DRtL Episode 25: Hail to the King!
Hail to the King — namely, Stephen King, that household name of horror, the Maine Man himself! As any horror fan will tell you, Stephen King has had more than his fair share of movie adaptations, not all of them good. Well — maybe, most of them really not that good. But! We persevered here at DRtL, and dove right into our retrospective. We mostly remembered King’s films as being fairly light, fun, popcorn movies — but join us as we realize how wrong we were, and just how many of the genuinely horrifying aspects of human nature are lurking under the surface of King’s work, like a clown in a sewer.
Not to say we didn’t have fun with the topic. See for yourself. Or, I guess, hear for yourself!
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DRtL Episode 24: Orphans and Orphanages!
We’re back from Crypticon! We had a pretty great time, and we’re here to tell you about it. And Montoure has some selections from this year’s Seattle International Film Festival! All of which turns out to be a good thing, because the topic we had chosen for this episode turns out to be a little thin on the ground. It sure seemed like creepy orphans and orphanages were a staple of the horror genre, but we ended up having to kind of stretch our definitions to find enough to talk about ….
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DrTL Episode 23: Werewolves!
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to one whole year of Don’t Read the Latin! It seems like only yesterday that Episode One was lovingly streamed straight to your trembling ears, but it was way back on May 9th, 2014. So we’re celebrating our podcast-iversary! Join us! Have some cake and ice cream!
Ooookay, maybe — maybe just some ice cream.
Anyway! Yes! A new episode! We have one for you, and it didn’t take a whole month this time! We are joined once again by Jeff Harris from Fanboy News Network, who practically insisted on coming along for the recording when he found out we were talking about werewolves, which turned out to be a good thing as Michael and Jennifer ended up realizing that, on the whole, they, uhhh, they don’t really like werewolf movies that much. So, yeah.
But we still manage to have a good time with the subject, and Jennifer talks about rewatching The Walking Dead and about common werewolf tropes in urban fantasy, Michael tells us about a unique stage adaptation of Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde, Michael and Jeff talk about the history of werewolves in Marvel comics, and we wonder why more werewolf movies don’t deal with pack dynamics.
In short, it’s another fun episode, so press play above! Or download it. I mean, whatever you wanna do here. Knock yourself out.
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DRtL Episode 22: Curses and Premonitions!
Welcome back — finally — to Don’t Read the Latin! We’re back after something like a solid month of not-podcasting, so let’s see if we still remember how to do this! We would have had this episode done much sooner, but we were delayed by Michael’s illness and then Jennifer’s surgery, almost as if we were …. cursed. Hmmm.
Anyway! Join us as we wax rhapsodic about It Follows, visit Jen’s Documentary Corner, and talk about the renaissance of excellent synthesizer-based horror soundtracks we’ve been getting lately. (And, not coincidentally, talk about Jen’s love of collecting movie soundtracks on vinyl.)
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Music Bonus!
Here are a couple of links to the albums that Michael mentions this episode:
That second one is pay-what-you-want over at Bandcamp, so definitely check both of them out for retro synth-y goodness.
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Shout-Outs!
There are a couple of listeners we wanted to thank — first of all, thanks to commenter Kylie for her suggestion of Noroi: The Curse, which Michael watched based on her recommendation. Fun movie!
Secondly, many thanks to the listener who ran into Michael at Emerald City Comicon and told him this was her favorite podcast! Very, very cool. You made our month. (He didn’t catch your name, though! Let us know who you are!)
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Please Stand By
If everything had gone according to plan, you would be reading the show notes post for the latest episode of Don’t Read the Latin instead of, well, this.
But as it happens, last week, Jennifer and Michael played hooky from their podcast recording session in order to go see It Follows, which is fantastic, by the way, and you should totally blow off your responsibilities and do the same. Check out Jennifer’s review.
Our fall-back plan was to record tonight instead and get the podcast out by Friday, but Michael has fallen deathly ill and quarantined himself in his condo, and next week Jennifer will be out of town, sooooo …. we don’t know right now exactly when our next episode will be.
But fear not, Latin Club! We absolutely pinky-swear that we will get our next episode to you as soon as humanly possible — or inhumanly, if necessary. We miss you, too.
