Episodes

  • Make More Movies: Aidan Cronin (Ep. 3)

    Make More Movies: Aidan Cronin (Ep. 3)
    Nov 16 2025
    Aidan Cronin explores the things that confuse him. Like so many artists, he is on the often frustrating but sometimes freeing journey for answers to what very well could be unanswerable questions. Unlike a lot of artists, he doesn’t restrict himself to just one medium. He explores these questions through poetry — as seen in the stanza above and the ones throughout this piece, ripped directly from the 2023 archives of his notes app. He recently began exploring through painting, although most of his acrylic work has yet to be seen by the public. His main vehicle for artistic exploration over the past eight years has been film. As for the things that confuse him? Well, in his own words, Cronin seeks to “examine the cyclical banality of our continued existence.” Listen to our conversation here, and read my full profile on Cronin's work at Split Tooth Media. Make More Movies is a new podcast from Split Tooth Media about independent filmmakers where Aaron Bartuska interviews various DIY filmmakers about what keeps them creating. Be sure to read Aaron's full career overview of Cronin's work: https://www.splittoothmedia.com/aidan-cronin/ Hosted and produced by Aaron Bartuska Music by Will DiNola
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    46 mins
  • Make More Movies: Anthony Leroy (Ep. 2)

    Make More Movies: Anthony Leroy (Ep. 2)
    Oct 30 2025
    Make More Movies is a podcast where Aaron Bartuska asks DIY filmmakers what keeps them creating. This episode is with guest Anthony Leroy. Anthony Leroy turned 30 earlier this year. In a post commemorating this milestone while simultaneously promoting his newest film, the filmmaker said that he had never really felt sure of himself as an artist until the past year. Now that he has found his voice, the decade ahead looks promising. “I’m ready for every challenge, every hiccup and I feel so honoured to be able to make tasty trash,” he wrote on Letterboxd. This particular brand of tasty trash also happens to be consistent. Since December 2023, Leroy has released five short horror films — four of which were shot on video in that same span of time. I came across one of Leroy’s shorts toward the end of last year and was shocked to discover just how productive Leroy had been in a 12-month span: not only had he made an entire SOV trilogy following the same murderous antagonist, he had also released an impressive high-concept horror short that achieved widespread praise and popularity on YouTube. When I checked up on his progress only a week later, he had already announced BUM (2025), an ambitious new found-footage film that would clock in as his longest project to date. The guy showed no signs of slowing down. Read Aaron's written profile of Leroy and his work here: https://www.splittoothmedia.com/anthony-leroy/
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    50 mins
  • Make More Movies: Avalon Fast (Ep. 1)

    Make More Movies: Avalon Fast (Ep. 1)
    Oct 22 2025
    A new podcast from Split Tooth Media about independent filmmakers where Aaron Bartuska interviews various DIY filmmakers about what keeps them creating. In this episode, we dive deep into Avalon Fast's career, covering topics like what happens after your film sees festival success and why warm weather is overrated. If you were to stumble upon Avalon Fast’s website knowing nothing about the filmmaker, the first things you would see are her name and credentials, a picture of her on set with her friends, and the words “GIRL HORROR” in boldface font. There’s perhaps no better thesis statement for Fast’s body of work than that initial welcome. This past weekend, her sophomore feature CAMP (2025) screened as the centerpiece film at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. The festival is known for defying audience expectation, but you’d think it safe to surmise that all of the films screening in their lineup would at the very least fall within the general confines of the horror genre. When I spoke to Fast a few weeks before the screening, she seemed uncertain how her film would be received in regard to its supposed genre — despite the bold proclamation on her homepage. “I’m curious to see if the world will define CAMP that way," Fast said. "It definitely seems like that’s where it’s been programmed. CAMP is fantasy. It’s genre. Is it horror? I don’t know.” She feels the same about Honeycomb (2022), her debut feature and her most widely seen work. The film, a DIY surrealist dreamscape about a group of girls who take to the woods to start their own society, premiered at the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival and was quickly pigeonholed in a similar way. The majority of Fast’s short films also tend to lean toward the macabre, but the complex themes they explore make them hard to classify as run-of-the-mill genre fare. She has embraced the label, but that doesn’t mean she won’t challenge it. “I like stories that are dark in that way. I think I’m just naturally attracted to that. Why? That’s something that I’m asking myself every time I make a movie.” Be sure to read Aaron's full career overview of Fast's work: https://www.splittoothmedia.com/avalon-fast/ Hosted and produced by Aaron Bartuska Music by Will DiNola
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    47 mins
  • Split Picks: Videogore: The Films of J.C. Moller

