Mini Crush: Horror Movie Spectacular Part 2

Join us this week for our 1st ever Horror Movie Spectacular. Joe and Robert from Stuff To Blow Your Mind join Chuck to talk about their favorite scary movies. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to Movie Crush Mini Crush Horror Movie
spook Tacular Part two, And I'm in the studio everybody
with Joe and Robert from Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Hi, guys, Hey,
thanks for having us on the show Man. You're doing good? Yeah,
pretty good? Pretty good? Uh so for everyone for the uninitiated.
Stuff to Blow Your Mind was one of our original

(00:46):
suite of stuff shows. I think it was originally called
Stuff from the Science Lab. Correct. Oh really okay, and
that name wasn't great, but uh and it changed a
lot over the years from sort of um kind of
I hate to say, mainstream science, but it got a
lot more offbeat and out there when you guys kind

(01:08):
of got on board. So why don't you tell everyone
just briefly what your show is all about. Uh well,
let's see. Well, I mean it is still okay, sorry,
it is still a science show. Um yeah, no, I
mean I don't know how offbeat i'd say. We all
would say that. I mean, the science we we still
try to bring a mainstream, uh scientific, skeptical kind of perspective.

(01:33):
We're not like out there peddling the science of you know,
crystal healing or something but we I think maybe what
you've detected is that we tend to, because of our interests,
sort of put science on a collision course with weird
other topics. So we end up talking about how science
topics intersect with movie monsters and with uh, you know,

(01:55):
epic poems of history and stuff like that. Yeah. I
guess part of it just comes from us being a
bit offbeat, and like, if we're gonna try and describe
some sort of in some cases, you know, pretty heavy
scientific topic, sometimes the metaphors we're going to turn to
are going to be things like say, the Highlander movies,
the first two. Anyway, Yeah, it's I think of all

(02:16):
of our shows, Um, it intersects a lot, Like I
think listeners to Movie Crush would really dig it because
it intersects with film a lot of times reference wise,
and just I don't know, it's sort of your approach. Um,
So I think people would appreciate it. Listeners to this
show cool. I hope they check it out. Just as
a sample, Like every October we spend the whole month

(02:38):
doing basically horror themed and I was gonna ask about that.
So just a couple of examples. One episode we did
earlier this month was about a British water demon called
Jenny green Teeth. Who is this lady? She she lurks
in the stagnant pools, the old moral pits that have
been dugout in the horth English countryside, and now they're

(02:59):
full of water and they've got this green uh type
of vegetation floating on top, so they can look just
like flat ground that a child could run into fall.
So people came up with the story about this demonus
who haunts the waters named Jenny green Teeth, who will
pull the children in. Oh my god. But that but
that gave us a good chance to talk. So we
got we love talking about like the folklore and the

(03:19):
mythology there. But then we also got to talk about
like water to land attacks in biology where you've got
like in uh, France, there these catfish that have adapted
to jump out of the river and snag pigeons off
the bank and pull them in. Yeah, and then also
get into the just the psychology of why we make
up stories like that are why those stories kind of

(03:40):
emerge from from human culture, Like why take something that
is a naturally occurring dangerous hazard and then put this
additional layer of horrific fiction over it a horrific folklore,
and they give it to our children. And we've got
great listeners, you know, they come up with great ideas
in response to our episodes. A lot and one thing
a lot of listeners have gotten in touch with us

(04:01):
after the Jenny Green Teeth episode to say is you know,
it probably has something to do with the idea of
the agency of the danger, where like a child being
warned about you know, there are pools out there you
could fall in and drown the kids like who cares, Right,
I'll be fine, but right, you tell them that there's
a monster that they have no control over, like the
monster it's outside there. You know, they can't be too

(04:23):
confident about what a monster could do to them, right.
So it's just sort of a mild form of psychological
child abuse exactly. Uh, and it can go too far,
like we talked about this one weird example I found
from a journal and like the early modern England where
there was like this girl who who got some writing
clothes dirty and she was afraid her parents would be
mad at her. So what the historical records say is

(04:45):
that she drowned herself in a pool thinking that she
could come back as one of these water demon ass
after she drowned. There, that's awesome. That's not awesome. Well,
I mean, you know as a story or was that real?
I mean, I as far as I know that's a
true story. Well, then that's not awesome. But like sematically,
it's all all of this, uh eventually manifested in really

(05:08):
Scott's legend that Meg muckle Bones characters rises up to
threatened Tom Cruise at one point. That's essentially Meg muchael.
I mean, that's essentially Jenny Green Teeth, So that's where
that came from. I think she's got to be a
Jenny Green Teeth. Yeah, I mean there are other characters
like that. It's not just Jenny Green Teeth. There's a
general sort of class of water demon this is that

(05:29):
live around the world, So she could be inspired by
one of them. But yeah, I think it's got to
be Jenny Green Teeth, right, that is the most awesome monster.
I love Meg muckle Bones. Yeah, that was one of
the questions I posed. Actually last week we just did
a bunch of I do a lot of on the
Mini Crushes interaction with with the Facebook group, and I
was just like, what's your what's the scariest killer, what's

(05:49):
the best weapon in horror movies? And we got a
lot of great responses, but no one said that one.
That's a good one. Well, Meg muckle Bones is a
great example of something that comes up on our show
all the time, which is like a monster that's better
than the movie it's in. Yeah, like legend is unfortunately
for all wonderful esthetic qualities and the fact that it's

(06:09):
got Tim Curry just the best human to ever live.
It's it's such a slog like can you get through it? Yeah,
it's it's it's tough. Well, then also that that monster
in particular, it's not even it's just a side quest.
It pops up. It's it's kind of like the with
the Boba Fette of that film where you see it,
you're super into it. You just want more of this

