The Projection Booth Podcast

Mike talks with Caleb Alexander Smith and David Krumholtz about Forelock, a dark, biting satire set on the margins of Hollywood. The film follows Caiden, a drifting ex-athlete pulled into the bizarre world of boulevard impersonators and small-time hustlers by Randy, a disillusioned veteran of the trade. Together they chase a missing payout and sink deeper into the city’s surreal underbelly.Smith and Krumholtz discuss the film’s blend of desperation, performance, and self-mythology—how Forelock captures a Los Angeles where ambition and delusion often look the same.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

10 Nov 24min

Noirvember 2025 roars to life with Walter Hill’s sleek, existential chase film The Driver (1978). Ryan O’Neal plays the nameless getaway specialist who moves through Los Angeles like a ghost, pursued by Bruce Dern’s manic lawman hell-bent on taking him down. It’s a lean, hypnotic duel between predator and prey where style is substance and silence is power. Mike rides shotgun with Beth Accomando and Walter Chaw to unpack Hill’s minimalist approach, his homage to Melville’s Le Samouraï, and the cold precision that makes The Driver a high-octane hymn to professionalism and control.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

5 Nov 1h 12min

Mike talks with author Mark Edlitz about his latest deep-dive into superhero history, Look Up in the Sky: The Forgotten Superboy Series. The book uncovers the behind-the-scenes story of the short-lived Superboy TV show (1988–1992) — a fascinating chapter in the Superman legacy that’s often overlooked. Edlitz explores how the series evolved across its four seasons, the creative battles that shaped it, and the actors who brought the Boy of Steel to life. From licensing chaos to Kryptonian lore, this is a must-listen for anyone who loves lost television history and the mythos of the Man of Tomorrow.Buy at: https://amzn.to/4oBmZQHBecome 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 Okt 32min

George A. Romero trades zombies for suburban malaise in Jack’s Wife (AKA Season of the Witch, Hungry Wives), a spellbinding portrait of domestic despair and occult liberation. Jan White stars as Joan Mitchell, a disenchanted housewife drifting through a fog of loneliness and repression until she finds power--real or imagined--through witchcraft.Rahne Alexander and Father Malone join Mike to dig into Romero’s haunting mix of feminist allegory, surreal dream logic, and kitchen-sink psychology. Mike interviews Professor Adam Lowenstein about Romero’s Pittsburgh years and scholar Payton McCarty-Simas about her new book That Very Witch.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

29 Okt 2h 7min

Filmmaker and frequent Projection Booth co-host David Kittredge returns to the show to talk about his stunning new documentary Boorman and the Devil (2025). Premiering at the Venice Film Festival and recently screened at the Brooklyn Horror Film Fest, the film examines the making—and unmaking—of John Boorman’s unfinished masterpiece The Heretic, a project that became both a creative obsession and a cautionary tale.Mike and David trace the film’s journey from inception to restoration, exploring the documentary’s mix of melancholy reflection and deep admiration for Boorman’s uncompromising artistry. As one critic called it, Boorman and the Devil is “melancholy, thoughtful, and highly perceptive”—a love letter to pure cinematic vision and the madness that sometimes comes with it.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

28 Okt 57min

Buckle up for one of the wildest rides of the year—Mike talks with Alex Phillips, the audacious filmmaker behind Anything That Moves, a gleefully transgressive, genre-bending erotic thriller that skids into the underbelly of Chicago’s gig-economy sex trade and emerges with something unexpectedly sincere. Phillips bridges the sleaze of 1970s exploitation with the high-concept perversity of modern indie cinema: a bike-courier/sex-worker named Liam (Hal Baum) pedals through the city delivering more than sandwiches—and soon finds himself tangled in a serial-killer conspiracy that feels equal parts giallo and queer pop nightmare.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

27 Okt 23min

Shocktober 2025 spirals into demonic delirium with Juan López Moctezuma’s Alucarda (1977). This feverish blast of Mexican Gothic horror follows Justine (Susana Kamini), a sheltered orphan who finds herself drawn to the wild, otherworldly Alucarda (Tina Romero) within the stone walls of a convent that’s anything but holy. What begins as innocent friendship erupts into a blood-soaked storm of possession, blasphemy, and ecstatic madness.Ryan Luis Rodriguez and Mark Begley join Mike to dissect Moctezuma’s infernal masterpiece — its ties to Jodorowsky’s surrealism, its place in the “nunsploitation” subgenre, and its bold feminist undercurrents that still scorch the screen nearly fifty 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

22 Okt 1h 28min

Mike White dives into the making of Vindication Swim with writer-director Elliott Hasler, whose ambitious period drama brings to life the extraordinary true story of swimmer Mercedes Gleitze, the first British woman to swim the English Channel. Set in the 1920s, the film follows Gleitze’s struggle for recognition and the grueling endurance required to overcome both physical and societal barriers. Hasler discusses the challenges of recreating open-water sequences, capturing the era’s atmosphere, and honoring a pioneer whose determination made history.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

21 Okt 22min