316 MICAH'S CHOICE!

316 MICAH'S CHOICE!

The gang talks ghosts and such before getting into Micha's Tubi picks!

Also discussed: Anora, Flow, Toxic Town.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

You would be better off just making yourself a nice sandwich for the day. Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration somewhere between science and superstition, such sights to show you. Strange eons. Welcome to strangeeons radio. That is Eric over there. Hello, that is Vanessa over there. Hello, and I am Kelly. I wanted to talk today about a guy who listens to this show. We know him as real badger on YouTube, always makes comments and reaches out to us and stuff, and he has occasionally sent me things on Instagram and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, I don't really know him, but I like him, and he sent me a Post this morning that made me go. And it was a it was a post of a woman. It was video cameraed from, like her camera in her house or whatever. And she was kind of blessing her house. And she was saying, you know, she was obviously reading off something, like she'd been told, this is what you do if you have spirits in the house. And shit started happening, and she started to get freaked out, like, so she's in her kitchen, and she's saying, you know, you're not allowed in this place, please find yourself out of this house. And then, like, this pot goes flying off of the stove, and she's like, Oh, she's talking faster. And then like, the cutting board goes flying at her, and she just runs out. And I watched it about four times, and I was like, Man, I don't see any wires here. I don't see anything. And so I just said, That's pretty creepy. This guy's name is Jeffrey gold. And I said, Jeff, do you believe in ghosts and spirits or anything like that. And he said, Oh, absolutely. And he then sends me a link to his own paranormal site and his own experiences in the paranormal. And I, I kind of wanted to share that with everybody, because it's pretty interesting stuff. And as you know, I I'm a skeptic, but I'm not, like, I don't believe I'm just a skeptic? I'd like something, and that's funny, because Eric, you know that I've had a wild experience, and I should not be as skeptical as I am. Anyway, Jeff's name is the name of his website, and he spells his name incorrectly. It's G, E, O, F, F, is Jeff, G, E, O, F, F, Gould, G, o, u, l, D, and his. She's not Joff like Joffrey. It's Jeff. Sorry. I'm just asking because I want to make sure. I'm gonna assume he pronounces it the American way. That is free. G, E, O, F, F, R, U, I, Joffrey. I'm just saying Joffrey, if that's the way you spell your name, you can type chime in. Let us know. So we don't, but it's, it's Jeff gold.net, so G, E, O, F, F, G, o, u, l, d.net/paranormal, because he's also an actor and in commercials, I mean, you'll be watching the movie, and you'll be like, wait a second, that's that guy in the background and shit like that. So remember, we met him a long, long time ago. I feel like maybe at the Lovecraft Film Festival, at the Lovecraft I think it was the film screen, okay? And, yeah, I've got a picture with him somewhere. Yeah, he's just a real interesting cat does all this stuff. But then when he sent me this link, I was like, I said, Do you mind if I mentioned this on the show? And he was like, go ahead. I didn't know that a lot of stuff from him as well, but I wasn't I'll shoot you the link. It's pretty, pretty interesting. I'll also shoot you the video he sent me. And you guys can kind of make up your own minds. Yeah, I'm excited. I love this stuff. So the woman's reaction, that's what sells all of these kind of videos, right? And she seems very upset. There's this Tiktok series, and I know it's like BS, but it's this guy and his girlfriend or his wife or whatever, and it's just like this, always this one camera set up kind of shitty placement, and they just have a ghost they live with. So they'll be like, talking, and then all of a sudden something will move, and they have, like, named it, I don't know if it's like Harriet or whatever, and they're like, Harriet, Jesus fucking Christ. Like, go back to Jupiter. And because it's so nonchalant, and the way that they're dealing with their particular ghost, you're like, all right, like, I don't know, like, it makes me want to believe it more so well, I mean, you know, there's, you know, we see in a spectrum that is pretty limited. So, you know, cast dogs see things that we don't see that's always. Lovely too, staring into a corner. So I know that there's things, yeah, but whether it's the spirits of our long lost love, I don't know if I believe any of that. I still really think it's an inter dimensional thing, and they're just other people and dimensions that are bleeding over, like, bumping into our shit and being like, wait, that was weird. Why did I trip up on this thing that's not there, right? Because otherwise you have to sit there and think, Wait a second, is this angry spirit just in my kitchen all the time, especially like, you're you've got a new house, and you're like, nice. When did you get here? Like, did you come with an object, or did you die here? Like, wait, were you in a field and had a heart attack before this house existed and now you're stuck in my kitchen or my pantry? Or what? Like, what the Yeah, how does the logic work? My dad, who is a full Haida Indian, his favorite thing to laugh about is the ancient Indian burial ground trope, sure. And he's just like, Kelly, the entire world is an ancient Indian burial ground. If you go back far enough, so many people have died in every part of this that, of course, the world is haunted. I was like, well, that's a comforting thought. I'm nine years old and going to bed. Maybe they're all like cavemen. Maybe they would just have all