Duncan Trussell Family Hour - 460: Rob Schrab

Episode Date: September 4, 2021

Rob Schrab, brilliant human being and writer on Rick and Morty, re-joins the DTFH! Check out Rob's episodes of Creep Show available on Shudder! Original music by Aaron Michael Goldberg. This episode is brought to you by: BetterHelp - Visit betterhealth.com/duncan to find a great counselor and get 10% off of your first month of counseling! BLUECHEW - Use offer code: DUNCAN at checkout and get your first shipment FREE with just $5 shipping.

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You probably know him from Harmontown. He's a writer on Rick and Morty. If you're a fan of the Creepshow movie, then you must watch his episodes of Creepshow on Shutter. Everybody, please welcome to the DTFH Rob Schraub. Rob, thank you so much, man. I'm sorry. I hate it having to move that around. I'm so glad to see you.

It's really no big deal. I'm in between seasons on Rick and Morty right now, so my schedule is pretty open. I'm just kind of like working on the new house and trying to write a feature script and helping out Kate with her scripts and stuff. So my schedule is pretty liquid, pretty fluid. Is this the first house you've ever owned? Yes, this is. I lived in an apartment since I moved here. I moved out to Los Angeles from Wisconsin in 1998 with Harmont. I drove in my Honda Civic cross-country and lived in a house together on Norton.

Do you remember Norton over by Koreatown? Sure, yeah. Okay, so we were over there and that's where we came up with Monster House in that house. And then I moved into Jeff Davis's, our mutual friend Jeff Davis's, Jeff Bryan Davis's old apartment. And I stayed there from 99 till like this May, last May. Wow. So I was there longer. It's weird.

I've lived there longer than any place in my life, even like growing up in Mayville, Wisconsin. Like, you know, I moved out when I was 18. So I was there like 20 years, 21 years maybe. Wow. It was a pandemic that did it, like, because I was like, I can't, because at the beginning we were like, I don't know, this could be it. And I'm like, I don't want to die in this apartment. I always thought I was going to move and I kept putting it up, putting it up, putting

it up. And finally we were shopping around. We found this great old school, like 1980s house that is just gorgeous. It looks like something out of like either E.T. or the poltergeist. Man, that apartment you had though was, I could see how that was a complete, like, honey trap. I could see why you would never want to leave. It was a loom.

People like said, you go there and it's like all the couches are cushy and you know, it's like, you know, candle lit. It was a definite, like, very, very comfort place. But I mean, like, it was, and it was huge. It was a big place, you know, and the rent was, like, controlled. So my rent didn't go up for like about 10, 15 years. So it was, it was, but there was like, you know, like only one parking space had to share like washing machines and stuff like that.

And just, you just like, I'm a little too old to share a dryer. Oh, I didn't realize you were sharing a dryer, man. Yeah. Yeah. That's fucked up. Yeah. Because, you know, the one, like, I, by the way, I think you know this, I, we bought our first house too.

So we're both new homeowners. When did you move? Now, now, sorry, like, it's like one day I looked on, on Instagram and you were not in, in, in California anymore. Like, did you, when did you exactly move? Okay. We've gone over this a million times. I'm trying to remember when was the, when was the, like, at the peak of fire season

this last summer is when we split. It was like, I can't remember the exact date. I'd have to look it up, but it was like, I don't know, things that gotten to be the most hyper apocalyptic I've ever seen LA. And we just, we just realized like, oh, we can't have kids here right now. And we're, you know, we were renting this compound that was like, perfect, but. Oh yeah. I love that place.

That was nice. Yeah. It was cool, man. But we just had to, like, split. But you, so this isn't like, it's number one, the idea that you and Harman making this pilgrimage to LA. Yeah. Damn.

What? I mean, I'm sorry to like diverge from talking about houses, but do you remember the conversation that spawned y'all deciding to take that trip? Well, you know, like moving, we talked about it for years, like, you know, like Harman and I were in a improv troupe called the dead ale lives and we had dreams of moving out to the West Coast. Plus, I had my comic book and I wanted to make that into, I was hoping that would be like the next tick, the next teenage Ninja Turtles.

This was like 95 or whatever. And we got like option to be made, like Scott got option to be made into a movie. And so we were like, this is it. Let's move so we could be close to the making of the movie. Not knowing that everybody gets their shit option. Yeah. And there's no guarantee that you're going to go any further than just an option. And so when we moved out, everybody was like, why did you move?

Oh, they helped make make the movie. And so we were quickly like dismayed and and like, oh, shit, we moved out here and and like the movies like kind of falling apart like now what? Wow. And so we we we I, you know, I dug into the comic book, but I was really not feeling it anymore. And then Dan really wanted to write and I wanted to get into animation. And we we we collaborated on a feature

spec script and got it sent out and luckily got an agent, you know, like that's and to bring it back to Monster House. That's how we got our first writing gig. Wow, writing Monster House for Zemeckis. So we got super lucky. We got super lucky. I you know, is there anybody in LA who doesn't say they've got isn't that the only thing that can happen is you have to get lucky to like it's, you know,

obviously, y'all didn't just get lucky. You're both amazing writers and you're super funny and you're both like disciplined, but and so that's the part you can take care of. But that's the crazy thing about that business is it's we were prepared. That's the thing is luck is opportunity mixed with preparation. Right. Worked on the comic book. We understood movies. We had a vocabulary of movies.

We also had like a just just an idea for we wanted to make old school like Spielberg, Goonies, Monster Squad, Schlock, sci-fi horror fantasy stuff. And and also we were we were able to be funny too. So we were able to be and we had like performing experience. So when you go in and pitch, you're kind of acting out the movie. So we were we worked really good and we work really good off of each other. So and Dan's like very heady and really good with dialogue and structure. And I'm more visual and and an idiot.

So we really balanced each other out. So once we got into the room and we kind of understood like what the target was, it was we we we we got lucky, you know, but we were prepared, you know, did did like several years of comic books and knew what we liked and knew what our we we had a really. I think we really understood what our voices were like as far as creators. And I think that that that took took a lot of time in the comic book. We'd spent all that time in doing comic books, creating that voice

and on stage doing the Dead Ale Wives. And then so when we were we landed in front of Robert Zemeckis, just by chance, we were prepared. So that that's what I would say is any advice to anybody reading. It's like, how do I get lucky like you? It's like just work on your craft until like the chance meeting. Yeah. At the bus stop, at the restaurant, waiting for a table. And somebody goes, oh, you know, I really wish I knew somebody who.

Had an idea about a monster house. You can just like you're locked and loaded. So that's the thing is just like hone your craft until fate steps in. And if you if you if you're honing your craft, you'll. I believe in magnetism. I'm sure you do, too. You know, like it's just like if you I attract positivity, I attract good luck. I attract opportunity. If you if you use that as your mantra, if you use that as your

creative visualization, it kind of magically shows up. And I know for sure that if you do the opposite, that oh, my gosh, shows up as well. I keep forgetting that. God, I do. Yeah. Yeah, you can like cast. You can curse yourself. Just try like say like being being just saying shitty things about yourself,

which is a really weird habit that it seems like people are just getting into any kind of creative endeavor. I've noticed if you ask them about what they're doing, they'll usually be very self-effacing with it. It's weird because we like this when you got your house, you know, like when people went, oh, wow, look at how beautiful your house is. The first you go, yeah, you know, we got super lucky. The deal is really good.

