full
Millennial Nasties + TERRIFIER 1&2 with Ariel Powers-Schaub
They're on the screens! They're in your home! They SHOULD be on your mind! Extreme cinema, exploitation, video nasties, whatever you call them, they take theaters by storm once every generation, and tonight we're wringing this moral panic for all it's worth! With the help of returning guest Ariel Powers-Schaub, the BOP Crew charts how the films detailed in her new book Millennial Nasties took inspiration from the gross-out cinema of the eighties to define the torture porn of the 2000's, before a chat about how those boundary-pushing themes are alive in the current king of modern nasties, Terrifier 2. Tangents along the way include Film Theory: Art The Clown Edition, a brief meeting of the May Canady Appreciation Society, and the secret origin of The Sham Wow Guy.
Millennial Nasties can be pre-ordered directly from Encyclopocalypse in eBook and Print at www.encyclopocalypse.com (BuyHorrorBooks.com) On on September 17th, 2024 it will also be available from your favorite bookseller. The audiobook version will be available exclusively from Audible or Apple Books.
Direct pre-order links: eBook: https://www.encyclopocalypse.com/product/millennial-nasties-ebook/398 Print: https://www.encyclopocalypse.com/product/millennial-nasties/397
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BoxOfficePulpPodcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BoxOfficePulp
Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/box-office-pulp/id577338641
Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7c11ff8b-2875-454d-8770-8b1d36d04b52 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/534ZPRmDoZzNs5GtiAhOEcMore
More Ways To Listen: https://pod.link/BoxOfficePulp
Transcript
An old timey whistle should go off. Just children covered in
Speaker:soot. Come out of a workhouse: we're burning a pod!
Speaker:Why does the podcast work on child slave labor?
Speaker:There's just a smokestack coming out of Cody's apartment.
Speaker:There's just. At the bottom of every industry is just child
Speaker:labor. Sorry. We're keeping that as the
Speaker:intro, right, Mike? Oh, please don't.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. Child labor should start every episode.
Speaker:For goodness sake. There's context. Hey, unfortunately, no,
Speaker:that all got deleted. We never got that part.
Speaker:All right, I'll do a clean open in case we don't want
Speaker:to mention child slave labor to begin things, which I think is
Speaker:a popular option, but. I'm gonna get canceled before
Speaker:my book comes out. Worse time. Normally it's better afterwards.
Speaker:You can get initial sales, let people.
Speaker:Buy the book first, and then cancel me.
Speaker:I already have, you know, the money.
Speaker:What a horrible thing to say. Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Shut up, Ariel.
Speaker:You're just building it up for that comeback tour in two years.
Speaker:Yep. My Netflix special. I wrote the book
Speaker:on it. Followed by the sequel. I'm sorry I wrote the book on
Speaker:it.
Speaker:Some things have come to my attention.
Speaker:Addendum to the book on it. You could crank those
Speaker:out forever. What a great system. Okay, I swear to God, we're
Speaker:gonna do a clean open now. Gotta get the giggles out, though.
Speaker:Welcome to Box office pulp, your one stop podcast for movies
Speaker:madness, moxie. And tonight, the combo of murderous clowns and
Speaker:millennial nasties. I'm your host, Cody.
Speaker:Joining me tonight are my co host, Mike and Jamie.
Speaker:But forget about us. We have with us our own special co
Speaker:host, Ariel Power Shabb, who has her book, Millennial nasties.
Speaker:Holy shit. It's really cool when you get to say, like, you have
Speaker:an actual professional on the show instead of us, so what a
Speaker:treat. Thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker:Oh, my gosh. Thanks for having me. So I want to start discussing
Speaker:the book. And then, so everyone at home understands, we're going
Speaker:to do a bit of a shift halfway through ish and jump into the
Speaker:terrifier series of movies. Uh, but book first, the
Speaker:important stuff first. You gotta. Gotta get through that.
Speaker:Uh, millennial nasties, basically. Uh, well, I don't know
Speaker:if you can spoil academic work. Like, it's not like there's a
Speaker:twist ending at the end here, but 911 happened.
Speaker:Oh, no. I should have said, oh, no. With
Speaker:more passion, actually. Oh, no. Plane stop.
Speaker:Yeah, I sound like a plant. Uh, but the big gist behind
Speaker:millennial nasties to me was that idea of trying to reclaim the
Speaker:phrase torture porn. Yes. On our podcast, we just
Speaker:finished rewatching and commenting on all the saw films.
Speaker:I know you did. Oh, no, I've been perceived.
Speaker:Yeah, I know you guys did, and you didn't even let
Speaker:me know. So that was my fault? It was suggested
Speaker:a bunch of times. My feelings are every single movie.
Speaker:We saw your contest for other saws and were like, oh, no,
Speaker:I don't want to be the mistress. I don't want to, like, get in
Speaker:the way. But no, it was great. We'll bring you
Speaker:in for an escape room commentary. There you go.
Speaker:I do it. Escape rooms, are they. No, not
Speaker:millennial nasties. Not quite. But there's just so much negative
Speaker:stigma. I think we've said it a bunch of times now.
Speaker:It's great to have an actual book saying, you dummies.
Speaker:There's a better term for it. I can't think of a better name
Speaker:than millennial nasties for the movies of the two thousands.
Speaker:I've noticed on a couple interviews, too, people brought that
Speaker:up, and it's like, damn, if only you could, like, pull J.
Speaker:Jonah Jameson copyright and get, like, a nickel every time someone
Speaker:says it. Oh, man, I would just say it a bunch.
Speaker:Can I somehow make my own nickels multiply if I just repeat
Speaker:it a bunch? It can't hurt. Yeah. I was pulling very
Speaker:hard for the term american extremity during those saw
Speaker:commentaries, and the second I heard the term millennial nasty,
Speaker:I was like, well, that just sounds like a term that already exists.
Speaker:Oh, thank you. That's really kind. That's when I thought
Speaker:of it. That's kind of how it felt. It felt like discovering something
Speaker:rather than coming up with something.
Speaker:If I can just be so bold. Well, it's great because it's
Speaker:got the obvious tie back, back to the video nasties.
Speaker:But then all the stuff for the two thousands was
Speaker:inspired, but in a very different direction.
Speaker:Yeah, nice little bow on all that. It just works so well.
Speaker:Plus, it sounds fun. Thank you. Slight sidebar here.
Speaker:I had to explain to a friend what the video nasties were the
Speaker:other day when I was talking to him about this book, and I was
Speaker:just blown away that they're normal people that don't know about
Speaker:british censors, like normies. Well, particularly in the
Speaker:United States, they don't know at all about the video
Speaker:nasties. And that's okay because then it's fun.
Speaker:You can tell them. Yeah. My favorite part though was he thought
Speaker:I was fucking with him because, like, wait, really?
Speaker:They named it video nasties. That was.
Speaker:It is a little bit like, yeah, you're like, not nasty
Speaker:videos. Like, it sounds like you're making fun.
Speaker:Of british people whenever you say it.
Speaker:Yes, it does. And it's honestly like the best branding
Speaker:video nasties could have asked for. Right.
Speaker:The BBFC was essentially giving us a list.
Speaker:That's the fun part about it too. Cause I love a list.
Speaker:Just knowing there's like x number of movies out there that got
Speaker:slapped with the title and banned makes me want to just check
Speaker:them out one by one. Absolutely. Have you.
Speaker:Have you gone through all the millennial nasties?
Speaker:Sorry. Yeah. Thank God this isn't live.
Speaker:Have you gone through all the video nasties?
Speaker:No, I haven't. Mostly out of laziness.
Speaker:I do remember, like, when I learned the term
Speaker:video nasties, I had already seen a lot of them and
Speaker:so I kind of felt like vindicated in that.
Speaker:And then I started seeking some out, but then it started
Speaker:to feel like homework. And when movies start to feel like homework,
Speaker:I kind of get put off. So maybe one day I will, but
Speaker:I haven't. I always. I always have to worry about that too.
Speaker:Like, I haven't dived into letterbox too hard because then it
Speaker:feels like it's like you said, homework.
Speaker:Like it's a chore instead of just the fun of watching a movie.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. I obsessively log on letterboxd.
Speaker:If I forget, I will go back. Like, I'll wake up in,
Speaker:like, a cold sweat and be like, I didn't log a movie three days
Speaker:ago. That's why I had to delete it. Yeah, fair
Speaker:enough. Small jump here, but I just wanted
Speaker:to mention, too. So the book is coming out through encyclopocalypse
Speaker:publications, right? Yes. How did you end up working through
Speaker:them? Because they have so much cool shit coming out.
Speaker:I have a stack of their stuff and someone needs to take my credit
Speaker:card. I mean, I'll take that off your hands.
Speaker:I don't think that's what you meant.
Speaker:If it stops me from spending my money, then I don't feel guilty,
Speaker:even. If I am poor. So it kind of works for everyone.
Speaker:Win win win. Encyclopocalypse. Yes. They're incredible.
Speaker:I'm so lucky to get to work with them, truly.
Speaker:I first learned about them because my friend Jeanine pipe wrote
Speaker:sausages. The making of dog soldiers.
Speaker:Yep. And encyclopocalypse put that out.
Speaker:And so I was talking to Janine about her experience and it was
Speaker:positive. And so when I knew I wanted to
Speaker:pitch my book to a publisher and go that route rather
Speaker:than self publishing if I was able to, because I really wanted
Speaker:the support. But there aren't a lot of publishers who
Speaker:are willing to publish nonfiction about horror films.
Speaker:Like, there are a lot of horror publishers, but they publish
Speaker:fiction, or like, non fiction publishers, but they don't
Speaker:give a crap about horror movies. So you really have to be
Speaker:thoughtful about who you're pitching to.
Speaker:And encyclopocalypse seemed perfect.
Speaker:And I'm just like so grateful they said yes to
Speaker:me. And everything has worked out so well.
Speaker:It's like a dream. I would love it so much if they really
Speaker:embraced this and we got more kind of academic writing or, you
Speaker:know, non fiction writing. They have a great set of things
Speaker:already. Like on my desk right now, I have the original
Speaker:screenplay for Hellraiser Bloodline that they put out phantom
Speaker:limbs, which. Came out phantoms not too long ago.
Speaker:Awesome. God, I have a novelization for the movie
Speaker:man Borg through them. It's wonderful, the things they've come
Speaker:up with. And I love that. It's a little bit of everything.
Speaker:I think their best selling book is a novelization of attack of
Speaker:the killer tomatoes.
Speaker:I think that's their best selling book.
Speaker:But yeah, I think that's how they got their start was
Speaker:novelizations, but they have branched out to embrace
Speaker:other kinds of writing about horror films.
Speaker:And it has. I've just been so lucky to work
Speaker:with them because, like, I can write, sure, I can do that, but
Speaker:I don't know anything about like, copyright or cover art or
Speaker:editing or marketing. And so, like, thankfully they
Speaker:know how to do all that stuff. So it's really been, I've been
Speaker:so fortunate. I want to imagine there's a risk too.
Speaker:If you go the self published route, does it ever get like a physical
Speaker:release or is it just like an ebook somewhere?
Speaker:This way you actually hold the real thing without, like, having
Speaker:to know what you're doing. You just make sure they get the book
Speaker:out. Yeah, you absolutely can do physical releases
Speaker:with self publishing. But then I would have had to figure out
Speaker:how to do all that and more power to all the self publishers
Speaker:out there because that seems like a shitload of work, right?
Speaker:Whereas the person who did the COVID art for millennial nasties.
Speaker:Dark poppy. Like, her work is just incredible.
