August 15, 2025 • 54 mins
We’re staring into the abyss of 2016’s Seoul Station to see what will gaze back. “Long” before there was ever a Train to Busan, there was something festering within the Seoul Station. Author and GenreBlast co-programmer, Nathan Ludwig, joins us to talk about the zombies, the insane weekend lineup of this year’s GenreBlast, his upcoming books and 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), Mark Moore & 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.
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), Mark Moore & 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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hey, you are listening to a biscasing, a horror podcast
where we celebrate all things spooky and at mental health.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm still your co host Mark, and I've still survived
to zombies.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm Billy.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I don't got a cool intro this week. My name
is Josh, I'm the other guy, and we're joined by
author and the one of the crazy masterminds behind Genre
Blast Film Festival, which has been a staple for us
here at Victims and Villains for several years now. We're
super excited to be coming back and bringing you guys
more covers this year. These I'll be welcoming Sir Nathan Ludwig.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Hell, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I am super excited to return. Well welcome well. Also,
speaking of returns, welcome back. We haven't had you on
in like a couple of years.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, we took a break in twenty twenty four, just
resting the you know, we don't want to get burnt out.
We watch a lot of movies for the pessible, and
we have other creative pursuits, so we are working on
books and producing movies and stuff. So it was a
nice little break, but we're ready to get back into it.
We missed it for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So you guys have four days again. Just coming back
into Genre Blast this year. I know that there's like
over like ninety nine short films that are going to
be screened. You guys have like between twelve and fifteen
feature of films. What is the what kind of things
(01:46):
or what kind of shenanigans are we expecting this year?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Well, we actually tighten our belt a little bit this year.
Normally we do go four days. We're going three this year,
just to see how it goes. We do have it
like a like an opening night party Thursday night, but
there's no movie showing or anything. So we got about
eleven features and about ninety one shorts this year, so
it's still pretty much kind of in line with what
we usually do. But yeah, people are really excited about
(02:12):
the return. People have been waiting for two years to
come back to Genre Blast. So we're gonna have a
pretty packed house this year. I don't know where we're
gonna fit all these people, to be honest, So we're
pretty close to be selling out weekend passes too, so
it's gonna be a good time.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So with that and then it's like at the show.
Notice below you guys will find links to buy with
the weekend passes. It's gonna be crazy, but yeah, like
I guess, like for you guys coming back into after
a year hiatus, like what what are some of the
(02:46):
things that you guys wanted to do differently? What were
some of the things you guys wanted to obviously keep
the same again? Kind of coming into the expectations for
this year.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Right, absolutely so so. Genre Blasts For the people that
don't know, it's an Internet independent genre film festival. Across
genre and fest we specialize in action, adventure or thriller,
sci fi, fantasy, midnight WTF stuff. Those are our four
food groups. We're a very low key capitul festival. We
focus on the filmmakers and the films more than anything else.
(03:17):
We have a red carpet and we have awards and
all that, but that's really not the focus of the fest.
We don't dress up. You can if you want to,
but it's just that's just not the focus of like
the glitz and the Hollywood kind of stuff. We just
we're kind of like a down home kind of hang
out kind of party fast, have a beer, watch movie,
have a burger, just and hang out. There's no pretentiousness
here with us. So with that said, we're just looking
(03:39):
to bring the magic back. We just we love hanging
out with the filmmakers, having you know, parties and and
just you know, Q and a's are good. You know,
I love asking questions at the Q and as. Everybody
says I ask the best questions, and you know, I
appreciate that because I put a lot of work into
the Q and as and the panels. We have a
live comedy show this year. We have live screenplay table read,
(04:00):
so we try to involve everybody as much as possible.
People have a great time. Yeah, it's just a very
casual vibe for movie nerds.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Titan you guys are Yeah, I was gonna say it
was like, there are a few things that you guys
are doing differently this year that I haven't done in before.
The comedy night being one of them. Timm reads are
kind of usually like a staple for like Sunday afternoons,
but I've got a care is like for you were
the idea for the comedy aspect. I mean if fits
right at home with it. But this this being the
(04:29):
first year, can you talk a little bit about where
the idea came from Sure.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, we we like to keep tabs on our filmmakers.
We we really like to keep in touch with people,
even if you've only been to the fest for one year.
We want to know what you're going, what's going on
with you, what are you working on, what movies are
you working on. So it's kind of a very very
family style vibe at the fest. We have an alumni
page on Facebook, so we keep track of every everybody.
So one of our filmmakers slash screenwriters, Greg Cisco. He
(04:56):
is very talented screenwriter. He's got a actually has a
movie in production right now, like a like an actual
like movie movie called The Patients of Vultures. And you know,
he's just really good at what he does. He's a
good writer. He's an author, published author, and he just
decided to go into stand up comedy. And I was like, oh,
that's different. But you know, like we were keeping tabs
(05:18):
on him, watching his videos and he's you know, rising
up the ranks of comedy, you know, you know, doing
the grind there. And he's got some funny stuff and
he does a lot of movie related stuff. So I asked,
I just asked him. I said, do you want to
do a set at Genre Blast this year? And he
was like, yeah, sure, So he's going to do like
a forty five minute set okay, Saturday night at John Bust.
So it's going to be a lot of fun. He's
(05:38):
super smart, super clever, and his material is really really good,
like like kind of like observational humor, really funny stuff.
So we're looking forward to that something we've never done before.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I was thinking, Oh, we could just do a discussion panel,
but I mean, discussion panels are fun, but we try
to we try to live it up a little bit
and try to do different things. So we just want
to keep the audience engaged as much as poss So yeah,
we'll see how it turns out, and I hope it
hope it goes well for sure.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I guess I'm kind of curious. I don't know if
you could like say it or not, because you know,
as a as a festival director myself, I understand that
you want to try and be as loving of all
the productions that you program, But do you have a
favorite this year?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Oh gosh, put it on the spot. I like, like,
as in a general sense, I like, really weird, kind
of abstract, dark humor kind of stuff. So naturally I
love like Japanese films, you know, Korean films that push
the envelope. So that's kind of a segue into our
next film. But I would say I try to always
(06:45):
play like a like an Asian cinema selection.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Every year.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
We didn't have anything really stronger, but in light of that,
I think probably my personal favorite as far as features go,
I love found footage horror. I'm a whore for found
footage horor. I love it, even the mediocre ones. I
can find something I like. A Friday Night at seven
forty five, we're playing The Man with the Black Umbrella,
(07:09):
which is a super creepy found footage horror film from
Ricky Umberger. He directed the Fear Footage Trilogy and Project Erie.
You can find those streaming right now on like Amazon
and stuff. They're super creepy. The first one, the first
Fear Footage movie, is so claustrophobic. We screened it at
Chad's Festival Grinds Pplitation in Tennessee and people were leaving
(07:30):
the theater because it just was so it's so it
was so intense and claustrophobic in the dark. There was
a scene in a house that just freaks me out
every time, So he knows what he's doing. When it
comes to found footage, and that's playing Friday night. I
am probably I don't usually sit in on the films
again because I'm just busy doing stuff, but I'm going
to block out time to sit down and watch that
movie with an audience just to see the reaction because
(07:53):
it creeps the hell on me. So i can't wait
to see what people are going to think about it.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I'm super excited about that. I loved Project Erie when
you screened it a couple of years ago. It's like,
very well done. I'm not a found footage guy. Mark
is kind of our resident found footage guy, but I'm
super excited to get to see what comes next. And
they were great to interact with following our coverage when
(08:18):
it's like, hit here's our review, and they really loved it.
So I'm really excited about that. Yes, absolutely, Well, you
guys can get tickets now to the weekend passes before,
like like Nathan said, get them before they sell out.
So obviously you talked about the creative endeavors of a
lot of the people that make up Genre Blast, the
(08:38):
programming Committee. You've put out quite a few books. This
is the last time we had you on. I think
you just put out your second novella when we had
you on for the Thing, which you guys can listen
to now wherever you guys get your podcasts from. But
tell us a little bit about a little bit about
the other books that you have put out since.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Oh gosh, yeah, yeah, So I think we were talking
about Love Potion sixty sixty six when you were we
were on a Further Thing. I think that that's that
was my first one, my first novella, and then I
had a short story collection called The Company Cozy Nihilist,
A Handbook of Dark Fiction, which is just eleven of
(09:19):
my intrusive thoughts in short story form, just craziness. People
like that one.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I'm not going to go into my details about what
I do for my day job, but they found out
that I'm a writer, so I would get messages and
teams during the day and be like, oh, I found
your books on Amazon. I'm going to read your book.
And I'm like, no, I don't, for it's not for randoms,
don't and but they'll be like, oh, this is good
until they get to the last story, and the last
story is a hard stop for most people, and then
(09:49):
I never done after that, So I must be doing
something right, I guess.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I've done a bunch of other collections. I got a
holiday horror collection called Tinsel Trauma, and I've done a
couple of collaborations. I just the new book now is
called Old Haunts. It a horror comedy novella from Evil
Cookie Publishing that I co wrote with Mark Tawse, is
a very prolific British author living in Australia. It has
a lot of really good horror books, so we kind
(10:16):
of teamed up for this book and it's coming out
August fifteenth, so it's still in pre release. You can
pre order it now everywhere you get your books. But yeah,
that was a lot of fun to write, and I
think it's light but it's also scary at the same time,
which is what I appreciate for a good horror comedy,
something that can turn on a dime between legitimately funny
and then legitimately scary, that doesn't like pull its punches
with the scary stuff. So that's what we try to
(10:38):
do with this book. And I think if you like
Evil Dead meets Ghostbusters or like Insidious meets Three Stooges,
that's what this book is totally all about.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, the blove potion is like thatshit crazy. So and
I read one of Chad's books too, and it's like
the name is like escaping me. I think it was
the first one. It's The truck Stop One Easy. Yes, uh,
fucked up. It's very good. It's not fat heart.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yeah, he's crazy, but yeah, I love him. He's he
loves that trashy, schlocky kind of late eighties early nineties
stuff and that shows in his writing too.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah. Well where can people find the books as well?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
You can get my books anywhere. You know, you get
books Barnes and Noble, Amazon, you know, good kid, It's
available for Kindle, e Reader, all that kind of good stuff.
