In 2019 a film was released called “MidSommar” and it caused quite a sensation. Ari Aster drew inspiration from the 1973 film, The Wicker Man. This film is part of the folk horror tradition.

Here is a bit that Troy put together about MidSommar (with key spoilers and plot points removed):

MIDSOMMAR (history)

Midsommar was written and directed by Ari Aster. It was released in 2019, and was the follow up to his highly-acclaimed debut feature film, Hereditary. Aster, who was hugely influenced by Swedish film legend Ingmar Bergman, was approached by Swedish producers to create a slasher film involving Swedish folk traditions. The director had recently dealt with the trauma of a breakup and found he could work through his pain by dealing with it in his screenplay for Midsommar.

Shot in Hungary outside of Budapest, not Sweden. The Horgan village was constructed from scratch for the film. 

The Film stars Florence Pugh as Dani Ardor, Jack Reynor as her boyfriend Christian.

Dani finds that Christian and his three friends Jack (played by Will Poulter), Josh, and Pelle  (all of them anthropology students) are planning on visiting the Swedish community, the Horga, that Pelle belongs to.

The five Americans make the trip to the rustic village and are welcomed into the community by the Horgans.

They soon discover that the community is not as idyllic as it seems. 

Time Out‘s Joshua Rothkopf wrote, “A savage yet evolved slice of Swedish folk-horror, Ari Aster’s hallucinatory follow-up to Hereditary proves him a horror director with no peer.”

“Ambitious, impressively crafted, and above all unsettling, Midsommar further proves writer-director Ari Aster is a horror auteur to be reckoned with.” – Rotten Tomatoes

Troy Harkin and David Clink will look at the film, with special guest Sandra Kasturi. She was also the guest for folk horror part 1, our season 3 episode 2 installment, which looked at The Wicker Man (1973).

Sandra Kasturi is an award-winning poet, writer, and editor, with work appearing in many places including ON SPEC, several Tesseracts anthologies, and 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin.

Her two poetry collections are: The Animal Bridegroom (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds (both from Tightrope Books).

Sandra recently won second prize in The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. She is also the winner of the Sunburst Award for her story “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” and ARC Magazine‘s Poem of the Year Award for “Old Men, Smoking.”

In 1973 a film was released called “The Wicker Man.”
In this podcast episode, we look at folk horror in general and The Wicker Man in particular.

This is from Troy Harkin’s introduction:

FOLK HORROR (Intro)

Man loves order. Moreover man loves the order that he cultivates.

As much as we claim to love the great outdoors we love a garden even more because we are the ones who dictate the order. We fear the wilderness. We fear the threat of the untamed. Because we want to see ourselves as enlightened, and civilized, we fear our pagan roots.

Folk Horror explores these fears. Often it examines a return to ancient rites and rituals that for the most part have been forgotten. But Folk Horror reminds us we can never truly leave our past behind. 

In his series The History of Horror, Mark Gatiss refers to the Unholy Trilogy of British Horror. These three films include Witchfiner General from 1968, The Blood on Satan’s Claw from 1970, and 1973’s The Wickerman.

THE WICKER MAN (history)

Inspired by David Pinner’s 1967 novel, Ritual, The Wickerman is ostensibly a detective story about a devout Christian police officer who is searching for a missing girl on Summerisle, an island off the west coast of Scotland, a community that is sustained by its production of apples. The Island is ruled by Lord Summerisle played by Christopher Lee. Police Sergeant Howie is played by Edward Woodward.The film features supporting actors Ingrid Pitt and Britt Eklund as well as actual Scottish locals as the inhabitants of Summerisle.

In the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, The Wickerman is described as “a highly original combination of horror movie, murder mystery, pagan ethnography, and folk musical…”

Cinefantastique once described it as “The Citizen Kane of horror movies”., 

Total Film magazine named The Wicker Man the sixth greatest British film of all time. 

Christopher Lee considers The Wicker Man the best film he ever appeared in.

Troy Harkin and David Clink will look at the film, with special guest Sandra Kasturi. She is also the guest for Folk Horror part 2, which will look at MidSommar (2019).

