Vampires - A Last Hurrah or The Nail in the Coffin?

Before John Carpenter became a professional gamer and part-time composer for Blumhouse, he made movies! One of them was Vampire$, starring Family Guy character James Woods. After a string of unfortunate bombs from Village of the Damned to Escape from L.A., Vampire$ was Carpenter's first profitable film of the '90s. But it also signaled the end of his heyday and left his fans feeling cold.

That was then. Years later, some have embraced Vampire$ as Carpenter's swan song, while others still take it as a fall from grace. Gabe and Connor reevaluate this flick and ask: why were there so many Vampire Westerns in the '90s? Is James Woods crazier in this movie or in real life? Most importantly, does John Carpenter's Vampire$ have any bite left?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to ourdiscussion of John Carpenter's Vampires, starring James
Woods as himself. I was kickingyour ass back then, did that give
you a would what? Okay,I'm curious about something. Uh. Were

(00:45):
you as a child as avid asof a family guy watcher as I was?
I thought if you were going toask me that as a child,
was I a particular fan of JamesWoods? And the answer was yes,
A sal the door on time inAmerica. You know, when I wasn't
watching SpongeBob, I was watching videoDrone. So yeah, I up with

(01:08):
a real fondness for James Woods.Yeah. Sure, I was a family
guy watcher and I see where thisis going so well, you know,
I just wanted to say, youknow, ahead of time, both James
Woods on Family Guy and James Woodsin real life have ruined James Woods for
me. I don't take him seriouslyin anything that I watch, because that's

(01:29):
the version of James Woods that Isaw before anything James Woods. I wasn't,
I'll say, fortunate enough to havea direct you know, film critic
in my life growing up to introduceme to some of the deeper cuts of

(01:51):
you know what a child would bewatching. So I didn't really get to
see, you know, once upona time in America until I was a
little older, didn't get to seeall these things. But somehow Family Guy
did end up on my TV.I didn't discover James Woods until I was
old enough to be watching the typeof film that he's associated with. If
he has a family friendly content inhis resume, I have not discovered it

(02:16):
for myself. You finally made it. Our things in the Underworld, well
they're just fine. Yeah, alittle dark, little gloomy and as always,
hey full of dead people. Whatare you gonna do? I think
anybody who's who's interested in watching ourdiscussion of it is probably gonna come at
this from the angle that I comeat this movie from, which is this

(02:39):
is John Carpenter. This is hisonly successful movie of the nineties. It's
his last profitable film that he everdirected, and it was coming off of
a string of bombs. He's likeMartin Scorsese and that more movies of his
have failed at the box office,and if anything, that that contributes to

(03:02):
his mythic status, right, Like, yeah, you know, the Russo
Brothers make fun of Martin Scorsese becauseyou know, most of his movies don't
do well at the box office.But that's why we cherish him. He
really beats the odds and he he'sa real testament to you know, the
perseverance of vision over you know,over industry, politics and commercialism. Right.

(03:25):
And I think that's actually John Carpenter'sstory, even though he started out
with the huge hit of Halloween,right, that's not that's not the story
of his career. I mean,this dude really had bomb after bomb critically
and commercially before this. What washe doing. He did the Village of

(03:46):
the Damn to remake. He didthe Memoirs of an Invisible Man, which
apparently was like the ugliest experience he'sever had working with Chevy Chase, almost
made hire early. He's always threatenedto retire throughout, like most of his
career, like yes, after everybomb or every you know unpleasant Shoot.

(04:08):
Well, I mean Escape from Lawas ninety six and this is just two
years after that Village of the damwas ninety five. Let's see, I'm
looking through his Yeah, of courseMemoirs of an Invisible Man that I think,
oh, there's in the mouth ofmadness which I think, yeah,
was a modest hit all things considered. It's definitely become a fan favorite in

(04:32):
the last few years among horror fans. But people really enjoy it. But
this movie, Vampire Dollar Sign,as I will call it, has not.
I would argue this is the SaintAnger of the John Carpenter oovery.
This is his only grindhouse movie,Like this is the only sex, drugs

(04:56):
and rock and roll horror movie.You know, the man who famously started
off the anti exploitation filmmaker with thetastefulness and the austereness of Halloween. You
know, he steadily starts to embracethose splader pack sensibilities until it kind of
you know, this is the nuclearversion of that. I mean, is

(05:17):
there anything in his filmography that competeswith it? I don't think Before this,
no, you know, I arguablyGhost of Mars. After this is
definitely more of an acceptance of thatsort of like I wouldn't say, like
more grindhouse sensibilities, but it feelslike selling out on all forms. This

(05:39):
doesn't quite feel like that. There'sstill John Carpenter ness about this movie.
I did feel like the nineties.I don't know if it was, you
know, just solely based off ofthe influence of guys like Tarantino. But

(06:00):
I mean, like watching John Carpentersort of evolve within the nineties, I
mean there's this specific style that weassociate with him in the eighties, even
though like the thing kind of mightfall a little bit outside of that at
times, you know, there's stilllike a style we can associate with them,
especially in the early eighties. Youknow, people will often say,
like, oh, well, Halloweentwo and Halloween three, even though he

(06:23):
didn't make those, they're very muchJohn Carpenter esque movies. They're they're very
similar to something he would make,you right, and sanction, yes he
did sanction that buffoonery. No onesanctions are buffoonery unfortunately. But you know,
and then like even Prince of Darknessis very much shot Like you know,
those movies are the way that they'reshot, the way that they infuse

(06:46):
colors, the way that they sortof like tastefully infuse influence into the movie.
I mean, they're not quite rippingoff what came before it, but
you know, the influence is there. I mean, with the original Halloween,
you see a lot of black Christmas. With Prince of Darkness, you
see a lot of you know,like you know, Italian horror. He

(07:08):
infuses enough in there that you cansee that he has influences, but not
enough to be considered a straight ripofflike some other movies of you know,
basing off of his have done.Friday the Thirteenth is a good example of
that. This is a rare moviefor him that you could accuse. I'm
not accusing it, but people haveaccused it of trend chasing a very recent

(07:29):
hit, which is from Dusk TillDon. Right now, I think if
you make any vampire movie set inthis kind of neo Western style, that's
that's like an inevitable comparison. Usuallythat's that's the version of that style from
Dusk till Don. It owns thateverything else I guess will be in its
shadow. But right it's probably fromDusk Till Don. That kind of lets

(07:56):
this movie become a hit because Ithink people really didn't get what John Carpenter
was going for for most of thetime. People did not understand why he
kept making these pivots or what theywere supposed to do with something like from
Friends of Darkness. I know you'rea fan of that movie this made here,
it's not all right? Oh okay, who has and does not like

(08:20):
the middle chapter of the Apocalypse trilogy. That's this guy. Hey, you
know it's a weird movie. It'sa weird movie. And I think,
you know, like when you lookat John Carpenter as a whole, I
never really realized it until the lastfew years. And I mean even being
a part of you know, likelike five or six years ago, when
I'm part of like Facebook horror groups, right, and I'm in the trenches

