davis's remake of Hitchcock's Dial 'M' for Murder starring the obligatory Michael Douglas, the permanently gaslit Gwyneth Paltrow and steamy pre-Aragorn Viggo Mortensen. It's a twisty turny tale of sex, inheritances, Chernobyl-level stock market meltdowns and murder with a meat thermometer – but does it deserve to get away from the oubliette scot-free or should it be permanently lost along with Gwyneth's apartment key?

Follow Joe Lipsett on Twitter, check out his podcast Horror Queers and read his writings on Bloody Disgusting. Because he's awesomesauce. 

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Director Mark Pellington joins us to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of The Mothman Prophecies, a quietly disturbing supernatural thriller starring Richard Gere as a grief-stricken journalist who finds himself in a small West Virginia town helping a local police officer, Laura Linney, investigate a series of escalating unexplainable events. Based on a true account of a tragic disaster in Point Pleasant, the film's unique visual and audio style was hugely influential, but how does it hold up 20 years later? Find out!

Follow Mark Pellington on Twitter and be sure to check out his new dance film The Severing, with premieres at the Slamdance Film Festival this week!

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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!

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Conrad and Dan are exposed to Elvira for the very first time in this Patreon's Choice episode, and watch with delight as the busty horror movie host scandalises the small, conservative town she visits in search of her past... and the money she needs to fund her Vegas debut. Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) stars Cassandra Peterson as the irrepressible Elvira, E. Morgan Sheppard as her scheming great uncle Vinnie, Daniel Green as the naive town hunk, Bob, and Edie McClurg as the hilariously shrewish Chastity Pariah. It's the kind of comedy they don't make any more, but it that a sad or a good thing? Does Elvira work for a dumbfounded international audience? Find out!

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Saurian cinema connoisseur Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins Dan as guest co-host for a dinosaur sci-fi horror adventure from 1993. No, not that one. This is Movie Oubliette! It's the low-budget Roger Corman production Carnosaur, starring Laura Dern's mom, Diane Ladd, and Bryce Dallas Howard's uncle, Clint Howard! This adaptation of John Brosnan's novel hit 65 theatres a few weeks before Spielberg's blockbuster romped into box office history. Featuring astonishing special effects from Troll director John Carl Buechler, this alleged mockbuster is without doubt the scrappy underdog, but is it a charming creature feature that deserves to be rescued? Find out!

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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!

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In our third and final bonus episode covering highlights from the Toronto International Film Festival, friend of the pod Joe Lipsett joins Conrad to review three haunted house movies from this year's programme: Steven Soderbergh's bold ghost P.O.V. mystery Presence, Karrie Crouse and Will Joines' dusty western Hold Your Breath, and Nick Toti and Rachel Kempf's rarely screened found footage chiller It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This. Conrad also reports on Mike Flanagan's latest Stephen King adaptation, the warm-hearted but oddly structured The Life of Chuck.

Check out Joe Lipsett on Instagram and the Horror Queers podcast for more of his reviews from the festival and other fabulousness.

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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!

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Happy spooky season! Actor and producer Lotta Losten makes a welcome return to the oubliette for our Halloween Special and weaves some Practical Magic on us! This bewitching rom-com, starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the enchanting Owens sisters, failed to cast a spell on the box office when it was released during this week 24 years ago (!), but has found a special place in the hearts of many viewers since. Should it be given a broomstick and allowed to soar off the roof this Halloween, or should it be banished from the world like a warty toad? Find out!

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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!

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Dan and Conrad go on a quest to rediscover Season of the Witch (2011), a supernatural medieval adventure starring Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as crusaders with a conscience, charged with safely transporting a young Claire Foy to a monastery where she'll stand trial for witchcraft in general and causing the Black Death in particular. They're joined by a merry band that includes The Umbrella Academy's Robert Sheehan, Foy's then future/now past husband Stephen Campbell More and Stephen Graham, all sporting a range of mid-Atlantic accents regardless of their provenance. Is this forgotten Dominic Sena actioner a spellbinding grail or a bubonic boil waiting to be lanced? Does it at least have any classic Cage moments? Find out!

