Mellow, spoiler-heavy discussions exploring an absurd physical media collection
Episodes
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Monday Nov 27, 2023
This week, Shana and j. finally return to our regular Stacks after our accidental hiatus and Halloween celebration. First up, we conclude our coverage of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy with the 1966 all-time classic Italian western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (0:00-1:19:26), followed with discussion of two deranged 80s action exploitation flicks, Rene Cardona Jr.'s 1980 heist / thriller grab-bag Under Siege (aka Hostages, aka Traficantes del Panico, or Panic Makers) and Gordon Hessler's hyper-violent 1985 Sho Kosugi ninja vehicle Pray for Death (1:19:26-2:29:37). As always, we conclude with discussion of everything else we've watched in between to lead into our selections of next week's features.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Monday Nov 20, 2023
Monday Nov 20, 2023
This week, we move back toward our regularly scheduled programming after Halloween. First up is the 1991 Christopher Walken peak action war on drugs film McBain (directed by James Glickenhaus, running to 1:10:43), then we head over to Eastern Europe for a double bill of Piotr Szulkin's dystopian sci-fi O-Bi O-Ba: The End of Civilization (1985) and Karel Zeman's whimsical children's adventure Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955), continuing on to 2:13:15. This is followed by our regular discussion of all the other movies we've watched in between episodes, leading into next week's picks.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Monday Nov 13, 2023
Monday Nov 13, 2023
This week, Shana and j. conclude our bonus week of rigorous exploration of The Spooky Stacks, concluding with another quadruple bill. First up is PG: Psycho Goreman, a 2020 Canadian horror-comedy directed by Stephen Kostanski, with the second part (1:02:37-2:31:03) comprising discussion of George Romero's shelved 1975 elder abuse PSA The Amusement Park, James Bryan's 1981 first wave slasher / video nasty Don't Go in the Woods, and from directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the eerie 1973 art-horror slow-burn Messiah of Evil. Then, we have an extended part three going over (and selecting next week's picks from) all the movies we watched during our recent technical difficulties hiatus in late August and through September.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Monday Nov 06, 2023
Monday Nov 06, 2023
This week, Shana and j. close out this year's spooky season with three all-time classics of the horror genre - Alfred Hitchcock's landmark 1960 crime drama / OG slasher Psycho (0:00-1:13:01), followed by the first two Universal Horror pictures, Tod Browning's Dracula and James Whale's Frankenstein (both from 1931, discussion continuing 1:13:01-2:26:45), and concluding as always with capsule discussion of all the other movies watched during this week, feeding into our decisions for next week's picks.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
This week, Shana and j. continue celebration of the spooky season with discussion of 2001's Takashi Miike yakuza splatter epic Ichi the Killer (0:00-1:26:16) as well as William Friedkin's monolith of Satanic horror, 1973's The Exorcist (continuing to 2:35:21), followed as always by additional discussion of all the other movies we've watched in the past week, and choose our movies for next week.
A scheduling error led to this episode going up very late, apologies.
Monday Oct 23, 2023
Monday Oct 23, 2023
The Spooky Stacks continue with our October horror crawl in a quadruple bill! In part one (0:00-2:08:43) we discuss both Friday the 13th 3D (1982, directed by Steve Miner) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984, directed by Joseph Zito) and in part two, we talk about Mandy (2018, directed by Panos Cosmatos, continuing to 2:55:10) and Final Destination 3 (2006, directed by James Wong, running to 3:31:49), finally concluding as we usually do with discussion of additional movies watched during the past week and our picks for next week's episode.
The live list of The Spooky Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-spooky-stacks-1/
Monday Oct 16, 2023
Monday Oct 16, 2023
After an unexpectedly long absence, Shana and j. are back to open The Spooky Stacks for this October. This week, we cover key slasher canon with Friday the 13th Pt II (directed by Steve Miner, 1981, discussion running 0:00-1:31:30), followed by some arthouse surrealism with Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy (2010, running 1:31:30-3:04:34, also featuring shorter discussion of 3 Park Chan-Wook films (Thirst, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave), and concluding as always with The Watched Stacks, extra long edition covering all of the October watches up to this point.
The live list of The Spooky Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-spooky-stacks-1/
Friday Sep 01, 2023
Friday Sep 01, 2023
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are in the midst of a two week break, once Shana's internet access is properly back up and running, so too will we be
<3
-j.
Monday Aug 21, 2023
Monday Aug 21, 2023
This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. are talking some religion and politics (and aliens!), starting with Luis Buñuel's 1969 surrealist treatise on heresies and anathema, The Milky Way (running 0:00-1:25:35), followed by Piotr Szulkin's 1981 political satire War of the Worlds: The Next Century (1:25:36-2:27:50) and a little bit on John Coats' eerie 1977 UFO drama Foes (2:27:50-2:46:36), concluding as usual with capsule reviews of other physical media we've watched, leading into our picks for next week's episode.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/
Monday Aug 14, 2023
Monday Aug 14, 2023
This week on The Stacks, Shana and j. are discussing the 1957 French noir Speaking of Murder (directed by Gilles Grangier, running 0:00-1:05:43), followed by some loose conversation about the next four films in the From Hollywood to Heaven box set of films by the Ormond family, encompassing Forty Acre Feud, The Girl From Tobacco Row, The Exotic Ones, and If Footmen Tire You What Will Horses Do (all directed by Ron Ormond, running 1:05:43-2:17:25), concluding as we usually do with some mini-reviews of the other movies we've watched on physical media in the previous week, and choosing our features for next week. We were plagued by technical difficulties this week, hopefully they do not show through too much.
The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/