June 5, 2024 • 44 mins
Recorded January 2024. We apologize for the unexpected hiatus, crazy how life happens in all its glory and horror. Speaking of real life, in this episode we surprise each other with a film whose backstory or inspiration is derived from disturbing and very true events. We recount the facts of the story and compare how they were adapted into the films. Christine presents on Wolf Creek (2005) and Carissa covers Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) in this first installment.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of In Horror We Trust.
(00:10):
What's your favorite scary movie?
Well, Krissa, it's 2024.
Yeah, it is.
It's another year.
2024. It's been quite a ride and quite a gap.
(00:33):
It definitely has.
You know, I know I feel like we're saying this consistently now, but it was just a busy time of year.
We were busy with work, busy with family, celebrating the holidays, but...
Depression.
But we're here.
The big old, the big D.
The big D.
(00:55):
But we're here.
But we made it through.
And we're back.
And guess what? You can now expect to listen to us the first Wednesday of every month.
Yes!
This is a promise. This is an oath we are taking.
Cross your heart and hope to die. Cross your heart and hope to die.
Stick a needle in your eye.
(01:17):
But yes, we're promising to be more consistent to our listeners and you can expect us first Wednesday of every month.
This may increase at some point, but for right now this is what we're sticking to.
So if you enjoy our episodes, please tune in.
Bring you a little consistency.
(01:38):
Bring ourselves a little consistency in our chaotic lives.
Yes. You know, we're just two girls trying to do the damn thing.
And sometimes it's not as easy as it sounds.
Oh yeah.
Oh sorry, Adam.
Two girls and one dude just trying to do the damn thing.
On today's episode, Chris and I have kind of concocted a little special new series.
(02:06):
But before we get into that, we kind of wanted to recap what 2023 has been like.
What our favorite movie was, what we've been watching, and maybe what we're looking forward to in 2024.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's been a long year. Yes.
It felt like it went fast, but also as long as shit.
(02:28):
Maybe not the best year, you know?
It was a little scarce in the film world.
But you know, there were a lot of reasons for it. So, you know, we can't knock it.
Yeah. So it was kind of hard to pick a number one favorite for me.
(02:49):
I don't know if there was any particular one that really, really stood out to me.
I do have a few that I really enjoyed.
And I guess, yeah, so this isn't like a strong, you know, like, yeah, this one all about it.
It's not a strong number one. Yeah, it's definitely strong.
But anyway, OK, a little unconventional, but Godzilla minus one.
(03:13):
Oh, my goodness. I've heard it's so good. It's so good.
I really want to check that out. I think you would enjoy it. Yeah.
Like, you know, it's like, it's Godzilla action horror, but it's way better than it was way better than the American ones, in my opinion.
I've been hearing such great things about it.
And it makes me happy that that made your number one. Yeah.
(03:36):
And I haven't really watched previous Japanese ones besides like clips from the OG from the original.
But there's like Shin Godzilla before, which was a newer Japanese one and different different takes on like Godzilla's origin story.
But this one is like set in the in the 40s again during the war.
And it was it was just a fantastic piece of cinema.
(04:01):
Like, that's amazing sound. We saw it in Dolby, which was incredible.
I would highly recommend if anyone I know it's kind of late now. Yeah, I might be out of theaters, but I believe they're going to release it in black and white.
Oh, so check it out. Although the color was dope.
But yeah, some very striking imagery.
The sound and the music was incredible. And it's just like epic.
(04:26):
Honestly, like an epic horror movie. That's amazing. Horror action. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So that was a surprising one. I was so pleasantly surprised.
I remember Adam, I watched it before me and he was just talking about how how much he enjoyed it.
It was. Yeah. And yeah.
And like the human characters in it are they actually have a great story for the characters that you really care about them.
(04:49):
And it's like emotional. Yeah. Oh, goodness. OK. I'm going to have to watch out for that one.
I've been wanting to see it, but I just have not had the time and then hearing so much praise and then hearing you enjoy it.
I'm like, I need to see this. I need to catch it. Yeah.
So my pick along the same lines, like it was a little difficult to pick a top film of last year.
(05:12):
There are so many that I enjoyed, but I didn't feel like there was a clear number one,
as we have in previous years, been able to easily kind of choose one.
But I would say out of the films that I watched, I could easily place One Evil Lurks as number one.
I just I thought it came out of left field. There wasn't much that I heard about.
(05:36):
And then when it came out, everybody was kind of discussing it and talking about it.
And I love foreign horror. So as soon as I found that out, I was like, OK, I'm game. Argentinian.
Yes. We all watched it on Halloween. And I was kind of thrown back.
Like, I think it was a master class of working in anxiety and dread.
(05:59):
And there were so many moments where I was sitting there and I was like, they're not going to do it.
They're not going to do that. They're no, no way. And then they did it.
And I think a lot of the violence and the gore in this film wasn't necessarily done for shock value.
It made a point in the film itself. It was part of the storyline.
(06:20):
It was well integrated into it. And it was definitely an interesting take on like a virus possess kind of film.
Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, not to mention like one of the coolest interpretations of demonic possession.
It was possession in general. And I like that they didn't really explain much.
Like they left a lot to your imagination, you piecing it together. There were very rough rules kind of thrown into it that some followed, some didn't.
(06:50):
And I really, really, really loved the special effects makeup in this movie.
That beginning scene with the first rotten that we experience, I audibly gagged.
Like I felt like we could smell him through the TV. And that's such impressive makeup work.
In my opinion, it was so well done. The pacing, just everything about this movie was great.
(07:17):
But yeah, that was my number one, 2023 pick. Great choice. I think that would have been my number two, essentially.
I think just another few that I really enjoyed or a couple more that I enjoyed during the year is Talk to Me.
That one was great. I mean, there was Evil Dead Rise.
(07:39):
I honestly forgot that Talk to Me came out last year. Yeah, it was one of my favorite films, but I just I completely forgot it came out last year.
For some reason, I assumed it came out the year before. Yeah, that one's so funny.
And what a debut for those filmmakers. I know I'm I cannot wait to see what else they have in store for us.
(08:00):
Yeah. So I saw Saw X. Okay.
Which was kind of interesting for me because I know I saw the first few and then I kind of trailed off on the latter half of the series.
But I've been hearing such interesting things about Saw X. So I thought I'd throw it on. I have conflicting kind of feelings about it.
(08:24):
I don't like how they humanized Jigsaw. I think it was weird. I don't think we should be feeling bad for his character.
He's done some pretty heinous evil shit. And the whole movie, you kind of feel bad for him.
And that kind of turned me off of the film a little bit. But then once we got into the actual games, it was like, okay, this is Saw.
(08:51):
But I have to say some of these games were disgusting. Like, I don't know if I've just gotten to the age where I can't handle that I'm out of gore anymore.
But I was wincing and turning away. It was just it was borderline too much for me.
The one on the poster has to do with eyeballs, right? Yeah. But it was good.
I'm not going to say anything about that in case you want to see it. But it's it was it's worth a watch. I'll say that much. It's worth a watch.
(09:19):
I had fun with it. Besides that major point, I was able to kind of like look past it and keep watching.
So it was okay. Yeah, I would definitely recommend people check it out if you if you like the Saw series. Definitely. Yeah.
But yeah, I also saw Totally Killer, which was a really fun movie on Prime.
(09:42):
It was just it was a really good time. It dealt with a little bit of time travel. It was it was just good. It was fun.
Highly recommend. And then I saw this one. I absolutely adored.
It was a really, really, really good movie. It's called No One Will Save You. Oh, I was wanting to watch this.
