Movie Oubliette

In this Patrons' choice episode, we're exposing ourselves to Cure (1997) – the film that announced Kiyoshi Kurosawa as one of the most unsettling voices in modern horror. Set in Tokyo at the tail end of Japan's "lost decade", it follows weary detective Takabe (Kōji Yakusho) as he investigates a string of seemingly connected string of murders... with apparently different perpetrators. Victims keep turning up with the same grotesque X carved into their necks, and the killers – usually found standing nearby in a daze –have absolutely no idea why they did it. Just when things seem bleak enough, Takabe encounters a mysterious drifter, Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) – a soft-spoken young man who asks everyone the same simple question: Who are you? Should this early progenitor of the "J-horror" phenomenon be released from the oubliette… or would it be safer if we all forgot we ever saw it? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Released in 1990, Hardware is the abrasive feature debut of cult filmmaker Richard Stanley. Starring Stacey Travis as sculptor Jill and Dylan McDermott as desert drifter Mo, the film begins with a romantic gesture that – through the entirely avoidable gift of salvaged military hardware – turns into a claustrophobic battle with a self-repairing government robot determined to follow its programming to the letter. Emerging at the tail end of the VHS-era cyberpunk boom and somewhere in the industrial-grime lineage between The Terminator and Mad Max 2, Stanley’s film quickly carved out a reputation as a cult object: equal parts grimy dystopian satire and mechanical slasher movie. But is this often hard-to-find rusty curio a gem that deserves to be given pride of place in your lounge, or is it best left in the desert? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By popular demand, we're celebrating the release of Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! by taking a look back at Franc Roddam's The Bride (1985). This mid-80s take on Mary Shelley’s mythic creation project tellingly got the budget of a period romance, but likely only because it had a new romantic pop star in the lead role and the production design of an Adam Ant music video. The result is a Gothic fable where baroque laboratories collide with heartfelt journeys toward independence. The monster – dubbed Viktor by his diminutive travelling companion, Rinaldo (David Rappaport) – is played by Clancy Brown, presumably because he strayed from casting sessions for Highlander.Flashdance's Jennifer Beals’ Eva reinvents the notion of “the bride”: she’s bright, terrified of cats, and slightly too lucid for a world full of overlong candlelit discussions about autonomy and creation. Sting’s Baron Frankenstein embodies euro-aristocratic obsession with a bemused smirk, and spends most of his time leaning on something while holding a book.Should this experiment in misunderstood Gothic romance finally earn its freedom? Or is it a well-dressed atrocity that should be hurled off the nearest tower? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Writer Octavio López Sanjuán joins us as we discover Monster in the Closet (1986), an affectionate pastiche of atomic age monster movies from Troma Entertainment. A string of baffling murders in wardrobes draws a plucky San Francisco obituary writer (Donald Grant) into the most terrifying assignment of his career. He’s soon joined by a biology teacher (Denise DuBarry) with more theories than common sense, her boy genius child (an early appearance from Paul Fast and Furious Walker!), and an assortment of moustachioed authorities who all take turns trying (and spectacularly failing) to make sense of a creature that would put even your most irrational childhood fears to shame. Should Monster in the Closet be released to let its freak flag fly, or should it be crammed back in there to wallow in its shame? Find out!You can buy Octavio's Spanish-language book on Monster in the Closet on Amazon!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our second film for this year will also be our second dip of the toe into the filmography of Lucio Fulci (see episode 158 for our take on Conquest, his bonkers fantasy adventure, with our special guest Vincenzo Natali).Don’t Torture a Duckling (Non si sevizia un paperino, 1972) is remembered as one of the most unsettling and thematically ambitious entries in the Italian giallo cycle. Its premise is deceptively simple: a series of brutal child murders shatters a seemingly idyllic community, prompting an investigation led by journalist Andrea Martelli (Tomas Milian) and local police. Suspicion falls quickly – and tellingly – on society’s outsiders: a reclusive “witch” (Florinda Bolkan), a mentally vulnerable man, and anyone who doesn't conform to the village’s rigid moral order. As the mystery unfolds, the film reveals a gallery of compromised adults whose piety and respectability mask repression, misogyny, and latent violence.Should Don’t Torture a Duckling be released from the oubliette and re-examined like an uncomfortable truth finally brought to light, or left buried with Maciara's baby? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year! Michael French of RetroBlasting joins us for an exciting trip with Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986), directed by John Hough (of Watcher in the Woods and The Legend of Hell House fame). It's an ambitious and eccentric British fantasy-adventure that attempts to translate W. E. Johns’ imperial-era aviation hero into the idiom of 1980s blockbuster cinema. Produced by Rusty Lemorande (writer of Electric Dreams), the film has since acquired a reputation less as a failed franchise-starter than as a cult curiosity. It stars Alex Hyde-White as a contemporary New Yorker, Jim, who is randomly pulled back in time to the Western Front of the First World War, where he becomes entangled with the dashing Royal Flying Corps ace James "Biggles" Bigglesworth, played with the essential stiff-upper-lip earnestness by Neil Dickson. Peter Cushing also appears in one of his final screen roles.Should Biggles: Adventures in Time be sprung from the movie oubliette to soar again like its hero looping bravely back into the fray, or grounded permanently like a 'time-twin' displaced forever in the wrong era? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy holidays! Our festive special this year focuses on The Curse of the Cat People (1944), directed by Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise (of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Haunting fame), and produced by Val Lewton for RKO – a sequel that daringly abandons the horror conventions of its predecessor in favour of an atmospheric, psychological fairy-tale. The story follows young Amy Reed (Ann Carter), the sensitive and lonely daughter of Oliver Reed (Kent Smith) and Alice (Jane Randolph), whose imaginary friend manifests in the form of the serene and spectral Irena (Simone Simon), the tragic figure from Cat People (1942). With its expressionistic visuals, gentle pacing, and Lewton’s characteristically suggestive storytelling, should this film finally be released from the Movie Oubliette to flourish like Amy finding a true festive friend, or left to linger in the shadows like the fading spirits of Christmas past? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our final patrons' choice episode for 2025 is the 1982 VHS relic The Flight of Dragons from TV special animation legends Rankin/Bass. Based loosely on the speculative science book by Peter Dickinson and the fantasy novels of Gordon R. Dickson, the film sends the author insert character on a quest to save a magical realm from the suffocating encroachment of mankind's science. Along the way, Peter will meet wizards, dragons, a winsome princess, and an evil sorcerer voiced by James Earl Jones. But is it a forgotten classic that deserves to be in a domed nostalgic magic nature reserve, or should it be consigned to the straight-to-video bargain bin? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the last of our series of early previews of forthcoming films, gleaned from Conrad's time at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) under the wing of Toronto native and film critic extraordinaire, Joe Lipsett, we're looking at two gold-and-turquoise whimsical fantasies: Dust Bunny and Eternal Return.The former is Hannibal and Pushing Daisies showrunner Bryan Fuller's directorial debut, introducing Sophie Sloane as a young girl who recruits the assassin who lives next door (Mads Mikkelsen) to slay the monster that lives under her bed. Cue a delightfully colourful and frequently absurd fairytale that also features fun supporting turns from Sigourney Weaver as Mikkelsen's handler and David Dastmalchian as a rival assassin. It's an odd blend of ingredients, but does it work?Eternal Return is writer-director Yaniv Raz's attempt to create a whimsical romantic time travel fantasy, starring Naomi Scott as a broken-hearted twenty-something and Kit Harington as the eccentric map shop owner who believes he can navigate her back to emotionally significant moments in her life... and possibly change them. Also featuring Simon Callow as an elderly friend who also narrates in his sonorous tones, and set in a London that wouldn't look out of place in a Potter adaptation, does this romantic confection sweep Conrad off his feet?Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dead Birds (2004), directed by Alex Turner and produced during the early-2000s boom in grimy, low-budget horror, is a Confederate-era ghost story that alternates between jump scares for a slow rot of dread and bad decisions. It follows a group of Civil War deserters – played by E.T.'s Henry Thomas, Patrick Fugit, Michael Shannon, and Isaiah Washington – who rob a bank and hole up in a derelict plantation, only to discover it’s crawling with the supernatural consequences of its own bloody past! So should this dusty relic be set free at last or should it be trapped in the dark with its guilt? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back with our penultimate pair of exciting early previews of forthcoming attractions, gleaned from Conrad's time with Joe Lipsett at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). This time, the connection between them is simpler: they both feature one of Conrad's favourite actors, 1917's George Mackay.The first, & Sons, stars Bill Nighy as a reclusive famous novelist who gathers his two estranged sons, Richard (Johnny Flynn) and Jamie (you guessed it, George Mackay), for an important announcement about their half-brother, Andy (Noah Jupe)... with a fantastical twist. This slow burn family drama with a sci-fi/fantasy element is an adapted from a novel by David Gilbert, directed by Pablo Trapero.Perhaps more hotly anticipated is the new film from Cornish 16-mm phenomenon Mark Jenkins, director of Bait and Enys Men. Rose of Nevada features Mackay in a leading role alongside Masters of the Air's Callum Turner, as two men who unwisely sign up to work on a fishing boat that mysteriously drifted back into the docks – sans crew – after disappearing decades before. What follows is a voyage into an uncanny time-travel purgatory... but did it work? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Lipsett of Horror Queers joins Conrad again for another couple of advance previews of films at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and it's another case of spotting a couple of movies with a similar premise. In this case, it's women going to an isolated manor house for some form of wellness/recuperation exercise... only to discover things are not what they seem!Retreat is Ted Evans' feature debut, and stars Anne Zander as a young woman who visits an isolated retreat for deaf people in the English countryside, run by the imperious Mia (Sophie Stone). There she discovers a community that may have more in mind than providing a safe space that helps prepare its members for life in the uncaring world of the hearing. Hailed as the world's first deaf thriller – the film's principle cast and its director are deaf – the film's relationship with sound is particularly fascinating.Honey Bunch is an eerie horror/thriller from Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, in which its central character Diana (Grace Glowicki) and her doting husband Homer (Ben Petrie) arrive at... yes, an isolated country house... so the former can recuperate from an unspecified recent accident. When we tell you Diana's injuries include brain trauma and memory loss, genre fans' twist-detecting spidey senses will immediately start tingling. Steeped in a late 70s Let's Scare Jessica to Death aesthetic, is an atmospheric affair – but did we like it? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seventh Son (2014), an overcooked fantasy-adventure directed by Sergei Bodrov and adapted loosely from Joseph Delaney’s 'The Spook’s Apprentice', was a troubled Universal–Legendary Pictures co-production whose delays, rewrites, and ballooning budget became as notorious as the film itself. Set in a vaguely medieval landscape of witches, knights, and prophetic farm boys, it stars Jeff Bridges (yes, it's a JB double bill on Movie Oubliette!) gargling his way through a swamp of dialogue, Julianne Moore relishing her turn as an evil sorceress, and Ben Barnes looking perpetually bewildered as the titular seventh son of a seventh son. Game of Thrones heartthrob Kit Harington and Tomb Raider Alicia Vikander are also in the movie, apparently. Should this magical relic be sprung from the oubliette or should it be thrown off a cliff and left for dead? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our fourth bonus preview of forthcoming attractions that Conrad and Joe Lipsett caught at TIFF focuses on two British thrillers with a similar theme: children being locked in basements! The first, Heel (it was called 'Good Boy' when we saw it, but they must have changed it to avoid confusion with the haunted house film told through the eyes of a dog), sees an aimless and hedonistic teenager (Anson Boon) get abducted by Chris (Stephen Graham) and Kathryn (Andrea Riseborough), and subjected to their unorthodox approach to parenting. The second, Bad Apples, stars Saoirse Ronan as a primary school teacher in the UK who, though an unfortunate sequence of events, ends up trapping a foul-mouthed, disruptive student in her basement. One is a compelling character drama that recognises and eschews genre conventions, the other is a cuttingly satirical black comedy. Did we like them? