Monster Madness 2025: Round 1 Recap

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Greetings and salutations, ladies and gentlemen, boils and ghouls, slashers and screaming queens, and welcome to our first ever episode covering our monster madness tournament. We here at Hackerslash have traded hoops for horror, brackets for brutality, and free throws for fatal blows. While the world is lost into the March Madness basketball frenzy, we're locked into something even better and even deadlier. The battle to crown the greatest horror villain of all time. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the Monster Madness Mastermind and demonic darling, Chill.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Oh yes, there will be blood.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

64 monstrous icons entered the ring, and only 32 remain after an absolutely brutal first round. Some of these matchups were a little embarrassing. Blood was spilled, legends were slain, and one thing became Crystal Lake clear. Our listeners don't play when it comes to picking their favorite fiends. Now, in fact, we actually had over 60 horror fans get in on the bloodbath and voted for their favorite horror villains. So let's take a look back at some of the most vicious, shocking, and downright disrespectful eliminations of round one before we look ahead at the war zone that is round two.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Good lord, Chris. This this first round, people really showed up and turned out. People had their fandoms. Almost immediately when we rolled it out, they started talking about the campaigns for their favorite folks. And what this first round really did was challenge our horror fans to think about their favorite or least favorite uh monsters in new ways. Because all of these, I will say, full disclosure, all of these seedings were done purely by vibes. There was no reasoning of putting them with like-minded villains or anything. It was matching people up and kind of seeing, you know, in a perfect world where there's a horror movie where Jaws and Ghostface are put together, who would win? So I think it was a really fun opportunity for people to really use their brains in different ways for uh for horror movies.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Oh, hell yeah. And I need you to know that this transcended even just the internet because in my daily life, in my place of work, there was a debate about ghost face and jaws. And let me tell you how they showed up with fucking Sharknado. Oh, oh. Yeah, one guy was like, oh, Ghostface, Jaws is just in the water, you just gotta avoid it. And then someone said, nah, bitch, Sharknado. Jaws could come to the land one day.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Absolutely. And that's and that's what we had people thinking and talking about with all of these different ones, especially in some of, I guess, uh they've they've kind of been named the B-side games, but the lower ticket games without some of our legendary franchise horror monsters, there was a lot of that just really strong imagining, and it was really cool just to see which ones turned out, and a lot of those lower ticket games were some of the closest nail biters, and it was a lot of fun over the last two and a half days to watch just that happen and unfold.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah, the amount of what I thought were gonna be ties was a little outrageous, and I also love just the creativity in the voting. I mean, listen, I liked to think that I started my voting with okay, who had the most endurance in a franchise, but then I was quickly getting rid of that when I was voting for some of these other characters just because it felt right. I had a friend who voted for Arthur Clown and whoever they thought Arthur Clown would fuck around with, you know, like a nice little gang going. And then obviously we had some people vote for the fuckability of it all.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Absolutely. It's it's one of those rules. There's always someone that's gonna be bound to talk about the fuckability of a character, which again, but all of that is valid. This is all game, you know, just like every basketball game can go a million different directions. This bracket went a million directions, and I'm sure in round two we'll go a million more different directions.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

You can't hate on the strategy.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Absolutely. And, you know, just some of the there were some awesome highlights. Definitely, um, as we talked about, some of those powerhouses easily gliding into that second round, laying waste to their opponents. But there were some that that that put up a good fight, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I can't wait to hear some of these highlights.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

So, of course, we had some of the big ones up in the in the first bracket, the kind of the top ticket. We had Michael Meyer slotted as the understood number one seed, naturally, uh, with endurance and just famous and just well-knownness in the horror and non-horror worlds. Um he easily slipped into the top over Beetlejuice, which surprised me. I thought Beetlejuice would have a little bit more cunning to to swing a little bit more points his way.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah, you know, Beetlejuice is kid friendly, and I did have a few folks in my life who beat uh who voted for Beetlejuice. And actually, this matchup in my in itself was ironic for me because Michael Myers is just like my all-time favorite. But then over the last year, someone very close to me, her son, and then you know, the her group of friends all started calling me Beetlejuice. So this was really just like a weird tie in my mind.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

A big, a big reflection for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Yeah, you know, it's like, is it who I am or who I aim to be? Either way, I'm glad to see Michael Myers is out there.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

