165 THAT'S ALL, FOLK HORROR!

165 THAT'S ALL, FOLK HORROR!

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I'm sorry, did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition such sigh sights to show you strange aeons. Welcome to strange aeons radio. That is Eric over there. Hello, Vanessa over there. Hi. And I am not Kelly. I am Tony. I will be filling in for Kelly. Now we've got Tony in here today and he's in Kelly spot. Sure you guys have a lot of questions. Is there anything you'd like to address Vanessa or not? No, I don't want to talk about it. Okay, um, but I will say, Tony, you are such a ray of sunshine. Oh, it's so nice to have you here with us. And in the hot seat. I really appreciate it. It's my pleasure. I'm always happy to jump in where needed. And nothing makes me happier than talking about horror movies anyway, and we're going to be hitting full core today, which I'm looking forward to talking about. Let's actually get to one of my favorite segments of strange aeons which is what have you been watching slash reading lately? Well, I'll go first. And so I went to the theater and saw I know the in the theater with human beings sat there had popcorn and everything, and I went and saw the Batman. Ah, what's your take? Okay, well, alright, so I assumed it was going to be very bad from the trailer and I had zero enthusiasm. And I loved it. Wow, it is one of the best Batman movies I've seen. Wow. Yeah, that was unexpected. I agree. Regarding the trailer, I was very, I was very nonplussed by the trailer, because well, and it's something that I think you guys even talked about this on an earlier episode. One of the things that is like one of the most annoying trailer cliches for me is a is the slowed down folky version of a cover song. Yeah, by a famous rock band. And in this case, it's nirvana. Yep. And, you know, over lots of like, you know, slow motion dissolve, splashing water and you know, perfect brooding cheekbone guy and all that. So it's nice to hear that there's something more to it than a bad trailer. I'm silly. I never had a problem with the casting of Pattinson in that because I think he's either way gone way beyond any. proving he's a good actor. is a pretty good Batman. Well, there's the guys who are really good as Batman. And then there are the guys who are really good as Bruce Wayne. Yeah, sometimes it has been a one or two that are good or both. Does he have a leaning? He? Yes, so most people play Bruce Wayne as like a millionaire Playboy like suave. Has it all together. Bruce Wayne. This is messy. Bruce Wayne. This is early Batman where his outfit isn't he's like duct tape some shit together. It doesn't function all the way correctly. Like he most people are just making fun of him as he's going out and doing the thing he's doing because it's a new thing to Gotham and he's not good at it and he doesn't have the right reasons to be doing what he's doing. So he's just pissed and he's angry and he is actually the Kurt Cobain Nirvana references very apt because that's what it feels like it feels like a guy who like slams the door goes into his room turns off all the lights on full blast crying about the loss of Kurt like this is who he is like he's got smeared eyeliner and be like quite emo Batman he's I mean a little bit but not like soft he's definitely not soft like he has some of the best fighting sequences I've seen again because he gets hurt every time he punches somebody you're like God that you I feel it I feel how much energy is in this I really good I think the best of the current superhero movies have been drawing from a lot of kind of more visceral almost 70 style action and it sounds like yeah, what follows suit with that it does and I like to throw a rough edges that this guy is duck literally duct taping stuff together. It's unreal. Yeah, there's there's a moment I hope you both get to see it. There's a moment a moment with a costume malfunction. That is Oh, it's so good and so bad, but it overall it felt a lot more like a mix of Tim Burton and film noir and the actual comics, like the actual like pages of it. The way that Batman is structured rather than the cinematic Hollywood version. So it just really spoke to me as a comic fan, as well, by my one this week, one of the ones I'm talking about was not quite as good of an experience, sir. I finally saw the new scream. Fun, I despise it as much as Kelly did. I am not a scream hater by any means. I really like the first one, I think the first one borders on for the time revolutionary and what it did for the world of horror and the ability to continue to have horror films made with any kind of a budget. Or to have horror books sections in Walden books and stuff. I mean, it did a lot more than a lot of people realize. However, that shtick of being self aware, has almost gone to the point of its parody annoying now in the world of social media, because all the stupid cracks people say, when there's any kind of a giant event going on, that someone doesn't happen to be interested in, they got to make some stupid crack, like, oh, something's going on. And there's just this weird awareness of the world or pretending you're not aware of the world. And learning about it has been done to death. Yeah. And they really, really needed to advanced the advanced the storytelling concept of this movie, and they didn't. And it just, it was really disappointing. So this is like so this is like the the meta 21st century equivalent of let's shoot that zombie in the chest. Let's shoot it in the arm. Let's shoot it in the stomach. Let's shoot it in the head shot in the head. Yeah, we're that we're at that level of, you know, redundancy. And we need to move on. Yes, yeah. Yeah. No, we need to we do know what's going on. Yes, we need to understand it. We do understand it. Exactly. Yeah, the the best people in it were the people that were in the original ones. Some of the new people they brought in were not somewhere good, but some are not very good. And it's just I don't know, it was just by the end. I was just like, Well damn, yeah, I found the lead. intolerably irritating. Her sister was great. The boyfriend was fine. You know, the friends were okay. But like that lead. I was like, why? You suck, dude. Just stop the camera every time the cameras on or I'm like, let's just see where where someone else's. What are they up to? Yeah, they can surreal. Yeah, they see that? It was it was it had a couple good moments of things I enjoy, especially in a super low budget movie. You see it all the time. Where there's movie posters on the background? It's a little weird to say in a movie of this budget. But that like the scene in the living room when they're all trying to talk about oh, maybe it's you. Maybe it's you. We're all friends. It's always a friend. Right? Like, I'm looking around going, Oh, just somewhere that one post? I think I know what? I'm not paying attention. Yeah, that's bad. There's something wrong with the filmmakers when you're looking at what's on the wall and what's going on? Ah, well, the newest thing that I've seen actually, was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake that is currently streaming on Netflix have seen. I you know, I don't think I despised it as much as Kelly did. It's not a good movie, per se. But I was expecting something straight up dreadful. And what I got was not, in my opinion, straight up dreadful. I mean, I respected their attempt to update it. And I thought the one stick that is in the trailer with there's a large attack on a bus basically. And then, you know, a whole fleet of kids on this bus of influencers. They raised their cell phones in unison as leather face pairs to cut them all down. And they, they say okay, well, you know, you're totally going to get canceled if you touch this bro. And that that I thought was pretty hysterical. I I mean, that was you know, that was that was like the apex of the movies cleverness. I did feel like most of the characters, actually, for the most part didn't do dumb movie character things I'd say at least 75% of the time. It was like what they were doing sort of felt like it made sense in the context of panic and, and horror. I did like the fact that it does ascribe to the official horror movie rule, which is that anyone can die at any time. Because it did a reasonably good job of manipulating you into thinking, Oh, this is the person we're going to hang our hat on as the hero and then boom, they're gone. That happens about three times in the movie. That said, it's also really super heavy handed in places. I mean, you guys talked about some of this. And I just I'm kind of over You know, the horror goes on? endings, you know? It's like, oh, yeah, whatever. You know. I mean, it's Yeah, exactly. I mean, if it's, you know, if it's done elegantly it can, you know, it can be like, riveting and make you go, Oh my God, I want to see the next one. Otherwise, you just roll your eyes and I solidly rolled my eyes at the end of this one for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was. I think the thing it did best was the violence. The key thing. I mean, it's a horror film, so expect violence. And it did have its first massacre. And yeah, oh, God. That's right. Absolutely. I it was