The Cinematography of Malum with Sean McDaniel

Episode Transcript
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James Jay Edwards (00:24):
Welcome to Eye On Horror, the official
podcast of iHorror.com. This isepisode 103. Otherwise known as
season six, Episode Four. I amyour host James Jay Edwards and
with me as always is your otherhost Jacob Davison, how you
doing Jacob?

Jacob Davidson (00:39):
Doing all right.
I had just dealing with somedental stuff, but you know,

Ouch did you get good drugs at least?

Well, it hasn't happened yet. I'm going in for
the surgery tomorrow. So

Oh okay,

and I'm not looking forward to it. But

So you're in the pain portion, not the drug
portion.

Well, that's a good thing. It doesn't actually
really hurt that much. It's justone of those things where they
caught it early, but they needto go in like that. Yeah, I'm
getting I'm getting to you know,this is why there's so much
horror about dentistry and likeThe Dentist by Brian Yuzna

also with us as always is your other other
host Jon Correia, how you doing?
Correia?

Jonathan Correia (01:18):
It's fascinating hearing other people
talk about these things assomeone who hasn't been to the
doctors outside of likeemergencies in like 10 fucking
years.

I've had so much dental work done in my life
that I swear I'm just completelyI mean, even if I had a
toothache I probably wouldn'teven notice it just because my
mouth is probably justpermanently numb to any of that
Comfortably huh? Comfortablynumb?
stuff.
What's been going on you guyswhat you've been watching. Not

(01:46):
much has come out since lasttime we talked not much like
real horror,

right? Well, yeah, the closest I can think of
is I saw that William Defoemovie Inside that was kind of a
horror movie. It's likebasically a one man show with
like Willem Defoe, as this artthief who was airlifted into
this artist's private penthousethe steal a painting but it goes
wrong and like he's locked in bythe security system because it's

(02:12):
like a Smart House situation andhe's abandoned by the rest of
his team. And he has to make dowith whatever resources he can
find inside the penthouse and hestarts to go more and more crazy
and like it's funny it's kind ofweird and disturbing and like
it's just if you love a WillemDefoe performance, especially
one where he goes nuts like thisis your type of movie. Have you

guys heard of a movie this probably from 20
Maybe 30 years ago calledCaptured? It's it's about a dude
who get stuck in a car and it'sin a garage and this is what I
remember it so you think as Iwatched it, it's one of those
movies you can find and likethat dollar DVD burner bin

or Tubi!

it's probably on Tubi Yeah, and I remember the
one time I've seen it, it waswas the weekend after a really
bad breakup for me so I was likedrifting in and out of sleep and
depression and it was one ofthose probably three in the
morning watches but it's about adude it's this car has this
crazy security system and thisguy who I don't know if he's
trying to break into it or stealit or something, but he gets

(03:14):
trapped in this car by thesecurity system and it's like,
from what I remember like heloses fingers and limbs and
stuff to the security sets it'swhat it kind of reminded me of
when he said that he getstrapped inside this art art
collectors house you know maybethey've captured it's just on a
smaller scale. I think it'scalled Captured that sounds

like that would be a great double feature
with that Stuart Gordon movie

Stuck. Stuck.

yeah. Oh yeah, it's Stuck

in the windshield. Yeah, and she like
drives home and then like in thein the garage and stuff

based on a true story.

And yeah, I think it's Captured from 1998

Is it Yeah,

I just looked it up on IMDb a car thief breaks
into a man's house it was on alow because his career is being
taken away the man locks up thethief in the car and tortures
him

there you go there Yeah, that's it. Yeah.
Okay, so maybe it's not thesecurity system here

and with and with Wishmaster's Andrew Divoff
Oh, and Nick Mancuso

there we go Tubi double feature Tubi should
have it they have everything

it's not good

I would expect them to, oh okay

Captured is not a good movie but it is kind
of an interesting is aninteresting concept. You know,
he traps him in this car, youknow?

Conversely, I thought Inside was great. I
really dug it like I'm I'm aDefoe fan, I Stan Defoe, but no,
it was really good. I dug it andit does kind of kind of wrap you
in that kind of claustrophobiaand kind of encroaching madness
that his character goes through.

Does he spill his beans though?

He spills caviar at one point.

That's fish beans, fish.

Yeah, sure.

Right?

Okay. I

know. Yeah, it did get me a little The
Lighthouse vibes. But ya know,it's it was pretty fun. I'd
recommend it. This is

why I'm not invited to fancy parties because
we will be like caviar. Oh,fish, beans, no Correia. Also
you weren't supposed to wearsweats. Come on,

I can see that.

Especially your Mars Attacks jogger sweats.

That's what I am wearing right no! How did you
know, you didn't even see.

I didn't know I just took a flying guest.
Probably the closest thing tohorror that I saw is John Wick
4. Yeah, yes, it is. I think itmight be the best one of the
bunch, which I was kind ofreluctant going in because it
does have a three hour runningtime. And you guys know what I
think about three hour runningtimes. But you know, I did like

(05:32):
the Midsommar Director's Cut,Boogie Nights is my favorite of
all time. I liked Babylon. And Ilike John Wick Chapter Four. It
is, um, it definitely closes theWicked verse. I mean, it wraps
things up. Donnie Yen plays theother hitman who like

Cain,

yeah, he's given his his name by and it's
actually your your, your Stan.
Bill Skarsgard plays the mainvillain.

Yeah, the marquee.

Yeah, he's, he's, it's funny because we as
we were walking out one of thereps, not one of them. One of
the theater reps was like, Iwish that I had every one of his
outfits. He's like a very welldressed villain. Yeah, they
costumed him really well,because he's like rail thin. So
they put him in like these, youknow, tight suits with like,
yeah, it's they costumed himreally? Well. Yeah, Donnie Yen.

