Special Report: The Antenna (2019)

Shocktober 2025 begins with Sutton Roley's Sweet, Sweet Rachel (1971), the eerie TV movie that launched The Sixth Sense series. Written by Anthony Lawrence, the film stars Stefanie Powers as Rachel Stanton, a glamorous woman whose husband dies under suspicious circumstances, leaving her caught in a web of supernatural intrigue. Alex Dreier play Dr. Lucas Darrow, a psychic researcher who, along with Carey Johnson (Chris Robinson), investigate the strange goings-on of the Piper family.Mike is joined by Amanda Reyes and Kendall R. Phillips to dissect the film’s blend of paranormal thrills and TV Gothic atmosphere. Plus, Stefanie Powers herself stops by to share memories of stepping into Rachel’s haunted shoes.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

1 Okt 1h 26min

Czechtember 2025 wraps with Jan Švankmajer’s Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), a delirious, dialogue-free plunge into fetish and surrealism. Mike teams up with filmmaker Jim Vendiola and critic Samm Deighan to unravel the tangled lives of six Prague eccentrics whose private obsessions—ranging from papier-mâché contraptions to elaborate role-play—collide in hilariously unsettling ways. The result is a darkly comic meditation on desire, ritual, and the pleasures of the bizarre, filtered through Švankmajer’s singular stop-motion, tactile textures, and Surrealist imagination.We're joined by Peter Hames, editor of The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer: Dark Alchemy.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

30 Sep 1h 32min

Czechtember charges ahead as Mike, Spencer Parsons, and Emily Barney dive into Otakar Vávra’s Romance for Bugle (1967). Vávra adapts František Hrubín’s celebrated poem into a lyrical love story set in the Czech countryside. Terina (Zuzana Cigánová), a young Roma woman, ignites passion in Vojta (Jaromír Hanzlík) and Viktor (Štefan Kvietik), pulling the two men into a tense triangle of longing and rivalry. The film also reflects back through the eyes of Vojta as an older man (Július Vašek), who recalls his youthful heartbreak. Cinematographer Jaroslav Kučera saturates the screen with striking imagery, while Vávra shapes the material into a cinematic elegy that fuses poetry, politics, and loss.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

24 Sep 1h 3min

We knew it would happen and here it is! It's the return of our short-lived ZAZ show, From the Files of Police Squad (In Color), where Mike White, Mark Begley, and Chris Stachiw discuss the 2025 reboot of The Naked Gun franchise with... The Naked Gun! The film stars Liam Neeson as Frank Drebin Jr. and Paul Walter Hauser as Ed Hocken Jr., with Pamela Anderson along as the love interest, Beth Davenport—an author of true crime novels based on fictional stories that she makes up.The film reunites the powerhouse trio behind Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)—Dan Gregor, Doug Mand, and Akiva Schaffer—who do a great job channeling the ZAZ flavor of comedy.Revisit the entire run of From the Files of Police Squad (In Color) at http://www.policesquadincolor.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

23 Sep 1h 6min

Filmmaker Brooke H. Cellars sits down with Mike to discuss her audacious feature debut The Cramps: A Period Piece (2025). This blood-soaked, campy horror-comedy transforms menstruation into a monstrous force of nature, gleefully smashing taboos and splattering stigma with buckets of style. The film leans into outrageous gore, wicked humor, and a feminist bite. Mike and Brooke dig into the film’s conception, production challenges, and its place in the tradition of body horror that finds power in the grotesque.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

22 Sep 17min

Mike welcomes Emirati filmmaker Majid Al Ansari to discuss The Vile (2025), his long-awaited return to the director’s chair after nearly a decade. Known as Hoba in Arabic, the film is a psychological horror story about Amani, a wife and mother whose world collapses when her husband brings home a second wife with seemingly supernatural powers. Drawing on myths and superstitions surrounding polygamy, Al Ansari literalizes whispered fears into a chilling tale of possession, betrayal, and domestic dread. Mike and Majid talk about his journey from his acclaimed debut Zinzana to producing and directing for television, his cinephile passions, and how The Vile takes folklore and turns it into unnerving, cinematic horror.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

20 Sep 27min

Czechtember gallops forward with Oldřich Lipský’s madcap musical parody Lemonade Joe (1964). Adapted from Jiří Brdečka’s novel and play, the film stars Karel Fiala as the squeaky-clean pitchman of Kolalok Cola who rides into town to clean up the Wild West. Standing in his way is Miloš Kopecký as the dastardly Horác Badman—better known as Hogofogo. With tinted black-and-white visuals, slapstick invention, and a send-up of both Hollywood westerns and consumer culture, this is pure Lipský—irreverent, dazzling, and completely unforgettable. Mike is joined by Jonathan Owen and Alistair Pitts to unpack this fizzy Czech classic.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

17 Sep 2h 4min

Blue hearts, high school dreams, and one unforgettable rock anthem — we’re diving into Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda (2005). The film follows a group of teenage girls in a Japanese high school who form a last-minute band to play the Blue Hearts’ classic “Linda Linda” at their school festival, with a quiet Korean exchange student unexpectedly stepping in as their lead singer.Mike White is joined by Chance Huskey of GKIDS to talk about the film’s enduring charm, its place in the coming-of-age canon, and GKIDS’s North American release. From Yamashita’s understated style to Doona Bae’s breakout performance, this conversation riffs on the film’s infectious energy, youthful vulnerability, and what makes it resonate almost twenty years later.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth-podcast--5513239/support.Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

15 Sep 21min