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Film critic and Horror Queers co-host Joe Lipsett joins us to explore the body snatching invasion thriller The Puppet Masters (1994), an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's 1951 sci-fi novel starring Donald Sutherland, Eric Thal, Julie Warner, Keith David, Will Patton and Yaphet Kotto. Astonishing practical effects abound as parasitic manta rays from space leap merrily onto the backs of unsuspecting cast members, turning them into mindless drones bent on world domination. Their only giveaway? They have no interest whatsoever in Julie Warner's cleavage. Seriously, this is a plot point. It's gleeful straight-to-video fun from the height of the X-Files era, but does it hold up? Find out!

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Writer, director and actor Lars Henriks returns to help us through another odd 80s film featuring fangs and eccentric performances: Vampire's Kiss (1988). That's right! Long before Nicolas Cage portrayed the most famous vampire of them all in this year's horror comedy Renfield, he played Peter Loew – a yuppie literary agent who becomes convinced he's a bloodsucking creature of the night after a terrifying one-night stand with the alluring Rachel (Jennifer Beals). But is it real, or is he an American psycho who's a dick to his secretary (Mario Conchito Alonso)? And will every single scene of Cage's unhinged performance become an internet meme?! Find out as we delve into the film behind so many memorable gifs to find out if there's black comedy gold to be mined or if it's a $3.99 set of plastic novelty teeth.

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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!

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We're back! For our first episode of 2023, we're joined by our good friend Isaac Sutton, who invites us to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Guillermo del Toro's first feature film: the Christmas/New Year steampunk vampire tale, Cronos. As the great man explained, a director's first feature sets out their cinematic universe – and this is never more true than in this case. We have a mute central character, a child and a grandfatherly figure, a mystical insect, and the humans are the real monsters. Oh, and Ron Perlman. You gotta have Ron Perlman! But should it be granted eternal life or should it be locked away in an angelic statue and forgotten by all except GdT aficionados? Find out!

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Christian Bale backflipped out of the oubliette dual-toting pistols, so we're forced to contend with Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium (2002) – a sci-fi action extravaganza set in a totalitarian state where everyone has to complete the Kolinahr ritual and avoid content creation of any kind. Also starring Emily Watson, Taye Diggs and Sean Bea (although, of course, not for long), the film faceplanted on its release in December 2002 and has been dismissed as a lukewarm second serving of The Matrix (1999) ever since. Does everyone need to take a chill pill and appreciate this high-concept actioner for what it is? Or was everyone right first time? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad venture into the Forbidden Zone in stunning 80s 3D for this episode, with only a 14-year-old Molly Ringwald as their guide,Peter Strauss as their store-brand Han Solo hero and Ernie Hudson as... I dunno... someone who is also there? It's 80s b-movie sci-fi at its finest, as the world-weary bounty hunter Wolff (with two 'f's) drives across a desert planet to rescue three supermodels from the clutches of the mutant dictator, Overdog, played by Michael Ironside, whose attempts to chew scenery are frustrated by his being strapped to a camera crane throughout the movie. It's an obvious cashgrab aping both Star Wars and Mad Max, but does it deserve to linger in the Oubliette forever? Find out!

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Actor, filmmaker and theatre director Lars Henriks makes a return visit to the oubliette and plucks out Ken Russell's 1988 adaptation of Bram Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm. And what a sight it is to behold: future timelord, Peter Capaldi, charms a vampire/snake monster by playing the bagpipes in regulation kilt; a pre-Four Weddings Hugh Grant chops a woman in half with a broadsword; and the stunning but bewildering Amanda Donohoe drowns a Boy Scout in her jacuzzi and slinks around in snake-themed fetish wear. But crucially, is it actually any good? Find out!

Follow Lars Henriks on TikTok, read his reviews on Letterboxd or look at him on Instagram! And check out his new film Covid Metamorphosen – a Christmas romcom that could easily be published in 'Weird Tales' – available for a limited time on Vimeo!