(06:20):
It's sort of like a Rogue Oneish. He plays like a blind
hitman. And there's one it'sfunny. There's so much humor in
John Wick and of course, thestunt choreography is on point.
It makes you wish there was anOscar for that category. We
added that category in the SanDiego Film Critics Society
awards, and I'm going to betrumping for for frickin John

(06:41):
Wick 4 but there's one scene inparticular and Jacob is gonna
know exactly which scene I'mtalking about that has total
Homer Simpson. It just totallycracked. It's just it's one of
those is this really happeningto John Wick? It's

Ja (06:57):
Springfield Gorge. Yeah, and although standout for me, had to
be Scott Adkins as this GermanHitman name Killer heart heart,
Conan Harkin, who's who's gotlike a gold grill he's in like,
he's in like a fat suit orsomething. So he's like, he's

(07:20):
just like, this huge guy isobsessed with card games. And
like he's basically the jaws ofJohn Wick like Jaws from James
Bond, you know, Richard keelwith the giant metal teeth. So I
just really love it when theythrow in, you know, like a
standout character like that.
And, ya know, just a wholesequence at this insane Berlin

Yeah. The standout for me, I think is
nightclub.
Shamir Anderson, who plays hischaracter's name is actually
nobody, whenever they asked himthere who you he says nobody.
And he plays a guy who is he'skind of tracking the, the bounty
on John Wick and what he's do,it's actually kind of a clever
business move, he is kind ofprotecting him, and he's

(08:04):
knocking off the other hitman,we're getting close to him until
the bounty gets high enough forhim to go after it himself. So
he's kind of on John Wick'sside, until he's not. But um,
and he the reason that I likehim so much is he's got a dog
buddy who, who runs around withhim his that's like his sidekick

(08:24):
is a dog and, and the dogactually, you know, he can say,
you know, he'll say like, nutsand the dog go and like, that's
pretty, pretty cool. And yes, itdoes all tie back to John Wick's
entire motivation for all fourmovies, him losing his dog.

And also it has one of the best homage as I've
seen to The Warriors, and yes, along time.

Yes. When Yeah, it's a they're putting out
the call on the on the Hitmanradio, which the John Wick
universe is hilarious becauseyou got hotels and radio
stations, you know, it's sort oflike the Warriors because they
had a radio station that thewarriors that the gangs and all
listen to, but yeah, they have adisc jockey, a black woman who's
like, oh, right, boppers, whatto do, and then they start

(09:08):
playing Nowhere to Run.

Exactly. It's the same song. Yeah, it's like a
new version of the song, butit's the same song. Yeah. And
then they also and they do othersongs, too, like Paint it Black

Yeah. Yeah, they do. So it's a pretty well
made movie.

Oh, yeah. No, it's brilliant. Like the
choreography alone. Oh, my God.

The stunt work. Yeah. I mean, it's the
Stahelski, Chad Stahelski, thedirector of all of the movies,
he's a sold stuntman. I mean, Ithink he was Brandon Lee's
stuntman. I think he had tofinish The Crow actually, is
what word on the street is thatwhen Brandon Lee died during
filming, they used one of hisstunt men as a stand in to get
what they needed. And it was toStahelski is I assume that's the

(09:50):
rumor.

I can see why he's so adamant against using
blinks on set. Worked on thecrow like that.

Oh, yeah, that's that. That does make sense.
Yeah.

He's a big supporter of yeah, there's
That's not needed. And it'slike, yeah, well, I mean, coming
from the guy who, like, youknow, brought back gun-fu, and
like, has one of the mostsuccessful action franchises of
the last 10 years. Like, we canlisten to him. Yeah, for sure.
There's no reason to add anyextra risk.

He's the maestro.

I haven't seen John Wick 4 yet, but I did
finally watch one of my mostanticipated films of the year.
or at least since the trailerdropped about a month or so ago.
Have you guys heard of The Lake?

Yeah, it's a monster movie From

Oh, yeah, it is. It's a Thailand/Chinese
production. And The Lake followsa mysterious monster that rises
from the Mekong River andattacks Bueng Kan cuts off
people from the outside world.
And so you follow a fewdifferent groups of people as
they are trying to figure out A:

W (10:47):
like, what to do with it. And it's basically like Thailand's,
like big attempt at doing a bigmonster movie, and it's really
cool. Like, they were veryadamant about pulling off the
creature very well. The designis really cool. It's one of the
coolest looking monster kaijuI've seen in

a while. I was gonna say, Is it like a
Kaiju? Or is it like a Creaturefrom the Black Lagoon size? I
mean, is it a giant monster?

I don't want to, I don't want to spoil too
much. But you get both. Okay,again, Oh, okay. Well, then
that's the thing too, is thatyou do have like the more kaiju
one, but there is another one,there's at least two in here.
Okay. And that one is more likelike an 8-10 foot tall monster
that just like rampages throughpeople. It's It's insane. So

you have like, you have like a
crypticzoid. And then you have aKaiju basically speak in my
language.

It's like you're getting a small Godzilla
and a Creature from the BlackLagoon. And both are gnarly,
cool. But the cool thing aboutit is that they go really hard
with the practicals. Like, Ithink I read that the director
said it was 60% practicaleffects with the monster and 40%
CGI. So there's a lot of reallycool moments where even when you
see like the big boy, or the bigguy, one moving his head around
and stuff, like it's allpractical, except for like,

(11:58):
maybe its tongue and even theCGI in it is really good. There
was a few shots of it runningthat was completely CGI, and it
looked really well, you candefinitely tell that the makers
of this movie are huge monsterfans, and there's little homages
and taking little bits andpieces from all these different
things. There's a lot, it'sconstantly night and raining
because it all takes placeduring a big rainstorm. So
there's a lot of shots with thegiant monster that really feel

(12:20):
like Jurassic Park, but it's alot of fun. I mean, it's I'm
seeing a lot of bad reviewswhere I don't understand because
it pulls it off. It does fallinto some tropes you know, the
editing is a little rough insome places. And there's just
like it bothered me at firstsome of like the switching
around story and the editing andleft me very confused in the
beginning but I grew toappreciate that a bit because
oftentimes with monster moviesthey explain the rules so early

(12:43):
so you're sitting there going,Oh, well he can't You can't do
that. It's not gonna workagainst that monster like you're
really kept in the in a mysteryof like, what is going on kind
of with them. So I grew to lovethat a lot towards the end of
the movie, but yeah, the lakeit's on video on demand right
now. I think it's getting a Bluray release in May. If you'd
like monster movies. It's a hellof a fun time. Definitely up
there for my favorite monstermovie of the year. Although

(13:05):
Troll last year. I fucking loveTroll.