    Split Picks: Videogore: The Films of J.C. Moller
    Oct 21 2025
    From The Norwegian Drillbit Massacre through Oslo Terror, Xposure Video's debut release collects Møller's films together for the first time. At age 15, Jon Christian Møller and some friends created a shot-on-video splatter film about a power-tool-wielding zombie's murder spree called The Norwegian Drillbit Massacre (1988). The short is full of stomach-busting practical effects and a firecracker-loaded climax. It has since become his best known film, but over a prolific two-year stretch, Møller and his friends made three short films — Drillbit, Cannibal Massacre, and I Hate You (Kill or Die) — and one feature film, The Oslo Terror. These films are exercises in homemade gore effects, stolen soundtracks, and stunts that are more extreme than they probably needed to be. For the first time, these four films are available together on DVD as Videogore: The films of J.C. Møller through Xposure Video, the new label founded by C.B. Cobb and Split Tooth's Vincent Albarano. Craig Wright, Aaron Bartuska, and Albarano team up for another October Horror Split Picks episode to discuss these Norwegian splatter films, and, more specifically, Albarano's direct role in bringing these films to a new audience. As Albarano describes, these are "four jaw droppingly sick dispatches so vile they only could have been made by jovial adolescents." Listen to hear the origin story behind Xposure Video, the common threads running through each of J.C. Møller's films, and what it took to track down and release these films.
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    1 hr and 37 mins
  • Split Picks: Frank Henenlotter's 'Basket Case 2' Vs. 'Bad Biology'

    Split Picks: Frank Henenlotter's 'Basket Case 2' Vs. 'Bad Biology'
    Oct 12 2025
    Frank Henenlotter is no stranger to capturing misfits, oddballs, and mutated figures on film, but he always manages to find the humanity in each of them. His unique avant-gutter exploitation cinema has resulted in memorable characters and brutal moments, but he embraces the deadly and unpredictable sides that his creations offer. Duane and Belial, the once-conjoined twins who shocked Times Square in Basket Case (1982), are back in Basket Case 2 (1990). They find a new home in a mansion of misfits, but the press is after them and closing in. Bad Biology (2008) follows a woman with seven clitori and an insatiable — sometimes murderous — sex drive, and has mutant babies moments after the act; her path collides with a man who has an uncontrollable, brain-controlling, drug-addled penis. This is a genuine weird film for those seeking something they've never seen before — or could even imagine exists. Our host Jim Hickcox is joined by filmmakers and film teachers Steve Collins and film Spencer Parsons. Maybe don't listen to this episode at work...
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    1 hr and 33 mins
  • Split Picks: Gary P. Cohen's 'Video Violence' Vs. 'Video Violence 2'

    Split Picks: Gary P. Cohen's 'Video Violence' Vs. 'Video Violence 2'
    Oct 7 2025
    Split Picks reemerges to sift through two classic SOV horrors from director Gary P. Cohen. A mysterious tape left in a small town video store's dropbox leads to the shop's owner becoming immersed in an underground ring of homemade murder tapes in Gary P. Cohen's Video Violence (1987). The town's love for violence only grows more outlandish in the 1988 sequel, Video Violence 2. The chief killers, Howard and Eli, invade the airwaves with pirate broadcasts that show submitted tapes of gruesome killings from their most loyal viewers. Vincent Albarano and Aaron Bartuska make their Split Picks debuts to talk about all things Cohen and shot-on-video horror. Albarano is the author of Aesthetic Deviations, A Critical View of American Shot-On-Video horror, 1984-1994. Bartuska, a filmmaker (watch The Yardley Boys) and film teacher, recently spoke with Cohen for a career-spanning interview. With host Craig Wright, they spend some time with the hosts of the Howard and Eli Show and their gruesome tape collection.
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    1 hr and 31 mins
  • (pod)Casters of Horror: Wrapup and Rankings of Season 1

    (pod)Casters of Horror: Wrapup and Rankings of Season 1
    Oct 29 2024
    Rather than bore listeners with the details of their miraculous escape, Bennett and Jim share their end-of-season reflections and rankings of the entire first season of Showtime's Masters of Horror. Created by Mick Garris, Masters of Horror was a two-season series on Showtime that challenged genre legends to create an hour-long horror film. Follow along as Bennett and Jim are forced to spend no more than 20 minutes discussing each episode from the first season of the series or face a room full of poisonous gas.
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    28 mins
  • Split Picks: James Wan's 'Insidious' Vs. 'Insidious: Chapter 2'

    Split Picks: James Wan's 'Insidious' Vs. 'Insidious: Chapter 2'
    Oct 28 2024
    Split Picks is back to venture into dream worlds and nightmares from one of the modern master of horror's great franchises. Well, Split Picks aimed to record an episode every month this year. But things got busy, OK? So Jim Hickcox is once again in the host throne to field Split Picks' first international call. Terry Chiu (Open Doom Crescendo and Mangoshake director), and Mark Hanson of the Bay Street Video Podcast call in from Canada. Together, Split Picks heads into the Further to talk about the first two Insidious films. When Jim and Terry spoke earlier this year, Terry promised watching Insidious and Insidious 2 back-to-back was the ultimate cinematic experience. The narratives collide in ways that few franchises manage to achieve successfully. So everyone watched them as a pair and have gathered to report back to see if Terry's promises holds up. The creator of the Saw, Conjuring and Insidious franchises, plus Malignant and Dead Silence (and don't forget Aquaman and Furious 7), James Wan has earned his title as the most influential modern director of horror. With Insidious and Insidious 2, Wan follows a family that comes to realize their new house may be haunted. Along the way they encounter mysterious dream worlds, lost souls, and a team of paranormal experts who may help them escape their situation. Throughout, the crew debate Wan's standing in horror by diving deep into how his strengths — and his lesser tendencies — became so influential.
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    1 hr and 14 mins