We we paid a lot less for what it's worth. Yeah, it's not perfect. But you have somebody gives you a huge compliment and then you got to go. Yeah, but it's not perfect. Instead of going, no kidding. We this is the best house in the world. We totally deserve this. We worked hard for it and we knew what we want.

You always cut yourself down and and I do it. I did it this morning. You did. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, you always kind of like find a way to go, you know, well, I'll try to get to work today. You know, I probably won't. You know, it's it's you can never be on your side.

And I think I don't know why that. Why do you think that is? Why do you think we do that? Do you think it's because you don't want to seem too puffed up? Yeah, you don't want to seem like, you know, it's like there. I think there it's number one that I think one of the real problematic things outside of the metaphysical possibility that it's going to like amplify some horrible thing in your life just via some

like language magic is it's fucking dishonest. It's like if you know, a lot of the times when when I found myself being self-effacing, I don't really believe. No, believe what I'm saying. So you're lying. It's like, yeah, you you you're in. So that to me is like the core of the thing is you think you do that because if you're talking to somebody who like say doesn't have a house

and you're like, oh, it's, you know, it's not that, you know, you know, got a lot of headaches, you know, are you doing that because you don't want that other person to feel bad? Do you think that's that's part of it? I mean, yeah. And by the way, like any time like I've I'm like I've rented I'm forty seven. I rented my entire life. So it's like when I'm renting, you know, if I'm like marveling at somebody's house,

which I would do quite, I mean, you know, someone had a fucking house. You're like, oh, my God. Yeah, it's impossible. How? Yeah. How? This is this is so far out of my reach. Yeah. And yeah. So but yeah, you never want to feel like someone's trying to like protect your feelings because you're a renter. You know, I think it's always better to just like, yeah, it's awesome.

It's you got to do this. This is this is the thing is like instead of like going, yeah, you know, so I've got a lot of stuff to do yet. It wasn't perfect, but you know, it's like, no, you you need to. I wish I mean, Harmon would give me shit, but it was but it it it I wanted. I kind of secretly wanted somebody to go, what are you doing? What are you doing? You're just you're living half a life. Get out there and do something.

Yeah, you could take a check. It might not work out, but you'll just adjust. You'll figure it out. Yeah, just get out of there. Otherwise, you're going to die in that apartment. Right. And I think the pandemic was like the best thing that kind of happened to me. I know it was a tragedy and a lot of people died. But I mean, like it worked. It really kind of put my life in perspective of like, all right.

Well, what if I never see my folks again? What if I like what if I get sick? What if Kate gets sick? This this is it. This these are the last walls I will see. These are the last home and I would be unsatisfied with that kind of an ending. So when the minute it was like we got vaccinated, we were like, let's just start looking.

Let's just start looking. And we it magnetized. We wrote down exactly what we wanted. This is another proof of magnetism working for us. It's like we got out of paper. What do we want? Want to pool? What do we want? I want a workshop. What do we want?

We want our own offices. What do we want? Two levels. What do we want? We want a mid-century modern, you know, late 70s, early 80s house that doesn't look like a box or something out of a Creighton Barrel catalog. We want this, this, this, this, this we want. And we got it all. We got everything.

We got everything that was on that list. And I think it and we got it quickly, too. Man, that's incredible. Like it's a good reminder for me. I keep forgetting that that that thing, which is like if you just ask for a lot of the time, you'll get it. And something about that is so easy to forget. But that being said, it's like the other thing, you know, when people

are like are asking about like having a house, like, how do you not tell them? Like, oh, my, you don't understand. It's the biggest pain in the fucking ass that you have ever had. Like it really is. And then I feel like a dick for complaining because like, holy shit, I have a house, but also it's like once you have a house, it's just when I was a renter, it's like something goes wrong. It's so easy.

You just let the landlord know something's gone wrong. You just and it gets fixed, you know, but not when like anything you want done when you have a house, it's just like forget. I don't know if you're having a hard time with that, but no, no, no. It's like we moved in and within the first, I don't want to say first week, but first couple of weeks, air conditioning, stop breaking. Oh, no, it stopped. It stopped working.

It broke to stop breaking. And it was like at the middle of the summer and we're out in the valley here. So it was like 92 at midnight. Oh, my God. And we were just like, we I can't handle this. This is it. And so we had to replace the air conditioning, which is like, that's a huge chunk of money.

That's like a just check because there's it's just just too, too. It's like a huge, huge chunk and then like, oh, hot water doesn't work. OK, we don't have hot water. So now we got to fix that, you know, it's just like little, little things like that you got to kind of navigate around. And then you and then the things that you don't know when you visited the house like a couple of the times, but you're not around for, oh, there's a horse ranch.

Isn't that lovely? Like across the way, that's great. Oh, what they don't tell you is that every seven o'clock, the tractors come out until the backyard and stuff like that. And it's not it's not like insanely loud like Los Feliz was. But it's not quiet, like absolutely quiet, like you thought it would be. Right. And then you go, OK. Oh, OK.

So those are the things that you kind of like discover in the first couple of days of living there. But let me ask you a question. When you moved in, OK, that first night you moved in. Yeah. And you're laying there in bed and it's dark. Did you were you kind of like, this is kind of creepy, or is this scary? Or is this, hmm, did you have any kind of not do the right thing? No, OK.

So this house weirdly, no, I didn't get any kind of like ghost vibes from it. And I entertain the idea that I can tell when a house is like haunted or and I've have this has happened a few times to me once I was shooting something for drunk history and it was in an Airbnb or someplace they rented. And so I walked in and I got that feeling that I get when I'm in a house that people end up saying is haunted. And so the owner was there. And so I said to the owner of the house is haunted, huh?

And the owner gave me this weird look like, how'd you know? And the owner is like, yeah, yeah. There was the woman who used to own the house. They found her body under a working electric blanket. And she'd been under that thing for like a week, you know, just just faster cooking. Yeah. Yeah. And then another house I lived at. Same thing. I got the haunted vibe, but not just that. The first night we were in there, we're like laying on a mattress on the floor

and like just like there's just this slam and this like jug of water. We had up on a counter just flew it just flown off. And then then like a like months after living there, the neighbor said, and who knows maybe there was crazy. But the neighbor said to me, you know what happened in there, right? And I was like, what? And they wouldn't tell me to this day. I have no idea.

A jug of water flew across and killed a man. That's the jug of water murder. Yeah. Yeah. Today's episode of the DTFH is brought to you by my beloved blue chew. My friends, it is a chewable tablet that contains within it the same active ingredients as Viagra and Cialis. It's a blue miracle delivered right to your mouth by your hand.

