Podcasts
‘Thirteen Ghosts’ Shines a Quasi-Feminist Light On the Early Aughts Afterlife [The Lady Killers Podcast]
“Can I rely on you not to get me killed?”
What happens to our souls when we die? Do we return in another body to live life again? Do we wink out of existence like an imploding star? Or do we become ghostly spirits, doomed to haunt the world of the living? If this is what waits for us when our bodies expire, what form will our ethereal spirit’s take? Will we appear as our ideal selves, at the peak of our physical existence? Or will we be doomed to spend eternity confronting the remnants of our demise, our final moment etched into our skin till the end of time? Steve Beck’s Thir13en Ghosts presents just such a fate. Not only are twelve angry spirits forced to appear as representatives of their brutal deaths, they’ve been trapped in a house and conscripted to serve an even more upsetting agenda.
Arthur (Tony Shalhoub) is still grieving the loss of his wife and struggling to care for his two children when a distant uncle dies, leaving him a hefty windfall. He’s inherited a unique mansion filled with rare artifacts and constructed of glass etched with mysterious latin phrases. There’s just one catch (other than the see-through bathroom walls), the basement is filled with twelve angry ghosts just waiting to escape their ectoplasmic cells. They’ve been painstakingly collected one by one in order to open the eye of hell. But Rafkin (Matthew Lillard), the man responsible for their supernatural imprisonment, has second thoughts about his role in this devious plan and risks his life to help Arthur’s family escape.
The Lady Killers kick off a month of Halloween Horror with Beck’s unfairly maligned Dark Castle film. Co-hosts Jenn Adams and Mae Shults are joined by Shawn Murphy and Clayton Jones II from the Men Who Like Men Who Like Movies! podcast to chat about nude ghosts, child podcasters, lecherous lawyers, and early aughts ghosts. Why does Arthur need a live-in nanny? What age is Shannon Elizabeth’s character supposed to be? Where can they get a pair of those cool ghost glasses, and who needs a plot when you’ve got Matthew Lillard? They’ll dig into the special feature backstories for each lady ghost while exploring the female archetypes on which they’re based.
Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.
Here at Halloweenies, we love practical effects—there’s a reason why one of our categories is called “Great Graphics.” Well, consider this a full-length “Great Graphics” episode, where we talk to the effects team behind the titular puppet of Pinocchio Unstrung, in theaters this Friday. As the latest installment in the Twisted Childhood Universe, Pinocchio ups the franchise’s game by featuring a villain that’s entirely practical, created with a stunning mix of animatronics and, of course, puppetry.
So, take a seat at the workbench for a spirited interview between Halloweenie co-host Dan Caffrey and MASTERS FX President and Founder (and special effects legend in his own right) Todd Masters, Pinnochio Lead artist and Designer Kiana Larson, and Lead Animatronics Joshua Raymond. Learn how they pulled off such a dazzling and terrifying puppet, where they think the effects industry is headed, the movies that made them want to be FX artists, a few tidbits of Nightmare On Elm Street history, and more.
Pinocchio himself might even pop by for an appearance.
Stream the episode below and get tickets now for Pinocchio Unstrung. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, Chucky, Alien, and Universal Monsters. This year? Hellraiser AND The Omen.
You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins, Child’s Play) and one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Saw, 28 Days Later, Manhunter, Near Dark). Each month promises something new and unexpected from the wildest corners of the genre.
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