Feeders (1996) with TYTD Reviews and Trivial Theater

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris (00:01):
Hey everyone, just a reminder that I'll be hosting a screening of Cyclops
and Miracle Bunny two at the Guild Cinemain Albuquerque, New Mexico on August 9th.
Check out the links in the episodedescription and follow us on Instagram
and Blue Sky for ticketing andother information on this event.
Enjoy the episode.

(00:35):
I've been, uh, watching you rewatch theRocky movies from afar on letterbox,
and it reminded me of like, I lookedat the last time I watched Rocky
and I gave it a three, and I waslike, man, that seems really low.
I must have been having a bad week.

Dan (00:53):
How can you, how can you rate Rocky Low when every, he says the word bub kiss.
You have to take a drink.
It's great.
Yeah.
I

Chris (01:00):
actually, I like every single Rocky movie to some degree.
I know it's, most peoplehate the fifth one.
I actually really like Rocky Five.
Not a popular opinion, but I thinkit has some really good stuff in it.
You know, I will say this.
I don't see an issue

Triv (01:15):
with that.
That's awesome.
It's, I mean, you can find goodness in it.
Sorry.
The, if you can find goodnessin it, that's great though.

Dan (01:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I mean, to be honest, I still need toatch Rocky five again 'cause I sort
of went, okay, well watch up to Rockyfour and then we'll see how we feel.
And my partner was like, I thinknow is a good time to jump off Rocky
Declaring World Peace is probablyabout as good as this is going to get.
I can't see it's goingany better than this.
I was like, you know what?
Fair enough.
So I may, I may take you up on arewatch of Rocky five and see whether

(01:44):
it's actually changed because it'sprobably been about 20, 25 years
since I've watched Rocky Five.
In fairness.
It's been a very long time.
Yeah, it's,

Chris (01:51):
I mean it's not amazing, but I do think that I.
One of, uh, uh, Burgess Meredith'sbest scenes is in that movie,
even though his character diedlike two movies before that.
But, uh, yeah, I mean, if you haveattachment to the characters, which it,
it kind of sounds like you do, you grewup watching him, it's like, uh, yeah.

(02:13):
His, his little flashback speech andthat can, can hit you pretty hard.
It's, it's good stuff.
Mm-hmm.

Dan (02:19):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
It, it sent me down a bit of a path,really looking at the alternate
scripts for Rocky five that came out.
'cause I know they were planningone in the nineties that was
supposed to be something likeRocky running a community center.
Um, and it got canned for two reasons.
One was, um, uh, Sylvester SLO gotsigned on to do a different film.
I can't remember what it was, butit basically, she came outta it.
But the other was sister Act two cameout and had a very similar plot line.

(02:40):
It was about Whoopi Goldberg goinginto a school and turning a bunch
of wayward kids into singers.
And basically the plot of the alternateplot of Rocky Five was supposed to be
that he becomes a, like a teacher ata community college thing and turns
a bunch of wayward kids into boxes.

Chris (02:53):
Wow.
But can you just imagine thedirector of Rocky Five walking
into the producer's office?
Have you fucking seen this shit?
Holding up a copy of Sister Act two,

Dan (03:07):
the producer turns and goes, oh shit.
Shred everything.
You just start throwingpapers out our windows and.
Uh, it made the, it made the, um,wall Street Stock Exchange crash
look like, shit Chitty bang bang.
It was quite remarkable, really,

Triv (03:23):
I should say on my end, I actually have seen quite a few things.
Um, they had a, they have a film festhere locally, and so it's nothing
you've probably ever heard of.
Right.
But, um, I caught at least one filma day, basically the entire week.
So, um, there was, therewas some really good stuff.
Um, there's one you guys wouldactually probably like called Film
is Dead Long Live film and it's kindof the history of film preservation.

Chris (03:45):
Yeah.
I would greatly enjoy that.

Triv (03:47):
Um, it's, I think on, it's on the film Fest circuit right now, but I
think they're bringing it to, they'reworking on trying to get a distribution
deal with it, but it was fantastic.
Like they talked to all theseguys that collected them back when
it was kind of illegal to do so.
Mm-hmm.
And kind of the work of how it was like more for them and then
how it became a thing about sharingit and preserving those films.

(04:08):
And not just films but like,um, home movies and old
commercials and things like that.

Chris (04:13):
Yeah, speaking my language

Dan (04:15):
definitely Sounds good.
On that note, actually, as well, probablya bit of a PSA thing here as well.
Um, there's a charitythat's recently launched.
Um, they have a few socialmedia pages that are very good,
um, called Film is Fabulous.
Um, they're a UK based charity, butthey're currently sort of working to
set up US offices, but their aim is tohunt down, um, aging film collectors

(04:39):
and try and negotiate a sort ofscanning of their materials to make
sure that everything is preserved.
Um, but to do so in kind of a safe waythat avoids any kinda litigation or
kind of legal issues because apparentlythere's a little bit of tension between
film collectors and the studios.
They've sort of liberatedfilms from in the past.
Some people want to kind of keep thembecause they're worried that they'll face

(04:59):
legal action if they try and return them.
Mm-hmm.
Some are worried about, um, youknow, them potentially taking
the film and then destroying it.
Again, I know the BBC, for example,has got a bit of a notorious history
for wiping film cans and, and variousmaterials they've recorded over the years.
But yeah, film is Fabulous is thename of this charity and they're
doing a lot of really good work,but they post like really detailed.
Kind of, um, summaries of things thatthey're currently investigating, things

(05:22):
they're find in the process of howthey capture and restore the films
that they find and things like that.
Lots of very niche televisionprogramming that that's coming back.
But, uh, they've recently landed us reallybig hall that they're currently processing
through and they should hopefullyfind some really good stuff in there.
So it's worth checking outif, uh, anybody's interested.

Chris (05:39):
Yeah.
I was, uh, not that long ago watching afilm from the, I wish I could remember
which one it was, but the only wayto access it was through some sort of
British film archive on their computerswhile you're at their location.
So the only version of it thatanyone outside of the UK can watch

(06:02):
is someone going to that archiveand filming it with their phone.
Wow.
And it's just, it's just so infuriating.
Hmm.
Why do Absolutely.
Archives have to be this way?

Dan (06:15):
This is the thing.
I mean, there's the, um, oh, there's afamous one in Japan that has an archive
that preserves video games and anime.
Um, and due to legal issues in Japan,they can't show anything they find, so
they basically find it, preserve it, andthen it goes in a box and disappears.
And the only thing theycan say is, yep, it's safe.

(06:35):
That's it.
Isn't that kind

Triv (06:36):
of the way with, um, is it to toi not Toi, to, to like Toho.
Yeah, Toho.
Like I know a lot of their stuff,they get very litigious very quickly.

Chris (06:45):
Yes.
And this has been sort of a, a recurringtheme that comes up a lot on this
podcast is that, and it always seemsto be Toho in particular or a Japanese
company, that they're very much, it'smine to do nothing with about all
of their stuff because they love tosue anyone or prevent, just actively

(07:10):
fight against anyone trying to, uh.
Have their, this thing that theymade seen by a wider audience.

Triv (07:18):
Well, there's a big thing with Nintendo that way too.
Like you'll always hear evenlike really large YouTubers that
have a massive issue mm-hmm.
With like their stuff being struck downby Nintendo because this is our stuff.

Chris (07:31):
Yeah.
It's a, it's a thing that's,Japanese companies have historically
been very bad about, uh.
It's why a lot of their sort ofimportant films are, have not been
really received a, like a legalsanctioned release over here.
It seems to be changing a little bit.
Toe is sort of playing ball withinternational distributors, which

(07:53):
is why Arrow has, uh, an upcomingbox set of v cinema films, which is
something that is, was very formativefor that time in Japanese cinema.
But basically no one over here watches.
And I think that when it does getreleased, people are really gonna like it.
So it's nice to see that sortof changing a little bit.

(08:14):
Whether or not the even biggercompanies like Toho and Nintendo
will ever get to that point.
I don't have any hope.

Dan (08:21):
In many ways, it seems like they're becoming sort of more restrictive, if
anything, about it as time goes on.
Like, um, yeah.
You know, there used to be a timewhere you could physically buy games
on their virtual consoles, and nowadaysyou have to basically rent 'em through
an online membership, and when thatgoes, you don't get access to them
anymore, which is a bit bizarre.
But, um, yeah.
Yeah, no

Triv (08:39):
doubt.
Uh, Dan, on your, on, on your statementabout like, um, uh, like the litigation
aspect for American stuff, I do know,and maybe this documentary was like
just a very, like limited location,but at least some of the guys that used
to do preservation and have come outmore with their collections, there's
actually been a lot of studios thathave reached out to them for these

(09:00):
original prints because all of theirprints have gone the way of the dodo.
So they talked about how like 10years ago they would've been, you
know, sued out of existence, but nowthe studio, at least some studios
are coming to them, um, asking aboutthe, the prints that they have.

Dan (09:15):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
And this is, this is the thing aswell, when you end up with multiple
prints, at least you have a betterchance of being able to actually, um.
Uh, have your choice of the better qualityscene so you can kind of stitch together
various different prints to make it work.
The recent, uh, Bruce flotation setthat, um, severing films put out

(09:35):
several of the films that they put out.
The only good quality prints that theyhad were European ubs, where they've had
to take the audio track off the Englishversion 'cause the visuals were terrible
and kind of stitch together variousscenes from French, German, and Italian
prints to kind of create a as closeto good quality version as they can.

(09:55):
Um, it's, it's kind of wild really.
And it's good that we find theseprints like duplicates of these prints
as well regularly because it meansthen, like I say, we have better
variety and we have more that wecan kind of pick through ultimately.

Triv (10:07):
Absolutely.
Sorry, that was a random tangent,but I wanted to get that in there.
So.

Chris (10:11):
No worries.
Uh, prehistoric peeps from 1905is the film that is at the BFI
that they refuse to release thatI was talking about earlier.

Triv (10:22):
It's a 1905 film.
How, especially about a sugary treatthat's in the shape of a small chicken.
How can they, how can they,

Chris (10:31):
but enough about the depressing state of film and television archives.
Let's, uh, should we just getinto the, uh, exciting state of
mid nineties low budget cinema?

Dan (10:48):
Oh, absolutely.

Triv (10:49):
Yay.

Chris (10:50):
Alright.
Hello everyone and welcome to DeadFormats, a movie podcast in search
of cinematic artifacts floatingin the cosmic vastness of space.
I'm your host, Chris.
In this episode, we're going to bediscussing feeders from 1996, and
this week I've captured two unwillingvictims for experiments and observation.

(11:11):
Dan Triv, how are you doing this evening?

Triv (11:14):
I only said I would allow myself to be captured if the,
if the experiments were sexy.
Well,

Chris (11:20):
we'll find out, won't we?

Dan (11:22):
This is gonna get really confusing because I said I was only gonna
be sexy if they do experiments, so

Triv (11:29):
hot potato.
Potato.

Chris (11:30):
So, uh, Dan is a film critic in YouTuber for his channel TYTD reviews.
He's been on the show before to discussthe 1995 classic colony mutation, so he
should need no introduction but triv.
Tell the listeners a littlebit about what you do.

