God Awful Movies - 527: House (2008)

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

This week, Amanda Jane Stern joins the guys for an atheist review of House (2008), the story of a hotel. Not a house. And it's haunted or something, but the movie's name makes no sense at all and that...'s the real issue here. Check Out Amanda's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dont-be-crazy/id1450793937 Or check out her Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandajanestern/?hl=en If you’d like to make a per episode donation and get monthly bonus episodes, please check us out on Patreon: http://patreon.com/godawful Check out our other shows, The Scathing Atheist, The Skepticrat, Citation Needed, and D&D Minus. Our theme music is written and performed by Ryan Slotnick of Evil Giraffes on Mars. If you’d like to hear more, check out their Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EvilGiraffesOnMars/ Report instances of harassment or abuse connected to this show to the Creator Accountability Network here: https://creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org/

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Starting point is 00:00:53 so I'm looking at a bunch of the likes on there to see if I can find it. I'm going to check out Instagram. I'm doing two-factor authentic. It's going to take me a second. Oh, my God, Heath, you're the worst demon ghost ever. God-awful, movie. Movies. Welcome back to the GameCast, where each week we sample another selection from Christian cinema
Starting point is 00:01:23 because otherwise we'd have to listen to Joe Rogan with Cecil. I'm your host, No Illusions, and sitting 700 miles to my immediate left as my good friend Heath and Wright, Heath, welcome back. Spooktacular time. Fuck, yeah, it is. Do it. And sitting 900 miles to my northeast is my bad friend, Eli Bosnick, Eli.
Starting point is 00:01:41 How are you this fine afternoon, sir? Oh, I'm ready to dig into this one. Yeah, I bet you are. But before we do, I'm also excited to welcome in a brand new guest masochist. Amanda Jane Stern is an actor, writer, and podcaster. She's the co-host of the Don't Be Crazy podcast, which explores what makes movies good or bad.
Starting point is 00:01:58 And her movie, perfectly good moment, is streaming for free on Tooby. Amanda, welcome to God Offa Movies. Thank you for having me. As I said, before we started recording, I think I got very lucky with just by being on this for Halloween month, my favorite month, at least the movie was a thing. Yeah. It had a plot and characters.
Starting point is 00:02:22 It wasn't the Nigerian one you watched where someone just started peeing. Yes, right, right. Well, that's the thing is that like normally when we have a guest, and I'm like, you're actually getting lucky. They're like, no, the fuck I'm not. But you know, you've actually listened to the show enough that you know how lucky you're getting. So tell us, Heath, what will we be breaking down today?
Starting point is 00:02:40 We watched House, the movie from 2008, not the show or whatever. It's the story of the hell that is couples therapy. It's an interesting one. And Eli, how bad was this movie? Well, if you wish the mediocre horror films of the early, had been cast and written by the hair gel of the late 90s. You will love this movie. And I do.
Starting point is 00:03:08 I love this movie so much. There's a lot of reasons to love this one. If you've ever wondered what the Hallmark movie actors are doing in their off-season, it's this. Is that even what they are? Yeah. What are these people from? Other than Betty, who is within Laverne and Shirley and is extremely right-wing now. Oh, is she?
Starting point is 00:03:27 And Mr. Blonde. And Mr. Blonde was in this, yeah, yeah. Yeah, but this is definitely like the Spirit Halloween pop-up of Hallmark actors. Yeah, right, yeah. There you go. There you go. So is there anything you guys want to nominate this one for being the best at being the worst at? Yeah, I'm going to go with
Starting point is 00:03:43 Best Worst trying to make a tin can be scary in a horror movie. We'll get to the details of that, but just know that they will try to do that throughout. They're convinced it's quite scary. They try to pop scare us. us with a tin can at multiple points.
Starting point is 00:04:01 Oh, yeah. It's frightening. Clink, clink, cling, cling. Oh, scary. What about a bunch of tin cans. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to go with, I stole this one early. Best, worst, titular building type. Okay? The fucking movie is called fucking house.
Starting point is 00:04:18 There's no houses in the fight. It takes place in a hotel. No one is ever in a house at any point in the fucking movie. Oh, yeah. It's a B&B. At best. At best. I think it's just a fucking hotel.
Starting point is 00:04:30 But yeah, like... It's like they were trying to hide themselves in SEO. Like, they saw the movie and they were like, what title do we pick? Best Chinese Food, Your City. Is that one take no? A movie film house. That's clearly what it was.
Starting point is 00:04:45 They were like, well, you know, there are several good movies called House guys so we could get mistaken for any number of them. Is the book the same title? Because it's based on a book. Is it really? Yes. It's based on a Christian horror book by him or Ted Decker and some other dude whose name I forget.
Starting point is 00:05:05 Oh, really? Okay. He was one of the filmmakers. Okay. Did you read the book? Did you read the source material? I am a non-religious Jew from New York City. Anything that screamed Christian to me when I was growing up, I stayed far away from. Hard pass. Such a hard pass. And I didn't even have all those excuses. So did you have any best words for us, Amanda? I did. I had two, and I didn't know where to go, so I'll just say them both because none of you went with them. Best Worst character naming? Yes. What the hell is Randy Massaroo?
Starting point is 00:05:40 Masseroo. I rewound to pause because what the fucks Maseru? Yeah. It felt like people lying, just being like noise masseroo. Right. It's like, what's your name? Oh, I'm manly, manly. How shit, that's the title. This is how we came up with the title, too. But also, I don't know if you noticed the, when she took out the card for the couples therapist,
Starting point is 00:06:05 it didn't say doctor or anything. It just said Betty Louise. Yep, sure did. Which, I'll get back to Betty because did they just use that name twice? There's a cop name fucking officer. Lawdale. Lawdale. Lawdale.
Starting point is 00:06:20 Lawdale. That was what came to my mind. Hi, I'm cop officer. Law. Police. I am bad. Officers, stop resisting. Yeah. I'm going to go with Best McGuffin or should I say Ms. Susan.
Starting point is 00:06:36 Okay. This movie, which has a plot so thin you could use it for a penetration-based magic trick, runs out of itself about two-thirds of the way through. So they introduce a McGuffin character who just sort of leads us the rest of the way through the movie. Just how I'm here is the rest of the film. Yeah, in the third act, yeah. Hey, magicians should call it not a penetration-based trick as a genre. They should come up with a different title for that.
Starting point is 00:07:04 I'm not, I don't take that feedback. Why did they call her Susan? Again, bad. Like, it's such a, they could have at least given her a name that fit to the character, yeah. Yeah, something. Yeah, but paid her off in some way. Susie McGuffin. That would have done it.
Starting point is 00:07:18 Yeah, there you go. I wouldn't have put it past them to call her Susan McGuffin. Honestly, yeah. They never asked the last name, yeah. All right, well, I'll tell you what, the metaphors in this movie are so heavy-handed. We need to stretch before we attempt to lift them. So we're going to take a quick break, but we're back in a minute with all the hotel that is house. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.
Starting point is 00:07:40 Okay, and then one time I was right in the middle of my audition song, and they just started taking lunch orders. Oh, I've had that happen to me, too. Like passing a phone? No, out loud. Out loud. Hey, guys. You ready to record the episode? Yeah, the listeners are waiting.
Starting point is 00:07:54 Sorry, guys. Me and Amanda were just talking about acting horror stories. I feel like you need to succeed to have actor horror stories. No, you don't. No, you don't. I tried and I failed and that's enough. Tell him, Amanda. It's true. He did fail. No, the trying part. You know what? It doesn't matter because I've got Better Help. What's Better Help? Oh, now that's what I've taught. Obviously professional. Phenomenal performance. Perfect.
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Starting point is 00:09:05 I teach acting sometimes. Why? Because they let me. No, it's true. They do let him. It's so sad. All right, everyone. Welcome to the second writer's room meeting for House.
Starting point is 00:09:20 Now, look, I feel like I might have gotten a little carried away at our first. meeting when I handed out that extensive list of tired horror movie tropes that I didn't want you guys to use. I should have let you make your own mistakes. And I just want to apologize for that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, sorry. You wanted us not to write that stuff? Yeah, we thought that's like what you wanted.
Starting point is 00:09:42 What? Why would I ask for things like two-dimensional characters and people whose trauma is their fault? Yeah, that was a weird request now that I think about it. Okay, well, did you guys at least figure out why we're calling the movie House? I literally wrote, hey, guys, I'm not married to House. I think it's just a good placeholder. Oh, we thought you meant that should be the plot.
Starting point is 00:10:07 How would I mean that could be the plot? Yelling. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. House? I like it. Thank you. Claire. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:10:19 Positive. And we're back for the breakdown and we're going to open up on the does two count Bible quote This is John 1.5 And I want to complain about this quote, right? Because the quote is, the light shineth in the darkness And the darkness comprehended it not.
Starting point is 00:10:36 Okay, light does not shine in the fucking darkness, right? Because it's not darkness. If there's light shining around it, light can shine with darkness around it. But the very fact that there's light shining means it's not fucking darkness. Sorry. Yeah, they're trying to do the like, the fish being like, what the fuck is water? But like, fuck you, you're doing it wrong.
Starting point is 00:10:53 Yeah, exactly. So this was the case where I was like, okay, is this really going to be a Christian movie? And then it started with that. And I went, yep, it sure is. It is, though. Amanda mentioned in the intro that this is based on a Christian novel. So I looked into this and I am so excited because not only have we watched one of the movies
Starting point is 00:11:12 that is a sister book to the book that this movie is based on, three. but we've enjoyed this guy's work in various other forms before and I am so pleased to announce that House is part of his fucking podcast diverse but not part of his main. This is his side project.
Starting point is 00:11:30 This is his D&D minus. Wait, who is this? Frank Peretti and Ted Decker. Oh yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Wait, did you say three? He has something just called three? Yes, he has another horror book called three which was turned into a movie so hard to find that we had to have a listener buy the DVD and rip it to YouTube for us.
Starting point is 00:11:49 I mean, that SEO is even worse than House. Right? Yes. Who titles shit for him? Apparently Ted Decker takes two authors. Yeah, right, right. Look, I find titling really hard, but I would never come up with something as shitty as three. Yes, right. The.
Starting point is 00:12:07 Yeah. So we're going to open up on this woman, and she's like hiding in this mansion. It's supposed to be real creepy. and the way that we're going to establish that as creepy is we're going to have a mouse walk in front of her like a rat but the rat is way too cute to be the dungeon silhouette it's like a chunker
Starting point is 00:12:25 it's somebody's pet mouse obviously very clearly yeah so here's the thing I don't like rats but my wife adores rats so any creepiness I was going to get from this movie was immediately ruled out when my wife was like oh just in my right ear yeah I was just so fucking confused by the layout of this house because it seemed like
Starting point is 00:12:47 she was locked in the basement at first and then I realized she was just behind the banister of the stairs. Yeah, it felt like a cage or something for sure. Yeah, and it wasn't. That's how they shot it. They wanted us to think that, yeah. But just then, the clock strikes 558, right? Because we can see the fucking clock. It's not his clock. Don't show us that.
Starting point is 00:13:07 You could lie and be like at six and we wouldn't have known. Or you could move the fucking... Give it a nudge, perhaps. Right, or wait two fucking minutes. You would patient bastards, but yeah, clock strikes at 5.58, we see a tin can. I wrote in my notes, is that the swear jar? It's so much dumber than that. It's so much dumber than this one.
Starting point is 00:13:25 I didn't notice everything it said on the tin can at first. So all I read was, he who comes. Yeah, yeah, I saw that. I saw shotgun shells, a wedding ring, an hourglass, and a tin can that says, he who comes in magic marker. And I was like, this guy's having a bad day. This is like a minority report scenario. I don't know what he's doing next, but let's arrest him just to be sure.
Starting point is 00:13:50 That is all I saw too. And I was just like, ah, in the can? Is that what the can is for? It's the jackpot. I wrote in my notes, this is what the Trump administration calls proof that he's a leftist. Yeah, right. So, okay, so this woman is like sneaking away from a guy, but he catches up with her. And she goes, you can't shoot me.
Starting point is 00:14:09 I'm your wife. And he goes, no, I can definitely shoot you. watch. Lady, you need to check out the statistics. I'm worse for you than heart disease. Oh, no. As someone who produces true crime TV shows, do you know how hard it is to find the case where it's not the husband?
Starting point is 00:14:25 Well, right. Yeah, exactly. But yeah, he's like, no, it's everything's going to be okay. She's like, is it? He goes, for me. And then he shoots him. Which is, hey, can I say if you're in a madness-induced murder state and you can do a not joke, I feel like you can choose not to kill your wife.
Starting point is 00:14:43 I think you might not be in a madness-induced state, and this might just want to be you. Yep, exactly. So, okay, so then we're going to watch drunken drone operator try to catch a fucking car going down the road. Like, I don't know if he was just zoomed in too much or what, but I have never seen more nauseous drone footage. It also felt like it was slowed down almost.
Starting point is 00:15:07 Mm-hmm. Like the speed of the footage in that car scene was off. from every other scene. Well, so I genuinely think what happened is that this drone operator was like, guys, you're going too fucking fast. I can't follow you at 45 miles north. So they've got this thing just coasting down at 15
Starting point is 00:15:24 and they're like, well, we're going to have to speed up the fucking footage now. That's silly. There's a dog. There's a dog running by keeping pace with the car. It was really distracting. I checked my settings to see if I was watching on like a different speed
Starting point is 00:15:38 because it was just so jarring. Yeah. So, but we're going to meet. two characters here we have Jack who is driving recklessly because he's just very upset and we have his wife Stephanie who's had enough of his bullshit. Yeah and we get a real cheesecake shot
Starting point is 00:15:53 of Stephanie's toes here and I was like oh I was going to make a Tarantino joke here but it's a short shot and then we got eight more shots of her feet and I was like oh okay it is a Tarantino she's like doing her toenails and like at one point she actually like gets the toenail polish all over her foot and everything I'm like yeah this guy's got a fetish you know
Starting point is 00:16:10 but don't tell him that. No, yeah. Don't tell him that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, no, no. He would never admit it.
