*** WARNING: This episode contains a brief discussion of a scene of sexual violence ***

Episode 181 of The HD Movie Podcast is here! Deck the halls with boughs of holly because Hayley Alice Roberts and Darren Gaskell are in festive mood and ready to talk about Xmas movies of any year, any genre and any quality.

We haven't been able to do a run of Christmas content this time around so we're bringing you two movies for this Yuletide episode, both released in consecutive years and both with exactly the same title. First up, it's 1997's comedy horror JACK FROST, then it's 1998's family friendly JACK FROST! Both of them have snowmen coming to life but the titular character goes about their business in very different ways depending on the film.

Your hosts discover that the two movies have a little more in common than you would think, particularly in their uncanny renditions of a walking, talking snowman and some weird plot developments. There's also vastly differing approaches to the special effects involved in both titles and the odd subversion of tropes in otherwise predictable surroundings. One of our snowmen also has more than a look of a Hollywood superstar and you'll never get it out of your head once you know. Does this holiday double bill end up being "ho ho ho" or "no no no"?

If Santa is checking a list for who's naughty or nice, then someone definitely on the "nice" list is Mitch Bain, who writes and performs the music featured in this podcast. You can find Mitch on Instagram if you look for "evertheoptimitch".

You can follow and contact the Podcast on Facebook, X and Instagram by searching for "HDMoviePodcast". We're happy to hear from you.

You can find the hosts on social media too!

Hayley: @HayleyARoberts on X, hayleyaliceroberts on Instagram

Darren: @darren_gaskell on X, darren_gaskell on Instagram, @darrengaskell.bsky.social on Bluesky and darren_gaskell on Threads

A very Merry Christmas to all of our listeners!

Episode 180 of The HD Movie Podcast is here! Hayley Alice Roberts and Darren Gaskell are in Halloween mode and ready to talk about movies of any year, any genre and any quality...

...except there's a bit of a change for this episode. It's a bumper Halloween Special in which your hosts list fifteen of their favourite scary movie characters down the ages - actually, sixteen to be precise as one of our stop offs features a dynamic duo. We start off way back in the 1920s and end with a soon to be genre icon from 2025! There's also discussion as to why these characters are such landmarks in filmic fear. Other than that, we don't want to give away too much.

One of our favourite non-scary folks is, of course, Mitch Bain. He's a top writer and performer of great tunes, including those for this very podcast, and you can find Mitch on Instagram if you look for "evertheoptimitch".

You can follow and contact the Podcast on Facebook, X and Instagram by searching for "HDMoviePodcast". We're happy to hear from you.

You can find the hosts on social media too!

Hayley: @HayleyARoberts on X, hayleyaliceroberts on Instagram

Darren: @darren_gaskell on X, darren_gaskell on Instagram, @darrengaskell.bsky.social on Bluesky and darren_gaskell on Threads

Happy Halloween, lovely listeners!

Episode 179 of The HD Movie Podcast is here! Hayley Alice Roberts and Darren Gaskell don't always know what you did last summer but they know that last summer they covered films of any genre, any year and any quality. Mostly shark ones.

The Summer Of Screams miniseries comes to a close as your hosts round off the coverage of a certain franchise with I'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER! None of the original cast returned for this 2006 entry, which follows a new group of characters in a new location. There's also a new accident which triggers the ensuing, bloody mayhem, so is there a new killer? Well...

Hayley and Darren didn't like this on first watch and were wondering about including this title at all in Summer Of Screams, so did their late inclusion of this one result in an improved opinion of the film? Not really but the discussion was pretty lively.

There's talk of a troubled production which makes various attempts to invoke the spirit of the original and doesn't succeed much of the time. Also, there's a technical term for the ropey picture quality, a two word summary of the film and growing annoyance on Hayley's part at the performances, dialogue and *that* decision about the identity of the killer.

You want some killer tunes? Look no further than Mitch Bain. You all know it by now - he writes and performs the music you hear on the podcast and you can find him on Instagram if you look for "evertheoptimitch".

You can follow and contact the Podcast on Facebook, X and Instagram by searching for "HDMoviePodcast". We're happy to hear from you.

You can find the hosts on social media too!

Hayley: @HayleyARoberts on X, hayleyaliceroberts on Instagram

Darren: @darren_gaskell on X, darren_gaskell on Instagram, @darrengaskell.bsky.social on Bluesky and darren_gaskell on Threads

"Can a movie really be this bad?"