Dean Alioto has a long-standing history within the horror genre. In fact, alongside The Blair Witch Project and The Last Broadcast teams, Alioto is one of the originators of the found-footage genre. His film, The McPherson Tape, released in 1989 (a whole decade before The Blair Witch Project) and saw an alien encounter captured on video camera. Alioto’s film was deemed so terrifying that some were certain that it was real. Having worked across a variety of genres in the intervening years, Alioto returns to horror with new film, The Last Podcast.
Whereas The McPherson Tape was a found-footage alien abduction story, The Last Podcast channels An American Werewolf in London as it straddles the tricky line between horror and comedy. Set within the modern industry of podcasting, The Last Podcast stars Eric Tabach as Charlie Bailey, a podcaster whose life slowly starts to unravel after agreeing to meet a fan. On his podcast ‘ParaNormalcy’ Charlie takes the mickey out of those who believe in ghosts. His girlfriend, Brie (Kaikane), wishes he wasn’t so mean-spirited about debunking spirits, but Charlie’s humorous and sarcastic style is what his burgeoning audience loves. All this changes when Charlie is contacted by a junior professor at Pasadena-Tech University. Duncan (Gabriel Rush) claims he can scientifically prove there’s no afterlife, so Charlie rushes to interview him. But Duncan’s fiancé was recently murdered, and he has a gun.
The Last Podcast will debut with its world premiere at this year’s Pigeon Shrine FrightFest; the screening will form part of the festival’s 25th anniversary. Amongst all the gore and chills, Dean Alioto’s latest film provides some much needed light relief. Ahead of the screening at FrightFest, and as part of THN’s annual ‘Road to FrightFest’ series, we spoke with Alioto to scratch beneath the surface and discover why The Last Podcast should be on attendees’ viewing lists.
The Last Podcast screens at Pigeon Shrine FrightFest on Friday 23rd August and Monday 26th August. More information on the film and tickets can be found on the FrightFest website.
