“I have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk…” – is the answer Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, frequently gave when asked where he got his ideas. Mr. Bloch’s answer gave us an idea on how to kick off our new podcast. We asked each of our co-hosts where they got their love for horror. Then we asked each of them to choose their favorite films of each decade from the 1920s through the 1960s, or as we call it, The Classic Era. Please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Erin Miskell, Chad Hunt, Joseph Perry, and Jeff Mohr, the co-hosts of the new podcast, Decades of Horror: The Classic Era.
Decades of Horror: The Classic Era
Episode Zero – Introductions and Favorite Films by Decade
As the Grue Crew for this podcast, we come from several different generations and backgrounds, so our reasons for becoming, or maybe being born, horror nerds are as varied as you might expect. From unsuccessfully strict parents to “wicked” uncles; from reading Clive Barker at a young age (Yikes!) to pixie sticks addictions, from local “creature features” to monsters, monsters, monsters and keiju, liberally sprinkled with comic books.
We also go through our favorites from each decade, having particular difficulty narrowing down the horror rich 1930s and 1950s. In some cases, like minds think alike and in other cases, vive la différence. In the 20s we chose films from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and Nosferatu (1922) to The Fall of the House of the Usher (1928) and The Cat and the Canary (1927). In the 30s, our favorites range from Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932) to Murders in the Zoo (1933) and Mad Love (1935). For the 1940s we talk about films from The Wolf Man (1941) and Cat People (1942) to Dead of Night (1945) and The Spiral Staircase (1946). In the 1950s, it’s everything from The Thing from Another World (1951) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) to A Bucket of Blood (1959) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Finally, in the 1960s, our picks focus on films from Psycho (1960) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) to The Green Slime (1968) and Doctor Blood’s Coffin (1961).
Listen and figure out which of one of us says each of the following quotes:
“Oo, oo, eyeball things…” “Good thing I was already out of Pampers and knew where the bathroom was.” “Gre-en Slime!” (sung, perfectly in key with the theme song) “Nothing’s before my time.”We plan to record a new episode every other week and henceforth, we’ll focus on specific films. In upcoming episodes, we’ll cover films such as Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), The Tingler (1959), Maneater of Hydra (aka Island of the Doomed, 1967), Psycho (1960), and King Kong (1933), in conjunction with the March 10, 2017 release of Kong: Skull Island.
Please let us know what you think and what films you’d like to see covered! We want to hear from you! Leave us a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror The Classic Era hosts at jeffmohr@gruesomemagazine.com, chadhunt@gruesomemagazine.com, josephperry@gruesomemagazine.com, erinmiskell@gruesomemagazine.com.
