This week we have a look at the 1960 Mario Bava-directed horror film BLACK SUNDAY, AKA THE MASK OF SATAN and other related titles.  This is Episode #443!
Black Sunday (Italian: La maschera del demonio, lit. 'The mask of the demon') is a 1960 Italian gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava in his official directorial debut, and starring Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici and Enrico Oliveri. Loosely based on Nikolai Gogol's short story "Viy", the film takes place in Moldavia and tells the story of a witch who is put to death by her brother, only to return two centuries later to seek revenge upon his descendants.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Leslie Lutz, author of the new book SWEETEST DARKNESS from Holiday House. SWEETEST DARKNESS is a supernatural horror novel in which a teenage psychic is drawn deep into the honeycomb of an abandoned hotel—and into a cat-and-mouse game with a predatory entity.  This is Dark Americana, from the crumbling Hollywood glamor of the Alvarado Hotel, to the neon-lit diner where the final showdown happens, to the shining horizon of the Chihuahuan Desert just outside town. It’s a horror set in a moody Southwestern landscape. Leslie Lutz is a young adult author whose poetry and prose have been widely published and whose debut YA thriller, FRACTURED TIDE, was voted best of 2020 by Suspense Magazine and was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard pick. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and daughter, along with three cats and two spoiled chickens.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Libby Cudmore, whose neo-noir thriller NEGATIVE GIRL comes out this month, September 10 from Datura Books. S.A. Cosby called it "fantastic" and “…a sharp subversive exploration of the PI novel that elevates the genre while never sacrificing the thrills." Libby is a Shamus and Black Orchid award winner and author of the acclaimed novel The Big Rewind. Her Wade and Jacks stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Tough and the Anthony-nominated anthology Lawyers, Guns & Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by The Music of Warren Zevon (co-edited with Art Taylor). She is also the current co-host of the OST Party and Misbehavin' podcasts and the creator and host of the #RecordSaturday live-tween series, spinning an array of old and new vinyl in a weekly interactive conversation.
About the book: Upstate New York. Former rock star, recovering addict and now private investigator, Martin Wade, and his assistant, Valerie Jacks, are hired by a young woman who wants them to deliver a warning to her overbearing father. But neither realize their new client’s father is an old bandmate of Martin’s. A man still burdened with regret at being thrown out of Martin’s group, The French Letters, almost two decades before. When their young client is found dead on a riverbank, duty, nostalgia and a lifetime of guilt find Martin and Valerie on the case, searching for the young woman’s killer. As the mystery begins to unravel, Martin struggles to hold onto his sobriety while Valerie becomes increasingly obsessed with their murdered client – finding correlation in the secrets, and the scars they’ve all tried to hide.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Tom DeNucci, director of The Collective. In THE COLLECTIVE a young recruit to a mysterious agency of assassins finds himself going rogue on his first assignment, tracking down a dangerous group of human traffickers.The Collective will be available in Theaters, On Demand and Digital on August 4, 2023.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Nathan Faudree, whose new film is SITE 13, a new film with a curious history. The Lovecraftian horror film is a found footage film in the vein of The Blair Witch Project and shows footage taken over 17 years that fuses together a story that's set over the course of those years. The film comes out ON DEMAND AND DIGITAL JULY 28, 2023.

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Tonight we’re chatting with David Ryan Keith, director of I AM RAGE, a brand new revenge thriller that expands on his love of classic 80s and 90s action movies. The film will release on Digital and DVD August 1, 2023.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Mary Gallagher, director of the new film Holistay, new from Breaking Glass Pictures on VOD/Digital. Holistay, which lensed in Vegas, follows two couples - Finn and Branna from Ireland and Tony and Gia from New York. They do not know each other until they double book a vacation house in San Diego. Unable to reach the owners, the couples decide to all stay at the house since decent lodging is scarce that weekend. They find they all get along although one couple harbors a dark secret.“I am honored to be chosen by Breaking Glass Pictures for worldwide distribution and be able to present my work on the global stage,” said Mary Gallagher, who makes her directing debut on the film. “It is important for women filmmakers to be able to successfully tap into the horror and thriller genre and create a larger presence in this medium.”

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Jason chats with director Jim Towns, whose new film END TIMES debuts this month from The Asylum. Towns also wrote the film, and some may know him as the host of the classic-horror-focused Borgo Pass Podcast.

