New Horror Movies Ep. 188: Oops! All Specialty Segments

Pour yourself a bowl and sharpen the roof of your mouth because Episode 188 of Jay of the Dead's New Horror Movies is serving Oops! All Specialty Segments — the podcast equivalent of picking every golden Cap'n Crunch square out of the milk and hoarding the berries for last. Jay begins with the perfectly reasonable story of how he once convinced missionary companion Eddie Marquez that he possessed prophetic powers, thanks to a cereal box spotted atop a stranger's refrigerator. From that sacred breakfast revelation springs an entire episode stripped of its usual format and crammed with the Horror Avengers' strangest, funniest, most personal obsessions. These are the segments that prove no corner of Horror is too shadowy, scholarly, slimy, or absurdly specific to investigate. You'll encounter a documentary best entered completely blind, a digital demon limping out of the early Internet, and a ranked menu of dinner scenes guaranteed to ruin your appetite. There is even a debate over whether "King Kong vs. Godzilla" is gloriously goofy or merely terrible (because peace was never an option). Nine Horror Avengers enter the cereal bowl; only the yellow squares have been removed. The result is sweet, jagged, colorful, and likely to leave your ears pleasantly scraped raw. (Ai writing is so weird…) Along the way, the gang travels from silent Swedish dread and South Korean found footage to backwoods cannibals, PG-13 exorcisms, so-called "Elevated Horror," and the urgent cultural necessity of killer-hippo cinema! Jay asks listeners to say "hippopotamus" aloud at work, condemns "Hungry" for making the obvious Hungry Hungry Hippos joke, then immediately asks whether everyone has lost their marbles. Mister Watson breaks bread over 15 disturbing dinner scenes while admitting he cannot confidently explain why No. 12 outranks No. 5. Gillman Joel and Dr. Shock confront "Horrorvision," a movie so baffling that its ending inspires the show's spiritual image: everyone simply limping off into the distance. Yet amid the glorious nonsense, Episode 188 also makes room for genuine heart: Dr. Shock's remembrance of Judith Barsi and a warm, funny tribute to Dave Zee's podcasting career, including the revelation that this entire operation was built on meeting strange men online and that Dave Zee once determined it takes exactly 563 licks to reach the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. It is an all-you-can-eat buffet of scholarship, tangents, friendship, monsters, marbles, and questionable life choices. This is what happens when Horror fandom is allowed off its leash. Bring a spoon, say grace, and as the part Cajun Gillman Joel says, "Stay swampy." NOTE: You can donate and support Jay of the Dead's podcasts right here through Venmo: Venmo.com/ConsiderCinema — Thank you!