250 - The Skulls (2000) & Initiation (2020)

Get more at www.patreon.com/podsematary! Read our afterthoughts for this episode at https://twitter.com/PodSematary/status/1561549628025147393 CW: Suicide, Rape, Rape Culture It’s Back-to-School Week on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey pledge school societies where they live by the melodrama and die by the melodrama. The Classic Film: The Skulls (2000) "For Luke McNamara, an invitation to join the prestigious secret college organization, The Skulls, is a dream come true, until murder befalls another student” (Mill Creek Entertainment). The Skulls is not a horror movie, sorry. Instead, it's Baby's First Thriller, like a novel adapted into a children's picture book. But if you stick it out, the extreme goofiness might be enough to have you thinking it's so bad that it's good. The Modern Film: Initiation (2020) "Whiton University unravels the night a star-athlete is murdered, kicking off a spree of social media slayings that force students to uncover the truth behind the school's hidden secrets and the horrifying meaning of an exclamation point” (IMDb.com). Initiation is a strikingly shot and acted drama going through a pretty paint-by-numbers horror plot that becomes a mishmash of incredible, mediocre, and even inept moments, making it difficult to recommend despite being... kinda good, I guess? Audio Sources: "12 Angry Men" (1997 TV Movie) produced by MGM Television "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" produced by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, et al. "Black Christmas" (1974) produced by Film Funding Ltd. of Canada, et al. "The Faculty" (1998) produced by Dimension Films & Los Hooligans Productions "The Fast and the Furious" (2001) produced by Universal Pictures, et al. "Initiation" produced by Shatterproof Films "The NeverEnding Story" produced by Constantin Film, et al. "Not Another Teen Movie" produced by Columbia Pictures, et al. "Showdown" written by Jeff Lynne and performed by the Electric Light Orchestra "The Skulls" (2000) produced by Universal Pictures, et al.