Test Pattern: A Horror Movie Podcast

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TV & Film
**Test Pattern: A Horror Movie Podcast**

A bi-weekly look at the monster movies, TV shows, cult films, and horror stuff that keeps YOU up at night! In the days before syndicated stations and 24 hour programming, television stations often showed old monster movies hosted by local on-air talent. It is in this spirit that “Test Pattern” is made – a little bit spooky, a little bit silly, but always informative! Jacob and Tab have a new topic each week, with a focus on the macabre offerings shown on television starting in the mid 1950s, favorite creature features, and B-movies (with occasional forays into the outer realms of horror).

Latest Episodes:

Episode 135: The Last Laugh - The Man Who Laughs & Joker Jul 16, 2020

Show notes

We get the last laugh with the silent classic The Man Who Laughs and Joker!

Sources:

The Man Who Laughs (1928)

"The Man Who Laughs: The Scary Clown Movie That Inspired the Joker" by Jim Knipfel, Den of Geek

"The Man Who Laughs Documentary", TheaterRaven

"Conrad Veidt - Short Documentary", ConnieVeidt

"The Original Masterwork: Victor Hugo's Les Miserables", Les Miserables (2012) featurette

"Conrad Veidt Biography" by Bryce Coleman, TCM

"The Rise", "The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich", The History Channel

"Olga Baclanova Biography" by L. Paul Meienberg, olgabaclanova.com

"The Cask of Amontillado Reading", Rev897

Joker (2019)

"Joker's Joaquin Phoenix & Todd Phillips on Creating DC Character Study & Finding That Laugh" by Nancy Tartaglione, Deadline

"In Joker the stakes are life and death, and comic book movies may never be the same" by Josh Rottenberg, The Los Angeles Times

"The Joker Movie: Warner Bros. Wants Class, Cachet, and Maybe Leonardo DiCaprio" by Kim Masters and Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter

"Exclusive: Joaquin Phoenix on His 'Unique' Joker Movie and Why It Scares Him" by Steve Weintraub, Collider

"Joaquin Phoenix Doesn't Regret Passing on MCU Movie Roles" by Padraig Cotter, ScreenRant

"Todd Phillips Rewrote Joaquin Phoenix's Joker During Production" by Vinnie Mancuso, Collider

"'You've Got to Stop This': Jared Leto Fumed Over New Joker Movie" by Kim Masters, The Hollywood Reporter

"Elijah Wood Calls Scuffle with Jared Leto 'Ridiculous'" by Tim Nudd, People

"Jared Leto Has His Own Fyre Fest-Like Cult, No We Are Not Joking" by Gina Vaynshteyn, Distractify

"Joker (2019): Mental Health and Personality Analysis", Dr. Todd Grande

"Joker: Behind the Scenes with Joaquin Phoenix and Todd Phillips", Warner Bros. Entertainment

Monster Kid Mailbag #24 Jul 09, 2020

Show notes

In this edition of the Mailbag, we read your answers to the listener question, answer a couple of questions from you guys, and tell you what we've been up to!

Monster Kid Projects

Hamish's horror movie review blog For Dying Out Loud
James D's (@jamesd7004) short film "The Monster"
Pete's band The Smart Folk
Andrew Tibbs - My Horror
Listen to @DJBadHombre spin metal on Thursdays at 6PM Eastern - The Stress Factor on 91.5 WUML

Superfight!

Setting: Killer's basement

Handicap: Surrounded by bear traps

Jacob -Rage zombies, gain power from drinking blood

Tab - Poltergeist, appears whenever name is said three times

Episode 134: Stepfather Kills Best - The Night of the Hunter & The Stepfather Jun 27, 2020

Show notes

Forget evil stepmothers ... this episode is all about evil stepfathers! We watched The Night of the Hunter and The Stepfather!

Sources:

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

"The Big Idea - The Night of the Hunter" by Rob Nixon, TCM

"The Essentials - The Night of the Hunter" by Jeff Stafford and Rob Nixon, TCM

"Creating The Night of the Hunter" by George E. Turner, American Cinematographer

"The Night of the Hunter" by Jeff Stafford, TCM

"Behind the Camera - The Night of the Hunter" by Jeff Stafford and Rob Nixon

"The primal pull of Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter" by Francine Prose, Library of America

"Guillermo del Toro Presents The Night of the Hunter", CriterionCollection

"Spike Lee TCM 2012 on Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter", Sekhar Ramakrishnan

The Stepfather (1987)

"The Stepfather - 30 Years of Classic Values", Cryptic Rock

"Forensic Files - Season 1, Episode 12: The List Murders", FilmRise

Episode 133: To Live and Fry in LA - The Terminator & Miracle Mile Jun 20, 2020

Show notes

In an episode curated by Godzilla-level patron Jack (from Random Movie Roulette), it's the end of the world as we know it! We jump on the choppa with The Terminator and Miracle Mile!

Sources:

The Terminator (1984)

"26 Things You Might Not Know About the Terminator Movies" by Ivan Cohen, Vulture

"The Terminator at 30: An Oral History" by Joe McGovern, Entertainment Weekly

"Epic Secrets About the Making of The Terminator" by Natalie Finn

Miracle Mile (1987)

The Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith - Miracle Mile: 30th Anniversary Q&A

"Miracle Mile at 30: The Nixed Happy Ending and Alternate Casting Revealed" by David Weiner, The Hollywood Reporter

Monster Kid Mailbag #23 Jun 12, 2020

Show notes

To give this episode some context, we recorded it about two weeks ago. It felt performative and hollow to include a discussion about the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests and then go to fun, lighthearted questions and games, so there is not a discussion about those subjects in this episode.