Starting point is 00:16:18 No. And also, this movie was made in 2000, I think it came out in 2008. I think this might be the last movie that could get away with the We Got Lost trope without explaining why they're not just using GPS, right? Yep. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because the iPhone basically came out right around then. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:37 Yeah. So then, so they're lost. He's trying to find the highway. and a cop hits his lights behind him so he's getting pulled over she goes slow down he goes
Starting point is 00:16:48 I'm trying it's the pedal on the left I know that's tricky this is also the first time and look we've seen a lot of bad pulling over slash movie scenes this is the first time where the movie forgets he's being pulled over
Starting point is 00:17:04 because he just kind of like shakes the wheel a little bit and then the cop just drives by yeah yeah well the cop's on his to an emergency out, like a further up. He wasn't actually pulling him up. He just wanted him to get the fuck out of the way. And he was trying, you guys. He was.
Starting point is 00:17:19 Not very hard, but he was. Okay, did any of you look at that, the CD cover, the photo of, that doesn't even look like her. It looks like a woman 20 years older than her on that CD cover. Interesting, yeah. So Stephanie pulls out this CD, right? So she's
Starting point is 00:17:35 like, let's listen to this CD. And her husband, Jack, is just like, oh God, not that fucking CD again. And at first we're just like, okay, what is it? And then she's like, it's my greatest hits. And I'm like, oh, my God, okay, well, I'm on his side now. Okay, to be fair, that is some full on hovering above your seat level psychosis. To be like, what should we listen to on the road?
Starting point is 00:17:57 How about a little bit of me? Yes, yes. She phrases it as, don't you want to listen to your wife's greatest hits? And he's like, no. I want to listen to like an actual album, not a compilation album, if I'm going to listen at all. Let me hear some of your older stuff Like on a full album Maybe she does a cover of Melissa
Starting point is 00:18:17 Yeah Which I did sing several times While watching this movie Yeah, exactly So but yeah But he's so pissed about Listen to her shitty demo CD The almost hits the cop car
Starting point is 00:18:30 Who's pulled over on the road I had, you know, seeing about some kind of a chicken chase an accident Yeah, he violently's trying to turn off the music Like he has to strangle the knob to death to get it to turn off. Right.
Starting point is 00:18:42 Yeah. So he pulls over, he hits the cops like cones and shit that he's got out on the road. And we see there's a truck that's got like, you know, a couple of people running around chasing all the chickens that got away. Yeah. Which is just kind of silly and funny for a second until we, they try to do a chicken jump scare. Mm-hmm. Which is fucking hilarious. Yeah, hard to do a pop scare with a chicken.
Starting point is 00:19:05 It is. It is because chicken is a comedy prop. I think we've all agreed. I mean Stephanie chickened out at the chickens No that's true That's true
Starting point is 00:19:16 Freaked to write the fuck out And then okay And then the cop comes up And I wrote in my notes Oh wow The cop is a poor man's Michael Madsen No
Starting point is 00:19:26 But it's Michael Madsen Michael Madsen Is poor man's Michael Manson So how do we think They got him in this movie Did he have bills to pay Is he secretly weird
Starting point is 00:19:38 Was he secretly weirdly Christian? That was he? my assumption. Did they not tell him? Because they could have not told him. That's very possible, actually. Yeah. I would imagine it's both that he's both,
Starting point is 00:19:50 he had large bills to pay and is secretly Christian. And they didn't tell him, all of them, maybe? Oh, it could be all three. Yeah, no, whenever I see an actor like him in a movie like this, I always assume that this is somebody in his church talked him into this shit.
Starting point is 00:20:03 But it could be, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was that he just spent too much money on crack cocaine or something, yeah. So I'll tell you this, because this was fun. I was sort of like, oh, I wonder if he's, like, been out of work and then he came back to do this movie. Fun fact, Michael Madsen has been consistently working his entire life in movies. I have never fucking seen. I was going, if you go through his IMDB, it sounds like movies that are on a poster in another movie, right?
Starting point is 00:20:34 2023, the lurking fear, assault on Hill 400, dark feathers, Dance of the Geisha, right? These are all real movies that Michael Batson was been in in the last two calendar years, and I could find no trace of them on the internet except for his IMDB. Oh, okay. So I don't see anything about him being super religious, but he did get arrested for domestic assault. Okay.
Starting point is 00:21:01 So he really registered with the characters in this. It feels like he's genuinely been just in a fugue state of Mr. Blonde ever since 1990. and doesn't know he's been in all these movies, that would fit with everything I've seen ever since. Yeah, kind of a Nick Cage situation. So, but Stephanie pops out to flirt with Michael Madsen for a little while because she's like, well, this guy when my husband is a fucking nobody, but you know Quentin Tarantino.
Starting point is 00:21:29 Let me tell you that it's audio up to you. He let you be in the hateful eight, 26 years after he allowed you to be in his last movie. Yeah. So, but ultimately he gives him directions on how to get back to the highway and he lets him get away. right does he yeah right yeah
Starting point is 00:21:44 he gives them two choices he's like you could go this way or there's a short cut yeah mwaha
Starting point is 00:21:50 hey you said shortcut weird you actually literally said moh after that too once in one of these movies
Starting point is 00:21:57 I want someone to be like you said that funny I don't want to do the thing that you said funny yeah so okay
Starting point is 00:22:04 so they drive away and now Jack's getting all pissy because Stephanie was flirting with Michael Madsen right? Because he wasn't pissy before.
Starting point is 00:22:12 Oh, right, right. Yeah, so he's getting different pissy. Yeah. My first note on this movie was like, oh, is this going to turn into basically the couple that we saw at the beginning of the movie and that he's going to turn into this murderous asshole because I already buy that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. He seems to have it lurking just beneath the surface here, yeah. Yeah. All the couples in this movie will wildly swing from wild jealousy to absolutely hating each other and not. nothing in between. You'd think they'd be mutually exclusive, right? You wouldn't be as jealous if you hate yourself, apparently. Jealousy's the connection maker there.
Starting point is 00:22:48 A movie also has the worst blame the victim. Yes. Oh, my God. Oh, my gosh. Truly insane. It was almost my other best worst because what on earth? Yeah. No, we'll get into a lot of that in a minute here.
Starting point is 00:23:00 But yeah, so we learned here that they were on their way to see a marriage counselor, but they've changed their mind. They're going to head back home. And her name is Betty Louise. Yes. Which I was like, is this Tina Louise's sister? Yes, they spelled it B-E-T-T-E, like Betty Page Betty. Yeah, and they spelled Louise.
Starting point is 00:23:20 We see her business card for a second. Stephanie, the wife here, she holds it up for a second to call and I guess be like we're not coming now. It's Betty, B-E-E-T-E, and then Louise L-U-I-S-E, which is weird. And then it says family coosling, spelled, C-O-U-C-E-L-Y-N-G. What? I have a theory that Betty Louise isn't real because the woman in the house, the spooky lady, her name is Betty. Is Betty?
Starting point is 00:23:54 Why would you have two characters named Betty? No, unless that was some reveal that we were supposed to get, but it's not. I think they're the same. That's what I think. We never saw them in the same room because we never saw Betty Louise. we just see the future character named Betty, who is a very interesting family counselor. I really think that's what's happening here.
Starting point is 00:24:15 I think this is how she lures them to counseling. Interesting. Or I guess it's not counseling as we talk about this. Yeah, the coosling. Yeah, this is the most creative family cooslinger in history as we go through this plot. I think that's an interesting theory. And it doesn't even say doctor on that business card. Interesting.
Starting point is 00:24:36 The name. Yeah. Just Betty. So, okay, so they've decided they're not going. She tries to call to cancel their session, but she has no cell reception out here. And then he hit something in the road and two of their tires blow out, right? And it's weird to do two near car accidents as you're inciting incident in the movie, right? It feels like they could have just done the one.
Starting point is 00:25:01 It shows me that Jack's a really bad driver. Absolutely. Yeah. Don't tell him that, though. I wrote in my note, I was like, Jack is single-handedly proving why they say, men can't drive. That's the saying, right?
Starting point is 00:25:14 Yeah. Statistically speaking. Anyone who's written in my car. We do drive like that. It's true. They blow out their tires. They don't wreck the car because this movie didn't have wrecked the car
Starting point is 00:25:27 kind of money, right? But they see that there's another car on the side of the road with its emergency blinkers on. Nobody's in it, though. Right? And then there's thunder and it starts. is raining instantly. I was saying if I were lucky,
Starting point is 00:25:38 this would have been turned into Rocky Horror. Oh, there you go. But I wasn't lucky. No, none of us were lucky. So they're sitting in their car in the rain. He's trying to figure out where they are on the map. He can't find this road anywhere on the map. And she's like, Stephanie's like,
Starting point is 00:25:53 hey, why don't we check and see if Michael Madsen is up for a threesome? I mean, he's just back there. He wasn't doing anything, right? So they decided to walk out in the pouring rain to go get some help. But along the way, they come across this mysterious old hotel that they don't remember seeing. No.
Starting point is 00:26:11 No. It says the sign out front. Building. It says wayside in. It's a fucking inn. And then he goes, he goes, well, looks like some kind of bed and breakfast. I'm like no, the fucking doesn't. It looks like some kind of in.
Starting point is 00:26:26 The sign on the front says in. The bungalow. Don't try to confuse me about what fucking. It's not done. Have we stumbled upon a. a noun? I think it's a noun. It's not a fucking yurt.
Starting point is 00:26:38 It's not a fucking tent. It's not a fucking skyscraper. It's a goddamn hotel. We've got to work for that thing. One could even say the noun with a definite article if you wanted to. It's also a building. A domicile.
Starting point is 00:26:53 Yes. So they go up to the domicile. Now, like most houses, it's got a fucking lobby, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love that they just see this like Gothic mansion with like demon noises coming out of it and like a crazy wrought iron fence that has like evil spikes going. And they're just like, chill.
Starting point is 00:27:10 It looks like a nice B&B. We've got a bed and breakfast. Yeah, right. It's a B&B. What a nice house. How homely. There's no cars in the parking lot. And I'm like, well, it's funny that a fucking house would have a parking lot. Yeah. But they go into the lobby and they see that there's a guest register and two people
Starting point is 00:27:26 have checked in today. Randy Massaroo. Massaroo. And Leslie Taylor or something. they didn't get exciting with her last name. No, it's just him. That's what makes it so much more absurd. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:41 So, and I want to, these people's motives in signing that goddamn guest book just baffled me for the rest of the fucking movie. But they come down from downstairs and they're like, hey, we found ourselves in this weird, creepy, abandoned hotel and, and signed the guest book. How are you guys doing?
Starting point is 00:27:59 Oh, we're doing it. You should sign the guest book too. Okay. Okay. Yeah, no, we'll sign the guest book. And then we can talk. Write a fun message, like a nice message that future guests will enjoy. Point out your favorite thing about the property.
Starting point is 00:28:11 Don't come here. Lost in rain. No exit. Yeah, right. Lots of metal spikes on road. Fun. So they're like, yeah, we hit some farm equipment down the road. They're like, oh my God, that's the same farm equipment we hit.
Starting point is 00:28:26 And I'm like, and you didn't move it out of the fucking road, you absolute prick. Jesus. I don't know if any of you turned the suburb. subtitles on watching this movie, but they kept calling the Beamer, a Bimmer. B-I-M-M-E-R. Yep, the Bimmer. Also, and I wasn't going to point this up, but they keep spoiling things because they'll keep telling you who's talking when you're not supposed to know, right? They'll be like, Stephanie, they're like, we're not supposed to know that's her behind.
Starting point is 00:28:52 Jack's ghost. Yeah, come on. The devil. No, man. So, oh, they walk into the dining room at one point, and one of the guys, Randy goes, oh, wow, this is like an ag of the cream. Christie novel, huh? And I'm like, calm down Ted Decker, Rob Green, and Frank Peretti. No, no, your fucking story's not like the second best British author after Shakespeare.
Starting point is 00:29:14 Shut the fuck up. I would describe this movie as no exit, but except the four of us watching it, we were the people trapped in purgatory. Yeah, that's the other. Yeah, that's the hell. Kind of like an Agatha Christie novel. It is. It's a building house, maybe. there's a chandelier in some of her work
Starting point is 00:29:34 to a lot of similarities. Yeah. And fucking Leslie goes, well, don't the people in her books wind up dead? That's not helpful, Leslie, right now.
Starting point is 00:29:45 Not the majority of them. Or shadowing. Or are they? And then the light, just as she says that, this thunder clap and the lights go out. So Randy says, come on,
Starting point is 00:29:55 Jack, you girls stay put. I'm sorry. No, I couldn't help but notice that when you said, come on, Jack. Now you just said it,
Starting point is 00:30:02 one time. Just the one time. Just the one time. Is that what he says? Which was drastically different than what actually happened. They will exit the scene and I guess they like had the audio of him saying come on Jack because they will use it. And guys, back me up. Five or six more times. We'll just hear him being like, come on Jack. Oh, come on Jack. Somebody learned about a soundboard and put just that on it like Eli learned about a soundboard and we couldn't not hear a Mystic River. for like eight or ten times every episode?
Starting point is 00:30:34 I was two episodes. It was two episodes before no one took it away from that. I made my husband watch this with me. And he was like, if you told me that this was a Christian adaptation of Clue, I'd believe you. It's pretty close, yeah. But bad. Yeah, right, right. Just like Agatha Christie.
Starting point is 00:30:52 Yeah. No. So Jack and Randy go looking for the generator. At one point, this is so great. There's this creepy kid voice, you know, like, Daddy, help. And chat goes, did you hear that? And Randy goes, and I quote, house noise. Sorry.
