Message Dan and Mike

Forty-five years after it hit theaters on October 30, 1981, we’re digging into Halloween II for the penultimate episode of Halloween Fest. The film picks up minutes after the original ends, and we both agree it plays less like a sequel and more like the second half of one long, bloody night in Haddonfield. Dan has always had a soft spot for it and says he may even like it more than the first one.

We break down the behind-the-scenes story, including why John Carpenter didn’t direct, how he ended up writing it (and by his own account drinking his way through the script), and how he came back late to shoot additional scenes when the studio wanted more gore. We talk about first-time feature director Rick Rosenthal and why we think he doesn’t get enough credit for the POV shots, long tracking takes, and Alan Howarth’s creepy synth-and-organ layer on top of Carpenter’s score.

Then there’s Dick Warlock, Kurt Russell’s longtime stunt double, who landed the role of Michael Myers by walking into the director’s office wearing the mask. We get into his slow, deliberate walk, the legendary firewalk stunt, and his kid’s famous boombox scene. We also cover Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Curtis, the great supporting cast, the infamous steam room scene, and the Shout Factory / Scream Factory 4K collector’s edition, which includes the TV cut.

Along the way, Mike tells the story of his featured-extra role in Passenger 57, we debate a few franchise details (fact-checking each other live, as usual), and Dan shares that the Halloween II cast is headed to Spooky Empire. We close with our desert island Halloween picks.

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Message Dan and Mike

Halloween Fest rolls on as we sink our teeth into Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, now 34 years old. Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins star in a film we both admire and both struggle to fully embrace. Dan lands at a B-minus, while Mike calls it the movie he has the most positive things to say about, even though it left him bored.

We dig into what makes it so remarkable: the practical, in-camera effects, the forced perspective, the shadows that move on their own, and the decision to shoot like it’s the silent era. We talk about Eiko Ishioka’s Oscar-winning costume design, Oldman’s many makeup transformations, and the voice training behind his performance. We also get into how Winona Ryder brought Coppola the script right after The Godfather Part III, and how Roman Coppola’s team stepped in when Francis fired the visual effects crew.

Then we ask the harder question: if the craft is this good, why does it drag? We compare it with Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which kept us hooked, and with Renfield. We also run through the casting what-ifs, including the studio’s list of Dracula options, and a Jackass star who was Keanu’s stand-in.

Plus the box office ($215 million worldwide on a budget of roughly $40 million), the Rotten Tomatoes split between critics and audiences, and a first look at Dan’s new studio setup.

If you’ve seen it, tell us where you land. Is it a classic or a beautiful, slow bore? Subscribe, leave a review, and send us a text message from the link at the top of the description. We want to hear from you!

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Message Dan and Mike

Halloween Fest rolls on, and this week we're taking on the zombie apocalypse with World War Z, the 2013 blockbuster starring Brad Pitt and directed by Marc Forster. After kicking things off with Curry Barker's Obsession, we're keeping the Halloween Fest tradition going with our yearly zombie pick, following Shaun of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead. We start by setting the record straight on the online reaction to our Obsession clip, then dive into a movie we both enjoyed far more than we expected.

World War Z has one of the messiest production stories we've ever covered. Damon Lindelof was brought in to rewrite the third act, a planned Russian finale was reworked, and Matthew Fox's role was cut down to almost nothing. We also get into the reported tension between Forster and Pitt, and the bidding war that landed the film at Plan B. We talk about how little of Max Brooks' novel, the oral history of the zombie wars, made it to the screen, and what we make of the fact that Brooks ended up enjoying the film anyway.

Then we get to the movie itself. We break down the nonstop action that kicks in just minutes after the opening, the practical stunts and car crashes, the contortionists behind the zombie movement, and that wall-climbing sequence in Jerusalem. We also talk about the Tenth Man doctrine, the camouflage idea that saves the day, and the creepy Peter Capaldi scene in the WHO lab. Watching it post-COVID, the pandemic parallels land very differently than they did in 2013.

We also dig into the surprisingly low IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes scores, how the film grossed over $500 million, the sequel news, the theatrical cut versus the unrated cut, and where Brad Pitt sits among the great movie stars. Plus, Dan's recommendation if you want another intense zombie ride: Train to Busan.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a rating and review wherever you listen, and catch the full video on our YouTube channel. There's plenty more Halloween Fest to come.

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