I'm still trying to get physical books in Barnes and Noble,
but they do pretty well online. So you know, paperbacks
and digital available. No audiobooks yet for a couple of them.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And if you go to genre Blast, chances are you
can also buy them and happen to autograph them.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yes, I will sign even more easy to see the book,
but I will sign it well.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Speaking of film festivals, we are also gearing up for
our annual film festival, Horrific Hope is gonna be at
also at the Alamo Draft House this upcoming weekend that
you guys are currently listening to this April fifteenth and sixteenth,
we're going to be showing a legacy screening of American
Psycho as well as We've got a whole list of
(12:19):
other great phenomenal short films feature films that you guys
have gotten to know over the last couple of months
during our Summer of Fear event. But this is something
that I probably should have done prior to now, but
family life has been nuts up and down all summer.
So with that said, this is the surprise that I
(12:42):
had for Nathan that I tease before we started recording.
Here are the top three winners of our short film
our feature Let's try that again. Here are top three
winners of this year's screenwriting competition in terms of our
short film category. At number three we have The Last
(13:03):
Supper by Mary Ellen Dovino, and at number two we
have Nathan Ludwig with Dover, and then number one I
have a movie that I really hope sees the light
of day somehow gets made. But it is gonna be
All Cats Go to Hell by Jesse Willmack.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
I read all Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
God, Jesse's I had me laughing. And also Jesse is
the first screenwriter that you guys can also catch. He
won bronze last year at our screenwriting competition for The
litter Bug. And it's also gonna be one of the
films that we're gonna be screening during our Saturday Morning
the Art of Dread Block. It's called The Litterbug, so
please go check it out. We will be announcing the
(13:51):
future film screenplay winners as well in the coming days.
But with that said, you guys can not only get
tickets to right now to Genre Blast also Horrific Hope.
We will buye links for you guys in the show
notes below. We're gonna take a quick commercial break, and
when we get back, we're tapping into Anime August once
again with Soul Station.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
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 or why we.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Do what we do.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Suicide is currently 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
(14:48):
were someone you know is struggling, you, guys can go
to Victims and Films dot net Ford slash hope that
resource is gonna be right in the description wherever you guys.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Are currently listening or streaming this.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
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 (15:07):
You can also text help to seven four one seven
four One.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Also have a plethora of other resources including churches, getting
connected with counselors, LGBT resources like the Trevor Project, and
also a veteran the hotline as well. Please, if you
hear nothing else in the show, understand that you, yes,
you listening to this right now, have value and worth.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
We get it. Suicide, depression, mental health.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
These are hard topics and this stigma around them doesn't
make it any easier. But please consider the resources right
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Speaker 1 (15:51):
Have value and you have worth, so please stay with us.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
Hey, welcome back to a biscaysing where we are continuing
on anime August in our Sun of Fear, and this
week Billy has chosen for us the train to bussan
prequel Soul Station.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I actually chose it so all three of us could
watch it because I hadn't seen it yet, so I
wanted to watch the whole series, and this was a
way to make both y'all watch it with me.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
That is a great question. I'm actually curious who has
seen this movie before?
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Now I haven't.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I hadn't either.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I thought I watched the whole thing, but I realized
I had fallen asleep a couple of like a few
years ago.
Speaker 7 (16:35):
I had issues.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Yeah, this some I don't know. We can just get
into it. But yeah, it's all one of the miss
works ever made. But Peninsula is not and Soul Station
is not either.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
Soul Station to me did not feel once once I
watched it. It did not feel like an anime because
it felt more like the animation they're doing with into
the Spider Verse than actual anime, because because of the
(17:15):
choppy style of the animation and it had, it felt
more like American animation and lack of detail and a
lot of things.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So I will give you that, I don't know necessarily
that I would call it into the Spider Verse because
that film is very experimental. But to me, this reminded
me of like the crudeness of Heavy Metal and a
Scanner Darkly, like those were the two movies. This really
reminded me of animation wise.
Speaker 7 (17:45):
What I what I mean by that comparison is it
wasn't smooth animation. It had often on tendencies to be
a little choppy.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Spider Verse has a reason to be choppy, though.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Spider Manderverse just does. But that's why I made that comparison,
was the kind of choppiness of the animation here and there.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I want to go back to something that Nathan said,
Trained to Poissan is a masterpiece like through Through I
still haven't seen that is like so good. It gave
me faith in zombie movies when The Walking Dead had
like sucked it out of me. That's nothing to say
against The Walking Dead. It's it's it's fine. It's not
(18:29):
for me. Zombie movies, I feel like, are so generic
and trained beson. I think I might be the only
person outside of Nathan here that's seen the entire quote
unquote really like franchise, whatever you want to call it. Okay,
So Mark's the only one here that hasn't. I think
(18:50):
what makes Training Poisson such a dynamic film is the
fact that it is. Fuck I don't really you know,
like how it's it's perfect. It's like it's a it's
a perfect film.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Like it's a Goldilocks movie, because I feel like an
Insula tries to do too much and Soul Station does
too little, and Trained to Busan is just just right.
It's just right.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's that's like, that's a perfect way to put it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, I mean, and Peninsula had certain scenes in there
that made it feel like animation when they weren't doing
animation on that one. Oh like yeah, yeah, some of
that stuff just felt really off. So I really didn't
I watched it, but I didn't care as much for Peninsula.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Train to Bussan was the one that was perfect, Like YO.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Said, So Soul Station is a weird movie against her
because it feels like a really generic zombie movie until
the last ten to fifteen minutes and it's just like
all right, I didn't see this coming, and I appreciate
the twist aspect of it.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It's a shame that it's getting to the point before
that twist. I was like, all right, what are we
doing here? Like me right?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
And then and then twist came. I was like, okay, fine,
that was good. I do think that the sound aspect,
the audio aspect of this film is actually quite great.
The the voice work, the sound mixing, the fully work,
the score. I thought, we're all very good. There's like
an ambient score in the movie that I was almost
like looking at my windows, like who's outside my door?
Like it was. It was really good. That aspect of
(20:26):
the movie I thought was great. I just felt like
that the animation, the story, the characterizations just fell flat
for me. Overall.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I think the thing that like not only with Soul
Station but also with Peninsula, is that they try to
replicate this like magic of training Boustan Training Buistan is
works as well as it does is because you really
get to love the father daughter dynamic and to the
(20:56):
point where it really tugs at your heart strings and
makes the third act of that movie so incredibly heartbreaking
that like, like Nathan said, like even thinking about it,
like you know, you're gonna get a little like period.
But I feel like with Bussan Sorry, with the Peninsula
(21:16):
and Soul Station, I feel like they try to replicate that,
and in doing that, they try to give us different
relationships to care about the brothers. In Peninsula, you're not
given enough emotional connectivity to really latch onto them, and
here you essentially have a oh, we're just gonna do spoilers,
(21:38):
so you have a you have a hooker and her
boyfriend that is like have a weird dynamic, and you're
never really given a reason as to care about them.
And thus both movies become incredibly generic and just another
zombie movie that you're just giving a reason not to
(21:59):
care about.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Yeah, this one, it didn't make me want to watch
the other movies, I'll say that much. I was not
a fan of Soul Station.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I watched him in the order that they came out, Yeah,
Busan and It's and then I watched Soul Station.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Which is crazy to me because like I started with
Busan and like I watched it because it had been
recommended to me so many times. People were like, I
was like, all right, I'm over zombie stuff. Like there's
not a zombie movie that I've seen modernly that like
I've actually cared about people cared about anything, And people
(22:41):
are like, just just watch Train of Bussan. And at
the end of the movie, I'm like sitting there with
like my wife and I were like eating dinner and
I'm just sitting there by the end of that movie
just sobbing like it's it's good, dude, Like it's it's
it's a masterpiece. Like this is a bad place to start, mark.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
I mean, I want to see Trained to Bissan. I'm
just I've when I feel like watching something that's subtitled,
I don't have the time to watch it because it
wit over like two hours or something. And when I've
got the time, I don't feel like watching something like that.
So it's I just haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
But that's one that's actually worth it, trust me, because
I'm the same way. Oh I'm not ready to watch
some the subtitled And I fell asleep just because I
was tired of trying to read the subtitles.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Yeah, I'm not saying that it's not worth it. I'm
just saying it's just been I haven't had a chance
to watch it for one reason or another.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Trained bussan Is will celebrate ten years next year. It
is probably one of the best genre movies that we've
gotten in that time.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Truly good.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And I'm a huge Korean film ban I watch. I
pretty much keep up with everything that's been out for
the last twenty years or so, and I'm pretty lenient
when it comes to Korean genre films. But this one
just didn't do it for me. And it's not like
it's a terrible movie.
Speaker 8 (24:15):
It's just kind of like as a two and a
half star movie, you know what I mean. Like it's
just it tries to talk about like the downtrodden and
you know, the lower class society of Korea and how
they're just going to be brushed aside if there's a
zombie apocalypse and nobody cares about them, Like I got it.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
I just didn't feel like it was explored enough. And
just the beginning of the movie just moves at such
a slow pace, like and I'm like, like I get it.
Like can we move along here? Like if the movie
was seventy five minutes instead of almost ninety five minutes,
I think I would have reacted more favorably to it.
I just think there was a lot of it's a
lot of padding that didn't need to be there a
(24:52):
little it was a little overdone.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
It could have been an hour hour fifteen movie. It's
been a lot better.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I am good, but I was going to say, and
the thing that I didn't like, well, I know it
was on purpose, but it never explained how it all started.
And I'm the type that I kind of want to
know how it started, even though it's like ambiguous of
this guy has a bite at his neck from nowhere
at all, you don't know where it started.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
That is one of the things that I was like
expecting to see, Like and the kind of the things
that like really pisses me off about this movie is
that you do like this is a sequel to like
how training prequel, sorry, prequel to how Trained Bussan started,
and like you don't actually like see that at all, Like,
(25:46):
like I think like twenty eight Days Later is like
probably a great example of like that cold open where
you have like the the animal rights activists, like heading
into the testing facilities. You know, it's like this like
ten minute scene in the grand scheme of the entire film,
(26:07):
but it explains and grounds the film on how it's
got started. And honestly, that's kind of the expectation that
I had for this film, and it kind of I
talk about this sometimes in my reviews, but like, there's
what I've dubbed the hell Razor syndrome, where you will
(26:28):
take existing screenplays that exist and find some way to
connect it to an existing IP And I'm almost kind
of curious if that's the way this movie was. Where
it people were like, oh, Trained Bussan is like this
massive hit. It's critically revived, audiences loved it. Like, let's
(26:51):
take this existing anime that we have and make it
a prequel. Like that's almost what it feels like sometimes.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
Like they took a story from something else and just
made a few minor tweaks to make it fit.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
And like you said, the twenty eight Days Later where
it shows them in the lab and all, what what
makes it even worse is this is somebody that's homeless,
so you're not expecting them to be in a lab
somewhere or something for this to happen.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
So that's the other thing that bugged me.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I'm like, it's not like, oh, this is a scientist,
You've got that information and it's coming from Oh he
was at his office and he got sick from it
or something. This is where the hell did he get
bit at?
