Splatterpictures Dead Air

Splatterpictures Dead Air is a horror movie conversation built on a simple unit: one film, two hosts, and no protection from spoilers. The hosts are Wes Knipe and Lydia Peaver, who is introduced on air as Typical Lydia, and the closing credits also name Lydia as the show's editor. Episodes are numbered and named for their film, as in Dead Air 259 - Veronica or Dead Air 255 - Ghost Keeper. The recent ones open in a consistent way. The film is announced with its year and a playful label, whether 'documentary found footage classic', 'modern day classic' or 'Canadian winter classic'. Next, one host performs a sound or line tied to the movie, and the other often reports whether they called it: a dog noise for Shelby Oaks, a nod to a Simon game for Veronica, a greeting from Satan for The Blackcoats Daughter. It is a small ritual, and it sets the mood. The hosts call this a spoiler cast, and the discussions follow films through their plots, narrating scenes and reacting to characters along the way. Much of the fun sits in those reactions. On Ghost Keeper, they laugh at characters wading through knee-deep and waist-deep snow in the mountains of Alberta, then puzzle over why a snowmobiling party brought a bottle of wine and nothing to eat. On Talk To Me, possession becomes the thing that makes kids cool at parties, and Miranda Otto's character gets filed under 'Gen X mom'. The talk can also sharpen. The Veronica conversation argues that the lead's trouble has less to do with hormones than with grief piling up: stepping into a mother's role at home, losing her own teenage years, sensing a best friend slip away and missing her father. On Shelby Oaks, the hosts weigh why a crowdfunded film with a budget over a million dollars would want a polished look inside a found-footage format known for costing little, and one of them says plainly that the choice did not work for them. Production history turns up too. The Blackcoats Daughter is introduced as Osgood Perkins's feature debut, with staggered releases in Canada, on Shudder and in the United States, and a working title of February. Practical viewing talk slips in as well, such as whether that film's quiet sound mix is too quiet and the habit of watching with subtitles on. Recent picks run from 1981 to 2024, though the hosts say they usually favour older films. For a first listen, choose a film already seen, since endings are fair game; Veronica shows the show reading a character closely, while Ghost Keeper shows it simply having fun.