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October 31, 2022 20 mins

Horror films are filled with scary foodstuffs, from highly suspect meat pies to the sheer anxiety of dinner parties. In this mini-episode, Anney and Lauren discuss some of their favorite devilish dinners on film.

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to SAVOR production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have a short episode for you about spooky Stuff, a
sort of unstructured chat about horror. If y'all have ever
been listening to Savor and thinking, oh man, I wish

(00:29):
that they would shut up about food and just keep
talking about nerdy things that interested them, then here you are.
Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. And also thanks to everyone who's
written in, because we are kind of dithering on what
we're gonna call this what it's like short stuff or

(00:50):
side dish or a bunch of things amuse boush. Somebody
suggested um, so thank you for all those suggestions. We
are taking them into account. This one is kind of
appropriate for the season, kind of just haphazardly thrown together
due to various reasons. But also, yes, Lauren and I

(01:15):
could talk about horror forever. So yeah, frequently when we
get on our little, our little skype chat before we
record an episode, We'll just be chatting and frequently about
horror movies. And then all of a sudden it's thirty
forty minutes later, and I'm like, do you want to
record the episode here today to hypothetically record, right, So

(01:42):
we're gonna try to keep this shorter than that. We'll
see how it goes. Yeah. Well, it was also funny
because we were trying to come up with ideas about
what it could be, and Lauren was in a very
important all day meeting for multiple days, and I was like,
here are fifty things that I'm thinking about and just

(02:03):
like kept pinging me. And I think my favorite, the
one that I actually laughed out loud and then had
to explain to the room about was when you said, uh,
there have also been a rash of pumpkin boat news items. Yes,
it's not that I disbelieve you, it's just the the
statement there's also been a rash of pumpkin boat news

(02:25):
items is very funny objectively and especially in the midst
of like serious business proceedings. So I was like me,
awhile in my other life pumpkin boats there has been
at least four news stories that I have seen. Oh
my goodness, all right, well, we'll we'll have to file

(02:47):
those away for another day. Yes, I did want to
say before we get into this, uh, the new season
of Thirteen Days of Halloween is happening now. Oh yeah,
you have happened. Uh, it is culminating today if you
are listening on Halloween. And so Annie, your episode came in.

(03:10):
The episode that you wrote came out yesterday as we
record this today today. Okay, I'm sure that it's great.
Oh I'm gonna listen to it later. But yeah, and
you you have provided very creepy voicing. Thank you. Yes, yeah,

(03:31):
if you all have been listening, Yes, that was me
as the telephone operator, the creepy, creepy telephone operator. Um,
it was excellent. Thank you. I also have one of
the screams as people are dying in a fire. Oh. Also,
I'm sure excellent. I'm not sure I picked it out
or that it has happened, but sure it was or

(03:53):
will be great. The producer, Alex Williams actually sent me
like a very long, rambling voicemail about how much he
loved that scream. That's so much like him and I
love that. Um. Yes, Thirteen Days of Halloween, if you
guys have not heard of it is a horror anthology

(04:15):
podcast that our team does every year, and this year's
Devil's Night and it's the star this year is Clancy Brown,
Holy heck, who's like one of my vocal idols and
also does such an amazing creepy job and stuff like Carnival. Um,
he was one of the really mean prison guards and

(04:38):
Shawshank redemption. Uh. Also, Annie, you have one that I
You're going to have to tell him, not me. It
was Mr Crabs that was the one. I was like,
oh my gosh, he's the voice of Mr crashall SpongeBob SquarePants,
who is my favorite character from SpongeBob SquarePants. Okay, but
he is slightly evil. Um okay, yeah, motivated by money

(05:02):
and capitalism. Uh, the worst villains. Such a good character
though it looks so funny. Yeah, it made me very
very happy. I actually texted a bunch of friends. I
was like, Mr Krabs is gonna read something I wrote.

(05:22):
That's amazing. My my my main reference is like the
car getting the cart was going to read something that
I said. Here's something I said. I I don't have
a piece in this year's anyway. Um. Yeah, this is
this is the third season. The previous two are super fun. Um,
you had a food related one in the first season

(05:43):
that that is still on some people's minds. I've heard
feedback recently that that's one of the ones that like
has stuck with people. Yeah, and you know, that's a
good segue into this. I will say you have not
heard the one I did this year, but there was
a running joke that I've been cast as a cannibal,
which is such a thing to say that it is

(06:04):
very not suspect at all. Um. But one of the
ideas I put in the base camp about ideas around
horror things that have stuck with me around horror is
this idea that you're consuming something that you don't know
what it is, and a lot of times what's involved

(06:28):
in that is some kind of bodily fluid or even meat,
because meat pies was one of our first like we
could talk about different meat pie Yeah, like a countdown
of horrific meat pies. Um, sure, because right, like like
things like a Titus Andronicus and Sweeney Todd are both