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Like, even if you were like okay, like so that
like that we open up kind of the virus starts
with like you said, like this this homeless guy. Even
if we were like you showed him like getting like
you know, experimental like testing or like being a tester
for like you know, drugs the way that we've seen
another media before. Like, I just don't feel like you
(27:53):
could have one hundred percent done that and it would
have explained it.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
I just know you would have helped it.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
He just shows up a little bit. Yeah it. But
I I want to ask this question, since all three
of us, well four three, three out of four of
us were spent fourth of July together and we watched
this movie. Narratively speaking, does this movie feel like the
Sadness to you guys, just done on a much poorer scale.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Yeah, kinda, I mean, yeah, thematically, it's kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, yeah, because you have a you have a boyfriend
and girlfriend that gets separated and they're trying to reconnect
during the an outbreak. Like that's kind of what I like.
The more that this movie kind of goes on, the
more I was just like, God, I really want to
watch the Sadness.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
I mean, yeah, a little bit, but for the most part,
it just I don't know. I can't say it didn't
fit the story because I haven't seen the other two,
but it just I wouldn't fond of it. Overall.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
The story itself kind of is like on its own
mark until like the end. The whole thing about the
story is it's just showing you where it started over
there before it got on the train.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
That's the whole thing for this. Yeah, that's the story.
That's how they well, that's the only way it connects.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
I mean I get that, but.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
There was a lot in it that they could have
cut so much. I think that's one of my biggest
complaints is that they could have cut so much and
made it like a half hour shorter and it might
have been better.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
I mean I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
It was like if you didn't look up online and
said this is a prequel to Train to boost On.
I wouldn't. I would have been like, I was just
kind of similar to like thematically to Training to boost On.
It that's it. I would have never connected that this
is a prequel. I mean the fact that part of
it takes place in the train station. It has nothing
else to do with training so other than zombies. So yeah,
(30:03):
Like I wasn't expecting the characters to show up or anything,
but it just didn't. It didn't feel i mean, like emotionally,
like like the tone of the film. It all felt
completely disconnected from Training to Bousson. So and maybe that
was the director's attempt to do something completely different with
the prequel, and that's fine. I just don't they were
there were there were some cool moments, like when when
(30:24):
they locked themselves in the jail cell and the cop
is like turning into his arm and like, oh, that's
a cool moment, like, but they didn't ratchet up the
tension with it at all. Yeah, and I didn't care
about any of the characters either, So I wasn't scared for.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Them because because you said it, I'm going to point
out it was the same director for.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Both yeah, yeah it is. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
I was going to ask was the production involved with
Trained to Boston?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
M h yeah, same director.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, that's that's wild. Yeah, these were. It's also worth
mentioning that these were also released the same year, both
in twenty six years, which is crazy to me because
it seems like if you're gonna gamble on a two
picture like deal to this degree that you have like
a franchise that's in mind, and you know, I don't know,
(31:17):
maybe maybe this was Korea's answer to The Walking Dead.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I mean, the same thought it could have been where
they did the movie the Trained busan you said they
came out in the same year they were doing the
anime at the same time to try to hit both
media platforms, kind of of the what everybody follows like
zombie movies, and then they're trying to get anime out
there because anime is big also, and it just so
(31:42):
happens that then they say, oh, they're the same. I mean,
that could be part of it, but I don't know.
I'm guessing it feels like the Animatrix.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
I was.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You know, it's funny you say that I was thinking
the same thing earlier when I rewatched. I'm like, this
is like the Animatrix all over again.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
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Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, it's Mark's favorite part was probably the dad, the daddy,
the pimp.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
That was probably his favorite character.
Speaker 7 (33:14):
No, I had a feeling he wasn't what he was
claiming to be as soon as he showed up.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
When they found the picture of her, like after he
posted online, I knew right away it wasn't the dad,
just the reaction.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Oh now it got me. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Like the ending like, yeah I did.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
I was like, oh, good twist. I liked it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, Like the ending with Like the Pimp, it becomes
an entirely separate movie until like it's revealed that she
has been bitten or rather scratched scratch yeah, like and
I was kind of like, all right, like I'm I'm
I'm here with this, like I'm enjoying what this is.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
So I'm gonna ask these questions because Mark will be
able to answer this, but the other two of y'all
might going because we watched all three of them. I
know that in Training of Busan, when they were in
the dark, they couldn't really see, they didn't really move,
and this one it seemed like the darkness didn't matter.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Is that the way you saw it also, or.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
You remember when they went to train tunnels, the zombies
just stop. But they're doing this in nighttime now, And
there were some places that were dark in the movie,
and they were still acting like it was light outside or.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
They could see everything. To me, that was a disconnect.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
And then they didn't say anything about scratching in the
other movies, so I don't remember them getting scratched and
somebody changing.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
It was always a bite, at least that's what I remember.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Yeah, a lot of zombie movies. Any sort of damage
from a zombie lethal.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
No.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I realized that.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
But when I'm saying if this was a prequel, they
never said it in Trained Bussan, which had you had
cards of zombies on there, and there were times that
people could have gotten scratched easily.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
So I I think, I think to Mark's point, I
think I think the quote unquote scratch moment in this
movie exists primarily for that shock factor. Yeah, I think
they kind of throw out the window what you would
normally classify as like the rules of like zombies or
(35:37):
like at least the Trained Bussan rule, like right, Like
I think I think again, I think I think before
Training Bussan became this big hit, I think Soul Station
existed as something else entirely that was not connected to
this movie. Because it, like we've talked about it so
many times, it feels incredibly disjointed from the rest of
(35:59):
the franchise.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And that's that's the point I was making. It just
feels disjointed, and not that there was a bad out
of left field of I've never seen a movie where
somebody gets scratched it turned to a zombie. It was
in this series. It's never addressed except in that one scene.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
But it would still be valid to most zombie genre, right.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yes, and again I go back to I go back
to a viewpoint like I think it. I think it
exists solely.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
To as a shock moment, rights.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
As a shock moment, as a twist cran. You'll call
it what you will, Like I will say, like that
the whole moment where like he throws her on the
bed and is like getting ready to rape her like
such a such a like an awkward moment, like such
a dark moment. That's I think that's probably the better word.
(36:54):
Like I was, I was actually shocked, and I was like,
oh shit, they're like we're getting ready to like end
it in this moment. And then like the camera like
pans down to her ankle and you see the scratch
and it's like, oh no, he's he's about to get it.
Like I will say, like all my problems with this movie,
I think this ending is very satisfying, especially given the
(37:15):
twist and what we kind of get to come to
know about hey son.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah, especially when he's going around the whole apartment whatever,
you know, the development that they have there, the rooms,
and he's saying, well, you owe me money, you left
you whatever you're gonna I'm gonna get my money one
way or another basically, yeah, and that just and it
got to that scene I'm like, please don't, please, please
(37:43):
just stop. But because that was just tough to me,
I don't know, I don't like that kind of scene anyway.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Which like.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Can anyone, like I guess like address the the beginning
of this, Like I don't know if it's like a
double entendre where the moment where like she's in the
internet cafe and like she sees like the advertisement basically
saying like you know, hey, call me for a good
time that uh keiwong sets up like.
Speaker 7 (38:13):
She essentially went from one pan to another and her
boyfriend's trying to pimper out to pay the rent.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah, Like I first off, like I thought of, like
is anyone up dot com? Which some listeners may not
remember the existence of. But it was like someone could
anonymously like post your nudes and like all of your
information up on there. It's a great Netflix documentary about it.
But uh, the specific things that like I didn't understand.
(38:43):
I was like, I feel like if any girlfriend, significant
other partner, wife, husband, whatever you want to call it,
like had a nude photo that was placed by their
significant other partner, like seems reasonable that like they would
react in that way. And so like I'm kind of curious, like,
do you guys think that she was trying to get
(39:05):
out of the pimp game?
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yeah? Yeah, that's the way.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
I took her age too, right, she's she's she's a minor.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Also, So it's just like that's a good point.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Even even ugiar, Like the end of the movie, she's
like under age too, So at.
Speaker 7 (39:19):
Least I didn't catch that.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
So like she's supposed to be living at home right
with her with her dad.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
I don't know that that whole aspect was like and
it's realistic. I mean that stuff that's happened, But I
was just like at the end when he's getting ready
to have his way with her, I was like, ah,
like this is so out of left field, Like like
the rest of the movie has just been kind of
a very sedate with very a few a few supposedly
intense scenes of zombie violence, and then we get to
this and it's just like and then the boyfriend tries
(39:52):
to redeem himself and it's like too little, too late,
and like they're all creeps. Like so it's just like
I didn't really care, Like I fell bad for the girl,
but I just didn't care about anybody.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Else, everyone else under it developed.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
And he's like, well, we got to pay the rent,
do it at least for one month, And I'm like, dude,
that's just messed up completely all the way around.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Like the fact that like he's like trying to like
defend his like choices of like will like unwillingly like
soliciting his like girlfriend to like other suitors is like
just revolting as like a human being, like period. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
Yeah, there was not really much of a character worth
rooting for in this movie.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I'm kind of curious, like more technical aspects, Like I know,
Nathan kind of brought up some more technical aspects. How
do you guys actually feel about the character designs of
the zombies here.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
I like some of the movements, like that scene where
she burst through the window and there's that one female
zombie that's like across the room and it's like a corpse,
and then it kind of stands up and just stares
at her for like a long beat and then runs
at her. That's creepy. I like that that that kind
of movement.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I like.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I didn't like the like the splattered black gunk on
their faces kind of I don't know if they couldn't
do red over everything.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Over overseas, they're not supposed to use red. It's bad
for anime.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
So so that's again, I know that's like a thing
that they can't do.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
A lot, But.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
That's why you see a lot use dark colors for that,
because yeah, at one point it was if I'm may
be wrong, you can double check me, but I think
it was restricted from like using a lot of reds
a lot of blood, so they would use blacks and
things like that to cover up the blood scenes.