Speaker:And, like, they asked me, what do you want for
Speaker:your cover art? And I was like, I don't know, because I'm not
Speaker:a visual person at all. Like, negative visual ability.
Speaker:And they came back with what ended up being the COVID art.
Speaker:And I was just like, this is exactly what I wanted, but I didn't
Speaker:know it. And I think that is a true artist.
Speaker:So Grimm puppy designs on Instagram.
Speaker:Like, she's incredible. That's so cool.
Speaker:I've always wondered that, like, they bothered to ask the author,
Speaker:like, hey, what are you feeling for the vibes on this cover?
Speaker:Or if the marketing department just grabs it and they're like,
Speaker:don't worry. We'll get you covered. Well, at Encyclopocalypse,
Speaker:I have felt like every decision has been mine to make, but
Speaker:they've been there to support me. It's honestly just been, like,
Speaker:the best possible of both worlds. I feel like I'm going
Speaker:to sound like a broken record just with all my positivity, but
Speaker:really, I just have been so lucky. That's fantastic to hear.
Speaker:I'm glad because I own so much of their stuff that they're not
Speaker:assholes, because I've been like, oh, now I got to burn books.
Speaker:I don't want to do that. No, no, they're legit.
Speaker:You can like them. I was curious about the process
Speaker:of selecting, like, which films you wanted to, like, specifically
Speaker:cover. Yeah. And did you start with the diagram in
Speaker:the back of, like, the six degrees of saw and then kind of reverse
Speaker:engineer those into chapters? Or I'm just imagining, like, always
Speaker:Charlie just in a room, just, like, tacking everything together.
Speaker:Oh, my God. Okay, first of all, that Charlie, and it's
Speaker:always sunny, literally, was me making this chart.
Speaker:I have a folded up. It's folded up now, but I
Speaker:had several pieces of paper on the wall in my basement
Speaker:where I do my writing, where I was making the chart with, like,
Speaker:pen and paper. And my mother in law came over one day
Speaker:to, like, help us with a project, and she.
Speaker:She was so sweet. She was just like, what is this?
Speaker:And I was like, oh, this is my mental breakdown in real time.
Speaker:So I really did look like that. But, no, I did not.
Speaker:Okay. Also, sidebar. I loved both of those questions because
Speaker:a lot of people who have read the book have not brought up
Speaker:the chart. And I was, like, so proud of it that
Speaker:I was like, oh, shit. Is this not as cool as I thought?
Speaker:It was like, do people not like it? So thank you for bringing
Speaker:it up. I can only hope the physical edition, it's like a big
Speaker:fold out map, like you're looking at the Lord of the Rings, like
Speaker:Tolkien. Easy. Show you all middle earth.
Speaker:It's such a treat at the end of the.
Speaker:But it does look good. It does look really good.
Speaker:And, Mike, I appreciated the way you asked that question
Speaker:by saying, how did I choose the books?
Speaker:That is so much better to hear than, you forgot
Speaker:this movie. That's actually what we brought you on
Speaker:here just to berate you for a half hour like a bunch of jerks.
Speaker:Okay, cool. I'm gonna go. Well, no, because anytime you
Speaker:make a list or you make you curate a selection, someone in the
Speaker:comments goes, you forgot this. And it's like, yes, I forgot.
Speaker:Well, I spent a year of my life writing.
Speaker:I forgot that this movie exists. So now that
Speaker:I've, like, done this huge preamble, to answer your question,
Speaker:when I started thinking about writing a book, originally it was
Speaker:just going to be a book about the saw franchise.
Speaker:But I realized as I was sort of, like, coming up
Speaker:with what to write, that I had so much more to say.
Speaker:And there were so many movies that connected to the saw franchise
Speaker:that I also wanted to talk about. So I started to make a
Speaker:list of what all those were and just kind of like, a
Speaker:lot of the early stages of writing a book was just watching
Speaker:these movies over and over again, which is not a bad thing.
Speaker:But it was like, I'm writing, but I'm watching a movie.
Speaker:And I did kind of start with a general list
Speaker:of this is what I know for sure. And then there were some
Speaker:movies that got added and some that got taken off, and I sort
Speaker:of narrowed it down by, did I have enough movies for
Speaker:each point I wanted to explore without filling the
Speaker:book up with too much and repeating myself a lot.
Speaker:So, like, there are definitely other movies I could have included
Speaker:that helped me make the same points, but I didn't
Speaker:just want to be like, and another thing.
Speaker:And another thing. And another thing.
Speaker:So if I felt that two movies were sufficient to make a
Speaker:point or three, then I would just stick to that.
Speaker:And I wanted it to just be, like a really tight representation
Speaker:of millennial nasties. So I cover 40 movies in total.
Speaker:See, the thing that impressed me was when I was going through
Speaker:the list, I stumbled on the section with final destination.
Speaker:And at first thought for me, I'm. Like, oh, why is this in here?
Speaker:Why is this in here? Yeah, it really made me reconsider that
Speaker:movie or that entire franchise because I've always kind of
Speaker:thought of it as its own thing because you don't have too many
Speaker:where there's the invisible hand of death, essentially, as you're
Speaker:a bad guy. But, you know, when you get through all the points
Speaker:and you kind of have to go back and go, well, yeah, visually,
Speaker:I guess it's more slick than a lot of the other entries you would
Speaker:refer to here, but it's not a wild thing to say
Speaker:that it belongs lumped in with everything else.
Speaker:Yeah. Thank you. And I know some people might disagree, and that's
Speaker:cool, but one of the reasons I wanted to replace the
Speaker:term torture porn is because I don't think torture porn is representative
Speaker:enough of all of the movies in this decade that need
Speaker:analysis and need attention and deserve attention.
Speaker:And final destination does kind of get set.
Speaker:People love it, but it gets set aside as its own thing.
Speaker:People don't quite know how to categorize it, how to talk about
Speaker:it, but it's really, you know, you think about teenagers
Speaker:not being able to escape death and the deaths being really quite
Speaker:gruesome, even if we don't see all of it on screen.
Speaker:If you put a gritty yellow and green filter
Speaker:over that, that is an obvious millennial nasty to me.
Speaker:So I think what I'm hoping to do is give
Speaker:more movies a home in the subgenre of millennial nasty.
Speaker:I was really glad to see a lot of outliers that I
Speaker:would never have thought of, of being a part of that
Speaker:subgenre. Like May or Repo, the genetic opera movies I
Speaker:really love, but have never been able to quite classify as
Speaker:part of any movement whatsoever. Yeah, and particularly repo.
Speaker:Like, that was a lightbulb moment of, oh, it's not just the
Speaker:Bousman connection. Like, they're very much playing with the
Speaker:same type of aesthetics, the same attitudes towards violence,
Speaker:the same cynical tone as a lot of other horror movies
Speaker:at the time. Absolutely. Yeah. I love Repo.
Speaker:I think it's incredible. And that's in the fucked up
Speaker:families chapter, along with May and some other movies.
Speaker:And there are a lot of themes that came out through this
Speaker:decade. Of course, there's always going to be when you get down
Speaker:into it. But, you know, I think especially with Repo,
Speaker:at the heart of that movie is of a father who doesn't
Speaker:know how to protect his daughter and daughter trying to have
Speaker:a coming of age story happens to be in a post apocalyptic
Speaker:world that's addicted to plastic surgery.
Speaker:But, you know, families, you can't really take that out
Speaker:of it. So I was happy to give Repo a home as
Speaker:well. As somebody who's read so many awful May takes
Speaker:over the years, it was really a delight to see you do that
Speaker:movie justice. Thank you so much. That's so kind.
Speaker:Thank you so much. I love May. I wrote a
Speaker:piece on it for moving pictures film club, kind of about how
Speaker:women sometimes in, like, the patriarchal gaze
Speaker:are viewed as parts, not the sum of the whole.
Speaker:And that's kind of how may is viewing people in that movie.
Speaker:And so I kind of broke it down to be like, well, May was taught
Speaker:to look at bodies this way and to see people like buckets of
Speaker:chicken rather than humans. So, yeah, I love may.
Speaker:I love talking about May justice for May.
Speaker:Good for you. You are the only person I have seen
Speaker:acknowledge that Jeremy Sisto is being weirder on that
Speaker:date than she is. Oh, absolutely true.
Speaker:Yeah. That pissed me off for so long.
Speaker:Whenever you read any review of, like, well, obviously, once
Speaker:she started biting him, like, everything up until that
Speaker:point was red flag after red flag. Yes.
Speaker:He's trying to assert power over her by freaking her out.
Speaker:And when she doesn't get freaked out, he doesn't know what to
Speaker:do. Yeah, no, he. I mean, listen, maybe it's my
Speaker:own personal experience with dudes that let me figure this
Speaker:one out. But, like, he shows her, you know, a short film
Speaker:about Hannibal is, like, couples eating each other on one
Speaker:of their first dates, and he. He wants to gauge
Speaker:her reaction, but he wants her to be afraid.
Speaker:Yeah, he sucks. Spooky edge lord guy.
Speaker:Intimidation is totally a thing. If it hasn't.
Speaker:If it hasn't happened to you, it's happened to a woman in your
Speaker:life, and it's something you most definitely have no concept
Speaker:of until it happens, because you think, oh, well, the guy
Speaker:in the evil dead shirt who wants to show me this weird movie,
Speaker:he's all right. And you don't realize, oh, this is stage
Speaker:one of something. Yes. And especially growing up as, like, a
Speaker:spooky chick and being like, ooh, a spooky guy.
Speaker:Like, let me see what he's up to. But then, like, spooky guy
Speaker:doesn't really actually want to follow through on any of that.
Speaker:He just wants that aesthetic to pull me in.
Speaker:It's like, yeah, man, I'm weirder than you.
Speaker:I like your knife collection. Let's go.
Speaker:I can say with absolute pride that I still, to
Speaker:this day, have a vhs that was loaned to me by
Speaker:a spooky guy who would not take no for an answer
Speaker:on me watching a random vhs he had. So fine, it's
Speaker:mine forever. What is on that VHS, Jamie?
Speaker:I cannot. It was some random ass eighties movie.
Speaker:I'll have to dig it up sometimes. Yeah, well, good for you for
Speaker:keeping that, because, yeah, teach that guy to try to
Speaker:be weird and freak you out. A small sidebar.
Speaker:Going back to repo. Can we have a new term instead
Speaker:of scream queen for whatever Bill Moseley does whenever he's
Speaker:in a movie with fucked up families? Um.
Speaker:Gosh, he's just enchanting, isn't he?
Speaker:It's always a treat when he pops up.
Speaker:Yeah, he's just enchanting. But it's just, you know, it's
Speaker:gonna be like the fucked up family special when that guy's in
Speaker:there like, oh, baby, what do you got for me?
Speaker:Yeah. My God. I didn't have anything to attach to
Speaker:that. I just really wanted to mention Bill Moseley.
Speaker:Cause now he's on the brain. Yeah, why not?
Speaker:Now I'm thinking of Bill Moseley's cameo in the blob.
Speaker:Oh, yeah. He totally spicy is in that.
Speaker:Yeah, she's. I laugh every time. It's also in the blob.
Speaker:And that's why she was in saw. So there you go, another
Speaker:degree of saw. It all ties back. This is all you can
Speaker:think. These are the only terms you can think in now.
Speaker:It's just.
Speaker:My brain is broken. Six months from now, we're gonna
Speaker:see a picture tweeted from the Lionsgate office, and they're
Speaker:gonna have that poster in the background.
Speaker:This is how we invented horror in the two thousands.
Speaker:If Lionsgate acknowledges my existence, I will melt into
Speaker:a puddle on the floor. They make everything I love.
