The Gen X Files

10/30/2025

Tomorrow, join your ol' Stepdads as we explore one of the most underrated subgenres: horror comedies. You'll die laughing as we recap Student Bodies, House, April Fool's Day, and The 'Burbs! We'll also discuss some spooky movies we watched this month (including an insane film from 1983), TV shows we've been watching, and video games we've been playing.

New episode out tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts.

10/24/2025

The 'Burbs probably wouldn't have been the same movie if the 1988 Writer's Strike never happened. The 'Burbs was one of the few movies that was filming during the strike, and since they couldn't get anything re-written on set, a lot of improv was done.

Learn this factoid and more in today's episode, out now!

10/23/2025

Is The 'Burbs a Halloween movie? We think so!

Join us as explore the movie, The 'Burbs, with Tom Hanks.

A microscopic look at the mundanity of the suburbs and how easy it is to imagine your neighbors are up to no good, even if they actually are.

Directed by Joe Dante, with Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, and Corey Feldman.

New episode drops tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts!

10/20/2025

10/18/2025

40 years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System was launched in North America. Give a listen to our early episode on the NES or a more current episode on the Super Mario Bros 1993 movie to learn more about Nintendo!

Links in comments.

10/18/2025

April Fool's Day, quite possibly, has one of the best posters ever created. It tells so much through a simple pony tail. Kudos to the marketing team for outdoing themselves for this one. It's too bad that the execs didn't know what to do with this movie.

New episode out now, wherever you get your podcasts!

10/17/2025

No show this week.

April Fool's! Tomorrow, we cover a subversive dark comedy that may or may not be horror: April Fool's Day from 1986. Starring Thomas F. Wilson, Deborah Foreman, and Griffin O'Neal, it's a twisty-turny, what's-happening-next, slasher film.

New episode drops tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts!

10/10/2025

Tomorrow, we cover one of the forgotten horror movies of the 80s: House! The 1985 movie stars William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, and Kay Lenz, with a story by Fred Dekker, screenplay by Ethan Wiley, and directed by Steve Miner, who directed Friday the 13th Part II! It's a great haunted house tale with some amazing practical effects.

New episode drops tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts!

10/03/2025

Join us for our first entry into Die Laughing, with the first horror comedy spoof movie, Student Bodies. The poster is phenomenal, portraying EXACTLY what happens in the film. It's a weird little movie, but so worth the watch.

New episode out now!

10/02/2025

What do horse head bookends, a gangly super bendy Gumby-like dude, and heavy breathing have in common? They're all parts of Student Bodies, the the first horror spoof movie, in the nature of Friday the 13th and Airplane!. Released in 1981 and written and directed by Mickey Rose, childhood friend of Woody Allen, it does a good send-up of the young slasher genre.

New episode drops tomorrow!

09/26/2025

Join us and a very special guest to talk about Tron! And Tron Legacy and Tron Ares. To a much lesser extent. But our guest has great insight into Tron and it's amazing! We also discuss the movies and TV we've been watching, as well as what games have been sucking up our time this month, including, Alien Earth on FX, Haunted Hotel on Netflix, Brightburn on Peacock, and No Man's Sky and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

New episode drops tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts!

09/19/2025

The tagline for this mess of a movie could not be more true: This Ain't No Game. It ain't much an adaptation, either. They advertised them without even including the trademark red and green suits that everyone knows and loves from the Super Mario Bros. They tried to correct it by scrambling with new marketing material, but by that point, it was too late. Word of mouth sunk the movie. The irony is, if you ignore that it's based on the Super Mario Bros., the movie isn't half-bad.

New episode out now, wherever you get your podcasts.