Get a first look, I mean, listen, to Troma Entertainment's latest film "#Shakespeare's Sh--storm." Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman talks with me about finally being old enough to play Prospero in his 100% Troma-tized adaptation of the Bard's "The Tempest." We also talk about being kicked off YouTube, starting a streaming channel, and surviving more than four decades outside Hollywood as a truly independent film studio. But be warned, this podcast contains potentially offensive material because, well, it's all about Troma, which specializes in gross-out, gore-filled, politically incorrect yet somehow endearing z-grade films. But if you don't know Troma, maybe don't listen. You've been warned!

As if the zombies knew a real pandemic was heading our way, there was a surge of undead films in 2019 with more than a dozen infecting cinemas. So as we deal with a real pandemic Cinema Junkie gets its annual check up with the Doctor of the Dead, Arnold T. Blumberg, whose diagnosis is that COVID is ruining the fun of the zombie apocalypse by giving us something far scarier in the willful ignorance of humans facing the coronavirus in the real world. So to celebrate the 200th episode of the podcast we discuss zombies in the time of coronavirus, and what we might learn from them. Blumberg has written books on zombies, film, and pop culture, and teaches courses using zombies as well as superheroes.

Everything you need to know you can learn from zombies. Author Max Brooks pretty much laid out a lot of what we're been dealing with during this coronavirus pandemic in his novel "World War Z" that came out in 2006. He will have a virtual panel at this year's Comic-Con@Home called "Zombies and Coronavirus: Planning for the Next Big Outbreak." Brooks says of his panel, "People can expect to hear us discuss this real plague that we're dealing with. But through the metaphor of zombies, because the best tool of education is pop culture." His panel is at noon on July 24 but the YouTube link will remain on the Comic-Con Channel even after the convention ends, which allows anyone to watch the discussion any time. We also discuss his new book "Devolution." I know this is not cinema but it is zombies, which I love, and Brooks is the son of filmmaker/comedian Mel Brooks and film actress Anne Bancroft so there is a cinema connection! In addition to his writing, Brooks holds duel fellowships at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Modern War Institute. Check out a podcast that aims for the head.

While in quarantine I discovered the Apple TV show "Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet" created by "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's" Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Megan Ganz. The show debuted in February but had a bonus quarantine episode released at the end of May. So for this podcast I wanted to look to the gaming world and creating a show about the dynamics of running a game design company. I also wanted to focus on the ingenious quarantine episode so I speak with two of the writers from that show Megan Ganz and actor David Hornsby (who you may remember as Cricket from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia").

David F. Walker, author of the upcoming "The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel," talks more about the research he's done for his book and I have my full interview with a member of the San Diego Original Black Panther Party, Henry Lee Wallace V. So I stray off the film path for this bonus or perhaps it's better titled a companion podcast to Black Films That Matter. Walker talks about the Black Panthers and their legacy while Wallace recounts how he joined the party as a teenager and now serves as chairman of the reactivated San Diego Black Panther Party. A little history rather than cinema for a change of pace. Check out the companion Black Films that Matter Podcast: https://www.kpbs.org/podcasts/cinema-junkie/2020/jul/03/black-films-matter/

David F. Walker (writer of "Shaft" and "Luke Cage" comics, and graphic novels on Frederick Douglass and The Black Panther Party) picks some Black films that matter to provide context for today's protests. We discuss the controversial 1973 film "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" that United Artists pulled from release; Melvin Van Peebles' "The Watermelon Man" in which Godfrey Cambridge plays a white man who wakes up Black one morning; "Cornbread, Earl and Me" about an innocent Black kid shot dead by police; and more. We explore why these films are still relevant and how that provide insight into race in America. WARNING: Contains explicit language and language that may be offensive.

This month and into July Shudder is hosting the Etheria Film Festival, a showcase of genre shorts by women filmmakers, and a Queer Horror Collection featuring the new documentary "Scream Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street." I will highlight the best of Etheria and then speak with filmmakers Tyler Jensen and Roman Chimienti about making "Scream Queen!" and finally speak with Mark Patton (Jesse in "Nightmare on Elm Street 2") about how being in a film labeled "the gayest horror film ever made" impacted the career of a young actor in 1985 Hollywood when the AIDS pandemic was at its height. So join me as we go from the final girls of Etheria to the final boy of Elm Street. WARNING: Contains explicit language.

Matt Berry has given us a gallery of hilarious characters from the buffoonish Douglas Reynholm in "The IT Crowd" to full of himself actor Steven Toast in "Toast of London" to the Staten Island vampire Laszlo Cravensworth in "What We Do In The Shadows," which has its season finale on June 10, 2020. I had the pleasure of speaking with Berry about his career including such cult classics as "Snuff Box" and "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace." Plus I get to play some of his music. WARNING: This podcast contains explicit language and adult humor... because it contains Matt Berry.