In Film We Trust

It's Halloween, goils and ghouls! And if you know IFWT, you know we love our spooky season, and what better way to celebrate this holiday of sinister shenanigans than to once again host friend of the podcast, Satanic witch and the grooviest go-go dancer on the scene, SZANDORA LAVEY.

Szandora brings the podcast Hammer's first foray into psychedelic vampirism, DRACULA A.D. 1972 - a film full of black masses, far-out lingo, a pissed Christopher Lee and the very first onscreen role for the vampy tempress Caroline Munro.

And with this episode delving into all things...

Spooky Season 2026 is kicking off here at IFWT with Jorge Grau's eco-zombie 1974 masterpiece The Living Dead of Manchester Morgue a.k.a Let Sleeping Corpses Lie a.k.a Don't Open The Window a.k.a.....okay. We'd be hear all day if we named each alternative title.

But joining me for this episode is the very special guests, and friends of the podcast, Scott West of Tall Toad, Phil DeGlass of Flixology 101 and Matt Rotman, author of Bonkers Ass Cinema.

So stayed tuned as the 3 of us enjoy...

Documentarian Bruce Brown may have coined the term the 'Endless Summer', but here at IFWT, summer is officially ending for 2026, and we're ending it in style, with Katheryn Bigelow's action masterpiece Point Break - a film of bank heists, surfing, philosophy and the kind of propulsive pacing that very few action directors manage to achieve.

And it's my pleasure to host for the first time on this show, author Stephen Lee Naish (Music and Sound in the Films of Dennis Hopper) who has just released his book Point Break: Movies Minute By Minute, for Bloomsbury.

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Photographer, visual artist and friend of the show Michelle MacBride, makes her debut appearance on In Film We Trust.

We landed on Peter Bogdanovich's Mask to discuss. A true to life tale of Rocky Dennis, a young man afflicted by Lionitis - a disease that condemned him to an early death. But Bogdanovich's film - starrign Eric Stoltz, Cher and Sam Elliott - isn't some morbid tale. Instead it's a story of resilience, defiance, and life lived to the fullest, in what is arguably Bogdanovich's most controversial film, for which we definitely discuss on the episode.

1971 was a pivotal year for megastar Clint Eastwood. Not only did it mark the first entry into the Dirty Harry franchise, and also the transgressive The Beguiled. It was also the year he would step behind the camera for the first time and direct Play Misty For Me - a story of obsession, frailty, mental illness and the then little explored notion of a 'stalker'.

But where does his directorial film stand in the annals of history? It arguably is the precursor, and template for all erotic thrillers going forth, and not only does Eastwood direct himself...

Author Eddie mcNamara joins the show this week. Eddie has just released via Feral House, his new non-fiction book on the Zodiac case, Zodiactually: The Real Story of a Fake Serial Killer, that challenges the mainstream narrative of the infamous Zodiac killings that took place in the late 60s-70s.

Which makes him the perfect guest to join me in a discussion of David Fincher's 2007 masterpiece Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as San Francisco Chroninicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith, who would go on to write the influential and case-resuscitating book Zoadiac, for which the film is...

Writer Andrew Rihn, In Film We trust's go-to historian on all things boxing is back on the show. And this week he brings the podcast John Huston's 1972 existentialist boxing drama Fat City. Based on Leonard Gardner's novel, Fat City is an exploration of failed dreams, new beginnings, addiction and the cost of a life lived on the edge.

But in the pantheon of Hollywood, Fat City, features new stars - Jeff Bridges, Stacy Keach, and stars-that-should-have-been, such as Susan Tyrrell, a Warhol Superstar. Who's experience on this film sullied her entire Hollywood career,

There's maybe no more maligned genre in horror - or even cinema itself - than the cannibal film that rose to prominence in 1970s Italy, most popularly exemplified by Ruggero Deodato's infamous Cannibal Holocaust. But right there in the mix, and arguably the genre's founder, was Umberto Lenzi with 1972's The Man From Deep River.

Lenzi would have a contentious relationship with the genre - both hating it, but being brought back into the fold with 1980's Eaten Alive, due to financial incentives. . It's this film that my guest Eugenio Ercolani - film historian and writer/editor...

