Wednesday, November 5, 2025

"A24: Horror Goes Art House", GalaxyCon St. Louis 2025, and "Galaxy Warriors"

I Dig Crazy Flicks with @CatBusRuss

Episode 240: Skies of Fortune Presents: A24 - Horror Goes to the Arthouse

Every A24 Horror Movie Ranked from Worst to Best

It was ⁠CatBusRuss⁠'s pleasure to be invited to be a panelist on ⁠Jess McCord⁠'s panel at ⁠GalaxyCon Des Moines⁠. The topic of said panel, ⁠A24⁠'s rich horror movie history and influence. But, perhaps, more importantly, is calling it "elevated horror" a good thing?

One half of the "⁠Skies of Fortune⁠" tabletop, role-playing game team put on quite a presentation, and must have his finger on the pulse of what nerds wants to chat about. The crowd of 40 people is not something a ⁠CatBus⁠ panel is accustomed to. In other words, if you have issues with the audio from the panel, that and a powerful air conditioning system are to blame.

Jess offers up clips and ⁠Joe Bob Briggs⁠ commentary to try and do away with the term of elevated horror. Russ is there to defend those who think certain horror movies are high brow, like A24 offerings, when compared to the horror movies that Gen-Xers and Millennials group up with. Our podcast host also offers reasons why arthouse does not equal box office since A24 has yet to distribute a feature that has made over 100 million dollars when other studios are desperate for one billion dollar box offices.

Elevated. Emo. Neuro-Spicy. After this panel, hopefully we can all determine what kind of horror A24 truly offers.

Bonus - 'Galaxy Warriors' & GalaxyCon St. Louis - Day 2

The novelization cover for -Galaxy Warriors-

CatBusRuss⁠ was given the honor to be a panelist at the first ⁠GalaxyCon St. Louis⁠. For the second day of the convention, our podcast host is joined by '⁠Cinema Shitshow's' Nix Eclips⁠ to have another go at "⁠Ninety For Chill: The Panel⁠". And this time, they come sporting punch and pie.

Nix dedicated the day to worship at the altar of ⁠Bruce Campbell⁠, but the queue was so long that he tried to cut some deals with those stranded in the line to get him some merch. ⁠Russ⁠ on the other hand was able to finish much of his Christmas shopping, reconnecting with the associate producer of "⁠Galaxy Warriors⁠", and bugging "⁠KPop Demon Hunter's⁠" ⁠Danny Chung⁠ on behalf of his niece.

And of course, the two podcasters did check out some panels like another installment of the "⁠None of this Matters⁠" podcast and the psychological draw towards "⁠The Boys⁠". CatBus tells his tales of the day while trying to deal with the Cubs efforts in the final game of the NLDS.

Hopefully, the crowd was impressed enough to come to Day 3's "1985 Triple Threat Match". They will need it since it was scheduled in the "let's beat traffic time slot".

Follow me on Bluesky @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.

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The Undrafted and Wrongfully Drafted

"Bull Durham" was not drafted on the Baseball Draft (A film that can only be drafted at #1)
"No Fear of a Black Hat" on the Fictional Band Mini-Mega Draft
The entire George Lucas Draft
"The Birdcage" instead of "La Cage Aux Folles" on the Drag Draft
"Road Trip" was not even mentioned during the Road Trip Draft
"Major League" instead of "Drop Zone" on the Wesley Snipes Draft
"Black Swan" instead of "Mermaids" on the Wynona Ryder Draft
"Akira" instead of "Ghost World" on the Comic Book Movie (Non-Super Hero) Draft. Tetsuo is a Supe.
"Now You See Me" instead of "Diggstown" on the Con Artist Movie Draft
"The Onion Movie" instead of "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask" on the Sketch Comedy Anthologies Draft
"The Big Lebowski" not being marked eight on the Coen Bros. Draft
"Labrynth" or "Dark Crystal" not receiving the number 1 or 2 spot in the Jim Henson Draft
"Stage Fright" on the Giallo Draft. It is a slasher despite the presentation.
"Assault of Precinct 13" and "Prince of Darkness" Instead of "Escape from New York" and "The Thing" on the John Carpenter Draft
"Con Air" instead of "US Marshalls" and "Universal Soldier" instead of "Time Cop " on the 90's Action Draft
"WarGames" instead of "Spies Like Us" on the Cold War Draft
"Traffic" instead of "Side Effects" on the Steven Soderbergh Draft
"Fight Club" instead of "The Virgin Suicides" on the 1999 Draft ("Suicides" made the Actor Directorial Debut Draft)
Any Kirk Douglass instead of "The Shining" being on the Kubrick Draft
"Return of the Jedi" instead of "Tokyo Drift" on the Threequels Draft (there's only one "Return," okay, and it ain't "of the King," it's "of the Jedi.")

Deserves a Second Chance

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

I find the DC movies, or at least Zack Snyder, was trying to bring comic books to the big screen as opposed to adapting comic books for the big screen. If you read, (or watch the excellent animated adaptation of) "The Dark Knight Returns", it is a very slow build to the battle between the Bat and Supe. This is regarded as one of the best threads in comics.

As a guy who fell in love with wrestling in the 1980's, the very methodical showdown is what I loved. It's a love letter to comic book fans who read and note every detail and want to try figuring out the plot before the character do. Come at the flick this way, and I think you will get something out of it.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

This is a feature that dares you to be offended. When director Ben Stiller is that forthcoming like Robert Downey Sr. was with 1969's "Putney Swope", an audience saying that something is in poor taste, hence not funny, means they are afraid to make a mockery of a concept.

My own experience with junkies bankrupting me allows me to thoroughly enjoy Jack Black's making addiction seem ridiculous. Robert Downey Jr. nails his taboo performance and I would say helps the call for actors from a demographic to be the first people called on for the roles representing them. As for the "Forest Gump" knock off jokes, they serve as a way to ridicule us for what we accepted (and encouraged) as fine a decade prior. The narrative that controls the pace in the second act can drag, but the content that is delivered cannot be cut.

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