Backrooms (2026)

Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a down and out furniture store manager, discovers a portal in the basement of his store that leads to a mysterious office space that seems to go on forever. His therapist Mary (Renate Reinsve) becomes concerned for Clark's well-being after he leaves her a cryptic message on her answering machine before disappearing. Mary goes to his store and enters the endless Backrooms to find Clark and bring him back. Now they are being chased by Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) who wants to make them fill out TPS reports forever and ever and ever...

To say that I was going to enjoy Backrooms (2026) no matter how good or bad of a film it turned out to be is a fair thing to, you know, say. Ever since I was a kid sneaking into construction sites and empty warehouses. Playing video games like Myst and Friday the 13th (the 1989 version); the kind where you end up spending a very long time just wandering around. Then as a young security guard back in the mid-1990s looking after some very empty and truly creepy spaces like an abandoned rehab facility, an unfinished medical building, and an ice cream factory on the coldest night of the year. So yes, I have felt a connection to something akin to what director Kane Parsons has cooked up.

Backrooms is an eerie, claustrophobic, and haunting film that hypnotizes from the moment it starts and put me in a place of unease that lasted long into the night after I left the theater. The film's score by Edo Van Breen (The Monkey and Keeper (both 2025)) and Kane Parsons hit all the right wistful/creepy buttons in my head and I hope I can score a copy for myself sometime. And finding out that Osgood Perkins, my favorite horror director working today, was among the producers that worked on Backrooms made me very happy indeed. 

You know shit is gonna be big when my mom, who doesn't give a crap about movies, texted me asking about Backrooms. Bless her. My bud Sam and I had a good crowd at AMC Veterans here in Tampa. Everyone seemed to enjoy it though two teenagers bailed around the 10-minute mark which made me sad.

Hello! This is the Doomed Show 296 - Mark of the Witch (1970)

Hello! This is the Doomed Show has returned for another year of madness and badness. It looks like we're gearing up for episode 300. I guess we better do something special, huh? Anyway, here's Mark and I talking about this bonkers flick from the director of Return to Boggy Creek (1977).

The Moviethon Vlog 46 - My Horror Hallway

Three Films By Oz Perkins

 

Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) - Just A Look

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) - Just A Look

Favorite Horrors Of The 1960s

Here's me getting all free love and flower power and stuff with the 1960s horror that I like and love. Making this list reminded me of the plethora of titles from this era that I have yet to see! There's no Hammer horror on here (or at least a minimal amount) because I want to do a separate list of them another time. So this a list of horrors from the 1960s because lists:

The Long Hair of Death
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
Bloody Pit of Horror
Jigoku
Frankenstein Conquers the World
The Brides of Dracula
The Day of the Triffids
Incubus
Black Sunday
Planet of the Vampires
The Mask
The Whip and the Body
The Masque of the Red Death
The Skull
The Premature Burial
Dr. Orloff's Monster
The Horrible Dr. Hichcock
Terror-Creatures from the Grave
Eyes Without a Face
Atom Age Vampire
Corruption
Succubus
Crypt of the Vampire
The Murder Clinic
Night of the Living Dead
The Witch
Maneater of Hydra
Nightmare in Wax
House of Usher
The House that Screamed
The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism
Kill, Baby, Kill
Mill of the Stone Women
Quatermass and the Pit
Kuroneko
Psycho
Venus in Furs
Captain Clegg
The Living Skeleton
The Curse of the Werewolf
The Playgirls and the Vampire
Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory
Assignment Terror
Even the Wind is Scared
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Shuttered Room
The Phantom of the Opera
Spider Baby
Scream and Scream Again
The Awful Dr. Orloff
Carnival of Souls
Frankenstein's Bloody Terror
Blood and Black Lace
The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell
Kwaidan
The Diabolical Dr. Z
The Tomb of Ligeia

Hello! This is the Doomed Show Episodes 89 and 90

Wow. Episode 100 ain't that far off, my friends. That is crazy. Here's the two most recent bouts of insanity. Listen here!

