This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:31:12), we talk about Thomas Vinterberg's blackly comic and emotionally intense 1998 Dogma 95 feature Festen (aka The Celebration), in addition to the tenth episode of American Horror Story season 1 ("Smoldering Children"). In part two (1:31:13-2:39:59) we talk in shorter form about 8 additional features: Steven Spielberg's 2002 sci-fi action dystopia Minority Report, Hisayasu Sato's 1994 AIDS crisis pink film Love - Zero = Infinity, Bill Plympton's twisted, free-wheeling 1997 independent animated feature I Married a Strange Person!, the 1983 Chor Yuen Shaw Brothers Superman wuxia knockoff Descendant of the Sun, the 2012 Bruce Davison Asylum/SyFy collab Bigfoot, the 1977 Bill Lustig comedic hardcore The Violation of Claudia, the expansive 2012 Wachowskis & Tom Tykwer novel adaptation Cloud Atlas, and Sidney Lumet's odd, self-indulgent Motown musical The Wiz. In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week, continuing our annual resolutions month.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:33:33), we talk about Michelangelo Antonioni's 1961 classic of arthouse alienation, La Notte, in addition to the ninth episode of American Horror Story season 1 ("Spooky Little Girl"). In part two (1:33:34-2:39:44) we talk in shorter form about 8 additional features: Tim Burton's 1989 comic book adaptation blockbuster Batman, the 1984 Dennis Chiu Jan-Keung and Lee Tai-Hang Shaw Brothers horror Sex Beyond the Grave, the icy 2000 Takashi Ishii rape/revenge film Freeze Me, Kaizo Hayashi's 1995 Maiku Hama film Stairway to the Distant Past, the 1980 Ian Barry Ozploitation nuclear paranoia classic The Chain Reaction, the 1997 Jean-Pierre Jeunet franchise entry Alien: Resurrection, the 2006 Justin Lin entry, and the 1982 John Frankenheimer East-meets-West action-drama The Challenge. In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week, continuing our annual resolutions month.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:40:18), we re-review the legendary Dan Aykroyd horror-comedy flop Nothing but Trouble, in addition to the eighth episode of American Horror Story season 1 ("Rubber Man"). In part two (1:40:19-3:06:56) we talk in shorter form about 6 additional features and 5 TV episodes: The April 22nd, 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live (featuring Steve Martin and The Blues Brothers), Hisayasu Sato's 1992 pink film An Aria on Gazes (AKA The Bedroom, among many other titles), Jon Turteltaub's 1992 iconic kid power picture 3 Ninjas, the terrible algorithmic Malcolm D. Lee 2021 legasequel Space Jam: A New Legacy, the "Christmas Log" episode of A Town Called Panic, the 1980 Emmett Alston first-wave slasher New Year's Evil, Alexandra Simpson's 2024 disaster-adjacent hangout drama No Sleep Till, several episodes of DC's Super Friends, and the 2001 Steven Spielberg sci-fi epic A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week, as we kick off our annual resolutions month.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:46:36), we talk about the John Landis action/comedy classic The Blues Brothers, in addition to the seventh episode of American Horror Story season 1 ("Open House") and furry-casting Speed Racer. In part two (1:46:38-3:18:10) we talk in shorter form about 8 features and 4 Christmas specials: the cursed and terrible Y2K Ron Howard remake of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the 1992 Chris Columbus Christmas sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the 1992 Brian Henson classic A Muppet Christmas Carol, Michael Cooney's 1997 video store seasonal slasher Jack Frost, the 1988 Richard Donner dark comedy update of A Christmas Carol, Scrooged, the widely-mocked 2024 S.J. Clarkson superhero movie Madame Web, the 2003 John Singleton franchise entry 2 Fast 2 Furious, and a revisit of the Wachowskis' still-underappreciated 2008 hyper-aesthetic anime sports movie Speed Racer, and four Rankin-Bass Christmas specials: Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, The Year Without a Santa Claus, The Little Drummer Boy Book II, and Jack Frost. In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:30:41), we talk about Al Adamson's horror/sci-fi patchwork Horror of the Blood Monsters, in addition to the sixth episode of American Horror Story season 1 ("Piggy Piggy") and furry-casting Silent Night Deadly Night. In part two (1:30:43-2:24:34) we talk