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October 19, 2022 54 mins
The gentlemen return to the roundtable to discuss the 1989 made-for-TV British film The Woman in Black! A Christmas Eve special in 1989, The Woman in Black graced British TV sets and immediately cemented itself in the nightmares of folks from then on. David brings this classic (?) flick to the table and the boys talk about their likes/dislikes. SPOILER alert, as the entire plot of this and the 2012 remake are discussed in detail! Speaking of the remake, David also discusses the differences between the old one and the new one. How did Derek and Zenger like it? Is it worth a watch? How much patience does a person need to sit through this entire thing? All this and more is discussed on this bonus Nights at the Roundtable on Blurry Photos! Don't forget to check out another roundtable while you're at it. Find the film here Find Derek at Monsters Among Us Find Zenger at Zeng This!    
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Episode Transcript

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(00:08):
Hello, and welcome back to theround table. We have another film review.
I'm David Flora. I'm the hostof the Blurry Photos podcast. With
me is Derek Hayes of Monsters amongUs. What's up Derek? Hello,
everybody, Thanks for having me backor whatever. I'm glad to have you
back. I'm glad to have youso enthused. Definitely. We've got Justin

(00:32):
Zinger from the zing This podcast.What's up? Justin? Oh? Nothing
much. I'm actually wearing all blackunintentionally for this. This was not intended.
But black shirt, black pants.I'm in the mood. There you
go. He is the muscleman inblack. Now we are covering the nineteen
eighty nine British television horror film TheWoman in Black. Derek, you had

(00:58):
mentioned that you'd never heard this onebefore. Zinger? Is that same for
you too? Oh, I havenever ever heard of this before. Then
one's hearing about it. I waslike, oh, I regret knowing of
this now sort of. And Derek, what did you think on hearing this
picked? Quite honestly, I misreadyour text and thought we were doing the

(01:19):
Daniel Radcliffe version this whole time untilabout this morning. I think so this
whole time. I was like,oh, well, you know, it's
not what I would have picked,but it sounds like it's a good movie.
And then I learned it was thenineteen eighty nine made for television version,
and let's just say I would likemy two hours back. So there

(01:40):
was another film version of this releasedin twenty twelve, and it did star
Harry Potter himself. Also Kiaran Hines, who if you are a fan of
HBO's Rome, he was Caesar.He's been in like almost everything you would
recognize him. But I couldn't findthat streaming for free anywhere the time when

(02:00):
I picked this, so I said, let's do the nineteen eighty nine film.
And I think the other one isstreaming now on Pluto TV. You
can watch it with ads, butit's free. I watched it today actually,
and now I am sad that Ipicked this one as well. So

(02:21):
white, did both of you watchThe Radcliff one? Two? And I
just didn't know. I haven't seenThe Radcliff. I was just sort of
looking forward to watching it. Iwatched the trailer for it and I was
like, oh, interesting next.Yeah, I'll talk a little bit about
that later. So this is thisis, like I said, a television

(02:43):
horror film as directed by Herbert Wise, and the screenplay was Nigel Neil,
very British. It's based on orit's adapted from the nineteen eighty three novel
of the same name by Susan Hill. It's kind of wild that they got
a whole novel out of this story, but here you go. One of
the most interesting things about this isit premiered on Christmas Eve nineteen eighty nine,

(03:07):
and then they did not show itagain for like five to six years,
and people were like, what wasthat? Because people were freaked the
f out by this picture. Thereis one scene in particular, I think
that did it for people. We'llget to that. Yeah, I think
I know which one you're talking abouttoo. Where were you gonna say,

(03:29):
Derek, I was just gonna say, I'm trying to put myself in the
nineteen eighties mindset. You know,we hadn't seen all these crazy things at
the time. Maybe we had,It wasn't more effective then, I guess,
and that information kind of helps me, like, I know what's seen
you're talking about And Okay, freakedme out too, but mostly because my
speakers couldn't handle whatever sound they werepumping through it, and it sent like

(03:51):
infra sound my direction. I don'tknow it did something audibly that the rattles,
it rattled something. Yeah, Ithink you're right about putting yourself in
the mindset at the time. Imean, everybody's gathered around the fireplace and
Christmas Eve, you know, Santa'sgonna come that night. The kids maybe

(04:12):
are in bed, but maybe they'restaying up just you know, everybody's basically
on vacation. Everybody's just kind ofchilling, relaxing with family, and then
this thing comes on the friggin TVand it's like, oh, well,
this looks like a fun time.Maybe we should watch it instead of you
know, Miracle on thirty fourth Streetor Scrooged if they could get that on

(04:33):
TV at the time. I thinkthat was like a year earlier. But
anyway, people turn this on theTV and then it's like, what are
you gonna do? Now? You'regonna be awake for the rest of the
year. So I think it is. I think it's the mindset and the
you know, people used to tellscary stories around Christmas time, around the
winter solstice. So yeah, backI was gonna stay back in the day.

(04:55):
That was sort of a thing,and it's referenced in what song is
that being bing Crosby um dreaming ofa white Christmas maybe, where her references
UM telling ghost tales by the fireor something man that that that that that
that that that. It's in theback of my head those that file doesn't
get open for another month and ahalf, so I don't I can't remember

(05:16):
off the top of my head.One of them references scary ghost stories and
something of the Here you go,we're getting three grown men and figure this
song out. I'm not helping inthis scenario, so good luck you two.
At the point being they used totell ghost stories Christmas, I can
see that that sounds like a veryNordic thing to do, if that makes

(05:39):
any sense. Sure sounds Nordic.So anyways, let's let's go through the
plot a little bit. There's nota lot to it. Or on one
second, if if if if,if you don't mind, gentlemen, I
mean, if it pleases the course, if it pleases you guys, Now
you guys run your paranormal podcast.I of course have a pop culture podcast.

