Split Tooth Media is an independent publication based in Portland, Oregon, that still believes in long-form journalism and in-depth podcasts about music and film. Home of "Split Picks," a head-to-head showdown series about the career trajectories of filmmakers and musicians, created by Craig Wright; Jim Hickcox and Jason Michelitch's film criticism series "Cinesthesia;" and Rob Delany and 'T' Trimble's guide to exploring the world of art cinema with "Arthouse Drive-In."
Jacob Gregor’s sophomore feature is a scathing deconstruction of what being terminally online can do to one’s psyche, establishing him as a vital filmmaking voice in the current divisive climate. A man (Matt Calhoun) sits alone in his room watching a motivational YouTube video on his laptop. He has just returned home from doing push-ups in a desolate Aldi parking lot. The video preaches of taking…
Split Tooth Media has done extensive coverage of Michael Glover Smith’s body of work over the years. Our own Bennett Glace has interviewed him three times — once when his film Mercury in Retrograde (2017) streamed as part of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s “Film Center From Your Sofa” series, and again after the release of his feature film Relative (2022). A third interview was conducted to follow a…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…