Triv (11:47):
My channel on YouTube is Trivial Theater.
I don't necessarily classify myself asa reviewer, I just enjoy talking about
random and obscure types of cinema.
Um, I am heavily influenced by the likesof Mystery Science Theater, so that plays
a lot into my channel, as Stan can attest.
Um, I, I guess I, I take the perspectiveof, okay, I'm here to tell you about

(12:10):
it and give you some basic trivia,which is, uh, why the Trivial Theater.
Um, but yeah, that's kind ofwhere it starts and stops for me.
I kind of pick things.
Uh, I tend to have a more of a horrorslant to my channel, but I do a lot
of, uh, riffing with, uh, variouscreators and friends of the channel,
as well as kind of solo reviews, so,

Chris (12:30):
well great.
And, uh, everyone should go checkout what, uh, Dan and Triv have to
offer on their channels, but, um.
Our dead format this week is SOV Shoton Video Films and the movie will
be discussing his feeders from 1996.
As I said.
So the last time Dan was on the show,we talked about a film that was shot

(12:51):
on eight millimeter, and the reasonfor that is because I had incorrectly
remembered it as an SOV film.
Uh, so I invited him and Trivon to talk about a movie that
is actually shot on video.
So what are you guysexperience with SOV films?

Dan (13:10):
I just honestly can't say I've ever heard of it, but, uh Oh, wow.
No, I'm, I'm, I'm quite, uh,quite the aficionado of SOV.
Um, it's, it's a format that Ireally enjoy because it kind of,
it, it gives a certain vibe andfeeling that you can't really capture

(13:31):
through cinematography or direction.
It's, I'm always a firm advocator thatthe format that you shoot your film on
is as important as directional choicesor, you know, uh, the way that you
frame a shot, because that medium canbring so much more life to that image.
The medium

Chris (13:48):
is the message as they say.

Dan (13:50):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And SOV um, brings with it thiskind of wonderful woozy blurriness
that I think works especially wellwith horror and science fiction.
Um, and there are so many good examplesof SOV that have come out over the years.
Um, feeders.
Well, we'll, we'll get into whetherthat's a, a good example of SOV or not,

(14:14):
but, um, no, I, I, I love SOVI have a, alongstanding kind of, um, passion for it
and, um, yeah, I've, some of my favoritefilms are shot on video, so yeah, big fan.

Triv (14:26):
Uh, my personal experience is, is not quite as, um, exceptional as Dan's.
Um, watching so much Ms. T three K, uh,you know, you kind of watch SOV without
realizing you're watching SOV, likethe stuff looks different, but when
you watch it, you don't necessarilyknow why until you get into that.
Yeah.
The greater, the greater bits of it.
Um, I have enjoyed the format quite a lot.

(14:47):
I think just the, there is anoutside the box nature to a lot of
SOV just because you do have a lotof like the low budget and cult
movies that ended up on that format.
And there's just, there's so much donethat just, it's unique and creative
and, you know, it may not turn outthe best, but the guys behind it tend
to be some of the more passionateones, even if they don't have the

(15:08):
experience or the, the money to do so.
They literally, most of them, or some ofthem pick up and go, Hey, you know what?
We got a weekend, let's do this thing.
And I love the, the, thespur or the, the like of this
moment nature of a lot of them.
Ones like this included.
Mm-hmm.

Chris (15:25):
Hmm.
Yeah.
So I am kind of closer to Triv where it'slike, my experience with SOV is just sort
of this oblique experience where, uh,anything that I've seen has never been
like, oh, I'm going to watch an SOV film.
It's more, I was interested in X, Y, Z,and that just happened to be an SOV film.

(15:47):
So I was looking earlier today at a, avery large list on letterbox of SOV films,
and of those movies I've seen like 25 Ithink it was, which might sound like a lot
to some people, but in the grand scheme ofthings, not really, because I haven't seen
like, the heavy hitters of SOV really.

(16:07):
I think probably the mostwell-known one that I would've
seen to most people would be five.
Five five, or mm-hmm.
Blood Lake.
But, uh, even those are like kind oflesser known in the SOV uh, circle.
I haven't seen something likethings or this movie I had not seen

(16:28):
until watching it for this cast.

Dan (16:31):
Hey, I mean, you've seen one of the best SOVs though Garden Tool.
Massacre.

Chris (16:35):
Yeah.
I mean, that, that is a good one.
And I, I actually don't think it was onthat list, but, uh, yeah, that's a, it
was, I enjoyed it, you know, testamentto what a bunch of 17 year olds in
the UK can do with $5 to their name.

Dan (16:50):
I, I will say this, I have never seen anyone manage to more perfectly capture
the feeling and vibe of a sweaty, slightlysick feeling nineties house party as
the people who did Garden Tool Massacre.
You, you can, I can smell thecigarette smoke coming off that film.
It is primo, it's prima

Chris (17:09):
verite.

Dan (17:10):
Oh yes.
It's how Criterion haven't picked it up.
I dunno.

Triv (17:14):
Hey, not even white glove.
Massive matched up to that one.

Dan (17:17):
Oh.
White glove.
Massive.
Ugh.
Ah, white glove, massive.
I,

Triv (17:22):
it's gotta be close.

Dan (17:23):
It's a trip and a half.
It's a trip and a half.
Um, if you ever, if you ever wanna watchwhite glove, massive, I can hook you up.
That is a contemporary SOV film,um, shot within the last sort of 10
years, um, using Digi Beta, and it is.
An experience, definitely an experience,

Triv (17:43):
but does it match up to the sweaty nineties house party?
It's got a, the vibe has to be close.

Dan (17:49):
So the problem is white glove massive as a sort of modern SOV is
trying to capture the nineties vibe,but it's only got a budget of 20 pence
and some good luck and it, it, it'sstruggling to do that very, very badly.
Whereas garden tool Massacre, it feelslike they just set a camera up at a party.
It doesn't feel like theyplanned to make it a film.

(18:10):
It feels like they filmed a party andthen went, Hey, why don't we just shoot
a couple of Halloween esque sequencesaround that and call it a film.
Um.
I'll say this though, it didinspire me to wanna go and check
out the director's other films.
He's got one called House on CuckooLane that looks quite interesting.
So that one's on my wishlist to hit.
We'll have you back

Chris (18:28):
on to discuss House on Cuckoo Lane then.
So, uh, I know TRV has coveredfeeders on her channel, but Dan, had
you seen or heard of Feeders before?

Dan (18:41):
I had heard of Feeders and I watched the trailers for the feed
First feeders and the second one, andI realized two things very quickly.
One, that I needed to see these films atsome point urgently because the trailers.
Uh, they make the film lookabsolutely nuts, quite frankly.
Um, but also I noticed that thequality of these films, sort

(19:03):
of picture wise was abysmal.
So I sort of purposely held off in thehope that a boutique label might like,
do a higher res capture than what'scurrently available, because basically
it looks like whatever the Poloniabrothers exported feeders and feeders
two out, as it looks like it was 68pixels wide and they'd blew it up to
five 60 p and then just released it.

(19:23):
Um, it's, it's not a pretty film.
So I, I was basically, I I sort ofwatched the trailers and went, right,
I'll sit on this and I, hopefullysomething good will come along.
And then it never did.
Um, no.
So today, so in the last couple of days,I, I sat down and I went through feeders
for the first time and, uh, yeah, it wasdefinitely a long time worth waiting for.
I think I watched, watched thetrailers about 10 years ago.

(19:45):
So yeah, it was worththe wait, I would say.

Chris (19:48):
And so how familiar are you guys with the Polonia Brothers
filmography in general, had you.
Seen anything other than feeders, Triv.

Triv (19:57):
Um, I think I've seen it's one of those things where the Polonia
brothers like, it kind of like meltsinto the background and as soon as you
see it, your brain kinda shuts downbecause Polonia brothers, that they're
not exactly synonymous with quality.
Um, but no, I've seen a, I think I'veseen a fair amount of their stuff.
Obviously the more recent, the more recentoutings are, you know, kind of low budget,

(20:18):
asylum level affairs for the most part.
Um, but yeah, no, I, I, therewere certain ones I enjoyed.
I really enjoyed Splatter Farm.
Um, I'm just looking throughsome of the, the other ones I can
see, uh, the house that screamed.
I've seen that, uh, the feeders twoI've seen, I have Feeders three.
I've not watched it yet.
Um, but yeah, that's kindof where I start and stop.

(20:40):
But.

Dan (20:41):
How about you, Dan, for myself?
Um, so I have a kind ofmixed experience with them.
I've kind of, when it comes to thePolonia Brothers, I seem to have done
the sideshow, Bob stepping on rakesapproach to viewing their cinematography.
Because every film that I've caught ofeither the Polonia Brothers or of Mark
Polonia plural, um, has been one whereI've gone, oh, that looks really good.

(21:04):
And then I've watched itand gone, oh, this is awful.
And then I've gone and looked onlineand found out like it's the worst
Polonia Brothers film, or the worst MarkLon film where even the fan boys are
like, yeah, we don't watch that one.
So I just, I feel like if itlooks good to me, um, I'm probably
in for a bad time, basically.

Chris (21:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, they are a name that sort oflooms large, relatively speaking as, as
large as a name can loom in the SOV world.
But I. I had actually never seenany of their films before this.
I have seen one of John McBride's filmswho he is one of the co-directors.

(21:45):
Uh, he did a movie called,uh, wood Chipper Massacre.
So I've seen that, but I never actuallyseen any Polonia Brothers film.
So.
That was a new experience for me.
Um,

Triv (21:58):
you know, I'm a fan of wood.
Chipper kills generally.
Mm-hmm.
Like, uh, Tucker and Dale versus evil,um, Fargo, uh, evil Dead Rises, fantastic.
Wood chipper kills.
Like there need to be more of them.
I went into wood chipper massacrethinking, all right, here we go.
And nope.

Chris (22:14):
Then you found out it was actually just a sitcom, but with some
murder off to the side, off screen.
Exactly.

Triv (22:21):
I'm like, murder isn't even like in the top five things that that movie does.

Chris (22:25):
Yeah.
I mean, I, so that was, uh, an earlyfilm that I covered on a, a previous
podcast, and I didn't like it.
I didn't think it was very good, butI think what sort of, uh, whatever
the opposite of soured my p sweetenedmy opinion towards John McBride
was as I was researching to talkabout the movie, I read an interview

(22:49):
with him where he just seemed like.
You know, s not pretentious and notintentionally trying to make bad movies,
which I think is the sweet spot for theselow budget films, is he's just like,
Hey, you know, I know this movie hasproblems, but I wanted to make a movie.
I made the movie that I was ableto make with the budget that I

(23:10):
had, and uh, it is what it is.
And that really sort ofendeared me to John McBride.

Triv (23:16):
That's fair.
Nice.
Nice.
I think too, there's a lot of, there'sa lot of people that today, because bad
movies are kind of niche or they're kindof in vogue or whatever, but I think
a lot of people go in like anythingthat asylum pumps out a good chunk
of what Lonna brothers overall pumpout are kind of in that wah wah, you
know, we know we're doing not greatstuff, but you're still gonna watch it.

(23:38):
Yeah.
And it's gonna be great.
And that whole mentality, there's such afine line between like enjoyable and not.

Dan (23:46):
Thing is though I would argue with the Polonia brothers specifically,
that I feel that that's been a moregradual creep in based on what I've
seen of their earlier filmography.
That the general vibe I get fromthem is that they're all heart.
No theory is, is probably thebest way to kind of sum it up.
It feels like two guys who weregassing each other up to go and make

(24:07):
a film and then they'd do it andthey go, right, I got this idea.
Okay, we'll go make it.
And then it just became that cycleconstantly of that being the case.
And then sadly, John passed away in 2008,um, but it feels like Mark wanted to kind
of keep going and whether it's a mixtureof just wanting to keep going for the
sake of a paycheck or whether it's keepgoing because this is what he thinks is

(24:30):
what he needs to be doing right now, um,it kind of feels like he sort of splits
his time shooting sort of gun for hirestyle films where he is just bought on as
a name to kind of make the film as quicklyas possible and get it out the door.
Um.
Alongside sort of pet projectsthat he seems to put his
sort of heart and soul into.
I think it was Bleeding Skull that'ssort of described them as urgent

(24:52):
filmmakers, which I, I think is awonderful sort of phrase for it.
'cause it's not sort of urgentin the sense of, um, you know,
creating urgency within the film.
It's urgent as in they've gotan idea and they need to get it
outta them as quickly as possible.
Mm-hmm.
No matter how they do it, whether it's,whether they've got the props or the
cast to hand is kind of irrelevant.
They just want to get it out there.

