Raised by Rentals

Pop culture fandom today is plagued by a serious problem: 9 out of 10 fans are affected by the evils of gatekeeping. If you've been the victim of a gatekeeper, it's important to know you're not alone. The new RENTAL RANT episode of RAISED BY RENTALS is here to help. Together we can heal...and kick some gatekeepers in the nuts. Who's with us?!

For years, slasher movie fans begged Hollywood to see the two titans of the genre duke it out on the silver screen in the ultimate fan-service showdown.

In 2003, they got their wish with a knock-down-drag-out slash-fest...but was it everything it could be?

In this episode, Josh and Mike crack each other up with a fun re-imagining of FREDDY VS. JASON!

Lewis and Gilbert were excited about college, until they got there and found out--oh no!--they were nerds all along. Fans cheered when they got their revenge on the popular pretty people who made their lives miserable...but this 80s classic is problematic at best. For their first double-feature episode, Josh and Mike bust out their calculators to solve the problems of REVENGE OF THE NERDS!

We've all seen the blockbuster movies, read the bestselling book series, and jammed out to the newest viral song...but what about the hidden gems that take some digging to find in the dark corners of pop culture?

For the first episode of the new SUPER GUSHERS special feature, Josh and Mike gush about 90s comics, direct-to-video movies, and the shame-free fun of shutting down the haters by letting yourself just like what you like.

In 1993 Hollywood took a chance with the first live-action movie adaptation of a video game, but it disappointed fans, riled up critics, and eventually became a joke. Only...was it actually pretty good? In this episode, Josh and Mike imagine an alternate world with a successful film franchise based on SUPER MARIO BROS.!

Arnold Schwarzenegger became one of the biggest action stars of the VHS era starting with spot-on casting as a musclebound barbarian and he stayed on top long enough to poke fun at himself in one of the genre's most misunderstood satires. For this episode, Josh and Mike continue their experiment to combine every Schwarzenegger movie into a shared universe by mashing up CONAN and LAST ACTION HERO!

In the 80s there was a batch of low-budget horror movies based on creepy little monsters running amok. But were any of them actually scary?

In this episode, Josh and Mike improv a story to take the comedy out of horror-comedy and try to actually scare people with a serious take on CRITTERS!

The raunchy teen summer comedy movie was a staple of 80s and 90s cinema, and the legendary Carl Reiner made one of the era's best.

In this episode, Josh and Mike daydream about how rad it would've been to see more of the horror SFX-obsessed duo of Dave and Chainsaw in a genre-bending sequel to SUMMER SCHOOL!

Image Comics exploded onto the comic book scene in the early 90s, quickly becoming the number 3 comics publisher in the US based on the popularity of superstar artist-creators like Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, and of course Jim Lee! It didn't take Hollywood long to come calling for characters to bring to life on the screen, big and small...with mixed results. Putting comics in the spotlight for the first time, Josh and Mike imagine what it would have been like to go to the movies in the 90s for the live-action adaptation of Jim Lee's WILDC.A.T.S!

John Carpenter made some of the most iconic horror and sci-fi movies of the VHS era, and it's obvious he loved having fun mashing up genres.

But what if he'd made a mafia movie? And what if he'd teamed up with Kurt Russell again?

That's a Venn diagram of awesome for 80s fans!

In this episode, Josh and Mike ponder what ol' Jack Burton would do in a silver screen sequel to BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA!