Galadrielle Allman (Duane Allman’s daughter) sat in with us to talk about the “SkyDog” album and the new deluxe version of her book that you can get with it.
Musician Scotty Bratcher sat in with Jon this morning to talk about his current tour and more.
Harold Schechter is an American true crime writer who specializes in serial killers. He attended the State University of New York in Buffalo where his PhD director was Leslie Fiedler. He is a professor of American literature and popular culture at Queens College of the City University of New York. Harold spoke with Jon about serial killers on the show this morning.
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Russ Streiner is perhaps best known for his role as Johnny in Night of the Living Dead (1968). He was also one of the producers of the film. He worked in the advertising field for several years while continuing film, television, commercial, and corporate production work. Russell has been actively involved in bringing film and television productions to western Pennsylvania throughout his career, and currently serves as chairman on the board of directors of the Pittsburgh Film Office (formerly known as the Pittsburgh Film & Television Office). Until 2014 Russ Streiner was also one of the co-mentors along with John A. Russo of the John Russo Movie Making Program at DuBois Business College in DuBois, Pennsylvania. This morning Russ spoke with Jon to talk about what it was like working on such an iconic film.
Author Ken Davis sat in with Jon to talk about how many of us simply “Don’t Know Much About Halloween”.
Horror and slasher films are often dismissed for their apparent lack of sophistication and dearth of redeemable values. However, despite criticism from film snobs who turn up their noses and moralists who look down upon the genre, slasher films are more than just movies filled with gory mayhem. Such films can actually serve a purpose and offer their audiences something more than split skulls and severed heads.
In Life Lessons from Slasher Films, Jessica Robinson looks at representative works that have been scaring audiences for decades—from Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal shocker, Psycho, to the cult classic Black Christmas and iconic thrillers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream. In this book, Robinson examines common themes that have emerged in these films, their various sequels, and countless imitators—a maniacal and seemingly indestructible executioner, sexual encounters that invariably lead to death, increasingly gruesome ways to slaughter helpless victims, and a lone female survivor who finds a way to vanquish the killer—and looks beyond such tropes for what these films can teach us about life. Jessica sat in with Jon and talked Slasher films this morning.
Dee Wallace is an American actress. She is known for her scream queen roles in several popular films in the horror genre, including The Hills Have Eyes (1977), The Howling (1981) and Cujo (1983). Her most widely seen role is a starring role as Eliott’s mother, Mary, in the Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Her other film appearances include The Stepford Wives (1975), 10 (1979) and Critters (1986). Dee spoke to Jon this morning about working on these films and more.
Cassandra Peterson is an American actress best known for her portrayal of the horror hostess character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. She gained fame on Los Angeles television station KHJ wearing a black, gothic, revealing, cleavage-enhancing gown as host of Elvira’s Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation. Her wickedly vampish appearance is offset by her comical character, quirky and quick-witted personality, and Valley girl-type speech. Cassandra spoke with Jon about her career and more.
Poisoned candy myths are urban legends about malevolent strangers hiding poisons or sharp objects such as razor blades, needles, or broken glass in candy and distributing the candy in order to harm random children, especially during Halloween trick-or-treating. These stories serve as modern cautionary tales to children and parents. These stories repeat two themes that are common in urban legends: danger to children and contamination of food.
No cases of strangers killing or permanently injuring children this way have been proven. Commonly, the story appears in the media when a young child dies suddenly after Halloween. Medical investigations into the actual cause of death have always shown that these children did not die from eating candy given to them by strangers. However, in rare cases, adult family members have spread this story in an effort to cover up murder or accidental deaths. In other incidents, a child who has been told about poisoned candy places a dangerous object or substance in a pile of candy and pretends that it was the work of a stranger. This behavior is called the copycat effect.
Folklorists, scholars, and law enforcement experts say that these stories have been “thoroughly debunked”. This morning Professor Joel Best spoke to Jon about these myths and why you have nothing to worry about.
Horror Films FAQ explores a century of ghoulish and grand horror cinema, gazing at the different characters, situations, settings, and themes featured in the horror film, from final girls, monstrous bogeymen, giant monsters and vampires to the recent torture porn and found footage formats. The book remembers the J-Horror remake trend of the 2000s, and examines the oft-repeated slasher format popularized by John Carpenters Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980). After an introduction positioning the horror film as an important and moral voice in the national dialogue, the book explores the history of horror decade by decade, remembering the womens liberation horrors of the 1970s, the rubber reality films of the late 1980s, the serial killers of the 1990s, and the xenophobic terrors of the 9/11 age. Horror Films FAQ also asks what it means when animals attack in such films as The Birds (1963) or Jaws (1975), and considers the moral underpinnings of rape-and-revenge movies, such as I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and Irreversible (2002). The book features numerous photographs from the authors extensive personal archive, and also catalogs the genres most prominent directors. Movie critic John Muir spoke with us about all of these amazing films.