TWIG Halloween 2023 Special - Hammer Horror (With James Rolfe AVGN And Henrique Couto) - ThisWeekInGeek

Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Freddy Krueger here and you're listened tomister bird Man and the rest of the
crew this week indeed got there andnow our feature presentation. More than a
hundred years ago, in a mountainvillage in Switzerland lived a man whose strange

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experiments with the dead have since becomea legend, a legend that is still
told with horror the world over.This is Frankenstein, who revolted against nature,

(00:52):
who experimented with the devil and wasforever cursed. This is the story
of Dracula, a creature who destroysall whom he touches. Dracula, the
terrifying, the feared, who sleepsin the tombs of the dead by day

(01:15):
and arises at night to inflict histerror upon the innocent and the unsuspected.
Egypt four thousand years ago, aland of strange rituals and savage cruelty.

(01:40):
Many of their secrets are still hiddenfrom the eyes of twentieth century man,
secrets that protect their death supernatural powersthat, once released, can live again
in our modern world. The Mummyliving day, bringing terror and death across

(02:04):
four thousand years. Hey, guys, what's going on? You are listening
to this week and geek dot Net. I'm your host, Mike the Birdman,
and guys, it is that timeof year. It is October.
It is spooky season. It ispumpkin spice season to some of you bloody
weirdos out there, which if you'vebeen following this weekn geek done that but
quite some time, did you know? You can now wipe your ass with

(02:28):
stuff that smells like pumpkins spice.Your plumber will love you. But guys,
it is that time where we celebratethe spooky, the unusual, the
crazy movies and television series that welove. And this is the annual Halloween
Show and what does that mean.It's time to bring on guests to the
show. And this year we're changingthings up a little bit different. Now.

(02:49):
You may notice there's a distinct lackof Alex the producer around here this
evening, and that's because Alex isoff doing something on the website that I
clearly don't understand and never will.As I was saying to of our co
host tonight, if there's a problem, I will throw money at it so
I don't have to deal with it. I'm that stupid, But I brought
out my good friend guy who's beenwith the show since I want to say,

(03:12):
like at least the early twenty tens. We've had them on every single
Halloween for this long. I've beenin videos podcast ten years now, and
welcome to the show my good friend, the angry video game nerd himself,
the og YouTuber James Rolf. Hey, yeah you doing, Thank you.
It is great to have you back, James. I always look forward to
doing these once per year where Iget your full undivided attention and it is

(03:36):
a good time. As always,it's been that long, huh, I
know, right, Like we've talkedabout the unmade Michael Myers road Trip movie.
We've talked about Evil Dead Night,Living Dead King movies, so many
things. And if you want togo back and see those episodes, guys,
if you have to be listening acrossSpotify or YouTube or whatever, you

(03:57):
can go to this weekn geek dotnet, go back through our archive.
I think some of them are linkedon Cinemasca dot comments. But we're also
going to have another guest tonight.This is a person who's coming to my
life in the last year or so. I became aware of their podcast via
Reddit last year on a Freddy Kruegersubreddit on the Nightmare on Elm Street subreddit,
and that is filmmaker and pop cultureaffectionado and all around general weirdo Enrique

(04:24):
Kuto of Welcome to Prime Tom aFreddie's Nightmares podcast. Over the last year
or so, me and him havebecome really good friends, and he also
does another show called Weekly Spookies,which has over two hundred episodes of crazy
content. You may have heard someof my stories on there in the last
couple of weeks, and it hasbeen a fantastic time to get to know

(04:45):
this guy, him and his friendDavid Louis Denier. Enrique, welcome to
the show, my friend. Oh, I am always happy to be back,
always happy to talk about something strangeand spooky. So, guys,
as we do here on the Halloweentopic show here that we can geek dot
net, we like to delve inthe things that either we love we know
a lot about. This year,we're doing something a little bit different.

(05:06):
So last year, me and Jameswe always chat back and forth via email
and we tend to plan these thingsalmost about a year in advance. Whenever
we kind of do these and Alexcouldn't unfortunately participate this year, but he
was able to get a hold ofsomething for me that James had pitched to
me. And James said, Mike, how would you like to talk about
hammer horror films? Now? Thisis something I have zero experience with up

(05:30):
until about the last forty eight hours. That being said, I've been aware
of them for about twenty years,and I've seen clips on like things like
In Search of Darkness, I've seenclips from other documentaries. I'm pretty sure
I've seen some stuff on TB andlike other places like that, and it's
something I didn't know a lot about. And I got to say, I've

(05:55):
seen some really cool stuff in thelast forty eight hours that I didn't really
expect. So James was like asuper enthusiastic person to pitch us to me.
I know he's wanted to talk abouthammer horr with us for quite some
time, so he was an obviousget. And then I asked Henrique,
Hey, what do you know?And He's like, fuck yes, And
this is where we currently find ourselvestoday. So we're kinna kind of go

(06:17):
around the table. We're gonna talkabout how we each found the hammer horror
genre of movies. And then talkabout some of the ones that we have
seen now, the ones that I'veseen, just to kind of give you
guys an idea. Tonight, we'regonna be talking The Mummy from nineteen fifty
nine, The Curse of Frekeetsign fromnineteen fifty seven, Scars of Dracula from
nineteen seventy, and A Horror ofDracula from nineteen fifty eight, both starring

(06:40):
some Star Wars alumni. And ifyou know what I'm talking about, you
are fantastic. So we will startwith James, how did you find yourself
enjoying the Hammer genre of films?Oh, let's see, well, like
how I got into them originally orjust yeah, yeah, Like how did

(07:01):
you discover these? I think itwas around the same time I discovered the
Universal ones. I think it wasjust all about going back to the classics.
In fact, I think actually Isaw some of the Hammer ones earlier,
but my dad was watching them actually, and I think I saw them
with him, but it was onlylike, you know, a scene here

(07:26):
or there, Like I didn't reallyhave any real vivid memories of them.
It was sort of a later onwhen I started discovering them on my own
and then actually trying to watch them. But there was no Wikipedia or anything
to figure out how many of thesemovies there were or what order to watch
them in. It was just itwas just like how many Draculas is there?

(07:50):
And you would kind of just findthem in the video stores and see
if they come on TV and thenjust put the dates in order yourself,
the years and figure out, likeyou know, where they all go.
Not that really mattered much because thecontinuity was you know, loose for the
most part. But yeah, Imean it was just like it was like

(08:16):
the Universal movies but in color withblood and cleavage, and it was just
like these they're they're classic, butthey're modern at the same time. Like
it's really kind of like the beginningof modern horror. Now, did you
discover these in your local kind ofvideo store? Did you see them on
Monster Vision? Because I know uphere, Yeah, I never seen them

(08:37):
anywhere. Yeah, they did playthem a lot on Monster Vision in the
early days, like like really early. That's where I think I might have
seen him with my dad sometimes,but they were I did. I wasn't
really watching Monster Vision as often.I wasn't like totally in tune with it
yet. But the the video rentalswere big, and there was a chain

(09:01):
called Suncoast Video where you could buymovies. Yeah, and I would buy
a lot of them from there forthose Times releases where they were like they
were really cheap because they were likeextended play form, and I had a
few good times. It was likeI had my first copy of Satanic Rights
of Dracula was a Good Times release. Oh you know, that one is

(09:22):
public domain, so yeah, youcan find that one like anywhere, but
everywhere. Yeah. But the others, it's it, they're they're spread out,
like some of them are are Columbia, Warner Brothers, Paramount, yeah,
even Universal, and uh some ofthem are just Hammer, which I
think Blue Anchor does but uh yeahyeah, so so there you're you're never

(09:48):
gonna get the Hammer films in oneset. It just doesn't exist because the
rights are all a mess. Andthere's so many too, I mean,
it would be a massive undertaking.I don't even know exactly how many there
are, but it's it's plenty.Yeah, yeah, that's a good question,
Like how many I would say,like fifty or something like that,

(10:09):
but I haven't counted. Oh mygod, that's insane. So I guess
it depends on where you start counting, actually, because really they they were
making these in the thirties. EvenBaiol Logosi was in one of them was
called the fan Ship Oh shit,or that was the US title. But
yeah, no, they've been makingthem for decades before that. It just

(10:31):
what It didn't become really like abig thing until the late fifties, and
they do. They did all kindsof genres as well. Even after that.
They kept trying different things. Theywould do sci fi, they would
do like dinosaur movies. They evengot Ray Harry Housen to do the stop
motion effects, and so they kindof had their feet in all different genres.

