October 17, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of 'Midnight Viewing,' hosts from kulturecast * The Projection Booth and Father Malone discuss episodes 13 and 14 from season four of George Romero's 'Tales From the Dark Side.' The team dives into 'The Apprentice,' an episode about a young woman transported back in time to a colonial village, and 'The Cutty Black Sow,' where a young boy must save his family's souls from a legendary Welsh demon.
00:00 Introduction to Midnight Viewing
00:58 The Apprentice
17:22 The Cutty Black Sow
24:56 Mythological Accuracy and Critique
34:57 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Episodes
Father Malone
fathermalone71@gmail.com
patreon.com/fathermalone
@Midnight_Viewing
Mike White
http://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/
Chris Stachiw
WeirdingWayMedia.com
00:00 Introduction to Midnight Viewing
00:58 The Apprentice
17:22 The Cutty Black Sow
24:56 Mythological Accuracy and Critique
34:57 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Episodes
Father Malone
fathermalone71@gmail.com
patreon.com/fathermalone
@Midnight_Viewing
Mike White
http://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/
Chris Stachiw
WeirdingWayMedia.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Wait Wait, said in.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Welcome Back to Midnight Viewing, where this season we're taking
a look at George Romero's nineteen eighties television series Tales
from the Dark Side. Sharing the midnight view with me.
Are the Culture Cast, Chris Statue Forsooth, I Say You
Are a Witch? And the Projection Booths Mike White don't
have a Cutty Black sal Man. Tonight, we're taking a
(01:21):
look at the next two episodes of season four, the
final season of Tales from the Dark Side. Those are
The Apprentice and The Cuddy Black Sow. The Apprentice Season four,
episode thirteen, originally aired on May the first, nineteen eighty eight,
Written by Ellen Sandhouse, directed by Eleanor Gabor, starring Haviland Morris,
Marla Bloodstone from Gremlin's Two, Wayne Tippett, Catherine Newman, and
(01:42):
Gary Lottie. Who I sat watching this episode staring at
him the whole time and going, what the fuck do
I know him? From? Oh, Night Riders? George Romeros from
Night Riders. This is the story of a young woman
who takes a job at a colonial reenactment village and
she really commits to the job. What'd you think of
this one? Mike Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I could see everything coming before it happened. As soon
as she walked in the door, I knew exactly what
was going to take place. Yeah, this was rough. Have
we seen this before or is this just that obvious
that I knew? Oh okay, Yeah, here's this dude gonna
lurea in a person somehow. She's going to go back
in time and get stuck in this village. I thought
(02:23):
maybe they might have one day of normalcy where it's
tourists coming in and making her feel bad. And you
know what was that book that oh gosh, Chuck Poulinik
wrote the.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Reacting things.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I was like, Okay, this will be cool, you know,
show me a day of a reenactor and stuff. No, no,
we have to jump right into the she's back in
time now. And yeah. All I could do while I
was watching our main actress was thinking about her having
her hair caught in a door and having somebody cut
it off the entire time. And then Wayne Tippett, he
(03:03):
plays a bastard really well, and so at least he
brought that energy to this, and I was pretty okay
with him. But god, I mean medieval stuff, not medieval,
but you know this like era of American history and
everything is Oh, and you're a witch. Oh she pricked
(03:23):
to you and you didn't feel it, and now I'm
going to accuse you of witchcraft and all this stuff.
Oh my god, it gets so old so fast. Yeah.
In other words, I wasn't a big fan of this episode,
and spoilers for the next episode not a fan of
that one either. We got all kinds of witchcraft going
on in this episode, and none of it is making
me feel good.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So Chris, how about yourself?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh, it is, in fact witchcraft, folks, it's witchcraft. Good lord. Yeah,
this is about as obvious another one of these, just
like we know where you're going from a mile away,
and hey, let's punish the feminist folks. Nothing says in
nineteen eighty eight like putting a woman in her place,
am I right? My god? I love the idea that
(04:07):
she's just like the strong independent woman who gets burned
at the stake at the end. Hilarious. I will say,
I love how mean the episode is. I don't think
anything that happens to Sarah McBride Havelin Morris's character is
remotely justified. She just she's horny, I guess is kind
of the way she's written, which is like fine because
(04:29):
she's like a college student, so okay, she's horny and
she's looking at guys and finding men attractive, and this
is just some like bullshit summer job. Okay, why does
she need to be punished and put to death again? Like,
holy shit, episode we're just oh as Ron Burgundy said
that escalating quickly, and it did. It's a fucking blackout sketch. Really, Oh,
(04:49):
what it would happen if the feminist been back in
time to Salem witch trial and she was burned at
the stake? Okay, funny, it would have been funnier if
she had deserved it. It just kind of feels really mean,
which is again tails from the dark Side, But this
show hasn't done that in such a long time that
it almost feels a little unearned. However, I will say
(05:11):
to spoil the next episode. The next episode is even
funnier for cards. I don't know. Maybe it's meanstreak is
back fallow alone.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
What did you think in a cage for every unclean
and hateful bird of prey? That's what I think of
this episode. I don't know that he quoted that for
no good reason. I do think if this was like
a first person short story about somebody getting a job
at a colonial reenacting and then feeling dizzy and waking
up and not realizing for some time that their job
(05:40):
is actually now the time and place that they think
that they're reenacting, that could be interesting. But this feels
like all the other Tales from the Dark Side episodes
where they deal with like time travel or a portal
to another dimension or something. It always feels like there's
an additional thirty to forty minutes of story that we
(06:02):
are not privy to, and it's just rushing us through
plot points to get us to other places. But it's
all so convoluted, and anytime you start dealing with people
from our present going to the past, it's look, this
is like two hundred three hundred years she travels back.
Anything that came out of her mouth, people would be
(06:23):
like she's a witch. Just the vocal patterns alone and
how they're speaking. It's just it's they don't even make
the wherefore art that was sort of attempt with the
dialogue here. I do like the idea of witches in
Salem Village just being prime travelers from the twentieth century.
There there's another good idea, but they're not interested in that.
(06:45):
They're just I don't know what they're interested in. Like
you said, Chris, is it just the punishing feminists? Like
this is how you would fare back then? Because that's
the problem is that she starts mouthing off. You listen
to this guy, fuck him. Fuck here. By the way,
as soon as she has one consation with that girl,
she would have known where she was. I mean, this
girl's there isn't even an attempt to have Okay, quit
(07:09):
fucking the method acting and fucking speak to me, like
where are you from, what town are you from? What
kind of car do you drive? There's no conversation at
all like that. It's just it's I don't know, it's
very poor, very poor.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I thought for sure we were going to get some
sort of because he makes very clear get rid of
everything modern. She keeps a cigarette lighter that plays badly
for her. I thought we were going to get some
sort of somewhere in time scenario where she would have
a penny with the current year on it and then boom,
she wakes up in the current year something. But instead
(07:46):
we do get that moment I was talking about as
far as let's see how shitty it is to work
in one of these reenactment places, but it just doesn't
pay off. I mean, it's the girl from the past
coming in and having these morons coming in and taking
pictures of her and stuff. Again, it should played out
for a longer time. It feels like this episode was
(08:08):
so weird when it comes to how long they're going
to spend on each thing. And I really thought that
was the moment where it was like, Okay, this is great.
Let's see her now because the other girl's dead or
going to be burned at the stake. Now, let's see
the horrible fate of this other girl. We're gonna go
bad and fuck you to all of our protagonists here.
(08:30):
Let's go ahead, let's do it. Let's make her life
a living hell in the twentieth century exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And they want both of their characters to be in hell.
I guess the idea is that a modern woman in
ancient times would be considered a witch and end up trapped,
and a time traveling elder woman would also be equally trapped,
but in a different way. Because they don't even consider
how fucked this woman's life is now this woman from
sixteen ninety two who doesn't speak in our language, she
(08:58):
doesn't have a driver's license, scurity guard like she's working
at this job, who knows, like what is even happening?
