Rogues Gallery
94 episodes - English - Latest episode: 26 days ago - ★★★★★ - 122 ratingsKristen, Mike, and Chris investigate pop culture's most memorable villains, antiheroes, and misunderstood monsters to find out how they make being bad look so good. New episodes every other Wednesday.
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Episodes
Case File 042: Jaws
August 11, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 60.3 MBSteven Spielberg's 1975 adaptation of Jaws is arguably one of the greatest films ever made. That feat is even more impressive when you take into consideration the multitude of problems this production was plagued with. On this episode, we're investigating the legendary story of an up-and-coming director who began shooting a movie with no script, no cast, and no shark... and wound up with a bona fide classic that helped give birth to the blockbuster. Topics include: Peter Benchley's n...
Case File 041: House on Haunted Hill (1999)
July 28, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 47.5 MBThe horror genre was experiencing an interesting transition in the late 90s/early aughts. The resurgence of teen slashers that had been kicked off by Scream was fizzling out and in its place were films that placed more of an emphasis on supernatural scares. It was during this time that the production company Dark Castle Entertainment was formed with the goal of producing glossier remakes of classic William Castle horror movies from the 50s and 60s. For their inaugural outing, they chose...
Case File 040: Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th Part 3)
July 14, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBIt just wouldn't be summer without a trip to Crystal Lake to see what our old pal Jason's been up to. On this episode, we're continuing our investigation into the Friday the 13th franchise and taking a look at one if its most seminal entries. Topics include: the much different premise they almost went with and how it might have set this series off down a very different path, why the decision to shoot this one in 3D resulted in an extremely complicated production, conflicting stories abo...
Case File 039: The Babadook
June 30, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 49 MBWhen The Babadook was released back in 2014, there was a lot of hype about how terrifying it was. Heading into it with those expectations may have colored our initial impressions of it. Now that some time has passed, we're going back to see if we can give this one a more objective analysis. Topics include: Jennifer Kent's unlikely path to becoming a director, how her short film Monster set the stage for all of this, the incredible performances she gets out of her two lead actors, using g...
Case File 038: The Conjuring
June 16, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 52.7 MBFor a lot of us, The Conjuring almost seemed to come out of nowhere in the summer of 2013. It stood out amidst the usual slew of sequels & remakes and its success not only cemented James Wan as a modern master or horror, it also helped breathe new life into the genre. Of course, The Conjuring is now a major franchise itself with numerous sequels and spin-offs in its orbit. In some ways, those have diluted our impressions of the series as a whole. So we wanted to go back to the source and...
Case File 037: Troll 2
June 02, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 57 MBIt's time for a summer vacation, so we're packing up the RV and heading to the town of Nilbog for an investigation into the best worst movie ever made - Troll 2! Topics include: how each of us discovered this film, its devoted cult following and how that led to the documentary Best Worst Movie, the language barrier between the actors and the filmmakers, why sincerity is an essential ingredient for any "good" bad movie, the real reason there are no trolls in Troll 2, your answers to Ulti...
Case File 036: Mysterio (Spider-Man: Far From Home)
May 19, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 42.1 MBNothing is quite what it seems in Spider-Man: Far From Home, including Peter Parker's enigmatic new ally Mysterio. On this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on his heroic facade and examining this film's dual identity as both an epilogue to the dour events of Avengers: Endgame and a more lighthearted high school romp. Topics include: Mysterio's comic book origins and how he was updated for his live-action debut, Jake Gyllenhaal's previous connection to the Spider-Man franchise, why...
Case File 035: Boba Fett
May 05, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 58.9 MBThe level of fandom surrounding Boba Fett always seemed a little disproportionate to what he actually does on screen. The costume certainly makes an impression, but the way The Empire Strikes Back seemed to be building him up made his unceremonious sendoff in Return of the Jedi feel so perplexing and anticlimactic. For decades, the only place to turn for more substantial Boba Fett stories was the Star Wars Expanded Universe - a series of novels, comics, and other tie-in merchandise that...