That's what sports and heroes are all about, you know? The beauty of the beauty of sports, growing up in sports households, there's a lot of directions between this. Despite a three-to-one matchup, Candyman was able to outlast over the Sanderson sisters. Again, a childhood favorite. Um, with their clever and cunning wit, I really thought would uh give up a little bit more of a fight to Candyman, but uh his sting was clearly stronger than anything they could throw at him, and he, again, also cruised into a very easy round one win.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Yeah, this seemed like no competition whatsoever for me. Candyman, I mean, you see what he did to all these folks, and even just his first couple movies and then the reboot. Tony Todd, uh, there's no way Tony Todd was gonna lose to stare Jessica Parker.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Definitely not. It was just really interesting because of course both have experienced um sort of some persecution in their original lives, so for them to face up and kind of have that on display was really interesting to see him come out on top.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

You know, that's an interesting angle I hadn't even considered. I mean, it it feels so natural with with Tony Todd and with Candyman's character, but holy shit, yes, the witches of it all.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

The witches of it all, the witches you didn't burn, except Candyman did in fact burn them this time. Ouch. I think the best matchup against one of these franchise legends was the uh the face-off between uh the understood number two seed Jason Vohees and Angela Baker.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

The summer camp slasher, the summer camp showdown. Listen, when it comes down to these two, you have Angela Baker with a franchise of her own. Sure, she may not have the sheer body count and brutality as Jason Vohees, but she is iconic in her own right.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Absolutely, and she she stacked up some impressive numbers against Jason early. I was worried, kind of, you never know with the crowd who's gonna pick up on Angela Baker, but she she had some strong support really all the way through. There was a point where Jason broke away to to take the win, but she put up an impressive fight, and yeah, I I mean, be ready. Summer camps all over the place should be ready this year because if these two ever decide to team up, it's game over.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

Oh man, now I need that fan fiction.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

All about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

We need it. There was another matchup, and I was thinking about one of my absolute favorites, which was the Baba Duck. Ironic, because I don't even care for the movie, but the Baba Duke is an icon.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

I will say, entering this bracket, I thought the Baba Duke was going to be one to watch. And I thought that the matchup of Pinhead from the Hellraiser series and the Baba Duke would be a very even match. Boy, was I wrong. Almost immediately, out of the gate, Pinhead was racking up numbers, swishing threes like it was his job, and there was never an opportunity for Baba Duke to close that gap.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

You know what? Hey, gay icons the both of them, so I can't be mad at it.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

It was just fascinating to kind of see that. So again, it goes to show you anything can happen in these games, and that's what we love about it. Anything can happen in a horror movie, anything can happen in this tournament. Mm-mm-mm. A um kind of a lower B ticket matchup, again, that I had I had some thoughts and assumptions going in that totally turned. Uh, was the matchup with Leslie Vernon from the behind the mask with Leslie Vernon and the Amityville House.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Very early on, Vernon had quite the lead where I, this this reporter here definitely thought that they were going to be the dark horse one to watch this whole tournament. And then Amityville House came in and absolutely shut that shit down so quick.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah, okay. It's a haunted house, right? So I guess what were we thinking? But Leslie Vernon has so much charm, and I swear to you, if there was some kind of redemption element to this, I think Leslie Vernon would be the one to watch. He just, I mean, he probably needs to like go down and then do the Michael Myers 1978 sit up and turn and refocus and re-enter the game. Because here's the thing I think what we saw was the Amineyville House channeling every component and variation of the Amineyville House, including the Amneyville Death Toilet.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Oh my gosh. It does have a lot of unique plays in its playbook that a lot of other, even you know, classics, classic monsters cannot say. Um yeah, and there's definitely something to be said. Uh in our, of course, our Hackerslash family, we have Rob, who is an Amneyville stan to the very end. So I'm pretty sure he was he was thrilled to see uh this victory for Amityville House.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Oh, undoubtedly. Now, one thing that I was really interested is it was the discourse in our Discord about Sam from Trick or Tree and Leatherface. Listen, there's some lore here that I wasn't privy to.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

