EP#302 Halloween Special

In our continuing series of under-seen or overlooked genre films, the next two episodes will be looking at the 2022 social media slasher “#ChadGetsTheAxe”.

Written by Travis Bible and Kemerton Hargrove and directed by Bible, #ChadGetsTheAxe is a razor-sharp, edge of your seat slasher that not only avoids the pratfalls of the overdone “influencer horror” sub-sub-genre but actually has a fresh perspective on those tropes while always remembering to honour the horror genre first with carefully constructed scares.

It’s a funny, surprising, biting movie that you might have missed.

In this episode we will be sitting down with one of the films stars. Next episode we are joined by the films director, Travis Bible.

In #ChadGetsTheAxe, he plays Spicy Steve, one of a group of 4 social media influencers that livestream their trip to the aptly titled “Devil’s Manor” and run afoul of a satanic cult. He can also be seen in the new horror film “Followers” which drops today, March 12th exclusively on Screambox.

Welcome Michael Bonini!

Michael has an impressive list of credits for a young actor. One might also notice the eclectic variety of genres and characters types that Michael has taken on. He’s a jack of all trades actor who brings something fresh and unexpected to whoever he’s playing. From network TV favourites like “The Blacklist” and “New Amsterdam”, the Netflix hit “The Night Agent” to beloved King of the B’s Charles Band’s “Bad CGI Gator”, Michael is always a welcome presence in whatever he’s in.

We sat down to talk about the pitch-black and meaty role he played in another under-seen thriller “Hurricane Aaron”, how “#ChadGetsTheAxe” found the right balance of social media commentary and suspense, what keeps his character Steve from being just another influencer dickhead and how you prepare as an actor for battling a floating CGI alligator for Charles Band.

Remember to like, comment and subscribe and lets try and survive our stay at Devil’s Manor with Michael Bonini!

This episode is a continuation of our last episode with actor Devon Sawa as we continue to discuss overlooked or under-seen genre films. As a quick recap, Devon is one of the stars of the 2020 hinterland horror “Hunter Hunter”. When the film came out the pandemic cost it the opportunity to play festivals or have a premiere and sadly, the movie didn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. It’s a smart, taught, shocking film and one hopes in time more people will discover it.

In this episode we are joined by the films writer and director, Shawn Linden.

Shawn and I discuss the major influence of dark 80’s fantasy classics such as "The Secret of NIMH" and "The Dark Crystal", the many hurdles he faced getting “Hunter Hunter” into production, how killing characters the audience expects to see save the day is effectively destabilizing and oddly not done enough and why audiences are far more comfortable seeing humans get killed on screen than non-human animals.

Let’s explore the savage and stark world of “Hunter Hunter” with filmmaker Shawn Linden!

The holidays have come and gone and it’s a new year and we’re back at it, bringing you intimate one on one sit downs with the most exciting voices in horror.

2023 was a fantastic year for horror and 2024 doesn’t look to be slowing down so though the New Year is often a time for looking forward at what’s to come, it’s also a time for reflection. This season we will be spotlighting some of the genres great entires that you may have missed or that for a number of reasons (a global pandemic for example) didn’t get attention they so deserved.

The first film we’re going to delve into is the gripping and gutting 2020 film “Hunter Hunter” by filmmaker Shawn Linden.

“Hunter Hunter”, a raw and unforgiving survival story about a family living isolated in the wilderness, who begin to think they are being stalked by a rogue wolf but soon come to find it’s something far more terrifying, is a stark and nuanced genre film. Sadly, the pandemic robbed it of the ability to have a film festival run  (so important for indie films) and when the film was released in 2020, despite plenty of strong reviews from the critics, it came and went with not nearly enough notice.

I think it’s one of the best genre films of the last decade and deserved much much better.

With a stellar cast and taught lean direction, the film is equal parts terrifying survival story and intimate character work.

In this episode, I am joined by one of the stars of the film and one of the genres most beloved leading men. In our next episode, we will be talking with the films director, Shawn Linden.

Our guest today has been acting since he was a child and over the years, has become a horror household name having starred in films such as “Idle Hands”, “Final Destination”, “Black Friday” and the series starring everyones favourite Good Guy “Chucky”.

When I started this show I had a list of people I knew I wanted to talk to. People that have made major contributions to the genre. We’ve been fortunate enough to get to speak with most of those people but this actor was always right at the top of the list.

In today’s episode, we are joined by Devon Sawa.

Now most listeners of the show will be aware that our guests are generally joining us remotely but I had the great pleasure to sit down with Devon in person. We first me while he was attending the awesome horror convention “Frightmare in the Falls” in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada and at a later date we recorded our talk in a restaurant so you will hear a bit more background than usual.

Devon is a lovely guy. Warm and open and generous with his stories and insights.

We discussed the ups and downs of a being a teen heartthrob, why he veered away from genre films for a while, how starring in Eminem’s iconic music video “Stan” helped redefine him as an actor and why a show about a murderous doll is so important.

