Strange Aeons Radio

100 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

December 31, 2020 Strange Aeons Radio Season 2 Episode 100
Strange Aeons Radio
100 HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Show Notes Transcript

100 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The gang talks WW84, the Creepshow Holiday Special, and the Mandalorian finale, but completely forget to bring up the fact that this is their gala hundredth episode! Console yourselves with their five films that personally define horror, instead. 

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Unknown:

Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?

Eric:

Somewhere between

Kelly:

science and superstition?

Unknown:

such sites

Kelly:

Strange Aeons. Welcome to Strange Aeons radio. That's Eric Morgan over there. That's Vanessa Williams over there.

Unknown:

Hello.

Kelly:

I'm Kelly young. Hey guys. How was your Christmas?

Vanessa:

delightful? Yeah.

Eric:

Weird.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I was about to have a super, super weird Christmas that would have mirrored my Thanksgiving where it would have been like my mom, my sister me and a bagged Turkey. Which by the way are not good. Actually. Yeah. I actually bought a turkey you cooking a bag? It was disgusting. So I'm told because I didn't eat it. But I was told it was it was not good. And then I got invited to go to Middle East section. East South sections of Middle East.

Unknown:

I know.

Vanessa:

But yeah, so it got to be like a slightly like three different human beings. I'm not used to staring at it. So that was very exciting. I was like, I don't care what happens the scenery outside looks slightly different.

Kelly:

Brilliant. And then you just got back and brought all of their germs. My house

Vanessa:

everyone was COVID tested before? Yeah, the COVID free Christmas.

Eric:

Impressive.

Vanessa:

So this in the last COVID testing that was a really deep one. I didn't know that it went that far. Like my nose all the way and then they counted to eight. And I was like, I'm a big so that was refreshing. Me Like do

Kelly:

you guys smell oranges?

Vanessa:

Like my eyeballs have been scratched? So how about you guys? How

Kelly:

would you well I was able to do a socially distant distance Christmas with my family you know in a much smaller capacity than normal. But it was nice because I hadn't seen anybody in forever and it was just really nice to see and my mom got the her first vaccine shot like two days before she's you know, Daredevil now I'll see you guys later I got to go to the mall. I got to do quite work.

Vanessa:

She's got to get number two. She can see Oh, I

Kelly:

did say that she she schooled me on that Kelly number two is a booster you're getting 70% most of this stuff good. Yeah. Like okay

Eric:

30% chance is still again

Vanessa:

just fine for somebody who is you know lived such a good life you know, nothing can knock you over when you're that age.

Kelly:

My mom's like, Look, I'm probably going to drop dead in the next year or two anyway and I'm not gonna you know, let it happen without seeing my family

Eric:

Sure. Yeah, no, we just we just separate houses seen in a gang cars and brought it to her brother's house and then brought presents to her parents and talk to each of them for a little bit but it did his awkward horribly awkward Zune call the night before where we opened like stocking style presents on Christmas Eve. Like how are we doing this? What order you want to go we're gonna do it all up and it was

Vanessa:

weird. Yeah, there was a little bit of that in mind as well where you're like the signals coming in and out and you're holding the thing going? Thank you. Yeah, looking like did you keep Do you like do

Kelly:

this is definitely one for the books.

Vanessa:

Oh, yeah. joke when everybody's family portrait this year is like everybody on a zoom call. We've got like four of four or five of those like kicking around now. It's just so weird. It's beginning to look like co

Eric:

everywhere you go.

Kelly:

Hey, guys, I woke up so excited on Christmas morning. Not for presence. No, no. For Wonder Woman. 1984 on Disney plus.

Vanessa:

I'm waiting Disney plus, or HBO.

Eric:

Yeah, do that all the time, too. I keep going to HBO max are gone. Where's the Mandalorian?

Vanessa:

Oh, no, I have not seen it. I will say that. I'm gonna watch it tonight. But I can only assume you loved it and it was the best you've ever seen.

Kelly:

Sure What are your mind reader or something? I

Vanessa:

know right? I just saw the trailer. I know what's coming. Amazing 80s action with like Chris

Kelly:

Pine guess what if you saw the trailer, do you think you know what's coming and you think I like what I saw in this trailer? Yeah, you're going to be very very disappointed.

Vanessa:

Well, you know what? pager is in it? And I can't wait to see him walk around a little bit. He knows

Kelly:

how to choose scenery. I'll give him that. I think it was horribly miscast. I'll say this Galaga Dodd is so beautiful. And it's such a good thing. I was staring at the screen after about 25 minutes. I was like, Oh, no, this is really really bad. And I I was really excited for this movie.

Eric:

Yeah. So you really liked the first one right?

Kelly:

Until the ending? Yeah, yeah.

Vanessa:

Yeah. I it's funny because the ending like the last 40 or so minutes becomes a Marvel movie in my head it like squishes until like a slightly different universe. Through Wonder Woman. I still love that first one. Like it was just such a cool movie in a lot of ways. But Galco dot you know what? She is a stunning woman. Yeah. So I'm excited to watch her in a variety of costumes. For 80 minutes.

Kelly:

That is, that is one of the problems. I think. The constants. Yeah, you hear in a variety of customs.

Vanessa:

Were they like, not

Kelly:

the Wonder Woman costume you wanted to see? Because there's an hour long stretch in the film, where she is not in costume.

Vanessa:

Well, I figured I mean, cuz she's like a museum curator.

Kelly:

Right? But this is a wonder woman movie. Well, yeah, but

Vanessa:

she wasn't hardly in her outfit either.

Kelly:

I I'll tell you. This appointment is they made a big huge deal about you know, Patty Jenkins said that that third act of the first film was tacked on that was studio interference, all this stuff. They gave her carte blanche on this. She's a writer on it. And the director and she shit the bed. So yeah, it's it's bad. Now it's sitting fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. So your mileage may vary.

Eric:

I've seen mixed but I've seen a lot of drama not real positive reaction.

Vanessa:

My entire Facebook feed is like furious fanboy. Like, I don't know a girl who's seen it yet. But all the dudes are like,

Kelly:

hissed. So I will say this. If you're a if you're a woman, and you're gonna root for this because it's a female protagonist, a female filmmaker and all of that stuff. That's fine, but I think you should be angry at me. You deserve better than

Vanessa:

this. Right? So I felt about some some films that have come out by different female Ghostbusters, because I wasn't female director but yeah, it is sometimes like hey, just because you're feeding us the food you think we like? It doesn't mean you cook there. Right? Yeah, you know, like, and everyone's entitled to make a mistake. Absolutely. It's okay for some people to have their you know, one of their phones suck balls. That's fine. I don't think she's I'm not ready to dismiss her is that she's already

Eric:

got she doing the Star Wars one of the Star Wars shows. Yeah,

Vanessa:

she's got the man Star Wars will flip on a dime. There's a lot of people who lost Star Wars.

Kelly:

But Wonder Woman three is already been greenlit. So

Vanessa:

yeah. How do they figure out the like, how did they figure out the money for this? Well,

Kelly:

this was a rental. Yeah, unless you had HPL. Matt? Yeah, HBO Max, and they shut down their free week. stuff before. Yeah, so you had to sign up for it.

Vanessa:

Pickles. And Eric, you haven't seen it? Correct.

Eric:

No, actually haven't seen the first one. Not by dismissal. I just haven't. I am. Marvel. I'm a Marvel guy first. And I like the DC movies but I haven't seen I haven't seen arco man. I haven't seen Wonder Woman. Some other one I haven't seen I can't think of what it is. I'm curious about the Snider cut just because oh, I I can't imagine that movie can be saved. But

Kelly:

certainly not by adding time to that.

Eric:

Yeah, no kidding. No, I'm curious to

Vanessa:

color correct. And let's just get rid of all the scenes with a mustache removal and maybe somewhere. Yeah, you know, actually awkward me. If you have zero expectations or negative expectations. It's a fun, stupid film,

Eric:

I had enough fun and it just not zero expectations and I came across so cuz I've been doing library rent, right very boring of comic books. I've been reading a lot more comic books that might normally which is great. And I came across a more recent document. I don't know if it's a time of the film or before it. And it was amazing. It was a great stock man series. And I've never thought anything like well, man, but this one was really good even had a bunch of making fun of him. For the start of the comic was basically making people fun of being Aquaman. And all the stuff everybody always says about talking to the fish, and all those jokes are brought up and dealt with. It's really quite clever and fun. I 17

Kelly:

I thought it was pretty awful, but just like Galaga dot. What's his name? Oh, Jason. Jason, Mo. That guy's easy to look at.

Vanessa:

You know what I didn't I underestimated the momoa creepy saver film. I was shocked. I was like, I'm not even like Jason momoa. Like, girl, like, I know that there's like a club of women adore him. And I was still like, you know what? Yeah, thank you for that. Thank you for your service. It

Eric:

was hard to believe that with Game of Thrones, they actually downplayed how beautiful he is as a guy. I mean, he didn't look bad by any means. Because I don't know if you can possibly do that to them. But then you put him in Aquaman and you go for the full big budget beautification.

Vanessa:

Oh my god. It was a weird pairing with like having Nicole Kidman and it was a little odd. But whatever her a weird to me, that's fine. Whatever Nicole's fine

Kelly:

bits or bits and look weird to me.

Eric:

Hey, did you see

Vanessa:

Steve Nicole Kidman? I saw prom. Oh, God, I

Eric:

watched that too. Did you really? Yeah. Dana and I watched it. Two nights ago. I think we're like, hey, let's watch something stupid. And mind numbingly dumb.

Vanessa:

Yeah, yeah. It was fun.

Eric:

I I was about 20 minutes in, I'm gone. Boy. But what are we doing here? And then what's his important? hit some song? I think about coming out or something along those lines. And he was so good. And from then on, the movie just became good. But man that first 20 minutes or so? Like when they're saying in the bar? Yeah, there. Yeah, kind of pompous. He she says not fun at all. But it's, it's long. But anyways, yeah. What

Vanessa:

do you think? No, same. I mean, um, I actually, like I heard the first part was really good. So I guess I just was like, Okay, I'm in it. I already kind of know a little bit of what happens. And then, yeah, like, I liked a lot of it. I thought there was a very Glee like feeling to it, because it's by the guy who did Glee and American Horror Story and all that jazz. Like, he's that dude, that guy. And so I was like, I could see the edges of like, really, really good ideas, things that are working really well and then some like, probably couldn't get that but that's okay. And you know, and like the the terms the characters take I felt were like pretty, pretty strong for the most part. So some some of the twists. I felt like a million miles away, but that's okay. Yeah.

Eric:

It's a fun musical. You might enjoy that and never heard about this prom.

Vanessa:

Yeah, Netflix. I

Kelly:

think so. Yeah. A Ryan Murphy production?

Vanessa:

I believe so. Yeah. You know, you know,

Kelly:

maybe I'll give it a try.

Vanessa:

Check out anything.

