The Stuff (1985) | Larry Cohen

January 17, 2021Evil OozeAndrea Marcovicci, body snatcher, commercials, Danny Aiello, dessert, Garrett Morris, ice cream, Larry COhen, Michael Moriarty, parasite, Paul Sorvino, satire, Scott Bloom, spy, yogurtqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Larry Cohen concocts this comedic horror-thriller involving an ex-FBI agent turned industrial spy hired by a desperate ice cream industry, trying to steal the secret formula from a corporation pushing a newly marketed yogurt-like food substance called The Stuff. He discovers the substance, which is found bubbling up from seemingly unlimited deposits underground, is deadly and humanity hangs in the balance. The Stuff is a delicious, no-calorie dessert that is highly addictive to all who eat it. So addictive that all people want to do it continue eating it, while the living parasite inside controls their minds as it eats them from the inside until it reproduces and the human host expires. Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Scott Bloom, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Danny Aiello appear.

The Blob (1988) | Chuck Russell

January 8, 2021Evil Oozeacid, blob, chuck russell, Donovan Leitch, frank darabont, gore, government experiment, Kevin Dillon, monster, rebel, remake, Shawnee Smith, slime, small town, teensqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Blob suddenly appears after crashlanding in a rural area outside of the fictional ski resort town of Arborville, CA. It attaches itself to the hand of a vagrant, Star high school wide receiver Paul Taylor (Donovan Leitch) and his cheerleader crush Meg Penny (Shawnee Smith) are out on their first date when they come across the man, taking him to the hospital, along with the town’s juvenile delinquent, Brian Flagg (Kevin Dillon), who they think is responsible. They soon discover that the blob has eaten the man alive, and is growing larger. As it heads to town to feed the Blob is revealed to be a runaway bio-weapon experiment invented by the US military. Secret government operatives quarantine the town. They want the Blob back alive; the town’s residents are expendable. It’s up to the teens to save the day. Chuck Russell directs from a script written by Russell and Frank Darabont.

The Thing (1982) | John Carpenter

January 1, 2021Two Tickets to Parasitesalien, alien invasion, Antarctica, assimilation, body snatcher, dog, husky, John Carpenter, Keith David, Kurt Russell, paranoia, snow, Wilford Brimleyqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The story starts out in Antarctica, where a group of scientists is bunkered until one day they are disturbed by the sounds of gunshots coming from a Norwegian helicopter, apparently trying to kill a runaway dog. They miss their quarry, and the Norwegians end up getting offed, with no explanation as to what their problem is. Fearing more violence, the American crew travels to the Norwegian camp, only to find some very odd occurrences, including a mangled humanoid body that has normal internal organs. Then, the dog reveals that it is not really a dog, but some sort of alien organism with the power to mimic other life-forms and dominate until it takes over everything around it. The men of the camp are its next intended victims, and soon, no one can trust the others. Kurt Russell, Keith David, and Wilford Brimley appear. Directed by John Carpenter.

The Hidden (1987) | Jack Sholder

December 25, 2020Two Tickets to Parasitesalien, cop, FBI, hedonism, Jack Sholder, Kyle Maclachlan, Los Angeles, Michael Nouri, parasite, serial killerqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Michael Nouri stars as LAPD detective Tom Beck, who takes down a bank robber gone berserk in one of the bloodiest shootouts in department history. What Beck doesn’t know is that the culprit is actually being controlled by a parasite within his body that loves danger, money, speeding, and good ol’ rock-n-roll, and it can’t be killed by normal means, and moves from host to host whenever the body it is in is about to expire. Enter FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (Kyle MacLachlan), on assignment from Seattle to help apprehend the perpetrator(s) on a killing spree the likes of which have the LA cops stymied. Gallagher seems to hold the key as to why normally good people are going bad all of a sudden, but he’s not letting on why. Jack Sholder directs.

Night of the Creeps (1986) | Fred Dekker

December 18, 2020Two Tickets to Parasitescryogenics, detective, fraternity, Fred Dekker, Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, set in the 1950s, sorority, Steve Marshall, Tom Atkins, zombieqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Jason Lively and Steve Marshall are the primary stars as Chris and J.C., a couple of nerdy college freshmen fraternity pledges who must steal a corpse as part of their initiation. They accidentally end up releasing a small army of leeches, jettisoned from an alien spacecraft, dormant in the cryogenic cadaver they find in the university’s research facility. These leeches jump into the mouths of any humans they can and proceed to consume their minds, controlling their bodies like zombies with only one mission: to kill and infest the bodies of others they can find. Also starring is Tom Atkins as the town’s hard-nosed but slightly cracked disgruntled cop, Detective Ray Cameron, who has seen these events before, nearly three decades in the past, when his ex-girlfriend had been viciously murdered with an ax-wielding psycho. Fred Dekker writes and directs.