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A new Dungeons and Dragons movie arrives in theatres this month, so we thought we'd take a look back at the very first attempt to bring the beloved role-playing phenomenon to the screen. As two first-level novices, Dan and Conrad needed an expert Dungeon Master to guide them through this early 2000s CGI-fest, so the sage-like Michael French of RetroBlasting joins them. At least, he does until his Internet took pity and set him free from the spectacle of PlayStation 1 cut-screen establishing shots, Jeremy Irons devouring the scenery and spitting it venomously back out, and evil henchmen in frosty blue lipstick. The fantasy extravaganza directed by first-time helmer Courtney Solomon, featuring Justin Whalin, Marlon Wayans, Thora Birch, Zoe McLellan and Kristen Wilson is a much-maligned box office disaster, but is it a powerful gem just waiting to be rediscovered? Find out!

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Conrad and Dan discover the 1995 sci-fi fantasy drama Powder cowering away in the oubliette basement and drag it whimpering into the sunlight to see if it's the sort of baby you want to immediately disown in the maternity ward, or a misunderstood marvel that's "too beautiful for this world". The tale of a mysterious young man with a whiter-than-white complexion who seems to have supernatural powers, Powder could be a religious allegory or a heartwarming fable. But given that its writer/director is Victor Salva and the narrative keeps having to take a backseat to unjustifiable flashes of male nudity, the film could have a wholly different agenda. It stars Sean Patrick Flanery, Lance Henrikson, Mary Steenburgen and none other than Jeff Goldblum... which is quite a cast... and features a sumptuous score from Jerry Goldsmith. But, crucially, is it any good? And can we separate the art from the artist? Find out!

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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!

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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?

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!

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Conrad and Dan try not to get deja-vu as they watch a rag-tag bunch of futuristic soldiers on an alien planet battling bio-mechanical monsters, discovering a pre-pubescent kid clutching a toy is the only survivor, and getting to the escape ship only to realise there's one more monster to kill! No, it isn't Aliens – it's Screamers (1995). It stars Peter Weller as a grizzled philosophical man of war, Jennifer Rubin as a black market trader who greets people by stripping and sponge-bathing in front of them, and Andy Lauer as a solider called 'Ace'. Based on a Philip K. Dick story and a screenplay by Alien co-writer Dan O'Bannon, this has a serious pedigree – but should it be allowed aboard the escape ship or should it be eviscerated by semi-autonomous buzzsaws?

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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!

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Rob Hill, author of The Bad Movie Bible, joins us on a medieval adventure into the solo directorial debut of Terry Gilliam: Jabberwocky (1977). The comedy fantasy features a veritable 'who's who' of British comedy: three Pythons, music hall star Max Wall, Harry H. Corbett of 'Steptoe and Son', John Le Mesurier of 'Dad's Army', Warren Mitchell of 'In Sickness and In Health', and Carry On's Bernard Bresslaw. It also has everything you want in a hero's quest: a terrifying monster, brave knights, a beautiful princess... and public urination. It sits somewhere between the Gilliam we came to know and love, and the Monty Python traditions he was trying to leave behind. But does it work? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad join the British Armed Forces for a spot of hiking in the Scottish Highlands, only to find themselves in a siege horror surrounded by werewolves! Yes, Neil Marshall's debut feature Dog Soldiers (2002) has escaped its leash and scampered out of the oubliette for this episode. Often overshadowed by the director's wildly popular follow-up, The Descent (2005) – particularly in the U.S., where it didn't get a theatrical release – Dog Soldiers is a witty, action-packed lost patrol monster movie that punches above its weight and delivered some visceral practical werewolf goodness at a time when CGI was becoming a popular method of visualising lycanthropic transformations. But does it hold up 22 years later? Find out!

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Here's a sneak peek at our new Patreon exclusive minisode on C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989). This is the first time we've covered the sequel to a film we've covered in the main feed, and we had a blast!

If you like what you hear, head on over to www.patreon.com/movieoubliette and become a Patron to get hours of exclusive content, nominate films for us to cover and vote on the final verdict – all for $10 or less!