Eric:

Well, we had a not so fun couple days. Oh, no. had to take our cat in for an ultrasound. And he seems to be doing okay. We're having to give him medication two times a day. And let me tell you, it's cats are so much fun to give medication do yeah, we went on YouTube to check out. Let's watch how to do it. And these people are here. It's just like that I finally found this one word ladies. Like I'm going to show you what it's really like to give medication to a cat. She's like, wrap them in a blanket. runs away. Like Yes, that sounds like but he seems to be doing quite better days even so hoping for that. So on the non depressing sound. I did watch which one of these I want to talk about first porno. The Fangoria from I see that. How

Kelly:

are you? Oh Shatta Wale. Oh, you'd

Eric:

mentioned it and it just kept pushing back. So I was like, man, as I'm doing my 2020 rundown and I tell you, I enjoyed it. Yeah, it's not great, but it's not anything more or less than it should be. You know, I mean,

Kelly:

I I thought it was a really fun movie saddled with a very poor title. Yeah, the title is it doesn't work for the film either. No, it's like

Eric:

and it leaves a few weird things hanging like the boss thing seems to just be part of the been clipped and done. And but I thought although the lead people were fun, the setting was fun.

Kelly:

felt very much like a like 80s driving movie.

Eric:

Yeah, yeah. A lot better than a lot of the people that say they're going out to make I'm making an 80s movies like you didn't, right. But

Kelly:

Patty Jenkins

Eric:

are early 90s movie League of Their Own and Encino Man where the movies are showing in the theater. At first I thought it was a retro theater. Like what is this like right here at Rancho like, Oh, nice time period because there's no cell phones. There's nothing but yeah, I think he didn't try. It's got some crass, wonderfully crass humor and horribly weird violence. But it nothing outside. Nothing that felt wrong for the film.

Kelly:

Now if I remember this is a Fangoria film. During all the horrible shit that was going on with Fangoria last year. Oh, I totally forgot about that. previous five years,

Eric:

it might be the best film I've seen labeled A Fangoria film. And I can't think of too many off time I had, but the ones I can think of. Were not. Well, last year they had that

Kelly:

but they also had VFW which I thought

Eric:

that was a Fangoria. Okay. Yes, sir. Yeah, both of which had been sitting on my list of things to watch, but I would put VFW in front of porno, but we are both worth watching. VFW is very, I think you'd like it a lot. Because it's very Carpenter esque in the assault on precinct 13 way.

Vanessa:

Very, very cool. I know. Because it's hard. When you read up premise. I feel like sometimes that's just useless to describe what you're about to actually be in for. So I read the premises like, and then I watched the trailer and I was like, I mean, I guess we'll get to it eventually. Yeah, you don't want to necessarily sometimes you don't want to watch a trailer because they're gonna go like,

Eric:

Okay, well,

Vanessa:

there's the movie, you know. Exactly. And I hate having things spoiled. For me. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. So

Kelly:

I'm guessing you watch that on shutter. Yes. Also on shutter and also something you've watched? Was the creep show holiday special? Yes. Which was delightful. Once the finest thing outside of the original film that has had creep show tacked on to it.

Vanessa:

Yes. Yeah. That's awesome. Live action or it is live.

Eric:

Very fun. And I think I don't remember if it was a text or where you posted I've done some media thing. I think you nailed one of the the watching the whole movie. Are those short. It had that one problem. It's still not a creep show. storyline, right. It doesn't have the morality lesson. But

Kelly:

the rest of the creep show concepts were present the fun weird humor that a very fun sense of humor, and it is definitely Christmas themed. And it's based on a story by Jay Conrad. If you've ever read any of his stuff, his stuff is bonkers. So I thought it was very funny and fitting. And I liked it quite a bit. You and Craig were texting back about it. And I was like the holiday special, that piece of shit. Like, no, no, no, this just came out. So I watched it. And I was so happy. I do.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's well worth saying how is it like a half hour long thing?

Kelly:

feels like it's a little longer than that.

Eric:

And it's just once it's 40 some odd minutes. I remember doing Craig mentioned it and I looked it up. Oh, it's only 40 minutes. I'll watch it right now. So I just watched it right away. And it's a perfect length. It's kind of like we talked about the Mandalorian does the right length. This is Ray the right length with us too.

Kelly:

Right? Yeah.

Vanessa:

Well, I also checked out like a fresh to Christmas film on Christmas. The movie soul, which did come out on Disney actually Disney.

Eric:

Oh yeah. The Pixar.

Vanessa:

Yep, the new Pixar piece that just dropped and be done by the exact same dude who did inside out. Very similar vibes. Kind of a different side of psychology. I'd say. I'm equally fascinating. I didn't like it as much as inside out. It didn't quite resonate with me quite as strong. But the story super solid. I mean, it's a Pixar movie.

Eric:

Did it make you cry?

Vanessa:

No. But I mean, yeah, I mean, the thing is, when I'm not in a movie theater, the chances I'm going to cry are like significantly original, really. So Not for me. That's a way in which I can get fully immersed and if I see like a lamp or like something flickering in a window or whatever, it kind of come out in and out a little bit more. So let's just say a bad

Kelly:

drop of a hat.

Eric:

Yeah, it's if it's a Pixar movie, and I don't I at some point, there's a I don't think that's possible. I think ours 100% cry. Like for real like it's Did either of you got a chance to check it out? No, I just saw the other day that it was existant. Oh,

Vanessa:

yes. Yeah, it super fun. really nicely done. And definitely a different type of story. I love that Pixar is now delving more and more into minority voices. Yeah. And they'd already done the day the dead movie, which I

Eric:

haven't seen yet either. Oh, my gosh,

Vanessa:

cocoa is probably one of the best films I've just seen. Period. It's so strong. And it weirdly like makes you care about certain things that you don't otherwise care about. And I feel like that takes a lot for film to be like, Oh my god, I care about my family history. I don't know why, but I do.

Eric:

That's cool.

Vanessa:

So yeah, yeah, definitely recommend checking it

Kelly:

out. Yeah, I missed it. Because after Wonder Woman I got online and furiously. A bunch of hate speech. threatening letters to women everywhere. Absolutely.

Vanessa:

I mean, it's what I was done to women, comma, full moon, comma, period, comma, Wonder Woman, and just find the first link and just start talking about how much you hate people.

Kelly:

That's how I went. I typed in, you know, women, WI mm II, Rn and women. Oh, yeah. That's for guys. So that's how they like to be talking.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Eric:

I'm just gonna take a quick note on when I watch before I continue because I don't want to talk about it very long. But the the holiday season film that had the guy from shits Creek and

Vanessa:

we're right, yeah, I think I talked about it. Nailed it.

Eric:

Oh, yeah. You're dead on correct about that. There's no way in hell she should have ended up with the women show up with. With Dina Yeah, we both like shits Creek, and it's a romantic comedy watch with the wife. She's like, at the end. She's like, What the hell was she doing with that horrible person?

Vanessa:

Are we pauses just waiting for you? So much better.

Eric:

Yeah, that was so he was great. The guy from chef Creek was great. But rest was fairly mediocre. And a whole bunch of like, you know, a lot of that you see a movie like that, where you know, they're setting it up for redemption. later on. They went too far. With the being dickheads Yeah, by the time they hit the fair, I mean, the redemption is like the last four minutes of the movie or something. By that time, like I'm done with all these characters.

Vanessa:

Don't give you enough of a reason for why she's behaving as badly as she does. And Mackenzie Davis has character and it's just like, I don't care. She doesn't have a good enough reason. This is a stupid reason. It's a good reason for a certain amount. And then after that, it's like, no, you're just a bad toxic human being. And Kristen We are sorry. Kristen Stewart does better. Jeez. Too many names.

Eric:

It's a dead solid reason. But not the way it's carried out. There's about five times in that movie. She should have come out.

Vanessa:

Yeah. Really? Okay. More and more like this is a bad human being Yeah.

Eric:

And another one that I know you've seen as well that I think what's okay Hmm, but random acts of violence.

Kelly:

Yeah, that one was let down by that one. Actually.

Eric:

I know Grey's Anatomy has come up here your watch right? anatomy.

Vanessa:

I've seen only the other women have made these. See.

Eric:

I think it's great. Jesse Williams, who's one of the main characters and grace is one of the main characters in that and he's good. Was Eric one

Kelly:

of the other women

Eric:

episodes to what

Vanessa:

I've seen at least the first season and several key pivotal episodes along the way of which I had no actual attachment

Eric:

you say yeah, that doesn't work.

Vanessa:

I was like, why is this so sad? The music is really upsetting right now but I don't I'm not connected to these people.

Eric:

Yeah, that doesn't work. But I gotta say the that statement I made that Jay her say his name versus a bash shell made about it being he's tired of these films that aren't scary and they're just like your movies. not scary at all. This is not a remotely it may be occasional creepy it does some fairly inventive and well done kills, I guess. I mean, the violence is a good slasher film. But there's not enough of it it try. It's like be a slasher film or be a dramatic Killer movie. It's,

Vanessa:

it's a real fine line to be a filmmaker and a critic of other films. Like if you're gonna be super vocal about like, what people mess up and what people are good at, and you better forget or be deltora

Eric:

or somebody like that comes out and says, I don't think you're doing good fantasy scary movies here. Let me show you right you go. Okay. Yeah.

Vanessa:

All right. Anything is like felt horror. I would never do that. No, you're

Kelly:

never gonna hear you're making real movie as

Vanessa:

a real good filmmaker would ever do that? Mostly. So. Yeah, it's just so frustrating that like, I think it's just people who are feeling nervous about themselves and they just lash out.

Kelly:

So really poor timing on him saying that Yeah, when we've had just a fucking goldmine of great horror lately?

Vanessa:

No good. I'm I mean, I'm not thrilled about COVID and lockdown and everything but like it has given a voice and an opportunity to so many films like when you see that Amazon carousel, you're getting indie films right next to triple A blockbusters flipping around and you're like, I don't know, whatever. This one looks good. And just the full opportunity of what's been coming out has been just incredible, incredible stuff.

Kelly:

Oh, hold on. I'm writing this down. You're not thrilled with COVID

Vanessa:

don't talk. Okay.

Kelly:

Edit that up.

Eric:

For you now.

Kelly:

Normally, when we take a break, but you guys, nobody's gonna talk about the finale of the Mandalorian

Vanessa:

Oh, my God. Well, I'm glad you brought it up. No, I think I think you wanted to talk about it, but neither of us had seen it. And so you said we have to talk about it later, or something.

Kelly:

I don't know. Who knows that won't happen. Could be who knows. I think

Eric:

it's the key to the key to a good lie is he gives just enough Like I said, I thought we talked about it and you just leave it there. You don't have all the deep sea.

Kelly:

I missed that. Lie from Eric.

Eric:

I'm one of the worst liars are the

Vanessa:

most punchy nine. So just roll with me here. So yeah, Mandalorian are we gonna spoil it for everybody who hasn't seen it?

Kelly:

Well, I mean, if this this is coming out on New Year's Eve, guys, happy new years, everybody. And that means that the show will happen two weeks ago. That's true. Yeah. And I don't think we need to spoil it but I don't satisfied with it.

Vanessa:

Okay, there's that's fair. Um, yes. And no, no, really. I there was a lot I really liked. But every time we get a little bit fanservice II, like the second to last episode, I thought was kind of weak. I thought it was really short feeling. And it felt it was almost like a bridge to some kind of other story. I felt like kind of no real thing happened.