Speaker 7 (41:45):
I am I still that also had to do with
the rating of the movie.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I maybe I'm still a novice, and so, like, when
it comes to the anime genre, so like, is that
a censorship reason more than anything else? Okay, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah and thirteen right, that's kind of like a think
so so yeah, that that's what a lot a lot
of them do to get the lower censorship and everything.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I mean, I feel like that's also like pretty on
par here with the States too, that, like, you know,
the real difference between like violence and PG thirteen movie
and violence and an R rated movie is realistically, how
much blood you show, Like if you show if you
make it gory, it gets an R rating. If you
you know, you punch a guy like nothing happens, it's
PG thirteen.
Speaker 7 (42:39):
So I mean, did they ever do you know if
they ever passed the law where they were going to
make any movies or smoking in it or immediately rated
are I know that was disgusted at one.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Point that I don't know.
Speaker 7 (42:52):
I know, I know it was discussed. It was discussed
in the US of making any movie with somebody's again
it was rated R. I don't know if that actually
went through or up.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
But going back to Josh's thing of what he just said,
it's the whole Street Fighter Versus Mortal Kombat kind of
deal where Street Fighter didn't show as much blood, but
when Mortal Kombat came out it it got all the
gore and everything, so we kind of harsher rating because
of all the blood.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Yeah, that's Mortal Combat.
Speaker 7 (43:20):
It was awesome when it came out there.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Oh I'm not saying it's not. It's one of my
favorite games. But that's just the fatality.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
But uh yeah, I mean, like I said, I hadn't
seen this movie until now. It was one of them.
This is a series I wanted to watch. That's why
I picked it.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It's really rare that we ever cover a movie that
none of us have seen that's not a new release.
I think that's maybe happened less than five times, so.
Speaker 7 (43:52):
I don't remember another time.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
And my other excuse was Mark took forever to pick
his anime, so I had to pick one out of
left field because as he had a list and all
the ones on his list were one of the ones
I wanted.
Speaker 7 (44:04):
To pick the list.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
So well, I don't know this This movie is like
it feels too generic to like really care about. You know,
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I do love the fact that and some of the
artwork that of the zombies and all going back to
what you were asking that they carried on the Was
it the veins or whatever. So when they changed, you
could see the veins going through their arms, their face
and all that. So they had that on the train
to Boussan when they chair when they changed, it's literally
it was red on there, but on here it was
(44:40):
just darkness, like dark veins, dark lines when they would change.
So I love the fact that that's maybe the one
like red that connects them is the way that they change.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Euler, well, Nath it looked like he was gonna hear
essays on this.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I was just.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
I don't know, well, now I forgot My train of
thought to boots On was Oh, I was gonna say,
if you're gonna watch them through the first time, watch
train to boosts on last, watch Peninsula next, so you're
not disappointed at the end of the trilogy.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
That's that's actually fair. Yeah, I training boo. It's so
weird to like. The thing that I think is so
fascinating about this franchise is that you essentially have a sequel,
spin off, slash prequel to this movie that really don't
(45:38):
have anything like there's not enough connective tissue, and I
don't know if that's just because we live kind of
in this age of quote unquote cinematic universes now with
with Marvel now DC, like and a couple others that
have tried their their hand to as well. This one
just didn't land, I guess in terms of the connectivity.
(46:01):
Like it's it's a fine zombie movie overall, but like
it just didn't land in terms of like connectivity.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Yeah, it didn't feel and like I don't like I
don't you know, I like the Marvel movies just fine.
I don't have to have callbacks and references in Easter
Eggs and every movie. It's not necessary as long as
you tell a good story. But it just didn't feel connected. Yeah,
you're right, it doesn't. It didn't feel like, okay, here
we go next is training to boos on, like we're
(46:31):
getting going. Like you can tell an original character with
the original stories that's connected to the next film, like
like a different mood piece for each one. And I
feel like that's what they were going for, But it
just didn't work for me, like as a movie overall,
I just and and again, zombies are not my favorite genre.
Zombies and slashers are probably my least favorite horror subgenres
and unless they're doing something clever with it or reinventing
(46:54):
the wheel, I just just not interested. And this just
didn't do It didn't do anything for me. Now, I
will say that there's a really good Korean zombie movie
on Netflix is called Alive or hashtag Alive, and that
is really really good and it kind of puts this
one a shame a little bit. It's not as good
as Trained to boost On, but it's it'll it'll do
(47:15):
in a pinch. It's a you know, zombie apocalypse. This
guy's trapped in his apartment while the world is ending
and there's zombies everywhere, and he connects with a girl
across the way in another apartment and they kind of
make forma a bond and try to survive together. Really
really good zombie movie. And this is coming from someone
who's not a big fan of zombie movie. So that's
a nice little segue. If you if you have Netflix,
(47:35):
I recommend that it's on my recommendation.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
I was gonna say, I was like, I have to.
I wrote that down in my notes. I was like, okay,
Like I'm always like I don't hate the zombie genre,
like I'm always interested like seeing like what is capable of,
but I feel like more times than not, like I
feel like I'm just let down by it more than
anything else. And like training Bison is one that I
(48:02):
hold is such a high risteem high esteem that when
initially when I found out they were doing Peninsula, I
was really excited and became like one of my most
anticipated films. And then Peninsula just ended up being like
it had some cool moments, like.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
I got some cool zombie action, some gunplay, but overall
it's one of the most and it's not a terrible
it's not a zero out of ten, but it's one
of the most disappointing movies I've ever watched, where I
was just like, I can't believe it's this average.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I may be on the island by myself, but I
like Soul Station over Peninsula. I'll tell you that I
didn't care for Peninsula at all.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
I would say you're about the same, like, yeah, middle
of the road disappointing for me.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah, I would. I would say that as well, Like
I don't know, I like Busan is like one of
those movies that like it's it almost feels like damn
near impossible to like spin off, sequelize, like prequelize, whatever
you want to call it. Like it's a movie that
is like just deserves to be in its own brand
(49:17):
of just let it be, like you know, not everything
needs to the exploration, like it's a it's a perfect
standalone and it's probably one of the only films I
will say is a perfect film from the of the
twenty tens, Like it's so goddamn good.
Speaker 4 (49:39):
It is definitely like top ten Korean horror films of
all time, maybe top five, like fantastic movie.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
I will agree with that. I will say this movie.
One of the honorable mention moments in this movie is
the are you dating lady? When they're like trying to
U like get underneath the like the guard rail, trying
and like she just like you think she's a zombie
(50:09):
the entire time he's the audience, we know she's not,
and she just like, are you guys dating and just
like baffles off like a bunch of like nonsense. Afterwards,
like I was like, this is probably like one of
the funniest moments in the film. I'm here for this.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, That's the one scene that I kind of questioned like,
oh my god, got a zombie. Yeah, they're gonna catch him,
and on, and then she stops like are you too dating?
Speaker 3 (50:36):
What the hell?
Speaker 1 (50:41):
It's a great moment.
Speaker 5 (50:44):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
I think it's gonna do it for us. Like these
episodes have been like really short, so I'm kind of
like compared to like our traditional one. So I'm curious
if there's any any closing thoughts that you guys have
or anything else that we we should go over with
this one.
Speaker 7 (51:01):
I'll probably never watch it again.
Speaker 4 (51:04):
Yeah, it's in the bottom tier of like Korean films
I've seen, maybe not bottom ten, but it's it's not
in the middle. It's it's lower than that for sure.
I mean a terrible movie, like, oh my god, I
can't believe I sat through that. It was more just
like man like, it was forgettable. It was just a
(51:25):
time waste. It was there were a lot of slow
periods during the movie where I was just like, I
don't I'm not engaged.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
With this at all right now, So be given to
the fact that this is a film, that this is
a rarity where we've a we've never seen the host
I've ever seen this movie, And this is also a
first time watched. For the guests as well, what would
you guys give this on the Ruscha rating scale?
Speaker 7 (51:49):
Maybe a two out of five?
Speaker 4 (51:53):
All right, yeah, like like two and a half out
of five.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
I was saying two and a half three. I mean,
like I said, it's forgettable, it's just middle of the road.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
Yeah. I feel like the last like ten minutes kind
of elevated from like a two to two point five
because it is is very rare when I feel like
a film can like give me an authentic twist and.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
It's kind of like, why couldn't you have been this
interesting from the beginning? What are you doing? Like the
last fifteen minutes is like compelling and now like now
you're gonna good.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, that's that's absolutely fair. Well that is going to
do it for us on this episode of Abyiscazing. We're
gonna be back next week with our friends Lokias to
talk about Predator Killer of Killers. As we continue on
anime August the Nathan Where can people find you on line?
Where we get the tickets for Genre of Blast, get
the books, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (52:52):
So yeah, Genre Blast is August twenty ninth to thirty,
first Labor Day weekend at the Alamo Draft House Cinema
in Winchester, Virginia, and we're playing movies all weekend long.
You can get weekend passes at the Alamo Winchester website.
Just go head up their ticket to spot there and yeah,
we'll have day passes at the door, have individual screening
tickets closer to the first time. We're playing all the
(53:14):
good stuff all week im hav a drink with us
and watch some movies and you can find us online
at John or Blast everywhere.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Where can we find the books?
Speaker 4 (53:21):
Oh? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, my social media is at Louganhausen.
It's at l O O G E N H A
U S E N. That's everywhere on social media. You
can get my books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all
the big places. Nathan de Ludwig.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Mark, I already know the answer. Billy already knows the answer.
But where can people find Joe the line hanging out
with you guys.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
We always keep the rights to Mark and keep them
cage except when we let them out for the episodes,
so we'll keep them here.
Speaker 7 (53:52):
It's two people outside.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Which brings me to the announcement we will we at
Victim at Abyss Gazing produce new episodes that you guys
can listen to every Wednesday at six pm Eastern Standard time.
Wherever you guys get your podcast from, just make sure
that you guys like, follow and subscribe. Billy, where can
people find you online?
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Everybody can find me at Letterbox.
Speaker 3 (54:16):
At v A PO point ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
And I'll go ahead and say this weekend you'll find
both of us at Horrific Hope.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Yeah, so make sure that you guys get ticket Serific Hope.
We'll bride links in the show's below. You guys can
also find me. I am also on Letterbox at Captain
Nostalgia And once again, thank you guys for listening. So
until next time, remember, the longer you gaze into the Abyss,
more of the Abyss gazes back into you,
Hey, you are listening to a biscasing, a horror podcast
where we celebrate all things spooky and at mental health.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I'm still your co host Mark, and I've still survived
to zombies.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
I'm Billy.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I don't got a cool intro this week. My name
is Josh, I'm the other guy, and we're joined by
author and the one of the crazy masterminds behind Genre
Blast Film Festival, which has been a staple for us
here at Victims and Villains for several years now. We're
super excited to be coming back and bringing you guys
more covers this year. These I'll be welcoming Sir Nathan Ludwig.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Hell, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
I am super excited to return. Well welcome well. Also,
speaking of returns, welcome back. We haven't had you on
in like a couple of years.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Yeah, we took a break in twenty twenty four, just
resting the you know, we don't want to get burnt out.
