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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar Noé, Rachel Brosnahan, Amy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

Ep847: Beyond Hammerland: THEATER OF BLOOD (1973)

Ep847: Beyond Hammerland: THEATER OF BLOOD (1973)

Ian Simmons

It is said that with every end, there is a beginning--and though we're leaving Hammerland in the rearview mirror (for now), Kicking the Seat will spend the next year venturing...BEYOND HAMMERLAND!

That's right, Ian and AC kick off the next year of their bloody British best-of's with a look at other studios who made their own mark during Hammer's reign of celluloid terror. Today the guys enter the Theater of Blood, starring Vincent Price as a humiliated Shakespearean actor who takes imaginatively gruesome revenge on the cadre of critics that destroyed his career.

This spoiler-filled analysis breaks down the movie's legacy, its assumptions (fair and not) about the profession of criticism, and how it casts a magical spell of horror, comedy, and tragedy that is uniquely its own!

Show Links:

Ep848: Spotlight India: OZHIVUDIVASATHE KALI (AN OFF-DAY GAME) (2015)

Ep848: Spotlight India: OZHIVUDIVASATHE KALI (AN OFF-DAY GAME) (2015)
Ep846: Late Screening: THE REHEARSAL (2022)

Ep846: Late Screening: THE REHEARSAL (2022)