Don't Read The Latin

If you’re a regular listener of Don’t Read the Latin, you’re probably pretty well versed in horror movies — you know your classics backwards and forwards. But if you’re a new listener, or if you have friends you would like to help get into horror, then we’ve got you covered with our latest episode — Horror Movies 101! Your horror hosts Jennifer Lovely and Michael Montoure walk you through the most significant movies in horror history to give you a solid grounding in all the basics. Check it out and let us know what you think! And be sure to let us know if there’s anything you think we missed!

Welcome back to Don’t Read the Latin, where in this episode, we’re talking about our favorite horror movie actors — the scream queens, sinister villains, and creepy little character actors who populate the films we love. These are the people we love to watch over and over again, the performances that can get us into the theater every time. We’re sure you’ll know and love many of these screen icons as well, and hope that you’ll learn some new names you should be looking out for, as well. Let us know if there’s anyone else you think we should have mentioned!

(Thanks for your patience with our slight delay in getting this episode to you, and we ask your patience with the weird little pop-and-hiss that crept into the audio of this episode. It’s pretty mystifying — we used the exact same audio setup as we have for the past couple of episodes, and we didn’t have this trouble then. Perhaps you could pretend we’re having this conversation while sitting next to a crackling campfire? Or not. Suit yourselves.)

Another year, another Crypticon has come and gone! Your horror hosts Michael Montoure and Jennifer Lovely always make attending this Seattle convention a priority, and this year was no exception. This year marks Jennifer’s first appearance at a convention as a panelist!

This episode, we talk about our experiences at the convention, both good and bad. (Mostly good!) We hope you’ll check it out — and we hope you’ll join us at the convention next year!

(There’s not much of a media list this time — we talk briefly about movies and TV we’ve seen lately, and those are listed below.)

Hello, Latin Club! If you’ve been following us for a while, then you know we’ve had our episodes in the past about Wes Craven and John Carpenter — but there are so many other horror movie directors whose work we avidly follow. We don’t necessarily have a full episode’s worth of things to say about each and every one of them, so we thought, why not do a grab-bag of everyone who’s work we admire? Join us as we discuss our Favorite Directors!

(The Media List for this episode is a little spotty — we mentioned a lot of movies very briefly in passing that did not make it into the Media List, but hopefully everything we discuss in any detail should be listed here.)

As always, let us know what you think in the comments, and please take a minute to rate and review us on iTunes to let your fellow horror fans know we’re worth checking out. Thanks!

_______

COME SEE US AT CRYPTICON!

If you’re a horror aficionado in the greater Seattle area, you probably know that next weekend (May 5-7, 2017) is Crypticon Seattle, the largest gathering of fans of the the macabre in the Pacific Northwest. Both of us are on panels this year, and if you enjoy our podcast, you should come see us babble excitedly about horror movies in person! Hope to see you at the Doubletree. Come introduce yourselves! We love meeting listeners!

Jennifer’s Panels:

• Pacific Northwest Horror Enthusiasts and Friendship Society — Friday at 6:00 pm in Evergreen 3
• Underrated Masters of Horror — Saturday at 3:00 pm in Cascade 3
• What Makes Horror Relevant Beyond the Genre? — Saturday at 4:00 pm in Cascade 3
• Podcasting Mixer — Sunday at 1:00 pm in Evergreen 3

Michael’s Panels:

• Pacific Northwest Horror Enthusiasts and Friendship Society — Friday at 6:00 pm in Evergreen 3
• What Was It About the 80’s? — Saturday at 3:00 pm in Cascade 5
• Reading: Michael Montoure — Saturday at 4:30 pm in Cascade 2
• Who Would Win? — Saturday at 8:00 pm in Cascade 7
• Have We Outgrown the Ghost Story? — Sunday at 11:00 am in Cascade 3
• Podcasting Mixer — Sunday at 1:00 pm in Evergreen 3
• Alternate Cuts — Sunday at 2:00 pm in Cascade 7

¡Hola! ¿Cómo te va todo? Welcome to the latest episode of Don’t Read the Latin, where we talk about horror movies in Spanish! (And a handful of movies that are in English, but were made in Spain.) Get ready to turn on your subtitles and explore some of the best horror that the Spanish language has to offer.

Also, Jen tells us about some of the additional channels available on Amazon Prime Video, including Shudder and the British television channel Acorn TV, and about her days back when she worked in a video store! All this, the return of Jen’s Documentary Corner, and much, much more.

As always, let us know what you think in the comments, and please take a minute to rate and review us on iTunes to let your fellow horror fans know we’re worth checking out. Thanks!

Hello, horror fiends! Did you have a good New Year’s? And, uhhh, a good Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Chinese New Year, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, and Mardi Gras — ? So, yeah, it’s been a little while since our last episode, is what we’re saying, here. Between Michael being out of town a lot, and Jen losing her job, her house, and then her Grandmother in rapid succession, there’s been a hell of a lot of so-called “real life” cutting into our podcasting time.

