Episode Zero

0:55Speaker 1:Welcome to the Nightmare USA Podcast. Using Stephen Thrower's tome as our roadmap, join us, this week explored the underbelly of America, one regional horror film at a time. I'm Adam and I'm Sam, and welcome to episode zero. Who wanted to take an opportunity to have an introductory episode to tell the listeners, well, help it's listeners, I hope it's more than one. A little bit about ourselves and talk about our personal history with Nightmare USA or planning for making our way through the films covered in this massive book. And spoiler alert, it's going to take a while.

1:23Speaker 1:If you include all the films in index, there's over four hundred films to discuss. And you've watched all those films already, right Sam, there are still holes.

1:31Speaker 2:I have a letterbox list that I go against, and every time I look back, I'm like, oh my god. That's the joy of Nightmare USA is like there's movies in there, like what, how have I not seen this? And whether it's either that or it's like I've seen this and they didn't give it the proper attention that it deserves. That's why I love the book so much like I. It's a book that I never put back on the shelf, some constantly pulling it back off. And it's very large, so you can get a work out with it. There's a lot of things you can do with it. To no offense that Steven Thrower. I actually used it for to keep this carpet down when I first got this new carpet. It's very heavy, and then my dog tried to eat it. And like police, this book is very expensive and hard to get, like let's let's.

2:11Speaker 1:Chill, Well, when did you first get that book?

2:15Speaker 2:I had wanted it for a long time. Uh, and it was always like when I'd look online for it, it always seemed like so much.

2:23Speaker 3:And uh, Bill, who I do driving a saw home with uh? And from Groovy Doom.

2:28Speaker 2:He bought it for me for Christmas, and of course he brought it to the Christmas party and I didn't interact with anybody because I kept looking through it and walking around and showing it to people, like, look, there's a whole chapter about, uh the Black Room in it, which is a movie like he and I are obsessed about.

2:45Speaker 3:So it's I think.

2:46Speaker 2:Anyone that loves these kind of movies, whether you're just starting to discover a regional horror or like secotronic cinema, or you're really into it, whatever level you're at, there something in this book for you.

3:01Speaker 1:And yeah, I think so. I mean I didn't get until I got in twenty twenty, and that's about whenever, whenever the pandemic hit is whenever. I really got into a lot of these, and a lot of it was thanks to like Alamo draft House going online and bringing the whole content there. And so I saw Centipede Horror, which was I mean, that's not in this book, but that's you know, that was one of the first CAT three movie.

3:22Speaker 3:That I saw.

3:23Speaker 1:And they showed Spookies, which I had never heard of at that time, but I think Godminster of Indian Flats was one that they showed, which is in this book, and like what is you know, how did I get here? And where do those are?

3:37Speaker 3:Three movies?

3:38Speaker 2:So dear to my heart, I remember, like I always loved Spookies on some level because it's you know, it's the USA Afternoon movie. That's what I always consider it a VHS era movie. And uh, there's a group in Pittsburgh that does like bad movie Bengo. I don't like the name of it because I don't think Spookies is a bad movie, but they do a thing, and then in between they asked trivia, and they had the Rich Corbin poster that's on the cover that they printed. They were giving it away, and of course when they started the trivia, I answered like the first like three questions and they're like, well, we'll just give you the poster.

4:09Speaker 3:Please don't answer any questions, and.

4:11Speaker 2:I'm like, well, some of your questions are wrong because I'm obsessed with Spooky's, you know, and Centipede Horror, which is I think when people are like, you know, when you see those lists online and they're like the most disturbing movies. No one ever has Centipede Horror. That movie really sometimes, like if I think about it, it just really grosses me out. Like it's a movie that I know that the special effects were just fill an actress's mouth with centipedece and have her throw them up, like that's what it.

4:35Speaker 1:Was really dedicated to that role to you.

4:38Speaker 2:Oh my god, it's that Inclamity of Snakes are the two Category three ones that I think of where it's like these are beyond anything you're ready for.

4:48Speaker 1:I guess Cinnepede Horror looking Back Sandpeede Horry, here's a weird one for me to start with them.

4:52Speaker 2:I start right, You're like, oh this is I want to get really into these movies, and let's start with Centipede Horror.

4:57Speaker 1:I guess it was weirder is that. I'll watch it. It's like, yeah, I want more of this.