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And usually Kate's like she'll take care of like she'll do like all the travel arrangements or whatever. And like, I'm going to do it. I'll do it this time. OK, so I found like a good deal. It's like, oh, I can rent a car and I can get a hotel and I can get like this really cheap. It says, you want me to look at it before? No, no, no. I got it, honey. Don't take it.

So we get off the plane in Milwaukee and the cab picks us up and takes us to where like the car is and the hotel is and stuff. And we're driving and I lived in Milwaukee for, you know, like about like six, seven years. And then we we we we were driving into the I'm like, I don't know where this is. This doesn't make any sense. Where are we? And then we pull and like there's like a car pulls out in front of the cab and like these gang bangers are like, oh, fuck you, man. And then like the taxi car is like, fuck you, I'll kill you.

Whatever. And we're like, oh, shit, what is this? This neighborhood is like a little this isn't what I thought this was going to be. We pull into this kind of not I wouldn't say nasty, but not altogether great hotel. And Kate's like, what did you do? And I got I thought it was a deal. I thought, I don't know, maybe you get what you pay for. We get in there, we check our bags and we go up to the hotel and Kate walks in and goes, looks around the and it's just, you know, it's not like the

Hyatt, but it's not it's it's a it's a hotel room. And she just looks at it and she goes, I will not stay here. There is a darkness in this in this building. We're leaving and and I never did this ever before. I went, OK, grab the suitcases because usually I'm like, oh, come on, let's just whatever. But I like whatever you want, grab the suitcases, went down there. We were in the room for two minutes, went down to the front lobby and said, we're not staying here.

I understand we already paid for the room. It's fine. And they're like, OK, all right. And I like, yep, we're not staying here. We jumped in the cab, drove, you know, like 20 minutes and went to the Hyatt. You know, we were there and it was a lovely place and we had a great time. And then I was like, huh, I'm going to check up the address of that hotel. Did it used to be an apartment? Oh, that's where Dahmer killed all the people.

Are you fucking kidding me? I thought they raised Dahmer's place. Are you fucking kidding me? Well, this was a while ago. This is a long time. So this is before. Oh, my God. That is nuts. So she picked up on all that horror that had happened there.

So what do you think that is? What's your theory on that? Like what I mean, like, you know, I think certain people are like. Ken are connected with certain vibrations. Kate, definitely. My wife, Kate, she is when she feels something is off, she's always right about it. When she like, she's always been kind of like,

you can have a good day today, you're going to have a bad day today or whatever. You know, like, just be careful out there. You know, like there's always she's she's really good at kind of being connected with the vibration or or or. But what that's what I what's it. So like, so you've got people like Kate, like like Claire Voian or whatever you want to call it. Yeah. But what like in a in a place like that, like, what do you what is the vibration?

Like what do you think there's some like quantum residue or something in the place? Or like, what are they picking up on? I can't help but think there must be when something because usually people like wander around the world. Half not present. Yes. Not present. You're kind of like, oh, my mind is on. What am I going to eat later on?

Or oh, this person isn't talking to me or like, oh, I got this thing do or whatever. Instead of like walking the dog or appreciating nature or even when you're talking to somebody else, you've got your mind on a million things. Yeah. But when you're in a life and death, like somebody is squeezing the life out of you, you are present. You are present. Yeah. You are so present because you're like, oh, my God, I have to everything. Every molecule, every atom of my body is now focused on this.

This thing that is maybe going to kill me or whatever. And if enough of that happens, I think that echoes. I think there's echoes. I don't know if it's ghosts or bad juju or whatever, but it's like there's like a vibration that goes out. That is just like the same way we attract positivity, you know, like when somebody is like, especially like that last, you know, they say like a light bulb burns the brightest just before it burns out,

you know, like somebody who's, I think Jeffrey Dahmer said that. Yes. And he's just, don't worry. Don't worry. He's, it's like, you know, he said a light bulb burns the brightest, especially when it's when it's burning someone's face. I think that's what he said. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah, I don't know, man. I like I it's like I've heard great theories on it. I've heard like I on coast to coast, someone was speculating that there that time everything's happening at once.

So when you're when you're in a place, you're actually like, it's not like there's a residue or there's a ghost, but it's like time in some places time dilates or is thinner or whatever. And so like you're literally there when the event is happening, you know, and because everything is happening at once, that sounds like an insane idea. I think it's like it would make sense that, you know, somewhere in us was the like it would make there's some evolutionary advantage to like picking up

if one of your species has died in a place. Well, I think animals are like that. I mean, like an animal will like they'll sense danger like really, really like there. I mean, like even my pet, who is a domesticated creature, who is like most of the wildness has been taken out of it. That is still inside her her makeup, her her brain or whatever that she'll be walking along.

And if and then all of a sudden she'll just like stop and go. Hmm. Yeah. That's weird or whatever. Like like she'll see like huskies. She'll see like like bigger dogs. She'll see like kind of like these hounds and things like that. And she'll be like, eh, whatever. But if she sees a coyote, she'll freak the fuck out. She and nobody sat down and told her, is it OK?

Like that dog is OK. That is a coyote that will eat you. No one told her. Right. So it's like inside there. There's like and I think like maybe the coyote is like radiating. I'm starving. I'm starving. Looking for something smaller than me. I'm starving. I'm starving. I'm starving.

I will kill somebody if killed something that is smaller than me. And then like, but a domesticated dog doesn't radiate that. I don't know. Just just a theory. I always, you know, it's interesting like you think all time exists at the same at the same time. Like I always kind of thought about what if like reality or time is like like a cassette tape and there's only so much reality. And so once you get to the end of it,

you either flip it over or you record over it again. So, you know, like are you recording over it? Like you remember when you were recording even videotape? Yeah. That there would still be a little bit of residual. Yeah. Like you would hear like, oh, I could still hear like the song that I recorded over or bits and pieces or video from the thing you recorded over would kind of percolate through and kind of share the same space.

Yeah. You know, it it might be a way of rationalizing it, but that's that's cool. That that that's that's how I kind of like kind of put it. Oh, my God. The idea that we're like somehow stored on like some form of hard drive that is just like someone just recorded over like a previous universe or yeah. Whoa, that's so crazy, man.