Speaker:Truly. It's so bad. They moved out saw from September,
Speaker:else you could have, like, forced him to italian.
Speaker:Yeah, I know, I listen. In the same week we
Speaker:got the. The news that saw eleven was moved to
Speaker:next year and that the Blair witch project was getting a remake.
Speaker:And it was just an emotional roller coaster of a week for me,
Speaker:at least. I'm glad they have more time to cook
Speaker:because I was getting a little worried on how quickly they were
Speaker:putting that together. But, you know.
Speaker:And I'm sending all my positive energy.
Speaker:Tobin Bell is not a young man. Oh, no.
Speaker:So they're just doing, Carlos, take over.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm here. He's a warrior. I say do
Speaker:anything. That was my queue up for you, you guys.
Speaker:I love saw X. Yeah, I went. In pretty nervous
Speaker:and I came out thinking, wow. Wow. Okay.
Speaker:I was excited. It's top tier. Top tier.
Speaker:Who would have guessed that going in there should have been bets
Speaker:going. So, you guys know I also love the
Speaker:Fast and the Furious. And fast x came out the
Speaker:same year as saw X, and fast X should have been
Speaker:called fast ten your seatbelts. Obviously, they really missed
Speaker:a trick with that. So they're already going with silly names.
Speaker:They might as well really lean into it.
Speaker:Come on. Fast ten your seatbelts. Are you kidding me?
Speaker:Like, you're welcome. That should have been the log.
Speaker:Like the tagline that should have been on the poster.
Speaker:So to tease me, my husband calls saw X.
Speaker:Saw ten your seatbelts. I mean, that works if we're
Speaker:going back to seven with the car trap.
Speaker:I mean. Yeah, rip Chester. So if we can jump
Speaker:back a little bit, because you'd mentioned the Blair witch.
Speaker:And that reminded me. Yes. Sorry, I thought I had.
Speaker:Oh, no, no. This is my fault. I don't have a set pattern here.
Speaker:Damn it, Cody. I know. But, you know, I've always heard, and
Speaker:I do believe that nostalgia operates in, like, a 20 to 30
Speaker:year loop. Yeah. So kind of with that in mind,
Speaker:you get a timeline that decade ends next.
Speaker:Maybe ten years are a hard pivot where you get a
Speaker:cultural swing and kind of embrace the opposite side of the pendulum
Speaker:and then ten to 15 years back, the other direction to kind
Speaker:of get to that starting point and you kind of undulate back and
Speaker:forth. So, with the end of the nineties, you mentioned a
Speaker:few points in the book, the change in attitudes towards what
Speaker:we got in the nineties. What do you think are the main hallmarks
Speaker:that we were rebelling against in the nineties?
Speaker:When we got to things like saw, when we got to the two thousands,
Speaker:what were we trying to do different that we.
Speaker:We'd done in the previous decade and people didn't want a part
Speaker:of anymore? Yeah. So in the nineties, especially in the
Speaker:western world, especially in the United States, we were really
Speaker:feeling well set. We were kind of feeling like
Speaker:we won the world economically, we were doing well.
Speaker:We had good relationships with other countries, and for the
Speaker:most part, and we were really feeling.
Speaker:We were kidding ourselves that we had solved every type of
Speaker:bigotry. You know, we were the melting pot.
Speaker:We were talking about tolerance in schools, all the racism, sexism,
Speaker:homophobia. Homophobia wasn't even acknowledged.
Speaker:Right. Like, the types of bigotry that were acknowledged were
Speaker:racism and sexism and we were like, we fixed those.
Speaker:And going into the two thousands things that were
Speaker:happening made us realize that not all of
Speaker:that was true. Um, you know, 911 is a part of
Speaker:that, but it's not the only thing that was going on.
Speaker:There were lots of cultural forces all over the world that were
Speaker:shaking things up, especially like new french extremities started
Speaker:a little bit, a little bit earlier than millennial nasties from
Speaker:the political unrest in France and, you know, leading into
Speaker:a new president getting elected in the United States and then
Speaker:the war on terror and everything that brought to a financial
Speaker:crisis. Near the end of the two thousands, people in the west
Speaker:were feeling pretty unstable. And so we went from this period
Speaker:in the nineties where we were like, happy, glossy, solved everything,
Speaker:living the dream, to suddenly we're at war.
Speaker:We don't feel safe in our homes, we don't feel safe in our country,
Speaker:other countries don't feel safe. They don't like us and our
Speaker:money is in danger, our homes are in danger.
Speaker:Suddenly became very scary and it didn't happen overnight.
Speaker:But it is one of those things where if you look back at a ten
Speaker:year cycle, you can see the difference from the nineties to the
Speaker:two thousands. Well, it makes me. Because there's always been
Speaker:the kind of prevailing theory, oh, well, things were good in
Speaker:the nineties and it's hard in the core to exploit that when everyone's
Speaker:feeling good. I don't know if I'm 100% on board with that because
Speaker:I think there was a lot of things under the surface that weren't
Speaker:great. But I can definitely see why mass audiences would not
Speaker:be interested in horror in times of plenty.
Speaker:And I feel like you maybe get that kind of swing around
Speaker:with things too, because you go from the Clinton era to the Bush
Speaker:era and then to the Obama era with the whole emphasis on
Speaker:hope, you know, a new doll and all that kind of stuff happening.
Speaker:And then the switch over to the onward and because it
Speaker:does feel like in the last few years we have gotten some bangers
Speaker:for horror movies. Oh, yeah. Which is the one small good
Speaker:thing, I guess, about everything being on fire all the time.
Speaker:There's your silver lining. Yeah. So I have this theory
Speaker:that James Wan comes along about every ten to twelve years
Speaker:and tells us what we're gonna do for a while.
Speaker:So it starts with saw. I would love it if he actually came
Speaker:down from the mountain with like, commandments and we just got
Speaker:to go. Yes, I would love it if he would answer my voicemails
Speaker:and acknowledge that he's my boyfriend, but we all want
Speaker:things we can't. So it started with saw, and
Speaker:then it was the conjuring, and then I'm hoping malignant is
Speaker:a new signpost for us, because throughout the 2010s, we.
Speaker:I mean, we have gotten a lot of bangers, but we've kind of
Speaker:been in this era of, you know, a lot of, like, really thoughtful
Speaker:horror. Some slower, some things showed less on
Speaker:screen. Allegories for grief, allegories for mental illness.
Speaker:And I feel like we're just starting to swing away from
Speaker:that. And so, like, maybe in ten years, we'll be able
Speaker:to look back and see, but it feels like audiences are wanting
Speaker:to have a little bit more fun again with their horror.
Speaker:I think maybe the pandemic did that.
Speaker:Like, we were all too sad all the time anyway.
Speaker:So, like, we had to swing away from that, I think.
Speaker:So I think we're about to enter. I mean, I'm clocking it with
Speaker:malignant being so fun and silly, and I love it.
Speaker:I'm hoping that's the direction we're going for a while.
Speaker:Just to go back to your idea of trying to date James Wan, did
Speaker:you go outside of his house with, instead of a boombox, just
Speaker:a big billy puppet? Like, hello, notice me, senpai?
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, I sent him a cassette tape.
Speaker:It said, play me. And I don't understand why his
Speaker:security team thinks that's a problem.
Speaker:I am communicating the way he taught me to.
Speaker:What a jerk. I know, but he's still my boy.
Speaker:But to go back to that point of moving away from, for
Speaker:lack of a better term, elevated horror.
Speaker:How dare you? I don't love the term either.
Speaker:I don't like it. I said thoughtful horror.
Speaker:I know you were very careful with your words, and I'm like, who's
Speaker:gonna bulldoze into this? All right, but once you kind of
Speaker:get made fun of in a scream movie, I think it's time to pack
Speaker:it in. We gotta try something a little different, because that's
Speaker:it. Like, cultural mainstream at that point.
Speaker:Everyone's aware of it now. We talk about the Babadook.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, I think she might have even said something
Speaker:like a 24. Horror. Elevated horror. She does say elevated horror.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. So it's. It's such, like, a common, well known
Speaker:thing now you got to swerve a little bit and give us something
Speaker:different. Not that I hate those movies.
Speaker:I just think, well worn in a way. Need some gnarly
Speaker:horror now. Yes. Give me gorr. Well, I mean,
Speaker:look at it historically. I mean, we all love the new Hollywood
Speaker:horror of the seventies, but there was no world where that
Speaker:could have stayed on forever. Every bubble is going to pop eventually.
Speaker:Yes. And then, and like, that's good and that's okay.
Speaker:And we can do different things. We don't need to do the same
Speaker:thing forever. But, you know, I do think horror trends tend
Speaker:to sort of swing wildly. So we'll see where we go.
Speaker:There's more cycles than I always think.
Speaker:I always think like, oh, man, the slasher craze lasted forever.
Speaker:Well, the golden era for slashers, what, 78 really did?
Speaker:Like 83 ish, 84 or somewhere, right?
Speaker:And I mean, there's definitely some outliers and there are definitely
Speaker:things that count as slashers outside of that.
Speaker:But, yeah, it never really went away, but it lost its popularity.
Speaker:Well, the post scream slasher boom was like, what, four
Speaker:years? Exactly what I was going to get to next.
Speaker:Yeah. So I think I mentioned it already a couple of times, but
Speaker:the 1990s teen horror cycle gets into this idea.
Speaker:Like, this went pretty fast. There were a lot of them
Speaker:that came out really quick and they're all kind of similar and
Speaker:I love them all so much. But it was not a long trend
Speaker:that was maybe like scream was what, 90?
Speaker:End of 96? And, boy, we already had scream three by
Speaker:like 2000. It felt like things were kind of winding down.
Speaker:It was only like maybe four or five years for that whole trend
Speaker:to really exhaust itself. It was fast.
Speaker:It was bright. Yeah. If you like Alex West's book,
Speaker:the 1990s teen horror cycle, she also has
Speaker:a book on new french extremity that I highly recommend.
Speaker:Oh, nice. Yes. Especially because I don't talk about
Speaker:new french extremity millennial nasties.
Speaker:I focus on english language horror. I cannot recommend highly
Speaker:enough. If you are craving new french extremity content, Alex
Speaker:west is the expert. So I wanted to get into
Speaker:kind of talking about changing trends.
Speaker:I'm surprised you went with malignant because I was thinking
Speaker:just recently that terrifier two was a surprise, kind of
Speaker:box office smash. That was one of those films that doesn't seem
Speaker:like the mainstream would know or talk about it.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, people found out about that movie normies.
Speaker:We're all over it. Right. And when that happens, you got
Speaker:to think that everyone who's making low budget movies is going
Speaker:to pivot hard towards something like that.
Speaker:Yeah. Well, to stick with my James wan theory, I have
Speaker:to. It has to be malignant. Come on.
Speaker:I mean, I love malignant, too, so I wouldn't be opposed if
Speaker:we got more dead silence in the world or anything.
Speaker:Oh my God, I love dead silence. This is an audio medium, but
Speaker:I have a dead silence poster behind me on the wall.
Speaker:Anyway, sorry, I feel like I interrupted a question.
Speaker:Oh no. I was very unsubtly trying to
Speaker:direct us towards terrifyer talk, my new radio show
Speaker:every Saturday morning. No, terrifyer talk.
Speaker:Terrifyer talk in the morning with Ted.
Speaker:Colin, what do you think? You could have like a
Speaker:soundboard with like a oo and all the shock talk
Speaker:style. Yeah. All the classic clown horn honking kind of noises.
Speaker:Yeah. Hey, Ariel, you've been terrified lately.
