Our picks from the Halloweenies Podcast Episodes and Why You Should Check them Out!
The Halloweenies podcast kicked off in 2018 prior to the release of David Gordon Green’s Halloween legacy sequel. Starting on the Consequence of Sound network, the podcast ended up as part of the Bloody Disgusting network, where their sister podcast, The Losers’ Club – a Stephen King pod also lives.
The hosts are a group of friends mainly based in Chicago, who, while sharing a tight bond, are able to draw the listener in and not make it feel like you’re eavesdropping on a conversation, which is a flaw a lot of similar podcasts share. While they can talk over each other a bit – another symptom of a large number of guests – lead host, Justin Gerber always manages to reign in the chaos with some dad joke segues and a structure based around different aspects of the films they are discussing eg the script, the music, the performances etc.
The Halloweenies podcast delves into the big horror franchises in chronological order, starting with the Halloween series and moving on to A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Scream. There are spirited debates on the merits of each film, and they always do a final ranking of each film series at the end.
Below are ten of the best podcast episodes from their four year history.
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1. Halloween (1978)
The first episode proper kicks off with the seminal horror film John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s Halloween. The hosts profess their love for the film and dive into the production history of this classic, that arguably kicked off the slasher sub-genre – there were earlier films like Black Christmas and Bay of Blood, but none as successful as Halloween which directly inspired Sean S. Cunningham to come up with the idea for Friday the 13th as a result.
LISTEN HERE
2. Interview with John Carpenter and Daniel Davies
This episode is split into two separate interview with Daniel (son of Dave) Davies and his godfather / musical collaborator John Carpenter. Daniel talks about the musical process for the Halloween 2018 score and his side project. John, who is known for being cantankerous in interviews, is actually a delight, geeking out over video games, basketball and of course music, which he says is much easier than directing a movie. He also dropped news of Prince of Darkness TV series which, given this episode aired in 2018, has yet to see the light of day.
LISTEN HERE
3. Interview with Tommy Lee Wallace
Tommy Lee Wallace, the director of the Michel Myers-less Halloween 3: Season of the Witch, talks through the production of the much maligned stand-alone film which has, rightfully, been re-appraised in recent years as a classic in it’s own right and its great to hear Wallace acknowledge that (much like what happened with Carpenter’s The Thing from the same year). I never knew that Wallace turned down the offer to direct Halloween 2 and was surprised when he got offered Halloween 3 afterwards.
LISTEN HERE
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4. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
Arguably the best Nightmare film after the original and my personal fave, I had to include this episode. Another lively chat, they compare the original Wes Craven screenplay vs the Frank Darabont / Chuck Russell draft. The Craven version can be read in the novelization of the film, which was written (as many novelizations did at the time) based on that early draft.
LISTEN HERE
5. Interview With Heather Langenkamp
Nancy Thompson herself, Heather Langenkamp, joins the gang for a fun interview, diving into her relationship with the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Having starred in three Nightmare films – the original; Dream Warriors and New Nightmare – she is as synonymous with the series as Freddy himself, Robert Englund, and has a lot of memories to share on her life as a scream queen. She talks about how she thought the original Nightmare script read to her more like a supernatural adventure and was quite shocked when she was on set and realised how horrific the film actually was.
LISTEN HERE
6. Interview with Tom Savini
Another coup of an interview for the ‘Weenies is this one with FX legend Tom Savini, who was responsible for the gory kills in the first Friday film, as well as an uncredited role in Part 4 The Final Chapter. An entertaining chat where he talks about life in lockdown (when the interview took place), gives us workout tips and digs deep into dreams, which gave him a lot of inspiration for his makeup designs and film ideas.
LISTEN HERE
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7. Jason Lives! 35th Anniversary Roundtable Reunion Interview
Another get was this roundtable chat with the cast and crew of Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives as a part of the Salem Horror Fest in 2020. Director Tom McLoughlin, star Thom Matthews and Jason himself CJ Graham and others reminisce on the making of Jason’s return to the franchise after the technically Jason-free A New Beginning.
LISTEN HERE
8. Scream (1996)
All the Scream episodes make for a great listen as the gang go into all the production troubles of all the films. It’s amazing the films turned out as good as they did with all the interference and script rewrites by the Weinsteins and it’s a credit to Craven that he managed to consistently craft entertaining and smart slashers each time. One of my favourite things about these episodes is Mike Vanderbilt’s deep dive into the very ‘90s alternative rock soundtracks which act as a concise and sometime hilarious time capsule.
LISTEN HERE
9. The Evil Dead (1981)
Another personal fave, I could have picked any of the Evil Dead episodes to include here, but this episode (actually a 2 part episode running over four hours in total) does a deep dive into the home-made production with lots of insight into Sam Raimi and co’s legendary film.
LISTEN HERE
10. Halloween Ends (2022)
Given that the ‘Weenies were not generally fans of Halloween (2018) or Halloween Kills (2021), it was nice to hear them (well most of them) express some love for the final film in this iteration of the franchise.
LISTEN HERE
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What are your favourite episode of Halloweenies?
Have you listened to the Halloweenies Podcast? Were any of these podcast episodes your favourite?
Let us know on social media.