(10:05):
No One Will Save You was such a treat. It was not what I was expecting.
It was a great take in that subgenre. I'm not going to say much because I don't want to spoil it for you.
Once you know stuff about it, it like that's it. So I think you should go into the movie not knowing much about it.
(10:29):
But it was very enjoyable. The acting was really well done. The sound design was impeccable.
It was a great film. And I definitely recommend. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. It's very fun. Yeah. I've been wanting to watch that.
Well, I guess looking at what we're most excited for in twenty twenty four to come out, I would say for me personally,
(10:53):
I am most excited for Robert Eggers Nosratu. Yeah, I cannot wait to see what he does.
Because like, you know, it's a silent film. What German expressionism like I want to see what Robert Eggers does with that, like the style.
Yeah. Just the look of it, the acting. And Robert Eggers puts out really good, really good film.
(11:19):
So, yeah, that's definitely like attention to detail. Yeah. I'm just so excited.
And what Bill Skarsgard is supposed to play really good cast. Yeah. Oh, man.
That one. And well, obviously, Maxine. Yes. Oh, I feel like I had another one.
(11:41):
Oh, yeah. OK. Another another one that we've just been getting some like just snippets like little teasers for by neon is Long Legs.
So they've been releasing a couple 30 second teasers online that are very cryptic.
There's like little images of symbols spliced between just like these images that give no information. It's just like a very eerie.
(12:11):
So image when I first saw one of the little mini trailers for that, I wasn't sure what it was.
And I started watching it and I got a little freaked out not because it was scary, but I thought it was going to be like one of those jumpscare videos.
So I turned it off. It does feel like that. But like, I really like how they're doing the marketing.
(12:35):
I guess spearheading the marketing is just like super simple and they're not giving you a lot, but I'm already like super intrigued.
I'm very I'm very much liking this like new emphasis on marketing for horror films. Yeah.
It's always so effective, especially specifically with horror. It's always been such a like good marriage.
(12:56):
You see it with, you know, back with Blair Witch project. Yeah. And even before that, you know. Yeah, definitely.
It's very effective for horror movies. Absolutely.
I don't think I have one particular movie that I'm really looking forward to this year.
I think I'm just looking forward to all of these movies coming out this year. There's stuff. Yeah.
(13:18):
I'm just I'm so looking forward to new things. And I think we have quite a hefty list ahead of us.
And I have just learned that I shouldn't over hype myself about anything. Right.
And just kind of take it as it comes and see if I enjoy it, see if I don't. Totally.
So I'm just kind of excited for a new year of films. Yeah. Yeah. For real.
(13:40):
Wee! Well, yeah, that I mean, that wraps up our little recap. Yeah, definitely.
I guess on to the main episode. Yeah. So, Krissa, do you want to kind of explain our episodes?
Yeah. So I thought a cool idea would be to start a little series within the podcast where we each installment of this series.
(14:09):
Christine and I will pick a film that is inspired or based on true events.
And we will not tell each other which one we're doing and we'll kind of like ask what we'll tell Adam what our picks are so we can see that we're not doing the same movie, hopefully.
Yes. And if one does, we'll just have to choose which one does it anyway.
(14:33):
And then we present it to each other. So we get a little, you know, surprise, a little excitement to learn from each other about what inspired this film.
And just to see like, sorry if you hear heavy breathing, that's belly.
That's a ghost. That's a ghost.
But yeah, it's just we'll describe the events that the movie was based on or inspired by because there's some really interesting stories behind some of these films, and then just see like how it's been twisted and like adapted into either a whole new film or you know, some of these movies are solely based on that subject matter like it is the story.
(15:13):
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
Who should go first? I don't know.
Are you more excited? Yes, I can go first.
Okay.
So my chosen film for our episode today is 2005 Wolf Creek.
Oh, okay.
(15:35):
Written and directed and produced by Greg McLean. This is a horror film based on the true events combining two of Australia's most notorious serial killers Bradley Murdoch and Ivan Millet.
So, Millet has killed at least seven people between the years of 1989 and 1993, and famously became known as the backpack killings these murders.
(16:05):
His first two victims were discovered by runners.
In September of 1992, police discovered and later confirmed the bodies were those of Caroline Clark and Joanna Walters Walters had been stabbed repeatedly and Clark had been shot repeatedly.
(16:38):
Police guessed that Clark was used as target practice.
Oh my god.
A few years later, a human skull was discovered and, and hold on.
A few years later a human skull was discovered in a secluded area, which led to the discovery of bodies of Deborah Everest and James Gibson.
(17:04):
These people had gone missing in 1993.
As more time went on more bodies were being discovered, and the police were all linking this to Millet.
One of Millet's victims managed to escape and his name was Paul onions. Paul worked with detectives eventually confirm and convict Millet, they identified him and he also identified I think his car.
(17:35):
And that's what brought him down.
So Millet was found guilty in July of 1999, and he remained incarcerated until the day he died.
Nice, which I don't have that exact date, but it was a while ago.
So our second serial killer Murdoch was, he was famously known for killing an English backpacker named Peter the land Cino, a 28 year old tourist who disappeared in Australia.
(18:12):
This case caught attention of not only local news but national news. And this kind of happened in the wake of Millet's previous killings.
So people were kind of more on edge. And so more and more people were kind of catching on to what was happening.
(18:33):
So Paul was traveling with his girlfriend Joanna, when they were spotted by the stranger who turned out to be Murdoch Murdoch pulled them over or tried to speak to them and let them know that their car had appeared to be malfunctioning.
Lee said that the two pulled over to take a look at the car when the stranger pulled out a gun.
Lee managed to escape. But it was not after unfortunately, she freed herself from being bound with tape and was sexually assaulted.
(19:06):
Lee was a person to identify Murdoch from police, police photos, and Murdoch was found guilty in December of 2005.
So Greg McLean wrote the original story for Wolf Creek before he learned about the killings of Millet and Murdoch.
He wrote the story, and it was purely fictional horror film set in the Australian outback.
(19:32):
He later became aware of the true cases, and he took ideas and cues from that and blended it into his story which is Wolf Creek today.
This eventually brought more attention and light to the killings of both Millet and Murdoch.
So Wolf Creek itself is just, it's pretty scary.
(19:53):
The film does take a bit to kick in but the later half of the film is just soaked with gore and is honestly nightmare fuel.
It is so sad. It is so unrelenting and it just, once it kind of kicks in, it doesn't let go.
But I think what makes it even scarier is that the character of Mick, the villain, he just kind of continues to embed that humor even when he is hurting people.
(20:19):
And it makes it that much scarier.
There's not really much that's left to the imagination of this film.
When the torture kind of kicks in, it shows you everything.
The camera does not shy away so it is a little intense in that respect.
I'm honestly not entirely sure if some of this film kind of shows the gruesome kind of reality of what Millet and Murdoch had done to their victims.
(20:51):
But it was clear enough to make me not want to travel to Australia.
At least not the outback.
But that is the story of Wolf Creek and how it ties into true events.
I actually have seen that film. You might have showed me it, to be honest, a while ago.
Wolf Creek is pretty, I'm going to be blunt, pretty fucked up. That movie is intense.
(21:17):
There is a sequel.
Yeah, I was going to say, isn't there?
There is a sequel and I think there's a series about it too. I have not watched the series.
I'm not even sure if I've seen the sequel.
But yeah, Wolf Creek is pretty intense.
I mean, there's a lot of content that, you know, like, based off serial killers.
