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Cinema Shock

The stories behind your favorite cult & genre films, and the people who make them.

tv & film film history

All Episodes

01:07:06

TWIN PEAKS: FIRE SHOCK WITH ME | Free Preview of...

Cinema Shock ·

2025/02/24

Happy TWIN PEAKS Day everyone! To celebrate the day that FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper first entered the town of Twin Peaks, we wanted to offer our listeners a Free Preview of the first members-only episode of our Twin Peaks watch-along podcast FIRE SHOCK WITH ME! We did a deep dive into the creation of the TWIN PEAKS pilot episode as part of our series David Lynch: Absurd Encounters a while back (you can listen to that episode here). On that episode, we teased a bonus series where we'd watch and

02:07:56

How They Made THE MUPPET SHOW | Jim Henson: Heart Felt

Cinema Shock ·

2025/02/14

By the mid-1970s, Jim Henson and the Muppets were as big as they'd ever been. They'd helped turn Sesame Street into a household name and continued to be a hot commodity on the variety show circuit.But Jim had yet to do the one thing he'd been trying to accomplish since the early 1960s: Create a prime time television show starring the Muppets, and one that wasn't solely aimed at a preschool audience. He made several attempts along the way, filming several pilots with varying degrees of sucess, and

02:19:04

Jim Henson: Heart Felt | From the Arthouse to SESAME...

Cinema Shock ·

2025/01/31

“As children, we all live in a world of imagination, of fantasy, and for some of us that world of make-believe continues into adulthood.”Despite spending years fighting against the notion that puppets were nothing more than “children’s entertainment,” Jim Henson found his greatest success thus far working on a television show aimed at toddlers: the groundbreaking educational series SESAME STREET. But before he got there, Jim went on a years long detour into the world of experimental filmmaking,

01:58:57

Jim Henson, Ep. 1: "The Birth of The Muppets"

Cinema Shock ·

2025/01/17

It’s time to start a brand new series here on Cinema Shock! For the next few weeks, we’ll be telling the story of Jim Henson.To truly tell the story of Henson’s life and career, we have to go all the way back to the beginning: In this inaugural episode, we’ll explore Jim’s early years, through the creation of his first TV show, SAM & FRIENDS (where Kermit the Frog made his first appearance), his groundbreaking commercial work, and the years spent working on THE JIMMY DEAN SHOW. Join us for Jim

02:22:33

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999)

Cinema Shock ·

2025/01/03

"I'm afraid to close my eyes, I'm afraid to open them."1999 was a landmark year for film, and several films released that year have had a lasting impact, greatly influencing everything that followed. And with the possible exception of THE MATRIX, few films have had changed their respective genres as much as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Created by a handful of film students for practically no money, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT has become the stuff of legend. It’s a film that popularized the found footage

02:07:25

THE BOONDOCK SAINTS (1999)

Cinema Shock ·

2024/12/13

"We're sorta like 7-Eleven. We're not always doing business, but we're always open."For Gary’s pick for a movie from 1999, he went with an infamous film that’s thre true definition of a “cult film.” When THE BOONDOCK SAINTS was (barely) released in theaters, it had practically no impact at all, but months later, when the movie hit home video, it became a bonafide word-of-mouth sensation, especially among younger audiences who viewed its attempt at a Tarantino-esque crime film as the epitome of edgy

02:01:29

THE IRON GIANT (1999)

Cinema Shock ·

2024/11/29

We’ve decided to wrap up 2024 with a look at a few films that are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. 1999 has become known as one of the best movie years of all time. While we’ve already touched on some of the biggest films of that year (THE MATRIX, FIGHT CLUB), there are a handful of films from that year that may not fit into one of our long form series, and we wanted to make sure they got their due. So for this (short) series, each of our hosts have picked out a film from 1999 that

01:56:53

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008) | Cinema Shock Roulette

Cinema Shock ·

2024/11/15

"I'm twelve. But I've been twelve for a long time."For the latest radomly chosen Cinema Shock Roulette entry, the wheels of fate have taken us to Sweden, where we’ll explore the story behind Tomas Alfredson’s LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN was almost instantly recognized as a modern day horror classic when it was released in 2008. In this episode, we’ll walk through its entire process of how the film came to be, from its origins as a

02:06:32

WILD AT HEART | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters

Cinema Shock ·

2024/11/01

After working on the short first season of TWIN PEAKS, David Lynch felt the pull back to feature length filmmaking when he was given a book called Wild At Heart by Barry Gifford. The book seemed ripe for a big screen adaptation and David Lynch immediately began work on it. Within a couple of months, he found himself in New Orleans with stars Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, plus a host of regular Lynch collaborators.The production and release of WILD AT HEART was a whirlwind. The film went from the

02:45:49

TWIN PEAKS (1990) | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters

Cinema Shock ·

2024/10/18

"Diane, 11:30 AM, February 24th. Entering the town of Twin Peaks, five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line. I’ve never seen so many trees in my life. As W. C. Fields would say, I’d rather be here than Philadelphia."While BLUE VELVET's success (and its Academy Award nominations) helped to cement David Lynch as a director to watch out for, he still wasn't quite on Hollywood's A-list, mostly due to his disinterest in playing by Hollywood's rules post-DUNE. But he

03:06:47

BLUE VELVET (1986) | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters...

