Haunted Ozark Theater

Episode 30 - Horror Hidden Gems

• Paul

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Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater … H-O-T … your “hot” horror podcast! This week we dig deep to uncover the greats that you may have missed. You're welcome! Films we discuss include Peeping Tom, The Beast Within, Evilspeak, 2001 Maniacs, Intruder, The Midnight Hour, Lowlifes, and more.

Title Song: Hellfire by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Graphics by Jacob Hedges

© Haunted Ozark Theater 2026

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Haunted Ozark Theater, H O T, Your Hot Horror Podcast. And we're here today to talk about horror hidden gems. We're going to go deep all the way down to the bottom of Mariana's Trench to find horror movies that hopefully I'm going to come up with some that Cody's never heard of before. He's going to come up with some that I've never heard of before. And collectively, it's going to be tough. We're going to blow y'all's minds. But of course, first and foremost, this day in horror history. Horror history. What do you got for? This is a good one. And this is a this will lead to a film that we may have mentioned briefly, but haven't really talked about. And it's time that it got gets its due. Today is the birthday of uh Danny Houston. Danny Houston. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And that's Angelica Houston's brother. He plays the Axeman in American Horror Story. Which I mean, he's in a thousand movies. Great actor. That's awesome. That's cool. And I loved him as the Axeman in the world. I did too.

SPEAKER_00

But what what movie do you think I'm thinking of when I think Danny Houston?

SPEAKER_01

The Aviator. I don't know. Thirty Days a Night. Yeah, great vampire for reading.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So yeah, Thirty Days a Night. What do you think of that one? I loved it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's a graphic novel, right, to begin with.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's based on a comic book series or or trade paperback or something like that.

SPEAKER_01

I've never read the comic. Neither have I.

SPEAKER_00

You say what now?

SPEAKER_01

I really like the ending. It shocked me.

SPEAKER_00

The ending is great. Um spoilers, because the movie's like 15 years old. Um Josh Hartnet is the main good guy. He's the mayor? He's the sheriff. He's the sheriff.

SPEAKER_01

He's the sheriff in an Alaskan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I know it's in Alaska.

SPEAKER_01

Hundreds of people tell him.

SPEAKER_00

It's a town where once a year they get a night that lasts for 30 days because of the way that the equivalents and all that stuff. And the vampires are like, since we're not going to have any sunlight for 30 days, we're going to move in.

SPEAKER_01

And the way they build it up. Wreck shot. Is really awesome. It's a slow burn in the beginning. It really is. And you get to know all these characters and um the sheriff he's going through his divorce and his wife's trying to leave out of town, but of course she doesn't. She gets stuck there. That's so, so good, man.

SPEAKER_00

It is. Thank you for that. Danny Houston. Yeah. Danny Houston is the leader of the vampires. Yeah. And ultimately, the the big ending is uh is uh Josh Hartnett has to become a vampire himself in order to defeat Danny Houston's character and then sacrifices himself when the sun finally comes out. Yeah. And yeah, that's a good spoiler. I said spoiler.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I said spoiler. Oh dang it, Paul. No, it's still great. Watch it.

SPEAKER_00

That's a good movie. And we we haven't really talked about it before, and uh we are remiss to have not mentioned it before, but it's it's good.

SPEAKER_01

I have one I want to mention one thing because you know I've got to. Okay. May 14th, 20, or May 14th, 1988, Friday the 13th, New Blood.

SPEAKER_00

New Blood, huh?

SPEAKER_01

Came out today. Today's New Blood. Is that about crazy?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

1988, man. And this was Kane Hodder's first appearance. Yes, that's true.

SPEAKER_00

That's correct. The summer horror blockbuster.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That was a big thing back then.

SPEAKER_01

Did how did you feel about New Blood? The psychic element.

SPEAKER_00

Um, it wasn't my favorite of the bunch, but I didn't hate it.

SPEAKER_01

Well, dude, it had a weekend at Bernie's dude as the doctor, remember him?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, you say that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

But I mean, I'm a sucker for anything with Jason in it. I mean, if if if uh the hockey mask is out, uh I'm there.

SPEAKER_01

So I don't know how good you know the movie, but besides the remake, because that first 15 minutes is the best opening, I think, in many more, but that they play a little montage and it's got them do well, Camp Crystal. Look, there's a there's a curse around here that scared me, but I loved it also when I was a kid. Yeah, and that was my favorite Friday 13th as a kid. Okay, that's my favorite one.

SPEAKER_00

That's a good little um kind of encapsulate, encapsulates everything that has come before and sets you up for for going forward. And it like it's like the title says, New Blood. So it's kind of like almost like a reboot, like a soft reboot.

