Strange Aeons Radio
227 ROCKIN' LIKE WALKEN!
227 ROCKIN' LIKE WALKEN!
Kelly is the latest victim of Vanessa's freezer DVD assault!
Also discussed: Malum, The Comic Strip, Evil Dead Rise
Oh, I'm sorry did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sites to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That's Eric over there, Lou. That's fitness over there. Hello. I'm Kelly. I still have a little bit of the concret going on here, Joe never and please forgive me. Vanessa. Yeah. The other day. Yeah. Getting ready for dinner. Open the freezer. And I'm like, What should I have steak? Chicken. Fade to black. I am a victim of your throwing movies you do not like into the freezer of the person who recommended or does like them? Correct. What I want to know is this. Okay, so you talked about Fade to black? Yes. And you said you hated it. Yes. I said I liked it. Yes. I assumed that what I got was your copy, except that it's still in cellophane. One of those? Yeah. It's still in itself. Yeah. It's like, did you buy this new just pull a prank on me? No, I think okay, so it's going? No, I had gotten that a couple years back in one of those moments of like, oh, look, it's a special edition copy that's still available from vinegar syndrome, which is a little bit where I should go ahead and get this because I like the premise. Sounds awesome. And then when it came time to watch it, I still have a lot of my DVDs. I have all the like special editions and the cool looking ones that I've watched and love and like and can talk about out. And the ones I haven't gotten to yet are in boxes that have to be rummaged through. And if I can find it streaming somewhere free rather than go through boxes. I will do that. That's fair. Yes. Well, first of all, I laughed very, very hard. Okay. It was one of those moments where, you know, your brain is just trying to put together what it seems like and then when it hit I, I left now i i need to know how long has that been there? Because I opened my refrigerator. No lie. At the very minimum two times a day the freezer. I had not noticed it. I am sure I thought you were going to notice that that night and I was like, Huh, I guess he doesn't need a steaks. So. So how long days at least? At least? I don't know what maybe a week. Okay, it was I thought you were gonna say it was three weeks or so. I actually had brought it to hide it in your freezer right after the show. However, you didn't pee at the right times. So I had to wait an additional period of time until it was the right moment and that I put it in there. And then you're still in the bathroom that I was like, Oh, I shouldn't have it stuck to the ice cube so removed it. Hoping that it wouldn't get stuck together. But messy if you put it on the ice tray that is what I go in. Every morning. I fill my free next to it it somehow I missed it. Oh my god. But I love it. Thank you very much. You're welcome. mean at least you didn't have to say hey, come in at the next time we record after that. Hey, Kelly, can I get some? I never would have told you. I never would have said it. You would have been moving out and been like, Huh, wait a minute. I don't remember putting this in here. years later. Okay, Vanessa, another thing so you've got some kind of fun news. But yeah, but it surrounds the fact that you're not going to be here for a couple episodes. Unfortunately. Yes, I am finally going on my honeymoon. Many many many moons after my wedding. I had to kind of time it from when I was finished teaching so I will be out of town for a little bit. week and a half which means I will be missing two episodes with you guys. I assume you are going to a John Carpenter location. We talked about it very seriously. No, we'll be going to Hawaii where my mom has a timeshare Oh fantastic. Severe really fun. I'm really excited island of Hawaii are one of the so KAWAII and then the Big Island Yes. Twice. I love quiet. It's my favorite place. It's like my one of my favorite places on planet earth so I'm really excited to just go in veg. Never Been there except for the airport so that we could go to Maui because my family used to vacation to Maui. Every Christmas I was the only island I've not been to. Well, I mean, they're all the same, right? Just lovely weather and yeah and hanging out on the beach. The biggest difference with quiet is it's really small. It's one of the smallest islands so we're all Yeah, it's yeah, it's like it's like postcard Hawaii. It's like the trees and like you can just find an empty beach and just lay there like it's very non that means touristy, but it's not as touristy Yeah, I think I told you guys that. When I graduated, my folks basically just told me okay, we're moving to Maui. What are you doing? Amazing. I guess I better figure that out. That's a good place to have to go home to though. Yeah, yeah. Well, cool. I'm excited for you. And we will have some lesser guest host damn right. You're not replacing me. I will show up. Regardless, you're gonna be like, oh, yeah, turns out Tony is a perfect fit. I will still be here on Sunday. I'll be like, Get out of my chair. Tony. Well, if it is Tony, I'm going to make him speak in a falsetto voice and pretend to be happy he'd be up for the task. But he does have a lovely voice. That would be a shame. Let's talk movies. You guys. I saw. I saw a couple of really cool things. malam, have you heard of M A L U. M. This was a highly rated new film rental. I watched it. I liked it. But about 20 minutes into it. I was like, this is very familiar to me. And I started looking it up. And it is a remake by the same director of the film, the last shift that came out years ago about the the lone female officer who's in a closed down police department and that is overrun by the Satanic. Pretty strong, no loose super low budget. Well, that's what really bothered me about it. This movie is much better than that. Okay, cool. But that movie was still okay. Yeah. Why would you blow your bigger next film budget on a remake of the last film, which was still okay, I can only assume that they got a budget to remake that film. I can't imagine like why else you would do it? If some producer was like, Hey, I saw this little thing that you did. Try it with a bigger budget retitle it see if we can get like more money into it. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, I think it did have a very, very limited theatrical release this one. I liked this very much. There was something I don't know a little scarier about the original, probably because it was grittier and low, more low budget. But this one was very good. It's it is a really neat, creepy story. And I definitely recommend it. And I like this guy a lot. I'd like to see what he does next. I hope it is not a much bigger budget dreammaker this evil, evil that to know army darkness. Speaking of Evil Dead, I went and saw the current Oh, Evil Dead. So for whatever it's called. I'm just broken. I'm just like it. I didn't I didn't you know, like, I didn't hate it. Like I could tell there was good stuff happening in it. And it was interesting stuff. And but nobody was like a bad actor. It wasn't a bad setting. It wasn't about plot, but there was just something about it that was really grating on me. And I don't I don't know if you guys ever have us. Do you ever watch like a movie and feel? Like, it's not okay, you're watching it? Not very often. Oh, please explain. So for example, when I saw the omen for the first time, I remember afterwards being like, I don't think I'm supposed to watch this movie. And I kind of get the like, curse and like all these horrible things that