(06:00):
This is movies are more my realm. So what we do on zygnis
every time we talk about a movieis we go over the tomatoes. So
I looked up the Rotten Tomatoes forthis and gentlemen, I don't know if
you did, but I would liketo quiz you two on what do you
think the tomato score is the forthis movie? Derek, I'm gonna go

(06:20):
with you first. Now I'm talkingtomatoes the actual reviewers, not the audience
score. You can guess both,but I'm going with how fresh is that
tomato? I'm making some sun driedtomatoes for my sandwich or are those going
into compost? Well, let's startwith a made a remake of it,
so it had to have been somewhatsuccessful. It's stuffy and British, so

(06:43):
I feel like that gets it acouple of notches right there. I think
it's surprisingly high. I'm gonna say, like forty forty four percent on Rotten
Tomatoes, so that would be acertified rotten Tomato's higher than it needs to
be. Okay, David, I'mtrying to put myself in the mindset of
reviewers that hopefully take into consideration thetime period it came out. I'm gonna

(07:06):
say, sixty three percent. Okay, all right, all right. So
with that being said, gentlemen,and you dear listler one hundred percent alpha
five reviews on Rotten Tomatoes by reviewers, it's got a one hundred one hundred,

(07:27):
one hundred now audience score over athousand reviews, seventy eight. So
I know now as the comparison theremake with with UM Action Superstar Daniel Radcliffe,
don't know what action movie he wasin to get that title, but
UM Guns Akimbo, Swiss Army Man, Swiss Army and the Summer another UM

(07:53):
sixty six percent on Tomato meter forthe remake, fifty four percent audience score.
So definitely apparently the remake did notwhat was not the critical darling that
the original was with its solid fromfive reviewers. So what does that tell
you? Nostalgia goes a long waywhen it comes to films. I think

(08:15):
you're right, it's kind of surprising. I feel like the newer one was
not bad. I would actually suggestpeople watch both just but we'll get into
that. Let me yeah, yeah, So I want to take that moment
because I said, it's always somethingfun to see where everyone else lied with
these and see if we're in theminority, the majority or wherever. Anyway,

(08:35):
it sounds like it didn't get enougheyes on it to make a competent
score. Anyways. All right,So the plot is there's a solicitor,
a London solicitor named Arthur Kidd.He goes to a coastal town because there's
an old widow who has died.She's reclusive. She lives in this estate

(08:58):
this man and that's out on thesand bar like it's on a little kind
of island that's only accessible when thetide is low and asked to get to.
Yeah. Yeah, it's called EelMarsh House. So it's already you
know, it's already firing on allcylinders. Are you guys fans of Mighty

(09:20):
Boosh? Since we're talking about Englishmedia, are you familiar with Mighty Boush
at all? No. I've likedwhat I've seen, but I haven't seen
a lot. I've been a hugefan of that for a long time.
My roommate Will who worked on thefilm with us, David, he had
to go to London for work onetime and he came back with a DVD
of The Mighty Boosh and I wasjust hooked from them. But anyways,
say that because there's a whole episodeabout eels and they're like, cockney,

(09:46):
Yeah that's the one. Yeah,I don't know, I know that whenever
somebody mentions eels, I can't helpbut think of the musical number that of
the episode. But can heels upinside? Yeah that's a good that's a
good catchy song. If you guyscan find Mighty Bouche, I highly recommend
it. It is stupid, butit's pretty entertaining. Yeah, apparently streaming
on Hulu. Hey, there yougo, there you go. Continue.

(10:09):
Sorry, it didn't mean that derailyou, So that's all right. He's
the setting is nineteen twenty five andthis guy, Arthur Kidd, he's kind
of a he's a lawyer that worksfor this firm he's trying to make partner.
But he's a little bit too friendlywith the help. And that doesn't
mean sexual, that means that allthe paralegals and people who work for the

(10:31):
lawyers he's buddies with. He treatsthem like human beings, and the partners
of firm don't like that. Andthere's this one stodgy old d bag who
is like if you want to succeedhere, stop talking to the help,
like, stop being such a niceguy basically, and he's like, if
you want to further your career here, we need you to go out here

(10:54):
and take care of this old widow'sestate, you know, out in the
middle of nowhere. I'll marsh house. And he's like, all right,
I'll do that. You know,I'm a company man. So he goes
out to he takes a train outto this place. It's a it's a
very small coastal town again, andthere's not much going on. He shocks
up at a little in pub kindof place and everybody whenever he's like,

(11:18):
oh, I'm here from London.I'm going to administer the last will of
this old widow, everybody starts throwinghim these glances, and you can tell
right away there's something going on.People are like, oh, that plays
that woman. Maybe you should likemove on with your life. Maybe you
shouldn't be here. It's that classicmoment in every horror film where the music

(11:41):
stops and everybody puts their drink downand turns and looks at him like he's
going where like you got do what? Yeh? I think there actually was
a moment when I'm not trying tojump ahead, but the one moment where
he's like, I'm gonna go backout there. The people standing behind him
when he turns, they all likeact like they're not paying attention, even
though there's they're literally standing right behindhim, and he saw them turn like,

(12:03):
oh no, wait, David,before you continue, can I point
something out I noticed throughout the film, and this is the first point that
I want to get at. Itreminded me a lot of other films and
other stories, and this whole sectionwas very Dracula to me. You know,
Barker going to Transylvania, Arker,sorry, Barker going to Transylvania to

(12:26):
deal with Dracula's estate and all thisstuff. I think he was buying property
in England or something, if Iremember right something Abby. It's been a
while since I've read it or seenthe movie, but it was very Dracula
esque the way it all kind ofplayed out. And even the scene where
he was in with the boss thatyou were talking about, he was talking
down to him like, don't talkto the help clean yourself up. He

(12:48):
had like baby vomit on his armor something, because he has kids,
he's a family. That reminded meof the opening of Sleepy Hollow, Tim
Burton's Sleepy Hollow from nineteen ninety nine, and it made me think that it
might be inspired because it's Tim Burton. Of course he's seen this movie.
Like there's no way in hell hehasn't seen this movie like on Loop probably,
And just the way the framing ofit, and the way that I

(13:11):
don't know the partner whoever it wastalking down to our main character, the
way he communicated it was all justvery Sleepy Hollow esque. Where Ichabod Crane's
at that beginning courtroom scene where he'slike, I need to dissect the body.
I need to have a look andsee how he was murdered, how
he was killed. And he's like, no, no, no, we're
gonna ship you up north to thescary place. You have no idea that's
in mind, you have no ideawhat's coming. It's a good call.