Sandra Kasturi is an award-winning poet, writer, and editor, with work appearing in many places including ON SPEC, several Tesseracts anthologies, and 80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin.

Her two poetry collections are: The Animal Bridegroom (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds (both from Tightrope Books).

Sandra recently won second prize in The New Quarterly’s Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse Contest. She is also the winner of the Sunburst Award for her story “The Beautiful Gears of Dying” and ARC Magazine‘s Poem of the Year Award for “Old Men, Smoking.”

Season 3!!!
First Episode!

Bruce Willis has been in so many science fiction, fantasy, and horror films, that it is hard to keep track.

Here are a few, not a complete list
(Movie <character> year [IMDB rating]:

Glass <David Dunn> 2019 [6.6]
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For <Hartigan> 2014 [6.5]
G.I. Joe: Retaliation <General Joe Colton> 2013 [5.8]
Moonrise Kingdom <Captain Sharp> 2012 [7.8]
Looper <Old Joe> 2012 [7.4]
Surrogates <Greer> 2009 [6.3]
Planet Terror <Lt. Muldoon> 2007 [7.1]
Grindhouse <Muldoon> 2007 [7.5]
The Astronaut Farmer <Col. Doug Masterson> 2006 [6.3]
Sin City <Hartigan> 2005 [8.0]
Unbreakable <David Dunn> 2002 [7.3]
The Sixth Sense <Malcolm Crowe> 1999 [8.2]
Breakfast of Champions <Dwayne Hoover> 1999 [4.5]
Armageddon <Harry S. Stamper> 1998 [6.7]
Mercury Rising <Art Jeffries> 1998 [6.1]
The Fifth Element <Korben Dallas> 1997 [7.7]
Twelve Monkeys <James Cole> 1995 [8.0]

Troy Harkin and David Clink will look at Bruce Willis’ genre films, and talk about the enduring legacy that he has left us, in the wake of his announcement in late March 2022 that he is retiring as an actor.

NOTE: The idea was that Troy and David would release this episode in the Summer of 2022, and their discussion during the episode relates that. But they are releasing it as their first episode of season 3.

Top Ten Fantasy Films (pt. 2 of 2)

Troy Harkin and David Clink continue with their fantasy movie top ten lists, and the reasons for their selections.

Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?

Top Ten Fantasy Films (pt. 1 of 2)

Troy Harkin and David Clink each come up with their own top ten fantasy films, and the reasons for their selections. How many films will appear on both lists?

Will The Wizard of Oz appear on both lists?
How about…

King Kong?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
My Neighbor Totoro?
The Adventures of Robin Hood?
Big Fish?
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone?

Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?

Top Ten Sci-Fi Films

Troy Harkin and David Clink each come up with their own top ten science fiction films, and the reasons for their selections. How many films will appear on both lists?

Will 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars crack the top ten?
How about…

The Terminator?
E.T.?
The Day the Earth Stood Still?
Blade Runner?
Logan’s Run?
Star Wars?
Alien?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind?

Listen to Troy and David go over their lists, compare and contrast. Maybe you have some of the same films on your own top ten list?

Buckaroo Banzai

This is a cult film that must be seen to be believed.

Troy Harkin and David Clink invite back Ira Nayman (see bio below) for their episode that looks at a film that Gene Siskel predicted would become a cult classic.

The witty dialogue, the unusual plot developments, and John Lithgow’s manic delivery make this film very watchable. With each viewing, you get more out of the film, you see more, and you realize that there is a lot to it. There is method in the madness.

Peter Weller plays Buckaroo Banzai, a scientist and rock star. He develops a device that allows him to travel through matter, and this opens up a whole can of worms.

Jeff Goldblum is a piano playing surgeon / cowboy. Will he join the Hong Kong cavaliers? Will Buckaroo and his motley crew save Earth from the Red Lectroids? Is Penny Priddy somehow connected to an old flame from Buckaroo’s past? And why are there so many people called John? And what about that watermelon? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Ira Nayman is a writer who keeps getting speculative fiction in his humour.