(21:42):
Because yeah, I mean, they are like some true real life horror, like monsters.
I just think it's kind of interesting how he didn't know about the cases.
But then eventually wrote them into the story, which I think makes it a little bit more menacing.
That he drew ideas from that.
(22:03):
But I guess it lent some, I guess, I don't know, more detail to go off of in the most fucked up way.
Absolutely.
Can I read you the plot synopsis of the movie and how closely it kind of sounds like the murders of both Murdoch and Millet?
(22:25):
So a chilling factually based story of three road trippers in the remote territory of Australia who plunged into danger when they accept help from a friendly local.
So Christy, Ben and Liz are the three friends in their 20s who set out to hike through the scenic Wolf Creek National Park in the Australia Outback.
(22:54):
Then trouble begins when they find out their car won't start and they run into the local Bushmen named Mick Taylor.
So same kind of set up as the way that some of these men killed their victims where they were tourists, they were backpackers, they were left in kind of a vulnerable state and then they preyed on them.
(23:17):
Yeah.
Oh man, that's fucked up.
Yeah.
Might make you look at Wolf Creek a little different.
You know what's funny?
Because this is kind of like the reverse of it.
But I'm pretty sure My Favorite Murder has an episode on the serial killers.
Oh, no way.
But they like mentioned like, oh, there was a movie.
There's a movie about it.
How funny.
So we just zibbidy doodah.
(23:38):
No, that's cool.
And there's, it's a good Australian horror film.
There's a lot more information on both men.
But I just figured I'd probably leave out the gruesome bits because it's, it's pretty f'd up what they speculated were done to these people.
So it happened to real people.
Yeah.
(23:59):
And I don't want to.
Nothing to laugh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wolf Creek.
Give it a watch if you know, if it's not for the faint of heart.
It's not for the faint of heart.
But if you're curious and you like horror, I definitely suggest giving it a watch.
So the film I'm doing is the classic Nightmare on Elm Street.
(24:22):
Oh, yes.
And I don't know if you know, maybe there's a lot of people that don't know it is based on true events.
It kind of sounds weird because you think of it and it seems pretty kind of fantastical of an idea.
And obviously they do take creative liberties.
But it's honestly surprising how similar like stuff in the movie is based on some true events.
(24:48):
Yeah.
So 1984's Nightmare on Elm Street directed by Wes Craven.
Bless.
So my research is primarily based from an interview with Wes Craven for Cine Fantastique magazine and then an LA Times article, which is the articles that Wes Craven had read that inspired him.
(25:14):
Okay.
Nice. So basically Wes Craven had read three articles from the LA Times that covered stories about men from Southeast Asia who had died in the middle of nightmares.
And this phenomenon, at least in the articles he read, particularly revolved around Cambodian like Laos, Cambodia refugees.
(25:41):
But it was found that this phenomenon had occurred with populations in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, not in China though.
But yeah, so Southeast Asia.
And basically, Wes Craven had read of a case of a son of a physician.
And this son would force himself to stay awake and as much as his family would plead for him to get sleep, he would say something like, you don't understand, I've had nightmares before, this is different.
(26:14):
They were like kind of describing something in his nightmares and he did not want to go to sleep.
As if something was going to get him potentially.
And his family would give him sleeping pills because he was forcing himself to stay awake so much but like he stayed up for a few more days until finally he did fall asleep.
(26:35):
They took him to his room, and then they heard him cry out and heard crashing sounds.
And then when they got to him, he was dead.
And they they had found a coffee pot in his closet and the sleeping pills he had like spit out and saved on the side because he was that paranoid and that like, just not wanting to go to sleep.
(26:57):
Crazy.
And there was no evidence of a heart attack, which is true for a bunch of these cases.
He died from unexplained reasons in his sleep.
And in the LA Times article that I read, which was from 1987, which was kind of cool, by Larry Doyle.
(27:20):
He describes that he describes at least 130 cases of this unexplained death during sleep in Southeast Asian refugees.
Way more than I thought.
And like, they have different names for it in different languages like in the Philippines, they have this name for it in Japan.
(27:41):
There's another name, but they all roughly translate to nightmare death, or like night terror, which is so eerie and obviously you can see how that plays into nightmare on Elm Street.
And so this LA Times article further describes Dr. Robert Kirchner, who is the deputy Cook County medical examiner.
(28:04):
He did a systematic study of this phenomenon in specifically looking at 18 autopsies of victims, and they all showed no prior symptoms or medical issues.
They were healthy younger men with an average age of 33.
And he found that it only had occurred in men and only in their sleep.
(28:27):
They cry out and die or are found the next morning just dead of a sudden heart stoppage.
And again, there's, it's just kind of unexplained like, again, no prior symptoms, no medical, like history of medical issues.
He, he did find that all 18 hearts were slightly enlarged and 17 of the 18 hearts showed defects in their conduction systems, which the conduction system, medical school, the conduction system is the array of fibers that carries electronic impulses from the brain to the heart.
(29:08):
The fibers were frayed and curled as if their hearts just shorted out.
In Kirchner's theory, something at night, like a random electronic discharge may have overloaded their defective hearts.
But it's like what did that, what was, what caused that random electronic discharge, you know.
(29:34):
And I guess there were studies of Caucasian men who had died suddenly and they did not show the same defect in the heart.
So yeah, like what caused this, what caused the defect or what caused it to short out and why is it, you know, it's only in men and only during their sleep is very weird.
(29:55):
And he also did posit that like maybe it could be genetic, you know, but stress could also play a factor.
These were refugees and especially like the Cambodian refugees at that time were fleeing the genocide in Cambodia or, you know, who knows what stress, especially like moving to another country or just another place and like trying to settle in.
(30:18):
But you would think stress would lead to a heart attack, not just like your heart magically stopping. That's so crazy.
And in your sleep, like, oh my, you know, yeah, it's so weird.
And yeah, most deaths occurred within two years of the refugees like arriving in their new homeland.
That's wild.
Yeah, it was, it's, it's so, it's just so eerie and you can obviously see how that inspired Nightmare on Elm Street, but it is really cool.
(30:52):
Well, okay, it's not cool.
I like to see the similarities of like that one story of this son of this of the physician taking like, they were trying to his parents trying to make him take sleeping pills because obviously they're worried about him you sleep, and then them fighting it so hard, because he's like scared.
(31:13):
And then like spitting out the sleeping pills having a coffee pot in the room is just very reminiscent of what you see in the movie with a, yeah, Heather Lang and Camp's character and Johnny Depp trying to keep themselves awake.
I think this is so much eerie than for instance like my story of Wolf Creek because Wolf Creek is a person like there's, it's a person who's doing this you know the outcome you know what happened to these poor people.
(31:38):
Like, yours, like a nightmare on Elm Street, there's no explanation.
Yeah, this day nobody knows what happened to these men. Yeah, that's scary. It is scary and, ooh, I don't know it's just, it is so interesting that it specifically happened in these southeastern Asian refugees like that's very specific part of the world.
(32:02):
Super specific. Yeah. You know who knows what goes into it I don't know if food certain foods or you know who knows like, I'm sure they've studied it. Well obviously they, some people did study it but um, that'd be really interesting to see if they could go back and like do more research on it nowadays since we have like a lot more technology.
(32:25):
Right. Yeah, that would be interesting. But then it might ruin the allure of the film.
You know, um, but yeah what a like way to, yeah, to really amplify that for a horror film and just create one of the most iconic horror characters of all time.
And being that like, yeah, just, I can't go to sleep because this thing's going to get me.