(10:56):
Yeah. I was watching a documentarylast night about the Hammer Things,
and one of the things when youmentioned the dinosaur in movies, I was
really impressed. I got Ray likeHarry Hausen. They had Raquel Weltch talking
about some of the experiences she had. They had some of the other Hammer
horror acceses on there, talking abouthow their costumes would get progressively smaller.

(11:18):
Is tough like that, but Iwas thinking, that's a whole genre of
films. I had no idea existed, and the fact that Hammer. I
think they're still going today in limitedthings too, Like I think they did
a version of Let the Right Onein or something like that. Yeah,
they've had a revival, like they'vethey've sort of come back, but it's

(11:41):
it's not, you know, it'sthe Hammer name, it's the Hammer you
know officially, but it's it's beenso long since those movies that there's no
way anybody is still around to reallytake over. So it's kind of like
they've passed it on. But it'sit's it's sort of like a it's it's

(12:03):
a new type of Hammer. ModernizingHammer would kind of kind of removes the
Hammer from Hammer. Yeah, andthey can't make them like they did in
the seventies even if they wanted to. It just wouldn't work. It just
wouldn't. It was a time though, I kind of I like, you
know, the Woman in Black,Like I really love the production in that,

(12:26):
like the whole creepy haunted house lookedyou know to it. But but
yeah, I mean essentially Hammer isbasically the classic Hammer is the late fifties
into the early seventies, and eventhat is kind of split into two.
There's the Brace Studio years, whichruns up to like the mid sixties,

(12:48):
and then they they moved to likea like a big studio after that.
I believe it's called Elstree double checkthat. But uh, and those are
the A lot of people say that'swhen Hammer just became more like exploitive like
it was. But I really loveyou know, all eras there because it's

(13:09):
like they start off and they're likereally classy, but then they also get
kind of trashy as they know isgone. But uh, but I also
like just the look of them.They kind of have a classic movie look
where if you put that on,like you just watch The Mummy just now,
you watch The Mummy right next tothe Ten Commandments of the fifties one,

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and it it just looks like that, even though these are way lower
budget, it just has the lookof a of like a genuine classic film.
Yeah, that's something I was reallykind of noticing with The Mummy there.
So we're gonna ask en Rique,so again, you've been in the

(13:50):
horror game for many many years.You're a filmmaker yourself, but you're also
a huge dork when it comes toanything horror related. So where does your
experience with these movies start. SoI actually can tell you when and what
my first Hammer experience was because outhere in Dayton, Ohio, the Paris

(14:11):
of Ohio, we have an allnight movie horror movie marathon in October of
every year that's for charity, andfor the first ten or so years back
when they had to all be onthirty five millimeter, we would almost always
show a Hammer film. And thefirst year I was allowed to go to

(14:31):
this movie theater and stay up untilsix in the morning watching horror movies.
I'm fifteen years old, and theyshowed Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. That was
the Hammer film they got that year, and I remember being very taken aback
by how it looked old. Butthen when there was like blood or violence,

(14:54):
it was very like in your face, like it had that like it
was it was really like, youknow, the English accent like completely throws
you off. You're like, oh, this is classic. Those are boobs
and that is a lot of blood, okay. But the best moment of
that that I remember of seeing itin the theater is there's a part where
Frankenstein's hand raises up and it reallylooks like it's like under a sheet and

(15:18):
it really looks like a boner.Like the crowd was just going insane because
every time it cut to this armlifting, it just looked it looks now
I need to watch that again.Oh man, it was. It was
so so funny. And I rememberso I started out as just a kid
going and then about seven years laterI became one of the organizers at Horror

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Rama and we had this big fightwith the guy who always wanted to show
Hammer movies. We had no problemshowing them, but he wanted to show
them at like one in the morning, and we were like, nobody can
stay awake through the They're good,but they're slow. You know, they're
their atmospheric, they will sleep throughit. No Evil two is for two
in the morning. Yeah, youknow, Horror of Dracula is for ten

(16:04):
pm. Yeah. But that wasmy first one, and then I bought
the you know, discount DVD ofSatanic Rites of Dracula. That was one
that I really, you know,got a lot of use out of.
And I don't remember when I sawHorror of Dracula, but man, I

(16:25):
love that one, I really reallydo. And I have to give kudos
to James because your list of Draculamovies, you know the list of like
what Dracula movies the most accurate tothe book and everything. Oh, I
spent that Halloween season watching like eightor nine Dracula adaptations I had never seen.
Oh cool, which was a phenomenaluse of my time. I really

(16:48):
had a good time with it.And I was shocked to realize that Franco's
Dracula, I think is my absolutefavorite. Oh yeah, yeah, and
which I I I didn't think Iwould have said that. Yeah, it
was so good. He had themustache like Dracula, like the real Dracula
that Franco man. Every now andthen he would just stumble ass backwards into
genius like yeah, he didn't meanit. He didn't mean it to be

(17:10):
good. It just did you knowanyway. But no, So that was
my first Hammer experience, and thenfrom there I just always knew if I
was buying a Hammer movie or showinga friend of Hammer movie, I was
getting your high class, low classhorror film. That's probably the best way
I would It's like eating at It'slike eating at Applebee's. It's your high
class, low class establishment. Sowhen I started getting into Hammer movies,

(17:37):
like I said only really in thelast forty eight hours, but I've been
aware of them for quite some time, mostly because of James's videos, which
I remember him referencing them in likethe early twenty tens, and I just
never really kind of thought about it. But again, I've talked about this
a couple times on the show.I remember there was a book in my
public school library that showed different stillphotos from different horror movies, and I

(18:03):
remember seeing Christopher Lee as Dracula butalso as Frankenstein, and I never knew
what they were. From what Iremember mo was vividly from the Hammer movies
was that very specific color that theblood was that bright cherry red, and
that always kind of stuck out tome. And then when James you were
just mentioning how these movies have thatvery Ten Commandments look to them, while

(18:26):
while I was watching The Mummy aboutan hour before we started recording tonight,
I was really impressed with how goodthese movies look like there's a way that
they're shot that feels modern yet classy, and it's not like the old Universal
movies, which have a very uniquefeel to them themselves. And I'm a

(18:48):
huge fan of those. Thanks toJames, I got turned onto those when
we talked about those about two orthree years ago, and going through the
movies now something that I really didknow. These movies are remarkably well cast.
I mean, obviously I love PeterCushing. I I only ever knew
him as Grandma of Tarkan, andseeing him as you know, Van Helsing

(19:12):
and all these other like Victor Frankenstein, and then seeing Christopher Lee again I
knew him as Salomon, and Iknew him as Count Dooku, so obviously
I didn't know his kind of earlierwork as I'm a PLB, and I
was just so impressed by the twoscreen presences of these two ultimately English legends.

(19:37):
And something again, as Enrique wasalluding to, ultra violence and boobs.
The women in these movies, outsideof being exceptionally gorgeous, there's something
about the way that they're cast otherthan just their physical attributes. There's something
about the expressions they show in theface and in the eye especially. I

(20:00):
noticed this during The Mummy, wherethe Mummy Caras would look at Uh.
I can't remember the character's name,Elizabeth, I think it was or something.
I think so yeah, Nanka,yeah, and just the expresses and
how bright blue her eyes were.Maybe that's them playing with the color settings

(20:21):
in post, but there's just somethingabout the way a lot of these women
give a performance and just with theireyes and their face and just like whoever
was cast these movies did, theydid an exceptional job. And even some
of the music for these is reallygreat. Even some of the stunt work.
I noticed, Like there's a greatkill. I think it's in Stars

(20:42):
of Dracula where Dracula catches on firefrom like a lightning bolt, and I
was like, holy shit, didn'tsee that coming. Yeah, And I
was just like ah, But therewas just so much going on in these
things, And even in the Frankensteinmovie. I think it was Curse of
Frankenstein. I watched. That's probablymy favorite one so far, and we'll

(21:03):
probably start with We'll probably start withthat one. And it was just so
much about that movie. I likedhow driven Peter Cushing was to get this
thing he wants to create live.He brought back that like dead Puppy,
and he's got his partner who hehired me was like fourteen, and they've
been working together for all these yearsto recreate life not on like Reanimator and

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just how mad it drove this guy. And I was just so enthralled by
Peter Cushing's performance that if Hammered didanything right by me, it highlighted an
actor I knew from a bit partin Star Wars to being something different.
And that's something I've learned a lotby being friends with both James and hen

(21:52):
Rinque. Here, I'm being exposedto new things in the horror genre that
I may just dismiss. As youknow, I'm not just into the popular
franchises. I know. A coupleof weeks ago, me and Enriquez talked
about the Slumber Party Mascer series doneby Roger Corman, and that's an underappreciated

(22:14):
gem of a series. If you'rewilling to look past the goofy title,
there's some really good stuff in there. And with the Hammer horror movies,
yeah, you could say they lookamazing, but they're kind of trashy,
but there's there is something magical tothem that I think every horror fan should
definitely check out or at least givea chance to. And the fact that
they touch upon all the major monsters. There's like a gorgon in there.