Case File 034: Carrie
April 21, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 54.8 MBThere was probably no one more surprised by the success of Stephen King's novel Carrie than King himself. He'd only made it a few pages into his original manuscript before throwing it into the trash. Even after his wife dug it out and urged him to push forward, he was convinced he was writing something that there was no audience for. But Carrie was a breakout hit and one of its fans was director Brian DePalma. His 1976 film adaptation is now regarded as a classic in the horror genre (and...
Case File 033: The Winter Soldier
April 07, 2021 22:22 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBIn the early aughts, writer Ed Brubaker introduced Captain America readers to a formidable new adversary: - The Winter Soldier. The revelation that this twisted mirror image of Cap was actually his former kid sidekick Bucky Barnes dropped jaws and shook the foundations of the Marvel Universe. On this episode, we're exploring how the MCU adapted this storyline for the big screen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and how those events rippled out into Captain America: Civil War. Ot...
Case File 032: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)
March 24, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 51.8 MBWe're re-opening our case file on the Springwood Slasher to investigate what might be the fan favorite entry in this franchise - A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Although the second film had been poorly received by fans and critics, its box office earnings proved that there was still enough interest in this property to warrant another installment. And who better to provide the necessary course correction the studio was looking for than the man who had created all of this in t...
Case File 031: Macavity (Cats)
March 10, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBAndrew Lloyd Weber's Cats was the first blockbuster musical and although critics were dismissive of its emphasis on spectacle over story, audiences lapped it up. The same cannot be said for the 2019 feature film adaptation. The movie took the internet by storm and led to a treasure trove of tweets and memes, but dodgy CGI aside - what exactly went wrong here? How did something so reliably successful in one medium utterly crash and burn in another? When dealing with source material tha...
Case File 030: The Invisible Man (2020)
February 24, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 36.4 MBKristen, Mike, and Chris open a case file on Adrian Griffin and investigate Blumhouse's remake of The Invisible Man. Topics include: the collapse of Universal's "Dark Universe" and how the failure of The Mummy paved the way for this reimagining of the classic H.G. Wells story, the "simpler=better" approach to the special effects, the decision to shift the focus from the title character to one of his victims, how effectively the opening scene essentially teaches you to watch the rest of ...
Case File 029: The Grand High Witch (The Witches)
February 10, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 42.1 MBThe 1990 film adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches remains a cult classic for those of us that grew up with it and a big part of that is definitely Angelica Huston's terrifying performance as The Grand High Witch. The film doesn't just traumatize its young viewers, though - it also empowers them. It's a world where even the most evil of forces can be conquered by the smallest of creatures. Not everyone was a fan, however, and Dahl himself wound up being one of its biggest detractors. H...
Case File 028: Sadako/Samara (Ringu/The Ring)
January 27, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 39 MBIn 2002, Gore Verbinski's The Ring had American audiences terrified of their VHS tapes - but Japanese audiences had been relishing in this terror since the original 1998 release of Ringu. While both films featured a psychokinetic girl climbing out of a well and into our living rooms, they each took a different approach to exploring that premise. Topics include: the reluctant horror novelist that spawned the series, Sadako and Samara's abuse at the hands of their parents, the remake's vira...
Case File 027: Max Cady (Cape Fear)
January 13, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 43.1 MBGregory Peck headlined the 1962 film Cape Fear, but it was Robert Mitchum's portrayal of serial rapist Max Cady that scandalized audiences. In 1991, director Martin Scorsese's remake would push those boundaries even further thanks to Robert De Niro's more violent, more explicit, and more carnal interpretation of Cady. Topics include: the novel that inspired the story, Cady's relationship to Bowden prior to the film, alternate casting choices, the Spielberg version of the remake that we'l...
Case File 026: The Grinch (How The Grinch Stole Christmas)
December 16, 2020 05:00 - 1 hour - 35.4 MBOn this episode, we're investigating two very different interpretations of Dr. Seuss' ultimate holiday meanie - The Grinch. Join us as we compare and contrast the classic 1966 TV special How The Grinch Stole Christmas with the 2000 live-action feature film adaptation. Topics include: Seuss' original inspiration for the character, his reluctance to sign off on screen adaptations, why the Grinch is green, how two different directors stretched this short children's tale to the required leng...