Kelly:

This helmet in front of everybody. We

Vanessa:

already did that once.

Kelly:

And he's done it twice the first time this season.

Eric:

He did it in the first season.

Vanessa:

I already know what Pedro

Unknown:

fer.

Vanessa:

Um, yeah, no, um, but the final episode, there was a lot I liked about it. I did see a lot of it coming. And just because I'm not a fan fan of Star Wars, I love a lot about Star Wars, but I'm not like religious about it. And I was still like, Oh, I know what that means. Oh, I know what that thing is. Oh, I know where that is. Before reveals happened. And so yeah, there were things I liked. And there were other things. I was like, there's a lot of boba related stuff that I don't really care to watch through the credits.

Kelly:

I think so post credit.

Eric:

Because there's a reason there's a lot of Boba Fett.

Vanessa:

Oh, because they're coming out with another show. Yeah, yeah. I don't care. I don't want to see it. It's gonna be holy cow. I'm sorry. They're gonna put out 2000 Star Wars things and half baked, quickly put out by whoever and maybe one or two will be good. Let's see which one is probably the ones that they didn't creative control to death. And Boba Fett is going to be one that they creative control two that I would

Kelly:

have thought we'd get a Vanessa rant on a very highly regarded show.

Vanessa:

medullary medullary Mandalorians amazing. I'm just saying like, I'm not enthused, and we shall see but I'm not holding my breath. And it was fun. I like the sequence was fun.

Kelly:

Ah, first of all, I think it's super important that he took off his helmet in that scene. Yes. And it shows that it's that his belief system is breaking down.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I do agree with you there.

Kelly:

I was like, oh, okay, we're seeing him turn into somebody different which I always say It is interesting. And then the fan servicii ending was something that if I had been told it was going to happen, I would have railed against but finding it out as I was watching it. I was like, I had no idea I needed this as badly as

Eric:

I feel very loved that Andy, I thought it was freaking great. I, I don't have a problem with Mandalorian giving fan service, because I don't think they do it very often.

Vanessa:

That's true. It's very sprinkled.

Eric:

It's in there, but they don't do it very often. And this was story. Perfect.

Vanessa:

Yeah, no, you're

Eric:

a fan service moment that it was. It's funny,

Vanessa:

because I don't even think of that when I'm complaining about service. Dumb I know. But like that was actually super solid. And I was extremely excited when it happened. And I was totally on board for that particular thing. It was honestly just all the Boba Fett II stuff that I was like, I just don't care. So yeah. You guys are both shuffling very uncomfortable right now. But know that I do agree. I think the ending it felt so good when the reveal occurred. And I was like, Fuck, yes. Yeah.

Kelly:

I I also am of the mind that Star Wars for being set in a galaxy a long, long time ago and far, far away. It must be a very tiny galaxy. Same people keep bumping into each other all the time. And I don't love that. And I liked the Mandalorian for not having a connection to the Skywalker saga. So when they brought in Boba Fett, I was like, Yeah, but I felt like they did him very well. Yeah. So I was like, oh, okay, I'll be fine with this.

Vanessa:

I think I just wanted less of it. I think that's what it boils down to. I was fine when it popped up. And I was like, okay, cool, interesting. Blah, blah, blah. And then it just kept he just kept hanging around and I just wanted to get back to the because Mandalorian It feels like each one's almost a little bit bodily. And like the the story relying more heavily on the relationship between the child and the Mandalorian so when we hopped more towards boba I was like, I don't I want to get once is fine, but then I think it was across maybe three episodes. Yeah, that we were hanging out in that space. So that was one I was like

Kelly:

well, seeing Boba Fett sit down King Conan style at the end made me go Alright,

Vanessa:

I'm out there. Like

Eric:

I forgot I forgot the actor's name but the lady from Agents of SHIELD that's coupled with him. I mean, when phenomenal. I really liked

Vanessa:

I know nothing about her. So I was she seemed cool. But yeah, she's

Eric:

great. And they just a shield. Yeah, the better characters. And you could tell the the Agents of SHIELD training and that one action scene? Yes. She does that on screen fight. The part of what I liked and this will definitely probably drop into the spoilers, but I'll be careful not to say names. But you know, anyways, one thing that throughout the Star Wars saga, the Jedi have always been talked about being super powerful, and very rarely hasn't been really shown. Rightly shit, they set up and pay off.

Kelly:

how badass

Eric:

a Jedi can be in this episode. Yeah,

Unknown:

that was cool.

Eric:

I really enjoyed that. I was like, yeah, the whole time. Like,

Vanessa:

this is so cool. Yeah, it seems so impossible up until that moment when it you know, he's fighting on that one robot he dude for so long, so hard and barely making good skin of his teeth. And then they all show up and you're like, there is no fun. They're gonna pull some dumb shit now and then all of a sudden, we see a Jedi of some description.

Kelly:

Part of the consistencies in Star Wars is because when we first see Obi Wan and beta fight in A New Hope it's a couple of old men that are kind of whacking their sticks together. And then in the prequel films, we see Obi Wan leaping all over. Shooting force, basit, everybody, sir, and, you know, in that in Rogue One, we see Vader just fucking disassembled easily at the end of that, and you know, like, well, that happened just before A New Hope. And he's moving and he's creeping along pretty slowly. They'll be lunch. So they do that occasionally. Where they kind of

Vanessa:

Yeah, they just want to like have a movie. Yeah, they're like, you know what, people want to see you right now. Fucking Yoda flying and doing somersaults in the air. That's what we want more than anything.

Kelly:

I did love that. Yeah. Like Yoda, flying wings.

Vanessa:

Yeah. All those robes. You know, flap in the air and entertainment.

Kelly:

Alright guys, shall we take a little break and then we can come back and when I explain what we're talking about

Eric:

even kind of our the idea of what led us to what films are thing things in films that lead us to like horror, and the movies that set us up to go Okay, these are the kind of horror films I like. Like A good example would be our buddy Steve Blank. Loves Friday the 13th movies so that's gonna be predict any problem probably grid, a loved one who's really young. So he moves right towards that slasher genre, right? Where I like them. Hell, I own that giant buck set. But that's not for me. That's not where my pinnacle of horse sits. Right, right. So those films that lead you to appreciate horror in different ways and films that made that happen.

Kelly:

All right, we'll be right back. And we're talking that

Eric:

if you understand

Unknown:

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Eric:

we go, Lego, a whole new world.

Unknown:

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Kelly:

We have returned and Eric Why don't you start us off on this stuff.

Eric:

All righty. I'm gonna start off with a weird one where I was pretty young, and it's actually not the movie itself. Although when I finally saw it a couple years later, I loved it. It scared the crap out of me. It was the changeling

Vanessa:

Oh my god.

Eric:

No firmer there. You probably don't remember the ads for this running but they ran scary frigging ads. Yeah. And I went back and double check to make sure I had the right ads in my head. I watched the echo. Yep, that's the one but I must took a wheelchair for a rocking chair or something as a little kid I was at the time. And I went to a friend's house and he was old enough to to stay over at a friend's house. And they had a rocking chair in the room I was sleeping it oh my gosh, that got in my head. That scared the crap out of me all i got chide move there, I can turn to the house. I just ignore it, what the hell's going on. So that film just burned into my brain. And I finally saw it on VR Showtime to something a few years later, and it scared the crap out of me because I was you know, maybe a teen at that point. I watched again, maybe two or three years ago and it scared the crap is so good. It's directed by Peter Murdoch. His name starring George C. Scott, it set me up for loving the the ghosts the unknown, the aspects of horror that are unknowable. And that's why probably why I don't have a problem with obscure endings. Or you know what, that doesn't wrap things up in about this film does. But that obscurity of what is scaring you? I have no problem with the idea of not knowing what it is by the time that was done. And that was the movie that definitely set that up.

Vanessa:

Do you remember how old you were when you sign?

Eric:

The commercial? I probably was about 1010 or 11 years? 1981 Yeah, that

Vanessa:

is it's funny because I saw that movie just a couple years ago and it was really effective. And it's kind of long. There's moments where I'm like, man, okay, we're still going but every it's just so good. It's just so yeah, the notes it needs to hit to be scary nails.

Eric:

There is no other movie I guarantee you you will ever watch. That'll have a tiny little kids toy. Oh my god scaring the crap out of you for no other reason than bouncing down the stairs.

Vanessa:

Even with like a put together adult strong dude. As the lens of what you are watching it through is still everything's Gary.

Kelly:

It's all mood. Yes. I mean, you don't really see a go six, seven. Hang in one scene you get a hint of that, but otherwise all mood. And we've said it before George Scott doesn't know how to half ass anything. Give it a great script. He didn't have to. This is of course coming off of his great success of the dolphin, of course.

Eric:

I mean, it built for success. Good point. Yes.

Vanessa:

Um, well, the film that I'm gonna first go over as well is also from when I was a kid. And also just kind of part of it was super effective. So I remember I was probably five or six and it was the night before Easter, and we were at my grandma's house. And of course, my old I have a lot of two older brothers, one older sister, and one of my nearest brother, who's six years old of me, it was like really into like, all the crazy 80s guy stuff. So he was like, I'm skateboarding and I pierced my own here and I'm wearing like, heavy metal t shirt. Like, I've got all the Garbage Pail Kids. To me, I was a little kid, all of it was like intense. So he's flipping the channels, and he settles on critters. I, for years have only seen like this one, maybe 20 minutes segment of critters. And I bear in mind, I didn't get into horror properly until much, much later in life. But this was just so fitting with my idea of what horror was for so long, just monsters that were crazy and teeth and who even knows what's going on in the movie. And I think it definitely set up my love of monsters and creature effects later when I was old enough to really get it. I was like, Man, this is phenomenal job guys. Like I'm just so impressed. And as a kid, it just was one of the many things that kind of added up to this concept of a horror film for me.

Eric:

Nice

Kelly:

movie that I hated when I saw it. And then as a much older adult, I saw it again and I was like, what was wrong with me? It was a shady motherfucker or something. Because that is a fun, fun movie.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I think the first time I've only seen it once all the way through and I was like, Oh, this is super slapstick. Yes, I do need to give it another another watch through knowing the tone better because I was expecting it to be really scary. Having that memory of it.

Eric:

That's great.

Vanessa:

Oh, hmm. Okay. bounty hunters are looking for these little fun hairy viewed super just biting people. Whatever turning into one Fun fact. I did find about this phone though. Two thumbs up.

Unknown:

Oh, nice. Yeah.

Kelly:

Either could be stingy with the thumbs up on horror. So that's nice. Yeah,

Vanessa:

I was surprised. I was like, Man, this is I'm constantly shocked by white God the praise of Mr. Ebert. Yeah, what else but?

