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July 9, 2025 84 mins
We’re staring into the abyss of 2006’s Final Destination 3 to see what will gaze back. Grayce Anne Mosier and Carter Bentley, the writer-director duo behind the Horrific Hope Official Selection, Hell Squad 2: Fresh Meat, join us to talk about their homage to 80s slasher, the challenges of creating a new horror icon & more. Plus, we talk about the struggle between trauma and control, favorite gags, The X-Files & much more. Get your tickets for Horrific Hope Film Festival here.

If you or someone you know is reading this right now and struggling with suicide, depression, addiction, or self-harm - please reach out—comment, message, or tweet’ at us. Go to victimsandvillains.net/hope for more resources. Call the suicide lifeline at 988. Text "HELP" to 741-741. There is hope & you DO have so much value and worth!

Abyss Gazing: A Horror Podcast is a production of Victims and Villains is written by Josh “Captain Nostalgia” Burkey (& produced by), Brandon Miller & Billy Tabor. Music for this episode comes courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (https://bit.ly/agktheme) & Purple Planet (https://bit.ly/ppcoms).

You can now support us on Patreon. Help us get mental health resources into schools and get exclusive content at the same time. Click here (http://bit.ly/vavpatreon) to support us today!

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/abyss-gazing-a-horror-podcast--5223870/support.
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey, you're listening to a Biscaysing, a horror podcast where
we celebrate all things spooky and mental health.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm your host Brandon, I'm your co host Billy.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm your co host Josh, and today we are jumping
back into the world of Final Destination and reintroducing you
guys to some of our directors and creatives behind some
of our Horrific Hope selections for this year that you
guys can check out for yourselves. Tickets are now on sales,
so you guys can go to Alamo or Victimsfilms dot

(00:56):
Net Forward Slash Horrific Hope Film Festival. We provide links
for either one in the show notes below. But on
this episode we are joined by the writers and directors
behind the Slasher throwback fun time events that is Hell
Squad two, Fresh Meat, Grace and Moser and Carter Bentley.

(01:18):
How are you guys.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Hi?

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Hi guys, Thanks for having a song. We appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
Yeah, I already talk about some horror. Excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I just before we even started. I just want to
kind of share the crazy story about how our past
even cross. Oh yeah, so we did last December Victims
of Devils did a tour with our buddies in Delenda,
and part of that tour was stopping in Raleigh where
we played Chapel of Bones awesome venue down there, and

(01:48):
you guys had like hickstarter posters or like crowdfunding posters
promoting the movie, and I was like, I don't know
what this is. I want to know, I really want
to put our film festival on the radar, and so
I think I shock you guys on Instagram message and
we just kind of started talking about that and this
movie when we program films for Horrific Cope. I feel

(02:12):
like this movie embodies everything that I want from It
has this underlining edge of having that mental health theme
and kind of exploration throughout the course of not just
one character but multiple characters, but also at the same time,
it's also this love letter to eighties slashers, and you

(02:35):
guys got to talk about where the idea for Health
Squad to kind of originate it.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah. So first of all, that was really really cool
because I spent like twenty bucks at Staples printing posters
and running around town being like, can I please put
this up in your store? And so that was really cool.
That it worked. I got that message. I was like, yes, yes, yeah,
thank you, travel both that great coffee show, great venue.

(03:07):
So we were just sort of like put some out
some friends one night and we're we had just read
a script you had written, and it's somehow we started
talking about a different idea and it turned into the
first House Squad, which is like a thirty minute let's
see if we can do it type thing. I had
gotten at a theater school, and I was like, my

(03:28):
school doesn't have a film department. I just want to
be making movies. We had been dating for some time
at that point, and he was like, well, I have
my old Uh what was the camera used for the
first one.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
Well, I had a JVC VHSC camcorder and.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
I had gotten really into camcorders and stuff like that
and shooting analog.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
But we got like one scene.

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Filmed and it had been dying on me and it
finally just like broke apart during a shoot. So we
got Gracie's dad's old sony handycam and it's it was
a high eight tape, so slightly better quality tape for
the rest of the thing.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
So it's really too but yeah, we just shot.

Speaker 5 (04:18):
That zero expectations, Like Gracie and I split writing duties, and.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
That's how the first one came about. Yeah, and so
when we were like, oh wow, that took, you know,
three weeks to make shoot film, and we got a
lot of positive feedback from like our friends and just
kind of people in the community that were like, wow,
you guys are making a movie, Like well, I'll be
in your movie, and I was like, oh my god,
Like okay. So then we were like, let's make it
a little bit longer. Let's make it like sixty minutes.

(04:48):
And sixty minutes turned into eighty minutes, and suddenly we
had a feature length script on our hands. And we
were like, well, you know, I've always wanted to make
a movie before I turned twenty five, Like I just
had that goal. And I was like, well, this might
be my chance. Let's let's do it. And so we
cast it and we just started shooting and it We

(05:10):
shot it in thirty days. I ended up quitting my
job to focus on it full time, which is why
I now have three jobs. And we shot that on
a very similar camera and also Super eight film.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yeah, mostly MiniDV because I got my hands on one
and and wanted to put it to use, and then uh, yeah,
there's a there's a tiny bit of the movie shot
on Super eight because it's expensive.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
But we just had a vision. We had films. We
liked that. We were like, why is no one making
you know, roller Babes at the Slime Bowl of Rama anymore?
No one's making stuff. You were like, let's just be crazy,
Let's see what we can do with what we have
and maybe push ourselves away little bit. And we just
kind of did it. I make it sound like it

(06:03):
wasn't a nightmare, but than it was. Yeah. No, the.

Speaker 5 (06:10):
Process of going through and making like the full length
version was definitely a lot more arduous than sort of
the laid back way.

Speaker 4 (06:23):
We kind of pumped the first one out.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
But we committed to the bit. Yeah, and now we're
here and it's we're proud of what we came out
on the other side with and proud of the more
like serious tones that like you guys, like other people
have come back to us with that. We were like,
oh wow, we weren't like, you know, some of the
mental health things was just sort of a like subliminal

(06:46):
reflection of just how I feel about serial killer true
crime glorification and so like that was just sort of
coming out very slowly in the work and we both
kind of hit a chord with that, and it's really
come back and a really interesting way when people watch
it and come to us with that commentary.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
So, and I feel like we can't talk about it
without talking about how the hellman the main character, and
so that came about just talking about urban legend type
stories you hear.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
And.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
We just kind of wanted to make up our own
like Boogeyman type character, and I just enjoy making characters
and stuff. Gracie is really the one that sort of
took the story elements so a little further.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
But yeah, Carter designed the mask. We just went and
walked around Spirit Halloween and started picking up stuff. We're like,
this would be fun. Do you think you could kill
someone with this?

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
I think the idea originally was like killer lunch lady,
and she still kind of has that vibe, but then
it turned more into the canning facility worker and we just.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
Kept going with it.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
Altered the costume a little bit for part two and
h and Yeah, I think we definitely, like you said,
it's a love letter to eighty Slashers, So we wear
our influences on our sleeve, you know, like Halloween for sure,
and then even like ninety.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Slashers like Scream.

Speaker 5 (08:23):
Scream two definitely, I feel like has a you had,
like because we go the route of it's the same
final girl from the first one. Now she's having to
deal with the.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Fallout of everything that happened in the last one.

Speaker 5 (08:40):
Yeah, and and we we wanted to take that more
like the true crime route, like because today even more so,
I feel like then in the nineties when they made
Scream two, there's like a huge market for for true

(09:00):
crime and uh, you know, capitalizing whether it's like news
media or like podcasts like stuff like that, and we've
just thought, you know, those people like listen to podcasts,
they watch HBO Max like they're going to see like
the mini series about you know whatever. And so just

(09:22):
just taking that idea and sort.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Of like like in terms of the victims who have
to be reminded of an event that they don't want
to that is now being like marketed was sort of
like a big theme in our film.

Speaker 5 (09:36):
You do get that with like Stab and Scream and yeah,
but we just did our our take.

Speaker 6 (09:43):
On it, you know, Yeah, And that was the thing
I was going to ask about, what made you use
the storyline of somebody capitalizing on it in the second movie.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Was that just random or did you actually keep that through?

