68: Night of the Living Dead

02/24/25 • 128 min

We celebrate two years of Bring Me The Axe! with this good long look at the movie that changed everything. Initially dismissed as drive-in schlock and the copyright was botched upon release, Night of the Living Dead would eventually find its way to spotlight as the horror movie that set the pace for horror in the 1970's and introduced the world to what is, arguably, the most popular movie monster of all time: The Romero Zombie. We look at the production history, the players, it everlasting legacy, and the social conditions of the 60's that informed its extremely grim outlook.

Produced in 1968 by George A. Romero and John Russo at the same time that they were producing commercials for Calgon and Heinz as well as eduational shorts for Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Night of the Living Dead was a compromise meant to raise money more effectively to make not the movie that they wanted to make, originally, but any movie, period. The world is richer for having it.

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(Sample) Do You Think I'm Spooky? S1E10: Fallen Angel

To unlock the full episode go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and subscribe at the $5 level to unlock all of our X-Files episodes as well as Bring Me The Axe: Millennium Edition, and Radio Free Haddonfield our bi-weekly DJ and music show.

This week we get a nice little course correction from writers Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa. After the series worst episode, Space, and some notes from Fox, Gordon and Gansa got to work on bringing the episode back into focus as Mulder goes rogue and infiltrates a UFO crash site that's being recovered by a covert army operation. When he's inevitably caught he meets UFO enthusiast and fellow paranoia enjoyer, Max Fennig, as the pilot of the downed UFO sneaks around the crash site, killing soldiers, while waiting for the mother ship to arrive and pick them up.

Not exactly a mythology episode but not exactly not a mythology episode, Fallen Angel brings the series back into paranoid focus to remind everyone that it's about UFOs, aliens, and conspiracy.

We also break down this week in pop culture and the news as usual.

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99CR 29: Lone Wolf & Cub - Sword of Vengeance

We're getting really bloody this week as we take a trip to feudal Japan for the 1972 samurai movie that set the pace for violent sword fighting movies to follow. This is not your father's samurai movie. This is not Akira Kurosawa. This is Kenji Misumi's epic starring Tomisaburo Wakyama and his wonderful, weapon-laden baby cart.

Adapted from the extremely popular manga by Kazuo Koike, Lone Wolf and Cub tells the story of wandering assassin, Ogami Itto and his son, Daigoro as they walk the demon way in hell. The evil daimyo, Yagyu Retsudo wants them dead but it's going to take an army if they intend to get the job done.

Utterly ridiculous and bloody, Sword of Vengeance sets the tone for the five movies that follow and is a tremendously enjoyable movie. Let us tell you all about it.

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