(25:12):
Um, which I'm, one of the things I alwayslove is I'm a, I'm a big fan of filmmakers
who believe in what they want to put out.
And, uh, especially with, with thisfilm, I got the very strong vibe
that even though it is not the mosttechnically proficient film in the
world, I think it's fair to say,um, there's a lot of heart there.
There's a lot of just two guys reallywanting to make this work somehow.

(25:37):
Um, and I, I appreciate that.
I appreciate that.
It's just two guys who may not havethe skill but are damn well gonna make
you see their alien movie one way oranother, whether you like it or not.
Um, yeah, which I find a bit ironic aswell, considering the film is now, I
don't think it's out of print per se,but it, it doesn't have a, an imprint
physical release as far as I can see.

(25:59):
I've been looking for one for years.
Um, but it seems like the last timeit sort of came out on physical
was like this double feature DVDthat's now long out of print.
I might be wrong, but it'd be nice tobe able to actually get a remastered
version at some point, you know, even ifit was just like a higher quality scan
of a videotape version or something.
But

Chris (26:16):
no, I mean, I have, I have no information to the contrary that
it's ever been, it's been released onanything within the past 10, 15 years.
So, yeah, I mean, his.
Feeders was, uh, written by MarkPolonia, directed by John and
Mark Polonia and John McBride.
Three directors and stars,John Polonia and John McBride.

(26:40):
Catching a theme there.
Listener, I don't know what

Triv (26:43):
you're talking about.
Basically done

Chris (26:45):
by three people, which is two more people than Neil Breen movies are made by.
So that's at least something.

Triv (26:52):
Well, you've got Neil Breen and then you've got His Balls.

Chris (26:56):
No.
So, uh, this is the first ofmany collaborations between the
Polonia Brothers and John McBride.
And it all started because thePolonious had seen McBride's film,
cannibal Camp out, and they justcalled him up one day and they're
like, Hey, you want to make a movie?
And the rest is history.

Dan (27:16):
I love the idea that the way you said that then just made it sound
like they'd been at the phone bookall night and finally landed on him.
Are you John McBride?
No.
Click are you John McBride?
No, click.

Triv (27:30):
Hey, my name's John Polonia is, nor is your name.
John McBride.
Yes.
Okay.
We're making progress.

Dan (27:36):
Yeah.
You can put the coffee away is your

Triv (27:38):
middle name Mark?
Because if your name was John MarkMcBride, that would be fantastic.

Chris (27:42):
Wow.
Mm. If you can only imagine.
Um, and so this film was picked up fordistribution by Blockbuster because
Independence Day had just been releasedin theaters and they were looking
for a sci-fi film to cash in on that.
And, uh, shockingly Feedersbecame blockbuster's number one

(28:03):
independent rental for 1996.

Triv (28:06):
I love that.
That's kind wild.
I love that so much.
That is wild.

Chris (28:09):
Like, it's something

Triv (28:09):
that, that could not happen today.
Like obviously you have whateverthe modern version of like finding
a random film and it race coming tolike, you know, the, the forefront.
Mm-hmm.
But this is just such a specifictime and place kind of thing.

Chris (28:23):
Mm-hmm.
No, absolutely.
Absolutely.
I mean, uh, Pacific or AtlanticRim was not the number one rental
the year Pacific Rim came out.
So, uh, yeah, I can't, it seems like thesemock busters were a big thing 10 to 15
years ago, but I, I think the, I think theaudience is just too savvy to like sort

(28:47):
of fall for this sort of thing anymore.

Dan (28:50):
Hmm.
No, agreed.
I mean, you go on to streaming sites likeTubi nowadays and flick through the, the
listings and you can tell very quicklywhich ones are, you know, budgeted actual
theater release type films, or evenstudio films that didn't get a cinematic
release and which ones are just shoton somebody's phone, you know, and, and

(29:12):
dumped on Tuby in the sort of background.
Um, it, uh, it's good that we'reat that point because, you know, I
think that we have had a period oftime now where studios like, and
you not to name that, not to sortof pin the asylum specifically,
but studios of the asylums ilk
mm-hmm.
Have
kind of just churned films out, shot them out the door and gone.
There you go.
That's done full retail price ifyou wanna watch it and it's garbage.

(29:35):
So I'm, I'm glad that we're kind of movingpast that era and moving into studios
now, having to actually think about whatthey're putting out for better or worse.
But, um, yeah, now it's,um, it's an interesting time
cinematically for strange bad films.
'cause there used to be a time wherestudios could get away with just
getting someone in and going, just makesomething crap and get it out the door.
We need it in two weeks, as long asit's got this, this, and this in it,

(29:58):
you know, we'll, we'll put it out.

Chris (29:59):
Full Moon.
Did that for 30 years.
Oh yeah.

Dan (30:04):
I mean, look at Sterling Entertainment.
Another perfect example.
I mean, how many, how many camp bloodmovies can you make realistically?
Well, Sterling has got the budgetto try and find out, and uh,
they're currently on like 16, so.

Triv (30:16):
Oh, they don't have anything on the Amityville franchise?
Oh,

Dan (30:18):
no, no, no, no.
You know, it's said that everyone onEarth knows at least one person who's
made an Amityville movie at this point.
The scary thing is right.
I I say that now thinking,ha ha, that's not true.
I know someone who madean Amityville movie.

Chris (30:36):
Yeah.
I have a, a, a mutual internet friendwho made an Amityville movie, so

Triv (30:42):
now I feel left out.

Chris (30:44):
Well, you have to make one.

Triv (30:46):
Oh God.
Yeah.
No, that would be terrible.
They already made Amityville vibrator.

Chris (30:50):
You can make Amityville Terribles Casino.

Triv (30:53):
Ooh, there you go.
That would, Hmm.

Chris (30:57):
Amityville Motel.
Bennigans.

Triv (31:01):
Amityville Cornfield.

Dan (31:03):
You could do, if you travel over, if you travel over to Minnesota, you could
finally realize the Amityville Twine ball.
That could be.
I'm sure the people of Darwin wouldbe very, very happy to cooperate.
You know, they're very proud of it.

Triv (31:17):
Oh, they're very, very proud of it.
But I, I don't think they'd wanttheir twine ball slandered in any way.
Like weird Al was kind of theheight of what they wanted.

Chris (31:25):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I have been over the past few months,like thinking about an Amity film,
Amityville film that I could make.
And I think I've just been toyingwith this idea in my head of like a
movie called Amityville Insurance.
That was the concept is like one ofthose like mailer VHSs that they would

(31:46):
send out, or maybe not AmityvilleInsurance, like Amityville Realty,
that's like, uh, a Tom Vu like.
Uh, turnkey property, like takingdilapidated buildings and flipping them.
'cause there was a lot of that.
As much as there is of that goingon now, there's a lot of that in the
eighties and nineties of like, uh, yeah,just buy this tape, learn my system.

(32:08):
You'll be a millionaire.
So I've been trying to, in my mind,like marry those two concepts of
like this Amityville Realty videothat starts off as like a multi-level
marketing scheme and then slowlydescends into some Amityville Madness.
I haven't quite cracked it yet, butI think there's something there.

Triv (32:26):
You know, they could do it with a lamp and a vibrator.
You can certainly do itwith a, with a PSA tape.

Dan (32:32):
I hope so.
You've just inspired me to do a shortfilm called the Amityville timeshare.
Yeah.
It's just like, you know, they come outof the house screaming with a set of
keys handed over to the next people.
They go and start screaming.

Chris (32:48):
I think it could work.
Think it could work.
Mm-hmm.
Mm hmm.

Triv (32:52):
Airbnb, Amityville.

Chris (32:54):
Yeah.
Very, very true.

Triv (32:56):
Hey, would you like to stay in a potato?
You can stay in a potato, oryou could stay in this lovely
three story, uh, manner.
That's right on the water.
It's got ghosts.
Oh.
I mean, it has rooms.
It doesn't have ghosts.
We swear.

Dan (33:11):
I'm only in it for the little chocolate mint on the pillow.
If they don't have that,I'm not interested.
Exactly.

Triv (33:15):
You know what?
You can have all thechocolate mint on the pillow.
The pillow can be madeof a chocolate mint.

Chris (33:20):
Delightful.
Thank you.
Absolutely.
And that therein lies the horror.

Triv (33:25):
They've been, they've been in the bottom of someone's purse for the past,
like two months and the middle of summer.

Dan (33:31):
I was just having visions of waking up with my head, half
melted into the chocolate pillow.
Drowning in chocolate.

Triv (33:37):
That's not the worst way to go.

Dan (33:39):
Hmm mm-hmm.

Triv (33:40):
Could be Betty Jane chocolate.
Dan

Dan (33:42):
Cadbury's only.
Sorry.

Triv (33:43):
Ah, fair.
That's fair.

Chris (33:45):
Oh,

Triv (33:45):
that'd be my preferred way to go.

Chris (33:47):
Tastes like shit in the US so it

Dan (33:49):
does nah.
Have to hook you up with some ofthe good stuff, especially after
your very, very nice gift, whichthank you again for by the way.
Oh, you're very welcome.

Chris (33:57):
Yeah.
I mean, it used to, whenI was a kid it was good.
Like the eggs were good.
Now they're just fucking disgustingand I would never eat one.
Well, we're

Triv (34:07):
slowly, uh, getting the us, you know, person by person.
We're slowly getting the US over toCadbury, uh, Dan, via me, via whoever.
So, uh, as long as it's not the middleof summer, we can make it happen.

Chris (34:19):
I'll cut that out so you guys can avoid tariffs.
Thank

Dan (34:23):
you.
Thank you

Chris (34:23):
so much.

Dan (34:26):
I can't afford to remortgage my house again.
No, I must have these eggs.

Triv (34:33):
I was gonna say, you go around Easter time and
the eggs are freaking huge.
Mm. Like they're hollow,but they're awesome.

Dan (34:39):
Oh yeah.
I've still got one for you.
I need to send, probably it'll be inthe autumn now, but it's a crunchy one.
So, Ooh,

Triv (34:45):
you had me at crunchies.
Those are, it's like aButterfinger, but done really well.

Chris (34:51):
I think.
Uh, my notes are sparse.
You know, I usually takeoverly detailed notes.
It's some, it's a problem that I'mtrying to work on, but I think, uh, with
this one, I didn't have that problem.

Dan (35:06):
My, my, my first note that I wrote down was, wow, the camera
quality of this thing is incredible.
You'll believe a hs can.
VI

Chris (35:15):
still don't,

Triv (35:20):
when you said the camera quality, I thought you were talking
about the amazing shutter effectthey have on the amazing wow amount
of nature shots that are in this.

Dan (35:28):
Oh, yeah.
I mean, uh, the one thing that blewmy mind was, it was really nice to
see the Windows 95 screensaver again,you know, the starfield, it was,
it was genuinely out, just amazing.
And the hand drawn doodles reallyjust took it to the next level for me.

Chris (35:44):
Yeah, I mean, we've been doing everything to dance around actually
getting into the plot of this one.
But like you just said, youknow, it begins with a voiceover
and it's accompanied by crudelydrawn pictures of aliens and, uh.
Cue the funky synth music as wewatch a CGI spaceship cruise through
the galaxy before heading to Earth.