(08:41):
with horror fans, like the guycan really do no wrong. In those
circles, you know, you haveyour haters, but for the most part,
it's just kind of universal praise forthe guy. And then you kind
of talk to people who are justsort of more familiar with horror, you
know, they're not real deep fansof it. And John Carpenter is I
mean at times controversial for those kindof people, you know, looking at

(09:05):
his body of work. I mean, some of them will go as far
as to say, like Big Troublein Little China is the only movie of
his that they think is fantastic.Some people will say that it's that movie
Escape from New York and the thing, and then they don't want to touch
anything else in his filmography. Youknow, certainly nobody's throwing praise at something
like Vampires for that I've seen asof as of late, but surprisingly it's

(09:28):
gotten a lot more love of overthe last few years. I mean,
right now, it's sitting at atwo point nine on letterbox, which is
is much higher than I expected itto be, to be completely honest,
with a lot of two point nineis lately, I think we're hoping to
be to get the credit for raisingit up. Yet Now I have a

(09:48):
really serious question for you, andit's something that just popped in my mind.
Okay, which Baldwin is in thismovie? Which one is? Is
it Daniel Daniel? It's Daniel Daniel. I put in my notes the combination
of James Woods and Daniel Baldwin isdespicable, So I know I would have

(10:09):
looked it up. I have theI always have the letterbox handy, and
it is indeed Daniel Baldwin playing AnthonyMontela. Would you believe me if I
told you that originally they wanted AlecBaldwin for this role. I would believe
anybody who told me that any Baldwinbrother role was supposed to be Alex anybody,

(10:31):
I don't care what the role is. We wanted Alec Baldwin. But
there's a roulette table somewhere in Burbankthat has the Baldwin brothers mugshots on them.
I'm sure they all have fucking mugshots. Those those pricks, and they
just Jesus Christ roll the circle andyou know, sometimes you get lucky,
sometimes you get Alec, but youmight get a Daniel. Oh my god.

(10:52):
Daniel Baldwin is responsible for for twostars they knocked off. I think
anybody walking away from this, youknow, would give this two stars higher
if they could have swapped this manout for any other actor in Hollywood,
possible. It's also his second appearanceon our show. He also featured very

(11:13):
shortly in a movie where he wasactually used the way he should be used,
Nothing but Trouble, where he wasthrown into a grinder, which was
one of my favorite moments from anymovie ever. So you know, at
least one movie on this show knewhow to use Daniel Baldwin. It was

(11:35):
not to watch him sexually harass thecatatonic vampire woman. Well, I know
her as obviously as Laura Palmer fromTwin Peaks. Bringing it back to David
Lunch, we talked about not toolong ago. This is the only actress,

(11:58):
the only role outside of Twin Peaksthat I've seen from this actress,
And my god, did I feelbad for her. Honestly, I felt
bad for a few people in thismovie, if I'm being honest, James
Woods not being one of them.You know. We have, of course
Cherylie who we talked about, butfucking Shank Sons in this movie. Dude,

(12:22):
they don't do anything with him inthis. We covered on our Patreon.
I don't think it's out available publiclyas of yet, but we covered
Mortal Kombat from nineteen ninety five,three years before this. We get probably
arguably the screen stealing performance of ShangSung and he doesn't do anything in this.
They don't use him at all.He's just there. And then we

(12:46):
have Mark Boone Junior, who somepeople may not know Mark Boone Junior,
but we know him very well fromour favorite movie. Yeah. Yeah,
they will have folloween two. Theywill have seen him in Batman Begins or
maybe Memento. Great character actor alwaysloves to from Zombie Salloween two. Of
course. Yeah, I think Ithink we covered that. I was just

(13:09):
trying to prove above the hars viewersthat we have seen other movies outside of
Halloween too. I just need Ito know that for the I want people
to think that's the only movie I'veever seen. Yeah, Between that and
your Cubs cap, I'm sure thatmakes you an instant mister popular. Oh
dude, I am just I haveso many friends you'd but I want to

(13:35):
ask you something as we as wekind of get a little bit into this
movie. You know, we we'veyou know, very kind of kind of
brushed over the cast and such,and you know, obviously James Woods vampire
movies as a whole. I mean, like, you know, it's it's
just it's kind of a subgenre.I mean, you know, there's vampire
movies that fit into horror, there'svampire movies that fit into comedy. You
know, you're Buffy the Vampire Slayerfrom like ninety two in the comedy side.

(13:58):
You know, you have of actionvampire movies like Underworld. Are you
a vampire movie guy? Like?Do you tend to like vampire movies?
I know you're a creature feature guy. But you seem to kind of if
I were to guess, you seemlike the kind of guy that would lean
more towards the like original universal eraof the vampires and not really anything too

(14:20):
far after I mean, Hammer Horror. Maybe I'm pretty neutral on vampires.
I mean, they look just likepeople, So there's really no kind of
instant reaction I have to vampires unlessyou go all out and you make them
one of those really gnarly batmanster thingsthat you would see in eighties movies like
Fright Night, which that's definitely myfavorite way to do vampires. But casting

(14:46):
the bad guy from Karate Kid threeto play somebody who should be you know,
attending a slipknock concert, not youknow, trying to take over the
world or whatever the hell, that'snot my favorite way to go as far
as you know, bringing the vampireto the screen. Really, this isn't

(15:09):
about vampires. This is about vampirehunters. You know, these are the
stars, you know, you gotJames would the Great vampire Hunter. What's
his name, Jack Raven, JackPenguin, Jack Crow? His name is
Jack Crow? Oh Jack Crow,Yeah, Jack Crow. A question for

(15:31):
you, Oh, did these vampiresever scare you, not necessarily an execution,
But I want to praise something thatthis movie does, and I've based
on my understanding, I think thisis something that they took from the book
that this is very loosely based on. I say very loosely based on,

(15:54):
because I feel like a lot ofthe stuff that I've read about the book
they I haven't read the book,but I heard it doesn't seem like they
really took it. It's it's nota one to one translation. But from
my understanding, the thing one ofthe things that they did take was this
sort of like in a way liketelepathic connection between the vampire Master and no,

(16:18):
no, No. Let me tellyou why I liked it. Okay,
I like some I like it inprinciple. I don't like it in
execution too much. But the ideathat like, you know, let's say
like opening of the movie, right, you know, where where the vampire
hunters come in and they kill onevampire. The idea that now all the
vampires that this dude has been knowswhat happened and where they are is a

(16:38):
really genuinely scary concept. Like that, the you know the concept of like
oh yeah, we got one ofthem, But how many more are on
their way or how many more arehere that now know exactly where we are
and what we've done. The ideaof that is very scary and could have
been done in a very scary way. Do I think any vampire in this
movie is scary? I think I'dprobably get nightmares first from what we do

(17:03):
in the Shadows, I especially fromour our main man is it I think
it's pronounced yan Valick or you know, Jan Valick, whatever they call him,
are our master vampire of the moviecould not have been less scary,
you know if he was shopping forcreepy paper in the convenience and you know,

