Published by John Seavey
A deep dive into the half-price horror rack of the local used bookstore, coming away with classics, cult treasures, and the strangest stories the genre has to offer.
Listen on Apple Podcasts41 min
It's been featured in Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, it's been discussed by Stephen King in his book on the genre 'Danse Macabre', and yet somehow there are a lot of people who know very little about this 1967 classic. So let's dive into ableism, confidence tricks, and a heroin-stuffed MacGuffin with Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin in this underseen but brilliant film!
36 min
Time to close out the original Amityville trilogy with a movie that more or less fully abandons the "based on a true story" conceit in favor of a number of 3-D gimmicks, a plot that only really gets going in the last fifteen minutes, and... is that Meg Ryan? It's definitely a strange movie, but one that's worth discussion so let's dive in!
36 min
'The Illustrated Man' slipped past the studio gatekeepers during the very end of the Warner Brothers/Seven Arts era and the beginning of New Hollywood, and as you might expect it's an experimental film. But did the experiment succeed, or did the anthology stories wind up collapsing under the weight of late-60s pretentiousness and a queer subtext the movie was afraid to fully explore? Give this episode a listen and find out!
40 min
And so we conclude our Alien and Predator series... for now... with another absolute triumph from Dan Trachtenberg. The Yautja are ruthless, brutal, uncompromising lone wolves... but doesn't that make it even better to give them an awesome found-family narrative with plenty of cool action sequences and a badass final boss fight? Listen and find out!
38 min
Time to dive back on in to the world of horror parodies, with a movie from a classic comedy franchise in the UK that's tackling a classic horror genre - the Hammer Horror film! Can Detective Bung and his sidekick Slobotham unravel the mystery of who's abducting young women? Is there a sinister secret behind all the shop dummies showing up in ladies' clothing stores? How many times can I reference Doctor Who in one podcast? The answers are all here!
1 hr 1 min
The Disney era of the 'Alien' franchise has begun, and with it comes a whole new approach to the venerable series. Do these movies work better when you throw money at them? Is an interquel inherently nostalgia-focused? Can you succeed artistically after making the single most misguided and horrifically amoral creative decision in the history of cinema? Let's just say some of these questions answer themselves... but for the rest, you'll have to listen in!
33 min
I'm guessing you haven't heard of this movie. In fact, I'm guessing nobody's heard of this movie. I hadn't heard of this movie until I found it waiting to be purchased, which sounds like a horror movie in and of itself, and it's dropped into obscurity so thoroughly that I'm the first person in 21 years to point out that the title is a mistranslation. So let's begin the rehabilitation of 'Pray' now, shall we?
42 min
Sometimes the best things hit when you don't expect them. Everyone pretty much thought the Predator franchise was done and dusted after the failure of 2018's 'The Predator', but sometimes all it takes is one good creator with a good idea, and a ton of talented people who come along and hold that creator to an authentic and respectful vision of Comanche life set into a dazzling sci-fi story with plenty of twists and thrills. You know, easy, right? And if you'll listen to this episode, you'll find out what made it all work!
36 min
I'm celebrating another big milestone here at HPH - my 250th episode! - and I figured, what better way to do it than with a movie shot at least in part in my hometown? So join me for the story of a group of teens that go to their last big sci-fi con together... and run into vampires, heartbreak, and a very irresponsible dealer's room in 'My Sucky Teen Romance'!
56 min
It's pretty much universally agreed on that 2018's 'The Predator', from action auteur Shane Black, is a hot goddamn mess. But what made it such a hot mess? Is it the uncomfortable ableism? Black's decision to heavily involve his buddy Fred Dekker in the screenwriting? The big revelations about the reasons behind the Predators' visits to Earth that absolutely nobody liked? The reshot and reworked third act? That disastrous MCU-style stinger? There's so much to discuss here... and lucky you, HPH is here to cover all of it!
35 min
What's not to love about 'The Tingler'? It's got William Castle and his most famous theater gimmick, Vincent Price at the beginning of his big horror style era, and all the subtext you could ever want about 50s repression! Come on in and spend a little time with HPH on the most fun you can ever have being scared... and if it gets to be too much, just scream for your life!
43 min
And so the Star Trekkification of the 'Alien' franchise is complete, with a movie that's named after the ship it's set on and a plot that's straight out of the first season TNG episode "Datalore". But does that make it bad? Can those two tones be merged successfully? Is there a reason why they cast James Franco in this movie? Listen to this episode and find out!
1 hr 7 min
This one was a long time in the making, but a movie this important deserves a lot of conversation. So get ready for a big discussion of the Jim Crow South, organized religion's role in perpetuating its oppression, cultural appropriation and intersectionality, and oh yes FRIGGING VAMPIRES, as we discuss Ryan Coogler's landmark cinematic achievement 'Sinners'!
1 hr 2 min
Ridley Scott had no way of knowing when he selected this title that fans of the short-lived animated comedy "The Critic" would see it and immediately think, "Oh no! Promootheus!" But-- Well, actually he did have a way of knowing, because "The Critic" originally aired between 1994 and 1995 so he could fully have anticipated this reaction. So honestly it's entirely his fault that this whole movie inadvertently references an old episode of "The Critic". He should really have known better. This information isn't brought up much in my episode on the film, but I had to talk about it somewhere so this is the place. But yes, 'Alien' prequel, return to the franchise for legendary director Ridley Scott, controversial film with a complicated legacy, we'll touch on it all. Just... "Oh no! Promootheus!"
52 min
Welcome to Half Price Horror, your destination for haute cuisine. Tonight we have an amuse-bouche of tension, followed by an appetizer of violence with just a touch of social satire, with a main course of mesmerizing acting and for dessert... maybe a cheeseburger? Unconventional, I know, but this is just that kind of establishment, and I can't wait to discuss the entire Menu with you.
41 min
Featuring a surprising number of Oscar winners for the fifth installment in the 'Predator' franchise, this latest movie takes us off-world and onto an alien game reserve stocked by the titular Predators for their special hunts. But are the predators the alien hunters... or the people they've come here to hunt? That's the question the movie asks, so let's dig in together and see if it answers it!
41 min
The Dark Universe! Just the mention of this storied franchise stirs the soul of every cinephile, bringing back memories of 2017's 'The Mummy' and... um... actually it was just 2017's 'The Mummy', wasn't it? And to find out why, give this episode a spin and discover the history of the cinematic universe that wasn't and all the reasons behind its failure.
50 min
If there's a single entry in the 'Alien' and 'Predator' franchises it's acceptable to simply dump on, this would probably be the one. But what are the actual problems with this movie? Why does it fail, and what can we learn from its artistic struggles? There is value in discussing these things... all of which is a very nice way of saying that this movie is nine miles of rough road and we're going to talk about every bump.
31 min
Horror director Joe Begos has been building a reputation for himself over the last decade, but due to a bad bit of SEO luck his first feature doesn't get a whole lot of attention. So I thought I'd change all that with a full episode on 'Almost Human' (not the Karl Urban TV show) and all the ways this first-time filmmaker worked to get his vision on screen.
48 min
That's right, folks, it's time for the main event! We've gone through four installments of the 'Alien' franchise, two installments of the 'Predator' franchise, and it was all to get to the moment where they fight! So how does it go? Is it exciting? Is it plausible? Does Lance Henriksen get to say that his experts tell him... it's a pyramid? Well, listen on and find out!