Starting point is 00:31:08 I did a spit take. House noise? House noise, yeah. I actually spit out the tea. I was drinking when that happened. And I had to pause to wipe down my laptop screen because it was so fucking absurd. No. See, when you got old pipes, they go, follow me, daddy.
Starting point is 00:31:28 Yes. You got to have steam heat. Yeah. Okay. Just pan over. There's like a house DJ doing Foley. This is on a turntable. Foley time. So, and then a ghost kid's walks by, now, okay, I'm just going to give you a general
Starting point is 00:31:45 piece of advice, aspiring horror movie makers. If you're going to have a ghost kid, don't put her in a bright red tomato-ass looking jacket, right? Or at least let us see it very clearly so that we're all not like, is she dressed as the Kool-Aid man for like the first three times we see? I thought it was, don't look now. is what they were referencing. Yeah. And what makes it even worse
Starting point is 00:32:05 is that she's in a red puffy jacket. So it looks like they had like a really fat ghost kid. When they said all you can eat, they should have been more specific. But, of course, it's a normal-sized kid in a puffy jacket, but because we'll only see her out of the corner of the camera's eye,
Starting point is 00:32:21 for the first half of the movie, I was like, okay, we're getting Heath's baby pictures as the ghost here, all right. I did like to dress up as Santa Claus sometimes and walk around mansions and whispered a piece. It's not good because it's only out of the corner
Starting point is 00:32:34 and you're just like, what am I looking at? I thought it was a specific reference to Don't Look Now. I don't know the movie, so I can't tell you. Don't Look Now is from the 70s. It's Donald Sutherland and Christy. It's a classic horror movie with one of like the most notoriously good sex scenes in the movie history. You will miss me on a lot of classic horror movie references. So this was like an amazing illusion right here.
Starting point is 00:32:58 Yeah, right. Very good literary illusion, cinematic. Illusion. Got it. So meanwhile, back with the women, folk, we check in with Leslie and Stephanie, and they immediately fail the Bechdel test, right? She's like, tell me about your
Starting point is 00:33:13 husband. And she says, quote, Jack's a writer. He's signed and published. Is he? Really? A lot of freaking da for him. She goes, I'm a singer. And Leslie says, anything I'd heard of? And she says, why you got to be a bitch about it?
Starting point is 00:33:29 Yes, we both work at the same Applebee's. Perhaps you've heard the last song on the Starbucks album that they used to offer there at the front near the cashier that nobody bought? Well, this movie definitely has no concept of how her music career works because she has an agent, she is signed, she has a record.
Starting point is 00:33:50 So conceivably someone has listened to this. You would think? Yeah, you'd think. She has greatest hits. Yeah, obviously, yeah, multiple albums. Nobody puts up. an album of greatest hits if they don't have greatest hits.
Starting point is 00:34:04 That's an awesome debut album though for some of the movies. It's okay. But then the guys come back with, they found lanterns apparently. And as they return with the lanterns,
Starting point is 00:34:17 suddenly a creepy guy appears in the room with them. This is Pete the pervert, I guess. I don't know. Uncle. Yeah. He's creepy.
Starting point is 00:34:27 And he's creeping on specifically on Leslie. Yeah. And then suddenly Betty appears. A creepy woman appears by setting a pitcher down too hard.
Starting point is 00:34:39 So we're being introduced now to our horror movie family. There was also a husband, Stuart, who we won't meet quite yet. Yeah. When Betty introduces herself, she says Betty,
Starting point is 00:34:49 just Betty. And I wrote in my notes, like, Cher? Yeah, well, she didn't want to say Louise yet. Exactly. She didn't want to tell us
Starting point is 00:34:56 that she was Betty Louise. Yeah. That this whole thing has been a marriage counseling intervention. Yeah, right. I'm not a coosler. Well, see, that's why the card says that because she's not really licensed. Right, yeah, yeah, you can't say counselor. Exactly, you can't sue her.
Starting point is 00:35:14 Anybody's allowed to do coosling. Yeah, you can. That's not protected. We're saying marriage coosler. No, that's true. So she's like, oh, are you all staying here? It'll be $20 a night, which is damn reasonable in two. in 2007.
Starting point is 00:35:28 And then Randy's like, does that include food? And I was like, fuck yeah, Randy. That's such a good question right now. Love this guy. You could charge so much more for a haunted house.
Starting point is 00:35:38 People want to stay somewhere haunted. Right? Even without food. Yeah. Yeah. She says, he goes, does that include food? And she's like, well, I get,
Starting point is 00:35:48 yeah, I guess. Jesus, it was already a pretty good deal, but fine. She says, we'll feed you, but you got to go clean up first. Only pigs wallow in their own muck. All right, that was another, that's like too super weird. We're going to maybe take off.
Starting point is 00:36:01 Should we take off? I cannot explain how normal, absolutely everything else could be. If someone said that as an instruction to wash my hands, there is no thing that could keep me in the building. Yeah, I would be out. Dive through window. So, yeah, well, to her credit, Stephanie, it goes, we don't actually want to be here at all.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Can we use your phone and then leave? And they're like, well, you can use the phone, but ain't no towed truck coming out. Tonight, you're stuck with us. But then Betty also tells Pete to take Stephanie and Jack to see Ma Bell. That doesn't go anywhere. Who's Ma Bell? They just fully, fully abandoned that.
Starting point is 00:36:42 That's an old-timey reference for a phone. Is it? Oh, thank you. I had no idea. I was like, what? That's what Noah. No one grew up calling it. Yes, no.
Starting point is 00:36:52 We did. Gotta go see Alexander Graham about a horse. I think it's just like an old-time. Yeah, right. Drop some kid off at the segregated pool. Yeah, growing up in New York City, definitely never heard that. So they all go to leave, but Leslie goes to leave last, and Betty stops her. Now, we should point out that Leslie is like the tempteress.
Starting point is 00:37:15 We know that. Yes, right. Leslie is the boobs, yes. That's how the movie sees her. And Betty stops and she says, you look clean enough. Why don't you come die first in the movie? I mean, help me in the. kitchen over here, you know. Yeah. And the counselor's like, she's, yeah. Oh, yeah. So we didn't,
Starting point is 00:37:35 we didn't mention that, actually. So Leslie is, just to make this movie even more confusing, a grad student psychologist, right? So she's learning to be a coosler, we would assume. She's, she's pre-cus at Auburn. Yeah. Yes. So, wait, no, no, no. This does make sense in the Lord. Okay, okay, I'm putting it together because we know that Betty Louise, Kusler, is actually this Betty in the house, who, and her Kuseling is luring couples to this purgatory house, hotel. So, Leslie is studying to take over for her. Oh, interesting. So she's going to become Leslie Taylor family Kusler next. Yeah, family Kusler.
Starting point is 00:38:26 Oh, I like that. Yeah, like maybe Betty Louie's wants to move on. She's with different demon duties that she wants to do. Yeah, things that don't require... You've got to pass on the business. I'm giving this movie so much more lore than it deserves. She's like, you know, I'm looking for a position where I don't get my face cracked open by angry dudes as often. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:44 All right. So they try to use the phone. Phone doesn't work, of course. So then we cut to Stephanie and Jack cleaning up for dinner, right? And there's this moment here where, like, Stephanie is trying to convince Jack that this. situation is creepy as fuck and he is shockingly dense about it he's like i don't trust these people and he's like why what's wrong it's nice they tell us about pigs only eating in their own swamp they let us use their weird unplugged phone and robbed us of a corner did you hear what you just
Starting point is 00:39:14 said did you hear yourself i did not know i didn't hear anything see this is why we need to go to couples there we pete literally his first line was your purdy to boobs so yeah that's not good no nothing about this is good. There's also this moment where she looks away and the faucet turns itself on and then it turns itself back off like Michigan J. Frog style or whatever
Starting point is 00:39:35 and I'm like, that's the least fucking creepy imagine. You're not even close when it comes to creepiness. The faucet turned on? Fuck you. Guys, I don't want to blow our load at the start. Can we just turn a faucet on when no one's...
Starting point is 00:39:49 Okay, that's just for us then. I don't know why we... But I also think this movie proves the whole thing that white man in a haunted house they're just going to stay, stay oblivious and pretend that nothing's happening and everyone else is like, this place is fucking haunted. There's something wrong.
Starting point is 00:40:04 100%. Fair. We're not asking for directions out of the haunted house, man. Yes, exactly. Right. So also, but at this point, Stephanie looks in the mirror,
Starting point is 00:40:12 she sees that tomato girl was behind her. And you can tell, I've been doing this guy off with these things too long. I wrote my notes, calling it now, that's her aborted fetus.
Starting point is 00:40:22 It's not. It wasn't. But close. You were brandy. You were good, yeah. I was pretty fucking sure, but yeah. All right, well, I'll tell you. These writers need a minute to look up more generic horror movie cliches.
Starting point is 00:40:32 So we're going to give them a break. But we'll be back in a minute with even more house. Okay, what about pumpkin-spiced sugar bombs? I mean, sugar bomb is right there in the title. I thought maybe they bombed the sugar, like got rid of it. No. Hey, guys. What's you doing?
Starting point is 00:40:50 Yeah, what's with the menus? Oh, hey, Noah. Hey, Heath. Me and Amanda are trying to figure out how to really go all. in on our fall flavors while staying healthy, and it's tough. Tell me about it. Well, why don't you guys try Green Chef? What's Green Chef?
Starting point is 00:41:06 Amanda's was still better. Paul Tree. Green Chef makes it easy to spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying fall. And with their new heat and eat meals, enjoy a delicious, wholesome meal in just three minutes. I don't know, Noah. Don't those meal kits get kind of samey? Not with Green Chef, they don't. With 80-plus dietitian-approved weekly meal options,
Starting point is 00:41:25 Green Chef makes it easy to find meals that fit your lifestyle. Pick from Mediterranean, gluten-free, plant-based, and protein-heavy, even calorie-smart choices, too. I don't know, Heath. Have you actually tried it? I sure have. I was a Green Chef customer even before they were a sponsor. I love how I can stop and start my subscription on my schedule, so I've got a great meal
Starting point is 00:41:43 headed to my door whenever I want. All right, guys. I'm sold. Where do I sign up? Make this phone your healthiest yet with Green Chef. Head to greenchef.com slash 50 awful and use the code 50 awful to get 50% off your first month, then 20% off for two months with free shipping. That's code 50 offal at greenchef.com slash 50 offal.
Starting point is 00:42:02 All right, guys. Thanks. Hey, do you think Starbucks will just sell me the pumpkin syrup? Probably not after last year. What happened last year? Oh, you do not want to know. Don't ask. Oh. Thanks so much for letting us wait out the storm in here.
Starting point is 00:42:21 No problem. Lots of folks get lost on this road. I can't believe it just started raining like that. Insane. Yes, things can get quite unexpected up here. Sorry, what's that mean? I think my husband means a lot of folks find more than they're looking for in these hills. Right.
Starting point is 00:42:48 But like what? What do they find? Like they find a demon house? I knew it. I told you. I said it. Damn it, Harold. What?
Starting point is 00:42:59 Nobody has ever asked us a follow-up when we said that stuff. And I just, I panic. He's right. Nobody ever has. It's true. Okay. Well, we're going to go. Yep.
Starting point is 00:43:07 No, no, don't go. Don't you want to use the phone? Is your phone broken? Yep. Broken. Harold. Yeah. We're out.
Starting point is 00:43:17 We're going to go. Head in the game, Harold. Need more rehearsal. And we're back for more of this shit. We're going to reach. join the action with everybody's sitting down for a very awkward dinner. And now here's the thing, though, this movie doesn't have enough creepy shit to happen at this dinner.
Starting point is 00:43:35 So they try to, like, use the cinematography to make you think creepy shit's going on. Like, oh, we're zooming in real close on that pot roast, you know. Okay. I just noticed something. So my very first note in the scene is pot roast looks good. Amanda's first note is, ew. I feel like that those happened independently. Was that a reaction to the pot roast or the people?
Starting point is 00:44:00 Mine wasn't to the first shot of the pot roast. It was moving around on someone's plate being cut up really small and it was just like mushing around there. Yeah, that was gross. They have somebody just like infinitely cutting the pot roast up because that looks gross. Yeah. That didn't look, it didn't make me hungry at all that part.
Starting point is 00:44:18 Yeah, right. Agree, we same. Uh-huh. So Stephanie, also Stephanie's over here, fingering her ice tea. Yeah. I also didn't, I thought that was weird too. It's weird. It is weird. And again, I just, I just wanted any character to be like, hey, why is your finger in your drink?
Starting point is 00:44:36 That's fucking insane that that's happening. Push in the ice. That's the thing that just keeps happening in horror movies. Big time out, whole room. The vibes are crazy here, right? Can we all to acknowledge it's insane what's going on in this house? If you're doing a terrifying thing right now, let's stop. Stop. One, two, three, stop. Okay, great.
Starting point is 00:44:55 Now, let's each do one thing and we'll judge if it's terrifying. I'm putting my finger in the pot. Terrify. There we go. See, we're walking. I'm just, like, moving my food around. Yeah, just cutting my food. I'm not eating it.
Starting point is 00:45:07 Just cutting it. Also, hey, I'm sorry, but does Jack's hair look like that even after he freshenes up? It's so bad. It looks so greasy. It's so gross. What did he do in the bathroom? I would not want to run my fingers through that. Oh, God.
Starting point is 00:45:20 No, you'd never get them back. Right? You'd get... Four of them or something. That's a great image for a much better horror movie. Oh, there you know. Like fingers getting cut off in hair. Absolutely everybody in this movie looks like they did not make it to the cast of Charmed.
Starting point is 00:45:37 Right? Like they were in the last running, but. Yep. They look like they did their own hair and makeup. That too, yeah. So, okay, but this is where we meet Stewart, who is Betty's husband. He's going to come in and bully Pete a little bit. And then, so, we're.