(32:51):
But yeah, I thought that I remember, I remember hearing that this was based on true events briefly and probably some documentary on Nightmare on Elm Street and I was like, what?
I didn't realize it was so many like I remember hearing something similar to this but like I just assumed it was one person. I know. Not that it was like a phenomena of like men in a certain area that's crazy.
(33:16):
Yeah, in the 1987 LA Times article he has mentioned like at least 130 cases. That's crazy. But he, that Dr. Kirschner had looked at 18 copies.
It's definitely, will make me never watch that movie the same way again. I know, it's so sad. Yeah. It's scary. I don't mean to laugh, like I'm laughing because I'm uncomfortable. That's like, it's so creepy.
(33:43):
Yeah, that would make you not sleep, you know, be scared to sleep besides them.
Would you be able to keep yourself awake if like something was scaring you to sleep because me personally, I feel like I get to a certain point where my eyes just close like I have no control over it.
Same, I think it could last two days.
(34:05):
I think I could do like a single day. I think I could do 24 hours before my body's like, nope, you're going to bed. I know. When you said 33 year olds like, and then you were like men, I was like, uh, uh oh, uh oh, uh oh.
(34:27):
What's gonna happen to you? No, I hope not. Cut that out. That was terrible for me to say. Fuck that.
Let's cut that out.
Don't fall asleep.
It hasn't. It's not a current phenomenon. This is back in the 80s, which inspired the film. Again, they had mentioned that like, they've observed this happens within two years of them like migrating.
(34:57):
And then it started to fall off after the two years. So presumably when they got more comfortable. So like, yeah, there's a lot of factors that could have caused this. But I don't know. It's just an amalgamation of things, you know, but it's still really weird.
That's so really weird. So odd.
Yeah, like, those are the in their sleep and a lot of them had cried out like, you know, like they're running from something that's in their nightmare. Like that must have been so scary. Yeah. Gosh.
(35:29):
Well, there is also that like old wives like tales saying like, if you die in your sleep, you die in real life. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah.
Don't die in your dreams. Yeah, it's so such. I don't mean to joke. This is a really serious subject. Yeah. It really does provide great subject matter for a horror movie that is truly frightening.
(35:56):
And then you had to put maybe putting a face especially Freddy Krueger in that kind of character putting a face to it. Yeah, lessons the it almost Yeah lessons how scary the events are because it's like, you can attribute it to something.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Whereas the real events are just super unknown. Yeah. Yeah. So sorry, Freddie, you're not about scared.
(36:21):
He's gonna visit you tonight. No, please. I want to prime time that bitch podcast. Adam, do you have any films that you can think of that, like are based on true events or are, you know, true stories that you could recall maybe like one or two that you either know something about or just super interested in.
(36:50):
I definitely have a few for future episodes but yeah, definitely don't have to go into full detail about it but just anything that you've seen over time that have been like, oh, that true event. Yes. Behind that story kind of makes me want to wonder what happened there.
Yeah, like, it was surprising that you you saw it was based on true events. Yeah. No, I can't really think of any I know that for a nightmare on home street. I mean, I can only imagine that a lot of it has to do with like, I mean, Laos is one of the most bombed countries ever.
(37:25):
Yeah, you know, and if you look at some of the pictures of like the victims. They, they look like burn victims like Freddie Krueger. And so I feel like my heart, like, I don't know.
But they said like a lot of the connection or a lot of the cases were like, yeah, specifically lao Asian, like, people of them among descent stuff which.
(37:52):
I guess it does make Freddie Krueger kind of scary when you think about it after that factoid. Yeah.
And when I say like stress play plays a factor for some of these people that stress was like really bad, you know, from really traumatic events that they were fleeing.
(38:13):
So, I mean, that that is probably obviously stirred nightmares. And yeah, maybe it did. It was some electronic impulse from such vivid, horrifying nightmares that was enough to cause that.
It could have even been like some sort of case of PSD in your nightmare. Yeah. You know, but it is interesting because the hearts in the study, you know, had the certain defect.
(38:36):
And it's like, I wonder what that defect was from and how that played into it. Caucasian men or whatever.
It was like the pairing of, yeah, maybe such a vivid traumatizing nightmare causing that electronic overload in their heart.
But it's like, you know, if they didn't have that defect in their conduction system in the heart, like, would they have died?
(39:02):
It's just so weird. Yeah, there's too many like what ifs and. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, that really adds a lot of layers to those films that I don't think I could watch it again.
As humorous and not as, you know, because it's become such a like pop culture icon. Yeah, absolutely.
(39:24):
That you kind of, you know, particularly get scared by them. I mean, Freddie himself is a pop culture icon where he's just like cracking jokes left and right.
But this makes it a little more menacing and especially the first one.
I think it makes it more menacing because he talks the least in the first one. He doesn't get the humor until later on.
So and then adding like this back story, it's like, wow, this is this is. Yeah, this is a lot.
(39:52):
Yeah, dang. Yeah. Look into it. I'm sure there's more interviews with Westgrave and talking about it if you're interested or if you want to take a look at the studies or the articles yourself.
Yeah, just look it up online. But very interesting. Absolutely. And I think if you're brave enough, you should watch both movies.
Yeah. That's your double feature. Yeah. For the night.
(40:18):
No, that's cool. I do look forward to doing more of these. I do too. There's a lot of there's a lot of movies out there with some crazy events that inspired them.
This was really insightful because I feel like we all kind of know like the base like the very tip of the iceberg on some of the knowledge of these films that are based on true events.
(40:41):
And I think to do such like dig deep on these it uncovers stuff that's just kind of interesting. Yeah. And it kind of makes them a little dark. Yeah. Yeah.
And then for any buddy looking to make horror content out there. Maybe there's some inspirational look at some true events to see what can inspire not not is not going to that.
(41:06):
I just get it. I just get it in that way. To make to make their own films, but like their own stories. Yeah. But you you got to respect. You know, you got to respect. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Especially especially when real people are involved. I think there needs to be why you turn it into a metaphor or like very loosely based and make your own.
(41:28):
But yeah, there's a lot of, you know, horrifying stuff that happens in the world that inspires certain things. And it is it's kind of interesting to think that horror movies can be like a way.
Well, yeah, I mean, horror movies are a way they make it easy easier for you to face like horrific things, you know, especially when they're when yeah, they kind of adapt real life events.
(41:57):
It's like an easier way to digest and kind of like face things from a safe space. Oh, absolutely. They're cathartic. They're a way for you to process really heavy events. Exactly. Exactly.
And I think it's like really interesting how much horror plays like a part in where we are in the world and how sometimes it's a reflection of where we are in the world and it makes it a more digestible way for us to kind of understand and reflect like where we are as either a society or with world events or anything like that.
(42:33):
So it's really it's really interesting. Yeah, the part of me was going to say like it's kind of weird to think that because you know horror movies you think of as like, oh, that's, you know, I don't want to or small.
We want to watch it. But like some people it's like, oh, that's really hard to stomach or whatever. But in a way, it's actually less horrific than like the real thing. Yeah, absolutely. Because obviously everything we just said.
(43:00):
Oh man, hell of an episode. Hell of an episode. We're back baby.
Sorry, yeah, I'm a little tired. I think I'm gonna maybe go take a little nap before we start our next episode. Okay, Christine, I think I don't think that's such a good idea. Did you not hear when we just talked about it? No, no, no, but it's okay. I'm just I think like a quick little cat nap like 15 minutes or so.
(43:28):
Okay, I'll be right back.
One, two, Freddy's coming for you.