SPEAKER_01

In a way, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, but yeah, good stuff. What'd you rewatch this uh past week? Well, I didn't re-watch anything, but I watched a lot of movies for this, huh? Well, I watched four movies for what we're gonna talk about, but I also watched because I want to try to keep up on the stuff that's coming out in 2026 and not fall too far behind. So it just came to streaming, and we talked about it on our 2026 sneak peek. It's send help. Oh, yeah, it's on Hulu. Yep. It just came on Hulu and I watched it. My whole family seen it. What did you think? I liked it. I thought it was really good. Um it surprises you. That's all I'll say, because it is brand new. I don't want to spoil it. It surprises you, and it doesn't it doesn't go where you think it's gonna go. And um Sam Raimi directed it, but he did not write it. It's somebody else's story, it may feel a little different than it does feel a little different, not kind of like drag me to hell vibe then because no, it's definitely more of like a survivor thriller that crosses into moments of horror for sure. Uh, it's definitely got some CGI, but it's good CGI because at this point Sam can afford the line. Yeah, good stuff at this point in the life. I will say though, and this was my favorite thing in true Sam Raimi fashion, we got not one but two scenes of someone throwing up into someone else's mouth. Nice, okay. Every Sam Raimi movie has a scene. Does Bruce Campbell make a cameo anywhere in it? He kind of does. Cool. There's a picture of him like on the wall. And he's supposed to be the main guy, not Rachel McAdams, but the main guy. He's Bruce Campbell's supposed to be his dad. The big ball. The big boss. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. So there's a picture of Bruce Campbell on the wall. That's the cameo. Um, but it it was good. Rachel McAdams does a great job. Great job. I don't want to say too much because it really does um have some good surprises in it. But I would say, watch it, it's good. And and two different throw-up scenes. I'll have to check that out.

SPEAKER_01

Hopefully that wasn't CGI and they did practical things for that.

SPEAKER_00

One of them I will say was definitely CGI. One of them probably was practical. And and hats off to the actor and actress for for that one. That was good. But yeah, it's a good good film. Well, I I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I suggest y'all watch it. And the other watches I'll talk about here in the main segment.

SPEAKER_01

What about you? I watched The Nightmare on Street Part 4, The Dream Master. Oh, nice. And uh it just, I don't know, I've seen it so many times, but watching it this time just to talk about uh brought back a really cool memory. So when you walked in before we got started, I was telling you I was gonna tell you this, and now I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So uh quick story. Like, we there was a lot of kids in the family, and I had a ton of cousins, I mean a lot.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And my grandparents had this uh like a big, big farm out in Uchi, Oklahoma. And I would go out there on the weekends, and I remember my grandma loaning us all in the back of the cattle, like four or five of my other cousins. I was the youngest, I had to have been five. She took us down to the uh the movie gallery, we got pizza, pizza, and she said, y'all discuss them, pick out what movie you get, and you're gonna watch it. And they picked Dream Masters, and we had a palette in the floor, pizza, and watching this. So this is very true, and it still gets me to this day. What I remember most about this movie, my favorite pizza before this movie was sausage pizza. And I don't know if you remember, he goes to Freddy's in the diner and he puts his glove, the claw down into the meatball, and it's going, No, don't eat me. I couldn't eat meatball after I couldn't eat a sausage or nothing like that after it. It ruined me for years.

SPEAKER_00

That is hilarious. What about now? Are you good now? Yeah, I'm good now.

SPEAKER_01

I gotta get past it now. Yeah, I totally remember that scene. Um, but watching it get it's very MTV-ish, Freddy to me.

SPEAKER_00

I totally know what you mean. I I rewatched all the nightmares last year before we did the episode on on this on the franchise and on West Craven. And I thought the same thing, it was heavily influenced by kind of teen MTV culture at the time. But I also thought that um Dream Master gets a lot of crap from from fans, but when you watch three and four back to back, they go perfect, they go perfect together. Yeah, they really do great one two punch. I got no issues. No, I got no issues with it whatsoever. All right, buddy, you want to start with our topic of yeah. Well, so we're gonna talk about hidden gems in the genre of horror movies. Now, this is a tall order because there is so much horror out there. Number one.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Number two, you and I have seen a lot of it. So to try to find something, I think that this this segment is gonna end up being me trying to stump you and you trying to stump me. Is is what I think this is gonna turn into.

SPEAKER_01

No, I guess, which is okay. Yeah, and I just did one for I think there's a couple you haven't seen, but general audience maybe listening to this, probably haven't heard of or seen. I'm not gonna sure.

SPEAKER_00

So, my what I did, this is just my own little exercise for myself, was I picked four movies that I have not even heard of before. Nice, and I watched them. Well, I watched more than four, but like but four of them were good.

SPEAKER_01

Good, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

I watched a few duds, but in in my effort to to find hidden gems. Right. So um do you want me to go ahead and start?

SPEAKER_01

You've got four that way you could. I want you to really get into these things. I'm hoping I haven't seen them.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So first of all right off the bat, um I watched a movie that came out in 1960 called Peeping Tom. I've heard of it, never seen it. Okay. So here's Peeping Tom's claim to fame. Uh directed by Michael Powell. This movie, if you recall our episode about video nasties, this movie was cited as one of the movies that would deprave and corrupt back in 1960. And it played in the theater for like three days and then they pulled it. It was too much. And this guy's career was ruined. This guy, Michael Powell, who who directed wrote and directed, or maybe he didn't write it. I think he might have co-wrote it. But anyway, he directed Peeping Tom, had high hopes for his future as a horror director, and that's killed it, and they killed it. And then five months later, five months later, Psycho comes out and takes the world by storm. And there is like interviews of Michael Powell going, What the heck? Like, I I was five months too early to the party.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, now let me. We've all seen Psycho.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

How different of a movie is it from Peeping Tom? Because Psycho pushes, I mean, it's intentional today. Yeah, so Peeping Time.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, there's they're two totally different movies for sure. Um, there is heavy psychological uh stuff at play in Peeping Tom, and where Psycho is a little boy with a mommy issue, um, Peeping Tom is a little boy with a daddy issue. Okay. But as far as like gore for the time, it's on par with Psycho. I mean, these two are very you can you can draw some parallels between the two.

