DRtL Episode 38: Horror Soundtracks!

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Feb 11 2016

Listen! What’s that sound? Does that eerie pulsing synthesizer music mean that there’s a killer lurking in the shadows? No — it’s just the latest episode of Don’t Read the Latin!

This time out, we’re talking about horror soundtracks and scores that we love — even when they’re from films we don’t.

Montoure goes all film-school on us and starts talking about diegetic vs. non-diegetic music, Jennifer carefully side-steps around the subject of a mysterious competition in her youth, and so much more!

Stuff We Mentioned

At one point, Montoure mentions that the film He Never Died (he couldn’t remember the title at the time, but that’s the one) reminded him of a novel called Sandman Slim, by Richard Kadrey, so here’s a link to that book on Amazon. (Or click on the cover image, here, if you’re more visually inclined.) It’s a fun read and you should check it out!

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He also mentioned the unused soundtrack for Hellraiser by the band Coil, and said that the whole thing was probably on YouTube. It is! You can give it a listen here. It’s very different from the soundtrack that actually got used!

And finally, he also also mentioned a haunting little comic by Ehud Lavski about a mysterious radio station. He reblogged that one on his Tumblr. You can click on the thumbnail below to read the whole comic.

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DRtL Episode 29: Wolf at the Door!

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Aug 24 2015

Jennifer Lovely was unable to make it to a recording session this week, since she is in the process of moving and is busy doing All the Things, so instead Michael Montoure is joined by horror movie aficionado Miranda Wolf! We’ve been meaning to have Miranda on the podcast for ages, and this seemed like a good time to do it.

We kind of flirt with the idea of having an overall theme for the episode, such as Slasher Movies, but it never quite happens. Join us as we talk instead about 80’s slasher movies; Star Trek and Babylon 5 fans fighting in the streets; Montoure’s literal scar from a science fiction convention; differences between the Hannibal TV series, books, and films; ideas for slasher movie role-playing games and the horror board game Betrayal at House on the Hill; puns about feet (so very, very many puns about feet); the literal and figurative horrors that are lurking within Miranda’s Netflix queue; and so much more!

The Media List

DRtL Episode 27: Movies You May Have Missed!

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Jul 27 2015

Welcome back, fiends! This time, your horror hosts are taking a look back at the last ten years of horror films and trying to bring to light the movies that may have flown under your radar when they were released. A lot of top-notch recommendations this episode.

We’re posting this slightly later in the day than usual due to some audio issues that we weren’t quite able to completely resolve, so we apologize for the sound quality on this one. There’s kind of a background echo to it all that sounds a little like robots gargling underwater, and it was present in the original recording, so we’re going to be looking into improving our microphone setup in future. Hope it’s not too distracting.

Questions, comments, things you’d like to hear in future episodes? Let us know! We’d love to read your feedback on the show. And as always, don’t forget to share, reblog, rate us on iTunes, or just kidnap people off the street and force them to listen to the podcast while tied up in your basement. Enjoy!

DRtL Episode 22: Curses and Premonitions!

4 Comments | This entry was posted on Apr 27 2015

Welcome back — finally — to Don’t Read the Latin! We’re back after something like a solid month of not-podcasting, so let’s see if we still remember how to do this! We would have had this episode done much sooner, but we were delayed by Michael’s illness and then Jennifer’s surgery, almost as if we were …. cursed. Hmmm.

Anyway! Join us as we wax rhapsodic about It Follows, visit Jen’s Documentary Corner, and talk about the renaissance of excellent synthesizer-based horror soundtracks we’ve been getting lately. (And, not coincidentally, talk about Jen’s love of collecting movie soundtracks on vinyl.)

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Music Bonus!

Here are a couple of links to the albums that Michael mentions this episode:

That second one is pay-what-you-want over at Bandcamp, so definitely check both of them out for retro synth-y goodness.

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Shout-Outs!

There are a couple of listeners we wanted to thank — first of all, thanks to commenter Kylie for her suggestion of Noroi: The Curse, which Michael watched based on her recommendation. Fun movie!