(36:05):
Now, what are you guys' thoughts atthis point early on in the movie?
I know Triv has seen this, but what wasyour first blush reaction to this, Dan?

Dan (36:13):
So, I'll be honest with you.
Um.
It would be easy to be glib aboutthis opening because 2 20, 25
sensibilities, it looks a bit crap.
It, it does.
But if you bear in mind that this wasshot in 1994 and sort of edited through
1995, the computer generated effectsgiven this was like low no budget.

(36:36):
This was just guys messing aboutwith like early digital les.
I actually thought it was kind ofimpressive given that I've seen films,
um, from this time where they barelymanaged to sort of focus actual, real
life footage to have sort of veryrudimentary CGI when you've got no budget.
Although, you know, Ithought well give it to them.
It, it's, it's decent consideringwhere it's coming from.

(36:59):
It sets the tone almost certainly.
Yeah.
It's no McPherson tape,but it's, it's good.

Chris (37:04):
I mean, right off the bat, feeders kind of tells you what
kind of movie it's going to be.
You've got this X-Files esquenarration delivered by John Polonia
who has a very regional accent,which is, it's always something you
love to hear in a low budget film.
I was looking this up, and they bothgrew up in North Central Pennsylvania,

(37:26):
so it's not exactly a Delco accent,but it is, it does share a lot of
features and it's definitely a markerof like, oh, this movie is from a very
specific region in the us, which Ithought really adds to the charm of it.

Dan (37:42):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah, totally, totally.
This is the thing, and one of therecurring things through this film
that, that really won me over, um, isterrible dialogue being delivered with
the most exaggerated, over the topregional accents that you can imagine.
There was one in particular, um, towardsthe second act of the film where, where

(38:06):
I believe it was one of the poloniaturns directly to the camera and just
goes, it must have been that saucer.
And I just, that was me thenlaughing for like five minutes solid.
I just, you know, I, at, that was memade up at that point I knew I was
really getting into something special.
Um
mm-hmm.
Given that the film I found was a little slow to get going, like

(38:27):
it's got loads of really fun momentspeppered in, but if you kind of strip
it back to what the actual plot is,it's essentially just a lot of people
titting about in the woods for a.
Yeah.
Four, five minutes.
Um, but I, yeah, I, it's momentslike that that kept me hooped
in just little moments where thedialogue was just read very strange.
There's very interesting ways ofphrasing things and people just saying

(38:47):
and looking a bit odd in the camera.
I'm not sure if that's just aPennsylvania thing or whether it's, uh,

Chris (38:54):
wow.
I know someone who couldprobably answer that.
I'll have to ask him.
But, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's,it's, it's a very hard accent
to mimic unless you have, Hmm.
Grown up in that area, or spent a lotof time, I find like if I try to do
it, oh, it eventually falls just intoChicago, because that's something that's

(39:16):
much more familiar to like, oh yeah.
Americans in general.
So if I offend any, uh, Pennsylvaniaresidents by attempting it later on,
I'm sorry, it's, it's very difficult.

Dan (39:31):
Um, as I'm separated by an ocean, I challenge anyone
to a fight if I offend them.
So, yeah, we'll meet in the, we'llmeet in the, uh, the Pacific.
We'll, we'll work it out.

Triv (39:40):
Sounds like a good plan.
There's a lady later on too.
Um, the, the lady with the shortblack hair kind of has that same,
very, very, very strong accent.
Like kind of throughout her, her lines.

Dan (39:52):
Yeah.
No, but I think that's part of, again,part of the heart of this, like again,
I, I don't think this is a particularlytechnically proficient film, but the,
just the sheer heart of everybody inthis film clearly wanting to be in this
film, I thought was quite a nice touch.
Yeah.
Um, and you know, even with that regionalflare, it, it really helps it stand out.

(40:13):
I think that regional horror inand of itself, or regional sci-fi,
suppose it's a sci-fi horror.
Really, this isn't it.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I, I think that having that, that sortof regional element to it is, is one of
the things that really helps to sell it.

Chris (40:25):
Yeah, I agree.
So we see a smokey the bearsign, which lets us know we're
in some sort of forest or park.
We're also made privy to thedate and time July 10th, 6:45 AM

Triv (40:38):
They are very specific on their times in this movie.

Chris (40:41):
Yeah.
And if I had had more foresight, Iwould've, you know, done one of those.
Like, oh, I'll release this on July10th, and it'll be like, we're ha, we're
watching it as it's happening, but Ididn't, so we're talking about it now.

Triv (40:55):
Well, if you were gonna try and release it and make it, as
long as the actual time spent is,you'd have to go almost 24 hours.
So.

Dan (41:03):
It was one of those ones where as soon as those captions popped up,
and again, the captions I thoughtwere quite well handled, like most
SOV films, you'd usually just havean in-camera kind of effect pop up.
Yeah.
With the date and time on it.
So, but the fact they actually used,I dunno, maybe it was something like
video toaster or something to, togenerate some really nice captioning
for it, I thought was a good touch.
Although it did annoy mebecause I was thinking, oh,

(41:25):
they're putting timings down.
Maybe that'll have some significancelater in the film, so I'll keep a note
of all the timings and see what happens.
And it just never really,never really led to anything.
They just did it becauseit was, no, I dunno.

Triv (41:36):
But it kept you on the edge of your seat because of it.

Dan (41:39):
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess so.
I guess so.

Triv (41:44):
So it worked in a weird.
None meaningful way.

Dan (41:49):
Yeah.
So we put a questionmark at the end of that.
Yeah, I guess so.
I, I guess so.

Chris (41:53):
We see a man in fishing gear, grab his tackle box and head into the
woods towards the stream before we'reintroduced to our two main characters.
Derrick played by John McBride andBennett played by John Polonia.
They're cruising through the woodsin a red Ford Mustang having a
conversation that was not adrd.
So we have no idea whatthey're saying to each other.

Dan (42:16):
See, I again, I thought that, um, I thought that that was intentional.
I thought that they,they didn't say anything.
I did hear some whispering, just veryfaintly under the sort of rocky, poppy
music track they'd chosen for the radiosound, but I didn't, I didn't think
they were actually saying anythingduring the point really, other than
just sort of murmuring to each other.
Yeah.
I mean,

Chris (42:36):
they may have just been like having a real life out of character
conversation with each other.
Who can say.
We are then introduced to Park RangerGordon, who's patrolling the woods
in his red Ford Bronco when he seesa spaceship zipping through the sky.
What the hell was that?
He stops his car and getsout to take a closer look.

(42:57):
If that doesn't be at all, Imeteor, God, I hope it doesn't
burn the fucking forest down

Dan (43:05):
again.
That, that exact scene is the kindof thing I'm talking about when
I say fantastic line delivery.
Um, just, just, it's weird becauseit's, it's kind of naturalistic.
I could imagine somebody sayingthat, but it's just the way he says
it, it's just so unnatural comparedto everything else that's going on.
It's very dramatic andkind of over the top.

(43:27):
And I was just kind of, again,that was the first sort of inkling
I had where I was like, okay.
Uh, so we're, we're cookingwith something here.
Let's see where we go with this.
If this is, this is thetone they're going for.
Okay.
Okay.

Chris (43:38):
He gets back in his bronco and heads towards the meteor.
Meanwhile, the spaceship makesa brief stop to beam down
a couple of its passengers.
And, uh, how would youguys describe these aliens?

Triv (43:52):
Like, uh, Play-Doh gone awry?
I think, uh, and a little bit oflatex around the sides of it and, I
don't know, coat hanger hands, maybelike they're the most rudimentary
puppets you'll ever probably see.

Dan (44:07):
They kind of reminded me of the aliens from the daytime ended,
but without the stop motion element.
Like if you'd just taken the, the sort ofclay model of the aliens from the day that
time ended and just sort of shoot it Yeah.
In front of the cameraand make gurgling noises.

Triv (44:23):
That is one thing.
The sounds that they makeare just probably my favorite
thing about this movie.
Yeah, like, it's like
someone drank way too much soda and just belched consistently into the mic

Chris (44:35):
does not go at all with the way that these aliens look.
I, hey, I'll say that The alien lookin this one word, iconic, I think.
Oh yeah.
It's super shitty, but alsoamazing at the same time.
I, I love the little aliens in this movie.

Dan (44:54):
Oh yeah, no, agreed.
I I don't think for a secondyou would ever mistake them for
aliens from a different film.
No, they, they definitely, otherthan definitely time ended.
Well, yeah.
I mean, they could be the same species.
Um, and that distinct,they are very distinct.
Um, I mean, I, again, another onethat they kind of reminded me a little

(45:17):
bit of, although they aren't aliensin the film, is the, uh, creatures
from Attack of the Beast creatures.
They're like little tiny sortof goblin things, but they look
kind of similar and they behavesimilarly to the feeders aliens.
So again, I kind of, it's, it's aninteresting one because watching this
film particularly, it felt like you werekind of watching the Polonia Brothers

(45:39):
recent sort of takeout from Blockbuster.
There were just moments throughouthere where I kind of went, oh, hey,
that's a bit from, um, from, um,things or, Hey, that's a, a bit from
the Deadly Spawn, or this is a bitfrom Attack of the Beast Creatures.
Mm-hmm.
Or you know, they, they, they seemed,they didn't do it a lot, but it seemed

(45:59):
like there were just moments where youcould kind of go, oh, that's from this
film, and you just realize that, mayberented it like a week ago and went,
Hey, we should do that in our film.
Yeah.
They had, they

Triv (46:09):
had also, they had also two very distinct like designs.
Yes.
There was kind of the bubble headed one,and then there was like the flathead one.

Chris (46:16):
Mm. And I kind of wondered if that was like.
Did they look different if someonelike had their hand inside of it or
like, 'cause I did notice that triv,that there are very two distinct
looks, but I was wondering if thatwas a stylistic choice or like.
Uh, uh, they looked a puppetry choice.
I wasn't sure.

Dan (46:36):
Same at, at this point.
It honestly wouldn't surprise me if oneof the colonial brothers just sat on one
and they were like, we'll, roll with it.

Chris (46:44):
Oh, that must be, have been the one that they kept
crushing its head with rocks.
It makes sense Now.

Triv (46:51):
Also, the jiggle factor on these aliens across the board when
they're excited is just chef's kiss.

Chris (46:58):
Yeah.
Oh, great.
Love these guys.
Uh, I will say that that's the,the sole reason I chose to watch
this is like I just saw still ofthem, and I was like, I love that.
I love those aliens.
But, uh, yeah, those aliens, as Triv wassaying, start making some wretched pig
squealing noises and head into the woods.

(47:20):
Provides a nice contrast through, like,what I will say is like a, a pretty
cute alien design to making like a,a terrible fucking noise and, uh.
As Ranger Gordon is in pursuit of themeteor, he notices a second spaceship in
the sky, or possibly it's the same one hesaw earlier, but it's changed directions.

(47:42):
I wasn't really sure.
And he says, uh,
damnit another one.
I knew this was gonna be a bad day.
I guess I'll follow the first one.
It'll start a fire beforethe other one Anyway.

Dan (47:58):
I don't know whether for Pennsylvania that's an
overstatement or an understatement.
It's,

Triv (48:03):
it's just right.
It's like, it's like baby bearor it's like the baby bur poage.

