Hack or Slash - A Horror Movie Review Podcast

This week the Hack or Slash team looks back on their own prom experiences as they compare and contrast the 1980's slasher Prom Night with its 2008 title-only remake. The group dissects their impressions of disco dancing, uncovers what really lurks beneath the ballcaps of older men, and looks back on the path Jamie Lee Curtis took to becoming a Scream Queen. This episode contains spoilers.

1980 IMDB

Title: "Prom Night"

Run time: 1h 32m

Release Date: July 18, 1980 (USA)

2008 IMDB

Title: "Prom Night"

Run time: 1h 28m

Release Date: April 11, 2008 (USA)

We've launched our Patreon page so we could have a place for listener support. While we'll always be a non-profit show with no advertisements or official sponsors, we do need some help to keep it going. We are accepting support in the form of small monetary amounts ($1-$3) from our audience to put towards ongoing website fees, funding for new content, and equipment upgrades.

Support the Show

Kris: @Rojawesome

Alexis: @HackorSlashLex

Ryan: @ryanfremeau

Mack: @mackorslash

Paris: @parisnicholson

You can connect with us by creepin' on us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, @HackorSlash. You can also share your opinions with us by shooting us an email to [email protected].

Feel free to shoot us a text, audio message, or leave us a voicemail by contacting the Hack or Slash Hotline: 757-606-0128.

"Hack or Slash" by Daniel Stapleton

"The Dread" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week the Hack or Slash team travels two years into the future to break down the events of the 2013 dystopian film, The Purge. The group fantasizes about what purge crimes they'd commit, debate how recognizable Lena Headey is, and questions the character of those who choose "Purge Girl" as a Halloween costume. This episode contains spoilers.

IMDB

Title: "The Purge"

Run time: 1h 25m

Release Date: June 7, 2013 (USA)

We've launched our Patreon page so we could have a place for listener support. While we'll always be a non-profit show with no advertisements or official sponsors, we do need some help to keep it going. We are accepting support in the form of small monetary amounts ($1-$3) from our audience to put towards ongoing website fees, funding for new content, and equipment upgrades.

Support the Show

Kris: @Rojawesome

Alexis: @HackorSlashLex

Ryan: @ryanfremeau

Mack: @mackorslash

Paris: @parisnicholson

You can connect with us by creepin' on us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, @HackorSlash. You can also share your opinions with us by shooting us an email to [email protected].

Feel free to shoot us a text, audio message, or leave us a voicemail by contacting the Hack or Slash Hotline: 757-606-0128.

"Hack or Slash" by Daniel Stapleton

"The Dread" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week the Hack or Slash team travels aboard Nostromo to unpack the sci-fi horror classic, Alien (1979). The group ponders the potential of alien lifeforms, laments the struggles of poorly designed underwear, and conspires to reveal Mack as a milky android. This episode contains spoilers.

IMDB

Title: "Alien"

Run time: 1h 57m

Release Date: June 22, 1979 (USA)

The True Story of the Alien Suit Actor

Spaceballs Scene

Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

We've launched our Patreon page so we could have a place for listener support. While we'll always be a non-profit show with no advertisements or official sponsors, we do need some help to keep it going. We are accepting support in the form of small monetary amounts ($1-$3) from our audience to put towards ongoing website fees, funding for new content, and equipment upgrades.

Support the Show

Kris: @Rojawesome

Alexis: @HackorSlashLex

Ryan: @ryanfremeau

Mack: @mackorslash

Paris: @parisnicholson

You can connect with us by creepin' on us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, @HackorSlash. You can also share your opinions with us by shooting us an email to [email protected].

Feel free to shoot us a text, audio message, or leave us a voicemail by contacting the Hack or Slash Hotline: 757-606-0128.

"Hack or Slash" by Daniel Stapleton

"The Dread" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week the Hack or Slash team commemorates high school by reviewing Graduation Day (1981). The group breaks down the anatomy of an 80's ending, questions the origins of hitchhiking, and realizes the aging effects of an updo. Paris also educates the group on Vanna White's gown budget, and Ryan pleads for help in understanding the point of boiler rooms. This episode contains spoilers.

IMDB

Title: "Graduation Day"

Run time: 1h 36m

Release Date: May 1, 1981 (USA)

Girl dies after running 400-meter dash at track meet

22-year-old Ohio woman dies running Cleveland Marathon

High school athlete dies after workout drill in extreme heat

We've launched our Patreon page so we could have a place for listener support. While we'll always be a non-profit show with no advertisements or official sponsors, we do need some help to keep it going. We are accepting support in the form of small monetary amounts ($1-$3) from our audience to put towards ongoing website fees, funding for new content, and equipment upgrades.