have happened after you know, like, it's not. I don't know, there's just something like, really unsettling. And I was like, I kind of like go to church, which I feel feel good about myself. I feel good about this film that I just thought I feel like I crossed the line somehow. I don't know. It's weird. It's a weird thing. I think I have a version of that. And it's a kind of sub that both County Jail enjoy a lot the looking for that last film that screened one time and drove the audience insane. Or like cigarette burns is just a brilliant version of that. That kind of movie intrigues me even though I don't believe anything like that actually exists. But maybe it's because I wasn't raised Catholic, but I could see where if there is something and like when I see like I felt like I needed to watch the Russell Crowe Catholic should press movie even at all out again and it's, uh, you know, and also of course Evil Dead is you know, it's a kind of prequel so it's not going to end with it's very pessimistic and a lot of ways. extremely dark film and the fact that there's just fucking Alright, kids be fucking dead now was a lot to kind of watch like there's a real negativity around it and just the way that it deals with its heroes so I don't know for me it was it was not great. Let's let's drill down on this and make you really uncomfortable. Like I should not talk about this. I mean this is this is way more fascinating than the movie. I'm curious than you did say when we originally talked about this that you weren't a big fan of The Evil Dead movies. Is it because of that reason? Also on the other one? Oh, no, because it's slapstick. It's like slapstick, and like, it's supposed to be funny, but I never laugh and it's supposed to be dark and it's like too much and I've just not enjoyed them. Okay, now. You mentioned the omen. Is there another movie that kind of makes you feel this way? Oh, there's definitely been other ones. But I can't think of a religious like exorcist. We're getting better. Yeah, what I'm getting at is like you love The Wicker Man. Yeah, but you didn't the first time? Yeah. Is this something that you can watch again? And maybe go? I don't think it's smart enough. Man is like talking specifically about somebody's relationship with religion versus other forms of religion? Yes. It's just like, a made up book with a bunch of fucked up drawings and a lady who does horrible things to her kids. Is that part of it? The family, the family relationship, and I think being a mother hurting her kids is a is a bad, bad thing. So okay, so one of the 10 commandments, right? Is is Jesus seeking the Lord's name in vain, right? So there are certain people I know who every time they say like or hear it, they get like, they do a little cross or they feel really like ill at ease. I feel like films where it's like, we're just going to talk about demons willy nilly. And fucking like, invite open that concept without even acknowledging any of the religious aspect. I don't know. There's something weird about it. Like it feels like, I don't know, like, super nihilistic for sure. It's like, we're talking about demons, but there's not a equally good version. No, there's no, there's no priests, there's no infiltration of any religious level at all. And in fact, any religion that they are talking about is like, just total bullshit, right? So like, they're just like, hey, we're gonna take this thing from this religion that we do not know or care anything about. And we're going to infuse it into our film and just utilize it. Now the follow up that they're talking about might have some of that. Maybe not the best religious guys, but Right, the follow up supposed to be like the more about the creation of the book or something like that, and how the title was a corgi, the album's of the two or three priests holding the back. And it's supposed to be that sudden, the 1920s I probably better. I want everybody to rewind this. And listen, before Vanessa gets into this. She goes, so the 10 commandments, Jesus. The first one is you don't take the Lord's name. Right there self awareness is. I did I didn't know I did know that. I'm especially bad at this because my best friend who was a different form of religion when we're growing up, but she every time I would do it, she'd be like, Oh, my God. Like, you can't, you cannot do that. You cannot do that. And I just have never been able to not do that. I 100% understand that. I'm the last person who should be saying or doing that. But there's just like, sometimes when you watch something, you're just I don't know, when I went to the Voodoo Museum in Louisiana. This is like a little hole in the wall. Like just, like weird little things people made and people are leaving money for it. And it's just like, This is fucking dark. Like there's something about there's something in the universe, and we're fucking with it. And we need to stop. Because let's not, let's not rattle this cage. Let's just back away and not look at the cage at all. Let's separate ourselves from the cage of an SI I've never loved you more than I love you. Well, no, I'm serious. I mean, I think there's something Well, obviously you're, you're sincere and earnest about this. But I also think there's something to be said about a society that kind of poopoo these things and says it doesn't matter. And then you look at our society, which is obviously falling apart. Did you go maybe it does matter maybe if we were all a little more I don't want to say religious but a lot more thoughtful of negative and like what we're putting out there and what we're getting back yeah there's just I don't know there I feel like it's like those people with ghosts right it's like if you try to cross over and like communicate with something out there maybe it's going to answer back and maybe you shouldn't do that like you're playing the shit that like maybe we shouldn't be playing with I don't know yeah don't worry about the people don't try to figure out the people who don't need religion to be good people worry about the people who need religion to be helped them be a good yeah, maybe those people should be religious people actually. ERIC What extremely embarrassing thing are you and reveal about yourself on today's episode probably nothing other than I foolishly followed a Craig letterbox listing of his favorite films and notice there was one I had not seen. So I watched brain damage be it is one about the guy who was like a little old couple trying to keep this thing from coming out and it escapes and takes over his brain and he has to yes sounds familiar but he did things I guess the part of it on a last drive in Episode probably very last drive in their bathtub seems okay. This sounds like can I can say rated this highly, I imagine. Yes. Yes. I can see why Craig like it's crazy. It's ridiculous. It's a lot of fun. But, yeah, it's uh I'm good. It's, I mean, it was it was weird. It's a weird film. I'm glad glad I finally watched it because it's one of those you see the poster of all the time and hear people talking about and I've never seen it. All right, I'll finally check it out. I'm glad I did. It has some good stuff. It also had a very lot of obviously kind of forgettable stuff, unfortunately. Sorry, Greg. I'm glad I watched it. Thank you for it being the only movie on your list I had not seen Well, speaking movies like that, I was scrolling through prime and trying to find something and I had a very specific feeling I wanted for this movie. You know, hopefully something I hadn't seen already. But mid 80s horror, and I came across this poster of a movie I passed by