Psychological Thriller Archives

Cinema Smorgasbord – Halloween Horror Special – Working Class Goes to Hell (2023) & Black Eyed Susan (2024)

Cinema Smorgasbord, Podcasts on November 4, 2025 0Comments 0Likes

It’s the 2025 Cinema Smorgasbord HALLOWEEN HORROR SPECIAL and as usual we’re taking a look at two underloved horror (or, in this case, horror adjacent) films that deserve a little more attention. We start with the Serbian 2023 socio-political satire WORKING CLASS GOES TO HELL from LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG director Mladen Djordjević about a group of exploited workers who turn to Satan for some help battling corrupt businessmen and political leaders. We follow that up with Scooter McCrae’s BLACK EYED SUSAN, which features Yvonne Emilie Thälker as a sex doll designed for punishment, and tackles some iffy moral questions about the future of artificial intelligence and.. Hey! This isn’t very spooky at all! Oops!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Serpent’s Path: The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa – Sweet Home (1989) & The Guard From Underground (1992)

Cinema Smorgasbord, Podcasts on October 6, 2025 0Comments 0Likes

After a bumpy and controversial start to his career, that bumpiness would continue for Kiyoshi Kurosawa with 1989’s SWEET HOME, a unique videogame/film collaboration that is colorful, entertaining and full of goopy FX by the legendary Dick Smith, but after a post-theatrical re-edit things would go sour between Kurosawa and producer Juzo Itami. It would be a few more years before Kurosawa would direct another feature, returning with the slasher-y office thriller THE GUARD FROM UNDERGROUND which has a number of hints at what would become his trademark style. Let’s check it out!

Cinema Smorgasbord – Wild in the Streets – Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)

Cinema Smorgasbord, Podcasts on March 25, 2025 0Comments 2Likes

In a jam-packed episode of WILD IN THE STREETS we’re getting classy with Elio Petri’s Cannes jury-prize winning darkly humorous satirical drama INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION with a dynamite lead performance from Gian Maria Volonté as the “Il Dottore”, a police inspector who murders a woman just to prove that he is – as the title suggests – above suspicion. We pair this with a brief conversation about the late Gene Hackman and – uh oh – more talk about politics and if it’s possible to make a truly radical political film while under the thumb of a studio. Listen and learn!