Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this holiday edition of Parallax Views, Youtuber, voice actor, and filmmaker Dave McRae joins the show this Christmas season to discuss the holiday (or is it anti-holiday?) horror classic Black Christmas, his and Bruce Dale's Black Christmas fan film, and his upcoming appearance as Freddy Krueger in the Wes Craven's New Nightmare fan sequel Dylan's New Nightmare starring Miko Hughes (Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Pet Sematary). First though, we begin the conversation by discussing how Dave got involved in voice acting and his career in that field.
From there we delve into the 1974 Canadian cult classic Black Christmas. Directed by Bob Clark, years before he directed A Christmas Story and Porky's) Black Christmas boasts stellar cast headed up by Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey), John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Margot Kidder (Superman), Art Hindle (David Cronenberg's The Brood), Andrea Martin (of the cult Canadian comedy TV series SCTV) and previous Parallax Views guest Lynne Griffin (Strange Brew, Curtains). Set in a sorority house around the holidays, this 70s chiller tells the story of a group of young women menaced by an deranged obscene phone caller, "The Moaner", who begins picking them off one by one. It's the classic urban legend of the "Caller Is in the House" a good number of years before the Carol Kane-starring thriller When a Stranger Calls terrified audiences. It's also a rather strange feature in that it mixes dark comedy and raunchy humor with horror approached through a slow-burn pacing that takes its time building suspense and an eerie atmosphere. In the course of our conversation we discuss this cult classic's creep factor, legacy, the two remakes/reimaginings that have been spawned in it's wake, the film's subversive subplot involving abortion, and more.
Then we move on to discussing It's Me, Billy. Set 50 years after the original story, the movie follows Sam (Victoria Mero), the granddaughter of Black Christmas final girl Jess, and her friends (Shelby Handley, Malaika Hennie-Hamadi) as they come face-to-face with the same horror that her grandmother experienced all those decades ago. Dave and I discuss the making of the short film, the professional nature and slick look of fan films like It's Me, Billy and Vincent DiSanti's Never Hike Alone (and how these types of fan films are changing perceptions of what a fan film can be), how they recreated the iconic creepy eyeball scene from the original film, adding the mythology of Black Christmas, actress Victoria Mero's stunning resemblance to Olivia Hussey, the possible sequel to It's Me, Billy, and more.
In the home stretch of this episode, Dave and I discuss Wes Craven's New Nightmare and the fact the Dave is starring in the fan sequel Dylan's New Nightmare as the dream demon Freddy Krueger. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.
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Huwaida Arraf, Co-Founder of the International Solidarity Movement/Jeff Halper, Head of the Israeli Commitee Against House Demolitions
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Israel/Palestine, the Bombing of Gaza, Hamas, and the Danger of Irrationality in the Current Moment w/ Ian S. Lustick
Israel/Palestine, Hamas, the Bombing of Gaza, 9/11, and Blowback w/ Scott Horton
The Calculus of Hamas and the Strategy of Atrocity in Warfare w/ Christopher W. Jones
Continued Coverage of Hamas Attack, Israel’s Retaliation in Gaza, and Events Unfolding in the Middle East w/ ReThinking Foreign Policy’s Mitchell Plitnick
Hamas Attack, Israel’s Retaliation in Gaza, and More w/ Abe Silberstein
The Hamas Attack, Israel/Palestine, U.S. Foreign Policy, and How Hamas Got Power in the First Place w/ Prof. Stephen Zunes
Hamas’ Unprecedented Attack on Israel and How It May Change Middle East Geopolitics Irrevocably w/ James M. Dorsey
The Secret History of Watergate: Nixon, Howard Hughes, and Blackmail in Politics w/ Jonathan Marshall
The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity w/ Matt McManus
Nagorno-Karabakh and the Persecution of Armenians w/ Alfred de Zayas, Former UN Independent Expert on International Order
U.S. Foreign Policy, Great Power Competition, and the Azerbaijani Ethnic Cleansing of Armenians w/ Mark Movsesian
Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories w/ Mike Rothschild
The Afghanistan Ouroboros, the BCCI, and 9/11 w/ Blowback’s Noah Kulwin
Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times
War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine w/ Norman Solomon
Military Carbon Emissions & Congressional Blocking of DoD Emission Reduction Efforts w/ Hanna Homestead
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