just, it was kinda like Scream just kind of disposable. Yeah, I that's the thing, too. I, I It's funny, because as I'm talking about it, I'm trying to summon up memories of the movie, and there's not a lot that's sticking out of that scene. And the very end, there were some things that I tried that didn't work. I mean, I'm not, I'm not, I adore Marilyn burns. I think she was wonderful and perfect in the first movie. I like the idea of Sally Hardesty coming back as a law enforcement officer, you know, with like, you know, enemy was an obvious nod to the whole Jamie Lee Curtis Post Traumatic Stress Disorder thing that she goes through in the 2018 Halloween, but at the same time, I appreciated that and I, I didn't see it as disrespectful, which I think a lot a lot of people were actually complaining about how horribly disrespectful they thought it was to have another actress besides Marilyn burns playing this character. And I'm like, what? Yeah, I don't so much ascribe to that. If the movie would have been better, it would have been nice. But, you know, say lovey, I mean, it was it was a it was an amiable hour and 20 minutes, and it grossed me out. And it made me laugh once or twice. And I have officially forgotten three quarters of it. Literally, in the last two days. High phrase. So, in preparation for today, I so much like Eric, I bought that box that from Severan. All the hot spares. Yes. It's such I mean, I've got like I've only got a couple of box sets. And that's right there with my Friday the 13th. So good. Um, and that's the all the haunts be ours. And it comes with a special documentary, which I know is also available on shutter which is and they're actually streaming most of the movies that are on that box. They are woodlands dark and days bewitched. So I watched this documentary. I was like almost crying by the end, because it was so painful to keep sitting through it real long, it's so long. And I was like, there's so there's like chapter sections. Have you seen this? Tony? No, I haven't. I've heard it's very well, I think it's like three hours long. It's three hours long. Yeah, which was already bad, because I was just very tired. And I just wanted to go to bed. Anyway, probably not the best time or experience you had where you're going? Well, and this is, this could be the greatest movie I've ever seen. But I just wanted to end. I mean, I also think it wasn't like I was having a really hard time paying attention there. There's like five segments to it, where it's breaking up different kinds of full core, but they're both too loose. And to, I don't want to say specific, but it feels like odd random categories to try and loop everything together. And a lot of them would have a lot of the films, they talk about what have overlapped into those other categories. And so it's sort of arbitrary to an extent. And at one point, you're like, why aren't you talking about this? Oh, it's because it's gonna be under your like foreign films or your American films or your whatever this is. I think it just, it was just very long. And it it tried to make for a very, very, very big, loose genre, which meant they had to talk about everything. Oh, sure. The documentary they produce the same company produced had that problem as well, when they're talking about, like Tales from the Crypt kind of anthologies and followed. Yeah, yeah. And then it's full of really interesting things. I wish I'd watched it in 20 or 30 minute blocks. Yeah, totally. Like, it's like, too solid. Yeah, I have that one as a tails of the uncanny. It's what it's called. And yeah, it's got a lot of interesting information, a lot of insightful commentary from some very interesting people in front of behind the camera and writers about horror, but it, it feels a little dry. And with that one, you can kind of understand mechanically, why it does in a way because it's all done. I mean, so much. It was done at the height of the pandemic. So it's done via zoom, you know, you've got a lot of zoom interviews. So it feels a little bit. You know, it feels a little bit less distance, but or a little bit more distance, I should say. Yeah, yeah. I think all the people in this they were definitely interesting people and the films they're mentioning were, were interesting, but they start off with like, The most obvious stuff. And then the really good sections are like near the end. And I was like, Oh, good, you're finally going to talk about something I haven't seen. Great. Now there were two and a half hours. And I was like, why couldn't you do this a little sooner guys, or I don't know. I you know, it's interesting because Carolyn Chanel, she's the person who directed and wrote the documentary. I think she's a she is an outstanding horror journalist. She's written a terrific book called House of psychotic women, which discusses the role of women in the horror film and a lot of female stereotypes and horror. And she's done I think a couple of other like, supplemental documentaries for Severan so I was you know, and it sounds from what you're telling us Vanessa, it sounds like this really probably would have been served better as like maybe a like a limited series almost yeah episode I think so a limited series or you know, like maybe one piece of it per desk or something some way Yes, I was just thinking because I think it's a seven produce as well I think the main seven guys one of the producers and they do phenomenal documentaries that they put on all the time but this might have been one that would have been hey, let's watch these now that you've watched all the movies let's watch the rest you know some break apart Oh Well yeah, but I do still definitely watch it I absolutely and i i that that particular box set has been at the top of my want list for a while but they keep on putting out these other great ones that are like not quite as expensive so I end up Yeah, them so now I'd like way behind and I you know I'm at the point right now where I know that if I'm going to get one of these I need to get it from the label themselves because I got burned when I tried to get an L Adamson box at the seven l Adamson box that from an outside seller. I bought it but the copy was defective. Oh yeah. So yeah, so I sent it so I sent it back they've promptly refunded me but the last that was right, that was like after it it sold out like right after it completely sold. That was actually one of the kickoffs for me starting to become buying way too many again so interest Oh, he's cool these boutique labels you end up buying shit that you never ever in a million years thought you would bother with buying just got my Caligula to buy the other day. Well as a as a Bruno Matej completus Yes. Which Yes, you know where we are brothers in our love of Bruno for sure. In fact, I'm wearing right now I'm wearing a rats nights of terror t shirt. Nice if you my level of absorption when there that's one popped up on saffron is killing me. I don't know since he like something. Oh, she don't have a taste and this. Well, the second part. The second one is directed by Joe de moto. So it's like a you know, you've got a mini rogue's gallery of like two observing Yeah, two of the trashiest of the trashy Italian ordering of trashy movies. Yes. And not in a good way. Sorry to say either if you heard of sin eater, very new just came out like two weeks ago. No, no, this is a really interesting idea that did one incredibly strange giant choice that kind of ruined the entire movie hmm it would have been a fine low budget kind of release he then it starts off with an the lead getting in a car accident and having to be taken care of by a local guy who somehow she ends up staying at his house which I kind of miss but that's not the real problem. The real problem Hey, she's been a car accident we need to give her major injury What should we do? Let's so her jaw shut way the entire movie she has her jaw sounds shut so she talks are Dersch three call to understand her and you can understand her while she's in damn near every scene. Oh no. One point they give her a little thing to type on to translate what she says out loud and that helps some but people get annoyed with don't use that just talk to me I'm like no use that by all means use that oh my god so I'm figuring and I'm going to ruin the end of this movie because don't watch it I'm not interested as is so so please spell the it ends with and I'm finger okay this is going to lead to some horrific giant strange because it's kind of religious based demon summoning thing and our jaws gonna tear apart and something you know that was gonna happen. Well, I was halfway correct on that what happened is the demon possesses her and says something like I'm tired of talking this way. So they actually have a fairly well done where she the demon pulls open the Metal Gear holding her teeth together and then proceeds to kind of talk like they left the gear inside the mouth. just had the actress talk. That's kind of like Ah ha ha ha ha oh my god awful it was say, Wow, there is us I did did did you hate this actress? Because you wanted to punish her for did she get in an accident and had to actually have her choice sewn shut and I understand budget you gotta go you gotta go so you're odd I just I was