Speaker:A lady never tells uga, why are. We doing
Speaker:this show? Why am I writing this? 6 hours of that every morning.
Speaker:We have to arrive at the studio at 230 in the morning.
Speaker:Yeah. You have to do so many promotional events outside your
Speaker:normal hours. Yeah, but the idea I was trying
Speaker:to broach was there's so much popularity in something like terrifyer
Speaker:two. Yes, and it's not quite a return to
Speaker:classic slashers because there's a level of kind
Speaker:of cruelty in art that you would maybe only see in
Speaker:Freddy. And he even got turned to more of a jokester as
Speaker:the movies went on. The terrifyer series is one of
Speaker:the few out there where if I'm like in the middle of a meal and
Speaker:I see a scene from it, I'm like, I'm not actually going to finish
Speaker:this bowl of lasagna. I'm going to wait.
Speaker:Can't imagine why. But despite all that cruelty, it
Speaker:would still kinda be classified as fun horror.
Speaker:Like, it's not striking. The somber, you know, kind of tones
Speaker:of a lot of the other really very, very serious, straight
Speaker:faced horror. It's not like Babadook, if I can go back to that.
Speaker:Right. Well, you know. Okay, so something I've been thinking
Speaker:about a lot lately because I'm getting ready to write a piece.
Speaker:So the reactions to terrifier and the reactions to
Speaker:terrafire two, I saw really different reactions to them
Speaker:online. And I do not see, I did not
Speaker:see as many people talking about terrifier as fun as I do
Speaker:the second one. And I do think they're two really different movies.
Speaker:But I think the conversations around those two movies are
Speaker:really fascinating by different, like, who's involved in those
Speaker:conversations and what are they saying and who's listening?
Speaker:Um, and it makes me super stoked for the third one
Speaker:because I'm like, what is this going to end up being?
Speaker:And if you just look at the first movie on its own,
Speaker:it's a really different thing. You think the filmmakers were
Speaker:thinking about them when you look at the two of them together.
Speaker:Like, I think this is such a rich franchise already with only
Speaker:two movies, and there's, God, I don't even know where
Speaker:to begin. There's so much, I kind of think.
Speaker:It almost is like the filming style because the first terrifier
Speaker:was, is much kind of grittier feel to it visually.
Speaker:And I think that cues people into thinking of it in those terms.
Speaker:Like, you, you almost think of it more like a grindhouse kind
Speaker:of movie or something. It's very grungy and kind of mean spirited.
Speaker:And the interesting thing about terrifyer two is it still has
Speaker:a lot of, like, that spirit, but it has the aesthetic of a
Speaker:splatterpunk. But it doesn't have the, like.
Speaker:It doesn't have the, like, cartoonish joy of a splatterpunk,
Speaker:but it has the look and feel of it. Yes, there's a
Speaker:very, and terrifier too, obviously, is the one
Speaker:that perfects this to a style. But I felt like all of
Speaker:Damian Leone's films, even all Hallows Eve, they
Speaker:have this very intentional artifice to them that
Speaker:gives them this very dreamlike quality.
Speaker:Like, there's a very particularly. Terrifier too.
Speaker:Feels like the dream of a movie you once
Speaker:saw that your brain is making worse in retrospect.
Speaker:I know exactly what you mean. The thing I kept thinking, rewatching
Speaker:it for this episode was, this is the movie
Speaker:that was in my head when I was a kid.
Speaker:And other kids at school would tell me what goes
Speaker:on in Friday the 13th movies but make everything up.
Speaker:Hmm. Like all those stories of and then.
Speaker:Jason, were you spreading Friday the 13th lies back in
Speaker:the day on the playground? Oh, I was the victim of those.
Speaker:Okay, okay. Kids would say, like, oh, and then Jason rips
Speaker:this guy's skin off, and then he cuts off the guy's
Speaker:hands and shoves them down as all this bonker stuff you
Speaker:wouldn't put in a movie. Now, I, that's how so many
Speaker:of those movies were talked about back in the day.
Speaker:Like, terrifier as a franchise feels like Leon saying,
Speaker:okay, what if I took that dream horror movie that's
Speaker:never actually been made, that only exists half remembered in
Speaker:your imagination? What if I made that real?
Speaker:Yeah, I think so. Something I've been thinking about,
Speaker:the first movie versus the second movie.
Speaker:And, okay, full disclosure. When I first watched terrifier, when
Speaker:it first came out, I didn't like it very much, and I couldn't
Speaker:put my finger on why. And I didn't spend too much time
Speaker:thinking about it. I just sort of was like, I didn't love that.
Speaker:And I kind of moved on. I was like, great practical effects,
Speaker:but. And then terrifier two, I started watching on loop.
Speaker:Like, I can't count how many times I've just had this
Speaker:movie on in the background. And I was like, why is my reaction
Speaker:to these two movies so different? One of the things I think about
Speaker:the first movie is you start out thinking it's going to
Speaker:be a typical slasher formula because, you know, like,
Speaker:you're focusing on. I mean, it starts out with the
Speaker:interview, but, like, then you're introduced to dawn and Tara,
Speaker:and you think, okay, like, Tara's obviously our final girl.
Speaker:Dawn's obviously gonna die. But, like, I know this narrative.
Speaker:This girl's gonna get away and she's gonna be a badass.
Speaker:And then that doesn't happen. And you realize slowly that the
Speaker:movie's about art, and it always has been.
Speaker:And if you go in thinking you're going to watch a slasher about
Speaker:a final girl and you come out of it realizing you watched a
Speaker:movie about art, it can make you feel weird.
Speaker:But the second movie absolutely is about Sienna, and
Speaker:it's about art, too, but it's more about Sienna.
Speaker:And it sticks more to that formula while still subverting some
Speaker:things. And so I think that's one of the reasons why the reactions
Speaker:were so. Different, particularly when in terrifyer one, art pulls
Speaker:a gun out and just murphs somebody. Yes, that's the moment for
Speaker:me. Yes. A, when I fell in love, but b, when I
Speaker:went, okay, this is not what I thought it was when
Speaker:I was going in. This is actually doing something different now.
Speaker:And that's when I, like, start paying closer attention.
Speaker:Terrifier one is almost a prank on the audience.
Speaker:Like, oh, you thought you were going to a slasher movie, didn't
Speaker:you? Yes, that is exactly right, Jamie.
Speaker:I mean, I agree with you. I don't get to.
Speaker:Sorry, that sounded weird, me saying it was right.
Speaker:I just mean I agree with you. No, no, no.
Speaker:I gotta go push the book. Raise your hand.
Speaker:No, I don't. Listen, I don't know what I'm talking
Speaker:about. Um, the guest never agrees mute with me.
Speaker:This is awesome. Jamie finally gets her validation.
Speaker:She ascends to heaven. It's a good ending.
Speaker:Uh oh. I ended the podcast by accident.
Speaker:Oh, it's like the Santa Claus. Unfortunately, you just have to
Speaker:take the role now. I become Jamie, somehow live my
Speaker:debt. No one really. Jamie's sitting at her house right now
Speaker:wearing a Santa suit. So it's exactly like the Santa Claus.
Speaker:Why is Jamie. Why. Second podcast in a row we've talked about
Speaker:the Santa Claus. Cause it's such a weird concept.
Speaker:I can't get on my head. Well, you see, Cody, if you access the
Speaker:escape clause, a little bit awkward.
Speaker:Because I'm also wearing a Santa suit and I, you know, now one
Speaker:of us has. This is where the murder comes in.
Speaker:Oh, shoot. I want to mention, I absolutely love how much of
Speaker:a horror nerd thing that is to be like, I didn't like the first
Speaker:one and then I put the second one on here.
Speaker:Yes, yes. Because we've all been there.
Speaker:We were just talking about the strangers and like, well, this
Speaker:will probably be bad. I guess I'm only gonna have to watch all
Speaker:three of them in theaters and then buy the dvd's.
Speaker:Pumpkin head three is really where they pull the franchise together.
Speaker:You know, it just, it's a part of the ritual, right?
Speaker:It's just a part of the ritual. Hope springs eternal.
Speaker:I'm always in the back of my head. Like Wishmaster nine is where
Speaker:I'm really gonna find. All the questions are going to
Speaker:be answered. Yeah. What point was I going to
Speaker:make? It was a good one. I don't know.
Speaker:Oh, no, we lost track. Art wears a Santa suit in
Speaker:the third one, so it kind of relates to the Santa Claus.
Speaker:It's true. And as long as you bring up the third one.
Speaker:Did you see the news that Savini's gonna make a little appearance
Speaker:in the third? I did see the news and I.
Speaker:Saw it's like Christmas now. Yeah, I cannot wait.
Speaker:So we were talking about art using guns, and I want
Speaker:to go back to that because I think that's extremely important.
Speaker:Never have we seen. So Art's an iconic slasher
Speaker:villain, right? He's got the look, he's got the whole thing going
Speaker:on. Never have we seen an iconic slasher villain use a
Speaker:gun. I can't think of a single time, and certainly not
Speaker:in the first movie. Like usually a slasher franchise, you end
Speaker:up loving the iconic villain later. Like you go to
Speaker:the later Friday the 13th movies for Jason.
Speaker:Right. But that's not what you're doing in the first few movies.
Speaker:Jason isn't even in the first one. But the first terrifying
Speaker:movie tells you this is all about art and art isn't who you
Speaker:think he is. And he's so comfortable using guns because
Speaker:he just wants to achieve his goal. You know, he's not
Speaker:walking after you while you run away and trip.
Speaker:Like he's just gonna shoot you in the head.
Speaker:And I'm just like, how bold. How bold
Speaker:to make this movie, right? Could you imagine like a Halloween
Speaker:where Michael Myers just pulls out a Glock?
Speaker:Like, it would work. It wouldn't. And even in something like
Speaker:scream, you know, when Ghostface inevitably pulls the gun out
Speaker:at the end, they're out of costume. So it's almost like a divide
Speaker:between the iconic slasher and the killer underneath.
Speaker:Like they keep those in different pools.
Speaker:Yes. It's like humans can use guns, but not our supernatural
Speaker:slasher icons. And art is supernatural.
Speaker:That's very clear from the first movie.
Speaker:That's not a thing they added in the second movie.
Speaker:That's clear from the first movie, everybody.
Speaker:And we're not used to super, like, freddy would never pull a
Speaker:gun. That would be wild. Well, and just to go off
Speaker:the supernatural thing too, most of the slashers to prolong the
Speaker:franchise end up becoming explicitly super supernatural.
Speaker:Jason, you can maybe argue for the first few entries was human,
Speaker:but they have to take their time to turn into that.
Speaker:It's by the 7th one, you're like, he lives underwater now.
Speaker:Like what? What? Like aquatic jason.
Speaker:And then he's a little kid again. Jason is more machine than
Speaker:man now. Yeah. And then he's an astronaut.
Speaker:So it's almost like you're bringing the energy of like a
Speaker:later slasher entry. You really. First one where all of
Speaker:a sudden art's like, no, he's always been this way.
Speaker:You can't stop art. But then you also give him a gun, which
Speaker:also doesn't work. It's like I could have a lot.
Speaker:Of directions for one guy. Yeah. Like a slasher move, a
Speaker:slasher franchise where you're like, you're gonna love the killer
Speaker:right away. Okay, cool. Got it. Hatch it did it.
Speaker:Victor Crowley. Love him. But like art, then giving art a
Speaker:gun subverts so much of what you think that iconic villain should
Speaker:be. And it's like he'll just straight up kill people.