We watch a lot of movies for the pessible, and
we have other creative pursuits, so we are working on
books and producing movies and stuff. So it was a
nice little break, but we're ready to get back into it.
We missed it for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So you guys have four days again. Just coming back
into Genre Blast this year. I know that there's like
over like ninety nine short films that are going to
be screened. You guys have like between twelve and fifteen
feature of films. What is the what kind of things
(01:46):
or what kind of shenanigans are we expecting this year?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Well, we actually tighten our belt a little bit this year.
Normally we do go four days. We're going three this year,
just to see how it goes. We do have it
like a like an opening night party Thursday night, but
there's no movie showing or anything. So we got about
eleven features and about ninety one shorts this year, so
it's still pretty much kind of in line with what
we usually do. But yeah, people are really excited about
(02:12):
the return. People have been waiting for two years to
come back to Genre Blast. So we're gonna have a
pretty packed house this year. I don't know where we're
gonna fit all these people, to be honest, So we're
pretty close to be selling out weekend passes too, so
it's gonna be a good time.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So with that and then it's like at the show.
Notice below you guys will find links to buy with
the weekend passes. It's gonna be crazy, but yeah, like
I guess, like for you guys coming back into after
a year hiatus, like what what are some of the
(02:46):
things that you guys wanted to do differently? What were
some of the things you guys wanted to obviously keep
the same again? Kind of coming into the expectations for
this year.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
Right, absolutely so so. Genre Blasts For the people that
don't know, it's an Internet independent genre film festival. Across
genre and fest we specialize in action, adventure or thriller,
sci fi, fantasy, midnight WTF stuff. Those are our four
food groups. We're a very low key capitul festival. We
focus on the filmmakers and the films more than anything else.
(03:17):
We have a red carpet and we have awards and
all that, but that's really not the focus of the fest.
We don't dress up. You can if you want to,
but it's just that's just not the focus of like
the glitz and the Hollywood kind of stuff. We just
we're kind of like a down home kind of hang
out kind of party fast, have a beer, watch movie,
have a burger, just and hang out. There's no pretentiousness
here with us. So with that said, we're just looking
(03:39):
to bring the magic back. We just we love hanging
out with the filmmakers, having you know, parties and and
just you know, Q and a's are good. You know,
I love asking questions at the Q and as. Everybody
says I ask the best questions, and you know, I
appreciate that because I put a lot of work into
the Q and as and the panels. We have a
live comedy show this year. We have live screenplay table read,
(04:00):
so we try to involve everybody as much as possible.
People have a great time. Yeah, it's just a very
casual vibe for movie nerds.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Titan you guys are Yeah, I was gonna say it
was like, there are a few things that you guys
are doing differently this year that I haven't done in before.
The comedy night being one of them. Timm reads are
kind of usually like a staple for like Sunday afternoons,
but I've got a care is like for you were
the idea for the comedy aspect. I mean if fits
right at home with it. But this this being the
(04:29):
first year, can you talk a little bit about where
the idea came from Sure.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, we we like to keep tabs on our filmmakers.
We we really like to keep in touch with people,
even if you've only been to the fest for one year.
We want to know what you're going, what's going on
with you, what are you working on, what movies are
you working on. So it's kind of a very very
family style vibe at the fest. We have an alumni
page on Facebook, so we keep track of every everybody.
So one of our filmmakers slash screenwriters, Greg Cisco. He
(04:56):
is very talented screenwriter. He's got a actually has a
movie in production right now, like a like an actual
like movie movie called The Patients of Vultures. And you know,
he's just really good at what he does. He's a
good writer. He's an author, published author, and he just
decided to go into stand up comedy. And I was like, oh,
that's different. But you know, like we were keeping tabs
(05:18):
on him, watching his videos and he's you know, rising
up the ranks of comedy, you know, you know, doing
the grind there. And he's got some funny stuff and
he does a lot of movie related stuff. So I asked,
I just asked him. I said, do you want to
do a set at Genre Blast this year? And he
was like, yeah, sure, So he's going to do like
a forty five minute set okay, Saturday night at John Bust.
So it's going to be a lot of fun. He's
(05:38):
super smart, super clever, and his material is really really good,
like like kind of like observational humor, really funny stuff.
So we're looking forward to that something we've never done before.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You know.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I was thinking, Oh, we could just do a discussion panel,
but I mean, discussion panels are fun, but we try
to we try to live it up a little bit
and try to do different things. So we just want
to keep the audience engaged as much as poss So yeah,
we'll see how it turns out, and I hope it
hope it goes well for sure.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I guess I'm kind of curious. I don't know if
you could like say it or not, because you know,
as a as a festival director myself, I understand that
you want to try and be as loving of all
the productions that you program, But do you have a
favorite this year?
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Oh gosh, put it on the spot. I like, like,
as in a general sense, I like, really weird, kind
of abstract, dark humor kind of stuff. So naturally I
love like Japanese films, you know, Korean films that push
the envelope. So that's kind of a segue into our
next film. But I would say I try to always
(06:45):
play like a like an Asian cinema selection.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Every year.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
We didn't have anything really stronger, but in light of that,
I think probably my personal favorite as far as features go,
I love found footage horror. I'm a whore for found
footage horor. I love it, even the mediocre ones. I
can find something I like. A Friday Night at seven
forty five, we're playing The Man with the Black Umbrella,
(07:09):
which is a super creepy found footage horror film from
Ricky Umberger. He directed the Fear Footage Trilogy and Project Erie.
You can find those streaming right now on like Amazon
and stuff. They're super creepy. The first one, the first
Fear Footage movie, is so claustrophobic. We screened it at
Chad's Festival Grinds Pplitation in Tennessee and people were leaving
(07:30):
the theater because it just was so it's so it
was so intense and claustrophobic in the dark. There was
a scene in a house that just freaks me out
every time, So he knows what he's doing. When it
comes to found footage, and that's playing Friday night. I
am probably I don't usually sit in on the films
again because I'm just busy doing stuff, but I'm going
to block out time to sit down and watch that
movie with an audience just to see the reaction because
(07:53):
it creeps the hell on me. So i can't wait
to see what people are going to think about it.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I'm super excited about that. I loved Project Erie when
you screened it a couple of years ago. It's like,
very well done. I'm not a found footage guy. Mark
is kind of our resident found footage guy, but I'm
super excited to get to see what comes next. And
they were great to interact with following our coverage when
(08:18):
it's like, hit here's our review, and they really loved it.
So I'm really excited about that. Yes, absolutely, Well, you
guys can get tickets now to the weekend passes before,
like like Nathan said, get them before they sell out.
So obviously you talked about the creative endeavors of a
lot of the people that make up Genre Blast, the
(08:38):
programming Committee. You've put out quite a few books. This
is the last time we had you on. I think
you just put out your second novella when we had
you on for the Thing, which you guys can listen
to now wherever you guys get your podcasts from. But
tell us a little bit about a little bit about
the other books that you have put out since.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Oh gosh, yeah, yeah, So I think we were talking
about Love Potion sixty sixty six when you were we
were on a Further Thing. I think that that's that
was my first one, my first novella, and then I
had a short story collection called The Company Cozy Nihilist,
A Handbook of Dark Fiction, which is just eleven of
(09:19):
my intrusive thoughts in short story form, just craziness. People
like that one.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I'm not going to go into my details about what
I do for my day job, but they found out
that I'm a writer, so I would get messages and
teams during the day and be like, oh, I found
your books on Amazon. I'm going to read your book.
And I'm like, no, I don't, for it's not for randoms,
don't and but they'll be like, oh, this is good
until they get to the last story, and the last
story is a hard stop for most people, and then
(09:49):
I never done after that, So I must be doing
something right, I guess.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I've done a bunch of other collections. I got a
holiday horror collection called Tinsel Trauma, and I've done a
couple of collaborations. I just the new book now is
called Old Haunts. It a horror comedy novella from Evil
Cookie Publishing that I co wrote with Mark Tawse, is
a very prolific British author living in Australia. It has
a lot of really good horror books, so we kind
(10:16):
of teamed up for this book and it's coming out
August fifteenth, so it's still in pre release. You can
pre order it now everywhere you get your books. But yeah,
that was a lot of fun to write, and I
think it's light but it's also scary at the same time,
which is what I appreciate for a good horror comedy,
something that can turn on a dime between legitimately funny
and then legitimately scary, that doesn't like pull its punches
with the scary stuff. So that's what we try to
(10:38):
do with this book. And I think if you like
Evil Dead meets Ghostbusters or like Insidious meets Three Stooges,
that's what this book is totally all about.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, the blove potion is like thatshit crazy. So and
I read one of Chad's books too, and it's like
the name is like escaping me. I think it was
the first one. It's The truck Stop One Easy. Yes, uh,
fucked up. It's very good. It's not fat heart.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yeah, he's crazy, but yeah, I love him. He's he
loves that trashy, schlocky kind of late eighties early nineties
stuff and that shows in his writing too.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah. Well where can people find the books as well?
Speaker 4 (11:22):
You can get my books anywhere. You know, you get
books Barnes and Noble, Amazon, you know, good kid, It's
available for Kindle, e Reader, all that kind of good stuff.
I'm still trying to get physical books in Barnes and Noble,
but they do pretty well online. So you know, paperbacks
and digital available. No audiobooks yet for a couple of them.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
And if you go to genre Blast, chances are you
can also buy them and happen to autograph them.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Yes, I will sign even more easy to see the book,
but I will sign it well.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Speaking of film festivals, we are also gearing up for
our annual film festival, Horrific Hope is gonna be at
also at the Alamo Draft House this upcoming weekend that
you guys are currently listening to this April fifteenth and sixteenth,
we're going to be showing a legacy screening of American
Psycho as well as We've got a whole list of
(12:19):
other great phenomenal short films feature films that you guys
have gotten to know over the last couple of months
during our Summer of Fear event. But this is something
that I probably should have done prior to now, but
family life has been nuts up and down all summer.
So with that said, this is the surprise that I
(12:42):
had for Nathan that I tease before we started recording.