So lets get ready to sit down with the man who had the best battle with his own possessed hand since Bruce Campbell, thwarted deaths plan and been killed by Chucky more then anybody… welcome horror’s leading man, Devon Sawa!

Happy holidays from all of us here at SYG! 

The winter solstice is upon and it’s one of the darkest times of the year. So as you're enjoying the lights on your Christmas tree and lighting your Christmas candles, just remember that though the holidays are a time for joy and cheer, it has a much darker history than that. This, our annual Christmas special, will be our final episode for the holidays but we’ll be back in a few weeks with more discussions with some of the luminaries of darkness.

Everyone has their favorite Christmas movie classics but perhaps the gold standard is Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Featuring Jimmy Stewart learning that every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings, it was only a matter of time before some master of the macabre took a stab at the setup for a horror film.

And boy are we lucky that that particular filmmaker happened to by our guest today, Tyler MacIntyre with his new film “It’s a Wonderful Knife”.

If you don’t love the title already you deserve to be boiled in your own Christmas pudding.

With a genre cast to die for, a razor-sharp script by Michael Kennedy (who wrote the genre hit “Freaky”) and a Christmas killer sure to join the ranks of the great Christmas slashers, “It’s a Wonderful Knife” has all the ingredients to become a Christmas horror fans tradition.

Tyler and I sat down to discuss the importance of inclusivity in modern horror, some tips of the trade for pursuing a career in filmmaking that are sure to be of great help for our aspiring filmmaker listeners, what he took from Hallmark when creating his own Christmas tale and how the film nods to “It’s a Wonderful Life” in some very sly ways. We also discuss the creation of Justin Long’s insane and wonderfully bizarre villain.

“It’s a Wonderful Knife” is available on Shudder, AMC+ and anywhere you rent your movies.

Okay, let’s sharpen our candy canes and get our wings with Tyler MacIntyre!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Santa is checking lists twice and all us horror fans are revisiting our favorite Christmas horror films. Black Christmas, Silent Night Deadly Night, Christmas Evil, Gremlins, Rare Exports, Krampus… the list goes on and on. Here at Spill Your Guts, our Christmas gift to you is two back to back episodes with the filmmakers of what are sure to become new Christmas horror classics. 

In this episode, we are sitting down with director Jenn Wexler to talk about her new film “The Sacrifice Game”.

Set in the 70’s, the film is a love letter to not just classic Christmas horror but an atmospheric home invasion story with wicked supernatural flares. It’s also a thoughtful and sensitive look at finding friendship and connection.

Jenn and I sat down to talk about her inspirations, how she fell in love with the Christmas horror genre, the undying influence of Buffy Summers and why this movie had to be set on Christmas and in the 70’s.

“The Sacrifice Game” is available now on Shudder.

So, pour yourself some Eggnog and sit down by the Christmas tree and let’s explore some festive madness with director Jenn Wexler!

Our guest today has one of the most diverse bodies of work of any director we’ve had on the show. He has worked in multiple genres throughout his decades long career and proven himself to be a filmmaker who kills in any genre space he works in.

Having come up in the business along industry friends such as Martin Scorsese and Sydney Pollack, he is part of cinema history as one of the filmmakers creating distinct and memorable work with a style that is unquestionably his own.

However, it is a film regarded as one of the best adaptations of Stephen King’s most beloved books that has made him an icon of horror

In this episode we will be joined by filmmaker Lewis Teague.

Often regarded by his peers and fans alike as “underrated”, Lewis first made a name for himself in the genre with the cult classic “Alligator”.  Better than anyone thought an Alligator living in the sewer’s movie had any right to be, and featuring a bravura performance by lead actor Robert Forster, “Alligator” has gone on to become a favorite of horror fans.

Lewis’ 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s “Cujo” is considered by many, including King himself, as one of the ultimate King adaptations. With unbearably taught direction, nerve frying cinematography by legendary cinematographer Jan De Bont and a career best performance by genre royalty Dee Wallace, “Cujo” remains untouched in the canon of Stephen King movies.

With a great dry sense of humour and uncanny style for storytelling, Lewis shared with me his youth as a bit of a trouble maker before winding up in the military, finding his way in the hay-day of Hollywood auteurs, his ups and downs in show business and his enjoyment in teaching in his later life.

So, let’s strap into a Ford Pinto and prepare to have our adrenal glands blown with Lewis Teague!

Now you may or may not be listening to this on October 31st… this may be part of your long queue of spooky Halloween listening or maybe it’s November 2nd and you’ve just recovered from your Halloween bash but whatever the case may be, HAPPY HAPPY HALLOWEEN ghouls and ghosts!

Our episode today is a something very different from our regularly scheduled programming. We will NOT be sitting down with a director or actor of one of your favorite films but instead, we’re doing the thing that Halloween lends itself to best. We will be in the company of two master horror story tellers to have our spines tingled and our gooses bumped.

Our next episode will feature one of horror heaviest hitting directors and we have a big one coming up near the end of November that has been months in the making.

Now, light some candles and make sure your phone has reception (I miss the days where the killer could just cut the phone line) and let’s get ready to be terrified! 