It's so weird. That's what your travel is. It's just a tape recorder. You could fast forward and rewind as long as somebody hasn't recorded over your life yet. Holy shit. That is so cool. Do you have, you know, this is like I love Terrence McKenna

and that was one of his like talking points that when he was speculating about this thing called the singularity, that was his idea is like that, you know, they're about to invent a time machine. And because it's a time machine, it's so powerful that all the we like, and this is way before any of the shit we're going through happen, but, you know, he just said as we get closer and closer to the invention of a time machine or what's known as the singularity, same thing that you can expect novelty events as he put it, which is

like shit's going to start happening that no one's ever seen before. That's so crazy that everyone's like, what the fuck? And that that's going to start happening with like that with the hockey stick. It's like exponentially going like so. First, you're just going to get like one like, you know, one weird event, assassination of Abraham Lincoln or, you know, these like rifts in history. Then Kennedy and then blah and then blah. And then next thing you know, it's like people are raiding the White House

and there's a fucking pandemic. And then during the pandemic, they start talking about UFOs and all these things are like ripples radiating backwards through time from this time machine that we're all headed towards. Do you ever get in? You've ever heard that idea before? No, no, but I'm fascinated with all that kind of stuff. I did you ever read up on Tesla about how he possibly invented time travel

or whatever like there was there was this story. I don't know. I'm going to get it all wrong, but, but maybe somebody will will, will, will steer us in the right direction after this, but, but, but like Tesla, like a friend of his like said, oh yeah, Tesla came over the other day and he looked freaked out. Like his hair was a mess and he was just like, not the same person. And then just like, what happened, buddy? And he goes, oh, I had an, I did an experiment with electricity and it went

wrong and I accidentally saw past, present and future all at the same time. Oh wow. And they just, just like, just was like existed exactly like how you're saying like time exists all at the same time. And, and he had all these theories and wrote it down. And, and then after, after like he died, like the government came in and just took everything. Yeah, took everything.

I know, but like that part is really weird. And then like, you know, the, I think the Q and on people got into this because the somehow the person connected to scooping up Tesla's shit was like a relative of Trump. Yeah. Trump's like great uncle or just uncle or something like that. And there was a theory going around like, oh, that's how Trump won. That's, is because he, he, uh, like he's a time traveler and, uh, and they said,

and that's why he's, he's, he's, he's brain is, is all messed up because time travel gives you like brain cancer or something like that. Like, that's like, yeah, yeah. There's just all these theories that are just like really, you know, I go into the YouTube deep dives of conspiracy. Yeah. Because they find them so entertaining because they, they, they start off like so ridiculous that you're just like, oh, come on.

And then they'll say something that'll go, hmm. Okay. What else you got? And then it's just equal parts, ridiculous and, and equal parts, um, probable, you know, like, you know, possibly probable. Did you ever get into John, into John T door? No, what's that? Okay.

This is great. That's one of the big time traveling conspiracy theories. Like this guy started showing up on message boards, claiming to be this time traveler called John T door. And he, it was like the weirdest thing. He's, he's traveling the, he's traveling backwards in time. There's a civil wars happened in the United States. And I don't know that he needs this technology.

He's trying to find like this old kind of computer that's got some kind of technology in it that they don't have in his version of the future. And what was cool about it was the details that he would give. Um, the idea, basically, like the idea was you don't really time travel as much as move into parallel universes that are at different time scales than yours, but that are similar. And the further back you go, the further away you veer from your original timeline. So I like the idea was like this fixes the problem of like killing your

grandfather or whatever, because it's not your grandfather that you'd be killing. It's like some alternate reality version of your grandfather. But the other thing he talked about was like shit, like, uh, how he was getting colds and stuff all the time here, because his immune system wasn't set for the like viruses here and stuff. But, you know, it was definitely, I believe it was a fraud. And then of course, and people, they're in the way they kind of figured it out was, I believe someone who is probably John Teetor was like trying to protect

the IP or something like something, you know, a time travel would never do. Yeah. That's interesting. I have never heard of that as a motivation coming back in time or to whatever parallel universe to get a bit of old technology. Yeah. It's kind of like, I have this external drive that has all this really important information on it, but I don't have the cable that will connect to my computer.

Yes. Because they don't exist anymore. Like I bought like this old TV that, uh, on eBay and it supposedly worked fine, but it got broken during, uh, like, uh, in the mail. Uh, and I'm trying to just find a TV repair man and everywhere I go, they go, they don't have the parts. They're, yeah, I could fix it, but I don't have, they don't make tubes anymore. They don't do any of that stuff.

I, I can't, if you, if you had the parts, I could fix it for you, but I don't have the parts, they don't make them anymore. Yeah. So like those TVs will be gone. And I remember when I, I was doing, um, the last, uh, last like four issues of my comic book, uh, cause I took 10 years off, um, in between like the last issue and then the, the, the, the last, the, the last four. And I had the original covers and stuff were done on computer, but they were done

on like zip discs and like there was zip files and we, we couldn't, we had all the discs, but we couldn't get them off the discs onto today's computer. So we had to go to eBay and then we were online trying to connect one thing to another, to another, to another, to an adapter that would get into a computer that we have. And it's just, it's, if you go long enough, you're not going to be able to like access some of this technology if it only exists in this one thing. So it's like, how would you get it off of, you know, those hard discs?

Oh yeah. Say you say you've got like, well, I've got a contract on here that says that you'll give me a million dollars in a year, but I can't get it off of this disc. Yeah. How do I do it? Well, I got to find somebody who knows how to do this. And then I need to get that off of that system and put it on my new system so I can duplicate and check.

It's just, it's a cautionary tale to back up all your stuff in new technology. Yeah, right. That, I mean, this is the, uh, we have, okay. So we rented this awesome mid-century house in Pasadena years ago. We just found this place. It was kind of dilapidated, but who cares? We're renting it. Yeah.

Beautiful place. But it had like an old school fifties electrical system in there. It had that thing that'll submit a century houses have where like above the bed, there were these buttons you could press to turn off, turn off all the lights in the house. I love that shit. Yeah. Fucking cool.

But, but, you know, they were trying to be futuristic back then. So they were using what I think back then was considered a really advanced like way of wiring your house, but it didn't, it didn't, you know, it was, it was like flash or whatever. You know what I mean? It like, it didn't take off. It like, it became obsolete. And so, you know, what would happen is like lights on the house in the house

would just stay on. You couldn't turn them off. The system wouldn't work. And we got an electrician who came and looked at the circuitry and, um, what just shook his head and was like, yeah, no one's going to be able to fix this. Like, man, yeah, it's interesting though, because it's like, you have all these like laying, you have all these storage mechanisms laying around, you know, that

are becoming increasingly obsolete. And so there's all these like data extinction events that are happening where we're losing gigabytes of God knows what, just because it's like either they're not storing the material in the right place, because they, there's no point. It costs too much to store film, you know, and so they're just letting it rot. Or they don't have the machines that can run it anymore. So it's interesting how much stuff is just blinking out.

Yeah. And it's not like the old days where it's like, oh, a photo, a photo album. I can open up. I can see, oh, this is what grandma looked like when she got married. This is like, this is my mom and dad when they were little kids and stuff. Like it's like this, this, this obsolescence is happening faster and faster. And people are like, oh, I got a million pictures on my phone. It's not precious until it's gone.

Right. You know, I mean, like, what if you don't have it hooked up to your iCloud like I do? And, and, and like, it's just like, oh, your phone is broken. Okay. So now like five years of my life or three years of my life is just gone. I can't, I can't resurrect that. I can't open up a book and look, look at like, oh, this is.