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Recorded live, a chat with the authors of the brand-new Castle of Horror Anthology: Thinly Veiled: Saturday Mournings, which you can order here: https://amzn.to/3CMZspY
The popular THINLY VEILED collection from the Castle of Horror continues with this anthology of horror stories in the world of Saturday morning pop culture, from the Smurfs to Soul Train-- but every one of these brands is "thinly veiled."
This time we feature stories from P. J. Hoover, Jeremiah Dylan Cook, Dennis K. Crosby, Alethea Kontis, Joy Preble, Steven Philip Jones, Heath W. Shelby, Tony Jones, Bryan Young, Scott Pearson, Will McDermott, and Katya de Becerra.
See if you can recognize them all!

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This week we have a look at the 1960 film Peeping Tom. This is Episode #408!
Peeping Tom is a 1960 British psychological horror-thriller film directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks, and starring Carl Boehm, Anna Massey, and Moira Shearer. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable film camera to record their dying expressions of terror, putting his footage together into a snuff film used for his own self pleasure. Its title derives from the expression "peeping Tom", which describes a voyeur.The film's controversial subject matter and its extremely harsh reception by critics had a severely negative impact on Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom. However, it attracted a cult following, and in later years, it has been re-evaluated and is now widely considered a masterpiece, and a progenitor of the contemporary slasher film. The British Film Institute named it the 78th greatest British film of all time,[6] and in 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the 27th best British film ever. The music score was written by Brian Easdale and performed by Australian pianist Gordon Watson.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Javier Castillo, whose thrillers The Snow Girl and The Soul Game have recently been released in English for the first time both from Penguin Random House.THE SNOW GIRL was the most read novel during the 2020 lockdown in Spain, and in 2023 it was released as a miniseries on Netflix, achieving great success. THE SOUL GAME (2021) marked his global consolidation as one of the masters of suspense. To date, his novels have reached more than two million readers. His sixth novel, THE CRYSTAL CUCKOO, was published in January 2023.
Published in more than 60 countries and selling over two million copies worldwide, bestselling author and “the Spanish Stephen King” (ABC) Javier Castillo’s THE SNOW GIRL and THE SOUL GAME will soon be available in English language editions.
Bestselling author Javier Castillo grew up in Malaga and studied business followed by a Master’s in Management at ESCP Europe. His first novel, EL DÍA QUE SE PERDIÓ LA CORDURA (2017), became a true publishing phenomenon, translated into 15 languages, and published in more than 60 countries. Rights have been acquired to produce the television series. His second novel, EL DÍA QUE SE PERDIÓ EL AMOR (2018), received both public and critical acclaim, as did TODO LO QUE SUCEDIÓ CON MIRANDA HUFF (2019).

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Tonight we’re chatting with Tilly Bridges, a trans woman and master of comics, screenplays, teleplays and audio dramas. On June 27th, she releases BEGIN TRANSMISSION - THE TRANS ALLEGORIES OF THE MATRIX, which is the ultimate handbook for the Matrix franchise with deep dives into The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Animatrix, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections, tracking one person's transition journey — from Thomas Anderson, to Neo, to Trinity.
ABOUT TILLY BRIDGESMaking award-winning audio drama via their production company Pendant Productions since 2004, Tilly and her wife are also head writers of the 2023 Nebula Awards and are presently writing for the new Monster High animated series and the Star Trek Adventures and Fallout role-playing games. As a transgender woman, Bridges said she had always connected with the Matrix movies on a level so strongly she didn’t understand. The first time she watched the movies after coming out publicly was revelatory. “I was motivated to rewatch and take notes,” says Bridges. “My entire world turned upside down as she discovered almost frame by frame how deep and layered the allegories were within the films.” Since sharing her essays, she’s been overwhelmed with messages from people her essays have helped.

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This week we have a look at the 2023 film Scream VI. This is Episode #407!
Scream VI is a 2023 American slasher film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. It is the sequel to Scream (2022) and the sixth installment in the Scream film series. The plot follows a new Ghostface killer, who begins targeting the survivors of the "Woodsboro legacy murders" in New York City. Much of the cast from the 2022 film returned alongside directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett. The role of New York for this performance is in the sure hands of Montreal, Canada, home of that heart-stealing crooner Gino Vannelli. Neve Campbell did not reprise her role as Sidney Prescott due to a pay dispute, making this the first Scream film not to feature her. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $168 million worldwide, becoming the first installment in the franchise to earn over $100 million at the domestic US box office since Scream 2 (1997) and the highest-grossing Scream film in the United States and Canada.