these, like, really ancient people who are just like, fucking light what? No, it's dark demon. Well, yeah, because then I'm just like, what's going on in this lady's kitchen? Right? The guy threw a pot at her. Was it just don't tell me to get out of here? Or was it I am offended by your cooking, Chef or star chef. Okay, guys, again, that's Jeff gould.net/paranormal, common side effects. Are you guys watching this series yet? Not yet. No, I went past it and went, that's that thing that catched up on movies and stuff. Now that things are getting a little more normal for me, this is so damn good, and my only complaint about it is that it's not live action because it feels like it should be live action. Everything in it is very realistic, except for the animation and then all the drama that's happening in it. Now there's some very minor comedy, and it's usually in the characters quirks, but it's a really, really great story, and it's going in places I wasn't expecting. And I just love it. It's, I guess it's on Adult Swim, but then HBO Max has some kind of deal with them where they show it maybe the next night or something. Is that? Mike Judge, yes, yeah. It is so good, I gotta tell you. Listen, I know I shit all over animation, sure, damn. This is fantastic. If you're like me and you think I'm not gonna watch a cartoon, you're missing out on something great here with common side effects. How many episodes in are they at this point? They're at eight or nine now, already. Wow. Okay, they're short. They're half hour episodes. Okay, gotcha so well, I sometimes I like watching stuff that makes me cry, and I know it's going to and I'm like, let's just do this. I just need to, like, detox my emotions. So I checked out toxic town, which I think is on Netflix, and it's about this British town where a bunch of kids started getting born with deformities, and they were, like, missing limbs and all kinds. Don't shake your head. Why are you so mean to yourself? I know it's based on real stories, so it's all real and yeah, and basically, the town was doing different practices by building in new industrial complex where they were trudging up all this like sludge from previous place and not disposing of it correctly. And it was getting into the town somehow, and into these women. And then many, many, many women in this town had deformed kids, and then they took the town to court over it, and eventually, spoiler one, but it's all about that journey. So it's several episodes, and it is Jesus devastating. I cried a lot. But good, good little story here, like way to go. You know, way to go, ladies, episode, I referenced Chernobyl. Maybe you should just check that out. Oh, I've seen it. Keep you. Keep your happy street going. Watch again. I know, I know. I'm looking for content. You know, that sounds great. Let's just throw in Chernobyl. Go with what he was talking about, toxic town. I can't wait to never watch an episode. I mean, it's cool. It's got that Aaron Brockovich vibe to it. You're like, Yeah, fucking take these assholes down. Yeah, screw you guys. You think you can just get away with this shit? No, you can't. Oh, okay, we'll take. That, that that approach, that direction, yes, no, it's not just depressing. It is like kids being formed. No. I mean, the kids end up, you know, they're fine, they get there. So it's just things, so it's a happy ending, is what you're saying. Yeah, flippers for hands, but it's all good. Don't quote me on that. All right, so I went down a little Oscar road. Check out some of the ones I had not seen. I figured I'd do the biggie and Nora. Oh, I was in a situation where I had to stop watching after about half an hour. I'm going, Man, I don't know if I like this movie at all. Oh no, the little guy, Russian monster family in the and the sex worker, yes, okay, the the and that, that guy is a dick, yeah, and deeply annoying. I'm like, Okay, so the only reason you're falling in love with a shithead is massively wealthy, right? Okay, great, but I did go back and finish watching it, and as shit goes wrong, it becomes a lot of fun. It is a lot funnier than I was expecting, and it gets very entertaining. I it's a stretch that Oscar picked this one to win, not because it's not a good movie, but it's like so in a weird place for whatever Oscars are anymore, but yeah, it was, overall, is it ended up being a pretty entertaining film. And Have either of you seen it? Yeah, I've seen it. No, I watched the trailer, and I was like, Okay, I watched it. I was like, Shit, yeah, let's see what this is. It gets pretty good. Yeah, I thought it was a fun, entertaining film. It does suffer. And maybe this is our generational shit going on, but it seems like people making movies now feel they don't need to make likable characters anymore. They're more real. It's like, well, you know, there's a lot of likable people in the world who have interesting lives. You could follow. You don't have to be a keeping it real dickhead thing of just keeping, to me, keeping it real doesn't mean just being an asshole, right? Keeping it real means you say really good things about people too, because that happens a whole hell of a lot less than because we've been raised in this reality show. Thing of keeping it real means being a dickhead, right? And that the two leads of this suffer from that a little bit. She gets better, she goes along, but he doesn't. He gets worse. He gets worse, which is the interesting story. But yeah, I think that I didn't think it was a twist, because I thought he was a dick from c1 so I thought he was like, advancement of him. I just thought he was young and kind of naive and, like, you know, super, super wealthy, but, yeah, but like, exactly like, he's just being the entitled whatever he is, but he genuinely wants out of his situation, and so sees this