Speaker:The other thing we don't know yet about art, there are lots of
Speaker:theories. We don't yet know what his deal is, what his
Speaker:motivation is. And usually we get some sort of,
Speaker:at the end of a slasher movie, you get the exposition dump about,
Speaker:you know, oh, his name was Jason and his birthday.
Speaker:Right. And so we haven't gotten that yet.
Speaker:About art, and maybe we never will. And, like, that would also
Speaker:be interesting. But I'm just like, what is this slasher franchise?
Speaker:And is it even legal to make a movie that's so
Speaker:different? I love it. I always compare it to Lovecraft.
Speaker:Like, Lovecraft with the mythology they've set up.
Speaker:There's not just, like, normal slasher movie supernatural shit
Speaker:going on. There's something grander.
Speaker:There's a larger stage at play that we're seeing, and art is
Speaker:at the center of it. And something almost, like, older than time,
Speaker:like a form of evil, which the little girl represents that is
Speaker:pushing art along. And then Sienna being set up as
Speaker:the avatar of all that is good to defeat
Speaker:art. It's a lot of thought that's going into a movie
Speaker:about a killer clown, which I love so much.
Speaker:Yeah. I think anybody watching the first terrifier was thinking,
Speaker:man, the follow up is going to be filled with lots
Speaker:of loaded mythological symbolism. No.
Speaker:And that's what's so bold. And that's why some people who
Speaker:love the first one were super mad about the second one.
Speaker:And some people who didn't like the first one were sucked in
Speaker:by the second one. Mike, you're the superfan, right?
Speaker:With me on this? Yes. I would love to hear
Speaker:your theories. Oh, God. I know. I'm sorry.
Speaker:The iron bars come down to all of our houses, and we're just
Speaker:trapped in here. No, no, no, listen, I'm Jigsaw in
Speaker:this scenario, and you can't escape until you tell me your art
Speaker:series. No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to try to
Speaker:facilitate your podcast. No, no. I'm saying, don't get Mike started.
Speaker:We'll be here forever. That's why I came on the show.
Speaker:Please aim a mic like a gun. Let me open the poetic
Speaker:Edda. That'd be the solid victim. That's way too into it.
Speaker:I'm with you, buddy. I'd be like, hold on, let me figure this
Speaker:out. Mike's already sawing off his fingers and, like, the deli
Speaker:grinder, and Jigsaw's like, wait, I didn't explain.
Speaker:You got. He's like, no, I figured it out.
Speaker:Ten pints of blood. I can do this. Let's go.
Speaker:Bird in daylight. Got places to be. I'm fascinated by
Speaker:some of the stuff Leon has said about they kind of went against
Speaker:what I was perceiving to be, like, some of the mythology.
Speaker:Sienna's overall role, the sword, not starting out as
Speaker:a supernatural item. Right. But when it gets that little
Speaker:line of electricity or whatever it is through it becoming that.
Speaker:Yeah. The idea that the sword is baptized in fire and becomes
Speaker:the spear of Longinus or something, or even like, the.
Speaker:The clown cafe fascinated me. Like, what?
Speaker:And Leon's saying, it's. It acts as a way station, essentially.
Speaker:Like, it's this. It is a place that exists somewhere, like,
Speaker:in space and time. And Sienna goes there for the purpose
Speaker:of a test. Yeah. She's being tested to see if she
Speaker:can stand up to art. This whole thing.
Speaker:I don't know if. If you all are Stephen King fans,
Speaker:but this reminds me so much of the dark tower.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of like, are we accidentally.
Speaker:Are we in King's dominion right now?
Speaker:Like, are we all singing we do? One thing that
Speaker:struck me, I was just listening to the commentary for two right
Speaker:before we started to record. And Leone mentions a comparison
Speaker:in his methodology to David lynch and Twin Peaks.
Speaker:Now, he was saying, like, we shouldn't give the audience all
Speaker:the answers. That's the allure. You want people to try and figure
Speaker:things out themselves or make up their own mythology or leaps.
Speaker:I think it's actually a lot closer to Twin Peaks, though, in
Speaker:actual mythology, because the red room, the area of, like, you
Speaker:have to have an area where you test your courage or it would
Speaker:be totally annihilated. You could kind of view askew that to,
Speaker:you know, if your courage is not good enough, you
Speaker:will not be able to face art. You won't have this challenge.
Speaker:Kind of an interdimensional room. That's proving grounds.
Speaker:It's for me, if I squint enough, I can see a lot of
Speaker:overlap between the cosmology of Twin Peaks and the
Speaker:series. A thing I didn't think I would ever say until I watched
Speaker:the commentary. Yeah. What really interests me is the way
Speaker:in which art isn't this, like, central mythological evil
Speaker:character, but has been created to be one and seems to
Speaker:be in and out of not quite knowing why he's
Speaker:supposed to be doing things. He wants to kill people, but
Speaker:he's also, like, doesn't. It's like when he kills Sienna, he
Speaker:kind of goes. He has that reaction of, well, I guess that
Speaker:was it. Yeah. Oh, what now? Yeah. Like, he takes it
Speaker:as, like he's been told in some way that this is
Speaker:going to be a bigger deal than it actually was.
Speaker:Who is pulling his strings? Like, and what's the deal
Speaker:with the little girl? Also, she scares the shit out of me.
Speaker:I'm wondering because so many slashers are like, Michael
Speaker:Myers only comes out on Halloween, and you wonder, what does
Speaker:he do for Thanksgiving? And we're kind of getting an answer here
Speaker:for something like art because they set the first two movies
Speaker:up where he only appears on Halloween, and now we've got a Christmas
Speaker:entry coming up. Yeah. So that's interesting to me that they're
Speaker:going to say, no, no, no, this guy can operate whenever, but
Speaker:why is he just murdering 24/7 right.
Speaker:That's what I mean by, like, we don't know what.
Speaker:What his deal is this point. We don't even know if
Speaker:the fact that he's so, he takes so much extra
Speaker:pride in being gruesome towards his female victims means
Speaker:anything or not. Right. Because going over the movie, it's one
Speaker:thing. It's like, okay, well, that could just be incidental in
Speaker:terrafire two, it feels like it's going somewhere with that.
Speaker:Yes. I remember one of the criticisms.
Speaker:I heard a lot of the first one and one that I kind of
Speaker:felt was like, I came away feeling like that movie
Speaker:was a little bit misogynistic. And truly, I couldn't put my
Speaker:finger on why. Like, I don't think I could have defended that
Speaker:point, and I didn't think that hard about it.
Speaker:And when you look back on, like, most slashers, a
Speaker:lot of them are about killing women and girls.
Speaker:So I was kind of like, why do I feel differently about this one
Speaker:than I do the other one? And he does kill men in the first movie,
Speaker:but it's more like, because they're in his way, incidental.
Speaker:Yeah. And then in the second movie, I think it's
Speaker:about torturing Sienna. But, yeah. Does their
Speaker:gender matter to art? And if it does or
Speaker:doesn't, why. But also the Valkyrie imagery is so loaded.
Speaker:Yes, because the movie seems to be taking a point
Speaker:in showing, like, there's a balancing of scales going on.
Speaker:So art is, and maybe it's not necessarily a point
Speaker:for plot purposes or anything, and just like, overall allegory
Speaker:stuff that's going on, but art being specifically vicious towards
Speaker:women and then Sienna with the Valkyrie imagery and being the
Speaker:other part of that scale, trying to balance it back out.
Speaker:Yeah, that seems very purposeful. Yes.
Speaker:I also think it matters. I want to know more
Speaker:about Sienna's dad and what role he plays because he
Speaker:created Sienna's character and they find that
Speaker:sketchbook of his where he has art and all, you know, art's victims
Speaker:from the first movie. And so I'm like, what is going on
Speaker:with this dad? And what does he have to do with, like,
Speaker:he obviously created this Valkyrie that Sienna's gonna be,
Speaker:but, like, what did he know? That has to be savini,
Speaker:right? I'm convinced, dad. Oh.
Speaker:I didn't think of that makes too much sense.
Speaker:I just did the biggest inhale of my.
Speaker:Oh, it's gotta be, it's gotta be. It's gotta be.
Speaker:Oh, my God. Let box office freaking way, right about a movie
Speaker:for once. We'll just declare an exclusive.
Speaker:We'll just pretend. Yeah. You heard it here first, folks.
Speaker:Do we make it up? Maybe, yeah, but you don't know.
Speaker:Not to your knowledge. Let's be on the trailers.
Speaker:This shit. I also feel a real personal connection
Speaker:to terrifier, too, because my dad passed away when I
Speaker:was 16 and, like, my mom was also, like, a
Speaker:hard working widow trying to take care of me and my brother,
Speaker:and we were just little shits. And, like, at the time, when
Speaker:you're a little shit, you don't realize it, but then as an adult,
Speaker:you're like, oh, God, I could have made her life easier.
Speaker:And I was always sneaking out, drinking and doing dumb things,
Speaker:and she was always telling me to put clothes on.
Speaker:And so, like, when I watch terrifier two, I think a lot
Speaker:about, like, my mom and how hard I made her life.
Speaker:And, I don't know, it just gives, like, another extra layer of
Speaker:texture to that film of, like, the characters in the film
Speaker:are so easy to connect with, personally, at least for me.
Speaker:Well, there's that extra layer of tragedy, too, because we get
Speaker:to see, you know, their last words to a lot of family members
Speaker:as they all go separate ways. Yes. You know, put a little
Speaker:more salt on the wound, I suppose. Yeah.
Speaker:Especially for ally. Right?
Speaker:What do we think the importance of the arts, cannibalism is in
Speaker:all of this? Because it seems like his big finisher move is I'm
Speaker:gonna start biting this person while they're alive.
Speaker:Like he's saving that for something special.
Speaker:Well, okay, if we're. If we're gonna go the Stephen
Speaker:King route. Stephen King has often posited that the
Speaker:worst thing, like, when a child imagines the monster, the worst
Speaker:thing they can imagine is that monster eating you.
Speaker:Like that is the logical conclusion to a monster, is
Speaker:they eat you. And so it could be that art sees that
Speaker:as his last, final move to torture you and make
Speaker:you feel horrified. Maybe he's just a foodie and he
Speaker:really likes long pig. I don't know.
Speaker:I mean, he does bring out the mashed potatoes in the dinner scene
Speaker:for two. So I love mashed potatoes. I tend to think
Speaker:of movies using cannibalism as almost always just, like, all
Speaker:consuming love. You know, it's that idea if you love something,
Speaker:so people eat it. Yeah. Yes. Which doesn't seem to
Speaker:be the fit here at all. No. It could be a life force
Speaker:thing, but I don't think it is. I have a theory on, like,
Speaker:the way art kills, and this is totally me overthinking the
Speaker:thought that probably went into the design of any of these.
Speaker:Kills, but I'm here for this. The thing that I
Speaker:absolutely love about both films, but specifically, I think they
Speaker:hone this in terrifyer two, is art's kills are
Speaker:truly what would happen if a clown killed you.
Speaker:They're all. Yes, they're all the wind up
Speaker:and telling of a joke, but through murder, where they just
Speaker:kind of, like, keep going and are told in threes, and there's
Speaker:always, like, an extra punchline, and then there's a punchline
Speaker:after that. It's all designed as if a clown act,
Speaker:I think. Absolutely right. I was thrown for a second, Mike,
Speaker:because I'm like, if a clown kills you, we've already seen this.
Speaker:It's killer clowns from outer space.
Speaker:They would kill you with a giant pie that melts your face.
Speaker:This is your point. Those were technically aliens, but, yeah.
