Cinema Yūgen

In this episode, a childhood dream becomes a full-throttle odyssey: Bob "Speeder" Lindenmayer returns to Cinema Yugen to tell the story of making Making Megaforce — a decade-plus pursuit to rescue lost Hollywood machines, recover fading legends, and stage one last, reckless ride into the desert. From festival triumphs to late-night campfire confessions, the conversation hums with the roar of rebuilt engines and the quiet ache of de...

Step into a behind-the-scenes, adrenaline-fueled conversation with Mike Ferguson, the indomitable force of independent cinema. Forged in fight gyms and set under unforgiving lights, Ferguson talks grit, camaraderie, and the guerrilla spirit that turned Last Hit from a lightning-fast shoot into a pulse-pounding heist spectacle.

Through rapid-fire anecdotes and authentic backstage moments—body slams, boxers flown in on favors, and El...

Turn down the lights and lean in: this episode follows Matthew Pejkovic from VHS rentals and a life-changing late-night screening of Serpico to the founding of Matt’s Movie Reviews, where two decades of obsession with film became a public calling. Through vivid anecdotes — interviewing icons like Kurt Russell and Robin Williams, defending indie cinema, and railing against algorithm-driven studios — Matthew reveals how passion, risk...

When the critics boxed him in and the industry looked away, Uwe Boll refused to stay down. This episode tracks a filmmaker who fought through scorn, chaos and near-impossible shoots to mount a comeback: 23 YEARS LATER: Return to Zombie Island, he’s returning to a fractured battlefield of flesh and memory. Through anecdotes of on-set mayhem, cult screenings and the reckless joy of making movies, we follow Boll’s stubborn, combustibl...

In this episode, meet David Kurzhal — the Viking Samurai — as he recounts a life that leapt from the trading floor to the dojo and finally onto the silver screen. We travel through sweat-soaked training rooms and retro video store dreams to the set of Bloodstorm, where discipline, scars and flying kicks collide with Hollywood legends.

Along the way he shares unlikely friendships, near-mythic fight stories, and the stubborn creed th...

When the world ends, one man wakes—and the truth claws its way back through the cracks of his mind. In this episode, Matthew Warner, a rare breed of one‑man studio, takes us from a 5,000‑word horror seed to a chilling animated film made in a basement with a laptop, mo-cap suit and boundless imagination. As the Cryonic Pharaoh’s fractured reality unfolds—murdered companions, erased memories, and the question of what lurks in the bun...

Step into a dimly lit set where kilts flare, baby oil gleams and a Scottish warrior carries more than a sword — he carries stories. In this episode, Chris Black takes us from the rugged origins of Slave and the Sorcerer to the fevered rewrites and raw prep that turned him into a mythic presence on screen, sharing the funny, terrifying and tender moments behind the action.

Through offbeat anecdotes, on-set chaos, and quiet reflectio...

On this episode of Cinema Yugen, Andrew David Barker steps into the light: a filmmaker who crafts characters and atmospheres that linger long after the credits. From the haunting micro‑budget horror House on Lidderman Street to the upcoming The Wilding and Improper Bastards, Barker’s creative life is a series of bold, surprising turns — a blend of grit, humour and cinematic imagination.

Join Kent Hill for a warm, unguarded conversa...

Step into a life lived on set and in the spotlight: an actress who rose from ghost roles on towering sci‑fi stages to a crown of hundreds of awards, martial‑arts mastery, and a hard‑won living‑legend status. This episode follows Dawna Lee Heising as she recounts midnight shoots on Blade Runner, a snake dance that nearly changed her fate, and the patient, stubborn craft that led her back to the screen.

Through candid anecdotes about...

The doors get Hulk‑smashed and the lights go out: a one‑location siege turns a school into a war zone where a teen marked for death must survive the fight. Tune in as legend Lou Ferrigno and martial‑arts master Jino Kang relive fists, bullets, and a brutal choreography of survival that refuses to feel fake — this is raw, believable combat and old‑school grit. Hard Redemption. 