It was absolutely and right out the gate, too. This was one of the first big conversations when we announced the voting was happening and dropped the matchups for round one, immediately talking about the merits of Leatherface versus Sam from Trick or Treat. And it got creative and a lot of fun. And I had no idea that this would be the most controversial matchup in round one.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yeah, I had no idea it would be, and I can't honestly still see how it's even possible because fuck Leatherface. How are you gonna put Leatherface up against the spirit of Halloween? And what Leatherface came out? The man didn't even Texas Chainsaw his own massacre in the first film.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Exactly. And in this one, again, it was we definitely thought that Sam had it in the bag. But again, a late game surge showed Leatherface climbing the ranks a little bit more. And uh I was shocked when I looked at it at one point and seeing that Sam was now behind. It was it it was a such a turn, and you never know. When people come in and vote, you never know what they're gonna guess. And it was it was it it dropped my jaw.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, it's giving the tortoise in the hair.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

It is, it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

It's giving this was rigged, actually. It's probably you know the Midwest.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Oh get the game, commissioners.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Yeah, everything's bigger in Texas, including the nefarious desire to stack the vote, but that's fine. That's fine. Leatherface. We'll see how you do in round two.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I will say it was a tough week. It was a tough round for some of our classic universal monsters. Unfortunately, we did have to say goodbye to two of them, including the wolf man who lost to uh one Jennifer Check.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

How can you how can you win against Jennifer Check?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Hell is a teenage girl and no match for a werewolf, clearly.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Now now ginger snaps versus Jennifer Check, that might have been a little bit more tight of a competition.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

Oh yes, absolutely. And unfortunately, the bride of Frankenstein also um fell to Norman Bates. So, you know, just just Norman Bates again, not knowing to leave dead enough alone.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Listen, if if it isn't one thing, it's your mother, and I can at least appreciate that if Frankenstein couldn't have his girl, it was because she lost to a man who la who loves his mother. Who loves his son? Although I don't see him going very far on the next round.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

Certainly not. I do think this next round is going to be a challenge, but there is some vengeance there. You know, some of those bride of Frankenstein stands may back uh the now widowed uh Frankenstein and come back against Norman Bates.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Holy shit, not the revenge campaign.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Not the revenge campaign, but we love a good underdog, we love a good revenge campaign. This is what monster madness is all about.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Mm-hmm. You know, also though, I'm so I'm so glad that Frankenstein managed to squeak out a win over Freddy Fazbear, Fazbear from fucking Five Nights and Freddy's. Listen, I was looking across this whole bracket, and first off, excellent job making the initial 64. We love that. But fuck Freddie Fazbear. Like I mean, fuck. I can't I can't I can't take it seriously. And I I know that's like sacrilegious to everybody who loves Five Nights and Freddy's. That's just one of those games that I picked up and I can never figure it out.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Hey, there's always gotta be a few, you know, in uh NCAA history, there's Christian Leitner, everyone hates Christian Leitner, and in this world, everybody hates Freddie Fazbear.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, I want to know at some point who who got the least amount of votes, period, across the world.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Oh, we'll we'll have some of the biggest losers at the end of this all, some of the biggest blowouts. Absolutely. It's gonna be a highlight reel for the ages.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Oh, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

And then, yes, Chris, you did talk a little bit about it. Um, there was a there was a bit of a sex factor with some of these, uh, some of these matchups, again, not fully on purpose, or maybe deep down subconsciously it was on purpose.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

You can't help what you like.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

There were some matchups that were brought up to us that, oh, these are in the sexy or fuckable monsters category, which is is a uh is a territory that Hackerslash has been known to tread in the past.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Listen, it was the kink of it all. It was the fact that our you know, our field reporter, Mickey Mack, described the Graboid as girthy. Girthy? Too it was too titillating of a word to use in the Discord, but I am devastated to see what happened to our boy Winnie.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