Starting point is 00:45:53 We're supposed to be establishing here that each of these people has a great sin, right, that they're going to, like, be paying for here. Oh, God. And we're about to start establishing that the great sin that Leslie has is her boobs, right? Like, we will over and over again establish in this movie that she is a temptress, tempting men with all of her cleavage. How dare she? Now, can I say this about Leslie?
Starting point is 00:46:21 And we'll talk about it when it comes up through the movie. She is very quick to advise other people to murder. Can I say that? That should be your sin. Can I speak from an open heart? Yeah. I was cool with most of her murder recommendations, though. No, that's true.
Starting point is 00:46:34 She's going straight to it. She goes straight to the murder, yeah. I've heard Noah make that advisement for, like, Irish airport security, and they weren't. She did politics the right way. Oh, God. Exactly, yes. But she did coosling the wrong way. Unfortunately, yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:51 That's where she had to go. So basically, so Stewart sits down and he goes, so I see you two aren't married, but I bet you're fucking aren't you, you know. Oh, no, he says, are you going to violate your woman in our bed? That is what he says. Yeah, it's even worse than I made it sound God. It's really bad. Yeah, and this is just how I imagine Noah feels whenever he chooses to eat with me and Heath at the same time.
Starting point is 00:47:15 You're going to fuck upstairs. You're pretty. Sorry, Seth, Andrews. I'm so sorry. They work here. She goes, Pete goes, I want her,
Starting point is 00:47:29 Ma. And Betty turns to Leslie and she says, you got to forgive Pete, quote, his saps a bubbling. Terrifying. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:40 That's what the tin can is for, Pete. Leave Leslie alone. That's why there's a hole in it. I was wondering why there's a hole. Oh, okay. It is ribbed for his place.
Starting point is 00:47:49 Oh my God. I thought the. Ribbing was for her pleasure. No. Never was. When it's in the can, it's for everybody's pleasure. So, but Randy's like, because Pete keeps
Starting point is 00:48:04 saying that he wants to, he wants to fuck Leslie and Randy's like, hey, she's with me, man. I thought it was clear that we were together, but no, okay. Yeah. Can I say, though, like, hey man, if a guy is across a dining room table
Starting point is 00:48:18 going, can I have her mom? He's probably not going to be like, oh, I'm sorry. I thought you guys were in like an ethical monogamy situation. Like, I don't think Pete understands the subtlety of relationship dynamics.
Starting point is 00:48:29 Nice try, Jack. I get it. I don't think he cares. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, but meanwhile, Stephanie is flashing back to an ice-related trauma,
Starting point is 00:48:40 and Betty keeps trying to put more ice in her drink, even though there's already enough ice in it. Yes. And what you can tell in this, this is a weird meta moment, but what you can tell
Starting point is 00:48:51 is that they did a shot of this scene where she puts too much ice in the drink and the drink overflowed. And they were like, well, that looks extremely silly. So we need you to just kind of be blocking the box while she tries to put ice in the drink. Right. So yeah, but that freaks Stephanie out.
Starting point is 00:49:07 She runs away from the table and Jack pursues. At this point, Stephanie turns to Jack and she goes, they know about the accident, right? So, you know, a little foreshadowing going on there. But Stephanie goes to leave. But when she opens the door, there's a shotgun. silhouette dudes standing out there.
Starting point is 00:49:26 This is the bad guy. This is the tin man who they will spend the rest of the movie hiding from, right? Okay. I have a question. Why does the tin man arrange for there to be a slightly unpleasant dinner party to enact his long con haunting? He likes formalities. I guess that's what, okay, yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:46 The relationship between the tin man and these three other characters is baffling to me. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, so Betty sees him and she goes, Oh, you brought the tin man. We're all in for it tonight. And so she starts locking the doors and pulling like special barred gates over them and everything.
Starting point is 00:50:05 Mm-hmm. I think you have to look at their relationship like this is their kink. And they're just forcing other people into it. It's a role play thing. Like, he's the bad boss kind of thing. Okay. Ooh, I like that. I thought it was like a sometimes word on American atheist conference.
Starting point is 00:50:22 and they have to pretend that they know us. Right, like, you know, Nick Fish is out there trying to do advocacy and I'm wearing a shirt that says Baby's favorite daddy. You know what I'm saying? Like, you got to like, this is a classic regular.
Starting point is 00:50:36 There they are. We got to lock Eli out of the building now. As usual. Interesting. I'm so sorry, Seth Andrews. So, but just then, Stephanie notices a big wall of exposition in the form of news clippings, right? this is where we learn about Officer Lawdale
Starting point is 00:50:55 Fuck yeah Because Officer Bad Guy Cop was two on the nose And nothing else was Yeah And this is when they refer to the hotel as a farmhouse Okay They say you know Officer Laudale and his wife Went missing in a farmhouse
Starting point is 00:51:11 And Jack goes is this the farmhouse And I went well it's not a fucking farmhouse Or a house, it's a fucking hotel So it can't be that And Betty goes Maybe it is No, doesn't she say I reckon it is?
Starting point is 00:51:24 Oh yeah, yeah, I reckon it is. So, but everybody starts running, Randy demands backstory. So she explains like, well, some folks call him the tin man. And everybody's like, really, I would have thought
Starting point is 00:51:38 it would be something creepier than that. And she goes, come on. The Joker? Some people call him the Joker. Like, nope, that's a Batman villain. Scarecrow. You had to know about the Wizard of Oz. Come on.
Starting point is 00:51:50 someone else write out the lyrics to some people call me the Joker because I did in my notes. Fantastic. I know I wrote that and I just started singing it. Oh, oh yeah, some folks call me the tin man
Starting point is 00:52:09 some call me the Joker. Oh, and at some point Pete just shouted something that sounded like Mamnet. Mamnet? Yeah, I don't know what that was. Mamnet. Sorry, some people call me ma'am net. Because I speak with the shotgun of love.
Starting point is 00:52:28 She also says Betty describing the tin man. She says he only goes after the guilty. Yes. And then Leslie, this is my favorite moment in the whole fucking I laughed so much. Leslie's like she means us. Yes. So perfect on the timing.
Starting point is 00:52:46 I laughed so much. It's the pause. It was like it was like Kanye when he was like, I don't like this doctor. It was a Jewish doctor. I'm not going to say what religion the doctor is. He's a Jewish dog. It's incredible. I think I missed that.
Starting point is 00:53:03 That was one of his crazy. I have it on my soundboard that Noah took away. I don't know. But I may literally have it on a soundboard that Noah took away from me. Okay. So now we have to introduce the menacing can of beans. Amazing. So the Tin Man.
Starting point is 00:53:20 drops a tin can, because he's tin man, down the chimney or whatever. Hey, man, do you have a prop that rhymes with your name as a bad guy up there at the top of the chimney? Is that why this is a tin can? So he's just doing prop comedy over here. He took his first UCB class and then thought, yep. No, I could be a sick of kind of killer. This is, I've got it. Read it.
Starting point is 00:53:47 It's scary. Yeah, right, right. So he's written three rules on the... Are you reading it? Yes. Yeah, yeah, no, we're reading it. So rule one. What's her say?
Starting point is 00:53:59 I'll say it out loud. I was reading. I was saying what it said. Rule one, I killed God. Hey, man, that's more of a statement than a question or a rule. What am I supposed to do with that? What do I follow? Right.
Starting point is 00:54:16 Yes, right. No running in the pool. Rule two. rule two I'll kill anybody that comes into my house just like I killed God now wait is this your house is that really a rule or like
Starting point is 00:54:29 a statement is this a house it's not really it's more of a hotel hey man do you want to drop another one down with like corrections on the rule rule to be yeah did you do okay in English class rule three
Starting point is 00:54:44 like the third rule but now so here's the but here's the rub right here's the moment that these idiot fucking writers thought that they had a whole movie from Rule 3, if they kill one person, well, so they if they present him one dead body
Starting point is 00:54:59 before morning, he'll let everybody else live. Right? So what they're trying to set up here is this convoluted if you guys decide amongst yourself who dies that everyone else can live, otherwise I kill everybody, right? Yeah. Now, I want to be
Starting point is 00:55:15 clear that we will eventually get to those stakes, but it's like the movie like an elderly person sort of wanders away from those things because we'll spend the next 60 minutes not with those stakes and then like grandma trying to clean up before everyone comes over it'll be like
Starting point is 00:55:31 nope those were always the stakes of the room because everybody will be separated for like the next hour of this film yeah oh yeah no I thought we were getting some couple swapping action going on when what comes up yeah you know when you go to someone's house and they've planned an activity
Starting point is 00:55:45 but the night just sort of carries naturally and you eat and you talk and you have a good time. But then that person sort of stops everybody at the natural point of the night where everyone would go home and is like, we're playing macarena. I thought we were just, you know,
Starting point is 00:56:02 let me go put my coat back on the bed. I thought we forgot about that, yeah? Okay, you want to play the game of Prisoner's Dilemma now? Yeah, right, yes. Yeah, okay, put in my coat back. So, yeah, so, but then Stewart goes and gets a shotgun. And Randy's like, well, if you have a shotgun, I want a shot gun.
Starting point is 00:56:19 And Stewart is like, no, the guy who gets the gun first wins the getting guns game, right? That's just how that. I would also like a gun. No, you don't get to have a gun. I like that there was a question that this might be some kind of sick prank for a second. And they were just like, yep. No, that's stupid. That's stupid.
Starting point is 00:56:38 We're going to dismiss that for now. The most logical answer. No, no, not at all. Definitely not. They entertained that for way too long. It's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, guys, what are the chances? this is a shenanigan, and they're like, hmm, seems, I mean, he had a gun
Starting point is 00:56:52 and he shot it at us. The guy with a leather mask, he's like, there's a camera there, and there, oh my God, look at your faces. I'm Ashton Coucher. It is a game, just not for these four. It's a game for the other people. They're having a blast.
Starting point is 00:57:08 Clearly, yeah. Okay, I do like that Leslie jumps in here, and she's like, okay, it's not a sick prank that was stupid that we thought about that for a while. It is a game though. We've got to figure out the best strategy in the game. And I was like, yes, team Leslie. This is awesome. She's going to figure out how to talk everybody into the strategy of prisoners dilemma. She's going to coocele them. Podcast listener, I cannot emphasize to you how quickly Heath would have shot me after reading that
Starting point is 00:57:36 tin can. I don't think, here's what I'll say. I'm kind of a slow reader. I don't know I would have made it to the end of the tin can. Well, I can tell you one thing's for sure is that Heath would have read it in his head first, right? He wouldn't have read it out loud for everybody. He would have said, oh, it doesn't say anything at all, and he would have crumpled it up. So, yeah. Ten man's at the top of the chimney. He just hears one pip right away, and he's like, oh, ah. Said, somebody just killed themselves right away.
Starting point is 00:58:05 Now we can all watch dancing with the stars if you guys want to catch him. You see, I'm a, I got to admit, I'm rooting for Andy. Adorable. Are you coming down the chimney? So, okay. So, but now Stuart and. And Betty and Pete decide that they're just going to lock these couples in the walk-in refrigerator that houses have.
Starting point is 00:58:25 Uh-huh. Yes. Your house doesn't, it doesn't have one? Well, no, of course it does because it's a house. How would it even be a house without a walk-in fridge? Every house. Yeah. So they take them to the walk-in.
Starting point is 00:58:38 They go, these are the sorriest bunch of sinners I've ever seen. And then Randy starts having a day. Dad was a dick flashback. Can I give a weird note? I feel like from what we're about to learn, they didn't let Dad be established as enough of a villain. Right? Yes. I mean, we'll get to what happens next in a second,
Starting point is 00:59:03 but Dad's sort of like, shoot that deer, and then he doesn't, and he's like, fuck you. And I'm like, okay, that's like 90% of our list. That's better than 90% of our list there's at. At least he took him hunting with him. I didn't even understand this as a bad dad character. I was like, oh, is it? Well, he's supposed to kill the damn dear. I probably wanted him to get good.
Starting point is 00:59:23 They were, yeah, they wanted us to, they did not. But Leslie's story, oh my God. Yeah. So we'll get, we'll get in there. But while Randy is having the first inklings of his flashback, Jack says, hey, guys, we don't have time for fucking flashbacks. And so he starts fighting to get the gun, to get the shotgun. Randy stands there like an idiot.
Starting point is 00:59:43 And he goes, hey, Randy, there's an axe next to you. He's like, right. X, I'll get that, but Betty gets to it too fast. I thought that Randy's backstory, based on what we got of that flashback at the beginning, was actually that his dad, like, bullied him for perceiving him to be effeminate or queer and that this was going to be some real, like, gay shaming shit going on. Yeah, the movie didn't have the guts to actually do much of anything with anybody here. Which, again, would have been bad because then that would have been blaming him.
Starting point is 01:00:15 instead of the actual abuser. Right. Which don't worry, they do. Yeah, they do. Yeah. Yeah. So we've got Jack fighting with Stewart over the gun and now Betty's attacking with an axe. Randy punches her square in the face.
Starting point is 01:00:30 Okay. Betty with the very large axe was fun for me. I enjoyed, like she looked like in Soul Calibur. Remember Nightmare had the giant shirt or like Siegfried with the huge. Also, can I say she definitely accidentally totally totally totally totally. shifted there, right? Because they're sort of doing like a
Starting point is 01:00:48 welcome to a house of horrors and she comes in like No, I killed the okay, that's not the vibe. Seth Andrews, I'd like to apologize. There are several moments in this movie that should be good or creepy.
Starting point is 01:01:06 But yeah. They're not. They never get there. They never get there. Never. So they crack her head open and then Stephanie like gets a meat hook
Starting point is 01:01:15 into the back of Stewart's head. And I'm like, okay, by the technical rules of the tin can, they're good now. Yeah. That's a body. Right. You just push Stewart out and you're like, there you go.
