Another week in January 2017 and another genre release. Woot! This week, the film landing in theaters across the States is The Bye Bye Man from director Stacy Title. The PG-13 horror feature sets its sights on establishing a new icon with the titular character. "Don't Think It. Don't Say It." urges the tag line. While the Black Saint finds some fun with his audience for the movie, Doc and Thomas share no love for the early contender for worst picture of 2017. Uh, oh...
A horror film festival favorite, The Barn is up for discussion on the What Have You Been Watching segment. The low budget film lives and breathes its Eighties VHS classic influences with a fun romp, full of gore and mayhem. The film also introduces three new horror creatures to enjoy, The Boogeyman, Hallowed Jack, and The Candycorn Scarecrow. The film is written and directed by Justin M. Seaman.
Dave guides the Horror News of the Week with the sad news of the passing of William Peter Blatty, the man who wrote The Exorcist and directed the best Exorcist sequel, The Exorcist III. As the year begins, HNR sets its eyes on a number of horror film festivals to attend throughout the year. Up first is Nevermore Horror Film Festival in Durham, NC on February 24 - 26, 2017.
Co-hosts Doc Rotten, Santos (The Black Saint) Ellin Jr., Dave Dreher and Thomas Mariani are back again this week to give you the best in horror as they recap, review and obliterate all that is horror this week! Oh, and don't forget - Stump the Saint! (Brought to you by Gruesome Magazine)
Horror News Radio
Episode 197 – The Bye Bye Man (2017) – The Barn (2016)
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Let's just get this out of the way: the Grue-crew slaughter this film. Even Doc labels it "a blemish on the face of horror." Thomas just laughs at the damn thing. However, the Black Saint finds some fun in the film siting the jubilant, teen-age crowd as raising the fun factor for the film. Regardless, he still calls The Bye Bye Man a "bad" film. Head-scratching ensures as the Grue-Crew try to figure out how - and why - Carrie-Anne Moss and Faye Dunaway are in the picture. What?
If you have not yet made your way to a Horror Film Festival in the past few years, you may not realize what treasures can be unearthed within their schedules. We've mentioned a number of them over the past nearly 200 episodes - such as recently championed gore-fest Night of Something Strange. This week, we introduce another such future classic, Justin M. Seaman's The Barn. The film caters heavily to fans of the VHS horror boom in the 1980s, features enthusiastic performances and contains terrific creature designs & gore effects.
OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE
M. Night Shyamalan's Split
Gruesome Magazine Spring 2017 is coming! That's right, the very first issue of an all-new horror magazine from the Grue-Crew behind Horror News Radio and Gruesome Magazine website will land late February 2017. The tag line "Horror Festival Hits - Independent Films - The Future of Horror" reflects the focus of the magazine on the up'n'coming horror film makers and their films in Horror Film Festivals across the globe. Check out the GM page for more details.