opportunity, and she also is like, Okay, this, yeah, this sounds like a really interesting change to my world, that's for sure. But, you know, I think it's the other characters that really, of course, like, sell this, the thug guy who ends up with so many more layers of you don't think he's gonna even have a speaking role on the film. That guy who's just along is the muscle, yeah. And then you keep seeing him kind of judge the situation with his eyes a little bit here and there, and you're like, Huh? And then you see him a little bit more, like, saying things here and there, like, um, why are we doing this? Or, like, Oh, this is gonna this is gonna be bad. This is gonna be bad and like that ends up being one of, I mean, the one of the most interesting characters, because you judge people on this certain layer, and then you realize that underneath he's got this completely different complexity going on. And I think with a Nora, that's what's interesting about her too, is she has this broad, explosive outer shell, but underneath is like a completely different human that's just trying to survive. So by the end, it works really well. But that first half hours, it is tough. It is tough. You're like, what's going on? But I was, like, kind of mildly fascinated. Like, this is a universe I know nothing about both of these. Like, all right, take me on a journey. That is a good point. Nora, is that streaming now? Or, yeah, it's, I think I watched it on Hulu. Tell you there's good stuff on it. Fuck Hulu, goddamn Hulu. Let's see. What am I going to talk about here? I guess I'll talk about, I'm just about done with reacher. Oh, yeah, same. And I didn't want to watch him have sex with that lady. She looks like it'd be like cuddling up with a 10 speed bike. She is all joints and bones, awful, awful accent, and then she's a little girl friendly with them. And I'm like. Don't be girlfriendy with reacher. Fuck you if he didn't end up with the First Lady. I don't want to see him with anybody else long term. Okay, she was the only good one in my book. So well, I I'm having a hard I don't know what it is about this season that it is taking me so long to get to every episode. But then I watch it and I'm like, oh, it's pretty good. But then, even if I'm behind and there's another episode available, I'm like, I don't think I need two episodes in a row. No, this one is, is not grabbing me as much, and I hope I'm not getting tired of the character. I don't think it's reacher. I think it's this plot, okay, such a mobster, like, Oh, I like all of that kind of stuff, though. It's just it doesn't feel very believable in any way. No, it does not. It sounds like you're the little references. It sounds like because, you know, I went on the thing where I was going to read a bunch of read your books, and I hit one of them. I was just like, and I haven't gone back. I keep forgetting, because it shows what book this is based on. It's a one word title, and I can't, is it because I hit whatever number that was in his early like three or four be like the third one. I think I really love him. He is so great. You never seen blood car or blood what was it? Drive? Blood Drive? I think it was, or he was the lead no lead guy. Okay, it is freaking great. He's so fucking likable, like on screen and off screen all his interviews, he's very likable, and I think that probably helps, but, but for some reason, this one is really difficult for me. Yeah, I'm having the same issue. I'm just I I'm not like, every time a new episode pops up, I'm like, Well, I'm obliged to watch this. So I got nothing else going on. I gotta be in bed in like two hours, so Let's chuck it on. Guess I'll watch this. Adonis take off his clothes. The best part by far. I mean, I just love how, like, he's so smart, that's the best part to me is like, somebody will just be like, this dumb dude, and then he's like, thought 1000 steps ahead of everybody. That's just such a cool character trait. So yeah, well, reacher is on prime. Gosh, well, I was gonna talk about a comic I'm reading, but I feel like I should talk about Daredevil in the most recent episode. Yeah, yeah, I've watched. I think I'm caught up as well. Yeah. I actually really liked the last episode, and I didn't have there was only one editing thing that bugged me the whole time, and I'm very proud of myself for only getting mad once when I was like, when you stood up, it looked like you were going the opposite direction to the direction you went. But that's okay. Why are you walking away? Oh, wait, I guess you are walking towards it. Yeah. All right, that's fine. Um, yeah, I thought it was, it was pretty good. I thought they did a good job on that one. So I like it. I remember it was, I kind of glossed over it. And then when I was editing, you're coming about Marvel stuff. I'm not done with Marvel. I'm just sort of like averse to there. We're going to throw every character we've ever had into a movie and see if it works. Because this Daredevil show was, was it six, seven years ago? I think it was on, yeah, all the people coming back. Oh, yeah, I'm watching that. Yeah, yeah. I think it's, you're right. It's really solid, yeah, yeah. Another, another, really good episode. I so they bring Frank Castle back, which was nice. But then I read something that said prior to Moorhead and Benson being involved, his his appearance shows up way later in the series, and I was like, no, we want him back. Don't make us wait for Punisher. Yeah? And the way this story is going, he needs to be there, yeah? Because he the in the contrast of the two of them, especially in that thing where it's maybe we're not as different as you think. Yeah, maybe you want it a bit. It's just like, fuck. That was a great that was a great scene, a great dialog in there. And then just watching those two actors, I'm