(17:25):
in in the local grocery store.Let me tell you what's scary to
me. This is something that reallykeeps me up at night. Okay,
the thought of James Wood shooting aharpoon into my shoulder so that I can
be dragged out into the sunlight.They were scarier, Yes, yeah,
they were scarier. I mean theywere worse people. They were worse people,
arguably, yeah, I think so. But I will say the really

(17:47):
cool idea for a vampire hunter,I think, you know, the idea
that like they're just like violently yankingthem into the sunlight, and the effect
was really cool. I enjoyed theideas. I'm going to challenge. I
think an idea that people have aboutthis movie, and maybe it's an impression
that we've been giving about this.James Wood saves this movie. I would

(18:11):
not have nominated this or cared tostrike up a conversation about Vampire Dollar Signed
if not for the president of JamesWoods, who Let's be clear, he's
a great actor. He I mean, he doesn't get cast anymore because who
would want to work with the man. I've never seen anything of his that
you know is even less than stellar, aside from maybe his unfortunate performance as

(18:37):
Rudy Giuliani, check that movie outif you really want Nightmare. So I
think he both saves and kills themovie for me at the same time.
And here's here's why I can appreciate, can't value. I think he brings
a lot of it to this movie. I think his line delivery is one
of the most entertaining things about anynineties John Carton car and line improvisation.

(19:00):
Because yes, I doubt most ofthis was of the script. From what
I understand, most of his linesin this movie. He had an agreement
with John Carpenter to say to dotwo takes that they that they liked about
them, one where he said theline exactly as it was written and another
where he added his own improv anddid it his own way. And from

(19:23):
my understanding, almost none of thescenes of his are what was written in
the script. That they're all whathe improv and I have to give him
credit for that. I mean,I may not like James Woods, and
I don't. I don't like JamesWoods at all, actually, but he

(19:44):
adds an entertainment value to this moviethat that is extremely high. My big
issue with it is this movie hada chance to be better than that.
You know, this movie had achance to be better than just laugh at
you movie. I love that.Let me tell you why this is the
one, well not the one,but this this is a John Carpenter movie

(20:06):
that people consider a minor classic ofsorts that they cannot take seriously. I
think I have made myself clear onhow I feel about the cult of Personality
and the worshiping of John Carpenter.I think it is I think it's toxic.
I hate stand culture in general,and I don't think we need to.

(20:26):
I would agree cherish his filmography asmuch. In fact, I'm sure
he agrees with me, because Ithink he made this movie in defiance of
that. He did not want tomake a good movie. He wanted to
make, uh you know, athrowback to two monster movies that he grew
up with. He wanted to makea dress into the Westerns that he grew

(20:48):
up with. And I always Guygot into filmmaking to make westerns, and
this is the closest he ever got. He always wanted to make Westerns,
and I think that's something that's beena really interesting inspiration for him, right
because he always wanted to make them, but never could make them, so
he had to kind of reverse engineerWesterns in different genres. Yeah, Escape

(21:11):
from New York this movie, andit's that inspiration that I think really distinguishes
it. It's more of a Westernthan From Dusk Till Don I would I
would argue that, Yeah, Imean there's I think there's things that help
from Dust Told On feel a littlebit more like a Western. But I

(21:33):
would agree that, especially like fromwhat influences he did take, I would
agree with that. I want toask you, though, would you agree
that this movie. This movie's valueis in like it's entertainment and campiness and
not so much in the cool ideasthat I mean, Like, I know
this movie had a lot of coolideas, and I say it has a
lot of it has it had alot of potential to be something better,

(21:56):
But like, are you one ofthe people who's making this seriously at all?
Like I just can Okay, that'swhat I thought you were saying.
And there's a there's an art tothis tone that they're going for. It
doesn't always work. I mean,I think when this movie goes mean spirited,
it gets ugly, and that's reallyany scene with Daniel Baldwin. I

(22:19):
think I've made my feelings about theman pretty clear. His oafishness really contrasts
well with James Wood shows you like, oh, it does take like a
very skilled actor to pull this offand not be unwatchable because yeah, it
is a skin crawling person in reallife, but he has the talent to

(22:41):
turn that into something very magnetic.And we do need actors like that,
we can't get rid of them.So that's where cancel culture ends for me,
Like, if we get rid ofthe James woodses we might be left
with Daniel Baldwin's and I can't acceptthat. But you know, I've heard
people, especially recently, I've heardpeople say that like Vampires is one of

(23:03):
their top ten vampire movies period,and I like, I hear that,
and I'm like, I grew up, you know, like once I was
getting into horror. When I sayI grew up, like in my horror
growing up, you know, startswhen I was probably like thirteen, twelve
or thirteen. I was pretty lateto the party even though I was.
I started in horror at about nineon AMC. My real dive into horror

(23:26):
started about thirteen. There were infamousmovies that I knew not to watch,
you know, when people would tellme about John Carpenter, they tell me
about Halloween, they tell me aboutthe Thing. They would say stay away
from ghosts of Mars and stay awayfrom vampires. Those are the two that
I heard over movies like Village ofthe Damned, which I know, a

(23:47):
Village of the damn that's the thingpeople actually saw this movie. Yeah,
yes, that's true. Now,Village of the Damned, I mean,
I'm surprised that hasn't been on theshow. Yet from either us or somebody
else. I'm surprised nobody's brought ithere. It would take somebody who cares
enough about that movie. That veryfair. Find me one person who wants

(24:07):
to talk about that movie for anhour and a half. Also, that's
the movie that paralyzed Christopher Reeves,so I don't want nothing to do with
it. It didn't paralyze he.It was the last movie he shot before
just slander. But I'm gonna I'mgonna charge it with that crime anyways,
just because damn bad juju. That'sthe movie that put Luke Skywalker in a

(24:33):
horror film, So you know,oh, then he's been in a horror
film. Didn't you see the LastJedi? Boom boom cheers my friend cheers,
my friend cheers, my friend.I did, it was her,
it was It was very scary wherehe milks that that alien calathing had terrified

(24:56):
me. God, we are gettingin a deep water. We'll talk no
al al right. So I dowant to say I do want to say
about vampires. Do you agree withmy assessment that there what there is maybe

(25:19):
an alternate universe or or there thereis maybe a version of this movie that
could have turned out as as anactual, you know, to be taken
seriously vampire movie or do you thinkthis is always going to be a campy
not to be taken seriously James Woodspec I'm saying I don't want that to

(25:41):
exist, So you would rather itbe the way that it is. You
you think Vampires works better the waythat it does, I do well.
I think okay, it stands outbecause because of the approach that they took.
I mean, we have we havemovies that are perfect examples of what
you're talking about. I would argue, Underworld is is that to a lot

(26:03):
of people, I would argue,don you know, it's kind of tongue
in shake and spots, but youknow it's a's like, that's a movie
with some pretty prestigious players in it, and I think everybody is pretty proud
of that film. It's it's elevatedbeyond a drive in movie. No,
no, no, we need adrive in movie. We need like a