Here are the top three winners of our short film
our feature Let's try that again. Here are top three
winners of this year's screenwriting competition in terms of our
short film category. At number three we have The Last
(13:03):
Supper by Mary Ellen Dovino, and at number two we
have Nathan Ludwig with Dover, and then number one I
have a movie that I really hope sees the light
of day somehow gets made. But it is gonna be
All Cats Go to Hell by Jesse Willmack.
Speaker 4 (13:26):
I read all Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
God, Jesse's I had me laughing. And also Jesse is
the first screenwriter that you guys can also catch. He
won bronze last year at our screenwriting competition for The
litter Bug. And it's also gonna be one of the
films that we're gonna be screening during our Saturday Morning
the Art of Dread Block. It's called The Litterbug, so
please go check it out. We will be announcing the
(13:51):
future film screenplay winners as well in the coming days.
But with that said, you guys can not only get
tickets to right now to Genre Blast also Horrific Hope.
We will buye links for you guys in the show
notes below. We're gonna take a quick commercial break, and
when we get back, we're tapping into Anime August once
again with Soul Station.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
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 or why we.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
Do what we do.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
Suicide is currently 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
(14:48):
were someone you know is struggling, you, guys can go
to Victims and Films dot net Ford slash hope that
resource is gonna be right in the description wherever you guys.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Are currently listening or streaming this.
Speaker 5 (14:59):
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 (15:07):
You can also text help to seven four one seven
four One.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Also have a plethora of other resources including churches, getting
connected with counselors, LGBT resources like the Trevor Project, and
also a veteran the hotline as well. Please, if you
hear nothing else in the show, understand that you, yes,
you listening to this right now, have value and worth.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
We get it. Suicide, depression, mental health.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
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.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Have value and you have worth, so please stay with us.
Speaker 6 (15:55):
Hey, welcome back to a biscaysing where we are continuing
on anime August in our Sun of Fear, and this
week Billy has chosen for us the train to bussan
prequel Soul Station.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I actually chose it so all three of us could
watch it because I hadn't seen it yet, so I
wanted to watch the whole series, and this was a
way to make both y'all watch it with me.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
That is a great question. I'm actually curious who has
seen this movie before?
Speaker 7 (16:24):
Now I haven't.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
I hadn't either.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I thought I watched the whole thing, but I realized
I had fallen asleep a couple of like a few
years ago.
Speaker 7 (16:35):
I had issues.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Yeah, this some I don't know. We can just get
into it. But yeah, it's all one of the miss
works ever made. But Peninsula is not and Soul Station
is not either.
Speaker 7 (16:53):
Soul Station to me did not feel once once I
watched it. It did not feel like an anime because
it felt more like the animation they're doing with into
the Spider Verse than actual anime, because because of the
(17:15):
choppy style of the animation and it had, it felt
more like American animation and lack of detail and a
lot of things.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
So I will give you that, I don't know necessarily
that I would call it into the Spider Verse because
that film is very experimental. But to me, this reminded
me of like the crudeness of Heavy Metal and a
Scanner Darkly, like those were the two movies. This really
reminded me of animation wise.
Speaker 7 (17:45):
What I what I mean by that comparison is it
wasn't smooth animation. It had often on tendencies to be
a little choppy.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Spider Verse has a reason to be choppy, though.
Speaker 7 (17:58):
Spider Manderverse just does. But that's why I made that comparison,
was the kind of choppiness of the animation here and there.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
I want to go back to something that Nathan said,
Trained to Poissan is a masterpiece like through Through I
still haven't seen that is like so good. It gave
me faith in zombie movies when The Walking Dead had
like sucked it out of me. That's nothing to say
against The Walking Dead. It's it's it's fine. It's not
(18:29):
for me. Zombie movies, I feel like, are so generic
and trained beson. I think I might be the only
person outside of Nathan here that's seen the entire quote
unquote really like franchise, whatever you want to call it. Okay,
So Mark's the only one here that hasn't. I think
(18:50):
what makes Training Poisson such a dynamic film is the
fact that it is. Fuck I don't really you know,
like how it's it's perfect. It's like it's a it's
a perfect film.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
Like it's a Goldilocks movie, because I feel like an
Insula tries to do too much and Soul Station does
too little, and Trained to Busan is just just right.
It's just right.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's that's like, that's a perfect way to put it.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, I mean, and Peninsula had certain scenes in there
that made it feel like animation when they weren't doing
animation on that one. Oh like yeah, yeah, some of
that stuff just felt really off. So I really didn't
I watched it, but I didn't care as much for Peninsula.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Train to Bussan was the one that was perfect, Like YO.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Said, So Soul Station is a weird movie against her
because it feels like a really generic zombie movie until
the last ten to fifteen minutes and it's just like
all right, I didn't see this coming, and I appreciate
the twist aspect of it.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It's a shame that it's getting to the point before
that twist. I was like, all right, what are we
doing here? Like me right?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (20:04):
And then and then twist came. I was like, okay, fine,
that was good. I do think that the sound aspect,
the audio aspect of this film is actually quite great.
The the voice work, the sound mixing, the fully work,
the score. I thought, we're all very good. There's like
an ambient score in the movie that I was almost
like looking at my windows, like who's outside my door?
Like it was. It was really good. That aspect of
(20:26):
the movie I thought was great. I just felt like
that the animation, the story, the characterizations just fell flat
for me. Overall.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
I think the thing that like not only with Soul
Station but also with Peninsula, is that they try to
replicate this like magic of training Boustan Training Buistan is
works as well as it does is because you really
get to love the father daughter dynamic and to the
(20:56):
point where it really tugs at your heart strings and
makes the third act of that movie so incredibly heartbreaking
that like, like Nathan said, like even thinking about it,
like you know, you're gonna get a little like period.
But I feel like with Bussan Sorry, with the Peninsula
(21:16):
and Soul Station, I feel like they try to replicate that,
and in doing that, they try to give us different
relationships to care about the brothers. In Peninsula, you're not
given enough emotional connectivity to really latch onto them, and
here you essentially have a oh, we're just gonna do spoilers,
(21:38):
so you have a you have a hooker and her
boyfriend that is like have a weird dynamic, and you're
never really given a reason as to care about them.
And thus both movies become incredibly generic and just another
zombie movie that you're just giving a reason not to
(21:59):
care about.
Speaker 7 (22:01):
Yeah, this one, it didn't make me want to watch
the other movies, I'll say that much. I was not
a fan of Soul Station.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I watched him in the order that they came out, Yeah,
Busan and It's and then I watched Soul Station.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Which is crazy to me because like I started with
Busan and like I watched it because it had been
recommended to me so many times. People were like, I
was like, all right, I'm over zombie stuff. Like there's
not a zombie movie that I've seen modernly that like
I've actually cared about people cared about anything, And people
(22:41):
are like, just just watch Train of Bussan. And at
the end of the movie, I'm like sitting there with
like my wife and I were like eating dinner and
I'm just sitting there by the end of that movie
just sobbing like it's it's good, dude, Like it's it's
it's a masterpiece. Like this is a bad place to start, mark.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
I mean, I want to see Trained to Bissan. I'm
just I've when I feel like watching something that's subtitled,
I don't have the time to watch it because it
wit over like two hours or something. And when I've
got the time, I don't feel like watching something like that.
So it's I just haven't gotten around to watching it yet.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
But that's one that's actually worth it, trust me, because
I'm the same way. Oh I'm not ready to watch
some the subtitled And I fell asleep just because I
was tired of trying to read the subtitles.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
Yeah, I'm not saying that it's not worth it. I'm
just saying it's just been I haven't had a chance
to watch it for one reason or another.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Trained bussan Is will celebrate ten years next year. It
is probably one of the best genre movies that we've
gotten in that time.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Truly good.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
And I'm a huge Korean film ban I watch. I
pretty much keep up with everything that's been out for
the last twenty years or so, and I'm pretty lenient
when it comes to Korean genre films. But this one
just didn't do it for me. And it's not like
it's a terrible movie.
Speaker 8 (24:15):
It's just kind of like as a two and a
half star movie, you know what I mean. Like it's
just it tries to talk about like the downtrodden and
you know, the lower class society of Korea and how
they're just going to be brushed aside if there's a
zombie apocalypse and nobody cares about them, Like I got it.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
I just didn't feel like it was explored enough. And
just the beginning of the movie just moves at such
a slow pace, like and I'm like, like I get it.
Like can we move along here? Like if the movie
was seventy five minutes instead of almost ninety five minutes,
I think I would have reacted more favorably to it.
I just think there was a lot of it's a
lot of padding that didn't need to be there a
(24:52):
little it was a little overdone.
Speaker 7 (24:54):
It could have been an hour hour fifteen movie. It's
been a lot better.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I am good, but I was going to say, and
the thing that I didn't like, well, I know it
was on purpose, but it never explained how it all started.
And I'm the type that I kind of want to
know how it started, even though it's like ambiguous of
this guy has a bite at his neck from nowhere
at all, you don't know where it started.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
That is one of the things that I was like
expecting to see, Like and the kind of the things
that like really pisses me off about this movie is
that you do like this is a sequel to like
how training prequel, sorry, prequel to how Trained Bussan started,
and like you don't actually like see that at all, Like,
(25:46):
like I think like twenty eight Days Later is like
probably a great example of like that cold open where
you have like the the animal rights activists, like heading
into the testing facilities. You know, it's like this like
ten minute scene in the grand scheme of the entire film,
(26:07):
but it explains and grounds the film on how it's
got started. And honestly, that's kind of the expectation that
I had for this film, and it kind of I
talk about this sometimes in my reviews, but like, there's
what I've dubbed the hell Razor syndrome, where you will
(26:28):
take existing screenplays that exist and find some way to
connect it to an existing IP And I'm almost kind
of curious if that's the way this movie was. Where
it people were like, oh, Trained Bussan is like this
massive hit. It's critically revived, audiences loved it. Like, let's
(26:51):
take this existing anime that we have and make it
a prequel. Like that's almost what it feels like sometimes.
Speaker 7 (26:58):
Like they took a story from something else and just
made a few minor tweaks to make it fit.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
And like you said, the twenty eight Days Later where
it shows them in the lab and all, what what
makes it even worse is this is somebody that's homeless,
so you're not expecting them to be in a lab
somewhere or something for this to happen.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
So that's the other thing that bugged me.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I'm like, it's not like, oh, this is a scientist,
You've got that information and it's coming from Oh he
was at his office and he got sick from it
or something. This is where the hell did he get
bit at?