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This week we have a look at the 2024 Tim Burton-directed film BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE.  This is Episode #442! 
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a 2024 American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. A sequel to Beetlejuice (1988) and the second film of the Beetlejuice franchise, the film stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara reprising their roles alongside new cast members Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, and Willem Dafoe. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024, and was theatrically released overseas on September 4, 2024, and in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures two days later. The film has received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $147 million worldwide on a $100 million budget.

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Hello and welcome to Castle Talk where we talk to writers and creators of today’s genre worlds, I’m your host Jason Henderson, publisher at Castle Bridge Media, home of the Castle of Horror Anthology series. Tonight we’re chatting with Danielle Trussoni, best-selling author of Angelology and often-horror columnist for the New York Times. Her new book is the supernatural thriller, THE PUZZLE MASTER (Random House, on sale 6/13). Booklist recently gave THE PUZZLE MASTER a glowing review, aptly describing it as “A surefire hit… [THE PUZZLE MASTER] is an ambitious story, expertly told…. A sequel, The Puzzle Box, is in the works, and it can’t come soon enough.” Couldn’t have described it better myself!

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Tonight we’re chatting with LR Jones, the author of the new book You Look Beautiful Tonight– she’s also known as New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, whose dark, edgy fiction includes the highly acclaimed novels The Poet, A Perfect Lie, and the Lilah Love series. Prior to publishing, Lisa owned a multistate staffing agency recognized by the Austin Business Journal. Lisa was listed as #7 in Entrepreneur magazine’s list of growing women-owned businesses. She lives in Colorado with her husband, a cat who always has something to say, and a golden retriever who's afraid of her own bark. For more information, visit www.lisareneejones.com.You Look Beautiful Tonight comes out June 1, 2023 from Thomas & Mercer. It follows Mia Anderson, a librarian who receives an anonymous note from a secret admirer, whose devotion ends up turning deadly.Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review: "In this devilishly twisty standalone…Jones reveals her characters' secrets and motives slowly, expertly ratcheting up the pace before an explosive conclusion. This white-knuckler is not to be missed."

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Hello and welcome to Castle Talk where we talk to writers and creators of today’s genre worlds, I’m your host Jason Henderson, publisher at Castle Bridge Media, home of the Castle of Horror Anthology series. Tonight we’re chatting with Ted Geoghan, writer and director of Brooklyn 45. The film is a real-time supernatural thriller film about a group of military veterans holding an impromptu séance in the parlor of a Brooklyn brownstone at the close of World War II. The film comes to Shudder June 8.

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Tonight we’re chatting with David Bowles and Guadalupe Garcia McCall about their new book Secret of the Moon Conch, about a modern-day young woman and a young 16th-century Aztec warrior who each are going through their own adventures and learn they can communicate across time.David Bowles is an award-winning Mexican American author and translator from Texas. His books include The Smoking Mirror, Feathered Serpent Dark Heart of Sky, and They Call Me Güero. He has been published in the New York Times, School Library Journal, Strange Horizons, English Journal, Rattle, Translation Review, and the Journal of Children's Literature. In 2017, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, and in 2020, he co-founded #DignidadLiteraria, a social justice movement advocating for greater Latinx representation in publishing. Find him at davidbowles.usGuadalupe García McCall is the award-winning author of Under the Mesquite, Summer of the Mariposas, Shame the Stars, All the Stars Denied, and Echoes of Grace. She has received a Pura Belpré Author Award, a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award, and the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award, and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, among many other accolades. She advocates for literacy and diverse books. She lives with her husband in Texas. Find her at ggmccall.com.

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This week we have a look at the 2022 film Scream AKA for convenience sake, Scream 5. This is Episode #406!
Scream is a 2022 American slasher film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and written by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. It is the fifth installment in the Scream film series; though billed as a relaunch of the film series, the film is a direct sequel to Scream 4 (2011). The first film in the series to not be directed by Wes Craven, following his death in 2015, the film is dedicated to Craven at the beginning of the closing credits.[5] The plot takes place twenty-five years after the original Woodsboro murders from Scream (1996), when yet another Ghostface appears and begins targeting a group of teenagers who are each somehow linked to the original killings.Scream was released in the United States on January 14, 2022, by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised it for honoring Craven's legacy and offering thoughtful meta-commentary on horror films, with some calling it the best of the Scream sequels.[6] It was also a box-office success, grossing over $138 million against a production budget of $24 million. A sequel, Scream VI, was released in March 2023.