Welcome to the season 3 premiere of Spill Your Guts! I’m your host, Kevin Lane.

We’ve be on hiatus for a couple months while I was attending film festivals near and far and sitting down with some of the genres best to share with all of you in this new season. And if I may so myself, it’s sure to be some of our best episodes yet. Some upcoming things to look out for our episodes on the great Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal where we watched some terrifying and crazy new movies and had the opportunity to sit down with the filmmakers and do the SYG thing. We also have a special episode coming up on filmmaker and Stop Motion animation legend David Allen who’s Magnum opus “The Primevals” is finally completed and seeing the light of day after 30 years. It’s an amazing story about one of the genres great unsung heroes.

I should also point out some changes you will notice about the show. We will now be dropping new episodes every other week as opposed to weekly to allow ourselves a little more time to produce each episode. The seasons will be a little longer to make up for it though so you’ll still get just as much SYG. Also, we will be dropping more bonus episode and surprise guests.

In this episode I am joined by one one of the genres great composers. A composer who has a sound and feel like none other and has brought us equal parts wonder and terror with his score for classics like Re-Animator, Trancers, From Beyond, Ghoulies, Puppet Master and the Pit and the Pendulum. And that’s just a small selection from the list of classic movies that have been scored by the one and only, Richard Band.

Richard is a true virtuoso! His music has a signature and a life to it that immediately ups the ante of any film privileged enough to have him on board as the composer.

Well, that’s it, now it’s time to get into it.  Oh and just one more thing… we have something very exciting brewing for you all for Halloween.

HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH and let’s spill some guts!

This is our 40th episode of Spill your guts and the final episode of season 2. We will be taking a few weeks to recharge our batteries and prepare season 3. Also, we’ll be catching up with folks and checking out some new movies at the amazing Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal this week and next week so we’ll be taking you with us. Thanks to my incredibly hard-working team for a fantastic season and to all of you for sitting down with us. Much more guts to be spilled in season 3 and once again, thank you for joining us.

Our guest today is one of the genres great showmen. His films are whacky, funny, boundary pushing, musically charged, sexual, gruesome, occasionally satirical but never mean spirited but most of all, a hell of a lot of fun. There is no one else like him and no other films like his.

Today we are joined by the hilarious, thoughtful and wonderful…  Richard Elfman.

Richard is very much an auteur. His 1980 cult classic “Forbidden Zone” is an upside-down topsy-turvy musical adventure of madness. It is basically impossible to classify. Not really a horror film, nor musical, nor fantasy… it’s a Richard Elfman film and that means you’re in for a good time. With masterful scores by his brother and frequent collaborator, the legendary Danny Elfman, Richard has a filmography of impossible to classify movies that all carry his distinct signature as filmmaker.

Richard’s films also have a strong DIY quality that speaks to his determination to get his films made the way he wants to make them. I can only imagine what a pitch meeting with studio execs for “Aliens, clowns & geeks” would be like. Actually, that would be awesome. I’d love to be in that meeting. 

Richard discusses his approach to filmmaking including the joys of bringing your family and friends onboard, his two personas, finding his tribe as the director of San Francisco transvestite performance group “The Cockettes” and founding the beloved “Mystics Knights of the Oingo Boingo”.

As an added bit of awesomeness, Richard has provided us with musical tracks by Danny Elfman, Ego Plum and Radioactive Chicken Heads from his new film “Bloody Bridget”. “Bloody Bridget” is absolutely insane and a total blast. See it with an audience if you can and keep an eye out for a kick ass performance by Richard’s wife Anastasia Elfman in the titular role.

Let’s take a trip into the forbidden so with the maestro of madness, Richard Elfman!

One of the most iconic production companies in the history of horror, Hammer’s productions and various sequels and spin-offs of Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman and the mummy are not just beloved by generations of genre fans but have endured just as the Universal Studios monster films have and become a lauded part of cinema history.

And Hammer didn’t just do classic monsters! Some of their original films such as “The Devil Rides Out” and “Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter” showed that Hammer wasn’t afraid to step outside their formula.

Hammer also provided career-making roles for several of the genres most beloved stars with Christopher Lee’s towering take on Dracula and Peter Cushing’s often scene-stealing performances as Doctor Frankenstein and Van Helsing.

The studio also had its share of dynamic leading ladies with legends such as Ingrid Pitt, Stephanie Beacham and Barbara Shelley. And that’s barely scratching the surface.

Our guest in this episode is one of Hammer’s great leading ladies. And a Bond Girl. And a Scream Queen.

Today we are joined by the radiant and brilliant, Caroline Munro.

Caroline was one of few actors to be signed to a contract by Hammer, something that wasn’t really a practice for the studio but they knew what they had with Caroline. An actor whose beauty is matched by her chops, her presence and her character. 

Caroline discusses her approach to the acting process, what she learned by working off screen legends such as Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing and Richard Widmark, the insecurity that is possessed by almost all actors and stealing scenes at the Cannes Film Festival with the great Joe Spinell.

Let’s bare our fangs and get ready to dance on a Sunday with Caroline Munro!