You know, this is all this stuff. You know, I mean, I mean, like, yeah, it's crazy. Like Instagram and, and Facebook and stuff like that, where, you know, you can look back at that stuff. But, you know, all it's like all of humans, all of like so much that we have like discovered or that we've learned all the data sets, everything is being stored on devices that theoretically could in a second get completely wiped out by a solar flare and we just anything that isn't in a book, it's just gone.

And that, to me, that's like of all the settings for some kind of movie. Or, you know what I mean? That's a cool, I would love to see that version of the world, like 10 years after a solar flare has just zapped everything. Yeah, erased every hard drive, every hard drive. Everybody's set back to one. Yeah, because we would be so fucked, man. Like, like we are, most of us don't know how to do anything, you know,

or, or specialize. So we don't know, like how to, but, you know, to imagine a world where all that just goes away, like how quickly we would probably just revert back to, I don't know, like the 1800s or something, right? That's what I think I'm curious, like how quickly that would happen. Would that happen over like a couple of decades or a couple of months? I think a couple of months. I think it happens fast.

I think we just, you know, like those, you know, a pig gets, if like a domestic pig gets loose and it will mutate really quickly. It like grows hair and gets big and fucking weird. Like something gets activated and it's DNA. So, and I think with humanity, when things get like apocalyptic, we quickly mutate into very dangerous creatures. I think that's a survival thing. Like your brain, like we were talking about, do you sense danger?

Like you, you can go, okay, now, now it's like, you know, you know, I, you know, I'm a complete wimp and, and everything, you know, I've never been in a fight in my life, you know, got my ass kicked a bunch of times, but if the world went crazy and it was like, would, would, I would hope that there would, something would snap inside me, that it would be like, okay, well, now it's fight, fight or flight moment. You know, like, are you going to cause, cause you're protected by society. You're like, well, you know, I'm not going to die.

You know, I'm not going to get killed. But when you're in a situation where it's like, where it's like, okay, now every day is a fight for survival. I wonder if, if like just people like myself would just be killed off right away, or would we snap and turn, you know, or, or even worse, would we, but kind of, I say we, because I'm in that club too, man, but it's like, I don't know how to, like, I don't know how to fight. You know what I'm going to do.

But is it like, I don't know so much that we would be killed as much as there's like this, like grim possibility that we would become slaves. It is that, yeah. You know, I don't think they, like it's necessarily like, cause what, why would you murder labor, your labor force? You know what I mean? Like you might, I guess your organs might get harvested or something like that. But are they like, oh, I, I, I want your wife.

Yeah. I think, I think I, I'm going to have your wife now and your house. So yeah, you, so we'll get rid of you. Yeah. Yeah. Or are they, or worse, they just kick you out and I live in the backyard or worse. It's just like they, they do the exact same thing, but in some kind of like post apocalyptic, manipulative way, you know, they're like, I really like you.

I'm going to call you, I'm going to call you lightning. You know what I mean? And your wife's beautiful, but we got to give up the old ways. Yeah. We got to give up the old ways, lightning. That's awful. That's awful because that's how it would happen. That's how it happened.

It's like, we can't do it like we used to do it. Yeah. That causes trouble in a community, monogamy, you know, or like, what is it? David Koresh said he, he told everybody he's going to take the burden of sex for them and he started fucking their wives. Yeah. You know, how does the, how does the person go, oh, thank God, thank God. Thank God you're going to be fucking my wife instead of, instead of me.

Starry eyed. You got to be pretty starry eyed, man. It's like just your, your, I don't know. I mean, like you, you have to be like, well, either you have to be super into it or you have to be just completely. Have you, did you, what, have you seen the mist, the, the Frank Darabot version of Stephen King story? Did you read the story?

What's that? Were you a fan? No. You weren't a fan. Okay. I'm a fan of the Stephen King story and I'm, I'm a snob man with it when it comes to like any kind of translation of Stephen King stuff. Like for example, the new stand mini series are relatively new.

It's pretty great. If you ask me, I haven't checked it out. Oh, it's good. And the one before it's cheesy as fuck. It's like the, the Randall flag character. It looks like he could, I don't know, play saxophone or something. You know, he doesn't seem like it. He doesn't seem like the anti-Christ, but so, excuse me, the, the, um, this,

the novella, the stand that Stephen King did, did you read that? I, I haven't read it and I haven't seen, I mean, I'm sorry. Not the stand, the mist, the mist. I haven't read it. I'm a big fan of the, uh, the movie though. I did like the movie. Okay. If I had just seen the movie, I bet I would like the movie.

Right. If I hadn't read the, you know, read, read the, very quickly. The reason that I brought it up is because of like, it's a microcosm of society breaking down and how people are like, if you get enough people afraid, they'll go to anybody that will come to, that will provide a solution. And it becomes like, Oh God is, uh, wants us to sacrifice your son. And it's the only way we're going to survive. And everybody's like, who like a couple of days ago would never do that.

Or like going, I'm so scared. Let's try it. Let's sacrifice this, this boy. You know, you know, like that kind of stuff was very, um, helpable to me. Very, uh, uh, it's terrifying to me. It's like the monster stuff and the tentacles and shit like that. That's all cool and everything. But like the stuff that really made me go, Oh shit.

Yeah. I'm with that father going, they're going to, this entire store of people is going to try to kill my son. And yeah, I'm going to have to fight to the death to get out of here. He caught, he captured it. He captured the thing that a lot of people are feeling right now. And it's like, cause to me, like to, to go back to like the pig mutating thing, it's like when you see these people who are really overwrought over like masks,

the vaccine or whatever. And now there's all kinds of videos of them at like school meetings and stuff. Yeah. What's weird about it to me is not so much they're protesting, like putting mass on kids, I get that. And it's a scary time. I get people being freaked out. What's weird to me is the similarity in their affectation.

You know what I mean? They're like all the way down to like the way they're alerting their voice. And like a lot, the label that has been applied to that when it happens in a woman is like a Karen, right? Yeah. But why are they all the same? Why are they, you know, it's weird that they all have the same way of talking, the same cadence, the same, you know what I mean?

They're all going crazy in a similar way. That's what's strange. Right. You think people go nuts in different ways, but it's the, it's so strange. It's a different kind of virus. You know, it's like they're afraid of a virus. And so like this personality virus starts taking over. That is an interesting, that's an interesting take on a zombie movie that

where it's like you're not like living dead zombie, you know, whatever. But you're like, you turn into this same personality type that is like against like reason and is just like, I'm going to pay more attention to that. But that is really frightening. That's creepy, man. And like they, they're, it's just strange. I don't know if it's like maybe they're going on the same message boards and maybe they're watching the same videos.

They would have changed their voice. Why would they? I mean, I mean, so well, you know, in the way like, you know, very, very social, like fashion, fashion, it's like fashion, you know, so people start dressing the same way, maybe they're like seeing videos or people talk, I don't know, but my theory has definitely been, oh yeah, it's, it's some kind of mental contagion. Right.