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Tonight we’re chatting with artist Joan LeMay and writer Alex Pappademas, whose new book from University of Texas Press is-- really something, it’s a book of illustrated essays about the characters in and around the songs of Steely Dan, it’s called Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. Alex Pappademas is the author of Keanu Reeves: Most Triumphant—The Movies & Meaning of an Irrepressible Icon and the writer and host of the acclaimed podcast The Big Hit Show. His work has also appeared in GQ, the New York Times, and Grantland. Joan LeMay is an artist based in London and New York City(although the paintings for this book were created in Portland). Herwork appears in multiple publications and books and has been shown in museums, galleries, and public spaces internationally.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Bomani J. Story about his Feature Directorial Debut: in THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER, Vicaria is a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life. Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER thematically challenges our ideas of life and death. Bomani J. Story, the film's writer and director, crafts a thrilling tale about a family that, despite the terrors of systemic pressure, will survive and be reborn again.
THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER will be available in Theaters on June 9, 2023 and it will be on Demand and on Digital on June 23, 2023. It will also stream on ALLBlk and on Shudder at a later date.

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This week we have a look at the 2011 film Scream 4, which appeared eleven years after the previous film in the series. This is Episode #405!
Scream 4 (stylized as SCRE4M) is a 2011 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. Produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and distributed by Dimension Films, it is a sequel to Scream 3 (2000) and the fourth installment in the Scream film series. The film takes place on the fifteenth anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders from Scream (1996) and involves Sidney Prescott (Campbell) returning to the town after ten years, where Ghostface once again begins killing students from Woodsboro High. Like its predecessors, Scream 4 combines the violence of the slasher genre with elements of black comedy and "whodunit" mystery to satirize the clichés of film remakes. The film also provides commentary on the extensive usage of social media and the obsession with internet fame.

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TONIGHT we’re chatting with Robert Englund who is the focus of the new documentary HOLLYWOOD DREAMS & NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY on Screambox and Digital on June 6, 2023. HOLLYWOOD DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES: THE ROBERT ENGLUND STORY is co-directed by Gary Smart (Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser) and Christopher Griffiths (Pennywise: The Story of It) and co-written by Gary Smart and Neil Morris (Dark Ditties Presents ‘Mrs. Wiltshire’). The film features interviews with Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise), Nancy Englund, Eli Roth (Cabin Fever), Adam Green (Hatchet), Tony Todd (Candyman), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Lin Shaye (Insidious), Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects), Doug Bradley (Hellraiser) and Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood).
SYNOPSIS: A classically trained actor and director, Robert Englund has become one of the most revolutionary horror icons of our generation. Throughout his career, Englund starred in many well-known movies, but shot to super-stardom with his portrayal of supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise. This unique and intimate portrait captures the man behind the glove and features interviews with Englund and his wife Nancy, Lin Shaye, Eli Roth, Tony Todd, Heather Langenkamp and more.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Katherine Hall Page, who returns with her latest novel in the Faith Fairchild series, THE BODY IN THE WEB (William Morrow, 5/30/23)! Katherine continues the award-winning series by concocting a sprinkling of family, a hint of friendship, and a heaping of puzzling twists and turns that simmer into a fully cooked mystery—one you won’t be able to put down!Page has penned over twenty-five traditional amateur sleuth books, combining gripping and suspenseful plots. Her beloved characters, the Fairchild family, tackle real-life issues as they grow and connect with the world around them. THE BODY IN THE WEB delves into the pandemic in a way that allows readers to process what our world has gone through, while delivering a story that is both thrilling and rich in spirit. In THE BODY IN THE WEB, our novice detective Faith, is hunkered down with her family during the pandemic when a Zoom-bombing scandal sends the community into a tailspin and a dead body is discovered. Bring your appetite for a classic whodunnit… and for comfort food! Just like the other books in the series, THE BODY IN THE WEB will feature several fantastic tried and tested recipes from Faith Fairchild's kitchen.MORE ABOUT BODY IN THE WEB
Faith Fairchild joins the rest of the world in lockdown mode when reality flips in March 2020. As the pandemic spreads, Faith and her family readjust to life together in Aleford, Massachusetts. Her husband, Tom, continues his sermons from Zoom; their children, Ben, who's in college, and Amy, a high school senior, are doing remote learning at home .
Faith is happy to have her family under the same roof and grateful for her resilient community, friends, and neighbors in Aleford. Town halls remain lively and well-attended, despite residents joining from their living rooms. It is at one of these town halls that scandal breaks out. In the midst of a Zoom meeting, damaging images suddenly flash upon everyone’s screens. Claudia, local art teacher and Faith’s dear friend, is immediately recognized as the woman who has been targeted.
When Claudia is later discovered dead, Faith, with the help of her friends, journeys deep into the dark web to unravel the threads of Claudia’s mysterious history and shocking passing.