like, Boy, these guys have really embodied their characters. You know, I don't think I could think of anybody else playing the Punisher again. No, I see the actor who plays Daredevil around, and he kind of looks like he's blind, if he does that so well that it's kind of his natural look intentionally, you're not going, Hey, you look like and from a filmmaker thinking storytelling piece that end shot with him and the kingpin juxtaposed, realizing, okay, They really still are the people they've always been. It's like, because that king bed thing was, the guy was dead. That is dark. I was Yeah, I was like, Uh huh, look, and it's his special, like Vanessa. The painting, and it's got the dude's blood on it or whatever, like chef's kiss. Yeah, good stuff. Oh, that's me. The as I mentioned, the Oscar world I watched another one, highly recommended by freaking everybody and flow, yeah, and well, recommended by everybody. What a lovely film. It is wild, especially knowing the making of and it shows you know you can tell this was not a $50,000 computer making these characters. This was a basic computer that but the backgrounds are spectacular looking, and the characters do everything they need to do. You know, they don't need to look like a perfect Fauci Disney computer generated thing. They look more real and more interesting, being just a little fidgety at times and stuff, but it's awesome. Yeah, I read a weird thing that it has actually contributed to the adopting of all black cats. Yes, people, all black cats are just like other cats. They're all great. Black Cats are awesome, but except they're magic. Magic in my heart and the the depth that goes to at times with, like, the scene of him running up the the tower things, or whatever those were in the water, just incredibly good. Yeah, the winner of the everyone. So I something, you know, Pixar. It's not Pixar. It's not Disney. If it's not either one of those two you it's probably something truly spectacular. And Yep, definitely, if you haven't seen it yet, there's a reason they built a statue in the what was the country this was made in? The native country was made, and they built a statue to this cat already. Oh, wow, damn right, is it Lafayette? Is that going to be the statue of the cat that he climbs up on the water? Oh, my God, those big, big, big steps. Oh, my God. So the thing that's so interesting to me about this, you know, I saw this, and I loved it, but the UN spoken back story is that some kind of apocalypse has happened, that there are no humans, because the cat is going back to its old home. There's artistic renderings of the cat inside it and everything, but the person is gone, and there are no people in this Yeah. So very strange. And then, you know, like you had mentioned, I think that something apocalyptic had happened before this flood. Because before this flood, we're already seeing trees with boats and shit. Yes, exactly. You can see, like water damage on the house the cat's in and stuff too. So it's, it's happened before, and it's happening in waves, but yeah, yeah, no. And I think it's neat that you can't know because you're seeing it through the perspective of these animals. So there, there's no way they're going to be able to tell you what has happened, and they don't cheat by tossing something in the background that would like tell you what's going on. It's just, is what it is, and the the moments of peril are so well done. It's like, got to get back to the boat. I know, like that, poor cat is gonna drown all the time. Did your Did you watch it with volume on, and did your cats respond to this? It's apparently a big, big love of a lot of cats. Wow, yeah, they, I may have to, you know, put that on and I would just put it on and see what they do. Yeah, I definitely, my cats were definitely kind of getting up looking what's going on over here? All right? Well, yeah, they did use real animal noises for all the animals so and I thought it was hilarious. I can never remember exactly what they're called. That dog, that shibulin, Oh, that one's the asshole one that was, they are real asshole dogs. I mean, they, they're not, they're not friendly, like other dogs, like they don't, you know, they're not happy to see you and come over and shit like that. So when they made him the asshole, I was like, Yes, good. Well done. Good casting. I like that. Cool. Well, yeah, that's available now for free. Max. Oh, cool. I might watch that again. I liked it so much, and that was called flow. So guys, why don't we take a little break, and then when we come back, we are talking about a sub genre that Micah picked for us. I. Welcome back to Super Bowl. 57 so far, Greg, the game going like you expected. Yeah, and so far, these teams, they've really you. And we're back. Okay, Eric, we have decided that you're going to start this off. Why don't you tell us what we're doing and talking about, well, we got a guy, Micah, who was out little hint at how I thought about my film, sort of made up for suggesting we watch the GI Joe animated movie. The idea was he sent us all a nice little contribution to the ongoing needs of strange eons radio and in return, he suggested we eat specifically gave each of us movies to watch from Tubi, meaning they're probably a little more obscure, they're probably a little unusual, and that was where we launched. So we each took our films and here we go. All right. Well, how about I have you start us off. I'm giving you five minutes. All right. Mine was 1965, the 10th victim. Do cola finesta secondo, la chronologia de historici. La terminio del air, mi nuclear, aumentata for my garatrol, punto di saturnazione, la Pacha, quindi, dove avaturare per sempre me il sono Angeli. Sono soltanto del Yes, di molto strani Forni ti di combat Evita la lunica soluciones. Era din canalar el aviolenza del