(26:27):
late night And I'm not talking sobad. It's good. And that's the
thing. It's a very hard toneto knelt down because there is craftsmanship.
Okay, this is still John Carpenterbefore he before he like decided that he
was not going to care. Hewas going to only care about not caring
moving forward. Yeah, this ishim still wanting to prove that he can

(26:51):
still make a hit. He's stillgot gas in the tank, and he
does I think. I mean that'swhy I say this is a better Western
than from dust Till Don because itjust like like heat waves emit from the
screen in this movie, Like hereally captures that locale. But he still
got that John Carpenter paintavision, youknow, gleamed to it. So I

(27:15):
just I could turn off the music, although I would miss out on that
sweet score. There's some there's somenasty bad boy behavior that I don't sanction.
Really, it comes down to someunfortunate casting choices for me, I
think, I think if they recruitedthe right people, you know, this
would have played a kind of likeperfect for me. Everything would have tracked

(27:40):
like if you got a real,like a real rap scallion to play the
Daniel Baldwin role. Who would whofrom the time do you think would have
been good in that There's a reasonthey went after Alex. Yeah, but
let's just pretend. Let's just pretendno Alec, who else? I don't
know. Give me Steven, giveme Billy. No, not another Ballowin.

(28:06):
Look, let's just be real.None of these none of the other
Ballowins should have ever been I mean, like, look, we're talking about
people who should have had the samesuccess level as like a Frank Stallone and
and if for some reason they keepgetting put in shit, there's a reason
Frank Stallon's not in anything else.He's not good and neither are any of
these other Baldwin brothers. Uh yeah, who could you have gotten to play

(28:27):
this this part? I mean,I'm trying to put on my nineties brain
trying to remember, like who washot in nineteen ninety seven that would have
that would have slummed it to playthis this type of character. By the

(28:48):
way, I think this is thethird movie that's that came out the year
that we were born that we've covered. This is a ninety eight Godzilla and
Halloween h twenty I think are theonly of those three. This is definitely
my favorite. Really, Okay,So I'm gonna have to hear more about
that, because I'm gonna be honest, I've come into this episode on the
fence of where I'm going to land, So I'm excited to see if you're

(29:14):
able to push me over one way, or if my own brain's gonna push
me over one way. So we'llsee shove you, Oh you'll shove me.
Holy shit, let's see. It'sgonna be a tug of war.
I don't have like a strong casefor this movie being a legitimate enterprise that

(29:36):
people really need to watch and givea chance. I can only give you
my personal fondness for the same typesof movies that John Carpenter is taking inspiration
from. Like, if you wantthe nineties equivalent of a hammer horror movie,

(29:56):
I'm not sure where else you're goingto find it. I mean,
yeah, I mean, and rememberthe context that this was released in,
Like this is like the scourge ofthe scream wannabes, Like this is TV
actors, teen Vogue cover people remakingmovies or or you know, this is

(30:23):
the era of the poster with allthe actors faces on them. Like I
know, we're in a bit ofa poster and epidemic right now. Yeah
you see movies no no, butI yeah, I oh, yeah,
I know what you're talking about.Though, You're talking about that like you
know, like the like in htwenty or the faculty or you know,
yeah phantoms barely photoshopped Josh Hartnet's face. Yeah, you know, a little

(30:48):
little pixel next to this Michael Myersmask, and you would be lucky if
you got the mask on the posterat all. Like the screen posters,
it was just a knife like likewe weren't supposed to know that ghost Face
was back. I will say this. People often shit on me for my
opinions on Scream. I'm just notthe biggest Scream guy. I don't.

(31:11):
I think it's probably one of thosemovies that I just by the time I
had finally gotten to see Scream,you know, i'd actually gotten around to
see it, I had seen somany of its clones that I just got
I just got sick of that style. And uh, even though I've been
able to warm up to some moviesthat have come out in that era,

(31:32):
the one thing that I can appreciateis what you just said there, that
this came out, This came outin the Scream clone era. I mean
that was from like what probably Screamcame out in ninety six, right,
so ninety six to like oh two, I would argue House of a thousand
corpses, you know, whatever youwant to say about that movie's strength weaknesses.

(31:52):
It did end that a yeah,so like a round like oh so
that was like what I came thatmovie actually actually released in like oh it
was so so yeah, you knowI would I appreciate this movie for existing
within that time period but not takingany influence. I mean, you can't

(32:14):
even say that this took any influencefrom Scream. It doesn't feel like.
It doesn't feel like it came outentire Scream. It's self aware and that
you can see behind the film thatyou know, you can tell that there
is you know, a wink anda nod from the filmmakers, but they

(32:34):
don't ask the actors to articulate thaton screen, like jamesus Wood doesn't tell
you the rules to survive a vampiremovie. Yeah, this came out like
I feel like this, this thismovie feels like a movie that came out
like four years earlier than this,Like if this if I was expecting Actually
during the rewatch, like I didn'tremember when this came out and in my

(32:58):
head I just kept thinking like,oh, this movie came out like ninety
four, ninety five, you know, like just around that time period that
like you know that movies were stilloriginal for until you know, like that's
exactly what I was thinking, islike, this must be pre screen.
That's what I was thinking of whenI was watching it. To find out
that it wasn't was refreshing, butit wasn't something that like, actually I

(33:21):
felt like I appreciate it. Ijust went, oh, Okay, it
came out ninety eight. It's laterthan I thought, so I can appreciate
it for that. It sounds likeyou struggle for they're so appreciating about because
this magnificent movie that I've brought beforeyou what about I still scenes where James
Wood speats up the priest, aboutall those sies. I still just have

(33:45):
an issue with our master vampire characterI've seen. I watched a couple of
reviews before doing this, and Ijust like to see, you know,
what other people think about this.I read some reviews on letterbox, I
watched some reviews, and on YouTubeI saw a couple talking about how like

(34:05):
good the guy was, and likehow they loved him as a villain and
how they thought that he they likethey bought into it, and I just
don't understand it. I thought itwas horrible. There were screens where he
was like screaming and it was justlike, what do you what are you
doing? Another way, this moviebenefits from time. I think here's a
reason why people have softened up toit. Okay, three words, Edward

(34:29):
and Bella. Twilight has has givenpeople some rose tinted glasses when it comes
to vampire media. So like,no, this is not This is not
an intimidating villain. He's not acool villain, He's not an interesting villain.
I think the movie's violence is reallykind of tamed by just the presence

(34:50):
of this of this man with hishis you know, jet blacklocks blowing in
the wind to see as he tearsMark Boone Junior part. But yeah,
at the same time, right,these vampires don't sparkle. They are they

(35:14):
exist for only the purpose that Ithink people think vampires should exist, which
is to hunt and to kill anddress in leather and have open chests and
all of that good stuff. Yeah, I guess that's fair. I as
soon as I started rewatching this,I was like, have you seen the
TV show What We Do in theShadows? Not the movie, but the

(35:35):
TV show. No, Okay,there's a main vampire with long hair.
His name constantly escapes me. He'sabsolutely hilarious in the show. I absolutely
recommend the show. I think it'sincredible. It's so funny. Is he
the one played by Matt Berry?No, Matt Barry is in the show,
and he is the best part ofthe show. But this guy is

(35:57):
also great part of anything. Thankyou Matt Berry. Okay we are we
are deviating from vampires for just amoment to praise Matt Berry, because that
guy, I think is one ofthe funniest human beings on the planet.
I think he is consistently great ineverything. His voice is perfect, and

(36:19):
I will not let anybody convince methat Matt Berry is not a national treasure,
is an international. I think he'sthe British Jack Black in a lot
of ways. Yeah, I couldsee that. I think they're infectious charm,
their their perfect straight faced goofiness,and their their musical talents. Uh
yeah, make them great parallels.Yeah. I found out that he did.

