HORROR BUSINESS Episode 95: BRAIN DEAD & BRAINSCAN featuring THE FINAL GIRLS

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys, because we’re joined by Aimee and Carly from the always amazing Final Girls Horrorcast and we’re talking about 1992’s Braid Dead aka Dead Alive and 1994’s Brainscan!!! 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. 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 what we’ve done involving horror recently. Aimee talks about the film Impetigore and Follow, and Carly talks about seeing the film Synchronic and how CBS now has the back catalog of Are You Afraid Of The Dark? Justin and Liam talk about the film Psycho Goreman and the Disney Plus series Wandavision. Up first is Brain Dead. We begin by talking about our first experiences with the film and how we learned about it, and we share how we first consumed the work of Peter Jackson. We briefly touch upon the arc of Jackson’s career, and how he’s moved from his horror roots while still maintaining a touch of the fantastic. We talk about how the film goes almost too overboard with the gore and doesn’t really know when to reel in the absurdity of the situation it’s presenting. We dive into the idea of biological “zombie” films vs. Raimi-style demonic “zombie” films, and how this could go either way. We talk about how some of the film’s scenes are actually physically gag inducing and how few movies can really do that. We talk about how the film’s feeling of horror is eventually lost due to the overwhelming amount of gore towards the end, and how despite knowing restraint the filmmakers exercise very little of it throughout the film. We touch upon the filmmaker’s choice of making this a period piece set in the ‘50s, and how that may relate to colonial anxiety in New Zealand. Up next is Brainscan. We begin with Justin talking about how as a kid the film genuinely frightened him and how ridiculous it is in hindsight. We talk about our initial experiences with the film, as Liam and Carly had never seen the film before watching it for the episode. The weird career arc of Edward Furlong is touched upon, and we talk about how the Trickster character in this is a shitty rip-off of Howie Mandel in Little Monsters. Liam talks about how Furlong’s character is an archetypical proto-incel, and how that element is the worst part of the film. We talk about the film’s relationship to the Satanic Panic phenomenon and the film’s very “90s” brand of nihilism the film wallows in. We talk about how the film is largely ambiguous as to whether or not Trickster is real, and in the end actually contradicts itself. We talk about how the film embodies the strange grotesque attitude of the alternative music scene of the 90s and how it represents a “last gasp” of true weirdness before everything became purposefully bizarre and almost cartoonish. First and foremost, thanks to Aimee and Carly for being gracious enough to come on and talk about these films with us. You can find their podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and find them on Twitter and IG at @FinalGirlsHC and @finalgirlshorrorcast And as always thank you 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, 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!