stunningly Strange choice. It's like man man in the iron mask all over again it's like don't cast and one of the lead most popular actors of the generation and then put a giant mask mask on him for like most three quarters now. Exactly. But they they miked him correctly, though, so it didn't sound like Oh, Trail, which this lady did. I was like, Oh, wow, this is so mean. She was trying so hard. And I've got nothing on the lady who is sewn shot. I just like, what writer or director that decided. Well, yeah, cool idea. You know, there's, there's coming up with a fresh and innovative angle. And there's, like, that sound that smacks of like, desperation over being able to point in something and say, Look at this fresh and different angle I've come up with, and that's it. And it had nothing to do with senators. Yeah, the concept of what a Sin Eater is was like Does she like do they force feed her son through the tube now? Gotta get past those those those wires in the mouth, you gotta like really get it in there somehow. Yeah, but instead of the proper sin eater, you know, somebody who came and ate the Senate, the dead, they sort of portrayed it as like a ritual or something. Maybe there's a version of sin eater. I don't know. It's perfectly plausible. But it's this. For some reason, I don't know what I saw or what I read. I had this marked on my calendar for this movie. I mean, you're so excited. Like what the hell but I see that maybe, right. Oh, well, it's pretty catchy title. It is a great, great title. I'm sure. Well, it's definitely not as good as the late 60s acid trip movie, The acid eaters. And I'm sure it's nothing compared to any of the four or five Snake Eater movies that were made with. Definitely not. Yeah, we need a few. We need a few fisticuffs going down. That's right. So one of the other things that I watched was I recently picked up the vinegar syndrome blu ray of trauma, which is a 1994 Dario Argento film. I think, you know, everyone here is appreciative of Dario Argento. It's widely acknowledged that pretty much everything he's done after opera in 1987 has been like a varying degree of sucking. He hasn't done a great movie, really in 35 years, which is a little depressing, but he keeps plugging away and, you know, I, I'm a hardcore fan. I watch I've watched everything he's done. I thought most of everything that he's done, I always see something interesting something at least one flash of awesomeness in the movies. And I saw I went into I bought trauma because I'm close to an Argento completest and I hadn't seen it in ages. And I gave it kind of short shrift when I first saw it, like, panned and scanned on cable like 20 years ago. And it just didn't. It just didn't land for me. You know, watching it this time around, I was actually pleasantly surprised. It is still don't get me wrong. I mean, I know you guys both are admirers of like the bread and Suspiria it is not top tier Argento by any measure. I mean, it's definitely there's there's a diminishing creative returns, but it's it's kind of a surprisingly solid kind of JLo 2.1. And it's got Tom Savini makeup effects and they're terrific are lots of tasty decapitations and actually, it's kind of I think it was the first leading role that Osya Argento had in one of Dario is one of her father diarios movies and she's really good. She plays anorexic teenager who is who gets who gets embroiled in this this whole situation where there's this this headhunting killer who's running around on cat decapitating people with this really spiffy wire device he throws he throws this kind of steel wire noose around folks next, clicks a button and it automatically retracts and retracts and retracts until it. Oh, so yeah, it's pretty gnarly. It's got a great cast. It's in addition to Ozzie Argento it's got Piper Laurie who is who is another you know, great because it gives another great eccentric middle age, you know, crazy woman performance. And Brad Dorf is in it to be bug eyed and crazy and, and he's awesome too. And it's really it's got some of that kind of visual fluidity and some of that momentum that the best Argento movies have. I mean it's definitely not perfect it kind of it totally like most of his current movies, and even his greatest ones to a lesser extent it goes totally off the rails by the end. And also I will tell folks that your mileage will vary regarding the elder Argento his treatment of his daughter's nude scene here. i There's always you know, I I you know, it's so funny. This is the kind of thing where I was talking to some friends about licorice pizza. Oh sure, which I was really bothered by because it has a hole made sort of semi May December romance with a 15 year old child star, you know, romancing this, you know a woman in her mid 20s You know, like shades of Mary Kay LeTourneau or whatever. But that bothered me but because I'm a huge Argento fan. I was like okay, I'll, I'll go with this because there's only one scene that doesn't super linger. And also, Ozzy is really good in it. She's really really good in it. And Asia. It's I've heard it pronounced both ways. I think she pronounces it Azia but who knows? That's yeah, i But anyway, if you're a fan of Argento and you can stomach a director's camera lingering, lingering a little bit too long on his daughter, one scene. It's a pretty it's a pretty solid effort. It's pretty good Movie Night and the vinegar syndrome print is gorgeous. Oh, that's awesome. I will definitely I will definitely check that out. I've been I'm new to this amazing, weird jello world. And every time I delve back in I'm like, This is crazy. Awesome. You ain't seen nothing yet. Yeah, I've still got to do opera. I've still I mean there's still a few out there that I have not reached but I'm excited. Alright, so I think we're gonna wrap up the what have we seen recently, portion of the podcast and we are going to take a brief commercial break and we will return with folk horror actual experience is something that is impossible to put into words but if we did, those words would be world's first premium in flight music this welcome to fly a festival a transformative journey. Prepare to be transformed an immersive music festival 35,000 feet on WestJet 787 Dreamliner. It's the new one. That's all about social influencers, social social influencers getting down to cool EDM social influencers getting down to cool EDM beats and feeding cute little pigs. Their emotional support animal wire is an experience in the festival Welcome back, strange aeons radio Yes. This is the part we ended up. Take to welcome back to strange aeons radio. We are talking full core and Vanessa, you are going first this is your topic, wasn't it? Yes, absolutely. So shockingly, it seems that strange aeons had not really delved specifically into full bore like we've talked around it but not at it. So because I went ahead and spent all that money on that box that it felt very apt but I have a reason to watch any of them are we go? Yes. And so I went with a kind of tried to look at all the possibilities and I got overwhelmed because there were like 20 movies I want to see, but I settled on 1993 dark waters. Tonight someone something's trying to those who are blind she'll see the true face of the beast and forever suffer it in their soul that's an interesting one. He was a featured at the Lovecraft Film Festival many years. It which makes sense, I didn't realize how Lovecraftian it was gonna be until I start watching him. By the way, this is not the it's not that dark waters, or that other dark dark waters. This is the other other dark water. So for anyone who's confused, and I've seen that movie, let's not go to your Lovecraft on it. Do tell. Yes. So this is a really interesting production. It's a Russian UK, Ukraine, Italian cocoa, cocoa production. It's got a Rotten Tomatoes score of 54% from audience and nothing from critics. There is no budget info that I have at all, which will make sense later. The director and writer is Mariano Bay, Otto piano. He's done nine things. This is actually his only feature otherwise, he's just done shorts. And he's also written 11 shorts as well, which is really too bad because he seems to be a pretty talented dude. The CO writer on this with him was a guy named Andy bark and this is his only credit. He also edited one film called Curran, new Killa corluka. Starring Louise Salter. So these are all well, British and Russian actors across the board but Louise Salter, who's British plays Elizabeth who's been in six things this was her first role. Then she did a bit part in Interview with a Vampire. Did a few episodes of our friends in the north miniseries and then some bit roles and then stopped. Vanessa Simmons who plays a girl named Sarah this is her only credit Marie capitalist as Mother Superior 52 credits lots of Russian films died the year this came out there. There's other people in this but they're it's all Russian. Or this is the only time they like rolled into a set and then love so not gonna go too far into that. The story. It's really I mean it bonkers. It's hella bonkers. This is a very JLo esque, Lovecraftian esque, strange, strange movie. A remote convent leaking badly and in terrible shape. A lot of water just flowing constantly. It's on an island in the middle of nowhere big crashing scary waves, big rocks on the seashore. A little girl is running around and she finds this giant rock amulet with like a demon face on it. She puts it around her neck and runs over to a nun and gives it to the nun and then none climbs up a cliff and just kind of stands there for a long time holding it and I'm not really sure what she's gonna do. And then there's a monster POV which goes up the cliff and then pushes her off. Oh, she is bloody and dashed on the rocks. And the amulet is broken. And then the nuns go and gather all the pieces. 