(36:44):
He was part of the theme forfor I think like Dancing with Stars
or something. I didn't know hewas that like musically involved. Yeah,
he's musically gifted. Have you watchedhis show Toast of London. That's not
the show where he does like thewhere he's like a voiceover artist, right
it is? Oh, okay,I've only seen I've only seen clips of

(37:07):
the show where he's like yelling atClem Fandango fandango, can you hear me?
Shut the fuck up Clem Fandango?Watch it? Okay, he does
an original song every episode, sooh okay, that's cool. It will
give you grades understanding of his talents. Okay, maybe we should go back

(37:30):
to talking about vampires now, youknow we should. This is about vampires.
I do want to ask, whatdo you what do you what do
you have left to say about vampires? I mean, I know what we
uh. It hasn't been the longestrecording as of yet, but I don't
really know where to go with thisright now? Oh no, oh no,
I let's let's really put this inthe context of John Carpenter's career,

(37:54):
Like, what do you think thisrepresents? Is this? Is this maybe
a last gasp for John Carpenter's careeras a hit maker? Is it?
Like some people think that his careerwas really just winding down before this,
There wasn't really gonna be a chanceto turn that ship around. Other people

(38:15):
think, you know, this moviewas a hit. Critics actually seemed to
enjoy it. Jeane Cisco, ofall people, you know, gave it
a great review, thought James Woodsgave like one of the best performances of
his career. So there was therewas like encouragement for John Carpenter after this
movie. I'm just wondering could hehave come back from that with this movie,

(38:37):
because some people think it's like afinal nail in the coffin. It's
a difficult question to answer because Ithink when the era of movies ended that
fit John Carpenter as well as theydid. I think it became harder for
him to make movies. Honestly,I think he would have had more chance.

(39:00):
It's I think he'd have more ofa chance succeeding making movies like he
used to today than making, youknow, then taking chances in you know,
in his career like he did inthe nineties. I mean, arguably
you could say that the movies youknow, from the nineties into the two
thousands, even into the twenty tenswhen he did the Ward like those are

(39:22):
those are chances. I mean,they're not. He's not playing it safe.
He's not doing movies exactly the waythat he used to do. He's
he's seeing a grander vision. He'sworking with bigger budgets. When he's not
working with bigger budgets, he's tryingto do bigger things in the movies.

(39:44):
I think, honestly, I don'tthink he could have come back until the
eight The nostalgia for eighties movies isas high as it is right now,
like it's not right now is inlike it's it's at its peak now.
But I mean, for the lastseveral years, people have been praising the

(40:06):
hell out of movies from the nineteeneighties, and I feel like that's where
his style was at its strongest.Maybe not his direction. I mean,
you could argue a lot of peoplesay now that The Thing is his best
movie. I know that was inthe eighties, But most people, I
feel like Off the Rip know himfor Halloween. No, Well, it
depends, right, it depends onwho you ask. You know, before

(40:28):
twenty ten, I would have betthat people knew him more for maybe Escape
from New York or I think therewere some movies of Viz that at the
time represented the bigger chapters in hiscareer that now are eclipsed for the love
of Halloween. Like, I know, my dad, when I bring him
up, we'll say, big troublein Little China, Big trouble in Little

(40:49):
China. Maybe maybe they live.Yes, I mean I think, you
know, I think he's always beendefined by horror, but I thought that
his biggest hits we're outside of thatgenre for a while, but people have
you know, people are always rewritinghistory or reevaluating history. So I used

(41:13):
to think of him as a moreadaptable guy. I think he tried to
prove that just didn't work out atthe time. But even in this one,
you know, gross little vampire movie, you can see all of those
influences that he could have doubled downon. If given the chance, he

(41:34):
could have made a Western, hecould have made an action movie. This
is more of an action movie thananything else. I honestly, I mean,
like, I'm kind of surprised thathe's not. I'm kind of surprised
that he hasn't come back to makesomething in the last I don't know,
Oh, he's six years. No, he's done, And I know it's

(41:55):
because of how he feels about movies. But it's like the way that people
get movies made now, Like itfeels like it's not exactly the same,
mostly because of how things will liveon the internet or grow on the Internet
and things like that. But theway that people are making movies now is
very kind. And I don't knowif this is something I don't know if

(42:16):
this is a hot take, butit's kind of reminiscent of how horror was
when John Carpenter ended up making Halloween. I mean, like, horror is
not in the same place, butyou're seeing the rise of these independent horror
movies to a point that we've neverseen it before. I mean, I
mean Terrifier is the biggest example thatI can think of, where it's like

(42:38):
made for a very low budget comparatively, gets released into theaters and not only
does it succeed enough with horror fans, but it blows up. People are
talking about it a Good Morning America. And then these new Winnie the Pooh
movies, they have a whole universeof horror movies that they're gonna make out
of this. I disagree with youon one cruise, which is I don't

(43:00):
think having a hit like terrifier opensup the gates to other opportunities like it
did. I mean, off ofthe strength of Halloween, the Fog,
and you know, off of thosethose hits in horror. John Carpenter got

(43:22):
to make Escape from New York,he got to make a starman. Oh
no, China, and I justit doesn't allow for a branch out like
it used to. I don't thinkand and and but I but the branch
outs still do exist today out ofhorror, not necessarily from the indie horror
making side. But like even independentfilmmakers at this point can make a good

(43:45):
profit in their movies. They don'thave to spend a whole lot of money.
I mean, hate to go backto the guy, we do it
every episode. But Rob's a goodexample of that. I mean, thirty
one is not a beloved movie,but guess what he made money off at
thirty one. He crowdsourced that movieand he made money off of it.
He made money off of Three fromHell. Yeah. But I think he's

(44:06):
also a good example of just howhard this this business is on its directors.
I mean he oh yeah, heat one point, you know,
you had the keys to the Kingdom. He was working on huge ip and
then now he has to you know, for that he had the crowdsource and
then you know, he he hegot the monsters, but he couldn't get

(44:29):
it into theaters. He had unand let's be real, he I mean,
we covered the monsters on the show, and I like the monsters,
but like he barely got I meanhe like he got it, but he
barely. Like they barely paid enoughfor this movie to be made, exactly.
And that's even with the sacred IP. But this is a movie,
vampires that is lost in time,like this is like a movie that has