every weekend at the the video shot because I just knew it could not be any good. It was called Death ship. Oh, remember this poster with envy? Yeah, got the skull looking. Some survivors. raft. It's pretty good poster. It is. Have you seen the movie? Oh, yeah. Okay, so I watched the movie. And I was almost delighted with it. Double check picture I'm thinking the same way. It's got George Kennedy and Richard Crenna in it. They are they are the captains of a cruise ship that goes down and then they're like nine survivors. And they get picked up by this haunted turns out to be a Nazi in transport. A kind of want to kind of want to like make this a sub genre like you know, World War Two horror. Come back or something. Yeah, because this movie is not good. It's definitely not great. I smiling the entire time because George Kennedy then becomes possessed by the evil of the boat in a kind of Jack Torrance way. It's like the shining on a boat. And he's, you know, hearing the ghosts talk to him and all this stuff. And it's certainly fun. There's like this girl who gets trapped in a shower that turns to blood, and then she can't get out of the shower. And she's screaming and finally she just crumbles on the floor. And I'm thinking, well, nothing is really happening. I mean, the blood is coming down on you, but it's also going down the drain. It's not like filling her up, filling up the shower stall or anything. And she just she's losing it. She's bouncing off the walls in the shower stall and finally just crumbles to the ground. And I was like, This is so ridiculous. Nobody who was filming this thought, you know, well, what's actually happening to her here? Ah, no, not nothing. Back absolutely nothing. Yeah, it's got two kids in it that are really annoying. But they do a nice foreshadowing where the boy has to get up and pee every night anyway. And, and then at one point he has to go and pee on the haunted boat alone. And I thought that was really good. Uh, I just ended up loving the film. Actually, I ended up not liking it. But for a very for a specific reason. If I think I just watched it cold, I would have been fine with it like you. But I watched it based on some thing I'd read out of a group of lists that had all these great films. Oh, wow, this is one of those undiscovered gem kind of movies. It's like, No, it's not. But you know what? I felt like that when I watched it. But from that perspective, though, as an actual good horror, scary film, not as a, this is a fun film to watch is ridiculous. But yeah, so if I'd been able to get out, yeah, I could see why it would be very entertaining. Well, there's a part of me that just loves coming across any old film where George Kennedy or Leslie Nielsen is playing a serious role, because after the Naked Gun, I can't think of them in anything serious. So I don't know. It's like that animal movie I did years ago, where he was on it as the lead guy tried to save everyone's like, this is weird. Right? Right. make a joke about beavers. So that was deaths. Yep. Excellent. Well, I'm going to kind of change topics a little bit. I read this really cool comic, called the a terminal. It was on a lot of lists for the last last year, maybe the year before. And it's kind of one of those. There's a strange town that somebody is kind of put into a situation where they have to return to or go and visit and the town is not what it seems. And it's got a lot of like, if anyone read the witch, like, or witches or like, but it's got a very similar vibe to that. Where there's a witch sort of thing. It's just really good. i It was dark, and it was strange. It was very, like, I'm ready to read this in fall. Just very atmospheric, good comic via terminal, the terminal, a continuing series or just a one shot. Okay, that sounds cool. Yeah. Yeah, I highly, highly recommend it. I started reading it on, I guess it was yesterday morning. And then I just read it all the way through. Like a couple of hours slip. I feel like I'm not getting open until I finished though. Now, back to movies here no TV. We got the trifecta. British old school British TV and British comedy series called The Comic Strip. Never heard of this not heard of this. It started about the same time as the young ones. And had some very some definite crossover between a few of them as far as actors and things and had at least one of the ladies that went on to be an absolutely fabulous and so but as opposed to the young ones, which was like a sitcom kind of thing. This was many movies. nihilistic as hell, nobody is ill. Oh, my God. nihilistic movies. The first one was, the first episode is a whole bunch of little supposed to be little, little kids. They're adults, but they're dressed up in school uniforms and stuff like that. And they go on an adventure. And the adventure runs into like people assassinating people and people like Coke and all this stuff. And they all call always call the call the police. And then so dark where they find their uncle has been kidnapped and spoiled because it really doesn't matter. And he is gay. And in Britain at the time, that was illegal. So the kids call his uncle call the cops, not his uncle. And the next one's darker. It's a horrible war two sort of thing. But everybody's fucking idiots. It's got a what do you call it like The Deer Hunter the roulette. One of the Russian Roulette scene in it with Anna has a hand grenade involved. And it's really weird that they did that the same time in the US was making some tiny movie about a band in trouble called spinal tap. They did a movie called bad news. Yes, I remember. Well, that's the same group of people that is England came out at well, the comic strip and young ones started literally like a month apart. Okay, and a whole bunch of the same people involved in both okay. But the the plus is a seven release. So it's got the two bad news movies, three seasons of the comic strip and all this shit and it's like, kind of a I don't know British comedy. I like a lot. Let's give it a shot. I'm so glad I got this is so good. Yeah, I think the thing I learned about TV British TV living there is they will fucking try anything. And like they're they are not afraid to do to go wherever there is, because if you just imagine Washington State could make whatever it wanted. And they were in charge of our own TV. Like, that's what it's like getting lander is a small place. And there's a lot of talent and they all kind of like just cross shows, and they share ideas, and they're just throwing shit out there. This was the first show ever on BBC Four. Wow. So to start off with like, and I can say they use BBC Three of the young ones or whatever. But it's like, there's at least two people the guy who had the stars in his forehead on the young ones is in comics a lot. And the bigger guy who kind of shows up and just as random shit is in on the young ones isn't a lot of the comic strip. And there's a lot of integration writers and directors and everything, especially like the young ones. And you but you didn't think it was dark and grim. And you're gonna like comics. Oh, my God. I incredible love to borrow this if you don't mind. I haven't seen the second bad news movie. So wow, that's exciting. Okay, should we take a little break then. And then when we come back, we're going like walking we're born alone, we die alone. And in between, we spend our lives looking for something connection. That's all we want. Every once in a while, we might find it. In a true friend. Many friendships will come only to fade as quickly as a firework, but some rare and precious few. Turn life up to 11 and keep it there. You