Speaker 3 (09:57):
I mean it was definitely intentional. I think it was
just very clear, like to me and to both of
us that like, what would be the next step if
something like this happened to someone, Well, there would be
a mini series made after it if it really was this,
you know, the idea was that, you know, the events

(10:18):
of the first heuse squad, a murder happens in a
small town and it blows up. What would then happen
to that person who has to sort of watch things
escalate and kind of turn positive for the person who
is exploiting it. And we've both had you know, personal
things happen that it was sort of weird to sort

(10:40):
of watch the people around us be like, isn't that
interesting about them? Or isn't that you know, on separate occasions,
like before we met, type stuff like I don't want
to you know, get too much into that, but that
was sort of a hard thing to sort of see that,
And I think it subliminally seeped into the script. Like
I didn't set out to go, hmm, I want to
pour myself into this main character. It was more so

(11:04):
me just writing her and then getting on set and
the actres would ask me questions that I realized she
was asking me but didn't know it, and I was like, oh,
I wrote that very unintentionally, very personal. You know, it
wasn't my intention to be personal, but it was my
intention to have a message.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Yeah, you know, I feel like it's something that you
kind of see more recently common theme wise, hearing you
guys kind of talk about it. You know, it's more
coincidence than it is influenced. But Terrifier three explored that
last year the podcasters.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
Oh yeah, I missed that, but I heard about it.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
Go check it out. It's great. It's a great one.
We even kind of see that early on in the
Legacy trilogy for Halloween with twenty eighteen, I mean within
the first act. You know, you meet journalists that are
essentially capitalizing on it. It's it is kind of crazy,
this true crime movement, and essentially you're asking people to

(12:06):
reopen wounds that they're probably not even healing from. And
I love how this film also kind of explores that
and explores kind of the way that kind of comes
along with it and the influence of capitalism that arises
in these types of events. Can you guys kind of
talk about really grounding that in a reality that feels

(12:32):
really honest and sometimes even sometimes even kind of very
brudely honest. You mentioned, I know, Gracie mentioned Scream two
as a reference kind of like an influence here. I
completely see it on this this second go round. Can
you guys kind of talk about marrying those two worlds
of being influenced but also at the same time, like,

(12:54):
you know, kind of grounding this and you know, social commentary.

Speaker 4 (12:57):
Yeah, totally. I mean, yeah, I guess, like you know,
those influences.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
Are are also doing a bit of social commentary with
what what those films are are are talking about. It's
just that that conversation has changed a little bit because
I mean, movies based on true stories have always, like
especially a murder like that, have always Yeah, they've they've

(13:27):
been successful. There's even movies that aren't based on true stories,
like Fargo, but then they're like it's based on a
true story because there's something before there was even like
a true crime movement like there is now people you know,
just reading the news are interested.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
In things like that.

Speaker 5 (13:47):
There's like a morbid curiosity. I think that's just like
baked into every person a little bit.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
So well, I think you're going off the morbid curiosity.
For our movie, the kills come first, the ode to
genre comes first, And I think that's how we married
the two is we're not trying to beat everyone over
the head with like you need to be cognizant of
other people's experiences. It was more so we're seeking to

(14:17):
make a genre film, and our fun is making sure
it looks right, it's filmed right. The characters are wacky,
the kills are gross and fun. We're having fun. But
then there's this through line of sort of sprinkling in
areas of earnesty of those moments where there isn't a

(14:38):
kill happening, and she has to our main character, whose
name Janey, has to sort of confront her goal. You know,
every film has a goal, and her goal is to
get rid of the exploitation and to try to stop
the killer. And it just sort of writes itself naturally
if those are her two goals. You know, whenever we

(14:59):
have moments to us those goals, then the mental and
social commentary comes out of it. But when we're not,
we're chasing people around and throwing blood on them with
a pesticide sprayer. Yeah, so grounded in reality is that
we try to heighten our genre love first.

Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, it's definitely influence first, and then, like like you
were saying, it's we we wrote it with that the
subtext of the of the greater commentary just that being
how we felt it, and it sort of naturally came out.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
In what we were writing.

Speaker 5 (15:40):
So I think you're right, Like, the the way we
got that nice blend was just not by standing at
you know, up on the pulpit and like harping on
it too hard. But we you know, it's so much
so that I think some people could watch it and
not even really notice what we're saying. But we were
really glad that you reached out because that, you know,

(16:01):
it was there, and I really appreciated you seeing it.

Speaker 7 (16:04):
Yeah, Brandon, Oh, I didn't know what was going on.
I thought I got up to his microphone. I thought
he was about to say something, so y'all keep talking.
I was talking about like the Scream two reference literally
the first thing that I wrote in my notes was
I loved the first part of the film with Alice.

(16:27):
Is it Alice or Alex? Because my subtitles were like, oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
It was Alice, the girl her head? Well, sorry, yeah,
don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Come see the movie horrific hope.

Speaker 7 (16:44):
But like I wrote, like that opening remind me of
Scream too, or Scream in general. And I was like, Oh,
here we go. But I do want to ask something. Yeah,
so is thisn't really a spoiler? I just need to
know why was there a hydro flask in the spots cabinet?

Speaker 5 (17:00):
That was probably that was that was probably the actors.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
Probably I would guess what was it.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
It was like a little hot.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
I'm sure that wasn't a spice cabinet. I'm sure that
was the like.

Speaker 7 (17:16):
As someone who uses like my wife has like tons
of stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
I was like, wait, what it was?

Speaker 5 (17:23):
Either it was either the act the actor Kalin's, or
it was the only.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
The apartment is Micah who plays Chandler in these two movies,
and he let us use his nice apartment. But we
didn't change anything. That pumpkin he just had that we
filmed this in the summer and he's like, it still
hasn't rotted.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
That so awkwardly placed. It's like this is giving fall
just like into the middle of the scene just because
it hadn't you know?

Speaker 2 (17:55):
That is funny.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
I did not I did not catch obvious.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
I'm gonna ask them some questions.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
I love questions like that.

Speaker 7 (18:05):
It's like the Wrench and Halloween in your character, Mommy,
were you? Are you a grassy f fan at all?

Speaker 3 (18:14):
I've seen clips. I'm more of a Dawson's creep because.

Speaker 7 (18:16):
The character in Paige Michael Chuck your character.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Spot on.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
And yeah, I'm just I've just seen Drake get.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
We all know that. Drake.

Speaker 6 (18:29):
We all know.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
I'm kind of curious, can you guys kind of talk
about the you know, do you guys kind of developed
the legacy or the legend of of hell Hellman? But
how did kind of the look of Hellman come into
place where it's this very basic mask, but you guys
got like smeared lipstick, like bad eyeshadow, like at a

(18:56):
fruity wig, Like, can you guys kind of talk about
the evolution of her look?

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Yeah, totally. I mean I think, well, You'll have to
remind me was was it before or after we had
like talked about the story. We did it.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
We sat with for the first one is me, you
and Kaylin, and we were sitting in our living room
just shooting the ship and we went to Halloween or
Spirit Halloween the next day and you pulled a blank mask.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
Off the shelf, right right.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
Oh, I did my makeup. So in the beginning of
the first one, I'm playing Helga and I just went
and did my makeup like real crazy in the bathroom.
I wasn't thinking about it for the flashback. Yeah, the
flashback was like our test footage, like proof of concept.
We just like went in our backyard and our shed
and filmed for like six hours.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
So as the legend is being told, we cut to that,
which is just Grazie.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Just pushing him over with the play.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah, just paying like face.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
That could considered proof of concept. Yeah, and we went, well,
this was fun. We made a legend about this evil
lunch woman who wasn't meeting her quota, which is a
you know, commentary of some kind, that she started killing
people and putting them into cans. And we're like, oh,
that's cool, like that would be a cool urban legend.
And so we went out and filmed that, and then

(20:20):
we went to Spirit Halloween. And this is where I
urged people to just be creative, just let your brain run,
and Carter took the mask and just started painting it.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
Well here was what my So what it is is
it's a Spirit Halloween like ten dollars.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
Hard plastic Michael Myers mask.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
It's like it's just the front part, you know, because
it's got that elastic strap.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Like a true Halloween fan would never buy this.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
I was, which y'all are the first to know that.
We've actually never told anyone.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
That I'm crazy.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
Yeah, But my thought was like, well, I know they
were I know they took Captain Kirk mask, messed it
up like, painted it white. I was like, let me
just reverse that and uh taking Michael Meyer's mask and
paint you know, uh person like human.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 5 (21:17):
So that's that's what I did with just like a
carylic paint that I stole from Gracie.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
And then first hell of it was just budget. So
it's my hair and out, like we went to Palmart,
pulled an apron. It's really a juxtaposition of being creative
and poor mh.

