The Podcast Holiday Special: Cheesy Christmas Romcoms
'Tis the season for an viewing diet unhealthily dominated by ugly sweaters, fake snow, and immaculately trimmed prop Christmas trees, and the Alternate Ending gang is celebrating by bringing Tim and Brennan together to discuss something other than horror cinema for a change. They're joined by terrible Christmas movie expert Cameron, and the three of them are sharing their thoughts - or in Tim's cases, confusions - on the omnipresent modern holiday movie genre, slick and cheesy romantic comedies made by Netflix, Hallmark, Lifetime, and other fine purveyors of shameless cinematic comfort food. It's a holly jolly time on this very special episode of Alternate Ending!
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Your Movie Rocks: Despiser - with writer/director Philip J. Cook!
For our extremely special December episode, Mandy is joined once again by Andrew Milne, who has assigned her the horror-scifi-absurdist-quasi-Dante-epic Despiser (2003), a movie that is so very many things all at once that it trying to describe it can leave one flailing and floundering like a starving artist who just woke up in purgatory. Fortunately, Mandy and Andrew have brought another guest along on this wild ride through the digital effects of the late 1990s, and he is probably the most qualified man in the world to talk about Despiser, because he's Philip J. Cook, the writer/director/producer of Despiser. Join Mandy, Andrew, and Phil as they discuss Phil's roller coaster of a filmmaking career, the relative merits of different approaches to special effects, why Phil has a vendetta against troll dolls, and what kinds of magic can happen when filmmakers refuse to be hindered by little inconveniences like having no money. You can back Phil's new project, Echoes of Dread, here. You can snag a copy of Andrew's novel White Scar Across the Firmament here. Mandy Letterboxd - Andrew Letterboxd
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December 2025 Movie Preview
To wrap up November, as is customary, we're looking ahead a month, as Brennan is joined by Cameron Shaw and Brian Fowler for our preview of the films coming out in December 2025. The wintry fun begins with the current and former Midwesterner joining forces to explain to Brennan the hellish phenomenon of "lake-effect snow". And then it's time to look at the very strange offerings of the last month of the year, such as a meta-remake of Anaconda and a Neil Diamond singalong that isn't actually about Neil Diamond. They also try to give the absent editor Tim a heart attack by saying some very mean things about Avatar: Fire and Ash, but there's plenty of other potentially interesting things to dig into. Prior to popping open the release calendar, the team has a movie roundtable, with Brian finally catching up to 2017's The Babysitter, Cameron visiting the highly-anticipated new Frankenstein by Gullermo Del Toro, and Brennan check out the second big Stephen King film of the fall, with the new adaptation of The Running Man.
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Bride of AE - Dr. Giggles (1992)
Tim and Brennan conclude the Autumn of Blood by making an appointment with 1992's DR. GIGGLES! Love the Podcast? Leave us a review! Follow Brennan on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd Follow Tim on Letterboxd Support Alternate Ending and check out our member perks, including voting for the films we cover on this program, via the Alternate Ending Patreon page!
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Shakespeare on Film
We've been sitting on this idea for a while, but with Chloe Zhao's Oscar hopeful Hamnet opening this month, it seemed like as good a time as any to finally move forward with one of the biggest topics a film podcast can tackle: big-screen adaptations of the work of Elizabethen/Jacobean playwright William Shakespeare, the most-adapted writer in film history on top of being the most famous name in the history of both English drama and English literature. Such a grand subject deserves a bigger crowd, so this week, Tim is joined by no fewer than three Alternate Ending regulars: Gavin McDowell, Brian Fowler, and Caleb Wimble. Together they discuss what makes a good Shakespeare movie, what we should do with adaptations that discard the original text, and why there are such a disproportionately high number of good Macbeths. Before the main event, our regular movie roundtable covers a wide range of movies, as wide as the number of genres good old Billy S. touched on his career: Brian has caught up with Black Phone 2, Gavin celebrates Armistice Day with nice, pleasant WWI/Armenian genocide movie, 2016's The Promise, Caleb has checked out the brand-new Predator: Badlands, and thanks to Patreon supporter Robin Zimmerman, Tim is here to discuss 2015 cult film Turbo Kid.
Alternate Ending was formed when three friends realized they all shared a passion for movies. Our goal is to save you time and money by sharing our thoughts and recommendations on which movies to race to theaters for, which to watch at home and those to actively avoid.
What makes Alternate Ending different from other film podcasts? Well, we're not 5 dudes in a room talking about our passion for Fight Club and Braveheart. We're two dudes, and a lady, of which our tastes are quite varied. Rob, the film-school dropout, has seen an absurd amount of movies, and if we're being honest, rounds out our Fight Club fan-base. Tim Brayton, our seasoned film critic, shares a more critical view of film, an appreciation for vintage cinema and perhaps limited-release movies that we might otherwise miss. Carrie, our casual movie-goer, reminds us all that cinema is in fact supposed to be fun and entertaining and that sometimes, just sometimes, happy endings are good.
Too many film sites cater to the same kind of audience, with one overwhelming voice in the writing, but what we treasure at Alternate Ending is diversity: diversity of opinion, diversity in belief about what film should do and how it should do it. We want to celebrate our different opinions, and celebrate yours as well.
This isn't a podcast for people who just want to talk about the latest hot new movies in theaters right this minute. This is a place for people who can't get to the theater until the third week a film is out; a place for people who just want to find something great to stream online after the kids have gone to sleep, a place for people whose favorite pastime is to grab a bunch of classic films on DVD from the library and watch them all weekend. It's a place that believes that every great movie is a wonderful new treasure, whether you see it the night of its premiere or fifty years later. It's a site about discovering good movies... one bad movie at a time.
Join us for our weekly review of movies worth seeing, worth avoiding and our Top 5 lists – and don't forget to play along at www.alternateending.com.
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