Okay, I got to see that one too. Yeah,

it's on Vudu for like six bucks right now to
run

Not too bad

The Lake is?

Yep. Now. I also know because Jacob also got
a got a package in the mail.
Yeah, as did I.

Oh, yeah.

We both got our 4k Martin releases from
Second Sight. Yes.

Finally, I'll be honest, I haven't had the chance
to really go into it yet. But Iam pretty excited about it. And
I did go through the packaging.
And I mean, it is exactly it'sgot like all all the discs we've
got the book. It's got the artcards. Huge box. Yeah. You know,
it's just one of those thingswhere, you know, it's another
Romero movie that sadly tied upin a lot of legal red tape for

(13:45):
release. So you know, like,Yeah, this is why the last
release for Martin was I thinkDVD on Anchor Bay like 20 years
ago.

Yeah. Arrow put out the Immortal Edition
around that same time. Andthat's about it.

So yeah, no Second Sight put out this 4k.
And thankfully, 4k is regionfree. So thank you DiabolikDVD
for making this possible.

Well in the in the it's a great release. And
the good thing also that SecondSight did was they put all the
features on the 4k Disk as wellas I know sometimes when you
import a 4k, the blu ray isregion 2 locked and that's where
all the features are not thecase with

thankfully, for me, since I don't have a region
free Buber Blu Ray Yeah, but thebut you don't need it because
you have the soundtrack from

features are great. There's an hour long
documentary where they get a lotof the people that were involved
with it, producers, DP actors,they interviewed them and they
do a little bit of locationscouting and in the town where
it was shot, showing like oh,this is where he did it. And it
was such a great educationalpiece on like, what Romero was
going through at that time,because Martin was the film

(14:44):
before Dawn of the Dead andbasically Romero didn't make any
money until dawn. So there waslike some rough years in there
where he was making movies, butthey weren't taking off. They
weren't getting greatdistribution. And so they were
talking about like how a lot oflike that team would be working
on like multiple differentprojects, whether it was the TV
show like The Winners are somelocal commercials and stuff all

(15:06):
just trying to like keep thebusiness afloat and when they
would shoot like the TV stuff,they would save the ends of
films and use that to shootMartin with so film stuff. Yeah,
yeah, sure. Well, the film wasalready taken care of for Martin
and even when they got to thattown they met up with these two
brothers The Duba brothers, whowere local documentarians making
a lot of short films, they haveone of their shorts on the disc,

(15:28):
which is really good andbasically those two brothers
hooked him up with all thelocations just calling friends
and this town was so excited tohave like a production come in
like everyone was opening theirdoors they were like Alright, oh
shit What's all that noiseoutside there's a parade
Alright, let's go film in theparade and that's how you get
the final scene and in Martin itwas it was really cool getting

(15:49):
all the behind the scenes theonly sad thing is is of course
while Second Sight cause tookfive years for this to come out
they there was an uncovered thethree and a half hour Director's
Cut day it's all black and whiteof Martin because apparently
George A. Romero took that printto a location to show them like
this is the type of stuff thatwe do and then just left Left
the reels there and so that wasuncovered these farmers were

(16:11):
like yeah, no, they my dad hashad held on to these 16 Mil
reels for all these years andthen stuff happened second site
wasn't able to secure it I thinkthe Georgia A. Romero foundation
Ship to Shore.
don't hold me to it but Ibelieve they are trying to get
them so that they can restore itand I saw that there was a lot
of excitement from like theoriginal people involved with
the movie about it and then likeit dropped off then like about a
Yeah, but but to listen to it inmy car unfortunately my I do

(16:33):
year or so ago, the reels wentup for an auction and sold for
like $52,000 Oh no news on itsense because it you can get
those prints like you can ownthem but you can't do shit with
have a portable record playerkind of but it's a cheapo ya
them without Rubinstein'spermission and stuff. So I don't
know if we'll ever be able toview that gor- what sounds like
an amazing Director's Cut. Ihope we can but until then the
Second Sight disc is incredible,highly recommend it. And it has

(16:54):
the whole soundtrack on CD twowhich is phenomenal so
know that that record? Ooh,that's one of my favorite vinyl.

Can you imagine trying to drive with
vinyl?

Put on the dashboard.

Yeah, your CD player probably skips and it's a
CD so vinyl all over the placethat'd be fun another thing I
saw not really horror butapplicable that so I don't wanna
spend too much time on it but Isaw Shazam: Fury of the Gods
either you guys

see it or not?
Yeah, I like the first one.

I mean, it's okay for what it is. I don't
think it's deserving of all thehate it's been getting it's a
Shazam movie. So you understandthat? You know, the Shazam or
what the group of kids that turninto their to the superheroes
there. They call themselves thePhilly Fiasco in this because
whenever they save people, theyalways seem to take the blame
for destroying you know stuff aswell. So you know, yeah, like

(17:54):
superheroes do. But I mean, it'sit's pretty fun. I mean, there
are these three witches thatcome back. You know, these three
gods I shouldn't say not witchesthat come back. But the third
act goes absolutely batshitcrazy. I mean, there are dragons
and Cyclops and Minotaurs andunicorns, and I mean, there's so
little of everything. It'spretty. It's pretty fun though.

(18:16):
I've heard that DC isdisappointed in and have already
stopped promoting it. And it'sonly been out for a couple of
weeks. But it does, you know,like all good superhero movies.
It does the post credits thingwhere it leaves it open for more
to come. So who knows? Ofcourse,

I mean, the whole the whole what's left of
the Snyder-verse with the regimechange all that stuff.
Especially since Black Adam,it's been messy. Yeah. I like
the I like the first Shazam!movie. And you know, I'm really
stoked to hear that the directoris wanting to go back to horror
and he's kind of done withsuperhero movies now so
hopefully we'll see that butthat's also understandable dude,

(18:51):
he's been doing making sure likeworking on Shazam! movies for
like fucking seven

years. Yeah, and this one you can see because
you know, all these monsters arecome out at the end. You're
like, Okay, this is Sandberg.
This is him flexing his horrorhere.