Check out the archive for the oldies.

Crimson Peak

Mia Wasikowska plays Edith Cushing, a Turn of the century lady (that's the 19th Century, BTW) who's struggling to be taken seriously as a writer. Her industrialist father (Jim Beaver) entertains a business proposal from Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), a nobleman who is trying to make his fortune in the mining industry. Edith overhears Thomas's appeal to her father and the board of directors and is quite taken with the man.

As romance blooms between Edith and Thomas, much to the chagrin of Edith's father and Thomas's overprotective sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain), a terrible tragedy "coincidentally" occurs sending her rushing into marriage. At the family home of the Sharpes, Allerdale Hall, all is not well. The place looks like a Charlotte Brontë fever dream only not as structurally sound.

Oh and there's ghosts! When Edith was a young girl, her mother died and came to visit her after the funeral to give her a warning, "Beware of Crimson Peak!" This encounter makes Edith just a tad more open to supernatural experiences than your average person. The moment she sets foot in Allerdale Hall, she is besieged by spirits that are all pretty pissed off. What do they want? Who were they? These questions and more will be answered this season on Crimson Peak!

As the month of October is coming to a close, I realized that I hadn't been to see a horror movie all damn month. And that was probably because everything but this looked like shit to me. I desperately didn't want to miss Crimson Peak on the big screen. Thankfully, the new place around here, Studio Movie Grill, is close to work and the wife and I could easily catch a screening right after work. This place used to be the Regal University 16, the legendary theater glorified in my account of Nafa's and my Halloween II experience back in 2009 (read it here).

I only have two negative criticisms for Crimson Peak; one is rather slight and the other a bit more annoying. Heck, they might even be tied together, at least they are in my deranged mind. The first thing is, I feel like the setup leading up to Edith getting to Allerdale Hall and falling for Thomas Sharpe should have been longer. Period pieces are slow and the good ones are achingly so. Thanks to my wife, I have seen A LOT of Jane Austen adaptations, some of them 4 hour versions and that length lets you settle into a story thus making the small emotional moments have a huge payoff. I realize that asking for a horror movie that is one minute short of two hours goes against every molecule of my being but damn it, this is a gothic horror film and I wanted more.

The second thing is the acting felt pretty stiff in spots. I don't want to harsh on this point too much because I'm hoping a second viewing of Crimson Peak will help me change my mind. Would I have been more invested in these performances had the movie taken it's time a little more? Probably not. I did care what happened to these people and I did get wrapped up in all the gothy melodramatic business but something is nagging at me. The one person who really bothered me was Jim Beaver. His portrayal of Carter Cushing really left me cold. He needed to be a bit more gruff or drunk or pissed off or jolly -shit, I don't care- just more something.

Now that that nitpicking is out of the way (see, only two paragraphs!), let me gush for a bit. Guillermo del Toro has never let me down and Crimson Peak is no exception. This film feels like 1. A love letter to the Hammer horror films of the 1960s, 2. A knowing nod to Mario Bava fans, and 3. A full on manly makeout session with Henry James. I've only read a few of James's works but I get the impression that he liked to kiss dudes, hard. The eerie atmosphere, beautiful set design, and magnificent lighting are paired with surprisingly brutal violence and monstrous apparitions making this a real treat for horror fans.

What makes this some next level shit is that Crimson Peak is kinda smart and it made me want to talk about this movie immediately after it was over. del Toro tells you what is going to happen early on and when it happens, your brain goes, "Damn it! I forgot about that! I'm not as smart as I thought. Blast these spectacles and useless vest!" Okay, maybe that's just me. I notice that this film has a slim chance of making its money back and I really hope it does because I want more classy, lush, and thoughtful horror films like this. Recommended. And -BONUS!- it's a great date movie.

Happy Halloween From H!TITDS

Here are three Halloween-themed episodes of your favorite podcast to make the season feel like the sleazon.

I don't know what that means!

Listen right here!

