October 15, 2025

Episode 767: Raw (2016)

Special Guest: Barbara Creed
Guest Co-Hosts: Suzen Tekla Kruglnska, Beth Accomando

Shocktober 2025 sinks its teeth into Raw (2016), Julia Ducournau’s visceral coming-of-age horror. Garance Marillier stars as Justine, a sheltered vegetarian entering veterinary school, where a brutal hazing ritual ignites her taste for flesh—both animal and human.

Co-hosts Suzen Tekla Kruglnska and Beth Accomando join Mike to explore Ducournau’s blend of body horror and female awakening, peeling back the film’s layers of appetite, identity, and transgression. Special guest Barbara Creed, author of The Monstrous-Feminine, offers insight into how Raw redefines the monstrous body for a new generation.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Raw on Blu-Ray

Music:
"Plus putes que toutes les putes" - Orties

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October 13, 2025

Special Report: Ego Fest XV

Special Report: Ego Fest XV Ego Fest XV cracks open The Projection Booth once again as Mike faces a barrage of listener questions from the devoted to the deranged. From the mysteries of the long-teased 2001: A Space Odyssey episode to favorite decades of filmmaking and the highs and lows of a year’s worth of interviews, nothing’s off the table.

Mike talks shop on balancing multiple podcasts, favorite co-hosts, and whether a Dabney Coleman series might lurk in the future. Fans ask about Elliot Gould, Malcolm McDowell, the Weirding Way family, Kurt Cobain, and even Mike’s clarinet. It’s a revealing, and deeply personal episode that proves—once again—that the man behind the mic never stops creating, curating, or caffeinating.

Big thanks to Dallas Norvell, Captain Billy, Robert Maines, and Ben Buckingham for the thoughtful questions. Also big thanks to all of the listeners who provided such insightful reviews.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Visit Weirding Way Media for more free entertainment

Music:
"I Got The" - Labi Siffre
"Cola Bottle Baby" - Edwin Birdsong

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October 8, 2025

Episode 766: In My Skin (2002)

Guest Co-Hosts: Axel Kohagen, Ben Buckingham

Shocktober continues with Marina de Van’s unnerving and unforgettable In My Skin (Dans ma peau, 2002). Written, directed by, and starring de Van, the film follows Esther, a successful marketing executive whose accidental leg injury opens a darkly intimate portal to obsession and self-discovery. As she becomes fixated on her own wound, Esther’s relationship with her body—and reality itself—begins to unravel in a visceral exploration of autonomy, alienation, and flesh as frontier.

Axel Kohagen and Ben Buckingham join Mike for a deep dive into de Van’s fearless vision, its connection to the New French Extremity, and the uneasy beauty found beneath the skin.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy In My Skin on Blu-Ray
Learn more about Heide Hatry

Music:
"Dans La Peau" - Marie Carmen

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October 1, 2025

Episode 765: Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971)

Episode 765: Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971) Special Guest: Stefanie Powers
Guest Co-Hosts: Amanda Reyes, Kendall R. Phillips

Shocktober 2025 begins with Sutton Roley's Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971), the eerie TV movie that launched The Sixth Sense series. Written by , the film stars Stefanie Powers as Rachel Stanton, a glamorous woman whose husband dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving her caught in a web of supernatural intrigue. Alex Dreier play Dr. Lucas Darrow, a psychic researcher who, along with Carey Johnson (Chris Robinson), investigate the strange goings-on of the Piper family.

Mike is joined by Amanda Reyes and Kendall R. Phillips to dissect the film’s blend of paranormal thrills and TV Gothic atmosphere. Plus, Stefanie Powers herself stops by to share memories of stepping into Rachel’s haunted shoes.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Are You In The House Alone?: A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999 by Amanda Reyes
Buy Kolchak: the Night Stalker by Kendall R. Phillips
Buy One from the Hart by Stefanie Powers
Learn about the William Holden Wildlife Foundation

Music:
"Sweet Rachel" - Beau Coup

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September 29, 2025

Episode 764: Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

Episode 764: Conspirators of Pleasure (1996) Special Guest: Peter Hames
Guest Co-Hosts: Jim Vendiola, Samm Deighan

Czechtember 2025 wraps with Jan Švankmajer's Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), a delirious, dialogue-free plunge into fetish and surrealism. Mike teams up with filmmaker Jim Vendiola and critic Samm Deighan to unravel the tangled lives of six Prague eccentrics whose private obsessions—ranging from papier-mâché contraptions to elaborate role-play—collide in hilariously unsettling ways. The result is a darkly comic meditation on desire, ritual, and the pleasures of the bizarre, filtered through Švankmajer’s singular stop-motion, tactile textures, and Surrealist imagination.