Speaker:Um, I don't know if you've seen the movie blood
Speaker:fest. Not blood feast. Blood fest, I have to
Speaker:say. Wait, wait. Blood feast? Which one have I seen?
Speaker:So blood fe. So, okay, I prefer hellfest, but blood fest
Speaker:is a similar movie that I think came out, like, a year before
Speaker:about, like, oh, some kids go to a haunted attraction, and they're
Speaker:really killing people. Like, you could put that with, like, haunt.
Speaker:And the house is Oktober belt, right?
Speaker:It's, like, a similar thing, but in blood fest, there's a line
Speaker:because they're trying to figure out the rules of each zone.
Speaker:Like, oh, zombies do these things and vampires do these things.
Speaker:They end up in, like, the clown zone.
Speaker:And the horror buff says somebody. Somebody asks him, like,
Speaker:oh, what are the rules for clowns? And he's like, clowns don't
Speaker:have any rules. They will cut off your head and shit down
Speaker:your throat and laugh about it. And, like, I don't think
Speaker:bloodfest is that good of a movie. I think hellfest is way better,
Speaker:but that line has always stuck with me because it's so true.
Speaker:Killer clowns do not have any rules, and I don't
Speaker:know why I said that like Christopher Walken.
Speaker:I don't know what happened to my voice just because I was.
Speaker:It was a very dramatic movie moment.
Speaker:My ass, for ten years. Then the power comes out.
Speaker:Turned into Christopher Walken. No, but I think you're absolutely
Speaker:right, Mike. They're making a joke out of the.
Speaker:Whole thing that gets to why art the clown is
Speaker:maybe the only movie slasher in, I don't
Speaker:know, maybe 20 years that I think actually qualifies as
Speaker:being scary. Like, viscerally terrifying.
Speaker:Yeah. Is the added detail of not only will
Speaker:art kill you, art will humiliate you in
Speaker:the most torturous manner possible that no human being
Speaker:deserves. And that's the threat of that hanging in
Speaker:every scene that art is in. Makes the entire movie
Speaker:so tense. It's been so long since we've had a
Speaker:character that inspired that in people.
Speaker:And sometimes art is acting for an audience that's not
Speaker:there. It's like he's imagining an audience or it's just us,
Speaker:and we're implicated. Like, in the first movie, when he.
Speaker:There's the woman who lives in the abandoned
Speaker:building, and he cuts off her breasts and wears them for
Speaker:a while. He's just dancing around with her breasts on for himself.
Speaker:But it looks like he's putting on a little show for someone,
Speaker:and that someone is just us. And so I also love thinking
Speaker:about. Because I do love some more extreme cinema, I like to
Speaker:think about how is the audience implicated?
Speaker:And where are our lines? And why are.
Speaker:Why are we seeking the entertainment that we're seeking?
Speaker:And so I love thinking about, if art is doing that for us,
Speaker:what does that say about us? And it makes that horrible feedback
Speaker:loop where. Okay, well, if this movie where art does an awful
Speaker:thing is a huge financial success and it gets a sequel, they
Speaker:have to one up that thing. So we are really encouraging him to
Speaker:just do more and more heinous shit every day.
Speaker:And I will be there on opening night with my commemorative popcorn
Speaker:bucket or whatever they do. Oh, God, an art popcorn bucket.
Speaker:They weren't even want to reach into that.
Speaker:They filled with, like, severed, you know, broken glass and razor
Speaker:blades. It's just flesh and a hole. I just wanted it to
Speaker:be the trash bag. Just give you a trash bag full
Speaker:of popcorn. You know, at the gas station by my
Speaker:house growing up, you could get a trash bag full of popcorn for,
Speaker:like, a dollar. Those were the days.
Speaker:My sister worked better town. My sister worked at a movie
Speaker:theater, so she would always get, like, the leftover popcorn.
Speaker:So at the end of the night, they would just come home with, you
Speaker:know, a huge garbage bag stuffed with popcorn and drove her mad.
Speaker:She couldn't stand the smell of popcorn.
Speaker:After a while, she bring it home because we'd asked for it, and
Speaker:she hated it so much. Oh, man, I can't imagine hating popcorn.
Speaker:Although when I worked at an amusement park, I was right
Speaker:next to a pizza stand forever, and it made me hate the smell
Speaker:of pizza for, like, a summer. So I get it.
Speaker:Yep. One year, my parents hid her Easter basket inside of
Speaker:the popcorn bag, and, oh, God, she was, she was so
Speaker:distraught. She finally found her Easter present.
Speaker:She's like, all my candy smells like popcorn.
Speaker:That's pretty cool. All day was ruined.
Speaker:It was. It was a rough one. Cruel. But to, to go to
Speaker:the idea of Mike, you mentioned, of arts kills, kind of forming
Speaker:to the. The methodology of a clown, maybe that gives some light
Speaker:on why I think of terrifyer II as a more
Speaker:fun slasher, even though I also view it as a very
Speaker:kind of grim and cruel, mean spirited one.
Speaker:Because if he's basically playing along to a joke that's solely
Speaker:for the benefit of a meta narrative, like, the audience gets
Speaker:it, but the characters wouldn't, you would kind of apply that
Speaker:as, oh, we're having fun here. We're kind of joking around in
Speaker:the most, you know, brutal way possible.
Speaker:I'm spitballing here because I think of terrifying two as kind
Speaker:of like a fun movie. It is fun. It is very fun.
Speaker:I can't quite say why, because it's not like dead alive or
Speaker:something that's clearly like, we're having a fun time.
Speaker:This is a horror comedy kind of fun.
Speaker:I think there's an interesting feedback loop where the absurdity
Speaker:adds to the horror, which adds to the absurdity, which adds
Speaker:to the horror. Yes. And I think it works in its favor
Speaker:that it's not trying to be a horror comedy.
Speaker:So that allows it to be pretty scary and horrifying at
Speaker:times. And I think so some people complained
Speaker:about the length of terrifier, too, and I get it.
Speaker:But the thing that the length of terrifier two gives you is it
Speaker:gives you some room to breathe. So it's not just 90 minutes
Speaker:of art sawing people in half. Like, you get some
Speaker:family time, you get some friends at the bar, you get some dick
Speaker:jokes. Like, you get some room to breathe in between, so that
Speaker:when you get to the next kill, you're, like, ready to absorb
Speaker:that again. And art is having so much fun, it's
Speaker:a little bit hard not to have fun with him, even if we're
Speaker:rooting against him then for just to.
Speaker:Totally derail the conversation. Uh, you'd mentioned Dick jokes
Speaker:and it made me think, oh, yeah, two goes out of its way to kind
Speaker:of, uh, do some payback for the first film.
Speaker:Having a woman sawn from the crotch up by having another man's
Speaker:dick basically torn off and used as, like a gag for.
Speaker:For that. Yes. We truly have fixed sexism now, guys.
Speaker:They. Art did it, buddy. Damien Leone is bringing cock
Speaker:and ball torture to cinema one movie at a time.
Speaker:No, but it was fun, though. It was a good one.
Speaker:Especially you don't get as much dick torture in movies.
Speaker:I don't think. I don't think it's quite balanced.
Speaker:Not as much. Yeah, I could make you this.
Speaker:I know it's out there. Ghoul's magazine had a really good
Speaker:list about the best severed dicks in horror, so you can look
Speaker:that up if you want to. That sounds like it would have been fantastic
Speaker:for, like, a Valentine's Day article.
Speaker:It might have been nice. It might have been.
Speaker:But especially since his shirt said just the tip, it was
Speaker:very wonderful that he got it straight in the crotch.
Speaker:Oh, one of those things that always makes you wince.
Speaker:I still know how I feel about the deleted scene of art then getting
Speaker:in the car and snorting cocaine. Yeah, that was a legit
Speaker:deleted scene. Oh, yeah. That means that art can feel
Speaker:the effects of cocaine. That's kind of amazing.
Speaker:Yeah, I think that's why it needed to be deleted.
Speaker:The most humanizing scene we get of art is him washing
Speaker:his costume. And I really. I mean, I really
Speaker:like the scene at the Laundromat for a lot of reasons, but the
Speaker:idea that art has the sort of presence of mind
Speaker:to go, okay, I'm done with tonight's killing spree.
Speaker:I gotta wash up so I can do tomorrow's killing spree.
Speaker:I don't know. That's also something we don't see.
Speaker:Iconic horror villains. Do. You never see Michael wash his
Speaker:jumpsuit? Right? Yeah, there's the cleanup, the aftercare.
Speaker:And like you mentioned before, it does feel like he's performing
Speaker:for us too. Like, you know, reading the newspaper and laughing
Speaker:along theatrically to the tragedies listed in it while sitting
Speaker:nude in a laundromat. He's just as shocked by the little
Speaker:girl as we are. And can I say, when she pees like black
Speaker:liquid, it scares the hell out of me.
Speaker:It's one of the first no explanation just happens.
Speaker:Yeah. Just. It's one of those things that makes
Speaker:me very glad that we have not perfected, like, scratch and sniff
Speaker:television. Like, we don't need spell o vision for these kind
Speaker:of moments. Four d. Oh, no, he's coming right at you.
Speaker:Going back to, like, what could bring in the next
Speaker:wave, like, terrify or two or malignant.
Speaker:And speaking of deleted scenes, the original ending, it wasn't
Speaker:shot was instead of giving birth to art's
Speaker:head, they pull open the back of her head and art's
Speaker:face would be there. Oh, they couldn't have done that after malignant.
Speaker:And then malignant came out, so they had to quickly change it.
Speaker:I do remember hearing that. Yeah. I don't know.
Speaker:I like giving birth. The birthing I like.
Speaker:But it's interesting because one's, like a weird body horror,
Speaker:the other is just there's something so pointlessly gory
Speaker:about. He was already a severed head.
Speaker:And then she gives birth to the severed head that he already
Speaker:was. Yeah. It's like the dream sequence
Speaker:in the fly or something. Like, it's just weird for the sake of
Speaker:it. I'm a clown who dreamed about being a man.
Speaker:Honk, honk. You know, giving birth to his head
Speaker:adds to the idea that the sex of his
Speaker:victims matters. Yes. And I'm interested to
Speaker:see where that goes. Like, why is it a little girl who's with
Speaker:him, somebody gave birth to his head?
Speaker:He surrounds himself with women constantly.
Speaker:Like, what's up with that? And why did somebody need to
Speaker:give birth to him again, I don't necessarily
Speaker:need answers to every question to enjoy this franchise.
Speaker:The thing about it is I feel like Damian Leone has these
Speaker:answers, and that is a satisfying feeling.
Speaker:Yes. Like, this is all purposeful. Yeah.
Speaker:The fact he had, like, Sienna design before he ever made the
Speaker:first film, like, endlessly fascinates me.
Speaker:Like, oh, this was all building up towards, like, a superhero
Speaker:origin story because. You would never think it to just watch
Speaker:the first one on its own. No. Yeah. There's not, like, a mid
Speaker:credit tease of villain, you know, a foe for the
Speaker:villain. One thing that obviously, I haven't seen the third movie
Speaker:yet, so I can't judge, but it almost seems like it'd be a missed
Speaker:opportunity if you're saying the movie on Christmas and you have
Speaker:a virgin villain birth to not make the Christ
Speaker:allegory kind of thing roll into a Christmas movie.
Speaker:Yeah. That is a good point that I. Hadn'T considered because
Speaker:there's a decent amount of kind of religious allegory into the
Speaker:film. Nothing is. I would say, super direct is like a character
Speaker:being crucified, which there is a lot if you're gonna crucify
Speaker:someone. This would be kind of the movie you could get away with
Speaker:it in, but it's there. Yeah. The clown cafe scene, the
Speaker:choice to have a nun yelling at Sienna about feeding
Speaker:a man. And that actor is the same actor who plays
Speaker:art the clown. That's David Howard Thornton, who plays the
Speaker:man who. The nun is like, feed this man.