SPEAKER_01

So would you dare say it was Alfred Hitchcock's why it got pushed then? Because it's an Alfred Hitcock movie and Nia. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know, but all I know is Michael Powell was was he was frustrated. And he got railroaded. He was frustrated when Psycho came out only five months later and and hit the big time because he tried to do something very similar and just got totally stonewalled. That's but this movie is pretty dang good. Does it hold up? It holds up. I will recommend it. It's called Peeping Tom. It's about a young man who uh he is a cameraman, like at a movie production studio, but he also carries his camera with him everywhere he goes, and he uses his camera in some nefarious, I'm guessing. Right. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

He's got a little bit of uh oh, and what's his name from Psycho? Um Perkins. And yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's it's um, but he he's uh he's a bad dude. He's a bad dude. Good watch, though? It's a good watch. I would recommend it. It's very British, it's very late 50s, early sixties. Um the whole cast is British, the whole thing takes place in London. And it's just it's really well done. And to think that it came out, you know, before Psycho and that um people reacted the way they reacted to it, I think it's completely worth I might have to look into that and see why.

SPEAKER_01

It's completely worth a watch. I w I would like to know more reasons about why that one got overwrote it and Psycho. I wonder if a lot had to do with Alfred Hitchcock.

SPEAKER_00

It could be. I don't, you know, psycho I will pull with the studio. Psycho was was pushed out by an American film house, right? Right. Oh yeah. This one was more of a London kind of more of an interval. Yeah. And they said it depraved and corrupted, so they shut it down.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you are depraved and corrupted, uh and you watched it, so I you're not gonna be able to aren't y'all. I haven't seen the movie though.

SPEAKER_00

Do you want me to keep going? Or you want to I'll do one.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Uh I'm okay. So I'm gonna do this one first in honor of you because this one I would think is more in your wheelhouse, and I call it body war. This is 1982, and I really dig this movie, dude. It's uh the beast within.

SPEAKER_00

It sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_01

So at the beginning of the movie, the mom gets sexually assaulted by a swamp creature. Okay, and 17 years later, this boy's coming of age, and he's it's got an awesome transformation scene.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And it's just gory, it's nasty. Is the boy like half swamp creature? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You never all I no, it's it sounds very familiar to me.

SPEAKER_01

So I'll I'll read the little thing I got wrote here. Uh The Beast Within 1982, body horror film about a teenager, Michael, who discovers he is the offspring of a human woman and a swamp creature. Yeah. Leading to a monstrous physical transformation as he approaches adulthood. Okay. It was directed by Philip P. Moreau and written by Tom Holland. The R-rated movie starts.

SPEAKER_00

Tom Holland wrote some good stuff back in the day. Dude, that doesn't surprise me at all.

SPEAKER_01

So you need to check this out.

SPEAKER_00

I'm pretty sure I've seen it, but I'm gonna watch it because if I if I if I I feel like I've seen it, but it's been a long time. Well, then okay, good.

SPEAKER_01

So I'm definitely gonna Yeah, the practical and fixing this. I'm not a body whore guy, but it's just so that I don't know. I feel you feel horrible for the kid. Yeah, but it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

unknown

All right.

SPEAKER_00

Good pull. I'm gonna really quick just slide in some body horror honorable mentions. And I've talked definitely talked with you about these before, but I just want to shout them out because I think they are still what could be considered hidden gems. Julia DuCornow is a French film director, and she to date has made three body horror films that are fantastic. One is Raw. Yeah, the other is Titane. Yeah, you've told me, yeah, and then one that just came out last month or two months ago, which I haven't got to see yet, but is getting good reviews called Alpha. Yeah, for Hot Pass. Julia Duport now. Watch her movies, y'all. If you're looking for something that you maybe haven't heard of or have weirdos out there like Poland. Oh man, she makes a good film. She knows how to put together a good body horror film. Yeah, cool. So quick, quick shout-out to her. Okay, have you heard of 1981's Evil Speak? No, all right. Evil Speak. One word. 1981, Evil Speak. 1981, one word, evil speak, starring Clint Howard.

SPEAKER_02

No way!

SPEAKER_01

Yes, sweet. What's it about? Oh man, it's cool. Is it better than ice cream, man?

SPEAKER_00

Uh no, it's not okay. But this is good, though. This is a good, like, it's got that late 70s feel. It came out in 81, but you know, you can tell it the the 70s were still lingering. Um it is about Clinton Howard. He his both of his parents die in a car accident. So he uh has to go to like a military academy to finish high school.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And he's kind of an egghead, like a smart kid, and a lot of the other kids are kind of like jocks and you know, uh kind of alpha males, you know. And so they they start to bully him like big time, and he's getting really down on himself because he's he's had it, he's had it rough. You know, his parents died, he's gotta go to this school, he's getting picked on.