We're joined by Peter Hames, editor of The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer: Dark Alchemy.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Conspirators of Pleasure on DVD

Music:
"La Boheme: Act I: Che Gelida Manina" - Mario Lanza

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September 24, 2025

Episode 763: Romance for Bugle (1967)

Guest Co-Hosts: Spencer Parsons, Emily Barney

Czechtember charges ahead as Mike, Spencer Parsons, and Emily Barney dive into Otakar Vávra’s Romance for Bugle (1967). Vávra adapts František Hrubín’s celebrated poem into a lyrical love story set in the Czech countryside. Terina (Zuzana Cigánová), a young Roma woman, ignites passion in Vojta (Jaromír Hanzlík) and Viktor (Štefan Kvietik), pulling the two men into a tense triangle of longing and rivalry. The film also reflects back through the eyes of Vojta as an older man (Július Vašek), who recalls his youthful heartbreak. Cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera saturates the screen with striking imagery, while Vávra shapes the material into a cinematic elegy that fuses poetry, politics, and loss.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Romance for Bugle on DVD (No English Subtitles)

Music:
"Romance pro křídlovku" - Stanislav Sejpal, Rudolf Urbanec, Dechový orchestr Gramofonových závodů

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September 23, 2025

Special Report: The Naked Gun (2025)

Special Report: The Naked Gun (2025) Guest Co-Hosts: Mark Begley, Chris Stachiw

We knew it would happen and here it is! It's the return of our short-lived ZAZ show, From the Files of Police Squad (In Color), where Mike White, Mark Begley, and Chris Stachiw discuss the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun franchise with... The Naked Gun! The film stars Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. and Paul Walker Hauser as Ed Hocken Jr., with Pamela Anderson along as the love interest, Beth Davenport—an author of true crime novels based on fictional stories that she makes up.

The film reunites the powerhouse trio behind Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)--Dan Gregor, , and Akiva Schaffer--who do a great job channeling the ZAZ flavor of comedy.

Revisit the entire run of From the Files of Police Squad (In Color) at http://www.policesquadincolor.com.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy The Naked Gun (2025) on 4K Blu-Ray

Music:
"The Naked Gun" Theme - Ira Newborn

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September 17, 2025

Episode 762: Lemonade Joe (1964)

Episode 762: Lemonade Joe (1964) Guest Co-Hosts: Jonathan Owen, Alistair Pitts

Czechtember gallops forward with Oldřich Lipský's madcap musical parody Lemonade Joe (1964). Adapted from ’s novel and play, the film stars Karel Fiala as the squeaky-clean pitchman of Kolalok Cola who rides into town to clean up the Wild West. Standing in his way is Miloš Kopecký as the dastardly Horác Badman—better known as Hogofogo. With tinted black-and-white visuals, slapstick invention, and a send-up of both Hollywood westerns and consumer culture, this is pure Lipský—irreverent, dazzling, and completely unforgettable.

Mike is joined by Jonathan Owen and Alistair Pitts to unpack this fizzy Czech classic.

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Links:
Become a supporter of The Projection Booth
Buy Lemonade Joe on Blu-Ray (Be aware that Trump's tariffs have made importing incredibly pricey)

Music:
"Limonádový Joe - Úvodní titulky k americké verzi" - American Dub Version
"Limonádový Joe - Prolog a výstup Horáce" - Zdenìk Dítì, Zdenìk Stránský, Skupina Vìtrník
"Limonádový Joe" - Žlutý pes
"To jsem ja, ten kovboj (Rhinestone Cowboy)" - Waldemar Matuska

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