Episodes
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Episode 51 - Spiral/Uzumaki (2000)
Friday Feb 11, 2022
Friday Feb 11, 2022
This week the boys chat about their peripheral interest in the Winter Olympics and their excitement about what's potentially going down in AEW* before getting into a discussion on Spiral, the film adaptation of Junji Ito's manga, Uzumaki.
Skip ahead to 17:48 to avoid all the rasslin' talk and get straight to the discussion of madness brought about by geometric patterns. Written and filmed before the manga was complete, Spiral has too much in common with Dragon Ball Z, which similarly spun its wheels while waiting for the source material to catch up. Tonally weird, narratively disjointed, and very 2000s, Spiral nonetheless does conjure up some pretty creepy atmosphere and allusions to inescapable fate in ways that remind viewers of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse and also Lovecraft's work.
Check out The Cast of Cthulhu on Facebook or Twitter and email any questions or comments to moviesofmadness@gmail.com.
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Episode 50 - Conversation with Starfish Writer/Director Al White
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Tuesday Jan 25, 2022
Since our Pateron now sleeps with dead Cthulhu in his house in R'lyeh, we can unleash this fresh madness onto the world. Recorded last summer and only previously available on the Patreon feed, we're releasing this conversation with Starfish writer/director, Al White, for the main feed's enjoyment!
This laid back and wide-ranging conversation touches on everything from COVID anxiety to anime that we discovered when we were too young to least favorite John Carpenter films to how the ending and emotional beats of Starfish fuck with the standard hero's journey.
Check out The Cast of Cthulhu on Facebook or Twitter and email any questions or comments to moviesofmadness@gmail.com.
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
Episode 49 - Dark City (1998)
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
Wednesday Jan 12, 2022
Well, it's our first episode of the new year and boy, do we have a kick ass guest to help ring in 2022! Stopping by to drop some knowledge on us about Mycenaean architecture and Lovecraftian horror is author, film critic, and desktop game designer, Josephine Maria Yanasak-Leszczynski! Dark City may not seem like your standard Lovecraft-inspired genre film at first, but Josephine lays out the case for how it effectively the 1998 sci-fi/noir film incorporates Lovecraft's penchant for pulling from multiple sources and how it plays with the concept of cyclopean environments.
It's easy to forget that Dark City after came before The Matrix, seeing as how oddly similar the seminal and influential film from the Wachowskis was whereas Dark City was just kind of...forgotten (unless you're Roger Ebert). Sure, the city may be one of the most poorly thought out science experiments in the history of movies brought down by a half-baked Neo, but it was great to think that studios once spent money on weird, original ideas -- even if they did ultimately end up tinkering with them too much.
Follow Josephine on Twitter @JMYales and check out their website where you can find their prequel to "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," "A Coven in Essex County."
Check out The Cast of Cthulhu on Facebook or Twitter and email any questions or comments to moviesofmadness@gmail.com.
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Episode 48 - At the Mountains of Madness Virtual Table Read!
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Need some light in the Winter Solstice? Some merry for your Christmas? Some Guillermo del Toro for your life in general? Then The Cast of Cthulhu has the perfect gift for you! Joining Jim and James are a fantastic collection of writers, podcasters, and just all around awesome horror fans to present a virtual table reading of Guillermo del Toro's unproduced screenplay for At the Mountains of Madness adapted from the H.P. Lovecraft novella of the same name. Stick around afterwards for a discussion of the script and reactions to the news that del Toro may be revisiting & rewriting it in hopes of it being picked up by Netflix.
Follow and show some love to the wonderful collection of readers:
- Leeman Kessler (Website, Ask Lovecraft, Twitter, TikTok)
- Josephine Yanasak-Leszczynski (Website, Twitter)
- Brian Muldoon (Happy Harvest Horror Show)
- Stephen Foxworthy (Disenfranchised, Twitter)
- Brett Wright (Disenfranchised, Twitter)
- Sean Meehan (Website)
- Jessica Scott (Website, Twitter)
- Brian & Gwen Callahan (H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival & CthulhuCon)
And, of course, you an always email us at moviesofmadness@gmail.com.
Happy Holidays from The Cast of Cthulhu!
Saturday Nov 27, 2021
Episode 47 - Dark Waters (1993)
Saturday Nov 27, 2021
Saturday Nov 27, 2021
It's a bit of a shame that there's no James on this episode seeing as obscure foreign horror films are right up his alley, but we've got a Brian Muldoon from the Happy Harvest Horror Show to make up for it!