Who's hiring her? Her dad is stuck in the past
because he destroyed the amazing time machine of the wagon
wheel affixed to a wall. Apparently that's how easy it
is to create. Doc Brown had it all wrong. Man
using fucking plutonium.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
So I have a question, is that guy from the past.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's a good question, That is a good question back
and forth.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Or is he from the future. And he's like, here's
the way I would write this. You have a guy
in the current day who finds a way to go
to the past, and his whole thing is he's a
foolproof way to kill women that he doesn't like, in
this case feminists, by just sending them back in time
to get them killed because they think that they're witches,
(09:49):
because like you said, Father Milone, they're melding off. And
so you have this out and again like these you
know you put it so apptly, Father Malone have said
this so many times. If there was someone from one
hundred years ago. That's one hundred years ago dropped into
modern day times square today, they would die. Their brain
would fucking explode because there'd be so there would be
(10:10):
so many things you'd have to explain to them that
we take for granted, Like what we're doing right now
is a fucking To try and explain this to someone
who has no ability to even understand what a computer
is would be like, oh, you're taking No, you're not
in the same room as someone like it's it's really
fucked because the thing that this episode doesn't do is
(10:31):
it doesn't contextualize why he's doing what he's doing. And
that would have been the most interesting thing of this
entire episode. Is this guy from the past or the
future or the current of the past has figured out
a way to go back in time or go to
the future, and this is what he's choosing to do
with it. Why that question is never answered, And that's
the most interesting question that is never answered, and it's
(10:53):
the thing that drives this entire goddamn episode.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
That's what I'm saying. Like the other episodes that came
before this, it feels like there's more plot going on
either before or after the episode begins or ends, and
all of that is more tantalizing than the story we got.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Yeah, well that exactly it is. What we get on
screen is just kind of nothing. Really. Ultimately, it doesn't
feel like much of anything. It just feels every one
of these things we've seen before where someone gets trapped
in the past, from the future or the present day.
I guess that's every single one of these has been
the same goddamn thing every time. Every time there's and
(11:32):
where are the Stake's there?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
The guy is from the past because he describes the
situation that they were sort of desperate and then their
situation improved once he started feeding them witches scape. So
that means this man from sixteen ninety two has a
machine that allows him to travel to the twentieth century,
the late twentieth century, and what he chooses to do
is continue to go back. Why what the fuck are
you talking about? Go back, gather as much fucking gold
(11:57):
as you can. I bet you can get a lot
compared to what we have now, and then come back
through and be a fucking billionaire. What the what are
you doing? What's anyone? The problem with most time traveling
things is that it is so limited in its thought
and what you could potentially do. I mean, if you
want to be a criminal, you could really be a
criminal with a time machine. You know, if you wanted
(12:18):
to do good things, you could really do good things.
So but nobody ever thinks beyond I don't know whatever.
The little point they're trying to make the idea of
a serial killer using a time machine is fucking also awesome, Chris, Like,
there are so many potential like good things here and
all of it is squandered, including all of these people.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
The body disappears permanently and nobody ever has to worry
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Like, I guess that's a looper, right, that's the same
that's pot of looper. Looper is time Yeah, well.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah, it's it's more time after, but nobody's done it since,
Like it's it is such a because here's the thing
that you just take the body and dump it wherever
the fuck in the middle of the desert and there
you go, Like it doesn't even matter. But the idea that, yeah,
this guy is just using it to do this is
so like mind numb.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Let's say he's this guy from the past and he
has convinced the community that he can suss out witches
right at a certain point, aren't the rest of the
theligers going to go? We've noticed that all of the
witches are coming out of your house. I think maybe
we ought to try you, sir, because you know, men
were not above witchcraft accusations and trials. There were plenty
of men put to death.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
To one of them is see if he weighs as
much as a duck, and if he does, he's a witch.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
You know what they would actually do in Salem, They
would press him quote unquote where they yet they stack
stones on you to get you to confess, and eventually
there's a famous man witch.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, the most famous was his last words were more weight.
He was just like, fuck, you add more weight before
I confess to being a minion of Satan.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
That story already, that you just told in the most
basic three fucking words, three sentences, was better than this
entire episode. Cause you beat me and yeah, no, you
beat me to it. That's when I thought the episode
was going where it was going towards the end, I
was like, Oh, was Sarah McBride a real person at Salem?
And that's what they were doing? Oh? That would have
been kind of clever. Nope, that wasn't even it like that,
(14:15):
And I would have given the episode a little bit
of credit if they had done that, to just tie
it in, to be like, oh, one of the real
people at Salem. Actually that was okay, that's kind of fun. Nope,
they did. They did. They couldn't even be bothered to
do that little bit of research.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Come on, remember when they did this on Twilight soon
eighty five with James Cromwell. They did a time travel
episode or a sort of rain transference through time episode,
and that was pretty good. They actually went out on
location and gave us some pilgrim. I mean, it was California,
but at least they gave us some geography. Here we're
trapped in this really poor set. Clearly doesn't seem to
(14:49):
age at all. I mean, dirtying up one painting does
not equal three hundred years of progress.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Why is the paint too clean?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh okay, yeah, that's what she knowed. Yeah yeah, not
I say not the bugs crawling everywhere, not the fucking
odor coming off of everyone around her.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Not the lack of noise.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
The lack of noise. How about the amount of oxygen
in the air like her lungs suddenly fucking screaming because
it's gotten more than it has ever received in its
entire life.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Time travel, for me, is always so lazy because the
things that are ignored are the things that could be interesting,
and just nobody cares because it's Oh, you know, if
you add somebody from the bass Rabble to the future,
of course they would understand immediately, like no, they would not.
Their brain would explode inside of their head, their eyes
would roll into the back of their head, and they'd
be dead because they wouldn't even understand a cell phone
(15:40):
you fire from your hand, magic fire, that's a lighter.
Can you imagine trying to explain simple circuits to these
fucking morons, let alone like how a fucking lighter works?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Nothing.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It's so lazy. I hate this kind of shit, especially
when it's in short form narratives. Even this is where
the Dodges and cheets really happen.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
You gotta get a ron silver and go back in
time and like trade stocks and do all that kind
of stuff. As long as Jean Claude van Dam doesn't
get wind of it, you are on easy street. My friend,
Jean Vandam will always get wind of it. Oh no,
he is a time cop after all.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's true. It's time.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
If I had a time machine, I would be such
a fucking so banal. I would just go make money,
Just make money, Like why would I go give a
shit about anything else? Like, not anything that any one
of us could do with a time machine to stop
anything that's happened. But to this point, I feel like, so,
no matter how many good decisions I could go and make,
just make some money and try to insulate myself from
all the bad things that are happening. But or, you know,
(16:37):
just get women to die and Salem at the cross
because they're witches. That's funnier, right.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
My favorite recent time travel thing, and by recent, I
mean a decade ago Leam Lynch, the comedian, the director
of Tenacious D's Pick of Destiny. He has his own
web series and he has a segment called Time Taggers,
which is just this idiot tagger who goes back in
time and tags things like so he goes back out
to fucking tag that ship. He does, and then he
(17:05):
gets back into the time machine.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Yeah, what would happen if an idiot had a time machine?
I don't really care about What would happen if a
smart person at a time machine? What happened if a moron?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It a total dunce.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's like that character from the Good Place.
Imagine him with a time machine. He would just be shawing.
Oh god, can you imagine Jason with the time machine?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yes, I want to see that series. Actually, I think
that would be a good spin off.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I just give me Dexter with the time machine and
we're good going back in. You know, that show's jumped
the shark at this point. Who fucking cares.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I liked this latest season.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I'm not saying it was sad, but you know what
I mean, we've gone around the bend to this point
where it's like Simpson's postmodern, where we're just like, we
don't even care about reality anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, the show should have not cared about
reality after season two with that fucking serial killer conceit.
They should have been having a blast a long time ago.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Yeah, and you know what, like a time killing serial killer.
I think that is a thing that we have yet
to really see. And this has that idea, it's that
nugget in it, and it's that's for me. It should
have been more interesting than it is. But a wagon
wheel on a wall is not. That's not doing it
for me.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
The Cutty Black Sow Season four, episode fourteen. This aired
originally on May the eighth, nineteen eighty eight. Written by
Michael McDowell from a story by Thomas Montalioni and directed
by Richard Glass, this one stars Huckleberry Fox not Kidding,
Paula Truman, Timothy Landfield, and Mary Griffin as a Gloria
That's the little Sister. When a young boy's great grandmother
(18:37):
dies on Halloween, he's tasked with saving the souls of
his family before an ancient legend can snatch him away.
