S7E3. Leftovers to be: Parents (1989)

Weirding Way Media honcho Chris Stachiw is back again, this time we chat about Bob Balaban's pitch-black-cannibal-comedy Parents (1989). The film stars Randy Quaid (Nick Laemle) and Mary Beth Hurt (Lily Laemle) as the parents of Brian Madorsky (Michael) who may or may not be force-feeding him human flesh. Balaban uses the backdrop of Mid-Century Americana to weave a nightmarish tale of childhood dependency.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Wake Up Heavy is a weirdy Waymedia podcast. Not before that, they
were leftovers to be. Welcome toWake Up Heavy, the world's greatest horror

(00:26):
movie podcast. On this episode,my weird dad and his friends will be
talking about coming soon. Randy Quaid, Mary Ben Hurt, Sandy Dennis,

(00:48):
and director Bob Ballaban bring you afresh look at family life. The Loveley
family is moving up the world Riseand Shine, but something is eating at
young Michael Lemley. You're not scaredof your room, are you? Michael?

(01:11):
The Cellar's dark. Everything dark atnight. His parents think Michael's problem
is in his head, but Michaelknows he is on his plate left every
Sunday, left over from one fromthe refrigerator. We all leftovers every day
since we moved here. I'd liketo know what they were before they were

(01:33):
leftovers. Before that, they wereleftovers to be, Michael, there's nothing
to be right now. Now there'sa new name for terror parents better meat

(02:05):
for better you. That's perfect.Hello and welcome to Wake Up Heavy.
This is Mark Begley, your host. Joining me once again is Christashu from
the Culture Cast. I like meat, I like the way it tastes.
Make sure to eat up your philboy boy, I love Randy Quaid.
Who doesn't love Randy Quaid as likethe most menacing the most men. I'm

(02:28):
sure there's quite a few people rightnow that don't care Randy Quader. God.
Yeah, Today we are discussing thenineteen eighty nine film Parents, directed
by Bob Balaban and starring Randy Quaidand Mary Beth Hurt as the parents of
Brian Madorski. I believe this ishis sole credit, as well as Sandy

(02:53):
Dennis, Deborah Rush and Cram Jarvis. Wade and Hurt play the parents of
little Michael, and he thinks theymight be cannibals. Good night, folks,
I mean that's the I mean,yeah, what's funny is how similar

(03:15):
this is to something we just talkedabout. And I know that this is
why we're talking about it, butI didn't expect it to be like the
same thing. But you know what, actually good and Chris is of course
referring to Cobweb, which was theimpetus for us doing this episode. And
I have to thank the Red Lettermedia guys again for sort of planning that

(03:38):
seed in my head, although Imay have come to that on my own
if I hadn't watched their video aswell, you would have. You're a
smart cookie because there are a lotof similarities in this between the family dynamic,
the setup, the eventual payoff.We've got dreams in both both the

(04:00):
boy protagonists have creepy dreams all thetime, suspecting their parents of awful things,
making hideous drawings at school, andgetting the attention of their teacher and
or school psychologist in this case.A lot of points you can connect,
I think between the two Nebraska's OwnSandy Dennis, you mean Nebraska's own great

(04:24):
Nebraska's O. I love Sandy DennisTo say that she is a better character
than the character that is her compatriotin Cobweb is to be mild about it.
It's a real character in this movie. I was thinking about when you're
watching the me, I'm like,who does she always remind me of?
And I just kept going back towell her as I remember seeing her later
and stuff when I was growing up, and then when I finally started watching

(04:47):
earlier movies, older movies, andwhen she shows up and who's afraid of
Virginia Wolf? And just like,oh, she's just been doing this forever.
That quirky, like I don't knowwhat her affect is, but it's
that's great. She doesn't get todo it as much in this because she's
not in the movie all that much, but anytime she shows up in something,
it's just fun to watch. He'sgreat. I think everybody in the

(05:10):
movie is pretty good. Yeah.Has Randy Quaid been this creepy in any
other movie? That's what I wastrying to think of when I was watching
it, because he's really fucking creepyin this. This is like proto Elijah
c. Scuggs in a way,like he's very menacing, but he's menacing
with that like undercurrent of maybe it'snot menacing, and I'm just a child

(05:32):
seeing it through the eyes of achild, and it just could be menacing
because it's an adult. That's whythese kinds of movies tend to be movies
that are made over and over thistheme, which is like you are a
kid and your parents are up tono good. Maybe, and that's because
of the power differential between a parentand a child. Is it menacing?

(05:55):
Is it for real? This moviegives you the answer, but it speaks
to the larger, quoestquestion of theor the larger experience of being a child
and growing up and you know yourparents being at times your protectors, possibly
your parents being your antagonizers. Itjust depends on what relationship you had with
your parents growing up, and thismovie tries to kind of straddle all of
those lines at once. But theidea of like I am a kid,

(06:18):
my parents might be up to somethingand nobody's going to believe me is a
potent idea that will never not beone worth mining. I feel like clearly
since Cobweb came out like a monthago, and it's pretty much asking the
same question that this movie asked ineighty nine. Are they antagonizing or are
they just being parents? And thismovie takes place in the fifties, sometime

(06:41):
in the fifties, later fifties.I'm assuming, just by the aesthetic that
they're going for the days of doas I say, not as I do,
and children should be seen and notheard. And to a kid that's
so wrapped up in his own headthat can be perceived as menacing, right
is his Randy Quaid's character. Ishis menacingness the result of being a cannibal?

(07:09):
Or is it just he's a sternfather. The movie never answers that
question. I mean the movie thoughtthe movie doesn't answer the question is said
the movie doesn't need to answer thatquestion because that answer is ultimately unimportant because
he is a cannibal, right,that's the thing. I mean, he
is a cannibal. But in anothermovie where there is no cannibalism and there
is nothing else going on, it'sjust because he's a dickhead dad. He's

(07:31):
just an overbearing, controlling father fromthe fifties. Yeah, expected a cocktail
when he walked through the door andwould backhand you or your mom because that
was acceptable at the time. It'snot anymore. It wasn't then either,
but now it is widely accepted.You don't smack your wife around, You
widely accept you don't smack your kidsaround. In the fifties, though,

(07:54):
catch a hand like, no,this isn't me being hyperbolic, like that's
just the way it was like,and it was Nobody made a big deal
out of it, the wishy washinessor the problems that I think we both
had with Cobweb. Where are theybad? Right? Right? The movie
never taking a stand on it,and did they deserve what happened to them.

