Watchcast Schedule for December 2025: It's a Grab Bag! (Patreon)

Greetings, Nextlanders! After a brief hiatus, we're ready to unveil our final three films for the Watchcast's 2025 slate, and the theme this month isn't a theme at all! Rather, I have simply told the guys to each pick a movie they want to watch, for any reason at all, and let me tell you right now, they did exactly that. None of these movies have a lick of anything to do with one another, other than being something we each want to see. Here's what we've got on tap:

Monday, December 8th: Escape from New York (1981)

After watching Ghosts of Mars and Doomsday, I really, really needed some actual Snake Plissken, instead of one of the many also-rans that tried to do the Snake Plissken thing. Also, we've been talking about doing this movie as part of some kind of larger Kurt Russell thing forever, and we can still do that down the road with any number of other films. But I needed my Escape from New York right this very moment, and I got it!

If, like Brad and Vinny, you have never seen Escape from New York before, know going in that this is not exactly a high-octane action thriller. There's certainly action, but it's the more understated kind of action John Carpenter used to deal in before his budgets got bigger. Instead, Russell's performance as Snake and the incredible apocalyptic vibes carry the weight here, and they manage to carry it pretty far. You will also likely unlock a great deal of greater pop culture linkage as you watch it, even beyond the extremely well-known Metal Gear inspirations.

Where to Watch

Monday, December 15th: Citizen Kane (1941)

This is the funniest possible thing Vinny could have picked. As Brad has mentioned multiple times since Vinny told us this was his pick, it is an incredible thing to suddenly have the entirety of cinema in front of you as a possibility, and just say "well let's do Citizen Kane". Fuck yes, let's do Citizen Kane!

Vinny, on this pick: "Is Citizen Kane the Citizen Kane of movies? Well, there's really only one way to answer that ridiculous question and that's to finally watch a movie that I have had queued up for decades but have never actually seen!"

If, like Vinny, you have never seen the Citizen Kane of movies, I assure you that despite its possibly overblown-sounding reputation, it is a genuinely great movie outside of pure academic reasons. I have no idea how Vinny will feel about it when all is said and done, but I can't wait to find out!

Where to Watch

Monday, December 22nd: Gremlins (1984)

Closing the month out with Brad's pick, and definitively the most Christmas-y flick of this month's slate. And that is very much by design, according to our Bradley. He picked this both for its holiday proximity, and as a way to round out his recent horror kick, and I think it's a perfect closer for the year.

Any child of the '80s is probably already well aware of Gremlins and probably saw it younger than you should have. If you don't know the deal, all you need to know is this: there's a really cute fuzzy guy, but if you feed that fuzzy guy after midnight, or get him wet, he gets a lot less fuzzy, a lot more slimy, and a lot more murder-y.

You've probably heard us talk about Gremlins 2 a lot, given what an insane fever dream that movie is, but this Gremlins is a little less goofy, an eensy bit scarier, and features zero Hulk Hogan. Also, this will be both our first Joe Dante and Chris Columbus movie on the Watchcast! Took us long enough.

Where to Watch

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And that's our schedule! The Watchcast will then be on break for a couple of weeks while we reset and prepare for 2026. We'll announce the January schedule once we're back from the holiday break, and the show itself will resume on January 12th.

That's it! Hope you all enjoy this month's movies, and have yourself a great holiday season. Thanks for watching along with us, and we'll see you for more Watchcasting in the new year!

--A