Goodbye Friend

Horror specialist Mike Flanagan (Netflix’s Haunting of Hill House) picks up another Ouija board to tell the 2016 prequel story Origin of Evil. Can sham medium Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight) finally give up the ghost and let her 9-year-old daughter take over the seance business after the girl uses the mass market spirit board to connect with ghoul Doug Jones (Shape of Water)?  Or is priest Henry Thomas (E.T.) right to phone an exorcist, and stop more bodies from winding up in the basement walls?  Get the skinny on another board game film when you Listen Now!

Hi Friend

Terrible things happen to a high school girl playing alone with an Ouija board in this hit 2014 chiller. Can Bates Motel co-star Olivia Cooke conduct a seance with the mass market spirit board that reveals the true reason her BFF committed suicide in her suburban home?  And what does nutcase Lin Shaye (Insidious) know about the ghosts of an abusive mother and silenced daughter that can be seen when looking through the “glass eye” of a planchette?  Our lips are sealed until you make contact with the latest entry in Now Playing’s board game retrospective!

Dead Time For Bonzo

Twin boys decide to wind up TheMonkey toy left to them by absentee father Adam Scott (Severance), only to learn the mechanical drum solos cause mass carnage throughout small-town Maine. Can introvert Theo James (White Lotus) grow up to stop a bullying twin brother (also Theo James) from using the organ grinder to play off all their neighbors and family members into an early grave?  Listen Now to hear Arnie, Stuart, and Brock dance to the offbeat rhythm that director Osgood Perkins (Longlegs) has given this classic Stephen King short story.

The Leader of the Package

Anthony Mackie still sports his Falcon wings as he steps into the role of Captain America, and navigates a Brave New World of political intrigue without first Avenger Chris Evans. Should he give a vote of confidence to new President Harrison Ford by helping the ailing politician soften the “Hulk Hunter” image earned when played by William Hurt? Or is everyone in Washington DC being led on by Tim Blake Nelson, whose musical mind-control threatens to destabilize global efforts to peacefully bring adamantium to the MCU? Listen Now to learn if Red Hulk’s a smash!

You sank my franchise!  

Hasbro and Hollywood transform the Milton Bradley seafaring board game of pegs and wild guesses into the $200 million would-be blockbuster Battleship. But how can box office poison Taylor Kitsch (John Carter) hope to stop an invasion of space aliens splashing down in giant armored vessels when he can’t even deliver a frozen burrito to hungry girlfriend Brooklyn Decker without incident?  Will older brother Alexander Skarsgard, trigger-happy singer Rihanna, and hardass admiral Liam Neeson help this sailor shape up or ship out?  Find out now!

And Then There Was Fun 

Justin, Stuart, and Arnie roll the dice on finding a good movie based on a board game, starting with the 1985 adaptation of the Parker Brothers classic Clue. Can butler Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show) keep the funny banter alive as he scrambles to identify the guilty amongst dinner party guests Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Mrs Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Miss Scarlett (Lesley Ann Warren), Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn), and Mr Green (Michael McKean)? Hear the hosts kill it with a Microphone in the Recording Room now!

The Wrath of San

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh tires of being Everything Everywhere All At Once, and beams back into Star Trek for a 14th motion picture now streaming on Paramount Plus. Can she help a Section 31 black ops team operate outside Federation space, and recover a WMD she created back when she ruled the evil mirror universe of Terran? And how well does future Starfleet Captain Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl) keep this crew of assassins and seductresses in line with the utopian vision of creator Gene Roddenberry? The podcast is set to stun, so Listen Now!

Night of the Living Dad

Writer-director Leigh Whannell (Saw) returns to Universal Monsters five years after updating the Invisible Man’s look and gives a 2025 makeover to Wolf Man. But has he changed lycanthropy too much by asking infected Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) to shed hair and teeth rather than sprout fangs and fur and howl at the full moon?  And can workaholic mom Julia Garner (Ozark) set down her cell phone long enough to help their daughter evade this family curse? You don’t have to be a mind reader to know what Jakob, Arnie, and Stuart think of the reboot. Listen Now!

Like Father, Lycanthrope Son

Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro (Traffic) could tour the world as a Shakespearean actor but prefers to follow in the paw prints of Lon Chaney Jr and play The Wolfman in a 2010 revival of the Universal Monster. But are his full moon transformations just madness inherited from his suicidal mother?  And does father Anthony Hopkins have ulterior motives for locking his son in an asylum while he comforts sexy widow Emily Blunt? The past is a wilderness of horrors, so let Arnie, Stuart, and Jakob be your guide through this classic franchise. Listen Now!

Peeper and the Wolf

Lon Chaney Jr. takes an engaged woman on a date to see fortune teller Bela Lugosi, and learns his future is to become The Wolf Man. Can father Claude Rains (Casablanca) keep his son on a short leash so that the afflicted playboy doesn’t go thirsting for blondes like Evelyn Ankers in the neighboring village? And was 1941 the year Universal Studios finally got screen lycanthropy right after their first try Werewolf of London failed to match the popularity of their other Monsters? Even a man who’s pure of heart and says his prayers at night needs to Listen Now!

Wouldst Thou Like to Live Deliciously?  Maybe not do that to a pigeon.

Lily Rose-Depp receives a fatal mustache ride from Bill Skarsgard when she psychically calls out to dark spirits in the second Nosferatu remake of 2024. Did Renfield prepare Nicholas Hoult for how to stake this new Count Orlok before he corrupts his convulsing wife and idyllic German village? Or does Professor Willem Dafoe know from starring in Shadow of the Vampire that the only good way to stop a silent movie-era bloodsucker is to let the girl lure him into the sunlight?  Listen Now to learn if director Robert Eggers has redeemed this bastard telling of Dracula.