Speaker 5 (21:37):
But then for this, yeah, the second one, we went
big and got the the wig so that it would
be harder to tell and yeah right, and then a
little uh you know, ninja mask thing to to cover
the the wearer's snack and everything, and then like a

(21:59):
sort of supposed to be like a chef's outfit type,
you know, which was expensive.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
So it's just Gojo's outfit from Jiu Jitsu Kuisen and
I cut off the fabric designs.

Speaker 4 (22:12):
It's like a twenty dollars Gojo costume.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Yeah, so so that's it really was just like being
creative looking at costume and going what's cool what and
then what would be practical for someone sneaking around in
the night.

Speaker 5 (22:26):
And there's there's absolutely a little bit of leather face
inspiration in there too, with the uh the makeup look
sort of uh yeah.

Speaker 7 (22:41):
An apron I can see that. Yeah yeah, now you
say that, oh ship.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (22:46):
Absolutely, just hearing y'all talk about this, God blessed the
like I'm from the hardcore scene, like cool, Yeah, that's
all that's.

Speaker 3 (22:59):
I'm always like, if you can do it cheaper and
you already.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Have it, yeah, do that Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
Absolutely. I'm also pretty sure that you guys and Ice
nine Kills are the only people that have ever actually
bought those like half Michael Myers Master Spirits. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
That was the fun part, Like we could, we found it,
We like tackled at it, like this is so stupid?
Who would buy this? We checked out with it?

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know what's dumber, the half
mask or the one from H two.

Speaker 7 (23:31):
Oh oh yeah, Hey, don't disrespect H two. O.

Speaker 4 (23:38):
I like two except when the mask is c G
I for some reason.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
Oh yes, I do like H two.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
But that's.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
It.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
There's there's so much scream reference in that. And you know,
I'm a I'm more of a resurrection fan myself, which
I don't know what that says about my movie days.
But that movie also has Ryan Merriman in it, which
gives me a here we go, Yeah, an entire conspiracy
theory that I'll bring up right after this commercial break.

(24:10):
But Hell Squad two Fresh Meats is going to be
playing during our Horny Hell Block Saturday, August twentieth, part
of Horrific Hope twenty twenty five. You guys can get
your tickets now again. Their tickets are in the link,
and that block is going to be not only showcasing

(24:32):
the Horny Hell to future film, but it's also going
to be showing showcasing Sugar Tits, a short film from
our friends over at Misfit Parade. Josh and Heath were
guests on our Planet of the Apes episode last year.
Go check it out. It's a great episode and it's
a great short film. I connot think of a better

(24:54):
pair to make up our Horny Hell block than Hell'squol
and Sugar Tits. Again, tickets are in the show not
it's below. And I know these guys tell you that
you don't necessarily need to watch the first Health Squad
but if you, guys, go to victims at villains dot
net for sash errific coat check out all of the

(25:15):
beautiful selections we have on the Health Squad two. We
have a link that you can check out to check
out the very first Health Squad right on YouTube for free.
It's a half hour. I highly recommend people watch it.
I made both Billy and Branda watch it because it
does enhance an enrich the viewing experience for Health Squad two.

(25:37):
So once again, those links are gonna be in the
show's below. When we get back, we're gonna be talking
about Final Destination Tree. We'll be right back.

Speaker 8 (25:48):
If you were someone you know is listening to this
podcast right now and you're struggling with suicide, addiction, self harm,
or depression, we encourage you guys to please reach out.
This is the heartbeat on why we do what we do.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Suicide is currently.

Speaker 8 (26:03):
The tenth leading cause of death in the United States,
and as of this recording, there are one hundred and
thirty two suicides that take place each and every day
on American soil, and when you scale back internationally, there
are eight hundred thousand successful suicides. That is one death
roughly every forty seconds. So if you were someone you

(26:24):
know was struggling, you guys can go to Victims and
Villains and dot net ford slash hope. That resource is
going to be right in the description wherever you guys
are currently listening or streaming this. There you'll find resources
that include the National Suicide Lifeline, which is one eight
hundred two seven three eighty two fifty five.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
You can also text help to seven seven four to one.

Speaker 8 (26:47):
You LUs have a plethora of other resources, including churches
getting connected with counselors, LGBT resources like the Trevor Project
and also a veteran hotline as well. Please, if you
hear nothing else in the show, understand that you, yes,
you listening.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
To this right now, have value and worth. We get it. Suicide, depression,
mental health.

Speaker 8 (27:14):
These are hard topics and this stigma around them doesn't
make it any easier. But please consider the resources right
in the descriptions below wherever you guys are listening, because
once again, you have value and you.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Have worth, so please stay with us. Welcome back to
a biscusing a horror podcast, where we are joined by
the filmmakers of Health Squad two, one of the future
films making up this year's Perfect Hope Film Festival. Again,
tickets are on sale. Links are in the show that's below.
But we're talking about Final Destination three on this one,

(27:52):
and I probably have to say this is one of
my favorites who uh find a Destination sequels, also because
this brings back James Wand and Glenn Morgan. Originally, Billy
correct me if I'm wrong, But on the very first
when we covered the very first Final Destination, did we

(28:12):
talk about how this film that film was originally intended
to be an X Files episode. I don't know if
we brought that up or not. I don't think we
brought that up, Okay, So wow, Gracious Child is dropped.
So James Wong, the film's director, the original film director
and this film's director also worked with Glenn Morgan on

(28:33):
a little known TV show called The X Files. And
it's also worth bringing up because Mark Snow, the composer
behind that, unfortunately just died this past Friday. But the
original Final Destination was intended to be an episode of
The X Files. Wow, the more you know, Wow.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
I just told him we need to watch the X
Files movie tonight. So that's now.

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Really sweet that I can see that working.

Speaker 3 (29:03):
And it makes so much sense because this is my
final This is my favorite Final Destination movie.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I it depends on the day, like I I think
between I go back between the third one or the
fifth one. I really like both of those two. But
this was one of the very first word movies I
ever saw, so this is like has like a super
nostalgic touch for me. Which ironically the first one of
the very first ones I also saw was the aforementioned

(29:32):
Holy Resurrection, which both star Ryan MERRIMANTT So I don't
know what that says about my being pleasure if I
have a man crossed on Mary min Or not.

Speaker 7 (29:40):
I got the legend, dude, I got a legend.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah that's what I knew from.

Speaker 6 (29:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (29:49):
Yeah that that dude that didn't get back in back
in the movie theaters the way he needs to do.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Oh yeah, I'm kind of curious if he's like still
working uh right now. I mean he guys just kind
of continue on the podcast, but.

Speaker 7 (30:03):
Uh, he's gonna do some some searching.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
His his i m dB headshot is from like maybe
like two thousand and six. It's kind of weird.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
I remember reading somewhere he had read.

Speaker 5 (30:17):
But he should get back into it, especially now that
Sinners just.

Speaker 4 (30:22):
Brought Irish culture back to the forefront.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Hell yeah, I read that Ryan Coogler.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
Uh said that he loved luck of the Irish, so
that may have played a part in.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
Uh, I'm one hundred percent here for that. So there.
Even it is like basically kind of like a d
d I Y like filmmaker. Now he's done a lot
of he's done some some movies. It looks like he's
done some short films here and d I y Ones.
He's also worked for what looks like The Asylum, but

(30:59):
like yeah, like he's like major, Like last big studio
thing that he did was either Pretty Little Liars or
forty two.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Okay, he's pretty old Liars.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah. Apparently he played a guy named Ian Thomas.

Speaker 7 (31:16):
Oh okay, I don't remember that. Okay, I like that show. Sorry,
Guilty Starts, I do not remember him.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
So I don't know if I'm just I'm just gonna
put this out there. I think that you could argue
that his character here is the same character from Halloween
Resurrection because this Halloween Resurrection and character is a freshman
and here he's a senior, and there is literally four
years apart from each of those movies.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
All, I also just watched Halloween's Resurrection like last week,
so it's like fresh in my mind.