got to hold on to friends like these because just like air, you'll miss them when they're gone. No one else gets it, but they do. Because they know what's in your soul. Your heart, your mind that can blindside you come out of nowhere, but you'll know them right away, you'll click as perfectly as a jack plug into an amp. They'll know what you're thinking. Before you've thought it anticipating your every move, they'll understand the demons as well as the angels inside of you. Never judging you for it either. And together, you'll uncage a thrill that makes you search with life. But don't be fooled. Friendships are not easy. You got to put the effort in and take as good care of them as you do your own flesh. There will be good times and epic adrenaline filled challenges where it seems there's no way you can make it but if you trust in one another commit you'll find a way coming through together closer and stronger. Even so you day the world in time everything and everyone changes slowly that boiling energy of young friendship will cool and be replaced by the bonds of a deep mutual history complete with the scars that tell the stories of a lifetime well Liberty it says inevitable is crippled altering their size so don't fight it. Go with it. Write it out together and we are back guys this was my sub genre pick and I picked a Christopher Walken films. And so I did this because I kind of wanted to see a movie I had not seen yet. Put in 10 minutes on so that I can talk about communion. A dream there's a group that meets for people who've seen the same sort of things you had, which group of aliens abducted? Bob we are not victims. We are participants I don't recall them being human people, you sit there, you're in for one big surprise. Holy crap. I've read the book. I haven't seen the movie. I'm very curious. Very different. I haven't read the book. But I have now seen the movie. It had a CES from 1989 had a budget of $5 million, and box office of $2 million. Rotten Tomatoes critics give it 38% And the audience gives it 46%. It was directed by Felipe Mora who has 47 credits including the beast within which I have spoken about before. Halloween to your sister is a werewolf pterodactyl women from Beverly Hills. Amazing. I have not seen this but it is now on the list and fully written by Whitley Strieber who wrote the novel that it is based on. He is the author of Wolfen which is my favorite of his books and one of my favorite books period. He is also the author of The Hunger and a number of alien abduction books after this one. It is starring Christopher Walken. 142 credits since 1953, including mousehunt blast from the past and G Li. Awesome. You have something to say Vanessa? I don't think anything needs to be said. Please continue. Also starting Lindsay Krause, who has 79 credits she was in slapshot Indian in the Cupboard. nine episodes of Buffy as Professor Maggie Walsh. Cool. Francis stern Hagen is in this she has somebody six credits she was an independent stay misery and racing Kane. And Joel Carlson was a little boy in this. He's been in 12 movies, including stepfather three motor ramaa and various episodes of Superboy. Vanessa, you have seen this? I sure have. I happen to know your feeling about alien abduction movies. So I will be curious to ask you about this afterwards. Kay. We are introduced to author Whitley Strieber lives with his wife and child in Manhattan and has been troubled by dreams where he wakes up and believes there's someone in the room watching them. Christopher Walken is an odd person and he plays Whitley Strieber as an odd person. But when he wakes up he is he is so uncomfortable about the way he wakes up that like, right off the bat you are put on edge of just you know, spoiler not a great movie. Christopher Walken fucking awesome. And so he and his family and another couple all go to the family cottage in the woods, which is really this big gigantic like two or three storey cabin out in the middle of nowhere super nice. And there was a moment when Andrew his son, when they first get there, he goes into his room, and he sees something we're not sure what it is. But the look on his face tells us that it's absolutely horrifying. And he starts screaming. So Whitley and his wife rush in and the kid seems kind of confused and out of it. And he points out a spider on the table as the thing he was screaming at and with the guests in and takes it outside and they're kind of making fun of the kid but under his breath, the kid says maybe that's not what really scared me. And it's a fucking creepy moment. It is a it is a weird and uncomfortable moment in a movie full of weird and uncomfortable scenes. So that night the intruder alarm on the cottage goes haywire and bright lights are streaming through the windows and everyone seems to see this and they are all fucking terrified, except for Whitley's wife who is somehow sleeping through it all. And it's just another really creepy scene that crash cuts to the morning after and them having breakfast and none of them. Obviously remember what happened. So just the entire movie is putting you on edge, you know, or the entire setup it is because like so far I'm really digging this movie and I'm wondering why it took me so long to get to it. But this is about the point where the movie goes off the rails. So we get lots of scenes of Whitley dealing with his writer's block. Oh Like by doing modeling shows in front of his computer, which has a camera and a monitor right next to him so he can see the myriad of different hats he's trying on. And it's all really weird and quite honestly kind of stupid. And knowing that this is based on a person's life, and that person wrote the script, and realizing that this part is probably true, made me feel really uncomfortable about what the striper quite honestly. Do I do weird things at the computer when I'm trying to write? So now, I'm not going to tell you guys about them. I'm certainly not going to write them into a script to personal. I didn't like saying it. Anyway, Whitley is having a harder and harder time dealing with his dreams. And he's starting to think that he's remembering being abducted by aliens. He sees various different kinds of aliens in his visions, you get the typical greys with the big eyes. And in fact, there's a scene where he asks his wife if an owl came in the window last night? And she says no, he must have been dreaming. And it's very reminiscent of that fourth kind movie where everybody thinks they see ALS. So I didn't you know, ever really get into all the alien abduction stuff. So I didn't realize that was a commonality through all of them. But it makes complete sense. It's a very creepy thing. But he also sees these little blue alien doctors, and they they don't look very good. And he sees a gigantic insect alien. All sorts of crazy stuff, just all these aliens kind of hanging out like, like a team of various aliens who have all gotten together and said, Let's go fuck with this guy. It doesn't really know culminates in an episode where he almost shoots his wife. He's got he's grabbed the shotgun because he's sure there's aliens in the house. And she takes the shotgun away from him and says, you know, you really need to get your shit together. But then, at one point, she's talking to their son. And he's saying that he has seen, you know, the same things that dad has seen, although they have not discussed this in front of him. So the wife is now a little uncomfortable. He is convinced to go see a therapist that specializes in hypnotic regression. This is a therapy that I have a real problem with. Because this is the