Films at First Sight

Caitlin from the Plug It Up Podcast joins us as we take a disorienting vaction to Italy with Elizbeth Taylor in Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's Identikit AKA The Driver's Seat. Will we know just what the hell is going on by the end of it or will we mix our diets with our orgasms and ruin the whole messy affair? Tune in to find out!!

We're back and Graham has us traveling down to Argentina when we chat about 2018's Nazi hunting thriller, Operation Finale. Come for a smoldering Oscar Isaac and stay for what is potentially the worst first date that we've covered thus far!

e're back and we brought some friends with us! Casey from Bloody Good Horror and Alyssa from the Silver Scream Podcast join Joe and Graham to chat about Juraj Jakubisko's monster mashup Freckled Max and the Spooks. Will this wildly inventive adaptation of Frankenstein's Aunt give us life or will the gang break out the torches and pitchforks and demand an end to the madness? Tune in to find out!!

We're back with another episode of Short Ends! Join us as we open up the crypt and dive into 1967's Soy leyenda, a moody adaptation of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend. And of course this means we have to sort through the various other attempts at this wonderfully dark tale of lonliness, isolation, and vampires. Check it out!

We're back and still celebrating Drive-In Double Features, this time with a movie title mix-up! So hop on in the car and turn up the volume as Joe and Graham chat about Joe Pesci's feature film debut, from 1976, The Death Collector AKA The Family Enforcer and a low budget post-apocalyptic western, from 1988, Death Collector. 

Buckle up for one helluva journey as Wit returns to the show and we chat about William Friedkin's stonecold masterpiece Sorcerer. We laud the theater experience, try and unpack the various themes, and get into it about pacing verse length, all the while, wondering if we would even survive the treacherous journey through the Mexican jungle.

Sarah from the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network joins us to kick off Drive-In Double Feature Season as we pay tribute to Gene Hackman with 1974's The Conversation & 1998's Enemy of the State, two films that couldn't feel more different stylistically, but are so thematically intertwinned that we had no choice but to sit down with them. Will we survive the onslaught of burgeoning '90s comedians playing techies that have all of the patriotic duty as the DOGE team? Tune in to find out!!

We're heading back to the Mauch Chunk Opera House in the beautiful Pocono Mountains, for the 8th Annual Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival. Joe breaks down everything he saw, including festival favorite Fucktoys, Lanfia Wal's over-the-top homage to '80s blaxploitation and action flicks, New Jack Fury, and it wouldn't be JTIFF without a stop to the infamous Grindhouse with This is Us, and Meat Machine. Check it out!!

Step out of time with us as Graham brings Joe into a surreal dream world involving private detectives, missing dames, ninjas, gyroscopes, eggs, and meta commentary utilizing silent film as its medium, with Kaizo Hayashi's remarakable fantasy/mystery To Sleep So as to Dream.

We're back with another edition of Short Ends, this time previewing Emily Everhard's short film No Experience Necessary, which World Premieres at the 35th Aspen Shortsfest. So join us, as we discuss this funny and moving short about finding that spark in life again. 

We're getting sexy and mysterious when Jason from Dads from the Crypt returns to talk about Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill, a film that begs the question, what is the proper painting to be looking at when we succumb to our innermost desires and fantasies?

Wowee, 2024 was quite the year for cinema and we have so much to reflect on. So, grab a seat while we each go through 20 films that stood out amongst an impressive amount of movies watched, both new and old. We've got beavers, evil Canadian children, slutty pizza lovers, juggalos, crime sprees, film-noir, sex workers across multiple generations, religious allegories, and much, much more!! 

Hustle on up and hitch a ride with us as we are joined by Bloody Good Horror's Eric Newell to chat about Martin Scorsese's dusty crime thriller Boxcar Bertha. I mean, it was have been desrepectful NOT to cover one of the many films that Roger Corman produced which launched a major career. And who doesn't wanna see Bernie Casey being an all around badass. So, come for the violence & nudity and stay for the weird Wizard of Oz allegory. 

Join us as we invite our old friend Brad to help us investigate Denis Villeneuve's labyrinthine thriller Prisoners, a Thanksgiving flick that gets us wondering, where was Hugh Jackman's character on January 6th? Other points of discussion are Thanksgiving films, the star studded cast, favorite actors that perpetually get beat the hell up, our oddest pets, and of course that ENDING. 

Sometimes you just need a fresh start. Something new to springboard you into the next chapter of life. Well join us as we return for our first coverage involving a Made-For-TV film and we have a brand new guest on the show, Levi from the Well-Adjusted Horror Podcast. This episode we are talking about the 1970's Play for Today broadcast on the BBC, Robin Redbreast, a film that has been heralded as a folk horror response to Rosemary's Baby. Tangents include terrible dates, even worse neighbors, and the big red warning signs of Nazi related obsessions. 