(08:18):
Maybe isn't really the issue here becausewe don't have an outside force actively
getting little Michael to do things he'sNo one is telling him, hey,
you need to take care of yourparents, right so I can get out
of the wall. Yeah, thisis being internally driven by the character himself,
which I actually appreciated a lot morebecause I think it gives them the

(08:41):
character of Michael a lot more autonomy, a lot more of an ability to
feel like he can affect the worldaround him, as opposed to being the
peon for something else that has itsown agenda for him doing what he's doing.
I appreciate that he has this kindof autonomy of his own to do

(09:01):
what he wants. Whether or notthere's a validity to what he's doing is
a different question. Again. Themovie shows us that he is clearly in
a house with Cannibal. There's noambiguity here, which I appreciate. I
mean, it needs to be saidthat with the lack of ambiguity just comes
a lot more menace from Randy Quaid'scharacter, because at some point they're like,
now you can be off the leashand given to your worst impulses of

(09:24):
this character and let that come through. But there's none of that if the
movie ends with an ambiguous note,similarly to the way the characters in Cobweb
died, like they just died,and it's like, well, we don't
even know what to feel anymore,and the movie doesn't care at that point.
Like this movie, the entire focusof the movie is the parents,
which I think works as a bettermain antagonist than the parents being secondary antagonist,

(09:50):
because that's ultimately also what Cobweb endedup being is it sidelines those two
characters because they don't really matter anymore. And it's like here they give Mary
Beth Hurt and Randy Quaids so muchtime to do their thing that it's like,
this is a superior movie. Andwhat makes me sad about this movie
more than anything else is My Boyfriend'sBack was so bad. I watched that

(10:13):
like a year and a half ago, and I didn't think anything of it
until I was done watching this.I was like, where was all of
this in that movie? Like Ballabanhas such a command of everything that's going
on here, and My Boyfriend's Backis such a such a failure compared to
how much of a success this movieis. Yeah, he hasn't done a
whole lot and I think that's theonly other movie I've seen of his,

(10:35):
and I I'm not even sure thatI saw it. I felt like when
I was scrolling through his filmography thatone rang a bell, but I couldn't
really say one way or the other. And he hasn't directed a whole lot
else. No, this My Boyfriend'sBack and The Last Good Time, and
then like I mean, plenty oftelevision as recent a lot of TV.

(10:56):
In terms of movies, it's thishorror movie, that horror movie because it's
a zombie movie, and then TheLast Good Time, which seems like a
straight drama more so than these are. But I mean, the difference between
this and My Boyfriend's Back is thisisn't written by the same writer. Bob
Balaban didn't write this either. Thisis written by Chris Hawthorne. I forget

(11:20):
who wrote My Boyfriend's Back. Balabanfound the better project as his opening salvo
for his directing career, and Ilike a lot of the choices that he
makes. M M. He makeschoices which I appreciate for a first time
director because there are so many firsttime directors that play it safe, and
look, there's nothing wrong with playingit safe. If I were given the

(11:41):
opportunity, I would try to toethe line of the two, because you
can just go ape shit and dosome really wild stuff that nobody has any
idea how to process, or youcan kind of do a little bit of
both, and Balaban does both.I mean, there are a couple of
shots in this movie that I waslike, what is happening here? But
it's what is happening here because I'venever seen it before, because this is
a direction that Ballaban is taking hisown movie. It's not wild swings like

(12:07):
Orson Wells did with Citizen Kane.But it's fun to see someone employing really
great, not trick shots, butkind of shots that in a normal family
drama wouldn't be necessary, a lotof low angle, a lot of steady
cam work, but with the camerareally on somebody's feet right. One that

(12:28):
I really noticed that I love becauseI love when other directors do this as
well is one of the first mealsthat they have, and she's got a
big platter of this absolutely noxious meatthat they eat throughout the movie. She
grabs a platter and it's framed verylow in the camera, and then she
starts moving toward the table and it'slike she's floating because she's obviously on a

(12:50):
rig of some sort, and thensteps off and puts the food on it,
And I just love Martin Scorsese employsthat trick a lot. That dull.
I forget what it's called, buthaving the character on a dolly and
moving them with the camera, andit's every time I see it. Speckley
uses it a lot, Scorsese usesit a lot. It's one of those

(13:11):
things that catches my attention. Andhere it makes sense because it's like a
force is bringing this meat to thetable. It adds the level of disquieting
strangeness that this movie needs. AndI wonder, and again, this is
my own head canon of what's goingon, But in a lot of ways,

(13:31):
it feels like this story is beingrecounted to us in terms of like
a unreliable narrator. I'm not sayingthat this guy's parents weren't cannibals, but
can you imagine running into Michael asan adult in him going, now,
let's sit down over a drink andI'm gonna tell you this story about how
my parents were cannibals, you knowwhat I mean. It's like, there

(13:52):
are plenty of people that have hadexperiences growing up that are as horrifying as
this in terms of like the levelof abuse, level of manipulation that being
shown on screen between the two characterstowards their son. If you ran into
this guy in real life, youwould not trust anything he says, because
this story would sound so fantastical,and those fantastical elements appear throughout the story,

(14:15):
like you said, with some ofthe characters floating, or these weird
fantastical elements of his dreams that areI saw that it said Ken Russell finds
this to be a Lynch movie,a David Lynch movie. I couldn't find
the interview where he said that.It just says that on Wikipedia, but
I couldn't find an interview where hesaid it specifically. He said it's better

(14:35):
than Blue Velvet, which is interestingbecause this movie lives in a certain space
for me. I don't know whenI saw it, and we didn't forgot
to do this a little bit whenwe opened up, but I know I
saw it on video back shortly afterit came out. It wouldn't have been
in the theater the first run.I was gonna say, I'd be surprised

(14:56):
if you saw this theater. Well, I mean, I knew who Bob
Balaban was and most of the actors. I just mean like this kind of
movie, Like I feel like itcame out nobody saw it, and then
it might not have even played here, to be honest with you, right
exactly. It lives in the samespace for me as Blue Velvet and a
couple other movies from the mid tolate eighties that have a really strange tone,

(15:18):
blue Velvet being one of them,obviously, and then Tough Guys Don't
Dance. I don't know if you'veever seen that. Story Wise, it
has nothing in common with Blue Velvetor Parents. But it's weird and there
are surreal touches in it, andit's acted strangely, and there's a lot
of weird dialogue in it, andoh then, oh God, oh Man,

(15:43):
Oh God, Oh then, ohGod, oh Man, oh God,
oh Man, oh God. Andthen also River's Edge, which isn't
really I mean, there's some strangestuff in it. Dennis Hopper's character is
strange and a lot of stuff hedoes, but it's more a since it's
based on a true story. It'smore grounded in reality. It's that uncovering

(16:07):
of suburban evils right right in thatcase in River's Edge, it's you know,
real evils and blue velvet. It'smore the facade versus the reality behind
the facade and or underneath where thebugs live. And in this it's weird
people living in an a frame house, mid century modern life, playing their