Support the Show

Kris: @Rojawesome

Alexis: @HackorSlashLex

Ryan: @ryanfremeau

Mack: @mackorslash

Paris: @parisnicholson

You can connect with us by creepin' on us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, @HackorSlash. You can also share your opinions with us by shooting us an email to [email protected].

Feel free to shoot us a text, audio message, or leave us a voicemail by contacting the Hack or Slash Hotline: 757-606-0128.

"Hack or Slash" by Daniel Stapleton

"The Dread" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This week the Hack or Slash team breaks down a staff pick: Thir13en Ghosts (2001). The group debates the existence of ghosts, breaks down what’s so unlikeable about Matthew Lillard, and looks back fondly on the jump scare video craze of the early 2000’s internet. Paris also presents a theory connecting this film to the 90's classic, Matilda (1996). This episode contains spoilers.

IMDB

Title: "Thir13en Ghosts"

Run time: 1h 31m

Release Date: Oct. 26, 2001 (USA)

• The First Born Son: He is the ghost of Billy Michaels, a boy who was a fan of cowboy films. One day, a neighbor found a real steel arrow in his parents' closet. He challenged Billy to a duel, with Billy using a toy gun. However, his plaything was no match for the arrow, and he died when the neighbor shot it through the back of his head. In death, Billy is in his cowboy suit and holding a tomahawk, with the arrow still protruding from his head. His ghost whispers "I want to play".
• The Torso: He is the ghost of a gambler called Jimmy "The Gambler" Gambino. He spent most of his days on the track, making bets and brainwashed into winning. One day, he made a deal with a rich business man, and so sealed his fate. When he bet heavily on a boxing match and lost, he tried to welsh on his bet and slip out of town. The mob and the winning boxer, to whom he owed money, caught up with Gambino and cut him into several pieces, wrapping them in cellophane and dumping the corpse into the ocean. His ghost is just his torso, trying to walk around on its hands, while his head lies nearby screaming within the cellophane.
• The Bound Woman: She was a cheerleader named Susan LeGrow, who was born privileged and had a penchant for seducing men and tossing them away. This left a long trail of broken hearts. When her boyfriend found her cheating he strangled her an killed the other boy. He buried her body at the 50-yard line of the local football field. The boyfriend was convicted and sentenced to death; before his execution, he was quoted as saying, "The bitch broke my heart, so I broke her neck." Her ghost is in her prom dress, hanging suspended by the strangling implements with her arms tied behind her back.
• The Withered Lover: She is Jean Kriticos, Arthur's wife. She was burned severely saving her family from a devastating house fire and later died of her wounds in the hospital. Her ghost initially appears in a hospital gown, hooked up to an IV pole and showing severe burns on her face. Unlike the other ghosts, she is not a vengeful spirit, electing to help her family rather than show malevolence. At the end of the movie, she appears fully healed and in her normal clothing.
• The Torn Prince: He is the ghost of Royce Clayton, born in 1940 who was a gifted baseball star in high school, albeit with attitude issues and a superiority complex. In 1957 he challenged a greaser named Johnny to a drag race, but was killed as his car spun out of control and flipped over; the cause of the accident was a cut brake line. He was buried in a plot of earth that overlooked the baseball diamond. His ghost carries a baseball bat, and in the background in his cube his wrecked car can be seen. Half of his body is torn to shreds from when he was dragged under the car.
• The Angry Princess: She is Dana Newman, who did not believe in her own natural beauty. Abusive boyfriends fueled her low self-esteem, which led to much unneeded plastic surgery for imagined defects. Eventually she got a job working for a plastic surgeon, getting paid in treatments rather than cash. Alone at the clinic one night, she tried to perform surgery on herself, but wound up blinding herself in one eye and permanently mutilating herself beyond saving. She committed suicide in the bathtub by slashing her body repeatedly with a butcher knife. When she was found, people noted that she was as beautiful in death as she had been in life. Her ghost is naked, still carrying the knife she killed herself with and showing all the wounds, and the inside walls of her cube are splattered with her blood. In her bathroom scene, the phrase "I'm sorry" is visible on the floor in blood; subtitles also reveal that the blurred, hissing speech that announces her arrival is her whispering "I'm sorry." This was written on her suicide note. When her cube opens, she advances toward Ben Moss, who backs up into an open doorway to get away from her and is killed when it snaps shut on him.
• The Pilgrimess: She is the ghost of Isabella Smith, an Englishwoman who traveled across the Atlantic and settled in New England during colonial times. She was an outsider to the town she moved into, and this isolated her from the other townsfolk. She was found guilty of witchcraft after livestock began to die mysteriously; when she...