Dirtbag Nihilism and Crime Scene Donuts: Christian Gudegast's DEN OF THIEVES
Brandon interrogates Big Nick and finds him to be even scummier than we originally thought.
Scribblings
A collection of curated writing based on the movies we cover each week. Deep dives, director profiles, and double feature reccomendations (just to name a few), all from folks we love to read.
Brandon Streussnig
- Aug 1
Crisis Actor: Rebecca Hall and RESURRECTION
Why Brandon thinks Rebecca Hall is the best working performer in horror (and cinema in general) these days.
Brandon Streussnig
- Jul 1
The Act of Seeing: Nicolas Winding Refn's ONLY GOD FORGIVES
Brandon's back, talking about the sinful, seductive pleasures of Nicolas Winding Refn's gruesome, reviled follow up to DRIVE.
Jacob Knight
- Jun 17
Ex-sentials: The Hired Hand (1971)
The final installment in this first volume of Ex-sentials, Jacob chronicles the languid beauty of Peter Fonda's stellar acid Western.
Jacob Knight
- Jun 15
Ex-sentials: Rome, Armed to the Teeth (1976)
The third installment in this mini-series of exploitation essentials zeroes in on Umberto Lenzi's Italocrime masterwork of fascist violence.
Jacob Knight
- Jun 14
Ex-sentials: Gator (1976)
The first volume of Ex-sentials continues with Burt Reynolds' directorial debut: the granddaddy of bloated action spectacle, GATOR.
Jacob Knight
- Jun 13
Ex-sentials: I Spit On Your Grave (1978)
Jacob launches a new mini-series covering the trash cinema classics every sleaze aficionado cannot miss.
Brandon Streussnig
- May 20
His Own Worst Nemesis: The Films of Albert Pyun
Brandon smashes some brains with this love letter to the lo-fi genre madman.
Brett Gallman
- May 13
Dial Up The Future: Jason X (2001)
Brett Gallman recalls how Jason X signaled the rise of Internet access to the latest body count shenanigans of our favorite masked maniacs.
Jacob Knight
- Apr 11
Let Blockbusters Be Disreputable Again
In which Jacob ponders the question: has our mainstream entertainment become to safe to be, well, entertaining?
Jacob Knight
- Mar 25
Slow West: The Creeping Outsider Terror of Ti West
Jacob goes long on the career of modern horror's most excitingly idiosyncratic auteur.
Brett Gallman
- Mar 24
Long Live Goddamn Fucked Up Horror Pictures
Brett's back at SH and sounding the alarm for folks to just embrace horror movies being out of their fucking minds again.
Brandon Streussnig
- Feb 11
Wrapped In Plastic: JCVD's Street Fighter
Brandon's back and telling you why you should embrace the goofy sincerity of notorious video game action epic, STREET FIGHTER.
Anya Stanley
- Feb 4
Mondo Stuntmen: The Death Defying Maniacs of Jackass
Anya Stanley returns to Secret Handshake and digs into why Death is a omnipresent player in the JACKASS universe.
Brandon Streussnig
- Jan 24
A Gunshot Behind the Woodshed: Lee Marvin's Dog Day
Brandon reveals how a minor late period work tells us all we need to know about Lee Marvin's legacy as a grizzled action star.
Brett Gallman
- Jan 14
Meat For the Death Machine: Wes Craven's SCREAM 2
Brett Gallman breaks down what some consider to be the greatest metatextual slasher sequel of all time.
Jacob Knight
- Jan 12
Psychic Porno Giallo: Patrick Still Lives (1980)
Jacob attempts to describe why this Italian rip off of an Australian blockbuster deserves Facemelter canonization.
Brandon Streussnig
- Dec 24, 2021
Fuck You, Spaceman: The Ecstatic Action Cinema of Craig R. Baxley
Secret Handshake welcomes Brandon Streussnig into the fold, who in turn indoctrinates us into the action cinema cult of Craig Baxley.
Brett Gallman
- Dec 10, 2021
Slime Mansion: The Cult Classic That Is The Kindred
Brett Gallman on why you should be seeking out Synapse's restoration of this highly entertaining monster mash.
Jacob Knight
- Nov 30, 2021
Italian-American: Abel Ferrara's Tommaso
Jacob dives into Abel Ferrara's less celebrated (yet no less essential) works of uncomfortable autobiography.