(13:33):
It does have a lot of trappingsof other stories, and it doesn't really
veer away from that either. Becausehe gets to the house. It's it's
creepy, but it's just because it'sa big, old place that hasn't really
been taken care of because this wouldawa has been invalid and she's been taken
care of by a you know,it's basically a was a hospice for her

(13:54):
for years. And he has togo outside and like crank the generator to
get electricity bought. That's like oneof the only places that has electricity around
there, so that was interesting.But at one point he's outside, he's
out front and it's foggy as allget out, and he hears this awful
crash of like a horse and buggycarrying a family, and there's screams and

(14:18):
it's just harrowing, but he can'tsee it and he can't run, Like
he tries to run out to seeif he can help, but he ends
up stepping in the marsh because hecan't see the road it's too foggy,
and so then it all goes quiet, and he's like, what the hell
just happened? Well, this keepshappening to him. He keeps hearing this
crash and the screams in the fog, and he never is able to see

(14:43):
anything happen. It's just the soundof it. So he's already freaked out.
She's there's a lot of little details. I don't want to get too
deep and on this, but there'sa room that's locked that he can't get
into. There's no key will workthat, and that comes into play eventually
where he hears what is it athumping sound in there? Here's a thumping

(15:07):
Might hear a kid kid giggling orsomething in Anyways, he gets I guess
angry enough that he can't figure outwhat's going on that he grabs an axe
and runs back to that door andit's open, and he's like, okay,
and he opens the door and it'slike a child's playroom that's pristine,
has not been touched, and maybethere's a rocking chair rocking, or the

(15:31):
well, a ball falls like fromthe ceiling, or something rolls to him.
And then he hears a voice rightyep, yeah, a little girl's
a child's voice, a little boy'svoice, a boy voice. I thought
it was a girl's voice. Ithought it was a girl for the longest
time, until they point out thatit was a boy later on it was
Bart Simpson's voice. So it's both. He'll have a cow man, but

(15:54):
he hears this this voice, andthen he gets freaked out runs away and
then when he comes back to thatroom, it's like trashed, completely torn
up, very poulter Geist desk,like from the Yeah, from the movie
Poulter. Guys, you're missing onevery important part that I thought you guys
would bring up immediately. This guyessentially inventsd podcast. Oh yeah. He

(16:17):
finds what do they call that aphonograph or whatever wax cylinders he had with
the wax cones, and he justrecords his voice in the first he's goofing
around and he's like, well,welcome to monsters among us. He just
starts his own podcast essentially where he'snarrating you know, what's going on,
and it's a pretty boring show,honestly. But he finds these cones that
were created by the widow in previoustime, which kind of fills in.

(16:44):
She was podcasting first, yes,and she had a much better program than
he did. The quality was throughthe roof. She had oudly murders in
the building, yes, exactly.So I thought that was funny. And
then he starts hearing all these sounds. I'm like, idiot, you have
the only according device in the country. Go take it outside and record the
sound. But he doesn't Yeah,there's a lot of a lot of decisions

(17:06):
that I don't think I would havemade. But what he's doing is he's
going through all the papers and theeffects and stuff to try and uh do
the legal proceedings on how they cansell it and you know, the last
will all that stuff. But hehe's also like, what happened to this
woman and her family, because there'sjust weirdness in the town with how they

(17:27):
treated her and what they how theytalk about her. And he finds out
that her child was killed in anaccident and it ends up being the one
that happened out front, right,that that the buggy went down in the
bar and no one, no onehelped them, or something like there was

(17:49):
or this. Okay, okay,wait, let me back up. It
wasn't the woman whose house it was. It was her sister, right,
I didn't get that, but possiblyI think I think it was. Geez
it gets It's a very slow movie, everybody. It kind of got convoluted
at the end. It's very slow. Yeah, yeah, it's it's very

(18:11):
slow. I think it was.Okay, I think it was her sister
gave birth to a child out ofwedlock, but she wasn't able to care
for it, and this woman insteadadopted it. Couldn't have children, I
believe, so she adopted a childwhich was this child, which was her
her sister's child, So it wasshe had adopted her nephew. Everyone's tuned
out by now, Like, forgetabout the movie. They've already tuned out

(18:34):
of this show. I like howDavid has also not pointed out at all
that there keeps on appearing this womanin black that can everyone see? Can
be? Um? Can the Bastanikids see it? And I'm saying Bistani
instead of the other word they use. And if you're a D and D
player, that's a deep preference anda deep cut, you're welcome. Yeah.

(18:56):
Yeah, there's some there's some.Uh, there's a sprinkling of racism
in the town. That's it fromthe traveling folk that might have set up
present anyways. Um, yeah,one more thing. So the sister was
mad that that she couldn't have herchild, so she tried to escape with
a child one day and that's whenthey they got caught by the tide.