Cinema Shock ·

2024/09/20

NOTE: This is the full BLUE VELVET episode. If you listened to the first half that we posted two weeks ago, you can fast forward to the 1 hour 33 minute mark."I'm seeing something that was always hidden. I'm in the middle of a mystery and it's all secret." DUNE, David Lynch's first (and only) foray into big budget studio filmmaking was an unmitigated disaster, both critically and commercially, and in the wake of its failure, his career as a film director was in question. But thanks to his

01:34:12

BLUE VELVET (1986) | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters

Cinema Shock ·

2024/09/06

"I'm seeing something that was always hidden. I'm in the middle of a mystery and it's all secret."DUNE, David Lynch's first (and only) foray into big budget studio filmmaking was an unmitigated disaster, both critically and commercially, and in the wake of its failure, his career as a film director was in question. But thanks to his own inability to stop creating, and incredible support from his DUNE producer Dino De Laurentiis, Lynch was not only able to continue working in film, but his next film

01:05:37

Interview with Max Evry, author of 'A Masterpiece in...

Cinema Shock ·

2024/08/31

For this special BONUS episode, we sat down for a chat with Max Evry, author of A Masterpiece in Disarray: David Lynch's Dune - An Oral History, one of the most comprehensive behind-the-scenes books that we've come across, and one that was a major resource for our episode covering the making of DUNE.In this interview, we chat with Max about all things DUNE, David Lynch, Hollywood book-to-film adapatations, and somehow, the 1993 movie SUPER MARIO BROS. Max interviewed a lot of the folks involved in

02:32:46

DUNE (1984) | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters

Cinema Shock ·

2024/08/23

After the critical and commercial success of THE ELEPHANT MAN, David Lynch was suddenly a hot commodity in Hollywood, although it soon became clear that, although many studios were seeking out the idiosyncratic director, what they wanted was another ELEPHANT MAN, and not another ERASERHEAD.While Lynch would pass on many of the projects offered to him (which we document in this episode), he eventually signed on to direct Frank Herbert's sprawling science fiction epic DUNE for famed Italian producer

02:12:55

THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters

Cinema Shock ·

2024/08/09

ERASERHEAD’s success on the Midnight Movie circuit didn’t suddently thrust David Lynch onto Hollywood’s A-list but it did turn some heads. Some of those who were impressed by his debut feature included producer Stuart Cornfeld (THE FLY) and legendary filmmaker Mel Brooks (BLAZING SADDLES), who recruited Lynch to direct a biopic of a disfigured man in Victorian England titled THE ELEPHANT MAN.In this episode, we’ll reveal the full story behind Lynch’s sophomore film; how (and why) he was pursued to

02:36:22

ERASERHEAD (1977) | David Lynch: Absurd Encounters

Cinema Shock ·

2024/07/26

After spending his youth pursuing "the art life," David Lynch dipped his toe into the medium of film with his shorts THE ALPHABET and THE GRANDMOTHER. With THE GRANDMOTHER, he received attention from the American Film Institute, who invited him to move to the West Coast, where he'd spend a whopping five years working on what would become his feature film debut, ERASERHEAD. In this episode, we'll discuss the creation of ERASERHEAD, through all of its ups-and-(many)downs, its mysteries, its near

01:41:45

The Short Films of David Lynch | David Lynch, Part 1

Cinema Shock ·

2024/07/12

In our new series, David Lynch: Absurd Encounters, we'll be taking a deep dive into the first chapter of David Lynch's career, covering everything from his early short films through his success on the midnight circuit, his disastrous attempt to film Frank Herbert's Dune, his controversial Palm d'Or win, and everything in-between.(And not to worry, Twin Peaks fans. While we won't be covering that television show during this series, plans are in place to bring you complete coverage of all seasons of

00:49

Live Event: Watch BASKET CASE live with Cinema Shock!

Cinema Shock ·

2024/07/10

Join us for a live screening of Frank Henenlotter’s cult classic BASKET CASE with an introduction by the Cinema Shock team! DATE: Tuesday, July 16, 2024 The feature debut of director Frank Henenlotter (BRAIN DAMAGE, FRANKENHOOKER), 1982’s BASKET CASE is a riotous and blood-spattered “midnight movie” experience! Synopsis: Duane Bradley seems like a pretty ordinary guy. His fomerly conjoined twin Belial, on the other hand, is a deformed creature who lives in a wicker basket. Arriving in the Big Apple

02:29:08

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975)

Cinema Shock ·

2024/06/26

When we started our Alejandro Jodorowsky series last year, we began a loose exploration of the history of the Midnight Movies phenomenon of the 1970s (as documented in J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum's iconic book on the subject).Before we wrap up that discussion with David Lynch's ERASERHEAD (coming soon!), we couldn't skip past what is probably the most iconic Midnight Movie of all time, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. What started as a small stage production in an experiemental theater space

02:41:07

DONNIE DARKO (2001)

Cinema Shock ·

2024/06/05

In this standalone episode, we're discussing Richard Kelly's modern cult classic DONNIE DARKO!DONNIE DARKO's journey to the screen was one fraught with difficulties from the very beginning: Few studios were willing to take a chance on a young, unproven director, and once the film did finally get made, getting it released at all was nearly impossible, with most distributors intimidated by the unconventional film. Once it was finally released, it was a huge flop. So how did DONNIE DARKO go on to

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