20 years later, the nuns are burying the little pieces of 20 years. 20 years later, wow. The nuns are now I guess, varying the amulet pieces, maybe? I don't know. Maybe they found the last bit. I'm a little confused, frankly. And they're putting them in these little special boxes and they're hiding them in the catacombs that are underneath the convent on the rocky island. I don't know how that works, but I'm going to go with it. So there's a nun, a new young nun who kind of spies on them and sees what's going on and from behind her some He has a knife, and then she's bloody and hanging over the top of the Catacomb. Waterfall. And blood is boring on Jesus. Anyway, oh, as it happened in Italy, I guess, slash Russia slash the Ukraine. So after the death of her father, we follow the character Elizabeth, who is making a treacherous journey to this convent, she's received a letter from her friend, a young man, wonder who that could have been. She's been invited to come and visit. She's also going because for some other reason, there's a second connection to this place, which is that her father was secretly giving money to it for years. And now that he's passed away, she wants to understand why he's been giving money to it. And how come he didn't tell her about this. So she endures this really weird bus ride where there's a bunch of like, Ukrainian hillbilly people on it. Like one guy just has spiders crawling over his hands, and then it coming in and out of his sleeve. It's very, very weird. And categorized. Yeah, she then gets to a very rainy Dark Town, where there is an old man with a boat, and she tries to give him much money to, like, bury her out to this place. And he's like, No, because I don't want to die. And she gives him more money and goes still No, I still don't want to die. I'll see you next week when the waters are calm. And then another fisherman is standing in the dark. And he goes, Oh, take Yeah. So the longest. It's long as my pockets are full of money. It don't matter if a fish is eating out my eyeball. Apparently is not afraid to die. So they take the fish out the bottom of the ocean so long as money. US dollars. So which is weird, because I'm like, you're British and you're in Russia slash Ukraine and you're giving us doll? It's fine. So they go on the ship and randomly what they keep calling it a freak, which has got a guy who's mostly nude with like, big black eyes. I'm glad you said eyes you over there, um, is he starts eating raw fish on the deck and the guy the the 30 mins like, yeah, we need that for reason. He's He's here to protect us from something I don't ever really understand why, but it's fine. He's there. So she gets to the island. And the nuns are like, Oh, God, there's a person here. We definitely didn't murder somebody like 15 minutes ago. They quickly get her into the mother superiors office. And they're like, Wow, you made it on time. That's weird. She's like, I keep my appointments, which is extremely exciting. And she says, You know, I need to understand why you're getting all this money and what reason I should continue to give it to you. And they're like, Well, you can have full access to our library here and our rituals, strange as they might be, and we'll put you up in a room and you can hang out sounds good. Please keep giving us money. And she gets back to her room and they give her an assistant, this girl named Sarah, who's about her same age. And she finds everyone's packing up all her clothes and putting them in a bag and walking off with it. She's like, Excuse me, that's not acceptable. And they're like, when you're here, you don't you give up everything that you brought with you. You can only have this burlap sack dress. So now she's in a burlap sack dress. Sarah and her bond have like a little bit of a girls night and she reveals that Elizabeth was actually born on this island and that her mother had died giving birth to her here. So she has an additional reason for wanting to be here and figuring out the truth behind the strange place. Elizabeth begins the next day to explore around the convent the catacombs. She's checking out a book at the library that has a bunch of demon stuff in it and doesn't find it strange at all. She just starts reading aloud how there's this demon who causes blindness to anyone who sees it and just tells us all about it. It's very exciting. Then she sees some nuns through like a hole in the wall. This is a really Dickert decrepit place. are we hitting dense flotation turf now this is super nonsolicitation Well, there is a lot of none action oh man in this movie. I wouldn't say sexy, just lots of guns all over. So she sees them carrying a body and so she starts to follow them down into these catacombs. Which they almost look like what are those cave structures that have stalactite? Yeah, it looks like that. So it looks like a very rough, dangerous, wet surface. She's following them down and she kind of puts together somehow without anything else, that the body that they're carrying is her friend. And then she ends up ends up in this place where there's this blind man Who's like insane in a pit. And he's like running around going murmur. And she falls into the pit on accident and Sarah grabs her through a secret door and saves her. There are now in the art storage room where they discover. I know I wish i There's no reason for any of this. So just think of the nationalities that put money into this. The one that's like rising to the top here is the Italian This is outside. Yes, that's so like crazy. batshit nuts Italian. The writer director is Italian like, yeah, not surprised. Yeah, absolutely. And it's like the financing and strangeness of what they were able to shoot for what they shot was the Russian Ukraine side because that's where they were shooting everything. So everything is very haphazard and dangerous. Looking for a good reason. They discover a painting with two little girls holding that same demon amulet that we saw at the beginning. And then suddenly, sir, is like, Oh, I gotta go for a sec. Hold on. And Elizabeth is then of course attacked by a nun. Oh, who tries to choke her with a chain. They wrestle and and the nun falls out the window of the bell tower thingy. But we don't see her die because I think budget splat All right, Elizabeth insists, Okay, I gotta go. I gotta get out of here. We have to call the police, we have to let them know that there are nuns trying to murder me. And there's like, Dude, I'm so sorry. But there's no boats for like a week. And so the next day, they kind of go into hiding for the night. The next day, Elizabeth tries to figure out a way to call for help. She goes to this weird little office on the island that there's a dude chopping up a body of a guy. Clearly a guy you can see the dude's head in the back room. And he's covered in blood. And he's holding the guy like pieces of the dude. And he's like, What do you want? Yeah, can I send a letter? And he's like, Hmm, well, you missed the boat. And she sees the boat has actually left she could have made the boat. So Sarah lied. And she's very upset about Sarah and not about the guy with the holding the other pieces of the other guy throwing it at the seagulls on the beach. seems to be fine. Everything's fine. I don't know who this guy is and why he's dead and why they're chopping up and feeding him to the birds. But it's cool. She says, Can I give you some money? So I can look through the letters because my friend who disappeared might have sent me something. And he says no. And she gives him money. And he says yes, she finds the letter that says don't come here. This place is crazy. And a bunch of stuff happens. So that's an Italian movie. Look. Yeah, so we have a whole bunch of things. We're way more nuns are chasing after her trying to murder her we're not entirely sure why she's having nightmares of little girl covered in blood, which may or may not be flashbacks. She starts eating a bunch of dead fish on the on the ground. Oh, yeah. Like rotting dead fish. Oh, yeah. And so obviously there's something up with this girl. And finally so we get to the reveals, which I feel like I I don't I mean, I don't want to ruin this. But free to not you know just move on if you want to or if it's just so frigging you know how it works here. Sometimes we do sometimes we don't I know. So basically, we we start to understand that Elizabeth is more than what she seems. There is actually a giant creature underneath the convent that it's really hard to tell if the nuns are trying to raise a demon or prevent a demon from rising because they're constantly walking around with burning crosses. And I feel like