Kelly:

Well, I chose in my, in my fifth spot from 1984 A Nightmare on Elm Street. Oh, nice. There's something about this film that really hit me at the right time. I was 15 and 1984. I didn't see it in the theater. So I would have saw seen it a rental, probably VHS rental, you know, whatever, eight months, nine months later, since that's how long it took just a couple little things on this. It had a budget of 1.8 million in a box office at $26 million. Tomatoes is 94% on this film. Damn right, man. It's a good movie. It was written and directed by Wes Craven, who previously had done last house on the left and the Hills Have Eyes and Swamp Thing. And then of course, he followed this with a number of films, most notably screen, which kind of skewered the whole thing he had set up there. This movie hits me way harder than say Halloween or Friday the 13th you know what should come out just prior to these because of the supernatural element. I don't like slashes in general. And maybe that's just because I don't want an actual slasher to kill me or something like that. And this felt a little safer, but it was also cooler. The photography was super cool. It had that weird dream logic through it the the sing songy voices of the kids and everything were super creepy. And there's the brilliant where they set up Amanda Willis as the lead character and then she's the first one that gets killed. And of course they do that again. And the the gore, the bizarre camera angles This brought me firmly in the horror. I mean, prior to this, I was still into Star Wars, Rogers Laz knees, nights and Amber series and all of that stuff. I was a big Stephen King reader, but as far as films went, I never thought that they were as scary as sure this way. Tom I thought I was just like, wow, okay terrified.

Vanessa:

How he had such an opposite experience to me. You're like, movies ain't be scary. Scary. I was like, Man movies are terrifying. I want to see one of these suckers.

Eric:

See the horror of these fuzzy little creatures?

Vanessa:

It was all terrifying. keyboarding was terrifying. Everything is big and scary. I but bear in mind, I spent first grade hiding underneath a desk. So

Eric:

best anyway from those nukes a lot older than me.

Vanessa:

That's, that's such a good pic. Kelly got, I was on my Hill to be that young. And that time like being a teenager when I came out. So that was

Eric:

the the I didn't pick it. But it was one of those like that that scene of the bodybag in the

Kelly:

hall. So scary.

Eric:

So amazing. The problem is, it's a flat out horror film. And then for some reason, all the sequels decided to turn them into this weird

Kelly:

clown. Yeah, it's very strange that they did that. And you know, I don't care for many of the sequels. That first movie is scary. And he's given very little to say, you know, there's a couple of lines that he's got in his raspy voice. And it just all worked so beautifully. I thought.

Eric:

Yeah, for my next one here is I'm going more in chronological order. was a some film we've probably talked about before, came out in 1982. Carpenter's the thing. What?

Kelly:

I don't know if this

Eric:

didn't make sense. But I didn't know for doing Rotten Tomatoes or not.

Kelly:

No, no, I only did it because I think that it matters with the movies I picked.

Eric:

The. So this one is now really high on Rotten Tomatoes, even though Rotten Tomatoes is around, maybe two, it probably would have been like a 30 on the critic side. But this one led a different aspect of horror. I'm the only one of the three of us that's watched a lot of the extreme stuff and is interested in that. And I think that came from this because I saw this very young would have been 13 or 14 probably on HBO. So it's full on or Showtime. We didn't have HBO and Showtime. But full uncut. And my parents were very much like how can you handle watching this stuff? It's like you got freaked out by Dirty Harry like, dirty hair is real. Right? But the the idea of her hair is real. But the idea that they thought it was interesting that I could handle this real intense and heavy. Gore stuff probably hit me in a way that I'm like, oh, let's see how much I can handle. And so that in Twin Falls, there wasn't a lot of that to find because you're not gonna find anything much more intense than the thing that your local Idaho video store, sir. So when I moved to Seattle and discovered Scarecrow, I started seeing what they had and you know, necromantic and to a lesser extent, della mortadella, more or less, more conceptually than actually brutal. But Henry portrait of serial killer all these films that really, really pushed the boundaries of what can still be a good film, even while going way over the top of your content. I think that's the film that led me to that. Wow,

Vanessa:

that's really that's really interesting, too, because I definitely don't go towards those extremes. But I love that you were like, kind of pushing yourself with this and go What else can I do?

Unknown:

Well, far can we go?

Vanessa:

So yeah, my next. My next film is actually Yes, jumping in time as well. I'm also kind of doing a chronological Kelly's. Okay, now maybe

Kelly:

you asked me

Vanessa:

when I definitely was avoiding horror for many, many years, but when I was 16, I went to a midnight screening of a film I knew literally nothing about I was dragged there by my cousins who have basically only watch very tame films and couldn't play the scary video games or anything. So as like, I'm sure whatever I'm seeing is just fine. And lo and behold, I went to see Blair Witch, who really blind, no idea what was going on. And I definitely wasn't one of the people where when it ended, I thought, oh my god, it's real, because they had a credit sequence. So I was smart enough to be like, a credit, see,

Eric:

but if you hadn't been exposed to all the advertising and stuff that set it up, I didn't have anything. Yeah, they ran easily. And I think to this day, probably the best online advertising campaign of any film ever released. And so a lot of people walked in there thinking it was real. And the credits were, you know, just the people that put the footage together. They're

Vanessa:

the ones who dug it up for whatever. Yeah, and it's interesting, because I did have a little look and online and their website is still functioning. And even, like, watch these videos or whatever, any tiny thumbnail that you like. so tiny, like expand the window, and it just remains just as tiny, and the sounds all blown out. And like somebody's talking, and then a bunch of cursing happens on top of what they're saying. And I was like, oh, that would be really freaky, actually. But like, I kind of know what this is. So it's hilarious. Now a

Kelly:

little little quick time symbol as you wait for it to load.

Vanessa:

That would have been good, but my internet was just too fast. And the way this film really ended up resonating with me is when I ended up trying to figure out what I was going to do a thesis for when I did my masters on film studies. I ended up doing it on horror documentaries. And I think that this just had planted a little seed in me that I was just like, you know what no one is talking about at that point. Very few people were talking about like I was looking at like man bites dog and whatever that New Jersey one was last broadcast. Like these were the films that existed not the slew of like Cannibal Holocaust watch Cannibal Holocaust and I watched snuff and like just a lot of movies, but I was very worried I wouldn't be allowed back into the United States after but it was fine. Um, and it just really opened that door for me a little bit more to my curiosity and forced me to sit through all these other movies. So yeah, I just kind of got that that ball rolling even though I don't know. I guess I do have a real fear now that I'm saying this of looking at something on a screen that is different than what it is when you're seeing in real life. That does get me to the core of like a camcorder recording one thing and your eyes seeing something different just freaks me out

Kelly:

so well. And screens are such a huge part of your life.

Vanessa:

It's such a huge Yeah, absolutely. I'm I have yet I've thought about recording myself sleeping to see if anything happens. And I can't do it. I'm too scared. I'm too scared. What if something happens? What if I do something? What if something goes on? It's fair? It's It's too much.

Eric:

Have you watched like Mongo yet? That's right.

Vanessa:

I have Yeah,

Eric:

that's a pretty good one for that. Yeah,

Vanessa:

that's a scary movie.

Kelly:

Eric, I have long joke that I wish that you and I were gay so that we could like getting together. We know each other so well. That I would have thrown the thing on my list, but I knew it was gonna be let's not have this. Conversely, I hate The Blair Witch so much.

Vanessa:

It's not because I love this movie. It just affected me. I thought that's what we're doing. Kelly. I thought it wasn't just the movies we like.

Kelly:

Okay, well, there is a little bit of entertainment going on here to the listeners.

Vanessa:

Sorry, sorry.

Kelly:

I'm sorry. Bob.

Vanessa:

Talked about Blair Witch I did get. I did watch Daniel Merricks other movie, and we do all remember how I felt about that.

Kelly:

So that's right. Because it's Eduardo Sanchez. Who?

Vanessa:

Yeah, makes me forget.

Kelly:

Well, this will come as no surprise to you guys. But I cheated on my next one. And I have a tie.

Vanessa:

All right, I would say like, a soul or something or video

Kelly:

game? No, it is a tie between the 1986 movies the Wraith retreat. Oh, okay. Rotten Tomatoes scores 36% and 75% respectively.

Eric:

Oh, that's much higher than I was expecting. Wow. Yeah.

Kelly:

There's a reason that these are always inextricably linked in my head. And that's because I saw them as a double feature, right? Oh my god six. And this absolutely cemented a few tropes that are just my favorites when it comes to horror films. The teen setting rock and roll. There's a comeback from the dead. Yeah, so in the rave and find out the Charlie Sheen is the ghost of a different kid that the group of car thieves killed one night and he's back for revenge taking them all out one by one with his souped up dodge interceptor. And in trigger treat the spirit of recently deceased deceased metal superstar Sammy curb, is brought back to life by one of his biggest fans, and it's done by spitting one of his records backwards. fuckin love. Then, although Sammy is also Alford, then his fan Eddie realizes that he's gone too far and must stop him. So both of these are kind of opposite sides of the same coin. The Wraith is pale writer is high plains drifter, a man who has been killed and comes back to punish the men that did it and try to treat Edie has Sammy Sammy punishing the kids who bullied him until he realizes that is completely spiraled out of control. And I absolutely love both of these kinds of stories the the I've come back for revenge, and the part where there's there's the main character who's trying to stop something that he said emotion and everything he does actually pushes it forward into the worst place it could be. And he keeps making it worse by trying to stop it. As a writer, these both, you know, lodged in my head, and I wrote a ton of this kind of, you know, short story fiction while I was in high school, so I just really love these movies. I don't think they're great movies.

Vanessa:

Damn right.

Eric:

It's been a long time since I've seen the rave but we did Trick or treat for I think one of our double that one of our double feature thing sinks. So yeah, I've seen that recently. That is

Vanessa:

awesome. It's so much fun. It's so good. I haven't seen the race. But I have seen trigger tree. And it's so funny, because anytime somebody says, Trick or Treat such a good movie, and I always think of that one, right? Yes. And the other one I'm like,

Eric:

No, did you say trick? or treat or?

Vanessa:

Finance thyself?

Kelly:

I will say this, I'm not sure that you would get what I got out of the race. Sure. And that's because you know, I wanted fast cars and hot women and rock and roll. That's all that movies about Gods. Copper. 17. Come on.

Vanessa:

Hey, man, I got it. I mean, I don't expect that you would have liked the 17 either.

Kelly:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Fine. Yeah, there's

Eric:

that. That's pretty good.

Vanessa:

That's a lifelong commitment.

Eric:

Yeah, I'm sure you'll know at least two of the next three I'm going to talk about but I was surprised if you know the third. So the next one down the list is another little hard to hear a film called Hellraiser. Mm. 1987 with a 72 and a 72. rating?

Kelly:

Wow. The critics got it right, I guess.