Speaker:She's okay. I knew, like, I thought he's the voice over.
Speaker:I didn't know he was actually, like, cameoing in there as well.
Speaker:Yes, I believe that's right. Right, Mike?
Speaker:Yeah, I believe so. Okay. Because the director was
Speaker:like, I always have him in makeup. It was kind of nice for
Speaker:him to just, you know, do a thing without makeup on for Mike
Speaker:from the. Future here to say that, yes, Ariel and I are
Speaker:both wrong. Please stop yelling at your phone or
Speaker:computer or getting into a car accident.
Speaker:I don't know where you're listening to this from.
Speaker:I'm not gonna pretend that I know that.
Speaker:Uh, yeah, that is not Thornton in the
Speaker:role of the homeless man in the clown cafe.
Speaker:That is an actor by the name of Roberto Hamm, which is an
Speaker:incredible name. Honestly, I do think I know
Speaker:where Ariel and I both got the information from,
Speaker:and we're kind of, like, half remembering.
Speaker:And it's someone who got confused by the fact that
Speaker:Thornton did the voiceover for the Archseriel commercial.
Speaker:That's where that came from. So you can stop writing your angry
Speaker:letters. I'm admitting it here. They're fact checking better
Speaker:than conservative news. Vote blue. I don't know.
Speaker:I'm just here. I'm just here. Back to the episode.
Speaker:So you've got a nun yelling at Sienna to feed
Speaker:this other embodiment of art, the clown.
Speaker:Like, feed him how and why is it a nun?
Speaker:And, yeah, again, I feel like Charlie with
Speaker:the Pepe Silvia meme. And art is also.
Speaker:They seem to have taken great pains to establish that in
Speaker:addition to being this supernatural being, art is also very
Speaker:explicitly some guy. Yeah, that's something.
Speaker:That's shocking in the laundry. Yeah.
Speaker:Just seeing him strip naked and be a skinny,
Speaker:unimpressive dude who looks cold. Yeah.
Speaker:Like, it feels like even if art was just created to
Speaker:be art, he is still a person and not just
Speaker:some kind of spirit and idea. And that lends to him
Speaker:a terrifying, tangible quality to him.
Speaker:Yeah. But also, if it bleeds, we can kill it.
Speaker:That's from predator.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Third film, Jesse Ventura takes on art.
Speaker:I feel bad because we have a lot of really great, like, in depth
Speaker:analysis. And one thing I always just say in the back of my head
Speaker:when we have supernatural killers is, oh, this bothers me because
Speaker:there's no way to kill the guy. It like, it ruins the tension,
Speaker:which is just like me being a wet blanket.
Speaker:But I feel that way whenever, like, a Halloween film goes out
Speaker:of its way to be like, no, Michael is super immortal.
Speaker:He is evil. Yeah, all those. I can see why
Speaker:it would frighten a lot of people because it's unstoppable evil.
Speaker:But to me, it almost needs to be like, if I don't see a
Speaker:clear way to kill this guy, what's the point?
Speaker:This is just like nihilism on film. Well, Freddy, you just have
Speaker:to ignore, and you're all set. Ignore.
Speaker:You got to make sure no dogs accidentally desecrate his cargrave
Speaker:by pissing on it. There's, like, a weird sect of things that'll
Speaker:keep Freddy away. Freddy Pennywise and the djinn from
Speaker:Wishmaster are the three horror villains you can defeat by
Speaker:just not talking to them. The classic Simpsons bit.
Speaker:Just don't look. It's always very sad whenever the Djinn gets
Speaker:defeated, though. Yes. You just want to be small again.
Speaker:I really just never expect people to wax poetic about the
Speaker:Wishmaster series. Well, maybe you should change your expectations.
Speaker:I clearly, I could be wrong. You just don't hear people
Speaker:bring it up that much. Mike and I talk about Wishmaster constantly.
Speaker:This is where I confess that I've never seen a single
Speaker:Wishmaster movie, and you guys kick me off the show.
Speaker:I hadn't seen them until fairly recently.
Speaker:Only because Jamie and Mike talked about them so much.
Speaker:Okay, man, I wish he would go fuck
Speaker:himself. And then the guy's pelvis twists around, goes
Speaker:up, and he fucks himself. That's a movie that was put
Speaker:on film. That is beautiful. That's art right there.
Speaker:Cinema. That's true art. Yeah.
Speaker:Actually, he runs the russian mob in the second movie.
Speaker:Yeah. Do you mind if we take, like, a 1 minute break real fast?
Speaker:Yeah, of course. Okay, I'll be right back in 1 second.
Speaker:Still holding out hope that someday scream puts out darkness
Speaker:falls. And they include, like, all of the original footage, but
Speaker:that's. That's pipe dream. Okay, I'm back.
Speaker:You miss it? We were just devolving into a conversation about
Speaker:darkness falls. So it's a good thing you came back now.
Speaker:Don't let me stop that. I would love to talk about the.
Speaker:Tooth fairy, mostly bemoaning. Like, I would love to see the
Speaker:original version that never really played somewhere out there.
Speaker:Like, they. My understanding of it, they basically filmed the
Speaker:movie and then decided to replace the tooth fairy or
Speaker:change up the tooth fairy. Yeah, pretty much completely from
Speaker:the original design and intention. So I think there's, like,
Speaker:a different cut of the movie out there.
Speaker:Almost. Almost an escape room two kind of situation.
Speaker:I guess. I am not aware of this. This is exciting news.
Speaker:Yeah, they totally remaked it. Yeah.
Speaker:I think you can find some of the pictures of the makeup online.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah, you can. It was. It was gonna be Doug Jones, wasn't
Speaker:it? Yep. And it has, like, bit of an animatronic thing going
Speaker:on as well. It's a cool design. Yeah.
Speaker:What a butterfly effect. Different world that would have been.
Speaker:Exactly. So I'm always praying that someday screen will be like,
Speaker:hey, we have found all the missing elements, and we're releasing,
Speaker:like, both cuts of darkness falls. It'll never happen.
Speaker:Yeah, but I'll tell that's good. Wishing for the
Speaker:deleted scenes from Avenger Horizon.
Speaker:Yeah, that too. Oh, that is out there.
Speaker:They just will never get it. Yeah, the.
Speaker:The editors basically said, hey, I still have, like, the reels
Speaker:that have all the original footage. Um, I legally can't do anything
Speaker:with them, but I have that cut of the movie.
Speaker:We can never release it because we'd have to, like, pay Skeet
Speaker:Ulrich for a film he never starred in.
Speaker:I like Skeet being the one who's holding it all down.
Speaker:Not that it's his fault. It's just there's a lot of actors that
Speaker:got cut out of the film. So all of a sudden, you'd have to pay
Speaker:residuals to a bunch of new people. Oops.
Speaker:I accidentally uploaded it to archive.org dot.
Speaker:Oops. What do you. So I will never see that
Speaker:scene of Marlon Wayans as Robin. Yeah, always have the comic
Speaker:book. I'm trying to think of a way back in because we stopped
Speaker:on Wishmaster. No, I like that I'm including
Speaker:this conversation somewhere. Oh, this whole thing's going in.
Speaker:Okay. Oh, pretty. Oh, no. You should have told
Speaker:me for me. I would have thought of interesting things to
Speaker:say. Rhode island. Neither Rhode nor an island.
Speaker:Discuss. Oh, now we're on it. Well, we
Speaker:have been going for a decent chunk of time here, so it's probably
Speaker:not a bad point to wrap up. But again, I just want to
Speaker:stress on folks one more time here. You can get a copy
Speaker:of Ariel's book through encyclopocalypse publications.
Speaker:Encyclopocalypse is just like a tongue twister for me.
Speaker:I'm always terrified I'm going to say it totally wrong.
Speaker:I've said it wrong a lot of times on a lot of recordings.
Speaker:Anyways, you guys can go to their website and pre order.
Speaker:That'll be coming out September 17. Highly recommended.
Speaker:And while you're in there, just splurge.
Speaker:There's so many cool books they have on their web store, you're
Speaker:going to want them all. Oh, man. They have a pre order right
Speaker:now for plan nine from outer space, the novelization.
Speaker:Treat yourself and get both these books.
Speaker:You're going to have a good time. And if I can just say physical
Speaker:copies are available outside the US, you just have to
Speaker:scroll down on the pre order page to the other retailers link
Speaker:and then there are international shipping options.
Speaker:Oh, that's super cool. Yeah. And it's not immediately obvious
Speaker:when you look at the page, so I've gotten a few questions about
Speaker:it. So I've started just saying that up front.
Speaker:Hell yeah. I always assume like, the poor folks over the UK just
Speaker:have to deal with like digital copies.
Speaker:Heck no. I love my UK friends and I want them
Speaker:to have this on their shelves if they want it.
Speaker:Nice. So besides the book, what would be a
Speaker:good way for people to find more of your writing?
Speaker:Yeah, so you can find me on all the socials at Ari
Speaker:Hellraiser. At the time of recording, I just this
Speaker:week joined the sinister scoop. So you can go to thesinisterscoop.com.
Speaker:it is a site that lifts up independent horror, especially books.
Speaker:And I'll be their sinistrative assistant so you can check them
Speaker:out. But all my writing, all my podcasting links to pre
Speaker:order my book, if you follow me at Ari Hellraiser, you'll.
Speaker:Find all that very cool. Like, I was so impressed.
Speaker:I saw, like, you actually have like, the link me, like, with
Speaker:everything listed out and I'm like, oh, that's so smooth and
Speaker:professional. Thank you. I know. I don't know.
Speaker:There it is. Yeah, you can look at my link tree and see all
Speaker:my stuff. Well, thank you so much for joining
Speaker:us. Oh my gosh. We're going to have to continue this when we
Speaker:figure out what the hell is happening in terrifyer three with
Speaker:savini, please. Let's have a savini watch like he's a
Speaker:tornado coming through town. Is he a dad?
Speaker:What? Is he? Yes. We can all go to the basement
Speaker:and wait for Sabini to the passover.
Speaker:Yes. Sabini watch 2024. Look, the joke is in
Speaker:the midwest when the fire, the tornado sirens go off, all
Speaker:the midwest dads just go in the front yard with a beer and watch.
Speaker:Yeah, that's the siren to go out and look.
Speaker:Yeah. If it were Tom Savini, I would have no problems with this.
Speaker:I would crack a beer and I'd go out and wait for Savini to fly
Speaker:over in the sky. I mean, I do that every day anyway.
Speaker:It just doesn't usually work out. It's our version of the
Speaker:great Pumpkin. Yeah. Oh, man. Why didn't Savini show up tonight?
Speaker:Yeah, it's weird. He doesn't know this episode is going.
Speaker:To be called Savini in the sky with diamond.
Speaker:Fuck. That's really good too. That's really good.
Speaker:That's good. Oh, no. I know. We're wrapping up with Jamie.
Speaker:What was the thing you said before that I told you not to forget
Speaker:and then we forgot? Oh. Oh. Oh, God.
Speaker:We were talking about the violence in terrafire and how.
Speaker:And how it kind of unintentionally connects with the millennial
Speaker:nasty theme. I was saying it does in a way.
Speaker:I was thinking about this while re watching it.