Film historian and writer Suzanne Boleyn joins the show this week to discuss Belgian director Harry Kumel's 1971 vampire film Daughters of Darkness.

Suzanne is not only a fan of this film that explores sexuality, gender politics and possibly even fascism, she also contributed an essay for Radiance's brilliant set where she dived into the symbolism that exists in this work and what it actually means.

Which is a huge bonus for this episode, as Daughters of Darkness is ripe for analysis and a plethora of interpretations due to its relative opaqueness and symbolism that exists...

Dan Franklin is a music writer and author of the, thus far, definitive biography of UK doom band Electric Wizard, 'Come My Fanatics: A Journey Into The World of Electric Wizard', which contextualises the band, and their artistic realm, with the influences that informed who they are.

And one of those films that made a huge impact on the band was Don Sharp's 1973 British occult biker picture Psychomania - a film about a biker gang leader who has just cracked a long-held family secret of immortality, and he's all too willing to protolyze this occult secret to...

Richard Baylor joins the show! Richard is an underground filmmaker who made his name, an American émigré in the United Kingdom, within the British punk scene of the 1980s that would lead him to picking up the camera and making his 1990 debut Our Own Personal Hell.

Working exclusively in the short film format, we touch on many of Richard's films, all the way to arguably his most astute, and subversion film, 1993's Cirsium Delectus - based on the Sunset Strip Killings. A film that would lead Richard to a multi-year dialogue between himself and jailed serial killer Do...

Author of The Satanic Screen and leader of gothic band Radio Werewolf, Nikolas Schreck returns to the show!

And lucky for us, he's here to discuss the feature length debut of his late friend, and collaborator, Curtis Harrington - the terrific and surreal Night Tide!

Night Tide is a noir-ish nightmare that stars Dennis Hopper in his first lead role, as a sailor who meets the mysterious sideshow attraction Mora The Mermaid. But...could she possibly be a real mermaid, and what exactly does the ending mean!?

These questions persist due to Harrington's...

This week I'm joined by Chris Babalis, frontman of Greek doom metal band Acid Mammoth, so it's only appropriate that we discuss one of cinema's most doom-laden and oppressive sword and sorcery epics, Conan The Barbarian!

Written by John Milius and Oliver Stone, with Milius behind the camera, Conan The Barbarian stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as an orphaned Cimmerian boy, who rises from slavery to avenge the death of his father, figure out the Riddle of Steel and confront his arch-nemesis Thulsa Doom!

If you're a long time listener, or new to this podcast, you'll know...

Filmmaker Kansas Bowling exploded onto the scene as a mid-teen, directing the first ever pre-historic slasher B.C Butcher for Troma. Since then she has acted in everything from Murdercise, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and being cast in Neil Breen's upcoming film Dire Duplicity.

But today Kansas drops by to discuss her film Cuddly Toys, a genuine mondo film, influenced by the likes of Mondo Hollywood and Faces of Death. Cuddly Toys is a warning call to all parents about their teenage daughters - a scattershot cinema verité film about abuse, runaways, anorexia, drug abuse a...

IFWT is taking a trip to Mexico with Satanic witch and burlesque performer Szandora LaVey - a surname synonymous with counter-cultural diabolism since Anton LaVey founded the Church of Satan in 1966 - as we attempt to decipher Juan Lopez Moctezuma's 1977 vampire oddity Alucarda.

Alucarda, a loose adaptation of Le Fanu's novel Carmilla (that predated Stoker's Dracula by 25 years!) tells the story of the titular Alucarda and Justine. Two orphaned girls who are placed into the care of a Catholic convent. Part folk-horror, part possession movie, part nunsploitation - in fact, this film, still underseen by many horror...

IFWT is back after a short hiatus, and we're back in style. We're joined by "The Rock 'n' Roll Champion With Curly Hair", THE PHANTOM A.D., this generations answer to the iconoclastic Mojo Nixon. The Phantom A.D's music is a monstrous conglomerate of horrorr movies, pop-culture, trash and everything else us groovy hepcats dig, all backdropped by Chuck Berry rhythms and three-chord righteousness.