Vincenzo Natali (director of Cube, Splice, Haunter) introduces us to the little known sword and sorcery film, Conquest, directed by splatter gore master, Lucio Fulci. We deliberate over Mace's nunchucks, magical laser bows, bargain bin wolfmen and Ocron's wardrobe choices to decide whether Conquest is an ethereal journey into a ritualistic ruthless fantasy world or rather a fever dream you can't wake up from. Also there's buckets of blood! Conquest awaits! -----------------------------------------------------

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Dan and Conrad retreat back to their comfort zone of 80s cheese, only to be confronted by the relentless exuberant strangeness of W.D. Richter's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984). It has an incredible cast. Peter Weller stars the titular Buckaroo – a daredevil neuroscientist particle physicist new romantic rock star and secret agent – with none other than Jeff Goldblum and Clancy Brown in his A-Team like crew. Ranged against them are John Lithgow as an alien-possessed Italian scientist and Christopher Lloyd as his side-kick John Bigbooty (it's pronounced Bigbooté!). Nothing could prepare them for the dense, unfathomable world building of this anarchic sci-fi romp, but crucially... is it actually any good? Or it is just a relic of the cocaine-fuelled 80s? Find out!

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Dan and Conrad take a trip to Ireland and learn all the customs of quaint village life in 1986: digging up ancient pagan demi-gods, burning their hands on tablecloths and urinating on vicars in graveyards. That's right – we're exploring Rawhead Rex, the first of Clive Barker's Books of Blood stories to be adapted for film. But is it a hitherto unrecognised saint or is it the spawn of evil? Find out!

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Robert Picardo joins us as we celebrate the 35th anniversary of Joe Dante's Explorers, the wistful and wild tale of three school friends who build a spaceship and set off for a close encounter of the Wak-y kind. Featuring the debuts of both Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix, this sci-fi adventure also includes not one but three memorable performances from Robert Picardo. He shares his memories of making this underrated cult classic, the challenges of working in Rob Bottin's elaborate make-up effects and his thoughts on the tonal differences between the film's two halves.

All this, plus our usual review of the film, which is one of Conrad's childhood favourites, but completely alien (pun intended) to Dan. Does it live up to Conrad's hype? Does it have the same effect without the filter of nostalgia goggles? 

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We're back at last! And what better way to start the year than being reunited with FilmJoy's Mikey Neumann and Zoe Wells for another Kevin Costner apocalypse movie? This time it's 1997's The Postman – the tale of a travelling one-man-and-one-mule Shakespeare company who, after his acting partner is killed and turned into paste by a roving fascist militia, accidentally starts a religion around a basic infrastructure service that brings hope to the ragged survivors of the third world war. It's heartfelt. It's three hours long. It strangely features most of Kevin's children – in one case, as a townsperson who makes a pass at him. But is it a bloated vanity project or a hidden gem that's more relevant now than it was in the 90s? Find out!

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We challenge you to hear the title of this movie without the synth riff of a massive-haired 80s rock anthem popping into your head... Sorry, you'll be humming that all day now. Try blocking it out by listening to our examination of Don Taylor's 1980 sci-fi war fantasy, in which a U.S. aircraft carrier captained by Kirk Douglas is whisked through a James Bond title sequence into the past – the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, to be precise. Starring the U.S.S. Nimitz, lots of planes, more planes, and a cute dog... is this a forgotten gem of a movie that deserves to be restored to its place in film history? Or is it a waterlogged floater that deserves to be flushed?! Find out!

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Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins us on an adventure to the world of Krull (1983) – a unique blend of swashbuckling fantasy and laser blasting science fiction starring Ken Marshall and Lysette Anthony as star-crossed lovers whose wedding is cruelly interrupted by an alien invasion. Armed with the coolest and most impractical weapon ever, our hero teams up with robbers, inept wizards and a cyclops to rescue the damsel. Among his merry band is a young Liam Neeson – before he had a special set of skills. But does Serge's childhood favourite hold up 37 years later? Or should it be cast into the swamp of unconvincing cork chippings?

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To get a bit of festive cheer, Dan and Conrad explore Disney's One Magic Christmas, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year. But this is from Disney's 'dark period', so they're in for a shock. A harmonica-playing stalking angel played by Harry Dean Stanton teaches depressed working mum Ginnie Grainger (Mary Steenburgen) to appreciate the holiday season by forcing her to live a nightmarish alternate Christmas Eve in which her whole family is slaughtered in a bungled bank robbery. We kid you not. For all that, it turns out to be one of Conrad's favourite Christmas movies, and has a social realism and heartwarming message that marks it out from your standard Hallmark special. It also features some stellar performances, including that of special guest Elisabeth Harnois, who shares her memories of playing little Abbie Grainger at the tender age of 5! The result is – dare we say it – quite magical! Happy holidays!