vomos i stretamente individual es solo per colo que lo Rique Deva victime de cacciatorica, quell Instituto de la grande cacha la puerta era tonata la dovera nata neleman, de individui Peroni Individual era la tecci Man dot, and I immediately hit a snag. Oh no, I went to Tubi and it said, no longer available on this platform. I I did get the full to be experienced by finding it on Plex with commercial close enough. This is directed by Elio Petre, who also directed a quiet place in the country we still kill the old way and investigations of a citizen above suspicion, he also wrote this and all the movies, most of the movies he directed. Robert Shockley also wrote. Was the writer of the original book, which was called the seventh victim. They changed the name because there's already at the time, there's a previous film called The seventh victim. They've changed it to 10. Also writing on this film, Antonio Guerrero, Giorgio, Salvini, Anyo falano, Ernesto, gastaldo, so whole shit load of items for this battle. Actors, marcillo marcione, who is on the a different version of the beekeeper and. Uh, eight and a half the Dolce Vita, Mary pedigree, actor, and the very famous Ursula Andros. It's her, right? There are you guys hearing it vibrating? That's just me. It's just you. I'm just hearing the ticking all right, enjoying some special new underwear, anyways, and which ties into Ursulines, I guess you know, she was on two episodes of The Love Boat, the 1981 clash of Titans and the Casino Royale as Vesper. That's right, and another fairly famous appearance in the James Bond film. This is a familiar town sounding film for modern audiences, but very original at the time. This is 21st century, and legalized violence is occurring. There's a big hunt. The big hunt has four or five rules. Each member undertakes 10 hunts. Five is Hunter. Five is a victim. Their pay. They're paired up by computer. Hunters get all the info they need on the victims. Victims get no information on the hunters. The victim does the hunting once, but once they know who the hunter is, they can legally kill the hunter report the winner wins the money of a million dollars, which translates to about ten million in modern money. So it's a big payday. Movie jumps right into the action with a fantastic scene of a hunter and victim, neither which are the leads. They're just giving you an idea what this movie is going to be about, which then moves into the most famous scene from the movie. And you might recognize, you might think of a movie the scene probably influenced, and you'd be correct, sort of a strip fashion show event, kind of with Ursula dancing around and finds her target is at this event. So she goes up to the target, starts dancing a little bit, and shoots him through her bra. Oh, this apparently was the most famous and mentioned movie, and all or seen, and all the reviews and all the stuff about this film, and obviously Austin Powers influence. And then they moved to the a very nice killing of a man who was dressed up as an SS member, where they blow him up. Excellent. All right, the idea is that this game has replaced war. But irony is not entirely lost on this film, a scene where a guy comes up and kills one of his hunt hunties, and the police officer looks, oh, man, your car is illegally parked. Here's a ticket this, I'm gonna say this is damn good film. Micah, this is well, recommended. It's got some strange, surreal elements the way it's time late coming into the late 60s here, like the two of the leads, the lead Hunter, the 10th victim, and her Hunter, who at this time, she knows who he is, but he does not who know who she is. And they're talking and behind them are these two raised platforms, each with a saxophone player on it. One of them kneeling down, playing the saxophone. The other guy laying backwards on the thing with his head over the back, playing the saxophone, just on this building with them. There's this giant scene that's sort of like James Bond esque with a Q sort of thing going on that happens in the middle of it, Ursula. The idea is Ursula for the 10th victim. She needs to get him to this one specific place in Italy, so the television cameras can capture it, and they can sell ads to make a lot more money. Shocking, it's a great it's a great entertaining film. It's a lot of fun to watch because it's weird. It does get 60 boring sometimes, you know, just the pacing is weird, especially since an Italian film production with English and French. Let's see what any interesting facts here? Obviously, this is one of the first films to do the reality show death thing, which was done frequently with like Battle Royale series seven Hunger Games, all following suit, said in the year 1970 2079, so we saw him and reached it. That's nice. Kim Novak auditioned for the lead and Margaret was cast, but then had to back out, so they ended up with Ursula, and Margaret would have been an interesting choice in this. And Michael Myers references this as one of his biggest influence for the Austin Powers was what goes on in this film. But so, yeah, definitely worth checking out. I was, I haven't done it yet, but I was going to look up. I would not be a bit surprised to see this on criterion or somebody like that. I mean, it's not a great movie, but it's. Unique and different enough that it could be celebrated by somebody like criterion, criterion or vinegar syndrome. Oh, definitely, definitely criterion Severan or something like that. It's not a goofy film. It's a pretty interesting, well made movie, okay, man, I want to watch this. It's definitely not as so bad. It's good kind of thing. Okay, cool, very cool. Okay, Vanessa, you want to go next? Yeah, so Micah challenged me with a very special movie called Making contact from 1985 growing up can be hell, especially when you're different, when