But now we’re Back From The Dead, and what better way to celebrate that than with an episode about horror movies where people return from the grave? We’re not talking ghosts, or vampires, or zombies — we’vddde done episodes on all of those already. We’re talking all the other revenants of every type and description.

Along the way, we talk about Letterboxd, a site for keeping track of the movies you watch; the late, lamented iMDB message boards; the critical role of politics in the horror genre; and the online horror movie offerings of services like Shudder and Fandor. All that and more is waiting for you in the latest episode, so stuff it into your eager brainmeats, let us know what you think in the comments, and as always, be sure to rate and review us on iTunes to let your fellow horror fans know we’re worth checking out. It’s great to be back — thanks for listening, and we will be back in two weeks.

Well, 2016 has certainly been a year that most of us will be glad to put behind us, but there were some pretty damn fine horror movies that came out this year, and we’re here to talk about them! Join your hosts Michael Montoure and Jennifer Lovely and their special guests Handsome Boyfriend Jim, Jeff Harris, and Jillian Venters as we run down our top ten lists for the year! (Well — not everyone had a top ten list, strictly speaking. But you’ll see what we mean when you hear the episode.)

This was kind of a strange year for horror, as we had several good solid movies but no real stand-outs, and no real fun thrill-rides. But still, there are some gems you might have missed, and we’ll walk you through them.

Thanks for listening in 2016, and many many thanks to our listeners who have rated our podcast on iTunes and left reviews! The more reviews and ratings we have, the easier it is for people to find us. If you enjoy listening to Don’t Read the Latin and you haven’t rated us yet, please take a minute to do so to help us reach more people in 2017 and beyond. Happy New Year!

Welcome back to Don’t Read the Latin, as Michael and Jennifer delve into the world of Horror Anthologies — only to realize that they don’t actually like them very much. But, as always, we accentuate the positive, and concentrate on talking about the ones we do like. So if you like your horror movies in bite-sized chunks, this is the episode for you!

We also end up talking about reboots, why we actually like them, and why they work so well on television. Check it out!

____

Bonus Video

Here’s a great little animation sent to us by our Tumblr follower circa1891!

Welcome back! Joining us for another episode of Don’t Read the Latin is Jillian Venters from Gothic Charm School! This time, in the wake of election results that are arguably more terrifying than any movie we’ve ever discussed, we decided to get our feminist rant on and sat down to talk about The Monstrous Feminine — the idea of women as monsters in horror movies and pop culture.

Along the way, we discuss Gothic romance novels, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios, the role that Mad Max: Fury Road played in the beginning of Jen’s relationship with Handsome Boyfriend Jim, and we wonder why the hell Marvel keeps burying pretty actors under way too much prosthetic makeup, and we wrap it all up with the topic of older women having a voice and taking up space in our society. We don’t necessarily do a great job of sticking rigidly to our topic in this episode, but we sure hope you’ll think it’s an interesting conversation. Check it out.

_____

Bibliography
Books we mention in this episode:

• The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, by Barbara Creed
• Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, by Carol J. Clover
• Monstrous Bodies: Feminine Power in Young Adult Horror Fiction, by June Pulliam
• Bad Dreams, by Kim Newman
• Angels of Music, by Kim Newman

_____

Mister Babadook
As mentioned in this episode, Jen’s copy of the crowdfunded prop replica/movie tie-in book from The Babadook has finally arrived! Here are some pictures of just how gorgeous it is. Click to embiggen:

Happy Halloween, Latin Club! We’re excited to get to bring you a new episode on our favorite holiday of the year. This time (ha! Get it?), we’re talking about Time Loops and Time Travel! (And amazingly enough, Michael somehow gets through the entire episode without mentioning Doctor Who even once!) Also, Jen talks about taking the Scarecrow Video Psychotronic Challenge, and about Shudder, the curated Amazon Video horror-movie channel!

Spoiler Warnings — Usually, we try not to give away crucial plot elements of the movies we discuss on DRtL, but that was a little tricky with this episode — since with a lot of the films we mention here, the very fact that the plot does involve time-travel shenanigans is actually meant to be a surprise. So if you are particularly spoiler-sensitive, you might want to skip this episode, and you maybe shouldn’t even look at the tags on the blog post. Sorry!

Alternately, if you encounter any spoilers you wish you hadn’t heard — just go back in time and warn yourself not to listen! Problem solved.

(Looking for something a little more seasonally-themed? Hop in our time machine and travel all the way back to 2014’s Episode 10: It Happened on Halloween! for an episode that’s all about movies set on or around Halloween!)

_______

Please rate our podcast on iTunes!

The more reviews and ratings we have, the easier it is for people to find us. If you enjoy  listening to Don’t Read the Latin and would like to help us reach more people, please click here to rate our podcast on iTunes and leave your comments. It will only take a few minutes out of your day, but your feedback can make a huge difference to us. Thanks for everything, and we hope you get nothing but the very best full-size candy bars in your trick-or-treat bags this year.