5:01Speaker 2:I did two though, so I think that's these movies are. I always used to call them torture tests. And one of the movies in the book, Blood Sucking Freaks, we had it at our video store growing up and we've rented it. They probably thought we were like budding serial killers, right. My brother and I rented Bloodsucking Freaks almost daily because when new kids would hang out with us with our friend group, they had to make it through that movie without getting upset. And there's a lot in that movie to really upset people. And now as an adult watching it, I'm like boor at eleven, Probably I shouldn't have been watching this movie like it's it's rough. And also I had not seen Hershel Gordon Lewis before it, so I'm like, oh, this is as an adult, I'm like, this is just a Hershel Gordon Lewis or Bob Made New York. But as a kid, this is like the most transgressive, edge lord stuff I'd ever seen.

5:49Speaker 1:I remember I didn't say it until the last five or six years, but I do remember our town, which is this little town in Louisiana, and they had a midnight showing a blood Sucking Freaks in the eighties, which is crazy to think about now, but and the radio station had a contest, you know, seventh caller gets free tickets, and I called I won, and they were like.

6:16Speaker 3:How old are you?

6:17Speaker 1:I was probably about ten. I was like eighteen. They said, I'm sure, kid, what's your name?

6:23Speaker 3:I gave it.

6:23Speaker 1:I gave my brother's name, and I tell my brother was like, hey, if you want to go see this Blood Sucking Freaks movie, you know, pick up the tickets at the radio station. I think he did, and he didn't really talk much about it.

6:36Speaker 2:I would have never been able to stop talking about Ralphus and all the characters in it. And I remember we had one kid that was definitely too young to see it. He was probably like a year or too younger than nuts. I remember he was like laying on crying and he's like, why did you make me watch this movie? This movie is so wrong, Like I'm going to go to get in trouble for this movie. And I'm like, I don't think you're gonna get in trouble. It's just like, yeah, it's upsetting and it's transgressive, but it's you know, I always feel like you got to go through those movies. It's not like we made them watch shallow or something, you know what I mean, I don't know. I guess that's today for the kids who would be a serbian movie, they're like, that's that's our torture test. But that and Toxic avengerw were the first two like splattery kind of things that were at my store.

7:22Speaker 3:And that's what's always locked.

7:23Speaker 2:In my head when I think about movies today. Primetime Video in my hometown had that horror section with all the wizard video cases, and like whenever I'm said, I always try to conjure that up in my head of like walking through there and seeing what was there like and you know, they would hand right things on them like must be eighteen to rent faces and death, like what, it's not that bad, you know I say that I would be the worst parent. This is why I just have a dog, because I'd be like, you kids can watch you can watch that.

7:51Speaker 1:Yeah, and I didn't have any it was weird. I'll tell stories. My daughter is like you had, Like the lines that your parents drew are so we to me because it didn't make any sense. Like, sure, kid, you can watch Friday thirteenth, but then purple Rain. No, you know, I don't know. You can't watch that because she jumps in the lake or or just just fast forward through the lake scene.

8:14Speaker 3:Okay, Sure parents are weird about that.

8:17Speaker 2:Maybe American parents are like, oh, well, violence is.

8:20Speaker 3:Too much, but violence isn't too much. I mean, but nudity.

8:25Speaker 2:You know, we're gonna draw the line if Yeah, and now it's like the weird I've told the story for another podcast. Like I think a lot of my movie watching is Rebellion because my parents first date, they want to see Bird with the Crystal plumage, and like they would continually bring this movie up as like their barometer of what horrible movie is. And like I remember her telling me once she's like this movie. They keep hearing the sounds of this bird and you don't know who the killer is. None of it makes any sense. And I was fascinated as a kid. I'm like, I can't you know this is in the era when I couldn't just get it. And uh then when I finally saw them, like this movie's genius.

9:04Speaker 3:And then I thought, is.

9:05Speaker 2:All my Jallo love really come from trying to go against my parents? Perhaps, but I know, definitely my regional love is. I mean, you can't grow up in Pittsburgh without you know, the Romero influence in your life and the Romero characters and the you know, the Ramero cinematic universe which gets you into the crazies and Marvin effects. Yeah, that's a great example. And the weird thing now is like I've actually talked to most of the crew and guys have worked on effects, and every time I got a text.

9:38Speaker 3:From from Dusty Nelson thanking me for doing.

9:41Speaker 2:The interview, and I'm like, dude, like, do you know have any idea how important that movie is to me?

9:46Speaker 3:Like it's like, you know.