(19:18):
They died in the most violent carriagecrash in history to the longest and the
soft mushy Marsh. They're crashing fora good thirty second straight. Yeah,
he sees. When he gets tothe town, he sees he attends this
woman's funeral. There's nobody there buthim and you know, the priest or

(19:38):
whatever, and one guy who's helpinghim gets set up. He sees this
woman in a black dress like mourningmaterial, you know, mourning gown off
in the distance like classic. Shedoesn't have an umbrella, but she might
as well be standing in the ringingat this funeral, overlooking it. And

(19:59):
then when and then something that somebodyscreams or something, he looks over and
when he looks back, she's notthere anymore. Classic. Yes, he
keeps, he keeps seeing her,She keeps showing up. At one point
into Marsh, he finds a littlegraveyard. She's there. She starts walking
towards him, and he freaks outruns away. So, yes, thank
you for bringing her, and thankyou for bringing the title character into this

(20:22):
plot. I'm trying to get Itwas easy to forget her, though,
because she would show up and thenjust disappear, like there was no resolution
to any of the scenes that shewas in. Did he run out of
the room did she disappear, likewhat ended up happening? Can other people
see her? Well, yeah,it's just him. The whole town kind
of had that vibe, like hewould ask other characters questions and they just

(20:45):
flat out wouldn't answer him. Theywould just respond with something else. They're
like, oh, it's getting darkout, he asked the one guy.
I can't remember the question he askedhim a question the guys a past the
sault, Like it was so abruptand so obvious that he was trying not
to answer him. So the wholetime, I thought, well, is
our main character a ghost and thiswhole town is still alive or vice versa,
the whole town's a ghost. Iwas giving it way more credit than

(21:07):
it really deserved. I thought thisplot was much deeper. At a certain
point, I thought for sure thatthe carriage wreck was his wife and two
kids coming to visit him, andhe was hearing it from the future.
I guess, like haunting from thefuture, because he had two kids,
and I couldn't tell from the wailinggoing on in that accident, the sound

(21:29):
that you keep talking about if therewas one kid or two or how many
people were involved, Like I thoughtthe one was a girl. Actually the
little girl was screaming, but itwas apparently a little boy either way.
I thought that was what was goingon, and I was thinking, oh,
well, it's kind of clever,but they didn't do any of that.
None of that was done. Howdid this movie in? David?
Sorry, no, no, Ikind of was wondering that too. I'm

(21:52):
like, is this like foreshadowing ofwhat's gonna happen to his family? Yeah,
that's exactly what I is this clever? Is this? Like? What's
is that what this is? Andwell? Yeah, also that dog that
so this That's what I think themovie actually got interesting. It's so slow.
But one of the guys that helpshim, that like picks him up

(22:17):
from the train station and helps himout in the town. He's got this
little dog and the dog's named Spider. I like the explanation hate the name
or something, right like yeah,yeah, he explains, He's like,
oh, it's it's all it's youknow, all all hair and legs.
And I'm like I'm like, okay, great explanation. Still hate the name.

(22:41):
And then he's like, do youwant to borrow my dog? Yeah?
He's like, take the dog withyou. You need company at that
house, and I'm like, whatare you doing? Man? This is
a recipe for disest who would lendout their dog. There's no ways coming
back to you. I'll never getthat dog back. I'll spoil it for
everybody. The dog is okay.The dog survives. So that's that's kind

(23:04):
of my like litmus test for amovie. Everybody in this movie, though,
honestly, the only person that diesis the widow. Do you remember
the ending? Did you fall asleep? Forget something? As soon as the
dog goes with him to spend thenight with him, the movie gets good.

(23:26):
That's unfortunately, about three quarters ofthe way through he has more supernatural
stuff happening to him at the house. Basically, at one point he goes
to bed and he's awakened by thesound of this voice of this kid.
This might be is this at thehouse or is it in town? At
that point? The second time wasat the end. The second time here

(23:49):
here's the voice is at the end. Yeah, I think he might have
been finds the soul journer of thepillow. I believe, yes. I
think he might have had a nervousbreakdown, been taken into town. He's
resting at the spider's owner's house andthen he hears he hears the kid and
it wakes him up, and thenhe feels under his pillow and there's this

(24:10):
little soldier, this little tin soldieror whatever, which he keeps finding other
places. He keeps, yeah,keeps showing up in places, which is
creepy. That's a fun thing.But then all of a sudden, the
kid talks. He's like, oh, what what are you doing? Bull?
And he's like, what's your name? Who are you? And then
the scene happens where this woman inblack just shows up floating above his bad

(24:34):
bug eyed, just going and itis that for a solid two minutes if
it's a second, but that soundwas exactly what it sounds like. He
is creepy, Yeah, it is. It's creepy, and it's funny because

(24:56):
she's she's doing nothing but floating thereand bug eyed and close up on her
face and that's all you need becauseit was it's creepy, and that's what
has stuck with people all these years, I think. Anyways, he he
absolutely loses his mind. He's sentback to London, he recuperates and then

(25:17):
he's he's just scarred because he findsthat that toy soldier in his briefcase.
He burns the lawyer's practice down,or at least his office. He burns
his practice. All the stuff fromthe Woman in Black's house, including her
original podcasting, Yeah, lost tohistory. Yeah, wanted to nip that

(25:40):
in the bud. And and sorry, I'll let you finish with what happens
now. And then he returns tohis family. They're like, let's take
it. Let's take a break,let's go out boating on the on the
pond. I forgot about this.But then he sees the Woman in Black
and a tree falls on them theend on the water, on the water.

(26:00):
They're in the boat, there's thewoman in Black standing in the water
like Jesus, and then the treefalls on him. They spent all their
budget on that. They spent alltheir budget on their standing out there,
I guarantee, like the meat pole, like the Metatron from Um Dogma Deep
Kevin Smith cut, You're welcome.I am going deep into the Alan Rickman.