The Phantom A.D has just dropped his new ominously frightful titled album The Revenge Of... The Phantom A.D, with it's lead single Spider Baby, taken from Jack Hill's 1967 comedically macabre...

On this episode I'm joined by musician and writer Tony O'Neill. Tony rose from working class Blackburn to playing keyboards with Marc Almond, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Kenickie. But that's only the beginning of his story. After falling into serious drug addiction, he pivoted and became a respected man of letters, writing underground classics such as Digging The Vain and Sick City - and Tony and I delve into his work, his crazed Hollywood experiences that involve Courtney Love and a memorable night with Ron Jeremy!

So it's appropriate that he jumps aboard IFWT to discuss...

If you're a regular listener to this podcast you will know we (alongside Rolo Tony) dived into each of the directorial works of Larry Fessenden - from No Telling all the way to Blackout. We discussed the polemics, the recurring themes, his use of, and subverting, classic monster movie tropes.

But now the time has come to talk with the man himself. How did the environment of his youth form his taste, his polemics and his drive for a sense of justice. The very nature of filmmaking, being the unofficial Godfather of the 'Mumblecore genre', all the...

Author of Psychedelic Cults and Outlaw Churches, Mike Marinacci joins the show this week to discuss Pierre Sogol's, unfinished, and officially unreleased documentary, Aquarius Rising.

Aquarius Rising charted the counterculture scene - communes, psychedelics - of California circa 1967, filmed very much in a home video style, with the director often inserting himself into the documentary. But who exactly is Sogol? Most know that 'Pierre' Sogol' is a pseudonym, but luckily Mike drops the details who exactly this enigmatic director is.

And because this film is technically unfinished, and somewhat scattershot, we use Aquarius Rising, more...

IFWT is finally covering The Sultan of Sexploitation, Russ Meyer! And if that wasn't groovy enough, writer and connoisseur of all things cult, Heather Drain is here to discuss Meyer's bodacious, buxom and badass movie from 1975, SUPERVIXENS.

Supervixen's concerns the accidental sexploits of gas station worker Clint, who after being falsely accused of killing his girlfriend, hits the two-lane blacktop and finds himself in a series of sexual escapades, often to the ire of the men he encounters, primarily, corrupt cop Harry Sledge, played by the fantastically menacing Charles Napier.

And being a Meyer film...

This week I'm joined by author Scott West and Rif of the upcoming podcast Rocket Ships, Ray Guns & Rock n Roll, to discuss Alex Cox's incendiary debut, and truly punk film Repo Man.

One part conspiracy thriller, one part Sci-Fi mystery and 100% cult classic, Repo Man would catapult Emelio Estevez in leading man territory alongside certified greats such as Harry Dean Stanton.

With a soundtrack featuring punk greats such as Circle Jerks and Black Flag, and an original space age surf score by The Plugz, Repo Man wears its punk-rock credentials well, and myself, Scott...

It's a pleasure to welcome director Joshua Erkman onto the podcast, who, after a lifetime toiling away in the industry, has finally released his feature-length debut, A Desert - a film that exists somewhere between Hitchcock's Psycho and the abstract nightmares of David Lynch.

When a middle-aged photographer heads to the desert, sans mobile phone, to attempt to recapture a sense of the wildness that informed his prior work. Unlucky for him, he gets what he wanted in the form of the Manson-like Renny and Nymphet Susie-Q, who light the fuse for the chaos that ensues.

Punk icon Harley Flanagan has persevered through hell to tell his story of addiction, madness and redemption. As founder of hardcore band the Cro-Mags, he's toured the world and entertained the masses. But behind the mayhem, lies a human story of abuse, neglect and kicking against the pricks. As a child born into a world of counterculture legends as Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol, Harley was determined to carve his own path. First as a pre-teen drummer in The Stimulators then as leader of the pioneering hardcore band Cro-Mags.

But what is the truth between these sign-posts...

This week I'm joined by Welsh filmmaker and guest film programmer at London's only grindhouse-exclusive picturehouse, The Nickel Cinema, Craig Williams, to discuss Paul Morrissey's near-lost punk artifact Madame Wang's.

