Examining The Dead #30: Body Horror

Train and Seth return for the (as of now) only NSFW podcast in the Geekville Radio family.

0:30 – Introduction: It’s Halloween!

Every October we adopt a Halloween theme for all our shows. Examining The Dead is a natural fit for Halloween.

2:00 – The Coroner’s Report

Chucky premiered to critical praise. It has the distinction of being shown on two separate stations simultaneously, USA and Sci-Fi.

Victor Miller vs. Sean Cunningham lawsuit over the Friday the 13th franchise Seems to finally be over. We covered the lawsuit resolution a few years back. https://geekvilleradio.com/19/

Halloween Kills finally opened and scored big at the box office even though it was readily available for streaming on Peacock as well. Unlike Marvel’s Black Widow, the home streaming ability didn’t seem to affect the box office performance. Venom: Let There Be Carnage has also opened to big success, currently sitting at $290 million worldwide. If there are people who think Venom isn’t horror, be reminded that in the comics one of Venom’s gimmicks was eating brains. Addams Family 2 has grossed $60m as well.

Finally, Ghostbusters: Afterlife hits theaters in a couple of weeks.

25:45 – The Gruesome Twosome Threesome

RL Stine’s Fear Street series of books were adapted into a trilogy of films: Fear Street Part One: 1994, Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and Fear Street Part Three: 1666. Unlike traditional movie trilogies which are released over years, these movies were released within weeks of each other. This effectively makes the movie feel much more like a three-part story than separate films.

Beware that the review contains a whole bunch of SPOILERS but all three films are highly recommended!

25:00 – Into The Crystal Ball

Body Horror according to Wikipedia is “a subgenre of horror that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body”

Arguably the first example of body horror is the original Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley. More modern examples include films by David Cronenberg such as Videodrome and The Fly.

One of Train’s picks: The Fly (1986) perhaps the most mainstream example of body horror as a man slowly morphs into a giant insect.
Seth’s Pick: Doctor Who and the Ark in Space, (1975) where a human slowly morphing into a giant insect is depicted using green bubble wrap…