PREDATOR: BADLANDS

This week Mike and Devaughn are joined by guest Alex Pagliuca to rate the nine films in the Predator franchise. From alien worlds to the deepest jungles, through different historical periods, this series has taken us everywhere, now we're taking a few minutes to line it all up.

Mike and Brian are on hand to discuss the latest entry in the Predator series, BADLANDS. We both had a lot of fun with this one, and wondered about the influence another franchise from a galaxy far, far away had on this one. Add in the tie-ins to the Alien universe, and we were in scifi heaven.

Mike and Stephen are joined by special guest Hope to talk about the secret Predator animated movie that dropped earlier this year, that just maybe might be be the best Predator movie you see this year.

Mike, Devaughn, & special guest Kinnell watch AVP: Requiem, so you don't have to. If you like what you’re listening to make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcast feeds. Please take a moment to rate and review us on the Apple Podcast app, or rate us on the Spotify app. Reviews and five star ratings help new listeners find us every day, and we greatly appreciate the feedback and support. Check out our website for easy access to our full catalog of shows, with hundreds of hours of free content. You can search the catalog, leave a review and even leave us feedback all from the site. Go to www.podandthependulum.com to check it out. If you have the means, consider becoming a patron today and support the show. Patreon members get exclusive full length episodes, audio fan commentaries, exclusive mini-sodes and more. Join today at patreon.com/podandthependulum.

This week on the pod, what happens when you take two of the most iconic movie monsters and throw them in a long-awaited battle royale where the fate of mankind hangs in the balance? You get a pulpy B-movie that doesn’t quite live up to what could have been but is fun all the same from director Paul WS Anderson. While the end result of AVP is no doubt a little underwhelming, it’s still a fun sci-fi horror mashup, and it exemplifies the kind of movie that made spending Saturday afternoons hungover on the couch while flipping through cable channels a first class recreation activity. Twenty plus years later can we at least admit that a solid cast of characters you’ll forget about immediately, and a commitment to mostly shoot practical effects means AVP gets more right than wrong?

After a few weeks of one-off shows, and a well-deserved week off, we're back in franchise land. This week we're covering PREY, the streaming Hulu hit that revitalized the Predator franchise after a series of commercial and artistic disappointments.

Trick or Treat listeners as we have a very special bonus episode for you this Halloween. Mike, Stephen, & Nichole have brought our own bag of goodies as we talk about this year's latest entry in the long running horror anthology franchise V/H/S. While it seems hard to believe, this is the first time the Shudder / Bloody Disgusting coproduction has focused exclusively on the Halloween theme. Does it work? Hell yes it does as the five segments and wraparound represent some of the best work yet. From the creepy weirdness of "Coochie Coochie Coo" to the satanic panic inspired Kid Prints, and the goofy romp of Home Haunting, this one really captures what makes the holiday a blast.

This week we have special cooking, and we get to push back talking about AVP: Requiem another week! Double Win!Our own diabolical Devaughn Taylor has set up a draft where your crew picks five of their favorite franchise follow ups. Since it can't be that easy, there are rules! Only one franchise can be represented. We can steal a pick from another host, or we can wipe the whole slate clean. There are trivia challenges. It's surprise picks, threats of bodily harm, lots of cursing, way too personal confessions and overall pure chaos, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Your players are Devaughn, Mike, Stephen, and Brian.

For this week's episode we have a very special bonus for all of our listeners. With it being the scary season and with Halloween right around the corner we know that hardcore genre fans and seasonal drop ins alike are gearing up to watch as many horror movies as possible. Maybe you're getting ready for an all-nighter at your local theater as they do their yearly marathons. Maybe you're throwing an annual Halloween bash and you want to have a line up of scary favorites for all of your guests. Or maybe you just want to curl up on a cool fall evening under the blankets with that big old tub of popcorn and something nice and hot to drink while watching a bunch of horror movies on your own. no matter what your crew has a number of marathons that we planned out each featuring our own special theme. Brian has a quartet of meta-horror titles for you to enjoy. Devaughn doubled up on his themes featuring horror from around the world along with creature classics. Stephen is so over Halloween that his choices feature holiday horror that have nothing to do with the 31st of October. Mike has a foursome of frightful anthologies to set the mood for those with shorter attention spans. Finally, Ariel has also doubled up, with a slew of movies that take place on Halloween night that aren’t part of the Halloween franchise, and also double as haunted attractions. How did we do, comment on our Spotify page, or send us a note, and if you have your own movie marathons planned, we want to hear about them.

This week Mike is joined by guest Alex Pagliuca to talk about what went wrong with 2018's THE PREDATOR. From behind the scenes controversies including extensive reshoots, to the questionable casting of a sex offender (and then hiding that info from the cast) this one seemed doomed from the start, despite writer / director Shane Black coming off a bit of a hit streak. We're here to break it all down, from the dodgy CGI to the unfortunate depiction of autism. Plus, what would have been different if HAL Holbrook had been cast in the lead as opposed to Boyd?