you're helpless. You and alone, but now Joey is the man of the house and is under attack. Watch out by supernatural forces you he can't understand, but Joey be helpless for long, because Joey's not alone anymore. Anymore, making contact and out of this world. Adventure. I have, in fact, seen this movie once before because this is a very early Roland Emmerich joint. Oh, wow, yes. Nice pick there when he was living in Germany. I actually already had it on DVD, but I did watch it on TV for the full experience. Roland Emmerich, of course, has 26 credits, including what we recently talked about, 2012 also, Independence Day, Day after tomorrow, Godzilla, Stargate, White House Down. Patriot, Universal Soldier is CO written by Hans J Haller doesn't really have other credits, and Thomas Lechner does not have any other credits, starring Joshua Morel, who has no other credits. This was definitely done with favors and by bootstraps in Germany. Although the budget actually isn't terrible, it's 1.5 million. So it's not like a student film, but it's not like a big blockbuster film. So the story is insane. A boy's father dies and he has a hard time accepting it. We see him sort of talking to a photograph of him just not being able to really feel okay to move on. And then all of a sudden, his toys come alive, much like, I don't know, polsure guy store, oh yeah, Close Encounters of the last guy Toy Story. So no, not like that. Okay, yeah, so yeah. Then his red phone rings, his red plastic phone, and he answers it, and it's his dad. So he starts talking to his dad, and he starts having this, like frequent conversation with his dad. At the same time, he also develops telekinetic powers. He seems to be able to move things with his mind. Is this a horror movie in parts? I guess, yes, kind of, is it an adventure? Is it a kids movie? Is it a horror? Who's to say, you not me. I'm not gonna make that decision. So anyway, his dad is helping him. He says, kind of move things with his mind. But it seems like he's really doing it. Feels very fire startery In some ways, but anyway, then there's also this dummy that comes to life out of this, like old shack that's up on the hill. And I thought it was on their property, but maybe it's not. It's the old Psycho house, but it's an old shack, an old shack in the back of their yard with a bunch of abandoned cars out. You're supposed to believe it's just some nope, that's the fucking house, dude. But anyways, it's fine. There's a dummy in there. He comes alive, and he starts telling Joey that the phone is actually an evil ventriloquist who had been messing with him when he was younger, the puppet. So anyway, his mom and teacher, the boy's mom and teacher want to understand more of what's going on with this kid's telekinesis, because he doesn't hide it at all, and a bunch of university researchers invade his house and basically set up shop, much like ET Meanwhile, a bunch of bullies from his school have decided to take him down. They create a plan. Uh, while in the Psycho house, and the dummy gets wind of it, turns the house into a labyrinth of nightmares, trapping them inside, Joey, along with his friend, go to rescue them for some reason, while in there, he and the boys must battle their worst fears. And finally, Joey meets the ghost of the ventriloquist who tells him that they share the same psychic link. And through the ventriloquist slink, when he was alive, he let in an evil spirit that now inhabits the dummy that we thought was evil the whole time. He must not show this dummy any fear. He doesn't. So door opens into heaven, and he goes so he can talk to his dad, and he dies. The fuck everyone panics, and they bring back his body, and he's in a coma, but also then dies, and then lights start coming on, and toys start moving around, and he's back to life. And we end on a freeze frame of him looking kind of confused in a bed, so making contacts. Wow. I will say this film was better than I remembered. I ever thought it was going to be unwatchable the second time, because the first time it was like, What the fuck is happening? What is this? You're like, man, you made strides. It is a mix, of course, of close encounters, poltergeist et seriously, Lucas could sue the pants off them and win. There's literally Darth. Vader comes to life at one point and walks around with Yeah, there is Star Wars paraphernalia everywhere, flying ships on the sheets, everything. Fuck man. It's so heavily inspired by Spielberg. The music is very much like it. The one thing I will say that I hate about this film, the set design is out of fucking control. It is just filled with junk everywhere. This house has too many lamps at one point, there is a shot where, no joke, I counted eight lamps in shots, not like overheads, like, just lamps in places. There's like a goldfish tank just on the side, for no reason. There's a bottle of ketchup on a shelf. His room has like, the most random American shit in it, including, like, radio, like stickers and like, just weird. And he's got, like, Sesame Street stuff, but also Star Wars stuff. I'm like, How old are you? The set designer made this into a hoarders delight. Like every shot. You're like, I don't know what's wrong with his family, but if I came here, I'd be like, they are crazy. The dubbing is also pretty far off. You can tell it was dubbed into English. Just a couple of quick trivia things, because I'm sorry, it's just so fascinating. Although the bulk of the film was shot in Germany. Writer director Roland Emmerich said it in the United States and shot it in English so that the film could be marketed worldwide. The director came to Stuttgart elementary and junior high school on Robinson barracks in Stuttgart, Germany in the spring of 1984 to select American kids to be in the movie starting that summer, the