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our TIFF coverage continues with two horror-inflected films centring indigenous characters, and using hauntings as a method of exploring generational and personal trauma. In Taratoa Stappard's Mārama, a Māori woman travels from freshly colonised New Zealand to a creepily gothic English manor in the Yorkshire moors to uncover secrets about her family's past. Meanwhile, Bretten Hannam's At the Place of Ghosts (Sk+te'kmujue'katik) follows two estranged Mi’kmaw brothers' quest into the Canadian woods to avenge spirits that haunt them from their childhood.Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy Halloween! Writer, actor and producer Amanda Jane Stern returns for spooky season to introduce us to Don’t Look Under the Bed (1999), the Disney Channel’s first real foray into horror. It was a made-for-TV Halloween treat that prompted a parental backlash so strong it was quietly buried after a few years, only to recently resurface on Disney+! Directed by Kenneth Johnson (the creator of the 'V' science fiction franchise), it follows a sceptical teen (Erin Chambers) who reluctantly teams with a wisecracking imaginary friend (Eric “Ty” Hodges II) to stop the encroaching Boogeyman before he claims another victim. Should this family terror be sprung from the oubliette or be left to rattle around half-forgotten in the shadows under the bed? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our second preview of coming attractions from TIFF 2025 focuses on Genki Kawamura's psychological horror Exit 8, in which a commuter finds himself struggling to escape a seemingly endless loop of subway passages. Conrad joined Joe Lipsett, friend of the pod and co-host of the excellent Horror Queers podcast, in Toronto to discuss this liminal, time-loop terror, based on a popular video game.Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Horror Queers co-host and Toronto native Joe Lipsett joins Conrad for the first in a series of reviews of sci-fi, fantasy and horror films featured in this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). First up: Obsession, a darkly comedic relationship horror written, directed and edited by Curry Barker. It stars Michael Johnston as a hapless music store employee who makes a ill-fated wish that his secret crush, Nikki (Inde Navarette), would fall hopelessly in love with him. Be careful what you wish for...Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe Lipsett joings us to celebrate the imminent release of Tron: Ares by taking a look back at the original Tron (1982), a sci-fi action adventure arguably remembered best for its groundbreaking visuals and concepts rather than its storytelling and characters. Starring Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Cindy Morgan and David Warner, the film takes us inside an alternate reality within the rapidly emerging and little understood digital domain – which seems quaint in retrospect – to tell a tale of a society under threat of subjugation by an all-powerful and unchecked AI – which seems anything but quaint in our current context! But should this one be remastered in neon HDR 4K (hint: it already has been) and worshipped, or should it be de-rezzed and deleted? Find out!Check out our guest Joe Lipsett on Instagram, Horror Queers and The Queer Gaze.Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Isaac Sutton takes on guest hosting duties with Dan to explore Charlie McDowell's The One I Love (2014) – an offbeat romantic mystery starring Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss, with the director's step-dad, Ted Danson, in a small but pivotal role. Shot largely at a single location over 15 days, it follows a troubled married couple who retreat to a secluded estate for therapy — only to discover a bizarre phenomenon that presents them with eerily perfect duplicates of themselves. As the surreal premise deepens, the boundaries between love, identity, and self-delusion begin to unravel. Should it be hailed as a clever indie gem about self-acceptance, or quietly left to vanish like a partner who didn’t make it out of the Twilight Zone?Check out Isaac's YouTube channel for more of his movie hot takes and rankings!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John D. Hancock’s Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) is a moody, low-budget psychological horror shot in Connecticut, emerging at the uneasy dawn of the 1970s when American genre cinema was shifting toward ambiguity and dread rather than monsters and gore. Starring Zohra Lampert as the fragile Jessica, supported by Barton Heyman and Mariclare Costello, the film follows a small group retreating to a rural farmhouse where whispers of the past mingle with Jessica’s precarious mental state. Should this eerie curio languish in obscurity like a ghost no one believes in, or should it be acknowledged as a living, breathing classic of psychological horror?Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan returns to explore The Hidden (1987), a sci-fi horror directed with slick B-movie flair by Nightmare on Elm Street 2 veteran Jack Sholder! An alien parasite with a love of fast cars and automatic weapons is jumping from body to body in the neon-lit streets of L.A., pursued by Kyle MacLachlan's eerily blank FBI agent. Flashdance love interest Michael Nouri plays the increasingly confused detective trying to make sense of exploding boomboxes, possessed bank robbers, and his new partner's alarming method of taking alka seltzer. With a synth-heavy score, gory mayhem, and Reagan-era cynicism oozing through every scene, should The Hidden be unhidden to the world? Or was it hidden for a reason? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Serge Bodnarchuk of Cold Crash Pictures joins Conrad to take on guest co-hosting duties while Dan goes on vacation – ironically, when we pull an Australian 80s sci-fi movie out of the Patreons' Choice nominations! It's another day, another ridiculous sci-fi bra for Carrie Fisher. The Time Guardian (1987) is an Ozploitation oddity directed by Mad Max (aka The Road Warrior) co-writer Brian Hannant, featuring a giant time-travelling dome, 'hoards' of menacing cyborgs, and a modern-day geologist trying to help a soldier from the future protect humanity's last hope. It's been largely overlooked and often difficult to find since its release. Even witty memoirist Carrie Fisher failed to mention it in her self-deprecating autobiographies. Should it be preserved for the ages in a time dome, or should it be blissfully forgotten? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this clip from our Patreon exclusive episode this month, we review the direct-to-video (DTV) sequel to The Secret of NIMH – often referred to as the worst sequel to an animated film and "every NIMH fan's worst nightmare" – and explore the DTV trend of the 90s.If you like what you hear, head on over to Patreon where you can get access to bonus content, vote on future films and join our amazing community!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zoe Wells and Mikey Neumann of FilmJoy join us to revisit Tim Story's superhero sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Released 2 years after Fox's surprising box office success with the original, the film marks a transitional moment in superhero cinema. Neither beloved or entirely dismissed, it's a sequel that manages to improve on its predecessor with world-ending stakes while still feeling oddly weightless and safe. Arriving just before the Marvel juggernaut truly found its stride with the release of Iron Man the following year, it flirted with cosmic grandeur (reimagining Galactus as an ominous V'ger style space cloud) while keeping one foot firmly planted in the PG, family-friendly camp with its will-they-won't-they wedding B-plot. As a second attempt at a reboot tops the box office, is it worth revisiting this one and enjoying its strengths? Or is it rightly consigned to oblivion? Find out!Check out Movies With Mikey and Deep Dive to hear more of Mikey and Zoe's insights, and look out for Borderlands 4 while being nice to Sam Winkler!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jonathan McIntosh, creator of the excellent Pop Culture Detective Agency, joins us to uncover The Secret of NIMH (1982). Often remembered as an example of the surprisingly dark and sombre animated children's films of the 70s and 80s, alongside Watership Down (1978) and Disney's own The Black Cauldron (1985), The Secret of NIMH lacks musical numbers, but is filled with striking imagery, glorious hand-animated effects, memorable characters and a sumptuously rich Jerry Goldsmith score. The film made an indelible mark among those 80s kids who caught it on VHS or TV back in the day. But were they scarred for life by a morbid oddity or forever elevated by a magical piece of storytelling? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this clip from our Patreon exclusive episode this month, we continue our Superman coverage by making Dan watch Superman II (1980), which he only vaguely remembered from childhood! Does it hold up? How does it sit with Superman Returns (2006) as an intended sequel? And why are there two cuts of it? We discuss all of this and more in our 1-hour bonus episode.If you like what you hear, head on over to www.patreon.com/movieoubliette and become a Patron to get hours of exclusive bonus content, nominate films for us to cover and vote on the final verdict – all for $10 or less!