Really Awful Movies

Enjoy the REALLY AWFUL MOVIES PODCAST
Subscribe – Blubrry – Stitcher – iTunes –

In this week’s podcast, we issued a challenge to our listeners: send us a movie with a plot more ridiculous than Miami Connection.

As we said in an earlier review:

Never has a film been built on a foundation this flimsy: a crummy band embittered by being replaced by ‘Dragon Sound’ in an awful Orlando nightclub, decide to war it out with them by enlisting the help of a gang. This film is definitely not up to code.

But that doesn’t even begin to describe Miami Connection (actually set in Orlando). You see, Dragon Sound’s mandate is to spread “taekwondo awareness (!)” Fine you might say, every band’s got a gimmick.

But Dragon Sound members are not only martial arts students and University of Central Florida co-eds, they’re ORPHANS (!) and led inexplicably by a Korean dojo master twenty years their senior. And because this is Florida, there are ninjas (?!)

There’s also a long last dad, a band member who claims Korean heritage but clearly has none whatsoever, a guy who’s cut across the chest with a sword who’s not even kept overnight in hospital for observation, and a reunion subplot that’s one of the most hilarious things we’ve ever seen and that has become a minor YouTube sensation.

There’s also a protracted beach scene (see the “check out the guns” pose top right), which is weird as this is the very landlocked Orlando, Florida. When you think gang warfare, the not exactly mean streets of Orlando isn’t the first place you’d turn. And speaking of violence, the end of this film, after all the carnage, bloodshed and battling…there’s actually an appeal to world peace!

Check out our discussion of the absolutely gloriously, campy, endearing and fantastic Miami Connection. It’s more fun than The Room. AV Club called it “bizarre cultural flotsam” and that’s a pretty accurate assessment.

[Check out our discussion of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the Really Awful Movies Podcast!]

Grainy, grisly, a reputation that precedes itself…

In this episode of the Really Awful Movies podcast, we revisit the harrowing classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, how we came to see the film and how we anticipated lots of gore rather than pulled punches. That doesn’t undermine the psychological horror of TCM…

We discuss the film’s original title, Headcheese and how the visceral movie works on the viewer on different levels. The mind fills in the gore blanks.

The classic 1974 horror was directed and produced by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel.

Chainsaw stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen, who respectively portray Sally Hardesty, Franklin Hardesty, the hitchhiker, the proprietor, and Leatherface, the main antagonist and indelible horror villain.

The film follows a group of friends who fall victim to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit the old Hardesty homestead. Although the marketing campaign suggested that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based on a true story, its plot is entirely fictional; however, the character of Leatherface and minor plot details were inspired by the real-life crimes of cannibal murderer Ed Gein.

Our friend Luis at the incredible (and now sadly defunct) Suspect Video told us that people think they’ve rented the wrong version because the film is tamer than what people expect.

The Really Awful Movies team of Jeff and Chris break down the film’s weird family dynamics and talk about the excellent book Chain Saw Confidential: How We Made the World’s Most Notorious Horror Movie by the late Gunnar Hansen.

We also look at the state of Texas and its city VS rural demographics, portraying people with disabilities in movies and why Wisconsin produces so many serial killers.

The cliché of the hitchhiker, hillbilly horror films and how Gunnar Hansen was cast in the iconic role of Leatherface are among other topics covered.

Be sure and check out weekly episodes of the Really Awful Movies Podcast!