lead role in many of the friends in the movie were selected from that school, not just the bit parts. He also employed children of soldiers in the local US Army base for bit parts. The scene where Joey is looking for his dog Charlie in the abandoned mansion is very is set in the base and the Bates Mansion House from the 1960s horror thriller, psycho. So it is literally the same house. So basically, Roland Emmerich said, I want to make entertaining movies for a broad audience. Germany needs a film industry. Again, making artsy movies may be nice for the ego, but will not feed an industry. Entertaining the masses is the foundation, and that has been neglected here for a long time. People like Spielberg and Lucas are showing the way. We shouldn't. Shouldn't we go in the same direction. We can do it too, and we can do it cheaper. And he sure did. He built his own effects studio in an abandoned factory, instead of using a slightly more expensive one down the road. So that delayed his overall production. And he did end up scrapping most of the effects and redoing them again. So that is Wow, making contact. What year is this from 1985 85 okay? And he shot it in English and then dubbed it again. There is a weird dubbing effect. It is shot in English, but you can tell like there's like a delay, and it's not quite it, it seems, I mean, it feels very dubbed. So I don't, I don't know quite what happened there. I recognized the poster, yeah, like a video store or something, yeah, yeah. I didn't remember that too, but I did not realize that's what this was about. It's bonkers. It's fucking bonkers. I don't think this film knows what it's about, but you know, America go America is what this film is about. It is such a love letter. To like, Fuck, I don't know it's American. Put it in the house. Seems cool. What do kids do? They put little, you know, at dinner time. We definitely Americans have like, a little basket with bread rolls inside, with, like, the little thing on top to keep it warm. That's not just German. That's American too. Definitely, for sure, it's cool. Spam. Yeah, we keep our condiments always out on our, like, living room shelf. That's where I like to put him. It's fucking weird. I love that. He was like, We need to bring film making back to Germany, and then immediately goes to Hollywood. He honestly was like, You know what? What's your budget on there? Yeah. He was like, I could just be there. I was just want to be there instead. So, all right, okay, making contact. Okay, I'm giving myself five minutes, and I am talking about from 1985 pray for death. You. Yeah, he came to America to escape his past. You will always be a new job now his wife, hey, his children, his home and his honor must be defended. If you just want protection, why don't you go hire yourself a private detective? No ordinary man could do it alone, but this is no ordinary man. The pray for death. Scott far enough. I if we are all free to do what we like, I am free to kill those animals. You showcasugi shut a warring danger judge and jury. Vengeance will be his. Pray for death please. Directed by Gordon Hessler, who has 48 credits, including murders in the Rue Morgue the golden Voyage of Sinbad kiss meets the Phantom of the part. Hey, there you go. Oh yeah, yeah. Written by James Booth, who has six credits, including avenging force, American Ninja two, the confrontation and American Ninja four, the annihilation. I want you to remember that name. It was written by James Booth, starring show kosuji, who has 19 credits, including enter the Ninja, Revenge of the ninja. Ninja three the domination, nine deaths of the ninja. Ninja. Oh, my God and the bad news bears go to Japan. Excellent. Second lead in this film is James Booth, oh, who has 79 credits, including Zorro the gay blade. He's the guy with the eye patch, avenging force. American Ninja four, the annihilation and five episodes of Twin Peaks. And also on this is Norman Burton, a very familiar character actor. 91 credits, including fade to black, which was famously put in my freezer, blood sport and American Ninja five. Eric, I know you've seen Yes, it's been a long time, but I had seen it before, too, and I remember liking it. So when I was assigned this by Micah, I was like, no problem. Yeah. So ninja movie, yeah. I assume that's why he assigned me a ninja movie. I love ninjas. The film starts with a pretty hokey ninja versus ninja scene, but it then pulls back to reveal that we are what we are seeing is actually a ninja movie. The two young Japanese boys are watching. They are the sons of Akira and Aiko, a Japanese couple who are making the decision to emigrate from Japan to the US. They have a dream of opening a restaurant called Aiko. Is Japanese restaurant, beautiful. It's a little on the nose. That's good writing about this. What his family doesn't know, though, is that Akira is, in fact, a highly skilled ninja who has retired after he had to fight his brother to the dead. Death when his brother tried to steal from the ninja temple. This bothered him so much that he quit being a ninja and was forced by his sensei to promise never to reveal the secrets of the ninja. He then gives him a sacred ninja helmet as a gift and reminds him that he can never leave his shadows behind. I was like, Okay, this is very confusing, but once in America, Akira and his family meet with Sam green, an old man who is selling them the building that will become their new restaurant and home. And guys, this place is in a pretty shady part of town, unbeknownst to them, but notes to us is that the vacant building has been used by corrupt cops to hide the nearly priceless van, a necklace for the mobster they're working for. But the cops have double crossed the mobster and taken the necklace for themselves. So when the mobster goons show up to find the