Centered on a story of of an East German agent who is sent to the United States, not only to search for Jane Fonda, but to wait for the Communist takeover. Along the way he bumps into an eclectic mix of society's throwaways, who teach him the what it is to be an American.

Morrissey's film, like his previous Flesh, Trash and Heat films with...

Gentry Austin, co-host of the sexploitation podcast The Sin Syndicate podcast is joining the podcast to discuss the Annie Belle starring Laure a.k.a Forever Emmanuelle Forever.

Laure, is a 'Emmanuelle-adjacent' softcore film that waxes on liberation, religion and emancipation from life's shackles - so it is no mere T&A film, which makes it ripe for the IFWT deepdive. And much of this is thanks to the participation of Emmanuelle Arsan, the writer of the original Emmanuelle book that spawned franchises in France and Italy.

Also, Gentry not only brings us this film...

Writer and contributor to TheFightCity.com, Andrew Rihn joins the podcast for the first time, as he brings IFWT Humphrey Bogart's last ever film 'The Harder They Fall'.

Adapted from a novel by controversial writer Budd Shulberg - controversial for reasons we definitely discuss in this episode, as we dive into the real life scenes behind this fictional film. A film about a down-on-his-luck reporter who is tempted by a crooked fight promoted who believes that Toro 'The Wild Man of the Andes' Moreno, might just be their next big meal ticket in the shady world of...

Amazingly this is the podcast's first dive into the works of Quentin Tarantino - and we're starting right at the beginning with his explosive 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs . A Heist film that doesn't show the heist. Filled with expletives and pop-culture references, Reservoir Dogs would encapsulate the work Tarantino would go on to make.

And lucky for you and I, Phillip Duke, host of the Making Tarantino podcast is here to wax lyrical, trade stories and decipher where Reservoir Dogs sits in his filmography.

You can find Making Tarantino on X @MakingTarantino and...

friend of the podcast Rolo Tony (@PoorOldRoloTony) is back, and this time he's here to conclude our series diving into the works of New York auteur Larry Fessenden.

For the finale we're wrapping up in style, with a creature feature double-feature! In discussion are Fessenden's hitherto films, 2019's modern retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Depraved, and the Wolf Man story of Blackout.

We get into the themes, the politics, the elements that ran through Fessenden's work, including certain complimentary elements between both Depraved and Blackout, and we even riff on Fessenden's future monster mash film! <...

*This ep contains NO MAJOR SPOILERS*

We kick of 2026 welcoming Nottingham-based director Derry Shillitto on the podcast - a young filmmaker who has just released his debut feature film The Correction Unit.

After spending his formative years with a plethora of jobs in the film industry - costume design and music video production for the likes of Sleaford Mods, being but a couple - Derry has finally dropped a feature film. The Correction Unit takes place in a tangible near-future where an AI institute promises to reform a group of juvenile offenders into the best...

2025 is coming to a close and so, as is tradition, it’s time we looked at a Christmas film. But because we’re all a bunch of misery grouches with no festive cheer whatsoever, it’s only right that we check out the film that can thaw even the stoniest of hearts: A Christmas Carol.With Wayne (not so) unfortunately unavailable for this one, our good friend Phil from Flixology 101 steps into the host chair, joined of course by IFWT stalwarts Matt Rotman and Scott West, with Liam arriving a bit later to complete the quirky quartet.A distinctly Britis...

Time to get in an explosively festive mood with the Shane Black written, Tony Scott directed, Bruce Willis starring...The Last Boy Scout. With a tempestuous production that left all involved looking for the exit, the films stature as an exemplifier of the 90s has only grown.

So join Liam and Phil as we give you details on the fall-outs, the bust-ups and bruised egos as we explore Tony Scott's sun-kissed action noir, The Last Boy Scout.

Make sure to check out Flixology101.com, for musings on all your cult favourites.

It’s been a long time since we talked about a Nicolas Cage film and we’re righting that wrong today by diving deep into the warped and beautiful insanity of Mandy. A love story, a revenge tale, a psychedelic trip. It’s all of these things and more, and with friend and previous guest Carmelita Valdez McKoy joining us, you know you’re going to be in a truly wild ride. We’ll chat about the setting, the characters, the stunning cinematography, the mood and atmosphere, the fascinating psychological dynamics as well as giving our thoughts on director Panos Cosm...