Starting point is 01:01:26 We get to go now. Can you call us a tow truck? Well, no, we'll call it tow truck. That's fine. That's fine. Right? But no. Leslie at this point, by the way, too.
Starting point is 01:01:34 Leslie runs away. She gets away as their whole fighting and just fucks right on off. Right. She could not be bothered with anyone else in that room ever again. And this is why the rules on the can should have been, well, I mean, for one thing, only one of them is actually a rule. Right.
Starting point is 01:01:50 Yes. They should have been rules is what they should have been. But it should have specified that you have to kill one of each other and not the inhabitants of the house. If you weren't an idiot fucking writer, then yes. That's like obviously what you would have set up, that one of the four. Exactly. Because it says one body.
Starting point is 01:02:07 Well, that includes these weirdos who live in this house tell. He dropped another can that says like footnote one and then a third. Dan has a list of footnotes. The week after Heath visits the house, he drops down like a six-pack. And he's like, read the whole six-pack before you respond. You can't just go to the cemetery and dig one up. That's not obviously not what I'm met. It's not the spirit of the game.
Starting point is 01:02:33 It doesn't have to be a human body. Right? Oh, yeah. It doesn't have to be a dead body. It just has a body. Oh, you're right. There you go. Fantastic two points just now.
Starting point is 01:02:43 Love this is what I'm talking. Body. Like a doll could be a body. A mannequin could be a body. You could lie down and be like, hi, I'm a body. Yeah, right. Anybody would do. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, okay. An antibody technically. So, okay, so now we're going to go. We're going to check in on Leslie. She's getting nabbed by Pete. Right. He's going to kidnap her. We'll see her later on in the movie. Meanwhile, Stephanie has gotten away. And she's decided to see if screaming and shaking the padlocked gate over the front. front door helps. It's usually a good move. Yeah, that seems to be her number one strategy.
Starting point is 01:03:18 Always works. That's the best way to go about things. It's going great, but then all of a sudden some water starts flooding in from below the door, which is the most terrifying thing that can possibly happen. Yep. Yep, that was my note. scariest thing in the world, water under a door.
Starting point is 01:03:32 Why would you be, like, it's not your, like, if it was my tile and I was like, oh, fuck, this is going to cost a fortune. Like, that would be one thing, but it's not even your place. Yeah, and I think the movie was going for that scene where the water starts to pour in, and then, like, slowly rises up and the character's afraid of drowning,
Starting point is 01:03:47 which would have made sense and been scary in relation to the movie, but they only had the budget for it ever to be sort of bottom of your shoes level water. So what we're watching is a woman just, like, really freak out about what it's going to do to the carpet. It's just a really bad icebreaker game. That's it.
Starting point is 01:04:04 Horrible icebreaker. Icebreaker, nice. So, okay, so, but she's scared that her socks are going to get wet, and that's going to be very uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Randy and Jack have gone, gone down to the basement in search of guns. Now, I love this exchange because Jack goes, we have to save the girls. And Randy goes, guns first, then girls.
Starting point is 01:04:26 Guns before huns? Guns before huns. The redneck grito. I think that's a book by Mike Huckabee. Explos before hose. Ammoes. So, okay. But yeah, so they're looking for the guns.
Starting point is 01:04:41 We cut to Stephanie. She's decided now to hide in a closet. but then scream for Jack loud enough that he can hear from the basement. So, like, I don't know why she's hiding. That doesn't seem helpful. They hear her screaming.
Starting point is 01:04:54 I so wanted Randy to go, house noises, man. Sometimes the house screams. Jacket, Stephanie, help me. It's just a, when the wood settles, you know. The wind. It's the wind in these old houses. It's the noise in my house.
Starting point is 01:05:11 Am I right? Right? this guy gets it women but okay so now so we're in the closet with Stephanie
Starting point is 01:05:19 and she sees calm down it was Randy in the closet actually so but she's in the closet and she sees
Starting point is 01:05:30 the red tomato jacket and then there's also there's a great moment where she's looking at the jacket and the door the door handle
Starting point is 01:05:39 for the closet starts to turn and we're like oh, they're coming in, but then nothing happens? Yeah. And then it starts to open again. And then nothing happens. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:51 Is there a ghost on the other side being like, oh, nope, it's a pole door. Nope, push. Okay. It's like a USB stick. I'm going to kill you. I really want to make the entrance good. And I feel like if there's like a bustle,
Starting point is 01:06:05 it's going to ruin. Hey, were you the one who was doing the water earlier in the same? Was that you? I thought it would be scarier, but you weren't looking. I thought you'd look. So that was nothing. Hi, sorry. Just the locksmith. I'm here to fix the door.
Starting point is 01:06:18 Does this work now? Read the tin can. So as you, I guess the ghost decides to give up on the door and then like water starts pouring in from the floor and we're like, oh, the scariest thing again. But now it's also flooding the ceiling. So she's going to get caught in between the water, I guess.
Starting point is 01:06:38 I don't know. We'll come back to it. But first, we have to check back in with Jack and Randy, because this is where they come across the satanic symbols on the wall. Okay, these were almost my best worst in the movie. I want you to imagine that, like, I want to say, like, sixth graders
Starting point is 01:06:53 had to draw satanic props on the set. But, like, and no one's mom is, like, crazy Christian, but there are Christians in the neighborhood, you know? So you can't get like crazy with it, because it's just like a goat's head, but he's smiling. Some Latin-looking
Starting point is 01:07:09 letters. It's easy to get Latin-looking letters, yeah. But the whole basement is an infinite maze of locked doors and satanic symbols. I love when they see the first one, Jack just says, and I quote, oh, God, it's black magic. It's so good. They just walk up to a wall and they're like, let's look behind this curtain.
Starting point is 01:07:32 I don't know why. Yep. It says, this is a satanic house in spray paint. Oh, sorry. Yes, every satanic house must. announced they are same. That's why they put up the... Those are like the rules of Satanism. Obviously, yeah. So there's also a great moment where he goes,
Starting point is 01:07:49 oh my God, this mirror, we have no reflection in it. And Randy, Mr. House noises, goes, yeah, it's a trick mirror, man. Like, how do you think a trick mirror works? Glass? Are you describing glass? Oh, glass is trick, mirror. It's a mirror. It's a mirror that pretended to be mirror, but it's not. So now, okay, so Stephanie is in the closet and the water's filling up and the water starts to freeze, right?
Starting point is 01:08:19 And we go back to her ice flashback and we see that her daughter is caught under the ice. And then she falls through the ice. So, okay, I do have to, because I know now that none of you have seen, don't look now, how much this is a reference to that. She is in, it might not be a yellow. no, I think it is a red coat and she, the daughter who's a little blonde girl, dies in like the pond
Starting point is 01:08:47 by her parents' house when they're not looking. Okay, look, there is not a single original thought anywhere in this movie. No. Right? Yeah. Literally nothing. That's why, except for their spelling of the word counselor,
Starting point is 01:09:03 there is nothing original that happens in this movie. Oh, God, I should. But it is. is a very original spelling of the word It is. It carries a lot. I've never seen that before. Yeah, I've never seen the Kusler movie.
Starting point is 01:09:18 So, okay, so we're back in the basement. Betty and Stewart are hot on Randy's tail, right? So Randy, like, hides. Randy boy. Yeah. Oh, God, they call him like that like over and over again. I laughed every time because it's in the
Starting point is 01:09:32 in this voice and it just goes like this Randy boy. And I'm just like, okay, this this movie is like so trying to do some kinky stuff in it but is also Christian also maybe I would just rather it be a horny movie so that's me projecting because you got to do something right old dark house but also old dark house movies are so often steeped in queerness and sexuality and that's why it's so good for rocky horror because like even the history of the old dark house is so queer and horny well I think this
Starting point is 01:10:05 movie was like trying to rescue it from like like right the I think that might just be this, this movie might just be somebody going like, too damn gay on those whole house movies, too damn gay. We need one that's straight for men, fuck women. Damn James Whale. Yeah. This movie walked right up to some sexuality that could have been interesting. And then they were like, no, panic.
Starting point is 01:10:25 And then they don't do it. And then the one time they do walk all the way across, it's fucking terrifying. Yeah. It's no good. Yep. And the action of this scene is kind of stupid, but I have to walk us through it at least a little bit. So Randy like sneaks past Betty and Stewart and he goes out through this tunnel
Starting point is 01:10:41 where he thinks he can get out. But when he opens the door to get out, he accidentally lets the tin man in. That's the evil bad guy with the mask that throws down the cans. Which, can I say, is not nearly as terrifying as it is like your roommate has a cat that they haven't given you enough warning about, right?
Starting point is 01:10:59 Ah, fuck, it's inside. Okay, I don't know what I do. What do I do? Hey, man, your tin man, got into the house. Is he cool? Do we open all the windows and hope they run out?
Starting point is 01:11:14 Well, and then they're like, the movie is like, ah, now he's in the house and we're like, there were already people in the house trying to kill them. Yeah. And he already said
Starting point is 01:11:23 that they could like kill one and then like we would wait till morning. This changes nothing from our perspective. Nope. Okay. So now we check in on Leslie. Oh, God. I guess she was unconscious
Starting point is 01:11:33 for some amount of time. and in that time, Pete dressed her up like a doll. It reminded me of a criminal lines episode. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I definitely had that reference. Yeah, there was a serial killer who had abducted petite women. I just remember this one freaking me out because I watched it as a teenager and I am five foot two.
Starting point is 01:11:55 I felt that way about the fat guy in seven. I get it. I can't have a spaghettio without being judged by Kevin Spacey. What did you do? Space. He turns out Kevin Space. He had a lot to learn from me and my SpaghettiOs. Really bad things. He did some pretty bad shit. That pound of flesh thing, I was like, I would go for
Starting point is 01:12:12 Love handles first. Yeah. All right. So, Ed, can we acknowledge, okay, look, Pete overdid the blush. He over did the eye shadow. But he was on point with that lipstick, right? That was pretty spot on. It was too much, but, like, he was on point. He didn't overline it. Yeah. No, it was good.
Starting point is 01:12:28 Yeah. So, okay. And then we get like the beginning of her flashback. Now, her great sin, correct me if I'm wrong, guys, is getting molested as a child. Yep. It's her fault. That's what this movie is saying.
Starting point is 01:12:44 She as a child, a child-ass child, tempted her uncle. I guess... Or didn't fight hard enough against her uncle? Uh-huh. So I think what the writer would tell you is that that was just like he was just trying to set up the character in a way here. But like, yeah, the way it reads is that like she's a foul...
Starting point is 01:13:03 Because we're going to say, over and over again, that she is a foul temptress, right? Oh, yes. Tempting Pete with her, with her sinful cleavage and whatnot. So, yeah, it's really hard to watch this and not come away with the idea that the writer is saying, how dare she get molested like some kind of slut? Yeah, it's like, you know how a church guy just went to jail for the time he molested a child and all the Christian media outlets are like, but it was so many years ago.
Starting point is 01:13:28 That's what it feels like this movie is doing. He's like, sure, she was molested by her uncle, but she was a real slut. a lot about it. We're telling you. Yeah. But also, watching this movie, because I was a teenager when this movie came out. Not that I saw it when it came out. Obviously, I watched it for the first and only time two nights ago. But that level of slut shaming of not necessarily children. And obviously, I'm not coming from, you know, fundamentals Christian land or anything. But even in liberal New York city, that level of slutchaming of teenage girls, oh, well, you're just, you know, the amount of times that me as a teenager got told, well, you're just so mature for your age. And you
Starting point is 01:14:12 internalize that in some real fucked up ways. And then you get old and you're like, yeah, uh-uh, no, no, wait, wait, that's, yeah, nope. And so like, that really was this, this pervasive idea of, yeah, no, it's her fault for being booby? Yeah, yeah. Like, how dare you grow tits? Yeah, And we're going to dive deeper into that in a second. But then we have to go check in on Jack who's wandering through the infinite flooded basement when he hears creepy child whispers and laughs because this movie is just a big fucking box
Starting point is 01:14:44 of horror movie cliches. They bought the whole scary movie sound effects CD and they were going to use it, damn it. So this is where the tin man says, Busy, busy Jack. And we all wrote, oh my God, is his sin being busy? And it is. Yep.
Starting point is 01:14:59 It is, yeah. He was too busy to go out and watch his daughter Ice Skate and make sure she didn't fall through the ice and die, so it's his fault. And look, here's the thing, right? If you're writing this movie, well, not well, but if you're writing this movie better, right? He's so busy that he tells the little girl to go out on her own an ice skate
Starting point is 01:15:17 and she dies. But the mom is with her. His sin is trusting his wife with their child. Yeah. She was the one who wasn't paying attention. But also, if you're writing this better, then it's not actually that these are their sins, but that this is the trauma that they are still blaming themselves for
Starting point is 01:15:36 when it's not their fault. And it's about learning to, you know, move on from the things that have been done to you or mistakes that you've made. You know, for Jack, yeah, he was busy. And he wishes that he just put his fingers down from the computer and gone ice skating with her. We're told her don't ice skate now.
Starting point is 01:15:55 Yeah. And, you know, Leslie easily blames herself for what happened to her and has to move past that and realize none of it is her fault. But nope, nope, that's where the real Kusler helps you move through. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. That's the thing is that like maybe that's even
Starting point is 01:16:11 what they were going for, but the fact is that we constantly refer to these people as guilty as sin and they have these sins, et cetera, et cetera. And by the way, if you thought to yourself, busy, busy Jack, wow, that sounds like a real rip off of the Shining. He's typing at this point
Starting point is 01:16:27 the whole time. Yeah, it does get more. explicit yes exactly i literally thought i was like is it going to turn around and be all work and no play it's it's the same bit but less clever right because he like picks up the paper like ghost him picks up the paper that real him is typing flashback him is typing on and all it says is you know she over and over again it says she let melissa die my description for jack is all mope and no quips makes jack a dull character yeah right right so let in okay eli if you're Being honest, at this moment, did you think Jack was going to go out on the ice and yell, is that my daughter down there?
