The Bloody Pit #162 - THE CHILDREN (2008)

This year’s Holiday Horror episode arrives! 2022 was Troy’s pick and he has chosen a British creeper set in the week between Christmas and New Years Eve called THE CHILDREN (2008). It is an underseen horror tale that uses the season effectively even if we question whether the story needed the holiday setting to accomplish its goal. Still, there are fewer locations that cry out ‘Christmas’ as well as a secluded, snow-bound country house so it earns its place here easily. We try not to spoil the movie so we stay clear of deep discussion of the third act.

John Hudson and I join Troy for this trek down Evil Child Lane. We take note of the subtle ways the threat is communicated before the mayhem explodes. We heap much praise on the film’s smart dialog and understanding of family dynamics that make the entire scenario feel like a slice of increasingly tense reality. Truly, by being specific in its details this movie hits some terrifying universal notes about the ties that bind. We discuss the fact that film never spells out the reason for the children’s violence with understated hints as our only clues. I bring up a wonderful essay by Andrea Subissati about the film and it’s comments on the destructive nature of the lies we tell our kids and how they can infect other parts of our life. And I can’t stay away from talking about the story’s thread of financial concerns that surface at the film’s intense dinner scene. There’s a lot going on in this short, violent tale and we recommend it. Luckily it is currently streaming on Tubi for free!

Questions, comments or Holiday messages can be directed to thebloodypit@gmail.com where we’ll be jingle jangled to hear from you. All three of us hope you have a fantastic Holiday season and a Happy New Year. Santa knows we all need one. Thanks for listening and sorry for the Bonanza sidetrack. I can’t help myself.

A Batman Christmas!

Wild, Wild Podcast's Luigi Cozzi Season Episode 3 - HERCULES (1983)

Listen in as Adrian and I put on our tiny leather skirts, grab our weapons (mind out of the gutter!) and jump into adventure. We discuss both of Cozzi's 1980's Hercules films starring Lou Ferrigno and a double handful of familiar Euro-cult faces. We talk about how these Cannon produced movies came about, how Cozzi was brought in to helm them and why the second one is so damned much stranger than the first. Luckily, the writer/director is on record about these movies so we have lots of fun behind the scenes tidbits and some real insight into the reasons these memorable throwback sword & sorcery films were successful for Golan & Globus.

If you have any favorite Luigi Cozzi films we'd love to hear from you. You can contact us on Twitter and Instagram or at wildwildpodcast@gmail.com with an email or recorded voicemail. And please remember to rate and review us on your podcast listening platform of choice! Thank you and we'll be back soon. 

Santa Comic Book Classics

He's a right jolly old elf!

Blue Beetle Radio Show

I periodically find myself obsessed with the history of the Blue Beetle character. Usually this is triggered by reading one comic book version or another and marveling that old Big Blue has been so malleable over the decades. I got to know the character through his appearances in DC comics in the 1980’s both in his own title and as a laughter-prone member of the Justice League. At the time I was aware that BB was one of several heroes from Charlton’s line of comics but nothing else. 

Years later I discovered that Ted Kord was not the first fictional fellow to use the Blue Beetle name and was able to sample the earlier Fox Comic book versions as well. This original form of BB debuted in 1939 and he appeared in both Mystery Men Comics and his own title semi-regularly until the end of the 1940’s. The character was a police officer named Dan Garret who eventually started wearing a mask to fight crime out of uniform. He later started using a bulletproof blue costume that was made of a strange fiber "as thin and light as silk but stronger than steel"! Useful. He also could temporarily gain superhuman strength and stamina by ingesting the mysterious Vitamin 2X, which sounds like someone trying to incorporate the comic’s ad pages into the story! Like the Green Hornet, the Blue Beetle would use his signature scarab symbol to mark his activities by dangling it down into a room on a string and even projecting its enlarged image onto a wall with a flashlight. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of creeped out criminal types, huh?

But my latest entry (or re-entry) point for this older version of BB was stumbling across some very clear and well-preserved copies of the Blue Beetle radio show on Archive.org. ‘The Blue Beetle’ only ran from May 15, 1940 to September 13, 1940 so few episodes were produced but most (maybe all) are in excellent form and easily accessible to the curious. The show features the Dan Garret form of the character and it’s a pretty great example of this type of masked hero pulp story adapted to audio. It’s not as impressive as The Shadow but it is a pretty entertaining hero vs crime show. Check it out and you might enjoy it!

Vintage Magazine Christmas Ads

Donald Duck Christmas Comic Book Covers