But yeah, as far as zombie movies go, I mean, to me, the thing that's way scarier than people turning into the undead or people becoming cannibalistic and diseased and like kind of superhuman would be just a general disintegration in the sanity of your species, you know, watching everyone or most people watching the same thing that happened in the grocery store in the mist happened historically, which, which is fascism, I guess, right? Like, yeah, suddenly it's not the kid they're talking about sacrificing. Suddenly people are like, you know what the problem is, right?

It's Jewish people that actually happened historically. And like, and, you know, you hear that when it's coming from like, you know, 20 people and you're like, crazy ass people, right? But then that spreads a little bit and then it spreads a little bit more and more and more and then suddenly you're the one who seems crazy. You know, that, that shit is, you put people in a killer be killed situation where they just want the target off their back. You know, they just like, oh, yeah, as long as it's not me being

sacrificed or as long as it's not me being rounded up. Let's get, let's, let's just get that off. I think, I think, yeah, people change pretty quickly. Yeah. You know, when the power goes out and you can't call 911, you know, like, why didn't know what would, you were not a fan of the movie. What was different about the novella that, that you thought was missing from the movie? Okay.

So for everyone who hasn't seen or read these spoiler alerts, spoiler, spoiler, spoiler, skip ahead a little bit. So the, okay. The ending of the ending, yeah. Yeah. Cause the ending of the, of the novella, it didn't, it ended like, even though you could say the ending of the mist was disturbing and ended bad. There was this sense of like, things are going to go back to normal.

You know, whereas the Stephen King version of it, it doesn't end like that. Like shit's done. Yeah. They're fucked and it's done. And so there's like a, and also, you know, you just can't replicate the description of some of these like, shambling, massive, giant fucking, he didn't do a bad job. Yeah. Replicating, obviously.

And I don't mean to say the most obvious thing, which is like books, generally about movies, you know what I mean? But, but still it's like, how do you, I don't care what kind of computer genius you are, you're not going to be able to replicate some thing that's so giant. And it's like legs go up into the clouds and like swarms of like pterodactyl creatures or like nesting and it's fucking torso and flying out. You know, he just really captured the whatever this world was that it leaked in. Also, man, the just the slow burn of the thing.

I'll tell you another thing I didn't like about the dare, but I know again, I like a lot, a lot of stuff he does. Yeah. Here's another thing I don't like just. And this is all my own personal opinion. I don't like the device of having the dead animal or the murdered animal in the beginning of a movie. You know what I mean?

Like what is that? What part is that in the very beginning? There's like a dead dog and a soldier thing that happens. Like that's not in it. That's not in them. I'm pretty sure it is the very beginning of the mist. I just watched it. There's no dead dog.

I'm telling you, man, unless I'm completely, let me, I'm gonna, like it's the very beginning. It's that soldiers running through the woods. There's like a dead animal in the beginning of it. I'm almost positive, bro. I'll go back and look. I just watched it twice. I watched it twice last week. Okay.

I'm going to be feel freaked out. Maybe there's a new version about two different movies. Hold on. No, no, no, we can't be talking about. There's a, no, it's the same movie. I'm, maybe I'm, maybe I'm mixing. No, it's very possible. I'm just merging movies.

Is it, is it possible that it's in the book? And not in it, but you like the book. There's no dead. I, because I would have a problem with that too. At the beginning of the mist starts off with the electrical storm and the guy painting the picture. Okay, listen, unless there's a director's cut that I didn't have not seen. It must, it's a difference.

So they, maybe they fixed it, man, because I just Googled mist dog death because I didn't want, I was feeling crazy. The mist showrunner explains why the dog had to die. A dog is brutally murdered in the first couple minutes of the adaptation's first episode. So this is the TV series. Yes. I'm talking about the Frank Darabont movie, the movie.

Oh, wait a minute. I haven't seen the TV series. Hold on. Hold on. You know what happened is I got the movie and the TV series mixed up in my head. Right. Right. Okay.

TV series, the TV series is, is good. Now I'm completely confused because I've seen them both and I can't remember which is which now. So the movie that I like, which is the mist, is this, I would have a problem with the dog being brutally murdered too, because I'm like going, why? You can, you can make up anything. Why the reason you're killing off a dog or an animal is a very emotionally manipulative thing because like it's, it's because we, we, we get triggered

by, by pet death. Yes. Or maybe that's, that's the other version of it. You open up with a kid getting killed or a dog getting killed. Yeah. And so I find that manipulative and I don't like that too. And you could avoid it easily if, if you took the time and be a little bit more clever or just choose not to do that story.

But the beginning of the movie is him painting the picture. There's a storm. They go downstairs and then the tree busts into the house and destroys his painting and then he's got to go into town to get some supplies to cover up the window and that's what leads him to the grocery store. But like all the, the, the best part of it is the character development and the slow burn of like shit, the doom is, is happening. And the ending, the ending I'm like, okay, Kate said it best.

It's like, oh, and we're going to talk about the ending again. If you want to skip ahead of this too, is that, oh, if somebody is going to do something really horrible, like, you know, like kill, you know, the somebody you love in order to protect them from a horrible death, the very next beat is going to be the, the, the army coming out of the smoke going off. You just would have waited like five minutes. You would have, everything would have been fine. Like it, it, it's like, ah, you know, it, it, it's, it's that I find manipulative as well.

No. But I, but I find, I, I mean, look, we're storytellers, everything is manipulated. Right. That's true. Everything's manipulative. But if you're going to manipulate, just try to come up with a new way to manipulate. Like, don't, like any, any time I'm sitting down for a horror movie and it's

like a fucking dead kid up front. Like when, you know, when Aaron was pregnant, we wanted to watch a horror movie. And so like, I'm like, I picked out this horror movie, just look cool. And like within the first 10 minutes, it's not just a baby getting killed. It's an entire nursery of babies. What movie is this? So I can avoid it. It was on Netflix.

I can't even remember the name. We never, I could, obviously I couldn't finish it because like, you know, it's this demon is eating babies or a nurse got possessed, I think. And it's just, it's like using a scalpel to kill babies or something. Oh my God. No, no, no, no. And Aaron, who's like about to have, you know, we're like a month away from her giving birth is looking at me like, and she says, why did you do this to me?

It starts crying. I'm like, I didn't know. I had no fucking idea that there was a scene. It's just too easy. There's a movie which I actually recommend. Edgar Wright actually recommended this movie. It's Who Can Kill a Child is the name of the movie. Sometimes it's referred to as like the third children of the damn movie.

Cool. But it's in color and it's a beautiful movie and it all takes place on the island. And it's basically like this, this, this couple, this young couple, one's pregnant. The woman, Duncan, the woman's pregnant. What? And yeah, yeah, I know, Edgar Wright. So it goes to, it goes to, they wind up on this island, I don't know, by on purpose or by chance or whatever.

They wind up on this island, which seems deserted, but it's just inhabited by children that are all murderers, all like psycho. They're just like freaked out. They're just killer children. Yeah. And it's the two of them trying to survive a horde of children. And it's like, and like, why couldn't you defend yourself? It's like, who could kill a child?