SPEAKER_01

It's not having the best time in life.

SPEAKER_00

No, he um does something to get himself in trouble, and they send him down to clean out the basement of the chapel, and while he's down there, he finds a book that tells him how to do a black mass to basically make a deal with the devil to get revenge on his bullies.

SPEAKER_01

And he does, yeah. I've okay, I've seen uh okay, keep going.

SPEAKER_00

No, that's pretty much it. I don't want to spoil it.

SPEAKER_01

You don't want to spoil this one?

SPEAKER_00

No, well, no, because these are supposed to be ones that nobody's seen.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, are you ranking these or just no particular order? No, no particular order.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Evil speak. Evil speak. Clint Howard. I watched a little like uh interview with him where he was somebody was asking him about um, you know, his memories of making this movie, and he was like, I love that movie. It was the first time where I was like on my own, like I had my own apartment and I was going to work every day. And um he's like, we worked really hard on that movie, put in a lot of work, put in a lot of effort. It was like a passion project kind of a thing. And he also said that he lost his virginity on the movie.

SPEAKER_01

I don't uh much there, buddy. He has been in so many things. Our audience, his brother is Ron Howard, the famous director and little boy from the Andy Griffith show. But yeah, every time I see him, you know what I think of? Out of everything he's been, he's been a lot of he's usually a not a main character, usually not, um, but is Austin Powers.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I always think of him.

SPEAKER_00

I think that this movie, Evil Speak, might be the first time where he was the leading man. Um the his first lead actor gig, I think, was this movie. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Um that was a hard shadow to be in, too, you know, his brother's shadow like.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but at the same time, I think that's why he's been in so many movies.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

I another thing I looked up about him, and this is probably fairly well known. He's been in over 200 movies.

unknown

Wow.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Really? Yeah. Clint Howard. And I mean, he's obviously he's Ron's little brother, or Ron's the little brother. I don't know. Obviously, they're brothers, but yeah, one thing is is Clint Howard. Has a very unique look. He looks like a guy that you would actually know though. Right. Well, and that's what I mean. Like, I'm not saying in a bad way. I'm saying I think it makes him I think it makes him marketable. Yeah, absolutely. Because he's memorable, you know. But he's got a great sense of humor. He's got great timing. And he just always plays these really unique characters, really off-the-wall characters. Um, so yeah, evil speak, 1981, Clint Howard um getting revenge on his bullies with the help of the devil. I love it. Yeah, that's awesome. It's a good one. Sounds like a cool a fun flick. It is. It's it's not funny. It's not supposed is it? No. But it's not funny at all. No, okay. It's not. It's I was thinking just it dreadful thing because it sounds depressing. It's got some sad moments in it. Yeah, you feel bad for this. You feel bad for sure as you're watching it at different times for different reasons. You feel bad. Okay. But um, yeah, I was kind of like, oh, Clinton Howard, this is gonna be funny. You know, this is gonna be kind of a horror comedy. It's not. It's not just no, you will know about that. This is a straight-up horror comedy.

SPEAKER_01

Well, then I'm gonna I'm gonna kick my next one off. That one is a horror comedy, and we should have mentioned it when we did our horror comedy list. And I hope you haven't seen it, because this one will rock your socks off, buddy. Okay. It's 2005's 2001 Maniacs with Robert England.

SPEAKER_00

I've heard of it, haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yes, another one. I got you again. Nice. So it's a uh 2001 Maniacs. It's actually a sequel to um what's that like 101 Maniacs? So I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm familiar with both of those movies. I don't think I've seen either of them. Okay, but those are just ones that like uh if you know Robert Englund, you know he's been in the other things, right? You know, and I think I probably have heard about some of his other projects, but I don't think I've seen those.

SPEAKER_01

So in 2001, Maniacs is a four comedy film directed by Tim Sylvian. It's a remake of 1964's 2000 Maniacs. Oh, I did not know. About a group of college students on spring break who stumble into the southern town of Pleasant Valley, where the residents led by Mayor Buckham, played by Robert England, are vengeful Confederate ghosts planning to kill them to celebrate the guts and glory jubilee. And they have some of the best kills. They're so funny.

SPEAKER_00

And that sounds awesome for someone who lives in the south.

SPEAKER_01

It's kind of, I think Tucker and Dell got a lot of their stuff from this movie. Okay. And you will just be laughing in the gore. It's really fun, dude.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome. Yeah. Yeah, I'm putting that on the list.

SPEAKER_01

You guys will love this movie.

SPEAKER_00

I'm definitely putting that on the list. Yeah. Okay. My next one. This is the one that I think if you've seen any of these, this is the one that I think you might have seen.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And I will just preface this one by saying a lot of horror came out in the 80s. A lot. And a lot of slashers came out in the 80s.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's the golden era slashers.

SPEAKER_00

And this is a slasher that I think flew under the radar for a lot of people because it wasn't because it wasn't one of the big ones. Um, I hadn't heard of it or seen it.