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Tonight we’re chatting with SK Dale, director of the new film SUBSERVIENCE. Dale teams up again with Megan Fox, who starred in Dale’s thriller TIL DEATH. Here, Fox plays an artificial person hired to help around the house while a man’s wife is sick in the hospital. And naturally that goes great. SUBSERVIENCE was directed by S.K. Dale (Till Death) and written by  Will Honley (Bloodline) and April Maguire (#Zombie). It stars Megan Fox (Transformers), Michele Morrone (365 Days), and Madeline Zima ("Californication").
In SUBSERVIENCE, Megan Fox stars as Alice, a lifelike artificially intelligent android, who has the ability to take care of any family and home. Looking for help with the housework, a struggling father (Michele Morrone) purchases Alice after his wife becomes sick. Alice suddenly becomes self-aware and wants everything her new family has to offer, starting with the affection of her owner – and she’ll kill to get it.
XYZ Films will release SUBSERVIENCE on Digital and on Demand on September 13th, 2024.

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This week we have a look at the 2000 film Scream 3. This is Episode #404! Scream 3 is a 2000 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Ehren Kruger. It’s the third installment in the Scream film series. The film's story takes place three years after the previous film's events and follows Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who has gone into self-imposed isolation following the events of the previous two films but is drawn to Hollywood after a new Ghostface begins killing the cast of the film within a film Stab 3.

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This episode of Castle Talk, Jason chats with Camille Delamarre, director of the new film Assassin Club starring Henry Golding. Delamarre is best known for his action films produced by Europacorp such as Brick Mansions with Paul Walker and The Transporter 4 with Ed Skrein. He has edited several successful films produced by Luc Besson, including Colombiana, Lock-out and Taken 2 with Liam Neeson, the second highest grossing film ever made in France. Assassin Club comes out May 16 on Digital, and on Blu-Ray and DVD on June 6.Say the producers about Assassin Club:Henry Golding (G.I Joe: Snake Eyes) stars in this highly entertaining, globe-trotting action thriller. The hunter becomes the hunted when an elite assassin (Golding) is given his final contract: to kill seven people around the world - only to discover the targets are equally skilled assassins hired to kill him. His only shot to survive is to uncover the mysterious mastermind behind the deadly plot before it's too late. Also starring Daniela Melchior (The Suicide Squad) with Noomi Rapace (Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park).

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This week we have a look at the 1997 film Scream 2. This is Episode #403!Scream 2 is a 1997 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. A sequel to Scream (1996), the film was released on December 12, 1997, by Dimension Films, as the second installment in the Scream film series. Scream 2 takes place two years after the first film and again follows the character of Sidney Prescott (Campbell), and other survivors of the Woodsboro massacre, at the fictional Windsor College in Ohio, where they are targeted by a copycat killer using the guise of Ghostface. Like its predecessor, Scream 2 combines the violence of the slasher genre with elements of comedy, satire and "whodunit" mystery while satirizing the cliché of film sequels.

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CW: Non-explicit discussion of SA in a 50s film
This week we have a look at the 1958 film Missile to the Moon. This is Episode #402! Missile to the Moon is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film drama, produced by Marc Frederic, directed by Richard E. Cunha, that stars Richard Travis, Cathy Downs, and K. T. Stevens. The film was distributed by Astor Pictures and is a remake of an earlier Astor Pictures-distributed film, Cat-Women of the Moon (1953). Missile to the Moon was released in late 1958 as a double feature with Cunha's Frankenstein's Daughter.