The Moviethon Vlog - The Unseenly - Ghosts Of Hanley House

I hope you guys like videoz.

The Working Man's Moviethon Volume One

I had a day off coming up so I had an idea, how about a moviethon where I watch as many movies as I can during my normal working hours? My criteria went like this: the film must be unseen by me, it must be streaming on Netflix, and it has to have beeen released in the last 5 years. It also wouldn't hurt if the movie was around 90 minutes or heck, even shorter. I decided to keep my thoughts on each film short, no more than two sentences per "review". Boom. That was my plan. Let's see how it played out... Shall we?

6:00AM - Prepartions.

I can hear my wife LeEtta getting ready for work. I have to remember not to gloat that I have the day off. Chicks don't like that. I wash my face, brush my teeth, and get dressed. I wish her a good day at work and then I get my playlist together. A few of these movies were already in our queue but I need a few more to squeeze in. Once that's done, I pour myself some iced coffee (French vanilla) and start heating up a bagel in the toaster oven. I start the first movie of the day.

6:55AM - Wolfcop (2014)

This is gory fun with a capital "HOLY SHIT!"

8:15AM - The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014)

Wow, just wow. I really wish I had seen this in theaters. A new slasher classic?

9:42AM - Toad Road (2012)

This is the druggiest movie that ever drugged a drug. It requires a fuckton of patience and skinny pants, you'll need skinny pants.

11:02AM - Haunter (2013)

Very nice! A competently made ghost movie with a teen horror sensibilities, great atmosphere, and likeable characters.

12:00PM - Lunch

I made a hotdog and bacon sandwich with cheddar cheese, mustard, and ketchup. Then I had a piece of cherry pie LeEtta made for the 4th of July with vanilla ice cream on top for dessert. I'm awesome.

12:44PM - Alyce Kills (2011)

This took me down a painful road and rewarded me for my agony. Had my favorite moment of the day (pictured above).

2:22PM - Jug Face (2013)

This is the weirdest remake of Kissin' Cousins I've ever seen.

Conclusion

And there you go. Thanks to some short running times, I managed to squeeze 6 movies into my 9 hour day. I even had time to do the dishes and clean up all of the blood before LeEtta got home. I think my favorite film of the day was The Town That Dreaded Sundown with Alyce Kills trailing close behind it. I liked everything but Toad Road was really a slog the more I think about it. The film had a great moment in the middle but it was just grueling but not in a good way. That's the only film out of everything that I watched that I don't recommend.

Creature of the Walking Dead (1965)

50 years ago today, a film called Creature of the Walking Dead was released on an unsuspecting Earth. Has anyone seen this one?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407696/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creature_of_the_Walking_Dead

The Moviethon Vlog #28 - The Unseenly: Fear Dot Com

H!TITDS Episode #61 - The Kindred

It's the last episode of 2014? Really? Yep, it's true. Our hiatus which started -like 2 months- ago is finally kicking in. We will be back in January (and if you're nice and not too naughty, there may be a special surprise from Brad and I in two weeks). But yeah, Jeffrey and I recorded our talk on The Kindred a while back and I put it in the "Rainy Day Episodes" folder until now. It's a good time episode, that's for real. Listen and write in to the show (doomedmoviethon [at] gmail.com). You should suggest a film for us to cover. If we haven't done it before, we'll totally cover it in 2015. Or just write in to let us know if you hate us!

Listen here.

Check out the archives!

We're on the iTunes as well. If you're into that kind of thing.

The Vampire Bat

The Vampire Bat
Directed by Frank Strayer
1933
Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Melvyn Douglas, Maude Eburne, Dwight Frye
63 minutes

Someone or something has been draining people of blood in a small German village. The village council and its Bürgermeister (played by Lionel Belmore) are convinced that there is something supernatural at foot including but not limited to vampires and giant vampire bats. Karl, the police inspector (Melvyn Douglas), is skeptical and laughs at such impossibly superstitious suggestions. All he wants to do is catch the criminal behind the murders. His love interest is Ruth Bertin (Fay Wray), assistant to local doctor/scientist, Dr. Otto von Niemann. They try to get intimate during every moment alone they can steal but Aunt Gussie (Maude Eburne) is always cockblocking. Things get even more tense in the village when local nutbar Herman (Dwight Frye) is seen behaving strangely and befriending bats.