SPEAKER_01

You said big ones for the audience. Who would you say are the big ones in the 80s? Um just for people listening.

SPEAKER_00

Jason, Mike, and Freddie. Okay. You would put Leatherface in the um I mean, part two came out in the 80s. But you would put him as one of the No, because I don't feel like I mean, I know that Texas Chainsaw is a fit franchise, and I know that it did keep going beyond two.

SPEAKER_01

But I feel like You don't think he's in the League of the Holy Trinity of the Killers list. He's a pretty Mikey too.

SPEAKER_00

He's a close number four. He's yeah, he's he's number four on the list for sure, but to me, he's more of like a 70s guy to me. Okay. Um, and I know like well then Mikey, Mikey came out in 78. Yeah, but then he had a string of movies throughout the 80s, is what I guess what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01

And Texas Chainsaw only had part two, and then the rest were 90s, correct? Exactly. I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00

That's yeah, that's basically my only criteria for when I say like the you know golden age of slashers. No, that's this is what we do. This is what we do here. Um, okay, so this one came out in '89. Oh, okay. And it's a slasher through and through, and it escaped my notice until I dug it up for this segment. It's called Intruder. No, I haven't seen it. Really? I haven't seen it. I thought you would have seen this one. No. Okay. So Intruder, 1989, directed by Scott Spiegel. Scott Spiegel was a writer for Evil Dead 2. Okay. Scott Spiegel grew up with Sam and Ted Raimi. Sam and Ted Raimi are stars in this movie. This is one of their times where they're in front of the camera, not behind the camera. Um Greg Nicotero, this is one of the first times one of the masters with special effects. This is one of the first times that he was in charge of the special effects. And there is a Bruce Campbell cameo.

SPEAKER_01

Of course.

SPEAKER_00

He plays a cop. And there's also a cameo by the Delta 88. No way. One of the the whole movie takes place in a grocery store, and one of the grocery store girls, when she gets off work, she goes to get in her car, and it's the Delta, it's the Delta. Her car is the Delta. Yeah. So this is this movie had her some good twists. That's all I'll say, because I I don't want to spoil it, but good killer.

SPEAKER_01

Um there's good kills, is what I'll say.

SPEAKER_00

Wow, okay. The killer is he's just kind of a regular guy. But uh there's good kills, and this is all practical. I mean, this is practical, practical, practical through and through. Um this girl is a cashier at a grocery store. They find out that the grocery store is for sale, and so they have to stay there all night and like mark everything down so they can liquidate the inventory like as quick as possible. And just before they close, her ex-boyfriend, who just got out of jail, comes into the store and basically asks if she'll get back with him, and when she turns him down, he kind of loses it. And then for the whole rest of the night, the whole crew of the grocery store is getting terrorized by Can they not just leave the grocery store? I'm so confused right now.

SPEAKER_01

Just a grocery store, guys.

SPEAKER_00

Well, they are locked in, number one. Um the guy who has the key, the store owner, is like in his office upstairs, so he's not like I guess easily accessible. But they try to get out, and every time they try to get out, the killer who is on the outside is is waiting for him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So the the boy, it's the boyfriend, I'm guessing. I don't know. No, okay. Well, yeah, okay, okay. Fair enough. I can't tell you 1989 and scooter. I can't tell you if with the Raimi brothers in it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's a good little slasher. Okay, and it's got, even though it's directed by Scott Spiegel, yes, you can tell that he was a Sam Raimi project.

SPEAKER_01

Influenced.

SPEAKER_00

It's got Sam Raimi's fingerprints all over it. Even though, you know, he behind the he wasn't behind the camera, he was an actor in it. But a lot of the camera work and especially the the kills, they their Sam Raimi fingerprints all over them.

SPEAKER_01

Got that Evil Dead look.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure, for sure. But there's some really cool shots, some really cool kills, and really great practical effects by a very young Greg McTarra.

SPEAKER_01

You know my favorite grocery store kill of all time, dude?

SPEAKER_00

What's that?

SPEAKER_01

Get I Are you gonna go zombie land? No, no, no. I did great, but it would be Fear Street with the head and the Oh, that is brutal. Fray kill, isn't it? What is that? Like a bread slicer? Yes. And I didn't think she'd die that way, and they totally killed her.

SPEAKER_00

I was like, I didn't think she would die at all. I thought she was gonna be one of the ones that survived, and uh yeah, that's a good kill. Yeah, I I forgot that that I like a good grocery store. That that movie ends up in the grocery store. That first the first one, right? Yep. Ends up in the grocery store. 1994. Yeah, good call. Good call. Well, this one might give you a new grocery store. Well, this has multiple grocery store kills.

SPEAKER_01

Where where did you watch this, Mr. Paul? Um, where can I watch it? Intruder, I watched it on YouTube. It's a you just free watching it's quality okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's old enough that it was free on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01

Same with what we like to hear, right?

SPEAKER_00

Same with uh Evil Speak and same with Peeping Tom. All three of them. I found good prints on YouTube. Nice, yeah. All three of those.

