Slums of Film History

Slate and Tom
  • 4.8 (119)
  • FILM HISTORY

Slums of Film History is an in-depth podcast on niche film topics that aren't normally discussed in polite company. We take turns weekly discussing a single topic from everything to bodily fluids to T&A to exploding heads. If there is a film subject too taboo we haven’t found it yet. Welcome.

  1. 07/12/2023

    Episode 84: Dictator Cinema - The Films of North Korea

    No one understands the power of cinema more than a dictator. The way movies can manipulate filmgoers to laugh, cry, and jump out of their seats in fear can be quite an attractive tool for controlling hearts and minds. Hitler and Stalin knew how to push propaganda to moviegoers in an effort to gain support for their respective pursuits. But propaganda is easy, art is hard. And while Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany both had robust film industries, neither would ever reach the heights of the West. Yet in a small east Asian country lived a film lover and future dictator who thought differently.  He believed that cinema could both serve the state and garner international attention and acclaim. On today's episode we’re going to discuss how one despot yearned to legitimize the film industry of his little nation state and the extreme lengths he would go to do so. So let's start up the projector for Dictator Cinema: the Films of North Korea.

  2. 07/05/2023

    Episode 83: Boatsaster

    Boats are a marvel. A human invention, mastered over thousands of years to provide food, travel and commerce to the ever evolving need of modern man. Boats are fun. They’re buoyant excuses for rich people to drink champagne, wear white floppy hats and have poor people serve them oysters. But boats are scary. There’s only a layer of wood and fiberglass keeping you from drowning, getting eaten by a sea creature and keeping you from catching hypothermia. And boats are traumatic. The slightest thing can go wrong and if you survive, will be left with a lifetime of mental anguish and trauma and maybe even some survivors guilt. Slate’s final episode of an elongated Season 7 will cover all of these topics, but mostly the traumatic ones in an episode he coined called BOATSASTER.

  3. 06/28/2023

    Episode 82: Killer Bears

    We have a complicated relationship with bears. In popular culture bears are often seen as fluffy, adorable friends in children’s stories, not to mention their representation in that timeless toy, the teddy bear. But make no mistake, bears will f*****g kill you. We all know this, and the movies know this too.Whether they were seeking revenge, mutated, high on cocaine or just plain hungry these fluffy beasts scared and thrilled moviegoers for generations. In today's episode we take a long look at the legacy of this furry cinematic monster. So grab your flashlight and come deep into the woods with us as we search for some killer bears!

  4. 06/21/2023

    Episode 81: Ugly Underground

    On a quick glance of this episode’s title, you may think we are talking about the Underground Film Movement. But that’s a highbrow topic and that’s not why you come to Slums of Film History. You come here for the actual horrible things that are underground. The mutant zombie CHUDs that climb out of the sewers to eat rich people’s dogs. You come for the early sci-fi films that somehow found dinosaurs and prehistoric monsters leftover from millions of years ago by drilling down into the earth. You come for the mutant praying mantises that disguise themselves as people in the subway tunnels of New York City. You come for alien killer clowns that emerge from underground to kill kids every 27 years. And of course you come for Sloth. Today we go deep down into the ground, all the way to the earth’s core and back to find out what’s lurking below, down in the Ugly Underground.

  5. 06/14/2023

    Episode 80: Nukes

    Everything changed in August 1945 when the first atom bombs were dropped in Japan ending WWII and introducing the world to the most destructive force man has ever known. We had officially reached the atomic age and this fact would radiate (pun intended) into every facet of our lives, including our politics and pop culture. Nukes would play a major role thrilling and horrifying moviegoers throughout the back half of the 20th century in many ways echoing the real life threat they posed during the Cold War and changing both how we viewed them as an existential threat and how movies repurposed them for entertainment. On today's explosive episode we’ll discuss the history of nuclear weapons in cinema, so be sure to duck, cover and kiss your ass goodbye because we’re about to launch NUKES!

  6. Episode 79: Teensploitation

    06/07/2023

    Episode 79: Teensploitation

    Staying out after curfew. Backtalking to teachers. Drag racing. And worst of all, rock-n-roll music. What started off as a few greasers with leather jackets in the 1950s turned into a national panic every time a stuck up square uttered the term "juvenile delinquent.” Hollywood caught wind of this pretty quickly and responded accordingly with movies like “Blackboard Jungle and “Rebel Without a Cause.” And then the cheap exploitation knockoffs, slashers and cautionary tales came in droves. So join us for some good old fashioned sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. And rape and murder and STDs and switchblades and werewolves and sexy dancing and the potential murder of Natalie Wood and pedophiles that kill you in your dreams and teen lesbian murders and well, you get the point. All the things that teenagers love to do but hate the consequences of in today’s episode on Teensploitation.

  7. 09/08/2021

    Episode 78: Musical Monstrosities

    The movie musical is a beloved film genre that has been a part of American cinema since the 1920s. For decades American audiences couldn't get enough of these films but in the 60s the movie musical fell on hard times. Was it due to changing movie and music tastes? Cultural and social upheavals? All of the above? Many musical films released after this decade would prove to be some of the most bizarre, ill conceived and downright terrible movies ever made. We're going to dig into the worst films this genre has to offer in an attempt to find out where it all went wrong. So let's all do this one more time with feeling as we belt out a little ditty called musical monstrosities.

  8. 09/01/2021

    Episode 77: Woman Vs Woman

    We love to watch women fight. Whether a slap in the face on shows like Dynasty and Real Housewives or Uma Thurman and Lucy Lui in Kill Bill, women in combat have fascinated us for decades. But in the movies at least, many of these on screen feuds got their start from real life feuds, some that lasted 50 or 60 years. Today we get to the bottom of these Hollywood fights, squabbles, tiffs, brawls and scuffles that not only defined many women’s careers but also fueled them and sometimes destroyed them. Today, Slate plays referee in the fight between Woman vs Woman.

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About

Slums of Film History is an in-depth podcast on niche film topics that aren't normally discussed in polite company. We take turns weekly discussing a single topic from everything to bodily fluids to T&A to exploding heads. If there is a film subject too taboo we haven’t found it yet. Welcome.

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