Three, four, better lock your door.
Five, six, seven, eight.
(43:49):
I'm dead.
Nine, ten, Freddy's coming again.
Is that what it is? Never sleep again? Never. Oh, I don't know.
Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of In Horror We Trust.
(00:10):
What's your favorite scary movie?
Well, Krissa, it's 2024.
Yeah, it is.
It's another year.
2024. It's been quite a ride and quite a gap.
(00:33):
It definitely has.
You know, I know I feel like we're saying this consistently now, but it was just a busy time of year.
We were busy with work, busy with family, celebrating the holidays, but...
Depression.
But we're here.
The big old, the big D.
The big D.
(00:55):
But we're here.
But we made it through.
And we're back.
And guess what? You can now expect to listen to us the first Wednesday of every month.
Yes!
This is a promise. This is an oath we are taking.
Cross your heart and hope to die. Cross your heart and hope to die.
Stick a needle in your eye.
(01:17):
But yes, we're promising to be more consistent to our listeners and you can expect us first Wednesday of every month.
This may increase at some point, but for right now this is what we're sticking to.
So if you enjoy our episodes, please tune in.
Bring you a little consistency.
(01:38):
Bring ourselves a little consistency in our chaotic lives.
Yes. You know, we're just two girls trying to do the damn thing.
And sometimes it's not as easy as it sounds.
Oh yeah.
Oh sorry, Adam.
Two girls and one dude just trying to do the damn thing.
On today's episode, Chris and I have kind of concocted a little special new series.
(02:06):
But before we get into that, we kind of wanted to recap what 2023 has been like.
What our favorite movie was, what we've been watching, and maybe what we're looking forward to in 2024.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's been a long year. Yes.
It felt like it went fast, but also as long as shit.
(02:28):
Maybe not the best year, you know?
It was a little scarce in the film world.
But you know, there were a lot of reasons for it. So, you know, we can't knock it.
Yeah. So it was kind of hard to pick a number one favorite for me.
(02:49):
I don't know if there was any particular one that really, really stood out to me.
I do have a few that I really enjoyed.
And I guess, yeah, so this isn't like a strong, you know, like, yeah, this one all about it.
It's not a strong number one. Yeah, it's definitely strong.
But anyway, OK, a little unconventional, but Godzilla minus one.
(03:13):
Oh, my goodness. I've heard it's so good. It's so good.
I really want to check that out. I think you would enjoy it. Yeah.
Like, you know, it's like, it's Godzilla action horror, but it's way better than it was way better than the American ones, in my opinion.
I've been hearing such great things about it.
And it makes me happy that that made your number one. Yeah.
(03:36):
And I haven't really watched previous Japanese ones besides like clips from the OG from the original.
But there's like Shin Godzilla before, which was a newer Japanese one and different different takes on like Godzilla's origin story.
But this one is like set in the in the 40s again during the war.
And it was it was just a fantastic piece of cinema.
(04:01):
Like, that's amazing sound. We saw it in Dolby, which was incredible.
I would highly recommend if anyone I know it's kind of late now. Yeah, I might be out of theaters, but I believe they're going to release it in black and white.
Oh, so check it out. Although the color was dope.
But yeah, some very striking imagery.
The sound and the music was incredible. And it's just like epic.
(04:26):
Honestly, like an epic horror movie. That's amazing. Horror action. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. So that was a surprising one. I was so pleasantly surprised.
I remember Adam, I watched it before me and he was just talking about how how much he enjoyed it.
It was. Yeah. And yeah.
And like the human characters in it are they actually have a great story for the characters that you really care about them.
(04:49):
And it's like emotional. Yeah. Oh, goodness. OK. I'm going to have to watch out for that one.
I've been wanting to see it, but I just have not had the time and then hearing so much praise and then hearing you enjoy it.
I'm like, I need to see this. I need to catch it. Yeah.
So my pick along the same lines, like it was a little difficult to pick a top film of last year.
(05:12):
There are so many that I enjoyed, but I didn't feel like there was a clear number one,
as we have in previous years, been able to easily kind of choose one.
But I would say out of the films that I watched, I could easily place One Evil Lurks as number one.
I just I thought it came out of left field. There wasn't much that I heard about.
(05:36):
And then when it came out, everybody was kind of discussing it and talking about it.
And I love foreign horror. So as soon as I found that out, I was like, OK, I'm game. Argentinian.
Yes. We all watched it on Halloween. And I was kind of thrown back.
Like, I think it was a master class of working in anxiety and dread.
(05:59):
And there were so many moments where I was sitting there and I was like, they're not going to do it.
They're not going to do that. They're no, no way. And then they did it.
And I think a lot of the violence and the gore in this film wasn't necessarily done for shock value.
It made a point in the film itself. It was part of the storyline.
(06:20):
It was well integrated into it. And it was definitely an interesting take on like a virus possess kind of film.
Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, not to mention like one of the coolest interpretations of demonic possession.
It was possession in general. And I like that they didn't really explain much.
Like they left a lot to your imagination, you piecing it together. There were very rough rules kind of thrown into it that some followed, some didn't.
(06:50):
And I really, really, really loved the special effects makeup in this movie.
That beginning scene with the first rotten that we experience, I audibly gagged.
Like I felt like we could smell him through the TV. And that's such impressive makeup work.
In my opinion, it was so well done. The pacing, just everything about this movie was great.
(07:17):
But yeah, that was my number one, 2023 pick. Great choice. I think that would have been my number two, essentially.
I think just another few that I really enjoyed or a couple more that I enjoyed during the year is Talk to Me.
That one was great. I mean, there was Evil Dead Rise.
(07:39):
I honestly forgot that Talk to Me came out last year. Yeah, it was one of my favorite films, but I just I completely forgot it came out last year.
For some reason, I assumed it came out the year before. Yeah, that one's so funny.
And what a debut for those filmmakers. I know I'm I cannot wait to see what else they have in store for us.
(08:00):
Yeah. So I saw Saw X. Okay.
Which was kind of interesting for me because I know I saw the first few and then I kind of trailed off on the latter half of the series.
But I've been hearing such interesting things about Saw X. So I thought I'd throw it on. I have conflicting kind of feelings about it.
(08:24):
I don't like how they humanized Jigsaw. I think it was weird. I don't think we should be feeling bad for his character.
He's done some pretty heinous evil shit. And the whole movie, you kind of feel bad for him.
And that kind of turned me off of the film a little bit. But then once we got into the actual games, it was like, okay, this is Saw.
(08:51):
But I have to say some of these games were disgusting. Like, I don't know if I've just gotten to the age where I can't handle that I'm out of gore anymore.
But I was wincing and turning away. It was just it was borderline too much for me.
The one on the poster has to do with eyeballs, right? Yeah. But it was good.
I'm not going to say anything about that in case you want to see it. But it's it was it's worth a watch. I'll say that much. It's worth a watch.
(09:19):
I had fun with it. Besides that major point, I was able to kind of like look past it and keep watching.
So it was okay. Yeah, I would definitely recommend people check it out if you if you like the Saw series. Definitely. Yeah.
But yeah, I also saw Totally Killer, which was a really fun movie on Prime.
(09:42):
It was just it was a really good time. It dealt with a little bit of time travel. It was it was just good. It was fun.
Highly recommend. And then I saw this one. I absolutely adored.
It was a really, really, really good movie. It's called No One Will Save You. Oh, I was wanting to watch this.
(10:05):
No One Will Save You was such a treat. It was not what I was expecting.
It was a great take in that subgenre. I'm not going to say much because I don't want to spoil it for you.