Oh, wow. Now, now the reason I want to warn anybody that's going to go, well, that sounds interesting, I'd like to see that if you watch this movie, skip over the credit. Oh, no. Because the credits, for some reason, the filmmaker decided, like, let's use footage, I believe it was from World War Two. Oh, come on. Like a worried for of bearing.

Child corpses. Oh, what? And it's just like over and over and over again, and it's all grainy. And it's all real. It's like documentary footage. It's not faked. It's like it's it's and like I was watching it with Steve Agee and we're like on Jesus Christ, the movie hasn't even started yet.

This is whatever. And like Agee's texting and you're going, how the fuck? Why did you do this to us? This is terrible. Oh, my God. And then like it just just watch after the credits of the book. And we we we skipped ahead, watch the movie. And the movies actually really, really, it shot beautifully cool colors like that

old kind of 70s, early 80s, just like hell. Yeah. But just really kind of like the the blues are really blue and the reds are like red. It's really, really, really a beautiful looking movie. And but and the kids are creepy as fuck. And you believe the the the terror. But I recommend the movie if you skip over the horrible, irresponsible.

Yeah, don't do that. Credit. Don't do that. We've been opening title sequence. Just irresponsible. I don't know why. And it has nothing to do with with the rest of the movie. I don't know why somebody didn't say, hey, maybe, you know,

white titles on black. We don't. Yeah, yeah. We don't need that. We don't need this. Yeah. Why? Why? I would love to know the reasoning. I don't know. But who could kill a child sometimes referred to as

Island of the Dam, I believe. That as soon as we get our internet back, I'm going to watch. Oh, by the way, so you're here. How are you doing this? If your internet is I'm in my studio, you're at your studio. Yeah, you have a house and a studio. Yes, because I have kids, so it's too loud. Right. Now, Rob, listen.

Hmm. I want I want to ask you this is the only real question I have for you for the whole time. I'm sorry to ask you. We have we've already done an hour. Do you have a second longer? Oh, yeah, yeah, I got as long as you want. OK, so here's here's something I've been wondering.

And I feel like I already know what you're going to say. But if you look back at like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, if you look back at Rosemary's Baby, you know, the classic vintage horror movies of the past, maybe even Texas Chainsaw Massacre, too, though. And then you look at a lot of the modern horror movies that are coming out right now. Do you think some something?

I know it just makes you sound like just an old man. Yeah, but are horror movies like is something is it impossible to recreate the horror movies of the past? Like, is that over? Was there like a golden age of horror? I think, I mean, like the 80s in particular, there was a weird. There was a lot of stuff going on. Like special effects came of age in the 80s.

And so like and also like a lot of independent horror movies came of age in that, like, you know, Texas Chainsaw Massacre being like one of them, yeah, going into the 80s or whatever. So you had like your Sam Raimi's like, let's go out with our friends and make like a movie in the band. We'll make a horror movie because that's a genre that is proven to make money, you know, as opposed to doing a comedy. Let's do that.

So you have somebody like Sam Raimi who's like, I want to do comedy, but I know if I make a horror movie, it has a chance of being picked up, distributed and getting me out there. So you have somebody as a good sense of humor who is actually really, really creative and very experienced and has got like a group of people that will back them up and they make Evil Dead and it is there is a glee to the horror. I would say Creepshow has a glee to the horror.

I would say Texas Chainsaw Massacre, too, has a glee to the horror. We're watching people like we're horrifying you, but we're all. We're all little we're all kids, you know, sneaking downstairs. Our parents are having a dinner party and we're watching this movie. We probably shouldn't. You know, I think that's also is like those Joe Dante's, those those John Landis's, they Toby Hooper's, who are the monster kids of like the 50s and 60s grew up.

And now they're now they're making movies. Yes. And so those those monster kids grew up with like Frankenstein and Wolfman. Right. And Gilman. And they just we want to do that, too. But we're going to do the howling. We're going to do American Werewolf in London. So there's there's just a glee.

You know, these we're watching people live their dreams and that I feel like the movies of of the 80s, especially any kind of genre stuff, and mostly like low budget horror, they what they didn't have in money. They had a lot in style. Yes, you look at Evil Dead, too. Every shot is like what every camera move is. Holy cow, everything is they didn't have a huge set.

They had a cabin. But every shot is just like something inventive and new. Yes. And. I haven't seen a movie like that in forever. You know, like the show had like all this like crazy lighting or like the howling had all this kind of noir lighting. They were like being influenced by a lot of different things

because what we can't do in budget, we're going to do in style. And and right now a lot of the stuff is. So computer fast cut, see graphic or whatever, like that, not graphic like graphic violence, but like computer digital things that it doesn't I don't know. And I'm just like you.

Am I just an old man going? They don't make it like they used to when they don't. And then maybe they can't. But you did kind. You did. That's what that's what's so cool about what you did with Creepshow is that you you I think you grabbed. I mean, that's what I loved seeing that because like, holy shit.

It's, you know, maybe it's not completely lost. And I'm not just saying that because you're my guest. It's it's like you think you there's there's there's got to be a support. Behind the director, I think I think a lot of the times. And I don't know if you've experienced this when you're shooting on set, especially when you're doing TV, that you're shooting the schedule and you're not shooting the script. Oh, when you start like because I always,

even when I was doing the service of the program, I wanted to have every shot be inventive and things like that. And there's just no time for it. Or people roll their eyes and go, they're just like, this is not. This is not helping that nobody cares what it looks like. I heard that all the time. Nobody cares what it looks like. They just want it funny or not.

And I care what it looks like. I want it to look good. And I think like you look at British comedy of the last like 10, 15 years. They, for some reason, found a way to be. Have great style. Like you look at something like Toast of London. You look at something like The Mighty Boosh.

You look at something like Garth Merengue's Dark Place or Snuffbox. They're very inventive with their shots, you know, and they are in love with that kind of filmmaking, too. Like they're big horror fans over there as well. Like, you know, like Matt's a big, you know, horror fan. And so is Richard Iowate. He loves film and things, things like that. Matt Holness, he obviously loves that kind of stuff.

So, yeah, I miss that inventiveness where you would be. Like watching like, I think people, I think that was in vogue for a while in the 80s and then got done so much that people like, I just want to see something raw, which, you know, is not. I just want to see something just full on, just horror. And that's when the Torture Porn, Eli Roth kind of stuff came in where it's like. Which which is fine, you know, you could be a fan of that.

But I just I wasn't, you know, I just like the glee wasn't there. There was an an actual here's the thing. I mean, maybe this is back in the 80s when they're doing like the Howling, doing Return of the Living Dead. There the the idea was we want to entertain the audience. And when we start getting into the 90s, mid 90s, later on into the arts, there is like, no, horror movies are not to be entertaining. Horror movies are to be disturbing.

I want to abuse the audience. Yes. And it isn't until like something like Sean of the Dead that comes out, which feels people go, oh, that's a horror comedy. But that feels like really at home in that Evil Dead to Return of the Living Dead like area, you know, it's a movie with fun characters in a horrifying situation that takes itself, the situation takes itself seriously, even if the characters reaction to it are humorous to us. It's not to them, but it's to us.