(16:32):
exotic Brazilian music and possibly eating otherpeople, probably most likely. I mean,
the smartest thing this movie does iswe never see we never see the
act of people being cut up.We just see someone dies, We see
a body sometimes and then we seethe meat. It goes back to the

(16:52):
idea of like unreliable narrator, right, And I'm like a fairy tale aspect
or quality to this movie, butthere is a again like not tall tale,
but it is like more in tunewith like a grim fairy tale,
at least in terms of the toneand in terms of like the level of
violence that we see, because thegrim fairy tales weren't exactly sanitized and this

(17:14):
isn't either. And I think that'swhat makes this fun is that it does
speak to again, the real experienceof being a child and growing up.
As we get older, our relationshipswith our parents change, and as a
thirty year old versus you as youknow, a fifty year old. My
relationship with my parents is different thanyours, not just because of who they
are, but because the age thatwe're at and when you're a child,

(17:37):
your parents, like I said,are just it's such a weird relationship that
to look back on it, it'svery different than like putting yourself and being
in that position, because I don'tremember what it's like to have that little
autonomy over my life. It mustbe terrifying thinking about it now, like
thinking back on it, right,And they're your whole world and you,

(17:59):
I mean, you've at school andyou might have some friends, but you
get your information from them. Soif they're feeding you bunk, that's what
you believe. Like his for example, his story when he's introduced at school,
he and the other new girl inclass are asked to present a new
fact and the girl tells him ifyou use an onion instead of an olive

(18:23):
in a martini, it's called agibson. And then he tells a story
about if you take a black catand broil it on the oven, and
you peel up the skin of thebones and take it off, and you
chew on the boom. You'll bein visual if your parents tell you shit
like that or whatever. I meannot to say that that's where that story

(18:45):
comes from, but what if theysaid that to you to keep you from
doing something? Or although that seemslike that might give kids an idea of
skinning and deboning a cat so thatthey could become visible. But however we
gained that information, his parents weren'tthere to filter it out for him,
so they can put junk in ornot take out the junk that's already there.

(19:11):
And I read something on IMDb,so I never thought of this,
but that his little tale, andthen some of the other stuff implies that
they're witches because they come from Massachusetts. And I've never I've seen this movie
a good half dozen dozen times overthe years, and that never really entered

(19:32):
my mind. And this explains whythey're cannibals, because there's no magic in
them. There's no sense of magicin the movie. No is there needed
an explanation beyond the fact that theyjust eat people right right? I don't
know, I mean, you know, the consumption of human flesh and the
transubstantiation is a thing. I meanagain, like there's a weird religious undertone

(19:56):
that you could take with this movieof like that one kid who's told all
the weird things by his parents andthen he goes and parents it at school
and everybody looks at him and goes, what the fuck are you learning at
your house? Pal? Is thatas crazy as a kid coming in and
spouting some wild shit that he heardfrom his parents in this day and age,
Like, that's what I thought whenthat kid stands up. When Brian

(20:18):
mcdursky stands up and goes, youknow, cat bones and some it's like
that's no different than saying, youknow, five G gives you you know
right right right. But it's likeif he were homeschooled, you could make
a kind of a different case.And if this movie were made now,
you would have the kid be homeschooledso that there is a further isolation idea
that you can play with. Sothen he goes to the homeschooling. But

(20:41):
that's the thing, like in Cobweb, what they should have done, and
again, like what I would doif it were me now is you would
have the kid be homeschooled, butthen he would go and talk to the
other homeschooled kids. If you havea kid who's homeschooled, you can isolate
them even further in the narrative andreally ratchet up the tension. Because here
some of the tension comes away withthe Sandy Dennis character because she comes into

(21:02):
the house, she finds it,so it's like, all right, so
we know there's something going on here. If it's a homeschooled kid, like,
there's even less interaction with an outsideworld, and there's even more of
a reliance. That's the thing thatI appreciate about this movie that Cobweb didn't
do is that it is made clearhow much this kid relies on his parents
because of his age, because heis a little bit younger as well.

(21:26):
So him being a little bit youngerI think suits the narrative. But to
answer your question about the witches,I don't know where the fuck people would
get that from because they mentioned ablack cat, Like is that why?
Like that's the other thing, right, Oh, black cat must be witches?
Like do witches eat human flesh traditionally? I guess I mean the eat
kids, right, And the witch. Yeah, she gobbles up a baby

(21:48):
so she can fly. But it'sa sentence taken out of context people.
Yeah, I guess, so,I mean, which is I mean,
yeah, witches eat it was interestingme. Yeah, I mean, hey,
I gess sure. I mean it'sas good an explanation as anybody.
I don't think the movie needs anexplanation. I don't really want an explanation
to the fact, right. Thatsort of dulls the horrificness of people eating

(22:14):
other people if there's a reason forit. Yeah, Do I need a
reason why Rady Quait eats people otherthan the fact that he likes to eat
people? No, Because, likeStu Macher and Billy Loomis and Scream,
it is scarier when you don't explaineverything and put a name to it,
when you're just like, these fuckingpeople are nuts and that's just their choice
to be nuts, Like there's noexterior motive here. Yeah, And I

(22:37):
just took their moving around, asyou know, we got to keep on
the move because at some point somebodyis going to find out what we're doing.
And they don't say specifically that theyare constantly on the move. That's
sort of me just thinking you know, they've moved to a new town.
It's a big deal. It's theopening of the movie, is them going

(22:57):
to their new house. He startsa new school. There's a little bit
of a pin put on it thatmakes it seem like they've had to move
against their wishes. And whether itwas from Massachusetts or somewhere else is irrelevant.
You know, that's fine. Imean, people can interpret things however
they want to interpret them. Youmentioned earlier about or we've kind of hinted

(23:22):
at the fact that it's not agray area, that it's black and white,
that we do understand by the endof the film that they are actually
eating people. I almost wish itwas still a little bit more ambiguous.
The very end of the movie wouldhit a little bit harder. A lot
of times, I like being ableto make up my own mind, because,

(23:44):
like you said, he doesn't reallysee anything, the boy Michael,
he never sees anything other than thatdead body. Right. That's the intriguing
thing, is him not seeing anythingand just thinking his parents are I mean,
ready thinks his parents are weird.He's weird too, Let's not forget
that, right, And that's whatI mean, Like he That's why I

(24:06):
said, like, if you methim as an adult, there's no way
that you're not already kind of takenaback by him, just in general,
because he is clearly the best Ican tell. He's a child with a
lot of anxiety, understandably so,but I mean again, he's also someone
who's going to deal with anxiety laterin life, and that's going to present
itself. However, but he wouldnot be a reliable narrator if you were

(24:29):
listening to his story at all.His clues are not really presented until later.
He's suspicious right away, or wedon't know how long he's been suspicious
of his parents, but at somepoint he asks, we moved, cared
to know what they were before?They were leftovers before that they were leftovers

(24:49):
to be and they're like leftovers andhe's like leftovers from what use? Leftovers
from the fridge, you know,Thanks Dad for the technical answer to my
question. He spies on his dadat the Toxico plant that he works at
making an agent orange style defoliant,which is I always get to kick out

(25:11):
of, and does see him kindof cutting up the dead bodies that they
have there, and I'm assuming thatthe dead bodies are people that have been
poisoned by the products that they make. That seems to be the general impression
I get from that. Right,there are a lot of them in that
basement that they're working in. Yeah, and then the leg in the basement,

(25:33):
I think is I don't have aproblem with it because it's the scene
itself is frightening, and I thinkthat's needed in this a little bit.
But maybe the body that Sandy Dennisdiscover is the part that I think is
a little too much. I agree. I actually agree one hundred percent.