I'll take the lead on this one because it sounds
like you two are ready to beat up on it,
and I fucking love this. Or Okay, this is as
old a ghost story as I've ever heard, and I've
heard variations of this growing up, so this is not
(18:59):
un known to me, this story of the Cutty Black Sow.
The story that we're given here is this great grandmother
is on her deathbed. By the way, don't bring your
children to great grandma's deathbed, because if the child is
just going to say, is she really gonna die over
and over again. That's probably not good for her mental
health as she's slowly passing away anyway. So the setup
is that great Grandma is dying and is going to
(19:21):
die on Halloween, and it is revealed that from her
Scottish heritage that if that were to occur, that everyone
in the family's soul is at risk because the cutty
black Sow will be on the way to grab some
souls and the only way to prevent that is to
have a rock that represents each of your family members souls.
You keep that in a fire. As long as they
(19:42):
stay in that fire, they'll be Okay, this is a
real myth from the UK. Okay, Michael McDowell, who is
obviously of Scottish descent, has said it as a Scottish myth.
I don't know why, because this whole thing is Welsh
as Welsh as Welsh can be. This is actually knows
Kalan Gott, which is the Welsh equivalent of Halloween, takes
(20:04):
place on November the first, which is the first day
of winter, and the cuddy Black Sow is leave it
to the Welsh to actually personify those demonic forces because
in Ireland, where all Hallows Eve actually originates from It's
fucking It's just spirits might get you here. It's one
spirit's coming for you. So they created the original Michael
(20:25):
Myers in Wales with this character. I liked how simple
this story was. I liked how well written each of
the characters, where this is Michael McDowell obviously working here.
I liked that the fact that the kids when dealing
with one another, felt like children. Obviously Huckleberry Fox, I
don't know why we didn't see more and more and
(20:46):
more of him. The kid is preternatural. We're so used
to precocious thanks to fucking so many years of night
Gallery that anytime I see a child performer who doesn't
suck completely and actually seems not precocious but with it
like this kid did, oh my god, he's fucking again.
I don't know why he didn't do more and more stuff.
And I including Mary Griffin as his little sister because
(21:06):
she's just as good as him.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
I liked there a diplomat to the United States Department
of Agriculture, that's why Fox. Yeah, he became like a
like a government dude, like he had a master's in
animal science and shit and a PhD In plant medicine.
He was a smart guy, so he was probably good
at acting, but probably good at a lot of other things.
And by the way, passed away last year at the
(21:29):
age of fifty.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Wow, that's smart, dude. That's why. So to answer your
to give you an answer immediately, there's why.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I like the simplicity of this story. And this might
be just me relating more than y'all, but there's something
about the connection as like a grandchild or a great
grandchild in some cases, and that relative that doesn't sort
of exist between the parents and them. I don't know.
There's something special about her and the fact that it
(21:58):
turns into this quest for this kid and he takes
so seriously and spoilers. This is as tails from the
Dark Side as you can get as far as an
ending goes. He does everything right and for his troubles
when it's revealed that he's the soul that fell out
of the fire and there's a bang on the window.
Actually jumped. I've seen this episode a dozen times. Actually jump.
(22:18):
The creature at the end is wonderful. It is they
unlike most Dark Side where they're just relying on the
effect because the effect is great. They shoot this really
sort of murkily, and it comes off as very scary
when it stands up and opens its mouth, fucking freak
me out. Anyway, that was my take on it. How
about you, Chris.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I am so glad that somebody repurposed the monster from
Ernest Scared Stupid into something else, because that is what
the creature at the end of this episode looks like.
Is the troll from Trantor. It has that same like
weird pig nos thing, So I don't think it was
inspired by this at all, but it's that same weird
like pig poor sign face and that character design in
(23:01):
that movie, So it would like really reminded me of that.
It is scary, I will give you that. Like I
think it's a very atmospheric episode. I can't help but
wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if this
had been the first time I'd seen something like this.
But because I've seen so many of these now, it
does feel a little old hat, but it does feel
(23:22):
more well. It feels better executed than the other ones
have been. It reminds me of some of the other
episodes like this that we've seen where it's two kids
at home or a kid at home by himself being
tormented and plagued by something. And I mean again, you're
trafficking and a kid at home by himself or themselves,
and that's scary enough as it is, and then you
(23:43):
have the possibility of there being this demonic pig woman
that walks on her fucking rear legs, which is scary,
like beyond scary. Really, Like, you don't have to sell
me on that being scary episode, Like I get it.
I don't know. I guess I'm just a little worn
down by these kinds of episodes and pairing it up
(24:03):
with something like The Apprentice, which feels very thematically similar,
and I wasn't jiving with that episode. It probably didn't
help it. But I didn't actually disliked this episode. I
just kind of it was fine. It was fine. It
just maybe took a little long to get where it
was going. Mike, what did you think?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Not a fan?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I'm glad that you explained the mythos of this, because
I just kept go what is he doing with these
stonees and the fire? And he just kept saying the
same stuff over and over again. I was just like,
I just I'm not connecting with what he's supposed to
be doing. And I don't get this myth. I've never
heard of this myth before. So I'm just like something
(24:44):
something stones. Okay, he's got a little sister, is she
going to get eaten? Our parents not going to believe him? No,
they're not going to believe him. And I don't know.
I just kept thinking back to the gosh, was that
the first season of this show? Or was it even Yeah,
I think it was the first season of this or
maybe it was Twilight's own eighty five with the Grandma's
(25:07):
story from Stephen King that I felt was a lot
scarier because the Grandma and that was scary rather than dead.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
That is what this reminded me of. It did have
Grandma in its DNA for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
This actually reminded me more of Trick or Treat the
very first episode of the season. Here. This felt to
me like what they were trying to shoot for for
the entire series, because the look of this one is great.
It doesn't feel like a set at all. That I've
always said Tamson dark Side feels the best when it
feels like a short film. This felt like a short film.
Didn't feel like they were on some sound stage somewhere
(25:44):
just banging this out. It seemed like that there was
care taken with the shots and the setups and everything.
It's a lot of mythology just sort of cram in here.
And again, this is just a fucking quibble. But why,
Michael McDonnell is, did you suddenly decide it was Scotland.
I talked to my friend way Else today and she
was like, well, it doesn't really matter. It's just Gaelic nonsense.
(26:04):
No matter where you go, there's always some variation on it,
so don't sweat it too much. But at the same time,
like they have fucking they got the they got a
bagpipe lament going on here. At one point in Victoria
was like, why why are you so focused on that? Anyway?
Why am I so focused on it?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Well, no, let's let's let's break it down for a second.
To be fair, the cutting black saw is not something
that if you even go and google it, you're gonna
get a whole lot of information about. And so if
you're gonna go out of your way, and this is
something I realized in doing scary stories. We tell if
you're gonna go out of your way, to pick something
specific like this, Why why not do it the justice
(26:38):
that it deserves, because there were very few things about
the cutty black sow out there, which is a Gaelic
thing that is not being correctly interpreted in this episode,
but they went out of their way to mention it.
They could have said anything else they said.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
They could have said nothing, but oh and the only
reason we know it, other than the fact that fucking
bagpipes are playing every ten second, is that the grandmother
keeps referring to Halloween as all hallows and which is
you know, the original By the way, remember when that
was unknown to people, like in the eighties if you
said all hallows and they'd be like, oh, really, that's
the actual work comes on from interesting anyway, we take you.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Granted the ability to google shit now, like I know,
really do you know?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
So she says all hallows even and they're like what
and the husband's like, oh, that's what they how they
used to say it in Scotland, Like oh, okay, so now
we're dealing with a Scottish myth. Gotcha.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Why do you think when we have an episode like this,
why do you think the kid had to die at
the end? Is my question. I'm so curious, like I,
is it just Tails from the Dark Side being Tales
from the Dark Side? Okay, cool, because I appreciate this
show so much for that because Tales from the Crypt
didn't even do that. Yeah, and that was a show
(27:50):
that was on fucking HBO. Yeah, I appreciate the means.