SPEAKER_01

This next one is it's a shame we've never talked about it. And I'm probably gonna wrestle you in my front yard if you've never seen this. But it really is how this has never got brought up on the show. Because this is when you say cult classic, this movie is cult classic to me, and that is 2006 Behind the Mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon. Oh, yeah. It's crazy how many people like whore. I talked at work and what, what, what is this? Really?

SPEAKER_00

Are you kidding me? I mean, I would definitely agree that it's a cult classic, but I wouldn't think that it would be like a movie that people haven't even heard of.

SPEAKER_01

Everybody I ever talked to knows about this. Really? So I wanted to put it on the and I'm wanting to make sure you don't report it. Oh, yeah. Dude, this movie, it's a a mockumentary. But what is so cool about it is Jason, Michael, all these guys live in this world. Yeah, and this guy's taking notes from them in Robert England. I would say Robert England and this, the doctor, he's Sam Loomis.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, 100%. 100%.

SPEAKER_01

And I just found out doing my research, they're making a sequel.

SPEAKER_00

Really? Yep. Nice. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01

I'm really excited about that. And I love the mask, it's uh horror comedy.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And do you know who the main female is? I don't remember. You know, she is the girl les inconfidants from Home Alone. Really? That's her.

SPEAKER_00

You are what the French call les inconfidants. So she grew up to be in that movie.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, yeah, very cool. What are your thoughts about that movie? Oh, I love that movie. Okay, we've never talked about it, man. I and I don't know why.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I don't know why we haven't either, because it's right up both of our alley. Like, oh Killer, the mask. Yeah, no, that's a great flip. Okay, I got one left.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

As far as like you know, quality hidden gems that I was able to unearth this time. Uh, and this one is pretty dang good, dude. Pretty dang good. So you said the best for last, it sounds like that. I guess so. And it's new, it just came out two years ago. Oh, yeah. I know I've got to know it then. I don't know. We'll see you later. It's a 2B original. I love me a 2B original, dude. So this never you know came out in the theater or anything. It's called Lowlifes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's got uh they get kid, they're robbing the house that's got Pennywise in it. Um Peter Shash? No.

SPEAKER_00

No. And I'm thinking of you you must be thinking of something else.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Jeez, I know I've heard Lowlifes. Give me a little bit of a rundown. It's a is it the one where they're trying to rob the family and the it turns around on them?

SPEAKER_00

Well, they're not trying to rob the family, so basically they act like their RV breaks down or something.

SPEAKER_01

I have seen it.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and but it turns the tables.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yep. It's got a killer slip. Yeah, so the RVs. Yeah, they they the the family in the RV uh breaks down or or pretends to break down, and they end up and it's at first, you're like your typical horror.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, they're in these families they're going to are gonna be.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they're you think that they're gonna get murdered by the redneck family that owns the house, but it's the other way around. The RV family are the killers. And not just killers, they're like cannibals, yeah. They're they this is what they do once a year. They get in their RV and they drive across country and they kill people and stock up their freezer with human meat.

SPEAKER_01

That and if I remember correctly, because I think I watched it when it right when it came out, but it's the mom, dad, and there's a daughter in a cell. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And doesn't the daughter try to seduce one of the redneck? Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, the the one of the redneck daughters lets it slip that she's into girls, so the daughter of the RV family tries to seduce her to like get her in a vulnerable position so she can kill her more easily. It's kind of good in me, too, from what I remember. That was a good one. I was you thought you could stump me. Hey, I stumped you all.

SPEAKER_01

I'm glad I got one. You got one. Love Life is a very good hidden joke. Tubi has some really good.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Tupi original, um good film. Good kills. Um, I was trying to decide if the effects were practical or CGI. And if they're CGI, they did a good job because I I couldn't immediately tell. Well, that's awesome then. Um, but it's it's uh it's it's I don't want to say it's low budget, but it's definitely an indie.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But it's it's good, it's well done. It's it's got some good kills, it's got some good tension, some good scary, you know, uh farmhouse kind of moments that you would come to expect, you know, in the vein of Texas Chainsaw, but completely flips the script.

SPEAKER_01

I think that's the best part of the movie. Yeah, really is completely flips the script. Yeah, very good, good one. Well, then I'm gonna pull one from you, the last one you did was 80s, and I don't think you've seen this one, dude. And I hope not, because you did the Tubi original, I'm doing a CBS original, okay, buddy. 1985, we're talking 41 years ago. Yeah, a little made-for-tv horror comedy called the Midnight Hour. And I, this is a a Halloween tradition in our house. Okay. Have you ever seen it? I don't think so. So the Midnight Hour, Made for TV. It is a group of teenagers who accidentally unloosh a 300-year-old curse on Halloween, bringing zombies, vampires, and other supernatural creatures to their town. It was directed by Jack Bender, and it stars uh oh Lavard Burton's in it. There's a lot of just 80s people. When you see you'll go, older guys like us, you'll be like, hey, that was the in that's the gum. But it's it's got every movie monster. It's got a love story about a uh 1950 cheerleader who falls in love with the kind of nerdier guy in the 80s. Okay. She's got to go back when the sun goes down, kind of motif. It's really cool though. In awesome werewolf and zombie effects, it's really cool though. Sounds kind of like Monster Squad. Yeah, you could watch this with your daughters. You could any age. But like I said, it was made for TV, CBS 1985. But uh when we were on the Donna Mantis and we were talking about like when I watch a Halloween movie, this feels like a Halloween movie. You've the leaves, just the the decorations, the cold breath, the way we remember Halloween in the 80s. And I love I'm a sucker for 80s Halloween. That sounds great. Yeah, it's one like when out you you and the wife, and you would never be like, oh, can I show this? You man, have the whole family watch it with you. Mom could watch it the midnight hour 1985.