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)

December 11, 2020Nerd RevengeAndrew Cassese, Anthony Edwards, Barry Sobel, Bradley Whitford, convention, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Curtis Armstrong, Donald Gibb, Ed Lauter, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, fraternity, hotel, James Hong, Joe Roth, Larry B. Scott, nerd, Robert Carradine, Timothy Busfieldqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Revenge of the Nerds II begins with the nerds who formed Lambda Lambda Lambda at Adams College, leaders from an inclusive fraternity that overcame prejudice to become heroes, as witnessed in the first film. Now they must take their mission national at the United Fraternity Conference in Fort Lauderdale. There, they hope to increase the bonds of brotherhood, set new and less discriminatory guidelines, and to get laid. Once in Florida, however, they find that the Alpha Betas have once again taken their rooms. No other hotels in town will take “nerds” except for the dumpiest. Try as the nerds might to bring unity to all fraternal brothers, the Alpha Betas determine to shut them out through conniving acts that result in shutting out the Tri-Lambs for good. It’s up to the nerds to get revenge yet again. Directed by Joe Roth.

Revenge of the Nerds (1984) | Jeff Kanew

December 4, 2020Nerd RevengeAndrew Cassese, Anthony Edwards, Bernie Casey, Brian Tochi, college, Curtis Armstrong, David Wohl, Donald Gibb, fraternity, James Cromwell, Jeff Buhai, Jeff Kanew, John Goodman, Julia Montgomery, Larry B. Scott, Matt Salinger, Michelle Meyrink, Miguel Tejada-Flores, nerd, revenge, Robert Carradine, sorority, Steve Zacharias, Ted McGinley, Tim Metcalfe, Timothy Busfield, Tucsonqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Best friends Louis (Robert Carradine and Gilbert (Anthony Edwards) head off to Adams College together only to find that the jocks that belong to the fraternity called Alpha Beta have taken over the dorms after they burn down their own frat house. In order to stop having to live in the gym, the former dorm residents must try to get into a fraternity or sorority of their own, but Lewis and Gilbert, along with several other misfits, are all shunned away — because they are nerds. Since no one will take them, they decide to start their own fraternity. However, this still makes them the target for many pranks initiated by the Alphas, and now the nerds are pissed — they vow revenge! Directed by Jeff Kanew.

Real Genius (1985) | Martha Coolidge

November 27, 2020Nerd Revengeassassination, college, experiment, Gabe Jarret, genius, Jon Gries, laser, Martha Coolidge, Michelle Meyrink, prodigy, professor, Robert Prescott, school, Val Kilmer, weapon, William Athertonqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Real Genius centers on several students at Pac Tech, an institution esteemed for its technological breakthroughs. They’re currently working on a project to build a high-powered laser. The project is led by an egotistical professor and TV science show host named Jerry Hathaway (William Atherton), who has been employed by a clandestine group within the Pentagon for Operation Crossbow, whereby the military will use the laser to vaporize targets from space with sniper-like precision.

Enter 15-year-old genius Mitch Taylor (Gabe Jarrett), recruited by Hathaway to start college early at Pacific Tech. He rooms with the school’s prior hot prodigy, a rebellious and smart-alecky senior named Chris Knight (Val Kilmer), who has decided there’s more value in being a slacker than to continue showing everyone he’s the smartest person on campus. Knight’s shenanigans have Hathaway, who must produce the results in an accelerated four months instead of the originally intended eighteen, threatening to kick him out of school if he doesn’t assist in completing the laser in the allotted time. Martha Coolidge directs.

Weird Science (1985) | John Hughes

November 20, 2020Computer LoveAnthony Michael Hall, Bill Paxton, bully, computer, geek, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, John Hughes, Judie Aronson, Kelly LeBrock, nerd, perfect woman, Robert Downey Jr.qwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) are a pair of best friend suburban Chicago high school geeks tired of being everyone else’s doormat and wanting to have girlfriends of their own. When the traditional methods prove to be of no avail, the duo decides to use Wyatt’s computer skills to work by creating a virtual girlfriend for them to ask questions to. However, their digital concoction actually comes to life in the form of a smart, gorgeous, and magically gifted woman they name “Lisa” (Kelly LeBrock), who makes it her mission to transform these dweebs to be the kind of men that other boys want to be and other girls want to be with. Written and directed by John Hughes

