Punk Vacation: An Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

THE Brandon Upson made time to join us for episode 3. Brandon, in addition to being one of the original VS team and co-founder of the archive, currently is an in-house restoration artist and the lead scanning technician. The man can do it all, and his passion for film shines through this entire episode.

We cover the 5 films released over 3 mainline releases: Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf, The Cruel Brittania set which includes Crucible of Terror, Penny Gold, and Craze, plus Lamberto Bava's Delirium! Outside of the mainline titles we also got to hear about the unedited version of Eye for and Eye they released, A large budget Gialli-esque visual feast starring Audrey Hepburn and Omar Sharif in Bloodline, plus the singular and trendsetting Go Fish. Another strong month all around including two very strong Fukasaku movies through one of their partners Film Movement.

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 2 brings back a prehistoric monster, some prehistoric torture, and some histrionic punks. We find out if Demme will stop making sense, give our blood to the cult of genre cinema, and discover the identity of a true macho woman! No Polish police force can stop us, we're using all Eight Eyes to tackle Vinegar Syndrome's July release slate. I hope you enjoy!

We're live! Kurtis Spieler was kind enough to join for our first episode. He is a restoration specialist at Vinegar Syndrome and is a filmmaker himself. Most importantly, a great guy who obviously loves all different types of movies and can switch between Cat-III and Robert Altman without missing a beat.

We covered all 7 of the August announcements, Chinese Torture Chamber Story, They Call Me Macho Woman, and the Ozploitation classic, Body Melt.

Punk Vacation - An Unofficial Vinegar Syndrome Podcast 

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 4 brings in Justin LaLiberty to help us break down the August releases. This month gives us adults that don’t speak the way humans speak while being hunted by creepy kids, the best example of why women live longer than men ever filmed, and a very bloody bath. We see a father and son martial arts duo for the ages, and Garfield in a whole new light. We see not one but two criminal road trip films that don’t go to plan, and we even have a new segment!

I’m delighted that Celeste de la Cabra has agreed to come in and host a monthly deep-dive into the hardcore titles coming from Mélusine, Distribpix, and all their sister labels. Justin also joins Celeste for the kickoff of the adult part of the podcast. We continue to build Punk Vacation into a community event, please let me know what I can do differently or better, or anything you enjoy and want to hear more. Cheers!

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 5 truly connects us with the VS community. Jaden Christopher joins to talk about the VS Discord and his journey down into the dark surreal alleys of Vinegar Syndrome horror.

We cover announcements from October 1st and spend time at the end highlighting five horror titles from the catalog that are good for the season.

Spend time as we dance with ghosts, find new roommates, discuss one of the craziest and most interesting CAT-III directors, find a Bond girl in the announcements, take a look into the future as it was predicted in 1987, debate whether or not to take sweets from a stranger, plus two very exciting VSAs and an all-timer from Cinematographe.

Ryan and Jeremy join to cover new merch for the month as well.

The community is growing! Thank you all listening, following on IG, and to everyone who has reached out to say hi online.

VS Discord
https://discord.gg/R8jnrnaW

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 6 was a great conversation with two humble giants of film history. Armando and Joey joined from Trash Mex Podcast. They are amazing ambassadors of Mexican cinema who spend a lot of time booking screenings and writing and promoting the movies they love.

We introduce Armando and Joey, review the VS films from Mexico, and cover the September releases from the mainline as well as VSA, VSL, and Distribpix.

One thing different, and I hope fun, that we tried was to come up with a double feature of each of the VS releases. The theme of the double feature is a movie from Mexico with a similar theme or plot. For easy reference, here are the double features that were chosen:

Howling II
- Colmillos, el hombro lobo by Rene Cardona III (1993)

Cruel Brittania- Hector Shayne (Multiple movies and TV shows)
- Mujeres de media noche (1990)
- La muerte del chacal (1984)

Eye for an Eye
- Navajeros (1980)
- Pistoleros Famosos (1981)
- El Fiscal de hierra (1989)

Blonde on a Bum Trip
- Los desvergonzados (1962)

I also have to thank Celeste de la Cabra who is now officially embedded as a segment host that pays homage to The Smiths while covering the hardcore titles from VS when they have more.

The community is growing! Thank you all listening, following on IG, and to everyone who has reached out to say hi online.

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 8 introduces Punk Vacation to another great content creator and rabid fan, Sam Dunkley. He watches, discusses, and produces reviews on filmbloggersam and Let's Watch Two, and imports way more VS to the UK then he ever intended. We're also lucky enough to have Celeste back to discuss the most elaborate and artistic adult films ever made.

We dance around the possible sensitivities of a Native American slasher, become a tenant in Polanski's vision of immigrants in Paris, decompose into one of the most egregious of taboos, feel forgotten as we unwrap a Mystere, flirt with Obsession, and learn not to take candy from a stranger. 

The Archive line has two titles this month, Weird Science in Montreal and a possessed beeper in a remote vacation villa. After all of this goodness we come to my favorite release of the month. William Castle's ode to puppetry, mimes, and the dark side of the performing arts.

Links for Sam:
Youtube for filmbloggersam- https://www.youtube.com/filmbloggersam
Everything else:
https://www.letswatchtwo.com/

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

Episode 7 brought back another important member of the Vinegar Syndrome staff. Oscar Becher is the vault manager and archivist and has been on the VS team for about 3 1/2 years.

In addition to going over the November announcements, we talk about the different ways Oscar gets involved in releases, who convinced him to sing for the Cannibal! promo, and get some idea of the size of the actual archive that started Vinegar Syndrome.

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 11 we meet Sam. That's the only name you need. Like Emanuelle or Madonna, Sam is a force in entertainment and most recently the genre film community. He's toured as a musician, done a good amount of voiceover work, has interviewed some amazing filmmakers in his own work, has been on a growing number of commentaries, has a podcast and a videocast, and is a like-minded personality so I knew I needed to get him on the kickoff 2025. Most of his work is centered through his branding of bandsaboutmovies. I'll link below.

Sam's energy for Vinegar Syndrome is infectious. He loves underseen or underappreciated movies and is a firm believer that every completed movie is a miracle. We talk about the Black Friday releases for VS Mainline and every Sublabel including the April Fools Day surprise.

It's a longer episode, but if you listen to Sam you'll understand why. We wrestle with the why behind the appeal of Vinegar Syndrome, where they are headed as a company, and what draws us to movies in the first place.

Starting on Feb 1 we'll get back to the usual schedule and mid February I hope to have a special porn-themed Valentine's Day episode with a guest I'm very excited about. Thank you for those who continue to listen and please let me know how I can make this better!

https://bandsaboutmovies.com/