(06:31):
creature and then it's gone and didn't come back. You see, everybody,
I told you these guys, what if you want to
listen to a sign show and you like movies, these
are the dudes. So Joe I have to sell uh
no all out a little bit. He said um last
week that that you guys were great to get in
here because it'll be a little more deep into the

(06:51):
horror canon and stuff that not quite his mainstream. And
he said that, just get ready because Joe likes bad
horror movies. Oh yeah, we both love bad horror movie
more and more, it's the bad ones I think I'm
drawn to. Uh. And we've talked about this a fair amount.
I feel like I think with a with A with
a really solid horror film, it's doing all the thinking

(07:11):
for you, which is great, um at times. But if
you have a horror film that's rougher around the edges,
maybe he has some some long, boring spells in there,
it gives you time to think and you're you're just
kind of trying to to fix the film in your
mind and uh, or or just creating extra layers of
meaning that we're totally not intended to be there. And Uh,

(07:33):
I enjoyed that more and more of these days. Well
what it's I guess this little more participatory that way. Yeah,
I just watched the first Halloween. Well, I saw the
New Halloween, uh in Phoenix a couple of days ago.
I haven't seen it yet, so I want, Well, Michael
gets a little stabby, I don't want to really, yeah,
a little bit, he gets little stabby. Um. But then

(07:54):
last night I was on West Coast time still, so
I was kind of up late, and I queued up
the original Halloween, and which I hadn't seen in a
long long time, so it was cool to see all
the references, and um, the new one was a lot
more referential to the first than I had remembered. But
I was fine with it. I was I've seen people
kind of poke it that a little bit, but uh,

(08:15):
I mean it's a great homage. It was really good.
I thoroughly enjoyed it. The original Halloween is it's kind
of unimpeachable. I mean, I love it it. Uh So
you saw it for the first time on like a
new like good TV, So, like, did you see for
the first time? They're like, oh, it's not actually autumn.
This is like summertime in California, and everything's green, orange

(08:37):
leaves scattered. There's a palm tree here and there in
the deep background. But I'm sort of used to like
looking for l a in movies, although it's not quite
as bad, you know, these days, because they don't film
everything there. But yeah, that's like Pasadena. Yeah, that famous hedge.
A friend of mine, um or you guys might know
Matt Gourley. He uh does the James Bonding podcast and

(09:00):
another movie podcast called I Was There Too, and hear that. Yeah,
it's where he talks to uh sort of like the
fifth or sixth person on the call sheet of famous movies.
But he has he's a big Halloween guy and lived
very close to that street or the streets where they
filmed that and took a you know, great pictures at
the famous hedge where you know Michael standing there and

(09:23):
then he's there one second and then behind the bush
the next and it's all it's all still there. That's
the stuff that makes the movie. Like, the best part
of Halloween, in my opinion, is not actually like after
the murders start. It's all that stuff in the first
half where Jamie Lee Curtis is. You know, she's in
school or she's at home looking out the window or something,
and you see him for a second out there and

(09:45):
then he's gone. And the way the way those shots
interact with the music is just so perfect. The music
also makes that movie for sure. Yeah, that's that's probably
my favorite part about about Halloween. UM, because I don't
think it's really my favorite Carpenter film. It's probably not
even like my top ten Carpenter film. It's not even

(10:05):
my favorite Halloween film. Yeah, Halloween three, Yeah that's what
That's what Nol told me. Yeah. I haven't seen that one,
so I know that one doesn't feature Michael Myers and
it's well it does. He's on TV and it there's
the scene where characters are watching the original Halloween. Okay,
so what's the deal though? It's about a horror mask company, yes,

(10:26):
but also like a techno pagan conspiracy with a kind
of ambiguous uh goals in mind, perhaps world domination or
maybe they just want to kill all the children. Maybe
I should just explain the plot to you. Okay. So
it's got the old man from RoboCop. You remember Dan O'Hurley.
He is the head of the boardroom Detroit has a Kenzo,

(10:48):
that guy. So he runs a company that you find
out over the course of the movie. You've got like
Tom Atkins and Stacy Nelkin. You know, Tom Atkins like masculine,
kind of like strawberry blonde. Burt Reynolds, I don't know,
I would probably recognize he's in the fog. Have you
seen the fog? Yeah? Yeah, he's the like the straw
strawberry blonde mustache guy in the fog. Yeah. So he

(11:11):
plays like a beer swelling surgeon with a nagging ex
wife and uh so he he ends up going with
this young lady to investigate the death of her father
in this town in California, and the town is like this,
it's this weird fascist town that's run by this company
that makes Halloween masks that are enormously successful and like

(11:32):
every shop in the country has got to have them.
The kids are obsessed with them, and they air these
TV commercials that play this song over and over Robert,
can you sing the songs? Well, yeah, it's Happy, Happy Halloween, Halloween,
Halloween to the tune of London Bridge. Like once the
movie's over, you will be singing it for years. And
so they find out in the end that Dan O'Hurley,

(11:54):
he's goal is too skipped over something really important and
that's the fact that there are androids. Oh yeah, yeah, no,
that's funny. Yeah Dan oh Harley. He he's got a
factory full of like like thugs that are androids in
in three piece suits. Yeah, and they run around killing people,
all to service his ultimate goal of giving Halloween masks

(12:16):
out to children everywhere, so that when the Halloween masks
are activated by the television commercial, microchip made of a
piece of stone hinge that's inside the mask. Uh did
I say map a minute ago? I think I meant mask? Uh,
piece of stoneheinge. Micro chip inside the mask turns into
a laser that shoots the child's head and turns the

(12:38):
head into crickets and snakes. And that's that's his plan. Wow,
I did not. I mean, I knew it was loosely
about masks that did things, but I had no idea.
One of the best things about it, though, is so
John Carpenter did not direct this. Paul said he did,
and I didn't think that was right. Yeah, it's wrong.
I can't remember who directed off Tommy Lee Wallace to

