Fun Box Monster Podcast

On today's Fun Box Monster Podcast, Matt and Tristan talk about 1988's gritty reboot of It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Pumpkinhead. 

Although this movie tends to conflate "time" and "movie parodies" there's some things to enjoy about this mess. I'm pretty sure that the plot is that they need to get a zombie hand back from a time when zombies were real, and bring it to court so that Sara won't get the chair for the 201 deaths she is on the hook for from burning down the Wax Museum from the first movie. (Mark of course is beyond the reach of any laws for his part in the arson due to his rich guy privileges.) This story is mostly forgotten as we bop around through a few great movie parodies, and a few fairly phoned in ones. Oh, also half the scenes are mercilessly cribbed from Evil Dead 2. Join Matt and Tristan for what can truly be called the second movie in the Waxwork franchise, Waxwork 2. 

Wax museums are catnip for teens. Everyone knows that. So when one appears from out of nowhere in the middle of a very rich suburban neighborhood, the only question on anyone's mind is, "How soon can we get in there and look at the wax dummies?" That's when David Warner appears, dressed as Willy Wonka-by-way-of-rodeo-clown, and invites you to that classic teen gathering, the midnight wax museum party. You go, of course, but before long you start to realize that this might be one of those EVIL wax museums, where they have 18 of the most evil souls of all time, and need to sacrifice a certain number of people to make 666 or something. Too late. You just got Waxworked. 

When some adult children set fire to their summer camp's incredibly flammable caretaker,  he emerges several years later covered in burns over 100% of his body, and filled with a lust for revenge and a penchant for scissor type weapons. Join Matt and Tristan for the Meatballs of slasher films, The Burning. 

Not one scene of Farmer Vincent making his eponymous fritters. Ruined the experience for me. 1 out of 5 stars. 

Jurassic Park really screwed up when they chose to use CGI instead of hand puppets. Luckily Carnosaur was there to remedy that mistake. I'd go out on a limb and say that this is the best puppet based movie about Diane Ladd creating a virus that impregnates women with dinosaur eggs. Join Matt and Tristan for a movie that redefined what could be done with forced perspective rubber dinosaurs for an entire generation, Carnosaur. 

I'm really sorry about this episode. I think Matt and I were going through something. Critters Attack is a made-for-TV movie, and didn't deserve how badly we screamed about it. This is literally the most negative episode of the podcast and if you want to skip it nobody will blame you. Apologies to anyone involved in this movie, I'm sure you are fine people except that one guy, but I promised Matt I wouldn't talk about him. 

As an apology... Critter puppets look great. Main actress is great. Also, the house they were in for that one scene looked really cozy. 

Everybody knows that once your horror franchise starts to lose steam you head to space. Pinhead in Space, Leprechaun In Space, Regan from the Exorcist in Space,  Damien From the Omen in Space, The Wickerman in Space, and of course Suspiria in Space or Spacespiria.  

For this entry in the franchise, it is possible there was a small influence from Aliens, in that the script was entirely lifted from Aliens. But...with Critters. It's probably the worst of the first 4 Critters movies, making it approximately the 4th best movie ever made. 

As the Critters franchise begins to succumb to budget cuts, we find them scraping the bottom of the barrel for actors and winding up with talentless nobodies like Leonardo what's-his-name. But the human actors aren't who we're here to see, we're all here for our favorite fuzzy murder-puppets the Crites, back again for more comestible chaos. Also, this time their arms work! Join Matt and Tristan for the low budget buffet that is Critters 3. 

Those pesky Crites are back, and this time they have a bigger FX budget, but not quite enough money for Dee Wallace. Still somehow probably the best installment of the franchise, which of course, is the greatest film franchise in history. Better even than the Munchie expanded universe, or Munchiverse to its legions of fans.