kind of stuff that was happening at the beginning of the Satanic Panic. And it's mostly been discounted as any kind of real therapy and often the therapist has been accused of planting these kinds of memories in two people and I just really hate it. But anyway, the therapy confirms that yes, he and his family have been visited by aliens many times in the past and he even has an implant in his neck and all sorts of stuff like that. So he ends up going to a group therapy session of fellow abductees where they are kind of belittling him because he's the newbie they at first they don't like that he's a writer. But then they're just like, you know asking him about well have you been to the ship and all this and he's like well what ship this happened to my house. Oh, he hasn't even better the ship like oh boy Wow, what a bunch of assholes. So he finally goes to the cottage again, where he seems to have you know, a good chat with the aliens and realizes Hey, this is my life and there's nothing I can do about it. So this movie is pretty awful for a variety of reasons. Mostly the very bad special effects of the aliens which look very much like the inflatable alien dolls you can buy at like a big party store or something like that. The alien effects are so fucking stupid looking in this there's there's a couple of scenes that could have been really really creepy where he he thinks something is you know, like standing in the corner of the room and then you see like this alien head peek out from behind this cupboard and it's like that would be great if the alien didn't look so stupid. So but like I said one thing that is not awful in this is Christopher Walken was very, very good. I mean, it's so good. I liked him so much in this and I was just like, God, I wish this was in a better movie. I've got a little trivia. While serving as executive producer author Whitley Strieber, whose experiences serve as the basis of this film expressed concerns about Christopher Watkins abilities in portraying him. When striper finally told walking that he might be portraying him as a little too crazy. Walker replied, If the shoe fits. Damn. The scene in which Strieber laughs when he sees the visitors was Christopher Walken. His natural reaction is seeing the alien designs and thinking they look silly. Director Felipe Mora liked his reaction thinking it made the scene more disturbing and kept it in Edit did make it more disturbing. Oh, wow. In Ryan Sprague's interview with Whitley Strieber on the somewhere in the skies podcast Stryver revealed that he is working on a television series adaptation of this book. So yeah, this is yeah, this is the kind of stuff I just can't get into. I like the idea of alien abduction as a storytelling element. But it makes no sense when you delve deeper that these things have interstellar travel, but they want to stick probes up our butts or mutilate cattle, or make crop circles. I mean, you know, to what end, I guess is when I'm seeing these, these highly advanced races want to do this stuff? Why do they continually reveal themselves to the craziest people in our society instead of you know, the scientists who work at SETI or something like that? So I've made it just under the buzzer. My timing is way off. Oh, well. Oh, in a weird coincidence, the story he just told one of the one of the Northwest short films that gripped countless years called abducted phenomenon anonymous, by Ben Schwartz. It's like a 15 minute short about a guy going to an anonymous kind of thing to run from the law and what happens there and it's quite clever and very fun. When you're describing that, like, oh, man, I've seen that done too. And you're so interesting, Vanessa, I would love to hear your thoughts on this film. This is like such a good gateway Alien film for me. Because Christopher Walken and so like, he's, he's in it, but he's so in it. And he's so over the top that the aliens are just not scary. And especially when you get to there's like a party scene or dancing aliens Forget it. I'm just like I was in no way spooked. I think there probably were spooky moments along the way but walking the walk in he's so fucking good in this that I just out x anything happening. And I think it's just so natural to him to just, you know, get right into a character and give everything 100% That and he's surrounded by good actors to the even the kid in this you know, I'm not a big fan of child actors. The kid in this is he's filmed in a way that is so strange. The things he's saying. First of all, you believe he could be raised by a weirdo like this for walking. But also it's so you know, off putting the dialogue he's given and maybe it's edited that way or something like that, where they're like, oh, this kid is awful. So I'm gonna have to just make him weird. I don't know. There's so much working in this film favor. And then the aliens I'm like, how hard is it to make a fucking gray Why did they have all the others in there? Maybe that was the book but I'm like that he just gets real real he actually saw so your lids of the alien you know like closes his eyes and everything. You can see that it's like an animatronic. I like you'd see a Chucky Cheese or something. Like you guys, fucking talk to Jim Henson and let's get a decent muppet. Yeah, no, I just remember thinking it was a very silly film. And yeah, the book cover of communion is far scarier than anything that happened. I remember liking the book, but I don't remember. You know, I did. I read it as be yes. For what he's talking about. But he's a good writer. So it was a good read. It absolutely killed his career. Because he came out. Yeah. And I feel really bad for him because I think that he's sincere. But I don't believe that. This is what really happened. Do I believe that something happened? Sure. Is that a government thing? Quite possibly. Is it a drug thing? Also quite possible? Very, very possible? Is it uh, beings from outer space that have decided that they would like to the I mean, at one point you see them, they put something up his but they probe? That's right. Yes. Oh, ha, man, they go every direction. I mean, by the end, though, you're like, he's kind of like friends with them. Well, that's just it, he comes to a conclusion of like, okay, these things have been he has a regressed memory, where he realizes this has happened to him as a child and he is this has happened his entire life and that it will now be happening to his son. And it's just this kind of, well, this is my life kind of thing. And I don't know just just quite a kink for you. Moving on. All right. Well I watched the film that I had seen before but i It's been a while and I can super well remember it and that is the 1995 movie The prophecy marry what? Can you keep a secret? Biggest Secret ever since centuries ago, a second coming was foretold He asked if I could keep secret what's coming? He wants something. Something that's here is what anyone expects. Of us humans. Christopher Walken the prophecy. Yes. So Rotten Tomatoes score of 46% from critics and 64% from audience budget of 8 million box office of 16 point 1 million, so it didn't do too bad, directed and written by Gregory Wyden. He's directed two films in this end, one episode of Tales from the Crypt, the TV series, and he's more of a writer. He has 25 credits under his belt including Backdraft Highlander one and two, and more episodes of Tales from the Crypt. Starring quite a few people we got Christopher Walken is Gabriel 142 credits including an incredible performance and severance if anyone has not yet watched that show. Go watch it. It's so good. He's also in