Cult film chat with the brakes off.
Smersh Pod treats film criticism like a crowded pub table: sharp opinions, half-remembered pop culture, and jokes piling on jokes. Recent episodes move from Amicus horror and Under Siege 2 train mayhem to Star Wars lore, JFK obsession, and Netflix mystery gloss.
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Smersh Pod is a film-review comedy show built around lively guests, cult taste, and a willingness to chase any odd detail until it becomes the funniest thing in the room. It is not a neat lecture. The show moves quickly, with opinions, memories, trivia, impressions, and overcommitted bits interrupting one another in a way that feels intentional rather than careless. Recent episodes show a broad appetite: Asylum, Under Siege 2, I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle, Lucy, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Hawk the Slayer, and The Thursday Murder Club. That range matters. Smersh Pod is less about canon-building than about testing what a film can survive when smart people keep poking it. A scene with Peter Cushing can become a riff on tearful fragility. A possessed motorcycle can lead to childhood TV memories, DVD extras, broken playback, and the strange dignity of low-budget British horror. A Star Wars prequel can trigger complaints about unnecessary origin details, then drift through Ryan Gosling, SNL, Barbie, Avatar typography, and Chewbacca’s name. When Dr. Dean Burnett appears for Lucy, the show makes room for actual skepticism about the 90-percent brain myth, but the comedy never leaves the room. With Martin Fitzgerald, JFK material shifts the format toward a special in-person conversation tied to a forthcoming book. With Paul Whitelaw, The Thursday Murder Club becomes a sharp look at cast, budget, and cozy mystery texture. The tone is affectionate even when the verdict is brutal. Bad films are not simply dismissed; they are examined for their strange choices, accidental poetry, and tiny production details. Good films are not spared either, especially if they explain too much or invite a silly comparison. The result is a movie podcast that feels both knowledgeable and unruly. Its best moments come when a serious point almost lands, then a joke knocks it sideways and somehow makes the point clearer.
Made for: For film fans who enjoy cult cinema, franchise oddities, British screen references, and comedy that keeps elbowing the review. It suits listeners who prefer animated argument over polished verdicts.
What sets it apart: Smersh Pod stands apart by making the digressions feel like the main engine: trivia, guest memories, and throwaway scene details become the review. It is knowledgeable without becoming reverent.
The award nominated film podcast that does a bit of everything. One of Esquire's 38 Best Comedy Podcasts Around. Hosted by John Rain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
John Rain and his guests turn scene-by-scene rewatches into sharp, joke-rich arguments about cult films, franchise entries and their strangest details.
Smersh Pod turns single-film conversations into comic rewatches, with John Rain guiding a guest through the plot while pausing over performances, production choices and gloriously peculiar details.
A vampire motorcycle eats a dog; you stay for John Rain discussing how they filmed the pee.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A sharp, cheerfully unruly tour of Asylum's deadly tailoring, tearful tragedy and ill-advised dolls.
Anna Savory returns for a story-by-story look at Amicus anthology horror Asylum. The discussion moves through deadly tailoring, the asylum frame, Peter Cushing's tearful fragility and the obvious risks of making dolls in your own image.
A gleeful second look finds plenty to love, and even more to argue about, aboard a terrorist-taken train.
Under Siege 2 receives a gleeful second look from a group with very different expectations. Dean Burnett picked the film, another participant had steered clear after hearing mostly bad things, and the speaker who disliked it at 15 now says he loved it.
A possessed motorcycle, a doomed dog, and one DVD detail that refuses to behave.
SmashPod gives I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle a cheerfully scruffy going-over, with Simon Love joining John to revisit a film he once remembered from Sky Movies and now dismisses without much ceremony.
A brisk, funny Solo conversation where train robberies, Chewbacca's nickname, and papyrus all get room to breathe.
SmirshPod sends Tom Crowley, its designated Star Wars expert, into Solo for a relaxed conversation about the film's Western shape, the train robbery, and Han deciding Chewbacca needs a nickname.
A sharp, loose look at Hawk the Slayer's flashbacks, fantasy forests, and accidental comedy.
Smersh Pod treats Hawk the Slayer as a peculiar fantasy-film artifact, letting its stray details steer the fun. The host and Dan Tetzel spend time on the Blu-ray's clearer view of Kinnear's fear, the running John Terry confusion, and flashbacks that seem to promise weight before…
A Quatermass sequel discussion where alien menace, perfect manners, and dubious washing-up analysis make odd company.
Quatermass 2 comes through as a sequel, a tour that has gone badly wrong, and a chance to linger over the film's politely alarming English behavior.
A Hawk the Slayer review turns Voltan's jealousy, choppy flashbacks, and one pillow mark into comic evidence.
This single-episode review of Hawk the Slayer finds its comic engine in Hawke and Voltan's messy shared past, especially the film's habit of feeding that history out in small, dramatic fragments.
Mike Muncer and a different guest dissect two horror films per episode, by subgenre.
Host John Rain is joined by returning guest Toby Hadoke to analyze the 1957 British sci-fi film 'Quatermass 2.' They discuss its status as one of the first film sequels to use the number 2 in its title and its plot about aliens invading a synthetic food plant in Hemel Hempstead.
Host John Rain is joined by guest Dan Tetzel to review the 1980 fantasy film 'Hawk the Slayer.' They argue it's better than their previous review of 'Krull,' despite its flaws.
Jim Howick discusses the 1978 film JAWS 2, analyzing its plot, characters, and legacy as a sequel.
The hosts discuss the 1991 film Suburban Commando starring Hulk Hogan, blending humor and nostalgia.
["SmashPod's Asylum discussion opens with Anna Savory's red-lined cloak, a \u00a338 buy from Bridge North, and a running joke about Whitstable and 'Schrodinger's cloak.'", "Robert Powell's Martin then walks into Lionel Rutherford's institute for the 'incurably insane,' where the whole game is to find Dr.
Smersh Pod's CLUB CLASSICS episode on Under Siege 2: Dark Territory treats the 1995 Steven Seagal sequel as a train-heist movie built around the Grand Continental.
SmashPod opens on I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle with John and Simon Love joking that the bike runs on "the undiluted blood of former Grange Hill actors." Simon Love says he first saw the 1990 film on Sky at 12 or 13, later bought the DVD in Cardiff, and now calls it "dog shit." The review moves through the Birmingham flyover ritual, the Road Toads biker gang, Michael Elphick's garlic-chewing Inspector Cleaver, and Daniel Peacock's bathroom nightmare.
Martin Fitzgerald discusses his new book about the JFK assassination, focusing on the mysterious 'Umbrella Man' and other lesser-known aspects of the event.
Dr.
SmershPod hosts John Rain and Tom Crowley discuss Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) in a Star Wars special episode, with Tom serving as the show's designated Star Wars expert.
Smersh Pod host and guest Dan Tetsell review the 1980 British fantasy film Hawk the Slayer, starring John Terry (not the footballer) as the hero and Jack Palance as the villain Voltan.
A podcast review of the film adaptation of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club, criticizing its high budget and comparing it to a TV crime drama.
Kate McCabe discusses the cultural impact of the 1987 film Dirty Dancing on a podcast.
Dean Burnett and Dan Thomas humorously introduce the movie 'Suburban Commando' and discuss a Welshman who briefly joined NASA.