(25:55):
It's the one moment in the movieI wish wasn't in the movie. Yes,
Randy Quaidd chasing after his son atthe end of the movie. Yes,
Randy Quaid is trying to kill hisson question Mark at the end of
the movie, But his son alsoattacked him, right His son hit him
with a baseball bat. His sonstabbed the shit out of him. Like,
I'm not saying that this guy's responseis correct, but I can understand

(26:15):
from the characterization that we've seen sofar of the character that this might be
somewhat of a believable response in thecharacter's mind to what he's doing. I
would take that one singular moment outof the movie entirely because I think,
to your point, it gilds thelily just a bit too much because it
doesn't need it. It doesn't needit. Everything we've seen, the way

(26:37):
the shots are edited, the juxtapositionof the dialogue with some of the way
the shots just happen, give you, as the audience, enough information to
go. The movie is telling methat there is a level of suspicion here
that cannot be ignored with what theseparents are doing. Whether it is cannibalism
one hundred percent or not, maybeis unimportant. But the parents are being

(26:59):
fuck looking weird. And that isthe big takeaway, is that the parents
are being weird. Yeah, becauseit serves no real purpose other than to
frighten her, because she's going toend up getting killed anyway, Sandy Dennis,
with no repercussions. But maybe shecould have looked in the freezer that

(27:19):
they have down there and seen somethingodd that spooked her, or just been
spooked by the rat or whatever,or little Michael could have locked her down
there just being a creep because he'skind of a creep, and she gets
out and gets taken out by I'massuming the mom that's the mom It's got
to be the mom. The hands, the hands look smaller than Randy Quait.

(27:45):
I mean, I love that wholescene of the attack in that cupboard
or in the pantry. That's thescariest moment in the movie. For me.
That was genuinely a unpleasant for meto watch because I have a little
bit of claustrophobia and that moment isjust like, just bash your way out.
If she's able to stab through it, you're able to break through it.

(28:06):
So jump out at him because you'rejust allowing yourself to be stabbed.
At the shots and the way it'sedited and then the music is just so
I don't know, it's so liketrying to disarm what's going on, and
I don't know. I was immenselya huge fan of that scene, but
also it was successful for the reasonBob Balabant shot at the way that he

(28:26):
did. It's an unnerving scene.Yeah, and I'm not unnerved by much
in movies anymore. It takes alot or yeah, me too simple.
I feel like the lead up tothat could have played out differently to where
we're still not sure. Obviously,again, like in Cobweb, we can
assume now, because it doesn't appearthat Michael has seen any of this,

(28:48):
we can assume that his parents arenefarious. But what but why? I'm
pretty sure after the shot right aftershe dispatches the Sandy Dennis character, there's
a shot of the barbecue with allthe meat pile on it, so you
know, it's like, Okay,that's all I need. Really, we
kind of complained about the ambiguity andCobweb, but that was more because it

(29:12):
was such a switcheroo and a fakeout and a were they really being bad
right for keeping this girl locked up? Because the girl's a monster? I
mean that's the point of the movie. I get that, And part of
the reason why I liked it islike, oh, you got duped kid
right, and I enjoy that aspectof it. But him taking out his

(29:36):
parents is a little different than whatMichael does here, and maybe it was
something that they needed to add sothat there was less ambiguity, Like,
you know, let's make sure thatpeople know that these parents are awful,
because having a kid kill his parentsis pretty severe stuff. You know,
who knows? I don't know,And again, like, what's funny is
the amount of weight that it's givenin this movie when Brian Durski kills Randy

(30:00):
Quaid more or less is the appropriateamount of weight given to murdering your parents
And Cobweb does just kind of it'salmost a gag in Cobweb. It's almost
like a moment of comedic pressure valvereleased because like it's a funny scene when
he's like puking all over the place, like it's being played for black humor,

(30:21):
like somewhat comedy in this it istoo, like it's ridiculous that this
guy, this adult man, ishaving such a hard time killing this child,
Like the optics of that are ridiculous. But in this movie I felt
like, oh yeah, there's actuallysome an actual level of threat to the
Brian Mdursky character that there isn't inCobweb. Like and again it's because the
parents are the threat here, atleast one of the parents is, you

(30:45):
know, that's right. The othersmart the really smart thing about this movie
is that the way the Marybeth Hurtcharacters, there is a level of ambiguity
with her character that does help alleviatethe thing that you're talking about, which
happens with the Sandy Dennis Carter towhere there is no ambiguity. There's no
ambiguity that there are cannibals, butthere is ambiguity that Marybeth Hurt is complicit

(31:07):
in the way that Brian mcdirsky thinksshe is. And it turns out it's
not the case. But again,you sat there and you ate human meat
for how long? You killed howmany people? I mean, you make
a decision now that ultimately serves theplot, But it's like, why now
do you care? Oh, becausethey're threatening your kid? Okay, makes
sense, but did you not thinkit was going to come to this eventually?