Starting point is 01:17:04 Did you have a moment of that after she fell through? So, all right. Now, Ghost Melissa is beckoning Jack upstairs. He's done with his flashback, right? And we meet a ghost character. Oh, no, she's not. Oh, yes, she is. This is where he comes across Susan.
Starting point is 01:17:22 Now, Susan will at first react like a shy cat, right? Like kind of looking at him around the corner. but not meeting his eye or whatever. But ultimately he's like, wait, are you Melissa? And she's like, no, I'm not Melissa. I'm somebody else. And he goes, are you sure? She's like, I'm absolutely sure. It's like no shit. Yeah. She doesn't look like Melissa.
Starting point is 01:17:41 No. Yeah. No. Different hair color. Different age. And I had this moment where I was like, oh, interesting. It's not going to be Melissa. Let me spoil it for you now, podcast listener. She's not going to turn out to be anybody. Anybody. Nope. She's literally like, okay, you know when you're playing a video game, especially one of the video games
Starting point is 01:17:58 that's sort of meant for the mass market and you die too many times so a character comes up and is like I wonder what's over there in that cave that's what she is
Starting point is 01:18:06 but for a movie Yeah and it's not like the name Susan is an anagram of anything U.S.S.A. Navy? I don't know. I think I actually wrote down
Starting point is 01:18:21 Susan is the easy mode of the movie. Yeah. It's for real. Yeah. So she's like She's like, here, I'll help you out. Let's go this way.
Starting point is 01:18:29 And he goes, hey, can you explain? She's like, hey, there's a psychotic killer guy trying to kill us right now. Why don't you shut the fuck up? How about you shut the fuck up? He's like, okay. So then we check in on Randy, who's elsewhere in the infinite basement. Randy Boy. Yeah, Randy Boy.
Starting point is 01:18:45 Now Tin Man is, yeah, Tin Man is over top of him. Every time. He just keeps going Randy Boy. Randy Boy. I lost it every time. So now we get the rest of his flashback, right? So his dad was taking him out. hunting and his dad made him murder a deer but he wasn't good at deer murdering so his dad
Starting point is 01:19:02 hit him so he killed his dad with the shotgun which again feels like an overreaction to the dad being like you miss well yeah well yeah again a better writer would establish this as as something that like you would understand but you know we're supposed to do all of that work ourselves as the viewers they really want us to infer that his dad was fully abusive but they don't know how to write Yeah, right. They don't know how to establish that. So we're all writing in our notes. Wait, did Randy kill his dad to save the deer?
Starting point is 01:19:34 I wrote my notes when he shot him. Sure hope he deserved that. Yeah. Oh, and this is, he comes out of his, out of his flashback. And now suddenly there's a whole hallway filled with tin cans in front of him hanging off strings. He, rule number four. No doing really long flashbacks.
Starting point is 01:19:54 You're just all. And here's a gun. I mean, a whole bunch of tin cans are really scary if you're an alley cat, I guess. Sure. Sure. Or if you're trying to take out like an old-timey childhood phone call on one of them, but you can't tell which one now because there's so many. Yeah. Wow. I think I saw a scene like that in something that was horror for children. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Yeah. So okay. But so Randy like out of the flashback shoots the tin cans with his shotgun. He found a shotgun. I'm sorry. I didn't even mention that because it's just such a stupid. thing. Like, he basically found a shotgun, like, under a box with a, like, a stick holding it up and a string of it. With, like, a rotating hologram in a video game being like, here's a gun you could use now. Right. Because easy mode. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So Tin Man, to be clear, first of all, he just like, he's hanging out this whole time.
Starting point is 01:20:46 And he's just doing, like, taunty whispers every so often and being like, Randy boy. Not only doing anything else. He's just kind of like verbally harassing people once in a while. I'm still in the movie. Yeah. And then while Randy was doing this long flashback of murdering his dad for no reason, Tin Man set up like, he's like, I'm going to do some mobiling with my tin. I guess. Was that already there? Yeah. It's really Randy, but Tin Man is the only one he talks to the whole time.
Starting point is 01:21:16 Really? Yeah. I like the idea that he just got bored, right? But like, he was like, oh, I thought we were kind of doing the Killers' d'aunt thing. Okay, well, I'm going to work on my crafts. Yeah. but he shoots the tin cans I feel like you've got limited ammo
Starting point is 01:21:31 maybe you preserve it but he shoots some tin cans Jack who's walking now with Susan this hastily introduced teenage character he says oh we should turn back towards where those gunshots came from and Susan's like what the fuck are you talking about it'd be so stupid when all these people are trying to kill you and he goes no no
Starting point is 01:21:47 you can trust me Susan it's like it's not that I don't trust you it's that it's fucking stupid it's a bad idea it's a dumb thing to do When Noah wrote that in his notes, it's not that I don't trust you. It's a bad idea. I wrote next to it, the Eli Postick story. Me and Noah have had that fight a lot. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:22:04 So then we check back in on Leslie again. She's sadly eating pie. And this is where, like, Pete comes in wearing a corsage. And they try to do this thing. I think they're trying to go for like, I don't know, she's got her like pie all over her face. And it's kind of got a gross sexual thing to it. And I was not comfortable. They were really, really confused
Starting point is 01:22:26 with the pie metaphor, but I'm fairly certain that the cherry is supposed to be like the Hyman cherry. I think so. And that's why they did that. That's what they were, but they also really did not. Yeah, and she ends up with like white cream all over her chin and her lips and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:22:42 It's all kind of gross. Yeah. There's a weird moment here, which I really enjoyed, because we've all seen horror movies use like the threat of sexual assault or sexual assault as like a dramatic foil and it's gross and we hate it and it's bad. But I will say she did kind of change the mood when she was like, so how did you meet Stuart and Betty?
Starting point is 01:22:58 I was like, okay. Yeah. I thought she was going to do Friday the 13th, part two to him. Another reference to you're going to lose me. Come on. I got it, Amanda. I got it, Amanda.
Starting point is 01:23:13 She's the psychology student and she tries to, you know, psychoanalyze him by pretending to be his dead mom who he's killing for. I got you. So there's a, it's a, there's a, funny moment here just from an acting perspective, right? So Pete's trying to slut shame her because I guess she killed the uncle that molested her.
Starting point is 01:23:32 Good. Right? That's her great sin. Yeah. And he says something. He talks some shit about that. Your uncle did politics the right way. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:23:39 Right. Yeah. You still out of me out. Ah, yeah. But this poor actor has to deliver this line. She goes, I used my life experience to help people, you pig. That's the dramatic line. and this poor actor had to deliver.
Starting point is 01:23:56 Oh. She is one of the only, only one of like three actors in this movie with the Wikipedia page. Yeah. Oh, well, then go her. So yeah. So meanwhile, so we check back in the,
Starting point is 01:24:05 we're back in the basement. Jack hears Leslie crying and screaming or whatever. And he's like, Stephanie. And I'm like, can't you read the fucking subtitles, man? It says Lesby. He can't. A lot of house noise. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:24:18 That must be it. Yeah. All the house noise. That DJ. He's really. Yeah. He's got some weird records. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:24:27 Yeah. So then, so Jack breaks into the room where Pete is about to molest Leslie or whatever, about to, whatever he's planning, and does nothing with a surprise advantage. But it's okay. He's significantly bigger than Pete. And literally every time they fight anyone in this movie, they win and kill that person. Yes. They ignore the cardinal rule of horror movies, right? Which is like, you never show anyone fist fighting Freddie or Jason or anything because it just kind of.
Starting point is 01:24:54 loses its vim and vigor, but they will just constantly kick the shit out of these ghosts and then run away from them, which is a very odd choice. Well, yeah, and so we're also going to introduce a very important character at this point, which is Leslie's bloodlust, right?
Starting point is 01:25:09 Now, I get it in this moment, right? So Jack gets the best of Pete and starts beating his brains in with this candlestick, right? And she's like, kill him, kill him! But then she starts getting really explicit. She's like, beat his brains in more with the candlestick. Wait, keep
Starting point is 01:25:25 hitting until I finish. Keep hitting until Yeah. And can I say I hate when women micromanage like this? It's just like, my wife, am I right? And then Susan's just like, no, don't. And I'm like, why? He's really bad. Right, no. Yeah, what the fuck are you doing, Susan?
Starting point is 01:25:43 In fairness, Susan comes in and says that and Leslie's like, who the fuck is this? I'm sorry, I'm the tutorial. You guys were doing bad at the horror. Jack has to be like, Oh, that's Susan. I'm clippy. She's kind of like.
Starting point is 01:26:02 So, yeah, and after trying to figure out who Susan is, Betty, who is apparently hiding in the closet with an axe this whole time, just runs out of the closet axe swinging. Okay, so for those not paying attention, that means that Betty has entered now two scenes in a row screaming with an axe, okay? At this point, I just expected, like, the end credits for her to run through It would be like the clip rail of her
Starting point is 01:26:28 Just running with the axe But then But Jack hits her with the candlestick Like it's his fucking signature weapon now And kills her It's like Clue Yeah right Christian Clue
Starting point is 01:26:41 It was Jack in the creepy pedophile room With the candlestick There you go So but black smokesters pouring out of her brain So she's a demon or something She'll be fine All right, well, every single time the good guys have fought back, as we've said,
Starting point is 01:26:57 they've prevailed easily. So we need to give this movie a minute to rethink its fucking strategy. But first, let me give Act 3 the hard sell. Will the Tin Man have a heart? How sick do you think he gets of explaining why he didn't start being the aluminum man around the late 50s, early 60s? How many bad guy names that he thought of had to have been taken before he settled on Tin Man? Find out the answers to pretty much nothing when we return for the after-school sports.
Starting point is 01:27:23 special conclusion of House. I was going to be Stanem man, but I don't think people would get it and see the Latins. And then it just
Starting point is 01:27:34 becomes its own category under YP. That's so neat. Right? Hey guys, what you're doing? Oh, I was just showing Amanda Rocket Money.
Starting point is 01:27:42 For the last time, Eli, we can't big heist Elon Musk. His money isn't real. No, no. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that lets you find and cancel
Starting point is 01:27:51 your unwanted subscriptions. It monitors your spending and helped you lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Well, how do they do that? Well, Rocket Money shows you all your expenses in one place, including subscriptions that you might have forgotten about. If you see a subscription you no longer want, Rocket Money will help you cancel it. Rocket Money will even negotiate lower bills for you.
Starting point is 01:28:09 The app automatically scans your bills to find opportunities to save and then goes to work to get you better deals. They'll even talk to customer service so you don't have to. But will it actually save me money? It sure will. Rocket Money's 5 million members have saved. saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, with members saving up to $740 a year
Starting point is 01:28:29 when they use all of the app's premium features. Okay, but have you actually tried it? I sure have, Noah. Now that my son is exclusively on a diet of 12 to 15 strawberry yogurt pouches a day, I need you to create a yogurt pouch budget. All I did was tell Rocket Money to make it a category, and I was set to figure out my spending. That's why I, Eli Bosnick, personally endorse Rocket Money.
Starting point is 01:28:51 All right, I'm sold. Where do I sign up? Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com slash awful movies today. That's rocketmoney.com slash awful movies. RocketMoney.com slash awful movies. So does he eat different flavors?
Starting point is 01:29:09 No, Amanda, he does not. Got it. This is strawberry. And now that you are trapped in here, we evil spirits will manifest as your trauma. Oh, no. Nothing is happening.
Starting point is 01:29:31 Yeah, nothing. Give me a second. Oh, okay. Sorry. Go ahead. Jesus, do you guys not have any trauma? What? Yeah. Yes, we do. Yeah. I think so. Okay, what?
Starting point is 01:29:45 Sad. Sad stuff has happened to us. For sure. Thank you. That's not trauma. Well, what's trauma then? Like, scarring, shocking experiences. Have you guys not read the body keeps the score? I've been meaning to get that one.
Starting point is 01:30:03 I'm just reading it. Yeah, you should really, you should check it out. I know, I will. Totally, totally. I'm going to read it to right after. Is there a audible? Right. Well, shall I just chase you around with an axe or something?
Starting point is 01:30:16 Oh, yeah, that might work. Wait, wait. Sometimes women. didn't want to date us like in our past. Is that trauma? Does that come? Yeah. Yeah. No. No. No.
Starting point is 01:30:29 No. That's not trauma. Okay. Well, the ax thing is great then. Sure. You're sure it's not trauma. Really sure, dude. No. Heard. It's hard for me. And we're back for still more of the shit.
Starting point is 01:30:47 We're going to rejoin the action by suddenly remembering that Stephanie is in this movie. she's crying and wet in the basement again. To be fair, the other one was dressed up as a little girl and being assaulted. So when we get back to Stephanie and she's just crying about the shoe length water again, I can see why the movie forgot about her. Yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair.
Starting point is 01:31:06 Yeah, but she's listening to her dead daughter's ghost voice or whatever. Meanwhile, Jack and Leslie have lost Susan, right? They were all walking together and they're like, where's Susan? Because they had to write that character out for the next few scenes. No, it's okay. You guys are doing okay in the movie now. Who the fuck is Susan? Yeah, right.
Starting point is 01:31:25 Yeah, keep asking that question. But this is also where Leslie's like, by the way, I murdered my molesty uncle. Just wanted to clear that up in case the flashbacks didn't do the trick. And Jackie's like, yeah, I wasn't really involved in those scenes. So that's a buck wild thing for you to bring up with me right now. Just so you know. That is true. Yeah, he didn't hear any of that.
Starting point is 01:31:46 Nope. Yeah, no. He comes in, stops Pete from attacking her. saves her, they run out of the room and then I guess according to the timeline of the movie we're supposed to believe she was like, I murdered my uncle and he's like, okay, cool. Sorry, what?