necklace gone and Sam green the old man moving all of his stuff out, they assume the old man has the necklace and kill him when they don't find the necklace, they now assume that the new Japanese family has it, and they kidnap one of Akira boys and try to make Akira trade him for the necklace. Well, this goes as well as you think it will, and even though Akira has gone to the police and the mobsters now think he doesn't have the necklace, either, they decide they've got to kill the entire family because they know too much. They do manage to run down his wife and son in the street outside the restaurant, but they are still alive and rushed to the hospital. Akira then goes to the mobsters as a ninja and tells them to leave Akira and his family alone, or they will pray for death. And then he disappears. Well, he should have just started killing them all right, then, because they sneak into the hospital and actually kill his wife? Oh, shit. So that brings us to the third act, which is just a ninja bloodbath as Akira takes his revenge on all of the mobsters. This is actually a fairly decent action flick. I saw it when it first came out on video, 1986 or something. Cover, yeah, yeah. It's the very classic cover of the ninja stance and then a ninja in the background. Like throwing stars all around all that. Anyway, trivia, when the film was showcased at the con Film Festival, it had a run time of 123 minutes and was unrated, following an X rating from the Motion Picture Association, the film was edited down to 92 minutes and awarded in our rating. So there's a cut out there with a half hour of ninja action that was deemed too violent. Oh no. Akira sons are actually played by the actors, two sons, Kane and Shane kosuji, and their names in the film are Takeshi and Tomoya, which are the boys middle names in real life? Oh, that's nice. The film was a modest hit at the box office, bringing in 9.5 million against the $5 million budget. That was supposed to be a sequel, but it never happened. Although, if you watch all of Shoka sujis movies, they feel like they're all the same series anyway. So I kind of didn't realize that they weren't a sequel. And then finally, the the nearly priceless van atta necklace is a reference to Don van atta, who is the producer of the film. In that night he gave us money. Here's the necklace, much as Micah did, and we are now doing this episode in honor of him. Truly excellent. It was well, well picked man, yeah, I'm glad that everybody had a good time with him. Yeah, I was amused by, not by the review itself, but should I pull up the movies when you guys are talking about just in case we speed bump ourselves at some point? And some guy's review was, I am to be six out of 10, and his headline is three out of five, my movie for your movie for yours? Oh, okay, sure. Well, he look at he knows his fraction. He did, did mathematically hit that. My god, okay, guys, that means that it is now my choice, yes, for a sub genre so exciting. And I am thinking, How do you guys feel about atomic monsters? You and your atomic monsters, you know, some kind of creature feature where radiation is the cause? Yeah, no, that sounds awesome. Revisit, which is great. I love revisits. Listen giant monster movies. I've got a very limited amount of types of films, I know. I just typed out 317 for the number of his issues, I'd say for the number of revisits, we have pretty good ratio. I just revisited disaster, so it's fine. Listen, that was either this or ghosts. That might be my next pick because of joffreys, I think even our listeners at this point will not remember us having done that before. So Micah here will release our list able to go you already talked about that in episode 125, I hope we have no. 30 about stuff, I would not have a problem with that. So radio active creatures, yeah, or atomic monsters, I like. That's cleaner. Sounds more 50s. That's what we're talking about. Okay, you guys. Is the part where we say thanks to everybody, especially somebody like Micah, who threw a ton of money at us and asked us to do this. He also took all of the thought out of it, so he just ascended his movies. And I was like, this perfect. This is perfect. Whether I like this movie or not. I have to watch it. I can do with that. You can do that. We call that value for value. We have a bunch of different ways you can donate money, PayPal, coffee, all on our website, bad checks, loose, change everything. You can also reach out to us on the strangeeons radio hotline, which is 253-237-4266, you can leave us a message, or you can text us on this I keep forgetting to text something I was gonna drunk. Text us the other night like I still love you. Wants to come over and and then you can find us on Facebook, on the strange hands radio talk page. I'm I've been off Facebook now for a couple of weeks, and I kind of like it. So I don't know how often I will be back on there, but it's good for the soul. Yeah, yeah. But you guys should stay on Facebook and go to our talk right? Absolutely. Don't subscribe to our YouTube channel. You know, tell your friends, even if they don't listen. Go subscribe to these YouTube channel, right? Okay, guys, that's it. I want you out of my house. Okay, gonna be back in seven short days when we are talking atomic monsters. See you next Thursday. Transportation and other considerations for strange eons, radio produced by Pan Am airlines. When you think of traveling, think of pan and you can't beat the experience. Guests of strange eons radio stay at econo Lodge. Everett. It's an easy stop on the road. Strangeeons radio is recorded live in front of a studio audience. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast. Sit Ubu. Sit there was only one editing thing that bugged me the whole time, and I'm very proud of myself for only getting mad once.