*Lords of Chaos is erroneously referred to as Jonas Akerlund's directorial debut in this episode.

Famed music video director Jonas Akerlund, turns his hand at feature length filmmaking with his directorial debut Lords of Chaos. Adapted from the controversial book of the same name, Akerlund's film charts the foundation of 'True Norwegian Black Metal' via Euronymous' pioneering band Mayhem, that would cross paths with the ever problematic Varg Vikerness.

But Mayhem was a band like no other; whereas metal bands of the past had cultivated a dark and sinister image, Mayhem walked the walk...

We’re rounding off our trilogy of shot on video movies from our good friend Charles Pinion. We’ve dealt with Twisted Issues, we’ve visited Red Spirit Lake, and today We Await the legendary Spirit Dive as we examine… well, We Await. A story of cannibal cults, mystical crystals and mind-altering green goo. It’s a trip that’s quite literally out of this world. Charles is here to tell us of the film’s conception, production and behind the scenes titbits. It’s the perfect way to wrap this trilogy up, as well as tease our next collaboration wi...

It's Halloween! Which means we're all entitled to a good scare. Wayne is M.I.A, lost to the darkness of the forest, so our good friend, and official stand-in, Phil of Flixology 101 is sitting in the co-host chair alongside Liam.

And Lucky for us we have a whole host of contributors (listed below) giving us their opinions on the cultural phenomenon that is The Blair Witch project.

Cannibal Holocaust and The Mcpherson Tape both used found-footage to tell their story, but it was 1999's The Blair Witch Project that solidified the genre as a...

Michael Reeves might not be a household name, with only 3 films in his severely truncated career. But the movies he directed demonstrated a real mastery of the cinematic art, and today we’re here to shed some light on his work by taking a deep dive into his final film: Witchfinder General.

Detailing the heavily fictionalised account of one of the UK’s most infamous figures, Matthew Hopkins, a man for whom the task of witch finding was merely a shortcut to fame, fortune and unquestionable power, it stands today as on one of the ‘Unholy Trilogy’ of folk...

Our pal Rolo Tony is back as we continue our dive into the works of Larry Fessenden, and for today's episode we're taking a look at easily Fessenden's most divisive film to date - the direct-to-Chiller, creature feature Beneath.

Taking a relative battering by the critics of the time, and an equally poor audience reception, does Beneath deserve another look at? Does it retain Fessenden themes and concerns, which made his name in Underground USA horror landscape?

Stay tuned as we dissect this film.

The Bigfoot journey continues here at In Film We Trust as we welcome back Scott West, Phil DeGlass and Matt Rotman. Last week we travelled to upstate New York in search of a Yeti, now we’re in Northern California in search of the big hairy one himself: Bigfoot. Night Of The Demon impressed very few people back in the day, so we’re here to see whether or not its worthy of reappraisal. Is it cheap, exploitative trash or a work of unsung genius? There’s only 1 way to find out. Pack up the Econoline Van and lets get ro...

You may not know it, but here at In Film We Trust we’ve long been planning something special, something incredible, something truly extraordinary: A Bigfoot double bill with some of our previous guests! Ok it might not be earthshattering, but it’s fertile ground for some laughs, some fun analysis and a lot of behind-the-scenes factoids.So on that note we’re inviting our good friends Matt Rotman, Phil DeGlass and Scott West, who joined us last year to discuss Christmas Evil, to come back for back-to-back episodes, beginning with 1974’s Shriek Of The Mutilated. Does it feature Bigfoot...

We welcome underground filmmaker Charles Pinion back to the show for part 2 of our dive into his transgressive, shot on video works. In part 1 we discussed the punk-splatter of Twisted Issues, and today we are discussing Red Spirit Lake - his second feature, and arguable his most narrative driven of his early work.

In this episode we contextualise his the film within the period - his work at the counterculture skin rag Screw magazine, his friends in the Cinema of Transgression and the cross-pollination of their work, and we dive into the behind the scenes stories of...