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There's Frankenstein, there's Dracula. There'sprobably a fish movie in there too,
I'm sure. But I was justreally, really really impressed with it,
and just when you both spoke aboutthe classiness of them, there's something about
the set design, the atmosphere,and I've never seen and I'll admit this

(22:57):
is a very weak part of myfilm history. I haven't seen a lot
of stuff from the fifties and sixties. I've seen mostly stuff from the seventies
forward, and there's something about whenmovies are made during the time. It
just seems like they cared a lotabout what the set looked like, what
the set dressing was, and howto create the atmosphere on set that Woulally
lens to making the performances seem alittle bit more authentic and just to immerse

(23:22):
you in that world of gothic horrorfantasy that I think is something exceptional and
I think very unique to Hammer,at least in my experience so far.
Yeah, that's awesome too. It'salways exciting when you you know, get
to hear from somebody who's like justseeing these for the first time, or
like any classics you know, Sothat's always cool. Yeah, we're glad,

(23:45):
glad to introduce you to them.Yeah, not to introduce, but
to like, you know, exposeyou to them. Yeah. Like,
like I said, Hammer is oneof those things that I'd heard about,
talked about for years upon years.But again in Canada, my place is
to rent were Blockbuster Video, whichnot great. We had a local mom

(24:07):
and pop shop that just kind oftook the name Hollywood Video. We had
the Other Video, which was anotherplace. I remember that place mostly because
they had a really cute daughter thatI kind of had the hots for.
So hey, if you're listening,Hi, Laura, But it's I just
I never saw these things on shelvesand even the public library that I had

(24:32):
just never had access to these materiallike we all we had was the Universal
Monster movies. So seeing something thatwas English, and again, as Henrique
was saying, you have these Englishaccents and it really throws you off.
I'd never seen a foreign movie,and I use that term remarkably loosely here,
but it was just something I'm like, Wow, there is stuff beyond

(24:52):
Hollywood and that is totally my smalltown Ontario brain telling me, Hey,
there's more to the world than Torontoor Hollywood and just seeing stuff from around
the world. I know, James, when you did a video series a
couple of years ago talking about horrormovies around the world, Like you see
stuff that comes out of India,stuff that comes out of Tokyo, even

(25:15):
Russia, Norwich. There's so muchinteresting stuff out there, and it makes
me really curious to see stuff,like to see what is not made by
you know, any of the majorfilm studios that exist over here in North
America. So I've been rambling onabout hyping this up. So let's talk
about our first movie tonight. We'regoing to go all the way back to

(25:37):
nineteen fifty seven and we're going totalk about the Curse of Frankenstein. So,
guys, let's talk about this movie. I've talked about it enough,
but I want to hear from youtwo. Let's wrap about the Curse of
Frankenstein. Yeah, James, youstart, because you're the you're the hammer
Master. I'm going to follow yourlead on this. Yeah. Well,
this is really the first one ofthe of the hammer movie movement. I

(26:00):
mean, it's Peter Cushion Christopher Leetogether for the first time, I believe,
and definitely the first time playing youknow, like in a horror film,
and it's it's just like like yousaid, Mike about how like driven

(26:23):
Frankenstein is that he's just gonna likestop at nothing to see this experiment through,
and he just becomes so obsessive.And then you see it in his
partner like he just starts to likedetach where he's like, Okay, like
this is going too far, likethis is just getting crazy now. And

(26:47):
yeah, like I mean, asthe series goes on, he becomes like
straight up like evil, but inthis movie you at least kind of see
like the reasoning behind it, Likehe's he kind of sees this as like
like, oh, this is gonnabe like some big advancement in science.
Although if he does become successful,then like how is he going to He's
gonna go to jail and no matterwhat. So it's like I've always wondered,

(27:12):
like how would it go if everythingwas a success, but but oh
you still murdered people. So butuh, I mean, just like I
think this is like it might evenbe the best Hammer film because it just
established everything. One of the thingsI did like about this particular movie is
how he gains the different body partsfor the creature, and especially how he

(27:37):
gets the brain. By the way, guys spoilers from movies that are over
fifty years old. Yeah, yeah, sorry, asshole, you had enough
time, you know that. I'mlike, I think it's coming up on,
Like, geez, I'm gonna dothe math right now. Let's find
out like where he pushes sixty six, it is sixty six years old?
Oh my god, he's six yearsold. Was it where this Exorcist is

(28:00):
fifty? Because because that's what mademe think of it, I'm like,
the Exorcist is fifty this year.I'm like, oh my god, man.
Yeah. The thing that I reallyliked about this and I thought was
a rather unique twist. Peter Cushing, uh Frank Stin is talking to his
assistant Paul, and he's talking abouthow he wants to give the creature this

(28:22):
brain that has the knowledge and wisdomof the ages and has all this experience,
and to do that will give thecreature life and elegance, it'll give
him a certain intelligence. But Paul'slike, Okay, so where do you
intend to find that? Smart ass? She's like, don't hurry, I've
got a plan. So he murdersa guy by pushing him down the stairs

(28:42):
in the most cartoonishly like loony Tunesbullshit. Ever. Yeah, he's like,
look at this painting. Wait,can you step a couple of steps
that, trust me, it'll begood. Push and he knocks it down
the stairs, takes his brain out, and then Paul's oh man, you
fucking wasted this guy. You can'tdo that, And he's got the brain
in a bag like a like croakwhen he pushes him over. I like

(29:07):
that you could tell the floor islike a mattress. It's like a cushion
that's been painted and it's really well. I mean it's it's like where you
can see how they did it.But you're like, that's not bad.
I mean it's not a bad idea. You know, you're on a low
budget and you gotta because you seethe guy fall and actually like hit the
ground that if you're not looking tooclose, you know, you don't notice

(29:30):
that like little ripple in this gaverageand he dragonball z cratered the guy.
Yeah. Yeah, So when Paulis fighting Frankenstein, he knocks the bag
with the brain in it. That'sa phrase and everyone thought I'd say out
loud. It's like you damage thebrain and it fucks up the monster because

(29:51):
obviously in the original story something happenslike, oh this isn't this is an
abnormal brain. But it's just alittle bit of brain damage. And then
and the thing that I really likedabout this is he doesn't give up on
the monster, but the monster dyinglike twice, he's like, I'm gonna
perform brain surgery. Now he's docile. He's like, oh yeah, great
trick, Victor. And now he'san idiot. And they just keep going

(30:17):
back and forth with this, andthey eventually shoot the guy with like shotguns.
They eventually he falls down and that'show he like ends the threat of
the monster. But he gets takento jail. He's confessing to his crimes
to this priest and he counts onPaul to come save his ass and Paul's
like, I don't know what you'retalking about. And then the guillotine and

(30:37):
the shot in the movie oh yeah, And I was like, ah,
that's so much fun. And Ilove that. And the thing I've noticed
about Hammering movies when they end,it's not long and drawn out, and
I think this may be something justfrom the era of the fifties and sixties.
Those movies are just and they're doneroll yes, musical form. When

(31:00):
the monster is dead, the movieis officially over. Yeah, Like,
it doesn't linger. It you don'tneed a epilogue, you need that that
punch, and it just gives itto you. And that's something I've really
noticed about every Hammer movie that I'vewatched so far. It just it ends
when it needs to. It doesn'tlinger, it doesn't leave you sitting there

(31:22):
through two or three minutes of bringingthe mood down. It's just now he's
gonna get his head cut off.And I hope you've enjoy and have a
safe drive home. That's right.Yes, and they did all the time,
Yes, oh yeah, like notjust Hammer, but like, yeah,
it was just like a thing backthen. Yeah, like, and
I would wonder if they went tothe Roger Corman School of Theater where basically,

(31:47):
hey, you got three reels,wrap it up, guys. But
yeah, like I had a lotof fun with us, Enrique, what
about you, man, I've alwaysloved the Curse of Frankenstein. I've always
found it kind of hunt, whichI guess is kind of obvious, but
I always found it kind of Ialways found it kind of eeriness because I

(32:08):
like to look at movies and thetime period that they're made in particular.
And I mean, maybe I'm readingtoo much into this, but his portrayal
of Victor Frankenstein came across very Naziishto me. I can see that because
we're talking just a few decades afterWorld War Two and all of the atrocities

(32:31):
committed by doctors for the sake ofadvancing science, and this idea that a
lot of those doctors thought that theyhad protection from punishment because what they were
doing was for the public good orwhatever perversion of morality they subscribed to.
And I felt like when Victor realizes, like, actually nobody's got my back,

(32:52):
I've gone completely mad, and nowthey all they have for me is
a guillotine. Now, I kindof felt like that was one of the
reasons I feel like I felt likeCushing was kind of pulling from some of
that a little bit in the wayhe carried himself and the way that the
doctor would speak about his goals andhis obsessions. He became not at all

(33:14):
concerned with morality, only concerned withresults. So that's something that I always
found haunting about the film. Ialways found like this creepy thought of like,
h they had you know, messedup eugenics experiments and experimental surgery and
you know, cutting off arms fromtwins and sewing them onto each other and
stuff that was happening just you know, one hundreds of miles away, just

(33:37):
twenty years earlier. Kind of morbid. But yeah, that's the first thought
I have, And that's kind ofwhat's always stuck with me about the Curse
of Frankenstein is is that era andwhat it would have to say about the
atrocities of World War Two. Oneof the other things I also kind of
noticed about all of the Hammer filmsis the weird way maybe we'd it's not

(34:00):
the right word for it, buthow they handle sexuality in some of these
movies, like I'm Gonna Marry mycousin, Welcome to Obama, England,
but yeah, it was just likeokay, and then he's sleeping with his
maid who then gets yeaded by themonster, and I was just like okay,

(34:24):
Like but yeah, like I foundsexuality and some of these movies is
handled really well, and then Iguess, as you move later on,
not so much. Where they alwaysseem to focus on she's wearing a really
small pendant among her womanly assets,we shall say, and it's always a
close up shot. Oh, dependentbetween the cleavage is a very that's like

(34:46):
a straight up trope of hammer.Yeah. I was like wow, but
yeah, like honestly, like thatwas the movie I had the most fun
with. I really really enjoyed thatone, And for my final thought on
it, it really showed Peter Cushingto me as an actor, what he

(35:07):
could do that wasn't going evacuate ina moment of triumph. This was different
to me, and I so enjoyedit. So the next movie, I'm
just saying it was like, yeah, if you really like the character of
Frankenstein, that wh's really great isthat the rest of those movies he's the
focus. So unlike the Universal ones, which was all about the monster,

(35:30):
this one's the first Frankenstein series tojust focus on the scientist. So yeah,
so he's it in Well, he'sin every one of them except for
Horror of Frankenstein, which was likea reboot anyway. That one actually was
the first to have Dave prowse asthe monster, and then Dave Prows would

(35:50):
play the Monster again, a verydifferent monster completely in Frankenstein The Monster from
Hell. So that was the firsttime Peter Cushing and Dave Prowse acted together
because Dave Trousse would eventually be DarthVader. So I'm sure that that's not
unintentional. I'm sure George Lucas sawthem in that movie and was like,

(36:12):
I want to put them back together. Yeah, I could totally see that
being the case. So the nextmovie we're gonna talk about is when we
talked about briefly at the beginning here, and this is The Mummy from nineteen
fifty nine. And again I'm gonnathrow to James on this one just because,
like I said, this was sucha trip for me. Love the

(36:32):
set design on this, yeah drops, and just the acting in this.
This was one of the best atmospherics. And the Mummy, I think,
besides Franksin, is probably my favoriteclassic monster, and not just because of
the Brendan Fraser movies, though arguablythose are fun too, but no,
there's something about this Mummy that Ireally liked. And the makeup too.

(36:59):
For nineteen fifty nine, I'm thinkingthat is so cool because it looks wet
and gross and when he gets placidwith a shotgun. Okay, didn't see
that coming from nineteen fifty nine andagain an Arris body. Yeah, and
I'm just thinking like, wow,like they've done something really phenomenal. So

(37:19):
James walk Me through the Mummy nineteenfifty nine. Oh yeah, well you
mentioned the makeup is really good.I also like how they they show his
eyes as Christopher Lee actually gets toact with his eyes in that movie,
whereas in the Mummy sequels they woulddo they would have the Mummy, which
is it would be like a mask, his eyes would just be completely covered
up and like there's no no facialacting whatsoever. And I think the scene

(37:45):
that sticks out to me, andthat's what makes it more special than most
Mummy movies is like is when PeterCushing talks to the Egyptian priest and they
just have this very intellectual conversation.These two characters are like the enemies in
the movie. I mean, butthey both kind of make their case.

(38:06):
Like Peter Cushing as a Banning whatwas his name, Tom Banning or whatever
it was, He's like talking tothe priests and he's like, well,
I think we should dig these upto put them in museums to preserve them,
because we want to preserve your historyand you know, your heritage and
everything. And he's like, no, this is sacred. These are supposed

(38:27):
to stay in the ground where weput them, and they both kind of
make a case for it. Andthat's just what's really interesting, because that's
what the whole movie is about,the whole rivalry and why the Mummy is
killing people. So yeah, Imean I just thought that was really cool.
Yeah, that actually hits kind ofclose to home to me because for
those of you that may be newto the podcast, I'm Indigenous Canadian and

(38:52):
you know, the history of mypeople has a lot of white folk taking
stuff that doesn't belong to them andit ends up in a museum. And
it's only now in the last coupleof years that sacred items are starting to
be returned to their proper tribal lands. I know there was a fairly big
case a couple of years ago wherethere was a totem pole or some kind

(39:13):
of a sacred item that was beingshipped back to Scotland, back to British
Columbia. So when I heard thatargument they were having in the study where
they're like if people didn't know aboutthis, if it wasn't dug up,
people would remain ignorant of what yourentire culture was and the person you were
just mentioning there, James was like, yeah, but that was put there

(39:35):
for a reason and remarkably topical intwenty twenty three. Uh yeah, yeah,
but yeah that we didn't cover itwith thousands of pounds of dirt so
you could look at it imagine that, I know, as fun. But
yeah, Like and the other thingabout this movie too is the side characters
are also like kind of memorable too. Like there's a cop, there's a

(39:59):
drug cop who wanders around. Lovedhim. Oh you know, it's great.
Just to mention, he said thatthe actor Michael Ripper, he's in
like almost all these movies, andhe always plays like a bit part and
he's usually like a drunk or somebody. But every movie you remember him.
So I can't wait until he showsup in my next hammer horror movie.

(40:24):
Fon. Yeah, one of theweird things I like that And and this
is just something that I noticed becauseI thought was kind of funny. One
of the police consobles has like apith helmet with like a big Spike.
Oh yeah, kind of hanging O. I don't think it Okay, I
don't see the practical use of thatas a police officer, but sure,

(40:44):
uh you ever play Satigo? Notalking about it? Some of the characters
have those, so yeah, yeah, Like it was just again just kind
of took me by surprise. Butagain, one of the things that really
grabbed me about The Mummy too,as we were talking about in the beginning,

(41:05):
just this movie looks way more expensivethan what it should. Like it
has this classy I guess the onlyterm I can think of is a glossiness
to it, and like sheen thatgives it like it feels like old school
Hollywood, but with something a littlebit extra. And I can't think of
too many movies that I've personally seenthat really have it. Like the most

(41:28):
classy movies I've ever seen in coloris Lawrence of Arabia. I've seen parts
of Cleopatra, and I've seen partsof ben Hur and the Ten Commandments,
and this Hammer film kind of hasthat vibe. And I'm sure someone in
the comments is gonna say, I'ma fucking idiot, go for it,
But I like how it has thatepic feel and yet it's a horror movie,

(41:53):
and I can't think of many epichorror movies that weren't the classic universe
and stuff, and this really capturesthat and I was so impressed by it.
Plus the ending of this movie wherethey lure the Mummy out into the
swamp and they kind of pull aHalloween Part four and waste them, like,