(26:22):
Yeah, Alan Rickman's character and UmDogma. So there, that's my
reference point for that. What wasthat in reference to the water, Oh
okay, yeah, because he doesthat too, in the movie, not
just movie. So the movie endswith the entire family dying. Here's the
here's the point probably should have madeearlier. I'm all over the place whenever

(26:44):
anybody sees the woman in black,a kid is gonna die. That's what
the town is so up in armsabout, because I think they're all kind
of like keeping their heads low andtrying not to piss her off. And
then all of a sudden he comesto town, he starts seeing her,
and they're all like, well,crap, now, what if our kids
are going to die? Thanks?Yeah, And they were hoping that would

(27:07):
be one of the Vastani kids,and it almost He saves one of one
of them from a cart falling onit or something, legs falling off of
the cart on the legs, yeah, and a bigger log falling to where
the kid was. Yeah. Buthe's he saved this uh this this child,
uh, a Romany child. Ithink that's how we Romani. Yes,

(27:33):
I've referred to it in the past. I'm just gonna keep saying Vestani
for the DND reference. That's thisfilm. It affected people. Um,
how did it affect you guys?It affected me big time. I had
had a busy day to day,and looking back, it affected me a
lot because I could have had thattime. Like you could literally condense this

(27:56):
film into like a five minute short, it might be affect if it's basically
what's the best way? It's Seasonone of Unsolved Mysteries, the world's longest
reenactment. That's what you're watching righthere. The budget, the budgets super
low, the actings or whatever,m the story's pretty bad. The effects

(28:17):
are pretty bad. Like there's notreally a redeeming factor other than nostalgia.
If you watch this when you wereten years old at Christmas time, you
probably love this film quite honestly.But having watched it now at whatever the
hell old, what am I fortysomething? Um, it doesn't it doesn't
land. It doesn't land with menow. It's it's just too dated and
it's just too slow for me.And there's too many accents like what is

(28:41):
this a blurry photos episode? LikeI don't know what's half these people are
talking about in the same sentence,even in the same sense. And there's
all these different British accents like youget Cockney, you get the other ones
that I can't remember. Um,I usually can that's that's a movie we
should do. Snatch you get seenSnatch, that's yeah, yeah, it's
a British movie. Ranks like that. You mean dogs? Yeahs. Anyway,

(29:10):
I don't know. I like anyfilm. I appreciate that they did
it. It's a ton of workto get a film done of any caliber.
But man, it's dated. It'sa dated film. My only redeeming
thing is there's nice little moments withthe sound effects when it's not blowing out
your speakers from just being overgone,like him putting on the wax cylinders and

(29:32):
stuff had Like I was like,oh man, the sound effects on that
are cool. And then my speakersblow out a few minutes later from just
something happening, and I'm like,never mind. That could be because it's
on YouTube as well. I mean, this is on YouTube. You guys
can watch it at your leisure.By the way, for yourself, a
favor turn on close caption, becausenot even the close caption knows what's being

(29:53):
said. There were several times wherethe dog was referred to as Spider Man
for some reason. I don't knowwhy. Also, the where where the
dog goes and runs off and he'sgoes Spider. I was like, is
he scared to Spider? Oh right, dog's names Like. I had so
much anxiety Once he borrowed the dog, I'm like, yeah, give the

(30:18):
dog back. He ran off.Yeah, the marsh I'm like, and
I wrote a note somewhere. I'mlike, I knew this was gonna happen.
There did something like that like don'tlet people borrow your pets. That's
rule number three year whatever. Jeez, maybe that's a British thing. I
don't know sure, but they weretalking about how much they love this dog
and oh, he's the greatest.I'll just take him. We don't need

(30:41):
it, right. I'm hung upon that for some reason. I'm not
even a dog guy, and I'mstill hung up. But the dog was
okay, So he was okay.I would dog was the smartest one one
in the film. He ran andimmediately I'm an all out of here,
ran all the way home. Yep. I actually have a question for you
guys. Uh and I kind oftouched on it with some of my theories
as to what's going on. Butif you were to forget the remake,

(31:02):
let's say you're going to remake thisfilm today, what would you add to
it to bring it into modern times. I guess the best way to put
it what would you add or subtractor how would you change the story to
make it more interesting. I can'treally answer that after having watched the remake,
because I think they did a lotof stuff that I probably would have
done myself, Like crank up thecreepiness factor, crank up the children creepiness

(31:26):
factor. Have the woman be moreof a character in it than just appearing
like a handful of times, evenincluding the time where she's just screeching with
her bug eyes. So once Iget into a little bit of the remake,
I think you might agree too,But I'm interested in zing or what
do you think? How would youdo it? So? Something that bugs

(31:48):
me in this and other like horrormovies stuff like that, especially ghost hauntings,
is does the main character deserve whathappens to them? I don't think
this guy does. Is like,he's a good family man who's just trying
to do the right thing here.Now his boss, if the boss were
the one out there, yeah,he deserves to have everything happened to him.

(32:09):
But that's the That's the thing thatbugged me about this is I'm like,
this guy did nothing to deserve theoutcome he gets, aside from just
do his job and wanting to resolvethis situation. And there's no like warnings
of like you know, the theI don't know why this is sticking in
my head for some reason. Um, sometimes that is better, like like

(32:31):
like something like someone. I mean, yeah, they all warn him,
hey, don't go out there,but there's no one that's like, just
leave it alone, don't. Ijust feel him being the focus of the
ghost eyre is an undeserved thing.Maybe have him be unfaithful to his wife
and the remake, maybe have himbe the one who's mean to the employee,

(32:53):
like make him an unlikable character sothe outcome is kind of like deserved
instead of just God, did guydid good thing? Bad thing happened to
him in the end. Don't knowwhy I broke in the caveman explanation,
but there you go. That's that'sall I would do it. I would
want the character to deserve the outcome. Challow ground up. Then your pet.