Who is Mariano Baino, the co-writer and director of the somewhat incoherent and possibly maybe blasphemous Dark Waters? Allegedly he's the "unholy hybrid of Bergman and Argento" according to, uh...him probably? Anyway, as evidenced by this film, he's clearly more interested in film as a visual medium than as a storytelling medium, leading to many haunting visuals, but many more "what the hell is happening?" moments.
Check out Happy Harvest Horror Show on Instagram.
And if you're curious, found out more about Baino from his website that looks like it hasn't been updated since 2002.
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
Episode 46 - The Lighthouse (2019)
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
Wednesday Nov 17, 2021
After a long delay caused by the non-zero chance that the boys were marooned by weather in an eldritch beacon, the boys found someone who likes their lobster in Stephen Foxworthy, co-host of the Disenfranchised podcast! 2019 was a banger of a year for films - The Farewell, Parasite, Uncut Gems - and the fact that the claustrophobic, tense, paranoid, nightmare sophomore entry from Robert Eggers is included amongst conversation with those masterpieces is a testament to how firmly of a grasp the writer/director had on how to balance the Lovecraftian inspirations with his own unique story. It's a little bit of Greek mythology mixed with madness and just a touch of tentacles.
To read more about Eggers' Lovecraftian inspirations, read the full article referenced in this episode over at IGN.
And listen to Jim discuss National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 over at Disenfranchised.
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Commentary
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
Saturday Oct 30, 2021
After basically two months of tricks, boy do we have a treat for you! The Cast of Cthulhu presents its first ever commentary track: 1988's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Watch along with the boys on Shudder, the perfect streaming service for the spooky season, as they poke fun of a mad Dr. Loomis' return to Haddonfield, sympathize with the innocent, bullied Jaime Lloyd, and anoint Rachel Carruthers the worthy heir to Laurie Strode. Is Halloween 4 the best sequel of the franchise? Hardly, but it's a hell of a lot better than Halloween Kills.
To listen to the Halloween 4 episode of Best Movies Never Made that was referenced in this commentary, be sure to listen to that here.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Dead Cast of Cthulhu Awaits Dreaming
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Friday Sep 10, 2021
Quick episode here to update you on why there's been radio silence from CoC, the expected planned hiatus for September, and assurance that we'll be back in mid-October once things settle down.
As CoC awaits dreaming in the depths of R'lyeh, just a reminder that we've got a few cool things on our Patreon including an interview with Al White, the writer and director of Starfish. Just $3 a month will get you access to that as well as a bunch of cool stuff that we're planning for the future when we rise again in time for Halloween.
Enjoy your September, everybody! See you in October!
Wednesday Aug 11, 2021
Episode 45 - The Resurrected (1991)
Wednesday Aug 11, 2021
Wednesday Aug 11, 2021
Okay, first off, we're sorry that there's been such a gap between episodes. Life happens.
Second off, we launched a Patreon! Our first exclusive episode for patrons is an interview with friend of the show, BJ Verot, as he talks about directing his feature film debut, the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival Best Feature winner, The Return.
After getting that big news out of the way, The Cast of Cthulhu rises again like so many essential salts to discuss the hard to find The Resurrected, a film that stars Chris Sarandon is dual roles as Charles Dexter Ward and his doppelgänger ancestor, Prince Humperduhh...sorry, Joseph Curwen. Arguably the most faithful adaptation of any Lovecraft text we've ever covered, it's also, by default, arguably the biggest argument against faithfully adapting Lovecraft. Also, could there be a connection between The Resurrected and The Princess Bride?*
Subscribe to our Pateron here: https://www.patreon.com/CastCthulhu
The Return is available to rent or purchase on both Amazon and iTunes.
And here's the real house that inspired Ward's fictional abode.
*No, there isn't
Thursday Jul 08, 2021
Episode 44 - The Unnameable (1988)
Thursday Jul 08, 2021
Thursday Jul 08, 2021
First and foremost, we have to pour one out for Lovecraft Country, which was officially canceled by HBO, robbing us of the vision Mischa Green would have unleashed untethered from the source material.
But if you're not the sentimental type, skip ahead to 11:32 to get to the discussion of The Unnameable, a bizarre, tonally mixed, low-budget adaptation that somehow expands on the short story without actually adding anything substantive. Perhaps it's because Howard is a milquetoast protagonist or because the film shoehorns in every awful 80's teen trope or because the titular Unnameable is utterly nameable and generic, but either way, the end result of Jean-Paul Ouellette's efforts are as slight as the source material.
If you disagree with us, perhaps you'll find solidarity with Massimo Berruti.