(42:15):
holy shit, I kind of wonderif they stole that. But yeah,
like again, loved this. Thiswas such a fun time for me,
and atmospheric it kept moving. Ifelt this one had a really good
pace to it. Again, withmost of these Hammer movies, I was
actually texting with enri K yesterday becauseI was really worded. I wasn't gonna

(42:36):
be able to watch all these things. I'm like, how long are these
things? Because for some reason Ialways thought Hammer movies were like two hours
plus, and then I remembered,oh, yeah, they're nineteen fifties and
sixties and seventies, so probably not. But he's like, oh, yeah,
there are trim ninety minutes and youget a lot done in ninety minutes,
Like you're never bored during Yeah,these movies. That's back when movies

(42:57):
could be ninety minutes I missed.They aren't anymore. They have to be
at at least two hours. It'sjust impossible. I don't know why.
And you need a and then youneed the post credit stinger and the teaser
for the teaser. Yeah. Yeah. A buddy of mine, he's a
general manager at the Cinemak movie theaterby me, and when Mario was the

(43:20):
Super Mario Brothers movie was playing,he was like dancing around because he was
like, it's only ninety minutes.Eight more shows, yes, yes,
yes, yeah, yeah. Imean would you think you could add more
shows and make more money too?If waye orders Yeah. Also mentioned the
lighting and stuff I just want tothrow in there. I love how the
lighting doesn't need to make sense,Like when they're in the Egyptian tomb,

(43:44):
there's like a green glow coming fromsomewhere and like you don't know like where
what's making a green light, Butit doesn't matter. It's just so it's
just such a great yeah, Likeit sucks you in in a way that
I don't think a lot of modernmovies do that with their lighting. And

(44:05):
what I mean by that is like, sure, you get movie like you
get television shows. On Disney Plusor the latest Marvel movie or whatever.
And the lighting, sure, it'sremarkably well done, but it doesn't always
add to the immersion. It justit looks cool. Whereas with these older
movies, you got to work withwhat you got with the technology at the
time, so it's a different storytellingtool. And you said, you're not

(44:30):
questioning where this green mystical light comesfrom. You're just ooh, it's a
spooky Egyptian tomb. Green sounds cool. They had emeralds and jade, and
it works. It doesn't It doesn'tbreak you out of that moment of wonder.
And that's something that I had alsonoticed with these Hammer movies. Again,
maybe I'm looking a little too farinto it, but I dig that

(44:53):
well. Back in those days,I mean, shooting on celluloid film requires
an immense amount more light, especiallyback then they didn't have extremely light sensitive
film stock either, so you're talkinga lot of light. Everything has to
be very intentional because if you don'tpoint a light at something, it is

(45:15):
not going to photograph. There's nolike, oh, the lights in the
room will fill the shadow. No, No, you have to point a
light at anything you want to beseen, and it makes it much more
thought out, and it makes itmuch more purposeful. So that green light
somebody really put it there because ithad to be there or it wouldn't nothing

(45:37):
what it was pointed at would nevershow. And I because I've never I've
not worked on celluloid film much,but I shot on a double eight millimeter
once and there was a fifty ISOfilm and that means that you are out
in the broad daylight and you're justgetting an exposure at fifty ISO. It's

(45:59):
that it needs a lot of light. And that's why they had to have
generators and electricians on those sets backin those days, because you had to
run ten thousand watt lights multiples indoors. And I'm sure it was hard to
I'm sure I was gonna say,I'm sure it was hard to keep the
mummy makeup from sweating off. Noled No, oh my gosh. I

(46:22):
remember shooting whole scenes for movies andpeople's apartments in the dead of winter and
just telling them shut your furnace offbecause we're putting up like three thousand watts
of light in this living room.It'll be warm enough, like we'll be
fine. Open a window so Nowwith LEDs, it's like, turn them
on, leave them on. Whocares. I don't even know what's going
on. And I'm not complaining,but it definitely makes a big difference.

(46:46):
And yeah, and I couldn't agreemore. And also a lot of these
people came from kind of the worldof stage because we're not that deep into
the era of the film. Everything'sbuilt to be on screen for the most
part. The props are built,the sets are built, the beds are
built, the chairs are built.So everything is a specific color pattern.

(47:07):
Everything's this very specific choice, andthat plays into it too. I've always
thought that that's why Hammer's blood wasso starkly bright red was because they muted
every other color on the set andon the characters and on the actors.
So their clothes were muted, theirmakeup was muted, their bed the draperies

(47:28):
muted. And then when Dracula turnsand looks at you and his eyes have
blood coming out of them, You'relike, holy shit, that's red.
You know. I love that.I love it. I love it.
And my only thought about the Mummythat that I have to say, beyond
what you guys said, is maybethe only classic monster that if I saw

(47:50):
him just outside, I would run. I wouldn't stop it. I wouldn't
stop and go. Is that aguy in a costume? No, I
would just be like, no,die. It's terrifying. Christopher Lee is
all eyes, the way the wayhis mouth is shaped playing the Mummy,
the way he just kind of holdsit. I don't know. It just

(48:12):
really bothers me, and in thebest possible way. So that's the best
thing I can say about The Mummyis like, if I haven't dream about
the Mummy from Hammer tonight, Iwill not have a good night's sleep.
Yeah, Like, there's so muchthat was done right with that movie.
Obviously, Christopher Lee doing that performancewith his face and his eyes wonderful.

(48:34):
And again, this is the firsttime where I've heard Christopher Lee not giving
epic monologues or talking about hobbits andbullshit. This was just pure acting through
his eyes. And there's something likeyou mentioned about how this came out of
the like a lot of these guysprobably came from like stage in theater.
There's something about the way that theycarry themselves across the film too, that

(48:58):
just it's very it's emphasized, it'svery deliberate and it's not something you see
done. You don't see this inmodern movies period, and I just I
really appreciate that. And I thinkmaybe just over the course of my friendship
with like kind of YouTube, I'mstarting to appreciate different types of acting.
That isn't like I said, comingout of the nineteen seventies and eighties and

(49:20):
forward. I'm seeing different things.I know. One thing I've discovered in
the last two years, especially sinceI've been able to get out more in
my kind of wheelchairs, I'm seeinga lot more live theater. So I'm
really getting into the performances that aredone on stage, like in fact hardcore
guys. One of my favorite thingsI saw last year was a performance of
Mama Mia, So I don't knowwhat that says about me. And then

(49:45):
I saw Joseph in the Amazing TechTechnicolor dream Coat. And the only reason
I bring those up is because youhave to carry yourself across the stage.
You have to make sure everybody's eyesfollow you. And with these professionals,
obviously being actors that are being paidwhatever the going rate it was back then,
they have to command that room,command that presence without distracting from the
other people who are in that scenewith them. And there's something about Christopher

(50:07):
Lee and Peter Cushing you are drawnto them, and that's a magnetism.
I can't think of many people thatreally have that now, that have that
caliber. That aren't, you know, the most celebrated actors today. So
the next one we're gonna talk about, and these are the ones I was
the least fans of, unfortunately,but I appreciate what Christopher Lee brought to

(50:31):
it. Was we're gonna go tonineteen fifty eight. We're gonna talk about
a Horror of Dracula. So Jamestake it away. Oh yeah, I
mean, well this is kind ofthe first of a kind as well.
I mean Curse of Frankenstin kind ofkicked it off, but this was the
next one after that. Yeah,man, where do I start with?