Eric:

Part of what this like we mentioned before, the slasher genre, which really dominated the 80s I enjoyed watching but never really grasped me never pulled me into the level. This one did. This was like. And what's frustrating about it is almost a singular film. It didn't lead to a whole bunch of like, knockoff kind of films. It's, it's what it is, people have tried to recreate it. They sort of close with two and nothing since then, not even in the sequels. And there's certainly not a large quantity of films that fall into the Hellraiser style. Which part of the reason I love it. I just think it's a singular unique vision from Clive Barker. And it really hasn't been duplicated. And at the time, it floored me. It blew me away. Leave, I was able to see this in, I would have been old enough to see it in the theater. And I'm pretty sure I did. Pretty heavy horror fan by the time I was late 80s. And I didn't know what to make of it. I didn't fully grasp what was going on with this film. And I love that. I bet goes back to the changeling thing I was talking about I love a film that makes me go. Well, hold on. The violence was almost artistic. It was more where Tom savini creates incredibly realistic looking things. This was art level violence that was so strange and different and not like anything I'd seen before. The Jesus wept moment was just like the concept of somebody digging out to come back as opposed to most movies. When somebody comes back. They just they're there. That's their point. It's like oh, they're back from hell. And the The story goes from that this was about Getting back. And it was about getting back when you put your own dumb ass in the situation that you're trying to escape from. So it's all really just morality is interesting, the I forgot the name of the mom, but she plays a unique character for the 80s for a woman who totally controls her world. Ashley Lawrence is amazing. And what probably Clive Barker's best overall realized film, although I tried several of his movies. And it just, it's different. It's unique. And I love that about it. I'm always looking for another film that hit me like Hellraiser does.

Vanessa:

Yeah. It's funny, because with Hellraiser, I think it benefits so much by not choosing definitively like what country you're in. But it almost lends this extra fantastical relatable, but unrelatable element to it, that is completely impossible to recreate. Like, there's just no way to make that again. And it's just another thing that just layers onto this crazy.

Eric:

I can film. Yeah, that's true.

Kelly:

That's very, that falls into the newlywed category to put that down, but I knew that was gonna be there's something you when you say is unique man. The fact that you've got these s&m angels popping up every once in a while. It's like what is going on? And I don't think that I mean, I was hit that way too when I saw it. And I don't think I ever found anything similar to that until I started finally getting into Cronenberg films or something like that. And I realized, oh, there's this super uncomfortable sexiness in what's going on and Hellraiser the the wife who's cheating on her husband with his brother and and then the brother comes back in the body of the dad and wants to have sex with the daughter, all this stuff. And it's Yeah, it's it's all very naughty.

Eric:

Yeah, that's true. Without being a sex on a beach or something like that right now. It's

Vanessa:

just yeah, it's both sad. Oh, so unsexy. It's like you get it to certain executives you that feeling really good Damn, that's a hot boo Horrell do it this awful Well, I

Kelly:

mean, if you think about it, put in the hands of maybe just an American director, but definitely put in the hands of a straight director. There would have been a lot of nudity in that movie, right and there's no nudity in that. Yeah. For such a sexual storyline.

Vanessa:

No nudity where they have skin on.

Kelly:

Which is like the ultimate nudity.

Eric:

Really reveal just up, denuded? Just blanked on his name Chris Alexander,

Kelly:

the composer, Christopher young plus for you.

Eric:

Love the soundtrack to this film.

Kelly:

Yeah, spectacular,

Eric:

just amazing. Beautiful, beautiful music that really fits what's going on on screen.

Vanessa:

Um, speaking of sexy films, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this because I've talked about a pretty in depth before the fog. Fog I purposely I did I'm not gonna do the fog, even though I could totally do the fog. No, I want to give you all a break. But I do need to mention for sure. The Wicker Man? Oh, yeah, sure, because it just it did have such a huge effect on me. I saw when I was probably 20. And I still wasn't on the horrible dream. And, and just, I don't know, I didn't know what to think of it. And I mentioned it before, but I hated it. I just hated it. I hated everything about it. And I suddenly realized it was because I just done eight years of Catholic school. And I've been raised in a very specific way. And it was so insulting, and in my face. And it was I felt like it was directed at me. And then I took a step back and I was like, what why am I so angry? And rewatching this movie I just realized, oh my god is just so powerful and interesting and paganism and questioning and not questioning yourself. And it wasn't a horror film in a way that I had formed the idea of what or was it was something that sad deep inside of me and like Kurt curdled it and it still is there. Like when I think about certain moments in that it's still just freaks me out slash excites me in that same way. So yeah, Wicker Man.

Kelly:

Oh, this is one of my favorite stories about you. Because what went Did you rewatch it after having this realization was like a day or two later? That's what I thought. It's that's speaks a lot about your character and your ability to examine what's going on in your own head.

Vanessa:

Yeah, I definitely one of those people who I constantly try to assess myself and I, and I try to be very open to things. And if I am very unopen, to something, I like to know why and whether or not I'm actually right. If I'm right, I'm like, freaking right. Trust me, I already played this game with myself. Then it's like, Okay, what is up was going on in this film. I mean, I was so angry. And I had a huge fight with the guy I was dating at the time over it, like just enormous blowout over this film. And then he went off to work the next day. And I was like, okay, what's going on? pop it back in? Let's see, let's do and I think I saw it like three or four times, just like in those couple of days, just trying to wrap my head around it. And by the end of that I was Yeah, I feel like it was like baptism through fire, like I came out the other end a better person, for sure.

Eric:

That's awesome. That's why I think the potential of therapy for through film is real therapies word is very real. And that's part of the reason I think you fit in this category. Well, probably two, two is the concept of giving people a trigger warning for something that might scare them. I've watched a lot of films now that deal with things that, you know, like, people might avoid, you know, suicide and dementia films. And it helps. Right, you know, it helps to look right into that. Yeah. And so I think it's definitely a great way to interpret film. I mean, yeah,

Vanessa:

that's one of the wonderful things like he said, that's one of the wonderful things about film is, you leave your own experience behind and you engage in a world. And there's a certain set of agreements that exist, but then they're also you're giving up certain things or saying I'm willing to be to go through this universe that I don't fully, I'm not, you know, I, it might challenge me. And yeah, absolutely. Like, I don't know, I, I'm the same way kind of with trigger warnings for myself personally, where I don't even you know, what, like, I've experienced all kinds of things in my life. I don't need to know what is gonna be because if it affects me, it affects me. And maybe that's a really good thing. Maybe I need somebody to go through that with me. You know, and I need to see the bad parts of and go, yeah, it did suck when these things occurred. Yes, it did. Thank you for like, defining that in a way that can be expressed that maybe I can in my own world. So

Eric:

yeah, I understand why some people want to avoid it. I'm not gonna be little somebody's trying to avoid that. But I think it's worth looking into, you know, if you find yourself hitting, I can't watch a movie that has this. Yeah. And you probably know exactly why. But at the same time, like maybe you should help yourself along a little bit more with that. Because movies aren't.

Vanessa:

Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, I I totally actually, now that you said that a lot. I've definitely been on both sides of the coin. There are there are a few films I will never watch again. Sure, but I probably should. But she's suffered right now. But yeah, like but there are so many other that, you know, I just didn't expect it and just cracks me up inside. Not in a humorous way but in an emotional way.

Kelly:

going deep and like you both and I am so happy you let me do this show with you guys. Very, very good, smart people. All right, shut up on

Eric:

my turn. Now for this deep shit. You know what I liked?

Kelly:

Number three, and I believe my most recent film is from 2005. Eric, you saw this in the theater with me and that is the descent oh I am just going to mention a couple of these numbers again because I think it's important a budget of three and a half million dollars wow rocks Office of 57 million even

Vanessa:

without money.

Kelly:

Rotten Tomatoes on this is 86% this was written and directed by Neil Marshall who prior to this Dig Dug soldiers before then followed this masterpiece with the biggest pile of shit Doomsday never say what happened there but he was set to become my all time favorite director this movie. Like Nightmare on Elm Street. This is a scary movie. This movie is scary before the monsters even show up. It's a it's about five female spelunkers ago cave diving and end up lost in an unexplored cave system, having to deal with their own insecurities and their issues with each other. And if that isn't bad enough, there is a nest of blind albino quaint cave dweller monsters that have been trapped down there for hundreds of generations. And it is fucking terrifying. Part of it is fucking terrifying. While not all of it is fucking terrifying because of my, the whole rule I try to set for myself whenever I'm making a writing script or doing anything is, I will believe any premise you put in front of me, as long as the characters in the film act realistically about it. Yeah. So if it's a ridiculous premise, they have to be they have to be questioning this whole thing. Be going, How is this even possible? Why is this going on. And these five women are super smart. They're the top of their game, and their best friends who have a couple of little secrets from each other. And all that stuff starts unraveling the friendship and the trust, you know, right when they need it most. And that's a super interesting story without the monsters. I think that as I get in deeper, and definitely with my number one story, you'll find out that most of the monster stories I love are actually human stories, right? And interaction between characters when they have to deal with these extreme situations. Man, I think this plot is perfect. I think the the photography is perfect. I think the script is perfect. This film is a goddamn treasure. And if you don't like it, you don't like cinema.

Vanessa:

If you don't like it, you haven't seen it.

Eric:

Yeah, I did a talk to the film school a few years ago, where I use this film as an example of setting up tension for an entire movie. Because that opening segment well guess not exactly opening, but the opening segment where they go through that tiny little drops the suspense so deep that it no matter what happened, the rest of that film that suspense is there, no matter what they're doing.

Kelly:

And I thought that was so brilliant, you and I saw this in I think in a break from the film school or something. But I know that we went back and talk to one of our teachers about it. And I remember it was not a full theater. And so we're in this gigantic theater watching this movie. And that scene happens and my claustrophobia was just kicking in hard in the middle of this huge auditorium.

Eric:

Yeah. My memory of watching that film is of the theater somehow getting darker. Yeah, as we're watching it. And it's just like, I know, that didn't happen. But that's what it felt like. Yeah, that's a brilliant film. It's Yeah.

Kelly:

And his masterpiece. Yeah. So he's gone on and directed some episodes of various series. I know. He even directed an episode of I believe. What's the raised by wolves? I think he didn't really so he's still, you know, puttering around and doing stuff. But whatever magic he had. I think that he spent it on young soldiers and the descent.

Eric:

Yeah, it's too bad because man. Okay, here's another one that Kelly will know. It's going to be on this list and the other Carpenter film and know exactly which one it is 95 in the mouth of madness. Yeah, I talked about this a few times, because I was definitely old, came out as it my 20s and it still floored me. Now what the looking at this and reexamining part of the reason I love it so much isn't what's in the film itself? Because I think it's an amazing film I think everything works for and I think the What is it? 52% or 59% of critics and Rotten Tomatoes are full of crap. What it brought for me was seeing it in the theater. I saw it at least twice. And I saw a few and I saw with Dina and I don't remember which one it happened at but there was a group of teen girls that showed up to have a giggly fun time at a horror film. Oh no. And about five minutes into the scene when I start seeing Oh no, the carpenters and all that same. They shut up. It absolutely stopped them. And they were quiet except for you know, jump sounds or something like that the rest of the movie. So I'm like, what this hit me for horror is a couple things. One, how a group of people can be influenced by a horror film in a way that I think no other genre can do. You go to a comedy you want to laugh, you go to drama, you maybe want to cry or feel something depending on what the movies about. You go to an action movie whenever thrill ride. You a lot of people go to horror and they don't want to be scared. Not really. Unless you're lazy like we are. I want to be scared man scare me. But a lot of people go have a good time. giggle and laugh and then drink beers whatever afterwards. But this one actually scared these people. And that was amazing to watch for me which is so which is probably part of the reason I love this movie so much. I think it's a phenomenal movie start to finish anyways, and probably one of my most watched horror films. But the other part that got me a lot is unlike when the thing came out when I wasn't old enough to understand it. See, Critical reaction to this film floored me. Mike, how did you watch the same movie I did and think I could see no problem. Watch it people may be watching moving on, okay, didn't really work for me. But it was a good show. I get that. But to actually say this isn't a good movie in any way. Like,

Unknown:

how?