that's an anti Oh, we Yeah. All over the place like constantly everyone is burning across in this movie shins as somebody who grew up Catholic I'm like that doesn't seem very holy. But the ending of the movie is so confusing that I am not entirely sure that they were anti burn for that. Yeah, they love Jesus so much that they're just gonna carry around that they're using him as a flashlight. Wow, it's incredible in the gym and underneath this space is crazy looking. I mean, they clearly I watched a behind the scenes documentary about this. Apparently it didn't move very well. So they have this again, hole in the wall where you can kind of see this rising like pieces of a creature which just looks very cool and then eventually see the whole thing and it's like a six breasted like Jabba the Hutt style thing. You know, Elizabeth has to make the hard choice of whether to join it or to fight it. And I won't spoil it from there. I'm the bad this movie has really really random sound and music that is not well timed. It is often and stressful over non nothing events where you're just like You're unpacking a suitcase. Why are we going through? Like, it's not that important guys. Um, no one's upset by that guy getting chopped up. At one point, she visits an old lady who helped raise her on the beach. And she yells at her a bunch for lying to her. And then the nuns show up and through a burning cross, of course, into this lady's house, which immediately sets on fire. And Elizabeth bales, like the lady is blind. And she's just like, by you're not going to help the blind woman who helped to raise you get out of the burning, and then you watch the woman, like, get out of the house totally on fire, jump into the water. And Elizabeth is still just there watching. And then she sees her in the water and then walks over and kind of helps holler out and you're like, What is this? You're a horrible human being Elizabeth, I'm not a fan of you. Oh, um, the, it's just, there's a lot of confusion as to what exactly is happening and why. And even afterwards, I think I have a good idea. But this movie has a real structural issue. Tickets got a few structurally it's fun, though. The good things, the set design and art design are beautiful. It is unbelievably gorgeous. This film is just it's a heavy hitter. I looked at the cinematographer and he's done. I mean, he's still working. He's done hundreds of projects. There's lots of really interesting symbology like the the water drowning out Jesus, there's a lot of cool, weird Lovecraftian stuff between the fish and lots of shots underwater and the way that the water is taking over this place all the time. It's just cool. So I would definitely recommend it I did like it I just would say don't expect a story that makes sense. You know, this is actually reminding me a lot of when you were talking about the Church recently on the on the show, which of course coincidentally is an Italian horror movie. That's also batshit nuts which I've seen and I love Yeah, how does it I mean, does it feel like a companion piece to that obviously does it feels like a like what is that they say us? A step sister a beaten up step sister. What are the redheaded stepchild redheaded stepchild Thank you of of the church, it feels almost not more beautiful, but it feels as beautiful at moments the location is actually more interesting than the church even though the church was shot in this stunning Cathedral. But the script is not as strong and the setup is not as strong. So ask yourself a new double features with dark dark waters. There you go with the church 100% that especially with the beginning of the church, it just flows so beautifully in the bath shitness I found a little bit of trivia, which is pretty fun. The tagline for this movie, sometimes evil lurks where you least expected, I'm guessing like a convent. The film was originally based on a short story by Andy bark, and that's why Andy barks inspired by a childhood visit to states in North Yorkshire. Many years later, having worked as an editor on Mariano's film, Courier New Kyla here and saw how it's pronounced. He mentioned he was working on a script called dark waters and he and Mariano began to work on it together. The film, perhaps the first western film to be shot in Ukraine, following the collapse of the USSR, was difficult and troubled. The system, there created many many problems such as having to buy things on the black market, people disappearing with film stock and not appearing with pretty much anything they asked for. Except for one time one guy was like just give me a helicopter because he wanted to see what would happen and they actually did show up with a helicopter. It was a lot of just dealing with the system there. That was not really a system. But it did provide spectacular cheap sets and locations that would have been impossible to get in the United Kingdom. The political situation tried its best to halt the production. In the early days when the finance was being sought by bark and Mariano a coup attempt that saw tanks in the streets of Moscow did not help matters. There was even another coup at the end of filming when Mariano in Moscow, was there for the dubbing and was awoken to gunfire. So it was just a constant like yeah, like things were falling down around them as they were shooting this. Deanna and his crew were faced, were faced with conditions and attitudes which seems to belong to truly different a truly different planet from the language barrier to shooting nearby Chernobyl, which people are like, Oh yeah, it's fine. Go ahead and shoot here. And then later the actress was telling somebody like, oh, yeah, I was just on the road filming this thing in Chernobyl and the woman's face got white and she was like, you might be barren. Now. Yeah, cuz it was so cool. And the actress actually on the behind the scenes said, suck it. I got two kids. It's all right. Everything seemed to conspire against the film ever getting finished. Rushes were watched only once a week that's literally dissolved due to rainfall. His film stock was sold out from under him in the black market. The cast and crew were nearly fixated with a scene involving hundreds of candles in the underground area. Oh, and they only knew how to those lit crosses. The way they were lighting them was wrapping rags around them pouring gasoline on them and lighting them. Oh my Oh, that'll do. Oh, yeah. And they had I mean, it was like a 20 minute walk, I think at least underneath to get to where they were shooting. There was just vodka basically on set the whole time. They they weren't giving giving them food. They were like, Hey, we need to eat and they're like, Oh, we don't we don't feed you until shooting starts. And they'd all gotten there like a week early is odd. We got to figure this out. Holy. Oh. So this was a crazy crazy production. I am shocked. It looks as good as it does. The director didn't do anything after this film from 1993 until 2004. Shockingly, and the film went on to win among other prizes. The prix do public at Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival and fantasy festival in Rome, dark waters was awarded the prestigious special Vincent Price Award, an outstanding contribution to fantastic cinema. So that's my movie. Very I'm intrigued. I you know, I actually own the original standalone blu ray of this. Oh, I have not had a chance to watch it yet. And now I'm chomping at the bit. You got a you got it sounds like a blast. Not the one that came with the big giant disc. And you see that one? The Well yeah, I mean, I don't know. I mean, like a physical it's like, oh, no, no. Yeah, that's that's what that's yeah. I know that. That was a special tchotchke with it, but I just got I just have the disc itself, the blu ray. That's great. Yeah. Cool. Well, that sounds good. So it's, uh, I, I'll go next. Yeah, Dan gets to hear Tony. All right. Well, I, you know, I kind of like to not make things easy for myself sometimes. So in this case, I was like, I've got shutter streaming. I could have watched any one of the dozen movies that are on shutter right now they're on the phone or a box. But I decided to dip back further and go for something that I have loved for probably about 15 or 20 years. It has haunted me like a fever dream, but I actually watched it rewatch it again for the first time for this for this podcast, actually. And this movie is called mystics in Bali. Walk away like that young lady, it's not so easy What's wrong I am the greatest master the queen of the most terrifying Magic, magic. Starting tomorrow shall be my decipher. All right, and now that time is gone. I need to write a few mantras of the app on your skin 1981 Now this is incredible because I did a lot of research and I have never heard of this movie. Well, let me tell you a little bit about it. So I do not have any budget or box office information. Rotten Tomatoes ratings, no reviews from critics 32% from the audience. The movie was directed by h t ute Jaleel. He has 18 credits as a director including Satan's bed, Lady Terminator, which fucking rocks awesome and dangerous seductress. The screenplay is by Jimmy Maya, who also insistent directed he has seven credits as a director or seven credits, including five