I mean, they did that with the first movie.
That's why the demons

there's so many demons is Yeah, they were

in the first Shazam! movie. Like terrifying
legitimately, I was like, Holyfuck, these are gnarly. But
speaking of comic books, someoneon Twitter not too long ago
pointed out that there's aspecial feature for Ghost Rider:

He did?
Spirit of Vengeance. Rememberthat movie, tried rebooting
Ghost Rider with the directorsof Crank and it was supposed to
be more mature and not to 2000'scomic booky and it was gonna be
all weird. And they releasedthat awesome trailer, where he's
like pissing fire and stuff andeveryone was like, so hyped and
then the movie came out and thenleft and like no one has really

(19:42):
talked about it since. Well,someone on Twitter pointed out
that there's an hour and a halfmaking of documentary on Ghost

Rider (19:48):
Spirit of Vengeance that catalogues the entire filmmaking
process and it is mesmerizing,like I went out of my way to
find a Blu Ray copy of it, and Ibought it solely for this
special feature because it isone of those like mid 2000s DVD
or Blu or DVD blu ray extrawhere they're where they it's
like hyping it up and it's like,oh, here's the pre process. Oh,
here's the production process,but the filmmakers and whoever

(20:11):
cut this hour and a halftogether were very candid, very
straightforward about all thethings that went wrong with it.
Like you legit see, thedirectors go from being very
excited, very pumped to be doingwhat they're doing. And then
like, by the end of it, they'rejust like, driven into the
ground and are just like, yeah,and then this thing happened.
Like it was so much went wrongduring the making of it. Like

Yeah, this was before Idris just blew up. But
suddenly, like everything thatwas with that movie, suddenly,
it makes sense, but it wasreally cool, because it's again,
it's the guys who did the Crankmovies, so they're fucking nuts
anyways, and they were showinglike, there's one shot in the
movie where you see Idris Elba'scharacter. Yeah, cuz remember
how interest Elba played aFrenchman in that movie?

(20:55):
it was real funny.

We got to get Idris Elba and Bill Skarsgard to
play dueling Frenchmen.

Literally dueling French. Yeah.

But there's a shot where he like his bike or
something explodes and he goesflying off this like Hills side
cliff and he like doesn't turnaround in a shooting. And the
cameras go in with them. Andthey showed how they pulled it
off. And it was actually one ofthe directors strapped into a
crane with the stunt actor whowas filling in for interest with
it. They actually flew them outover the fucking edge of this

(21:26):
giant cliff. And he's got thecamera and and they showed like
one take where the camera justsuddenly got snapped out of his
heads and like the entire time,I'm just like, oh, well, I'm
suddenly like, they were safe.
And they were good. But like thedirector was just like, yeah,
no, I'm not gonna put somebodyelse there. And I love doing the
camera. So like those twofilmmakers were very hands on.
They were like on the cameras.
There was like all these greatbehind the scenes shots where
they're like going down thislong road on motorcycles. And

(21:49):
you see one of the CO directorswith a camera in his hand and
he's wearing rollerblades andhe's just holding onto the back
of a fucking bike. No helmet on,nut job, nut job. This is
someone who's co directing likea big budget. Man, but yes, even
if you're not a fan of the GhostRider movies, it's a special
artifact that hour and a halflog documentary and you can get

(22:11):
Spirit of vengeance or the tofilm collection for like under
10 bucks and I'm telling you thehour and a half Doc is well
worth it.

All right now keep that in mind. Also, I was
doing more Cinematic Void thelast week they're still doing
the March Movie Madness stuffwith for movies and movie
theaters. And last week, theyplayed a movie that's been on my
watch list for a while becauseof the subject matter. Bigas
Luna's Anguish, starring ZeldaRubinstein if either of you seen

(22:39):
Oh, I

think I saw it years ago. Is this the one
where the guy in his he liveswith his mom and does this? What
I remember about it is a birdget caught behind like a big ole
dish hatch? Yeah, there

is a segment about that. But it's a lot more
to it because yeah, it startsoff as gotcha

all I remember about it.

Yeah, okay. It kind of starts off as like this
typical slasher movie type thingwhere Michael Lerner is this
optometrist who is beingcontrolled by his domineering
and like weird hypnotist mother,who played by Zelda Rubinstein,
a starring Michael

Lerner as in Friday 13th Part Five Michael
Lerner?

no. Michael Lerner from like Barton Fink.
Let's see he was in Elf, ManiacCop 2

be was a Mayor Eber in Emmerich's Godzilla.

Yeah, he was that he was. But anyway, yeah,
so yeah, it starts off like atypical slasher, and like, this
dude's going around gougingpeople's eyes out. But then it
turns out that it's a moviethat's being watched by this
audience with like, these teens,and then shit gets real weird
with like, kind of like acrossing of the movie, and the

(23:44):
audience and like stuff that'shappening in the audience kind
of correlated to that I don'twant to spoil it. But ya know,
just seeing it theatrically,though it did an incredible job
of kind of playing with toeingthe line between the screen you
know, the movie screening andthe audience reactions and the
reactions of the real audiencewith fake audience is and the

(24:06):
series is going to end tonightthey're playing Peter
Bogdanovich's Targets. So I'mpretty stoked because it's one
of my all time favorite horrormovies because it is genuinely
still one of the most disturbingand relevant horror movies to
this day. Also one of BorisKarloff finest performances.

That's awesome. I wish I could go to
that screening tonight. Damnthese meetings.

Yeah, and fortunately though, Targets is
coming to criterion blu ray,man.

Thank God I especially after the BFI had to
cancel their 4k that broke myheart.

Really? I didn't know that. Yeah,

I had it pre ordered on Diabolik and
everything got canceled. I wasso selfish but hey, I still
getting a Blu ray so I'm happyyeah, it is hard to find ya
know, I've

had my Warner DVD of Targets for like God like
several years so I'm glad I canfinally upgrade. Yeah, I'm

definitely gonna have to find a copy of
Anguish on DVD or somethingbecause that sounds awesome.

Sorry, the name I was thinking of was
Larry's earner from Friday 13th.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, that's not Shelley.

Well, yeah, that's the name I was thinking
of when when you brought thatup. So Mystery Solved there.

It's all good.
But yeah, I don't think thereactually is a official release
for Anguish, like I think it'soff on video, but I'm sure you
can find it somewhere and otherto be,

yeah, that.
That one's gonna have to be atrack and down like I've been
getting into Mae West movies. SoI've been trying to figure out a
way to watch her final movieSextette, because that movie
sounds insane. She was like 82,playing a 26 year old.