Electric Dreams (1984) | Steve Barron

November 13, 2020Computer Lovearchitect, artificial intelligence, Boy George, Bud Cort, cello, classical music, computer, Culture Club, ELO, Georgio Moroder, Jeff Lynne, Lenny von Dohlen, Philip Oakey, Richard Branson, Rusty Lemorande, Steve Barron, Virginia Madsenqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A San Francisco-based architect named Miles Harding buys a new computer to help him stay organized and on schedule, as well as to assist in the design of a brick that will hold a building together through an earthquake. Realizing that it has the potential to streamline everything in his life, Miles uses it to control everything in his apartment, providing a security system, making his coffee, and turning on and off his lights. Miles wants to give it more power, tapping it into a major information source to download as much as it can take. Unfortunately, when the computer overheats, Miles pours champagne into the computer’s circuits, causing it to malfunction in a strange way. It begins to think on its own, without directive – a self-aware being that shows an interest in music, humanity, and what it is like to feel love.

Miles’s new upstairs neighbor is a beautiful concert cellist named Madeline Robistat. One day while practicing a concert piece on the cello, Madeline hears music from downstairs accompanying her. Madeline assumes this musician must be Miles, making her want to get to know him better. Miles also develops a crush on Madeline, but he’s so romantically inexperienced, he turns to his sentient computer to help out. However, the computer learns about love and then also begins to fall for her. This kicks off a battle of wills, as the device meant to organize Miles’s life is set to destroy it for getting in the way of its desire to achieve love.

Starring Lenny von Dohlen and Virginia Madsen. Directed by Steve Barron.

Demon Seed (1977) | Donald Cammell

November 6, 2020Computer Loveartificial intelligence, computer, Donald Cammell, Fritz Weaver, home security, impregnation, internet, Julie Christie, network, rape, smart homeqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Demon Seed‘s story is set 20 years in the future, Proteus IV is a new, highly advanced computer that scientists at the ICON Institute (International Control Corporation) spent eight years constructing as a massively powerful synthetic version of the organic human brain, hoping to use it for the financial success of the conglomerate funding the project. Proteus is capable of absorbing all human knowledge, though without an understanding of our psychological, sociological, moral, or ethical motivations. Its creator, Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver), is beyond pleased when Proteus finds a cure for leukemia within hours of his “birth.”. He’s later alarmed when Proteus begins to question human motivations toward exploiting natural resources and wants to further study humankind independently through gaining access to additional terminal outlets.

Harris refuses and tries to shut down all avenues for his powerful computer system to grow, except one – the one controlling his fully automated home. Proteus finds a way to take over the test model Environmod, Harris’s voice-activated household computer system which handles home security (including a closed-circuit TV system), housekeeping, food supply and preparation, lights, heat, chores, and a robotic wheelchair unit with a mechanical arm. Alex’s recently separated psychologist wife Susan (Julie Christie) is in the house during the takeover and grows unnerved at the personality changes in the AI system. Proteus then imprisons Susan within the home and begins attempting to gain more knowledge of humanity by having a child with her to continue its work beyond the day the scientists inevitably unplug it.

Directed by Donald Cammell.

Saturn 3 (1980) | Stanley Donen

October 30, 2020Beyond Earthartificial intelligence, Farrah Fawcett, food, future, Harvey Keitel, John Barry, Kirk Douglas, love triangle, Martin Amis, moon, psychopath, robot, Saturn, Stanley Donenqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

In the future, Earth is a polluted wasteland. People have resorted to drugs and promiscuity while relying on off-world food production systems for salvation. Research chemists Major Adam (Kirk Douglas), his young assistant/lover Alex (Farrah Fawcett), and their dog Sally are the sole residents of the subterranean Experimental Food Research Station on Saturn’s third moon, Titan. Unable to maintain quota for the last three years, Earth decides to dispatch another scientist to help them meet Earth’s food needs.

That scientist is a mentally unstable opportunist, Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel), a flunky from astronaut school who usurped the pilot position after killing the intended dispatch, Captain James. While Saturn 3 goes into a 22-day blackout period in the eclipse, Capt. Benson’s puts together the first of a new line of “demigod series” helper robots, Hector. Hector’s memory utilizes unprogrammed human brain tissue and receives its programming via a connection to an electric probe in Benson’s head. Unfortunately, Hector also assumes the same traits of Benson, a flawed, murderous, lustful individual who secretly desires to take over the lab and use Alex for his pleasure. Hector has no such secret, proceeding to terrorize all three of the humans in his quest for dominance.

Stanley Donen directs from a Martin Amis script, based on a story by John Barry.