as a director. And the movie is based on the best selling Indonesian novel The UK got back by Putra Mata. Nice, the cast Yona I get to Bastion. As Kathy Keane. She has one acting credit and that would be this one, sir. It also stars yose Santo as Mahindra, he has five acting credits including the devil sword, which totally fucking rules and the warrior in the blind swordsman Sophia WD WD 40 WD she plays the old liat queen, she has 55 Acting credits, including the queen of black magic, and she's also in a Dutch period drama art film called Max Havelaar, directed by fawns ramakers, which I haven't seen, but from the 70s and it won a huge amount of critical acclaim, so she went from art films in 1976 to a batshit nutty Indonesian folk horror movie in 1981. Also starring is WD MK Tarr who plays Oka. He is a priest, Indonesian character actor, and also starring his W de matar who plays Oka. He is an Indonesian character actor. He has 82 credits, including the queen of black magic, the original 1982 version of Satan's slave, which is actually streaming on shudder right now. And HellRaisers. So I How to describe this movie I. So at first, I guess I'm gonna liken it to a tropical cocktail, which is it's like any other tacky crop tropical cocktail you'd get in a plastic coconut shaped cup, crappy little dive bar. You know the kind that I'm referring to. It's tinted some ungodly neon color. From some cheap fruit flavored drink mixer, there's a maraschino cherry and a pineapple chunk that is speared sitting in it unceremoniously in a paper under ELA umbrella. But imagine like tossing one of these down only to realize that someone has spiked it with the most mind jiggery disorienting, exotic hallucinogen a human can ingest, that there ain't no turning back from the wild ass trip that you're about to dive into. Wow, that is mystics in Bali, in a coconut nutshell. So, after some opening credits that actually showcase some genuinely creepy ancient Indonesian animal and demon masks, we are introduced to American anthropologist Kathie, who has traveled to Indonesia, where she chats up and then becomes romantically involved with Mahindra Mahindra is a Brillo haired townie whose wardrobe leans towards jeans that are hiked up this ribcage and T shirts that include a pink Imad perfect 10 t shirt. But Cathy's actually arrived in this exotic land of Bali to do more than just taking the regional color and kaboodle with a ridiculously dressed local guy, which incidentally happens in the first five minutes. They're like, they're like, you know, locking lips in the first five minutes, no character exposition whatsoever. But anyway, Kathy is a student of black magic, and she is chomping at the bit to learn the Leon, which is Indonesia's powerful indigenous strain of the dark arts. And she wants to learn Indonesian layak magic quote, the same way I learned voodoo, the black magic of Africa and quote, it'll make for an interesting book. That's your reasons. So anyway, Mahindra and Kathy explore an old Indonesian cemetery that's filled with bones where they smooch awkwardly, as Kathy says, perhaps you and I are the only two people who've ever dared to kiss beside all these old skeletons and skulls. To which Mahindra replies Let's go before the ghosts get mad. So anyway, one night Mahindra arranges for a meeting with the local Leon queen, who's this crusty faced old hag who sports these kind of Freddy Krueger length fingernails and she cackles like the Wicked Witch Witch of the West on like crystal meth. And Mahendra actually very helpfully informs us that quote, Leon laughter is their special trademark unquote. Anyway, the layout Queen meets up with Kathy and promises to teach Kathy the Leon Mojo, so they shake hands on it, and that gets kind of awkward because the layout Queen turns around and keeps walking into the darkness while her severed hand continues to shake his hand and then it crawls away. Like a spider like the spider had nothing only it's a cheap ass superimposed rubber claw glove instead of like an incredible practical effect. Anyhow, Mahindra and Kathy venture into the forest on the next night to hang with the lake which cream which queen, the Queen hides in the bushes and accepts offerings of jewels and blood and milk bottles. The only trace of the witch at this point she's hiding behind the bushes and all you can see of her is this giant rubber snake tongue which grabs the jewels and then it sucks down the blood out of the bottles like a fleshy rubber straw. And in between cackle she says delicious. This is good blood. It's that level. There's there's like the dial like this movie is almost as quotable as Pulp Fiction and Casablanca. I shit you not. Anyway, anyway, the crusty old hags snake tongue tattoos, Cathy's inner thigh with a magic spell, and the cycle begins. So for the next several evenings Kathy visits, though, which alone excelling in her Leon 101 studies which include maniacal cackling traditional Indonesian Leacock dancing, and eventually shape shifting into pigs and snakes, wow. These are, by the way, accomplished with bladder effects that they're influenced by the bladder effects that Rob Barton and Britt Baker used in their world movies, but only like it looks like they've been literally done with like Glad bags. It's it's pretty astonishing. So anyway, surprisingly, Mahindra deduces that things aren't going well and he enlists his Buddhist priest uncle Oka for some tips, and so Oka says he's going to help out gives Mahindra a powerful magic dagger. And it's a good thing that Mahendra is around to hang out and help because Cathy's got to pay her Leon university tuition and that means that the layout Queen demands that Kathy sprout fangs and turn into a vampiric demon who disconnects her head from her body. And then Kathy's disembodied head, complete with chunky bits of lungs and viscera and stuff hanging from below the neck starts to fly around the Balinese countryside. How can I've seen that scene? I don't think I've seen this. This is one of this. This is like one of those cop worthy copulation where the scenes where you see this very fakie woman's head with this very fakie viscera flying around really poorly superimposed the print of this movie, I have the Mondo macabre DVD. The print is immaculate until you get the special effects scenes that have any revenue, any sort of levitation, and they're all literally they look like they're shot on video. Like they're like shot on 70s video, like the special effects you'd see in a CID Marty Croft movie. Only it's like this, you know, disembodied head with lungs and viscera hanging out that's knocking people through walls and sucking fetuses from under understandably reluctant, expectant moms. Yes, you heard that right. No, I'm not making the shit out. Oh, so anyway, Mahindra leaves for a work trip, which somehow supersedes the fact that his new girlfriend is being possessed by a crusty face demon which go figure. Anyway, Kathy's head disconnects for some more fetus sucking and Uncle Oka gathers with some of this fellow Buddhist priests to smokes stogies and talk strategy because they're on to the fetus sucking and they don't want the crusty face demon which to keep getting more powerful. So the layout queen now younger and hotter. She has been sucking blood and eating fetuses and stuff appears to Kathy and asks Kathy for payment and Kathy being the naive American that she is, offers money and then the Queen says I don't want money. I want hot, fresh blood and you can get it for me. So anyway, Cathy's viscera cakes disembodied head goes out for another late night fetal snack, she gets chased by a bunch of townspeople Mahindra handily gets back from his work trip just in time. And then finally, Uncle Oka sets the stage for a fire and laser beam shooting fingertip filled final battle and spoil the rest. Wow. So yeah, needless to say, this is one nutty fucking movie. He's on the transformations into pig and snake could include some of the most laughable prosthetics ever committed to cellulite. I mean, literally, it does look like Glad bags that have been taped vaguely into the shapes of alligators and pigs and things like that and then inflate it. And these two leads there, they play their love scenes with the easy grace of a couple of 12 year olds dry reading Shakespeare at a pretty scene. And really, this is one of those movies where literally wish yourself good luck if you even try to keep a straight face straight face when anyone speaks because we're the kind of territory where the hero reacts to his girlfriend vomiting up live mice and pea soup by hypothesizing that, and this is a quote, perhaps it was the food last night that has made you so sick now. Whatever been a hell of a meal. Exactly. Eat there again is. So yes, this is by all conventional stretches this movie is is is like inept. It's completely inept on almost every level. But it's also an utterly fascinating snapshot of Indonesia of its lands and its customs. So the producers were forced to shoot the movie in local areas, they actually ended up shooting it on the island of Java, instead of in Indonesia because the the folks who were in Bali were so superstitious, they thought they have bad mojo coming around if they actually shot