Ye Ed slays Korean DEVIL, more
~~~~~
October this year has been long, busy, and sometimes frustrating, not exactly the bulk one wants to work through leading up to Halloween. I’m doing the best I can with it, and a highlight has been my return to the podcasting sphere. Several years have passed since I dared to invoke ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS on my last episode to date of Damian Duffy Hates Everything, the sarcastic slice of pop culture pontification I co-hosted with University of Illinois arts educators Damian Duffy and Eric Benson. Since my self-exile to Momkoke Manor in another part of Illinois, they have teamed up with the capable Stephen “Sven” Johnson of the Champaign Is Also a Band ‘cast to keep the show afloat under various alternate titles. On roughly the ninth anniversary of recording the first dollop of DDHE, I’ve once again taken a seat behind a live mic to discuss films that twist the very nature and expectations of “horror” in cinema.
Chase Todd and Aaron Sheppard of the Chase & Shep Show invited me to participate in their marathon run of once-a-day “31 Slays” episodes shared to YouTube throughout October. I agreed to come on, knowing my from-the-hip speaking and research skills were rusty, and sifted through their “set list” of the genre’s hits and misfits they wanted to cover. I chose two that were not the most obvious picks and deferred to a fellow guest for my final appearance. So, how did it go? For “Slay 1,” which kicked off the 2021 series at the stroke of midnight on Friday, October 1, we took on KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988), a crayon-colored lark from the Chiodo Brothers effects team responsible for the creature designs in CRITTERS and ERNEST SCARED STUPID. Starring Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson, the late Royal Dano, and the late, great John Vernon, KLOWNS is a remarkable visual feat produced on a $2 million budget with its head in a weird stratosphere and heart stuck in the sci-fi Fifties.
~~~~~
~~~~~
We then went small before ballooning nearly out of control. For “Slay 15,” half-way through the set, yours truly and Todd picked apart the grueling pleasures of CHEAP THRILLS (2014), a darkly wry flick that premiered the year before at South by Southwest in Austin, TX. Director E.L. Katz and crew pit a pair of desperate blue-collar workers (Pat Healy, Ethan Embry) against a well-off couple (David Koechner, Sara Paxton) who get their kicks by paying the duo wads of cash for increasingly uncouth behavior. And for “Slay 23,” Chase & Shep engineered an unofficial DDHE reunion with myself, Benson, and Duffy, the latter of whom selected the even darker South Korean thriller from controversial filmmaker Kim Jee-woon, I SAW THE DEVIL (2011). In a highly polished feature that is truly not for everyone, the storytelling takes its time to show us the depths to which a secret agent (Lee Byung-hun) will go to match wits with the doughy serial killer (Choi Min-sik, star of OLDBOY) who eviscerated his girlfriend and unborn child.
Although this means I am now three “Slays” and out, I can say that I enjoyed taking this detour on the Chase & Shep Show; be sure to listen to the above episodes and let us know what you think. Meanwhile, our durable slayers will be finishing up their dissections this weekend with final episodes on the newer classic TRICK ‘R TREAT, debuting tonight, Friday, October 29, just after midnight, and the original HALLOWEEN, arriving tomorrow night at the same time. They will also premiere the final two episodes of CHASE & SHEP’S SUMMER CAMP OF HORRORS! next month. Will any staff from the cursed Camp Chasenshep live to share this tale? Can lead counselors Chase and Shep solve the mysteries without burning the place down, again? You’ll have to find out for yourselves at YouTube, dearest screamers!
~ Jason Pankoke
p.s. Zontar commands you to listen to this as well!
p.s.2 I realize that headline can be interpreted … broadly. Zontar is not the only would-be ruler of the world to command attention through communication channels. Fuck no. South Korea says so.
~~~~~
