The Bloody Pit

December brings our new Holiday Horror episode with John Hudson and Troy Guinn dropping in to hang the mistletoe. This year we examine the Christmas time tale WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO (1971) starring Shelly Winters and a host of British character actors. It turns out I am the only member of our trio who had watched this film before 2025 opening up a number of questions about why Troy chose it! Privileges may need to be rescinded.  A major part of our discussion revolves around director Curtis Harrington’s memories of the movie and its cast. After years of holding my tongue, I finally air my complaints about his rather plodding directorial style and point to a scene that I feel needed a different sensibility behind the camera. Actors Micheal Gothard, Lionel Jefferies, Hugh Griffith and Ralph Richardson are dutifully admired with each adding unique flavors to this very odd holiday dinner. The stand out child actors are given their due with a prominent face from the 1970 version of SCROOGE making all of us fantasize about ending Tiny Tim’s life. We also marvel that unlike what is usually expected from the ‘hag horror’ genre Winters’ character isn’t a mean-spirited villain but instead a grief crippled mother too susceptible to conmen in her life. And then we debate the relative evil of the two main child characters with me leaning toward innocence more than malice. This is something best left to each viewer to decide on their own, methinks!  If you have any comments about this year’s Holiday Horror or possible choices for the next [email protected] is the place to send them. We hope everyone has a great end of year celebration and we will be back soon with a short episode about our favorite films of 2025. 

A fairy tale? DOLLS (1987) was the third released feature film directed by Stuart Gordon but the second one shot. Does it measure up to his Lovecraft adaptations? Well, I am joined by John Hudson and Troy Guinn to compare notes on this deviation from the energetic gorefests we had come to expect from Mr. Gordon. We have much to say even though Troy is dialing in from an undisclosed location. What is his day job, anyway?  We examine the genesis of the project and relate numerous behind the scenes tales from the director and the scriptwriter Ed Naha. John tells us of his longtime appreciation of Naha with a story from his childhood. We talk about the various fairy tale stereotypes that the film’s characters fall into and are amused by all the anti-ques. We discuss the excellent stop-motion special effects and the skill on display technically throughout the movie. I gush about the cinematography and point out some lovely visual moments. And we are all thrilled to have Mr. Sardonicus show up as a (relatively) good guy and use that film’s Punishment Poll as a guide for judging this movie. We have no shame.  If you have any comments about Stuart Gordon movies or our plans to talk about which ones to cover [email protected] is the address to send them. Thanks for listening! 

After avoiding podcasting about the Planet of the Apes franchise for years it is finally time to talk about one of the weakest parts of the classic run. The 1974 television series lasted only fourteen episodes and was one of the most expensive shows produced up to that time. Author Mark Clark joins me to discuss the entire run and we go on for far too long than is healthy. Bear with us for the full running time as we dig out the interesting elements and lament the missed opportunities of this nearly forgotten show. Is this truncated series of adventures with two time-displaced astronauts and an ape companion worth discovering or revisiting? We make our case.  Seen as part of the ongoing 1970’s journey of the science fiction story from the four sequel films, the POTA TV series is clearly a Cul-de-sac branching away from the established road. The first episode both negates a connection to the previous stories and tries to link it to the original film with an earlier astronaut landing spoken of by the leaders of Ape society. Mark makes a strong argument for how the show could take place in one of the two timelines set up in the films already but I am skeptical. We go through each episode pointing out the usually hackneyed plots and overused clichés that litter the stories being told. Often the scripts could easily have been written as installments of a 1960’s western show and simply repurposed for the world of the apes. But the few times the show leans on its science fiction premise are more interesting even if it inevitably leads to very little. If you’ve never watched this series, I hope our spoiler filled podcast won’t put you off at least a partial exploration of our favorite episodes. We can’t claim it’s our most loved part of the franchise but it has its points of interest and entertainment.  If you have any comments about the Planet of the Apes TV series or our plans to talk about the sequel films [email protected] is the address to send them. And if you are interested in the projects Mark speaks about near the end of the show there are links below. Thanks for listening!  SCREEM Magazine Jack Hill book

It’s Monster Rally time! Troy and I have been looking forward to discussing this Universal Horror film for a long time. Easily one of the most fun of the studio’s 1940’s horror films HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944) has extraordinary highs and some bizarre lows. We dig into every single one we can think of including my obsession with werewolf footwear. I’ll admit that I may have been overprepared for this episode which explains how the show’s running time stretches to double the length of the film itself! Of course, this movie marks Boris Karloff’s return to the Frankenstein series but in a new role as a mad scientist. He is fantastic here with his short-sighted goals always overruling wiser choices. Stepping into the oversized boots of the Frankenstein Monster for the first time is Glenn Strange, causing us to look at the common use of his version of the character in products aimed at fans. John Carradine becomes Universal’s new Dracula in the episodic film’s first segment but I make the argument that he might be playing an imposter. “Is you is, or is you ain’t my Dracula?”  J. Carrol Naish appears as the hunchbacked assistant to Karloff and the actor does his usual excellent job playing a character that swings wildly from brutal murderer to pitiable, lovelorn soul. We also discuss several of the returning bit players that always show up in these movies and lament that Goerge Zucco doesn’t get more screentime. At a certain point we realize that we have gotten lost on the brain swapping carousel trying to figure out which noggin should get which lump of gray matter. Luckily the film has a proper torches and pitchforks villager attack to bring things to a destructive end. Plus – quicksand!  If you have any comments about this film or any of the Universal horror movies [email protected] is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and Happy Halloween!

Think of this episode as an unofficial eleventh entry in the most recent season of Wild, Wild Podcast. When Adrian Smith and I discovered that ZORRO THE AVENGER (1962) had no real connection to Italy we dropped it and reviewed another Zorro movie instead. But we had already watched this one and wanted to talk about it as well. Since this is a Spanish production it has many connections to the films of Paul Naschy so we could have just as easily made this an episode of the Naschycast. And wait until you learn who wrote the script! We ramble a bit but were trying to keep this show as brief as Adrian prefers the Wild, Wild Podcast episodes to be. We fail in the attempt, but there was a solid effort made, I promise! The history of cinematic Zorro adventures is touched on with favorite versions of the character listed. As I state in the show, most Zorro films seem to tell the same tale with a few variations so the joys here are noticing the choices made in casting and emphasis. American actor Frank Latimore plays our hero and the legendary Howard Vernon is the villainous Colonel Clarence. The cast of female actors includes Maria Silva years before she was a victim of the Blind Dead or clashed with a certain Spanish werewolf. We don’t spoil the film as it is easy to catch online but we do make a plea for a better-looking version to be made available.  If you have any comments about Zorro or anything else we covered in this episode (we really did ramble) [email protected] is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and we’ll be back soon!