Cult films. Midnight movies. B-pictures. Channel 37's Midnight Movie Show celebrates the history of late-night double features of all manner of slightly disreputable schedule fillers.
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It was fated to happen sooner or later. For the third season finale, we highlight the debuts of directors given their start by the outrageous Troma Productions! James Gunn got his start in the industry with 1996's Tromeo and Juliet. Then, before co-creating MST3K, Jim Mallon gave the world 1987's Blood Hook. Finally, Trey Parker was finding his voice with 1993's Cannibal! The Musical. A shpadoinkle day, indeed. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
The dream of achieving fame and glory on the stage is a tale older than cinema. Take the story one way, and you get 1995's Showgirls! Tweak it just a bit, and you wind up with Gold Diggers of 1933!. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
We've got our finger on the pulse of today, and never have we proven it more effectively than with a look at the properties your grandparents held dear. We open things up with 1986's Biggles: Adventures in Time, in which Dave takes the time out of his day to explain to us what a Biggles is. Next, we were a surprised as you were by 2019's Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
It's our annual animation episode! The unholy melding of 1980s pop and Canadian animation provide a timeless tale of good v evil, but evil is brought to us by Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, so we're okay with it, in 1983's Rock and Rule! Then, one of our intrepid band will rock the earth to its very foundations as we cover the 1968 classic Yellow Submarine! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Ancient colossi from beyond the dawn of time do battle for the very soul of humanity. Also, can we just pick up our shit, please, in 1971's Godzilla v the Smog Monster. After that, Kevin Bacon, Earth's Greatest Hero, is all that stands between us and certain death by shai-hulud in 1990's Tremors. How many ways can four people pronounce Hedorah? The answer will amaze you! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
While we would never want to accuse anyone of wrapping themselves in religion to justify acts of violence and terror, Hammer Films and Tigon Pictures were not as circumspect as we. However, it does give us the opportunity to see Christopher Lee go full Batman villain in 1966's Rasputin the Mad Monk. After that, Vincent Price actually manages not to go full Batman villain in 1968's Witchfinder General. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
If you liked a movie, you'll love the same thing again, only bigger and more of it! It's a theory we test with 1982's Grease 2! After that, no one is impressed with Dan right now after watching 1984's Surf 2! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
It's our favorite time of year again! We've got two movies that ostensibly feature a countdown to tragedy on Halloween night, but really we're mostly here to talk up Salem tourism with 1993's Hocus Pocus. After that, it's glorious whatthefuckery that only Cannon can bring you with 1990's Rockula, and we wonder where this movie has been all our lives. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
The 1990s were the center of a new and exciting film movement, one where the major studios didn't have sole discretion as to which movies made it to the public; they all had pretend boutique sub-companies buying independent films from the festival circuit for that. This week, we look at two of those that rode the Sundance gauntlet to a tiny art house theater near you: 1998's Smoke Signals and 1995's Living in Oblivion! Redford tested, Miramax approved! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
William Castle always new that the hoopla surrounding a movie was as big a part of the experience as the movie itself. This time around, we take a look at 1959's The Tingler, a film that introduced the world to the wonders of Percepto that had the added bonus of Vincent Price absolutely dripping with ham. Then, 1993's Matinee! is a loving callback to a simpler time when the looming threat of thermonuclear annihilation could be staved off with monster movies presented by a carnival showman. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
We're hopping in our George Pal-approved wayback machine to a time when people made movies that looked and felt an awful lot like older movies. We could just go watch the older movies, but meh. Anyway. First up, we got our Hammer on with 2015's The Love Witch! After that, we stuck around for an 80s post-apocalypse by way of Tom and Jerry cartoons with 2015's Turbo Kid! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
The Midnight Mystery Show returns to kick off season four, and sadly we found ourselves paying tribute to Val Kilmer, to whom we said goodbye earlier this year. We opened with 1985's Real Genius, an excellent showcase for Kilmer's considerable comedic skills, and then paid tribute to his vaunted ability to walk away with a movie by covering the single greatest example of this: 1993's Tombstone. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