What?

No.

And Timothy Dalton is one of our lovers in
the movie, Robo star as well.

How old was Timothy Dalton at the time?

What is this movie?

It was an early 80's. So it was like I
want to say like bond era Daltondo yourself a favor. Look up
Natasha Leone on Sexette. Andshe explains like the movie and
under like a minute, and it'sincredible. And the best part of
the of the clip that I saw it,she explains the whole thing.
And then it just cuts to RingoStarr. And he's like, yeah, that
movie was a lot of fun.

I can imagine.

No, it was like a TMC thing. So it's a very
short clip. But as soon as Iwatched it, I was like, I need
to watch this fucking movie.

Speaking of Natasha Lyonne movies, I also
Confessions of a Trickbaby fromVinegar Syndrome before

Jacob, what do you think?

I thought it was amazing because it is just so
batshit insane.

Have you seen the first Freeway?
No, I haven't.
Okay, they're there. They'reonly connected in the fact that
it's like 90s Cinemax, you know,

edgy fairy tale adaptations skills. Yeah, it's
like the first movies Little RedRiding Hood. The second movie is
Hansel and Gretel.

And they have that one scene where they put
down crack rocks.

Yeah, trail of crack cocaine to find their way
home.

But of course, crackhead fights and

oh, man,

weird one man, but it's so good. And she's
phenomenal. And I've never seenher play a character like that.

I was looking at the credit. She actually
produced it too. Oh, wow.

That's awesome. Man. She she's had a
cool ass career and like thebeginning to now like she was
always changing stuff up andlike those early films of hers
are very interesting.

Oh, no, definitely.

Right. Now we are joined by a very special
guest. We have Sean McDaniel,who is the cinematographer of
the upcoming Malum How're youdoing, Sean?

Sean McDaniel (27:25):
I'm good. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for being here. The question I
always like to start off withwith our guests is how did you
get started in doing what youdo?

I started making movies when I was a kid. And
that kind of just continued on,I guess to now. I mean, for me,
at first, I was really doingeverything I didn't know a lot
of other kids who wanted to makemovies and I would talk them
into being in mind and I wouldjust kind of make all you know,
do all aspects of it. And yeah,that was just my drive. I went

(27:53):
for undergrad Film School atUniversity of Florida and then
eventually went to USC forgraduate. And yeah, just always
found my focus wascinematography. And as I found
more people to collaborate withrealize that that was my
strength and really gravitatedtowards there

were these like, like VHS movies that you
were doing in your backyard kindof thing. You're the first
movies you were making? Not.

It was actually yeah, the first camera had
actually was like this littledigital stills camera, and it
would let you do like 32nd videoclips like that. That was it. So
I was like, okay, that's, that'swhat we'll use. And then
graduated up to like mini DV waswhat I was using, mainly in high
school, a little bitunderground. Okay, and then, you
know, we got some nicer camerasonce I got to USC.

So you skipped the VHS phase that the
rest of us all went through?

Yeah, I feel like it was like just before like, I
think that digital stills cameragot that was like kind of a big
deal that was like, Oh, it'llrecord 30 seconds of video, you
know, onto this card instead ofVHS. So that was kind of that
was kind of a big deal.

And you can stitch those 30 seconds is
together into a into a wholefilm.

Oh, yeah. Real amazing work that I was doing
back then.

I have such a love hate relationship with
MiniDV because there's a bit ofthat nostalgia, but also when I
went to film school, that's allwe had. Like, I think we finally
got a digital camera my senioryear and it was a just like a
Canon 6500 Mark three orsomething. And that was like the
big tech for my college. Andthen like, you know, come on to
LA and everyone's like, Oh,yeah, everyone's been working on

(29:21):
Reds or something. I'm

just like, yeah, all right. Yeah.

I still have and it's actually my favorite
camera to this day one of thoseSony PD 150s The the the old
cameras and all the skateboardvideos were made from their
analog DV cam tapes.

Yeah, so got my mini DV camera. It was a Bar
Mitzvah president from mygrandpa.

When I was in film school, the new camera was
the Canon Mach Five Mark five isthat what it is Mach Five the
simpler one was the T2I backthen so right and these were
basically DSLRs that could shootup to 12 minutes of video.

You got a little bit more leeway.

Yeah in college that was definitely the mark
fives were a big upgrade fromwhat we had before.

How did you get involved making horror
movies? I mean, was that alwayswhat you wanted to do? Or is
that just kind of where youfound yourself LED?

Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I like
horror a lot as a genre. I mean,the work that I do kind of spans
a lot of different genres, Iwould say, there isn't really
one, I would say I love morethan any others. Part of what I
like about the work is gettingto do the variety of projects.
But yeah, lately, I feel like Ihave been doing a little more
horror, it's and it's beenreally fun to move into that

(30:33):
territory.

I was gonna say, looking, looking over your
filmography, you're not all overthe place. But like, you've had
your hands and like all thesedifferent types of forms and
whatnot, a lot of short formwork, but there's always horror
always pops up every now andthen it sneaks up.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's a fun genre to
work in. I mean, Malum isdefinitely kind of I would say,
the horror project I've donethat goes the hardest, which is
what I liked about this movie,like in the scripts, when I read
it is like, it really goes forit. And I think you know, that's
what you want, when you're, youknow what you're in for?

Yeah. And actually, that's what I wanted
to ask, how did you get involvedwith Malum.

So I met Anthony, the director on another project,
a short film that he wasproducing, and that I shot. And
the directors are mutual friendsof ours, and just somehow
Anthony and I hadn't crossedpaths before that one. And yeah,
it was just that was a reallyfun project. And it was great
working with Anthony. And Icould tell that he would be a
good collaborator, and just likea good person to work with. And
so after that one, I kind of hithim up and was like, just, you

(31:30):
know, hey, what are you workingon and kind of mentioned that he
was thinking about doingsomething new with The Last
Shift and kind of has a littlebit at the direction and it
sounded really cool. And theneventually, I got a script and
kind of went from there.

Nice.

What was it like? Because like you kind of
just mentioned mallam is kind oflike a remake of Last Shift. And
Last Shift is only what maybeeight years old?