Like I know that the last episode was also rather
mean spirited, but this one really owes for it and
I appreciate that about it because this is supposed to be,
you know, a fairy tale or cautionary tale for children.
I mean it. You know, they're telling the story. There's
some metaaness to this story, right because they're telling the
(28:12):
story about the cutty black Sow. But the story that
we are seeing could be told to a child about
the cutty black sow, about this kid and his interaction
with it, and the way that it ends is that
cautionary tale of you know, be careful and meddling in
things you don't understand. But he's learning about it within
this story. So there's some metainess to what we're seeing.
(28:33):
But I love that this show just is refuses to
pull punches when it comes to kids. In this show,
and like preteens and young adults, and like the main
characters who do everything they can, do everything they can
to the best of their abilities, still failing. I appreciate
that this show goes there because a lot of these
anthology shows don't go the full distance, and I don't
(28:55):
know why, Like there's no reason not to.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
You could say that on Nike coll they weren't going
to kill a kid. I think Rod probably would put
an end to that sort of nonsense. And Tails from
the Crypt really very rarely had children at the center.
Like I can think of three basically off the top
of my head, and those might be the only three
that exists on Telsmith. But here on tarc side Man,
the kids are literally on the menu.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
All the time.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
That fucking teddy bear that kills the kid, the giant
goddamn teddy bear that busts through the door that kills
the mom and kid. There's another episode that ends similarly
to this one, isn't there where it's just like the
shot of essentially the monster just like looming over the
kid in first person, Like there's another episode of the show.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Well, there would be seasons of belief with the Grither,
which ends up fucking killing the parents and then just leaving,
leaving the kids sitting there with their dead parents at
Christmas time. All right, Michael McDowell, all.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Right, breaking the parents necks giant, horrifying.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Hand AND's as big as basketball.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Still a strange size comparative, but all right, what what
a great name is Huckleberry Fox?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
By the way, my parents dropped the ball.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So when he introduces himself to people, does he go,
I'm a Huckleberry?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I bet he has?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I bet George Miller Fox was his was his birth name?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Oh so Huckleberry is just a stage name, nickname, maybe
Boo take away.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Out of Alone.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Come on, now, it's all show biz. That's right, because
but you know what, Look, my name is never going
to be Father as my first name. His name potentially
could have been Huckleberry, which would have been cool.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Well that's what he was built in this episode.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
As I do want to see you're thinking as Huckleberry.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I do want to ask you, guys, because you mentioned
it in an opening of this Father Malone, and it
got me thinking, what in God's name were these parents
thinking bringing their kids to the bedside of her grandmother?
That is the most you know, the Cuddy blacksoul is
disturbing obviously, Like the practical effect is very like it's
weird and it's gross and it's creepy, and the way
that they shoot it.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
With the eyes it's great.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
But the real horrifying part of this episode are these
kids next to the bed of the dying grandmother and
she's just like, I'm dying. I'm dying. Oh, I'm dying.
What the fuck were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Well, look were you thinking? First of all, they do
send the kids away before she dies, and wow, and
they'd gather her. They gather them there to say goodbye
to her, and is what the idea was. But they
get so caught up an exposition at that moment that
you don't really get that sort of tender moment. It's
good and really really the whole scene is just about
(31:43):
the grandson and the great or the great grandson and
great grandmother. In fact, I'm not sure why they even
had the rest of the family there. He should have
snuck into her room or something.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Yeah, I don't Yeah, I don't understand either.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Other than to father to give exposition, which is what
we got.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Right. Well, there's only twenty three minutes.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
So I'll say this and one of the reasons that
I do like this one in particular, and why the
ending resonates it, and maybe it's not just a dark
side thing here, because with most sort of Celtic myths,
as far as or not myths but fables, there is
a level of inevitability to them that once the sort
(32:19):
of die has been cast, there is no redemption from it.
There comes a part in all of their in most
of these stories where once a character has been cursed,
that's it and we're just waiting out the clock. There's
no ultimate last minute win for these things. And knowing
that this was a Celtic myth to begin with, as
(32:40):
soon as that stone turned over, I was like, oh man,
that's perfect. I can't not that I can't wait to
watch a kid die or something, but you know, I
can't wait to see how this plays out. What's great
is even with the sort of acceptance and the inevitability
of it, it's still a horrifying end.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
And that he dies, we're not even sure that he dies.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
No, it is therefore it's stolen, but really it's going
to run away with you.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Oh yeah, again, who knows what the fate of someone
whose soul is stolen in the universes, you know what
I mean. That's you know, I don't know what that means,
but that could be potentially worse, you know, just you know,
comatized for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
It's just it's that cautionary tale of the fate. Is
awful and you don't even want to comprehend what it is.
So maybe it's better just to die. I mean, it's
better that the thing just fucking kills me.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, I don't want to know what a six foot
black pig walking upright with glowing red eyes wants of me, soul.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
With soul stealing ability.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I'm really serious? Is this sorry curious? That serious? I'm
very curious. Is this where the one of the antagonists
from that horrific Hellboy remake came from? Because there was
a Scottish sounding pig man in that movie, and so
while I was watching the end of this, I was
just like, Oh, it's that guy from the Hellboy whatever,
(34:00):
old and crooked man. The no, no, you guys are
missing the one with David Harbor.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
That one, that one that hell.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah, I'd have to rewatch. But I mean, if it's a.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Mike, you beat me. I don't think you have to, will.
You know what, though, I take that back. Actually watched
that movie and it wasn't terrible, But I did watch
that other one beforehand, the newer one, and that one.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Is pretty bad. That one Crooked Man Crooked Man was
so bad. I mean, that makes the David Harbor one
look like an Oscar contender.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, I disagree, really yeah, I like like I like her.
Really it's so cheap. It did look really cheap, but
it felt like I mean, it felt like a television episode,
is what it felt. And but it felt to me
like just a really good one off of a bpr
D comic. That's all that's fair.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Yeah, I could get I can get behind that. I
think that. I don't know, Mike, you maybe onto something
with that being from that hell Boy movie. I just mean,
you know, cutty black Salad is like when you google
it like it's this, like it's this and one or
two other things and very little else. And so to
your point point from before father moment, get it right.
If you're gonna do it at all, don't do Loveland
Frog and then not mention Loveland. If you're gonna do
(35:17):
the thing. There are some cryptids that you can get
away with, like Bigfoot, but something.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Right here in Wisconsin looking for the locknest monster.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Buck are you talking about again? It's it reminds me
a little bit of the misinterpretation of the Deal with
the Devil episode from the last episode, where it's like,
what why are you gonna go through all this effort?
Not land the plane? Put the landing gear down, Folks Like,
we're ninety nine percent of the way there. Don't do this.
You had intent, could have done anything else, and you
chose this, so why not commit to it completely?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
All right? On the next episode of mid nine Viewing,
we'll be taking a look at the next two episodes
of season four. Those are Do Not Open This Box
and Family Reunion Midnight Viewing. The Horror Anthology podcast is
a proud member of a weirding Way Media and the
theme song was composed by HP with an assist by
Donald Rubinstein. Until next time? What are you working on?
Where can people find it? Chris stash you.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Everything that I work on, including this show, can be
found at weirdingwaymedia dot com, where I put the Weekly
back in Weekly podcast with the Culture Cast, which is
a show that I'm finally doing weekly once again after
being on a hiatus for well a long time, so
I'm back doing that. But more importantly, head on over
to patreon dot com slash Father Malone because Father Malone
(36:28):
is doing two episodes a week, which is a lot,
and I'm not doing that. So if you're going to
support someone financially who's busting their ass right now, specifically
Father Malone, but support Father Malone, support Mike over his
Patreon at patreon dot com, slash Projection booth or mine
at patreon dot com, slash Culturecast all places you can
go to help us out financially. But like rate and
review anything that you listen to, regardless of who does
(36:49):
it on iTunes, because that's where you can help any
one of us out. So I don't know how many
bases I covered, but I feel like a lot of them.
So coick it to you, Mike, what about you?
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Yeah, same thing he has for me.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
You're listening to the show I do. Tune in on
Mondays to Father Malone's a weekly round up where I
look at the latest in the streaming and theatrical releases,
and every Friday year they're gonna hear us talking about
one of these anthology series. You're gonna hear one of
our fests. Right now, we're involved in Morana's Fest looking
at the movies of Rick Moranis and the books of Bloodfest.
