095 – Crash (the good one)

Jen and Tim welcome back Darren Herczeg to discuss one of the most controversial movies of the 90s— David Cronenberg’s arresting 1996 film, Crash.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

For the record, J.G. Ballard wholeheartedly endorsed the film:

A journalist from Finland spoke up and attacked us in a novel way. Rather than excoriating us for making a film “beyond the bounds of depravity” (per Alexander Walker of the Evening Standard, who actually shook a schoolmaster’s disapproving finger at Jeremy from the back of the packed hall), he said that the movie completely betrayed the book, was a pathetic and weak skimming of a powerful work. Jim answered him: “The movie is actually better than the book. It goes further than the book, and is much more powerful and dynamic. It’s terrific.” An astonishing thing for an author to say. Abashed, the Finnish journalist sat down.

David Cronenberg

If you’re a Darren stan, be sure to listen to our episode on the musical white elephant Lost Horizon!

093 – The Sleeping Car

Jen welcomes special guest Keenan to discuss an ineffectual answer to Jason and Freddy. It’s The Sleeping Car, from 1990!

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VHS cover for The Sleeping Car (1990)

As a bonus, here’s a look at Jeff Conaway’s role in the film as the most loathsome human being to ever draw breath.

If you love Kevin McCarthy as much as we do, listen to our episode on UHF!

092 – Christian the Lion

Jen welcomes animal expert Emma back to the show to discuss the documentary that spawned a surprise viral clip.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

Emma is one of our favorite guests, and stopped by a while back to talk about Tippi Hedren and Noel Marshall’s incredibly misguided film, Roar! Listen to that episode here.

More About Christian the Lion

Ace and John’s memoir, A Lion Called Christian, is available cheap at Alibris.

Ace and John’s website pays tribute to their lion friend and has lots of photos and information.

You can also visit a very Web 1.0 site with info about the remarkable George Adamson.

090 – Horror Express

Telly Savalas in Horror Express (1972)
Bringing the train, and the movie, to a screeching halt, and god bless him for it

Tim and Jen (mostly Tim) describe a beloved ersatz-Hammer sci-fi thriller starring the venerable team of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (plus a sensational appearance by Telly “Kojak” Savalas). Throughout, Tim is like: games games games tabletop Cthulhu saving throw Traveller roll up a character -2 sanity

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in Horror Express (1972)


In the movie, Peter Cushing discovers the image of a murderer preserved on a victim’s eye. This was a real turn-of the century theory! Smithsonian Magazine has an article about it.

The Internet Archive has preserved a number of wonderful pop-culture artifacts, including issues of Fangoria. Read their 1999 article in which Horror Express director Eugenio Martín reflects on the film and his career up to that point.

You can also get the Horror Express blu-ray from Arrow Films!

089 – Zen Filmmaking

Scott Shaw and some unpaid actors in Roller Blade Seven (1991)
Scott Shaw and some unpaid actors in Roller Blade Seven (1991)

Would you like to make a movie and just don’t know how? Why let that stop you? Try concocting a pseudo-spiritual method called Zen Filmmaking out of your own failings and refusing to pay your cast and crew! On this episode, don’t miss Jen slipping into mania about Hollywood sex criminals and Tim getting confessional about his own indie filmmaking sins!

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!


We highly recommend perusing Scott Shaw’s website, where many of his books are available for purchase. Scroll down for about seventeen hours to find the book we discuss in this episode, Zen Filmmaking!

“If you have too many crew people, they all want silly things like story boards, shot lists, and stuff.” -Scott Shaw

087 – Serial

Screenwriter Josh Olson brings us a movie that he swears is actually funny and good! It’s the little-seen Serial from 1980! Featuring Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, violent gay bikers, Sally Kellerman’s boobs, casual homophobia, Tommy Smothers in a headband, hot tubs, est probably, psychologically disturbed children whose acting out is played for laughs, etc.

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

For the curious, here is the full Kevin Thomas review of Serial from 1980 that we mentioned on the episode:

Kevin Thomas shreds Serial

You can also hear more of Josh with Dave Anthony on The West Wing Thing, or with Joe Dante on The Movies That Made Me, or check out our episode on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!

086 – Wild Side

Jen and Tim discuss Donald Cammell’s posthumous thriller, Wild Side from 1995.

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Wild Side went straight to video. Sadly, director Cammell committed suicide in 1996. However, while some have connected his death to the failure of his last project, we found that the story wasn’t quite so pat.

We were indebted to the only definitive biography on the man and his work. Get a copy of Donald Cammell: A Life on the Wild Side by Rebecca Umland on Alibris.

For another frank flick from the 90s, try our episode on David Cronenberg’s Crash!

084 – Vile Pervert: The Sequel and Guilty

Jen and show MVP Mike Rosen dissect some disgusting works by a disgusting person, Jonathan King. That’s right, he won’t go the fuck away! Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

Hear the whole episode at our Patreon and get access to more than 50 bonus episodes!

If you can stomach it, here are our earlier episodes about Jonathan King’s revolting outsider works: we looked at the original Vile Pervert in episode 009, and the unasked-for sequel in episode 38!

083 – Verotika

Jen and Tim rewrite Glenn Danzig’s stupefying horror anthology, Verotika! Only Glenn could give us dialogue like “Your titties are looking at me!”

Verotika may be viewed on the Shudder streaming service.

“Yeah, I got A Rebours, The Young Poisoner’s Handbook, The Night Circus…all the spookiest shit.”

For more head-scratching horror, listen to our episode about Canadian micro-budgeter Things!