(06:49):
like very formative pieces of media from my probably inappropriately
early childhood. Me too. I saw Titus Andronicus when I
was like under tin I thingie Tamore version. Oh, I
don't know that kind of like modern film with Anthony Hopkins. Yes, Yeah, Okay, yeah,
that's the Julie Tamore version. Um yeah, I'm still I

(07:12):
mean it's it's it's meant to be upsetting and schlocky,
but for sure that imagery hoofta, I love it. It's
very upsetting, it is. And then one of the things
that kept coming up to me um our our movies.
We talked about this in our Pants Labyrinth episode. Sometimes
movies aren't categorized as horror, but they have horror elements

(07:34):
or for whatever reason, really struck you as a horror movie. Sure,
so one of the ones that comes up for me
all the time when I think of food and food
scenes that horrified me. Where this was the scene in
Matilda kid is forced to eat the chocolate cake right
with a trench bowl. Yeah, and what how what a
what a terrifying character that still is I feel like

(07:57):
there's a little trench bull at the back of my
head all the time. I'm like just being intimidating and terrible. Yeah,
it was you know, very heavily implied, if not set
out right. This blood, sweat and tears were in this cake.
Um and this kid is you know, eating his way
through it, and that that's something that has just stuck

(08:19):
with me, and that's part of what inspired my thirteen Days,
my original thirteen Days, which I call Red Velvet, but
is called like forking paths of the Garden in the original. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
there's there's any number, right, I mean, you know, like

(08:40):
the soilent greenest People trope can can be explored in
in any number of ways. But um, but but also
just just right, like your food being wrong or um
or your food transforming or being monstrous in some other
erect an often practical effect related way is just one

(09:04):
of my very favorite things that completely grosses me out
just not a not a lot gives me a bodily reaction.
But um, but I was thinking about, like, um, like
the scene in it where they're at the Chinese restaurant
and oh yeah, and it goes on and on. This

(09:26):
thing about that scene is you're like, surely, surely some
stop it's something. No, no, this is okay, all right.
I see why this I mean either the mini series
or the new movie series both, And like I see
why this is so long because the scene is twenty
nine hours and it it's like it's kind of related

(09:48):
to I think the heart of what a lot of
the examples I was giving you is is that's supposed
to be a scene where they're coming together, they're trying
to heal their relationship, come up with a plan about
what to do, and it's flipped on them, where everything
that you might be connecting over all those warm things. Sure,

(10:09):
and and something something like one of those Chinese American
diners where it's it's really comfort food for a lot
of us, and a lot of it is very fried
and very starchy and um, and yeah, turning that completely
on its head, the nostalgia of that on its head

(10:31):
and having it be something so surreal and disgusting. Um,
it's very sharp and uh fun. Yeah, And that reminds
me of another one I love, which is the scene,
the famous scene an Alien where you've got this character

(10:52):
has woken up. He thought he was gonna die. Seems
like it's gonna be okay. And they have what they
don't know is a sense they're kind of last meal,
like they're final, very reminiscent of the Bible in a
lot of ways. And the food looks, you know, it
doesn't look super appetizing, but it looks, you know, pretty good,
and they're enjoying it and they're having fun, and they're like, oh,

(11:13):
this is our last thing we're gonna enjoy together before
we all hibernate because this is a set in space,
so they're gonna you know, space hibernate as you do. Sure, yeah, yeah,
And then it just becomes a really gruesome scene that
just shocked and stuck with so many people. Um of like,
you know, there's you can hear my movie Crush episode

(11:34):
about all the other issues going on, but also like
you eat something and then what this thing pops out
of your stomach, Like it's so disturbing. Yeah, if you've
ever had a really bad case of indigestion, it's sort
of what what you fear is going to happen. But
right watching it play out literally on their dinner table

(11:57):
is yeah, yeah, it's um And and that that reminded
me of one of the other categories that you suggested,
which is the horror of dinner parties or or the
anxiety of dinner parties. And how often we see that

(12:18):
played out as a trope in in in horror films,
and it's everywhere it is, and it's really funny because again,
not to keep bringing it back to my work, but
my days story, Like some people were more disturbed by
the because it was about icebreakers and meeting new people.