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This episode of Castle Talk, Jason chats with Melora Hardin, who in the new thriller CLOCK (coming from Hulu Friday April 28) plays a doctor who appears to have a solution not to childlessness but to Dianna Agron’s character Ella’s lack of interest in having children. Melora is an actor who debuted on Broadway in Chicago as Roxie, a familiar person on TV where she’s been a major part of shows like The Bold Type, The Office, Monk, nominated for an Emmy for the role of Tammy on Transparent, a dancer, and she’s a businesswoman running a really wild and vibrant wallpaper line called Storyboards.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Jim Towns, author of the new book Braddock’s Falls, about a killer at a nudist resort.Jim Towns is an author, a filmmaker and a visual artist. His books include American Cryptic, Whiskey Stories and Bloodsucker City, and he's the director of feature films including House of Bad, State of Desolation, and the upcoming The Possession of Anne. His documentary projects range from biographies to martial arts series, and his work is included in the National Archives of France. He's currently in pre-production on the action film Killer Ex, and he just released his second novella, Braddock's Falls from Anxiety Press.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Franklin Ritch, director and writer and lead in The Artifice Girl, which releases in Theaters, On Digital and On Demand on April 27, 2023.

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This week we have a look at the 1959 film Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. This is Episode #401! Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow is a 1959 AIP horror/comedy film. It was a sequel to their film Hot Rod Gang. American International Pictures released the film in July 1959 as a double feature with Diary of a High School Bride.The film has been regarded as a forerunner of the 1960s Beach Party films.

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This week we have a look at the 1972 film Dracula A.D. 1972. This is Episode #400! We start off with thoughts and reminiscences on 400 episodes and then move on to the film.Dracula A.D. 1972 is a 1972 British horror film, directed by Alan Gibson and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It was written by Don Houghton and stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Stephanie Beacham. Unlike earlier films in Hammer's Dracula series, Dracula A.D. 1972 had a contemporary setting in an attempt to update the Dracula story for modern audiences. Dracula is brought back to life in modern London and preys on a group of young partygoers that includes the descendant of his nemesis, Van Helsing.
It is the seventh Hammer film featuring Dracula, and the sixth to star Christopher Lee in the title role. It also marked the return of Peter Cushing as Van Helsing for the first time since The Brides of Dracula (1960), and was the first to feature both Lee and Cushing in their respective roles since Dracula (1958).
It was followed by the last film in Hammer's Dracula series to star Christopher Lee, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, which similarly utilized a modern setting and featured most of the same central characters.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Joe Bob Briggs, host of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. Per Joe Bob’s Twitter account, Season 5 of the Last Drive-In returns on April 21. We talk about the horror community, the need for common decency, and finding common ground.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Sarah Pinsker, author of the new book HAUNT SWEET HOME – a ghost story set in the world of reality TV and a young woman’s first real job. Sarah Pinsker is the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K Dick Award winning author of A Song For A New Day, We Are Satellites, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea, Lost Places, and over sixty works of short fiction. Her stories have appeared in Asimov's, Strange Horizons, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Uncanny, and in numerous anthologies and year’s bests. She is also a singer/songwriter with four albums on various independent labels. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her wife and two weird dogs.
ABOUT HAUNT SWEET HOME:
Fixer Upper meets Ghost Adventures in the reality TV show at the center of HAUNT SWEET HOME by award-winning queer author Sarah Pinsker (on-sale Sep. 3; Tordotcom), where the crafty night-shift crew manufactures “hauntings'' to spook homeowners and capture their ratings-boosting screams. However, these staged scares unfold into an unnerving reality for the show’s aimless production assistant Mara when the lines blur between practical effects and paranormal activity—and her stumbling journey through adulthood is given an unanticipated push by an unlikely ally.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Jesse Atlas, Director and Co-writer of Assassin, new from Saban films in theaters, on demand and digital March 31, 2023. The film stars Andy Allo (“Upload”), Nomzamo Mbatha (Coming 2 America), with Dominic Purcell (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) and Bruce Willis (Die Hard franchise), Mustafa Shakir (“Luke Cage”). The film was written by Aaron Wolfe and Jesse Atlas and directed by Atlas in his feature film debut.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER: https://youtu.be/qiUATuIhUw8

SYNOPSIS: Bruce Willis (Glass) and Nomzamo Mbatha (Coming 2 America) star in this action-packed sci-fi thrill ride. A private military operation led by (Willis) invents futuristic microchip tech that enables the mind of an agent to inhabit the body of another person to carry out covert, deadly missions. But when an agent (Mustafa Shakir) is killed during a secret mission, his wife (Mbatha) takes his place in an attempt to bring the man responsible to Justice.

