Cinema Shock

DESPERATE LIVING (1977) | John Waters, Part 4

After FEMALE TROUBLE, Divine — John Waters' muse — found his off-screen career beginning to flourish. When it was time for Waters to make his follow up to that film, that meant that Divine was unavailable, due to prior commitments. So for the first time in his career, Waters set out to make a film without his regular leading lady in the lead role.
The resulting film, DESPERATE LIVING, is Waters' most ambitious from this time period and is considered the final act in his so called Trash Trilogy. Unfortunately, possibly due to its lack of Divine, the film doesn't seem to garner the same amount of love as many of Waters' other early films, and was a box office disappointment, even by underground movie standards.
In this episode, we'll discuss in detail how DESPERATE LIVING came to be, the (many) trials and tribulations that its cast and crew endured during film, how cult icon Liz Renay became involved, and what critics and audiences of the time thought of it. Plus, we'll discuss our own thoughts on the film, its legacy, and its relation to Waters' career as we continue our deep dive into Waters' early films.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net
 

FEMALE TROUBLE (1974) | John Waters, Part 3

"Without all of you, my career could never have gotten this far. Ha ha ha ha ha! It was you that I burn for, and it is you that I will die for. Please remember, I love every fucking one of you!"
After PINK FLAMINGOS' runaway success on the Midnight Movie circuit, it was time for John Waters to create his follow-up. He reconvened with his regular crew of Dreamlanders and created FEMALE TROUBLE, a trash epic that portrays the life and times of Dawn Davenport (played by Divine in a quintessential performance), tracking her progression from teenage brat to juvenile delinquency and, ultimately, mass murder.
In this episode, we tell the full story of how FEMALE TROUBLE came to be, from its inception, all the way through its tumultuous filming, release, and all of the controversy that came along with it.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net
 

PINK FLAMINGOS (1972) | John Waters, Part 2

"The filthiest people alive? Well, you think you know someone filthier? Watch as Divine proves that not only is she the filthiest person in the world, she's also the filthiest actress in the world! What you are about to see is THE REAL THING!"
While John Waters MULTIPLE MANIACS was mildly successful during its small theatrical run, it was with his next collaboration with Divine that the duo would forever become a part of the pop culture fabric.
That film was PINK FLAMINGOS, which almost inexplicably became a phenomenon when it was released as a midnight movie in New York's Elgin Theater in 1974. It would go on to become one of the most successful independent films of its time, and was a key piece of the Midnight Movie phenomenon of the mid-to-late 1970s.
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the production of this cult classic film, tracing it from conception through release, while discussing its legacy nearly a half century after it debuted.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

MULTIPLE MANIACS (1970) | John Waters, Part 1

"One must remember that there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste." — John Waters
In our new series, John Waters: Divine Filth, we'll be exploring the stories behind Waters' early films, specifically the films made during the years when he collaborated with his muse, the legendary drag performer Divine.
During the nearly two decades that they made films together, Waters' films moved from the fringes, with underground short films like HAG IN A BLACK LEATHER JACKET and EAT YOUR MAKEUP, to the multiplexes, with their mainstream breakthrough HAIRSPRAY.
In this episode, we'll tell the story of Waters' early years growing up in Baltimore, how he began making films with likeminded misfits (his regular troupe of cast and crew, The Dreamlanders), and through the production of his first narrative feature of note, MULTIPLE MANIACS.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

THE STEPFATHER (1987)

Spin the wheel, pick a movie, it's time for another Cinema Shock Roulette episode! This time, the randomly-chosen film is a 1987 thriller starring a pre-stardom Terry O'Quinn and directed by genre workman Joseph Ruben: THE STEPFATHER!
In this episode, we'll not only trace the production of the film itself, but we'll also recount the story of the real life crimes that inspired it, in addition to exploring its legacy as a Reagan-era social satire.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy | SPIDER-MAN 3 (2007)

In the fourth and final episode of our series covering Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, we'll be discussing the much-maligned third film in the series.
In this episode, we'll trace the development and creation of SPIDER-MAN 3, discuss how Thomas Hayden Church got involved, why Venom is even in it, and of course, the Avi Arad of it all.
While we try to investigate just what went wrong with the conclusion to Raimi's trilogy, we'll also discuss its legacy and try to answer the question: Is it as bad as we remember?
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy | SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004)

Following the unparalelled success of Sam Raimi’s first SPIDER-MAN film, Sony was naturally very keen to get to work immediately on a sequel.
With a returning cast and crew, Raimi set about on creating a film that would come to be known as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. In this episode, we’ll deep dive into the development and production of SPIDER-MAN 2.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy | SPIDER-MAN (2002)

After a long, long road, the rights to the Spider-Man character finally landed with Sony/Columbia and before long, director Sam Raimi was attached to direct.
In this episode, we'll take a deep dive into the creation of Raimi's first SPIDER-MAN film, from the early days of its conception, through multiple screenplays (and screenwriters), the casting of Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the film's lead roles, all the way through filming and release. We'll also dig into the film's legacy and how it led the way for the current comic book movie boom, in Part 2 of our look at Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN Trilogy.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.

Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy | The Road to Spider-Man

When we covered Sam Raimi's spook-a-blast cinema a few months ago in our series Sam Raimi: The Entertainer, we made a promise to our listeners that we'd soon be covering the director's SPIDER-MAN films as well. And folks, say what you will about the Cinema Shock crew, but we keep our promises!
We're kicking this series off with something a little different. During the course of our research, we realized that the road that led to Raimi's first SPIDER-MAN film was a long one, fraught with starts and stops over the course of several decades, with several prominent directors being attached to adaptations of the character over the years.
And we figured, this was far too much information to cram into an episode about the production of SPIDER-MAN (2002), and it was all far too interesting to skip over and, besides, one can see the fingerprints of some of these other attempted SPIDER-MAN films in the final product.
So join us on The Road To Spider-Man as we trace the history of the webslinger's journey to the big screen in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy, Part 1!
Show Notes:
📺Watch: Supaidāman on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLkrfQ-ub5c8J1Zqh8dZ_ZDOXDQ8ejWQr
📖Read: Ted Newson & John Brancato's SPIDER-MAN Script: https://www.youscribe.com/BookReader/Index/2388129/?documentId=2365547
📖Read: James Cameron's SPIDER-MAN Scriptment: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/spider-man-scriptment.html
 
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.
 

THE NICE GUYS (2016)

It's time for another Cinema Shock Roulette episode! In these episodes, an episode from our source list is chosen at random, only this time fate has chosen a film that ties into a past Cinema Shock series!
Back at the end of 2021, we released a four-part series called Black Christmas, in which we discussed the Christmas-set films of writer/director Shane Black. One film we didn't discuss during that episode is Black's 2016 film THE NICE GUYS.
Well, now it's time to do just that. In this episode, we'll trace the production of THE NICE GUYS from conception to release, and discuss the film's legacy as a part of Black's filmography.
Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.
This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.