HORROR BUSINESS Episode 51: THE COMPANY OF WOLVES & BAD MOON

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys. On this episode we’re discussing 1984’s The Company Of Wolves and 1996’s Bad Moon. First and foremost we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors 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. Also, thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally grateful for that support. Thanks! We start by talking about what we’ve seen or done lately in the field of horror. Liam begins by talking about seeing Lars Von Trier’s The House That Jack Built, and we discuss our opinions on the work of Von Trier. Liam also talks about the recent Netflix film CAM and a recent Japanese film entitled One Cut Of The Dead and The God In My Ear as well as seeing Overlord in theatres with Justin. Justin then talks about seeing the films Mom And Dad, The Night Eats The World, The Cured, Possum, Marrowbone, Primal Rage, and Summer of ’84, as well as starting the newest season of Syfy’s Channel Zero. First up is 1984’s The Company Of Wolves. Liam and Justin spend much of the episode good heartedly sparring over their opinions over the film, with Liam greatly enjoying the film while Justin is only lukewarm on it. We give a brief outline of the plot of the film. We discuss the positive aspects of the film, including the cinematography, the practical effects, some of the imagery, the story, and the structure. We then turn to what we didn’t necessarily enjoy about the film, including the pacing, the tone deaf nature of the film at times in regards to blossoming female sexuality, and the heavy handed nature of the film’s message. There is more discussion on the themes of the film, as well as the body of work of Neil Jordan. Liam discusses the design of the werewolves and how he thinks that if the design isn’t the “hulking man beast” bipedal werewolf, then the best design is simply people turning into actual wolves. Justin criticizes the ending in which the wolves are actually real as misguided and ill-executed. Up next is 1996’s Bad Moon. We give a brief outline of the film, touching upon the oddness of the film opening up in Borneo as well as the somewhat unnecessary and gratuitous sex scene. The films lack of werewolf lore and it’s mushiness in character development is dissected, along with some of the more confounding decisions made by the weak main character. We talk about how the movie attempts to position itself as a classic werewolf tale of love and tragedy but fails due to the films inability to decide if the main character is struggling with his plight or embracing it and being malicious. The concept of the character Thor, a German Shepherd who is the main character of the story the movie is based on, struggling with the desire to submit to the werewolf as a pack leader versus standing up to the werewolf to defend his human family, is touched upon. The fact that the film gets right the hardest part of werewolf films (the design of the werewolf) while gloriously missing the mark on the rest of it, is discussed, with Justin basically arguing that the movie sans the sex scene at the beginning is essentially a kids film with a scary werewolf. The films laughable transformation sequence is touched upon and there is more discussion on the effectiveness of the werewolf design. The films grim yet satisfying ending is discussed. As always thanks 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. 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 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, Alexis, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.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, 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!