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oliver Harper joins us to celebrate James Gunn's reboot of the Superman franchise by looking back at Bryan Singer's Superman Returns (2006), which tends to get lost in the mix when discussing previous attempts to revive the DC superhero. It boldly attempted to pick up the thread of the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner era Superman and act as a sequel to Superman II (1980), with the charming (then unknown) Brandon Routh channeling Reeve in his portrayal of the man of steel and his bumbling alter ego. Despite its stellar casting, John Williams musical themes, and lavish production values, it failed to soar at the box office, leading to the cancellation of its sequel and a rethink that led us to Zack Snyder's series 7 years later. But is it a nostalgia pandering misfire or a misunderstood gem that deserves to return? Find out!Check out Oliver Harper's retrospectives and reviews on YouTube, including his recent look back at Man of Steel!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo joins us to revisit his standalone sequel to Danny Boyle's iconic post-apocalyptic horror film. 28 Weeks Later (2007) focuses on the challenges of rebuilding a family and a society in the wake of the rage virus outbreak, while upping the stakes and the scale of the infected onslaught. In a sense, we get to see the things Jim slept through in the original. But despite a strong box office performance and positive reviews, it's often been overlooked since its release – even going unmentioned in the publicity around Boyle's own forthcoming sequel. Is it a under-appreciated entry in the series that deserves to be released from the Oubliette? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pascal Laugier's follow-up to Martyrs (2008) is a Canadian-French horror/thriller, set in a small, poverty-stricken town in Washington where local nurse Julia (Jessica Biel) gets caught up in a string of child abductions, which the townsfolk blame on a legendary boogeyman figure, The Tall Man (2012). The result is a twisty, turny tale full of surprises and stinger-highlighted jump scares. But is it an underrated classic of sociological terror or a muddle of deceptive plot contrivances? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this bonus episode, we take a look at Warwick Thornton's new film The New Boy, in which an Aboriginal child with mysterious powers disturbs the delicately balanced world in a remote monastery in 1940s Australia. Starring the always marvellous Cate Blanchett as the renegade nun, Sister Eileen, and Aswan Reid as the new boy, Thornton's story of spiritual struggle gets a theatrical release this Friday and will be on digital the following week.Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Looker, Michael Crichton warned us of a future in which computer-generated thirst-traps manipulate unwitting consumers through the media, all at the behest of powerful tech moguls. In 1981, this all seemed a bit ridiculous – especially as performed by a stodgy Albert Finney chasing around with an Atari lightgun trying to rescue Playboy models. Not surprisingly, it only hacked $3.3 million out of the box office against an estimated $12 million budget. But it is a cruelly rejected gem that was way ahead of its time? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rob Hill, author of 'The Bad Movie Bible' and creator of the fabulous accompanying YouTube channel, joins Conrad and surprise guest host Melinda Mock of RetroBlasting to explore a notorious naked space vampire film that turns 40 this year. On paper, Lifeforce (1985) has everything you could possibly want for an epic cosmic horror British disaster film: an adaptation of a popular Lovecraftian novel by Colin Wilson, co-scripted by Alien co-creator Dan O'Bannon; a sizeable budget and some of the finest production technicians in London paired with ILM alumni John Dykstra's visual effects; and Tobe Hooper in the director's chair. Unfortunately, there are only two things most teens remember about Lifeforce... and both of them are attached to French actor Mathilda May. Is this a misunderstood gem of quirky British terror, or is decisive proof that Hooper didn't direct Poltergeist?Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Arachnophobia scared up only $53 million at the box office when it was released in July of 1990, thanks to stiff competition from Ghost, and has largely been overlooked in the annals of monster movie horror comedies. All this despite a fine cast, including Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, and a Spielbergian pedigree. With a Christopher Landon remake in the works, we thought it was time to celebrate the original's 35th anniversary... but is it an endangered species that should be set free, or is it an ecological menace that should be left in the tepuis of Venezuela? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Isaac Sutton joins us for our first venture into Japanese anime! Takeshi Koike's visually dazzling animated sci-fi racing spectacle Redline failed to find its audience upon its release in August 2009 despite critical praise. Does it deserve the cult status it's been cultivating on physical media since then, or is it all rev and no substance?Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Continuing our theme of exploring sequels to films we cover in the main feed, it was only natural that we'd want to follow the surprisingly good Psycho II (1983) with the surprisingly bad Psycho III (1986) in our Patreon feed. On paper, it looked like a slam dunk: Anthony Perkins was returning to his iconic role as Norman Bates and taking up the director's chair for the first time; the writer is Charles Edward Pogue, who was simultaneously drawing attention for his take on The Fly (1986); and it picks up at the motel barely weeks after the shocking finale of the second film. What could go wrong? Pretty much everything, it turns out.If you like what you hear, head on over to www.patreon.com/movieoubliette and become a Patron to get hours of exclusive bonus content, nominate films for us to cover and vote on the final verdict – all for $10 or less!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Belated sequels to monumental, genre-defining classics always walk on a knife edge! They can be a worthwhile elaboration upon the original, recontextualised for a new era, or they can be cynical cashgrabs forever consigned as a footnote to cinema history. Australian director Richard Franklin's Psycho II (1983) benefits from returning cast members Vera Miles and, of course, Anthony Perkins, a twisty turny psychological mystery script from Fright Night's Tom Holland, a disturbing score from Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography from John Carpenter regular Dean Cundey. But is it just a pretender in a classic movie's clothes? Or should it be released from custody to set up a new franchise? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We challenge you to hear the title of this movie without the synth riff of a massive-haired 80s rock anthem popping into your head... Sorry, you'll be humming that all day now. Try blocking it out by listening to our examination of Don Taylor's 1980 sci-fi war fantasy, in which a U.S. aircraft carrier captained by Kirk Douglas is whisked through a James Bond title sequence into the past – the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor, to be precise. Starring the U.S.S. Nimitz, lots of planes, more planes, and a cute dog... is this a forgotten gem of a movie that deserves to be restored to its place in film history? Or is it a waterlogged floater that deserves to be flushed?! Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's a sneak peek at our Patreon exclusive minisode on Princess of Mars (2009) – The Asylum's adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel that went straight to DVD a full 3 years before Disney stank up the box office with John Carter (2012). Could it possibly be worse? Sheesh... you betchya!If you like what you hear, head on over to www.patreon.com/movieoubliette and become a Patron to get hours of exclusive bonus content, nominate films for us to cover and vote on the final verdict – all for $10 or less!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Still the biggest box office bomb of all time, adjusted for inflation, John Carter (2012) was a brave attempt to give Edgar Rice Burroughs' influential sci-fi novel 'A Princess of Mars' the summer blockbuster treatment... 40 years after George Lucas and everyone else had pretty much raided all of its ideas for space opera hits. But is the film really that bad? Does it share the 'Mars movie' curse? Or did it just get lost in the shuffle in 2012 because of poor marketing? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's a sneak peek at our new Patreon exclusive minisode on C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D. (1989). This is the first time we've covered the sequel to a film we've covered in the main feed, and we had a blast!If you like what you hear, head on over to www.patreon.com/movieoubliette and become a Patron to get hours of exclusive content, nominate films for us to cover and vote on the final verdict – all for $10 or less!