Join our guests for a behind‑the‑scenes ride filled wit...

Step into a filmmaker’s odyssey: Damian K. Lahey moves from teaching in Karachi to wrestling with lost rights, nostalgic comic‑book fever, and bold new projects that refuse to die. We follow the sparks of ideas—The Prometheus Club, a daring remake of The Maxx, and the poetic short Jennifer Murphy Still Lives—each born from detours, dead ends, and late‑night revelations.

Along the way, he navigates industry chaos—missed meetings, ri...

On the final Cinema Yugen of the year, Kent Hill and his spirit animal Con Christopoulos trade the usual plugs for a fireside chat: rain on the tin roof, festive banter, and a quiet magic born of luck and persistence. Con takes us from weekend short films and inflatable Godzilla props to an unexpected fitting on the Gold Coast and a paycheck from Netflix — a small, human triumph that strips celebrity of its glitter and reveals the ...

On a sunlit Balinese terrace, Matthias Hues unspools a life that reads like an action script — arriving in Hollywood with nothing but a shirt on his back, surviving dizzying highs and desperate lows, crashing celebrity parties, rubbing elbows with icons, and even losing a phone to a mischievous rescue monkey. His anecdotes leap from Venice Beach to Moscow, jungle sets to black sites, each scene stitched with humor, danger and the o...

Step into a gleaming, outrageous world where swords sing, sorcery smolders, and the joy of cinema is unabashedly pure. In this episode of Cinema Yugen, Kent Hill celebrates Lawrie Brewster’s The Slave and The Sorcerer — a handcrafted valentine to 80s sword-and-sorcery that revels in bravado, practical effects, and larger-than-life performances. From the gloriously eccentric Arlo the Torturer to Megan Tremethick’s Frazetta-wrought s...

When Bryan Kristopowitz drags you behind the velvet curtain of late‑night video stores — the hum of fluorescent lights and the scent of worn VHS — you discover that direct‑to‑video films are not failures but secret adventures. In this episode of Cinema Yugen, Bryan tells the improbable story of how a trove of rescued reviews became a book celebrating fifty explosive action movies that skipped theaters but burned bright in rental ai...

He answers the phone and immediately calms a fan who calls him a hero — and from that small, human moment this episode unfurls into a lively, unguarded portrait of Joe R. Lansdale. Listen as a nervous admirer becomes a collaborator in a conversation that moves from Roadkill chapbooks to martial arts, audio books, and the strange, funny lines that make Lansdale’s characters leap off the page.

Through quick anecdotes and sharp, comic...

When Todd (LeJon) happens across a high-tech fortune‑teller booth, he thinks he's just here for an interview. But Athena (Dawna Lee Heising), the AI within, begins to pry at the corners of his life, unspooling a past he has tried to bury. What starts as a routine application becomes a delicate reckoning between human frailty and machine insight. This is The Job.

Director Craig Railsback weaves suspense, tenderness, and a wry optimi...

When a once‑lost B‑movie resurfaces, it doesn’t just cough up footage — it tells a life story. In this episode Kent Hill sits down with director Mark Terry to trace the strange, gritty odyssey of Samurai Priest Vampire Hunter: a 2009 release that vanished into the HD transition, only to be resurrected years later through obsessive restoration, new scenes, and the magnetic presence of Tim Thomerson.

Listen as Mark recounts scraped b...

Step into a fever dream of 90s action-movie nostalgia where earnest heroes, mismatched villains with eye-patches, and frozen raccoon minions collide in a Christmas of chaos. This episode follows filmmaker Travis Irvine as he traces the wild, booze-soaked origins of Killer Raccoons! 2!: Dark Christmas in the Dark! and how a college prank evolved into a full-blown homage to the gloriously bad sequels of the 90s.

Through laugh-out-lou...