SPEAKER_00

I like that. Yeah, see, this is why we wanted to do this show because uh we're helping y'all out. We're filling in your list for you. Yeah, we really are. Everybody make a list of all these that you haven't seen and go have a heck of a good time watching them. So you got a few more?

SPEAKER_01

I do got it. No, these are I near and dear to my heart because they're uh B slashers.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

They're low budget, but man, you can tell the passion when you watch it. And I've been on you to watch this movie for a long time. It's a at first a slow burn, it's a lot like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's just telling you about the family, and this is 2014's Charlie's Farm.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Directed by Chris Sun. It's a great outback. The killer is so brutal, and it has one of my favorite kills. And I'm not gonna say nothing because it's this is not one you want kids to watch. Okay, it's hardcore. Once he gets killing Charlie is not happy. Um, it's got Bill Mosley, Caden Hodder, Tara Reed. She's certainly she does well for what she's given. She gets an awesome death. If you hate Tara Reed, watch it only for that. But man, once he gets going, Charlie is a big force of nature with some really awesome kills. And I really, really, I pray to God we would have got a franchise out of this dude because we needed it.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I I was aware of this movie. I've heard of it before, and I was aware of it even before you have told me many times that I need to watch it, and I still haven't watched it. That's my bad. But um, it's on my list for sure, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I've got another one. I know you've seen it, but I think this one goes under a lot of people's radar because it wasn't at a time when I don't know, it was I I don't know. But uh near and dear to my heart, I absolutely love this movie 2006, Slither, directed by James Gunn. It's so fun, dude. And not one you'd want the kitties to watch, because there's language, there's in the gore, and it is over the top, yeah, really nice and tough, but it is so fun.

SPEAKER_00

I Slither is so good and fun that it makes me wish James Gunn would have just stuck before.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely agree. Absolutely agree.

SPEAKER_00

You know, not that Guardians of the Galaxy weren't great, and not that Superman and all that, but man, I feel like every year that he doesn't make a horror movie, we're missing out.

SPEAKER_01

Did he help with Brightburn? Or did he was a producer? He was a producer, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. But uh that all that means is he threw some money to it. That's it. I think so. Okay. I don't think he was really creatively involved with Brightburn.

SPEAKER_01

But I don't hear enough. I mean, that movie is so good. And look who's all in that Nathan Fillion, uh Michael Roker, Elizabeth Banks.

SPEAKER_00

His his standard crew that he still uses to this day.

SPEAKER_01

Little unknown fact, I think I've told you this. So when she calls the doctor to ask about her husband's bee sting condition, that's Rob Zombie. Yeah. Because James Gunn and Rob Zombie are real close friends, and he also voices in Guardians of Galaxy, you can hear him. Yeah, I think that's really mean.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. I always another movie that I must have seen them close together, or maybe their names are so similar that I always associate them. But whenever I hear a slither, I also think of Splinter. Okay. Do you remember that movie, Splinter? What's it about? Uh it's like you get it, the guy at the gas station gets an infection and it causes like the thorns to come out of their skin and stuff. Yeah, that's classic. Yeah, that's um first the dog has it, and then the guy that people start getting. Yeah, for whatever reason, I always think of those two together. When I think of one, I always think of the other. I I must have watched them back to back. Yeah, maybe. I must have. Or maybe just the names are so similar that in my mind they're associated. Slither and Splinter. Maybe. I don't know. But if you haven't seen either of those, they're both they're both pretty dang good.

SPEAKER_01

The last ones I'm gonna recommend, and I'm gonna try to get the director on our show, is the Red One Massacre. There's one and two, and I found out that part three will be coming out uh hopefully by October. Really? Yeah. Of this year. Yeah, of this year, yes, sir. Oh, okay. David Keat, David Rhine Keith is the director's name, Scottish. And the the it's very low budget, but the practical effects that's they took them like 15 weeks to make it because they only filmed on the weekends and it was a group of friends. The killer's a big dude with a a burlap sap mask taken from Jason and Michael, and all that. Sure. But the kills are good, the scenery is awesome, and then you get part two Redwood Nihilation, and that stars Daniel Harris, and it really kicks up the gore.

SPEAKER_00

Nice.

SPEAKER_01

So and the last one I found out is going to be a throwback kind of a uh beginning of all of it, and it's gonna be set in the eighties and be completely over the top kills.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So I can't wait. But I think we can get him on the show if we reached out. I've seen a lot where he goes on a uh podcast because he's just trying to get these movies out, like I said, yeah, a whole budget. I think if we reached out to him, dude, that would that would be so awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah.

unknown

I

SPEAKER_00

Assumed you would bring those movies up for this segment. And also Charlie's Farm. I'm not surprised that you brought that on up.

