Doomsday at the Movies

Amber & Ryan talk Luc Besson's 1997 sci-fi action film The Fifth Element. They discuss the film's impeccable production design, stellar cast, and its place in the canon of great 90s films.

Amber & Ryan dig into 1997's Gattaca and discuss the film's retro-futuristic aesthetic, its great cast of character actors, and the movie's clumsy commentary on eugenics and ableism.

Amber & Ryan deck the halls with 2012's surprisingly enjoyable micro-budget zombie movie Christmas With the Dead, based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale.

Amber & Ryan watch the 2011 prequel/sequel/remake/reboot The Thing. Ryan extols the movie's virtues and makes a spirited defense for why the movie is good, actually.

Amber & Ryan assimilate John Carpenter's The Thing. Amber discusses why she's not as into the movie as some and Ryan provides some insight on the movie from the short story it was based on.

Amber & Ryan talk The Golden Compass, how it adapts the book it was based on, why the movie was so controversial, and why New Line Cinema's hopes of making it the next Lord of the Rings were in vain.

Amber & Ryan close out the series with David Hartman's Phantasm V: Ravager. They discuss the film's commentary on aging and love, its strange biblical parallels, and how exactly you go about sticking a silver ball onto a horse's head.

Amber & Ryan talk Phantasm IV: Oblivion, how it does a lot with a very tiny budget, why Ryan thinks it serves as a perfect ending point for the franchise, and the unproduced Phantasm finale that never was.

Amber & Ryan embark on the strange journey that is Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, then wax rhapsodic about Joe R. Lansdale, Kinky Friedman, and those old Sci-Fi Channel movie marathon commercials.

Amber & Ryan head down the lonesome highway with Mike and Reggie in Phantasm II.

Happy Halloween! Amber & Ryan embrace spookiness as they dive into the first of Don Coscarelli's Phantasm series. They discuss surrealism, dwarf monsters, the fear of death, and shiny silver balls.

Amber and Ryan talk 2018's Hotel Artemis, its pointed social commentary, Jodie Foster's performance, and why Dave Bautista may be the saddest character in the movie.

Amber and Ryan discuss 2013's The Last Days, the connection between children's games and horror/sci-fi, how refreshing it is when doomsday movies decide to focus on the good qualities of humanity, and then talk epic fantasy smut and women in prison films.

Amber and Ryan discuss 2002's Reign of Fire, the novelty of a dragon apocalypse, a waste of a perfectly good Alice Krige, and how well all those CGI dragons hold up to modern scrutiny.

Amber and Ryan discuss 2013's The Colony, the difference between Laurence and Larry Fishburne, why movie cannibals never cook their meat, mid-budget movies, and then bicker for ten minutes!

Amber and Ryan discuss Neil Marshal's genre pastiche Doomsday, Fine Young Cannibals, Malcolm McDowell, and breaking the 180 rule.

Amber and Ryan talk Deadites, chainsaw hands, and boomsticks and Ryan explains how the third movie in the Evil Dead franchise qualifies as a Doomsday Movie.

Amber and Ryan talk rock-n-roll, the 90s, independent films, annoying kids, fishing nets, and Kung Fu as we look at 1998's gonzo cult film Six-String Samurai.

Amber and Ryan discuss 28 Weeks Later, its legacy as a not-really sequel, whether Robert Carlyle is a smart zombie or not, Imogen Poots' haunting eyes, and whether this very different take on the material really gels with 28 Days Later's extremely character-driven approach to zombie horror.

Amber and Ryan discuss the movie that brought zombies back into the zeitgeist, discuss how the infected differ from traditional zombies, debate the finer points of early 2000s digital photography, and take an excrutiating amount of time trying to remember Idris Elba's name.

Amber and Ryan discuss comics-to-film animated anthology Heavy Metal; the limitations of rotoscoping, pizza cutter hands, a giant chicken that screams like a man, and how the film's treatment of women holds up in the modern age.

Amber and Ryan dig into 1983's infamous Yor the Hunter From the Future. They discuss mud mummies, questionable sails, Italian genre film, and the movie's himbo barbarian hero. They're gonna make all those wilds beasts look tame tonight.

Amber and Ryan dig into 1995's 12 Monkeys. They discuss how it compares to the original La Jetee, director Terry Gilliam's questionable behavior, and how well one of Brad Pitt's most famous capital A acting performances holds up.

In their inaugural episode, film critic Ryan Covey and author Amber Covey discuss their relationship to post-apocalyptic and dystopian films, define what a "Doomsday Movie" is, and talk about the 1962 French short film La Jetee.