just filmed and simulated all of these, you know, which rituals there's gorgeous detailed statuary and, and it's really for boating. I mean, some of the scenes are genuinely atmospherically lit and scary as hell. And as absurd as the movie is to the sensibilities going to be used to actual movie movies. The movies storyline pretty faithfully dramatize is a lot of the folklore and mythology. And there's something really cool about the way Mahendra his uncle and his fellow Buddhist priests kind of sit around smoking and discussing exterminating the local demon which like they're, I don't know a bunch of pipe fitters who are talking about like, you know, the fittings on their plumbing work or whatever. It's like a total work a day and it's a really cool touch. And again, sometimes the The visuals are really cool. I adore this movie and you won't believe it. Until you see it. It's it's saying it is out of print. The DVD is out of print, it is not streaming anywhere, except it is streaming a pretty good print on YouTube to YouTube a couple of quick notes a trivia IANA Agha Sebastian was not an actor, which will probably not surprise you will see the movie. She was a German tourist who was visiting Bali and she was discovered by one of the producers wives, and it didn't take much persuading for her to actually extend her stay for several weeks to get paid filming in this gorgeous exotic location. Wow. The director pulled Alfred Hitchcock ah Jaleel has a cameo as a guy who interrupts one of Mahindra is and Cathy's makeout sessions to deliver a receipt. And they never explained what for wow, I think he's just doing his Hitchcock moment. Yeah. Also this monster this this disembodied head floating around with the lungs and viscera hanging out of the bottom is actually part of a a Indonesian myth, kind of a East Asian myth, Asian ocean myth. I'm trying to think of the region I'm fumbling on it now. But the demon is called the Penang Liam. The Penang gallon Excuse me. And if you are a Dungeons and Dragons fan, the pennant Alon legend was co opted by Dungeons and Dragons, and it's incorporated into the role playing games themed folio rulebook. The finagling also appears in the Hellboy the troll which and others comic series, and there's an episode from creeps show the TV series its third season that also features this type of monster a, a non Gala. Wow. And that is my movie. And I think it's so nutty. It's like long, long, long overdue for like a Blu ray reissue vinegar. Yeah, vinegar syndrome or Mondo macabre is still out there doing stuff. I really wish they put it out on Blu ray go. And Indonesian genre cinema is a whole other like, you lift up that rock and there's all sorts of crazy ass weird squirming animals. Oh, yeah. It's It's amazing shit. So I love that description so much. Only Indonesian films I've seen are exactly exactly weird. And yes. Wow. That's incredible. And it's and it's a full it's a quintessential full horror movie. And you'll understand when you see it. Yeah, it's it's it ain't nothing else like it and it moves like a shot. It's really fast moving. It's dizzying. There's a lot of Hong Kong influence So there's a lot of fast moving crazy ass stunts and it's it's just I heart this movie I wouldn't quite say hearted mine but it's it's good it's one that sits up there with Wicker Man was one of the ones that gets referenced a lot is a great, great folk horror movie and that is eyes of fire from 1984 was a time of witchcraft British British they were outcasts on a desperate voyage to the Promised Land. What they found was a terrifying world lost in a forest far from home in a valley none would enter that tree says that this valley is where the last blood gathered is the home of the devil the secret is sleeping in the trees. Eyes fire the secret is sleeping in the trees. Wow. familiar with this one? I can't. I know. I know what's on the box set? Yeah, I saw the trailer and I was like, I'm not watching that. Which is funny because I saw the trailers like, oh, maybe I am watching that. Well, it's got no no ratings from the critics and they're 69 from the crowd. So that's pretty good. Yeah. Budget of 2.6 million. I'm dubious on the box office listed because it was$100,000. Even very specific, round number right. directed and written by Avery Crowe scene. And who wrote sister Island to the invisible kid. And that's it. He did three things, three movies. And that was all stars. Dennis Lipscomb, who was known for war games under siege. Cop rock. Oh my god, and tons and tons of TV. Guy Boyd who is in ghost story and the Ewok adventure. So you know, we're talking some heavy hitters in this. Damn right. Rebecca Stanley, who is best known for Hunter and body double. Also a lot of TV as watching an interview with a director afterwards and the guy's like you got a lot of TV stars working for us. That's kind of nice. Okay, their experience you know what they're doing? This movie is based in the 1700s by the first guy speaking has this French accent that I'm like, Pepe LePew would be a little embarrassed to speak with us. Excellent, sir. So luckily, the whole movie he is just a bookend character comes in at the beginning and back at the beginning of the end and is not a major character because the accent is weird. They do use the surprising name layer is used in this movie as a which character. Like, that's it Well, I think one of the actors was involved in Ewok adventure zoo There you go. Like you know what I want to be named. There is it starts off with a bit of exposition and just when I'm gone, okay, so there's a little too much again, it went away. It was like okay, that was close. The starting scenes of the burning of the witches and the setup of everything feels like a stage play. It's oddly reminiscent of what you might see on stage for some reason which and that goes away so it's just this opening few scenes I'm not not sure why maybe it's just because the camera was kind of in a lockdown they didn't do a lot of closer mediums. Good acting solid. The narration is let's see if you let's see if this makes sense when I worded this way, but the narration in it reminded me a lot of Harrison Ford's narration for Blade Runner, that's not good. Exactly. Sounded like somebody who really didn't want to be doing this narration. So it was a little weird. The basic story is a group of people get accused of witchcraft. And turns out that actually one of them has power. And in a very unusual scene, they the first person they go after to hang is a guy. But the person who actually has some power snaps his new city falls to the ground. And then this group runs away. Locking everybody that tried to kill them in the barn and basically stealing everything they can from the town as they leave them all right. There. Turns out later, one of the women that were buried is married to a tracker who is out doing his woodsmen work when he comes back and finds out that they've stolen the raft that gets him across this credibly fast moving lake that he just walks into. I'm going to show him walking away hallway are they No No they don't. They cut off like there's no way you're walking across that river. They so they're headed down the river to do all this stuff. Dennis Lipscomb, the lead has this odd reminiscent to me of Kyle McLaughlin in that time period sort of looks like him. He's doing some weird acting and movement that when Kyle's usually pretty good, but every once a while, he's a little off in his movies, if you think of Kyle when he's not acting quite as well. That's kind of what this guy reminded me of. He's very dramatic. They run into natives, I believe it's I forgot the name of the tribe that shoot out and take out some of the people on their raft as they're headed down there. So what maybe we should get off the river here. Of course, the trapper catches up to them and even though they ran off with his wife, he's like well, I'm going to stay with you and help protect you as you move into the woods because I know how to survive in the woods. And they end up in this valley that he the trapper, of course, he's there to let us know what's going on, actually raised like, well, they don't they, the natives here will not come into this area. So of course, preacher guys are great, let's set up here. Like there's a reason they don't go into this area, which of course the preacher doesn't care about because that's just you know, superstitious nonsense. There's a great scene which was sort of reminiscent of the torture chamber of Dr. Sadism where a lady sits down next to a tree and there's faces and stuff in the top and the effects in this are decent, not great, but they're very very much overlays and optical effects where you know this very simple of let's shoot this scene with the people here we'll remove them and now we'll fade them out with the center there's a lot of very simple actually relatively well done effects like that they eventually run into the reason they shouldn't be there which is this giant demon creature which is actually very well realized pretty good effect keeps a nice creepiness of it creatures or whatever is living there like steals all the books and then returns the books and shall we say taken apart form all over the thing. Like why did