Yeah, I think it's 2013 2014. So

yeah, so it's a Okay, so almost 10. What was
it like remaking something thatthat's, that's that modern? I
mean, what was there pressure toput it in a different direction?
Or did you want to kind of stayclose to the vibe of the
original?

Yeah, I mean, that was interesting. So I liked
the original I had seen itbefore. And then I gave it
another few rewatches, afterAnthony had mentioned that he
was you know, working on this.
And I think it was interesting,because I was thinking about a
lot more at first. And then onceAnthony, I started talking about
it, it kind of I don't know, itkind of like fell away. And that
wasn't even in response toanything of like, oh, let's
purposefully avoid talking aboutthe film, it was really just

(32:25):
like the scripts. I mean, it hasthe same premise, kind of some
of the bones are the same, butit really goes in a lot of
different directions and hasmore of an investigation and
mystery element. And so I don'tknow, we kind of just started
talking about all that. Andeventually, I didn't really
think too much about theoriginal kind of, yeah, it just
became its own thing.

I definitely did the rewatch of The Last
Shift before watching Mallow.
And you know, there was aquestion in the back of my head
since it was announced of justlike, why, you know, why, why do
that? And the movie Malumanswers it perfectly. I think,
right off the bat, it's moreexploration on the cult. It's,
there's there's a lot ofchanges, but the core is there.
And I mean, you guys use thatspace a lot better. But I mean,

(33:05):
that's also 10 years of likefilmmaking experience, getting
things together, probably betterbudget, you know, and being able
to sit on these ideas. But youguys were filming in a recently
closed police station, right?

Yeah. So I mean, that was actually part of the
movie. When it was time to go,it kind of kicked into gear
pretty quickly, because theyfound this decommissioned police
station, and the city wasgetting ready to tear it down.
And so they I think they wereable to talk them into delaying.
And so it was like, Alright, wegotta go. And so yeah, we just
got really lucky. I mean, Ithink that was the thing like
the first movie I wasn't Iwasn't on the first movie, but I

(33:40):
think similar deal of like,right, you get that location and
so much of the movie is centeredaround it that that kind of
determines a lot of what you'redoing and so yeah, we just got
lucky with the station offered areal variety of looks. I mean,
it was huge. It was a four storypolice station has a full
gymnasium, which you see in themovie, which is great for to
shoot in and also kind of toturn into a soundstage almost

(34:00):
for some of our sets. Yeah, andit just had a lot of different
looks and it's provided a lot ofopportunities really the first
movie, I think it kind of worksThe thing I like about that one
visually is that it has a veryuniform look like a whole police
station kind of looks the sameand I think that works really
well for that movie. And then inthis movie, the police station
has like just a ton of differentlooks to it kind of feels like

(34:20):
this weird hodgepodge. I thinkthey probably were like maybe
adding elements throughout theyears and extending things or at
least remodeling it and we don'teven you don't even see how many
looks they're in this place likethere's a bunch that didn't even
work for the movie.

So I was kind of wondering Is that because you
say that you know you used youknow like the gymnasium you know
all different parts of thestation. Did Anthony have the
location in mind when he startedwriting the script or was stuff
added as he got the location?

Yeah, so now the location they found that after
that was when they were scoutingjust to preliminary scouts to
find one but then once they didfind it they had done a scout
before I was on the project andyou know kind of was pretty
thorough I think but it wasn'tit wasn't like a full tech scout
or anything that we did a bunchlater. But I know he made maybe
a few changes then. And thenonce we got there for PrEP, we

(35:06):
were able to spend more time andhe was kind of writing, you
know, some little subtlechanges, like, yeah, the
gymnasium there was somethingwith a basketball and things
like that. So I remember inearly drafts, but I don't think
he had thought we would find apolice station with the gym. And
so once we like, Okay, well, whynot? Alright, perfect.

That's awesome. What were some of your
inspirations behind the looks ofthis? Because well, well, it is.
It's very, you do so much withthis very, I don't want to say
bland space, because it's apool. But it's it is a police
station and police stationsaren't going for decor, you
know, they're going probably forefficiency and to keep things
together. So what kind of thingswere you trying to do visually

(35:44):
to kind of separate scenes,separate situations, or just
kind of change the overall moodbecause there's a lot of moments
where it's like handheld, butit's taking perspective, but
it's not the main characters.
There was like some interestingchoices. So if you don't mind
walking through some of thatprocess,

also stylistically, it's everything
from like home video to cccamera to just traditional
filmmaking. So it's a prettyversatile looking movie.

Yeah, yeah, that was definitely one of the things
reading the script was like,Okay, this has says a lot going
on. Even though it is yeah, inone location. And when we walked
into that police station, it waspretty overwhelming. Like the
first time we walked inactually, it hadn't no one had
been in there since I think,basically COVID Like they when
that happened, they were like,Alright, everybody out, and no
one ever went back in for likeyears. So like, in the locker

(36:31):
room, when we were they actuallyhad to cut some of the locks off
so we could get into some of thelockers. But it was just like,
people stuff still there thatthey you know, I guess we're
just like, well, I'm nevergetting, you know, those shoes
back. And so yeah, it wasreally? Yeah, it was it was odd.
Yeah, so getting in there,there's just this variety of
looks. And for me, we're movingthrough so many different
locations, we're returning tolocations. But yeah, it could

(36:55):
kind of look the same, right?
Because it's all pretty muchfluorescent lighting overhead.
And so we kind of built these, Imean, you probably notice, when
you're watching it, that there'sthese color shifts to the light
so that certain locations have acolor tone, one that kind of
matches what's going on withthat theme. But also, for me,
it's just kind of like to helpthe viewer map where they are.
And remember, right, because youmight return to some of these

(37:16):
locations pretty briefly. Andyou might not realize it, but
just having that same colortone. Your brain is like oh,
cool, great. I remember, I'mgrounded in where I am. So that
was a big thing. I was justgoing through and taking the
tubes out and putting in our ownLED tubes. So one for control.
But yeah, to create that colorpalette, and then we could
control everything wirelessly.

(37:36):
And just like beat along prettyquickly, which was nice. They
would kind of get ahead of usand set up the next location
before we got there. So we couldwalk in. We're already kind of a
little bit pre lit and then wecan modify and you know, be
ready to shoot.

