Decades of Horror 1980s Gruesome Podcasts

Near Dark (1987) — Episode 116 — Decades of Horror 1980s [Live from DragonCon 2017]

“It’s finger-lickin’ good!” Severen (Bill Paxton) gives an accurate description of how human blood tastes. Or so we assume. After being tossed to the side upon its initial release,  Near Dark  is basically a western with a horror sheen. Caleb Cotton (Adrian Pasdar) is a modern hombre who gets mixed up with a group of marauders with a thirst for blood. The Grue Crew talk about all this gem live from DragonCon with a very special guest: C. Robert Cargill, writer of Sinister,  Doctor Strange  and the recently released book  Sea of Rust!  Now *that* sounds finger-lickin’ good to us!

Decades of Horror 1980s
Episode 116 — Near Dark (1987)

Near Dark  is notable on a lot of levels. The directorial debut of future Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break,  The Hurt Locker) was a curious debut.  Near Dark  has it all. Paxton chewing up the scenery. Vampires wandering around in a mobile home. Some kick ass fire stunts. This western aesthetic creates a vast endless desert for our heroes to wander around, looking for blood to feed on as they avoid exploding in the wake of the sun. The moment you hear those spurs coming closer, it’s not a gun you have to worry about. It’s the fangs that’ll tear out your throat.

To talk Near Dark, Thomas and Christopher are not only reunited with Doc Rotten and frequent Grue Crew co-host Bill Mulligan. No, for this live episode recorded at DragonCon, our boys are joined by C. Robert Cargill. You may have known him as the film critic “Massawyrm” from Ain’t It Cool News, screenwriter of films like  Sinister  &  Doctor Strange  or for his books like the recently released  Sea of Rust. These five talk this gem of a vampire film in front of a live audience, asking the big questions. Is this peak Paxton? How much of this genre fare crept into Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar material? Did this need a sax scene to compete with  Lost Boys that same year? All these questions and more are answered in this episode!

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Special thanks to  Neon Devils  for their awesome song Bone Chillin!

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Child’s Play (1988)

 

Doc Rotten
Doc Rotten is the founder of Gruesome Magazine. He is also a film critic for Gruesome Magazine and the podcast host & producer for Horror News Radio, Monster Movie Podcast, Decades of Horror: 1970s, The American Horror Story Fan Podcast and Hannibal Fan Podcast. He is also co-host of the Dracula podcast on TV TALK and is a contributing reviewer for HorrorNews.Net and Widescreen Warrior. Doc a lifelong fan of horror films, sci-fi flicks and monster movies first discovering Universal Monsters and Planet of the Apes as a young child in the 1970's searching out every issue of Famous Monster of Filmland (and, later, Fangoria). Favorite films include Jaws, The Car, The Birds, The Tingler, Vampire Circus and The Exorcist. Still a huge fan of horror films from the 70s, Doc continues consuming horror films to this day for the site, for the podcasts and for the fun of it all.
http://www.docrotten.com