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Like, even if you were like okay, like so that
like that we open up kind of the virus starts
with like you said, like this this homeless guy. Even
if we were like you showed him like getting like
you know, experimental like testing or like being a tester
for like you know, drugs the way that we've seen
another media before. Like, I just don't feel like you
(27:53):
could have one hundred percent done that and it would
have explained it.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
I just know you would have helped it.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
He just shows up a little bit. Yeah it. But
I I want to ask this question, since all three
of us, well four three, three out of four of
us were spent fourth of July together and we watched
this movie. Narratively speaking, does this movie feel like the
Sadness to you guys, just done on a much poorer scale.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
Yeah, kinda, I mean, yeah, thematically, it's kind of similar.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Yeah, yeah, because you have a you have a boyfriend
and girlfriend that gets separated and they're trying to reconnect
during the an outbreak. Like that's kind of what I like.
The more that this movie kind of goes on, the
more I was just like, God, I really want to
watch the Sadness.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
I mean, yeah, a little bit, but for the most part,
it just I don't know. I can't say it didn't
fit the story because I haven't seen the other two,
but it just I wouldn't fond of it. Overall.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
The story itself kind of is like on its own
mark until like the end. The whole thing about the
story is it's just showing you where it started over
there before it got on the train.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
That's the whole thing for this. Yeah, that's the story.
That's how they well, that's the only way it connects.
Speaker 7 (29:19):
I mean I get that, but.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (29:23):
There was a lot in it that they could have
cut so much. I think that's one of my biggest
complaints is that they could have cut so much and
made it like a half hour shorter and it might
have been better.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
I mean I didn't know.
Speaker 4 (29:41):
It was like if you didn't look up online and
said this is a prequel to Train to boost On.
I wouldn't. I would have been like, I was just
kind of similar to like thematically to Training to boost On.
It that's it. I would have never connected that this
is a prequel. I mean the fact that part of
it takes place in the train station. It has nothing
else to do with training so other than zombies. So yeah,
(30:03):
Like I wasn't expecting the characters to show up or anything,
but it just didn't. It didn't feel i mean, like emotionally,
like like the tone of the film. It all felt
completely disconnected from Training to Bousson. So and maybe that
was the director's attempt to do something completely different with
the prequel, and that's fine. I just don't they were
there were there were some cool moments, like when when
(30:24):
they locked themselves in the jail cell and the cop
is like turning into his arm and like, oh, that's
a cool moment, like, but they didn't ratchet up the
tension with it at all. Yeah, and I didn't care
about any of the characters either, So I wasn't scared for.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Them because because you said it, I'm going to point
out it was the same director for.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Both yeah, yeah it is. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (30:42):
I was going to ask was the production involved with
Trained to Boston?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
M h yeah, same director.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, that's that's wild. Yeah, these were. It's also worth
mentioning that these were also released the same year, both
in twenty six years, which is crazy to me because
it seems like if you're gonna gamble on a two
picture like deal to this degree that you have like
a franchise that's in mind, and you know, I don't know,
(31:17):
maybe maybe this was Korea's answer to The Walking Dead.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I mean, the same thought it could have been where
they did the movie the Trained busan you said they
came out in the same year they were doing the
anime at the same time to try to hit both
media platforms, kind of of the what everybody follows like
zombie movies, and then they're trying to get anime out
there because anime is big also, and it just so
(31:42):
happens that then they say, oh, they're the same. I mean,
that could be part of it, but I don't know.
I'm guessing it feels like the Animatrix.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, I was.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
I was.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
You know, it's funny you say that I was thinking
the same thing earlier when I rewatched. I'm like, this
is like the Animatrix all over again.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
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Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, it's Mark's favorite part was probably the dad, the daddy,
the pimp.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
That was probably his favorite character.
Speaker 7 (33:14):
No, I had a feeling he wasn't what he was
claiming to be as soon as he showed up.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
When they found the picture of her, like after he
posted online, I knew right away it wasn't the dad,
just the reaction.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Oh now it got me. I'm not gonna lie.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Like the ending like, yeah I did.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
I was like, oh, good twist. I liked it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, Like the ending with Like the Pimp, it becomes
an entirely separate movie until like it's revealed that she
has been bitten or rather scratched scratch yeah, like and
I was kind of like, all right, like I'm I'm
I'm here with this, like I'm enjoying what this is.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
So I'm gonna ask these questions because Mark will be
able to answer this, but the other two of y'all
might going because we watched all three of them. I
know that in Training of Busan, when they were in
the dark, they couldn't really see, they didn't really move,
and this one it seemed like the darkness didn't matter.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Is that the way you saw it also, or.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
You remember when they went to train tunnels, the zombies
just stop. But they're doing this in nighttime now, And
there were some places that were dark in the movie,
and they were still acting like it was light outside or.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
They could see everything. To me, that was a disconnect.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
And then they didn't say anything about scratching in the
other movies, so I don't remember them getting scratched and
somebody changing.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
It was always a bite, at least that's what I remember.
Speaker 7 (34:53):
Yeah, a lot of zombie movies. Any sort of damage
from a zombie lethal.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
No.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I realized that.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
But when I'm saying if this was a prequel, they
never said it in Trained Bussan, which had you had
cards of zombies on there, and there were times that
people could have gotten scratched easily.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
So I I think, I think to Mark's point, I
think I think the quote unquote scratch moment in this
movie exists primarily for that shock factor. Yeah, I think
they kind of throw out the window what you would
normally classify as like the rules of like zombies or
(35:37):
like at least the Trained Bussan rule, like right, Like
I think I think again, I think I think before
Training Bussan became this big hit, I think Soul Station
existed as something else entirely that was not connected to
this movie. Because it, like we've talked about it so
many times, it feels incredibly disjointed from the rest of
(35:59):
the franchise.
Speaker 2 (36:00):
And that's that's the point I was making. It just
feels disjointed, and not that there was a bad out
of left field of I've never seen a movie where
somebody gets scratched it turned to a zombie. It was
in this series. It's never addressed except in that one scene.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
But it would still be valid to most zombie genre, right.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yes, and again I go back to I go back
to a viewpoint like I think it. I think it
exists solely.
Speaker 7 (36:29):
To as a shock moment, rights.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
As a shock moment, as a twist cran. You'll call
it what you will, Like I will say, like that
the whole moment where like he throws her on the
bed and is like getting ready to rape her like
such a such a like an awkward moment, like such
a dark moment. That's I think that's probably the better word.
(36:54):
Like I was, I was actually shocked, and I was like,
oh shit, they're like we're getting ready to like end
it in this moment. And then like the camera like
pans down to her ankle and you see the scratch
and it's like, oh no, he's he's about to get it.
Like I will say, like all my problems with this movie,
I think this ending is very satisfying, especially given the
(37:15):
twist and what we kind of get to come to
know about hey son.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Yeah, especially when he's going around the whole apartment whatever,
you know, the development that they have there, the rooms,
and he's saying, well, you owe me money, you left
you whatever you're gonna I'm gonna get my money one
way or another basically, yeah, and that just and it
got to that scene I'm like, please don't, please, please
(37:43):
just stop. But because that was just tough to me,
I don't know, I don't like that kind of scene anyway.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
Which like.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Can anyone, like I guess like address the the beginning
of this, Like I don't know if it's like a
double entendre where the moment where like she's in the
internet cafe and like she sees like the advertisement basically
saying like you know, hey, call me for a good
time that uh keiwong sets up like.
Speaker 7 (38:13):
She essentially went from one pan to another and her
boyfriend's trying to pimper out to pay the rent.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yeah, Like I first off, like I thought of, like
is anyone up dot com? Which some listeners may not
remember the existence of. But it was like someone could
anonymously like post your nudes and like all of your
information up on there. It's a great Netflix documentary about it.
But uh, the specific things that like I didn't understand.
(38:43):
I was like, I feel like if any girlfriend, significant
other partner, wife, husband, whatever you want to call it,
like had a nude photo that was placed by their
significant other partner, like seems reasonable that like they would
react in that way. And so like I'm kind of curious, like,
do you guys think that she was trying to get
(39:05):
out of the pimp game?
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yeah? Yeah, that's the way.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
I took her age too, right, she's she's she's a minor.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Also, So it's just like that's a good point.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Even even ugiar, Like the end of the movie, she's
like under age too, So at.
Speaker 7 (39:19):
Least I didn't catch that.
Speaker 4 (39:22):
So like she's supposed to be living at home right
with her with her dad.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
I don't know that that whole aspect was like and
it's realistic. I mean that stuff that's happened, But I
was just like at the end when he's getting ready
to have his way with her, I was like, ah,
like this is so out of left field, Like like
the rest of the movie has just been kind of
a very sedate with very a few a few supposedly
intense scenes of zombie violence, and then we get to
this and it's just like and then the boyfriend tries
(39:52):
to redeem himself and it's like too little, too late,
and like they're all creeps. Like so it's just like
I didn't really care, Like I fell bad for the girl,
but I just didn't care about anybody.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Else, everyone else under it developed.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
And he's like, well, we got to pay the rent,
do it at least for one month, And I'm like, dude,
that's just messed up completely all the way around.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (40:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Like the fact that like he's like trying to like
defend his like choices of like will like unwillingly like
soliciting his like girlfriend to like other suitors is like
just revolting as like a human being, like period. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (40:36):
Yeah, there was not really much of a character worth
rooting for in this movie.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
I'm kind of curious, like more technical aspects, Like I know,
Nathan kind of brought up some more technical aspects. How
do you guys actually feel about the character designs of
the zombies here.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
I like some of the movements, like that scene where
she burst through the window and there's that one female
zombie that's like across the room and it's like a corpse,
and then it kind of stands up and just stares
at her for like a long beat and then runs
at her. That's creepy. I like that that that kind
of movement.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
I like.
Speaker 4 (41:12):
I didn't like the like the splattered black gunk on
their faces kind of I don't know if they couldn't
do red over everything.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
Over overseas, they're not supposed to use red. It's bad
for anime.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
So so that's again, I know that's like a thing
that they can't do.
Speaker 3 (41:25):
A lot, But.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
That's why you see a lot use dark colors for that,
because yeah, at one point it was if I'm may
be wrong, you can double check me, but I think
it was restricted from like using a lot of reds
a lot of blood, so they would use blacks and
things like that to cover up the blood scenes.