(12:58):
director of the IT mini series with Tim Curry, but
the soundtrack was John Carpenter and Element Worth, And in
my opinion, it's it's probably the best Carpenter Howarth soundtrack.
It's it's just, I mean, it's just it's it's it's
Halloween to the max. It's it's everything that you like

(13:18):
in other Carpenter soundtracks, except somehow just more electric. Um. Yeah,
I put that one like score wise right at the top.
I love it. I listened to that soundtrack all the time.
Do you know the origin of the theme song for
your show? The show we're on right now? No. I
think Nol made it inspired by a track I sent

(13:39):
him from the Halloween three soundtrack. Well, all right, that
all makes sense then, because I told I told Noel
when I was commissioning that piece, I was like, I
want something sort of eighties and cynthy, and I referenced
Carpenter and I was I can just go wild. So
this specifically Halloween three inspired? Yeah, I mean I think
I think it's Chariots of Pumpkins. I've think He was like,

(14:00):
you know, I sent him a Chariots of Pumpkins link
and I was like, you use this as you're jumping
off point. Man, I didn't know that. Thanks for that. Then.
I didn't know you influenced the movie Crush so much. Well,
we'll hear, we'll hear what he says. He could be,
he could dispute me, but I think this is the case. Alright.

(14:25):
So I threw some questions out at you. Guys, And
we've already talked a little bit about the first one,
but I'm curious about mainstream or what you would consider
mainstream horror filmmakers and horror movies and kind of what
what some of your favorites are. I have to go
to John Carpenter. Yeah, yeah, he is the master. I
mean it's hard to say when you're in the horror world.

(14:49):
I don't know what actually counts as mainstream because there's
stuff that like everybody who's into horror knows about, but
the people who aren't into horror probably don't know about
it at all. So I don't know if that's mainstream
or not. Probably asking the wrong guys. But yeah, as
far as like definitely mainstream directors, I couldn't. I couldn't
say other than Carpenter. I mean, Carpenter has made so

(15:10):
many wonderful films and also, going back to what we
started on earlier, he's made some great bad films, like
like if you've ever seen Ghosts of Mars, that just
hits all that bad movie notes. I mean, it's the
kind of movie that you get the feeling they did
not work over the texture of how the lines would
sound when spoken by actors. So they try to replicate

(15:33):
the character of Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York
by having a character named Desolation Williams. I mean there's
in characters actually like go around calling him. It's like, hey, Desolation,
ice Cube, but they don't even call him deaths. No,
they well maybe they do eventually, but at least at
some point they're calling it. This is like, what's up Desolation?

(15:54):
That's weird. Yeah, there's so many great elements in that
film though, even though the finish, the final product doesn't
really come together because you have a pretty good cast.
You got again ice Cube? You got didn't Sneeze in
that one? Or is he Gary? That could? That might be? Yeah,
yeah that he's in that. But this has Jason Stath. Yeah,

(16:18):
it's it's not good. I mean, I don't know if
you should see it if you're not into like really
bad horror movies. But I mean, so there's that into
the spectrum that's Carpenter in the what late nineties, early
two thousand's, but early Carpenter. It just cannot be beat.
And I love his weirder movies that a lot of
people don't like. Our producer Ramsey here. I know, I
lent him my copy of Prince of Darkness, and I

(16:38):
think he was not into it, but he gave us
a middle road. Okay, signal Well, I love Prince of
Darkness by John Carpenter. Have you seen that one? I haven't.
I can picture the cover in my in my head
of the or the poster green like stretchy face. Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know why I didn't see that one. You
should check it out. I mean, I can't promise you'll

(16:59):
like it. If you like very weird, bonkers original plot.
I can't think of another movie that's got a story
like it where there's this whole thing about quantum physics
and about the anti god and like the devil being
a part of physics. It's crazy. Yeah, it does play
nicely with some I mean Oudin's call it a like
a science the horror film, but he uses some science

(17:21):
set pieces rather effectively. I mean the science is not
like accurate, but well, in a way, it's more accurate
than most movies that Yeah, that's all. It's a horror films.
It's like they just give it lip service. Yeah that's nice.
But yeah, it's a lot of fun and it's actually
got some really scary parts. I think it's got this
really cool dream sequence where, like you, there's this garbled

(17:41):
message that keeps coming through to people in dreams. Yeah,
because it's the people in the future are communicating with
people in the past through their dreams transmission, but with
tachyons or something. Yeah, I think so. And it's got
it's got Donald pleasants of course. Nice. Yeah, he when
he turns up, you know you're in for You're in
for something special. Victor Wong, isn't that one most mostly

(18:03):
known as Eggs and Yeah, yeah he's great. Yeah he is.
He plays like an old physics professor in it, and
he's just wonderful. So what old did he make? That
was horror? I mean obviously, yeah, I mean the thing
and Halloween kind of darkness. Yeah. One of my favorites,
like Later Day Carpenter is in the Mouth of Madness,

(18:24):
which is a sort of a love Craftian themed picture
has starts Sam Neal. Yeah, people recommended on Facebook last week.
That's a good one. Yeah, I've always enjoyed it. That's
when I I can watch again and again and find
something new. And in the Mouth of Madness, yeah, I
need to I like horror movies, guys. But I was

(18:45):
telling nol like, if if my wife was more into it,
I would watch more, but she's not. And so it's
just one of those things where like I gotta go
off by myself and do it, which is fine, but
every time I watch a good horror movie, it really
like it's kind of like no others genre as far
as like it makes me feel like I should watch
more horror movies. But your wife won't watch Harmon. No,

(19:07):
she's not into it. But again I told no, she
she wants to know what happens. Like I came back
from Hereditary and I was like, this movie fucking blew
my mind and it was like one of the scariest
things I've ever seen and unsettling, and she was like, well,
tell me about it. And I was like, well, do
you want to see it? She was like, I don't
think so, but tell me tell me like the whole thing.