Life isn't full of too many second chances but what happens when you are given a new lease on life? Now that's a big question for a small podcast. Luckily for us, friend of the show, Steve is here to enlighten us to all of the mysteries and wonders that accompany such a profound inquiry with John Frankenheimer's science-fiction masterpiece, Seconds. So join us as Joe & Graham experience what is arguably Rock Hudson's greatest film & performance.

We've got a new guest to the show and he's bringing what may be one of the most divisive movies we've covered thus far, Luca Guadagnino's Challengers. Gabe Coffey joins Joe & Graham to talk throuples, competition, sweat, and a nonstop throbbing soundtrack. Check it out!

Joe and Jody from Dads from the Crypt sit down and talk this year's Chattanooga Film Festival while they unpack their thoughts on juggalos, the need for gay southern gothic tales, and the implicit dangers of joining a cult.

Joe and Graham are joined by friend of the show, Whitney, to discuss Lucía Forner Segarra's latest short film, Berta, which World Premiered at Fantasia Fest on July 28th, 2024. The gang gets into their taste for revenge films, the importance of women's voice in the subgenre, and the use of art as a means to dissect and understand trauma. Join us for a bloody good time!

We had so much to say about this year's Chattanooga Film Festival that we couldn't help but hit the record button again! Joe and Graham keep it rolling with a slew of shorts such as Roger is a Serial Killer, The Cost of Flesh, Giallo, Like Me, Apotemnofilia, and the BANANAS The Rainbow Bridge. And things get meta as we talk podcast representation in films during our features discussion which include Graham Skipper's The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine, Video Visions, Falling Stars and Carnage for Christmas. 

The smell of freshly popped popcorn, the clicking and spinning of projector wheels, oh it can only the summer camp for cinefiles, the Chattanooga Film Festival. This year we are joined by Allison of the Who's There? podcast to discuss some of our favorite things we saw such as Canvas, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Adult, The Vourdalak and Red Rooms. And we certainly didn't forget about the wonderful slew of short films. Check it out!!

We're LIVE again at the Colonial Theatre where we are joined by filmmaker Ryan Hammaker to discuss 1971's Vanishing Point, a film championed as one of the greatest car movies ever made. Does it live up to its legendary status or does it crash and burn in a fiery smoldering wreck?

This episode we are joined by Rachel and Ariel from The More Deadly Podcast to chat about Věra Chytilová's Daisies, a movie near and dear to Joe's chaotic heart. For maximum chaos, subjects include food fights, blacklists, feminsim in film, taking mushrooms and talking to the police, and surprise appearance from Ariel's cat! Check it out!!

Join us in the cozy little mountain town of Jim Torpe for The Seventh Annual Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival as we regale the sights and sounds of one of Pennsylvania's BEST Film Festivals. We talk creepy Irish tales, locally shot tearjerkers, and finally find something tense enough that it forced Graham to flee the theater. JTIFF really does have something for everyone!

Instead of our socials with images of what we watched, we're sitting down to chat about some of our favorite (and least favorite) films that we watched in March of 2024. And of course we get wildly distracted along the way. So join us for our inaugural episode of Firsts of the Month!

Welcome to Off the Shelf, where we dive into the world of physical media. In our first episode, Joe and Graham look at Canadian International Pictures' release of The Mob (La gammick) (1975), a crime driven character study which is accompanied with the animated short film Hunger (1974) and a wonderfully Canadian mixtape of Quebec crime film trailers.

On this episode of Exposure Time, we preview the documentary, Ennio, a retrospective look at the work of master film composer, Ennio Morricone.......... sorry I got lost thinking of the sweeping beauty that is the theme to One Upon a Time in the West. Well, at this point, might as well save all of the gushing, flowery language, and superlatives for the episode. It's a good one.

Joe and Graham welcome their friend and FFS alumnus Caitlin Grant, host of Plug It Up podcast, on a deep dive into a sincere and heartwarming drama about the people who shine brightest in our lives and how they inspire us to our greatest potential... jk, it is straight-up about a dude who makes lanterns out of human flesh.  What?

In which Joe and Graham cleanse their palate from their recent exposure to Salo by way of the 1982 sex comedy The Last American Virgin. Was it the light-hearted nostalgia blanket the guys needed? Listen to find out. You know it'll bother you if you don't.

Join us as we unveil a new spinoff series, Exposure Time, where we review new and upcoming films. Our first in this series has us diving into the life and work of the Master of Giallo, Dario Argento in Simone Scafidi's Dario Argento Panico which just premiered on Shudder.

