Movie Matters #23 - Halloween Special IV

After an unavoidable hiatus, the Movie Matters podcast returns, better late than never, for its fourth annual Halloween special. Joining co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie once again is special guest Daniel Sardella. The trio look at an eclectic line-up of frightful festivities, starting with Michael Stephenson's 2012 Halloween Documentary THE AMERICAN SCREAM before going on to explore Stuart Gordon's 1986 cult classic FROM BEYOND and ending with Rob Zombie's controversial 2012 tale of demonic possession, THE LORDS OF SALEM. Also discussed are Halloween traditions and viewing habits, as well as a rundown of recent horror-themed Blu-ray releases of note.

Created by Lee Howard & Michael Mackenzie

Edited by Michael Mackenzie

Music and audio editing by Lee Howard

Featuring music from HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH (John Carpenter and Alan Howarth), FROM BEYOND (Richard Band), HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN II (John Carpenter), and THE LORDS OF SALEM (John 5 and Griffin Boice)

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Links for reference:

• Kentai Films' comments on the HALLOWEEN 35th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Disc's video and audio
• Synapse Films' post about the restoration of DEMONS and DEMONS 2

Movie Matters Top 10 lists

Just a heads-up to let you know that the deadline for you to submit your list for the Movie Matters Top Ten of 2013 show to us (if you haven't done so already) is Saturday 18th.

We've had an excellent response so far with a diverse array of titles nominated for the best (and worst) of the year. However, we'd like to get even more, and are especially eager for more MP3 lists. So please, keep sending them in!

A Movie Matters New Year message

Greetings, listeners!

First of all, a very Happy New Year to everyone. We hope you had a relaxing end to 2013 with plenty of festive film viewing and are getting geared up for another great year of movies.

2013 proved to be a bit of a frustrating year for Movie Matters in terms of our releasing schedule. Despite our frequent and absolutely sincere promises, unavoidable real-life events beyond our control intervened, resulting in us being less productive than we'd hoped to be. Despite this, we did manage to spearhead a couple of new initiatives, namely Lee's Movie Matters [Mono] and [Music] solo offerings.

As we move into 2014, both Lee and myself are approaching the podcast with renewed vigour and endeavour to bring you as many shows as we are able. We appreciate and are inspired by our listeners' appraisal of Movie Matters as 'quality rather than quantity', and thank you all for your patience and continued support. Our first major milestone will be to get out our much-belated Halloween 2013 episode, featuring frequent guest Daniel Sardella, into public hands as soon as possible. The second will be to record and release our "Top 10 of 2013" episode.

The Top 10 episodes are something of a Movie Matters tradition -- we've done one every year since we started, and they've always proved to be interesting (and occasionally controversial) affairs. As with our previous Top 10s, we'd love it if as many listeners (and even non-listeners!) as possible could submit their own Top 10 lists, either in text or MP3 form. (If submitting an MP3, please try to keep it below five minutes in length.) The criteria for which films qualify for inclusion are yours to decide, though let us know what they are. (Some examples: released theatrically in your home country in 2013; released theatrically in the film's country of origin in 2013; released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2013.)

In addition to your Top 10 favourites list, we'd also be happy to hear what your biggest disappointment was or indeed what your worst film of the year was.

Please reply to this thread with your lists or send them to moviematterspodcast@gmail.com.

We look forward to hearing from you and to getting our voices back out there in the webisphere once again!

Best wishes,

Michael