Case File 025: The Gremlin (The Twilight Zone)
December 02, 2020 05:00 - 1 hour - 37.4 MBOn this episode, we're investigating three different versions of one of The Twilight Zone's most famous stories - Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. We take a closer look at the classic episode from the original series, the concluding segment of 1983's Twilight Zone: The Movie, and the unique spin the 2019 revival puts on the premise with Nightmare at 30,000 Feet. Topics include: the short story by Richard Matheson that the original episode was based on, why its most obvious shortcoming might be...
Case File 024: Leatherface (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)
November 18, 2020 05:00 - 1 hour - 39.2 MBWith Thanksgiving right around the corner for those of us here in the States, it felt like the right time to revisit one of the most famous family dinners in cinematic history. Pull up a chair and dig in as we open up a case file on Leatherface from 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Topics include: the unimaginable circumstances this low-budget film was assembled under, the controversy it caused upon its release, how it’s able to trick you into thinking you saw something so much more ...
Case File 023: Furiosa (Mad Max: Fury Road)
November 04, 2020 05:00 - 1 hour - 37.1 MBOh what a day! What a lovely day! We’re taking a look at Mad Max: Fury Road and opening a case file on one of our favorite modern antiheroes: Imperator Furiosa. Topics include: the setbacks previous iterations of this film faced during its two decade journey to the big screen, why the finished version may have benefited from those delays, behind the scenes tension between cast and crew, what the film can teach us about world building and visual storytelling, how it compares to previous ...
Case File 022: Michael Myers (Halloween II)
October 21, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBIt's that time of year again. We're returning to Haddonfield and picking up right where the original Halloween left off to continue our investigation into Michael Myers. By the filmmakers own admission, Halloween II is a movie that was made for financial reasons, not creative ones. John Carpenter had such a difficult time coming up with a suitable story, that he resorted to chugging a six-pack of beer every night as he banged out the script. His lack of investment resulted in a somewh...
Case File 021: John Doe (Se7en)
October 07, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBWe're back for a new round of investigations and to kick things off, we're opening up a case file on John Doe from Se7en. The premise of a serial killer whose crimes are patterned after the seven deadly sins is so simple and so good that it's a little surprising it didn't already exist before 1995, but that wasn't the only trail director David Fincher blazed with this incendiary thriller. Se7en's grimy, neo-noir aesthetic inspired a slew of knock-offs, but most of those imitators ...
Case File 020: Ava (Ex Machina)
July 01, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 35.2 MBAlex Garland's debut thriller Ex Machina may be slight in budget, but its ambition is massive. Although we're centering our investigation around the character of Ava, it's just a jumping off point to sort through the film's complicated web of relationships and the themes Garland is exploring. Topics include: the numerous examples of "show don't tell" storytelling, how they transform this simple premise into such an effective pressure cooker, the way all three main characters are manipulati...
Case File 019: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge)
June 17, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 45.3 MBDespite the success of the first A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Line Cinema didn't walk away with a very big piece of the proverbial pie. They did, however, hold sole ownership over something that was potentially a lot more valuable - a franchisable character. They rushed A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge into production and decided to jettison the original writer/director, lead actress, and established rules of the previous film. And somehow, that's only scratching the s...
Case File 018: Sil (Species)
June 03, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 41.4 MBWhen the filmmakers behind Species needed a creature that had to be as sexy as it was scary, H.R. Giger's name understandably shot to the top of their list. His Academy Award-winning work on Alien was exactly the aesthetic they were chasing. As the project evolved, however, Giger realized that there was perhaps too much reverence for (and adherence to) his previous efforts. Species is a mixed bag of largely unrealized potential, but it's not without its merits. On this episode, we investi...
Case File 017: Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)
May 20, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 43.7 MBFor all of its accomplishments, Phase I of the MCU was somewhat marred by what numerous critics referred to as "The Marvel Villain Problem" - and depending on who you ask, Red Skull was either the answer to that complaint or the epitome of it. So we're opening up a case file on one of Captain America's greatest foes to see if this character can help us understand whether or not The First Avenger ultimately succeeds because of its pulpy charm and throwback approach to serialized storytel...