Speaker 4 (31:58):
That's awesome, Billy, this.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Was your choice, so you pick us off on this conversation,
let us know where you want to go.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Well, I mean, my choice was a whole series. So
but this is you. This is your favorite.

Speaker 6 (32:12):
It's it's one of the ones I like, but it's
not my like top favorite. But I love the fact
that they you know went throughout of the roller coaster
on this one because being in the area of Williamsburg, Yeah, buds,
and knowing that, uh, just an example one of the

(32:32):
roller coasters Fabio got hit with the goose in the face.
Just writing it that that that gives it more of
a chance from something like this happening. It's it's crazy
to think about it that they did that.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
On top of that, this.

Speaker 6 (32:46):
Is the first one if you think about it, if
correct me if I'm wrong, this was the first one
after nine to eleven, which is why, which is why
I'm not going political, but that's why the they had
the nine to eleven picture in there kind of with
the plane in the tower.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Oh no, Final Destination two was actually released in two
thousand and three.

Speaker 6 (33:09):
Okay, so, but it depends on when it was filmed
and how what they went through. But this one was
the first one that they brought that up as kind
of like a foreshadow thing with the pictures and all
of a lot of stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
So I do the fact that they brought up Flight
eight completely by itself, like it was this like isolated incident,
right and then randomly in the year like later in
the movie, they bring up the whole part of the

(33:44):
the lock truck incident and like how it created this catastrophees,
which is like really like I don't know, man, it
seems like I wrote down in my notes, I was like, oh,
because this is a direct sequel to the to the
you know, this is the filmmakers who brought the first
film to life, like and actually had something to do

(34:07):
with this film, Like are they ignoring the films of
the events of the second film and then they just
randomly kind of bring it up like I really wish
they would have just brought it up like esecutively. M.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
Yeah, well that is interesting. I saw.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
We rewatched this movie a few weeks ago, just before
I even knew that we were gonna be talking about
it today, and I saw behind the scenes clip of
I think it was James Wong saying that he didn't
like that the second one departed from high school students

(34:45):
or being kids.

Speaker 4 (34:47):
He thought that it was sort of convoluted to try
and keep.

Speaker 5 (34:53):
All these adults who don't have like a connective tissue
of being at the same school or whatever together. And
that featurette was specifically I remember it was about dead teenagers.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
The dead teenager movie. Yeah, yeah, which what are youre
talking about?

Speaker 3 (35:11):
Yeah, which, I you know, going off of your you know,
in the realm of not going political, but still talking
about what it was to be that age during nine
to eleven. You know, you're talking about like giant catastrophe
that happened and feeling paranoia, the world is ending, everything's
after you. You're just graduating high school. What's gonna happen?

(35:32):
And that's where I really like when this movie departs.
My favorite thing about horror is you can take it
as you want. You can take it as a horror movie.
And this movie is so wacky and silly and crazy
that it is able to sort of jump the fence
on what it could also be saying and how relatable
it is. And I think, you know, Wendy Mary Elizabeth

(35:53):
Winstead's character really serves as that, you know, host for
all those feelings of you know, boom and gloom and
the world is ending. Do I think they hit it
over the head when she shows a picture of the
Twin Towers, Yes, which he also shows a picture of
Abe Lincoln.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
Which is.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
That I went, I was on your side. You didn't
have to bring up a picture of Abe. But that's
where I really like, I totally agree with Billy, where
it was just like the monumental weight of the world
and using teenagers to be the hosts of those emotions
I think really really works in this film. And it's

(36:33):
where Final Destination gets back in its stride of the
Dead Teenager movie.

Speaker 7 (36:38):
Which Shendy's trying to like have a serious conversation with
Merriman's character, and he's just like, what's gonna happen. He's
gonna get crushed by John SpongeBob.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
I love that, which is kind of like nuts to
think about, right, Like, this is the last entry into
the Final Destination movie that really tells it from the
perspective of teenagers, because you get into the Final Destination,
which we'll be covering next week, and it's all about

(37:09):
a race car driver and like fans of like NASCAR
that are young adults. And then you get into Final
Destination five and that is about this you know, this
like work retreat that just goes completely off the rails
and it's like also young adults. And then you get
into Bloodlines and it's all about this lineage of this

(37:29):
college student and you know kind of this is the
This is where I feel like that retains a lot
of Wong's originally Wong and Morgan's original vision in this film,
and this movie unleash fears into me that even watching
this movie twenty years later, like still have like instilled

(37:51):
things that I will like never unsee. You know, people
talk about the uh, the fear that too unlocks where
we talkalked about last week or a few weeks ago
with the infamous freaking log truck. This one unleashed and
to be an holy fear of rollercoasters and tanning beds

(38:13):
that I don't think enough people talk about.

Speaker 7 (38:16):
Nail gun.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Also nail gun.

Speaker 7 (38:19):
Yeah, that's my favorite. That's my favorite death of this
whole franchise is a nun Well.

Speaker 6 (38:23):
The tanning beds they used. That's some huge thing that
was going across TikTok for a while recently. And again
I hadn't watched this one in a while, and when
I watched it, I'm.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Like, oh, yeah, that's right, that's what this is from.

Speaker 6 (38:36):
Because it was one of those like I seen the
scene and I kept saying, where have I seen it?
I know I've seen it, And then I rewatched this
I'm like Okay, well, how did I forget that this
was from this movie?

Speaker 2 (38:46):
But it's crazy that what they did with that tanning
bed scene.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Oh yeah, my sister used to Yeah, my sister used
to go tanning all the time and had never seen
this movie. And I showed her this this scene, in
that scene in particular, and I'm pretty sure she did
tan for an entire year after watching that, and then
just randomly was like a friend was like, let's go tanning.

(39:11):
You know, she totally forgot about it by that point.

Speaker 6 (39:15):
Hopefully she didn't take any slurpees or anything.

Speaker 7 (39:18):
Yeah, and hopefully the owner didn't use tanner as a
freaking doorstop. Yeah who does that?

Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (39:26):
That guy got.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
I feel like the appeal. So being candid, I am
not the biggest Final Destination fan. I think they're a
very elaborate, morbid Rube Goldberg machine where the fun is
just sort of watching the skillet flip the pancake and
the pancake falls into the wave which tracks the egg

(39:51):
like pee wee. Herman's making his breakfast. But then you know,
imagine if he exploded. That is what file Destination is.
I love the third one because it is the most
interactive out of any of the final destinations. Because of
the photos, there is a level of going, oh, she
can figure this out. It's not hopeless. She can look

(40:11):
at these extremely vague photos and go, oh, they're gonna
light on fire because the light is orange on their face.
And I love that.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
I think one of the craziest things about that element
of the film is the way that the film uses that,
where they're always kind of going after these really obvious
answers for death. I think the Jim death is a
great example of that, where you know that entire death,
you're like, oh, it's gonna be the swords, like one

(40:42):
can be the swords, and then it catches you by
surprise the entire time. There are probably two or three
deaths within this movie that do that. Red Herring really
good because of that technique.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
M hm, especially after looking at the wrong photo.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (40:57):
Yeah, I think is really.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Her writing that it it It makes itself stand apart
from a movie like Shutter, which is about you know,
a haunted camera situation and it you know, she has
options of what could happen because we talk about that
and final the station bloodlines with her notebook is like
there are many different ways that I could be killed
in this incident. And I think that the pictures sort

(41:21):
of elaborate or like foreshadow that I didn't think about
that till just now, but that she has several different photos,
and I think that like, no matter what death is saying,
you're gonna die, it just it's, uh, these are your options.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (41:37):
The fact that they use the photos like we're talking
about is crazy. That it can be like twenty different
things in that photo and she's walking through the hardware store.
What could be this or could be that? And the
other guy's getting pissed off. He's like, well, I'm trying
to do my job and you're right underneath me, and
I don't see how you're trying to save my life.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Then he gets then he goes after it. Later on, So.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
When the sister gets pulled by the rope, yeah, Sequin,
Oh yeah, that I I there's a level to this
movie where you're really rooting for Wendy to stop and
like succeed or is I feel like the other ones
you just are sort of watching them grasp for straws

(42:24):
and see if they can just like beat the game
or this one, you're just like hoping that somebody will
see something just in time. You know, I don't know,
but I just think that that's a really really great
sequence when her sister's getting dragged through the field and
the horses are going crazy and the.