Speaker:Art, in many ways, is a marriage of the
Speaker:slasher era and the millennial nasty era because he's
Speaker:basically just a walking saw trap. He delivers the exact same
Speaker:level of torture and humiliation that you would see in
Speaker:a saw movie or a hostel movie, but it's being performed
Speaker:by an actual character. I completely agree.
Speaker:I think especially the first terrifier would have been really
Speaker:at home in, like, 2008. Can't you see that movie coming
Speaker:out in 2008 with, like, Elijah Cuthbert and, like, I don't
Speaker:know, it's other person. Lele Sobieski is in
Speaker:a deleted scene. Yes, exactly. Yes. I completely agree
Speaker:with you, Jamie. I just really love that phrase walking jigsaw
Speaker:trap, which you could only maybe say about,
Speaker:like, the collector if you're picking out villains.
Speaker:Oh, God, I love the collector. So good.
Speaker:Both of them. I love both the collector movies, and I'm so mad
Speaker:we'll never get to. No, don't you say that.
Speaker:Don't you say that, Cody. He's already got my
Speaker:heart. Exactly. He's collected my, my love.
Speaker:We need to keep hope alive. I thought so.
Speaker:Hey. Yeah, listen, I know all the reasons I'm
Speaker:supposed to give out Pope on the collected, and I refuse to,
Speaker:because if that movie ever happens, I want Marcus Dunstan
Speaker:to know I've been there. I was there.
Speaker:I've tweeted at him a lot and he's probably blocked me.
Speaker:If there's a college fan, I am one of them.
Speaker:Folks, if you want to. We're going back to the ending now just
Speaker:to confuse people.
Speaker:This is a post credits stinger. Yeah, we normally have those
Speaker:worked in too. Somehow they'll be really confusing because it'll
Speaker:be a prequel to the sequel to the prequel.
Speaker:It's about like part four and a half.
Speaker:Anyways, folks, if you want a box office pulp, you can
Speaker:find us at Boxofficepulp on most of your major socials.
Speaker:We're at boxofficepulpmail.com. if you need to send us
Speaker:a letter or possibly a digital severed finger.
Speaker:And if you want to find our actual podcast instead of just yelling
Speaker:at us, you can find those wherever you listen to podcasts, just
Speaker:look up box office pulp. We're all over the place.
Speaker:We're on Spotify, which blows my mind.
Speaker:I didn't know that was allowed. I forget if Stitcher's still
Speaker:around. Actually, I have a hard time keeping these things current.
Speaker:But you can find some iTunes. Oh no, I shouldn't have
Speaker:mentioned them. Or Tumblr. Google podcast is down now.
Speaker:They're dropping like flies just to shout.
Speaker:Box office pulp three times into the sky and we'll drop a podcast
Speaker:from a bird. Oh man, that'd be cool.
Speaker:It's not bad. That's how we get most of our foot traffic through
Speaker:the box office pulp office. Anyway, saying it three times in
Speaker:a mirror, just showing up. Mike shows up and he
Speaker:starts talking to you about terrifying.
Speaker:Just grabs your phone and makes you subscribe.
Speaker:James there holding up a copy of repo.
Speaker:Honestly, what is it, my birthday?
Speaker:Anyways, folks, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker:Go buy those books. Yeah, cheapskates.
Speaker:I find that's the best way to get people to do things.
Speaker:If you insult them enough, they'll do it on spite.
Speaker:Yeah, good. If that's a good method or not.
Speaker:Hopefully this doesn't actually hurt sales.
Speaker:Just have the Jay Sherman buy my book clip Luke for
Speaker:like a minute straight.
Speaker:And like that, he's gone.
Speaker:Going back to the book for a second.
Speaker:I laughed my ass off going through your saw write ups
Speaker:and seeing you finding a lot of constructive things to say about
Speaker:each of the sequels. Until saw seven, which is my favorite
Speaker:running joke in horror. Literally no one likes the saw seven.
Speaker:Listen, listen. Have you. You know those infomercials
Speaker:where people can't do anything. You know, they're like a
Speaker:paper towel off the thing, and they blow their kitchen up.
Speaker:That's Bobby Dagan trying to do anything in saw seven.
Speaker:Such a fuck up. There's got to be a better way
Speaker:to cherish your life, right? Right. He fucked it
Speaker:up. Okay, we need money to make this as an ad for a saw movie.
Speaker:And there's just a guy who is holding too many things in his
Speaker:arms, and he's just going everywhere.
Speaker:Crusty knives falling down. Yeah, that don't match the containers
Speaker:or whatnot. Oh, no. Jigsaw really would put you through the
Speaker:wringer if you just live with that situation.
Speaker:I recently threw out all my Tupperware, and I'm like, I've learned
Speaker:a lesson, John Kramer, you've really helped me.
Speaker:It's true. Like, sometimes you throw away, like, the
Speaker:shampoo bottle too early, and it's like, now you have a
Speaker:chance to cleanse yourself. And I throw Jigsaw in my head, like,
Speaker:telling me to recycle the bottles better or something.
Speaker:Is that the mid credits scene, Mike?
Speaker:Yes. Yes, it is. Cody's here with his clipboard.
Speaker:Okay, we're free. Now I just want to hear jigsaw
Speaker:do, like, the entire shamwow commercial.
Speaker:Oh, what about the shamwow? Yeah, the slap job.
Speaker:That's it. 100%. I'm going to my nuts.
Speaker:Oh, no, no, John, no. You'll be slapping your
Speaker:troubles.
Speaker:I call it my favorite creation, the magic bullet.
Speaker:If the Billy puppet just wheeled itself out into the
Speaker:middle of an industrial warehouse and said, you're gonna love
Speaker:my nuts, I it wouldn't matter what the trap
Speaker:would be. I would be too busy laughing to understand that I need
Speaker:to remove all of my secret code to unlock my head
Speaker:trap. I would just be dead. Okay, where I thought you were going
Speaker:with that was Billy rolling into a studio audience, which
Speaker:all clapped.
Speaker:Save money, save or die. Make your choice.
Speaker:Remember how the shamwow, the shamwow guy also did the
Speaker:slap chop? But, like, if you ordered the slap chop, you also
Speaker:got, like, this cheese grater thing.
Speaker:Oh, he was, like, grating cheese. Like, he was having
Speaker:a full on mental breakdown in this because he was grating cheese
Speaker:on pasta, and he was like, fettuccine linguini, martini baccini.
Speaker:And I was like, what are we talking about?
Speaker:It was like an early meme. Like, people just started repeating
Speaker:that martini. Bikini became, like, a whole thing, and it.
Speaker:Yeah, that is some deep Internet load.
Speaker:I'm amazed they never made a movie out of, like, the infomercial
Speaker:wars with, like, Billy Mays versus the slap shop guy show.
Speaker:That shit was intense. The slap chop guy, eventually, like, he
Speaker:was arrested, right? Because, like, he assaulted a sex worker.
Speaker:And so he became less fun to meme about what wasn't that kind
Speaker:of. Situation where, like, she. I remember it, like, being this
Speaker:weird thing where, like, it was some kind of entrapment scheme
Speaker:or something. What? I don't remember that, but I'd say.
Speaker:This is getting crazier. I just remember it being a whole
Speaker:thing. Billy Mays set it all up. I think his
Speaker:son still posts on Twitter time to time about his dad.
Speaker:So maybe found through him. Oh, God help me.
Speaker:I'm actually looking this up. Okay, give us the deep lore.
Speaker:Mike Den's offer. That's incredible.
Speaker:This is our clown secret origin. His name is offer.
Speaker:Oh, my God. What if it is art the clown?
Speaker:Offer and a 26 year old sex worker were both arrested in Miami
Speaker:Beach, Florida, after a physical altercation.
Speaker:The police reports say the woman had bitten onto offer's ticket
Speaker:tongue and refused to let go. Punched her in the face
Speaker:and left her with lacerations and fractures.
Speaker:What you need to do in those situations, like getting bit by
Speaker:a turtle, you just put it in a bucket of water and eventually
Speaker:they let go because they have to breathe.
Speaker:The offer later spoke of the arrest.
Speaker:He said, it probably saved my life. Think of that.
Speaker:What you will. Listen, I just feel like that cannot possibly
Speaker:be the whole story. I know. That's why I want.
Speaker:There's so much happening. Oh, no. There's.
Speaker:He has also a lawsuit section I was not aware of.
Speaker:Oh, no. In 2011, he was sued by his former personal
Speaker:assistant, Jennifer Kosinski, who alleged that he stalked and
Speaker:emotionally abused her, forced her to be with him at all times,
Speaker:groped her, and offered her $20,000 for her to
Speaker:vacation with her family in exchange for her eggs.
Speaker:Oh, my God. That is not enough money.
Speaker:I'm going to tell you that right now.
Speaker:Hard pass. Yeah. Oh. In 2000, he sued Anna Nicole Smith for
Speaker:$4 million in 2000, claiming that Smith had agreed
Speaker:to be in his movie, but backed out in 1996 over fears
Speaker:that appearing in the movie would be detrimental to her career.
Speaker:He was a director. This is a fucking rabbit hole.
Speaker:I didn't expect to go down tonight. I feel like he should have
Speaker:maybe just stuck to shamwow. Do you remember that the.
Speaker:There's something about Mary lawsuit.
Speaker:No, that there was, like, a lawsuit claiming that something
Speaker:about Mary, like, ripped off scenes from, like, this particular
Speaker:movie. I vaguely remember this and it's, it's this
Speaker:dude. The underground comedy movie was a sub.
Speaker:He did the underground comedy movie?
Speaker:Yes, that was him. I'm. My mind is like melting right now.
Speaker:I don't know what's happening but I'm excited.
Speaker:Fucking toll free number royalty. He went from the underground
Speaker:comedy movie to being the slap chop guy.
Speaker:That movie had Michael Clark Duncan in it.
Speaker:Well, offering up having to pay $66,000 in attorney's fees.
Speaker:Huh. What a weird rabbit hole to fall down.
Speaker:This is Martini Bikini. Tell you what makes it even
Speaker:weirder that he referenced the, the arrest in the later
Speaker:slap chop commercial. Did he? Yeah, I think it was madam.
Speaker:It might not have been like one the slap chopper sham.
Speaker:Wow. It might have been like an, like a lesser item.
Speaker:But I do know there's footage of him doing the ads and being
Speaker:like, oh, I could have used this back when I had those legal
Speaker:troubles or something like just Charlie sheening.
Speaker:Yikes. Just lean into it. This here show
Speaker:is brought to you by Zencastr. The all in one solution for podcasting
Speaker:that's easy is logging in and hitting record.
Speaker:With Zencastr you get studio quality sound up to 4k video
Speaker:right from your browser. No more worrying about unstable connections
Speaker:thanks to Zencastr's multi layered backups.
Speaker:Then ensure you always have your recordings in the highest quality.
Speaker:But thats not all. Zencastrs post production process makes you
Speaker:sound like a pro. It automatically removes those pesky ums and
Speaker:ahs and even those awkward pauses in conversation.
Speaker:If only it could remove those from my love life.
Speaker:But gone are the days of needing a bunch of different tools and
Speaker:services to create a podcast. Zencastrs complete platform lets
Speaker:you create, edit and distribute your podcast all in one place,
Speaker:allowing you to easily publish, Spotify, Apple and all other
Speaker:major destinations. So why wait? Start your podcasting journey
Speaker:with Zencastr today and experience the Zen of podcasting.
Speaker:Go to zencastr.com pricing and use my code box office
Speaker:pulp and you'll get 30% off your first month of any Zencastr
Speaker:paid plan. I want you to have the same easy experiences
Speaker:I do for all my podcasting and content needs.
Speaker:It's time to share your story.