(50:53):
Or a Dracula? What it wasthis called Dracula in UK and then which
which I never understood. You knowwhy, It's like Dracula was the Baylor
Logosi one could why not just callit horror Dracula? But uh, but
you know, it just has thatGothic scenery to it, and it's the
mood and and it's and it's notjust Peter Cushing, but it's also Michael

(51:16):
Goff. Like it's such a goodjust such good acting all around the cemetery
scene with all the fog in it, and uh, the crypt and just
when they're in the castle and everything. It just has a really great look
to it. And Dracula is socommanding and he's just so charismatic and yeah,

(51:43):
I mean it's it's just great.But it's also like the first of
a series, So I kind ofthink of him as like a package,
where like there's things I like alittle better about each one, Like I
think each one of those movies hassome kind of strength or even just a
memorable scene or even if it's justoh, that's the one where he gets
struck by lightning at the end forno reason and it's like that's why,

(52:04):
you know. So yeah, oh, the I mean, not to mention,
I mean the way Dracula's killed inthat movie is like it was unlike
anything before. Yeah, Like firstof all, making the cross out of
two objects, it's like two candlesticksor whatever. I don't think that was
ever done before that. And thenat the same time, pulling the shades

(52:25):
down and the light coming into hisface and oh, that deterioration actually went
on longer. In the original cut, they cut it down a little bit
because it was too graphic or whatever. I think they discovered it about ten
years ago and that was the firsttime it's ever been seen since the fifties,

(52:45):
so I think you can see thaton YouTube. They put it on
the the Blu Ray I think inthe UK, but they never put it
on the Blu Ray elsewhere, soa shame. Anyway, That's it.
I mean, I can keep ongoing about Horror Dracula, So take it
away. I'd say, yeah,Enrique, what are your thoughts on it?

(53:08):
Horror of Dracula is. I mean, that's the one that everybody thinks
of, in my opinion, whenyou say hammer horror movie, their first
thought. Christopher Lee as Dracula,and that moment when Dracula pushes in and
we get that wide angle close upand his eyes are red and he just

(53:30):
has this like crazy, pure insanity. I don't even I mean, like,
I don't know how you make yourface make that expression like uh.
I mean, I honestly think thatthe contact lenses or the or the makeup
or whatever they had to use tomake his eyes look like that probably played
a part in how he made thatexpression, because he I'm literally looking at

(53:50):
it for reference, and I meanhis eyes are bulging so hard. He
looks both angry and almost joyous,but in a completely demented way. And
I love the idea I've always whenit comes to like how do you portray
Dracula, I always like the ideathat Dracula is like driven mad by loneliness.

(54:15):
That's my favorite kind of Dracula isthe tormented Dracula because he's not I
mean, he's a count, buthe lives in a castle where he's just
like, boy, I hope somebodycomes along I can eat, you know,
or marry or whatever, because likeI'm just just kind of alone here,
you know. It's which is agreat statement about old money in Europe,

(54:36):
but that's a whole I mean,bram Stoker was all about that too,
this whole idea of like old moneywhere it's like we have this castle.
We can't heat it, but wehave this castle. You know,
you can't clean it. We don'thave enough people, but we have this
castle. So that's that's my favoriteis I feel like Christopher Lee just there's
a reason he became as almost assynonymous with Dracula as Bella Lagosi after this

(55:00):
movie and then the many other HammerDracula movies, and and why he's so
consistent for the most part that Istruggle to tell them apart sometimes in my
head because I've watched them all,and I just think of all the great
moments he was Dracula, and notnecessarily which movie is this? Which movie
is that? Kind of thing?So yeah, I think that it's all

(55:20):
about that Christopher Lee energy. Andif you haven't seen it, and you
consider yourself a horror fan, youknow you're messing up. You need to
get you need to get your buttongear. So now, when I watched
this one, I wasn't a hugefan of the movie. And what I
mean by that is I found parts. This is the only Hammer movie I
found kind of slow in parts.But I like the performances in it,

(55:45):
and I like several scenes. Actually, I love anything involving Dracula's brides,
especially when the Harkness sister becomes abride and when he stakes her, uh
and the is tormented that he hasto watch his sister die and when the
sister tries to lure the little girl, it's like, oh, come play

(56:07):
with me, but we gotta goaway from the grown ups. And I'm
likeing, oh god, it's gonnaget dark. And I was like,
that's really really cool. And thenwhen the one and when Peter Cushing is
trying to kill the one vampire inthe crypt and Dracula just opens his eyes
and just kind of grins there,doesn't move, and I'm thinking, again,

(56:29):
that is so merrible. Like there'sso many scenes from this movie.
I'm nine and i'me cent sure I'veseen in books, I've seen referenced on
YouTube videos and like other places that, yeah, that crazy look, Enrique,
you were just talking about with ChristopherLee. That is Dracula besides Bella
Legosi, and you get different flavorsof like Bella. I'm trying to figure

(56:49):
how I would describe his more subduedbut sinister Christopher Lee's Dracula is he's going
to you. You just don't knowwhen, but he's going to invite you
in. You're gonna have a cupof wine, and when you don't suspect
it, he's gonna slit your throat. And I love that menace of the

(57:13):
Christopher Lee Dracula, where as opposedto the subtlety of the Bella Lagosi performance.
And again Peter Cushing, I lovehis Van helsing because sure he's an
old man, but he's dashing,he's a man of action, and he's
very intelligent. He's very smart,he's very cunning, and I really dig

(57:37):
that from an older character. Andlike because the only other interpretation that I
can think of of that of thatof the Van Housing character that really sticks
out to me was the Francis FordCopoola one in the nineties with Anthony Hopkins.
Wasn't Gary Oldman? Yeah? Sorry, no, no, you're right,
yeah, yeah, yeah, AndI was thinking I get the same

(58:00):
energy from that. So I'll almostwonder if they watch some Hammer horror to
prepare for it. But yeah,like I like, I really dug just
all the vampire scenes in it.I just wish I'd liked the movie a
little bit more. Maybe I shouldgive it another chance when I'm in a
little bit better of a mood,because think it might be the middle.
You think it's the middle, that'syeah, And I just I kind of

(58:23):
tuned out, And that's something I'venoticed about me as a movie watcher.
Depending unless it grabs me, I'lllook at my phone or I'll do something
else, and I don't like that. How that's how my movie viewing habits
have changed, especially in the lastten years. And I think that's a
real problem when people go to theaterslike you literally constantly have you have to

(58:46):
have the car keys jingled in frontof your face to keep your attention.
But yet the other Hammer movies didn'tdo that To me. I was engaged
the entire time. Maybe it's maybeI like the subject matter a little bit
more, or maybe I like thecharacters up a little bit more. But
there are certain scenes from this I'mnever gonna forget, Like that huge close

(59:06):
up with the bloodshot eyes and thefangs. That's gonna stick with me.
And I love that because that's that'sa great performance. That wasn't totally a
goofy like makeup effect. Yes itwas, but it was that was Christopher
Lee really putting himself in that moment, in that role. That is so

(59:27):
awesome just to see that, andit's not CG. It's not, you
know, a crazy effect that wasdone by some special effects workshop. That's
a guy doing it and it scaresthe shit at you. I can only
imagine what that, what that musthave been like during the theater times,
and how many children that must havescared at the time. And I guess

(59:51):
so just to kind of get theread on the room here, just to
speak about how horror movies from wayback when, what the effect must have
been like on the population, becauselike I never found the Universal movie scary
because obviously the first movie I eversaw it was Friday of the Thirteenth,
Part five and that fucked me uppretty good. Goddamnintu Lattice. But yeah,

(01:00:16):
like you think about how these moviesmust have affected, you know,
the audiences they must have been tobeen with, and I'm almost kind of
jealous about how people way back whentheir theater experiences must have been different,
like much like with us, Likewe're all children of the eighties and nineties
here, so we grew up inthe era of the franchises, We grew

(01:00:38):
up in the era of the specialeffects monster back then, it was different
to scare you, And I justwonder what that must have been like,
and it must have been magical ina way that I don't think we're gonna
see. I don't think you seemuch out of outside of the Marvel movies.
And I can think of one examplefrom my personal life where a horror

(01:00:59):
movie got an audience going no.Sorry. Two examples. One was two
thousand and three with Freddy versus Jasonon opening night. That theater was electric.
Couldn't believe the energy in that room. And this was a small theater
in London, Ontario, so middleof frankly years ago. Can you believe

(01:01:21):
that movie's twenty years off? Now? I know twenty years ago this last
month actually, because it came outin August of that year. And the
only other time I could think ofthat would have been the remake of Friday
the Thirteenth. Back in two thousandand nine, I was in a I
was at my local college theater andthere was this person I guess they just

(01:01:45):
must have really loved Jason, andhe runs out of the random cave structure
that he's built and he runs ata guy with a machete, and the
guy in the theater is like,yeah, fuck it, get him Jason,
and everybody in the theater just lookedat him and just had a good
laugh at it. And I gotto thinking, I can't think of many

(01:02:06):
horror movies where I've had that anexperience with an audience. But way back
when, like you think about thestories we've all heard from documentaries where people
would get like scared in theaters.I mean Enrique with that film fest,
So I can only imagine how muchfun that can be. Women fainting and
yeah, like you don't get thatmovie experience out outside of like a Marvel