(19:28):
Have you ever tried getting her up to speed with
like ramping up through bad horror movies you started that way?
They're funny, right, you know you get used to Nah,
I see what you mean, but she wouldn't be into that.
So I have a similar thing with with my wife.
I've spent I think three years trying to get her

(19:50):
to watch it Follows with me, because when it came out, yeah,
I thought that's when Emily might like, Yeah, I like, yeah,
it's it has I mean, it's so well shot, well acted,
it's not gratuitous. Totally agree and uh and so it.
But it took three years to get to that point
when she's like finally watched it with me, she like
she loved it. Yeah, all right. Does she like horror
movies at all? Normally? Um? Sometimes I guess she she doesn't.

(20:12):
She likes being like creeped out by right. Yeah. See,
Emily just gets really like it stays with her, and
you know, she gets scared in the house. And I
gotta admit, Man, last night after Halloween, it was I
think one in the morning, when it was over, I
go down. We're in this rental house right now because
we're renovating our house. We had to completely move out,

(20:34):
and it's in the woods and it's got glass everywhere
and it's cool. But uh, and I'm not one to
usually get freaked out, but I have to admit last night,
when I let my dogs out at one in the morning.
I was you know, I saw my reflection and I
kind of went, oh, okay, that's just me and one
of the dogs barked really loudly and that scared me.
So it definitely, like I'm not too ashamed to admit it.

(20:56):
It gets into me as well. It sounds like totally
podcast rented house house, Yeah, walking around glass everywhere, found
audio horror movie. Anybody done that yet? No, but it's well,
this doesn't ruin anything but the New Halloween. The couple
of the characters or podcasters, which do they like knife
some true crime podcasters. Everybody's been waiting for that. So

(21:18):
did movies stay with you? Guys like that? Like do
you get freaked out? And to me, that's part of
the fun of it is to that adrenaline, you know whatever.
You guys probably know the science of it a little more. Uh. Yeah,
I would say in some cases, it's generally not what
I want from my horror films, like I want to
be uh, you know, sort of creatively engaged with it

(21:40):
or you know, just kind of taken away like I
don't want to be me when I'm watching the horror film. Um,
and then afterwards I'd I'd rather just sort of go
out thinking about the the ideas that it gave me.
But but there is something kind of thrilling about like
suddenly being afraid in your house because but not because
of like, uh like natural threats, because the thing from

(22:02):
it follows right man, you know? Uh Yeah, I like
being scared by horror movies, and I am sometimes. I mean,
I've I've watched so many of them I've gotten a
little immune to, especially like the very conventional types of
scares that you see over and over. Like a mirror
scare can't get me anymore because I've seen it a
million to you know, where they're in the medicine cabinet
and then they close it the mirrors there and there's

(22:24):
something some book ins behind a move and yeah, it's
in every horror movie, and that just can't scare me
anymore because I'm watching for it anytime anybody's in a medicine. Man,
it can't surprise me. Um, And I'm just like, oh okay,
but I yeah, a lot of like hereditary Really, after
it was over, well, I felt this weird mix of

(22:44):
being having been terrified by the movie, but also I
was in the theater by myself and I was just
looking around at people with my mouth open like it's like,
did you see that too? Wow? Yeah, And there is
a weird kind of way. I don't want to spoil
anything about Hereditary, but the end of that movie is
not just scary, but it transforms into this kind of beautiful,

(23:05):
transcendent thing. Yeah. Yeah, kind of like the end of
The Witch too. Yes. Oh, The Witch is one of
my favorite recent Harmora it's so good. Yeah, I have
this weird reaction and Nolan I'd did a little review
of Hereditary, and uh, I think it's probably the human
can body like trying to protect itself. But in a

(23:25):
movie like Hereditary, when I am curled up in my
seat with my fist clenched so just tight, like that's
my move, um, I laugh. Sometimes it's something that's so
off the charts, fucked up and scary, I find myself
kind of laughing. And part of it is I think
self protection and preservation, and part of it is man like,

(23:47):
what a great idea as a filmmaker. And uh, I
don't know what that is? You Yeah, well we actually,
uh it may have been it was you and Christian.
Christian did an episode on this maybe last year year before.
I think it was last October, and it was it
was title like why do we laugh at horror films?
And there are I think a few different ideas there,
but one of them is that that laughing like when

(24:11):
you're scared and then you are not killed by something,
the laughter is kind of like an immediate signal to
other humans to let everybody know, hey, I'm not dead. Hey,
there's not really a threat. You know, when I screamed
and jumped earlier, everybody can calm down because there's not
a killer in the house. Okay. Do you ever hurt
yourself at home, like you stub your toes, scream or

(24:31):
something like that, and then people as somebody's like, oh,
is everything okay? And then what do you do? You
start laughing? Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like that. It's
just like, okay, we're coming down now, Everything's all right.
It depends how hard you stub your toe I'm I'm
more liable to like double down and say no, I'm
not not okay. Yeah, they got me. Man, that's good stuff.