disaster. A major motion picture ride starring you he's at Universal Studios or something. I don't know. I did not look it up very far. He's in the Raven as the voice of the Raven. Madonna's good girl or yeah, good girl music video as an uncredited Angel and Sarah Plain and Tall. Winter isn't sure I read that in elementary school. But we also have Aeleus Cortez. I haven't I never say his name right. Teach me Ninja Turtles, Casey Jones. He is also 106 episodes of Chicago PD and plays a lot of various policemen, Virginia Madsen is Katherine 133 credits including Candyman and 10 episodes the recent Swamp Thing Eric stalls Stoltz is in this assignment 109 29 credits some kind of wonderful Sandy thing Pulp Fiction 18 episodes of Caprica. Amanda Plummer, as Rachel, she's 113 credits, she's Christopher Plummer's daughter, and was recently in Picard Season Three as vatic. Adam Goldberg as Jerry we have not seen him in a long time. I don't think he was in Saving Private Ryan and played Edie and friends and the person on this with the least number of credits. Viggo Mortensen as Lucifer 67 credits. Lord of the Rings The road Eastern Promises. Yeah, I was like, Oh my god. Had you seen this before? I had, but I had forgotten a lot. He's such a spectacular voice is so sexy. Oh my God, he's so good. Okay, the story is Thomas following Thomas daggered. Casey Jones is on the verge of becoming a priest. When he's struck with a vision of dead angels some kind of war. It horrifies him so much that he loses his faith right there on the spot, because he feels like God has shown him too much. So he becomes cop. Simon, an angel on Earth seeks Him out after having read his priests thesis back in the day, and he warns him that the things that he saw in his vision are things to actually come. Then Uzziel a lieutenant of Gabriel Walken shows up and Simon and he fight Simon handily kills him, ripping out his heart, gouging his eyes and pushing him out a window. And of course, Thomas dagger is sent to the scene to investigate despite it not being his usual beat, because in the I don't know the murder room. What do they call this? The space for scene? Yes, the crime scene. Thank you. His thesis was found because of course Simon, a medical examiner discovers Lucille had no eyes was a hermaphrodite, and had the blood chemistry of an aborted fetus. I'm on his possession was a Bible older than any on Earth and I had a special chapter pass the Book of Revelations, as we know it discussing a second war in Heaven between the angels. They grew jealous over God given human souls aka grace. And there was a prophecy that a dark soul will be found on Earth and used as a weapon. So Simon has found the dark soul that is predicted to come. He was in a very evil war criminal slash cannibals slash mass murderer who has died in a small desert town so he goes to suck the soul out of this guy's face, and a very definitely sexy, not sexy, see? What are you doing stop. He then hides in the school room where a little girl named Mary finds and then befriends him. He's not doing so good, though he looks very sick, and knowing that he will die soon he passes the soul to her. Gabrielle is on his trail though showing up looking for the soul. And discovering that it is not in the kernel he has an dug up sort of has a little sniff on him and he's like, where is it? He finds and tortures Simon but to no avail and finally discovers that the soul is hidden and Mary's determined to rip it out of her killing her in the process. What he didn't plan on is Thomas dagger turning up and also trying to understand what is happening by challenging Gabrielle also marry school teacher Catherine. Together they must protect Mary against charming psychotic Gabrielle and other angels that come in the name of the war. Christopher Walken fucking loves this role. I love this role. I'm Gabriel, I can't do it. Gabriel I'm from heaven. Things that we see him doing this movie include getting his face really close to a table and licking the blood off of table. Finger gunning a dead corpse which then explodes in fire. Tons of great lines including sniffing the air and going ah can always smell a graveyard. And you got to come work with me and nobody. Nobody tells you when to go to bed. You get all the ice cream you could want and he tried to do the Barbary it was better at the time. And you get to kill all day and all night. He kisses people constantly. He likes to do a CAT scan. This is common for the angels in this movie. There are a lot of like sitting on like very thin perches just like the edges of things like a cat. He teaches kids how to play an angelic trumpet which explodes glass behind them very fun. hangs out a diner asking a waitress questions well covered in blood from two gaping gunshot wounds and just plays it super straight and finds the red vine on the side of the road licks it and yeah, just eats it right? But it looks really stale. And I love still Red Vines. So I felt like a soul connection in that moment. Viggo Mortensen is incredible as Lucifer he is having the time of his flipping life, especially near the end when he's like, suddenly deciding he wants to get everyone's souls who are there and he's like, Hey, you want to come back with me? I've seen it gets like really whispery, and like desperate and like creepy. It's very fun. Overall, I think the script is extremely fun. It has great lines throughout. I really enjoyed it. However, I can kind of see why it might not have gotten the biggest draw or reviews because it's kind of tough to figure out what's happening specifically with the soul the soul of a war criminal being stored in Simon then Mary and then why everyone's fighting for it. It's a little rough to understand and I only fully grasped it this time around because I was writing so much down. Viggo Mortensen little bit of trivia claims that prior to shooting this there scene together Christopher Walken ate several whole garlic cloves. In a bit of truly inspired foreshadowing, of course, Christopher Walken playing this. This role was eerily similar to his role in the Madonna music video for bad girl. Colonel Arnold Hawthorne is played by Patrick McAllister due to the nature of his role in the lawn gap after it's alive from 1974. Macalester is not credited, but he appears as Special Thanks for his collaboration in the movie credited as Patrick curly McAllister. Watchmojo online list aggregator claims Viggo Mortensen's portrayal of Lucifer and the prophecy is the best in cinema history. The film was followed by the sequel The prophecy two starring walk in and Jennifer Beale, and then that went straight to video even though it was supposed to go to theaters. After that the ascent, which also had walk in in it, then the uprising which did not and forsake, forsake forsaken it has since gone on to become a cold film. Listening to hurt scription I've got I know why Kelly loves this movie. I fucking love this movie so hard it's so here it's so over the top and like Christopher Walken is just so fun to watch because he every scene he just owns it. Yeah. The scene in the school attic with Simon in the little girl is so uncomfortable because it feels very like sexual. Feels like shining on his lap and sharing a soda. And this is not the only time like she she's with him twice. And then later when Gabriel shows up at the school, he's got a little girl on his lap too. Yeah. And he's like holding her. Everything along these ain't because you know, you're like, Oh, well they're angels is okay, but you're also like this a grown man with a like little girl on their lap. It's really weird. It's super uncomfortable and Gregory widens angels are not good. They, they barely tolerate humans. I think he refers to us as talking monkeys or something like that. It's so good because I didn't realize it took me a while to figure that that Viggo Mortensen is the devil because all the angels hate humans so fucking mics, that when he shows up and he's like, I'm on the opposite side. You're like, okay, so he's on the heaven side. I wonder which actually is I was like, is he Michael was stupid. And then he's like, we already have one hell, and I was like, go. But yeah, as such, they do such a good job. And then one little bit of trivia. Right off camera during the scene where Amanda Plummer is digging up the grave is our buddy Philip fricassee. Ruler, he worked on this film. In fact, it might be him shoveling that scene when you see the dirt flying up. Oh, yeah. So I always thought that was really cool. I just love this movie. You know, Gregory Wyden? Highlander was his film school thesis. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh my gosh, his first professional script and his first sale. I'm always a little surprised to hear that he also wrote Highlander to except that this movie feels so much like the person who wrote Outlander obviously does yeah the the sequel rights away and you know, in his first sale and probably made a big chunk of money, and then he went on to do like Backdraft and then that's pretty much all we heard of CRISPR. Yeah, Gregory Krieger. Hey, I'm so happy to do this. Yeah, this makes me want I feel like I've got to do prophecy again tonight. Not a bad choice. It's so it was such a fun kind of roller coaster this crowd glad it's not going to end up in his freezer. Glad you liked this. Oh, no, I like this one. I don't own it, but I just like it. Maybe I could actually buy it and put it on a shelf. DVD that's a box set of like most of the Hellraiser movies in the movies. What are those? By 12 Right on four discs? Yes. And Chosen Demon. Yeah. Put in 10 minutes on the buzzer. All right. Well, we go from aliens to demons to more oh god with 1980s The Dogs of War Academy Award winner Christopher Walken. Such dogs of war. The job pays$10,000.15 on the reconnaissance. The reconnaissance reconnaissance is no good if you don't come back I always come back. Welcome to zangaro Not America Mr. Brown could a well trained well equipped mercenary force succeed? Anybody want to know how we're gonna do this? Give me names. Thanks. I'll see you too at the money gets paid and run hot deals. These guys put up a million dollars so let's make sure this change because I figured we got to keep$1,500 1000 rounds. If you're trying to stick us I can do business down the street. It's the ultimate of killing technology. You put the right mix in this thing and it's killing potential is fantastic. Fragmentation, grenades, tactical anti tank anti personnel. The weapons are you gonna fight cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war The Academy Award winner Christopher Walken Tom Barrett the best seller by Frederick Forsyth? I remember this one because I think I watched it with my dad or mom or something on TV ad left an awesome impression on me, which kind of lived up to watching it again but we'll get into that later. The Rotten Tomatoes rating was 67 by critics 52 by the audience budgeted at 8 million made 5.4 did not do real well. This is available around on like to be and out for rent so it's pretty easy to find. Directed by John Ervin, who also did raw deal sorts into your movie. Nobody gives him a raw deal. And Hamburger Hill ghost story. The TV version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which is a seven episode miniseries and BBC writers had three Gary DeVore, who wrote raw deal, running scared and tracked that one, George Melco who wrote a killer wave, tidal wave, no escape, and the Titanic video game. seafaring I guess. Fred Frederick Forsyth, not the scriptwriter. But he wrote the original book. He also wrote a Day of the Jackal. Frederick Forsyth presents which I had not heard of, I'm going well, this might be interesting. sixth episode little series, and cold named Wolverine, which has nothing to do with the X Men from 1996 and an uncredited rewrite by Michael somoni. Yo, who wrote deer hunter Year of the Dragon and Magnum Force. I can imagine what kind of content yet starring Christopher Walken in one of his first major roles where he is the he is the a character in this one. You know, he's been in a few things that Jesus rolls, Joe Dirt to Peter Pan live. And of course, the narrator for mousehunt. Our personal favorites, apparently here, also starring Tom Berenger, who is in the most dangerous game 2022 which I need to look up because I hadn't even heard of that. I watched it and you do not need Okay, thank you. The sniper movies, which were our lot of enrollees, how many of those there were Ally McBeal Major League? Platoon and the Sentinel 111 productions for that guy? Colin Blakely man for all seasons, the Hellion the spy with the cold nose, decline and fall of a birdwatcher. Ed O'Neill with full head of hair from married with children, 260 episodes of that and 250 episodes of Modern Family. So you know he's been on some sitcoms, but he's also in Little Giants and cruising was his first movie. I didn't know that. He's not in it much. And JoBeth Williams who's in the poltergeist, Kramer vs. Kramer, Dexter and 124 other things. So this I did watch the disk I have of this is from a company called Scorpion releasing, who sadly the Creator have died the day I ordered it. Luckily it was before I ordered it so I don't feel partially responsible. It has two versions, the US release and the international version, which is 14 minutes longer. So I watch the international version begins with the Shakespearean quote of course, unleashed the dogs of war. And the mercenaries are driving out of what looks like a pretty hot war zone to open the movie. And they come across a waiting plane which is not there for them but it becomes there for them. They take it over and bring their guys on it. The beginning is pretty over the top big giant explosions the plane taking off and all this stuff with no context you really have no idea what's going on. And then that's it it just cuts like, Okay, here's all the guys, here's what they do, and we're done. This then immediately goes to one of the scenes that was cut from the US, which is a baptism of a baby, and includes more of Jo Beth, who's kind of a mystery in the US country sort of just gets mentioned and no idea who the hell she is. But we got to give walk in that nice moment of being good to somebody. So some little kid asking for money. And the next thing you see the kid trailing behind him, carrying his groceries is like, Yeah, but earn your money. So better way to do it than just begging or something like that. That's as close as I get to a walk in impression usually. But so this guy he knows from the BBC, or from the BBC, from British Secret Service, shows up at his front door, asking him to do a resource reconnaissance mission in, in Africa, about a country that they're trying to figure out if the guy is going to be attacked. Well, his story is, are they gonna be attacking countries around him? Or is he just a dictator for his own thing? So he goes as a bird photographer, okay. Wonder if the guy who was in the birdwatcher movie said, hey, you know what you could go as. But he goes to the airport and gets stopped. And the way he stopped and interrogated and then a lot of stuff stolen. Apparently, a lot of people have come up over the years gone. That's a great