His eighth novel, The Ugly Truth, will be published by Elsewhen Press in 2022.

His 21^st short story, “Girls Rule the Steampunk World!”, will be published in the next Brave New Girls anthology in July, 2022.

Les Pages aux Folles, Ira’s website of social and political satire, will celebrate 20 years of weekly updates in September, 2022.

He was the editor of Amazing Stories magazine for three years.

Before he was a prose geek, Ira was a script geek. He took three years of screenwriting for his undergrad degree at York University and wrote for Creative Screenwriting magazine.

Genre Crushes.

We’ve all had them.
Who were your genre crushes when you were young? And how about now?
Some grew up with a crush on Eartha Kitt or Julie Newmar as Catwoman. Others may have had a crush on Dirk Benedict or Richard Hatch in Battlestar Galactica. Did your bionic leanings lean toward Lee Majors or Lindsay Wagner?

If you are drawn to liking women, were you inclined towards

Velma or Daphne in Scooby Doo?
Buffy or Willow in Buffy: Vampire Slayer?
Xena or Gabrielle in Xena: Warrior Princess?
Bo or “Kenzi” in Lost Girl?
Maggie or Carol in The Walking Dead?
Number Six (Tricia Helfer) or Number Eight (Grace Park) in BSG?

If you are drawn to liking men, were you inclined towards

Fred or Shaggy in Scooby Doo?
Steve or Bucky in Captain America?
Apollo or Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica <1978-79>?
Spock or Kirk in Star Trek <1966-68>?
Sam or Dean in Supernatural?
The Shoveler or Blue Raja in Mystery Men?

And there are, of course, a very long diverse list of crushes, including Sanaa Latham; Wesley Snipes; Michelle Rodriguez; Simu Liu; Michelle Yeoh; Diego Boneta; HoYeon Jung; Zoe Saldana; Sonequa Martin-Green; Eartha Kitt; Ming Na Wen; Nichelle Nichols; Tia Carrere; Thandie Newton; Grace Park; Terry Carter; Kandyse McClure; Will Smith; Yadira Guevara-Prip; Bille Dee Williams; Park So-dam; Priscilla Quintana; LeVar Burton; Woo-sik Choi; Lisa Ray; Michael B. Jordan; Luciana Paluzzi; Sarah Shahi; Nicole Beharie; Steven Yeun; Kelly Hu; Diego Luna; and Rekha Sharma, among many others. There are so many, one cannot do an episode without leaving out one of your own.

Troy Harkin and David Clink welcome back two special guests for this Valentine’s TOF. Charlene Challenger was the guest for Season 1 Episode 6: Blade Runner. Shaindle Minuk was the guest for Season 1 Episode 8: Plan 9 from Outer Space.

Who were Charlene and Shaindle’s crushes? Who are they now?Troy and David cover their own, as well.

Some of the categories the four will look at:
ALL-TIME GENRE CRUSH
SEXIEST ACTOR/ACTRESS (Genre TV Show)
SEXIEST SEX SCENE (Genre TV or Genre Movie)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Genre Actor)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD (Genre Actress)
SEXIEST Sci-Fi Movie of All Time

David came up with a couple of fun categories…
Sexiest genre actor/actress in an annoying party scene
Looking for Love and Feline Groovy

Charlene and Shaindle and Troy and David will come up with, individually, based on a movie that does not exist, their own…
ELEVATOR PITCH for the SEXIEST Sci-Fi Movie of All Time

Will it live up to the one for Barbarella?
A beautiful, young fortieth-century astronaut prevents the positronic ray from getting into the wrong hands.

Charlene Challenger is a writer and graduate of X (renaming in process) Theatre School. Her first novel, the young adult fantasy The Voices In Between, was nominated for the 2015 Aurora Award for Best Young Adult Novel and longlisted for the 2015 Sunburst Award Young Adult Novel category. Its sequel, The Myth In Distance, was published in 2016. Her work is also featured in Stone Skin Press’s Gods, Memes and Monsters. She lives in Pickering, Ontario with her family and her adorable house-wolves.

