My Summer Lair Chapter #175: What Makes A Horror Classic A…Classic?

Carolyn Mauricette is a once a year friend: I see her every year at the annual Blood in the Snow Film Festival which is incredible: Toronto has an outstanding horror community.

As for Carolyn, she is an accomplished horror film writer. She’s written for Rue Morgue, Hollywood Suite, Graveyard Shift Sisters and she is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved critic. View From The Dark is her deep dive into race and representation of people of color in genre film.

As for Blood in the Snow, she is one of 5 programmers for the Canadian film festival which broadcasts horror, sci-fi, and underground cinema. BITS was founded by Kelly Micheal Stewart in 2012. He was on My Summer Lair last year. Blood in The Snow is one of our best film festivals as you’re about to hear it has so much goodness, gore, and ghouls to offer. And this year it’s on TV via the Super Channel. For more details on that here’s a handy video.

Among this year’s films, we discuss Hall, Come True, Hail to the Deadites, and For The Sake of Vicious. Though stick around for our Doctor Who debate as well as the astonishing number of horror movies we get into from Blacula to The Planters.

Blood In The Snow @ W • T • F

Photography by Sammy Younan

Recorded: Monday October 26, 2020 at 12:30pm EST

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Well, one more week of yelling “I told you not to go into that corn maze…at night!” to movie characters who do not heed my wisdom. Speaking of wisdom before Halloween is over here’s some fun things on TV you’d be wise to check out…much like that noise in the basement. Where the lights do not work.

My Summer Lair Chapter #174: Do You Like The Way I Talk About The Future?

It’s been 4 years since we last heard from the Sam Roberts Band: TerraForm came out in October 2016.

With All of Us we wlecome back Sam Roberts Band. Verily Sam Roberts Band have crafted a well-written album. On I Like the Way You Talk About the Future Sam sings: “God is a traffic cop/Sometimes we roll, sometimes we stop.” Oh yo, son that’s a solid image. Heaven really is knocking on his door.

Following this interview and a few more listens to the album I’m starting to shift…maybe this isn’t a soul album so much as gospel music (though gospel music is soul music isn’t it”)? All of Us wasn’t written for or even inspired by our Pandemic Times which truly reinforces its timelessness. Like a lot of the sci-fi and fantasy Sam and I discuss in this conversation.

I interviewed Sam Roberts in 2017 and I opened that interview asking (accusing?) him if he was a nerd. He laughed and said he was! So with his nerd credentials established let’s do the same thing here…let’s open with some nerd talk before we talk about his album All of Us, Youth another single from the album that he reveals reflects his childhood as much as it does his childrens’.

The album’s hope feels dangerous because to be hopeful is often to become an outlier. There’s a comforting conformity to fear; if you’re fearful you’ll fit in. Hope is a choice and easily one of the best ones we make. Because in the end the future comes for all of us.

Track Listing:

Track 1: All of Us by Sam Roberts Band

Track 2: I Like the Way You Talk About the Future by Sam Roberts Band

Sam Roberts Band @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Tuesday October 27, 2020 at 1:30pm EST

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

What follows are some excellent TV recommendations and if we’re being honest a one-time use of the phrase Creeping It Real. As anyone who has gone trick or treating can attest it’s a mixed bag but hey…it’s our mixed bag!

My Summer Lair Chapter #173: On Bad Baby, You Mention Having A Time Machine: If You Could Travel Back In Time Which Stand Up Comic Would You See?

Our comedy conversation ranges from Adam Sandler (who Randee says takes risks!) to Rodney Dangerfield to Dane Cook.

And though I didn’t mean to my conversation with Vancouver comedian Randee Neumeyer started talking about shorts. So I’ll keep this short.

Like an Adam Sandler movie if you’re in the right mood you’ll have a good time with Randee’s comedy album Bad Baby. The media release says she has a “dark vulnerability” which makes her sound like Batman. Unlike Batman she is not operating in the shadows: her comedy album can be found in the usual joints like Spotify.

So yes after shorts and after Adam Sandler we do eventually discuss her comedy album Bad Baby; being a pervert in the best sense of the word… but first…first! We gotta get into her love for the Entourage movie. Is that real love or is that a real joke? Only one way to find out.

Randee Neumeyer @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Wednesday October 21, 2020 at 4:30pm EST

Well, that’s that: the NBA Bubble has popped: the bubble has wrapped.

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

Some more Happy Halloween horror recommendations but that’s not all for this week’s #SetTheVCR if you’re in the mood to Netflix and Chiller…

My Summer Lair Chapter #172: What Happens When You Play A Different Kind Of Phone Tag?

Portrait of a social worker: Sriyani is a telephone counselor helping the broken when she herself is in pain. One night her telephone rings and it’s not just a call but a call to action. An insidious caller with the power to control her mind has an agenda of hypotonic seduction. Will she become the Receiver?

Cavan Campbell’s Receiver is a magic trick there’s a lot that he’s doing as a filmmaker but that the audience is not fully aware of. As in a magic trick, the audience focuses on the card or the handcuffs–in this case, on the caller with an insidious agenda but…is the danger real, or is it all in Sriyani’s mind?

When I asked Cavan about that he said: “Fears and dangers arose from the whole concept of how empathy is commoditized. You know the more we commodify someone’s empathy the more that empathy can ultimately be weaponized against them by an unscrupulous person.” So it appears Receiver‘s primary character Sriyani is in trouble.

Welcome director Cavan Campbell to My Summer Lair; he’s here to talk about his psychological horror short Receiver as well as explaining how he lights up Star Trek: Discovery and the unusual object stored in his fridge. Want to guess what it is?

Cavan Campbell @ W • T • F

Host Sammy Younan

Recorded: Thursday November 12, 2020 at 1:30pm EST

Sammy Younan

Girth Radio Presents…

It’s October! As that Autumn wind begins to chill your bones I’ve got some horror suggestions destined to produce warm Fear Pee! Ah, the sites and smells of October and Halloween Season.