Speaker 7 (41:45):
I am I still that also had to do with
the rating of the movie.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I maybe I'm still a novice, and so, like, when
it comes to the anime genre, so like, is that
a censorship reason more than anything else? Okay, that's fair.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah and thirteen right, that's kind of like a think
so so yeah, that that's what a lot a lot
of them do to get the lower censorship and everything.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I mean, I feel like that's also like pretty on
par here with the States too, that, like, you know,
the real difference between like violence and PG thirteen movie
and violence and an R rated movie is realistically, how
much blood you show, Like if you show if you
make it gory, it gets an R rating. If you
you know, you punch a guy like nothing happens, it's
PG thirteen.
Speaker 7 (42:39):
So I mean, did they ever do you know if
they ever passed the law where they were going to
make any movies or smoking in it or immediately rated
are I know that was disgusted at one.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Point that I don't know.
Speaker 7 (42:52):
I know, I know it was discussed. It was discussed
in the US of making any movie with somebody's again
it was rated R. I don't know if that actually
went through or up.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
But going back to Josh's thing of what he just said,
it's the whole Street Fighter Versus Mortal Kombat kind of
deal where Street Fighter didn't show as much blood, but
when Mortal Kombat came out it it got all the
gore and everything, so we kind of harsher rating because
of all the blood.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Yeah, that's Mortal Combat.
Speaker 7 (43:20):
It was awesome when it came out there.
Speaker 3 (43:21):
Oh I'm not saying it's not. It's one of my
favorite games. But that's just the fatality.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
But uh yeah, I mean, like I said, I hadn't
seen this movie until now. It was one of them.
This is a series I wanted to watch. That's why
I picked it.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It's really rare that we ever cover a movie that
none of us have seen that's not a new release.
I think that's maybe happened less than five times, so.
Speaker 7 (43:52):
I don't remember another time.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
And my other excuse was Mark took forever to pick
his anime, so I had to pick one out of
left field because as he had a list and all
the ones on his list were one of the ones
I wanted.
Speaker 7 (44:04):
To pick the list.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
So well, I don't know this This movie is like
it feels too generic to like really care about. You know,
it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
I do love the fact that and some of the
artwork that of the zombies and all going back to
what you were asking that they carried on the Was
it the veins or whatever. So when they changed, you
could see the veins going through their arms, their face
and all that. So they had that on the train
to Boussan when they chair when they changed, it's literally
it was red on there, but on here it was
(44:40):
just darkness, like dark veins, dark lines when they would change.
So I love the fact that that's maybe the one
like red that connects them is the way that they change.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Euler, well, Nath it looked like he was gonna hear
essays on this.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
I was just.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
I don't know, well, now I forgot My train of
thought to boots On was Oh, I was gonna say,
if you're gonna watch them through the first time, watch
train to boosts on last, watch Peninsula next, so you're
not disappointed at the end of the trilogy.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
That's that's actually fair. Yeah, I training boo. It's so
weird to like. The thing that I think is so
fascinating about this franchise is that you essentially have a sequel,
spin off, slash prequel to this movie that really don't
(45:38):
have anything like there's not enough connective tissue, and I
don't know if that's just because we live kind of
in this age of quote unquote cinematic universes now with
with Marvel now DC, like and a couple others that
have tried their their hand to as well. This one
just didn't land, I guess in terms of the connectivity.
(46:01):
Like it's it's a fine zombie movie overall, but like
it just didn't land in terms of like connectivity.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
Yeah, it didn't feel and like I don't like I
don't you know, I like the Marvel movies just fine.
I don't have to have callbacks and references in Easter
Eggs and every movie. It's not necessary as long as
you tell a good story. But it just didn't feel connected. Yeah,
you're right, it doesn't. It didn't feel like, okay, here
we go next is training to boos on, like we're
(46:31):
getting going. Like you can tell an original character with
the original stories that's connected to the next film, like
like a different mood piece for each one. And I
feel like that's what they were going for, But it
just didn't work for me, like as a movie overall,
I just and and again, zombies are not my favorite genre.
Zombies and slashers are probably my least favorite horror subgenres
and unless they're doing something clever with it or reinventing
(46:54):
the wheel, I just just not interested. And this just
didn't do It didn't do anything for me. Now, I
will say that there's a really good Korean zombie movie
on Netflix is called Alive or hashtag Alive, and that
is really really good and it kind of puts this
one a shame a little bit. It's not as good
as Trained to boost On, but it's it'll it'll do
(47:15):
in a pinch. It's a you know, zombie apocalypse. This
guy's trapped in his apartment while the world is ending
and there's zombies everywhere, and he connects with a girl
across the way in another apartment and they kind of
make forma a bond and try to survive together. Really
really good zombie movie. And this is coming from someone
who's not a big fan of zombie movie. So that's
a nice little segue. If you if you have Netflix,
(47:35):
I recommend that it's on my recommendation.
Speaker 1 (47:40):
I was gonna say, I was like, I have to.
I wrote that down in my notes. I was like, okay,
Like I'm always like I don't hate the zombie genre,
like I'm always interested like seeing like what is capable of,
but I feel like more times than not, like I
feel like I'm just let down by it more than
anything else. And like training Bison is one that I
(48:02):
hold is such a high risteem high esteem that when
initially when I found out they were doing Peninsula, I
was really excited and became like one of my most
anticipated films. And then Peninsula just ended up being like
it had some cool moments, like.
Speaker 4 (48:22):
I got some cool zombie action, some gunplay, but overall
it's one of the most and it's not a terrible
it's not a zero out of ten, but it's one
of the most disappointing movies I've ever watched, where I
was just like, I can't believe it's this average.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
I may be on the island by myself, but I
like Soul Station over Peninsula. I'll tell you that I
didn't care for Peninsula at all.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
I would say you're about the same, like, yeah, middle
of the road disappointing for me.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah, I would. I would say that as well, Like
I don't know, I like Busan is like one of
those movies that like it's it almost feels like damn
near impossible to like spin off, sequelize, like prequelize, whatever
you want to call it. Like it's a movie that
is like just deserves to be in its own brand
(49:17):
of just let it be, like you know, not everything
needs to the exploration, like it's a it's a perfect
standalone and it's probably one of the only films I
will say is a perfect film from the of the
twenty tens, Like it's so goddamn good.
Speaker 4 (49:39):
It is definitely like top ten Korean horror films of
all time, maybe top five, like fantastic movie.
Speaker 1 (49:47):
I will agree with that. I will say this movie.
One of the honorable mention moments in this movie is
the are you dating lady? When they're like trying to
U like get underneath the like the guard rail, trying
and like she just like you think she's a zombie
(50:09):
the entire time he's the audience, we know she's not,
and she just like, are you guys dating and just
like baffles off like a bunch of like nonsense. Afterwards,
like I was like, this is probably like one of
the funniest moments in the film. I'm here for this.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, That's the one scene that I kind of questioned like,
oh my god, got a zombie. Yeah, they're gonna catch him,
and on, and then she stops like are you too dating?
Speaker 3 (50:36):
What the hell?
Speaker 1 (50:41):
It's a great moment.
Speaker 5 (50:44):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (50:45):
I think it's gonna do it for us. Like these
episodes have been like really short, so I'm kind of
like compared to like our traditional one. So I'm curious
if there's any any closing thoughts that you guys have
or anything else that we we should go over with
this one.
Speaker 7 (51:01):
I'll probably never watch it again.
Speaker 4 (51:04):
Yeah, it's in the bottom tier of like Korean films
I've seen, maybe not bottom ten, but it's it's not
in the middle. It's it's lower than that for sure.
I mean a terrible movie, like, oh my god, I
can't believe I sat through that. It was more just
like man like, it was forgettable. It was just a
(51:25):
time waste. It was there were a lot of slow
periods during the movie where I was just like, I
don't I'm not engaged.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
With this at all right now, So be given to
the fact that this is a film, that this is
a rarity where we've a we've never seen the host
I've ever seen this movie, And this is also a
first time watched. For the guests as well, what would
you guys give this on the Ruscha rating scale?
Speaker 7 (51:49):
Maybe a two out of five?
Speaker 4 (51:53):
All right, yeah, like like two and a half out
of five.
Speaker 2 (51:58):
I was saying two and a half three. I mean,
like I said, it's forgettable, it's just middle of the road.
Speaker 1 (52:03):
Yeah. I feel like the last like ten minutes kind
of elevated from like a two to two point five
because it is is very rare when I feel like
a film can like give me an authentic twist and.
Speaker 4 (52:19):
It's kind of like, why couldn't you have been this
interesting from the beginning? What are you doing? Like the
last fifteen minutes is like compelling and now like now
you're gonna good.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, that's that's absolutely fair. Well that is going to
do it for us on this episode of Abyiscazing. We're
gonna be back next week with our friends Lokias to
talk about Predator Killer of Killers. As we continue on
anime August the Nathan Where can people find you on line?
Where we get the tickets for Genre of Blast, get
the books, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (52:52):
So yeah, Genre Blast is August twenty ninth to thirty,
first Labor Day weekend at the Alamo Draft House Cinema
in Winchester, Virginia, and we're playing movies all weekend long.
You can get weekend passes at the Alamo Winchester website.
Just go head up their ticket to spot there and yeah,
we'll have day passes at the door, have individual screening
tickets closer to the first time. We're playing all the
(53:14):
good stuff all week im hav a drink with us
and watch some movies and you can find us online
at John or Blast everywhere.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Where can we find the books?
Speaker 4 (53:21):
Oh? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, my social media is at Louganhausen.
It's at l O O G E N H A
U S E N. That's everywhere on social media. You
can get my books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all
the big places. Nathan de Ludwig.
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Mark, I already know the answer. Billy already knows the answer.
But where can people find Joe the line hanging out
with you guys.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
We always keep the rights to Mark and keep them
cage except when we let them out for the episodes,
so we'll keep them here.
Speaker 7 (53:52):
It's two people outside.
Speaker 1 (53:56):
Which brings me to the announcement we will we at
Victim at Abyss Gazing produce new episodes that you guys
can listen to every Wednesday at six pm Eastern Standard time.
Wherever you guys get your podcast from, just make sure
that you guys like, follow and subscribe. Billy, where can
people find you online?
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Everybody can find me at Letterbox.
Speaker 3 (54:16):
At v A PO point ninety nine.
Speaker 2 (54:17):
And I'll go ahead and say this weekend you'll find
both of us at Horrific Hope.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
Yeah, so make sure that you guys get ticket Serific Hope.
We'll bride links in the show's below. You guys can
also find me. I am also on Letterbox at Captain
Nostalgia And once again, thank you guys for listening. So
until next time, remember, the longer you gaze into the Abyss,
more of the Abyss gazes back into you,
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