But the goal is to entertain the goal is to entertain. And I think like Sam Raimi, like was like asked like while he was working on Evil Dead, too, like because if the first the first Evil Dead had that rape scene with the tree, you know, which is like people go, oh, that's all right. And it was notorious and and that was shocking. And and people said, do you ever regret doing that to Sam Raimi? And I and he said, absolutely, I regret doing that.

My job is to not offend the audience. My job is to entertain the audience. And and that's so his and his stuff is. I think the pinnacle of entertainment when it comes to that era is like he found a way to go. This is horrifying, but fun, but not spoofy. I think also it was his connection with the Coen Brothers because the Coen Brothers,

I believe they edited Evil Dead, too. What? I believe that. Yeah, they were working with it. They if you read like the Evil Dead, too, script, there's all like these Coen Brothers reference like a character goes, he's gone, blood simple. Or like when they start speaking like in the the dead eye tongues, like they start going, oh, that is a hud sucker proxy. You know, like they start dropping like these Easter eggs.

But if you look at like how the characters are acting in Evil Dead, too, and compare them to like Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage and Raising Arizona, so there's a little bit of crossover with it. Absolutely. That is a mindblower. And if you watch, if you watch like, I think Raising Arizona is really, really an amazing film just because it has all that inventiveness with the camera. Yeah. And it has all that inventiveness with the language and the dialogue

and the storytelling and the acting. There's just like inventiveness on top of inventiveness. And it has all of the fun stuff. Two that I love, but it's not a horror movie. Right. And like the characters are big and broad, but for some reason, it doesn't feel spooky. It feels like its own committed reality.

And that's what I love about it is like to find that sweet spot where you're not doing something that is. What is considered? Over the top or too much or like I roll, but it just seems like there's a glee in the glee in every frame of film and every word and every letter and every cut and every camera move and every turn of the story wheel. There is a glee to it.

Even when even even like the the dark times or this sad times, there's still a glee to it. Right. There's a unspoken contract between the filmmaker and the audience that's like, we're going to do some scary stuff, but you're going to be fine. You know, and if it gets too scary, just look away for a second and come back and join us.

You know, like there's there's I watched like George Romero introducing the first the premiere of Day of the Dead. And he's like, OK, there's some pretty hard stuff in this. This is pretty insane. We're very proud of this movie. You know, there's a lot of zombies in there, but we're here to have a good time.

And if you see something too too intense, just look away and just come back. And it's it, you know, I think. And I think like Dawn of the Dead, there's a lot of glee into it. I think David Dead is a little bit more of a dirge. Sure, there's still some fun stuff in there. There's still like, I think I think that's sad. I think that's Tom Savini's monster kid growing up, like ripping the head off.

And then the vocal cords are stretched and sounds different. That's an eighth grade boy like invention right there. God, I forgot about that scene. That's Shriek will always remember that fucking Shriek. Yeah, it's it's just inventiveness. It's like we've seen in film, somebody getting their head chopped off or taken off or whatever. But no one's ever gone.

What if what if it was pulled off and you went to your vocal cords? Like like taught and it's it's it's it's stupid and unrealistic. But it's it's it's like you're watching a guy draw on his notebook. You know, yeah, I got you, man. I I love the analysis and like I feel like that gives me a little hope because it's replicable. It doesn't have to. Yeah, I think I think it really, you know, Peter Jackson used to do that

with like his his crazy films before he started doing like Lord of the Rings and things like that. There's a lot of inventiveness in there. And you know what, the new Suicide Squad feels like that. Yeah, you know, there's a there's a director that I think you should check out who I really love a lot, Steve Kostansky. He did a movie called The Void. I don't know if you've ever heard of that.

Wait, what's that about? It's kind of like a John Carpenter tribute. It's like every John Carpenter movie mixed together. And it's this this it all takes place in a hospital where there's this kind of gateway to a void, another dimension where all like these Cthulhu like creatures are coming in and possessing people. And it's like this cop, you know, with his estranged wife trying to figure out how to survive the night.

And it's very done, very serious. It's all practical effects. And they did it like as one of these Kickstarter movies, very independent. And his follow up movie Psycho Gorman. Have you ever heard of this? Yeah, I've been wanting to see it. Looks awesome. It's really fun.

And it's really inventive. And it feels so much like like like the first act of it feels like, oh, this this is like in the same era as Monster Squad. You know, it just has like that kind of, you know, little kids playing with monsters. But there's a lot of like, oh, that's really inappropriate gore or whatever. But, you know, the kids can handle it. The parents can't, you know, like that that kind of stuff. It's it's I'm hoping he does more stuff because he comes from a

a very like do-it-yourself just really, really a glee. He has a glee to everything that he does. Rob, thank you for this, man. It's been so great talking to you. I got a split. I got fence shit to go deal with at the house. Fix that fence, man. You are brilliant.

Thank you for giving me this much time. You're brilliant. Can you quickly tell folks about your podcast? Oh, well, I do Shrob Home Video on Sundays around like seven o'clock Pacific Standard Time, 10 Eastern Standard Time, where at ShrobHomeVideo.com, I show like something weird. Usually I show like a clip show of just weird stuff.

It started off kind of like is that everything is terrible. TV carnage kind of like look at all this dumb weird stuff, but it slowly started evolving into here's like a cool fight scene from a Shob Brothers movie. Here's like an insane like transformation scene from this horror movie from Italy or whatever. Here's here's some animation. Here's a music video.

I got really inspired by like what Dante Fontaine would do with his like mixes. If you check check his stuff out on Vimeo Dante Fontaine, his stuff is really good. He's hate Comet on Instagram. Oh, he's got some fun music, something interesting to look at. It's just just digging into my collection and sharing it with the world. Man, it's awesome, by the way.

Y'all must join this and watch it. It's really, really cool. Yeah, try to do something every Sunday. Rob, thank you. That was Rob Shrop, everybody. All the links you need to find Rob are going to be at duckatrustle.com. Thank you to our sponsors, Blue Chew and Better Help. I love y'all and I'll see you next week.

Hare Krishna. A good time starts with a great wardrobe. Next stop, J.C. Penny, family get-togethers to fancy occasions, wedding season two. We do it all in style, dresses, suiting and plenty of color to play with. Get fixed up with brands like Liz Claiborne, Worthington, Stafford and J. Farrar. Oh, and thereabouts for kids. Super cute and extra affordable.

Check out the latest in store and we're never short on options at JCP.com. All dressed up everywhere to go. J.C. Penny, a good time starts with a great wardrobe. Next stop, J.C. Penny, family get-togethers to fancy occasions, wedding season two. We do it all in style, dresses, suiting and plenty of color to play with. Get fixed up with brands like Liz Claiborne, Worthington, Stafford and J.

Farrar. Oh, and thereabouts for kids. Super cute and extra affordable. Check out the latest in store and we're never short on options at JCP.com. All dressed up everywhere to go. J.C. Penny.