Monday, January 28, 2013

NaschyCast #35 - THE SNIPER (1978)



Once again we venture into the area of 1970s crime movies but this time out we find a very different kind of tale. Somber, melancholy and restrained THE SNIPER is the story of a man driven to do a terrible thing because he feels he has nothing to live for. Naschy plays the central role and puts his all into making Lucas the watchmaker sympathetic and sad. Does his loss make sense in a senseless world? Can he bring some balance to things by violent action?  Is he so hurt by life that he can never care about other people again? THE SNIPER asks a lot of questions about life, loss and grief but its up to the individual viewer to decide if the ultimate message is positive or negative. Needless to say we both thought the film was well worth seeing.

Changing things up a bit this time we thought it would be a good idea to not spoil the last act of this one so we end our discussion before events spiral out of control. This film is very difficult to find so we want to encourage Naschy fans to seek it out and NOT know the ending from us! We may do more of this in the future depending on what our loyal listeners think so be sure to let us know which way of conducting the show you prefer. We get into some odd areas as we go through things and since we didn't have any feedback for this episode we even talk about comic books for a few minutes- and then we get back on track! Forgive us fanboys our geeky digressions, please.

Drop us an email or send us an MP3 with your thoughts to naschycast@gmail.com to get in on the discussion and make us aware you're out there. We love hearing from you! Grab the show at the link below or pull it down from iTunes. Thanks for listening.




Wednesday, January 2, 2013

NaschyCast #34 - SCHOOL KILLER (2001)




The new NaschyCast is a little late but well worth the wait! We once again venture into the 21st century to check out a film in which Paul was merely an actor for hire in a Spanish movie. By this time in his career he was the Grand Old Man of Spanish horror but that didn't always garner him much respect in his home country. At least the producers of SCHOOL KILLER realized there was great potential in having an iconic horror star play the movie's boogeyman role. Whether that potential was tapped is a matter for much discussion. As usual the podcast veers all over the place as Troy and I run through this funhouse tale of mirrors. We look for Scooby Snacks, attempt to diagram timelines, admire a few interesting ideas and ask pertinent questions that the film may or may not have any desire to answer. Check it out to see what we get up to!

The mailbag section of this episode is very exciting because we have a voicemail from author Stephen Sullivan. He took it upon himself to record his comments as an MP3 and send it off to us. This allows us to almost engage in a dialog with him on NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF and the Daninsky films as well as a few other topics. As a fiction writer he has more than a few good insights into what can make these beloved pieces of Euro-horror work or not work. Good stuff! If anyone else wants to join the show in this way please feel free to send your MP3s to naschycast@gmail.com and we will gladly respond to your thoughts. You can also reach us over on the NaschyCast Facebook page where fans of the show occasionally post some fun Spanish Horror related things. The show can be downloaded from the link below or is available in iTunes. Enjoy and have a Happy New Year!