Movie Time! Halloween Schlocktober (2023): Troll, Street Trash, Leprechaun 4, and Eric’s Revenge

It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast Halloween Schlocktober!, our yearly dose of creepy movie mayhem! Our harrowing hosts Ethan “Bloodlust” Brehm and Nate “Entrails” Evans are your personal guides for this shocking smorgasbord of four shlocky horrors scraped direct from cinema’s bottom-barrel that prove you don’t need blockbuster budgets to have a good time. Also: listen for a special intro from none other than horror legend Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead and one of the films listed below). Happy Halloween!

First up is 1986’s Troll (the original and not the “best worst movie”), directed by effects guru John Carl Buechler (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College) that epitomizes the “high-concept / low-budget” genre of horror/comedy that ruled the 1980s home video circuit. Next is 1987’s Street Trash, directed by Steadicam master J. Michael Muro (a favorite of James Cameron) and one of the most celebrated of all “melt movie” classics.

Third is 1996’s Leprechaun 4: In Space, directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith (one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorites, apparently). It’s not just the best of the Warwick Davis-starring franchise but among the most bat$h!t crazy concepts ever stitched together. Last is 1989’s Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge, a reworking of the Phantom mythos directed by Richard Friedman where the real star is the mall itself (RIP) and not an early appearance by Pauly Shore.