Rory Calhoun and Nancy Parsons in Motel Hell
You might be wondering “What in the world is a potluck challenge?” Well, The Scariest Things hosts wanted to start sharing and sampling movies that we know each other has not watched yet. So this is a “Try it, you’ll like it!” moment at TST. And, like most potlucks you’ve got to try everything. Is that a finger in that jello salad? PASS!
If you’ve been listening to our podcast for a very long, you will know that each of us has our favorite films under the umbrella in what is considered horror.
Mike has a penchant for Grindhouse – ’70s era films and Giallo.
Liz likes psychological horror, foreign extremism, and thrillers.
Eric has a soft spot for creature features and indy contemporary films.
So each of us has to branch out a little, and this was our chance to force ourselves to expand our horizons. Sometimes you need to stretch your comfort zone a little and that’s what we did. Now, that’s not to say that we’re gonna LIKE what we get put in front of us, but the rules of this challenge… no refusals!
We took slightly different takes on how much leeway we’d give each other. Eric gave the most options, Liz gave Mike a couple of choices, and Mike said HERE! WATCH THIS! (Not complaining)
Eric’s List (From Mike):
- The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane (1974): Thriller starring a very young Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen.
- Inferno (1980): Dario Argento’s colorful showcase of a mysterious New York apartment building.
- Messiah of Evil (1973): A super groovy Lovecraft-ish tale of a town with a cannibalistic habit.
Liz’s List (From Eric):
- Motel Hell (1980): It takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent Fritters! Cannibal hillbilly horror.
- Lyle (2014): Pregnancy/Tragedy horror, like Rosemary’s Baby with an LGBT twist.
- The Blob (1958): It’s big, sticky, and consumes human flesh! Beware the Blob! Steve McQueen’s first movie.
Mike’s List (from Liz):
- Faces of Death (1978): The famous “mockumentary” that was the great forbidden fruit in video stores in the ’80s. It suggests that is a snuff film.
- Martyrs (2008): Pascal Laugier’s highly disturbing piece of French Extremism. Sophisticated themes and thoughts and really disturbing imagery.
- A Tale of Two Sisters (2003): A wicked stepmother battles for control of the household against two independent thinking sisters who carry a dark secret.
Did we like the movies we selected for each other? Mostly… but certainly not all of them. And, it was with much glee and appreciation that we could force our cohorts to watch what we wanted them to watch. That’s power! The good news, it’s a lot of new content for us to digest, and for us to share with you, and we hope that you might something we uncovered for you to watch.
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