(33:17):
That's a movie we should do,guys pet cemetery. Um, yeah,
there is, there is. Idon't disagree with you, justin but
at the same time, like maybehis quote unquote sin was choosing workover family
because he comes home and well,let's let's back up. The bosses like,

(33:39):
you gotta go do this thing atthis mansion on the other side of
England wherever it is. Uh,you have to write a train to get
there. It's far away. Andhe's like, you don't have a choice.
If you want to move up inthis firm, you have to do
this. And he's like, butI got a wife, I got a
kid, blah blah blah. Andthen he goes home. We find out
he is a nanny for Starters,So what's he even doing. There was
some weird stuff with a nanny,but his boss blames him for having kids.

(34:01):
By the way, did you catchthat. Yeah, he was like,
if you if you wanted a career, you shouldn't have had a family
or something like that basically, Andthen he goes home tells his wife,
I got to go out of townfor a week, like, good luck
with you, and the nanny likeshe'll be fine. But and they still
get a babysitter anyway, even thoughthey have a nanny. I don't understand
the whole nanny things. It's aBritish thing, Mary Poppins. The more

(34:24):
I'm talking about it, the morequestions popping in my head because he comes
home at this scene and then thelittle kids like the nanny pushed me,
and then Nanny's like, no,I didn't, and then the parents looked
concerned at each other and then nevercame up again, like is this an
abuse of nanny? Like what's happeningin this scene? But anyway, the
whole point of what I'm getting atis the boss knew about this haunting and

(34:45):
he sent him there so that theboss didn't have to go. So he
was kind of that unwilling victim.And then the choice that he made was
he chose his career well further inhis career in this instance, at least
over his family. And that wouldbe the quote unquote sin that I would
compare it to. But it's it'sa British horror film, so I feel

(35:06):
like everything's like watered down a littlebit. Not no dig on the British
whatsoever, but it's it's especially aneighty nine major TV British movie. It's
pretty dry. Let me tell youwhat they did with the remake. It's
almost a completely different story. Basically, it's the premise of a solicitor having

(35:27):
to go to eel Marsh House toadminister the final will of this widow.
That's the same. Everything else isbasically different. The woman in black in
that is much more hands on.She is like out to get kids.
There are tons of kids that havedied one of them. Harry Potter plays

(35:52):
the solicitor in it. In thisone, he is a single parent.
His wife has died in childbirth,so he's Scott the kid alone and has
a nanny to hell Sow every horrormovie starts, so we're off to a
good start. Yeah. Yeah.He is not as jovial and stuff as
a lawyer as the Southern one.In fact, the lawyer and this was

(36:15):
like you need to get your acttogether. You're like failing, so go
do this or you're fired. Andhe's like, okay, I'll do this.
And he gets there and basically thetown from the get go is like
get out. We don't want youhere, especially knowing that you're going to
go to this place where this woman'sbeen taken our kids. And at one

(36:39):
point he's like at the police stationand a few kids come in. One
of them is like sickly, andthen she just vomits blood and dies in
his arms because she has she hasingested lie. There's another part where there's
a fire. He comes into town, into town, there's a fire in

(37:00):
a house. He goes there's akid in it still, so he busts
in. He's like, I'm goingto show everybody that I'm not here to
mess with them, I'm here tohelp. He goes into it and the
kids standing there with an oil lampin her hand, surrounded by flames.
The woman in black is standing besideher, looking at her, and she
just busts this oil lamp at herfeet and goes up in flames. The

(37:22):
kids are basically drawn to death.When this woman is around, she like
causes them to do things they wouldn'tdo. It sounds like a much better,
much better movie. I liked ita lot better. Um, it
wasn't you know. It wasn't perfectby any means. There's a lot of
jump scares that are kind of corny, but it's much much more of a

(37:44):
horror film along the lines of what'shappening these days, what's being made,
you know, what we're more usedto. I think Harry Potter does a
great job in it. Oh wait, wait wait, since there's a lot
more kids in this one, there'sa standard we have here. Does one
of them it punted out the dooror any like? Because because we established

(38:05):
from what was it? La Larna? Yeah? Yeah, don't give them
get get just yet. I don'tthink there's a single yeat in this one
of all time. The kid doesyeat blood from her mouth at one point,
and then one of them yeats anoil lamp at her feet so that
she goes up. So but no, no kid, no kid themselves gets

(38:27):
heated, I don't think. Butthey do separate them at some point though,
don't They put them in different groupsand like a like a hat decides
which group they go into. Didnot happen? Wrong movie? Oh sorry,
wrong, Daniel Radcliff movie that decidesI had to throw it Harry Potter

(38:49):
joke in there somehow. Actually Igot okay, that can wait? That
can wait. So one one bigdifference in this is that Daniel Radcliffe's character
is like, I'm going to helpthis ghost. I'm going to do something
to get her to stop. Heliterally goes out at night and U goes

(39:09):
marsh diving. He dives into thisswamp and it's like it's basically tar.
It's like all this gross mud.He gets Julius Caesar to to get in
a car and pull out this carriagefrom this marsh and he gets the body
of the dead kid that is thiswoman's son, and he like takes it

(39:31):
home, cleans it up, wrapsit up, puts it in the nursery.
Where where it it? You knowit used to live? Can I
ask what state of decompositions bodies?And at this point it was pretty good.
It was still pretty good, Likeyou still see facial features and I
you know that happens with bogs,Like bodies that get put in bogs kind
of get preserved. I mean itwas it wasn't too quite to that stage.