(31:30):
Well, and she's walking and Ithink, as an actress does it
very well that line of protective mamabear versus someone who likes eating human flesh.
You know, she's towing that linethat she's also protecting her son because
she takes his side in a lotof cases throughout the movie. And she's

(31:52):
constantly telling Randy Quaid to like,you know, take it easy on him.
And then it's sort of that spareof the rod spoil the child type
of attitude of him versus her.And I don't know if it's a fear
of her thinking that he could possiblybe on the menu at some point,
or if it's just that instinctual.You know, this is my child and

(32:14):
I want him to live and beokay. Yet I'm also going to kill
the school psychologists when they come hereand invade our little bubble, our little
meat factory here, and you know, we can't have that get out,
which in a way, she's stillprotecting her family as a whole. From
that, it's interesting to me howoften she takes his side and is very

(32:37):
nurturing and tries to calm him whenhe has his nightmares and stuff. And
I mean speaking of his nightmares thatI love those scenes in the movie.
And I don't quite get the takingoff his pajamas thing, but I love
that little bit in there. It'slike, you took off your pajamas again,
didn't you? You always have nightmareswhen you take off your pajamas,

(32:57):
Like, what what the hell areyou talking about? Why would that get
the nightmares? He jumps in thebed and it's a pool of blood,
which you know, that's pretty cool. And then as the camera keeps backing
out than the arms, there's likedozens of arms in that pool. Of
Blood, and I looked at mydaughter and I was like, Okay,
that's legitimately creepy right there, andshe's like, yeah, we mentioned the

(33:20):
thing about Ken Russell comparing this toBlue Velvet. Those are the moments that
are definitely standouts in the film.But they're standouts because they remind me of
other directors like David Lynch. Yeah. Yeah, but it's done in a
way that's like, again, it'snot doing it in a way that's not
derivative. Yeah, it's not derivative, but it's welcome in this movie because
again, I think it further speaksto the idea of the mental instability of

(33:43):
the Brian mcdirsky character. And thatis used well, and it's used well
enough, but not too often either. You want to cloud your movie with
a bunch of dream sequences, that'sfine, not for me in a lot
of ways. But using it sparinglyto help reinforce what we're seeing on screen
in the daytime in reality, Ithink is smart and the movie does a

(34:05):
good job of that, giving youthe idea that he's already struggling with something
that he knows is going on,but he just can't figure it out.
Yet the one scene that really makesme think of Blue Velvet is when he
stumbles on them having sex in thefront room, because there's a really bright,
almost spotlight on him. And thereare shots in Blue Velvet that are

(34:28):
very reminiscent of that, using thatstuttery slow motion, and she's got lipstick
all around her mouth, just likeFrank Booth does at one point in that
movie. And I think Blue Velvetand the success of that movie opened up
some doors for other people. It'skind of like when Reservoir Dogs came out

(34:50):
and then the fifty Reservoir Dog ripoffscame out in the early nineties. Blue
Velvet, I think opened the doorfor some weirdness in films. And it
doesn't help that Angelo Battlamente did themusic for this film to sort of reinforce
that idea. I mean, Ithink it helps Frankly like Angelo bad Lamentes,

(35:13):
I don't know, like one ofthe great So I'll yeah, if
you're gonna have somebody do this movie, yeah, you're gonna kind of get
some unfortunate comparisons like that made methink because I didn't remember that. It's
been like, I do know,three or four years since I last watched
this, so that put Blue Velvetin my head immediately with the opening of
the film, and then I thought, you know what, this does share

(35:34):
some stuff with that. Then todayI read that Ken Russell quote quote unquote
quote, I'd like to read thewhole article that that comes from. I
really would, because, like again, like Ken Ken Russell's a weird guy,
like on his own right, right, I mean, yeah, right,
it could because he worked with BobBallaban. I mean he's in Altered

(35:55):
States, for Christ's sake, It'strue. Bob Bellaban is in four or
five of my favorite movies that CloseEncounters, Catch twenty two. Oh what
was the other one I was thinkingof earlier? He's at Midnight Cowboy.
Always plays a little creep for themost part, which is kind of great

(36:15):
because you think all Chris Guest stuffas well. But yeah, yeah,
he does a lot of That's whereI know him from primarily is Chris Guest
stuff. So he was in OzPerkins's second film, that one that's on
Netflix because he was friends with hisdad and they work together on Catch twenty
two and that's on and so on. But I love it whenever he shows

(36:37):
up and stuff and I wish therewere more of these films from him to
watch that are odd and quirky,And I mean, I agree with you.
Like as much as I'm not afan of My Boyfriend's Back, this
does have that same weirdo tone toit and weirdo feel that. Yeah,
I kind of was like, oh, this is like, this is a

(36:57):
Bob Ballaband movie. Like when Iwas watching this, I was like,
this is a Bob Allaban movie,Like I can already tell because of My
Boyfriend's Back having that same weirdo tone. I think this does everything that My
Boyfriend's Back does wrong, it doesright. This is actually kind of a
scary movie in terms of like actualdread and terror being created by the Randy

(37:19):
Quaid character. It's actually a movieworth watching. And I think again,
it speaks to a more relatable experiencethan My Boyfriend's Back does, which is
being a child and growing up.I think that there's a relatability to this
that most people can feel. Arelatable story is always going to be easier
to get through the door than oneabout your boyfriend being resurrected from the dead.

(37:42):
I just thought of this one ofthe comparisons to Cobweb and the thing
in the wall being the influence onthat character, and I kind of incorrectly
stated that he doesn't really have anoutside influence in this. Michael does,
but he does. He's got hisfriend Sheila at school, who is also
weird. She plants the seed ofinvestigate your dad, find out what he

(38:06):
does. If you're distrusting of him, you need to figure out why.
And that's the impetus for him tobreak into Toxico and get down into the
morgue that they have. Why wouldyou have a morg at a chemical plant.
So he has a little bit ofsomething whispering in his ear that ends
up getting him in trouble. Oncethe scene came up where the teachers looking

(38:30):
at the drawings, then I waslike, Okay, it is appropriate to
connect these two films because they're,like we mentioned in the beginning, three
or four things that are almost specificto both. I think it's played out
a little more interestingly here. Well, Cobweb doesn't have a kid in the
pantry getting accosted by sausages either.Yes, what a bizarre, What a

(38:53):
strange and bizarre and off putting scenewith Mary Beth Hurt, just like go
into town on some ground beef,ground beef that looks. It's so funny
how gross you can make ground beeflook by just putting a little ketchup on
it before you put ketchup on itto imply blood. Yeah, it's impressive
how easy it is to make somethinggross looking look even grosser with the simplest

(39:15):
of techniques. So yeah, allthe shots of the kidneys in the pan
the I think they employ pork alot because it's the meat that's most similar
to our own, right, youcut it up and cook it, and
from what I understand, the smellis as well. Understand he says,

(39:38):
well, not from experience, MarkBegley. No, there was a movie
I don't I want to say.It was Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
and they're burying somebody and they're puttingrosemary in with the body. It caught
my attention, So I looked thatup and they're like, oh yeah,
people used to put that in tokind of mask the smell, you know,

(40:00):
the decaying corpse, because that herbis used a lot when you cook
pork, because they have a similarAnd I'm like, oh god, now
I know that it's called long piglike human is called long pig. So
yeah, it's a white meat.I guess I would not know. This
comes up every time we bring upa cannibal thing. I would try human

(40:23):
meat if it were my own.I mean, there have been people that
have lost limbs that have then beenable to keep the limb and cook it.
So if there ever came an opportunity, I would try it. But
I would never do this any morethan any sane human beating would. I
don't know if I could do that. I don't know if I could do
that. But eat your own leg, yeah, I mean I get it,