(24:51):
I mean that goes that's got to go back to
like caveman sitting around the fire and stuff. Yeah, I
think it does just predate language. Yeah, that's awesome. Well,
I mean one of the things I love most about
horror movies is not just the feeling of being scared,
you know, that raw sort of body physiological feeling. But
I think that fear is maybe the most revealing emotion

(25:12):
in multiple ways. It's like, you know how when you
go throughout your life, you've always got these sort of
layers of performance up. You've got like how you are
during a job interview, and that's not really you. And
then you've got how you are around your friends maybe
that's a little bit more really you. And then there's
how you are at home with your like very close
trusted loved ones and all that. And then under that,

(25:33):
I think, is how you are when you're scared. That's
like baseline you really are that even you don't really know, uh,
and that when you get scared, that party you comes
out and you get to see what it's like. You
get to see like where your mind goes when when
all of those layers are removed. And it's so it's
interesting in that way, like you get to see your

(25:54):
own reaction uh through fear, but you also get to
see what other people think is scary. You know. So
one of my favorite things about bad horror movies is
that there I think one of the most culturally interesting
types of artifacts. It's like you get to see what
other people out there in the culture think would be
scary or what preoccupies them when their minds start going

(26:17):
to a dark place. And and in that way, even
when the movies are bad, they're usually very culturally and
psychologically interesting. Yeah. I mean it's been pointed out a
little lot of times. It's when you have some sort
of cultural shift going on. Uh, it's not the the
art films that are necessarily going to be the first
ones to jump in and try to tell a story
about it. Now, it's gonna be the exploitation filmmakers. It's

(26:40):
going to be the horror films. In the B movies,
the lowest of lowbrow gets there first and they show
you what they're worried about. Yeah. That's interesting, Uh, because
when when you start talking about the reaction, immediately thought
of the that sort of thing that went around the internet,
when when people they had the photos of people in
the Haunted House, those great reaction and shots and you know,

(27:02):
like the toughest dudes in the world just looking like
little babies, and it is. It's so revealing because it
just strips away everything, all the ego and everything and
and that that's kind of a horror movie trope to
like when there's the group of teenagers in the woods,
like how are they all going to react? Who is
who's going to be living at the end, Who's gonna

(27:23):
pee their pants right there? I mean, so one of
you asked us about horror movie tropes earlier, and they're
one of the funniest ones that I think shows up,
especially in slasher movies, like the early eighties slasher wave
is You've got. I don't know if this is the
right term. I'd call them something like focus group friends,
where there's a group of friends that there there. Why

(27:44):
would these people ever hang out with each other? It's
like one jock, one nerd, one punk rocker, one stuck
up rich girl, you know what I mean. It's like
these people would never naturally be friends or hang out together,
but those that's the group that went up to the
cabin for the weekend. And I think it's because there's
this natural curiosity, especially in the slasher movies, which are

(28:05):
less about being scary and more about a kind of
like geeky curiosity, like what would it look like if
you got an act in your face? And so there's
that curiosity element, and you're trying to see, like how
would these different archetypes, these different types of people react
in a fierce scenario. That's what people want to see. Yeah,
like how would I react? And so I'm more like

(28:26):
the nerd or I'm more like the job. Absolutely, that's
a good insight. That was one of the great questions
that Facebook or throughout its last week was would you
guys survive a horror movie? And Um, I said I
would because I was like, I'm old and chubby, but man,
I've had an amazing fight or flight response. So I
thought you were going to say, because I'm a virgin,
yeah I could. I can get moving if I need to,

(28:50):
and I would try and out crazy somebody with physical violence.
You know, this comes tote back to that is something
that that we were just talking about on on the
Stuff to Play Your Mind podcast, and it comes back
to what you said earlier about how we're a whole
different person when we're afraid, and uh, there's this this
idea that we have essentially to fear networks in our brain.

(29:10):
And one is the planning network. You know, we're thinking
about what would it what would it be like, uh
if well, or more to the point, it would be
like what are the what are the things that might
happen to me? And what can I do now to
prevent them? And then the other is the real times,
like unconscious reaction to events. And like you said, we

(29:30):
don't really know that person all that well. And I
wonder if a lot of times we watched these horror
movies to kind of ye to kind of guess how
we might respond, just to look at these archetypes and
see how they respond, and also to sort of cling
onto one's as like the hopeful model for how we
will respond when the bad things. For sure, when I

(29:51):
was a kid, I think everyone probably some people still
do this. I know Emily does. But anytime I was
in a room, like if staying with someone or my
own house, I would always be like fire poker, Like
I would always have nothing in the room of like
that's what I would run for and grab, uh, you know,
to defend myself. And I don't do that anymore, which

(30:12):
is weird. I don't I don't think I've gotten any
braver or I don't know. Maybe I'm not sure. I mean,
I guess I do know where the various You know,
we have no weapons in our house other than like
the golf club or something. But um, I don't know.
I don't think about it as much. But Emily is
still all about that, like if she we we stayed

(30:34):
at these friends in Napa Valley one time a few
years ago, and they live like at the top of
this mountain in the woods, and it's a delic and
beautiful and the safest place on earth. And they don't
lock their doors, and they didn't even have a lock
in their little guest house and that freaked her out
so much. She was like, I was awake all night.
It's like Emily wearing Napa Valley in the middle of

(30:54):
which he was like, exactly right, that's where it happens.
And so she had her weapons picked out and you
know that vase is what I would grab and throw,
and so she's always ready. Yeah, rural California, that's where
Dan o'herla He's androids come for you. Yeah, that's true.
Or the Golden State Killer or Zodiac. Yeah, what am
I talking about UM. So what about I know people,

(31:18):
I would love to hear some deep cuts from you guys.
Movie wise, UM, well, I think I already did Halloween three,
but I mean that's even that was mainstream enough to
be like a major release, Like what are your favorite really?
Like kind of hard to find out there deep cut
horror films. Well, one that that I'm really fond of

(31:41):
is film called Terror Visions, directed by um. It has
some rock elements to it, so it's it's I think
it's out on like Amazon Prime right now. I think
everybody can can stream it. But it has this kind
of gonzo neon eighties vibe to it. And the plot,

(32:04):
as I recall, is that you have this trash come
bactor kind of blob show god kind of monster that
escapes from aliens and like ventures into these people's house
via satellite TV and starts messing with them and shape shifting,
and it's it's just the right balance of like fun

(32:26):
and um and a little bit trashy but not too
trashy and uh and has fabulous monster effects. It's God,
It's it's it's one. It's one of the films that
I didn't see like back in the day, and I
discovered it for myself in recent years, and it's probably
right up there at the top in terms of films
that I think really need more like of a cult