Secondly, many thanks to the listener who ran into Michael at Emerald City Comicon and told him this was her favorite podcast! Very, very cool. You made our month. (He didn’t catch your name, though! Let us know who you are!)

Episode Nineteen: When Aliens Attack!

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Feb 22 2015

“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.” ― Arthur C. Clarke

Lock all your windows, grab your tinfoil hats and your shotguns, and get ready to hide in your closets, because they’re almost here! The aliens are coming!

…. Okay, well, no. Probably not. But the latest episode of Don’t Read the Latin! is here, and that’s almost as scary! You can put your shotgun down, but you might want to hold on to that tinfoil hat.

Join Jennifer and Michael as they talk about their favorite alien horrors, a heaping handful of guilty pleasures, and a few movies that just didn’t work for them. And stick around for the end, for a discussion of just why movies about aliens scare us so much, and for a few words about Michael’s experiences with UFOs in his childhood!

Put on the headphones, lean back, and try to ignore the strange tall figures and the blinding bright light — the experiment is about to begin ….

Episode Twelve: Vampires!

2 Comments | This entry was posted on Nov 01 2014

Oh my God, you guys, you guys — Halloween is coming!

Or at least, it was when we recorded this episode, but now it’s November 1st. A little anticlimactic, we realize.

This time out, we discuss those bloodsucking fiends, those children of the night, those stalwart standbys of the Halloween silver screen: vampires! From the good, the bad, to the ridiculous, we discuss all the vampires we have known and loved.

 

Episode Eight: Found Footage

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Aug 24 2014

“It’s not like [Rob Zombie] is out there strong-arming small children for their candy money.”
“Although — you can kinda picture that, can’t you?”
“I kinda can, yeah.”

Felicitations, fright fans! Are you ready to face a fantastic festival of fearsome found footage films?

…. All right, that’s enough alliteration for one post. Welcome to another episode with your hosts Jennifer Lovely and Michael Montoure, as we bring you the skinny on horror cinema’s fastest-growing sub-genre, and discuss its strengths and limitations.

Expect chills, thrills, and more:

  • Why found footage films don’t try to emulate Blair Witch‘s improvised scenes
  • Scooby Doo as a gateway drug to horror
  • Our guilty fondness for the recent Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated series
  • How The Blair Witch Project lead the way for small-budget productions like The Battery and Jug Face
  • Jennifer rants entertainingly about Rob Zombie, Amanda Palmer, and crowdfunding
  • A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it LMFAO reference, and a mention of Christian Bale’s spectacular on-set meltdown
  • Montoure has this episode’s “Fuck This Noise” moment, with the indie horror feature “All Cheerleaders Die”

Let us know what you think, and thanks for listening!

 

Episode Seven: Mid-Year Review (with Fanboy News Network!)

0 Comments | This entry was posted on Aug 09 2014

Welcome back, fellow fear fanatics! This time, we’ve got a special crossover episode for you with Jeff Harris from our sibling podcast, Fanboy News Network!

Since we’re already halfway through 2014, we sit down and take a few minutes (seventy-six of them, to be exact) to talk about what the first half of the year has brought us in horror.

Join us as we debate the merits of watching horror movies in the theatre vs. watching them in more intimate settings, find out why Montoure enjoys going to preview screenings most of all, and as we praise theatre/restaurant/bar combos like Cinebarre. We talk about the renaissance of short films, and how they can be the new calling card for up-and-coming directors.

Aside from our usual horror movie fare, we talk about the recent proliferation of horror on television, including Hannibal, True Detective, Sleepy Hollow, American Horror Story, Dexter, Penny Dreadful, and The Strain! And finally, we touch briefly on immersive real-world horror events such as The Great Horror Campout (which you couldn’t pay us enough to go to, honestly) and Halloween Horror Nights!

Sit back and enjoy the episode that nearly caused Fanboy News Network’s first use of the explicit tag! “We love swearing!”