(40:43):
you know, and in a livetype scenario, yes, but not
just like, oh, lost yourleg, do you want to keep it?
Why the fuck would I want tokeep it? Most some people eat
it. That's okay, here's custodyof your leg, taking it out of
the hospital. But I mean again, like that is the thing about cannibal
fiction or cannibal movies is they kindof always have the same tone and feeling

(41:07):
to them of you know, thepeople eating the meat tend to not have
a good reason why, or ifthey do, it's often misguided. Here,
it's just we're just doing it cuzlike we're just doing it because like
and I like that as the explanation, Like I don't need a cultural explanation.
I don't need a Oh it's becauseit's cheaper explanation. It's just these
motherfuckers like to eat human meat.There, you go great, like it's

(41:30):
a family tradition passed down from grandpato son. I guess maybe who knows.
I mean again, that's the questionof this movie, is what is
really going on the thing that surprisesme is that at least in part the
meat that they're getting is from hischemical plant, and these people have obviously

(41:53):
died of some kind of chemical toxicity. And early on before for Michael has
broken in to watch his dad.He's down there and he's advising the lab
tech to cut out a sample ofliver and grind it up for him,
and it's like, the liver isthe place where the toxins are gotten rid

(42:16):
of. Why would you want theliver? Why is he feeding his family
there? What's the explanation for that? You're eating like the most toxic part
of this person's body if that's whatthey died from, Which is the implication
here that they have possession of thesebodies because they have died because of the

(42:36):
chemicals that they make. You're goingto eat the filter of those chemicals delicious
by my account. The weird thingsabout this movie that are not explained are
intentionally not explained. Yeah. Ienjoy that, Yeah, because it is
weird. Is it fresh meat?Is it meat from corpses that have been
hanging around? Like? Are theyalways eating human meat? Those questions are

(43:00):
answered for the better. We asthe audience just get to draw our own
conclusions as to what we think isactually going on. Yeah, And that's
the other problem I have with thebody that Sandy Dennis discovers at the basement
window, because it seems like he'sgot a pretty big selection to choose from

(43:23):
down on that basement Morgue. Arethey also going out and killing homeless people
or what's the deal with that body? Who is that person? They had
done such a good job at hidingeverything else, it seems odd that there
would just be a body in Yeah, Windo, Well, like it almost
feels like a moment that was Imean again, like, nothing about this

(43:45):
seems like a studio movie in anysense I've heard, But like that feels
like a studio note, we needto have a scene where there's like incontrovertible
proof that these people are bad people. And it's like, is the fact
that they're fucking possibly eating human meatthe ambiguity of that isn't that enough?
The movie plays its hand pretty clearlythat there is something going on enough to

(44:07):
be suspicious. I don't need tosee a human body for it to go
see. Look, it's like,no, I I get it. The
movie is doing enough with context cluesand storytelling techniques that I've seen before to
inform me that that is what I'mmeant to believe. You don't have to
outright say it. Plus, thescene before that is Michael discovering the leg

(44:29):
on a hook, right, butthen it's not there when he brings her
back. That leads me to think, Okay, is he seen this for
real or is this his active imagination? And then the body pops out,
and it's like, well, thatsort of kills that interesting ambiguity that you
just presented by showing me the legand then having it be gone now,

(44:51):
right, because you could make avery strong case that this is all on
his head. And as far asI'm concerned, like as much as I'm
never a fan of that being thecase, I kind of think it would
be the funniest way to interpret thismovie. Is this kid kills one of
his parents, causes the other oneto get murdered by the other, and
then ends up with his grandparents,who he's now convinced you're doing the same

(45:13):
thing, because once again, what'sthe common denominator here? You? You
are the common denominate, right,Not the grandparents, not the parents,
it's you. Is that the rightway to interpret this movie? Probably not,
but it's a fun way to interpretit that the movie almost leaves room
for. And I think if thiswere a David Lynch, I think he
would have left room for it,because that is something that David Lynch does

(45:37):
almost exclusively, is not try todefine what's going on. I answer the
questions that he's posing, right,because the moment you answer the question,
it's not the answer that's the problem. It's cutting out all the interpretations that
everybody else has that aren't the answer. Yeah. Yeah, you could argue
if that body didn't fall into thewindow, well, you could argue at

(45:59):
the end of this movie, thebuddy that you saw it with, whether
they're actually cannibals or not. Well, Grandpa leaves a sandwich on the night
stand, So I mean, it'sa weird midnight snack, but it's not
out of the realm of possibility toleave somebody a big old slab of meat
if they wake up and get hungry. That's not a weird midnight snack.

(46:21):
I would be happy if someone leftme what looked like like a pastrami sandwich
on my nightstand, like wake up. I'm not complaining yet. I'm not
complaining about that at all. Butthat's the funny thing. It's like,
I think this movie is so muchfun, but I think it could have
been even more fun if they hadjust showed one percent more restraint, because
it really is just like the smallestamount of restraint needed, because they practiced

(46:45):
it everywhere else in the movie,almost to a fault. They had practiced
restraint, but that one moment,and I would almost go as far as
to say, like, the SandyDennis character doesn't need to go to the
house, she doesn't even need todie. We don't need to see that,
because again, what's the point.We've been seeing this whole thing already,
so now we're just seeing it throughthe eyes of another character. Okay,

(47:07):
but why the character ends up dyinganyway? It's like right, which
is was my point, Like,well, she gets taken out. I
don't even know if he realizes thatshe's now dead. So we've seen the
body. Was for our benefit,literally, for the audience to say,
yes, this is what they're doing, so that later on when Michael ends
up killing his parents or causing thedeath of his parents, you're okay with

(47:30):
it, And I'd rather be stillanswering the question of like, well,
were they even cannibals? I don'tknow. Two things. Firstly, thankfully
that scene does happen. We kindof talked about it a little bit.
The scene of the camera coming outof the house and going out the smokestack
and then panning to the car cominginto the driveway doesn't exist without that,

(47:52):
So at least they're i mean,true, create one of the better like
stylistic scenes in the movie. Butcould make the case that there's just a
dead body in the window. Well, I mean, isn't there just a
dead body? Isn't there just anear out in the open and blue velvet,
you know what I mean? Likeit's just there. Maybe it is
just there. What's to say someonedidn't just die in the window? Well,

(48:13):
like, I'm kind of I'm notsaying that that looks like a warm
place. Yeah, I'm not sayingthat's an applicable explanation. But again,
because the movie does certain things afterwardsthat makes it very clear that the implication
is that body was there. Becauseof the Randy Quaid character and the Marybeth
Hurt character, they even could havedone it with some ambiguity, but at

