Category: After Dark

  • DragonKing Dark: Marvel’s Ghost Rider

    DragonKing Dark: Marvel’s Ghost Rider

    This week, we begin a new series at DragonKing Dark as we will be looking at comic book characters with supernatural stories. For several weeks now, we have been exploring our fascination with the unknown, the paranormal, and the supernatural through the stories we tell. After examining several movie characters, we shift our focus to…

  • DragonKing Dark: The Joker

    DragonKing Dark: The Joker

    This week on DragonKing Dark, host Karl is joined by Joker expert Tonya from WhenItWasCool.com to discuss the complex and widely interpreted Batman foe The Joker. The Joker debuted in Batman issue one way back in 1940 and has been interpreted many ways, both in the comics and in movies. Cesar Romero’s slapstick Joker, Jack Nicholson’s…

  • DragonKing Dark: A look at Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men

    DragonKing Dark: A look at Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men

    We continue our look at complex movie villains with a dark or supernatural aspect to them and this week on DragonKingDark, we examine one of my favorites: Anton Chigurh from the movie No Country For Old Men. Upon first viewing in 2007, the film became one of my favorite movies and much of that was…

  • DragonKing Dark: The rise of Bane from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

    DragonKing Dark: The rise of Bane from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’

    This week, I take a look at another movie villain who is more than a one dimensional brute: Bane from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, the finale of the Nolan Batman triology and what many feel is the worst of the three. However, the lead antagonist is an extremely interesting character. At first examination, Bane is a…

  • DragonKing Dark: Friday The 13th’s Jason Voorhees

    DragonKing Dark: Friday The 13th’s Jason Voorhees

    On DragonKing Dark, I continue to explore elements of the supernatural, fear, and paranormal through the stories we tell. This week, we look back at one of the most iconic film series ever and explore the story and psychology of an icon of fear and horror: Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th movie series. The…

  • DragonKing Dark: Lord Humungus and our (possible) dystopian future

    DragonKing Dark: Lord Humungus and our (possible) dystopian future

    Here he is: Humungus, aka Lord Humungus, the master of the wastelands from Mad Max 2 and the Ayatollah of rock and rolla! On this episode of the DragonKing Dark Podcast, I take a look at our possible dystopian future through the movie Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and its main antagonist. As we live…

  • DragonKing Dark: The TV inspiration for ‘The Terminator’

    DragonKing Dark: The TV inspiration for ‘The Terminator’

    On this edition of DragonKing Dark, I journey back in time to 1964 for an episode of the sci-fi fueled TV show The Outer Limits and an episode titled ‘Soldier’ where a soldier from the future is accidentally beamed back in time and tries to mesh with the world of 1964. The results are less than successful.…

  • DragonKing Dark: Smithsonian Channel ‘Sphinx’ documentary review

    DragonKing Dark: Smithsonian Channel ‘Sphinx’ documentary review

    This week on DragonKing Dark, I review the 2013 documentary from the Smithsonian Channel called Secrets: The Sphinx. Of all the ancient monuments in Giza complex in Egypt, one stands out as different from the others ss the great Sphinx seems out of place, out of scale, and older than the rest. The official archaeological…

  • DragonKing Dark: Bionic Man vs. Venus Death Probe

    DragonKing Dark: Bionic Man vs. Venus Death Probe

    This week on DragonKing Dark, host Karl Stern looks back at a series of popular Six Million Dollar Man TV episodes featuring a Soviet Venus probe that malfunctioned and landed in the United States and went on a terror spree. The Venus death probe was indestructible — built to withstand the harsh conditions of the…

  • DragonKing Dark: ‘Paranormal Survivor’ TV show

    DragonKing Dark: ‘Paranormal Survivor’ TV show

    On this week’s DragonKing Dark podcast, host Karl Stern takes a look at an episode of the television docuseries “Paranormal Survivor.” This episode takes a look at a haunted house (one of my favorite topics), a haunted car and other haunted objects, and much more. We venture into the realm of ghosts and demonic activity. 

