Shoot The Hostage

Time to rev up the chainsaw and clear out the workshed because we’re heading back to 1987. Welcome to episode two of Sarahs “After Death” season on Shoot the Hostage, where we carve into director Sam Raimi’s ultimate 80s comedy horror masterpiece: Evil Dead 2 (1987).

Is it a straightforward sequel or a refined redo of the original cabin nightmare? We slice through The Evil Dead vs Evil Dead 2 debate once and for all while celebrating a film that remains a cut above the rest when it comes to Splatstick. Bruce Campbell delivers an unhinged Ash Williams with a physical performance for the ages, battling possessed trees, getting flung through puddles, and giving himself the finger leading to a hilarious farewell to arms gag.

Tune in to hear us discuss the practical effects gore movies standard set by Evil Dead 2, featuring stop-motion animation, grotesque prosthetic makeup, popping eyeballs and Ted Raimi sweating inside a Henrietta suit. Plus, we analyse Ash Williams’s character evolution, conceive an idea for a bedside shrine honouring the filmmakers, pitch throwing problematic celebrities into pits filled with serpents, and pair the onscreen carnage with a crisp Riesling wine for an episode packed with Dead by Dawn chaos!

What to expect from this episode:

We debate whether Evil Dead 2 is a direct continuation or a refined remake of the 1981 original.

Dan laments his unsold copy of Crimewave on eBay while also praising Sam Raimi’s low-budget resourcefulness.

We cover Stephen King brokering the $3.6 million Dino De Laurentiis deal while encouraging King to start a writing career.

We dig into the Deadites lore to decide whether we’re dealing with demons, ghosts, or zombies.

Sarah and Dan compare Sam Raimi’s cinematic style to Peter Jackson’s early gore and splatter era.

We unpack the slapstick genius of Bruce Campbell.

Praise for the effects team which included Mark Shostrom, Greg Nicotero, Robert Kurtzman and Tom Sullivan.

We analyse Deadites rules, Kandarian demon mechanics, and why the film’s narrative absurdity succeeds.

This season has eight episodes, concluding December 7th!

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 17? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup.

If you're a fan of the show and want more content, check out our £3.00 a month tier on Patreon where we release our end of season wrap shows and 2 reviews of brand new movies every month. Plus you'll get access to our back catalogue from 2023 onwards.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.  

Or come find us on social media:

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We have returned from the ashes for season 17 and to kick off Sarah’s “After Death” theme, we’re covering Danny and Michael Phillippou’s 2022 breakout hit, Talk to Me.

Forget about boring old films with a séance where people quietly hold hands around a candlelit table, this movie flips the genre on its head by turning supernatural contact into a viral party game. We give a massive hand to director brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, who levelled up from RackaRacka Youtubers to masterminds of modern Australian horror. Set against the backdrop of South Australia, it effortlessly stands out among the most haunting Adelaide movies ever made, warning foolish teenagers against conjuring spirits through a ceramic-clad embalmed arm.

Whether you’re a hardcore fan of possession movies or just looking for a genuinely creepy movie that will leave you clutching your sofa, Talk to Me delivers pure visceral horror while redefining what a truly terrifying possession film can accomplish. So let the spirit in, keep it under 50 seconds, and listen in!

What to expect from the episode:

Sarah reveals why she picked the theme “After Death” for season 17 and how revisiting the film hit differently this time.

Dan confesses he forgot almost the entire plot since seeing it at the cinema, making this feel like a first-time watch.

We complain about DVD pricing structure and the baffling decision to put a trailer for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey on the Blu-ray.

We shower praise on YouTube creators Danny and Michael Philippou for transitioning from RackaRacka to directing a low-budget modern horror.

We celebrate the phenomenal performances of Sophie Wilde and Joe Bird alongside stellar supporting turns from Miranda Otto and Zoe Terakes.

We discuss how immersive the single-shot opening sequence is and the lightning-fast 60-minute filming of the chaotic possession montage.

Sarah and Dan analyse the tragic symbolism of the yellow jumper, dead kangaroos on dark road and ghost hands.

We explore whether the hand is a metaphor for peer pressure, grief, teenage isolation, or Mark Zuckerberg’s unwanted grip on society.

This season has eight episodes, concluding December 7th!

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 17? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup.

If you're a fan of the show and want more content, check out our £3.00 a month tier on Patreon where we release our end of season wrap shows and 2 reviews of brand new movies every month. Plus you'll get access to our back catalogue from 2023 onwards.

Enjoy the show but can't support us financially? We get it. You could submit a review on the podcast player you're reading this on right now. Or if you listen on Spotify and you haven't given us a five-star rating yet, what are ye waiting for? It's easy.

If you've done some or all of that and still want to do more, we would love it if you tell a friend about the show.  

Or come find us on social media:

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

Before the new season begins next week, we’re excavating a prehistoric relic straight from our Patreon archive to keep your ears fed between seasons. We chose to dig up this bonus review for the main feed because it fits seamlessly alongside our last season, “Size Doesn’t Matter” and what’s bigger or more needlessly oversized than a Jurassic Park movie.

