Favorite Films: Radio Karma Dig ‘Evil Dead,’ ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,’ Multiple Tim Burton Flicks, ‘Stopmotion’

Welcome to the latest installment in our Favorite Films series, in which we chat up musicians about the movies they treasure the most. Today we host Radio Karma, a power-pop/rock project led by lyricist/songwriter Richard Rossi and multi-instrumentalist Joe Giddings, who was previously a member of Star Collector and has his own solo material to boot. Radio Karma recently released a three-song EP, We Were Gods, which we’ll tell you more about in the near future. But as it’s the weekend, when we bring you new installments of Favorite Films, we’re rolling out this part of our conversation with the gentlemen first.

Enjoy learning about Rossi’s and Giddings’ most treasured movies … we can virtually guarantee at least a couple of them will be new to you.

Joe Giddings’ Favorite Films

Evil Dead (1981): “I watched that in the theater 13 or 14 times. I started doing call-outs during the movie, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In one scene, the lady’s being dragged across the floor, drenched and covered in blood. And you see her from top to bottom, and there’s barely any blood on her. So there’s a continuity [issue] there, and as that’s happening, I’m yelling, “Got a tough stain?” which at the time was [a commonly used phrase in laundry detergent] commercials. Everybody in the theater cracked up. (2:45) Apart from that silliness, I appreciated the practical effects, the stop motion and the comedy that was involved.”

Evil Dead 2 (1987): “Horror comedy at its finest and way more polished than the first one. It’s basically a retelling of [Evil Dead] with extra credit. [Director and co-writer] Sam Raimi purposely used sound when panning around the room, and over-the-top grossness, to be funny. My wife and I both said after watching it that we wish we could go back and watch it again for the first time. … I also loved Send Help. Sam Raimi is still on top of his game.”

Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): “This is my favorite Tim Burton film. My daughter bought me the vinyl soundtrack last Christmas, because she knows how much I love it.”

That Thing You Do! (1996): “I love that movie from the opening credits to the very end. And it also turns out, unbeknownst to me until a couple of weeks ago, that it’s my daughter’s favorite film. The music alone … Adam Schlesinger [the Fountains of Wayne frontman who died during COVID] wrote it. It’s as Beatles-esque and power-pop as you can get. All the songs in the film, even if they’re not power-pop, are indicative of the early ’60s that the whole movie is portraying. The concept of a band that’s a one-hit wonder that goes on tour and ends up on a big TV show and living the dream … that’s what I always hoped for as a young man. That movie speaks to a multitude of musicians.”

The Old Dark House (1932): “One of my favorite black and white classics is The Old Dark House. There’s hardly any music in the film. It’s set in a gigantic old house, and the main characters are a couple of guys and a lady in a car. It’s leaking gas, and there’s an avalanche down the side of the hill, and they can’t leave. So they go to this house and pound on the door until an eccentric family living there lets them inside. There’s a crazy uncle who’s locked inside, and he only comes out once a year. And it goes and on. Boris Karloff was in it. They just restored it recently, and it looks and sounds amazing for a film from ’32. It’s all atmosphere and feel.”

Rock & Rule (1983): “I’m a huge animation fan, and the title and knowing that it was an animated movie was enough to make me want to watch it really badly. Turns out that it included songs by Cheap Trick, Earth, Wind & Fire, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. It’s a Canadian film, and the ultimate animated rock movie. Everybody thinks Yellow Submarine [is the best one,] but this is above and beyond, story-wise. It looks like a Disney or Don Bluth film. It’s about a race of mutant cats, dogs and rats [facing] the world apocalypse. And the superstar of the world at that time was an artist called Mok, which is a combination, I would say, of Mick Jagger and David Bowie. He had magical powers, supposedly, but he was just using technology to find this magical voice that would open this dimension and bring a super-being in that he could use at his concerts to make everybody go, ‘oooh’ and ‘ahh,’ but in reality was just going to come and eat people.”

Fire and Ice (1983): “This is my other favorite movie. It was [the product of] Frank Frazetta – who did the artwork for Molly Hatchet’s album covers – and Ralph Bakshi working together. There are huge-breasted, scantily clad, beautiful women and huge, hulking, muscular dudes in loincloths, and giant beasts and creatures and orc-looking things. That was like rock and roll for me. Bakshi’s Wizards [1977] was similar to that too. That was a little anarchic, or anarchistic. I think he was trying to make some political points through animation – a lot of crazy things about religion and politics and the times, I guess.”

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Stopmotion (2023): “It’s a film about a lady creating a stop-motion film who slowly goes insane. It gets crazy, and there are a few really gross scenes. But most of all, it’s about atmosphere and making you feel. The visuals are stunning for what it is. It immediately spoke to me.

Rich Rossi’s Favorite Films

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979): “This movie is just pure fun. I love everything about it. Roger Corman didn’t direct it, but he was involved. If you remember Roger Corman, everything was low budget and silly. The story behind Rock ‘n’ Roll High School and how they got the Ramones was kind of interesting too, because they wanted Cheap Trick [to be featured in it], and Cheap Trick wanted 50 grand to do it. But because Corman was cheap, the way I understand it, they asked Tom Petty. He laughed and said, ‘Hey, I know somebody who’ll do it.’ And he suggested the Ramones. So they got the Ramones cheap, and it all worked out.”

Ed Wood (1994): “What a great movie. I could watch it again and again. Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi was just brilliant, and the entire storyline was just great. I think he got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for that, right? [Ed note: Yup.] The other Tim Burton movies I saw didn’t measure up to that one.

House on Haunted Hill (1958): “This was an old Vincent Price movie that I saw as a child. I still find it entertaining. The script is great. And the special effects are ridiculous. It’s also the first movie whose plot I remember — and it’s been used a million times: A rich, eccentric guy invites people to his mansion, and when they get there, it’s on the promise of winning a certain amount of money. Of course, as soon as they the last guest arrives, the doors are locked tight, and everyone is given a handgun to defend themselves. And the one who makes it to morning wins the money.”

Diner (1982): “Probably my favorite film of all time is Barry Levinson’s Diner. [Steve] Guttenberg was in it, but the cast at that time was not that well known. They were all basically kids. Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Tim Daly were all in it. There were a ton of stars and or soon-to-be stars in that movie. And they were fabulous, every single one of them. There were two aspects of the movie that I liked a lot. For one, they managed to revive old Baltimore, which, when I was a kid, I would see from time to time. And as Baltimore changed, this was a way to look back and say, ‘Oh, yes, I remember being there.’ The other thing was [Diner] depicted the trials and tribulations we all went through in high school and afterwards.”

American Pop (1981): “Bakshi did this movie, and while I haven’t seen it in 20 years, it’s way more relevant now. Of course, since it’s Bakshi, it’s insanely well-rotoscoped and animated and has crazy choices for music.