(44:52):
nothing to do with any of thetrends that we are talking about. It
is and this sounds like a strongword for a movie that you know isn't
a it's not a gift from God. But it still feels like a miracle
to me that a movie like thisgot made when it did by a man
who did not have a lot ofinfluence. You know, at the time,

(45:13):
people say, you're only as goodas your last movie. His last
movie was Escape from la and youknow, the name John Carpenter just didn't
carry a lot of weight after that, unfortunately. And that's a movie I
would nominate for this show because Iadore that movie. Not a lot of
people do. Even now, Peopleactually has the same rating as this on
Lighterbox. That's surprising. I feellike people have not softened up to Escape

(45:37):
from LA. It's kind of theyou ruined my childhood thing. Like,
oh, I thought Escape from NewYork was the most badash movie ever,
then you made it a total joke. Man. Or maybe the movie about
a guy named Snake who has aneye patch and has to save a British
American president. Maybe that was actuallymore tongue in cheek than you remember.
I don't know. I think that'spart of the revisionists talk about on Carpenter

(46:00):
though. I mean, like,let's not forget. Like I used to
hear all the time as as ayoung'n about how there was this bad because
I grew up a wrestling fan,not because I grew up around horror movies.
But I used to hear all thetime about how there's this there was
this terrible string of Roddy Piper horrormovies. And they would tell me about

(46:21):
they live and what is it Welcometo Frogtown or something Hell comes to Frogtown.
That's right, great, all moviesI would agree now are fantastic,
But like when you look at it, like people would call they Live like
a schlocky, crappy horror movie.And it's had a three point eight on
letterbox. Now Village of the Damnpeople would consider a bad horror movie,

(46:45):
it's at a two point eight.It's relatively barely available for our show Escape
from La and Vampires both two pointnine. Ghosts of Mars I would think
would be at like a one fromhow people talk about that movie two point
four. So even his weaker moviesare higher than weak movies of other directors

(47:06):
that some of them are probably betterquality. Do you think we I mean,
I know you talked about the romanticizationof it and how stand culture and
you don't agree with it, andyou don't really agree with how people sometimes
look at John Carpenter. But isthere a value that a director can always

(47:27):
keep no matter the type of moviethat they put out, Like you know,
like is his legacy that sustained fromthe thing and all those things I've
heard people say about other directors likeoh they made so and so so,
like literally anything they say anything theymake I heard somebody say, and I
have to reference some We're gonna talkabout something else for a second, Okay,

(47:51):
John Carpenter said that he thought Oppenheimerwas just okay, he didn't get
the hype, cool whatever. ReallyI don't have any and what he thought
of the movie Oppenheimer, Uh,it certainly is not something I like carry
with with the weight of you know, who cares that John Carpet has to
say about what I'm supposed to revereand care about it. Just that's John

(48:14):
Carpenter's thoughts. Then somebody said tonguein cheek, I know, but it
really did bother me, Like,oh, if if John Carpenter said that
about a movie I loved that itwas just okay, I'd be re evaluating
all of my life decisions over anopinion, over an opinion because the stand

(48:35):
culture is so intense. And Iunderstand this because you know, these directors,
I guess are like you know ourmartyrs, right Sat Saint John,
Saint Martin, you know, fightingthe good fight of of cinema against against
the goliath of of the studios.So you know, we elevate them to

(48:57):
these kind of like deities and theycan do no wrong. And that's very
different than how people talked about itback then, Like John Carpenter, you
speak guy who had a lot ofgood movies and a lot of bad movies.
Martin Scorsese used to be you know, he had a lot of great
movies, then he had some youknow, he had some years in the
wilderness. Steven Spielberg. Great movies, bad movies, and the baseline for

(49:21):
what even constitutes a bad movie.I'm realizing we're kind of contradicting the ethos
of this show, but I'm justsaying there are like you can say that
you think a movie is bad,it's okay. That is not trying to
debyss merch a director tear down theirlegacy. Like Wes Craven, perfect example,
hugely important figure, as important tohorror as John Carpenter. He made

(49:45):
bad movies and he would be thefirst to admit that. If I see
somebody trying to tell me that DeadlyFriend is that's actually a great movie,
Like people do not get it orpeople didn't appreciate it at the time.
I don't know what i' do withthat opinion. I would I would accept
it, but you know, don'ttry to expect other people to kind of

(50:07):
follow suit. Just because you frameit as this obvious thing that everybody with
a brain should be able to recognize, which is how film criticism goes now.
I think both the world of likestand I think it's so weird,
like and I've always thought this,like celebrity culture or like stand culture,

(50:30):
and how people treat like these arejust this just a person who's good at
something, you know, Like Ijust when I put it into context,
it's like, imagine a dude who'slike, you know, everybody kind of
knows that person who's like a whizat something. You know, Like maybe
you know a guy who just likejust by listening to your AC unit,
you know he knows what's wrong withit. You're not gonna follow the guy

(50:51):
to every ac job and watch himdo it and go, oh my god,
he's the greatest every way he's youknow, sign my ranch. I
don't know, like, you're notgonna You're not gonna do that. And
and the fact that people I understandthat it's different when you're talking about something
like movies, which is very personalfor some people. I understand why movies
are so personal for people. Butat the end of the day, both

(51:12):
the culture around celebrities and the culturearound how people treat movies is so incredibly
difficult to navigate that I don't evenreally like talking about movies with people anymore.
Like having the show is a greatthing for me because it gives me
a chance to talk about movies andnot have to worry about you looking at
me and telling me that you're goingto carpet bomb my house because I like

(51:35):
or don't like a movie, whichis something I've thought but thankfully I've never
seen, you know, And butyou know, that's the thing, like
everybody has felt like, oh,wow, you really hate that movie,
Like I've had somebody told me thatthat Empire Strikes Back is one of the
worst movies they've ever seen, afterI told them I thought it's my favorite
movie. And they're completely entitled tothat opinion. Am I gonna think,

(51:55):
like, how could they possibly thinkthat way? Yes, the whole point
of our show is about different opinions, right, I just don't understand how
anybody could get that defensive. Likewatching vampires for this episode, I could
never imagine taking an opinion that is, this is the worst movie I've ever
seen and this director should never directanything again. And on the opposite,

(52:15):
I could never ever picture me sayingJohn Carpenter made this, so I don't
care it's great or reversely, youknow, when you do look up to
these people like in a god toyour way, then you can feel really
betrayed if they if they make amovie that disappoints you. Weah, those

(52:37):
expectations blow back a number of times, and that would argue John Carpenter probably
went through a period like that.In fact, yeah, critics at the
time for a long time said,how could John Carpenter, the man who
made Halloween make a movie as astrite as Christine, as as exploitive as

(52:58):
vampires? As you know, itwas like, how could you have gone
from giving us this to this?That was probably the consensus about him for
you know, a number of years. I think that really embitters him because
he doesn't think of himself that way. He's I've criticized him a couple of
times, but I can never callhim pretentious. He's anti pretensions. Well