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This week we have a look at the 1969 film Assignment Terror. This is Episode #399!
We're joined by our friends at the Monster Movie Happy Hour podcast, historical book illustrator David Geister, historian Mary Challman, and historian/raconteur/cocktail wizard Scott Chesebrouugh
Los Monstruos del Terror (translation: The Monsters of Terror), also known as Dracula vs. Frankenstein and Assignment: Terror, is a 1969 Spanish-German-Italian horror film co-directed by Tulio Demicheli and Hugo Fregonese. It is the third in a series of 12 films that Paul Naschy wrote and starred in featuring the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, a role that was always played by Naschy. It stars Paul Naschy, Michael Rennie (his last film), Craig Hill and Karin Dor.
It was filmed in early Spring, 1969. The film was first released theatrically in Germany (as Dracula vs Frankenstein) on February 24, 1970, and in Spain (as The Monsters of Terror) on August 28, 1971. The film was also shown in France and in the U.K. as Dracula vs Frankenstein. In Belgium, it was shown as Dracula and the Wolf Man vs Frankenstein. In Mexico, it was released as Operation Terror, and in Denmark it was known as Frankenstein Og Blodsugerne/ Frankenstein vs The Bloodsucker. In the 1980s, the film was released on home video in France as Reincarnator.

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This week we have a look at the 1987 film Near Dark. This is Episode #398! Near Dark is a 1987 American neo-Western horror film co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (in her solo directorial debut), and starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein. The plot follows a young man in a small Oklahoma town who becomes involved with a family of nomadic American vampires.

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This week we have a look at the 1974 film Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter . This is Episode #397! Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter is a 1974 British swashbuckling action horror film, written and directed by Brian Clemens, produced by Clemens and Albert Fennell for Hammer Film Productions, and starring Horst Janson, John Carson, Shane Briant, and Caroline Munro. The music score was composed by Laurie Johnson, supervised by Philip Martell. Belatedly released on 7 April 1974, the film was intended as the first in a series focused on the title character and his companions. Due to the film's violence and sexual subtext, Captain Kronos was rated R in North America. This was Clemens' only film as a director.

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Tonight we’re chatting with April Wright, director of Back to the Drive-In. April Wright is an award-winning filmmaker who fell in love with movies going to drive-ins and movie palaces in the Chicago area where she grew up. Other docs about the movies include “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the American Drive-in Movie” and “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace.”
In April Wright's fascinating documentary BACK TO THE DRIVE-IN, we go behind the scenes to visit eleven unique family-owned drive-ins across the country to experience their passion and determination to keep their theaters alive. It's a story of human resilience.
When the pandemic hit, drive-ins were suddenly the only safe venue in town, with press coverage about how drive-ins are “back,” and how they are thriving. But this documentary goes behind the headlines to learn the truth, spending a whole night with 11 very different drive-ins in 8 states all over the country, from preparations before the customers arrive, to selling tickets, opening the snack bar, and getting the movie on screen, we discover these family-owned businesses are actually struggling to survive.
This doc is about authentic drive-ins and the passionate people who run them, but more broadly it highlights questions about the future of the theatrical experience, and the challenges of many small businesses wondering whether they will survive and make it to the other side of the pandemic.


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Tonight we’re chatting with Yoko Okumura, director of Unseen, which comes out on Digital and On Demand on March 7, 2023 by Paramount Home Entertainment and on MGM+ later this year. In the film, Two women form an unlikely connection when a depressed gas station clerk SAM (Purdy), receives a call from EMILY (Francis), a nearly blind woman who is running from her murderous ex in the woods. Emily must survive the ordeal with Sam being her eyes from afar using video call.

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onight we’re chatting with Nancy Stohlman, who releases her latest book AFTER THE RAPTURE on March 7. Stohlman’s collection is a journey in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction that dives into the topics of Walmarts, Barbies, Kens, orgies, time-shares and clones. It’s full of doom, wisdom, absurdity and heart and packs ridiculousness, genius and meaning all at once.
Perhaps the most interesting part about her upcoming release is that she wrote the entire collection before the pandemic hit in March of 2020. Electric Literature recently featured an excerpt, "I'd Like to Report Myself Not Missing" from the book and Independent Book Review even included it on their list of Books To Look Out for in Early 2023.