In this episode, we take a giant bite out of Jurassic World: Rebirth (or Afterbirth, as Dan calls it), dissecting whether Scarlett Johansson’s gun-toting mercenary, Mahershala Ali’s criminally underused sidekick, Jonathan Bailey’s dinosaur enthusiast, and Ruper Friend’s suit can save a script that feels more recycled than a parody of that scene from When Harry Met Sally.

What to expect from this episode:

Dan and Sarah debate whether Sarah would even know what a dinosaur looks like if she hadn’t seen Jurassic Park or if she’d assume they looked like handkerchiefs.

A thorough breakdown of whether Jurassic World Rebirth is somehow inferior to the 1994 cult masterpiece Tammy and the T-Rex.

Dan puts forth his conspiracy theory that Jurassic World Dominion was so atrocious it is directly responsible for modern geopolitics and that Chris Pratt is patient zero.

Sarah points out the bizarre franchise trope that every palaeontologist in existence had to be knighted by Dr. Alan Grant.

Dan identifies a massive plot hole involving a bespectacled gentleman.

A complete derailment into Vin Diesel’s plans to digitally resurrect Paul Walker for Fast 11 and whether Dan would allow his CGI corpse to star in a movie for £100 million.

We shall return!

On October 19th we're back with a brand new season. This time chosen by Sarah. The new theme is "After Death" and the first film we're looking at is Talk to Me (2022). 

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 17? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup when it drops any day now.

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In this season roundup, we dive headfirst into all things scale-related for the last time as we revisit some of our favourite moments from Dan’s “Size Doesn’t Matter” season.

In this roundup, we shrink our expectation and scale up the chaos:

We dissect Hank Pym’s fake science in Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man, celebrating Corey Stoll’s massive floating face in Quantumania and Judy Greer’s three-scene mother routine.

We marvel at Bong Joon-ho’s The Host, where crew members threw heavy barrels into the river just to perfect CGI creature splash physics.

Sarah explains how watching Gary Oldman in Tiptoes aggravated her jaw disorder, leading straight into an unhinged John Travolta tangent.

We pit Brad Dourif’s maniacal Child’s Play laugh against horror icons and roast Andy’s chaotic 6:30am birthday breakfast.

We pitch recasting Sam Neill and Laura Dern in Jurassic Park 3 with Pauly Shore, mock the talking raptor, and expose a failed 2001 burner phone promo.

Director Joe Dante gets his due across Gremlins 2 and Innerspace while Tim Thomerson plays a small angry man chasing a floating head.

We shall return!

On October 19th we're back with a brand new season. This time chosen by Sarh. The new theme is "After Death" and the first film we're looking at is Talk to Me (2022). 

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 17? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup when it drops any day now.

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube

Open up a cold can of Cherryade and join us for a look back the season. What started as a theme dedicated to films about size and exploring size in movies ended up expanding into a bloody long shortlist covering everything from pint-sized slasher icons to scaled-up creature features.

Across the 8 episodes, we weighed up small things in movies, from Hary Oldman in Tiptoes and Chucky in Child’s Play to Marvel’s twelfth entry, Ant-Man before taking on heavyweight monster movies like The Host and Jurassic Park 3 and accidentally double-dipping on director Joe Dante with Gremlins 2 and our grand finale, Innerspace.

In this wrap show we lament the tragic omission of Ray Harrhausen’s iconic stop-motion miniatures and skeletons, debate why swapping Honey, I Shrunk the Kids for shrinking Dennis Quaid and injecting him into Martin Short was the ultimate power move, and take a nostalgic detour into the lost era of recording movies off the telly and buying suspicious bags of VHS tapes on Facebook Marketplace.

What to expect in this episode:

We reflect on our “Size Doesn’t Matter” slate, spanning Ant-Man to Innerspace.

A petition for the Prince Charles cinema to start screening Tiptoes.

Confessing to the accidental Joe Dante double-dip with Gremlins 2 and Innerspace, while weighing up the alternative monster movies like Deep Rising and Lake Placid.

Discover why the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids franchise was sidelined in favour of Martin Short.

A wild tangent into the ethics of recording movies off the telly, buying mystery bags of VHS tapes and the monarchy’s tourist value.

Sarah tests Dan’s comprehension of the seasons movies in an eight-question quiz.

If you would like to listen to the full episode, head over to Patreon to get access to this and all of our previous wrap shows from seasons 1-15.

We shall return!

On October 19th we're back with a brand new season. This time chosen by Sarh. The new theme is "After Death" and the first film we're looking at is Talk to Me (2022). 

Would you like to see the full lineup for season 17? The only place you can see it is on Patreon but you don't need to be a paying member. Sign up for a free membership and get access to the lineup when it drops any day now.

Instagram | TikTok | Threads | YouTube