Dan (48:08):
It's just Right.
I knew this was gonna be a bad day.
The apocalypse, uh,basically is just great.
Again, again, like for the majorityof this opening scene that the
park ranger was probably one of myfavorite characters just because of
how downplayed everything was and howkind of that simultaneously downplayed

(48:29):
the dialogue was, but dramatic mm-hmm.
Was the delivery.
Um,

Chris (48:32):
well, what was funny to me about this guy in particular is that, uh, in the
opening credits, this guy gets the, and.
Gary Leblanc as Ranger Gordon.
So I was like, okay, well maybe thisguy is like a, a legitimate actor.
Maybe he's known.
No, he is been in three movies,uh, all directed by the Polonia.

(48:54):
So it's

Triv (48:57):
maybe he was their chief financier.

Chris (48:59):
Yeah, that's, that could be.
Although Chief Chief financierin this case is like someone that
gave them $5, so it's like, Hey,

Dan (49:10):
do you know how many alien props we can build with this?
This is serious money we gotta get Uncle.
Especially in the early

Triv (49:15):
nineties.

Chris (49:16):
Yeah, that's like a hundred dollars now with inflation.
Mm-hmm.

Dan (49:21):
Oh yeah.
Well that was how they managed toget the money for feeders three, so.
Oh, yeah.

Triv (49:25):
Well, if, if feeders two is anything to judge by, for feeders, three
half of the footage from feeders, theoriginal feeders will be in feeders
two, and then half of that stuff fromFeeders one and two will be in three.
Fabulous.
Sign me up.

Chris (49:39):
So these two aliens are scampering through the woods.
To what purpose?
We don't know yet, but surely they'relooking for something to feed on.
And, uh, how'd you

Triv (49:49):
get that idea?

Chris (49:51):
I don't, you know, I'm a bit of a cinephile, so,

Triv (49:55):
ah, you

Chris (49:55):
start to see patterns.

Dan (49:58):
I have to listen to the commentary three times to pick that up.
You guys are so lucky.

Chris (50:02):
Yeah, man.
Derek and Bennett have pulledover on the side of the road so
that Derek can take pictures ofan information kiosk in the park.
We find out that they're on a crosscountry road trip headed for the
east coast in pursuit of babes andbikinis, and they get back in the
car and head into town to gas up.

Dan (50:24):
It was a very nice scene.
That was, I again, I think it'sgood for character building, but.
Given that these two are supposed to belike best buds, um, it, they felt like
the least best buds, best buds I've ever,

Triv (50:39):
I mean, best a very, could have many, could have many definitions.
You know, guy I met five miles ago whopromised to pay for gas lifelong buddies
since the day they were born and knowit, it, it's all, it's all semantics.
Yeah.

Chris (50:52):
He's also talking about like how yeah, we need
to get to the Atlantic Ocean.
And it's like, that's, that'snot, I don't think anyone
would ever say that in America.
It would be like, oh, I need toget to x, y, Z beach or this city.
No one sets out on a road tripto go to the Atlantic Ocean.

Dan (51:14):
I don't think anybody from England would say that either.
In Venice.

Chris (51:18):
9:22 AM Derek and Bennett stop at a local landmark known as
Devon's Crossing that was apparentlydestroyed when a nearby dam broke.
We get a nice montage of Derek snappingphotographs to the tune of a legally
distinct version of the Peanuts theme.
And Derek runs out of film once again.

(51:38):
They get back into their car andhead into town for gas as you do

Dan (51:45):
lovingly.
Demented is probably the way I woulddescribe this film up to this point.

Chris (51:50):
As the two discuss their plans to camp out in the woods,
they overhear reports of ameteorite nearby on the car radio.
Ah, it's all a bunch of horse shit.
These people watch too much television.
Yeah, we out our limits.
Good one.
Ranger Gordon is trouncingthrough the woods, mumbling to

(52:13):
himself, looking for the meteor.
All the while the aliens are breakinginto his bronco, and when he returns to
his vehicle, one of the aliens stuns himwith what appears to be a car antenna.
The aliens begin to feed onthe body of Ranger Gordon.

Dan (52:30):
See the feeding I'm okay with, but the carjacking is where I draw the line.

Triv (52:36):
Especially on a classic Bronco, my goodness.

Chris (52:38):
Exactly, exactly.
Yeah, you could, you could get someserious money for that car these days.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.

Triv (52:46):
I will say the way that they have the aliens like Feast on
Ranger Gordon, I think it's one oflike, it's such a, like, so it's so
goofy, but it's done so seriously.
It it like, it's not played for humor.
It works really well.

Dan (52:59):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And I, another thing to kind ofbear in mind with this again,
is bearing in mind that thesearen't two film literate people.
These are two people who just got a cameraand decided let's make movies and come
hell or high water, they're making movies.
Um, I thought the death scene waskind of shock quite well given
there's no theory there, really.

(53:20):
It's, it's set up in such a way that itruns neatly and it doesn't, it follows
Hitchcock's principle of not showingtoo much, but you kind of, mm-hmm.
Your brain fills in the gaps.
Like it's the, the shot of his, um, thumband forefinger with blood just kind of
splattered up it, that, that is enoughto make you fully aware of what's going

(53:41):
on without you having to have all of thebudget to actually show, you know, skin
being ripped off or aliens, feasting.

Chris (53:48):
And I, I mean, we say this is a somewhat incompetent film, but I will
say that there is more consideration.
In the framing and setups forshots in this film, then I really
would've expected, and it isbetter than quite a few, I mean,
colony mutation being one example.

(54:09):
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Like from a, a filmmaking aspect.
I do think that this is, you know,they're trying, you know, oh yeah.
They're, they're doing absolutely.
I think they're doinga, a decent job of it.

Dan (54:22):
Completely.
I, uh, for me, I would say that thisperiod of the Poni Brothers work would be
more considered the student film years.
Obviously they're not studentfilmmakers, but mm-hmm.
It's the period of time where theywere learning how to make films and
kind of cutting their teeth on it.
And this is kind of more near theback end of that period around

(54:42):
the sort turn of millennium asyou go into the two thousands.
They really kind of firmed up exactlywhat they wanted to do, and they
started to make better connectionswith actual people who'd gone to film
school and made proper actual films.
And that kind of then setthem up on the longer run.
But here we're kind of still in thekind of, it's the, uh, Dylan's acoustic
era of the Polonia Brothers before theygot turned onto electric, so to speak.

Triv (55:05):
Well, I will say too, just from a, like you talking about the film
perspective, like there are times whenthey use, it may not be a dolly, but they
kind of follow them through the grass asif they're from the alien perspective.
Mm-hmm.
There are quite a few shots like thatand although we'll probably get more
into it even with the CGI for not havinga lot of information on how it works,
whether it was through experimentationor just seeing other people do it,

(55:28):
there is a lot of really successful likepractical CGI that they're working with.

Dan (55:34):
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And that wood, wood running scenespecifically put me in the mind of Sam
Raey and the Evil Dead, which again, Iwould've expected the polon to have seen
by that point, because obviously all youhave to do to achieve that kind of shot
is just put the camera down by your ankleand just sort of run and sort of sweep.
And I think that, you know, Iwouldn't put it past them to have
seen that and then immediately go,oh, we've gotta put that in our movie.

(55:55):
And then they were like, within anhour they were outside filming it.

Triv (55:58):
But to do that competently too, I think, like you say, it's,
it's, yeah, it's attempted a lot,but it's not always well done.
And I thought it was prettysuccessful with this one.

Chris (56:07):
Yeah.
And just as we are praising them for theirfilmmaking prowess, we get a scene where
Derek and Bennett stop at a gas station.
Bennett walks away from the car to talkto a woman who says, hi, how you doing?
And then we abruptly cut back toBennett standing by the car as
if none of that ever happened.

(56:31):
Fair point.
Casual

Dan (56:31):
homophobia.

Chris (56:35):
Yeah, it was, uh, that was a good scene.
I mean, I enjoyed it.

Triv (56:42):
It is a highlight of the non-wood based scenes for sure.

Dan (56:46):
Definitely, definitely.
And given that the film is sort of60% wood scenes, 25% sort of spooky
house scenes, um, yeah, it's decent.
And to be honest, I, Ilike these characters.
I think that they, they,they reminded me a lot.
Um, and I, I, I think trill understandwhat I mean when I say this.
They reminded me a lot ofthe characters from things.

(57:09):
Oh yeah.
Um, and as, as feeders goes on, itslowly kind of turns into a sort of,
sort of diet Coke version of things inthe sense of, um, it puts holes in your

Chris (57:19):
brain because of the artificial

Triv (57:21):
sweetness.
You mean non, you meannon-Canadian version?
Right.

Dan (57:24):
Yes, yes.
Um, in the sense of things itselfis a, is a film about two or three
guys who just go to a cabin to drinksome beers and all hell breaks loose.
And then that's kind of the rest of thefilm is just them exploring the house
and all of the weirdness that's going on.
Um, and I love things and feeders verycl gets very close to doing just that.

(57:46):
So it was, and especially withthe dialogue choices, things is
kind of renowned for having somevery, very interesting dialogue.
Um, these are weird linesdelivered bizarrely.
And Feeders, again, was verymuch reminding me of that.
And, and these two guys have verysimilar vibes to, um, Barry j Gillis's
character and his brother in things.

(58:08):
So again, I, I kind of connectedquite nicely into this one.

Chris (58:13):
We meet back up with the fishermen as he is stalked by a feeder.
One of the aliens steals the fisherman'scatch for the day, but it isn't satisfied,
and so it attacks the fisherman whostumbles outta the woods and right
into the path of Derek and Ben's car.
They clip him.
Little man, the fisherman keepsmuttering, and Derek and Bennett

(58:34):
aggressively pick him up and throwhim into the back of their car so
they can get into a doctor's office.

Triv (58:40):
Isn't that the right way to do it though?
Like you move the person asmuch as humanly possible.
Yeah.
You

Chris (58:45):
manipulate their spine as much as you can, is what you want to do.

Dan (58:50):
If you can sort of get your hands around their neck, just jolting it
back and forth as hard as possible isa guaranteed way to fix the problem.
Yeah, they left

Triv (58:58):
his hat behind too, which is a sad thing.
'cause that was a pretty great hat.

Dan (59:01):
It was.

Chris (59:02):
Yeah.
I'm, I'm sure that the three directors ofthis movie agree with you, trv, because
they linger quite a bit on that hat

Triv (59:13):
also for the amount of time that this was shot.
Like, not that it was a legitimate stunt,but it does take a little bit to make that
edit work with the guy hitting the car.

Chris (59:24):
Hmm.
Not bad.
All things considered.
Back in town, they continue toroughhouse the injured fishermen
at a doctor's office, and thedoctor says that the man is dead.
I couldn't, they like them.
Getting him onto the, the table was veryfunny to me with how rough they are, like
spinning him around and turning him over.

(59:46):
It was good stuff.

Dan (59:47):
Uh, genuinely on the notes, um, that I made whilst I was watching the film.
At first I wrote, oh, that's a goodjoke about him saying he's dead.
And then when I realized,oh no, he is actually dead.
I wrote another note immediatelybelow it going, which you mean
he's dead, he's still breathing.
Clearly steps in hischest going up and down.
Well, there's a reason

Triv (01:00:05):
for that.
That scene later, ah,
perhaps mm-hmm.

Chris (01:00:10):
1:48 PM the woman from the gas station calls her friend and
they plan to meet Derek and Bennettat the park later on that night.
One of the women is the daughter ofRanger Gordon, and wouldn't you know it,
her house is being invaded by feeders.
Mm

Dan (01:00:29):
mm I do love as well that they kind of side ally the film into a
sort of border kitchen sink piece
just for a few minutes.
And, and that again, nothingreally that, that plot line
doesn't kind of go anywhere.
There's, you know, butit's nice to see them.
Have these two actresses justdeliver such powerful dialogue

(01:00:52):
in these chat seats?
Yeah, it's, it's basically, it's either all gas or no gas.
With this film.
Either cast members are deliveringit as like vibrantly and over the
top as they possibly can, or they'reon downers or something, as is
probably the best way to describe it.
'cause they're just kind of, it'salmost like they're reading the
script immediately off camera.