they do that but alright, but so this is a disjointed film. The way the folk tales are told is not they're not explained because these people don't necessarily know what is going on around them. The tracker explains some of the stuff some of its left to not know what's going on like whether they want to possess the people this is a film that I think would benefit greatly on a second viewing and the the there's the constant battle between the track are wanting to find out what's going on with the people that are living in this valley and the preacher of course wanting to convert them. Everything will be fine if they just become Christians like us. They're the woman that had power is actually she's not a witch. She's a fairy. Oh, and the she has I'm not sure what all her powers are, but she seems to be able to do a lot of stuff a lot of telekinesis based things. And she has wings and I was gonna ask if she had wings? Yeah, I'm glad show up briefly. I was about 45 minutes to an hour through this cut of the film, which is the original cut. But I noticed on the box set, there's a 45 minute long or 38 minute longer cut, gone. Whoa. And I so I was like, Okay, what is the real difference has gone on here. So I went and I looked into it. And it's, it probably is a fairly different film, because it's not. There's a one character that's cut out, and then there's just extended scenes things. But the descriptions of what changed didn't make me go, well dammit. Now I have to watch this version. I'll probably go back and watch it just to see the differences. But at this point for this day, as I gone well, time is of the essence as always, with our shows, movies hard to talk about because it is a little bit less of a straightforward stories and a series more of us. It's not quite a slice slice of life, because this stuff happens over a long period of time. But it's presented more like Well, here's this circumstances here, this happened hope this happened. There's not as much of the story of people settling and trying to make things work. It's more of what they run into while they're there. And the ending, which I won't talk about is wild and fun, and very well done. There's also one very strange thing in this film, and it happens a lot. It's not just at the end. There's all kinds of explosions. I mean, like Ralph Emery prop Rowland, explosions were just blows up like a giant gasoline fire in the middle of the woods. Wow, okay. Oh, that looks cool. So some notes and trivia on the explosive movie about fairies and woods demons. Part of the myth is that the natives believe that the devil is a real thing. And that particular devil lives in this valley. Wow. And that's what they're trying to. That's what is getting after them. Those in weird ways. It's, well, it's just, it's, it's good. It's worth watching. It's fairly well acted. It's fairly well shot. But it's just very disjointed. And which is true of a lot of the Folk films where it's more about the idea of what's going on as opposed to telling the story of the people that are going through. Yeah, whatever that is. taglines when America was young and spirits of evil reigned in a forest of darkness. The end and credits Exactly, yeah. Haha. The secret is sleeping in the trees. Better. Yeah. And last one Senate sinister evil is waiting in the woods. You know, none of them are bad. None of them are. Oh, great. So nice little brother out there. The one of the major roles of the actors I didn't mention is Rob Paulson, who became very famous for being pinky and picking the brain. Whoa, Nelly. He is great. And he was also Yakko from Animaniacs. Oh my god. So yes, he played some great characters there. The New York Times Karen James described it as a bizarrely fascinating story told in flashback that's part of why it's disjointed and hard to follow. Because it's the flashback and it's the kid narrate the narration is these kids that survived telling these French soldiers what happened? As so it's it's bizarre, but it's really right. I said, it's interesting. I did. I'm glad I picked this one. If the scarlet letter had zoned into the future, and collided with a movie version of The Exorcist, wow, that some also features a though that one of the extras that's not in the original cut was a political leader of the community sets out to track the people that ran away and is being shown tracking them multiple times only to be killed by the Shawnee. So he really had nothing to do there was cut from the movie because he had nothing to do with the movie. And there were extra character but he is in the he is in the extended version. So there's a lot to see there's so much in that damn box that I don't want to watch the same movie again even a little bit longer or don't want extended version like on that same disk. Yeah. I tell you a Blu ray technology. It's amazing. And it looks fantastic. The couple I was reading a little bit about it. This has actually been fairly unavailable for very long. Oh, super unavailable. Yeah, the whole VHS render are people looking around and bad enough to where when the Shawnee they think the Shawnee have given one of their children to them as a show of respect for somebody like what the preachers interpretation of is it. And then of course when the fairy sees this kid jet blacks creepy strange face with a glowing eyes and sphere the reviewers are read that it was nice to actually see what that creature looked like because you could not see it all the original in the stuff, the bootleg stuff that was out there. And that was been true for a lot of it is it's all very the trees and scenes like that are very dark image and contrast. There's only a glimpse of the wings in the short version, but the longer one apparently has a long, more extended version. As far as like if you go to the Wikipedia or the IMDB or the interviews and the online write ups about the movie, surprising lack of information for a film that is for one that unavailable is actually a fairly well known film. Yeah, it's I remember, I've all I've known of it for a good 15 or 20 years, but I've never seen it and the only thing that I was ever aware of it being present in was as a as a, like a bootleg DVD at some of the booths at cryptic con that sort of thing. What No, those aren't allowed to be sold in pre market gray market, not black, not white, gray. That's a weird thing. Oh, that kind of covers it. Cool. That was a cool thing. You know, man, I wouldn't mind doing it again sometime. Just because there are so many movies. I know that this I know. We definitely do at least one to five more for Oh heck yeah, guys, just because there's just so much content, but yeah. So anyway, I guess that leads us to the topic for next week, which would be my pick. It's going to be kind of a weird one. Yes, we're doing slasher movies. Okay, with a huge caveat. They cannot. And I'm gonna throw Halloween in this even though it came out in the late 70s It cannot be an 80s based slasher movie. Oh, or an 80s based continuation like, oh, you know, I love Freddy so much. I'm doing new, new new nightmares. Now. If it's a 80s franchise or anything like that, yeah, off the books. It's just got to be something non 80s connected slash. Well, that sounds like a challenge. The gauntlet has been thrown down my friend. Yes, we are equal to the challenge. So this is the point where we thank you very much for listening to this podcast. Please support us with a five star review. Where at Stitcher, Apple podcasts, etc, etc. And a shout out thank you to Ron. This this last week for giving us a nice little bought us a whole bunch of pizzas and he said the party last all night and yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Thank you so much. You guys should have brought some over man. You should have brought him over. And we do now have it's an I would call it a rough phase. But if you go to strange aeons radio, we now have a page on our website that has all the Etsy stuff we're selling. Oh, cool. And I because I find Etsy kind of a weird site to go to and yeah, look through. I have a hard time finding us on Etsy because there's another girl I think who is just strange aeons. Yeah. And also on YouTube. Yeah, it's very irritating. She doesn't do anything involving you know anything strange aeons. girl who likes that term? Yeah. But so yeah, if you go to strange aeons, radio.com Check out our shop there. It will link back to Etsy. So you're still buying it through Etsy. This is just an easier way to see some of the weirder things we have available there. Awesome. You're still selling the underwear, correct? Yes. Excellent. All right. So does that wrap it up, folks? Yep, I think we're good. All right. Well, thanks again for listening everyone to strange aeons radio, and we will see you next week for slashers with a twist. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Strange aeons radio was artisanal quality podcasting, handcrafted with all natural ingredients and edited to perfection by Eric Margaret. Our blistering theme song is strange aeons part one by the band nightshade, and used with permission. Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you enjoyed this episode please consider dropping a positive review on it no I don't want to talk about it