Eric:

If it doesn't work for you, I get that I'm not going to go watch your average Disney movie and go or Disney TV show and go oh, this is terrible. It's like, for me, it's terrible. For eight year old good. It's not. But this one. I just think it's a phenomenal film. I think it's I think it's one of his best films. I know that saying a lot with Carpenter considering his track record for when he's good. He is one of the best in the business. When he's been he's one of the worst mistakes. But that's what I think the two things that influenced me the most i thought was most interesting about this film was the way horror can hit a crowd of people, whether they it's really good when they don't want it to them. Or how a group of people could watch a film and see something completely different and I don't get what watching what's, why are they seeing that so differently? That was a big influence in the way I think about film period.

Vanessa:

Yeah, it's funny because I rewatched mouth of madness. It was the last film I saw before lockdown the theater in the theater nice in a kind of screening that one of our local cinemas that likes to pick up older films and play them dead. But I love what you're saying about how it plays with expectation or at least he plays with expectation because there were definitely moments in there where I felt like even though I'd seen the film before I was like that came out of nowhere. Oh my God, Jesus. Okay, we're What? And it just it really does defy it, but not in a way that undercuts it. It's only in a way that adds to this like eeriness and other nests and lovecraftian craziness that really works for it.

Kelly:

Yeah, more of the newlywed stuff. Yeah. Because you know how much I love it. I think it is his best and it also sets up or it didn't set up but it it plays with a one of the tropes I love the the haunted book, basically, I am a big fan of that the whole Lovecraft connection was really interesting. And this goes back to the the West Craven stuff with Nightmare on Elm Street. There's a dream logic that wouldn't make sense in a regular movie that makes complete sense in this and and it's because they're, you know, he just jammed in like the scariest moments of different movies. Yeah, it works with this very thin thread he's got them connected with. But the lead character, Sam Neil's fucking brilliant and everything. He reacts the way you should react when nothing makes sense. Yes, I agree. And he feels like he's, you know, being tricked and all of this stuff. And so you completely go along with it, even if, I mean if this was a bunch of teen kids who are going, you know, oh, my goodness, what's going on? You would never buy into that because you would never act that way being faced with those obstacles. Yeah.

Eric:

The I think one of the perfect scenes that represents that so well is when he's talking about, well, that was written and he opened up this window and there should be a dark church out there. And the lady with him says you didn't read close enough, right? And opens the other window. There's like, oh, and you're right. He similar to Bruce Willis and 12 monkeys. His journey if you drop into Sam Neill journey in there, and you flow with that. It works perfectly.

Kelly:

Absolutely.

Vanessa:

Now it's interesting because you guys both talked about your theater experiences and and this one for me is absolutely a theater experience. So this I saw when I was 25. And it was right around the time that I was like, Okay, I can watch some horror movies, I guess, and maybe they don't suck and maybe they're not all just scary and exists to make me feel bad. Maybe they actually have stories in them and other things going on. So I went with my best English friend and to go see the orphanage. Now, it is really interesting because I had been I'm starting to really understand and dissect movies and all that kind of stuff. And I was watching this film. And maybe I told you guys this before, but I could, it was just me and her and her boyfriend in the theater. Nobody else totally empty Tottenham Court Road, just like this, you know, not a huge screen, but like a medium sized screen. And I started hearing these noises on either side of and I was like, wow, they are doing some crazy shit with the soundtrack. They're like putting in sounds that don't even belong there. It must be some weird psychological warfare thing going on. And I was just totally engaged and loving how this film was scary without being gross. And, and I read it was helping me to realize that there was this other kind of film that maybe I hadn't spent much time in. Whereas a horror film that isn't just about, like, the the parts that I was the scariest of it. So it was a very good stepping stone for me. But But partway through the movie, I noticed off on the right hand side of theater, there was this popcorn bowl rolling down the aisle. And there was some movement. And I realized all the sounds I was hearing were rats. Oh, no, we got a lot of rats around and I paused for a minute inside. And I looked to my left to my right. And they were just having a great time, all over. And at that point in my life, my fashion was to wear these shorts of cowboy boots and like stockings. So I was like, basically in shorts and like thin, thin black stockings. And I just took one foot at a time and gently put them up on the seat. So my feet weren't on the ground. And then I watched the movie. And it was the best court experience I've ever had. And I didn't tell the people who I was with until the movie ended. And I was like, oh, by the way, that was fast. I just watched them through Oh, God, it was so good. But that they did definitely lend to that experience for me. And yeah, I will never forget that word.

Kelly:

Wow. When when I first met Eric, he was also going to the short stockings, and it was

Eric:

like the red carpet. Right? That's right.

Vanessa:

But I get it. I get it for sure. Sometimes you got to pop.

Eric:

I was inspired by the lady and Footloose.

Kelly:

That is a big one. And that movie is scary and heartbreaking. Yeah.

Vanessa:

And yeah, interesting. Cuz I know I only thought that one time, because I kind of don't want to ruin the experience. But I was waiting for something gruesome to occur. And I seem to remember the only physical thing that happened was a hand get slammed in a door or in a drawer. And that was kind of the worst physical moment. I might be wrong. But I just remember being like, wow, that affected me as much as maybe having somebody sawed in half would in any other film. And I just loved the way that something so quiet and so easy could be so effective.

Eric:

I recently rewatched it and enjoyed it as much and then it ended up going. Oh, yeah.

Kelly:

Oh, yeah. Did we see that in the theater?

Eric:

I think so.

Kelly:

Because I remember, this is back when I wasn't as comfortable telling people that I cried constantly. And that was a horror movie that made me cry at the end.

Eric:

Yeah.

Kelly:

So if we sat in the theater, I was probably like, Well, that was a good one, I guess.

Vanessa:

something deeper and just like you were saying, it's not necessarily about the horror. It's about the other stories happening within it.

Kelly:

Yeah. But there's some scary shit and that's fine.

Vanessa:

And it's funny because you think about it. It's really not like it's just some kids walking forward and not

Eric:

set up for that is so brilliant. So good. So good. It's just like the changeling I was talking about the ball going down. Yeah, that's not scary. It's what led up to that scene that makes it scary. Which is the same thing in the knock.

Kelly:

You think it's not scary until you're in a house? That's fucking scary. Yeah. I mean, just popcorn. 10 rolls down the aisle.

Vanessa:

I was like, Are there ghosts?

Unknown:

worse?

Kelly:

Yeah. Did you go back to that theater know what it was like that

Vanessa:

Sadly, many times. There weren't. I mean, there are only so many theaters and all I mean, all of London. It's all got this you just don't always notice that. I do remember being very drunk, very drunk once and walking down the street and seeing a rat the size of a small dog down the street crossing crossing a sidewalk and going, Yup, that's a rat. Just Why am I doing? That's not a dog? That's a rat.

Kelly:

It's funny. Humans. We adapt very quickly.

Vanessa:

We do. We do. Yeah. I mean, I never really I never was really freaked out by it. Just like when I lived in New York, I didn't really care about the cockroaches. silverfish, I wasn't cool. But

Kelly:

All right, guys, we're getting down to. Yeah, this is where we separate the men from the boys, Vanessa. But wait a minute. You're not allowed

Vanessa:

to tomboys count.

Kelly:

My runner up to the My most influential movie is from 1976. And it is the omen. Yeah, just gonna go on to numbers here again. Sure. budgeted 2.8 million box office of 61 million. Rotten Tomatoes have this at 86%. This was directed by Richard Donner, who prior to this had just directed a bunch of TV and a couple of TV movies. And then was given this kind of throw away film that they were hoping to, you know, bankroll on. Yeah. After this, of course, he would go on to dread Superman, Ladyhawke The Goonies Yeah, you forgot, he directed The Goonies nice. Director goodies. Scrooge and many others. Holy cow. There is so much going on in this movie so good. It's not just a horror movie. It's a family drama. It's takes place in the world of politics. And it's all held together by the gravitas of Gregory Peck, Lee remmick and David Warner who are just Titans in the film industry. It's an Armageddon story and you're there to watch the beginning of Damien is an absolute fucking brat. But he's also a monster and his nanny hanging herself at his birthday party isn't enough to get into him riding through the house on his trike and knocking his mother over Bannister. We've sealed the deal. There's so much tension in this film. It's punctuated by moments of this noisy terror like when the car is attacked by baboons in the outdoor world. That is so fucking scary. And it's because the baboons realize that there's something in that car that they hate and they're you know, just attacking the car in and then it's got quiet moments like when the new Rottweiler protector Damien comes up the landing is Gregory Peck Heads Up the stairs to check on a son. The dog is growling just slightly and then when it pants, you can just hear the word Christo, presto, it's panting fucking raises your arms. That's part of what makes this movie so amazing. The sound design is great. I think the exorcist is a better film. Sure. But for someone This one, for some reason, this one is a little more scary to me. And it's much more entertaining and that there's a lot more cinematography going on. There's more going on. It's

Eric:

a bigger movie. The Exorcist is a small movie.

Kelly:

Yes. Yeah. And there's something about man, I just fell in love with the idea of the Antichrist. Armageddon is just you know, I didn't see this movie until, I don't know, it's probably 12 or 13. And, and that's when I started talking to my mom and going Is this real? And she was like, Well, I mean, Bible you have to decide if it's real or not. She was very good about that at a certain age. You know, when I basically decided I wasn't gonna go to church anymore. I have a fun little fact about this. Damien was originally going to be called donlin until screenwriter David seltzers wife suggested a name change and I wonder if this was influenced by the exorcist because father Kara says name and that though is Damian Kerris.

Eric:

That's crazy. dommy dommy dommy when Dom Lin did that reference anything else or is it just

Kelly:

did seltzer was a pretty good writer. I don't think he just made shit up. Probably names and came up with something that means horrible little brat ship.

Vanessa:

And it's so funny. I I watched this film during that same time that I was doing The Blair Witch More mockumentary essay, and I watched it follow it up by one of those documentaries. Like on the same DVD box I had about like all stuff that went wrong while they're filming it. I remember just feeling like, like i'd commit just by watching it. Like I committed some kind of act. That was just, I don't know, I really was like, praying like, I'm sorry, please. Demons don't come after me. Like I like you just feel like oh, it's one of those phones like gets too so deep in your soul. Well, it's

Kelly:

that thing that I was talking about. This is a human movie and Gregory Peck came out of retirement to make this film. And there's a there's a reason that the the remake didn't work. You've got young, handsome live Shriver, as the diplomat, the ambassador to England. You can like pay seems a little young or something. But when you see Gregory Peck at 61 doing this, you're like, I totally believe that this guy has been in politics all his life. He just is he just yeah, and his reaction to everything he hears is like, this is impossible. But the evidence keeps mounting and mounting until you get that great scene at the end, where you're just horrified that here's this man, dragging a screaming kid, a toddler basically into a church and he's planning on killing him and you're like, holy shit, this dark fucking movie.