Once you know stuff about it, it like that's it. So I think you should go into the movie not knowing much about it.
(10:29):
But it was very enjoyable. The acting was really well done. The sound design was impeccable.
It was a great film. And I definitely recommend. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. It's very fun. Yeah. I've been wanting to watch that.
Well, I guess looking at what we're most excited for in twenty twenty four to come out, I would say for me personally,
(10:53):
I am most excited for Robert Eggers Nosratu. Yeah, I cannot wait to see what he does.
Because like, you know, it's a silent film. What German expressionism like I want to see what Robert Eggers does with that, like the style.
Yeah. Just the look of it, the acting. And Robert Eggers puts out really good, really good film.
(11:19):
So, yeah, that's definitely like attention to detail. Yeah. I'm just so excited.
And what Bill Skarsgard is supposed to play really good cast. Yeah. Oh, man.
That one. And well, obviously, Maxine. Yes. Oh, I feel like I had another one.
(11:41):
Oh, yeah. OK. Another another one that we've just been getting some like just snippets like little teasers for by neon is Long Legs.
So they've been releasing a couple 30 second teasers online that are very cryptic.
There's like little images of symbols spliced between just like these images that give no information. It's just like a very eerie.
(12:11):
So image when I first saw one of the little mini trailers for that, I wasn't sure what it was.
And I started watching it and I got a little freaked out not because it was scary, but I thought it was going to be like one of those jumpscare videos.
So I turned it off. It does feel like that. But like, I really like how they're doing the marketing.
(12:35):
I guess spearheading the marketing is just like super simple and they're not giving you a lot, but I'm already like super intrigued.
I'm very I'm very much liking this like new emphasis on marketing for horror films. Yeah.
It's always so effective, especially specifically with horror. It's always been such a like good marriage.
(12:56):
You see it with, you know, back with Blair Witch project. Yeah. And even before that, you know. Yeah, definitely.
It's very effective for horror movies. Absolutely.
I don't think I have one particular movie that I'm really looking forward to this year.
I think I'm just looking forward to all of these movies coming out this year. There's stuff. Yeah.
(13:18):
I'm just I'm so looking forward to new things. And I think we have quite a hefty list ahead of us.
And I have just learned that I shouldn't over hype myself about anything. Right.
And just kind of take it as it comes and see if I enjoy it, see if I don't. Totally.
So I'm just kind of excited for a new year of films. Yeah. Yeah. For real.
(13:40):
Wee! Well, yeah, that I mean, that wraps up our little recap. Yeah, definitely.
I guess on to the main episode. Yeah. So, Krissa, do you want to kind of explain our episodes?
Yeah. So I thought a cool idea would be to start a little series within the podcast where we each installment of this series.
(14:09):
Christine and I will pick a film that is inspired or based on true events.
And we will not tell each other which one we're doing and we'll kind of like ask what we'll tell Adam what our picks are so we can see that we're not doing the same movie, hopefully.
Yes. And if one does, we'll just have to choose which one does it anyway.
(14:33):
And then we present it to each other. So we get a little, you know, surprise, a little excitement to learn from each other about what inspired this film.
And just to see like, sorry if you hear heavy breathing, that's belly.
That's a ghost. That's a ghost.
But yeah, it's just we'll describe the events that the movie was based on or inspired by because there's some really interesting stories behind some of these films, and then just see like how it's been twisted and like adapted into either a whole new film or you know, some of these movies are solely based on that subject matter like it is the story.
(15:13):
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
Who should go first? I don't know.
Are you more excited? Yes, I can go first.
Okay.
So my chosen film for our episode today is 2005 Wolf Creek.
Oh, okay.
(15:35):
Written and directed and produced by Greg McLean. This is a horror film based on the true events combining two of Australia's most notorious serial killers Bradley Murdoch and Ivan Millet.
So, Millet has killed at least seven people between the years of 1989 and 1993, and famously became known as the backpack killings these murders.
(16:05):
His first two victims were discovered by runners.
In September of 1992, police discovered and later confirmed the bodies were those of Caroline Clark and Joanna Walters Walters had been stabbed repeatedly and Clark had been shot repeatedly.
(16:38):
Police guessed that Clark was used as target practice.
Oh my god.
A few years later, a human skull was discovered and, and hold on.
A few years later a human skull was discovered in a secluded area, which led to the discovery of bodies of Deborah Everest and James Gibson.
(17:04):
These people had gone missing in 1993.
As more time went on more bodies were being discovered, and the police were all linking this to Millet.
One of Millet's victims managed to escape and his name was Paul onions. Paul worked with detectives eventually confirm and convict Millet, they identified him and he also identified I think his car.
(17:35):
And that's what brought him down.
So Millet was found guilty in July of 1999, and he remained incarcerated until the day he died.
Nice, which I don't have that exact date, but it was a while ago.
So our second serial killer Murdoch was, he was famously known for killing an English backpacker named Peter the land Cino, a 28 year old tourist who disappeared in Australia.
(18:12):
This case caught attention of not only local news but national news. And this kind of happened in the wake of Millet's previous killings.
So people were kind of more on edge. And so more and more people were kind of catching on to what was happening.
(18:33):
So Paul was traveling with his girlfriend Joanna, when they were spotted by the stranger who turned out to be Murdoch Murdoch pulled them over or tried to speak to them and let them know that their car had appeared to be malfunctioning.
Lee said that the two pulled over to take a look at the car when the stranger pulled out a gun.
Lee managed to escape. But it was not after unfortunately, she freed herself from being bound with tape and was sexually assaulted.
(19:06):
Lee was a person to identify Murdoch from police, police photos, and Murdoch was found guilty in December of 2005.
So Greg McLean wrote the original story for Wolf Creek before he learned about the killings of Millet and Murdoch.
He wrote the story, and it was purely fictional horror film set in the Australian outback.
(19:32):
He later became aware of the true cases, and he took ideas and cues from that and blended it into his story which is Wolf Creek today.
This eventually brought more attention and light to the killings of both Millet and Murdoch.
So Wolf Creek itself is just, it's pretty scary.
(19:53):
The film does take a bit to kick in but the later half of the film is just soaked with gore and is honestly nightmare fuel.
It is so sad. It is so unrelenting and it just, once it kind of kicks in, it doesn't let go.
But I think what makes it even scarier is that the character of Mick, the villain, he just kind of continues to embed that humor even when he is hurting people.
(20:19):
And it makes it that much scarier.
There's not really much that's left to the imagination of this film.
When the torture kind of kicks in, it shows you everything.
The camera does not shy away so it is a little intense in that respect.
I'm honestly not entirely sure if some of this film kind of shows the gruesome kind of reality of what Millet and Murdoch had done to their victims.
(20:51):
But it was clear enough to make me not want to travel to Australia.
At least not the outback.
But that is the story of Wolf Creek and how it ties into true events.
I actually have seen that film. You might have showed me it, to be honest, a while ago.
Wolf Creek is pretty, I'm going to be blunt, pretty fucked up. That movie is intense.
(21:17):
There is a sequel.
Yeah, I was going to say, isn't there?
There is a sequel and I think there's a series about it too. I have not watched the series.
I'm not even sure if I've seen the sequel.
But yeah, Wolf Creek is pretty intense.
I mean, there's a lot of content that, you know, like, based off serial killers.
(21:42):
Because yeah, I mean, they are like some true real life horror, like monsters.
I just think it's kind of interesting how he didn't know about the cases.
But then eventually wrote them into the story, which I think makes it a little bit more menacing.
