238 - Jacob's Ladder (1990) & Overlord (2018) →

CW: PTSD, Rape

It’s Memorial Day on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey honor our nation's fallen military personnel by watching two movies with very different vibes all about military experimentation on human bodies. Don't worry—it's not all a downer.

Read our afterthoughts for this episode HERE!

The Classic Film: Jacob's Ladder (1990)
"Mourning his dead child, a haunted Vietnam War veteran attempts to uncover his past while suffering from a severe case of dissociation. To do so, he must decipher reality and life from his own dreams, delusions, and perceptions of death” (IMDb.com). Jacob's Ladder is some important and heavy stuff, but that doesn't give it a free pass that its message and its context are almost completely divorced from one another, leading to a dilution of both.

The Modern Film: Overlord (2018)
"A small group of American soldiers finds horror behind enemy lines on the eve of D-Day” (IMDb.com). Overlord isn't much of a thinker, but it's consistently exciting and engaging for its entire runtime.

Audio Sources:
"Jacob's Ladder" (1990) produced by Carolco Pictures
"Overlord" (2018) produced by Bad Robot & Paramount Pictures

229 - The Burning (1981) & Joy Ride (2001) →

CW: Sexual Assault

It’s April Fools' Day on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey commit a prank that—believe it or not—goes wrong!

Read our afterthoughts for this episode here!

The Classic Film: The Burning (1981)
"A former summer camp caretaker, horribly burned from a prank gone wrong, lurks around an upstate New York summer camp bent on killing the teenagers responsible for his disfigurement” (IMDb.com). If you're expecting us to have a lot of good things to say about The Burning... don't. For the sin of kickstarting Harvey Weinstein's career, it could've at least had the common decency to be interesting.

The Modern Film: Joy Ride (2001)
"Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychopathic killer” (IMDb.com). 2001 was a hell of a time—movies like Joy Ride seemed a lot more compelling then. It's not bad by any means, but we both remember liking it more "back in the day."

Audio Sources:
"April Fools" (2007) produced by Links Entertainment & Pa Pa Productions
"The Burning" (1981) produced by Cropsy Venture & Miramax
"Club Dread" produced by Broken Lizard Industries, et al.
"The Fast and the Furious" produced by Universal Pictures, et al.
"Joy Ride" (2001) produced by New Regency Productions, et al.
"Pet Sematary" written by Dee Dee Ramone & Daniel Rey and performed by The Ramones