And when I tell you, when I tell you it was back and forth. One minute it was Graboid up by one, one minute it was Winnie the Pooh up by one, and then they were tied. I actually got nervous because I did not have a tiebreaker plan. Um, yes, it was it was a tight race, and same with Pyramid Head and Krampus.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Oh my gosh. Yeah. So here's the thing Pyramid Head has the booty, but Krampus has the naughty. So how do you really even decide between the two of them? I told you I paid Krampus because I'll take a mythical being over shirtless man any day.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Absolutely. And Pyramid Head was one that got a little attention in the chat as well early on. Um, I know uh Nathan and Kara were kind of talking about the matchup and kind of seeing how that would go. So I'm I'm curious to see how maybe their reasoning and their thought process help sway the game in one way or the other, which we love to see. But yes, fortunately, we will have to say farewell to Winnie the Pooh uh for this season. But who knows? Maybe it's uh Winnie the Pooh and Piglet tag team next year making a comeback. Owl. It's going to be a whole hundred-acre wood region. Get ready. Get this is year one, year two, anything's on the table.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Oh, I cannot wait to see how that unfolds. And quite frankly, that insanity, my friends, was just the beginning because now we head into round two where the real carnage begins.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Absolutely. This this second round is impressive in its range. As we just said, some of those wins, it's not all slashers, it's not all extraterrestrials. It is such a huge range, uh, which definitely shows the tastes and thoughts and loves of our whole hacker slash community that we have a little bit of everything after round one going into round two. So it's it's gonna be a lot of fun, and I think there's gonna be some more great conversations on some of those matchups. So yeah. Chris, any any matchups that you kind of saw that you're you're excited about or people that you were excited to move forward that you wanna wanna keep an eye on?

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Yeah, for sure. So a few things come to mind here. One, Michael Myers versus Candyman. Holy shit. Listen, I love my boy Michael. I'm still voting Michael through to the next round, but Candyman is gonna put up a really fucking good fight, especially with the late great Tony Todd, and just thinking about the power of his performance in that role. So depending on how the voters go, if it's popularity and it's nostalgia, I mean Michael Myers has such a strong platform, but but there's a real chance here for Candyman to have an upset. Now, the other thing that really stood out to me was a very interesting one, and it's something that really caused me to sit back and reflect. You have Samara or Hannibal Elector. And here's the thing: she may be supernatural, she may be paranormal, she may be able to drown him in the well, but I think he could reach her inner child. And I'm gonna put out uh a win on Hannibal Elector on this one.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Alright, we're making calls. I love to see that, absolutely. And unfortunately, yeah, there was an opportunity for a Buffalo Bill Hannibal Lecter matchup in this game. Cards didn't play that way, so I'm excited to see how Hannibal Elector would approach a Samara fight.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah. Another thing that is in that is interesting to me is you have Freddie Krueger who owns the dream world, but then you have Dracula who owns the night.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Again, we have so many iconic matchups here, and we had a lot of slashers that moved through to the second round. I think, even just looking at the way that I'm kind of voting my ballot here, I think we're gonna see a lot of these slashers fall off.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

Absolutely. I do think, especially when you start thinking about the creativity and the vibes and the legacies of it all. Yeah, I I do think at some point people don't necessarily want to um, you know, they want to see something more from Freddy and Jason and all of those legacies. They're gonna want to see something more from them. And I think putting them up against some of these unique, um, maybe just a one-step level down of popularity, I think is gonna really challenge them and make them step up.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yeah, I think there's one that stands out to me that is gonna be very problematic, and I will run on this platform. I will die on this hill. It's gonna be Art the Clown versus the Thing.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Listen, I love John Carpenter. I love the thing, but also Art the Clown is a fucking movement, and I will not rest until Art the Clown advances to the third round. The the thing, sure, it's Antarctic, it is malleable, it you know assimilates, it impersonates, but Art the Clown is uh his own unique character, and I uh listen, and I said a second ago that the slashers are gonna fall this round. I think he and Michael are gonna be one of the few standing.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

I love that. I love that. I will say I do think the thing has that malleability and that flexibility on the play that I I am going to probably stick with with the thing in this round. I think there is a great possibility we've got some John Carpenter legendary, uh, if you want to call it coaching behind that. So I do think it will be a tight race to watch, and I'm excited to see people to face off and talk about that. So definitely want to hear from everyone uh about their thoughts on the art uh versus the thing matchup. I think it will be the one to watch this round.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

For sure. I think another one that's gonna be interesting is gonna be uh Predator versus Gremlins, because you listen, the Gremlins are gonna make a mess. They also have the 1v several aspect here. That's just action economy. That's a DD basic. You know, one adventurer versus 17 rats, that adventure is gonna go down pretty quick no matter how strong they are, how many spells they have. However, the predator is almost, I think, going to be like dropping an apex predator into a ball pit. And it's gonna be fun at first, but then it's just gonna get fucking ugly.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

I absolutely agree. And again, some of those reasonings, the action economy and the creativity and again the range of the gremlins versus predator, I think I think we're gonna see a lot of people facing, and that's gonna be that nostalgia factor. Which one did you see first, which resonated with you more?