(32:46):
following more attention. Terror Vision, Terror Vision. All right, that's
on the list. You know, I'm probably going to spend
too much of this podcast talking about three bad, bad
horror movies that are funny, so I want to actually
focus one that I think is really good and subtle
and scary that I think it's I don't I've never
heard of anybody else other than my friend who recommended

(33:07):
it to me knowing of this one. If if you
heard of a little Australian movie called Lake Mungo, Nope,
I think it's from like it's from like two thousand
seven or so, somewhere in like mid two thousand's and
it is sort of the found footage. No, it's not
found footge style is documentary style, so it's filmed as
if it's a documentary, but it's fictional. Um And it's
basically just a documentary about a family that dealt with

(33:30):
the death in the family, and it turns into this
ghost story that is it's not going to have you know,
horrifying boot scares or anything like that. It just has
some really subtle documentary style ghost imagery that absolutely got
under my skin. After the first time I saw it,
I was like alone in the house and I couldn't
stand it. I was so scared. Um stick around for

(33:53):
the end credits of that movie, by the way. Yeah,
but it's so I think the director has only made
that movie and hasn't really done much of anything else.
So yeah, I just wonder what happens with people like that. Yeah,
I thought you canna say Wolf Creek for a minute
when you know in Australian. No, Um, that was good.
Though I liked Wolf Creek, I haven't seen it. That's
the more like of a that's more like a murder movie, right, Yeah,

(34:13):
but those are the scariest ones to me. Like, I
don't know what's like legit scares you guys, But ghosts,
oh really yeah? Ghosts. Yeah. Since I was a kid,
it was always something that could really happen, like a
dude breaking into and that's those Those are the horror
films I I just will not see, Like I don't
I do not want to see a home invasion horror
film at this point. In my life. You like slasher movies,

(34:37):
I like, well, I like the bad one. I like
some bad slasher movies and really like to really define
like my taste and slasher movies. My favorite Friday thirteen
is Jason X where he's in outer space. I never
saw that one. That's that's the best. I didn't make
it to the tenth in the series. I don't know
how many of those I saw. Just a couple. I mean,
I I don't go superde so so tin huh outer

(34:59):
space Yeah, yeah, outer space is it's you know, Jason
is safely removed from me, even more so than being
in a summer camp. Yeah. I just I'm not a
real home invasion like the Strangers or something. I don't
have any interesting hearing that. I'm like, I'm sure it
looks there is a few a few of those that
you know, people love them. They look like they're tremendously

(35:20):
well made. But it's just it's just too real. I
just don't want to do it. Yeah, I'm with you.
I mean, that's why it scares me. So let's unpack
the ghost thing. Yeah, what's what's up with that? I
don't know. I just find ghosts the most frightening. I mean,
I've seen a million vampire movies and I really love
some of them. I can think of fantastic vampire movies.
Germo del Toro's Chronos, that's wonderful. Have you seen that one?

(35:41):
That's so good. But vampires just never scare me. Same here, uh,
the same thing. You know, werewolves. I love some werewolf movies.
American Werewolf in London is fantastic, but it's it's just
like a big dog. You know, it's just not that
scary to me. For some reason, ghosts that really gets
to me. It's something out um, it's something about I

(36:03):
think it's their non corporate reality that makes them especially scary.
Because when you've got a vampire or any kind of
physical monster. Though I generally love physical monster as you
think like okay, I could run away from that, I
could fight it whatever. When there's a ghost, it's like
you don't know what the rules are and you don't
know how it gets to you, and it it feels

(36:23):
like a different level of conflict that you don't really understand.
You can't club it right with a baseball bat. Yeah. Yeah.
Interesting also, but ghosts also, they generally are not just
like out looking for somebody to eat. Right. Ghost stories
almost always have that, like some kind of involvement with
the victim. The victim usually has some kind of like

(36:46):
guilty conscience about something or you know what I mean,
Like there's some kind of moral involvement with the ghost
right right right, or it's a or they just want
you to get the funk out of there. Yes, that's
a house, and and that's one of those types of conflicts, right,
like you were in their territory, you moved in and
they wanted That's what I think I tend to see
more often. It's just like the idea that now I'm missed,

(37:08):
I've I've somehow messed up. Now I'm involved with a
ghost and there's no way out of it, like it's
it doesn't I don't know. I'm thinking of things like
the ring um Oculus, poulter Geist, like they were all
kind of the wrong people, I mean, people in the
wrong place at the wrong time and they have to
deal with this thing. Yeah, well yeah again with all

(37:29):
of those movies, it's that you don't really know the rules, right,
You don't understand when you're incurring the wrath of this
ghostly other force. Yeah, I guess on all those it's
like with mirrors Inoculus, which was what's that guess named Flannagan?
Mike Flanagan, Is that right? Yeah, the same guy who
did the Hill House show that's on Netflix right now.
Really it's it's good. It's a huge downer, but it's

(37:51):
really what is No, No Oculus is Okay, I love it,
but it's it's a really depressing horror film. Um, I
have not seen the TV series yet I have in
either of you. No, I haven't. I've heard good thing. No,
I've heard. Well. I I just for the first time
earlier this year read Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Appeal House,
which is just a fantastic ghost novel. You ever read it.