(39:57):
It was decomposing, but it wasstill a kid. You could still
he composed. Was this body we'retalking about. So he basically invites the
woman in black to collect her kidor to be like, we're gonna bury
the kid. Everything should be fine. And the woman in black shows up,
screams at him, and then disappears, and then he's like, Okay,

(40:20):
that's it, We're done. Isolved it and so he goes back
to the train station. Now here'sthe parts that's completely wild. The maid
and his son show up there inthis town at the train station to take
him home. Why so he's talkingto Julius Caesar. The kid wanders off,

(40:44):
gets on the railroad tracks. Traincomes, Harry Potter jumps down,
grabs the kid. Daniel Redcliffe seesthe woman in black watching him as he
jumps down to get the kid.And then the next scene, the kid's
like that day, who is thatwoman there? And he's like, oh,
that's mummy and he goes up tothe to this woman. They hold

(41:06):
hands and walk off down the tracks. So obviously they die, but they
are reunited in death. He hooksup with the woman in black. No,
no, no, this was hiswife. Yeah, the woman in
black is there before he gets hitby the train. And then it ends
with the woman in black staring atthe camera as she watches them. I'm

(41:30):
sorry, I've got the summary here. Apparently she watches the happy family reunited.
She doesn't then she and then shelooks at the camera. Breaks the
fourth wall. So Harry Potter andthe kid die and getting hit by the
train, Yes, but they arereunited with the so it's kind of a
maccab happy ending. He dies alot in his movies. It's better than

(41:53):
the eighty nine version. I thinkthere was a lot more to it.
It's not perfect, but they did, I think what that original movie did
not have, which was crank upthe creepy factor, make the Woman in
Black much more of a character init, much more hands on, and
there were a lot more like youknow, he goes into the kid's room

(42:13):
and the rocking chairs rocking on itsown, and then it just stops.
There's a lot of like dolls inthe new one that they thought the jobst
creepiest faces. So you know,there's a lot of little details that are
in our zeitgeist in the horror genrenow that are added in and I think
do make it better. It soundslike they up the atmosphere, which wasn't

(42:36):
really a neat thing because if youthink about it, Beetlejuice was a year
older than than True Woman in Blackand that thing's full of atmosphere. It's
kind of tim Burton esque, butit's still atmosphere like it's it was a
concept back then. It's it's astrange decision not to include it. I
mean, and maybe they tried,but it seemed like they just used the
location as is, Like it wasn'tIt wasn't like they really tried to splice

(42:59):
it up any I mean, surethey filled it with fog, but that
was also part of the storyline,like they needed a fog in there.
So nitpicking. But yeah, soanyways, so that's uh, that's the
woman in black. I keep onthe lady in black. It is not
it is the woman in black.She was not a lady, definitely not
a lady. I don't know ifthis was your fun fact zinger or not,

(43:20):
but a little bit of irony.The dude that played the lawyer in
the first one was James Potter inthe Harry Potter films, Harry Potter's Dad.
Yeah, life imitates art comes fullcircle, the world turns again.
Yes, that that that that waspretty interesting thought. Harry Potter's dad was
dead. That was not the point. He was an orphan. No,
no, no, but but ofcourse he plays his dad when he's able

(43:43):
to see his dad. Of coursemagic. Oh the dad shows up.
Yeah, he's I've only seen thefirst Harry Potter and there was no dad
in that one. I don't thinkit was. I don't remember. Okay,
that's I believe you. That's no, it's Philosopher's Stone. And then

(44:06):
Philosopher's Stone in England, Sorcerer's Stonein America. There we go. Yeah,
Harry Potter came to America. Yeah, God, this is it?
Happened after the it's the it's theTestament of Harry Potter in America. Come
on, I showed him in Missouri, Harry Potter and Latter Day Saints.
That's right, Harry in the Churchof Latter Day Saints. Oh man,

(44:31):
this is gonna be a new Testamentto Harry Potter. It's a brand new
empathy. Um. I actually thisfun another fun fact. This is actually
based on a book. So interesting. Oh wait we said that earlier.
Yeah, a novel apparently a wholelast novel. Um. In the book,

(44:52):
however, they are killed when whenwith a horse and buggy collision,
which I guess was just too muchto annim I mean to put into film,
because instead they just had a treefall on them, tree branch all
on them in sync about I wouldhave loved to have seen this epic horse
collision just just just exactly there's thesetwo horse characters just slamming into each other

(45:20):
for thirty seconds of screaming. Youknow, it's funny, and this has
nothing to do with anything other thanwhat you just said. Justin but where
where I grew up in Ohio thevery first They call it an automobile accident,
but they don't mean they don't meancars, They mean like horse and
buggy. A guy got drunk andwas riding his buggy home and flipped it

(45:40):
and it rolled over and popped hishead off. And it was the first
ever fatality in a automobile or ina I can't remember, a vehicle or
whatever. I don't know how theyword it. But there's like a little
plaque in this little village near whereI grew up, and every time I
go by there, I'm like,that's like the very first death in Ohio
based on automo, not automo.I keep saying automobile, but it was
a horse and buggy that killed him, So whatever word they used, vehicle,

(46:05):
I suppose. But that's that's mytwod bit. I have nothing to
offer on the film, so Ijust final thoughts are, Hey, guess
what happened at Ohio this week?This is what happened in my hometown two
hundred years ago? Or what areyour final thoughts for this one? The
fact this movie both has a sequelin book form and in movie form disappoint
me to no end, and thefact they exist. I don't have any

(46:29):
interest in seeing them overall. Ilike I said, I don't think our
main character deserves the terrible torment anddeath the god. I did like him
choking out his boss randomly and burninghalf of his firm down because he lost
it. I also like how thefireman starts yelling at him for burning the

(46:52):
place down too. It was adifferent time where fireman could walk into places
and start yelling at people for whydid you do this? And I was
like a great fireman said what Iwanted to say. Though the guy's thrown
Let let me fill everybody in reallyquick. He's going through this trunk that
arrived from the woman in Black's house, and he's like freaking out with every
item he pulls out. He's lookingfor something, I think, but I