SPOILERS:

Of course, Herman is totally innocent. His only crime is being a frickin' weirdo and all that necrophilia (not actually in this movie, I was just seeing if you were paying attention). While the ignorant townsfolk are busy murdering Herman, the mastermind behind all of this blood-draining madness, Dr. Otto, is free to continue his quest for blood. He needs the blood to feed his creation: a pulsating heart that he has created himself. Small town doctor just wasn't good enough for this guy, he just had to go for mad scientist status. Niemann has hypnotized one of his assistants, Emil (Robert Frazer), into running around town, acquiring blood for him. Shit gets real when Ruth eavesdrops on him giving orders to Emil who is out on the prowl for Karl's blood.

END OF SPOILERS

What a revelation The Vampire Bat was! Full disclosure: I am very negligent when it comes to horror films pre-1950. It's not just horror, I am a tad impatient with any film that old from any genre. I'm just impatient with the golden oldies but I'm trying to get better. Every time that I stop being a wuss and check out something like, oh let's say, The Mummy (1932), and I am kicking myself in the dick for not watching it sooner. Why was I more open-minded as a kid? So ANYWAY, I should probably talk about The Vampire Bat.

Melvyn Douglas is amazing. His character, Karl, doles out some seriously unthinkable sarcasm. Every line he utters in that first scene with the village council is just ludicrously acerbic. Fay Wray is instantly likeable onscreen and is incredibly cute. I liked Lionel Atwill quite a bit but man oh man, the screen is stolen by Dwight Frye. This guy is just electric as Herman, the town crazy doomed to be misunderstood and ultimately destroyed by dumb motherfuckers. He brought a smile to my face from his first lines and I was super bummed out when his character meets his end.

One thing this movie has is some "comic relief" in the form of Aunt Gussie. Think of Una O'Connor in Bride of Frankenstein only fucking stupider or more dumb. I don't know who's aunt she is but man oh man, she doesn't die quick enough for me. Also, she doesn't die in the movie so yeah, NOT QUICK ENOUGH! This jackass is a hypochondriac of the highest order and she only seems to like hanging out with Dr. Niemann and Ruth in case she needs some meds. The more I write about her, the more my hatred grows.

I am glad that my self-imposed ignorance of old movies is finally paying off in that I have decades of old horror films to catch up on. My incorrect perception of horror films, especially from the 1930s was that they were clunky in dialog and plotting (which they totally are but I totally dig now (totally)) and stuffy (which they usually aren't). The camera is suprisingly fluid in this film. Some dolly shots combined with clever cutting make for some excellent sequences that are really eye­-opening given this film is over 80 years old. There is lots of spooky atmospherics to be found in this picture that horror fans will eat up plus the pseudoscience and the weirdness will make you nod knowingly or smile like a dang hyena (or maybe that's just me). Highly recommended if you haven't seen this one already (but your probably already have).

"Well, I don't mind admitting that I'm up a tree. Stumped!"

Guest Blog: Top 5 American Horror Films of the 1990s

I like lists and I know for a fact that Brad of Hello! This is the Doomed Show and Yellow Razor likes- no, loves them too. We make lists together and here is a list now. Listy list. LIST LIST LIST. Since the 90s were so great and the horror movies from that era were better than any other era in the history of mankind, I thought we should talk about some American horror films from that era. And hey, why not put that discussion in list form. Here is Brad's top 5 and you can read mine over at his blog. Word up.

5. Dr. Giggles (1992)

Some of you may be confused as to the inclusion of Dr. Giggles on my list, even at #5. But this is exactly what a 12 year old undiscerning horror film fan loved in 1992. A good back-story, a weird, giggling antagonist, and a creepy hospital set piece delivered the goods. Yes, re-watching it doesn't elicit quite the same response but it's a good memory and it kept new horror alive for me in my early VHS rental days. I'm not even going to say guilty pleasure because I do return to it from time to time. And there's that scene. You know.