scene, something almost exactly like that happened to me when I travel. That country. The guy steals money, alcohol, cigarettes, and a penthouse. Oh my God. Now there's a British guy doing a documentary in this is getting roughed up and stuff who's basically tells the guy this, this dictator has no interest in invading other countries. He just is fine killing his own people for a while. And Jamie, who's walkins character name, presents that back to the BBC guy who then goes, alright, now I want to hire you to stage a coup. So he hires him for a well actually, he said, No, not doing that. I'm out until he keeps adding money into it and eventually goes, Okay, fine. And here's where the movie slows down significantly. The stuff of walking during the birthday was actually pretty good, because he's dealing with the soldiers and the problems at the hotel and the little scenes throughout that once they've got the mission to invade. It becomes a buying movie, where they go in and we need these guns and we need this these resources. The premise of scenes are ridiculously repetitive. It's very similar. I go in and make an offer or they make an offer, and then they make a lower counteroffer. And they agree to the lower counteroffer. And then you go to another scene, and the same thing happens. And it's like 40 minutes of the movie. Oh, my God. So the second act of this film is just boring. And Christopher Walken has not given enough to overcome that, and Tom Berenger has not given enough to overcome that. So it's just sort of disappointing. Still looks good. Everything's done. Well, everything looks nice. It's just you could have done that scene two or three times instead of four or five times and it would have been just fine. But and then have watching the, you know, watching the time movie, there's not a lot of left, time left, the end battle is incredibly fast. It's man, 20 minutes or less. And so it goes and it's vicious. And you know, they do what they do. And there's a nice little twist at the ending, sort of, but overall, it's still a pretty damn good film. Largely because Christopher Walken is he he doesn't talk or walk. Like you, you think of Christopher walking out. He's got a very set style and a very set movement. And you see it occasionally with the way gestures and stuff is similar in all of his movies now. But at that time, he was not he didn't have that. He was acting and he was being what the character needed to be instead of being Christopher Walken being cool in a movie, which he's so damn good at now. But, so it was neat to see that the tagline cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war. All right, well, Ken on the nose. Don Siegel was originally slated to direct this but then he's like me, I don't like the script very much. Sorry, past John Earth. This was Urban's first feature, but he had done like 20 Plus TV shows and short films. We have a lot of work in its pocket. The Dogs of War comes from William Shakespeare, and Julius Caesar. And reads exactly like the tagline. Christopher Walken was not the original choice. The United Artists wanted a known artist a known person like Burt Reynolds might have worked, but I don't think would have worked Stallone who would not have worked in this role, and Sean Connery, who also didn't think would have worked in this role. But yeah, none of those are great choices. So Michael Samina, who worked with walking in the deer hunter said, this is the guy you want. And they said, and he said, Yeah, that's the guy I want and United Artists said, fine. We're cutting your production budget by $4 million. He, so he got the man he wanted, but he paid for it without what? A third of his budget. A couple other little things. Tom Berenger is not happy with this movie because he said he was almost completely cut out of the film. And the woman who played his wife was completely got out of the film. So he was all pissy about that. Frederick Forsyth while doing the research for the movie, pretended he was actually going to stage a coup, went to Ecuador, equatorial Guiana, and met with gunrunners. And people like that. He later said, It was the scariest, most frightening group of people I have ever been around in my life. One more thing, because he got to mention it with dogs of war is the XM 18 grenade launcher. There's a very unique gun in this movie. If you see the posters, it's on the posters. I thought it was used a little yet less. It's used like crazy. In the final scene, like they have two or three of them. It's loosely based on a real life weapon, but it didn't work any nowhere near as well. That's what the movie makes it look like designed in like, redesigned or something like 35 bucks. It really didn't do what it wanted the world. The army was not that interested in it. Until this movie came out. The army came to the original designer named Manville and said, Tell us about your weapon. And then they found out that it's not really that it's abused much more accurately in Terminator two, where it's basically shoots tear gas. I never seen this movie. Oh, yeah, no, so it's pretty. It's worth seeing it but man that that second second act is a slog. It's I do like watching actors who we now know so well when they're really early in their career and haven't created their movie persona if they're strong enough to be able to do that, which he definitely is. I think he's got like some professional dancing in his back row. Yeah, yeah, that's why he did that one. Fatboy Slim song All right, right. If you go to the IMDB page it actually weirdly it has a supercut of all of his dancing back to back in every film like some somebody was born to IMDb and was like I know what I'm gonna do. Yeah, I remember when that video first came out my first thought was how did they animate walk and dance like he does but that's actually him obviously. Probably didn't fly around the room on his own that was probably existed, right? Okay, well cool. We can't tell you what the sub genre for next episode is because our guest whoever that will be. We'll be picking that. So this is the part where we thank everybody for liking and sharing posts for participating in the value for value model for reaching out and telling us whether they like stuff for leaving messages on the strange aeons radio hotline, which is 253-237-4266 Leave us a message. make comments we love comments comments are fun. We've got some great information some of our comments Yeah, listeners and stuff talking about stuff that we might have missed or didn't know I love it. It's great. And Vanessa I'm gonna really miss you and then miss you guys too. Very weird to record an episode two episodes without you know, it's like lots of pictures I'm sure we'll all be in contact we'll we'll tell you how much we're hating it with whoever our guests excellent I would I would expect nothing less. You know, you could call and leave us a message while you're on vacation. Hi yeah, maybe maybe I'll do just how the reception is for my Verizon which I can I get reception in my own home Oh perfect. Maybe over there I'll get it loose enough that trip place a recommended is still there. Yeah, yeah, I will. I definitely won't. Well, I will. Maybe I'll bring you guys back some let's see. I'm not a not a haunted Tiki. will not bring back Hawaiian Stan. I saw that episode of The Brady Bunch. Four or a haunted Tiki. Okay, well then that means we'll be back in seven short days with somebody else and some The topic it should be fun so so cool has rotation other considerations for strange aeons radio produced by Pan an airline? 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