(48:34):
least we get a moment out ofit that is so stylistically weird and fun
that it kind of it is oneof the best shots in the film.
Yeah, very true. It probablycould have been employed in another way,
but with one of his dream sequences. Yeah, it's pretty great. Through
the vent, through the ducks,and out the exhaust pipe of the house

(48:55):
and boom, there's mom coming home. They don't make movies like this anymore.
If they ever made movies like thisto be ken or you know what
I mean. What's funny is thething I wanted to mention to you is,
first off, human beings grabbing kniveswhen they're being stabbed things is a
fucking fear that I have always had. That's one of my bugaboos. It's

(49:17):
a real gross thing and I reallyhate it, and watching a character do
it always makes me, Oh,I'm feeling myself do it and it's off.
Yeah, my hands tingled every timesomeone does that in a movie.
The other thing is I looked intowhat else was released with this when this
was released on Blu ray, andman, there are a lot of interesting

(49:38):
titles under the Bestron Video Collectors series, a lot of interesting movies. I
think I have one of them.Yeah, is one of them Shivers,
directed by David Cronenberg. It sureis. Yeah, But there's a lot
of stuff on there that's like weirdsequels to things. Also, Earth Girls
Are Easy is on there. Butthey started releasing movies under that in twenty

(50:01):
sixteen and they're still doing it asrecently as this year. You could do
a whole podcast on all of thosemovies, because it's a wide array of
weird things, and this movie kindof fits right in there with all the
other things in a way, likeit makes sense that this was a vest
On thing for sure. Yeah.When I saw that pop up, well,

(50:22):
I immediately thought of Shivers, justbecause I own it, and I
thought about those titles because I haveseen the ads for the Vesturan Video Classics
thing, and they're released kind ofin a neat little package that replicates you
know, the old video days andstuff. And this became a decent sized

(50:42):
cult quote unquote film, and alot of the reviews I read, you
know, were complained about the toneand the flip flop of the tone,
but I don't know, it seemsto have a pretty straight line for me
of flipflop of a tone. Well, like you know, the horror never
gets horrible enough, and comedy sortof just kills what horror there is.

(51:02):
And this is the movie that Ialways refer to for and it's not even
really all that comedic, but forblack comedy. In my head, this
and eraser Head are two sides ofthe same coin. A lot of people
don't get the comedy in eraser Head. For me, the black comedy in

(51:27):
that movie is turning every day eventsthe banal into the horrible because getting married
and having a kid is the mosthorrific thing that David Lynch could think of,
and that's where not having coffee,Yeah, that's where the black comedy
comes from. That film and thisfilm it's the most horrific thing being turned

(51:50):
into the banal the idea of peopleeating other humans, but it's wrapped in
this mid century modern pistiche you know, and it's like, in my head,
that's always how I differentiate the twokinds of ways you can go with
black comedy. I often think ofthat episode. I don't know if you
watch Criminal Minds, but there's areally fucked up episode with Jamie Kennedy in

(52:15):
it, who plays this absolute creep. Oh playing into type huh yeah.
He serves human flesh to all thepeople that are searching for this missing girl.
He makes chili for the people thatare doing the searching and stuff,
and they have all consumed human flesh. I mean, isn't one of the

(52:35):
most famous horror movies of all timeabout a family of people that he eat,
right, I'll tell you cannibals andcannibalism. I don't know. It's
a weird thing that in movies.I'm with you, like in movies,
it more often than not is funnyand should be played for laughs because oh,
look, they're literally eating each other. They're literally eating each other.

(52:57):
And if you can't see the comedyin that, then I understand, but
in movies, it's okay to laughat it. It's okay to play it
for laughs because it is a movie, and that's fine, and we get
to confront our worst than best selvesthrough cinema. And it is hilarious to
see a family of people so convincedthe only way that they can exist in

(53:17):
the world is to eat other people. And there you go. And that
is the entire basis of the ideabehind this movie, as you have a
group of people who are so hellbent on eating people that that has become
something that they do regularly, andthey're so convinced that they need to do
it that they're going to eat oneanother, possibly if one of them descents

(53:38):
to the idea of eating one another. For me, comparing it to Motel
Hell, which I did an episodeon, this for me, presents the
black humor of this idea better.We actually lean into the horrificness of this
more but still also have that lineof like uncomfortable laughter when you realize what's

(54:05):
going on. I mean, thatshot of that sandwich at the end,
to me is hysterical because you're like, ooh, fuck, dude, he
walked right back into it. Mother. I did a show about Tails from
the Crypt a couple of years ago. We did the entire show, and
one of the better episodes is acannibalism episode. It's worth actually seeking out

(54:27):
yet Chris Reeves and Margot Margot Kidder. It might be Margot Kitder as well,
which would be a little on thenose, I think. Judd Nelson
and Art Lafleur. Chris Reeves playsa owner of a restaurant that sells squid
and no one wants to eat squid, and Judd Nelson stumbles in as a
hitchhiker and says, I've got thisgreat recipe for meat, and it turns

(54:50):
out that he's serving human meat,and hilarity ensues, and again it's got
the Tails from the Crypt tongue incheekness, but also again it is about
human beings eating one another, butit's again played in an interesting and fun
way that seems novel, but againalso can't take away from the fact that
when human beings are literally eating oneanother, there is some metaphorical hilariousness to

(55:14):
the idea of it actually happening,versus us just saying, well, we're
all at each other's throats. Nowwe're actually ripping them out. Can do
a whole show on cannibals, likefictional cannibals. You know, there's a
whole slew of cannibal comedies. Evenyou know, you're don't have to go
down the Italian cannibal holocaust route.You can watch a ton of because,

(55:35):
like you say, it's inherently funnyin a really dark way to think about
it and to present it, andto present the idea of not only people
savoring in it, but for theuninitiated or the unexpecting people when they find
out that that's what they've eaten.That that's part of it, right you

(55:57):
think about that, Yeah, well, reveling in it. They revel in
I have given you some human meatto eat, like and you ate it
unwillingly. But that's what Jamie Kennedydoes in that episode of Criminal Minds.
I mean, he's just like giddyright when they realize what he has done.
And part of it is a powerthing too, right, we mentioned

(56:17):
the whole which side aspect of that'swhy people would eat human meat is to
get part of their power. Plusyou have exerted power over people. I
mean, if you're actively hunting themand Killeam as opposed to just dissecting already
dead bodies. Power over the peoplethat you're serving it to if they're eating

(56:38):
it unexpectedly. Yeah, hey,you know Cannibal the musical. It's a
spaedoinkal day, folks. Earlier thisyear I traveled to I have We have
a very close friend who lives inLake City, Colorado, which is where
Alfred Packer killed the people that heate, supposedly, And I have a
sticker on my cup now that saysAlfred Packer love his fellow man a little