Case File 016: Audrey II (Little Shop of Horrors)
April 22, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 37.9 MBThe evolution of Little Shop of Horrors is not dissimilar from that of the killer plant at the center of it. It began life as a strange, little oddity - a quick, low-budget film that was shot in a couple of days by legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman. From those inauspicious beginnings, it transformed into a bigger and bolder off-Broadway musical. The success of that show paved the way for this more lavish feature film production, which firmly entrenched these characters (and songs)...
Case File 015: Cloverfield
April 08, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 44.4 MBGodzilla meets The Blair Witch Project. That high-concept premise for Cloverfield was pretty straightforward, but the execution of it was anything but. These days, it's probably remembered as much for the elaborate and immersive ARG campaign as the film itself. It arguably stands as one of the most effective examples of J.J. Abrams' infamous "mystery box" marketing, but it might also represent the point where a backlash to that approach started to emerge. From its top secret developme...
Mailbag #1
March 25, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 31.5 MBLike many of you, we're all practicing self-isolation for a couple of weeks and that made recording a regular episode a bit of a challenge. So instead, we're making the best of a less than ideal situation and doing our first mailbag episode instead. We asked our listeners to submit their questions via social media and they provided us with some amazing topics to cover. So we go over the story of how the podcast came to be, some of our favorite antiheroes, which horror franchise we'd rebo...
Case File 014: Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th Part 2)
March 11, 2020 04:00 - 1 hour - 38.5 MBWe didn't expect to be heading back to Crystal Lake so soon, but we took a look at the calendar and couldn't resist. Plus, watching Part 2 in such close proximity to the original wound up being really beneficial when it came to comparing and contrasting them. The evolution of the Friday the 13th series is a fascinating one and although this represents an important step in its development, this entry still stands apart from subsequent sequels in several key ways. Topics include: the o...
Case File 013: Blade
February 26, 2020 05:00 - 1 hour - 47.9 MBWe're back! And to celebrate our return, we're shaking things up with an investigation into our first antihero - Blade. It's a deep dive on the Daywalker's comic book origins, how he was updated for the first film, the highs and lows of the sequels, other paths not taken, and where it all goes from here now that Marvel has reacquired the rights to the character. Other topics include: the state of comic book movies when the first film hit theaters in 1998, alternate casting choices fo...
Case File 012: Pamela Voorhees (Friday the 13th)
December 18, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 36 MBNo hockey mask. No machete. No Jason (at least not the way we're used to seeing him). Despite the fact that it kicked off one of the most popular horror franchises of all-time, the most notable thing about the original Friday the 13th is how little it has in common with the glut of sequels that followed it. The filmmakers have never been shy about the fact that this was quickly cobbled together to capitalize on the success of Halloween - and it certainly did. Considering what this serie...
Case File 011: The Overlook Hotel (The Shining & Doctor Sleep)
December 04, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 43.7 MBOn this episode, we're checking into The Overlook Hotel and investigating all of the different interpretations of The Shining and its sequel, Doctor Sleep. We cover all of it - Stephen King's original novel, Stanley Kubrick's wildly divergent film adaptation, the more faithful (and somewhat maligned) 1997 miniseries, and the incredible hat trick that Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan pulled off by crafting a new movie that somehow honors all of these disparate iterations. Topics incl...
Case File 010: Annie Wilkes (Misery)
November 20, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 40.7 MBWith Annie's arrival on the second season of Castle Rock, it wound up being a great time to revisit Stephen King's novel Misery and Rob Reiner's 1990 film adaptation. Topics include: the real life rogue who may have indirectly influenced King's book, how that came back to haunt him many years later, key differences between the novel and the movie, what creators actually owe their fans, and much more! Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Google Play | Spotify ...
Case File 009: Lex Luthor (Superman: The Movie)
November 06, 2019 05:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBThis week we're opening a case file on one of the greatest criminal minds of our time. But... is he? Gene Hackman's take on Lex Luthor in Superman: The Movie is markedly different from the way he'd been depicted in the comics up to that point, but also a far cry from how the character would continue to evolve. Topics include: this iteration's inferiority complex and how Hackman's refusal to shave his head wound up playing into that, why Christopher Reeve's pitch-perfect portrayal of the m...