Jacob Knight
- Nov 2, 2021
Ryder On the Rain: The Hitcher (And Robert Harmon's Other Road Horror)
Jacob goes long on the greatest road horror movie of all time.
Greg Ferrara
- Oct 27, 2021
A Pistol For My Partner: The Tall T (1957)
Greg Ferrara joins the SH gang to talk about Budd Boetticher's heralded Elmore Leonard adaptation.
Brett Gallman
- Oct 20, 2021
Dimension of the Damned: The DTV Children of the Corn Sequels
Brett Gallman is back and is walking behind the rows with these Dimension CHILDREN OF THE CORN sequels.
Preston Fassel
- Oct 6, 2021
Kill Like a Man: Night Warning (1981)
Preston returns to SH with one of the most bonkers camp slasher films of all time.
Simon Abrams
- Aug 25, 2021
The Westerner: An Interview With SUPERNORMAL Cinematographer Laurie Gilbert
Simon Abrams sits down with the cinematographer of the black magic Hong Kong Mondo doc.
Brett Gallman
- Apr 8, 2021
Choice Cuts: Body Parts & The Unapologetic Entertainments of Eric Red
Brett Gallman returns to SH and delivers some words on Eric Red's deranged Frankenstein splatter picture.
Brian Collins
- Mar 17, 2021
Casual Fridays: Slasher Cinema's Brutal Basics
Body count guru Brian Collins stops by to comment on possibly the most important slasher element: the killer's mask!
Simon Abrams
- Mar 10, 2021
I Kill For Love: Kinji Fukasaku's Black Lizard (1968)
Simon Abrams returns to SH, dissecting the seminal queer smash that breathed new life to Fukasaku's career.
Preston Fassel
- Mar 3, 2021
Rent-A-Pal: A Cult Film For Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Preston makes his case for why this tale of analog loneliness should already be in our modern cult canon.
Jacob Knight
- Feb 11, 2021
Forgotten Gialli: Volume One
Jacob slips on his black gloves to prowl through Vinegar Syndrome's first volume of yellow murder mystery obscurities.
Marten Carlson
- Feb 10, 2021
Time Is Luck: The Tragic Romanticism of Michael Mann
Marten examines the one inevitable truth in Michael Mann's sprawling filmography.
Jacob Knight
- Feb 4, 2021
Shooting Blanks: Back In Action ('94) + Tough and Deadly ('95)
Jacob blows a bunch of shit up with two of the most underrated buddy actioners of all time.
Mike W. O'Brien
- Feb 3, 2021
The Last Dragon: Michael Schultz & The Glow of '70s Black Cinema
Mike O'Brien places Michael Schultz and THE LAST DRAGON in the timeline of Black pop history.
Travis Woods
- Jan 28, 2021
Nothing Really Counts, Does It?: Cutter's Way (1981)
Travis Woods dives into the despair of Cutter's Way and wonders if anything we do really matters.
Jacob Knight
- Jan 26, 2021
The Busted Flush: Darker Than Amber (1970)
Jacob runs down the sordid details of Travis McGee's only big screen outing to date.
Simon Abrams
- Jan 21, 2021
Death By 1000 Cuts: John Woo's Hard Target (1993)
Simon Abrams grew a greasy mullet to flex on John Woo and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Marten Carlson
- Jan 19, 2021
My Friend, Dolph Lundgren
Marten reveals his ultimate Secret Handsake: just mention Dolph.
Jacob Knight
- Jan 14, 2021
Radioactive Dreams: Six-String Samurai & Post Apocalyptic Cult Cinema
Jacob on Lance Mungia's hipster swordplay epic and the End of All Things.
Brett Gallman
- Jan 12, 2021
Field Guides To Evil: Suspiria (1977) and My Cult Cinema Journey
Brett Gallman uses sacred cult cinema texts to navigate memory lane.
Jacob Knight
- Jan 7, 2021
When I Was Alive: Rolling Thunder (1977)
In which Jacob teaches you to learn to love the rope.
Anya Stanley
- Jan 5, 2021
"Life's a Pain and God's a Sadist": Alan Ormsby's DERANGED (1974)
Anya Stanley dives into American desolation.
Jacob Knight
- Jan 4, 2021
An Invocation (Of Sorts)
Jacob welcomes you to the jungle. We've got punch and pie.