Gotta love those remote tudes, man. Yeah,
just throw them up and be like,Alright, so we got most of our
filler. What can we do for agame changer, those

I mean, that was that was clutch. I mean, this is
probably this is the first moviethat I've done where I've my
main package, just like didn'thave any big HMIs on it was just
like we're at night. None ofthese locations really have
windows. There's just no reasonfor it. And I was like, I just
want more and more tubes. Thatwas what I was asking for. It
was just very odd. Like it's notwhat you normally think of but

(38:19):
it was Yeah, I mean it was veryhelpful for what we were doing.
Yeah, sorry. Now got distractedtalking about lighting and I
can't remember where we started.

No, it's definitely evident that you
know, like you were saying insetting up the lighting to give
you a bit of a mapping or givingyou a bit of placement is very
helpful because as great as LastShift was a bit disorienting
sometimes because of thefluorescent and again that's
understandable time budget allthat fun jazz. I actually in
college we shot a found footagehorror film, and we shot a old

(38:50):
jail and stuff and there's likelike you were saying there's no
windows or at least nothing toreally shine stuff through and
that was a mess. That wascollege students trying to shoot
found footage so the lightingwas not great. That was lighting
in here is fantastic. Yeah.

Who didn't shoot found footage in college.
It's so cheap and easy.

Yeah, no it did it make it easy for especially
for students.

Yeah, so the actually the found footage II
kind of moments in the moviewith the Cults.

Oh, yeah, like I really liked that.

Yeah, so that's actually all mini DV going back
to that. Yeah, so and that'sactually my mini DV camera that
I was in high school in college.
So when we were talking about ittalked about maybe shooting high
8 doing some other things andjust Yeah, I ended up being
like, well, the mini DV isreally close. You know, I have
this it's ready to go. And yeah,and as you know, the such a

(39:41):
interesting look. And you know,we modified a little bit in
post. Honestly, it kind of heldup better than I was expecting
like when we I really hadn'tshot anything on it since you
know, undergrad and so when wedusted it off, and we were
looking at it later I was likeoh wow, this almost looks too
good a little bit.

Can We digitize it just a little but
just add a few more pixels or

I think yeah, we just mess with it a little
because it honestly, yeah, justheld up a little too well, but
it's kind of a fun format tobring out again.

Yeah. And something wanted to ask about
just considering the movies,kind of hallucinatory themes.
How did you approach filmingthat and just kind of the more
surrealist aspects?

Yeah, I think I mean, the interesting thing
about that stuff is like I forme, even though the movie does
have a little bit of aheightened look, I think I tried
to grounded in realism,especially in the beginning, so
that as it kind of buildstowards the insanity that it
gets to, it doesn't kind of playits hands too early. I mean, you
know, you know, going in, thingsare going a little crazy, but I

(40:42):
don't think especially if youknow, the original movie, I
don't think people are maybeready for how far this one goes.
You wouldn't expect it. And so,I mean, that was a big thing for
me at first was just yeah, like,being kind of in this realism, a
little bit naturalism. And thenyeah, just as we go deeper, just
kind of leaning in to what fitthe story. And just locations. I

(41:03):
mean, the gun range that wefound that we shoot a good
amount of scenes, and especiallytowards the end, kind of have an
interesting look that kind offit already. And so it was kind
of leaning into that and thenadding our own flair on top.

we're gonna say, Don't go into holding,
there's all that Black mold,like, has a lot of Black mold
Was that real?

That was all added by art department. But
there actually was a few partsof the station where we were
there was mold then they had tosend people in to treat it. And
we were like, No one goes overthere for a few weeks during
prep. And they had to do like acheck. Because yeah, it's true.
I mean, no one. That was thething I forgot to mention, I got
distracted by lightning, becausewhen we got in there for that
first scout, no one had been inthere for years. And I guess

(41:55):
like for whatever the way the ACworks, they had to actually
leave the heat on. So thingswould freeze over I don't
understand what they're talkingabout. But basically, it was
already a really hot summer inKentucky. And then they had the
heat on. So when we walked in itwas I mean, it felt like it was
probably over 100 degrees inthere it was it was pretty
crazy. So we had to do our wholefirst tech Scout just all of
this is dying in this heat. Andit was a it was kind of an

(42:18):
Impressive, impressive andoppressive first way to to walk
through that station and kind offit. I feel like thematically
just the way that we werefeeling from all that he kind of
pouring down on us. Yeah, sothat made that first Scout
pretty interesting. And that onewas really just about narrowing
things down like the place wasjust so big, about like figuring
out what actually made sense forus what new opportunities that

(42:40):
places offer. And so that waslike really helpful and a really
great fresh start because we didfind like a lot of new stuff out
a little subtle changes andwe're able to just like narrow
down specifics, which was great.

That's awesome. That's also a testament
to the set deck team. I thoughtall that Black mold was sounds
like who had who had the time Iguess off they killed it. That's
terrifying. Was there any pointswhere you guys were? Because
it's like you said a big kind ofleftover police station. Any
moments where you genuinely gotcreeped out by like the

(43:12):
environment and where you wereat?

Um, I mean, I don't know that there was any
time that I was creeped out inthere I just you know any spaces
like that don't tend to botherme too much there was there were
a few odd things I mean there'sso there's elevators in the
building because again it's sucha huge station and one of the
two inside on the ceiling justhad like footprints running

(43:36):
across like as if someone hadlike you know Spider Man like
upside down just walked acrossthe top of the ceiling like
these these intense boot printsI remember the first time I
noticed that it was just likeevery time I got in that
elevator from then on I wouldjust look up and look at them
and just like I don't know howthose got up there but there
they are

just seeing if there's a second set since the
last time you were there

luckily no no new additions Oh guy didn't even
think about that. Glad I'm soglad

that while you were there but that was it it
would have been a terrible wayto think

I was just like how did they get there? I didn't
think about that there could bemore that's true.