(57:00):
too much. And it's from LakeCity, Colorado. So I'm a fan
of cannibal fiction, not a fanof cannibal fiction that is non fiction adjacent.
Looking at you, Dom or theTV show. Stuff like this is
a lot of fun. I wishthat there was more like Parents, But
I'm glad that we have something likethis that we can watch on repeat,

(57:20):
that people do have an appreciation for, and that has gotten a release recently
on blue ray, so we havea nice clean up converted copy to go
back to and rewatched. So thankyou for putting this movie on my radar
and definitely adding yet another movie intoa long list of things that I will
show to other people and hopefully theyenjoy it as much as I have enjoyed
it. What kind of brings meto what I usually asked? And this

(57:49):
was a first time watch for you, Chris, Yeah, it was end
of the episode the way so findout ending where I should have started.
I got a little thrown off.Not only a first time watch, but
it was a movie I'd never evenheard of. I feel again, as
someone who's such a big fan ofFreaked, primarily because of Randy Quaid's performance,

(58:10):
someone who loves Randy Quaid in mosteverything I've seen him in, it's
kind of surprising to me that Ihad never stumbled upon this movie during my
early teen years of just like voraciouslyconsuming as much film stuff as humanly possible,
but never came across my radar,probably because there was no DVD release
of it, right, Yeah,it went from VHS to Blu ray,

(58:32):
so that probably factored into it.But first time watch and not the last
time watch though, So we'll endon this. As far as Randy quaid
performances goes, where would you rankhis in this? You mean in terms
of all the other things I've seenhim in Yeah It's up there. I
think this is as good as anythingI've seen him in. Say what you

(58:53):
will about Independence Day. His characterin that movie is a lot of fun
and he's playing it perfect. Freakedis probably my favorite thing that I've seen
him in, But this is nowone A, one B. He's menacing
in all the right ways. Butagain the question of is he just a
stern father is there because the nuanceof his performance. Randy Quaid is someone

(59:14):
who I'm a huge fan of.I'm not gonna say it's unfortunate. Everybody
has problems. His problems are hisown, and he just makes his problems
visible for the rest of us tosee and have to deal with. You
don't have to deal with it wellor ignore it however you want to interpret
it. But Randy Quaid is anactor who I have always found an immense
amount of intrigue in what he bringsto the roles because he always makes interesting

(59:36):
choices. He always brings it nomatter what it is. Like I said,
he steals the show and Independence Dayand he's like a second tier character
in that movie. He is someonewho in playing online games with my friends
and having to create a username Myusername for the longest time has been Eagle
twenty Fox two, which is literallyin reference to Independence Day and his character.
He as an actor made an impressionon me at a very early age

(59:59):
because Independence Day and then seeing himin Freaked. If this isn't mentioned in
his like best of performances as anactor, I would be surprised. But
I know that he has a longlist of other things I have not seen
him in that I'm sure he's justas good in. And he's getting to
play basically a lead in this asopposed to a second tier character or a

(01:00:20):
cousin Eddie or anything like that.And I mean, the little boy is
still the lead. But I alwaysgo back to that thing when they're talking
about the dark and what he doeswith his finger. You really like the
dark, don't you, Michael.You can be yourself in the dark,
but you know there's one dark placethat we have to be very careful in,

(01:00:42):
you know where that is, andbrings up to his head, you
know, to imply that this isthe darkest place. With his smile and
his face and just what he's doingwith his hand, I'm like, man,
you know you're talking about making choicesand that that acting choice in that
scene is just great. I mean, I love him too as an actor,
even in something like the last Detail, one of his first roles,

(01:01:04):
all the Cousin Eddie stuff, thisand numerous other things, you know,
I can still enjoy what he's doingon screen. I love Cousin Eddie.
He's one of the great film characters, like shitters Full, and he's great
in every version of those movies thathe's in. He's a standout because that
character is just such a grating individual, and you everybody knows people like that.

(01:01:27):
The other thing that always cracks meup about family like that, Right.
Randy Quaid was also a rep playeron SNL for like six years,
which is a weird thing as well. To think about the season that he
was in in with Anthony Michael Halland Robert Danny Junior, that weird one
off season. That was the firstseason that I actually watched from front to

(01:01:49):
back because I was old enough andI knew a lot of those people from
right Brat Pack movies and other things. I remember that season fondly just because
it was the first that I couldactually like stay up for and watch or
record because we had a VCR andsaw every episode of that season. That
was the first time that I wasable to do that, and so I

(01:02:12):
have a lot of love for thatreally weird, really awful season of Saturday
Night Live. We're going to beseeing another Randy Quaid performance here pretty quick
on our Chasing Chevy podcast because he'sin Caddy. He's in Caddysheck too.
I've actually seen a fair amount ofRandy Quaid this year. I saw Last
Picture Show for the first time.I saw What's Up Doc for the first

(01:02:32):
time, which is his first andsecond performance. And like I said,
I mean, Freaked is so highon my list of everything. And he
was also in Golia's Ghosts, whichis it was a Melosh Foreman film.
So he has a weird career thathas spanned fifty sixty years. And I'm
sure he's it hasn't been anything sincetwenty eighteen. But you know, I

(01:02:52):
mean again, when you have asmany quality entries into your filmography as he
does, you don't have to makeanything else. You can live on the
things you've made already. He holdshis own up against Jack Nicholson in a
nineteen seventy classics, So got togive him credit it's fair. Well,
when you're not watching Randy Quaid performances, Chris, what's keeping you busy?

(01:03:13):
Over it weirdingwaymedia dot com. Youwant to plug one of the shows on
there instead of your own stuff,do whatever you want. I rarely plug
my own stuff because I feel likeyou're listening to it already, you know.
So on Weirdingway Media you can findso many great shows that aren't just
about movies, Eighties, TV Ladies, Feminine Critique. I mean, there

(01:03:34):
are plenty of things to keep youbusy. If it's movies, you want
to listen to TV shows, seventiesTV shows, narrative based shows like Dark
Destinations. There's all kinds of stuffover at weirdingwaymedia dot com, including the
Culture Cast, which is the moviepodcast that I've been doing for almost a
decade now. And I want toput a spotlight on Noise Junkies over on
weirdinwaymedia dot com. So go checkthat show out. Yeah, Noise Tunkies

(01:03:59):
is Fine'm still wait from my invitationHeather drain Father Malone and who's the third
host? HP? Check that oneout. Check out Culture Cast, Projection
Booth, Wake Up, Heavy Camber, Jem with Sean all Over at wordingwaymedia
dot com and Don't Forget Anything canHappen when You Wake Up Heavy Active back

(01:05:15):
at the at the at the ATA, and can do it then Before that,

(01:06:47):
they were leftovers to be wake UpHeavy is a weirding Way Media podcast