(01:02:29):
movie, Like when cap got Thor'sHammer Avengers Assemble. That was the most
memorable experience I can think of inthe last ten years anyway, where people
cheered. But for horror movies,I don't see that happening. Hm.
I mean, yeah, it's it'sit's such a different beast. The biggest

(01:02:51):
reactions I've gotten in the theater I'veseen in theaters lately has been like I'll
see a movie like The Witch andwhen it ends some he'll be like what
was that? And I'm like,just shut up, like I liked it,
But like I mean, but thatbeing said, like when I saw
Godzilla versus Cang in a massive soldout theater and people were yelling stuff at

(01:03:16):
the screen in a fun way,you know, So I mean, people
are still there for it, buthorror is just so so different now.
Although I will say I saw Halloweentwenty eighteen outside of Philly and there were
these like college kids in the frontrow and they were just they were a

(01:03:36):
little annoying. And there were thesetwo ladies sitting to the left of me
and they were talking to each otherbut about the movie. You know,
they weren't just talking about whatever,but what the little When the little kid
is like saying all this funny linesabout like, you know, Dave sucks
and all that stuff, they arelaughing and just going like haha, that
little boy, blah blah blah,and this little this college kid just turns
and goes sh She just goes shootyourself, you little bitch. And every

(01:04:00):
buddy in the whole theater burst outlaughing. And I was like, wow,
Philly is different because where people areon the side of the person who
was being shushed. Oh, neversaw that before. Phenomenal moment. So
I love it all right, Sowe got one. We got one more

(01:04:20):
movie to talk about. And thisis the last one that I watched,
And this is the last Drakul themovie that I saw, And I think
I really enjoyed the ending of thisone because it was so, Okay,
this is from nineteen seventy, thisis Scars of Dracula. Oh is this
because I suggested? I was like, so, if you want to watch
one of the other sequels, maybejump ahead to see what they turn out

(01:04:42):
to be. Like you know,yeah, I was like, all right,
I'm in for a ride. AndI was disappointed. Yeah, I
mean, this is where you cansee like the more like grindhouse kind of
appeal to it, where I mean, it's the only Dracula movie where Dracula
uses a fuck a knife to stabsomebody to death. And oh and by

(01:05:04):
the way, every one of theDracula movies, I think or most of
them have a character named Paul,and so does Curse of Frankenstein. And
it's kind of like just a runningthing in Hammer films where they just have
a character named Paul because they can'tthink of any other name. And second

(01:05:25):
to that might be Carl. There'sa lot of Carl's as well. But
when you get to that Paul andScars of Dracula, if you've been watching
them up up to that point,like in order, you're like, oh,
come on, like his name isPaul again again, get another Paul.
Like as soon as you hear itcome out of somebody's mouth, Paul,
it's just like okay, Like it'slike a drinking game, you know,

(01:05:49):
the Hammer horror drinking experience. You'llbe dead by Scars of Dracula.
But yeah, so what'd you thinkof that one? Yeah? I thought
it was actually really cool, likewatching like the scene in the church and
just how vis like how vicis brutal. It's so vicious, like the bats

(01:06:10):
are tearing the guy's eyeball out ofit. Like, oh, it should
be noted too that Scars of Draculais kind of like a remake because it's
sort of just goes back to Draculabeing in like a castle, and and
I think it even brings the youknow, it brings it back to like
the same time period everything, LikeI mean, I don't I guess they

(01:06:30):
all wear the same time period untilwe get to a d nineteen seventy two.
But uh, but they basically rebootedit where the first four Draculas have
a continuity to them, I meanloose, but still every time Dracula dies,
they they bring him back in However, it was left like, you

(01:06:51):
know, he he's frozen in likea lake. The next movie they find
him in the ice, you know, so scars a drag kind of revives
him where he's in ashes and thebat just randomly spits blood on it on
the ashes and he's back. Butbut then the rest of the movie is
it's pretty much a reboot, likethey kind of took it back. You

(01:07:14):
know, I'd say the way thatthey resurrected Dracula that immediately grabbed my attention,
Like I'm thinking, that's very Castlevaniawhere he's regenerating. Oh wait till
you see Taste the Blood of Draculate. It's the best resurrection ever. And
it's basically the plot of Castlevania toSimon's Quest where they collect like the pieces

(01:07:38):
of Dracula and they they combined.You know, he's got like the cape
and he's got like some of theashes of the blood, he's got the
ring and then they have to slitthere. He does this like ceremony.
There's this guy that's just like obsessedand he's it's kind of like this you
know, cult leader kind of thing. He cuts his wrist, the blood

(01:07:59):
drip into the chalice with Dracula's ashes, he drinks from that, and then
he just like he dies basically,and then his body just sort of like
like sort of erupts and Dracula comesout of him in this very weird special
effect. But but what makes itso great the actor Ralph I mean,
we're talking about another movie now,but the actor Ralph Bates, who plays

(01:08:23):
the cult leader. He's he doesit so well. He really sells it,
like this guy is nuts. Butanyway, yeah, on the Scars
of Dracula though, Yeah, whatelse did you think of it? I
thought it was really interesting in thefact that, you know, random sexy
time happens more than a few timesin this which yeah, yeah, again,

(01:08:45):
incredibly attractive woman who then gets kniferepeatedly, like holy shit, back
it off a little bit. Yeah, and then the assistant guy who looked
like again, kind of like oneof the weird hunchbacks from Castlevania three.
That's kind of what I thought ofactually, yeah. Yeah. And then
when Dragon is outside of the castleand he's got the giant spike and what

(01:09:11):
a hell of a time for arainstorm, and he gets struck by lightning
and then falls off the Castle onFire. Yeah. Wow, that's not
what I expected at three o'clock inthe morning when I was watching the Yeah,
I love how long the scream is. It's just Christopher Lee going ah
for like five minutes straight. Andit's such a good fire stunt too.
For the time. Yeah. Again, it was just such a vicious movie

(01:09:36):
like this, the violence in it, the sexy time. So this was
in that exploitative era, blood alot of just it was just more and
I found it just more intense thanHorror of Dracula, and Christopher Lee just
had a different vibe to this one. This was more of the demented,

(01:10:00):
vicious Dracula, like he wasn't walkinghim around the room. That motherfucker was
flying yeah, real fast. Andagain I just I loved just how intense
it was. And I'd say thisis probably my favorite Dracula I've seen so
far of the Christopher Lee ones.I'm really gonna have to go back through
the catalog. I will admit.I saw this documentary last night you can

(01:10:24):
find on YouTube, and they showeda few scenes at a Dracula ad nineteen
seventy two. There's something about discoDracula. I'm really curious about. Oh
okay, oh yeah, so Ican't wait to see it. And for
some reason, correct me if I'mwrong. Is there a Dracula movie with
fucking Sammy Davis Junior? Not thatI remember, cause they were showing clips

(01:10:49):
in this documentary of Sammy Davis Juniorhanging out with Dracula, And I don't
know whether it was Christopher le somaybe I'm miss remembering it in my three
o'clock mind. But it was veryvery strange. Yeah that makes me really
curious. Yeah, yeah, I'mreally curious. Well, well you're looking
that up. So I had notseen Scars of Dracula in a very long

(01:11:15):
time. So I did what anybodywould do. I punched it into my
Roku and I was like, howcan I watch this? And it was
only free to watch on Pluto TV. Okay, So I put it on
the other night at like two inthe morning, and I was so sleepy
as I was watching it that Iwould be like when the commercials came on,

(01:11:38):
I was like, ah, whatam I watching? Like broadcast television
in hell? Like a woman's faceis all like scorched at bird? Did
she screaming? And then it's likewhen I want to get close out prices
on whatever. I go to Kroger'sbecause I know they have my family and
mind. And then it just comesback and you just see like big voluptuous
breasts and then it's like, anyway, here's a campaign ad. I was

(01:12:00):
like, so there was something wildabout watching an uncut, very sleazy Hammer
movie with commercial breaks that I kindof highly recommend. Oh oh my lord,
but yeah, like again, sucha fun time. I felt like
this one. It had that grindhousefeel where the sets they worked, but

(01:12:25):
they weren't as elaborate as Horror ofdragging out of The costumes were fine,
nothing again spectacular, like everything wentin the special effects, everything went into
over the topness again, wonderful castingvoluptuous women. That was kind of the
staple of horror of Hammer at thetime, because again from some of the
research that I did up until aboutI think nineteen seventy five, they started