We're looking at all the movies based on the books
(37:20):
of Blood from Clive Barker. Until next time, everybody, try
to enjoy the daylight
Speaker 1 (38:00):
The shop to
Wait Wait, said in.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Welcome Back to Midnight Viewing, where this season we're taking
a look at George Romero's nineteen eighties television series Tales
from the Dark Side. Sharing the midnight view with me.
Are the Culture Cast, Chris Statue Forsooth, I Say You
Are a Witch? And the Projection Booths Mike White don't
have a Cutty Black sal Man. Tonight, we're taking a
(01:21):
look at the next two episodes of season four, the
final season of Tales from the Dark Side. Those are
The Apprentice and The Cuddy Black Sow. The Apprentice Season four,
episode thirteen, originally aired on May the first, nineteen eighty eight,
Written by Ellen Sandhouse, directed by Eleanor Gabor, starring Haviland Morris,
Marla Bloodstone from Gremlin's Two, Wayne Tippett, Catherine Newman, and
(01:42):
Gary Lottie. Who I sat watching this episode staring at
him the whole time and going, what the fuck do
I know him? From? Oh, Night Riders? George Romeros from
Night Riders. This is the story of a young woman
who takes a job at a colonial reenactment village and
she really commits to the job. What'd you think of
this one? Mike Wow.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I could see everything coming before it happened. As soon
as she walked in the door, I knew exactly what
was going to take place. Yeah, this was rough. Have
we seen this before or is this just that obvious
that I knew? Oh okay, Yeah, here's this dude gonna
lurea in a person somehow. She's going to go back
in time and get stuck in this village. I thought
(02:23):
maybe they might have one day of normalcy where it's
tourists coming in and making her feel bad. And you
know what was that book that oh gosh, Chuck Poulinik
wrote the.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Reacting things.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I was like, Okay, this will be cool, you know,
show me a day of a reenactor and stuff. No, no,
we have to jump right into the she's back in
time now. And yeah. All I could do while I
was watching our main actress was thinking about her having
her hair caught in a door and having somebody cut
it off the entire time. And then Wayne Tippett, he
(03:03):
plays a bastard really well, and so at least he
brought that energy to this, and I was pretty okay
with him. But god, I mean medieval stuff, not medieval,
but you know this like era of American history and
everything is Oh, and you're a witch. Oh she pricked
(03:23):
to you and you didn't feel it, and now I'm
going to accuse you of witchcraft and all this stuff.
Oh my god, it gets so old so fast. Yeah.
In other words, I wasn't a big fan of this episode,
and spoilers for the next episode not a fan of
that one either. We got all kinds of witchcraft going
on in this episode, and none of it is making
me feel good.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So Chris, how about yourself?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh, it is, in fact witchcraft, folks, it's witchcraft. Good lord. Yeah,
this is about as obvious another one of these, just
like we know where you're going from a mile away,
and hey, let's punish the feminist folks. Nothing says in
nineteen eighty eight like putting a woman in her place,
am I right? My god? I love the idea that
(04:07):
she's just like the strong independent woman who gets burned
at the stake at the end. Hilarious. I will say,
I love how mean the episode is. I don't think
anything that happens to Sarah McBride Havelin Morris's character is
remotely justified. She just she's horny, I guess is kind
of the way she's written, which is like fine because
(04:29):
she's like a college student, so okay, she's horny and
she's looking at guys and finding men attractive, and this
is just some like bullshit summer job. Okay, why does
she need to be punished and put to death again? Like,
holy shit, episode we're just oh as Ron Burgundy said
that escalating quickly, and it did. It's a fucking blackout sketch. Really, Oh,
(04:49):
what it would happen if the feminist been back in
time to Salem witch trial and she was burned at
the stake? Okay, funny, it would have been funnier if
she had deserved it. It just kind of feels really mean,
which is again tails from the dark Side, But this
show hasn't done that in such a long time that
it almost feels a little unearned. However, I will say
(05:11):
to spoil the next episode. The next episode is even
funnier for cards. I don't know. Maybe it's meanstreak is
back fallow alone.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
What did you think in a cage for every unclean
and hateful bird of prey? That's what I think of
this episode. I don't know that he quoted that for
no good reason. I do think if this was like
a first person short story about somebody getting a job
at a colonial reenacting and then feeling dizzy and waking
up and not realizing for some time that their job
(05:40):
is actually now the time and place that they think
that they're reenacting, that could be interesting. But this feels
like all the other Tales from the Dark Side episodes
where they deal with like time travel or a portal
to another dimension or something. It always feels like there's
an additional thirty to forty minutes of story that we
(06:02):
are not privy to, and it's just rushing us through
plot points to get us to other places. But it's
all so convoluted, and anytime you start dealing with people
from our present going to the past, it's look, this
is like two hundred three hundred years she travels back.
Anything that came out of her mouth, people would be
(06:23):
like she's a witch. Just the vocal patterns alone and
how they're speaking. It's just it's they don't even make
the wherefore art that was sort of attempt with the
dialogue here. I do like the idea of witches in
Salem Village just being prime travelers from the twentieth century.
There there's another good idea, but they're not interested in that.
(06:45):
They're just I don't know what they're interested in. Like
you said, Chris, is it just the punishing feminists? Like
this is how you would fare back then? Because that's
the problem is that she starts mouthing off. You listen
to this guy, fuck him. Fuck here. By the way,
as soon as she has one consation with that girl,
she would have known where she was. I mean, this
girl's there isn't even an attempt to have Okay, quit
(07:09):
fucking the method acting and fucking speak to me, like
where are you from, what town are you from? What
kind of car do you drive? There's no conversation at
all like that. It's just it's I don't know, it's
very poor, very poor.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I thought for sure we were going to get some
sort of because he makes very clear get rid of
everything modern. She keeps a cigarette lighter that plays badly
for her. I thought we were going to get some
sort of somewhere in time scenario where she would have
a penny with the current year on it and then boom,
she wakes up in the current year something. But instead
(07:46):
we do get that moment I was talking about as
far as let's see how shitty it is to work
in one of these reenactment places, but it just doesn't
pay off. I mean, it's the girl from the past
coming in and having these morons coming in and taking
pictures of her and stuff. Again, it should played out
for a longer time. It feels like this episode was
(08:08):
so weird when it comes to how long they're going
to spend on each thing. And I really thought that
was the moment where it was like, Okay, this is great.
Let's see her now because the other girl's dead or
going to be burned at the stake. Now, let's see
the horrible fate of this other girl. We're gonna go
bad and fuck you to all of our protagonists here.
(08:30):
Let's go ahead, let's do it. Let's make her life
a living hell in the twentieth century exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And they want both of their characters to be in hell.
I guess the idea is that a modern woman in
ancient times would be considered a witch and end up trapped,
and a time traveling elder woman would also be equally trapped,
but in a different way. Because they don't even consider
how fucked this woman's life is now this woman from
sixteen ninety two who doesn't speak in our language, she
(08:58):
doesn't have a driver's license, scurity guard like she's working
at this job, who knows, like what is even happening?
Who's hiring her? Her dad is stuck in the past
because he destroyed the amazing time machine of the wagon
wheel affixed to a wall. Apparently that's how easy it
is to create. Doc Brown had it all wrong. Man
using fucking plutonium.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
So I have a question, is that guy from the past.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's a good question, That is a good question back
and forth.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Or is he from the future. And he's like, here's
the way I would write this. You have a guy
in the current day who finds a way to go
to the past, and his whole thing is he's a
foolproof way to kill women that he doesn't like, in
this case feminists, by just sending them back in time
to get them killed because they think that they're witches,
(09:49):
because like you said, Father Milone, they're melding off. And
so you have this out and again like these you
know you put it so apptly, Father Malone have said
this so many times. If there was someone from one
hundred years ago. That's one hundred years ago dropped into
modern day times square today, they would die. Their brain
would fucking explode because there'd be so there would be
(10:10):
so many things you'd have to explain to them that
we take for granted, Like what we're doing right now
is a fucking To try and explain this to someone
who has no ability to even understand what a computer
is would be like, oh, you're taking No, you're not
in the same room as someone like it's it's really
fucked because the thing that this episode doesn't do is
(10:31):
it doesn't contextualize why he's doing what he's doing. And
that would have been the most interesting thing of this
entire episode. Is this guy from the past or the
future or the current of the past has figured out
a way to go back in time or go to
the future, and this is what he's choosing to do
with it. Why that question is never answered, And that's
the most interesting question that is never answered, and it's
(10:53):
the thing that drives this entire goddamn episode.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
That's what I'm saying. Like the other episodes that came
before this, it feels like there's more plot going on
either before or after the episode begins or ends, and
all of that is more tantalizing than the story we got.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Yeah, well that exactly it is. What we get on
screen is just kind of nothing. Really. Ultimately, it doesn't
feel like much of anything. It just feels every one
of these things we've seen before where someone gets trapped
in the past, from the future or the present day.