Eric:

Yeah. That's a good one. I didn't watch that one too much, much later, but really liked it. And I kind of feel like I missed out on a whole lot of horror not being raised Catholic.

Vanessa:

I have to say, there is a special place for Catholics when it comes to the horror genre. There's a hole. I am terrified of demon movies, and I don't even I don't even know why. But there's something so deeply planted in me that when demons show up, I'm like, why is this so scary? So much more scary than a guy with an axe, which is so much more likely?

Eric:

Well, this one is not scary. 100% more likely. Just in case. So this is a very pretty hard one. That is 2007. So fairly recent. And as soon as I say the director, I'm giving it away. This is your number one. No, no, this is I didn't rank them. Number one rank. I just put them as this is a film that sent me I see into liking horror this way. Okay. I think both both ways are perfectly great ways of looking at what you would think that because you're doing it wrong.

Kelly:

To say that,

Vanessa:

oh my goodness, I'm also doing it wrong lens. So

Eric:

this film opened me up to a whole new world of horror films, which has become one of my favorite areas of horror film. It was directed by Bruno matej. island of the Living Dead.

Kelly:

So good. I

Unknown:

do not know this foam. garbage.

Eric:

This film that Kelly and I watched it as we went down there to get ourselves into thinking we could sell the film. But I never like I never understood this so bad. It's good thing. I never even really liked the Mystery Science Theater shows because I was I guess snobbish enough about film. It's like, well, if it's crappy, I don't even want to make fun of it. I just don't want to waste my time watching this crappy feature. This all changed. Watching the living dead afci where I laughed my ass off. It was so much fun. And there's what you me and a couple agents who left like, what, 15 minutes in most

Kelly:

they were there to actually probably you know, purchase the film. And they made a decision very early on.

Eric:

We had no interest in purchasing the film. So these people paid a lot of money for us to sit there and enjoy ourselves. It costs a lot of money to screen.

Kelly:

Yeah,

Eric:

it was it opened up to a totally different way of looking at films. And it's a very bad films. You know, the bad film from A to B bad film sometimes can still be entertaining, but it's not the same as this unbelievable passion that some of these directors obviously had in making whatever the hell they were gonna make. And oh, it's terrible food but it is so entertaining. And it's so much fun to watch. And now I've got like five or six thrown on the table.

Kelly:

He's like your favorite director now.

Eric:

I love watching this guy stuff. He's directed so much stuff though. It's kind of you know, there's there's stuff that's not worth considering watching but the stuff that is like Severin or vinegar Or I've put out is worth watching. So this I like this one because it opened a whole new field of films for me to watch and enjoy in a way that I had not before. And so that's, that's why it's on my list.

Vanessa:

I love that now I wish I'd done something like that because there is also equally for me a part that at some point, I was like, You know what, like b movies and garbage horror movies can be so good.

Eric:

Yeah, yeah. Then this is below.

Kelly:

Like, this falls into that newlywed thing in a different way. And that I just realize except for the changeling I think I've seen every one of your films with you in a theater thing we saw a film festival Yeah, and all these other ones I think I've seen with you.

Vanessa:

This is why I'm always in your guys's relationship.

Kelly:

We're bringing in what you call old gay swingers.

Vanessa:

Noted noted. Yep, you're tired. Today I found out. Well, well, Eric. I mean, I'm, I'm only gonna kind of briefly and end on my final pick here. It's so pivotal. But you've actually already gone over this foam. Okay, um, you guys probably assume that the last one I was talking about with you the fog, which is amazing. And I love it. And it did get me into Carpenter movies, but I actually don't really remember the first time I saw it. And I know it was pivotal. But like, it just it that wasn't the thing that really opened my eyes and go, What is up with this Carpenter dude. And that

Kelly:

was the thing that did

Unknown:

the theme.

Vanessa:

So it was Easter. Easter apparently is a great day. For me personally, in my history of dime. Sure, I was hanging out with my family. And we finished dinner, we're just hanging out on the couch, doing whatever talking. And I was like, I'm gonna put on a lovely Easter film in the background. I just want to put on something that's gonna mess with everything. And I had a copy of the thing because I was collecting all kinds of movies to get around to when I was doing Film Studies. And I was like, I'm just gonna like pop this in and just have in the background, see if anyone notices. I was not paying attention. And I had not seen it before. I thought I had I had not I remember looking up and like my aunt being my elderly and being like, is this a little bowl of like, mix nuts kind of looking over at me like, Honey, what is this? It's an Easter movie. It's about reverse. Looking and be like, Oh my god, there are like some crazy things going on in the server, some crazy creature bugs, and I later did come back around and properly watch it. Remember this really piquing my interest in Gryffindor? And just going? What the fuck is going on here. I knew I was like playing the line with my family. I did not realize

Eric:

jumped right over it.

Vanessa:

That shark was a bigger shark than I thought. I'll tell you that I needed a bigger boat for that film.

Kelly:

I this is where if we were on the Newlywed Game together, we would have landed. Okay. I love this movie. For the reasons I was saying everybody in this film when presented with this unbelievable idea has to you know, react accordingly. And, and there's that brilliance in the acting and the writing. But the real brilliance and Bill Lancaster's script is he will, he will set up the most ridiculous thing and then punctuate it with a moment of humor so that you're allowed to let off a little bit of the tension. So when the spider has just suddenly everybody's just seeing you know, the doctor get his arms cut off the head gets chopped off all of that stuff. And then the spider head and I don't think it's Kurt Russell character. No, one of them is like, what the fuck was that?

Eric:

We've talked about that before where he just goes straight serious all the time eventually kind of exhausted. But that there's not a lot of humor in the film, but there's enough good spattering of it. So yeah, that's Yeah, you

Vanessa:

need that release. You absolutely need that release and I think you do see it in in also in a lot of Carpenter films not just in Lancaster but like in a lot of his stuff. You do get those moments I even just thinking of like things like Christine where you're just like, that's so stupid or funny or whatever.

Eric:

There's a lot of humor in in the mouth of madness, but with the weird lady with her, that's putting all that stuff

Kelly:

right one of my other memories Just thinking how brilliant Lancaster was when he wrote this as at one point, I think it's the doctor who is saying, you know, this is what I think's happening. And he basically lays out exactly what's happening. And if you left it there, you as an audience member would be like, okay, really, that's how you're going to tell us what's going on. But he then has the next character say something so ridiculous As for what he thinks is going on. You know, everybody just looks at him and you remember that part of them looking at him? Like what a fucking dumb ask you like. Now this other idea doesn't sound so. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. All right. I don't even know why I'm doing this with you guys. You could tell that bigger boat you need to get Vanessa. I need a bigger one. The the number one most influential film in my life has been jaws from 1975. My mom to do it when I was six years old. Billing me for swimming. or doing anything around water. A couple of little numbers. Budget$7 million.

Eric:

Boy, I knew that already. But still always blows me away when you hear it? Yeah, box office $471 million. And 75.

Kelly:

Tomatoes is 98% on this, which makes me wonder who are the 2% who gave this a fail as a movie? Yeah.

Eric:

And what what possible reasoning? I that's fun to do. I love going to like Amazon every once when I went on board or rotten tomatoes or something and finding the shitty reviews for really, really good films. Right? And I've yet to read one of those they go. No, that's a really good point.

Kelly:

Yeah, I just wonder who could watch this film and then go, Oh, boy, that sucks. Steven Spielberg. Yeah. Drop. Everyone knows this is the greatest film of all time. It has nothing to do with the shark. It has everything to do with the characters that are hunting and then being hunted by the shark. The film opens with a pretty terrifying night scene of a skinny dipping woman being attacked by a shark. And she's brutally dragged across the screen in a moment that you're just like, holy shit. I don't want this to go on any longer than this. Turns out she was being hurt in real life, but it looked like she was being hurt. It's, it's super scary. I don't think you get a stronger opening in a film than this. And it's hard to watch 40 years later, and it's a PG film.

Vanessa:

Is There Really?

Kelly:

Yes. Oh my god. The rest of the first day walks you through the characters of Sheriff Brody, his family in the town of Amity. And you get to see the relationship between him and his wife and the problems that he's facing as sheriff, including at the beginning. If you remember how he shows up at the office and the Secretary says, you know, she gets off the phone and she says how the the local martial arts kids are. They've been called in because they've been karate being the picket fences. And it's such a throwaway line. Absolutely. Let's you know what his life as Sheriff is on. And when the shark victim is discovered, and Brody calls in help in the form of Hooper and Quint, we see another little twist. We get to see when Murray Hamilton as the mayor fights Brody unclosing, the beach and all these are ugly little scenes of politics and institution and really skewers what's going on there. Even between Quint and the town, and and Hooper when he shows up and quant and all of this stuff. It's a film about characters and male bonding masculinity, toxic and otherwise, fear and honor. And finally, it is a horror movie. But it is after all of those things a horror movie. But when it decides to go horror goes all the way. The head of the dead man popping out from behind the underwater boat. And the shark's head appearing behind Brody as he swung Chairman to the water are two of the greatest jumpscares in cinema. And they still work. My sister for the 40th anniversary took me to the theater to watch it. And we sat there in a packed theater. And when those scenes happen, she jumped again. I was like, wow, I mean, now I've seen this movie roughly 1000 times. So I knew what was going on and I just sat there you know grinning from ear to ear being able to see it on a gigantic streaming it but she was fucking terrified through the whole movie. So I loved that.

Eric:

Please tell me I'm working through the full audience. He didn't get any of those like smart ass people.

Kelly:

Oh no, this was all such as Sam calm to finish the horse stuff. The shark eating Quint, as it thrashes about on the sinking Orca is just prime monster movie territory. That thing is so scary looking, partly because it doesn't quite look like a shark. Yeah. Everything the camera direction the sound the music, of course, acting on the script, a pitch perfect, resulting in a movie that was so damn good. That audience flocked to see it when it was released in the summer, typically the time when the studio's dropped their worst movies. So this along with George Lucas's American Graffiti a couple years earlier, set the standard for the Hollywood summer blockbuster, a feat Spielberg and Lucas would continue to do year after year, sometimes together, sometimes apart for the next 10 or so years. This is the movie that made people really realize, Oh, why are we holding back they thought, summertime, nobody wants to go to the movies. Hmm. So they put all their big movies, you know, think about like the release of The Godfather. And sure enough, it was all you know, in the restaurant when you wouldn't want to stay inside. So I just love this movie. This is this is a human movie. It's not a monster movie,

Eric:

the icon level of the film. I think it's full of things that I guarantee you a bunch of 20 somethings say and do but they don't really even know they're referencing, right. Like the music cues and the the mayor showed up all over the place when the COVID lockdowns and stuff started to happen. And those scenes with him can't close the beach on Fourth of July. I mean it's it's a cultural tentpole way beyond just most films can ever possibly imagine. And yeah,

Kelly:

the the politician who won't shut them down something has become its own trope in horror films now.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Kelly:

But you know, that started here with this. It's just it's just a perfect movie, I think. Now have having seen sorcerer, finally, just a couple weeks back, watching Roy Scheider, and that I was like, Oh, okay. She's always just been amazing. Yeah. But, you know, prior to that of my, and I know you love them and all that jazz, but my old Roy Scheider thing has been French Connection and jazz. Sure. So I guess I just didn't realize that he was fucking amazing. And everything

Eric:

was all that jazz and blue thunder. The thunder is fun, for sure. even know what that? Is it racing early 80s movie about, they took two or three technologies that were available and put them all in one helicopter. So we actually has this stealth helicopter, which is fairly standard now, at the time. wasn't actually something that existed. And it's a cop movie, basically, who just happens to have a super helicopter.