Chris (01:01:12):
Yeah.
I was getting big colonymutation flashbacks.
Anytime I see two people have a phoneconversation in one of these movies.

Triv (01:01:21):
Understandable.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Uh, the lady on the phone actually appearsin feeders too, so I don't know if she's.
Like married to one of the polonia, orif it just happens where they were like,
Hey, we had you once, let's have you back.
But she appears in that one aswell as a different character.
So she reincarnates and yeah,

Chris (01:01:42):
Hey, you don't have a restraining order against us, be in our movie.
Have you got $5 be

Dan (01:01:51):
in our movie?

Chris (01:01:52):
So this woman hears a rustling in the garage and is
attacked by one of the aliens whoeats a gaping hole into her stomach.

Dan (01:02:01):
Oof.
One thing I also love about this film,um, and it's showcased here lovingly,
is um, I dunno whether they couldn'tget the actress back or whether they
couldn't make the effects look realisticon videotape, but whenever they do
these sort of scenes of the attacks,um, and it's now throughout the film as

(01:02:22):
well, they do it, they'll just show a,still, they won't like film the thing.
They'll just like insert a photographof whatever the thing was, which
I thought was kind of interesting.
I dunno where maybe they did somelike Photoshopping or something
on it to make it look extragnarly and then just dumped it in.
But you can always tell because theframe goes incredibly static because I
don't think they could afford a tripod.

(01:02:43):
Um, yeah.
So.
So

Chris (01:02:46):
Q Moore driving and more Charlie Brown music and
more improperly a DR dialogue.
And as Derek and Bennett head intothe woods to set up Camp 3:40 PM
back at the doctor's office, thedoctor hears a strange noise.
He goes to check on thefishermen and there's a hole
chewed through his stomach also.

(01:03:08):
It's a goddamn feeder.
The alien attacks the doctor.
And, um, I'll let one ofyou guys describe this kill

Triv (01:03:17):
somehow.
This like foot and a half tallalien that's, you know, as
thin around as like a straw.
Manages to take off this guy's headand is eating out of his neck while
the guy is literally yelling ah, ah.

Chris (01:03:35):
It's great stuff.

Triv (01:03:36):
Oh, it's brilliant.
Oh

Dan (01:03:37):
yeah, absolutely.
And again, given the, the sort ofpedigree of these filmmakers, that effect
for SOV cinema is pretty impressive.
Um, you know, again, to sort of moderncinema goers eyes, it might look a little
bit ramshackle, but I can't, couldn'ttell you very many other SOV films
that had the balls to do a full, um,computer generated severed head scene.

Chris (01:04:00):
So, yeah, I mean, the severed head in, uh, in colony mutation was practical
and as you rightly pointed out, was verymuch like Garth Meringue's dark place.
So,
I mean, this is, yeah, it's good.
I, I liked this one.
I mean, I think at this point inthe movie, I am still having fun.

(01:04:23):
Would you guys kind of agree with that?
Oh

Dan (01:04:25):
yeah.
Oh yeah.
It's not even a question.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
It, it does a wonderful thing of hittingyou with as much bizarreness as possible
right up to the border of the second act,and then things kind of start to shift
a little bit, but we'll, we'll probablyget that into that in a little moment.

Chris (01:04:42):
Yeah.
5:22 PM Derek and Bennett areaimlessly walking through the woods,
and the girl from the gas stationarrives at her friend's house to find
that she's been fed on by a feeder.
That same feeder attacksher, but she tosses it to the
ground and stomps on its skull.
A second feeder pops out, but thewoman uses a can of hairspray and a

(01:05:04):
match to burn the alien to a crisp.

Triv (01:05:08):
She's a, she's a regular Eleanor Ripley.

Chris (01:05:10):
Yeah.

Dan (01:05:11):
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Many,

Chris (01:05:13):
many people are saying that she is the Ellen Ripley of 19 Ellen, 1995.
You are not the first andyou will not be the last.

Dan (01:05:27):
Are the Ellen Ripley awards still going?
I forgot about those.

Triv (01:05:31):
Well, I mean, she had the long hair.
She had the, uh, theskills to pay the bills.
Clearly badass from the, fromthe very first time we see her.
Yeah.

Dan (01:05:39):
Oh, yeah.
Not even a question.
And, and as all sensible charactersshould do, um, immediately following
this scene, she rushes outta thehouse, gets in her car, drives
away, and we never see or hear her.
She's just gone.
She's just gone from the, she doeswhat all the sensible people should.
She leaves it alone and gets out.

Chris (01:06:00):
You can't, you can't argue with that.
You're just right, Dan.
You're just right.
We, but.
We wouldn't have a movie ifanyone had any sense in this film.

Triv (01:06:10):
Fair point.
We get one.
That one, one person that's allowed sense.
The rest have to be nonsensical.

Chris (01:06:16):
Yeah, and it's probably because she was just like,
I'm not, I am done shooting.
Like I did what you asked.
Give, give me my $5, let me leave.

Triv (01:06:27):
I cinched my fingers, my hair still smells like hairspray.
I'm out.

Chris (01:06:32):
Got all this yellow crap on the sole of my shoe.

Dan (01:06:37):
We paid for the full three hours and we want you
there for the full three hours.

Triv (01:06:42):
It is good to know what is inside of aliens.
It's not sugar and spice.
It's not, uh, what is it?
What's inside boys?
Uh.
Anyway, whatever voice is snails

Chris (01:06:52):
and puppy dog tails.

Triv (01:06:53):
That's right.
So it's not that, it'snot sugar and spice.
It's, it's yellow goo.

Chris (01:06:57):
It's the yellow goo from fantasm.

Triv (01:07:01):
That, or banana pudding.

Chris (01:07:03):
Mm. So Derek and Bennett see a UFO fly through the sky while camping
and decide to get the hell out of there.
But wouldn't you know it?
Their car won't start.
They decide based on nothing thatit must have been the saucer that
broke their car and they run throughthe woods just long enough to bring
this movie up to feature length.

(01:07:26):
Yay.

Triv (01:07:27):
One thing about the car, I love that they do what everyone does.
Like they lift up the hood, they look atit, and they have no idea what's going on.

Dan (01:07:36):
Well, that's because they just looked at a photograph of the, of the engine.

Chris (01:07:42):
It's great because it's not that the characters have no idea what's
going on, it's that the people makingthe movie have no idea what's going
on, so they can't even comment on it.
They just show a, show, a staticshot of the engine, and they're
just like, nothing specific.
It's, oh, it's not working.
See, this would've beena really, really good

Triv (01:08:03):
opportunity for them to go all Animal house and
have the engine just be gone.

Chris (01:08:08):
Yeah.
I think that was, was a littlebit out their budget though.

Triv (01:08:12):
Yeah.
Very funny.

Dan (01:08:14):
It was around the time that they were both wandering aimlessly
in the woods that I decided for noreal reason that this film now takes
place in the Earthbound universe,just purely for my own amusement.

Chris (01:08:25):
Yeah.
So it's in Fanm, earthbound Aliens.
This is tying all, all of thesetogether in a shared universe.

Dan (01:08:35):
It's, I like it's gonna end up being like the saint
elsewhere thing all over again.

Chris (01:08:39):
Yeah.
The Tommy Westfall.
Yeah.
Uh, 7:48 PM Derrick and Bennettdiscover a human head in the woods.
It's been skinned.
The brain is oozing all over the place.
They see the spaceship flyoverhead yet again and deduce
that the earth is being invaded.
A feeder pops out of nowhere.

(01:08:59):
It spits on Derrick Bennett smashesthe alien's head in with a rock.

Dan (01:09:05):
I, um, it was interesting to note that the feeders don't
like eyeballs because the skullhad its eyes still in place.

Triv (01:09:13):
See, I would think think that the brain would be the thing to go
for, you know, it's a kind of squishy,like really proteiny filled thing.

Dan (01:09:19):
I gotta be careful.
Prions my friend PreOn disease.
Yeah,

Triv (01:09:23):
that's fair.

Dan (01:09:24):
I hear the high cholesterol as well.
So,

Triv (01:09:26):
so did the feeders eat like the whole body and just like,
like skin the head and left that

Chris (01:09:31):
Yeah.
Just as a goof.

Triv (01:09:32):
Yeah.

Chris (01:09:34):
They thought it would be funny.
So they did that.

Triv (01:09:37):
Ah, another, another prank pulled by, uh, you know,
the, uh, animal house feeders.

Dan (01:09:43):
Exactly.
They're my favorite college football team.

Triv (01:09:48):
Now, did they do a panty raid?
That's really the question.

Dan (01:09:51):
Yeah, that's what's not They'll

Chris (01:09:52):
feed us two.
Yeah, that's what lands themon Double secret invasion.
Oh no.
Uh, so 9:05 PM Derek and Bennett come upon a house in the woods.
They find its inhabitants have alreadybeen murdered by the feeders, but

(01:10:15):
decide to go in the house anyway.
And, uh, once inside they decide to splitup and check the house to make sure that
there are no lingering feeders hiding out.
And, um, even though the electricityis very clearly working in this
house, Bennett lights a candle tonavigate his way through the house.

Triv (01:10:34):
Where did he get the candle from?
You know,

Dan (01:10:37):
hey, from.
Yeah, we all have secrets
from this point on.
For me.
The film becomes veryheavily things esque.
Um, and I know TRVs watchedthings at least a couple of times.
I dunno whether you would agree withme on that one, but it Oh, totally.

(01:10:58):
It's, it's somehow slightly cleaner,slightly better quality things,
but it, it very much kind ofbecomes things, um, that is a very

Triv (01:11:07):
low bar, my friend.

Dan (01:11:08):
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
But, uh,

Triv (01:11:11):
it, it certainly makes a lot more sense than things, but yeah,
just the notion of the, the kindof creepy house and all that stuff.
Yeah, no, it, it totallyfits kind of a things model.

Dan (01:11:22):
Absolutely.
I think what sets feeders apartfrom things is the fact that you
have that sort of setup of thefirst 45 minutes of the film, sort
of explaining vaguely what happens.
I, I, if you ever do a get round towatching things, it's basically feeders.
If the first 45 minutes was missing, ifit was just two guys turn up to a house
and there's randomly aliens there thatjust start attacking them for no reason.

(01:11:45):
Um,

Chris (01:11:46):
Ooh.

Dan (01:11:46):
Sounds

Chris (01:11:47):
rough.

Dan (01:11:47):
It's,

Triv (01:11:48):
you have no idea

Dan (01:11:50):
at Red Letter Media put it best when they said that you are
either pro things or anti things.
There is no, you know, middle ground.
It's a very striking thatI am pro things personally.
I dunno where Triv sits, but, um,

Triv (01:12:03):
well, considering you own a t-shirt, multiple copies, multiple uh, physical
media copies of it, the soundtrackvinyl, don't you have vinyl hat as well?
Vinyl on vinyl, yeah, that's

Dan (01:12:12):
right.
I'm a certificate signed by the director.

Triv (01:12:15):
Yep.
I, you know what, honestly, I, I enjoy it,but it's not something I can watch a lot,
so I guess I'm like, like slightly like,kind of on the myth to sort of pro things.
Yeah.

Chris (01:12:29):
Wow.
I think you just proved RedLetter Media wrong right there.

Triv (01:12:33):
Uh, wouldn't be the first time.