I guess that's every single one of these has been
the same goddamn thing every time. Every time there's and
(11:32):
where are the Stake's there?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
The guy is from the past because he describes the
situation that they were sort of desperate and then their
situation improved once he started feeding them witches scape. So
that means this man from sixteen ninety two has a
machine that allows him to travel to the twentieth century,
the late twentieth century, and what he chooses to do
is continue to go back. Why what the fuck are
you talking about? Go back, gather as much fucking gold
(11:57):
as you can. I bet you can get a lot
compared to what we have now, and then come back
through and be a fucking billionaire. What the what are
you doing? What's anyone? The problem with most time traveling
things is that it is so limited in its thought
and what you could potentially do. I mean, if you
want to be a criminal, you could really be a
criminal with a time machine. You know, if you wanted
(12:18):
to do good things, you could really do good things.
So but nobody ever thinks beyond I don't know whatever.
The little point they're trying to make the idea of
a serial killer using a time machine is fucking also awesome, Chris, Like,
there are so many potential like good things here and
all of it is squandered, including all of these people.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
The body disappears permanently and nobody ever has to worry
about it.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Like, I guess that's a looper, right, that's the same
that's pot of looper. Looper is time Yeah, well.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah, it's it's more time after, but nobody's done it since,
Like it's it is such a because here's the thing
that you just take the body and dump it wherever
the fuck in the middle of the desert and there
you go, Like it doesn't even matter. But the idea that, yeah,
this guy is just using it to do this is
so like mind numb.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
Let's say he's this guy from the past and he
has convinced the community that he can suss out witches
right at a certain point, aren't the rest of the
theligers going to go? We've noticed that all of the
witches are coming out of your house. I think maybe
we ought to try you, sir, because you know, men
were not above witchcraft accusations and trials. There were plenty
of men put to death.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
To one of them is see if he weighs as
much as a duck, and if he does, he's a witch.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
You know what they would actually do in Salem, They
would press him quote unquote where they yet they stack
stones on you to get you to confess, and eventually
there's a famous man witch.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, the most famous was his last words were more weight.
He was just like, fuck, you add more weight before
I confess to being a minion of Satan.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
That story already, that you just told in the most
basic three fucking words, three sentences, was better than this
entire episode. Cause you beat me and yeah, no, you
beat me to it. That's when I thought the episode
was going where it was going towards the end, I
was like, Oh, was Sarah McBride a real person at Salem?
And that's what they were doing? Oh? That would have
been kind of clever. Nope, that wasn't even it like that,
(14:15):
And I would have given the episode a little bit
of credit if they had done that, to just tie
it in, to be like, oh, one of the real
people at Salem. Actually that was okay, that's kind of fun. Nope,
they did. They did. They couldn't even be bothered to
do that little bit of research.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Come on, remember when they did this on Twilight soon
eighty five with James Cromwell. They did a time travel
episode or a sort of rain transference through time episode,
and that was pretty good. They actually went out on
location and gave us some pilgrim. I mean, it was California,
but at least they gave us some geography. Here we're
trapped in this really poor set. Clearly doesn't seem to
(14:49):
age at all. I mean, dirtying up one painting does
not equal three hundred years of progress.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Why is the paint too clean?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Oh okay, yeah, that's what she knowed. Yeah yeah, not
I say not the bugs crawling everywhere, not the fucking
odor coming off of everyone around her.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Not the lack of noise.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
The lack of noise. How about the amount of oxygen
in the air like her lungs suddenly fucking screaming because
it's gotten more than it has ever received in its
entire life.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Time travel, for me, is always so lazy because the
things that are ignored are the things that could be interesting,
and just nobody cares because it's Oh, you know, if
you add somebody from the bass Rabble to the future,
of course they would understand immediately, like no, they would not.
Their brain would explode inside of their head, their eyes
would roll into the back of their head, and they'd
be dead because they wouldn't even understand a cell phone
(15:40):
you fire from your hand, magic fire, that's a lighter.
Can you imagine trying to explain simple circuits to these
fucking morons, let alone like how a fucking lighter works?
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Nothing.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
It's so lazy. I hate this kind of shit, especially
when it's in short form narratives. Even this is where
the Dodges and cheets really happen.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
You gotta get a ron silver and go back in
time and like trade stocks and do all that kind
of stuff. As long as Jean Claude van Dam doesn't
get wind of it, you are on easy street. My friend,
Jean Vandam will always get wind of it. Oh no,
he is a time cop after all.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
That's true. It's time.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
If I had a time machine, I would be such
a fucking so banal. I would just go make money,
Just make money, Like why would I go give a
shit about anything else? Like, not anything that any one
of us could do with a time machine to stop
anything that's happened. But to this point, I feel like, so,
no matter how many good decisions I could go and make,
just make some money and try to insulate myself from
all the bad things that are happening. But or, you know,
(16:37):
just get women to die and Salem at the cross
because they're witches. That's funnier, right.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
My favorite recent time travel thing, and by recent, I
mean a decade ago Leam Lynch, the comedian, the director
of Tenacious D's Pick of Destiny. He has his own
web series and he has a segment called Time Taggers,
which is just this idiot tagger who goes back in
time and tags things like so he goes back out
to fucking tag that ship. He does, and then he
(17:05):
gets back into the time machine.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
Yeah, what would happen if an idiot had a time machine?
I don't really care about What would happen if a
smart person at a time machine? What happened if a moron?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
It a total dunce.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's like that character from the Good Place.
Imagine him with a time machine. He would just be shawing.
Oh god, can you imagine Jason with the time machine?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yes, I want to see that series. Actually, I think
that would be a good spin off.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I just give me Dexter with the time machine and
we're good going back in. You know, that show's jumped
the shark at this point. Who fucking cares.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I liked this latest season.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
I'm not saying it was sad, but you know what
I mean, we've gone around the bend to this point
where it's like Simpson's postmodern, where we're just like, we
don't even care about reality anymore.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, the show should have not cared about
reality after season two with that fucking serial killer conceit.
They should have been having a blast a long time ago.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Yeah, and you know what, like a time killing serial killer.
I think that is a thing that we have yet
to really see. And this has that idea, it's that
nugget in it, and it's that's for me. It should
have been more interesting than it is. But a wagon
wheel on a wall is not. That's not doing it
for me.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
The Cutty Black Sow Season four, episode fourteen. This aired
originally on May the eighth, nineteen eighty eight. Written by
Michael McDowell from a story by Thomas Montalioni and directed
by Richard Glass, this one stars Huckleberry Fox not Kidding,
Paula Truman, Timothy Landfield, and Mary Griffin as a Gloria
That's the little Sister. When a young boy's great grandmother
(18:37):
dies on Halloween, he's tasked with saving the souls of
his family before an ancient legend can snatch him away.
I'll take the lead on this one because it sounds
like you two are ready to beat up on it,
and I fucking love this. Or Okay, this is as
old a ghost story as I've ever heard, and I've
heard variations of this growing up, so this is not
(18:59):
un known to me, this story of the Cutty Black Sow.
The story that we're given here is this great grandmother
is on her deathbed. By the way, don't bring your
children to great grandma's deathbed, because if the child is
just going to say, is she really gonna die over
and over again. That's probably not good for her mental
health as she's slowly passing away anyway. So the setup
is that great Grandma is dying and is going to
(19:21):
die on Halloween, and it is revealed that from her
Scottish heritage that if that were to occur, that everyone
in the family's soul is at risk because the cutty
black Sow will be on the way to grab some
souls and the only way to prevent that is to
have a rock that represents each of your family members souls.