(38:12):
It's so great because it's genuinely very scary, I think,
you know, written in the fifties and still scary fifties
or sixties whichever. Uh, still scary, but also very funny.
And that's the thing that I think I really appreciate
when a horror movie can do. When they give you
the hot and cold showers, or it is both, it
has scenes that are totally comfortable and warm and funny

(38:33):
and make you feel good and that sets you up
even more for for the great scary scenes movies that
just go to eleven on discomfort and terror the whole time.
Those get monotonous. They're usually not very good. Yeah, I
think I kind of agree with that. Uh. One thing
that comes to mind here, you said that you with
the ghosts, you don't know what the rules are, and

(38:54):
it's like the scary part. It does seem like with
some of these movies, Okay, haunted mirrors, most people really
don't actually understand how mirrors work, and that what's terrifying
with haunted house movies, especially polter Geist, like Homeownership, nobody
really has that down and therefore, like the ghosts are
the perfect metaphor for it, there are metaphor for the

(39:15):
renovators who came in before they flip the house on you. Yeah,
and then you get to find out all the stuff
that they cut corners on over time. Well and a
lot of times it's a big part of a horror
film is figuring out the rules as the characters like
with it follows. That was a big part of that movie.
Was especially for that one because it was unseen, and uh,

(39:37):
I think I need to see that one again. Oh man,
I could watch that so many times. It's one of
the most original horror mythologies I can think of. It's
hard to do that nowadays too, It's hard to come
up with original stuff. It artfully allows room for a
contemplation like it it forces you to think, well, what
actually happened with this scene that, you know, like, what

(39:58):
what happened when she went out to about what what
happened when this character is driving through this bad part
of town towards the end of the film, Whereas like
a lesser movie, a really bad horror film will have
those kind of gaps due to negligence, whereas here they're
they're part of the design. Yeah, perfectly. Yeah, that was
a good one, Nolan. I were talking about too, how
the uh the setting of that movie the time was

(40:22):
sort of it was weird because it felt like the eighties,
but also now, yeah, it was. It was kind of
cool how they did that well, they got that that
eighties like Spielbergia, kids on bikes, neighborhood kind of thing.
They had that going on, and so that definitely took
you back to the eighties, even though it seemed like
the technology was more like there were cell phones in it, right,

(40:44):
It has weird technology in it because they are using
flip phones. And then somebody has like a clamshell e
readers doesn't actually exist and made that for the movie. Yeah.
And nol contention, I think I agree with him is
is that all of that kind of unsettles you as
a viewer because it kind of throws you off because
you don't even know when it takes place. And that's

(41:05):
just sort of an unsettling feeling in itself. The you know,
just the thing I was talking about with the hot
and cold showers. Uh, it follows does that naturally because
every time they gain distance from the thing, it's walking,
so they know they've bought some time and they can
rest for a bit. It's a perfect mythology for that
kind of structure in a horror movie. Yeah, I mean,
if there aren't um peaks and valleys and relief of tension. Uh.

(41:32):
Although a movie like Hereditary was a pretty good example
of that. Weren't a lot of funny bits in that
at all. I don't remember anywhere there. Uh, there were
fairly taught. It wasn't It wasn't very funny, but it
did have like moments where you could rest. Yeah, it
wasn't just terror and discomfort the entire time like they were, uh,
the initial times that uh you know, Tony Colette met

(41:55):
the other woman and before that turns. Yeah, that's I
don't want to spoil anything, but well we had already
reviewed it on the show, Okay, Yeah, I haven't seen
it that. The trailers don't make it look tremendously funny. No,
if they're not funny eggs, there's they're they're they're low
stress moments in it. Yeah, but that's one of the
great parts about And it's a certain kind of horror

(42:15):
movie where if you have a legitimate comedy written in,
it's always welcome for me. And the New Halloween had
some funny bits and of course, like the great uh
Sam Rami and all of his movies, Uh well, Army
of Darkness. Actually that was probably a full on comedy.
Yeah that. I don't even think there was much horror
in that. Those creatures are still pretty frightened. Yeah, I'd

(42:39):
almost just say Evil Dead too as a comedy, would
you not? Yeah, I mean someone put that on the
Facebook list is their favorite horror movie? And I did
post that question. I was like, is he. I mean,
it is horror, but um, not like the first one.
The first one was definitely way more horror, I think
than comedy. But he always has struck that balance really well.
I think. Alright, guys, so let's um. I mean, what's

(43:08):
your all time favorite horror movie? Do you have one? Who? Uh? Man,
that's hard to say. I I'm a big fan of Jaws,
but I don't know if you consider that a horror movie.
I don't. I mean I watched that every year, but
it's one of my favorite movies. Every summer. On the
fourth of July, Rachel and I watched Jaws. Were like,

(43:29):
fall asleep to it. Man, it's so great. It's it's
kind of perfect. That movie is too fun to me
to be a horror movie, but it is a great
monster movie. Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't call a horror movie.
I'm really bad at all time favorites. Whenever somebody asked
me that, I just have to like list things that
pop to mind. Yeah, I mean, but I mean, talk
about any of your favorites. But I mean recent movies.

(43:52):
I definitely think of The Witch. I think of Bob
a Duke, I think of oh yeah, that was great,
so good. You know, that's an example of him. Everybody
said it was great, and I've sat down to watch
it and it was I think it was not long
after uh we got our son and I was just like, no,
I can't do this. I just can't watch a haunted

(44:12):
film with some sort of a child element. And yeah,
well I've heard that about people, like sometimes having kids
changes what kind of horror movies they can enjoy. They
ruin everything kids, do you he can't enjoy anything he
used to enjoy now. I'm with you, though, for sure,
like in any any stuff involving kids now, it is
like tough for me for sure. You know. Jeane Siskel,

(44:34):
U still I know you do the you know what
did Ebert say? Gene Siskel used to always complain about that,
Like when they were reviewing movies on Ciskel and Ebert,
any time there was a movie that put a child
at at peril, he would massively penalize the movie for it.
Sometimes it seemed like that would be the sole criterion
that that drove him to a thumbs down for a movie. Yeah, yeah,

(44:56):
I get they hated it. What about you, Robert, do
you have an all time they route. Yeah, it has
to be hands down the original Texas Chainsaw massacre. Really
yeah like it even though yeah it's a it's not supernatural.
It doesn't have uh monsters, and generally my thing is
is monsters. But just the it feels like a really

(45:16):
almost kind of a perfect storm of elements, like you
have that kind of grimy late seventies documentary feel, this
rural setting, this sense of like I mean the opening
with the solar flares, everything just feels like cosmically misaligned. Uh. Yeah,
that's one that I feel. It is just great from

(45:37):
beginning to end. Yeah, there's something about just like a
funked up hillbilly yeah crew well family. That's like, I know,
it's terrible too, uh because it just identifies like one
segment of the population and saying you people are creepy.
But wait no, it's flatlands in Texas, so it would
be it would be flatbillies. Right. Yeah, is that a work?

