HORROR BUSINESS Episode 111: DEADLY GAMES & RARE EXPORTS

  Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys because we’re talking 1989’s Deadly Games and 2010’s Rare Exports. First off thank you to the fine folks over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Thank you also to Essex Coffee Roasters, our newest sponsor. Head to www.essexcoffeeroasters.com to check out their fine assortment of coffee and enter CINEPUNX in the promo code for ten percent off your order! And as always thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally thankful. If you would like to become a Patron, head to patreon.com/cinepunx. Thanks in advance! We start by talking about some of the stuff involving horror recently. We discuss the films Silent Night and The Novice, and Liam talks about acquiring some more trades from Mike Mignola’s BPRD Universe. We start with Deadly Games. We briefly discuss the film’s production background in which the creators briefly considered suing the creators of Home Alone due to the similarities, and Justin laments the fact that the film is often seen as merely the schlocky horror film that may or may not have inspired Home Alone. We discuss the very dark aspect of the film in which a child vows to kill Santa Claus for murdering his dog and how this aspect of the film is what makes the film so endearing, in that it’s never winking at the audience but instead plays it entirely straight. We dive deeper into the film’s deviance from the comedic route that Home Alone takes in the villain’s motivation, as well as one of the darker aspects of the latter film being that Macauley Culkin doesn’t know his family is merely on vacation and instead thinks he wished them away and they’re not coming back. We talk about the movie’s similarity to something Spielberg would have made back in the ‘80s and how it uses the emotional whiplash to its advantage in disorienting the viewer. We talk about how the film has very real stakes as compared to HA, and how the film has a weirdly surreal feel to it at times in that it feels almost like a dream. Up next is Rare Exports. Justin talks about some of the effective wintertime imagery of the film. We discuss how the film would technically qualify as a folk horror film in that it involves something from the past that was buried being unearthed in present times and wreaking havoc. We talk about the film’s arc away being somewhat tongue in cheek into something darker. We discuss the film’s sleight of hand in its revelation that the character we think is Santa is merely one of Santa’s minions and the true inspiration for Santa is far more monstrous. We discuss the film’s semi-inconsistent tone. Justin talks about how he found the protagonist overwhelmingly annoying and how he seemed to exist only to propel other characters into danger and push the plot forward. We talk how the big showdown ending comes off as unearned. First and foremost, thank you for listening and to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening and donating. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to [email protected]. We would love to hear from you! Thanks always to Justin Miller, Jacob Roberts, Paul Sharkey, and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com and on Twitter), Essex Coffee Roasters (www.essexcoffeeroasters.com) and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, check out our Spotify account at Cinepunx, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and stickers!  Check out www.cinepunx.com for more info on some of our other podcasts, some ultra stylish Cinepunx related merchandise, and how you can donate to our Patreon! Until next time…thanks!