That he drew ideas from that.
(22:03):
But I guess it lent some, I guess, I don't know, more detail to go off of in the most fucked up way.
Absolutely.
Can I read you the plot synopsis of the movie and how closely it kind of sounds like the murders of both Murdoch and Millet?
(22:25):
So a chilling factually based story of three road trippers in the remote territory of Australia who plunged into danger when they accept help from a friendly local.
So Christy, Ben and Liz are the three friends in their 20s who set out to hike through the scenic Wolf Creek National Park in the Australia Outback.
(22:54):
Then trouble begins when they find out their car won't start and they run into the local Bushmen named Mick Taylor.
So same kind of set up as the way that some of these men killed their victims where they were tourists, they were backpackers, they were left in kind of a vulnerable state and then they preyed on them.
(23:17):
Yeah.
Oh man, that's fucked up.
Yeah.
Might make you look at Wolf Creek a little different.
You know what's funny?
Because this is kind of like the reverse of it.
But I'm pretty sure My Favorite Murder has an episode on the serial killers.
Oh, no way.
But they like mentioned like, oh, there was a movie.
There's a movie about it.
How funny.
So we just zibbidy doodah.
(23:38):
No, that's cool.
And there's, it's a good Australian horror film.
There's a lot more information on both men.
But I just figured I'd probably leave out the gruesome bits because it's, it's pretty f'd up what they speculated were done to these people.
So it happened to real people.
Yeah.
(23:59):
And I don't want to.
Nothing to laugh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wolf Creek.
Give it a watch if you know, if it's not for the faint of heart.
It's not for the faint of heart.
But if you're curious and you like horror, I definitely suggest giving it a watch.
So the film I'm doing is the classic Nightmare on Elm Street.
(24:22):
Oh, yes.
And I don't know if you know, maybe there's a lot of people that don't know it is based on true events.
It kind of sounds weird because you think of it and it seems pretty kind of fantastical of an idea.
And obviously they do take creative liberties.
But it's honestly surprising how similar like stuff in the movie is based on some true events.
(24:48):
Yeah.
So 1984's Nightmare on Elm Street directed by Wes Craven.
Bless.
So my research is primarily based from an interview with Wes Craven for Cine Fantastique magazine and then an LA Times article, which is the articles that Wes Craven had read that inspired him.
(25:14):
Okay.
Nice. So basically Wes Craven had read three articles from the LA Times that covered stories about men from Southeast Asia who had died in the middle of nightmares.
And this phenomenon, at least in the articles he read, particularly revolved around Cambodian like Laos, Cambodia refugees.
(25:41):
But it was found that this phenomenon had occurred with populations in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, not in China though.
But yeah, so Southeast Asia.
And basically, Wes Craven had read of a case of a son of a physician.
And this son would force himself to stay awake and as much as his family would plead for him to get sleep, he would say something like, you don't understand, I've had nightmares before, this is different.
(26:14):
They were like kind of describing something in his nightmares and he did not want to go to sleep.
As if something was going to get him potentially.
And his family would give him sleeping pills because he was forcing himself to stay awake so much but like he stayed up for a few more days until finally he did fall asleep.
(26:35):
They took him to his room, and then they heard him cry out and heard crashing sounds.
And then when they got to him, he was dead.
And they they had found a coffee pot in his closet and the sleeping pills he had like spit out and saved on the side because he was that paranoid and that like, just not wanting to go to sleep.
(26:57):
Crazy.
And there was no evidence of a heart attack, which is true for a bunch of these cases.
He died from unexplained reasons in his sleep.
And in the LA Times article that I read, which was from 1987, which was kind of cool, by Larry Doyle.
(27:20):
He describes that he describes at least 130 cases of this unexplained death during sleep in Southeast Asian refugees.
Way more than I thought.
And like, they have different names for it in different languages like in the Philippines, they have this name for it in Japan.
(27:41):
There's another name, but they all roughly translate to nightmare death, or like night terror, which is so eerie and obviously you can see how that plays into nightmare on Elm Street.
And so this LA Times article further describes Dr. Robert Kirchner, who is the deputy Cook County medical examiner.
(28:04):
He did a systematic study of this phenomenon in specifically looking at 18 autopsies of victims, and they all showed no prior symptoms or medical issues.
They were healthy younger men with an average age of 33.
And he found that it only had occurred in men and only in their sleep.
(28:27):
They cry out and die or are found the next morning just dead of a sudden heart stoppage.
And again, there's, it's just kind of unexplained like, again, no prior symptoms, no medical, like history of medical issues.
He, he did find that all 18 hearts were slightly enlarged and 17 of the 18 hearts showed defects in their conduction systems, which the conduction system, medical school, the conduction system is the array of fibers that carries electronic impulses from the brain to the heart.
(29:08):
The fibers were frayed and curled as if their hearts just shorted out.
In Kirchner's theory, something at night, like a random electronic discharge may have overloaded their defective hearts.
But it's like what did that, what was, what caused that random electronic discharge, you know.
(29:34):
And I guess there were studies of Caucasian men who had died suddenly and they did not show the same defect in the heart.
So yeah, like what caused this, what caused the defect or what caused it to short out and why is it, you know, it's only in men and only during their sleep is very weird.
(29:55):
And he also did posit that like maybe it could be genetic, you know, but stress could also play a factor.
These were refugees and especially like the Cambodian refugees at that time were fleeing the genocide in Cambodia or, you know, who knows what stress, especially like moving to another country or just another place and like trying to settle in.
(30:18):
But you would think stress would lead to a heart attack, not just like your heart magically stopping. That's so crazy.
And in your sleep, like, oh my, you know, yeah, it's so weird.
And yeah, most deaths occurred within two years of the refugees like arriving in their new homeland.
That's wild.
Yeah, it was, it's, it's so, it's just so eerie and you can obviously see how that inspired Nightmare on Elm Street, but it is really cool.
(30:52):
Well, okay, it's not cool.
I like to see the similarities of like that one story of this son of this of the physician taking like, they were trying to his parents trying to make him take sleeping pills because obviously they're worried about him you sleep, and then them fighting it so hard, because he's like scared.
(31:13):
And then like spitting out the sleeping pills having a coffee pot in the room is just very reminiscent of what you see in the movie with a, yeah, Heather Lang and Camp's character and Johnny Depp trying to keep themselves awake.
I think this is so much eerie than for instance like my story of Wolf Creek because Wolf Creek is a person like there's, it's a person who's doing this you know the outcome you know what happened to these poor people.
(31:38):
Like, yours, like a nightmare on Elm Street, there's no explanation.
Yeah, this day nobody knows what happened to these men. Yeah, that's scary. It is scary and, ooh, I don't know it's just, it is so interesting that it specifically happened in these southeastern Asian refugees like that's very specific part of the world.
(32:02):
Super specific. Yeah. You know who knows what goes into it I don't know if food certain foods or you know who knows like, I'm sure they've studied it. Well obviously they, some people did study it but um, that'd be really interesting to see if they could go back and like do more research on it nowadays since we have like a lot more technology.
(32:25):
Right. Yeah, that would be interesting. But then it might ruin the allure of the film.
You know, um, but yeah what a like way to, yeah, to really amplify that for a horror film and just create one of the most iconic horror characters of all time.
And being that like, yeah, just, I can't go to sleep because this thing's going to get me.
(32:51):
But yeah, I thought that I remember, I remember hearing that this was based on true events briefly and probably some documentary on Nightmare on Elm Street and I was like, what?
