Half Price Horror

It's one of the most influential horror films of the 20th century, a masterpiece of cinematography with gorgeous, lush exterior vistas and claustrophobic interiors, and yes, it's often cited as a perfect adaptation of a difficult-to-film novella that captures the ambiguity of its unreliable narrator... but what does a guy with a podcast think of it? Well, listen and find out!

Everyone talks about the Universal Monsters, but the studio did a lot of horror that didn't feature its iconic stable of creatures and plenty of movies that featured its legendary actors in very different roles. So join HPH, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Junior, and Richard Greene in exploring the perils of... the Black Castle! [This is a repost of an earlier episode erroneously removed by Spotify due to a copyright claim on the public domain theme used by this podcast. A new theme has been substituted.]

Time to celebrate another trip around the sun, although this time with a solar eclipse and a trio of killer kids to liven things up in the cult classic 'Bloody Birthday'! Can Joyce and her little brother Timmy survive the onslaught of murderous tweens? Will they ever even notice that there's a mystery to be solved? Listen and find out! [This is a repost of an earlier episode erroneously removed by Spotify due to a copyright claim on the public domain theme used by this podcast. A new theme has been substituted.]

Time to tackle a beloved classic and the bisexual awakening of an entire generation of moviegoers, 1999's 'The Mummy'! Thrill to tales of angry camels, Brendan Fraser passing out on set, and all the dazzling CGI the late 90s had to offer as we do a deep dive into one of the biggest classics of one of cinema's best years!

Back before the 50s sci-fi horror craze took off, Universal was trying to find something to do with all those classic horror actors they had lying around with no Universal Monsters to play. And they figured, why not try a swashbuckling period piece? So strap on your rapier, grab your twin flintlock pistols, and get ready to face the crocodile pit as we meet Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Junior, and the horrors of being buried alive in 'The Black Castle'!

One of the great truths of art is that sooner or later, every Universal Monsters property gets a remake. And in 2010, it was the Wolf Man's turn. But there were a lot of stumbles on the way from script to screen, a lot of creative differences and personnel changes and reshoots... but did this hurt the finished work, or is this an underappreciated gem that deserves its due? Listen to this episode and find out!

Everyone knows about the age of atomic horror in the 1950s, filled with science fiction movies about giant lizards and giant ants and giant grasshoppers and giant tarantulas and giant men and giant women. But one film took a very different tack, creating a tiny universe of terror for one Scott Carey... and as you're about to learn, there's more than one way to make a spider look big. Come check it out!

After a brutal preproduction that saw both leads departing the series, a change in director, and numerous ancillary controversies, 'Scream 7' finally came out with Neve Campbell back as the main actor and Kevin Williamson behind the director's chair. What happened, and what kind of movie did it result in? Give this episode a listen and find out!

Another year has gone by, another trip around the calendar concluded for your humble host, and of course it wouldn't be a birthday without once again featuring a birthday-themed horror movie! This time out, the problem is a trio of kids born under a solar eclipse that blocked their moral compass, leaving them as pint-sized sociopaths turning the suburbs into their own personal hunting ground. Can Joyce and her little brother Timmy stop them? Will they ever even figure out who's responsible? Listen to this episode and find out!

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!

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!

'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!

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!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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'!

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!

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!