You keep that in a fire. As long as they
(19:42):
stay in that fire, they'll be Okay, this is a
real myth from the UK. Okay, Michael McDowell, who is
obviously of Scottish descent, has said it as a Scottish myth.
I don't know why, because this whole thing is Welsh
as Welsh as Welsh can be. This is actually knows
Kalan Gott, which is the Welsh equivalent of Halloween, takes
(20:04):
place on November the first, which is the first day
of winter, and the cuddy Black Sow is leave it
to the Welsh to actually personify those demonic forces because
in Ireland, where all Hallows Eve actually originates from It's
fucking It's just spirits might get you here. It's one
spirit's coming for you. So they created the original Michael
(20:25):
Myers in Wales with this character. I liked how simple
this story was. I liked how well written each of
the characters, where this is Michael McDowell obviously working here.
I liked that the fact that the kids when dealing
with one another, felt like children. Obviously Huckleberry Fox, I
don't know why we didn't see more and more and
(20:46):
more of him. The kid is preternatural. We're so used
to precocious thanks to fucking so many years of night
Gallery that anytime I see a child performer who doesn't
suck completely and actually seems not precocious but with it
like this kid did, oh my god, he's fucking again.
I don't know why he didn't do more and more stuff.
And I including Mary Griffin as his little sister because
(21:06):
she's just as good as him.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
I liked there a diplomat to the United States Department
of Agriculture, that's why Fox. Yeah, he became like a
like a government dude, like he had a master's in
animal science and shit and a PhD In plant medicine.
He was a smart guy, so he was probably good
at acting, but probably good at a lot of other things.
And by the way, passed away last year at the
(21:29):
age of fifty.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Wow, that's smart, dude. That's why. So to answer your
to give you an answer immediately, there's why.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I like the simplicity of this story. And this might
be just me relating more than y'all, but there's something
about the connection as like a grandchild or a great
grandchild in some cases, and that relative that doesn't sort
of exist between the parents and them. I don't know.
There's something special about her and the fact that it
(21:58):
turns into this quest for this kid and he takes
so seriously and spoilers. This is as tails from the
Dark Side as you can get as far as an
ending goes. He does everything right and for his troubles
when it's revealed that he's the soul that fell out
of the fire and there's a bang on the window.
Actually jumped. I've seen this episode a dozen times. Actually jump.
(22:18):
The creature at the end is wonderful. It is they
unlike most Dark Side where they're just relying on the
effect because the effect is great. They shoot this really
sort of murkily, and it comes off as very scary
when it stands up and opens its mouth, fucking freak
me out. Anyway, that was my take on it. How
about you, Chris.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I am so glad that somebody repurposed the monster from
Ernest Scared Stupid into something else, because that is what
the creature at the end of this episode looks like.
Is the troll from Trantor. It has that same like
weird pig nos thing, So I don't think it was
inspired by this at all, but it's that same weird
like pig poor sign face and that character design in
(23:01):
that movie, So it would like really reminded me of that.
It is scary, I will give you that. Like I
think it's a very atmospheric episode. I can't help but
wonder if I would have enjoyed it more if this
had been the first time I'd seen something like this.
But because I've seen so many of these now, it
does feel a little old hat, but it does feel
(23:22):
more well. It feels better executed than the other ones
have been. It reminds me of some of the other
episodes like this that we've seen where it's two kids
at home or a kid at home by himself being
tormented and plagued by something. And I mean again, you're
trafficking and a kid at home by himself or themselves,
and that's scary enough as it is, and then you
(23:43):
have the possibility of there being this demonic pig woman
that walks on her fucking rear legs, which is scary,
like beyond scary. Really, Like, you don't have to sell
me on that being scary episode, Like I get it.
I don't know. I guess I'm just a little worn
down by these kinds of episodes and pairing it up
(24:03):
with something like The Apprentice, which feels very thematically similar,
and I wasn't jiving with that episode. It probably didn't
help it. But I didn't actually disliked this episode. I
just kind of it was fine. It was fine. It
just maybe took a little long to get where it
was going. Mike, what did you think?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Not a fan?
Speaker 3 (24:22):
I'm glad that you explained the mythos of this, because
I just kept go what is he doing with these
stonees and the fire? And he just kept saying the
same stuff over and over again. I was just like,
I just I'm not connecting with what he's supposed to
be doing. And I don't get this myth. I've never
heard of this myth before. So I'm just like something
(24:44):
something stones. Okay, he's got a little sister, is she
going to get eaten? Our parents not going to believe him? No,
they're not going to believe him. And I don't know.
I just kept thinking back to the gosh, was that
the first season of this show? Or was it even Yeah,
I think it was the first season of this or
maybe it was Twilight's own eighty five with the Grandma's
(25:07):
story from Stephen King that I felt was a lot
scarier because the Grandma and that was scary rather than dead.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
That is what this reminded me of. It did have
Grandma in its DNA for sure.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
This actually reminded me more of Trick or Treat the
very first episode of the season. Here. This felt to
me like what they were trying to shoot for for
the entire series, because the look of this one is great.
It doesn't feel like a set at all. That I've
always said Tamson dark Side feels the best when it
feels like a short film. This felt like a short film.
Didn't feel like they were on some sound stage somewhere
(25:44):
just banging this out. It seemed like that there was
care taken with the shots and the setups and everything.
It's a lot of mythology just sort of cram in here.
And again, this is just a fucking quibble. But why,
Michael McDonnell is, did you suddenly decide it was Scotland.
I talked to my friend way Else today and she
was like, well, it doesn't really matter. It's just Gaelic nonsense.
(26:04):
No matter where you go, there's always some variation on it,
so don't sweat it too much. But at the same time,
like they have fucking they got the they got a
bagpipe lament going on here. At one point in Victoria
was like, why why are you so focused on that? Anyway?
Why am I so focused on it?
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Well, no, let's let's let's break it down for a second.
To be fair, the cutting black saw is not something
that if you even go and google it, you're gonna
get a whole lot of information about. And so if
you're gonna go out of your way, and this is
something I realized in doing scary stories. We tell if
you're gonna go out of your way, to pick something
specific like this, Why why not do it the justice
(26:38):
that it deserves, because there were very few things about
the cutty black sow out there, which is a Gaelic
thing that is not being correctly interpreted in this episode,
but they went out of their way to mention it.
They could have said anything else they said.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
They could have said nothing, but oh and the only
reason we know it, other than the fact that fucking
bagpipes are playing every ten second, is that the grandmother
keeps referring to Halloween as all hallows and which is
you know, the original By the way, remember when that
was unknown to people, like in the eighties if you
said all hallows and they'd be like, oh, really, that's
the actual work comes on from interesting anyway, we take you.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Granted the ability to google shit now, like I know,
really do you know?
Speaker 2 (27:20):
So she says all hallows even and they're like what
and the husband's like, oh, that's what they how they
used to say it in Scotland, Like oh, okay, so now
we're dealing with a Scottish myth. Gotcha.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Why do you think when we have an episode like this,
why do you think the kid had to die at
the end? Is my question. I'm so curious, like I,
is it just Tails from the Dark Side being Tales
from the Dark Side? Okay, cool, because I appreciate this
show so much for that because Tales from the Crypt
didn't even do that. Yeah, and that was a show
(27:50):
that was on fucking HBO. Yeah, I appreciate the means.
Like I know that the last episode was also rather
mean spirited, but this one really owes for it and
I appreciate that about it because this is supposed to be,
you know, a fairy tale or cautionary tale for children.
I mean it. You know, they're telling the story. There's
some metaaness to this story, right because they're telling the
(28:12):
story about the cutty black Sow. But the story that
we are seeing could be told to a child about
the cutty black sow, about this kid and his interaction
with it, and the way that it ends is that
cautionary tale of you know, be careful and meddling in
things you don't understand. But he's learning about it within
this story. So there's some metainess to what we're seeing.