And where did they lead? Yeah,

just just to see if that's the thing and it's not
even like they ran down the wallall the elevators just the
ceiling is very weird. It's likeDid someone take it down walk on
it put it back up like what? Idon't know it's weird. Yeah, it
definitely I mean yeah, itwasn't it wasn't like a chill
place to hang out with and likeyou go hang out in there because
then it had a full like prisonlevel. So the the level where

(44:36):
her with a holding cell iss andthen we're here kind of like
main office that she's in wasthe like prison level. So yeah,
I mean, we didn't, I didn't hangout there more than necessary.
That was also the only levelthat wasn't air conditioned by
the buildings. So another reasonalso not to linger too much.

Especially you said Kentucky in the summertime
would be

humity alone.

Yes I grew up in Florida. So I'm a little bit
used to it. But it's been awhile for me since I've had a
summer like that again. So was alittle trying

that's not really what's coming up next for
you. I know, we know malam, whenthis episode airs will have just
come out, select theaters and isgoing out there. But do you have
anything that you can talkabout? That's in the works right
now or coming out for you in thefuture?

Yeah, there's some stuff in the pipeline. But
yeah, unfortunately, nothingthat I can talk about at the
moment. We might have to wait alittle bit longer.

We had Andrew Gordon McPherson, who scored
Kids Vs. Aliens last episode.
And he, he kind of said thesame. That's why we're kind of
laughing about NDAs. Because,like, what do you got coming up,
he's all every day I writemusic. And someday the people
are paying me to write musicwill tell me when I can tell you
what I'm doing.

Yeah, it's tricky to pull that stuff together. I
mean, it's nice to be able totalk to you guys. And you've
seen it like, this is actuallythe first talk I've gotten to do
where people have seen themovie. So it's nice to be able
to not be quite as on eggshells,about spoilers or anything and
knowing that this is coming outafter because, yeah, this has a
lot, a lot in there that Iwouldn't, I kind of forget,
because you've been working onit for so long. It's like, oh,

(46:09):
yeah, there's actually like alot of nice surprises, not just
the scares, but story wise,there's like some nice stuff
going on there that you just getso used to, you know, watching
it over and over again, forgetthat I can't accidentally give
that stuff away.

it's always interesting seeing a filmmaker
redo something that they've donebefore, you know, like with
Funny Games, or something ofthat nature, and it really does
feel like like the bug, like yousaid, the bones are there, you
know, there's like littlemoments, little pieces, the

(46:42):
overall story, you know, thecore of it's the same, but it
really is taken in a completelydifferent direction. And I
think, you know, definitely yourcinematography and, and the
different story pointsdefinitely helped differentiate
it. So it's if you're a fan ofLast Shift or not, I mean, it's,
it's Malum. It's not Last Shift.

Watching either way.

Exactly. Yeah.
And ya know, watching them likethat. It is interesting, that
kind of directions this versiontook so yeah, no, I think fans
of the original will like it,and it'll bring in a lot of new
fans who will check out theoriginal both ways.

Yeah, I hope so.
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing,like the first one was so great.
I think that's why they wantedto do it. Like, I mean, I know
it kind of has like a cultstatus. But I think you know, it
didn't quite reach as far as itreally should have. And so this
whole this will do both thingslike people get to see this new
kind of fun take, is this such asolid idea And he builds such an
interesting world. I mean, thatwas my big thing. When he told
me he was expanding on it. It'slike more about the Cults. It's

(47:39):
kind of mystery investigationelement. I'm a big sucker for
all that stuff. Like,

yeah, I was gonna say like, I was gonna say
watching it. I've been playing alot of Resident Evil lately, so
it kind of felt like watching alive action survival horror
thing. It's,

yeah, it does kind of have that vibe. It's
like you're it has it's a thirdperson. Right. And just as your
character, you're almostplaying. Yeah.

I mean, it's assault. It's Assault on
Precinct 13 with a satanic cult.
I mean, how could you not lovethat premise?

That sounds great. Right? I'm in

that's to my favorite things right there.

Exactly. So where can where can people see
Malum? It's coming to selecttheaters, right?

Yeah, it's gonna be in theaters nationwide. And
theaters and tickets are up whenthose comes out. Yeah.

After theaters. Is it going? Where's
it going to Shudder?

I think it'll just be on like VOD and digital
platforms after it has atheatrical round. I'm not really
sure. Actually.

I don't know where I got Shudder was Last
Shift on Shudder? Or was thatNetflix?

I've watched it on Peacock.

Oh is it on peacock right now?

back when Last Shift was released. There
was a buzz about it. I remember,in the work meeting, people were
like saying, you know, you gotto see Last Shift. So I mean,
you say it's like a cultfollowing. But it was it was
kind of like a like a horror.
There was buzz around it. And Iand I want it might have been
Netflix. Actually, I remember itwas easy to see. And that's why
kind of the ball just startedrolling. You know, Netflix is
quote free.

But yeah. If you haven't seen Last Shift,
though it is on peacock rightnow. I know. That's where I
watched it. I think it's also onTubi or some of those other
ones. And then of course, Malumis in theaters on March 31st.
But this is airing on the third.
So it'll already be out. So goget your tickets.

Have you seen it already? See it again!

Where can our listeners find you if they want
to when these NDAs are finallyup and you can talk about what
you're doing next. Where can ourlisteners find you you got
social media? You got a website?

Yeah. So the website is Sean McDanieldp.com.
And then I have an Instagramthat's mainly pictures of cats
and hiking and then sometimesset photos and stuff, which is
just @ShawnMMcDaniel. Yeah,those are probably the best
spots.

My Instagram I never updated. I sorely
neglected but my dog has afairly active one. So

yeah, mine mine is might as well be one for My
animals to a degree, but that'sfine.

All right, well, thank you for joining us
this afternoon and talk andMalum with us. Everybody see
mallam? It's, you know, we'veall seen it, and it's worth the
time. It's a it's a great littlereimagining of Last Shift. So
yeah, everybody go see now and

thanks for having me.

No problem.
Naveen, come back anytime. Ourtheme song is by Restless
Spirits to go check them out.
And our artwork is by ChrisFisher. So go check him out. As
for us, you can find us on anyof the socials on @EyeOnHorror
or ihorror.com, which is thesite that we all call home.
Thanks, Sean, for hanging outwith us and we will see
everybody in a couple of weeks.
So for me, James Jay Edwards.

I'm Jacob Davison.

I'm Jonathan Correia.

And I'm Sean McDaniel.

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