4. Event Horizon (1997)

This freaked us out at the theater and it freaked me out (not as much admittedly, but still) on bluray. What I thought was a sci-fi/horror film that would tip the scales more on the sci-fi side was actually far more horror than I anticipated. This is the closest we'll get to Hellraiser in Space (I know there's a Hellraiser in Space) even though most of us probably aren't looking for a Hellraiser in Space. Sam Neill + Black Hole + Hellraiser In Space. Number 4 on this list has been brought to you by Hellraiser in Space.

3. The Resurrected (1991)

This is a little gem from Dan O'Bannon who didn't direct nearly enough horror films in my opinion. Probably the best straight up Lovecraft adaptation out there for my money with a great performance from Chris Sarandon. Even though I think it's well directed it does have the look of a nicely made cable film of the time. This was one I half remembered for a long time before I stumbled across it on Netflix. Based on The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward it plays like a neo-noir that wandered into a horror film. Highly recommended.

2. In The Mouth Of Madness

John Carpenter's last great film and the only one of his that I've seen in the theater. My friends and I saw this and Event Horizon both and we decided that there was something very wrong with Sam Neill. And we hadn't even seen Possession yet. This is Carpenter's take on Lovecraft and it works on several levels, one of them being 'meta' right before that was trendy. Bravura editing and Carpenter's trademark widescreen picture plus Neill's slowly descending into madness acting and some genuinely squirm inducing effects makes this a winner for me. Do you read Sutter Cane?

1. Wolf

I think it's safe to say that from the moment the trailer hit television, we were all excited for what promised to be the definitive werewolf/wolfman picture. The chemistry between Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer burned through the screen like no other coupling in film history. Years after his groundbreaking horror films The Graduate and Working Girl, director Mike Nichols delivered...Nah, I can't do it. I mean The Blair Witch Project is my number one film from the 90's, right? A masterclass in suspense and not looking the horror directly in the eye, opinion on the film is still split today. Released not too long really before everyone had a cell phone and internet and Facebook, the film delivers one of the last looks at true myth making unencumbered by post modern skepticism. You don't have to actually see the witch herself to be scared. Your brain can fill in the blanks. And that is terrifying.

-Brad Hogue

Hello! This is the Doomed Show Episode #12

Episode 12 has come. Brad and I do some damage to some films. We cold rock the Screams of a Winter Night and Jennifer. This isn't a joke. This is real. You can listen to and/or download the episode at Podomatic or you can just download it at Mediafire. And don't forget, older episodes are located at our archives.  Those are totally real things you can do.

1976: Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde

Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde
Directed by William Crain
1976
Starring Bernie Casey, Rosalind Cash, Marie O'Henry, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Milt Cogan, Stu Gilliam
87 minutes

Dr. Henry Pride (played by Bernie Casey) is a kindly physician working at a hospital in a poor neighborhood. He is always turning down the advances of Linda (Marie O'Henry), an attractive prostitute with liver problems. With his lovely associate, Dr. Billie Worth (Rosalind Cash), Dr. Pride is working on an experimental drug to cure liver disease. He notices that it turns black rats into white rats. Another side effect is that the white rats turn evil and kill all the black rats. After several failures with lab animals, Dr. Pride realizes he needs a human test subject. After testing it on a dying patient with less than stellar results, the good doctor uses himself as a guinea pig.

After his "miracle drug" turns him into a big white creature filled with rage, Pride's evil side pursues Linda but she is terrified of him. The next day, when the effects have subsided and Dr. Pride is black to normal again, he reveals to Linda that he needs her to be a test subject for his drug. She declines but he tells her that refusal is not an option. Linda just barely escapes but others are not so lucky. Dead hookers begin showing up all over town.