Chris (01:12:37):
It is interesting though, like this.
And colony mutation.
And as we were talking before, uh, a movieI watched recently, Rumpel Still Skin, it
does seem to be a hallmark of like, thewriters don't know what to do, so they
sort of fall into this like cycle of just,I guess they, they think they have a scene

(01:13:00):
that works well and they just sort of keepdoing this cyclical thing where they keep
riding themselves back into this situationover and over again until they get to
60 or 75 minutes and just call it a day.

Dan (01:13:14):
Oh yeah.
Over, over here we would call it Tittingabout, um, they do a lot of titting about,
they just wander around the woods a bit.
They, oh, they find something.
It scares them.
They run around a bit, then theylose the thing that was scaring them.
Then they're just wandering around thewoods again for a bit, and then they
find a house and they go wandering aroundthe house and they find a thing that
scares them and they run around the housea bit and then they get away from it.
Then they're wanderingaround the house a bit more.

(01:13:34):
It's um.
It, it, it shifts from being a filmthat's funny because of distinct
moments to a film that is unique forits strangeness of the scenario that
it's placing the characters within.
Yeah.
Do you

Triv (01:13:49):
think this one sort of falls into kind of the Scooby Doo thing because
they always end up in a scary house?
Maybe.
I think

Dan (01:13:56):
most SOV films kind of end up teetering towards a scary house
or some kind of isolated locationjust because everybody usually has
access to someone's house, whichsaves them a lot of money on budget.
They can just kinda go, oh, well, we'lluse, I know Uncle Al's house, house.
He'll, um, he'll let us filmthere for a day as long as
we don't touch is fine China,

Triv (01:14:16):
and they do actually have aliens in the basement, so it works out really well.

Dan (01:14:19):
Oh yeah.

Chris (01:14:20):
Oh yeah.
So the wound on Derek's hand is oozingbaking soda when suddenly Bennett hears
a noise and we get an inordinately longsequence of closeups of the men's faces
and random objects in the house before afeeder finally shows itself and leaps out

(01:14:40):
from beneath the coffee table, then killsit with a sickle and calls it a fucker.

Triv (01:14:47):
It is an iconic scene, there's no

Dan (01:14:48):
doubt.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
I could, I can already see thevinegar syndrome slip case box
cover art with him sort of sickleraised, sort of ready to come down.
It's, uh,

Triv (01:15:00):
that's one thing with the tight, that's one thing with the
tight shots at that point, like itwas hard to tell if Bennett was like
scared or if he was into the sickle.
Like just the, the, yeah, withthe lower lip, like, like kind of
biting the lower lip and stuff.

Dan (01:15:14):
Yes.
It's interesting as well because duringthose fight scenes, you looking at the
cinematography, you can tell that theyknow they need to film things in a
specific way, but they don't know whythere are so many scenes where it's
like slightly low angle or like gettingas close into their faces as possible.
In part because, um, it's supposedto sort of create tension because

(01:15:34):
it takes the audience's gaze offthe rest of the frame because
you're focused on one of the Poloniabrothers mustached faces, um mm-hmm.
But they, they seem to shoot thingsbecause they think that's how it should
be done, because they've seen it ina horror film, not because they know
why they're shooting it that way.
Um, which I think isquite interesting really.

(01:15:54):
'cause they do that a lot throughout,particularly the house sequences.
A lot of stuff is shot, very lowangle, very kind of shooting up
to the, the sort of cast members.
Um.
Which is weird, a weird choicebecause that implies that they have
a position of power over the feeders.
And I think the only reason they shotit that way is because in some horror
films, they usually shoot the baddyfrom a low angle and they're kind of
usually like the, the distinct figure.

(01:16:16):
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's an interesting one.
It's weird to see people shooting ina way they don't fully understand.
And I don't wanna take any credit awayfrom them if they did know what they were
doing, but if they did know what they weredoing, I have even more questions than

Chris (01:16:33):
all the while.
There is an indeterminate numberof other feeders outside the house.
They're destroying the phone lines.
And at 3:35 AM the spaceship showsup and zaps the house, causing Derek
and Bennett to fall unconscious.
Bennett wakes up and runsoutside to challenge the feeders.

(01:16:54):
One bites his leg and he's beamedinto the alien craft where a feeder
gingerly grazes his face with acar antenna as he screams in agony

Triv (01:17:06):
and the whole, the whole look like, I love the fact that they take
it and pasteurize it like it adds Yeah.
Kind of that extra, and I guessyou kind of have that throughout,
like through their eyes.
Mm-hmm.
Like the, it's either purple orit's, you know, whatever color,
but this especially where they'retaking it kind of silvery and such.
I do like the effect.

Chris (01:17:22):
Yeah, I, I enjoyed that it was as well.
I thought it was quite funny.

Dan (01:17:26):
Oh yeah.

Chris (01:17:27):
Yeah.
Derek wakes up and steps outside tolook for Bennett, who says, help me.
He says that he was takenon the ship and tortured.
Just then an identical copy of Bennettshows up, played by John's identical
twin and co-director, mark Polonia.
Amazing.

Dan (01:17:46):
It's uh, it's quite a unique position to find yourself in where
you do a clone story, a clone subplot with your identical twin.
I dunno how many people in cinema havebeen able to get away with that as sort
of low no budget filmmakers, but thatis certainly an asset that they use.
Well, I think,

Triv (01:18:02):
oh yeah.
You do wonder too, how many people,and not that when this first
came out, a lot of people saw it,well, I guess they did, nevermind.
But I wonder how many people knewthat there was a set of twins on this.

Chris (01:18:13):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I, truthfully, being someone whohad not seen any of their films, like
obviously I knew they were brothers.
I did not realize they wereidentical twins until this scene.
And I was like, well, that's,I mean, that's an asset to
have for your low budget film.

Dan (01:18:30):
See, I, at this point, I'll be completely honest with you, I didn't
know that it was identical twins.
I thought they were just using framingsto kind of mask things a little bit.
You know how sometimes they cansort of put people in a big sort
of wig film and from a distanceand 'cause the quality is so low.
I, I didn't actually think, oh yeah,they could have just like, got the other
twin in and dressed him up to look likethe guy and then had the, it would've,

(01:18:51):
it actually probably would've beeneasier for them to have just got some
bloke and put a wig in him, on him andmade him just film it from a distance.
But,

Chris (01:18:58):
so I should have

Dan (01:18:58):
asked,

Chris (01:18:59):
um, how did you guys watch this?
Did you both watch it on Tubie?

Triv (01:19:03):
I watched it on YouTube.

Dan (01:19:05):
Uh, I caught the Tubi version,

Chris (01:19:07):
so I know this is not true for the Tubi version, but Triv did
the version you watch have like theoriginal VHS, you know, stay tuned
after the movie to see a, a preview?
Mm-hmm.

Triv (01:19:18):
It did.

Chris (01:19:19):
Yeah.
That, that's good stuff.
Nice nostalgia.
There

Triv (01:19:22):
it is.
Well, that's missing is, uh,you wouldn't pirate a house or
you wouldn't pirate a whatever.
Obviously that this was longbefore that, that commercial,

Chris (01:19:30):
but Yeah.
Which explains why they pirated ahouse for the climax of this movie.
They didn't, they hadn't seenthe PSA, they didn't know
that it was rom to do that.

Triv (01:19:40):
Which, speaking of the house, I love the, I know it's not Photoshopped,
but like the kind of superimposed,um, like hole in the top of the house.
Yeah.
When, uh, Derek looks up and it'slike there's little squiggles
where it's supposed to be, um,like blown out sides and whatnot,
I really, I had to laugh at that.
We

Chris (01:19:57):
get a similar effect when they're showing the body of the
fishermen at the doctor's office.
They use that to show thatthere's a bite taken out of him.
Mm.

Dan (01:20:07):
It's a nice touch.

Triv (01:20:08):
It kind of goes to show that it's not perfect, but it's cool
to see them thinking outside thebox and adding those little extras
to it to add to the environment.

Chris (01:20:17):
Yeah, I, I mean, I agree.
It's like, uh, to a lesser extent, Italked about this in a previous episode
about, uh, specific director Kate Amia,who just has an idea and uses whatever
technology or resources he has availableto him to realize that idea on screen.

(01:20:37):
And I would say that the Polonia Brothersand John McBride are the extremely
low to no budget version of that.
It's like, you know, they had this idea.
Uh, as Dan said, hell or high water,they're gonna get it on the screen.
Oh, yeah.
Derek decides to kill one of the theater,one of the, uh, Bennetts based on what?

(01:21:00):
I have no idea.
Hold it.
How do you, how do I know you're him?
He says, and Bennett tells a storyabout Derrick chipping his tooth
in the third grade that only hecould possibly know, but just then
they're surrounded by feeders.
Derrick says that they can't win.
There's too many of them.
To which Bennett says,then why fight them?

(01:21:22):
Uhoh Derrick killed the wrong Bennett.
Oh,
w wa
It's bound to happen when you go in there, sickle a blazing
and just kill whoever you see first.

Triv (01:21:36):
It is an iconic weapon.

Dan (01:21:38):
Yeah, it's very random as well.
It literally just, he probablywould've had better odds
doing eenie, mey, Marny mo.
Yeah.
Um.
To quote the famous film, live,let Die, you had a 50 50 chance
and you weren't even close.

Triv (01:21:51):
Well, you know, a, a better move would've been to, you know,
ask, why should I trust you thatyou're him before, you know,
cutting his face off with a sickle?

Chris (01:22:00):
Mm. Yeah.
Well, unfortunately they bothhave mustaches, so you can't
tell which one's the evil twin.

Triv (01:22:08):
That is true.

Chris (01:22:08):
Mm.

Dan (01:22:12):
But otherwise it would've been flawless.
Yeah.

Triv (01:22:14):
Yep.
They shoulda have checked for, for,uh, for birthmarks, you know, like
that Ireland shaped birthmark thatthey both have on their upper arm.

Chris (01:22:22):
So Bennett has a seizure and disappears for some reason, and at
6:01 AM Derrick is running throughthe streets of a suburban Pennsylvania
town looking for any sort of help.
We see stock footage of buildingsbeing destroyed in a city that is
clearly not the same one that Derrickis currently in, and a fleet of UFOs

(01:22:46):
fly towards Earth feeders credits.
Wow.
Look how far we've come, guys.

Triv (01:22:53):
Oh man.
It's been a journey.
I will say the shot of Derrick, likerunning down that kind of like foggy
street with the, with the lights on.
I thought that was really effective.
Like I, it was kind ofa cool set of shots.

Dan (01:23:05):
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Oh, not bad.
Yeah.
The word keynote is thrown arounda lot these days in cinema.

Chris (01:23:13):
So what are your guys thoughts generally on feeders?

Dan (01:23:19):
I, after watching feeders, I immediately pulled up the
trailer for Feeders two, whichI think is probably a good sign.
Um, yeah, in the sense of, I enjoyedit so much that I immediately wanted
to see where they took this in sequels.
Um, and I, to be honest, from thelooking at the trailer feeders, two
leaks, even more my bag than Feedersone just based purely on what I saw.

(01:23:41):
For me, this is a fun film.
Um, I think that it setseverything up really nicely.
It has an eccentric cast of charactersand performances that can keep you
really sort of invested in the film.
I think it sags a little in the middle,but a lot of films do as a sort of
thing, especially with low no budget.

(01:24:02):
They have to kind of findsomewhere to pad the runtime out.
To get it to feature runtime.
I, I get that, you know, there'sgonna be a certain element of titting
about to get things kind of done.
Um.
And it, it ends quitespectacularly for SOV.
Um, like around this kind of time,SOV cinema was kind of starting
to catch up a little bit to thoselower budgeted studio things.