Speaker 4 (42:42):
Fireworks, all the fake outs, Like, yeah, there are so
many like this movie, more than any of the final destinations.
I feel like people are getting like saved from things,
like yeah, they seemingly are you know, escape there her
fate like a bunch of times in this.

Speaker 7 (43:04):
And one thing I really liked was Wendy was definitely
she definitely struggled with they want to control everything. Yeah,
I t how you could see, like with the photo
she wanted so badly to know because she wanted to
control everything. And I think that that was a huge
aspect maybe that I really liked, was just seeing how
that got to her because like you couldn't like it. Yeah,

(43:27):
I mean, if you avoid something, I mean we saw
hot ended, you know.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, It's it's also like really interesting to consider the
fact that like she didn't want to get on the
roller coaster in the first place in the beginning of
the movie, and I think it's her boyfriend that kind
of like turns start it's either her boyfriend or Maryman's
character that turns to her and says, you know a
lot of people, most people don't like roller coasters because

(43:52):
it's this it's this lack of control. And that is
definitely something that as a person that struggles in anxiety
when it comes to having a lack of control or
situations where I don't have a lack of control. Part
of the reason I don't like roller coasters and don't
like to, you know, jokes aside, Billy, I know, I'm

(44:14):
not the biggest fan of being a passenger princess, but
you know, it's kind of one of those things that
it's like having a lack of control. You know, it
bursts out of somewhere. It bursts out of a tragic event, right,
and you know, we're kind of meeting these these characters
at the core of a tragic event. But there is

(44:35):
something in particular that happened in in Wendy's life that
kind of made her that way. It's that wanting to
control as a byproduct of some other trauma that she
is not necessarily worked through.

Speaker 6 (44:52):
Yeah, I mean that's very true. Once you go through
a trauma, you want to make.

Speaker 9 (44:58):
Sure to avoid it and help other people avoided at
all costs after you've seen it, and you see signs
of stuff all the time after that, and sometimes you
misread them like.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
They do in this movie.

Speaker 6 (45:11):
Sometimes you see it before it happens and nobody listens
to you. Now, going back to the control thing that
Brandon brought up, the fact that they used her picture
as so bland of a picture that all you saw
was her and her T shirt with the school and
all that kind of led to the she has no
control over anything because all you can see is that teach.

Speaker 7 (45:32):
Yeah, and everyone know what's gonna happen, like yeah. And
if someone like like when I have something in mind
that I want, like I have my day planned and
the first monitor inconvenience happens as someone that just breaks
out and that happens like that, would I be like,
oh my god, I can't leave the house.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah yeah, my uh my wife jokes around that. I
used to be a go with the flow kind of guy,
and over the years of balancing both work, podcasting and
also running a nonprofit now a film festival as well,
like it's also been one of those things that like
I don't do well in those kind of environments, So like,

(46:13):
I want to make sure that if if something is planned,
then like let's put a time on it. Let's let's
let's understand how long that plan is gonna last. You know,
maybe maybe that might not necessarily hit all of the parameters,
but that's kind of like something that like I struggle
immensely with and something that is like fucked with my
mental health for the better part of probably two or

(46:35):
three years at this point. So I totally get it.
I totally related to a lot of the things that
occur to Windy within the course of this, And I.

Speaker 6 (46:49):
Was gonna say I can confirm these that way. Just
the plan of us hanging out with Mark, what time
are we really before, like a week before? It's like,
what time are we going? I don't know if off
work first.

Speaker 7 (47:05):
But one thing, like every time I've seen this far,
I laugh. I wanted to bring it up when they're
at the funeral of the Two Girls entertainment and that
dude's like, hey, my funeral, if you have to come
bring me a PSP or something boring, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
I think you could also argue the flip flowes in
this movie.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
I mean I'm sorry.

Speaker 7 (47:38):
I didn't he's talking you go ahead.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
I'm sorry, Well I was.

Speaker 3 (47:41):
I was gonna kind of go back to the mental
health aspect of like as somebody who also has like
at times very controlling o c D and anxiety, Like
I definitely I love horror because one it takes that
focus instead of being like, oh my god, this is

(48:04):
happening in my real life, I can focus in on
a horror movie and be like, oh my god, their life.
And that's what I find very cathartic and why I
think horror is like a really important genre and love
that you guys are attached to it with mental health issues.
But as somebody that you know, I struggle to really
connect with the Final Destination series. What do you guys find?

(48:26):
You know, do you find the series cathartic or like
impactful talking about like the anxiety that comes from the film.

Speaker 4 (48:34):
I guess.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
I mean I can go first of knowing that if
you guys don't want to go, but go ahead.

Speaker 6 (48:42):
For me, what brought me to this series was the
fact that I do overthink, I do overanalyze, and this
movie does do that and it kind of lets be
not say out of body experience. But let's me sit
back and watch and see that. Okay, I can see
myself doing all this, and when people talk about it now,

(49:04):
I can understand what they're reading back to me, because
when I do it, I have no idea that that's
what's happening.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
Mmmm.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Yeah, I think go ahead, you go ahead, go ahead,
go ahead, I'll go ahead.

Speaker 7 (49:20):
No. I think for me, like the first one I
saw was the second one, and I didn't see the
first one first for some reason. And the same with
the dude in his apartment, like the spaghetti and like
the and like the latter. Like I think with me,
like I'm always thinking something weird is gonna happen. Like
for a living I drive. I'm a truck driver kind

(49:42):
of and I'm always like thinking like, oh crap, that
car is about to just put in reverse and hit me.
I don't know why, but I just that having that
mindset all the time may seem like these movies. I
don't know, it mays be a sick person.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
You know, I don't know.

Speaker 6 (50:00):
You're not anybody, so you're not the other people.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
You're the lag truck driver.

Speaker 7 (50:05):
I got it, suckers, I delivered a part, So there's
no telling what can you fly out of my van?
A radiator, a nominator, a motor.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
I think for me, like my my thing is is
before I kind of really became ingrained into this genre
of the way that I am today, I did lose
a friend of suicide, and so, you know, I think
when I'd experienced death at that point through natural causes,
like I had grandmothers that died of cancer, I had

(50:46):
you know, grand other grandparents that have died of natural causes.
Like for me, at that time, death was always kind
of something that occurred naturally, and losing having a friend
died by suicide was kind of this wake up call
that death is something that can kind of show itself

(51:06):
at at any point. And so I was really late
on these movies. I don't think I actually watched them
fully outside of this one until twenty two, I think,
so I kind of don't really have the attachment to
this relationship that maybe anyone listening to this or watching

(51:29):
this if you're on our Patreon, or anyone that really
kind of has it, because I had those really this
really strenuous relationship with death where it's like I don't
want to believe this is real, because it feels like
a fever dream to kind of lose people and really
kind of what I would view as of unnatural ways,

(51:50):
and suicide is one of those things that is your
kind of those deaths where you're just kind of left
with these like really like fucked up questions where you're like,
why did this happen? You know, I've said something differently?
Could I have done something differently? Could I have you know,
said or have been a better friend, like, you know,
should I have called this person more? Those questions just

(52:12):
kind of mount up right like, and that's that's the
very real reality that you face the first few years
and maybe even the first decade of being a suicide
loss survivor. And so for me, like finally kind of
working on my own relationship with death allowed me the

(52:33):
opportunity to kind of really revisit this this or to
jump in and dive into this series the way that
we have been in more recent weeks. And part of
the reason that I think I was able to do
that is actually because of Wes Craven quote that said, basically,
horror movies are this change where it's this immersive therapy

(52:56):
session where you're basically allowed to kind of react and
walk through some of your own fears and in a
controlled environment. And I've never kind of heard it put
that way. And horror has always had this mental health
relationship ever since West put it that way, And so

(53:16):
I tend to look at horror movies completely different. And
Brandon is one of my best friends and we talk
about movies all the time. He one hundred percent can
confirm that before he was a member of this podcast,
Like I looked at movies like that all the time.
And it's part of the reason that I have such
a different advantage point. I think when it comes to movies, how.

