The Next Picture Show

Backrooms’ journey to the big screen — from anonymous 4chan post to viral creepypasta to mega-popular YouTube series to A24-backed box-office smash — is as unique and unexpected as the film itself. 20-year-old Kane Parsons’ liminal horror hit feels unlike everything else currently happening in the genre, which is partly what inspired us to pair it with the similarly expectation-defying 1979 cult hit Phantasm, but also makes Backrooms fascinating to discuss on its own. Which is what we do, in mostly spoiler-free terms, before shifting over to Connections to look at how Backrooms and Phantasm compare as low-budget horror phenomena that use unsettling repeating spaces, dream logic, and heroes with no sense of self-preservation to maximum effect. And if Backrooms has you craving more video-game-influenced liminal spaces, we’ve got you covered with a Your Next Picture Show recommendation for the recent Japanese horror-mystery Exit 8.
Please share your thoughts about Phantasm, Backrooms, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Works Cited:
• The 5 essential Backrooms videos to watch on YouTube after the movie, by Tasha Robinson (polygon.com)
• Backrooms director Kane Parsons answers three very specific questions about the movie, by Tasha Robinson (polygon.com)
• Backrooms’s Ending Cleverly Subverts One of Horror’s Biggest Clichés, by Tasha Robinson (vulture.com)
• The Indoor Generation, by Carol Grant
• A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica Raises a Deep Legal Question, by Alexandra Alter (nytimes.com)

Next Pairing: Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day and E.T. The Extraterrestrial

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20-year-old Kane Parsons is now the youngest director to ever hit No. 1 at the box office thanks to his A24-backed horror film Backrooms, which made back its budget several times over in the first week of release and is already inviting talk of sequels. All of that offscreen context makes it a natural pairing with 1979’s series-spawning cult hit Phantasm, but it has plenty of onscreen connective tissue to Don Coscarelli’s super-indie horror adventure as well. So this week we do our best to make sense of Phantasm, a movie that emerged out of a dream and often feels like it, and discuss some of the memorable moments that smacked us in the face and drilled into our brains like a Sentinel Sphere. Then in Feedback, we answer some criticism of our own criticisms of The Mandalorian and Grogu.

Please share your thoughts about Phantasm, Backrooms, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
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The Mandalorian and Grogu plays like a few stitched-together episodes of The Mandalorian, which makes it a particularly apt pairing with the 1980 Lone Wolf and Cub assemblage Shogun Assassin — but whether the first new Star Wars feature film since 2019 manages to distinguish itself from its television counterpart is another question. We’re joined again by Filmspotting: SVU co-host Matt Singer to talk through a movie that aims to appeal to both a new generation of Star Wars fans and an older one, and often misses both marks. Then we bring Shogun Assassin back in for Connections, to discuss how The Mandalorian and Grogu honors its forebear in big, structural ways — lethally capable father figures roaming a dangerous landscape alongside the young charges they’re protecting/endangering — and in moments of beat-for-beat homage. And for Your Next Picture Show we offer a preview of what lies ahead for those who decide to continue their cinematic journey down the Lone Wolf and Cub path.
Please share your thoughts about Shogun Assassin, The Mandalorian and Grogu, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Kane Parsons’ Backrooms and Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm
This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
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The Mandalorian and Grogu gives the feature-film treatment to a streaming series whose premise — an outcast warrior lives by a code of honor while traveling in the company of an adorable small companion — owes no small debt to the Japanese multimedia franchise Lone Wolf and Cub. But rather than comb through the six installments comprising that film series for a good match, we’re looking at another attempt to translate Lone Wolf and Cub to Western audiences via the 1980 compilation Shogun Assassin. Joined this week by Filmspotting SVU’s Matt Singer, we discuss how Shogun Assassin’s “just the hits” approach to combining the first two films in the series simplifies the plot and amplifies the action, and how this franchise’s comic-book origins come through in the film’s use of heightened violence, dynamic editing, and narration. Then in Feedback we hear from a couple of listeners about one very recent episode, and one very old one.
Please share your thoughts about Shogun Assassin, The Mandalorian and Grogu, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/join/NextPictureShow
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kyle Balda’s new family film The Sheep Detectives pulls off a move George Miller was dissuaded from including in his 1998 sequel Babe: Pig in the City — killing off its human farmer figure — but that premise-setting death aside, it’s generally a warmer and gentler take on talking animals venturing beyond their green pastures and into the big, scary human world. The Sheep Detectives may take the shape of a murder mystery, but as our discussion highlights, it taps into big ideas about memory, grief, and empathy, all while maintaining a sly sense of humor. It’s a tonal balancing act of a different sort than Pig in the City, which we bring back in for Connections to discuss these two films’ respective approaches to animal endangerment, interspecies communication, and making non-verbal creatures talk. Then in Your Next Picture Show we offer a sampler of recommendations for ostensible children’s entertainment that is darker than it initially appears.
This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.
Please share your thoughts about Babe: Pig in the City, The Sheep Detectives, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.
Next Pairing: Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu and Kenji Misumi and Robert Houston’s Shogun Assassin
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.