(47:14):
didn't catch it in the plot.So he's thrown papers and papers and throwing
them toward the fireplace, not init, toward it, and then they're
all like hanging out onto the carpetand onto the floor, and he's like,
that's good enough, and he dousesit with some flammable liquid. I
can't remember what I was seeing,they say in there. No, No,
it was I can't remember, theysay in the film. And it's

(47:35):
something that's not normally used. Petroleum. Yes, it was petrol, I
believe. So anyway, so he'slike, covers all these financial documents with
this flammable liquid and just lights itup and the carpets on fire, and
like he's just standing in there lookingat it, and he's putting it in
the fireplace. Yeah, and thenhe's like, oh, the trunk.
So he douses that thing and flammableliquid and throws it on the ground like

(47:58):
he doesn't even bother and the wholething burns down. And the whole time
I'm yelling at him, what areyou doing? You're gonna cut your whole
office on fire. And I guessthat was the point he lost his marbles.
Now that it is a fun questionwas he crazy the whole time?
Because I pointed out that that theeel manner whatever burned down too, And
did he destroy all the stuff inthe kid's room as he was trying to

(48:24):
the fireplace. Yeah, he doesn'tknow how to use a fireplace. This
is the problem. He doesn't knowhow to use a fireplace. He's just
like fire make O. That's verycave man ask of you today, justin
that's like place fire, sleeveless burn. Is it my turn for my opinion?

(48:45):
Yeah? Did you get your finalthoughts out? This is what happens
when the films are or I'll saythe word boring for lack of a better
term. But it makes it hardto do these shows. Like it's hard
to talk about these sometimes because it'slike what do you talk about? Like,
I don't want to harp on allthe bad things this thing did because
it is thirty something, you're thirtythree years old or whatever. Oh yeah,

(49:07):
it makes your shiver just to saythat. But you know, you
don't want to rag on the wholething the whole time. But at the
same time, like, there reallywasn't a lot redeeming about it. Like
I said earlier, it could havebeen boiled down to a ten fifteen minute
short, and I think that wouldhave been boring. Honestly, I see
why they did a remake of it. It has meat on the bone where
you can add to this story,and it has that nostalgia to it,

(49:30):
so I understand why they would takethat gamble. I'm anxious to see the
new version of it, even thoughDavid just gave the entire plot away for
us. I might spoiler alert bythe way, guys I've ever done talking
about it. I don't know.If you have a boring night and you
have your phone out and you're drinkingsome beer or something, maybe put it

(49:52):
on in the background just to seewhat we're talking about. But certainly don't
run and watch this film. Icouldn't agree. This is such a low
burn you. You really have tobe committed to watching British made for television
films of the eighties to make itthrough this thing. It's so slow,

(50:13):
and I do think that the newerversion does a much better job of cutting
to the chase and getting to thestuff that's juicier and just more interesting all
around. I don't I guess thatthe story ends better in the new one
than the It's kind of weird becausein the in the old version, the
woman follows them to London. She'snot stuck in this little Seaside Town,

(50:37):
which is kind of a weird ghostrule breaking, I think, But it
is very hard to watch if you'renot actively trying to be like, oh,
let's let's just see what this is. And you know, I'm going
to make a point to watch thiswhole thing, So take that as you
will. I guess that's not agreat endorsement of this thing, but at

(51:00):
the time, I think it's whatinterests me the most about it is that
it was so well received and wentstraight to legend basically when it when it
aired, and then because it wasn'tre aired until like five years later,
it it added to the legend.And I think that's why it occupies such

(51:20):
a place in people's hearts, andthe nostalgia really rings true for them.
So, um, if you're gonnawatch it, watch both compare them,
you know, if you got thetime, uh, and if not,
you could you could take a passif you want. That's my thought that
one scene you can find, theone scene if you just type in the

(51:42):
woman in black, that scene,you know, the one I'm talking about,
that probably would get through. Pullit up for you and turn your
speakers down to about I mean this, they make the sound that Jim Carey
makes in Dumb and Dummer. That'sexactly the sound. It's exactly the sound.

(52:04):
I guess the New One was successful. They say it grossed two hundred
and thirty worldwide, so that's probablywhat a forty fifty million dollar movie something
like that, I would guess.I would guess it might be a little
bit good. Yeah, I thinkit's very well made, the New One.
I don't know if it's necessarily great, but fifteen to seventeen million box
office one hundred and sev that's good. That's a good return. In reality,

(52:31):
it's probably ten ten million more thanthat, so it's still a really
good return. But they always fudgethose numbers a little bit. So that's
that's the woman Black. Thanks forlistening to this round table. Let's go
around and tell everybody where they canfind more of us Zinger. Let's start
with you. Oh, you canof correspond me every week on the Zingis

(52:52):
podcast talking about nerdy topics and sincewe are in um patent pending Zectober.
Oh sorry, yeah, I wouldsay we did this exact same Joe last
year too. Um, we're we'recovering more paranormal stuff like that. So
definitely check us out. Otherwise,we're covering basically anything pop culture, including
movies, TV shows, and everythingnerdy that is. Zignis about ze n

(53:16):
G this well, you can findme monsters on this podcast is the name
of my show, and you canfind it anywhere you find a podcast.
We release every Thursday on the dot. We almost never miss a day.
But we're in season fourteen now,so brand new season, brand new stories.
They're always brand new stories, butthey're extra brand new this time.
Hume off the prices. You canfind blurry photos same places, just such

(53:39):
blurry Photos podcast. Blurry photos dotorg is the one stop shop, and
please give us all a follow andlikes and all that all that good stuff
that helps us out socially. Sofor this round table, I've been David,
I've been Derek, and I'm asinger and she's been the Woman in Black
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