(01:12:49):
to get known more for flesh andexploitative horror movies and like here's a lesbian
section, oh, vampire movie.Yes, atually the Carnstein trilogy. I
just remember that one because that thatone is like, yeah, there's there's
like full nudity and everything and thoseso yeah, and then I found out

(01:13:10):
they cast like former Playboy playmates.I know there's one called Twins out of
Evil. Oh I saw. Isaw the trailer for that. Like I'm
curious, but probably not for theright reasons. So again, I I
like my experience with like Hammer horroras as we begin to kind of close
things out here is I am soglad I had a chance to talk with

(01:13:34):
people first who kind of gave methe primer for this, and with like
you two selling me on the ideathis is classic. This is part of
your horror education. I mean,yeah, you've you've you've done you Wes
Craven's, You've done your Sam Raimi'sor Sean Cunningham's et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. But here's something alittle bit different. So here's Terence

(01:13:55):
Fisher, here is other directors andother things that you've never seen before.
Or this is how horror movies atthe future were shaped. Understand where they've
come from. And I've got agreater appreciation of the horror genre. And
I know, James, because youlike a lot of the classic stuff.
It's really exposing me to different things. Again I've never seen before. I've
never thought about checking out in myown ignorance. I just never thought they

(01:14:19):
would be as cool. Turns outI'm fucking wrong. And with Enrique's expertise
I've gotten through Welcome to Primetime andthrough other conversations we've had just as friends.
I'm looking at things. Look atit not just as a guy with
a giant drill. Think of itas this is people that are broken.

(01:14:41):
Think about this as vulnerability. Thinkabout this as not just female empowerment.
It's something a little bit different.So I'm looking at different genres through different
eyes now, and I'm so appreciativethat I can look at scary, blood
splatter movies in a more cerebral waynow. And again, maybe completely talking
out of my ass, but Ireally like horror movies because I see something

(01:15:06):
a little bit different. They're fun, they're immersive, they're escapism. Yeah,
they're violent, and there's boobs andand everything, and okay, so
there's a big rubber monster. Butit's fun and it's something that I'm not
getting from the modern crop of moviesthat isn't like i'd say, the most
fun at the movies I've had thisyear was probably John Wick four. I

(01:15:29):
had a lot of fun with that. And what else did I see this
year that I really liked the Mariomovie but I'm a dork. It was
really fun. Yeah, yeah,And I don't know. I wish I
could say I loved Cocaine there,but I didn't, which is really unfortunately.
Yet, and I really liked Renfield, So I've said a lot of

(01:15:49):
fun. It was really fun.So yeah, like I you know,
I'm having Nicolas Cage is now mythird favorite Dracula. It's so good.
Yeah, that's a guy who's havingan amazing career renaissance. Actually, Henrigue
turned me on to a movie acouple of weeks ago called Willie's Wonderland that

(01:16:12):
gets astounding. Oh my god,I so much fun with that. Do
you want Nick Cage just fighting abunch of animatronic but also taking but also
taking regular breaks because it's important toyour mental health, Like my god,
Like guys, this has been somuch fun. Like again, thank you

(01:16:33):
so much, James, thank youfor taking the time with us on the
teaking geek. So it is themonth of October. I'm sure you've got
lots of stuff up on cinemascre dotcom, your YouTube channel Vibe. By
the time this video comes out,we should or podcast, sorry, you
should have the Halloween episode of theAngry Video Game NERD. What is coming

(01:16:55):
up this year as we approach theend of twenty twenty three? Oh well,
I mean yeah, I mean theAngry Video Game Nerord episode should be
up about this time, I guess, And if it isn't, then it's
coming real soon. And well MonsterMadness. We got six videos, each

(01:17:17):
with a different decade of TV likeso yeah, like I'm actually working on
right now, but you'll see themby the time this is up. But
basically, it's like a Halloween TVepisode from the sixties, seventies, eighties,
nineties, twos and twenty ten's.So I picked one from each of

(01:17:38):
those decades that I that was eitheryou know, my favorite or like one
that stands out to me. Buteven with that, I feel like I've
only scratched the surface, because Iforgot how much fun it is to just
look at TV shows because instead ofgoing through a whole movie, you're just
going through like a twenty twenty fiveminute show, and then you get to

(01:18:00):
watch another one right after that,and like, I've been watching just tons
and tons of these shows, mostlylike you know, sitcoms or like animated
series, and like it's it's beenso much fun doing this. I think
I want to do it again nextyear. Maybe we'll see. Yeah,
fantastic. And for you, Henrique, I know you've got Weekly Spooky which

(01:18:23):
has over two hundred episodes, andwe have how many stories during the month
of October. It's looking like it'sgonna hit about eighteen stories in twenty five
episodes. They include like the truecrime episodes and the talk episodes. So
Weekly Spooky is just booming. Ifyou need Halloween content to get you through
your work day or whatever you maybe doing, just go to Weeklyspooky dot

(01:18:47):
com or punch that into wherever youget your podcasts. We have horror fiction,
true crime, talking about fandom andsuch. We cover it all and
we are going hog wild in octogand yeah, I'm just thrilled to have
the opportunity. I can't believe howmany people are showing up for us every

(01:19:08):
year in October. Now. Yeah, like it's been a wonderful experience listen
to the podcast. I know I'vebeen a contributor for right now as of
this recording, I've contributed one storyto aired, which is File one three
seven, which aired back in lateMay or early June. And there should
be two other stories. I'm notsure when they're coming out, but hopefully

(01:19:29):
by the time this podcast comes outyou have heard at least one of them.
I don't think so. And thenyou also host another podcast, which
is How You and I Met,which is Welcome the Primetime. You can
find that at Freddy's Nightmares dot Comor you can type that into your favorite
podcascher where him and his co hostDavid Denoyer go through episodes of Fredy's Nightmares,
but also talk with people from theFreddy's Nightmare production, such as writers

(01:19:50):
like James Cappy, the showrunner JeffFryleck. We also have people from Tales
from the Crypto with Gil Adler andJoel Katz. Yeah out Calcats and Yeah,
there's a lot of really good informationthat you can only find during that
podcast. So as much as youmay have loved Never Sleep Again, in
the whole five minutes you got,you get over an hour of Freddie content

(01:20:15):
and uh, Dave picking on orsorry Enrique picking on Dave and Freddie occasionally
showing up. It's going way.Freddie shows up when he wants to.
You know, he's you know,he's not as busy as he used to
be. And and every week Iget to uh rub in the face of
Warner Brothers that for some reason Iown Freddie's Nightmares dot com, which there

(01:20:36):
are some amazingly funny bits on thatshow. And if you want to own
a Beefy Boy T shirt, which, if you know what the fuck I'm
talking about, you can do thattoo. So anyway, guys, this
has been a fantastic time. Sofrom Cinnamasca dot com you have been.
That's your cue, James, andfrom Weekly Spookies and welcome the Prime Time

(01:20:57):
you have been. Enrique Kuto.See I didn't mess set up because James
did it first. Otherwise I wouldhave been the confused one. Oh I
was just like you have been.I just wasn't sure the verbiage I and
I have been. Mike the Birdmansaying, guys, have a safe and
happy Halloween. If you're going outthis year, please be safe. Make
sure you're you know, being assafe as possible, and hopefully you get

(01:21:20):
lots of candy. No tricks,no one toilet papers your house, and
no one tries to kill you withtwo candles forming into a cross. So
anyway, until next time, we'llcatch you guys again, real soon,
right here on this Weekend geek dotNet. At no point in your rambling
incoherent response were you even close toanything that could be considered a rational thought.

(01:21:44):
Thanks for listening to this episode ofThis Week in Geek. Hungry for
more, check out our website.If this Week in Geek dot Net you
can subscribe to the podcast, browseour Twitter and Instagram, and leave your
thoughts on today's topics. If you'dlike to give us some feedback, send
us an email at feedba at thisWeekend geek dot Net. Tune in next
time, and remember, lower yourshields and surrender your listenership. We would

(01:22:06):
be honored if you would join us. Thank you for your cooperation. Good night,

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TWIG Halloween 2023 Special - Hammer Horror (With James Rolfe AVGN And Henrique Couto)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}TWIG Halloween 2023 Special - Hammer Horror (With James Rolfe AVGN And Henrique Couto)