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This week we have a look at the 1972 film Deathmaster directed by Ray Danton. This is Episode #396! Deathmaster is a strange creature, a sort of sequel to Count Yorga and Return of Count Yorga starring the star of those films, except this time Robert Quarry plays Khorda, who appears in Southern California as a cult-leader guru to a bunch of local young people.

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This week on Castle Talk Jason chats with Mark Earl Burman, writer/director of Ambush, an intense, gritty Vietnam War epic. In the film, when a small outpost is ambushed, a US Army squad must take the battle below ground in a terrifying and unfamiliar mission. The film is released by Saban Films February 24 in theaters, on demand and on digital.

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Tonight we’re chatting with Gabriel Bier Gislason, writer and director of the new horror film Attachment *STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY ON SHUDDER* FEBRUARY 9th, 2023. About the film: ATTACHMENT, the feature debut from Denmark-based writer/director Gabriel Bier Gislason, a horror romance steeped in Jewish folklore. Maja (Josephine Park, Baby Fever), a Danish has-been actress, falls in love with Leah (Ellie Kendrick, Game of Thrones, An Education), an academic from London. After Leah suffers from a mysterious seizure Maja returns with her to her childhood home. There, she meets Leah's overbearing mother, Chana (internationally acclaimed Danish actress Sofie Gråbøl, The Undoing, The Killing), a woman who could hold dark secrets.

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This week we have a look at the 1961 horror film The Pit and the Pendulum.  This is Episode #441! The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman, starring Vincent Price, Barbara Steele, John Kerr, and Luana Anders. The screenplay by Richard Matheson was loosely inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 1842 short story of the same name. Set in sixteenth-century Spain, the story is about a young Englishman who visits a foreboding castle to investigate his sister's mysterious death. After a series of horrific revelations, apparently ghostly appearances and violent deaths, the young man becomes strapped to the titular torture device by his lunatic brother-in-law during the film's climactic sequence.The film was the second title in the popular series of Poe adaptations released by American International Pictures, the first having been Corman's House of Usher released the previous year. Like House, the film features widescreen cinematography by Floyd Crosby, sets designed by art director Daniel Haller, and a film score composed by Les Baxter. A critical and box-office hit, Pit's success convinced AIP and Corman to continue adapting Poe stories for another six films, five of them starring Price. The series ended in 1964 with the release of The Tomb of Ligeia.

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This week we have a look at the 1977 film Suspiria directed by Ssario Argento. This is Episode #395!Suspiria (Latin: [sʊsˈpiːri.a]) is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, who co-wrote the screenplay with Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay Suspiria de Profundis. The film stars Jessica Harper as an American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy but realizes, after a series of brutal murders, that the academy is a front for a supernatural conspiracy. It also features Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé, Alida Valli, Udo Kier, and Joan Bennett, in her final film role.The film is the first of the trilogy Argento refers to as The Three Mothers, which also comprises Inferno (1980) and The Mother of Tears (2007). Suspiria has received a positive response from critics for its visual and stylistic flair, use of vibrant colors and its score by Argento and the progressive rock band Goblin.Suspiria was nominated for two Saturn Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Bennett in 1978, and Best DVD Classic Film Release, in 2002. It is recognised as one of the most influential films in the horror genre. It served as the inspiration for a 2018 film of the same title, directed by Luca Guadagnino.

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Jason chats with Kimberly G. Giarratano, author of DEATH OF A DANCING QUEEN: A Billie Levine Mystery (out Feb 14). The highly anticipated first release is new from from Datura Books, a crime fiction imprint of Angry Robot Books.Readers are in for a treat when they meet Billie Levine, a bad-ass Jewish P.I, who finds herself involved in a dangerous gang war while looking for a murder suspect. This page-turning crime novel will appeal to readers of Tana French, fans of Veronica Mars and popular true-crime podcasts.

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This week we have a look at the 1973 Spanish horror film The Loreley's Grasp directed by Amando de Ossorio. This is Episode #394! The Loreley's Grasp (Spanish: Las Garras de Lorelei, lit. 'The Claws of Lorelei') is a 1973 Spanish horror film written and directed by Amando de Ossorio,[1] and starring Tony Kendall,[2] and Helga Liné.[3] The film centers on a series of horrific murders in a German town by the Rhine river perpetrated by a deadly water spirit known as the Lorelei.The film was released in theaters in the United States under the title The Swinging Monster on August 24, 1976, but most famously a few years later under the title When the Screaming Stops

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