I didn't realize it was so many like I remember hearing something similar to this but like I just assumed it was one person. I know. Not that it was like a phenomena of like men in a certain area that's crazy.
(33:16):
Yeah, in the 1987 LA Times article he has mentioned like at least 130 cases. That's crazy. But he, that Dr. Kirschner had looked at 18 copies.
It's definitely, will make me never watch that movie the same way again. I know, it's so sad. Yeah. It's scary. I don't mean to laugh, like I'm laughing because I'm uncomfortable. That's like, it's so creepy.
(33:43):
Yeah, that would make you not sleep, you know, be scared to sleep besides them.
Would you be able to keep yourself awake if like something was scaring you to sleep because me personally, I feel like I get to a certain point where my eyes just close like I have no control over it.
Same, I think it could last two days.
(34:05):
I think I could do like a single day. I think I could do 24 hours before my body's like, nope, you're going to bed. I know. When you said 33 year olds like, and then you were like men, I was like, uh, uh oh, uh oh, uh oh.
(34:27):
What's gonna happen to you? No, I hope not. Cut that out. That was terrible for me to say. Fuck that.
Let's cut that out.
Don't fall asleep.
It hasn't. It's not a current phenomenon. This is back in the 80s, which inspired the film. Again, they had mentioned that like, they've observed this happens within two years of them like migrating.
(34:57):
And then it started to fall off after the two years. So presumably when they got more comfortable. So like, yeah, there's a lot of factors that could have caused this. But I don't know. It's just an amalgamation of things, you know, but it's still really weird.
That's so really weird. So odd.
Yeah, like, those are the in their sleep and a lot of them had cried out like, you know, like they're running from something that's in their nightmare. Like that must have been so scary. Yeah. Gosh.
(35:29):
Well, there is also that like old wives like tales saying like, if you die in your sleep, you die in real life. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah.
Don't die in your dreams. Yeah, it's so such. I don't mean to joke. This is a really serious subject. Yeah. It really does provide great subject matter for a horror movie that is truly frightening.
(35:56):
And then you had to put maybe putting a face especially Freddy Krueger in that kind of character putting a face to it. Yeah, lessons the it almost Yeah lessons how scary the events are because it's like, you can attribute it to something.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Whereas the real events are just super unknown. Yeah. Yeah. So sorry, Freddie, you're not about scared.
(36:21):
He's gonna visit you tonight. No, please. I want to prime time that bitch podcast. Adam, do you have any films that you can think of that, like are based on true events or are, you know, true stories that you could recall maybe like one or two that you either know something about or just super interested in.
(36:50):
I definitely have a few for future episodes but yeah, definitely don't have to go into full detail about it but just anything that you've seen over time that have been like, oh, that true event. Yes. Behind that story kind of makes me want to wonder what happened there.
Yeah, like, it was surprising that you you saw it was based on true events. Yeah. No, I can't really think of any I know that for a nightmare on home street. I mean, I can only imagine that a lot of it has to do with like, I mean, Laos is one of the most bombed countries ever.
(37:25):
Yeah, you know, and if you look at some of the pictures of like the victims. They, they look like burn victims like Freddie Krueger. And so I feel like my heart, like, I don't know.
But they said like a lot of the connection or a lot of the cases were like, yeah, specifically lao Asian, like, people of them among descent stuff which.
(37:52):
I guess it does make Freddie Krueger kind of scary when you think about it after that factoid. Yeah.
And when I say like stress play plays a factor for some of these people that stress was like really bad, you know, from really traumatic events that they were fleeing.
(38:13):
So, I mean, that that is probably obviously stirred nightmares. And yeah, maybe it did. It was some electronic impulse from such vivid, horrifying nightmares that was enough to cause that.
It could have even been like some sort of case of PSD in your nightmare. Yeah. You know, but it is interesting because the hearts in the study, you know, had the certain defect.
(38:36):
And it's like, I wonder what that defect was from and how that played into it. Caucasian men or whatever.
It was like the pairing of, yeah, maybe such a vivid traumatizing nightmare causing that electronic overload in their heart.
But it's like, you know, if they didn't have that defect in their conduction system in the heart, like, would they have died?
(39:02):
It's just so weird. Yeah, there's too many like what ifs and. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, that really adds a lot of layers to those films that I don't think I could watch it again.
As humorous and not as, you know, because it's become such a like pop culture icon. Yeah, absolutely.
(39:24):
That you kind of, you know, particularly get scared by them. I mean, Freddie himself is a pop culture icon where he's just like cracking jokes left and right.
But this makes it a little more menacing and especially the first one.
I think it makes it more menacing because he talks the least in the first one. He doesn't get the humor until later on.
So and then adding like this back story, it's like, wow, this is this is. Yeah, this is a lot.
(39:52):
Yeah, dang. Yeah. Look into it. I'm sure there's more interviews with Westgrave and talking about it if you're interested or if you want to take a look at the studies or the articles yourself.
Yeah, just look it up online. But very interesting. Absolutely. And I think if you're brave enough, you should watch both movies.
Yeah. That's your double feature. Yeah. For the night.
(40:18):
No, that's cool. I do look forward to doing more of these. I do too. There's a lot of there's a lot of movies out there with some crazy events that inspired them.
This was really insightful because I feel like we all kind of know like the base like the very tip of the iceberg on some of the knowledge of these films that are based on true events.
(40:41):
And I think to do such like dig deep on these it uncovers stuff that's just kind of interesting. Yeah. And it kind of makes them a little dark. Yeah. Yeah.
And then for any buddy looking to make horror content out there. Maybe there's some inspirational look at some true events to see what can inspire not not is not going to that.
(41:06):
I just get it. I just get it in that way. To make to make their own films, but like their own stories. Yeah. But you you got to respect. You know, you got to respect. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Especially especially when real people are involved. I think there needs to be why you turn it into a metaphor or like very loosely based and make your own.
(41:28):
But yeah, there's a lot of, you know, horrifying stuff that happens in the world that inspires certain things. And it is it's kind of interesting to think that horror movies can be like a way.
Well, yeah, I mean, horror movies are a way they make it easy easier for you to face like horrific things, you know, especially when they're when yeah, they kind of adapt real life events.
(41:57):
It's like an easier way to digest and kind of like face things from a safe space. Oh, absolutely. They're cathartic. They're a way for you to process really heavy events. Exactly. Exactly.
And I think it's like really interesting how much horror plays like a part in where we are in the world and how sometimes it's a reflection of where we are in the world and it makes it a more digestible way for us to kind of understand and reflect like where we are as either a society or with world events or anything like that.
(42:33):
So it's really it's really interesting. Yeah, the part of me was going to say like it's kind of weird to think that because you know horror movies you think of as like, oh, that's, you know, I don't want to or small.
We want to watch it. But like some people it's like, oh, that's really hard to stomach or whatever. But in a way, it's actually less horrific than like the real thing. Yeah, absolutely. Because obviously everything we just said.
(43:00):
Oh man, hell of an episode. Hell of an episode. We're back baby.
Sorry, yeah, I'm a little tired. I think I'm gonna maybe go take a little nap before we start our next episode. Okay, Christine, I think I don't think that's such a good idea. Did you not hear when we just talked about it? No, no, no, but it's okay. I'm just I think like a quick little cat nap like 15 minutes or so.
(43:28):
Okay, I'll be right back.
One, two, Freddy's coming for you.
Three, four, better lock your door.
Five, six, seven, eight.
(43:49):
I'm dead.
Nine, ten, Freddy's coming again.
Is that what it is? Never sleep again? Never. Oh, I don't know.
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