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From the moment the star of the Resident Evil franchise stepped out of a blurry forest screensaver and announced "I am actress Milla Jovovich", Dan and Conrad knew that special guest Isaac Sutton had dredged up a real gem from the oubliette for us to enjoy. The Fourth Kind (2009) is a half found footage, half dramatised, all fictional tale of the innocent all-white townsfolk of Nome, Alaska being plagued by alien abductions. Can Milla Jovovich's hypnotherapy prowess uncover the truth behind these experiences before she is randomly arrested by the town sheriff for... something? Will she too be whisked away by pale tale figures for an evening of anal probing? And, more crucially, is the film as good as the teenaged Isaac thought it was when he watched it at a sleepover? Find out!

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Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins us for a spooky season double-whammy spectacular. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the late William Friedkin's classic horror The Exorcist (1973) and the release of David Gordon Green's apprehensively anticipated rebootquel, The Exorcist: Believer (2023), we've scrabbled around in the oubliette and fished out not one but two Exorcist prequels: Renny Harlin's The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Paul Schrader's Dominion: Prequel to the Excorcist (2005). That's two for the price of one! Well, more accurately, two for the price of two disastrous box office bombs based on the same premise with largely the same cast on the same sets but with different directors. It's quite simply the weirdest situation to ever befall a major horror franchise. How the hell did this happen? What are the differences? And crucially, are either of them worth exorcising and releasing into the world? Find out!

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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!

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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!

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Writer, actor, comedian and all-round wonderful human being Mary Jo Pehl joins us as we try to untangle the twisted tale of Brian De Palma's Sisters (1972). Starring Margot Kidder (of Superman and The Amityville Horror fame) in the dual roles of demure French Canadian model Danielle and her psychotic, groin-stabby twin Dominique, and Jennifer Salt as the hard-boiled investigative journalist determined to prove the murder she witnessed from her apartment window, Sisters is at once a delirious Hitchcockian fever dream that would define the direction of De Palma's career and dark exposé of the forces ranged against the women's liberation movement. But is it a thrilling thriller or a shrill, tiresome pastiche? Find out!

Find out more about Mary Jo Pehl on her website, watch her show at Dumb Industries, buy her book and listen to her pointedly hilarious riffs with Bridget Nelson at Rifftrax!

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Still the biggest box office bomb of all time, adjusted for inflation, John Carter (2012) was a brave attempt to give Edgar Rice Burroughs' influential sci-fi novel 'A Princess of Mars' the summer blockbuster treatment... 40 years after George Lucas and everyone else had pretty much raided all of its ideas for space opera hits. But is the film really that bad? Does it share the 'Mars movie' curse? Or did it just get lost in the shuffle in 2012 because of poor marketing? Find out!

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Conrad is joined by Joe Lipsett live and in-person at the Toronto International Film Festival to give early reviews of the horror, sci-fi and fantasy films that premiered at TIFF this year. In this first bonus episode, we're looking at the body horror films on the programme: including Coralie Fargeat's The Substance (winner of the People's Choice Award), Max Minghella's Shell, Marielle Heller's Nightbitch and Thibault Emin's debut Else.

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Dan and Conrad explore the late George A. Romero's personal favourite and, until now, most elusive film, Martin (1977), courtesy of Second Sight Films, whose stunning 4K remastered edition of the available to order in the UK now. It bears some narrative similarity with Vampire's Kiss (1988), the topic of our previous episode, in that its central character believes they are a vampire... but might not be. But whereas Robert Bierman's film is a meme-worthy black comedy phenomenon with an outrageous central performance from Nicolas Cage set in 80s corporate New York, Romero's film is an understated character study of a troubled young man, played with alluring yet disturbing innocence by John Amplas, set against the post-industrial decay of a small Pennsylvania town in the late 70s. But is this rarely seen and often-overlooked entry in Romero's filmography a hidden gem or a forgettable oddity? Find out!

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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?

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