Speaker 8 (53:40):
Would you guys like to help us get mental health
resources into schools, conventions and other events. Well, now you
can simply go to Patreon dot com Ford Slage, Victims
and Villains for as little as one dollar a month,
you guys can help us get mental health resources into
current and upcoming generation, educate and break down stigma surrounding

(54:03):
mental health, suicide and depression.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
And you get exclusive.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Content that you can't get anywhere else. And you guys
can tell us which Nicholas Cage movie you want us
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get started is to go to patreon dot com forward
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(54:30):
it's that simple, so clickly select a tier that you
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the depressed and the suicidal today.

Speaker 8 (54:42):
ED.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 6 (54:43):
Yeah, I mean, the other aspect of this movie is
the dejah vous aspect. When you've experienced that before, just
to see it in a movie and then expand on it,
it's crazy because you already feel like you're crazy whenever
you have the dejah vu.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
I've seen this before? Where or how have I seen
this before? And then everything happens in line of what
you saw.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
Mmmm.

Speaker 7 (55:09):
Another thing too. I am someone who sometimes can buy
into superstitions sometimes, and I always think about like every
day I leave my house, uh twice maybe three times
a week, I always forget something and I come back
and I always think to myself, I bet you something's
about to happen out there, and I had to go
back and get my wallet. Yeah, It's like I always

(55:34):
Like I said, I saw a quote that said that
like if you if you forget something like that, that
that's universe telling telling you to go back home for
a second and let that happen. And I feel like
a lot of these movies too kind of get that
hit that for me as well, because like it's like,
you see this before it happens to people about it,
It doesn't happen. If you were just done one thing different,

(55:55):
it would never happen. And then of course it happens anyway.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
But yeah, it's.

Speaker 5 (56:00):
Seeing and I think I think seeing uh, somebody else
who not only like has had that same like because you,
like you said, I forget who said you feel crazy
when you Yeah, yeah, it's like feel you feel crazy
when you have these thoughts and it makes you not
want to maybe share about them. And then you see

(56:21):
a director who not only had the same thought, but
you know, wrote.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
It down about it.

Speaker 5 (56:27):
You get to see that happen and go, maybe I'm
not the only person that has, you know, thoughts like this,
Maybe I'm not crazy. And of course, like it's played
out in such a you know, hyper elevated kind of
way that you know it isn't you know, like confirming

(56:48):
your fears, but it's making you feel heard. That That's
how I felt horror movies that that well, especially like
Final Destination or just anything that kind of appeals to that.

Speaker 4 (57:01):
I rrational fear.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
Yeah, I think even here this film kind of like
normalizes a lot of those things where it's like I
feel like it's kind of like the in the Minority
that if you don't ride roller coasters, or if you're
afraid of ride roller coasters, then you know you're afraid
of life or you don't like to have fun, and
this one kind of like gives like legitimacy to that.
It's like, dude, like this could stop. And I mean

(57:24):
there was a story a few weeks ago I think
in DC that like was exactly like that, and the
roller coaster like actually stopped for like something like forty minutes.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
Yeah, they go up there on that thing.

Speaker 7 (57:37):
That happened to me before. Uh never you ever heard
of six Flags ever Georgia. Yeah, a few hours from me,
I was riding the Mind Bender, which is like basically
the regular from Batman and His Ride, and it was
going over like a little like like whatever flip whatever
got stuck for like maybe five minutes, but it was,
it was, it was insane.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
We also that five minutes like feels like an eternity,
like to know that, like you know eventually, like either
one thing's gonna happen, like you're gonna see your grip
is going to give out the way that it does
in this movie early on and when he's premonition or
it is you're gonna you're essentially gonna die from all

(58:20):
of the blood rush into your head. You're gonna pass out,
you know, either way, like it's a terrible fate.

Speaker 7 (58:26):
There's a pond. There was a pond under us at
that moment, and I thought about it. I'll think, you
know what, let's just say that's crazy.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
Five minutes. I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
We talked about go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (58:40):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (58:41):
We talk about sort of the interest in like real
life for and like sort of where that can go.
My my like little niche of like real life for
that I find interesting is amusement park stuff, not like
really tragic messed up, but I'm talking about like Bobby,
I loveing the design of roller coasters, and so that's

(59:04):
another big appeal to me, is I love Carney stuff.
I love Todd Browning's Freaks. I love stuff, yes, And
so that's the big appeal for me was this was
like who does stuff on a roller coaster? You know,
like who's who's gonna go that way? And then watching
the behind the scenes with this movie where it's just
a stuntman holding on as it's as the cart circles,

(59:26):
I was like, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
That's amazing. Yeah, there's a really express I think it's
called Death's Design if I remember correctly. That's like this
like really like in depth documentary. And I'm pretty sure
that this film is the only film in the franchise
to receive that treatment. So but I mean when you
watch it, you're like, all right, these are like really
extravagant stunts and like really like out there gags. So

(59:51):
like one, I get why this film would be the
only one in the series with it with a freaking documentary.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:00:03):
I mean, let's not give James Wong too much credit here.
He went from this to the Dragon Ball movie. Ship
did he go from the Wow what happened Bud?

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
Because right before this he did the one with Jet
Lee and that movie's like that shit crazy. No, you're
you are wrong. So he did not actually go to
uh from dragon from this to Dragon Ball because he
did the Black Christmas remake right before this then it

(01:00:41):
was Dragon Ball.

Speaker 7 (01:00:42):
Okay, still so.

Speaker 6 (01:00:44):
Still so there's one thing that I've rewatching. This kind
of bugs me. Is like in the scene where she's
doing the Day's a food thing and everything in the
through all the desks, it takes the camera off of

(01:01:05):
what's his name to be dropped onto the rails and
a couple other things. Well, if he's not on it,
how is that causing it to break?

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:01:15):
Yes, yeah, no, I remember what you're talking about. Yeah,
Ryan Merriman, right camera.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
No, it's the guy with the camera, Yeah, the camera
and the girl, but he's not on it. They took
him off, but that doesn't happen so.

Speaker 3 (01:01:38):
That I can't remember how we still solved it.

Speaker 6 (01:01:42):
Yeah, because I was like I could see it's still
coming off of the tracks breaking and all. But part
of it was that camera getting wrapped around causing some
of that. The other guy with the thing coming down
breaks the fluid onto it, so they're not on there,
so that takes away that part of the scenario.

Speaker 5 (01:02:02):
Yeah, there's a couple multiple like a couple of things
happened at the same time.

Speaker 4 (01:02:06):
I think, like there's a yeah, something breaks the tracks that.

Speaker 5 (01:02:09):
Had nothing to do with them, but then they were
like fine after that moment, and it was only because
of the other things that had happened at it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
Yeah, death, death found a way somehow.

Speaker 6 (01:02:22):
Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
That's what I feel like. Photos and bloodlines, I think
sort of come in as a diosex market of explanation
of like it's gonna do it. It's just a matter
of how uh not. I don't know. That's me given
the movie a little more lineage for a girl who

(01:02:44):
pulled out a photo of Abe Lincoln and said.

Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Yeah, it's all connected. There's so there's one thing did
going back to the first film is the death where
the kid gets strangled by the in the bathtub. So
we brought this up in there our final destination episode
that death was a gou and I have I have

(01:03:10):
the people at Honest Trailers to think for that. But
this is the first one where Death is kind of
returns to this like almost personified form where she's like
kind of sitting in her room Windia's and she's like
going through like all the pictures and like she's trying
to figure out how everyone's going to die. Death is

(01:03:31):
a wind that comes in and kind of blows in.
It's the only might be the only other time of
the franchise that we see death personified. But Kevin also
talks about death being like a force in this one,
which I think was really interesting that they simplified death

(01:03:51):
in such a way. But it is this also kind
of like roulette thing that we we kind of go
through every day. You know, when you get in you
go from like point A to point B in your car,
Like I mean, there's multiple things that literally could usher
in your death.

Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
Yeah, I mean, as you know, because you just had
something happened with your car this past week.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
So yeah, yeah, we don't have to talk about that. Ironically,
I got into an accident coming back from a screening
of Showgirls.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
Oh wow, glad you're good.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Yeah, to bring it back to the original conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
All trails go back to Showgirl.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
Yeah, absolutely, thirty years that's great.

Speaker 7 (01:04:43):
Maybe I'll watch it one day.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
You should watch it this week, all right? And ironically
I almost rewatched it today. I was like looking for
things to watch, and I was like, you know what,
maybe another day. I just watched it a couple of
days ago.