Outland (1981) | Peter Hyams

October 22, 2020Beyond Earthcop, drugs, Frances Sternhagen, Io, Jupiter, lone wolf, mining, moon, Peter Boyle, Peter Hyams, planet, Sean Connery, spaceqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sometime in the future, humans establish a mining operation on Io, a volcanic moon orbiting Jupiter, a week’s distance from the nearest space station. The mining base is currently shattering records for productivity. Sean Connery is William T. O’Niel (Sean Connery), in his second week of a one-year stint as the federal district marshal of this isolated space community. “Work hard, play hard” is the motto of the mining operation’s general manager, Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle), who touts production numbers as proof his philosophy works. The marshal is alarmed by the increasing rash of suicides and violent outbursts among the miners. No autopsies are ordered and the bodies are loaded on departing shuttles, disposed of through a ‘burial in space’.

The marshal’s wife (Kika Markham) says she’ll leave him if he continues his new assignment, so that their young son, who has been shuttled around in space all of his life, can experience a normal life on Earth. No one else, not even his deputies, wants to rock the boat to get to the reason there are so many suicides. By monitoring Sheppard’s goons, the marshal discovers that the company is selling the workers an amphetamine-like synthetic narcotic that produces hyperactivity. This exponentially increases their productivity, each of them averaging the sum of doing fourteen hours’ worth of work during a six-hour shift. This is great for their bonuses, but the drug carries a nasty side effect for some of them, bouts of severe psychosis after nearly a year of taking the drug. When the marshal decides this can’t continue, the company will do anything to assure he’s out of the way so their gravy train keeps rolling along. Peter Hyams directs from his screenplay.

Total Recall (1990) | Paul Verhoeven

October 16, 2020Beyond EarthArnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Beresford, Dan O'Bannon, David Cronenberg, Dino de Laurentiiis, Gary Goldman, Mars, memory, Michael Ironside, Paul Verhoeven, Rachel Ticotin, Ronald Shusett, Ronny Cox, Sharon Stoneqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Set on Earth of the future, where we’ve already mastered the ability for space travel to through the solar system, and even set up colonies on Mars, Total Recall surrounds a lowly construction worker named Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who has recently been plagued by a recurring dream of being on Mars. His doting wife (Sharon Stone) tells Doug it’s just a dream, but there’s something in the events of the dreams that makes him curious to find out more about the red planet. Seeing an advertisement for a company called Rekall, an establishment that will implant the memory of vacation into the mind in vivid and perfect detail, Doug decides to choose the “secret agent” package set on Mars.

No sooner than the implanted thoughts enter his head, Doug finds himself in what he perceives to be a real-life espionage drama involving himself and his role in a Martian underground society of spies, all seeking to end the stranglehold of a megalomaniac corporate businessman named Cohaagen (Ronny Cox). Fighting for his life, Doug makes his way to Mars to try to uncover the secret to who he really is, but not everything is what it seems to be, both on Mars and in his mind.

Paul Verhoeven directs.

They Live (1988) | John Carpenter

October 9, 2020Insidious Extraterrestrialsalien, class, ghoul, homeless, John Carpenter, Keith David, Los Angeles, Meg Foster, poverty, Reagan, Roddy Piper, subliminal messages, sunglasses, trickle downqwipster

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

This sci-fi actioner stars “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (yes, the ex-pro wrestler) as Nada, a drifter desperately in need of a decent job. He lands a temp job at a construction site, but strange doings in the church across the street cause him to investigate, and after the place is raided he discovers what looks like ordinary sunglasses have special lenses to be able to see the world for what it really is. Unfortunately, the world just so happens to be inhabited by an alien race who have taken over the Earth and forced humans into submission through subliminal messages while they are slowly turning it into a place of their own. When Piper starts fighting back, he gets himself into a whole world of trouble. With no one believing him and everyone after him, it looks like it’s up to one man to try to take down a world of powerful aliens singlehandedly. Keith David and Meg Foster co-star. John Carpenter writes and directs.

Around the World in 80s Movies Podcast

A concise podcast reviewing the films released in the 1980s, with history, trivia, fun facts, and film critic Vince Leo's personal recollection with the era that defined a generation's taste in movies.

The Stuff (1985) | Larry Cohen

The Blob (1988) | Chuck Russell

The Thing (1982) | John Carpenter

The Hidden (1987) | Jack Sholder

Night of the Creeps (1986) | Fred Dekker

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)

Revenge of the Nerds (1984) | Jeff Kanew

Real Genius (1985) | Martha Coolidge

Weird Science (1985) | John Hughes

Electric Dreams (1984) | Steve Barron

Demon Seed (1977) | Donald Cammell

Saturn 3 (1980) | Stanley Donen

Outland (1981) | Peter Hyams

Total Recall (1990) | Paul Verhoeven

They Live (1988) | John Carpenter