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melinda Mock of RetroBlasting takes us back to 1912 to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Somewhere in Time (1980), the time travel romance starring Superman-era Christopher Reeve and radiant beauty Jane Seymour, directed by the late Jeannot Szwarc based on a novel by Richard Matheson. Should these star-crossed lovers be re-united in the afterlife of their box office obscurity, or should they be doomed never to wander the shores of Mackinac Island?Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What better way to start the year than with a monster movie in which the creatures are literally crawling out of holes in the ground? It's simply ideal for Movie Oubliette! Nominated by our Patron, Philip O', C.H.U.D. (1984) is a New World Pictures production set in 80s New York City... so you better believe this is gritty and wild! Starring John Heard, Daniel Stern, Kim Greist and one-scene-CHUD-victim John Goodman, the film has a host of surprisingly well-drawn characters investigating the disappearance of homeless people in the city's labyrinthine underground world. But does it deserve to be the first film we save from the oubliette this year? Find out!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melinda Mock and Michael French of RetroBlasting fame answered our bat signal at the eleventh hour to join us for this special festive episode after our original guest had to drop out. And boy, are we glad they did! Yes, it's a bit cheeky of us to cover Tim Burton's snowy sequel to his blockbusting hit Batman (1989) on Movie Oubliette. It's dubious to claim it has been overlooked in the years since, but it was certainly a box office disappointment for Warner Bros. when it debuted in 1992. Adjusted for inflation, it earned $420 million less than the original, and is the second-lowest-grossing live action Batman movie, beaten only by Batman and Robin. But is this dark and kinky sequel, in which Batman appears for only 23 minutes, a freaky festive classic? Or a gloomy gothic mess?Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark the film's 40th anniversary, we revisit Peter Hyams' 2010 – a brave follow-up to a literal monolith in science fiction film history. In what was then called a 'belated' rather than a 'legacy' sequel, the film adapts Arthur C. Clarke's novel and features a stellar cast of Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban and, returning from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain as Dave Bowman and HAL 9000. Yes, it's full of stars. But it is a worthy follow-up that stands on its own? Or is it a pale imitation and a footnote? Find out!Follow us on Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Actor, writer and producer Amanda Jane Stern – whose psychosexual thriller Perfectly Good Moment has launched on Tubi this month – joins us to discuss David O. Selznick's production of Portrait of Jennie. Based on a popular novella by Robert Nathan that Ray Bradbury said "touched and frightened" him, the romantic fantasy won an Oscar for Best Special Effects in 1948, but was not a success. Set in depression-era New York, it starred Jennifer Jones as the titular Jennie, an enigmatic young woman who inspires an impoverished painter, played by Joseph Cotton. The film is well regarded among those who remember it or have rediscovered it, but it's not easy to come by on streaming services or physical media. Unless you stumble upon it on Youtube, of course. But does it deserve to escape the oubliette and be immortalised? Find out!Follow us on Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky.Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan and Conrad find themselves exiled to a leafy island that looks suspiciously like Queensland in this episode, where they explore Martin Campbell's No Escape (1994) – an airy, outdoor adventure set in the distant future of 2022. It stars Ray Liotta as the scarred military vet convicted for shooting his CO after he covered up a war crime, who teams up with fellow inmates Lance Henriksen, Ernie Hudson and Kevin Dillon to defeat the evil Stuart Wilson's 'tribe' of sadistic killers and expose the greater evils of private prisons. Produced on a $20 million budget by Gale Anne Hurd, the movie got Campbell the gig directing GoldenEye (1995), but quickly vanished from theatres. But does it deserve early release from the oubliette to ease 90s prison movie overcrowding? Or should it be hurled back in with no chance of parole? Find out!Follow us on Tiktok, Facebook and Instagram.Support us on Patreon to nominate future films, vote on whether films should be released or thrown back, and access exclusive bonus content!Support us on Patreon to nominate films for us to cover, access exclusive bonus content, and vote on the final verdict!Rate and review us on your podcast platform of choice, and tell a friend about us.Follow us on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Bluesky. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.