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Oh, yeah. That's gonna be the that's gonna be the stuff to hit.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Absolutely. And speaking of resonating, Chris, I think you and I both uh can uh have share experiences where Jennifer Check uh resonated with us in certain points in our lives.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

And sh again, she showed up against the Wolfman. She was in a tight race for a bit, but it it seemed like even the Jennifer Check fans weren't really concerned until about the last minute or so uh when we saw some Discord chat around her and rallying that support. So I'm not sure if they thought it was gonna be easy win against the Wolfman or if they just were thought they would coast through or whatever it was, but we did see some late game support for Jennifer Check, and I think now that she has won, I I think she is going to be a dark horse one to watch. She will be facing another classic universal monster this week. So in uh the mummy.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah, this this feels like the bandage versus bondage matchup.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

I love that. Yes, absolutely. So she is not gonna be one to be fucked with, even up against some of the heavy hitters, depending on how far she goes, they'll give a run for her money. And I think that's when we're gonna have the conversations about slashers versus uh non-traditional horror villains. I think Jennifer Check is going to be the vehicle for that.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Oh hell yeah. I cannot wait to see how this shakes out. Now, Chell, obviously we have, I believe, 32 contenders here. What is our next round drill down to? Is that 16?

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Yes, it will be the sweet 16 of uh our monster madness. So, and from there it'll go eight, four, and then two for the championships. So, yes, this'll be uh voting for the next 16 top contenders, and that's when the race is gonna really get tight now. It's when you're really gonna have to dig deep and make some hard decisions.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah, I can't wait to see how far this Amityville horror house goes.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Absolutely. Now that we have Rob on board, he was kind of a a late entry into the game, into the tournament, but I do think now that we have Rob on board, and as such an Amityville stand, I'm excited to see him maybe whip up some support in the in the Discord. And again, I mean the the the folks who were who were standing on Leatherface and saying that he was gonna be the winner, they're pretty thrilled by this victory, and I'm excited to kind of see what they do with this victory to move forward.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Yeah, good luck because you have fucking kaiju versus cannibalistic chainsaw enthusiasts. Get wrecked. This is Godzilla's to lose.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Absolutely. And it's funny, outside of the Discord, um, I did have a few friends who filled out the bracket that are Godzilla fans. For some reason, in the just outside of that Discord community, Godzilla is the one they're rooting for. So absolutely, it will not be an easy win. Um, so I'm interested to see where they take that.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Mm-hmm. Folks, I am so excited to see how our next round shapes up because all of the action depends exclusively on you. Our round two Monster Madness matchups are locked and loaded. Voting starts at midnight on March 10th and actually runs until noon on March 12th. So if you're listening to this past that, you can go over to our website, you'll see our breakdown of the recap. But if you're catching this in that window, I want you to follow the link in our show notes right now so you can cast your vote.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

And don't forget to join the conversation and our monster madness Discord all month long. Let us know who you're backing, who got robbed, who's about to absolutely dominate in this tournament. And I think in this round, I think we need to start start seeing some folks repping some uh some pride for their teams. Let's get out the let's get out the shirts for leatherface, let's get ghost face uh stands putting the masks on and celebrating. Let's really show some spirit this round uh about who you got.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yeah, absolutely. We're gonna put up some matchups on Instagram and just kind of like hear the what the debate sounds like. So you can do hashtag MonsterMadness2025 to let us know what your thoughts are. I want to see some debate. I personally am gonna bring all my Arthur Clown shit out of the closet for this one to push him through past the ring, past the thing. But I am so excited to see how this goes.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Absolutely. It's this it's this is game, this is real games, guys. Let's let's make this happen and let's have a whole heck of a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Hell yeah. We'll see you next time, folks, and may the best monster win.

SPEAKER_00 25:35

Boom goes the dynamite.