Horror is having its moment.

It’s dominating the film industry, with ‘Sinners’ recieving a record 16 nominations and four wins at this year’s Oscars – Frankenstein and Weapons getting their nods as well.

And a man who will forever be synonymous with horror is Robert Englund – the original Freddy Krueger.

Even though he’s long since hung up his fedora, striped sweater, and razor-fingered gloves, he’s still involved in highly influential thriller projects, including Netflix’s Stranger Things.

“I’m so proud of Sinners for, for kind of being one of the first horror films since ‘Silence of the Lambs’, then before that, perhaps ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, to really kind of be taken seriously at its time by the academy,” he told Jack Tame.

“I think Sinners has really begun another kind of renaissance,” Englund said.

“I sort of thought for a minute there that maybe all the zombie projects had sort of exhausted the audience, you know, for a while, but you know, Sinners was so fresh and so wonderful.”

Some may take a view that horror is a lower form of art, that the actors just turn up and snarl, unaware of the training many horror actors have. Englund for example, was classically trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

“What it does is it gives you a technique if you need it,” he explained.

“I sometimes get parts, I can’t believe they want me for these roles ... so then you have this technique to rely on. It’s an opening.”

Performing for stage is also quite different than performing for screen – on stage you have to exaggerate things, perform to the back of the room, whereas screen acting requires a more naturalistic performance.

But for Freddy, he brought those elements of stage acting into his performance.

“I didn't worry about my thinning hair, and I didn't worry about my good side or my bad side, and I was able to change my voice and I was able to move differently than Robert Englund would normally move on film because Freddy occupies this sort of surreal imagination,” Englund told Tame.

“I don’t like to use the word dance, but I was able to physicalize him more, kind of paint him into the frame of the imagination of whoever was having a nightmare about him, and that was really liberating.”

“Playing Freddy for all those years was actually a very liberating thing for me, and it kind of gave me a career on the other side that I know I wouldn’t normally have had because I had been established as a genre star.”

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One of the most well-known music festivals in the world is currently taking place.

Coachella is a ten-day festival that takes place in the California desert, with dozens of the biggest musical acts performing on its stages. The festival is also livestreamed, free to watch on YouTube.

Chris Schulz isn’t at the festival physically, but in his opinion, watching the streams is the TV event of the year. He joined Jack Tame for a chat about Coachella.

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The Keeper by Tana French

On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.

In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.

The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon

In a self-running, smart house, a young and sentient Roomba listens as her owner, Harold, reads aloud to his dying wife, Edie. Mesmerized by To Kill a Mockingbird and craving the human connection she witnesses in Harold’s stories, the little vacuum renames herself Scout and embarks on a journey of self-discovery.

But when Edie passes away, Scout and her fellow sentient appliances discover that there are sinister forces in their midst. The omnipresent Grid, which monitors every household in the City, seeks to remove Harold from his home, a place he’s lived in for fifty years.

With the help of Adrian, a neighborhood boy who grows close to Scout and Harold, as well as Kate, Harold and Edie’s formerly estranged daughter, the humans and the appliances must come together to outwit the all-controlling Grid lest they risk losing everything they hold dear.

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"If you’re keen to savour a bite-sized sampler of America’s Mother Road, Arizona’s Route 66 is a bumper section, tightly packed with time-honoured attractions and kitschy Americana curios. A century on from its launch as the nation’s first cross-continental route, the pioneering highway endures as a metaphor for the pursuit of new possibilities. Route 66 was officially decommissioned forty years ago by the multi-laned march of the I-40, but the evocative, retro-wreathed, roadside towns remain."

Read Mike's full article here.

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Especially in this economy, catching up with someone doesn’t have to mean spending over $40 at a cafe or a bar.

Kate Hall has a few suggestions on how you can turn your social time into something fun, practical, and a bit cheaper.

Ideas to try:

• Seed or plant swap – everyone brings seedlings or cuttings, go home with a garden upgrade
• Baking swap – make one thing, leave with a full spread
• Meal prep swap – cook one big dish each, swap portions = dinners sorted
• Clothing swap – especially good for the autumnal seasonal change or kids clothes
• Pantry swap – jams, chutneys, sourdough starter, bulk goods
• Home goods swap – books, decor, kitchen extras

Why it works:

• It saves money
• It reduces waste
• And it builds actual connection (not just sitting across a table spending money)

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Just have a look, will you! Just when you think the Dahlias are on their way out, you’re asked to come to the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch or a local beauty garden, somewhere nearby.

A series of colourful plants that shows you a range that’s totally unexpected – how do you get these at your place?

From left to right: Mick’s Peppermint, PomPom Rusty Orange, Le Baron, and KennemerLand Cactus.

Currently it’s still “growing time”, or seriously, keeping the plants producing before the beginning of winter. Generally speaking, the Tubers won’t be available until mid-winter.

Some varieties are able to be planted slightly earlier, others a bit earlier – just ask the people who produce the next generation.

That means we have still plenty of time to go and visit the various Dalianthic “Hot Spot” and order the beauties you are looking forward to growing – Oderings, Dahlia Tubers, Stillwater Flowers, DahliasNZ.com, Mitre 10, Apollo Farm, etc.

Bluetiful Dahlia

Springtime is the planting time of the Tubers – no more frosts, etc.

Plant about half a meter apart in well-drained soils, containing good compost with great fertilisers in the soil, where the new plants will benefit from the next level of NPK. All the fertilisers will be used to create new parts of the plants. Support them if they grow upward in a hurry, as some often do…

Give them a good watering from time to time. They can be grown as Potted Dahlias, especially if the potting mix is of great quality.

Once you start with Dahlias, you’ll never forget this colourful movement ever again!

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Čuvar Iris Pinot Noir 2024, Marlborough RRP $29.99

A ripe and fruity expression with core varietal flavours of cherry and raspberry, red flowers, and boysenberry. There are some wood spice moments and earth-smoke suggesting clay.

A dry wine with fine easily dissolved tannins along with a refreshing acid line. Balanced, well-made and ready to drink from day of purchase through 2029.

The Food:

A vegan or vegetarian risotto that is also gluten free. The tipping point in flavours is often what style of cheese to use. For vegans I suggest either the Veesey grated mozzarella or Epic brand Cheddar. For regular vegetarians a standard parmesan or similar. Also good to mention is using a whole leak, lots of peas and corn if you have any, and any other veges makes this an ideal match to the Pinot Noir from Čuvar.

The Season:

Rather epic for Pinot Noir from Marlborough. The region enjoyed warm to hot days and some cool night allowing for ripeness and acidity and ripe skin tannins too.

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On the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast for Saturday 11 April 2026, the original Freddy Kreuger actor Robert Englund joins Jack to discuss the popularity of the horror genre and his visit to New Zealand for Armageddon.

Jack shares his thoughts on the Artemis II mission to the moon.

Chef Nici Wickes shares a hearty soup recipe for the stormy weather.

And Chris Schulz chats mega music festival Coachella.

Get the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame Full Show Podcast every Saturday on iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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