Director William Crain (Blacula) takes some trashy and hilarious material and transforms it into something trashy and hilarious. Composer Johnny Pate keeps things funky and awesome. The script is filled with all types of ludicrously corny pimps, hookers, and drug dealers. It's also got lots of cursing, melodrama, violence, and jive talkin' that makes the blaxploitation genre so magical. But at the heart of it all, the story is a timeless one: a man with a hole in his heart uses modern science (and killing hookers) to fill that hole and comedy ensues.



There might be a message to this film but whatever it is, it's so heavy-handed that it's laughable. When Linda tells Dr. Pride that he isn't black enough, I just wanted to climb into a hole and die. The more he becomes like his evil white self, the more painful the story gets. An antidote to this schlock is my favorite character: Lt. Jackson, played by Ji-Tu Cumbuka. He's a super-cool detective who uses big words like "insalubrious" and cuts a very imposing swath through the neighborhood.



Despite its "white people are evil" vibe, which I don't take personally (because I happen to be a pretty righteous dude) or very seriously, I really love Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde. Bernie Casey really goes wild as Mr. Hyde. My favorite moment in the film is when Dr. Pride -in Mr. Hyde mode, of course- throws a hooker across a parking lot and then runs over her with his Rolls Royce. You should definitely check out this crazy flick, it's a wild and entertaining monster romp for the ages. Okay, maybe just one age: the sweet, sweet 70s.



Quotes

"Splittin' already, Gwen baby?"

"I gotta call my mama, motherfucker."

"Yeah well, when you see her tell her she knows where to send the money."

----

"Well, you know if it had been the regular bit, like a murder, shooting, stabbing, beating -then we could understand it and have the proclivity to solve it. But this little lady has had her neck crushed like in a vice; meaning somebody has put some shit into the game. You know what I mean?"

1976: The Premonition

The Premonition
Directed by Robert Allen Schnitzer
1976
Starring Sharon Farrell, Edward Bell, Danielle Brisebois, Ellen Barber, Richard Lynch, Chitra Neogy, Jeff Corey
94 minutes

Andrea Fletcher (played by Ellen Barber) is a lunatic who travels with the carnival to look for the daughter she was forced to give up for adoption. She enlists Jude (Richard Lynch), an unbalanced mime (yes, you read that right), to help her accomplish her goals. Her daughter Janie (Danielle Brisebois) has been living with her new parents, Sheri and Miles (Sharon Farrell and Edward Bell), unaware that she's the progeny of a total nutburger. Andrea and Jude's first attempt to kidnap Janie go awry but it does establish a psychic connection between Sheri and Andrea. And this is the start of all kinds of paranormal bullshit and whatnot. All you need to know is that it all ends in an impromptu supernatural electric piano concert.

Well, this is... different. And I don't mean different good, I mean different bad. I had high hopes for The Premonition especially after the opening sequence with Richard Lynch in ballet slippers practicing his mime routine. That is sort of the highpoint of the film, I'm afraid. I did like the score by Henry Mollicone. Wait, what? That is seriously that dude's name? Thankfully, the cast are real people with real names. Lynch and Barber have some great scenes together. I liked Chitra Neogy and wish she had done more movies. Her burgeoning almost-romance with Edward Bell's character is good stuff. Character actor Jeff Corey steals every scene he's in as the befuddled detective.

A great cast, offbeat direction, and good camerawork just can't help the obvious and pretentious script. I will give The Premonition a little credit for its eccentricity and quirkiness but I barely got through this one. Okay, I didn't make it. I fell asleep but I did go back and pick up what I missed. On paper, this all sounds great but the more I think about this film afterwards, the more I just don't like it. Who knows? I usually like films that deliver the weirdness and the corny dialog but The Premonition left me stuck under the Ferris wheel. I should probably point out that I do think this film is worth checking out. I am sure that it will strike a chord (hey o!) with some adventurous viewers.


"This is just my gay job."


"Ra cha cha, muthafucka!"


Actors reacting to the dailies.


"At least I'm better than Tori Amos!"