March 22, 2020

These are weird and crazy times. And in weird and crazy times, we sure could use some distractions, am I right?

Besides music and, of course, horror movies, I often find solace in podcasts as well. They’re my favorite part of my daily walks or long drives, neither of which I’m participating in now because we all need to stay home! But, for the walks around the apartment and in an attempt to stay sane, I’ve turned to some of the following shows to entertain me, which I think might help you out as well.

Best Movies Never Made

Hosted by Sonic The Hedgehog co-writer Josh Miller and Jodorowsky’s Dune producer Stephen Scarlata, every other week, the duo checks in with a special guest to break down unmade screenplays that never made it to or through production. It’s an extension of Stephen’s excellent documentary, where here, they often will analyze various drafts of scripts and track its evolution, talk about the talent involved, and try to figure out what went wrong! While they cover all genres of film, when they dip their toes into horror, it always makes for some stand out episodes. For example, David Leslie Johnson (Aquaman, The Conjuring 2) was on for a deep dive into his direct two-part TV mini-series sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing that he was writing for Frank Darabont! Or the multiple iterations of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman which they discussed with Reading Glasses podcast hosts Brea Grant and Mallory O’Meary. Screenwriter Jared Rivet talked about his unmade White Zombie remake with Tobe Hooper, while Todd Farmer breaks down his Halloween 3D script! And in their latest episode, director David Bruckner tells all on his version of the unmade Friday The 13TH 3D! You can also catch the guys on my podcast, Shock Waves episode 178.

Hot For Creature

This one is brand new and already an interesting, unique approach to analyzing the genre. My Shock Waves co-host Ryan Turek spotted co-host Rob Katz in a coffee shop watching The Howling and taking notes. Later that day, we both ran into him at the opening night reception of Slashback Video & he told us he was researching for his new show, and the first 2 episodes have finally landed! Hosted by Rob and Dylan Dagenais, this first season of “Hot For Creature” is focusing on werewolves! Each season, they’ll take a particular movie monster, and do a deep dive into the history of that particular monster. So, the first episode goes all the way back to the beginning with Wolfblood, while the second one delves into Werewolf Of London. One of my favorite documentaries of the last year was Daniel Griffith’s Mark Of The Beast, The Legacy of the Universal Werewolf on the An American Werewolf In London Arrow Blu-Ray, because it gave a meticulous overview of the history of werewolves in film. And now this podcast feels like the perfect companion piece to that with these two movie-loving friends really trying to get the bottom of our fascination with the wolfman. Recommended!

Tales From Beyond The Pale

In a time before podcasts were a popular pastime, filmmakers Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden brought back the old-school horror audio drama with their series Tales From Beyond The Pale! They were initially released both online for purchase or as CD box sets, and eventually morphed into live shows at film festivals. Now, they’re unveiling them all in podcast form, one episode per week. Fessenden and McQuaid direct a slew of episodes, but there’s also Stuart Gordon, Simon Barrett, Graham Reznick, Joe Maggio, Paul Solet, JT Petty, Eric Red, and the voice talents of Lance Reddick, James Le Gros, Amy Seimetz, AJ Bowen, Sean Young, Martin Starr, and more! I’ve listened to these both on long drives to Arizona, and in the corner of my place with nothing but a candle burning. If you grew up on Tales From The Crypt or Tales From The Darkside: The Series, this is the perfect audio companion to those anthology stories of old.

Saturday Night Rewind

Do you love and wear Fright-Rags apparel? I know I’ve been wearing their shirts for well over a decade. And if you look at their designs, then you know that the team behind Fright-Rags absolutely love and respect the genre in a fanatical kind of way. Well, what if you could hang out with that team once a week? Saturday Night Rewind lets you do just that. Named after their local theatrical screening series, Ben Scrivens leads these conversations which span everything from most anticipated upcoming horror, phobias & fears, favorite soundtracks, and even most recently, they devoted an episode to the long-lost art of mixtapes! (Side-note: I recently completed a music documentary called Analog Love about this very topic!) This is just a fun hang-out podcast that makes you feel like you’re chatting with friends in the lobby or bar of your favorite horror convention.

The Justin Beahm Radio Hour

If you’re a physical media collector, then you’re already familiar with the work of Justin Beahm. Through his Reverend Entertainment production company, he’s helped produce some of the more interesting and unconventional special features of the last several years, including the documentaries on Big Trouble In Little China, both Silent Night, Deadly Night releases, Sleepaway Camp, Willard, Body Bags, Body Parts, Vice Squad; he even got Rob Zombie and Butch Patrick to record a brand new commentary track for Munsters, Go Home disc that Scream Factory just put out. But he also hosts an interview podcast called The Justin Beahm Radio Hour. Each episode, Justin does a meticulous deep dive interview with a different genre professional, often asking about facets of their career they don’t often get to riff on. This includes chats with original Halloween producer Irwin Yablans, Mayhem director Joe Lynch, Friday The 13th final girl Amy Steel, former Fangoria editor-in-chief Chris Alexander, and more! I can never get enough of interview shows and this is one of the best.