In preparation for the new season of The Midnight Movie Show, our intrepid heroes ask the question that has puzzled humankind from the beginning of time: What if The Maltese Falcon, but worse? Join us as we investigate 1987's Alien Private Eye! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Every career has to start somewhere, and Academy Award winners have to pay their dues like anyone else. Sometimes you kick things off punching a stuntman through a glass wall, and sometimes you start out chasing a character actor behind a high school gymnasium. The third season of The Movie Show comes to a close by looking at the beginnings of some Best Actress award winners: namely, Michelle Yeoh (in 1985's Yes, Madam!), Sandra Bullock (1989's The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman: Bionic Showdown), and Renee Zellweger (1995's Empire Records)! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WH
No one ever lost any money by licensing a popular song and building a whole movie around it. Gold, Jerry! In that vein, we open things up with the 1985 ode to Helen Hunt and her ability to accessorize that is Girls Just Want to Have Fun! After that, if you listen carefully, you can hear our hearts break in real time while we try to explain a generation's affection for 1986's Pretty in Pink. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
The holidays are known for three things: peace on Earth, good will toward men, and werecats. In that vein, the Borg Queen, Glenn Shadix, and Clovis the Very Good Cat combine to distract you from the extremely icky center of the Tootsie Pop that is 1992's Stephen King's Sleepwalkers. After that, we revisit the golden days of RKO Radio Pictures with quite possibly the very worst person ever presented to moviegoing audiences as a sympathetic protagonist, but at least it looks pretty good. That's 1942's Cat People! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
We have another example of The Krull Exemption as 1993's Super Mario Bros.: The Movie proves that you can throw all the money in the world at something and it's still going to end up on basic cable after CSI reruns. Afterwards, we keep the Nintendo train rolling with 2007's The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
As everyone knows, rock and / or roll is the Devil's music, and, as a public service, we here at the WHXN home office watched two movies to really get to grips with the Satanic panic overwhelming our nation's soul. First, we were utterly bewildered and kind of confused by 1988's Hack-O-Lantern. Then, the goofy best friend from Family Ties both messed up his stereo and also summoned a hellbeast by playing his record backwards, just like Tipper Gore always told us he would. It's 1986's Trick or Treat! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Sometimes Hollywood screws up real good. When that happens, in times of direst need, podcasters will come together to teach the major studios the error of their ways by paying homage to the edited versions of these films they got us to buy a second time. We kick things of with 1990's Nightbreed: The Director's Cut, and wash that down with 1982's Blade Runner: The Final Cut. We sure showed them! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Have you ever said to yourself, "You know, I really liked Indiana Jones. I wonder if there's anything out there that's like that, but with no budget, a wildly varying tone, and just... so much racism? Like, a lot of racism." Wonder no longer! We venture into the heart of the Cannon Films archive to bring you 1985's King Solomon's Mines! Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Ah, high school. The learning, the growing, the unrelenting PTSD. This week we recover some repressed memories with 1989's Heathers. Then, we watch the same movie, but with more 90s and Rose McGowan just being awesome, with 1999's Jawbreaker. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Christian is here, and with him comes our annual animation discussion. Once upon a time, someone watched Fantasia, thought to themselves, "You know, this could be weirder," and thus sprang 1977's Allegro non troppo. Afterwards, everyone takes a deep breath, puts on their Ralph Bakshi pants, and delves into 1977's Wizards. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
Donovan enters the octagon that is the Channel 37 Home Office to class up the place with two-fisted kickpunchery! We don't want to oversell things, but we may have seen the greatest thing in the history of things with 1974's Black Belt Jones. Then, we were worried that film was too buttoned-down and sensible, so we loosened up with 1976's Master of the Flying Guillotine. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
For the first time in nearly a century, we wake up in the morning to a world without Roger Corman in it. In addition to reshaping the face of American cinema for generations, he also directed a few movies. We spend as much time as we can discussing 1963's X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes and 1959's A Bucket of Blood before we can hold back no longer and gush about how awesome Dick Miller is. Kirby, WHXN's Executive Vice President of Wanting You to Throw the Ball, Please, chimes in with his own thoughts. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
The New and Improved British Invasion is well and truly underway, as Ian stops by the Channel 37 Home Office to remind everyone of the clear and present danger we are all in from that guy in the car next to us. Especially those two in the camper, as evinced by 2012's Sightseers. After that, we're reminded of a uniquely American sort of vehicular homicide, brought to us by some rookie director whose name we've already forgotten. Anyway, here's 1972's Duel. Email: info@channel-37.com Twitter: @WHXN37