  • DragonKing Dark: The Loch Ness Monster documentary

    DragonKing Dark: The Loch Ness Monster documentary

    One of the most popular pop culture monsters of the 1970s was the Loch Ness Monster, a supposed displaced dinosaur or sea creature in a deep Scottish lake. Nessy even made it into a song by The Police and the movie Napoleon Dynamite. While the “monster” might seem like a plausible thing that could exist, it…

  • DragonKing Dark: When Andre the Giant played a bionic Bigfoot

    DragonKing Dark: When Andre the Giant played a bionic Bigfoot

    This week on the DragonKing Dark Podcast, I look back at the popular 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man when Bigfoot was part of the plot. Not only does Bigfoot arrive on the show in 1975, but he has bionic enhancements as well and was played by both Andre the Giant and Ted Cassidy. Here’s…

  • DragonKing Dark: In Search of History – Dracula

    DragonKing Dark: In Search of History – Dracula

    This week on DragonKing Dark, I take a look back at a 1996 documentary from the ‘In Search of History…’ on the origins of Dracula. We will look back at the fact and fiction of tying the real-life Vlad Tepes to the fictional vampire lord Dracula. While Bram Stoker’s Dracula gets his name and much of his…

  • DragonKing Dark: ‘Master of Dark Shadows’

    DragonKing Dark: ‘Master of Dark Shadows’

    This week on DragonKing Dark, Karl takes a look at a documentary from 2019 about the cult 1960s supernatural-themed soap opera Dark Shadows. We have talked about Dark Shadows before at When It Was Cool and this documentary promised a look behind the scenes and at creator of the series Dan Curtis. While it fell…

  • DragonKing Dark: Abominable Snowman/Yeti

    DragonKing Dark: Abominable Snowman/Yeti

    This week host Karl Stern takes a look at a documentary titled “In Search of History: The Abominable Snowman.” The Yeti is a creature similar to Bigfoot in many respects, only in colder climates. But what evidence of the Yeti do we actually have? Do we have more or less than Bigfoot? There is even some…

  • DragonKing Dark: 1977’s ‘In Search of…Bigfoot’

    DragonKing Dark: 1977’s ‘In Search of…Bigfoot’

    My DragonKing Dark retro TV review this week goes back into the ‘In Search Of…’ collection and tackles an icon of the 1970s: Bigfoot! In this episode of the series, the one and only Leonard Nimoy navigates us through the usual Bigfoot stories: men trapped in a cabin under siege from a group of creatures,…

  • DragonKing Dark: 1972’s Future Shock

    DragonKing Dark: 1972’s Future Shock

    Orson Welles. We all know the name as one of the greatest directors and minds of the last 100 years. He narrates the focus of this week’s DragonKingDark: the amazing 1972 documentary Future Shock based on the book of the same name. Unlike so many other futurism documentaries and books, this one gets it right.…

  • DragonKing Dark: ‘Unacknowledged’ documentary review

    DragonKing Dark: ‘Unacknowledged’ documentary review

    This week on Karl Stern’s DragonKing Dark podcast, I review a 2017 documentary currently available on Netflix, Unacknowledged. It is an explosive expose on UFOs and what the world governments know. Interviews with very credible insiders leave little doubt that UFOs have been here, are currently here, and those facts are known inside the halls…

  • DragonKing Dark: Episode 200

    DragonKing Dark: Episode 200

    It’s our big episode 200 show! We change course here to bring things more in line with the other shows at WhenItWasCool.com as we begin reviewing retro documentaries on the paranormal, strange, odd, science, cryptozoology, and more. This week, host Karl Stern takes a look at two shows. The first is from the old series…

  • DragonKing Dark: Oddities of Michigan

    DragonKing Dark: Oddities of Michigan

    This is our last road trip episode for a few weeks as we transition to our new format beginning next week with episode 200. This week we travel to the Great Lake state of Michigan to find dinosaurs, museums, and a few oversized objects of interest. Spread the word about DragonKing Dark and let’s have…