Case File 008: Michael Myers (Halloween 1978)
October 23, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 41.5 MBThe Shape. The Bogeyman. Michael Myers. Whatever you want to call him, he's the reason for the season and on this episode we're investigating John Carpenter's 1978 classic Halloween. From the production's inauspicious beginnings to the film's now-legendary status, we track the incredible journey of a ragtag group of filmmakers who set out to make a low budget horror flick and wound up changing the modern movie landscape. Topics include: Carpenter's somewhat contentious relationship w...
Case File 007: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street)
October 09, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 40.6 MBSlasher movies were certainly de rigueur in the early 80s, but when writer/director Wes Craven created A Nightmare on Elm Street, he had more on his mind than simply churning out another Halloween ripoff. This wasn't just a paradigm shift in the established formula for this sub-genre, it also birthed one of the most iconic horror villains of all-time. On this episode, we're focusing exclusively on the first entry in the franchise and investigating how Craven, Robert Englund, and the res...
Case File 006: Biff Tannen (The Back to the Future Trilogy)
September 25, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 37.8 MBWhen you're dealing with a franchise as beloved as Back to the Future, there aren't many unexplored avenues left to cover. There is, however, an unsung hero of this series who often gets overshadowed. So on this episode, we're shining a much-deserved spotlight on actor Thomas F. Wilson and putting together a case file on his most iconic role... Biff Tannen. Join us as we investigate the deceptively simple exterior of Biff and all the clues that hint at a much more layered character, why...
Case File 005: Khan Noonien Singh (Star Trek)
September 11, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 43.6 MBOn this episode, we're comparing and contrasting three very different iterations of one of Star Trek's most iconic villains - Khaaaaan! Although Space Seed is certainly a beloved episode of the original series, it was really the feature film The Wrath of Khan that established this character as one of the franchise's most formidable (and memorable) foes. Since then, there have been numerous attempts to recapture that same lightning in a bottle with other Trek adversaries and the results h...
Case File 004: Candyman
August 28, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 41.6 MBCandyman was one of the first rogues on our list when we started this podcast and with the reboot hitting theaters next year, this seemed like an ideal time to go back to where it all began. We delve into the character's first appearance in Clive Barker's short story The Forbidden, how Bernard Rose expanded upon that mythology for his feature film adaptation, the reason some of those changes were controversial, and why Candyman comes across like more of a straightforward boogeyman in the...
Case File 003: Raoul Silva (Skyfall)
August 14, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MBAfter Quantum of Solace took some of the wind out of the newly rebooted Bond franchise's sails, the pressure was on for Skyfall to deliver a return-to-form just in time for the series' 50th anniversary. To say the film was a success would be a massive understatement. Skyfall remains the highest grossing James Bond movie to date and many critics heralded it as one of the top-tier installments. A lot of that praise was directed at Javier Bardem's portrayal of Raoul Silva - a villain caref...
Case File 002: Amy Dunne (Gone Girl)
July 31, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 34.6 MBGillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl grabbed the zeitgeist by the throat and David Fincher's film adaptation proved to be just as popular... and controversial. On this episode, we're opening a case file on one of the most provocative new rogues in contemporary fiction - Amy Dunne. Join us we discuss our initial reactions to the material and all of its twists and turns, examine some of the key differences between the novel and the film and how those changes effect how we feel about Amy as a c...
Case File 001: Ghostface (Scream 1-4)
July 17, 2019 04:00 - 1 hour - 48.5 MBWelcome to Rogues Gallery! Kristen, Mike, and Chris are investigating pop culture’s most memorable villains, antiheroes, and misunderstood monsters to find out how they make being bad look so good. On this debut episode, we’re opening a case file on all four iterations of the masked killer from the Scream franchise - Ghostface. Join us as we explore each killer’s motive, compare and contrast the opening set pieces, dig into alternate versions of Scream 2, explain how outside forces...
Introducing ROGUES GALLERY
June 30, 2019 16:24 - 3 minutes - 1.81 MBKristen and Mike from The Sunnydale Stacks have teamed up with Chris from Hey, Do You Remember...? for a brand new podcast from 27th Letter Productions! On each episode of Rogues Gallery, we'll investigate a different villain, antihero, or misunderstood monster from pop-culture to find out how they make being bad look so good. Subscribe now and then join us here on Wednesday, July 17th as we crack open our first case file.