Top FREE THING of the Week

The ENTIRE BOSTON LIVE SHOW, complete with presentations (like Dan’s on cartoon sex, done with his parents in the audience) has been posted on WBUR’s YouTube channel, for you to view! It’s not a fully-produced show like our StagePilot collaborations, but the lovely WBUR CitySpace venue has a high-tech multi-cam setup, which let them capture the next best thing: a crisp in-the-moment document of a terrific live show. And now you can watch it for free! FREEEEEE!

Wake Me Up Before Smalltember Ends

As the shadows grow longer and the oppressive heat of summer gives way to the marginally-less-oppressive heat of a globally warmed fall, loyal Flop House listeners know this can only mean one thing — we’re entering THEME MONTH territory!

Before the boogens of SHOCKTOBER come the small pleasures of SMALLTEMBER (or “Smallvember” as the heretics say) — the one time a year when we talk about smaller cinematic failures. Most of the time we steer clear of publicly razzing smaller bad movies, because it can feel like punching down, but that’s only because we have a semi-successful podcast. In the private comforts of your own home, it’s punching laterally!

Regular listeners may recall Dan referencing his weekly bad movie watching-group (apparently he can’t get enough trash, and is all about that Bad Movie Lyfe). This expert crew has exposed him to a PLETHORA of smaller cinematic crimes, so as a one-time window into Dan’s shadowy bad movie cabal, he’s assembled this list of some of the stronger good-bads — films that have not gotten extensive focus on The Flop House — for your possible Smalltember home viewing.

• EMPIRE OF THE DARK - a vanity project where the writer/director/star — a man with no discernable fighting skills — plays an action star fighting some kind of hell cult. Surprisingly good special effects!

• HIGH STRUNG: FREE DANCE - I’ll always stump for a bad dance movie. They just seem more fun. This one has the most over-the-top trash-glitzy “arty” dance climax, that’s a real hoot.

• DANCIN’: IT’S ON! - See above re: dance movies. Hoo boy is it on.

• DANCE ‘TIL DAWN - an Audrey Bad Movie Night pick! A made for TV teen comedy starring various stars when they were just young’uns: Christina Applegate! Matthew Perry! Alyssa Milano! (this is actually entering kinda-liked territory, but it’s also got cheesy 80s TV charms)

• THE SKID KID - A kid find some magic books that make him… skid around? It’s kind of hard to explain. You must see to believe.

• SCANNERS III: THE TAKEOVER - The “Zapped” of the Scanners film series. Lurid, sleazy, and strangely lovable.

• FEEDERS II: SLAY BELLS - The Polonia Brothers, legends of no-budget, direct-to-video “thrills” give us this tale of puppets >ahem< aliens invading at Christmas, with the finest score a Casio keyboard can buy.

• THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER - If your tastes run more to classic bad movies, like B&W schlock from the 50’s and 60’s, you might enjoy this one, which features about 15% monster, 85% cranky middle-aged vacationers and beach girls go-go dancing.

• FANGS - An Egyptian rip-off of The Rocky Horror Picture Show that eventually ditches that film’s plot and charts its own weird course. The dialogue scenes get boring, but the musical numbers are unmissable.

• PREDATORY LENDER - Ostensibly about a killer real estate agent, but somehow finds room for a fight with ninja weapons and some of the strangest line readings in film history.

• RUNAWAY NIGHTMARE - Truly the finest horror movie ever made about some worm wranglers.

• RYAN’S BABE - Right before Covid hit, we were supposed to go to Toronto to discuss Ryan’s Babe, perhaps the most baffling picture in Canadian film history. I can’t prove god started the pandemic to prevent more people from watching “Ryan’s Babe,” but I can’t NOT prove it.

• COOL CAT SAVES THE KIDS - Actually several “Cool Cat” shorts stuck together to make a “movie” in the most narratively confusing way — a man in a cat costume and his human father “Daddy Derek” teach kids questionable lessons about life in low budget, vaguely creepy fashion.

• GOVERNOR GABBI - Full disclosure: I actually missed this one, but everyone on the bad movie crew flipped so hard for it, that it’s the only film here that I haven’t seen, but I’d feel remiss not mentioning. It’s about a teen girl who becomes governor somehow. Sounds promising!

Next On the Flop House!

Hear ye on main!

9/14 - Our first Smalltember pick features Jon Voight, a man who’s no stranger to the Flop House, involved in a Dangerous Game: The Legacy Murders!

9/21 - Elliott takes us through the calendar year, as we decide which films best represent each month. A deeply silly installment!

Extra Credit!

Dan and Stu were thrilled to do a little walk-on and help administer movie-related swift justice, when Judge John Hodgman’s Road Court rolled into NYC. Look for their appearance soon, whenever the Road Court live episodes start showing up on the JJHo feed.

Season 2 of FLOP TV, just kicked off with our Robocop 2 show, but tickets are still available here — $7/episode, $35 for the whole six-episode season (plus ticket fees). A season pass gets you access to ALL of the episodes, even those you missed live, because (following the live airing) all episodes will remain available ON DEMAND for ticket holders through the end of February 2025.

You Made it to The End!

Congratulations! Here’s Dan, reporting from OCP headquarters, for the Robocop 2 Flop TV show!