SPEAKER_01

They're just movies that are near and dear to me. And they're yeah, you champion those movies. I do. Yeah, I I want everyone to watch them.

SPEAKER_00

I do. I do just because like I had seen it. I wasn't surprised when you had seen it and loved it. But most people I talked to haven't haven't.

SPEAKER_01

And maybe it's that I mean there were some huge hitters. 2000 we had Halloween 2, Rob's obvious. We had Friday the 13th, and then right after that we had Navy on Now Street. And this, it's Warner Brothers, but it was under the Dark Castle banner, and it went right to DVD. Yeah. And I think that really hurt its publicity.

SPEAKER_00

Well, it's interesting that you bring that up because that's what next week's episode is going to be about. Awesome. We're going to do um we're we're calling it straight to video. Straight to video for all you kids who don't know what video is. Wow. When we were children, there were these things called video stores.

SPEAKER_01

The good old days.

SPEAKER_00

Where you would go and you would actually pay like two bucks in order to borrow a video tape for a couple days, and then you'd watch it as many times as you could. And you better rewind it. And you have to rewind it. Beacon rewind. And then return it. Um but movies, especially horror movies, would often skip the theater and go straight to video. Um, a lot of times, like a movie would get made and it would go to the theater and then it would do okay. It would do well enough to get a sequel, but not well enough for the sequel to get a theatrical release.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So a lot of times they would go straight to video. The sequels would go straight to video. Um a lot of horror just went straight to video in general, just because it was harder to get a horror movie into the theater, you know, or it's probably still is harder to get a horror movie into the theater. I was really shocked by that, man. And a lot of studios chose to bypass the theater so that they didn't have to make cuts to some of their horror movies because they didn't want to compromise, you know, like that, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I don't blame them at all then.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but yes, and and then even like Disney did it with like uh, you know, Aladdin was a huge uh theatrical release for Disney, but then they would make like Aladdin 2, and they would come straight to video. Yeah, straight to video, right? You know, so even Disney did stuff like that. But we're gonna be talking about horror movies that went straight to video. And I guess in this day and age you would say it went straight to streaming. Streaming, okay. Yeah, but um, that's that's we're gonna call it straight to video, and we're gonna talk about um our favorite horror movies that never saw a theatrical release. Sweet.

SPEAKER_01

I love it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's gonna be good. Yeah, it's gonna be kind of like this one where we're gonna do some digging and maybe surprise people. Surprise some people, yeah, for sure. For sure. Awesome. But you know what? I think what I love the most about this the homework that we got to do this week is I got to just reassure myself that horror is a endless abyss.

SPEAKER_02

Endless abyss.

SPEAKER_00

There is no bottom to this pit. And a lot of it is gonna be, you know, garbage, but you bite your tongue, son.

SPEAKER_01

A lot of it is gonna be these hidden gems that what you'd consider garbage. Someone out there, I guarantee you goes, that is the best movie I've ever seen. Someone out there, you know.

SPEAKER_00

And I don't mean it in a bad way, I just I mean it in that no, it's garbage. Yeah, with with anything, yeah. You know, I I kind of feel like horror is almost like shooting a shotgun round, you know, it's it's gonna be all over the place. And they tried to get rid of it and they can't, kind of like rock and roll. We're gonna hold it. It's here to stay. Yeah, it's here to stay. You know, Joey from Donamansis once asked me when we had just gotten started with the horror podcast, he asked me if we were gonna ever run out of stuff to talk about.

SPEAKER_01

What a joker.

SPEAKER_00

And I knew that we wouldn't, but also again, this week I I just really really reinforced yeah, I really plumbed the depths of you know, of of uh horror as much as I could in a week and just was reassured that there's there's no end in sight. You know why? Because it's the best, it is the best, and there's so many people that are passionate about it that there's always gonna be somebody making something and putting it out there and seeing if it sticks, you know. And that's how sometimes you end up with stinkers, but that's also sometimes how you end up some of the best horror movies you've ever called Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the original Evil Dead, you know, because these guys just said, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it. I want to do it, so I'm gonna do it. I'm passionate about it. I'm not gonna let anybody tell me no. I'm gonna uh or even, you know, we just recently talked about uh Night of Living Dead. He got people to loan him, he got like hundreds of people to loan him 600 bucks a piece until he had $114,000 to make his movie. And look what it became. Look what it became. So there you go. And there are thousands more like that that we've seen and heard of, and there's thousands more that we haven't.

SPEAKER_01

But we're looking forward to it, and we will do it for you.

SPEAKER_00

We're not gonna stop until we scour the earth. Uncover them all, uncover them all. Like Pokemon. Yeah, catch them all.

SPEAKER_01

Nerd alert.

SPEAKER_00

All right, all right, y'all. So join us next week for straight to video. Awesome. Looking forward to it. You guys be good. Watch some of these hidden gems. Yep, watch them. And or done. I think we just wrote our own movie. Yeah. The guy who didn't watch the horror recommendations that his friend gave him. And he was he ends up getting killed. Take care, y'all. Fine.