in shorter form about 7ish features, beginning with the horrendous 1998 Bret Michaels vanity project A Letter From Death Row (co-directed by Marvin Baker), the 1974 Wes Craven pornographic arthouse debut feature (as Abe Snake) The Fireworks Woman, the off-model 1982 Ken Finkleman sequel Airplane II: The Sequel, the 1951 Brian Desmond Hurst Christmas classic Scrooge with Alastair Sim (aka A Christmas Carol), a revisit of Charles Sellier Jr.'s 1982 Santa slasher classic Silent Night Deadly Night, and AGFA's Krazee Kids Video Party (consisting of The Big Bad Wolf, Fun in Balloon Land, Polly Pockets, The Princess and the Magic Frog, and Kingdom of the Crooked Mirrors). In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:58:51), we talk about P.T. Anderson's 1997 porn industry epic Boogie Nights, in addition to the fifth episode of American Horror Story season 1 (the conclusion of their "Halloween" two-parter) and furry/toon-casting Matrix Revolutions. In part two (1:58:52-3:15:04) we talk in shorter form about a great big pile of additional features, including 8 Christmas specials and 7 movies: the 1966 Chuck Jones animated classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the 2025 Ethan Coen/Tricia Cooke picture Honey Don't!, the 1983 Burny Mattinson Disney special Mickey's Christmas Carol, the 2024 Morihito Inoue disaster movie satire Hot Spring Shark Attack, Hisayasu Sato's 1988 pinku-noir Love Letter in the Sand (better known as Pervert Ward: Torturing the White Uniform), a bunch of Rankin-Bass holiday specials (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Frosty's Winter Wonderland, and Rudolph's Shiny New Year), the 1983 Lam Nai-Choi Shaw Brothers action/crime drama Men From the Gutter, the 2001 Rob Cohen street-racing family film The Fast & The Furious, the 1990 Chris Columbus holiday classic Home Alone, the 1965 Bill Melendez Peanuts animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas, and the Wachowskis' 2003 trilogy conclusion Matrix Revolutions, concluding with our Coens rankings. In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:37:45), we talk about Martin Scorsese's 1976 character study of a spree killer, Taxi Driver, in addition to the fourth episode of American Horror Story season 1 (part one of their "Halloween" two-parter). In (our) part two (1:37:45-2:32:38) we talk in shorter form about 8 additional features: Peter Segal's 1994 franchise outlier Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Kaizo Hayashi's 1993 neo-noir The Most Terrible Time in My Life, Jet Eller's 1989 unreleased regional video Marley's Revenge: The Monster Movie, 2024's lesbian crime caper Drive-Away Dolls, directed by Ethan Coen with collaborator Tricia Cooke, the 1980 ZAZ absurdist kitchen-sink comedy classic Airplane!, 2019's Roman Chimienti & Tyler Jensen documentary Scream, Queen!: My Nightmare on Elm Street, David Fincher's disowned 1992 debut franchise picture Alien 3, and the 1998 Steven Spielberg war epic Saving Private Ryan. In part three, we talk briefly about everything else we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week.

The live list of The Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-stacks/

This week on The Stacks, in part one (0:00-1:39:57), we talk about Jack Sholder's 1985 gay slasher franchise entry A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge, in addition to the third episode of American Horror Story season 1 (the titular "Murder House"), and a chat about casting furry versions of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. In part two (1:39:58-2:38:39) we talk in shorter form about 9 additional features: Michael Winterbottom's 1995 serial killer psychodrama Butterfly Kiss, "The Making of Toxie" - the first episode of The Toxic Crusaders animated series, George P. Cosmatos' iconic 1993 traditionalist western Tombstone, the utterly baffling 2016 handcrafted horror Black Mamba created by Belinda M. Wilson, the 2012 Pete Travis action sci-fi comic adaptation Dredd, the 1988 Hisayasu Sato meta-pinku Re-Wind, the 2021 Joel Coen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of MacBeth, and a quick revisit of both The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. In part three, we talk in short form about all the other stuff we've watched since last time, and make our picks for next week.

The live list of The Spooky Stacks is online at https://letterboxd.com/jshopa/list/the-spooky-stacks-1/