Starting point is 01:31:58 Are we almost kissing? Oh yeah, she's really down to fuck. Yeah, because again, we have to establish that she is a temptress though. But then Randy is wandering around still doing his thing and he sees Stuart but when he looks at Stewart, he sees his dad and so he shoots Stewart and kills him.
Starting point is 01:32:20 And he talks a little shit, and he walks off. So once again, every time they confront the bad guys, they win and murder them. But, you know, he's full of demon smoke. So he's coming back. So, okay. So now Jack is filling Leslie in on any plot points. She might have missed vis-a-vis Stephanie's backstory because that's just what this movie is doing. Now it's just having characters explain the movie to themselves.
Starting point is 01:32:46 Hey, I'm really hoping that this movie is on like ABC in the middle of the day, while grandmas are falling asleep, so I'm just going to sum up where we've been so far, so Susan doesn't come back. Oh, God damn it here's Susan. They call it folding laundry TV so that you can tune in at any minute
Starting point is 01:33:02 and not be lost. Yep. Yeah, so and then, so Randy at this point, he's talking about and he sees some sunlight, and he's like, oh, maybe that's a way out.
Starting point is 01:33:12 And I'm like, well, it's night. So maybe not. So he goes towards the light. The demon smoke is falling him. because that's cheap as fuck to animate. And this is where he comes across Stephanie. So now we've got Stephanie with Leslie's boyfriend and Leslie with Stephanie's husband.
Starting point is 01:33:30 And this is where I said it's couple swapping time. Yeah, right? It seemed like that's where they were going. Yep. And in case we didn't dislike Randy yet, so here's the exchange, she turns to Randy and she goes, oh, I fell through the closet. I thought I saw my daughter who died falling through the ice.
Starting point is 01:33:48 And Randy's like, oh, cool. I just killed Stewart, so that's pretty good. I'm going to win in this game over here. My body count is really high. Have you killed anybody yet? Because if you killed Betty, we're good. We're game.
Starting point is 01:34:04 So he takes her. This is where he finds that hallway that he was in earlier where he saw the tin man and he tries to get out of it again, but now there's a cage over it. Yeah. You have a shotgun, man. The force of bullets also works on metal. cages, and it apparently works on ghosts, but
Starting point is 01:34:22 he realizes he's trapped. That's a blocked off level in whatever this video game is. Susan's like, it won't work. Not even the gun. Don't bother. Just look at the tin can again and read it out loud, please. Press L1 to activate your hawk vision. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Can I be picky about one moment here when he's emerging into the cage?
Starting point is 01:34:43 So they're in that hallway and the actor who's tall, handsome, charmed, reject kind of has to duck a little and do like a little bit of a crab walk and it's just such an odd choice for them to have him do that because like he's this tall handsome hair jailed up guy but we watch him be like oh no it's weird if you watch along with us please watch that scene and let me know it felt like weird to you i scraped a little bit handsome people shouldn't bend over i got a little cut so okay who has neosporin there's also a great moment here we we cut back over to leslie and jack and leslie's still
Starting point is 01:35:18 trying to find a logical explanation for everything. And at one point, Jack is like, hey, hey, I cracked the lady's head open and black demon smoke poured out of it. And she's like, right. Yeah, no, good point. We should move on from the, you know, non-supernatural
Starting point is 01:35:34 explanations. But this is also where they realize they're in the boiler room and it's too hot. And then even these writers are like, wait, that can't be the conflict that's too hot. Sticks can't be that it's a little Warman here. Come on. Oh, no.
Starting point is 01:35:51 Is this when Leslie puts out the theory that maybe they, as in the demons in the house, got their case files from their real life therapists and therapy sessions? Yes. And can I say demon ghosts
Starting point is 01:36:06 that have to do their research is my favorite genre. All right, everyone. Let's get Insta stalking. So, Beelzebub, do you have that file I asked for on the The grad student. Her Facebook profile was private, but her mom's is not.
Starting point is 01:36:24 So I'm looking at a bunch of the likes on there to see if I can find anything. I'm going to check out Instagram. I'm doing two-factor authentication. It's going to take me a second. Oh, my God, Heath, you're the worst demon ghost ever. I guess her, I lexist her, and guys, it looks like that she got arrested once for stealing lip gloss from a Sephora. Oh. Quite a sin.
Starting point is 01:36:47 quite a sin. Well, I'll turn into a Sephora later. Okay, so they're running from the boiler, right? The boiler's attacking them with steam. This movie's so fucking dumb. And as they're running with the steam, Jack gives Leslie his jacket, right, so the steam won't burn her.
Starting point is 01:37:03 So they escape out into a room where it turns out that Randy and Stephanie were, and immediately Randy starts slut-shaming Leslie for accepting the jacket that kept her from being burned by the steam. He's like, Like, why are you in his fucking jacket?
Starting point is 01:37:19 Tramp. Tramp is his exact word. Yeah, give him back his tracket, you tramp. There's nothing worse than being a sexy woman. That is the greatest sin of all. Obviously, obviously, yeah.
Starting point is 01:37:33 And also, like, Stephanie is like, yeah, why are you wearing my fucking husband's jacket? Or? So, okay. So, but then Randy is like, hey, you know, this all gets super easy. If I just kill Jack, right?
Starting point is 01:37:46 If I shoot him in the head. head, and then we'll win the movie. The rest of us get to get out. But just as he's saying that, this is so fucking dumb, a second Jack appears out of the demon smoke. Okay.
Starting point is 01:38:01 Okay. They all see this. Okay. I just need to emphasize. They all see this happen. They all watch the smoke turn into Jack. Which one's the real one? And then they do, which one's the real one?
Starting point is 01:38:15 It's the one that just turned into a person out of space. Yes, right, but also, but also Randy was about to kill the real one, right? Like, that's what he was about to do when the second Jack shut up. So it makes, it doesn't make sense squared at this point because, yes, I would guess that the one that just appeared out of demon smoke is the fake, but also it doesn't fucking matter if you wanted to kill the real one anyway. What is the demon's game here? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:38:40 And then to make it even more confusing, Susan, who I will remind you, two of the characters in this scene. have not met steps into the room and she's like guys don't fall for it fall for fucking what susan yes yeah no she should have been like just shoot both like noah just said in a podcast that'll do it my favorite part of this thing though this is so fucking good the the writing just the moment in the writer's room where this happened i want to be a fly on the wall for this shit right because jack goes look look look i can prove that i'm the real me right because evil shit has black smoke
Starting point is 01:39:17 pouring out of it, right? And everybody's like, well, no, it does. Evil stuff does have black smoke pouring out. He said, right. So let me cut myself. It's a movie, so I'm going to cut myself in the fucking palm because every goddamn movie since Robin Hood has somebody cutting themselves in a goddamn palm.
Starting point is 01:39:33 Just do a little cut somewhere else. Just do a little... Yeah, almost anywhere else would be better. Yeah. My Carter-Roid diary. Yeah, let me cut my junkler. Let me cut my penis. So, yeah, so he cuts this fucking palm.
Starting point is 01:39:44 And he's like, see, I have blood coming out of me, not demon smoke. But then demon smoke comes out of his fucking hand. And he's like, fuck, fuck. Okay. And I like how these guys have no concept that, wait, we're in a demon house. Demons are tricksters. Yes.
Starting point is 01:40:00 Maybe they're tricking us. Right. But I will say, this is incredible. Because I want to say what I think happens next. And I genuinely want you to correct me if this is incorrect. The smoke comes out of his palm. And then all the characters in the movie go, well, I guess that's a bad test. and move on
Starting point is 01:40:16 and I believe there are two jacks for the rest of the okay we never you're right we never establish what happens
Starting point is 01:40:25 like I wanted an after credit scene where the other Jack was still going no shoot him there he phased through a wall okay
Starting point is 01:40:35 they're gone yeah oh yeah what happened to the other like where did he go did he just poof yeah I don't know we don't even see him
Starting point is 01:40:42 poof if I recall correctly yeah so okay so but then Just then, Michael Madsen shows up, right? The door opens upstairs and it's a cop going, hey, I'm a cop. Come run towards me. And they're like, wow, you know, the bad guy is a cop,
Starting point is 01:40:56 but let's all run towards him. I'm officer law man, not Law Dale. Dude, totally different guy. Yep, we're not the same. I protect the law, man. He yells from the top of the stairs. I'm an officer of the law. Exact words.
Starting point is 01:41:13 His last name is also Lawdale. allegedly. And I was like, come on. That feels like those fake text messages from that killer. Nobody talks like that. Absolutely not. Your vehicle? Your vehicle. My vehicular accompaniment? So Mr. Blonde, Officer Mr. Blonde directs him to the garage, right, to make their escape. But then when they get into the garage, Stephanie's suspicious.
Starting point is 01:41:40 Because remember that truck that was wrecked that they were chasing the chickens around? Well, that truck is. in the garage. So she realizes Michael Madsen is in on it with the demon people. Well, that's just clucking crazy. Who could have foreseen that? Yeah, right, right.
Starting point is 01:41:56 But, like, it doesn't function as a twist because we never thought the tin man was someone else. Right. Like, there's no reason for there to be a twist. So much of this movie feels like they just took a movie trope and inserted it randomly. And they were like, no, justify it. Motherfuckers.
Starting point is 01:42:12 Right. The smarter thing is that one of the people, in the two couples is actually, like, the mastermind behind all of this. Not... Right, like, Randy is the Tin Manor. Yeah. Not the only, like, vaguely famous actor in the whole movie. Well, right.
Starting point is 01:42:28 That's just the thing is that, like, to whatever extent, this could have been a twist that you fuck it up with the casting because obviously Michael Madsen isn't just the cop they happened upon in the first fucking scene and we're never going to see him again. And just looks straight into the camera. You should have done the thing that Amanda just said on the podcast. Instead, that would have been something. This was nothing.
Starting point is 01:42:49 And this is why I am a writer. You can hire me, people. I will not write Christian movies. But hey, but if you did, you'd automatically be the best Christian movie writer in the fucking world. You're going to jump right to the top of the thing. You're right.
Starting point is 01:43:04 How do you feel about Riyadh this time of year? Oh, God. So, but yeah, they have this big moment where, like, it turns out that he's not office. Lawdale. He's the tin man and Officer Lawdale was the guy at the beginning of the movie that killed his wife and now they killed him. None of it fucking matters. None of it fucking matters. The twist, honestly, the oh shit moment for us is, oh shit, they thought they were doing a twist, right? Like that was the moment of realization that we had. Yeah. The best twist in this movie
Starting point is 01:43:35 is when the credits rolled and I was like, so they're not going to explain Susan. So he makes him go back inside. This movie isn't called yard, damn it. It's called house. So they go back inside where Michael Madsen can monologue for a little bit. Oh, yes. He has to put his skin mask back on before he does his evil speech. He's got to earn that paycheck. Sure. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:43:59 Yeah. And like the other thing about his weird little tin mask is that it, there's like a reason why Jason doesn't talk, right? Because when he's like, let me tell you a thing about my jar. I want to them to be like, hey, sorry, we actually. We genuinely cannot understand you. Do you want to write it on a can? Because we can't hear you.
Starting point is 01:44:21 There's a bunch downstairs. You put so many. You hung them up. I ran out when I was doing a decoration earlier. I don't know if you saw. Can we explain to you first what a rule is? Yeah, right. I don't think you know what rules are versus just statements.
Starting point is 01:44:36 You're playing with some knives? What are you doing that about? Right. Yeah, he's got his little kitchen knives. They don't even have like scary knives. Just fucking kitchen knives. And he's playing. with them as he's as he's walking around and he's supposed to be doing the like now i'm going to
Starting point is 01:44:49 lay out all of your sins before you but they kind of they kind of lose track of that halfway through they turn to leslie and they're like you're only fucking randy for his money and i'm like i feel like the jaw line is factoring in right the rocking body like randy's pretty fucking hot right i would fucking poor as they're doing this they are also dressing the set i have to be clear They're not like mysteriously placing down weapons. They are making up the set for the ending of this movie. Well, that's because this movie did not hire an art director or a production designer. So they just had the actors do it while the camera was rolling.
Starting point is 01:45:29 While the camera was rolling. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so he goes all the way around and he declares that they're all guilty as sin. But then he reminds him that they still have a chance to just kill one of each other. And then they all don't all have to die. He sort of reminds him. You guys remember the stakes of the movie originally were this and we kind of lost track of it, but that's been it the whole time.
Starting point is 01:45:51 There were stakes. This was also when we get the best self-correction moment of the movie because she goes, well, wait, didn't the officer kill his wife and you didn't let him go? And he's like, no, he was a little late. Two minutes late. Yeah. Remember when it clock struck 558? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:46:11 It was after sunrise. Okay. Here's the thing with them set dressing all the way. weapons. They're placing weapons out on the table with the idea that someone at the table will grab a weapon and kill someone else at the table. But they're all tied up. He doesn't untie them. He never unties them. So like he's supposed to pick a knife up with your fucking mouth scooch over and then cut somebody's throat over it. What was his plan? How did he see this working out? Yeah. So, okay, so he's doing all of that. Susan shows up and she's like,
Starting point is 01:46:43 Hey, guys, he's not going to play by the fucking rules. I don't know if you, why you would trust him. Susan, get out of my murder sketch. Who the fuck is Susan? Yeah, this is what happens whenever I introduce a board game that's not very good and Noah decides not to play, but just sits there in the room being like, obviously you just play defense the whole game and then everybody that, shit, shit, no, Susan, stop. Stop it, Susan.
Starting point is 01:47:06 She's like the duolingo owl. Yes. Incredibly sexy. Oh, God. What? That's not what you were going? No, sorry. You were talking.
Starting point is 01:47:19 Don't. Not about the teenage actress. So, okay. So there's a point. She's not a teenager. She's a grown-up. Okay. So there's a-
Starting point is 01:47:26 Dressed like a teenager. Wait, really? He sure hopes so. He sure hopes so for his duo-lingo joke to work. You really help. Hey, podcastist, so you're not going to hear me for the next 48 seconds. It's because I'm Googling super hard how old that actor is. You're not even going to find out because there's such nobody is.