So sit tight and watch this space, and join us next time for Curses and Premonitions!
DRtL Episode 21: Based on a True Story!
Wellllll …. kind of. Many, many horror movies over the years have claimed to have been based on actual events, ripped bleeding from the headlines, but on closer examination, these claims usually turn out to be a little — shall we say, exaggerated?
Join Jennifer and Michael as we separate fact from fiction!
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DRtL Episode 20: Guilty Pleasures!
First, a word of warning. At one point during this episode, we propose a drinking game — that you drink every time we say something to the effect of, “This is not a good movie.” Do not do this. You will die.
That said — join Michael and Jennifer as we drag our secret stash of schlock out from the back of our video collections into the light. First we define just exactly what it is we mean when we call something a “guilty pleasure,” and then we’re off and running! Expect lots of giggling in this episode.
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Episode Nineteen: When Aliens Attack!
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” ― Arthur C. Clarke
Lock all your windows, grab your tinfoil hats and your shotguns, and get ready to hide in your closets, because they’re almost here! The aliens are coming!
…. Okay, well, no. Probably not. But the latest episode of Don’t Read the Latin! is here, and that’s almost as scary! You can put your shotgun down, but you might want to hold on to that tinfoil hat.
Join Jennifer and Michael as they talk about their favorite alien horrors, a heaping handful of guilty pleasures, and a few movies that just didn’t work for them. And stick around for the end, for a discussion of just why movies about aliens scare us so much, and for a few words about Michael’s experiences with UFOs in his childhood!
Put on the headphones, lean back, and try to ignore the strange tall figures and the blinding bright light — the experiment is about to begin ….
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Episode Eighteen: Shout at the Devil!
Hey, everyone! Join us as we delve into the occult reaches of a subject that …. it turns out we don’t really know a lot about! (I resisted the urge to say, a hell of a lot about. Don’t you admire my restraint?) This time, the subject on deck is Demons, Devils, and Possession, and while that idea sounded good when we first discussed it, our research soon showed that there were approximately one million films on this subject in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s that we just flat-out have not seen.
Regardless, we soldiered on, and we talked about some of the best — and worst! — devilry we’ve witnessed on the silver screen. Enjoy! As always, tell your friends, reblog and retweet the hell out of this episode (sorry — my restraint only goes so far), and if you would be so kind, rate us on iTunes! Thanks much. See you in two weeks!
Other Stuff We Talked About
Here’s the new review Michael mentioned for his novel: Still Life – Michael Montoure | The Reader In the Tower.
And here’s a picture of the Exorcist III art print that Jennifer mentioned. Click the image to view it full-sized. The artist is Slippery Jack, and that link goes to his Big Cartel page if you’d like to pick up a print of your own.
Finally, when we talked about Rosemary’s Baby in this episode, we discussed whether or not you ever see the baby’s eyes. Michael thought we didn’t, and Jennifer was pretty sure that we at least saw a flash of them. Here’s the scene in question, and we do see a quick flash of inhuman yellow eyes — but Michael thinks it looks more like it might be a flashback to the face of the devil seen during the baby’s freaky, dreamlike conception scene. Compare the two, decide for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments below.
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Episode Seventeen: We Kind of Like the 90’s!
Hello, boys and ghouls, welcome back once again to another episode of Don’t Read the Latin! This time, after our in-depth two-part episode on the 80’s, we’re going to dive into a, well, slightly less-loved decade, but one that still has more than a few gems in it. Join us, won’t you? You’ll learn more about Jennifer’s seemingly random Hollywood crushes, the too-cool-for-film-school pretentiousness of The Addiction and The Prophecy, and which movie features Billy Zane at his Billy Zaniest!
Bonus YouTube Videos!
In our discussion of Stigmata (oh, Stigmata, you’re not a good movie, but we kind of like you anyway), Jennifer brings up a Chumbawumba song from the soundtrack that’s really kind of awesome. If you’ve only ever heard that “I get knocked down” drinking song of theirs, you really need to put this in your ear-holes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__YHRv5VuDI
Finally, here’s the channel introduction for Count Jackula, the horror review show that we mention:
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