(53:22):
looking, at the end of theday, he's no matter what he's done
in the film world, you know, I'm sure he has a lot of
valuable pointers. And if he's givingsomebody pointers as a director, as a
mentor, Like that's great, buthe's just a dude with an opinion,
and he's just a dude who's doinghis job. I mean, it might
be a job that we all,you know, some of us in the
film world aspired to. But Ican guarantee no matter what you do,

(53:45):
you've had a bad day at work. And that doesn't mean that he's the
worst filmmaker. That doesn't mean he'sthe best filmmaker. That just means he's
a dude who just does work.Art of being an interesting or unique person
means having having opinions or having thoughtsthat really clash with with with with ours,

(54:06):
right, Like if we agree witheverything he thought or everything whoever else
thought, you know that, youknow, would not make him a unique
individual. So it's like me agreeingwith everything he says or things. It
is not honoring that. It's it'sit's kind of spitting in the face of

(54:28):
the individualism behind what makes a greatartist. You know. Another thing like
Quentin Tarantino, you know who Imean. We're talking now about two time
Academy Award winner guy who made pulpfiction and you know, really changed the
film game. Industry wide. Yeah, genuinely one of my favorite directors.
And I mean that. Yeah,he thinks that the remake of Psycho is

(54:52):
better than the original. Yeah,great, good for you, Quinn.
I'm so glad that we have somebodywith your brain around you think like nobody
else does. That does not makeyou right, or at least it means
that does not mean I have toagree with you, even though you know
knows more about film than I orany other single individual could ever could ever

(55:17):
dream of. And that's the thing, man, Like everybody's brain's going to
take in the information that they getdifferently, and and to to think that
anybody is a be all end all. In the wrestling world, we have
a guy like this, you know, just because he has been around it
for years and he writes about itand he covers it, and news people

(55:38):
take his opinion as gospel. Andit really bothers me in the in in
that world and in here in thefilm space, because it's like, just
because a critic says the movie isbad doesn't mean it's bad. And we
all know that, like as awhole, I think collectively, we're at
a point in time where everybody peoplewill look at critic reviews. But most

(55:59):
of the time that if if theywant to see a movie, they're just
gonna see it even if the criticssay it's bad. Just because the critics
say it's bad, that doesn't meanthat right. But then if their favorite
celebrity says the movie's terrible, whyis that any different they your favorite celebrity
is that cool friend that you wantto impress, bro, I don't have
a single friend that I want toimpress as like enough to not do something

(56:22):
I want to do. Yeah,and not one. And if that's how
you're living your life, I'm verysorry. And you know what, like,
and I want to give a movielike Vampire's credit, right because it
was a movie that critics spit onfor the most part, it was a
movie that audiences spit on for themost part. And I hope that if
somebody like really does feel that,like I may have said earlier, you

(56:43):
know about how like, yeah,there are people who think this is a
top ten vampire movie. Look,you know, if I really sat down
and looked at it, you know, I don't think it would be there
for me. And I'll raise aquestion similar to that in a few minutes
here. But uh, I'm soglad people exist that they think that,
you know, the film would beso you know, just boring if if

(57:05):
somebody's favorite movie wasn't Birdemic, youknow what I mean, Like, I
just I want people to love things. Go into movies wanting to love them,
and you will have a great experiencewatching almost everything. Yeah, any
movie has an actual devoted fan.Maybe not a fan base, but for

(57:28):
every mind that creates a movie,there's going to be a mind that will
be an audience to it. Youknow, I really exactly. There are
even people who like my movie ofall movies, and I because your awesome,
I can't sanction that effoonery. Ican absolutely sanction it. By the
way, the cursor professors are adonikisavailable now to purchase online then to be

(57:49):
it's free what he is and tostream on to you. Yeah, go
to our website not that badpod dotcom for a link directly to to be
to watch that movie, don't evenhave to search. Before we really go
all out with the whrring, weshould probably wrap this up and give people
our final thoughts on vampires, eventhough it feels like we talked less about
vampires than Yeah, that's definitely anythingelse. But I do want to raise

(58:15):
something before we do our final verdicts. Okay, so we've heard somebody call
this a top ten vampire movie beforewe even say how we think about this.
You know, we both are morecasual. I'd say you're probably more
into the vampire genre than I am. That's just a principle I think as
a whole, I think pretty mucheverybody is to be host. See.

(58:36):
I think monster movie is its owngenre, that's not a subgenre of or
that's its own genre, and vampirethat's our subgenre of that. So yeah,
and then I'm a fan of thegenre. Yeah, I'm a fan
of vampire movies. I am muchless into vampire movies than most people.
I would say I am under theaverage for people who like vampires. Is

(58:57):
this a top ten vampire movie foryou if you want to think about it,
And I'm curious to hear if youeven have, like, you know,
like five vampire movies that you'd sayare your favorites. The interesting thing
is that there was a real goldenage of vampire movies just before this,
right, The Lost Boys Near Darkright right, probably my favorite and in

(59:25):
some others that I'm not even thinkingof. Those are just off the top
of my head. So you know, I mean the nineteen eighties produced I
think enough vampire movies for for atop ten lists, but throughout what the
history of cinema, I don't thinkthis really cracks the top ten. For

(59:45):
me. It's it's in my topten James Woods movies pretty good, right,
I think it might be my favoriteJames Woods movie, to be honest,
No, I can't say. Ican't say I can't Chames Woods MOVI
unless you have a real bone topick with Sergio Leoni or Oliver Stone or

(01:00:07):
the other great directors that he's workedwith. I mean the Yeah, there
are definitely there are definitely better JamesWoods movies out there. Once upon a
Time in America is probably i'd probablysay my favorite. Yeah, yeah,
I need to rewatch Video Drome.I feel like that's something that really defined
James Woods for a lot of peopleand warmed up genre fans to him for
a long time. The weird thingabout me is that I love The Fly,

(01:00:31):
but I can't. I can't bringmyself to love from Berg's other work
as much. I'm a bit ofa you know, I get it.
That's that's the only one that's reallyconnected with me so far. But yeah,
I mean vampire movies. I've nevereven tried to list that because you
know, they're just like that's likenow, it's like your top ten types

(01:01:00):
of concrete. You know, thatsounded really bad. What I'm saying is
like, these are building blocks toto entertainment, Like a vampire is like
a It's like a tool of somekind to me. You know, it's
like a great vampire movie will alwaysbe a great movie that has vampires in

(01:01:21):
it. I think it's it's notlike were Wolf. We're like, man,
that was a fucking cool were wolf. You know, thumbs up three
stocks. But that's that's my casefor the wolf Man remake. I thought
the were wolf design and that andthe transformation scenes the action was really cool.
That made the movie for me.Vampires don't get that kind of pass.

