CatBusRuss is joined by prolific podcaster Noel Thingvall to discuss a Sci-Fi Channel Saturday morning classic, "Zieram". Our host would call it "Alien Isolation for Dummies". Noel would call it "Alien Meets Abbott and Costello". Either alternative title you bestow on the feature debut of tokusatsu master, Keita Amemiya, the two mean them to be complimentary.

For CatBus, he wanted to watch this film 25 years ago since the second anime VHS tape(s) he bought was "Iria: Zieram the Animation". It is one of his favorite bad-ass, big-boobed bounty hunter series (pardon the alliteration). Eventually, the otaku read somewhere that it was considered to be the prequel OVA to this feature. That is a stretch, but it was just fun to see the original take of her. What was even odder is her essentially playing back seat to Kenny and Vic from "MXC".

Noel is a huge fan of Japanese special effects, especially those from television shows that would eventually be edited with American teenagers to create "Power Rangers" series. He has also actively been watching Japanese media since the first run of "Robotech". It is only fitting that the dub the two were first introduced to was handled by Streamline Picture's Carl Macek, the original reconfigurer of Japanese media.

This film is very derivative of classic sci-fi cinema. Not only does it pay homage to the "Alien" franchise, the third act is an ode to "The Terminator" and "The Thing". Noel being a host on the "Masters of Carpentry Podcast" proves to have the authority to make this statement.

"Zieram" is silly and over-the-top, and would be a perfect feature for B-Fest. Russ and the host of "Schumacast" would love to see Western cinema try to have this much fun with scary monsters.

What's Scarrier: Woody, Lame Horror, or Cheap Horror?

CatBusRuss returns to the cheap DVD bin that Ally of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy provided him. This portion of the A to Zed journey takes us on a scary tour. Scary to some with the Steve Martin's Woody Allen inspired "L.A. Story" and Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris". Scary to the rest for featuring Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper". "Out of the Dark" represents Colombia and "It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To" stands up for Pittsburgh.

CatBusRuss was presumptuous when it came to his knowledge about William H. Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid. Our host knew that he was an outlaw with a legendary reputation as a gunslinger until the law caught up with and dispatched him at the age of 21. Thanks to The Cinema Snob, this podcaster also knew he defeated Dracula. His limited knowledge led him to believe that this icon of the Old West did not live a long enough life to get a franchise of Brat Pack adjacent movies. So when Andrew "CouchManBakes" Tiede suggested discussing the first "Young Guns" from 1988, he thought this definitely had to be a crazy flick.

Does the music video aesthetic make it look crazy? Yes. Does the action at times seem unbelievable? Most definitely. But the events of the Lincoln County War did occur, so Russ went into this conversation with doubts that this truly qualified as a "Crazy Flick". Having late career Jack Palance as the primary antagonist will alway help the pro-insanity case, but if that is not enough, Andrew brings up all the historic revisions and the behind the scene tales to prove that this is bonkers action cinema.

There are still a lot of podcasts from the original "Ninety For Chill Dot Com: The Podcast" from 2022 that CatBusRuss needs to post on this feed, but with Gregory Carl pulling his weight as a promoter for "I Dig Crazy Flicks", reissuing an episode that he received feedback about seems to make sense.

The foul-mouth guest from last weeks "Companion" episode exemplifies what MTV's most recognizable characters of the nineties may have become if they were middle aged. CatBusRuss and Gregory discuss "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America". It is a feature that is a celebration of immature comedy and how fun it truly can be, and perhaps the actual influence it had on adolescents who grew up with it.

CatBusRuss's favorite Michael Crichton film was 1973's "Westworld". He is also more of a Jonathan Nolan fan than his older brother. Gregory Carl is quite the well-read, sci-fi-loving truck stop employee in Central Illinois. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" is a tale he is fascinated by. Thus, "Companion" is a film the two should have quite an interesting conversation about.

And for this podcast's host, it was indeed interesting. Can a robot consent? Gregory, an aspiring comedian, tries to question if consent can actually exist. This leads to a bit of editing of the conversation to protect the parties involved. To make up for it, Russ watched "Cherry 2000" to further explore the inevitable objectification of synthetic life. He may have found that it should be treated as equal. It maybe said, CatBus just does not think you should be a bad person to anyone regardless of who/what they are.

In the end, perhaps the two even think we should all love those who want to be loved. Except for CM Punk in CatBus's case, and Gregory has a few names as well.

Jeff Goldblum + Geena Davis + Jim Carrey = A great way to beat the monotony of shallow, capitalistic existence. CatBusRuss was his standard dower self going into the weekend while ThePoeticCritic was sour about the lack of cool guests going into the Chicago Con season. Needing summer to start now, CatBusRuss turned to an 80's camp classic he just never got around to, "Earth Girls Are Easy". TPC just happens to offer some of the best insights into this Julie Brown vanity project.

CatBusRuss ponders if the Indiana Comic Convention appreciates that he has been promoting the fun of the 2025 event for nearly two months after it had concluded. The odds are looking good that he will be invited to sister con, ATL Comic Convention, near the end of July, so "I Dig Crazy Flicks" panel coverage does not seem to be hurting their opinion of him.

This podcast covers the last panel he "moderated". The premise was to discuss the sci-fi films that bombed either critically or financially (and in the event of the financial flops, the critics were not too kind at the time), but VHS provided the seeds for new cults to emerge. Too bad the panelists all had multiple panels over the three day event, so the "Ghoulies" may have eaten their homework. They decided to embrace the title instead of the description. Thus the three went on to hold a celebration of bad sci-fi movies from the eighties and nineties that are beloved.

Our podcast host is joined by Indianapolis-based promoter Madison Martin and LEGENDARY creature effects fabricator and performer, Lynette Eklund. She was the star of the show having done FX work on two of the 1995 films suggested in the description, "Tank Girl" and "Species". Being an monster-making master, she tended to favor horror features.

CatBusRuss is game for that kind of conversation, but he soon found that Lynette was out to put him in his place for feeling that horror is the ideal place to get political. She does her best to make it clear that things with sharp teeth and claws are scary enough. When you are getting chased down by one of these things, are you really thinking about the socio-economic factors that are motivating them?

CatBusRuss had to do a lot of work to make sure it was still prom season. With horror features from the old Podbean feed, he prefers to save them for October, but with the day that will be the most like teen-comedies being near, it felt right to take the piss out of the event(s) he never attended with zombie comedy "Dance of the Dead" from 2008. He is joined by Mitchell Whitt of the now defunct "Morbidly Macabre Podcast".

This is what "Evil Dead" meets "American Pie" would look like. It checks off everything you want from a great zombie feature (Our host is partial to the gutbuster.) and provides fun nerds trying to save the day or just seem normal for one day. (One might think, this is what would happen to "The Monster Squad".) The humor is not insulting or overly juvenile. We all knew the archetypes from our days in high school, so it has a pretty authentic feel.

It is not "Shaun of the Dead" or "Zombieland", but that maybe because it does not have the budget or even a wide release. If only the executive producers would not have wasted their money with middling sequels to "30 Days of Night" and "The Grudge", we can only imagine what this project could have been.