Black lives matter. It's not up for debate and we are using Twitter, the platform where we are most active and have the most real time interaction, to tweet and retweet resources and information about anti-racism education opportunities, as well as ways we and our listeners can help.

We have also donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and we encourage listeners with the means to donate to an organization promoting anti-racism as well. We will continue to donate as much as we are able, and to various organizations that support this cause.

Not sure where to donate? Here are some good choices:

Campaign Zero

NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

Black Visions Collective

There are tons of Twitter threads with more, so do some searching!

Here are some excellent anti-racism resources. Again, there are more if you search them out, so please do.

Justice in June - A syllabus of anti-racism learning resources broken down into 10, 20, and 45 minutes per day

Anti-racism Resources - a list of books, podcasts, articles, and videos to educate and inform

For our regular episode notes, please visit this site.

Not to Go Off On a Tangent About John Carpenter - Episode 2 (Featuring JX Dill!) Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

While we know everything going on is more important, we wanted to offer this mental break to those that would like it.

We talk to J about editing and get lost along the way!

Check out Catherine Mary Stewart as Bibi in The Apple - "Speed"

After this episode, go listen to the "Return of the Living Dead" episode of The Greg Proops Film Club (and all the others)!

Music is "Supernatural" by Kevin MacLeod, Incompetch

Find it at https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4446-supernatural

Carpenter quotes from the documentary, Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue

Episode 132: Exquisite Pain - The Hellbound Heart & Hellraiser May 22, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we're joined by Andrea to solve the Lament Configuration and explore the depths of hell. We have SUCH sights to show you with Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart and his film adaptation, Hellraiser!

Sources:

The Hellbound Heart (pub. 1986)

"Under the Skin: Doug Bradley on Hellraiser", featurette

Hellraiser (1987)

"Hellraiser: Resurrection", featurette

"Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II", Arrow Special Edition featurette

Episode 131: Monstrous Motherhood - Rosemary's Baby & The Brood May 14, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we're looking at the monstrous side of motherhood with Rosemary's Baby and David Cronenberg's The Brood.

We know that Polanski's history and crimes may make this an episode that some people decide to skip, or that some people may choose to skip to our coverage of The Brood. We fully understand and respect that choice. We will be talking about Polanski's involvement in the making of Rosemary's Baby only, but please know that we take his actions seriously and we did not decide to cover this movie without a lot of thought and consideration.

Sources:

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

"Charles Manson's Hollywood #10: Roman Polanski after Sharon Tate", You Must Remember This Podcast

"The Most Cursed Hit Movie Ever Made" by Rosemary Counter, Vanity Fair

"The Apartment Building in Rosemary's Baby is Also a Star. Here's the Not-So-Secret Story Behind Its Name" by Lily Rothman, Time

"Rosemary's Baby (1968)" by Jeff Stafford, TCM

"#23: Mia Farrow in the 1960s, Part 1: Mia & Frank", You Must Remember This Podcast

"Remembering Rosemary's Baby", Criterion Featurette

"What Should We Do With Hollywood's Rotten Apples?" by Alison Willmore

"Bias in Medicine", Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

"How Women with Short Hair are Redefining Beauty", NowThis News

"Why Are All the Men in My Life So Angry About My Short Hair?" by Parisa Hashempour, Refinery 29

"My Choice to Live Child-Free by Christen Reighter", TEDxTalks

"What is Code Switching?", HuffPost

"The Gender Wage Gap is Even Worse For Women of Color", PopSugar Entertainment

"Quantifying America's Gender Wage Gap by Race/Ethnicity", National Partnership for Women and Families

"Siri and Alexa Reinforce Gender Bias, UN Finds" by Megan Specia, The New York Times

The Brood (1979)

"Why I Love ... The Brood" by Josephine Botting, BFI

"Birth Pains", Criterion featurette

"Meet the Carveths", Criterion featurette

Monster Kid Mailbag #22 May 08, 2020

Show notes

In this edition of the Mailbag, we read your answers to the listener question, answer a couple of questions from you guys, and tell you what we've been up to!

Monster Kid Projects

Hamish's horror movie review blog For Dying Out Loud
James D's (@jamesd7004) short film "The Monster"
Pete's band The Smart Folk
Andrew Tibbs - My Horror
Listen to @DJBadHombre spin metal on Thursdays at 6PM Eastern - The Stress Factor on 91.5 WUML

Superfight!

Setting: Arkham Asylum

Handicap: All fighters are being hunted by Pinhead

Jacob -Buffy the Vampire Slayer, knows her opponent's only weakness

Tab - AntiChrist, can summon scarabs to crawl under opponent's skin

Episode 130: Hagsploitation! - Whatever Happened to Baby Jane & Lady in a Cage (with Annette!) May 01, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we're joined by Annette for a couple of movies focused on little old ladies … who are hellbent on revenge and murder! We watched the iconic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Lady in a Cage!

Sources:

Hagsploitation

"Hagsploitation: horror's obsession with older women returns" by Anne Billson, The Guardian

"A primer for the unexpectedly awesome Hagsploitation horror subgenre" by Rebecca Pahle, SyFy

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

"A Timeline of the Real Feud Between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford" by Emma Dibdin, Harper's Bazaar

"Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Bette Davis and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?", You Must Remember This

"Best Actress 1947: Olivia de Havilland Fights Back", Be Kind Rewind

"1936: Bette Davis Wins a Consolation Oscar", Be Kind Rewind

"Bette Davis on The Sexes", PBS: Blank on Blank

Lady in a Cage (1964)

"Olivia de Havilland: Lady in a Cage (1964)", Dark Lane Creative