(28:33):
But I love that this show just is refuses to
pull punches when it comes to kids. In this show,
and like preteens and young adults, and like the main
characters who do everything they can, do everything they can
to the best of their abilities, still failing. I appreciate
that this show goes there because a lot of these
anthology shows don't go the full distance, and I don't
(28:55):
know why, Like there's no reason not to.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
You could say that on Nike coll they weren't going
to kill a kid. I think Rod probably would put
an end to that sort of nonsense. And Tails from
the Crypt really very rarely had children at the center.
Like I can think of three basically off the top
of my head, and those might be the only three
that exists on Telsmith. But here on tarc side Man,
the kids are literally on the menu.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
All the time.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
That fucking teddy bear that kills the kid, the giant
goddamn teddy bear that busts through the door that kills
the mom and kid. There's another episode that ends similarly
to this one, isn't there where it's just like the
shot of essentially the monster just like looming over the
kid in first person, Like there's another episode of the show.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
Well, there would be seasons of belief with the Grither,
which ends up fucking killing the parents and then just leaving,
leaving the kids sitting there with their dead parents at
Christmas time. All right, Michael McDowell, all.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Right, breaking the parents necks giant, horrifying.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Hand AND's as big as basketball.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Still a strange size comparative, but all right, what what
a great name is Huckleberry Fox?
Speaker 2 (30:07):
By the way, my parents dropped the ball.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
So when he introduces himself to people, does he go,
I'm a Huckleberry?
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I bet he has?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
I bet George Miller Fox was his was his birth name?
Speaker 2 (30:24):
Oh so Huckleberry is just a stage name, nickname, maybe
Boo take away.
Speaker 4 (30:33):
Out of Alone.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Come on, now, it's all show biz. That's right, because
but you know what, Look, my name is never going
to be Father as my first name. His name potentially
could have been Huckleberry, which would have been cool.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Well that's what he was built in this episode.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
As I do want to see you're thinking as Huckleberry.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I do want to ask you, guys, because you mentioned
it in an opening of this Father Malone, and it
got me thinking, what in God's name were these parents
thinking bringing their kids to the bedside of her grandmother?
That is the most you know, the Cuddy blacksoul is
disturbing obviously, Like the practical effect is very like it's
weird and it's gross and it's creepy, and the way
that they shoot it.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
With the eyes it's great.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
But the real horrifying part of this episode are these
kids next to the bed of the dying grandmother and
she's just like, I'm dying. I'm dying. Oh, I'm dying.
What the fuck were you thinking?
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Well, look were you thinking? First of all, they do
send the kids away before she dies, and wow, and
they'd gather her. They gather them there to say goodbye
to her, and is what the idea was. But they
get so caught up an exposition at that moment that
you don't really get that sort of tender moment. It's
good and really really the whole scene is just about
(31:43):
the grandson and the great or the great grandson and
great grandmother. In fact, I'm not sure why they even
had the rest of the family there. He should have
snuck into her room or something.
Speaker 4 (31:52):
Yeah, I don't Yeah, I don't understand either.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Other than to father to give exposition, which is what
we got.
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Right. Well, there's only twenty three minutes.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
So I'll say this and one of the reasons that
I do like this one in particular, and why the
ending resonates it, and maybe it's not just a dark
side thing here, because with most sort of Celtic myths,
as far as or not myths but fables, there is
a level of inevitability to them that once the sort
(32:19):
of die has been cast, there is no redemption from it.
There comes a part in all of their in most
of these stories where once a character has been cursed,
that's it and we're just waiting out the clock. There's
no ultimate last minute win for these things. And knowing
that this was a Celtic myth to begin with, as
(32:40):
soon as that stone turned over, I was like, oh man,
that's perfect. I can't not that I can't wait to
watch a kid die or something, but you know, I
can't wait to see how this plays out. What's great
is even with the sort of acceptance and the inevitability
of it, it's still a horrifying end.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
And that he dies, we're not even sure that he dies.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
No, it is therefore it's stolen, but really it's going
to run away with you.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Oh yeah, again, who knows what the fate of someone
whose soul is stolen in the universes, you know what
I mean. That's you know, I don't know what that means,
but that could be potentially worse, you know, just you know,
comatized for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
You know.
Speaker 4 (33:16):
It's just it's that cautionary tale of the fate. Is
awful and you don't even want to comprehend what it is.
So maybe it's better just to die. I mean, it's
better that the thing just fucking kills me.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Yeah, I don't want to know what a six foot
black pig walking upright with glowing red eyes wants of me, soul.
Speaker 4 (33:34):
With soul stealing ability.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
I'm really serious? Is this sorry curious? That serious? I'm
very curious. Is this where the one of the antagonists
from that horrific Hellboy remake came from? Because there was
a Scottish sounding pig man in that movie, and so
while I was watching the end of this, I was
just like, Oh, it's that guy from the Hellboy whatever,
(34:00):
old and crooked man. The no, no, you guys are
missing the one with David Harbor.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
That one, that one that hell.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah, I'd have to rewatch. But I mean, if it's a.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Mike, you beat me. I don't think you have to, will.
You know what, though, I take that back. Actually watched
that movie and it wasn't terrible, But I did watch
that other one beforehand, the newer one, and that one.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Is pretty bad. That one Crooked Man Crooked Man was
so bad. I mean, that makes the David Harbor one
look like an Oscar contender.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, I disagree, really yeah, I like like I like her.
Really it's so cheap. It did look really cheap, but
it felt like I mean, it felt like a television episode,
is what it felt. And but it felt to me
like just a really good one off of a bpr
D comic. That's all that's fair.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Yeah, I could get I can get behind that. I
think that. I don't know, Mike, you maybe onto something
with that being from that hell Boy movie. I just mean,
you know, cutty black Salad is like when you google
it like it's this, like it's this and one or
two other things and very little else. And so to
your point point from before father moment, get it right.
If you're gonna do it at all, don't do Loveland
Frog and then not mention Loveland. If you're gonna do
(35:17):
the thing. There are some cryptids that you can get
away with, like Bigfoot, but something.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Right here in Wisconsin looking for the locknest monster.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Buck are you talking about again? It's it reminds me
a little bit of the misinterpretation of the Deal with
the Devil episode from the last episode, where it's like,
what why are you gonna go through all this effort?
Not land the plane? Put the landing gear down, Folks Like,
we're ninety nine percent of the way there. Don't do this.
You had intent, could have done anything else, and you
chose this, so why not commit to it completely?
Speaker 2 (35:46):
All right? On the next episode of mid nine Viewing,
we'll be taking a look at the next two episodes
of season four. Those are Do Not Open This Box
and Family Reunion Midnight Viewing. The Horror Anthology podcast is
a proud member of a weirding Way Media and the
theme song was composed by HP with an assist by
Donald Rubinstein. Until next time? What are you working on?
Where can people find it? Chris stash you.
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Everything that I work on, including this show, can be
found at weirdingwaymedia dot com, where I put the Weekly
back in Weekly podcast with the Culture Cast, which is
a show that I'm finally doing weekly once again after
being on a hiatus for well a long time, so
I'm back doing that. But more importantly, head on over
to patreon dot com slash Father Malone because Father Malone
(36:28):
is doing two episodes a week, which is a lot,
and I'm not doing that. So if you're going to
support someone financially who's busting their ass right now, specifically
Father Malone, but support Father Malone, support Mike over his
Patreon at patreon dot com, slash Projection booth or mine
at patreon dot com, slash Culturecast all places you can
go to help us out financially. But like rate and
review anything that you listen to, regardless of who does
(36:49):
it on iTunes, because that's where you can help any
one of us out. So I don't know how many
bases I covered, but I feel like a lot of them.
So coick it to you, Mike, what about you?
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Yeah, same thing he has for me.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
You're listening to the show I do. Tune in on
Mondays to Father Malone's a weekly round up where I
look at the latest in the streaming and theatrical releases,
and every Friday year they're gonna hear us talking about
one of these anthology series. You're gonna hear one of
our fests. Right now, we're involved in Morana's Fest looking
at the movies of Rick Moranis and the books of Bloodfest.
We're looking at all the movies based on the books
(37:20):
of Blood from Clive Barker. Until next time, everybody, try
to enjoy the daylight
Speaker 1 (38:00):
The shop to
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