(12:39):
Some people were more disturbed by that. And I have
just noticed lately a glut of these movies that are
about like going to a dinner party and it goes
wrong or there's another motive behind this dinner party. I
can't trust people at this dinner party. And I think
that's something that's always been there. That's a really fun
trope when you do like a who done it? But

(13:02):
I just I have I do feel like there's a
lot more lately, And I wonder if this has to
do with our kind of growing isolation, um due to COVID.
A lot of this did happen before COVID, but like
kind of our growing suspicion of what is this event
actually for? Like why am I going? Because you know,

(13:24):
usually at these events, you are, even if you like
the people there, you're putting up some kind of pretense.
So there's some performance that's going on that can put
you really really on edge. Yeah, and there aren't, right,
there are so many movies that that play with that. Um.
I really liked your next Yeah, that's a good twist

(13:45):
on The Final Girl for sure. Yes, that movie made me.
I had very low expectations for some reason going into it,
but I found it a very pleasurable kind of slasher reflick. Yeah. Um,
but also right, like going back, like to the dinner
scene in Beetlejuice with the shrimp cocktail coming to life

(14:06):
and yeah, and forced dancing. I feel like any dancing
that I'm doing at a party is more or less forced,
So you're right. I needed to re examine that scene
as like a dinner party gone wrong instead of just like,
oh this is funny, okay, okay uh. Going off of that,

(14:28):
one of the other ones I listed, which is I
feel like we're kind of debtailing these two themes. But
the tea and mid some are um, not knowing what's
in your food again, but also this kind of dinner
party expectations. You're not sure what is the protocol, what
you should do? Yeah, well, I mean that's definitely mushrooms

(14:51):
like what's in the tea and other things later Oh
yeah yeah um, but yeah, that idea that it's not
always it's yeah, it's not always straightforward. But then I

(15:12):
was also thinking about other anxieties about the table situations
like um. In a couple of my my favorite modern
horror films, Hereditary and The Witch, both of those films
feature incredibly tense scenes at the dinner table because they're
supposed to be this place of famili right, familial warmth

(15:35):
and coming together, and it gives such a good platform
to have. I mean, nothing really directly, uh supernatural happens
in either of those movies directly at the dinner table,
but it's still two of the most upsetting scenes. And
those two extremely upsetting films. Yeah, yeah, And I think

(15:56):
that's also something as I've grown older, UM have noticed
about things like holidays or whatever, where there you know,
I do have I enjoy a good hanging out in celebration,
but there are all these tensions around them, and a
lot of stuff does come out over the dinner table. Um.

(16:20):
And I think that's one of those things where we've
been talking about it more as our political divide has
become worse and worse. But like, you know, that dinner
table's risky place because you're all trying to gather cool
but who's gonna say what? Like what's going to set
someone off? Like what if you know, and then like

(16:40):
what kind of personal histories are going to come into it? Yeah, gosh,
I so we a lot of these. We want to
come back and do full episodes on. I think that
like the whole history of like the dinner table and
then just the dinner tables use and the kinds of
scenes would be great. Um. Also, I did say there

(17:05):
has been a rise of mushroom horror that I have.
I think it's the last of us started it, but
it's everywhere. Now, Okay, I have a whole list I
can send you. Okay, I you're you're wider watched than
than than I. So wow, I got a whole list.

(17:28):
And then also, uh, kind of going along a lot
of this, there's this short story I read. I wonder
if you have any short story like this, Lauren. I
read it in ninth grade. It was called Lose Now,
Pay Later, and just very shortly like it was basically
it was very nineties. It was about like a fro
yo place that was not what it seems. The froo

(17:50):
was the best thing you've ever had in your life. Um.
And then it was coupled with this everybody was eating
so much froyo. They were getting all this weight, so
next door this like booth opened up. We could lose weight,
and everybody was so excited about they didn't question it.
And then it was um, which is also related to
an eighties movie called The Stuff. But there is a

(18:12):
whole This impacted me so much, Lauren, there's a whole
stuff Mom never told you. If you want to check
it out, that's great. Um, but that kind of whole
idea to you of just there's not knowing what's in
your food, and then there's purposefully not looking into what's
in your food. Oh m hm oh no, yes, yes, es, yes,

(18:41):
he said the things the horror movies give us all
these thoughts. I love it, I love it. Oh yeah.
Oh and now I'm thinking about like the Buffy episode
Double Meat Palace, Yes, yes, which we talked about before,
Yeah yeah, and um and the Supernatural episode with the

(19:02):
Turducan burger. See it tastes so good you don't want
to look into it, but maybe you should look. Maybe
you should. Well this has been a delight for us, yes, yes,
and hopefully a fun preview of some stuff that maybe

(19:24):
to come. So if if y'all have any emotions about
any of these ideas, if you're like, yes, let us
continue spooky season. Spooky season is all year, uh and
need to know more about any of these immediately right
in yes? And also if you did any fun Halloween meals,

(19:45):
Oh yeah, parties, drinks, yeah, the whole thing. Yeah, costume,
if your pets were in costumes, if your pets were
in costumes, as food, especially as food, but but just yeah, yeah,
we just want more pictures of your pets, not in
the creepy way. Promise. Yes, you can email us at

(20:11):
hello at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
savor pud and we do hope to hear from you.
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan
Fagin and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and

(20:32):
we hope that lots more good things are coming your way.

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Anney Reese

Anney Reese

Lauren Vogelbaum

Lauren Vogelbaum

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