Kelly:

Tell me tell me how much you love. seaquest DSV that's why you know,

Vanessa:

I do think I watch seaquest as a kid, but

Unknown:

yeah,

Vanessa:

uh, ya know, it's funny. I actually, don't I keep trying to think of when the last time I saw jaws was. And I knew I saw it in a double belt with jaws and jaws to with my mom when I was like, 15 or 16. I don't know. I've seen it since then. My few good phonearena Oh, yeah.

Kelly:

I yeah, I visit it fairly often. As you can tell. I even like jazz till I don't love it. Yeah, but

Vanessa:

if you had a baby, right? That's why there are two is like a mama. And that's kind of all that sticks out to me. Yeah, pretty stupid.

Eric:

I had a couple honorable mentions. Please do throw out real quick. I'll just kind of run through them real quick. But Dracula films. There's actually two of them. There's hammer. And then there's also the Langella. Franklin gela Films the crap out of me when I saw it as a kid, and it's still tense a couple scenes that are surprisingly, the underground bit with the

Kelly:

Yeah, it's just like Jesus. Yeah, I love that film. That's Um, also, john Williams did the score for that and that is my favorite, believe it or not really very good. Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Eric:

And then Amityville Horror, oh my gosh, because I really was fascinated by that film, and the real life story that went with it. And I remember seeing them go on TV and admit that they've made it up and that crushed my little, you

Kelly:

know,

Eric:

Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Just love the concept of the story of losing self and Evil Dead. Yeah, just because it was a solo budget and I know it does not after That to an army of darkness and all that it. It now plays I'm sure like if you watched it at 25 now it's going to be a flat comedy. Almost. But at the time, it was a scary friggin movie. Yeah, it came out as flat horror and worked great, but had no money.

Vanessa:

I do have one that was kind of I was kicking around as potentially one of mine. So I have to mention it. Even though everyone kind of groans

Eric:

when I do. Okay, get ready. Hold on. All right.

Vanessa:

Cloverfield.

Eric:

So I'm, I'm middle of the road on that one.

Vanessa:

No, I knew I love disaster films. And there was always that seed in there for me. And I think it really was the moment where I was so embracing the monster movie at like the absolute height and just accepting it and accepting my own love of it. I went saw it, I think at a I want to say it was a mostly empty theater Cinerama, with my best friends. I think it was take like,

Eric:

little motion sickness pills.

Vanessa:

No, actually, I think it helped that it was on the bigger screen. I think it stabilized it a bit. Because Yeah, I didn't remember it being nauseating at all. And I was really surprised when people said that it was like, I mean, I guess it moved around a bit. But you know, when you're like, one, one 20th the size of the screen or whatever. It felt, I don't know, it felt enormous and exciting. And I yeah, I came out, I remember coming out and looking out at Seattle and all the buildings and just going there can be a giant thing walking through here. And the scale of it just was so fantastic for me. So for a long time, it was one of my favorite movies.

Eric:

I remember seeing that in the theater when Dean and I went, it was packed. And before the movie started, an usher came out this was that this wasn't Cinerama or some cool big theater this was your standard Lincoln square I think at the time and guy came out okay, we've had a lot of complaints about this film making people sick and not feel good. So I have a couple recommendations the simple one is close your eyes for a little while and it's past or if you need to get up and leave we will be able we will providing refunds if the movie makes you ill.

Vanessa:

Oh my god. Wow. What a what a glowing endorsement.

Kelly:

Jesus I I like this movie fine. I think it suffers from my main problem with all found footage especially when we're asked to believe that an editor then got this footage and whatever you know, what was his what was his orders when he got the footage?

Eric:

make this an interesting movie don't just show us the monster so we can we want this broken into three x structure Bob

Vanessa:

chronological order it's in chronological order.

Kelly:

And look I know that we just want to see footage of the monster but if there's a love story in there you can add a solid mitek to twist what did we find?

Vanessa:

Why the knight never bothered me? Not once I was never ever like how weird that they would like put this together that you would never see the monster in it or you know any of these things I was just like yeah

Kelly:

I like the gimmick but I really like it when people pay attention to the reality of what this would have to be yeah troll Hunter. Oh,

Vanessa:

right, right. Yeah, I mean I just saw troll hunter way after I saw this movie and it was I don't know like found footage hadn't become I don't know I felt like in 2008 it wasn't as big of a gimmick as maybe it was but I was willing Yeah, I

Eric:

was gonna say you missed a lot of movies been between The Blair Witch in 2008 because there was a craft on a garbage paid

Vanessa:

it's very possible I mean, I moved back to I would temporarily for part of a year move back to the US in 2008. So there's very possible like a bunch of stuff that I just never saw in that year okay

Eric:

though that's there weren't a lot of masterpiece inspired so making

Kelly:

no well. I narrowed my list down to the tight five okay with one being a tie so I don't have their extra so yes, six.

Vanessa:

I should mention one more which is just her normal activity. Could not feel his favorite movie of the year. So I on a screen maybe 12 inches by 12 inches big. Tiny. scooted right up and close to it on VHS.

Eric:

Oh geez. Yeah.

Vanessa:

And sat right next to it. Or maybe it was TV I don't know. But it was a tiny us OLED TV with rabbit ears. Like just so we could watch it because there were so it was middle of the day. Like up in the loft that I was living in a Victorian Victorian attic and Watching it no big deal birds outside bees humming around sunshine blue sky. And I just totally was like, yeah, there's no way it's gonna scare me right now. And I was just so sucked in and so scared I could not sleep for some like four months. So it's a demon again and Vanessa and also my bedroom in this Victorian attic was structured in such a way that it had a kind of setup similar to the bedroom there. So every time I was in bed, I just kept thinking I could not let my foot lay out because there was a set of like little stairs right next to the foot of the bed. And all I can imagine something grabbing my ankle and dragging me down. I could just could not it was it's so stupid. Bill, but for me it anyway, you're saying you're so

Kelly:

what's the deal? I'm gonna do. Okay, that

Eric:

I have a great theater experience with that film. Partially because the audience was scared enough that it helps be scarier. Yeah, but the very end The end moment with the big scare. Some lady jumped up out of her seat yell I've had enough and ran out of the theater a sure she was

Kelly:

angry. No, no, she

Eric:

was scared. She was just down the aisle from me. So I'd see. You know, the corner of my eye. I watched her the whole movie being all tucked in. And oh, my God.

Unknown:

That's so good.

Eric:

Kelly's opinion of the film is very, very different.

Vanessa:

I was ready to think it was stupid. And I disarmed me to the point where it leg got to me. It crawled its way in.

Kelly:

I took a girl to that. And at the end, I was like, I can't believe I just spent 18 fucking dollars on watching the door move but but this does explain something you mentioned earlier, which is you being terrified to film yourself while you're asleep.

Vanessa:

That is a part of it. And also I'd already been scared of that because of like aliens.

Kelly:

Right? Then that fear feeds into your experience.

Vanessa:

Anything who God only knows what could be going on? Could be anything could be me standing up and walking around back to that one. Sure. To this phone, I was like I could just be walking around. And mostly God knows.

Kelly:

Julian right into the mic because I am what you call a professional you guys. Yeah. Hey, before I forget to mention Eric, correct me if I'm wrong, but this is Episode 100.

Eric:

We forgot to mention that at the beginning of the episode. This is our big episode.

Vanessa:

This is why we're doing it this way. Maybe even.

Kelly:

So yeah, we made it 200 fucking episodes. That's pretty cool.

Vanessa:

What you guys did? Well,

Eric:

technically, it's not. Because there's I clipped off a lot of our and restarted numbering at some point. structure. Right. So we've done more than willing,

Kelly:

because I also had many episodes down.

Eric:

But this is our 100th official. Be the third

Kelly:

episode 100. Off you guys, right. I'm sorry.

Vanessa:

I can't believe it. I mean, that's amazing. Thank you guys for sticking with us.

Kelly:

And just to make things even more confusing, we're not going back to our regular scheduled programming next week. No, we are going to do a countdown of 2020 films. That's right, the top 400

Eric:

where each candle is 400 Films should be about two days.

Vanessa:

which I know is confusing because it's so this airs on yours.

Eric:

This one yes.

Vanessa:

Yeah. But that just means we're excited to rock in 2021 with you by just looking at the past and just missing and can do a job

Kelly:

of 2020 now cuz there's still four days left. And anyway,

Vanessa:

you're right. You're right. God knows what's gonna happen the next four days.

Kelly:

I have my screen. Oh, we've been jamming in as many movies as we can. Right.

Eric:

That's Yes, that's what I've been doing. Yeah, everything I talked about before the topic was 2020.

Kelly:

Right. So I think that the way we'll do this is, we'll talk about a bunch of films that came out in 2020. And then in the second half of the program, we'll go to our top five of 20. And so there may be some crossover. There may not be We'll see. I

Vanessa:

can't wait to find out what you guys thought was your Tom.

Kelly:

I know that I've got a couple on there that you guys are not going to have on your ticket. I feel like we're talking genre films though. Right? And yeah, so

Eric:

I've actually been doing flat horror if you've got a sci fi or something you want to throw in I'm I

Vanessa:

think I'm sticking to genre. Yeah.

Kelly:

Well, all right, as usual, thanks. Everybody, for all the kind words, we hope you had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everybody if you're listening on drop day. This has been, this has been a rough year for everybody. And for you know, some of our listeners, we know for sure I'm having a rough year. So hope everybody's hanging in there. We sure appreciate you guys. And I hope that you're getting something out of this.

Eric:

Yeah, the frustration level sometimes I feel when I look at our downloads is offset by the fact of how much some of you like listening to us, and how much it means and we don't give ourselves many breaks. doing a show I don't know if we've ever had a week off and this 100 episodes where we haven't had a show not

Vanessa:

since I started. You guys have never had a time off of there have been ones I've done from afar, but which is fine. I'm not complaining. I think it's great.

Eric:

But okay, there's two things that make this worth doing. Sitting here at the table with the three of us. All three of us doing it is number one and the other thing that may do and it's a close one a is that people that listen and give a shit about what does dorks have to say about so thank you very much for occasionally giving me something you know what? I focus on something and not have to think about whatever is going on. So

Kelly:

love it. Yeah, wow, this

Eric:

just got really creepy. But anyway, you should see what I'm doing to the microphone right now.

Unknown:

Boy. You've gone

Kelly:

Okay, so we'll be back in one week we are kicking off 2021 with the best of 2020. Our show is recorded somewhere high above Naval Station Everett at the nexus of all realities, and is engineered and produced by Eric Margaret. Our theme music is Strange Aeons part one by the band is usually from fine Strange Aeons radio on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, wherever find podcasts