250 - The Skulls (2000) & Initiation (2020) →

CW: Suicide, Rape, Rape Culture

It’s Back-to-School Week on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey pledge school societies where they live by the melodrama and die by the melodrama.

Read our afterthoughts for this episode HERE!

The Classic Film: The Skulls (2000)
"For Luke McNamara, an invitation to join the prestigious secret college organization, The Skulls, is a dream come true, until murder befalls another student” (Mill Creek Entertainment). The Skulls is not a horror movie, sorry. Instead, it's Baby's First Thriller, like a novel adapted into a children's picture book. But if you stick it out, the extreme goofiness might be enough to have you thinking it's so bad that it's good.

The Modern Film: Initiation (2020)
"Whiton University unravels the night a star-athlete is murdered, kicking off a spree of social media slayings that force students to uncover the truth behind the school's hidden secrets and the horrifying meaning of an exclamation point” (IMDb.com). Initiation is a strikingly shot and acted drama going through a pretty paint-by-numbers horror plot that becomes a mishmash of incredible, mediocre, and even inept moments, making it difficult to recommend despite being... kinda good, I guess?

Audio Sources:
"12 Angry Men" (1997 TV Movie) produced by MGM Television
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" produced by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, et al.
"Black Christmas" (1974) produced by Film Funding Ltd. of Canada, et al.
"The Faculty" (1998) produced by Dimension Films & Los Hooligans Productions
"The Fast and the Furious" (2001) produced by Universal Pictures, et al.
"Initiation" produced by Shatterproof Films
"The NeverEnding Story" produced by Constantin Film, et al.
"Not Another Teen Movie" produced by Columbia Pictures, et al.
"Showdown" written by Jeff Lynne and performed by the Electric Light Orchestra
"The Skulls" (2000) produced by Universal Pictures, et al.

201 - Return to Horror High (1987) & School Spirit (2019) →

CW: Rape, Abortion, Alcoholism

It’s Back to School Week on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey join the other teenage archetypes for Saturday School and must escape a for-real, not-at-all-fake ghost!

Read our afterthoughts for this episode here!

The Classic Film: Return to Horror High (1987)
"In the early 1980s, a series of gruesome murders occurred at Crippen High School. A few years later, a film crew uses the now-abandoned Crippen High as the set for a film, but an uninvited guest makes an appearance on the set” (IMDb.com). Return to Horror High is a parody of horror movies, but also not? It's a movie within a movie but there're even more layers? Basically, it's the Inception of horror comedies—an admirably ambitious affair without the chops to hold that lofty title.

The Modern Film: School Spirit (2019)
"A group of social outcasts stuck in weekend detention is confronted by the school's legendary hauntings” (IMDb.com). The Breakfast Club but "haunted," School Spirit is a low-stakes, campus horror from the Hulu and Blumhouse Into the Dark series that disappoints in how uninspired it is. Even the opportunity of a haunted high school is completely abandoned in favor of a pretty predictable twist. When is Into the Dark supposed to get good?

Audio Sources:
"145 - Bad Ronald (1974) & The Evil Within (2017)" produced by Pod Sematary
"All My Life" written by Rory Bennett & JoJo Hailey and performed by K-Ci & JoJo
"Blurred Lines" written and performed by Robin Thicke, et al.
"The Day the Violence Died" (The Simpsons S07E18) produced by Gracie Films & 20th Century Fox Television
"Dead Man on Campus" produced by MTV Films, et al.
"The Godfather" produced by Paramount Pictures & Alfran Productions
"Mario Twins" written and performed by Gröûp X
"Pet Sematary" written by Dee Dee Ramone & Daniel Rey and performed by The Ramones
"Return to Horror High" produced by Balcor Film Investors & New World Pictures
"Scary Movies" written by Larry Weir and performed by Pleasant Company
"School Spirit" (Into the Dark S01E11) produced by Blumhouse Television & Hulu

183 - The Faculty (1998) & Cooties (2014) →

CW: Animal Harm

The Best of 2021 - #7 (Tied) The Faculty

It’s "Elijah Wood Goes to School" Week on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey grow from anti-establishment to pro-teacher between two movies. It's age, man. That stuff just happens over time.

Read our afterthoughts for this episode here!

The Classic Film: The Faculty (1998)
"When Casey Connor, Herrington High School's newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, [he] decides to investigate the bizarre happenings” (IMDb.com). Kelsey can basically recite this movie from memory, but is it just nostalgia, or does this late-90s, teen horror actually hold up?

The Modern Film: Cooties (2014)
"A mysterious virus hits an isolated elementary school, transforming the kids into a feral swarm of mass savages. An unlikely hero must lead a motley band of teachers in the fight of their lives” (IMDb.com). Cooties has all the hallmarks of a silly horror comedy and it seems content to leave it at that. Not bad but... not good, either?

Audio Sources:
"Cooties" produced by SpectreVision & Glacier Films
"The Faculty" produced by Dimension Films  Los Hooligans Productions
"The Kids Aren't Alright" written by Dexter Holland and performed by The Offspring
"Pet Sematary" written by Dee Dee Ramone & Daniel Rey and performed by The Ramones

087 - Thesis (1996) & Kill Me Please (2015) →

CW: Suicide, Torture, Graphic Discussion of Rape and Murder

It’s the end of another school year on Pod Sematary! Chris & Kelsey are getting intellectual with two horror movies about school that you have to read!

The Classic Film: Thesis [Tesis] (1996)
"While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured [to] death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former student in her [college]" (IMDb.com). This 90s foreign classic comes to us from Spain and asks the important question: "Should filmmakers strive to give audiences what they want when what they want is violence?"

The Modern Film: Kill Me Please [Mate-me Por Favor] (2015)
"Barra da Tijuca, West Side Zone of Rio de Janeiro. A wave of murders plague the area. What starts off as a morbid curiosity for the local youth slowly begins to spoil away at their lives. Among them is Bia, a fifteen-year-old girl. After an encounter with death, she will do anything to make sure she's alive" (IMDb.com). This Brazilian/Argentine festival darling has a lot to say about growing up as a young woman in the modern day. But is its dreamlike beauty and emotional metaphor enough to make up for a lack of… anything else?

Get more at podsematary.com! Read our Afterthoughts at https://twitter.com/PodSematary/status/1134946933733068802

Audio Sources:
"Kill Me Please [Mate-me Por Favor]" produced by Bananeira Filmes, et al.
"A League of Their Own" produced by Columbia Pictures & Parkway Productions
"Pet Sematary" written by Dee Dee Ramone & Daniel Rey and performed by The Ramones
"The Princess Bride" produced by Act III Communications, et al.
"Split" produced by Universal Pictures, et al.
"Thesis [Tesis]" produced by Las Producciones del Escorpión & Sogepaq
"Tom Hanks/Lady Gaga" (Saturday Night Live S42E04) produced by Broadway Video & SNL Studios