9:48Speaker 2:I nobody in Pittsburgh knows, like the only movie in Pittsburgh that people are well, they made Striking Distance and that fan damn movie Sudden death here. Those are the Gone with the Wind of Pittsburgh Cinema, you know, like people love those. I was just at a toy show and they had a huge striking distance poster and I'm like, I kind of don't have room for that, but I need it.

10:07Speaker 3:It's a movie that, like, if you went to a US.

10:08Speaker 2:Store here, it'd be like thirty bucks if you want anywhere else. If you want to a US store around, you would be like a dollar. So you know, I will not claim bloodsucking Pharaohs. I won't claim that movie. So hate that movie.

10:21Speaker 1:Pittsburgh right there in the title.

10:22Speaker 2:I know it's in Lawrenceville, but which is like the hipster section of Pittsburgh. So it's a It's okay, we'll get into it when we get to it. Maybe I need to reevaluate it.

10:33Speaker 3:That's well.

10:34Speaker 1:And that's one thing that I'm hoping for with this podcast is I want to, you know, revisit the movies that I've already watched, see how they hold up. Revisit the movies I've seen and didn't like. Maybe I like them more now than I did. Then I'll look back at stuff maybe I saw and I don't know twenty eighteen or so, I watched Don't Go into the Woods and I hated it, couldn't it. And now I wonder maybe I'll like it more now because I think back then eighteen I was still in my you know, I'm a centophile. You know, I watched Berdman and Godar and Curosawa and I don't, you know, I'm above this this, and then I don't some flip, you know, switch flipped inside my brain, and you know it's I always say, like my taste devolved. Maybe yeah, And but I think it's just more I'm open to a lot more than I used to be, where I would think, well, this is just bad, and now it's like, well, no, no one sets out to make a bad movie. I don't think, you know, everyone everyone's trying to do their best. And one thing I like, especially in exploitation films, is you have these you know, you'll have Academy Award winning actors

11:36Speaker 1:and actresses. You'll have you know, Rod Steiger and you'll have Shelley Winters, and they are I mean, they're given. They're showing up to work every day and they're doing they're you know, one hundred percent work and a lot of these movies, and it just really adds to it. You know, you get something that you know you wouldn't get from just maybe someone they pull up the street, but then you get stuff whenever they do people pull people off the street. You get these amazing things.

12:05Speaker 2:My friends get upset because, like I am like maybe the inverse of you where they love great films, and they know that I watch a lot of movies, but I only watch like really bad or like hard to find ones. And they were for like six months begging me to watch Centers, and I was like, guys, like, they're like, what other.

12:26Speaker 3:Spanish horror movies do you have to watch? Like what other like shot on video stuff from the ag You.

12:30Speaker 1:Still have a few Jeff Franco films you have not.

12:32Speaker 3:Seen sixteen now.

12:35Speaker 2:Yeah, And I just got a copy of Rolls Royce Baby, so that's kind of like Christmas here. And they're like, you're gonna watch these movies and you're not gonna watch Centers. And I watched it and I'm like, it's not gonna beat Ganja and hass guys, And they're like, what are you talking about? We don't even know what that movie is, And I'm like, it's really important.

12:57Speaker 1:So yeah, so that's kind of our hope on this. We're going to get into some movies. And I think I've seen half of the films that he covers. It's about one hundred and fifty ish that he actually is either in a chapter or in capsule reviews there at the end. So I've seen about half of those, and maybe about thirty eight percent of everything if you include those films listed in the appendix. So I'm really looking forward to see it. Like there's a lot that I haven't seen. Like we talked about Martin, I have not seen it. Oh, so when we get to it, I'll be very excited to see it, for sure.

13:31Speaker 2:I'm so excited for you for you to see it because it's like one of the most important movies. I just went past Barton this morning where his grave is, Like, I just drove across from Braddock and I was like, I would think it every morning. So I used to live across the river from it, and I'm like, I'm in Martin's world, but if he were, he real. So it's a movie that really speaks to me. Is someone that grew up here in Pittsburgh and went through the death of the steel mill and stuff. It's a movie.

14:01Speaker 2:We'll talk about it way more. We finally get to this is an intro. This is not the Martin episode.

14:05Speaker 3:I get it.

14:07Speaker 1:So, but our the first movie we're going to cover is Don't Go in the House. That is prominently featured on the cover of My Mere USA of our boy Donnie in his asbestos suit with his flamethrower, and we're going to get into that deeply here in our first episode. Yeah, and so we hope that you come back and stay tuned and we'll be getting into Don't Go in the House. So join us for the first episode.

14:34Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you.