(01:01:42):
So you'd say it sounded like yousaid your favorite wash what what is
your favorite? I forgot what yousaid. There probably fright Night. Fright
Night, Okay, And that's aclassic story of you know, of murder
and intrigue. It's it's a youknow, a vampire retelling of rear window
basically her point. Yeah point,happy to hear it. Okay, I

(01:02:08):
think that about settles it. Ithink we can get into our final verdicts.
Here a reminder for our audience.This movie is a two point nine
on letterboxed out of five. So, mister Tice, you picked this movie,
which means you get to decide ifyou would like to go first.
Here are you going to accept ordefer your final verdict going first? I

(01:02:34):
take it to you, Connor,because you've been a bit of a mystery
to man enigma throughout this You've beenplaying this one close to the chest.
I need to I need to,well, well, i've been playing it.
I've been. It seems like thatbecause I was really undecided for most
of this episode. Uh there theredid come a point where I made up
my mind of where I'm gonna putthis, and I was undecided. And

(01:02:57):
I'll be honest, I was undecidedbetween it's that bad at a two point
nine fair or it's not that bad. Like you know, people have beat
up on this movie. Enough vampires, oh man, vampires. Okay,
this movie has a lot of entertainmentvalue, and I think it is one

(01:03:20):
that I'm gonna say, I dothink if you're going through John Carpenter's filmography,
like I think this is a reallyI think I don't. I wouldn't
say essential, but i'd say important. This is an important one to watch.
I think both from the perception ofwhat it was for so long,
kind of the perception that's coming aroundto be for this movie, which I

(01:03:42):
which is, you know, thegrowing appreciation for it clearly, and kind
of where you would sit on itpersonally as as a moviegoer, as a
John Carpenter fan, if you're that, as a horror fan, if you're
that, you know, even likeaction to a certain extent, I think
be a good reason to check thisout. That is that, of all
the things I would compliment on,ironically, the action has to be yeah,

(01:04:08):
the first thing. Yeah. SoI'm I'm gonna I'm gonna say,
you know, I made up mymind as I was going. I went
into this undecided. I'm gonna I'mgonna say that this movie was not is
not that bad. I think twopoint nine is very close to it.
I would probably give this movie andI'm probably going to I didn't previously have

(01:04:31):
it rated on letterbox I'm gonna giveit a three out of five. I
think that's very fair rating. Idon't know what I'm gonna give it score
wise. I usually score a movieout of one hundred, and I kind
of have different categories that fit withineach just so I have a more specific
feeling about a movie. I don'tquite know where I am on that yet,
but I think, again, thisis a very entertaining movie. I

(01:04:56):
think this is not so bad.It's good. Grab a beer and and
some popcorn and watch it. ButI think this is a very much Let's
have fun with this, you know, let's not take it too seriously,
but let's marvel at some of thecool stuff they did, some of the
things that they really did get right, some of the concepts that maybe they
didn't execute that great, but we'regood ideas. These are things that should

(01:05:18):
be celebrated. And the thing thatreally did turn the table for me was
just contextualizing the movie against how it'slooked at, you know, this being
having come out in ninety eight,you know, a time that I really,
you know, have a hard timelooking back at because of all the
movies that felt exactly the same withinthe horror adjacent genres. I appreciate this

(01:05:44):
for feeling like it came out earlier. I appreciate this for the entertainment it
does provide, And for that reason, I'm going to stick with not that
bad. Yeah, I can't arguewith your logic. I have some more
personal sentiments to It's it a whilegiving my verdict. You know, I
can't watch most John Carpenter movies withmy wife. She does not dig vance

(01:06:09):
style, she doesn't dig his group. She doesn't even like har respect that.
Actually, yeah, no, sheshe's what we call an independent thinker.
She has a PhD to prove it. Actually, I'd like to shake
her hand for that, honestly.Yeah. But while I was away,
at one point she told me thatshe ended up watching vampires and she actually

(01:06:32):
found amusement out of it. Oh, because what she what she does like
are the the laughable shlocks of theworld. Right, So I realized that
outside of like a Starman situation,this is this is a John Carpenter movie
I could watch with my wife.I think I could watch with a lot

(01:06:55):
of people because of the entertainment valueit offers beyond us the the you know,
the conventions of horror action, right, so I gotta thank this movie
for that, and the the factthat it really fills that crucial gap in

(01:07:15):
John Carpenter's filmography. I love tosee a man who has battled producers and
studios for so long just cut backand and you know, make a fun
monster movie like a like one withno pretensions and no concerns other than letting
James Woods show the scenery as delightfullyas he does. So I'm gonna say

(01:07:39):
it's an actually good I will Iwill encourage people like really appreciate what vampires
actually gives us. Well, therewe go, folks, we have an
actually good and are not that badon this show. I like that.

(01:08:00):
I like that we landed on opposingsides. And I sort of figured that
you would like this movie more thanme. But I didn't know if you'd
like it enough to go to actuallygood, which I like that we're there.
I favored myself between those two kids. I knew. I knew that
I would not call it that bad. You know, personal sentiment that is
always going to color my my viewingor my evaluation. And you know,

(01:08:26):
I've always just been kind of affectionatetowards this movie. And I'll be honest,
I wish John Carpenter made a lotmore movies with this approach, which
is ironic because Ghost to Mars iseven shlockier. But that's this kind of
shlock that kind of despises itself andresents the audience like you dumb buffoons.

(01:08:49):
You showed up to a movie calledGhosts of Mars. Really, what did
you expect? You know, thisis a movie that takes that respects respect
just started doing with Sean Connery,that respects schlock and thank god, thank
god, is what I say,you know what I'm and I'm happy to

(01:09:13):
see appreciation for this movie represented onthis show. And you know, moving
forward, I think, uh,I think that's a I think that's a
good thing that that we covered this, if not to put a little positive,
a little bit more positivity into thepot for for the movie. So
there we are, folks. Thatis That's been John Carpenter's Vampires, fun

(01:09:35):
fun episode. I like that gavebrought this to to you know, I
threw this up for the show.You know, I was, I was.
I was worried when I first heardit. I thought, I haven't
seen this movie in a while,and I don't know that I remember enjoying
it too much. So let's let'ssee how this goes. And I'm glad

(01:09:56):
we covered it here today. So, folks, if you liked this conversation,
or maybe you hated this one butyou liked another one we had,
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(01:10:18):
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(01:10:39):
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(01:11:00):
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(01:12:06):
So there are episodes that are audioonly. You will be directed directly
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now, I think that's all Igot the shill. I think I'm donehoring
ourselves out. I have bent overenough, Sir Tice, anything else you'd

(01:12:28):
like to say before you take usout? I'm not following that act,
so I need to take us out. Thanks everybody checking out. Another episode,
not that bad? And who knows, maybe next time, next time
you see from us, maybe maybeit won't be not that bad. Maybe
maybe maybe it could be I don'tknow. I don't know what it could

(01:12:49):
be, but it could be.It could be something else, something else.
What variations of badness could we betackling. I don't know. We'll
see, we'll see who Maybe helives next door to you. So that's
it for this episode, y'all.I'm Gabe, I am Connor, and

(01:13:11):
this is not that bad. Askingdid you guys get any of the huge
from that? All right,