Speaker 5 (01:05:00):
It's just this just.

Speaker 3 (01:05:01):
Another movie where I'm like too much hate for just
letting it ride. I love the way Elizabeth Berkeley says things,
where are you from different places? Amazing? That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
So correct me if I'm wrong, Josh.

Speaker 6 (01:05:20):
With this movie is in the second one they didn't
really do it, but the first one and this one
they had like a song that would play anytime death
was showing up.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
I think that's kind of a trait that is of
James Wong and Glenn Morgan, the writer director, so that
we've kind of talked about on and off thereout the
question and there are like habitations that I think. I
was kind of like, as I was watching it on
this rebirth and knowing that there was the original writer

(01:05:53):
director kind of mambo coming back to do this one
from the first film. I feel like this film kind
of follows very closely with the second one, or sorry,
the first one, very closely to where you do have
things like the personification of death, the song that plays
kind of throughout the course of this, and that mystery

(01:06:16):
of like there's a pattern to death that there is
a pattern like I feel like some of the sequels
are very loose with that. But I feel like given
the fact that you have both Morgan and Wong back,
it makes it evident of like, all right, this is
how it's supposed to go like this. I saw person

(01:06:36):
A person B person ce. This is how they eventually
fell to their death. And that's kind of the trail
that you follow throughout the course of this movie.

Speaker 6 (01:06:45):
Well, I mean, I love that they use the song
love roller Coaster. I mean, but the fact, because of
the urban legend to that song.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
You know what urban legend.

Speaker 1 (01:06:55):
Is, I don't know, yeah, please.

Speaker 6 (01:06:57):
The urban legend that circuinly it around was that the
screaming there was somebody.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
That was murdered.

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Oh I didn't all right, And.

Speaker 6 (01:07:06):
The band let that ride for years to keep that
urban legend going to help the song get more popular.
I mean, I think they finally came out and said, no,
they the drummer somebody did it on purpose. But they
let that urban legend ride because the urban lugen made
the song so popular and brought it so forward that

(01:07:27):
everybody wanted to hear.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
I mean, that makes a bunch of sense. It's kind
of like the that urban legend around. Was it the
Beatles or Sabbath that like if you play that backwards,
like it's an evil incantation.

Speaker 7 (01:07:40):
Yeah, it's like the Beatles album where what's the guy
that like apparently died but then they yeah, like it
tells you that he is dead and all this stuff. Yeah,
crazy stuff. Yeah, Josh, I had a question for you. You're
probably the biggest Britney Spears fan I know, but when
the girls at this at the Standings salon scene, when

(01:08:02):
they scoffed at Britney Spears, did you think they got
what they deserved? They scoffed at Britney Spears.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
First off, they have a pretty brutal death. So no,
I do not think that they deserved. I was like
kind of surprised by that because like that was a
covet that I didn't pick up originally. And they're like, oh,
like they're going through this is two thousand and six,
Like Britney's like still pretty like at her peek at
this like she's granted, she's still said she's still like

(01:08:29):
a year or two away from.

Speaker 7 (01:08:30):
Like yeah, yeah, maybe five years before.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Yeah, yeah, I mean she was relevant, So like, I
don't know, it's it's just kind of crazy to because
she's still about a year or maybe two years removed
from the whole like mental breakdown incident that she has.
But yeah, I was kind of surprised that they they
goffed it because like, if if there's ever anybody in

(01:08:57):
this movie that, like you would imagine as Brittany Spears fans,
it would be those two.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
Yeah right, I was.

Speaker 3 (01:09:04):
Gonna say it's one of my favorite parts of this
movie are the characters. And it's like the two girls
in matching sweat juicy jumpsuits are like, they're nice to Windy,
they invite her to go tanning with them. They're not
mean girls. They're just like getting hit on by this
gross guy. Like they're not popular witches. They're just these

(01:09:27):
two girls that are really good friends and like to
tan and don't like Britney Spears and we'll jam out
to roller Coaster. That part. I am like, this might
be the most unrealistic thing, but I love it that
these two girls love roller coaster and are like bopping
to it in the bed.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
So so Last Year This is totally unrelated, but just
kind of sense of humor. Wise, So Last Year part
of the campaign for Y two K was the Kyle
Mooney movie. Was that like Kyle basically took this like

(01:10:09):
like just shitty old camcorder out into like the mall
and we just like interview like random people and like
try to like bring back the nineties in like any
sense of way. And honestly, like watching Frankie Cheeks throughout
the course of this movie reminded me so much of
Kyle Mooney. Like if you've seen Y two K and

(01:10:31):
you like understand his like stoner like kind of sense
of humor, then like it's one hundred percent Frankie Cheeks
in this movie, Like without a doubt that character's name is.

Speaker 7 (01:10:46):
I laughed when he blamed himself for those girls die, yeah,
like objectified them, like but he was like, it's my fault.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
Yeah, I mean I did.

Speaker 6 (01:10:55):
But at the same time, I know people that are
like that that turn everything that it's their fault for
they caused it or whatever when they had nothing to do.
I've seen people that want the attention and that's the
way they get the attention by switching it to them.

Speaker 3 (01:11:11):
Yeah, which is great because the the athletic guy blamed
Lewis either he called Wendy an attention seekert for freaking out.

Speaker 4 (01:11:21):
Oh yeah, just again something.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
That when you have you know, anxiety or you know,
have episodes of something, it can be like, a this
person's just doing this. You know when she was pretty justified,
and well we know she's justified. You know my clearvoyant
friend was freaking out at Busch Gardens. I might be like, hey, hey.

Speaker 1 (01:11:41):
So yeah, it's a pretty bad shit kind of thing
to like, you know, agree to be like, actually, I
think you're gonna die in some way.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
If anybody started screaming like that at me before I
got on I don't know, a terrifying high speed machine,
I would probably listen.

Speaker 7 (01:11:59):
Yeah, I would.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Yeah, just a little bit.

Speaker 7 (01:12:02):
That Lewis dude had no confident in himself. He was like,
I'm going second round to Oakland's dude, what at the
first round?

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
Come on bro?

Speaker 7 (01:12:12):
Sorry, Josh, that's football talk.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Sorry you're fined.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
Like I think it's like funny that like the entire time,
like he's like building up. That's the entire scene is
like he's just like building himself up. He's like fuck death,
fuck death, and like the thing that you think is
gonna happen is the sword gonna come down and like
decapitate him And he's like, nah, see look I even
be death. And then you just get the great image

(01:12:37):
of like his head being crushed in.

Speaker 7 (01:12:40):
Well, we talked about that twice. Let's bring up my
favorite death, the nail gun.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
Oh yes, the nail gun death.

Speaker 7 (01:12:48):
I love it. I know this because I mean I've
actually Okay, so Aaron, I have an uncle that does
a lot of uh like housework and builds a bunch
of houses and stuff like that. And one time I
was helping him, uh do some stuff, and I actually
accidentally got a nail gun sucking like it stuck into

(01:13:11):
my foot pretty much like I was walking and I
didn't see it, and I guess it went off. I
don't know what happened, but it like went to like
tip of my toe. It was in say, I was
like fourteen fifteen years old. It isn't saying oh.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Yeah, that's crazy, because you need to be pushing on too,
like the safety of a nail gun. Yeah what happened too,
that's a final station thing.

Speaker 7 (01:13:32):
This thing was like super ragged, like I don't know
where he got it at, Like he has he's had
this thing for years, and I'm like, my uncle, Dale,
you need to get a new nail gun.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
That's freaking Dale breaking.

Speaker 4 (01:13:45):
Dale.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
Well, I enjoyed the sequence you're talking about too. My
dad has worked with IOXI for years and so he's,
you know, was a carpenter on film sets and he
was always very much like forklift certified. If you're gonna
come work with me, you need steel toes on. You
need to watch out. There's always gonna be somebody more
stupid than you in the room that's gonna drop. And

(01:14:09):
so that made me grow up really normal. And the
big thing a documentary he showed me one time is
called Shake Hands with Danger. It's from like the eighties
and it's safety on a construction set and it is
just a long video of different ways that your hand
can get sucked into a crank or a gear, or

(01:14:30):
that you can get crushed in a forklift. So that sequence,
that's a really great little video if you want to
watch it. But that I kept thinking about that during
that site. The home Depot sequence and Final Destination is
these two people, regardless of the fact that they're in
a Final Destination movie, are breaking all kinds of OSHA code.

