Midnight Murderama
Welcome to the eighth circle of podcast hell. This is Midnight Murderama, the weekly podcast where I, Jamie, resident undead expert, and my two friends, JT and Russell, take a deep, lonely dive into the dark recesses of Hollywood.
Join us as we meticulously research, argue over, and finally rate and review the most horrific and terrifying films ever made — with the ultimate goal to hilariously examine exactly what it is about ourselves that makes us love the horror movies that define us, and to determine which of these legendaries films deserve a place in the pantheon of horror, blasted onto the twisted face of Mount Murdermore.
Hosts
Episode 37 / Mar 2nd 2021
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
“We’ve got the podcast, and you’ve got the ears.” This week our hosts continue digging into the slasher genre with 1985’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, the black sheep of the Nightmare franchise. Originally dismissed for not following the format established by fan-favorite part 3, it has since been looked at with …
Episode 36 / Feb 23rd 2021
It Follows
As they continue digging into the slasher genre, our hosts examine the 2014 film It Follows, a post-slasher film that lives firmly in the world of (80’s? 90’s? 00’s?) slasher movies, but just never really gets around to the slashing. So, is It Follows a condemnation of teenage sex? A rumination on getting older? Or …
Episode 35 / Feb 16th 2021
The Purge: Election Year
“This is your Emergency Broadcast System announcing the commencement of the annual Purge.” This week our hosts watch The Purge: Election Year, the film that imagines a world where the U.S. politicians are lying to the public in order to screw over the poor. Could you even imagine such a thing?? The Purge series has …
Episode 34 / Feb 9th 2021
Scream
Do you like scary movies? No examination of the slasher genre would be complete without talking about Scream, a film that made horror “cool” again in the 1990s. Scream defined its own subgenre full of big named stars and snappy, self-aware dialog, and finally established a world in which the protagonists had watched a horror …
Episode 33 / Feb 2nd 2021
Predator
GET TO THE PODCAST! This week our hosts watch Predator, the movie that sees how many muscular guys you can cram into a jungle before something explodes. It also does a great job of using the traditional slasher framework that had been growing in the 80s, but instead of having a superhuman killer descend on …
Episode 32 / Jan 26th 2021
Sleepaway Camp
This week our hosts continue to explore the slasher genre by looking at some of the outliers that slipped out of the slasher boom of the 80s. In this case it’s Sleepaway Camp (1983), the film that starts as a derivative camp slasher but has an unforgettable ending. What does this film tell us about …
Episode 31 / Jan 19th 2021
Halloween
You can’t kill the boogeyman, but you can sure as hell poke him in the eye with a coat hanger! This week our hosts brave the suburbs to watch Halloween, the quintessential slasher movie from 1978 that spawned both a franchise and a genre. Not to mention it launched the careers of John Carpenter and …
Episode 30 / Jan 12th 2021
Psycho
“We all go a little mad sometimes.” This week our hosts watch Psycho, the movie that established horror movies didn’t just have to feature Universal Monsters, and ushered in the era of the slasher film. Does it live up to the hype? Will our hosts overcome the shock of seeing a toilet flush on screen? …
Episode 29 / Jan 5th 2021
The Faculty
This week our hosts watch The Faculty, where they ask: “What if The Breakfast Club fought The Thing?” The answer is a strange blend of pro-drug, pro-conformity, Kevin Williamson-penned slice of 90s. But is this film actually a little more subversive? Check out the full episode details
Episode 28.5 / Jan 3rd 2021
Bonus Commentary - La Llorona (2019)
Saturday Night Commentary Series: As 2020 thankfully comes to a close, our hosts take some time to revisit one of the better regarded films to hit the US last year: La Llorona. This Guatemalan ghost story tells the story of a house-bound dictator whose new housekeeper seems to be more than she’s letting on. This …
Episode 28 / Dec 29th 2020
2020 Murderama Awards
This week our hosts take some time to reflect on the movies reviewed in 2020. After asking the community to contribute their own rankings, they’ve crunched the numbers and created a definitive ranking of the movies they watched this year. Who was voted best final girl? Who was crowned best director? What songs did JT …
Episode 27 / Dec 22nd 2020
Mandy
This week our hosts watched Mandy, the hyper-stylized revenge flick from Panos Cosmatos, or: “The film where Nicolas Cage transforms into Nicolas Cage.” But is the inventive cinematography and over-the-top violence enough to make up for a by-the-numbers premise? Listen and find out! Also discussed in this week’s episode: Ghosts of War (2020) “A New …
Episode 26 / Dec 15th 2020
Tremors
“I felt the earth move under my feet, I felt Bacon tumbling down!” This week our hosts watch Tremors. If Jaws made you afraid to go in the water, Tremors will make you afraid to even step outside. Is this the perfect creature B-movie? At the very least, it’s a wonderful swan song to the …
Episode 25 / Dec 8th 2020
High Tension
Sacré bleu! This week our hosts venture to land of love, art, cigarettes, baguettes and… problematic plots twists! They watched the French film High Tension (Haute Tension), the 2003 debut of director Alexandre Aja. They discuss the early-2000’s French Extreme film movement, of which High Tension helped define. The big questions with this film: can …
Episode 24 / Dec 1st 2020
Deep Red
This week our hosts watch Deep Red and venture into the blood-soaked genre of “giallo”, Italy’s answer to the question: “What would happen if you took a murder mystery but made it make 20% less sense and 50% more bloody?”. And of course we all know what would happen: you’d get Dario Argento‘s fantastic 1975 …
Episode 23 / Nov 24th 2020
Jaws
“Jokes go on the podcast, you get the podcast. Podcast’s on your headphones. Our podcast.” This week our hosts watched the iconic Jaws, the first blockbuster and perhaps the most mainstream horror movie of all time. After over forty years, does it still hold up? Sure, your parents claim there can’t be sharks in the …
Episode 22 / Nov 17th 2020
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
Did you ever wonder what Jason does in his spare time? Ever consider if Freddy and Michael Meyers hang out when not murdering teens? All this and more is answered as our hosts watch Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, the 2006 film that tries to say what happens when you mix slasher …
Episode 21 / Nov 10th 2020
Hellraiser
We have such sounds to show you! This week our hosts watched Hellraiser (1987), Clive Barker‘s horror classic that spawned some… less than classic sequels. All these years later, how does a low-budget British horror movie hold up that subsequently had all the British accents dubbed over with American voice-over? Spoiler alert: better than you’d …
Episode 20 / Nov 3rd 2020
The Babadook
BA-BA-DOOK! This episode features the 2014 Australian film The Babadook. Is this a supernatural haunting, or one woman’s struggle processing grief? Does it matter which? Does it have to be one or the other? Check out the full episode details
Episode 19.5 / Oct 31st 2020
Bonus Commentary - Night of the Demons (1988)
Saturday Night Commentary Series: During the month of October we’re going to be adding some bonus content in the form of some movie commentaries. This week we’re watching the 80’s Halloween classic: Night of the Demons. Start the commentary track at the same time you start the movie! Our commentary goes a little longer than …