We're LIVE at the historic Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, PA with special guest Matthew Sorrento where we watched 1947's Dark Passage for the first time with an AMAZING audience. Grab a seat and listen to us chat about the film, noir tropes, the legendary couple that was Bogie and Bacall, and Matt set us all straight on how brutal the writing industry could be, particarly for author David Goodis, whose novel Dark Passage was the source material for the film.

2023 was maybe our most surprising year yet! Little did we know we would discover a specific theme and boy do we have a lot to say about it. Joe and Graham sit down to chat their favorite new releases for the year, favorite first time watches, and get a little unfocused. Which was actually perfect because it let topics such as physical media, theater viewings and a while lot more bubble to the surface. 

We get a welcomed visit from Jason Stein, member of Dads from the Crypt podcast, and he takes us beyond the pale by recommending a literal hell of a first watch for two of us: Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Join us as we discuss this controversially graphic, offensively vulgar, and undeniably beautiful and well-crafted film.

We're back with another episode of Short Ends! This time Joe & Graham discuss Sam Fox's gross out short film Fck'n Nuts which takes the terrifying concept of meeting the parents and brings it to wonderfully silly levels.

Graham and Joe had the pleasure to sit down with Bomani J. Story, the writer and director of 2023's The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster to discuss his first feature, the film festival gauntlet, the importance of identity, and adapting a literary classic. 

Friend of the show, Natalie returns to join Graham to do something shocking. Get Joe to watch a new movie released in 2023. This episode we are talking 2023's The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, a contemporary spin on Mary Shelley's classic tale of science and control. 

Pour yourself a cocktail and travel down the Lucinda River with Joe , Graham, and new guest to the show, Rachel from the Zombie Grrlz Podcast Network as they discuss 1968's The Swimmer. The gang talks pool parties, deconstructing traditional masculinity, and surrealism in film. Cheers to the first time!

Saddle up and hit the trail with us for a brand new episode where we discuss Sam Peckinpah's ultraviolent western The Wild Bunch. Graham is our episode's first timer and we go into depth on the subversive, bloody drama while touching on the idea of "Dad films", the importance of animal safety, and the awesomeness of Warren Oates. 

Joe and Graham sit down to discuss 2014's The Guest, a genre bending mix of action, horror, and comedy. Really it was just a great excuse for Graham to see it for the first time and for the guys to talk about Lance Reddick, a character actor for the ages.

Jody swings by Short Ends to talk about the microbudget horror anthology Spookie Dookie, a film full of gross out horror and wonderful commericials.

Joe and Graham sit down to watch the 80's slasher Alone in the Dark, a movie with a wonderful cast and fortunately for all of us, not that piece of garbage from Uwe Boll.

We're back and have some new changes to the show. Graham kicks off Season 2 with a stellar pick, Park Chan-wook's sublimely romantic mystery Decision to Leave. 

Caitlin introduces Graham and Joe to Sonny Bono's least favorite movie, 1997's George of the Jungle. We talk Himbo movies, Brendan Fraser's sexiness, and Caitlin privately wonders why people can't just enjoy things. 

Graham sits in the host chair for the first time and introduces Caitlin and Joe to 2014's Coherence, a dinner party movie that digs into the nightmarish idea of not being able to ghost a dinner party because when you leave you arrive at the same exact dinner party (almost).

We're bringing a new guest and big 80's vibes when Chuck from the Colonial Theatre drops by to chat about Fright Night Part II, a movie that hits all of that era's extracurricular activities, sex, bowling, and rollerblading. And not once did Joe refer to it as fangtastic!

Jayson sits down with Joe Badon, the director of The Blood of the Dinosaurs to chat about his work, his philosophy and process behind it all, and his upcoming miniseries The Wheel of Heaven.  

We linked up with the Thor's Hour of Thunder crew to FINALLY get Scarlet Witch to watch Jaws. Mission Accomplished. Now, did she like it?

Friend of the show Maddie is back to join Caitlin in introducing the fellas to the '90's cult classic But I'm a Cheerleader. The gang raves about Natasha Lyonne, dick iconography, and the constant barrage of queer jokes. We also wonder why Melanie Lynskey isn't in everything, she's the best.

On this episode of Short Ends, Jayson and Joe review The Blood of the Dinosaurs, a darkly funny short that has the frenetic energy of a late night psychedelic trip. 

Caitlin is back and we're visiting the snowy mountians of Utah as we discuss Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence, a film that is as cold and bleak as Joe's heart. C'est la vie.

Jayson is back to review The Prey: Legend of Karnoctus, a brand new monster movie/action flick that stars Danny Trejo even if it's just for a hot minute.