Shaindle Minuk is an animation builds artist and has been working in the TV and film industries for decades in various capacities.

She is also the editor and co-founder of misterkitty.org, which hosts some of the many comics and graphic novels Shaindle has created over the years, alongside humorous features such as “Found Objects” (in which Shain showcases her vast collection of creepy, unappealing ceramic animal figurines and toys) and the popular “Stupid Comics”, which provides in-depth commentary on, well, stupid comics.

2001: A Space Odyssey.

This is the second part of our look at the film.

We realized that, with two guests, and a big movie like 2001, we would need two parts to do the movie justice.

In Part 2, Troy and David and Mark and Rob spend more time on the film, doing a deeper dive than in Part 1.

Rob refers to the film as “a paradigm shift.”
Mark refers to the film as “a landmark.”

Stanley Kubrick wanted to make the first great SF film.
Mark and Rob mention other films that predated 2001 that were great SF films.

Would Star Wars have happened without 2001?

The Schrödinger’s Cast is looked at, which is taking the cast from the original film, and replacing them with people you may not suspect.

Mark Askwith is a writer and Television Producer. He has covered the Science Fiction genre for over 30 years.

Mark is the creator of the award-winning Prisoners of Gravity, and he is one of the Founding Producers of SPACE, Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Channel.

He has also produced dozens of half-hour television movie specials, featuring interviews with stars like Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, and Sigourney Weaver. As well, he has interviewed dozens of scientists and astronauts including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Buzz Aldrin, and Chris Hadfield.

Neil Gaiman called him The Secret Master of Science Fiction. So, I guess that’s no longer a secret.

Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name.

His latest novel is The Oppenheimer Alternative.

A member of both the Order of Canada and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, he lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

2001: A Space Odyssey.

This film is arguably the whitest film since Birth of a Nation. White actors playing white astronauts in a white spaceship trying to discover, on board a spaceship called Discovery One, the secrets of a black monolith.

Many consider this the greatest science fiction movie of all-time, despite its lack of diversity.

The movie itself did not get a great reception. Many walked out of the premiere screening. For those who left early, and those who stuck it out to the end, many thought “What the hell was that about?”

Most reviews were harsh.

Stanley Kubrick cut 20 or so minutes from the version of the movie that opened, and over time, the shorter (but still long) film found an audience. The film was far ahead of its time, and, like most films that are revolutionary and cutting edge, people just didn’t get it.

The amazing special effects, that still stand up today, and the classical music, the sets, the story, all added together to make something that many would not soon forget.

Troy and David will look at the movie, and discuss it with two special guests: Mark Askwith and Robert J. Sawyer.

Rob was the special guest for Season 1 Episode 2: Planet of the Apes
Mark was the special guest for Season 1 Episode 4: The Prisoner Series

Troy and David welcome back Mark and Rob, who had both listed 2001: A Space Odyssey as their fave genre movie.

We realized that, with two guests, and a big movie like 2001, we would need two parts to do the movie justice.

In Part 1, Troy and David ask Mark and Rob to provide answers to their favourite genre things that were not asked of them before (over the past year more categories were added), and review their previous answers.

Mark and Rob talk about their first experience seeing the film.

The Dream Casting will look at these roles, played by these actors:

Mark Askwith is a writer and Television Producer.

He has covered the Science Fiction genre for over 30 years.

Mark is the creator of the award-winning Prisoners of Gravity, and he is one of the Founding Producers of SPACE, Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Channel.

He has also produced dozens of half-hour television movie specials, featuring interviews with stars like Tom Hanks, Christian Bale, and Sigourney Weaver.

As well, he has interviewed dozens of scientists and astronauts including Neil Degrasse Tyson, Buzz Aldrin, and Chris Hadfield.

Neil Gaiman called him the Secret Master of Science Fiction. So, I guess that’s no longer a secret.

Robert J. Sawyer is one of only eight writers in history—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on his novel of the same name.

His latest novel is The Oppenheimer Alternative.

A member of both the Order of Canada and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, he lives in Mississauga, Ontario.