(01:24:23):
You had things like JR Als Ozone,which was quite really, you know, quite
well handled for the time I was 94.
Um, and from here we start movinginto the more sort of digi debate
to, you know, digital video sort ofside of things where, where things
really started to take a little bit.
Um, but yeah, I, I thoughtit was very well handled.
I thought it had somevery interesting ideas.

(01:24:44):
And for me, I think, and I've mentionedthis at the top of the, the podcast, the
sincerity and genuineness of this film.
The, the sort of the.
The meaning behind it from the filmmakersspeaks louder than the script itself.
You, you get the feeling mm-hmm.
That regardless of what this filmwould've been, the heart would've been

(01:25:04):
there because it's clearly made bytwo people who weren't in it so much
for sort of claiming the fame of it.
They just wanted to make moviesfrom the sounds of things,
at least from what I can see.
So, yeah, I enjoyed it.
I thought it was really good.
And I think, uh, that thesequel at Christmas will almost
certainly be a must watch for me.

Triv (01:25:24):
I, I, first time I saw this, I really enjoyed it so much
so that I went on to review it.
And I don't do that with a lot of thestuff that I just watch, uh, casually.
Um, but the ones that stand outdo, and this one really does.
Um, I guess I, I have a little,like, I have a production background.
I don't have the film background, so fromthe narrative side, I can't say much,

(01:25:45):
but the way that they work within theirbudget to really craft a story that works,
generally speaking, it's not a, it's nota complex story, but, um, you know, the
editing, the way that it shot the effects,it all works together to, to create a
story that although very low budget andgoofy, still delivers a solid package.

Chris (01:26:05):
Yeah.
So I have, uh, I have mixedfeelings about feeders.
Fair.
Um, I think in termsof American SOV films.
I don't think I've seen one thathas gotten me on as on board in the
first, like the intro as feeders have,because I, I did really like that

(01:26:25):
first, like, uh, John Polonia readingnonsense about aliens with all of the
sketches and the, I will say actuallyvery good music at the beginning.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but, and I do like a lotabout this, as we talked about
from a filmmaking standpoint.
I do think that there is moreconsideration and thought put into

(01:26:50):
it than I've seen in other SOV films.
I think my main issue with it isjust, uh, something that Dan and
I talked about a little bit inour episode on colony mutation.
It's just that the American film industryat the time and to this day has this
sort of, I. Uh, slavish devotion tofeature length runtime when it's really

(01:27:13):
not necessary because all of the thingsthat I would knock on this one come from,
you know, trying to reach 70 minutes,which they, they did to their credit.
But it's like, you know, we don'tneed four scenes of Derek and
Bennett running through the woods.
We can just cut, cut all that out,make this a, a 50 minute film.

(01:27:35):
And it's a pretty tightlittle special effect.
Showcases with some great creaturedesigns, some fun line reads, some
decent for the time, CGI and, uh,yeah, so that, I mean, that's just
why I, like, I have mixed feelings.
I, I did like it.
I think it's good for what it is.
Um, will I revisit it often?

(01:27:58):
No,

Triv (01:28:01):
that is a fair point.
Will I

Chris (01:28:03):
revisit it ever?
Maybe when I watch the sequels, butthat doesn't mean that it's a bad film.
I think if, if you were the type ofperson that can, uh, stomach this and put
aside any, uh, preconceptions you haveabout what a, a movie should be, I think
you can find some enjoyment in feeders.

(01:28:25):
Like it's, it's not bad.
I think the budget was like $500 or less.
So you go make a bettermovie than that for $500?

Dan (01:28:35):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
It's the age old.
10 to 15 minutes shorter.
Five times better.

Triv (01:28:40):
Yeah.

Dan (01:28:41):
Yes.

Triv (01:28:42):
I, I, I agree with that a hundred percent.
Um, and given, I guess these guyswere in the game at least 10 years
before this, so a hundred percentunderstood on the, the cutting for time.
Um, but I think then and now to nothave that feature length piece, you're,
like you say it's an American thing,but it certainly does limit your market.
Yeah.
Um, at the film Fest I went tothis past weekend, there were

(01:29:04):
so many incredible shorts.
And the chances are good that you'll neverhear from 90% of those again, because
there's not the market or the placefor those where they can be recognized.

Chris (01:29:15):
Yeah.
I, I mean that's, that's something I'vealso talked about on this show with
some other people about, uh, these, uh,Japanese v cinema films where they didn't
have any hard and fast rules about length.
And one thing that, uh, one of theguests brought up is that it's a, that
was a good thing because it createdthis market for films outside feature

(01:29:36):
length, which as you just pointedout, doesn't really exist here.
And so.
You feel bad for, uh, the filmmakersthat do put time and love and craft
and blood, sweat, and tears intomaking their short film, knowing
that it probably won't go anywhere.
If anything, they may be successful enoughto get, uh, a feature length deal out

(01:30:00):
of it, and that short will be an extraon a Blu-ray sometime down the road.
But as you said, unfortunately, the ruleends up being that you can find it on IMDB
and letterbox, but there is just no wayfor anyone to actually see these films.
So yeah, that is a shame.
Mm.

(01:30:21):
But, uh, yeah, I mean, I don't havetoo much more to say about feeders.
Do you guys have any Harding thoughtsabout the, uh, Polonia Brothers
and John McBride's Magnum Opus?

Triv (01:30:33):
I will say, uh, talking about the, I got thinking about the way that the
graphics were at the open, the, the,um, shuttle or the saucers and such,
and it kinda gave me like CGI fromlike Star Trek back in the nineties.
Mm-hmm.
Like, it looks very much like that.
It is.
Got that same kind of feel.
So not really a 0.1 way or the other.

(01:30:53):
Just something that came up in my head.

Chris (01:30:57):
Well, yeah, I mean, I would never, I would never argue against anything
that draws a comparison to Star Trek.
So it's a good thing in my book

Triv (01:31:05):
that some of it was a little shaky, but given the time and place,
that's, uh, definitely not whatwe're, what we're dealing with today.
So,

Dan (01:31:12):
yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I think for me, feeders, I don'tthink feeders would be one that I would
revisit regularly, but I think it could bean excellent sort of second feature on a
double feature bill with something else.
Like I think, um, this and thingsobviously I think would pair quite well.
Boarding house is probably anotherquite good one that I think this
could pair well with as a kindof supernatural double feature.

(01:31:34):
'cause boarding houses absolutelybalmy and really great fun.
Um, I dunno whether I'd necessarily putit with any sort of more plain level
SOV films, but I th I, I don't thinkit could, I don't think it could like
mainline a double feature, but I think itcould support something else really Well.

Triv (01:31:54):
What was the, um, on the, the last drive-in, what was, uh,
this paired with for the Iron Man?

Dan (01:32:01):
So things was paired with Sledge.
Oh, sorry.

Triv (01:32:03):
I was, sorry.
I got my, yeah, I got my movies mixed up.
I'm sorry.
Yeah,

Dan (01:32:07):
no, no, it's fine.
It was, uh, paired with Sledgehammer,which was technically the first
shot on video film ever made.
Ah,

Chris (01:32:14):
that's 19 weird things.
And a Peter Gabriel Music video

Dan (01:32:21):
one had a budget of $1.2 million.
The other was Sledgehammerby Peter Gabriel.

Triv (01:32:28):
Oddly enough, $1.2 million budget there too.
Mm mm
Not, not sustainable.
Don't, or not sustain or not.
Uh, you can't double check that.
So don't put, don'tcheck Wikipedia for that.
No.
The one other thing I will say about this movie, and I'm not sure
if it was just me, but so much of theline reading, especially from Bennett,
reminded me of, uh, Napoleon Dynamite.

(01:32:51):
Like is like an almostdeadpan, I think he,

Chris (01:32:54):
he kinda looks like the uncle in that with darker hair.

Triv (01:32:57):
He does kinda, yeah.
And maybe that's, maybethat's where I get it.
But just there's that kind of, especiallywhen he is talking to the girl, there's
that kinda deadpan just back and forth.
It just, it just littlemoments reminded me of that.

Dan (01:33:10):
Mm.

Triv (01:33:10):
I don't know what that says.

Dan (01:33:12):
No, there's a lot of dryness in this film.
Moments where there are just slightly,overly long pauses or slightly too
short gaps between conversationsort of feeds and punch backs.
True.
It's, it's another thing that inIndie is me to this production
because again, it kind of shows thatthey, they know they should be doing
something, but I dunno whether theyknow why they should be doing it.

(01:33:34):
Yeah.

Triv (01:33:34):
Well, for as dry as the dialogue was, the ground wasn't, my God, that
one puddle that they go through, it'slike 10 feet deep going to the hospital.

Chris (01:33:42):
I think that was what sent the fishermen over the edge.
I think that's what killed him.
He made it almost all the waythere, but they just had to
drive through that pothole.
Uh,
so yeah, that was, uh, feeders from 1996.
Dan and Triv, thank you againfor coming on and breathing life

(01:34:04):
into this dead format with me.
Love to have you guys back if you'renot too traumatized from this film.
But, uh, before I let you go, why don'tyou both, just once more, give a plug
for TYTD reviews and Trivial Theater and,uh, tell us about anything interesting
you guys have got in the works.

Dan (01:34:22):
Yeah, certainly.
Well as always, thank you so muchfor having me on and uh, I hope
we, uh, get to pop back in again.
Um, you can find me at TYTD reviews.
I'm on letterbox YouTube, bluesky, under, under those names.
I also write reviews that getpublished to t ytd reviews.com.
So do check that out ifyou're not on letterbox.
Do that sort of co-publishedto there as well.

(01:34:43):
Uh, currently I am knee deep in workingon a sort of new season of reviews.
Um, funnily enough this weekwe have a copy of God and Tool
Mare going up on Friday, so thatwill be a, an interesting one.
Nice.
Um, we're taking a bit of a brief breakin July, but we're hoping to be back
in time for Halloween and we've gota special release coming out in the

(01:35:06):
autumn, in between the sort of summerand autumn when we're on a break,
uh, covering some adult features,which should be quite interesting.
So yeah.
Thanks again.
Absolutely.

Triv (01:35:15):
Uh, it was.
Thank you again for the invite, Chris.
It's been an absolute pleasureand, uh, I'm always happy to
breathe life into any dead formatsthat you may have lying around.
Although, uh, my breath may killthem worse than they were previous.
Uh, you can find me here onYouTube at Trivial Theater.
It's probably the bestplace to find my stuff.
I also post a letterboxunder Trivial Theater.

(01:35:37):
Uh, I'm kind of all over the board on whatI watch and the kind of reviews that I do.
So, you know, feel freeto check in if you like.
Um, I do random, obscureand straight up bed movies.
I am in the process of doing quite a few,um, rifts on training videos right now.
And I am working with quite afew different, uh, creators as
well as friends of the channel.
Otherwise, uh, my next normalreview has yet to be determined.

(01:36:00):
I think the last one I didwas phobe from the eighties.
Fantastic little movie.
Um, if you don't check out myreview, definitely check that
out because it's a lot of fun.

Chris (01:36:10):
Well, awesome.
So everyone, be sure tocheck all that stuff out.
And on behalf of Dan from TYTD reviewsand triv from Trivial Theater, I'm Chris.
This has been dead formats.
If you have any questions about theshow or if you have a dead format
topic that you'd like to hear me cover,or if you have any suggestions for

(01:36:30):
potential guests, please reach out.
You can email me at Dead formatspod@gmail.com or you can reach out to
me on Instagram at Dead Formats Pod.
Thanks for listening.

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