Starting point is 01:47:43 Yeah, right. So, okay, but okay, there's a moment here where Michael Massachusetts, Susan comes in and starts saying, like, he is not a trustworthy agent. And he throws a fucking knife at her. She dodges it like Neo. Right? She literally just duck dodges it and sticks into the wall beside her. And she looks at him like, come on, man, you know, I'm fucking magical. I could get through that.
Starting point is 01:48:07 Okay. Google tells me that Alana Bale, who played Susan, was born in 1991. one. So she would have been 17. 16 or 17. 17. 17. We have a lot of Southern listeners. a lot of Southern listeners. Not making it any better. So, okay. So, all right, but Randy is like, so Leslie is like, hey, Randy, just kill somebody who isn't me already, okay? And Randy, like, so, you know, it does make sense to kill somebody at this point from a logical perspective. But Randy has been way too into it the whole time, right? So he's like trying to break free of his bonds so that he can kill somebody
Starting point is 01:48:44 and in so doing he knocks everybody over like everybody falls over together including himself yep including him in the silliest way possible and at this point this is where Stephanie becomes selfless she says hey if one of us has to die
Starting point is 01:49:00 I want it to be me because I did let her daughter die I wasn't even looking in the direction she was in when I set her out on the ice that I hadn't tested I wanted Jack to be like cool yeah right Yeah, I mean, she did. That is really bad.
Starting point is 01:49:15 No, that is what happened. I was actually just getting out of the chair. I was planning to shoot you. But I appreciate that. Really, we were all just hinting that you should kill yourself this whole movie as the clearly guilty, you because you killed your daughter. She's the only one who actually has a real, like, bad thing they did. Right. Yes.
Starting point is 01:49:31 Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. But Leslie wants Randy to murder the teenage ghost. Because at one point, Susan says, I'm the one that the Tin Man is really after. And Leslie's like, cool, kill her then. We don't even know who the fuck she is, right?
Starting point is 01:49:49 Which is why this movie needs to ask? Is she an angel? Is she actually God? Does God like the name Susan? Also, that opens up a lot of questions about God and gender. So let's go there. Yeah, right? Right?
Starting point is 01:50:01 More interesting than staying with this movie. Do you think of Clippy as like a gender in particular? Oh, he's definitely a guy. I think of Clippy as God. Of course. You think of Clippy as a guy? guy? Yeah. Really? He offers you help when you don't want it and there's no way to dismiss him. Come on. Well done. Yeah, no, that's, yep, that's fair. Yeah, that's definitely. Like, that's the guy at the bar. Hey, I noticed you're reading. Clippy would go up to you at a bar when you were reading and be like, I notice you're reading. You want to talk about it. Yeah. If you didn't want to talk about it, why'd you wear that shirt? Yeah, right. Yeah, why'd you bring. Why'd you bring tapress? It's okay. Did you kill your uncle? I know about spreadsheets, stupid. That last part is how I would be clip. You know about spreadsheets?
Starting point is 01:50:46 I do, though. So Randy goes to shoot Susan. But just as he does, Jack kicks the table out from under him so he accidentally shoots Michael Madsen. This elicits nothing but another bad guy monologue. Does it count? Does it count?
Starting point is 01:51:04 Do you think that Michael Madsen had in his contract that I will only do these scenes once and there's no retakes like Eric Roberts did with a talking cat question mark exclamation point question mark which if you don't know about that movie it's a movie oh yeah where the premises there's a cat
Starting point is 01:51:20 and he talks but it's kind of like he only says a few things and he can only say the same thing once and Eric Roberts said that he'd do it but he'd only record every line once meta we have we have spent a lot of time with Eric Roberts on this show let me talk to me on
Starting point is 01:51:36 you have so okay at this point though they've now broken out of their bonds or whatever and Leslie kind of freaks out she's got her knife out and she kind of freaks out and she stabs Randy because she just turns around and she's like
Starting point is 01:51:53 ah Randy and she stabs him to death which Randy has had no redeeming qualities within this movie so I feel like we're good you know we've established we've done everything we set out to do but Randy then shoots Leslie for stabbing him I just want to point out that all of the characters in this movie are so unlikable that every time someone has gotten
Starting point is 01:52:10 shot or stabbed. We as a podcast have been like, good. Yes, that's fine. It's true. So, okay, so, but Randy and Leslie kill each other. And Susan is very bummed about the double homicide, but now Michael Madsen is going to kill her. I don't fucking know, guys.
Starting point is 01:52:30 I just, I didn't write the fucking thing. So, this is where he should have, like, broken out and just song about being the devil, but that would be a more fun performance. And that's not what we're getting in this movie. Yeah, that would have been nice Be bold, be bold movie And then there's this moment Where the movie wants to be super clear
Starting point is 01:52:48 They're never going to tell you who Susan is But it's not Melissa Melissa is safe And she loves you Yeah, yeah, right, because they're like Not you mom Susan, wait, are you Are you Melissa?
Starting point is 01:53:00 And she goes, no, I'm not Melissa I'm different than that But also why would they think she was Melissa? She doesn't look like Melissa She's got jet black hair and Melissa was blonde. I know. It doesn't, yeah.
Starting point is 01:53:12 Right. But again, I think this is probably something that was like added afterwards after they showed it to the fucking test audience and everybody went, who the fuck is Susan? Is she supposed to be Melissa? And I don't know. I think she's supposed to be Jesus. Oh, Jesus.
Starting point is 01:53:27 So Jesus is a girl. And this one, yeah, yeah. Sue son of God. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, it's it. Yeah. So, okay. But here's the thing.
Starting point is 01:53:39 thing, though. So Michael Madsen shoots her and then she dies. Yep. But she glows. But she glow dies. Right. She's got this light coming out of her bullet wound. Well, it goes back to the quote at the beginning.
Starting point is 01:53:55 Yes. Yes. The light shines in the darkness or whatever. So Stephanie's like, hey, you know what I'm good at, what we've established I'm good at is fingering things. So she fingers the wound. A second, Susan is like, hey, You got to do the light.
Starting point is 01:54:10 She's dead so she can't tell you this, but you probably have to use that light. And Stephanie, get in there with your finger. It's a terrifying moment. Oh, God. So, and this is when Jack remembers why he loves her,
Starting point is 01:54:22 apparently, it was her glowing finger that he'd forgotten about. She takes the Jesus light. They do the E.T. Yeah. It's like the E.T. thing. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:54:32 Stephanie takes the Jesusy light like it's peanut butter. Like you would take peanut butter out of a jar for yourself. Well, I just, I feel like the screenwriters of this movie have watched the, like, TV edits of a bunch of movies, not the full movies, but, you know, like the TV edits. Okay. Yeah. Texas chainsaw massacre, the one that's like five minutes long. All right. So, yeah, but so they touch their fingers together, Zana and Jana style, and that unlocked the power of the light. And so they glow finger Michael Madsen to glow death.
Starting point is 01:55:09 They had a moment where they were like, okay, well, we did the fingers thing. It's like a, do we smear it on his face? Does he have to heat it? Will we heal him if we do it? It feels like it's helpful. Really, really in the woods here. That's what that means, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:55:26 Totally, that's all it means. Yep. So, yeah. So, but, but no, but they, they unleashed their light powers against him. He gets sucked into the wall because he is the house or something. It looks like a wall pussy. I did write in my notes, Wall Lucy.
Starting point is 01:55:44 So, yeah, it gets turned into a wall Lucy, and then the whole house starts coming down around them. So they run to safety. There's one point, as they're running away, Jack goes, don't look back. And I'm like, why do you know this is a Christian movie? What are you? Okay, turns to salt. But they run out of the house.
Starting point is 01:56:03 A car's driving by right then, so they try to wave down the car, but the car doesn't stop because they're ghosts. And instead of stopping the cars, they walk on and they find that the cars are responding to a terrible accident where two couples were killed in a car wreck. And it takes them so long to figure out it's them. They're walking around and they're like, oh my God. The Bimmer. They had the same car as we did. No, God damn it.
Starting point is 01:56:31 Susan, you want to get out of here? So, yeah, right, right. So, but Leslie and Randy, I guess, are all the way dead. We see them like, oh, burn to a crisp. Well, we see one of their arms. Yes, they chose death. They killed each other in the purgatory space. Oh.
Starting point is 01:56:47 Right. So the message of this movie is if your loved one died in a car accident, it was their own damn fault. They chose it. Right. It's because they made bad choices in the haunted house run by Michael Benson. You get a shot in purgatory to be cool with each other. And if you don't, you actually die?
Starting point is 01:57:05 I think that's what I'm going on. Yeah. At first I was thinking it was purgatory for all four of them It would be who goes to heaven and who goes to hell Right, but it's not It's who just dies and who gets to go back to the plane of the living Yes, Jack and Stephanie just come back to life And also there's a lot of like, they're like
Starting point is 01:57:26 Oh, everything's fine, we're back to life And Melissa's safe and there's an afterlife And I'm like, hey, you guys did just kill two people in a car Because Jack was driving in a snit But, yes, but other than that, things are going great. Yeah, but those two people wanted to die, and that's been born out now in all that. No, that's true. That is true.
Starting point is 01:57:43 So it's cool. I think they were already dead before the other car hit them. They were just dead driving down the road? They've been dead the whole time. Yeah, right. They did 30 years ago this very night. Like, they hit the farm equipment. Oh, I see.
Starting point is 01:57:59 Flipped over, and the car blew up, and they died. And then Stephanie and Jack. hit the farm equipment as well. All right. We'll go with that. Didn't flip over. The couple's Coussela had a very long con scenario going on. Fuck yeah.
Starting point is 01:58:16 And pulled it off. But then like my last like five notes are like, okay, but they ran into Michael Madsen before the car accident. So is he really Satan? And then they show Michael Madsen kind of to hohoho. So yes, he is. Yeah. It's like a game.
Starting point is 01:58:32 It's a game that people driving down this road that he's set up. I guess. Like he's just a regular serial killer who's like way of getting people is by putting things in the middle of the road. And being supernatural. Yeah. So yeah, my last three notes were what about the family? Who are they? Who to fuck was Susan? Fuck me, I guess. Right? That's all we get. That's the end of the movie. We can only tell it's over because the credits start running. So Amanda, thank you so much for helping us get through that and for like some theories that give this movie I think
Starting point is 01:59:08 way more credit than it is due Hell yeah Clippy is an obnoxious man I think you're right I think you're absolutely right It was a blast as I said I definitely got lucky because this was at least an attempt of the movie
Starting point is 01:59:20 Yeah no this is the yeah I'd say top tier as far as the gam fodder goes Don't get me wrong I would totally come back and do one of the other things that you watch But you'd also probably get Amanda like, why the fuck
Starting point is 01:59:37 did I do this to myself? Yeah, I was going to say, be careful what you wish for. Yeah. And, hey, speaking to which, if our listeners don't feel like they're done with you, remind them where they can go to hear more.
Starting point is 01:59:46 Yes, I co-host the film podcast. Don't be crazy. Just a general film podcast. We've only ever covered one Christian movie and it was saving Christmas. And it was because we were doing tops and bottoms, mom. If you're only going to do one, man.
Starting point is 01:59:59 Exactly. But I talk a lot about, horror, film noir, and my love of Roadhouse, the original. Do not come at me with the remake. You can find me on Instagram and Blue Sky at Amanda Jane Stern and Letterbox at Witchie Wanderer, and you can watch my not Christian movie. Perfectly good moment on Tooby. Awesome. And of course, most of that will also be linked on the show notes. And while that's going to do it for a review of house, that's not going to do it for the episode just yet because we still need to step on this same fucking
Starting point is 02:00:31 rake again. So, Eli, tell us what's on deck. In 1986, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren traveled to Pennsylvania to vanquish a demon from a family home. God damn it. We're headed back to the theaters for
Starting point is 02:00:47 The Conjuring. Last right. Because they can't stop making them. Fuck. All right. So with that to let's say look forward to we're going to bring episode 527 to a merciful close. Once again, a huge thanks to Amanda for all her help today and a reminder that you can find her show linked on the show notes and an equally huge thanks to all the Patreon donors
Starting point is 02:01:03 to help make the show go. If you like to cast out among their ranks, you can make per episode donation at patreon.com and thereby an early access to an ad-free version of every episode. You can also help with time about leaving the five-star review and by sharing the show on all your various social media and if you enjoyed this show, be sure to check out of our siblings, shows, the skitt of a citation date of D&D minus and the Skype for credit, available wherever podcast live.
Starting point is 02:01:19 If you have questions, comments or cinematic suggestions, you can email godawful movies at gmail. Tim Robertson takes care of our social media. Our theme song was written and performed by Ryan Slavink of the Dress on Mars. All the other music was written and performed by our audio engineer Morgan Clark and was used with permission. Thanks again for giving us a chunk of your life this week for Heath and Eli Bosnick.
Starting point is 02:01:32 I'm no illusions, promise to work hard to earn another check next week. Until then, we'll leave you with the American graffiti clothes. Stephanie and Jack were very disappointed with their next couples therapists. Couples Kusler, Betty Louise, stopped practicing
Starting point is 02:01:51 couples counseling after all of her patients kept getting lost on the drive over. She now runs a wellness retreat. Huh. Pete Sapp is still a bubbling. Ew. Susan continued her job as a kind-hearted real estate agent in that part of Southern Alabama.
Starting point is 02:02:10 Oh, she's the surreal estate woman. That's me. Actually, that is the name of the lead on surreal estate. That's who Susan is. This content is canned credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment. and abuse or other harm at their hotline at 617-249-4-255 or on their website at creator-accountability network.org. The preceding podcast was a production of Puzzle and a Thunderstorm LLC. Copyright 2025. All rights reserved.

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