Speaker 7 (01:14:54):
Like I am fortless certified. I used to work in
the warehouse before I started driving, and uh yeah, those
dudes like they've been fired day one.

Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
Oh yeah, you'll be Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
I said immediately, if you're if you're somebody that's gonna
be messing around on machinery.

Speaker 5 (01:15:08):
Like that, the alternative sort of emo kid working at
home depot.

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
Oh yeah, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
Four full disclosure. You can watch the entire Shake Hands
with Danger documentary at a whopping twenty three minutes right
now on YouTube fantastic.

Speaker 7 (01:15:33):
Come back next week and we'll review that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:35):
Yeah, I'm kind of curious. If it's on Letterbox, Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:15:41):
Then I can reviewed a couple of times. But I
like her hand. I think something so morbidly like the
imagery is so fascinating. Oh yeah, she tries to block
it and the nails go through her hand into her face.
I think it's a pretty You'll never hear me say this, but.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Letter Box, it is letter I just found it.

Speaker 3 (01:16:01):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:16:02):
I think.

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
Well, the death I think is a really good blend
of VFX and practical because they shot real I think
they shot real nails into a dummy, but it is
a dummy getting shot in the face. Yeah, for the
final sequence.

Speaker 5 (01:16:15):
And then they said in the in the same thing
I watched, they they it was a dummy, but then
they got, you know, video reference of her eyes and
they matched her eyes onto the dummy just to make
it seem that much more real.

Speaker 4 (01:16:32):
And it works.

Speaker 3 (01:16:33):
Yeah, that's a great blend and the whole thing. The
one thing I think they can make a little bit
more clear is the fact that the characters names McKinley
and the school is named McKinley.

Speaker 4 (01:16:45):
I love his line though, he's how pathetic is that
the name is my name is the same name as
the school I go to.

Speaker 3 (01:16:53):
I love yeah, Because then when she's wearing the shirt.
I love that revelation is that her shirt says McKinley
and she realizes that he's gonna come and kill her.
And I was like, oh, that's awesome. Is that it's
not an elaborate Route goldbring machine. It is a disgruntled

(01:17:13):
ex boyfriend or widowed boyfriend.

Speaker 5 (01:17:15):
And that one of the few times in the series
because somebody's like murderous, like there's actually like a physical.

Speaker 4 (01:17:27):
Force besides death that they have to fight.

Speaker 7 (01:17:31):
I mean, yeah, the last the five right.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Five maybe yeah, yes, yes, I remember what you're talking
about from the fifth one, but yeah, like I like
you of having kind of a grief the grieving boyfriend,
because it welcomes the conversation of things that and unintentionally
come after death, right like where we feel that mystery

(01:18:02):
of grief where you don't know how you're gonna necessarily
be because you're not in your right state of mind,
you know, and if that you know, I know, like
high school robands is, like you break up, everything feels apocalyptic,
but like I gotta imagine those emotions feel like intensified
when you actually lose somebody to like an incredible un

(01:18:27):
incredible like misfortune like we see here.

Speaker 3 (01:18:30):
Yeah, that's pretty that. I love the third one. This
is just winning me over a while. I think really
checks all the boxes for me and some people.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
Some people i've seen, i've seen hate on it a
little bit because you know, it's one of the first
ones where they really embrace CG and one of the
only ones or it is the only one without the
whole picture foreshadowing destiny thing. I think some people think
it's it's that too hokey, but I think it's.

Speaker 4 (01:19:02):
A good uh.

Speaker 5 (01:19:04):
Mechanic that they utilize in this one, even if they
don't use it in any of the other ones, because
it engages you. And and yeah, they do cg over
some some practical stuff, but I think as the latter one,
and that's are it's so solid.

Speaker 3 (01:19:24):
I think enough practical happens that I always I do
hate that it's like emo character that's the murderer, but.

Speaker 4 (01:19:33):
We'll get over that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:35):
He looked awesome, so I don't Yeah, yeah, I will.

Speaker 4 (01:19:42):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
I will say that this is one of my favorite
sequels for the exact reasons that you guys are both
talking about. Like it's such a solid entry where like
it understands everything that this franchise is supposed to be.
You know, we'll get into it when we get into Bloodlines.

(01:20:04):
But I was kind of really disappointed by Bloodlines. I'll
show my hands super early. I didn't think it was
a terrible movie, but like I was like, man, we've
been waiting like fifteen years for this, like and this
is the best you got like fourteen Sorry, but I
have a quick question for you guys, real fast. Can

(01:20:25):
you guys actually guess the name of the actor that
plays Lewis in this movie. I promise you may not
get it.

Speaker 3 (01:20:32):
Lewis the one that looks like Billy Joel.

Speaker 1 (01:20:36):
Lewis is the uh he's the football guy.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
Oh okay, his real name.

Speaker 1 (01:20:44):
His real name, And this is probably one of the
most badass actor names I think I've ever seen Brandon,
do not look it up.

Speaker 7 (01:20:52):
Oh, I don't know, I really don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:55):
So the actor's real name in real life is actually
Texas Battle.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
Whoa this battle of all the.

Speaker 1 (01:21:07):
Actor names I think we've ever done, and over almost
one hundred and sixty episodes, that might be the most badass.

Speaker 7 (01:21:16):
Wait. He was in dragon Ball the movie, that movie
who do You play? Hold on? He was some character
I don't know. Okay, Wow, I make sure he went
and pickol over somebody.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
He's also also in the first two Wrong Turn movies.

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:21:32):
That's a blind spot for me.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
I mean, I'd like to say you're not missing anything,
but then I feel like I'd be somewhat of a liar.

Speaker 4 (01:21:40):
So I feel like it's somebody from the South, though
I think.

Speaker 7 (01:21:45):
I'm okay, yeah, like me from Alabama. That movie is
very realistic.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
Yeah, and I'm popular opinion the second one is better
than the first.

Speaker 4 (01:21:55):
One is the second one, the prison bust one, the.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
One with Henry Rollins is the one where they're shooting
the reality TV show But Who Can Live in the
Woods the most God blessing, God blessing indeed, and I
think on that note, that's gonna do it for us
on this episode of a Biscazing one more time, you
guys can check out Hell Squad two is gonna be streaming.

(01:22:25):
It's gonna be playing with Horny Horny hell Block, which
is also going to feature the ever delightful short film
called Sugar Tits. It is gonna be kicking off as
it's Oh shit, It's gonna be kicking off April sixteenth

(01:22:48):
at twelve twenty five. You guys can get your tickets
now once again. Tickets are gonna be in the show
that it's below Gracie. God damn it, dude, I look
Razy Carter. Where can people find you guys online?

Speaker 3 (01:23:03):
You can find us at Opal ninety nine film on Instagram,
and we also have a Health Squad two dot wee
Blee dot com. Webley is still alive in kicking and
I use it every chance I get. It's a free
website builder that I found in ninth grade. So that's
where you'll find us and.

Speaker 4 (01:23:23):
Open ninety nine Productions on YouTube.

Speaker 3 (01:23:26):
Yes, and that is where you can see.

Speaker 4 (01:23:29):
Hell Squad one Health Squad one.

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
Also we again we have links in the shows for
that as well. We'll write links for these guys as well.
Both of them will be in attendance for Perfect Hope.
They are one of the very few filmmakers that we
would classify as local filmmakers to our area. These guys
from Raleigh, North Carolina. Incredible little area, Billy. Where can

(01:23:53):
people find you? Aligned?

Speaker 6 (01:23:55):
Everybody can find me at Letterbox at v A Boy
ninety nine.

Speaker 7 (01:23:59):
Cool and Brandon workup and find you Letterbox at BW.
Miller and Instagram at Brandon W. Miller under score two
of five.

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
You guys can also find me I Am at Letterbox
at Captain Nostalgia. We provide new episodes every Wednesday at
six pm Eastern Standard time. You guys can also find
parent company Victims Advalaince. We're on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and
wherever you guys get your podcasts from. So that the

(01:24:30):
next time where we talk about one of the lowest
points in the Final Destination franchise with the final destination. Remember,
the luckier you guys into the abyss the board, the
abyss gazes back into you.
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