(46:00):
But I just said, okay, we might can make go
wide with that one. That's good, the Texas hillbilly chainsaw
family with the flatbillies. Well and just uh for sheer
a sound design I pointed out last week when they
were talking about the best murder weapons. Um, it's hard
to beat that chainsaw. Yeah, it's just so loud and uh,
it's just terrifying, even though it's not a good murder weapon.

(46:22):
Oh no, not at all in reality. Yeah, all thought
about this. It's unwieldy. You gotta count on it to start. Well,
I know, I know. No was really a big fan
of Penis cousmostives as uh Mandy as well. Have you
haven't seen it yet? I can't wait. There is a
scene where a character is going to sneak up on
somebody with a chainsaw and they're like, they're like starting

(46:44):
it off. Yeah it's a sound yeah, sound design wise,
it's it's great. But of course it's totally impractical. Yeah,
there's no I mean, if it doesn't start, you're just
stuck with this heavy thing. And I guess you could
try and hit someone with it, but it's too heavy
to even swing. Really, a knife, for me is the
scariest ship. There's something about being stabbed in a kitchen
knife that's just terrifying. Another recent favorite I thought of.

(47:08):
Have you seen House of the Devil Thie West House
of the Devil? Yeah, two thousand, I think eight or
nine sometime around that. I thought that one was just
kill or slow burnong, slow build. I like movies like that.
I mean Lake Mungo is like that too, where there's
just a slow building. Um yeah, I thought that was good.
That had unrecognizable to me. But um what's the actress

(47:34):
that uh from Top Gun? Oh? Yeah? What is her name? Um? Yeah,
I remember the love interest in Top Gun. Oh wait,
she's in that. You thought it was just all home
erotic tensions. That's the only thing I was goose In
House of the Devil. No, the lady h I can't
remember her name, but she's she's the old lady in

(47:56):
that movie. Um, Mary warrenos Am, I think ind of
the right movie. You might be thinking of the wrong movie.
I think the I'm gonna look, I think the old
lady in House of the Devil is the lady who
is in like Eating Raoul and the beginning of Chopping Mall?
Which have you seen Chopping Mall? No? Man? Yeah, it's

(48:17):
an eighties technology gone to muck movie where they've got
robots that are supposed to be the security droids to
defend the mall, and of course some horny teenagers stay
over overnight to hang out and party in the furniture store,
but then all of the security droids attack, and yeah,
it's pretty great. So I was thinking of the innkeepers.
Oh that was great too. Yeah, that's that's also. I

(48:41):
did not see House of the Devil. Oh you should
see House of the Devil Man and Kelly McGillis from
Top Guns, The Creepy Old Lady and Till mcgillers. Did
I get the other lady's name right? Mary Waronov? I
think maybe it is all right? So I need to
see House of the Devil Man. Yeah, and it's got,
It's got. Oh what's his name from? From Man Tour
and tom Noonan tom Noon the great movie Creeps of

(49:04):
all the creepiest dude ever. And I don't know anything
about tom Noon and personally, but I always feel bad
because I bet he's just the sweetest guy on earth,
but he he is the creepiest human ever born. Yeah,
but you know what when you're born with a face
like that, like you're making money off of it. It's
like the guy who played Buffalo Bill just he's been

(49:26):
in so many things and he's always Buffalo Bill to me.
He had for him. But he was in that that
that remake of The Hills Have Eyes and he plays
with the dad and he's great in that. Like that's
one of these revenge films where there's so much care
put into the beginning of it. You end up falling
in love with these characters to a certain extent, and

(49:46):
then you really don't want anything terrible to happen to it.
But it's so weird to just totally buy into him.
It's just this dad boy talk about the character though
the Hills Have Eyes. That guy, I mean, what's his name, Yes,
Michael berry Man, Yeah, not John Berryman. Who's that the
poet John Barry? Yeah, alright, Michael Berryman's the only Berryman

(50:08):
for me. All Right, guys, Well, we have to finish up,
but I don't feel like we're done, So I would
like to do this again, can I'd love I think
maybe we can do a part three and nudge this
into November a little bit, because I feel like we're
almost I feel like we're kind of halfway done with
this conversation. I am. I would love to come back anytime. Chuck,
all right, well, let's do it like in the next

(50:30):
couple of weeks. And go ahead and get it out there,
because I didn't start early enough in October for all
these horror specials. Well, and plus all, I mean, all
the other big holidays are all about nudging in on
on the Halloween's time. So I think Halloween should get
to have at least the first half of November. Okay,
they're selling Christmas stuff in October, we get up in

(50:50):
the store. That's ridiculous. Yeah, maybe we can talk about
Silent Night, Deadly Night movies like that. Christmas horror. Well,
I don't know about good Silent Night dead Nights, but
there there's some solid Christmas Oh yeah, rare exports, you know,
rare exports. Oh, that one's great. It's uh finish, I think, yeah,
it's finish Christmas horror movie, very very Spielberg. Ee. It's

(51:15):
got like killer Santa Clauses. It's it's great. Man. All right, guys,
thanks for coming. Everyone. Check out stuff to blow your mind.
And I'm serious. Let's get in here like next week
of the next week and finish this up. All right.
Sounds good to me, Thanks dude. Thanks man,