Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Is SAVAGE HOUSE Richard E. Grant’s most unhinged role yet?

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

The Take is now on Patreon: www.patreon.com/kermodeandmayo Become a Vanguardista or an Ultra Vanguardista to get video episodes of Take Two every week, plus member-only chat rooms, polls and submissions to influence the show, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, the monthly Redactor’s Roundup newsletter, and access to a new fortnightly LIVE show—a raucous, unfiltered lunchtime special with the Good Doctors, new features, and live chat so you can heckle, vote, and have your questions read out in real time. The one and only Richard E. Grant joins us on this week’s Take for a chat with both Mark and Simon about Savage House. He stars as the flamboyant and grotesque Lord Chauncey Savage in this unhinged satirical period drama, alongside Claire Foy. Expect wigs, leeches, the pox and quite a lot of poo. Mark will also be reviewing Savage House, alongside two more of the week’s biggest releases. Masters of the Universe sees an all-star ensemble cast led by Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes and Idris Elba (erm, and Jared Leto) bring the He-Man franchise to the big screen—but is it superpowered, or another revival nobody asked for? Plus, Scary Movie, the latest instalment in Mark’s (least) favourite horror spoof franchise. All that plus the usual excess witterings, and plenty of your excellent correspondence—including many more Muppet Game entries. We may have started something we can’t finish with this one…. You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo. A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on your first Saily data plans! Use code [Take] at checkout. Download Saily app or go to https://saily.com/Take ⛵ To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 11:54 Masters of the Universe review 21:45 Box Office Top Ten 34:12 Richard E. Grant interview 48:23 Savage House review 56:58 Laughter Lift 01:00:49 Scary Movie review Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now, Mark, you were telling me the other day about this Saly e-Sim app. Which one was that? Well, the one I just install on my phone before I go abroad so that I can save loads of money on roaming and data charges when I'm there. Ah, yes, it's dead simple. Install the Saly app on your device and choose a data plan. There are multiple plans in over 200 destinations available at some of the best rates online.

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Anyway, Carvana. Give it a whirl. Love you. So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on... Carvana. Before we begin, a quick reminder that you can become a Vanguard Easter and get an extra episode every Thursday, including bonus reviews. Extra viewing suggestions. Viewing recommendations at home and in cinemas.

Plus your film and non-film questions answered as best we can in questions, Schmestians. You can get all that extra stuff via Apple Podcasts or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit-related devices. There's never been a better time to become a Vanguard Easter. Free offer, now available wherever you get your podcasts. if you're already a Vanguard Easter, we salute you. Well, for five points, Mark, and welcome to the show, by the way.

I'm welcoming you to your own show, but, you know, host contributor and so on. You get five points. If you can guess which medieval job is currently being undertaken in my house. Medieval job. Yeah, I mean, I'm using the term loosely. Have you put Child 3 in the stocks, and have you paid someone to throw apples at him? No, no. Okay, is it the installation of sewage?

No, it's not that. Nor is it the installation of our missing Rembrandt. Okay. Is it to do with the pox? It could, well, you're getting closer. Okay, someone is having a course of lends. leeches applied because of an outbreak of the pox. Well, we might all get the pox as a result of whether this gentleman is going to be successful

or not. And the answer is, of course, he's a rat catcher. Oh. Have you got a rat? Well, I suspect more than one, and I suspect quite a few dead ones, because you'll be very glad that you're not staying in our house at the top of the house where the Australian Californians are. because the house stinks of what I suspect is either decaying rat or rat urine or decomposing rat or something, few flies in the house.

And, you know, this is feeling a little bit like the plague, yes. We had a, we had a round. Want to come round? No. We had a rat that got its way into the little porch above our front door. And we were away, and child too was in the house on their own, and they heard scratching noises. And if you know the way that the exorcist begins is that the child hears, and the next thing, it's levitation and spinning heads and vomit.

Yeah. And then we had to have the whole porch taken apart in order to find said rat, which was not dead. It was very much not dead. Oh, really? Well, I suspect this one is we've got... So this morning, when I was just going through the script and doing some prep for Richard E. Grant, who's our guest on the show today,

we had a smell of rats and there were foxes in the garden. I was thinking, this is just... London, you've changed. Just horrendous. Have you got urban foxes in your garden? We had two this morning, yeah. Do they howl? The worst sound in the world is when they're kind of scared

or challenged or something, they sound like a baby is being attacked and they wail and howl at three in the morning and there is so much vermin knocking around these parts. What we need is a cleansing operation or the hunt. Actually, if there was an Islington hunt,

maybe that would sort it all out. When we were in the new forest, there was a peacock that would go and nest in a tree, not nest, we'd go and sit in a tree and a peacock calling sounds like a child in distress

It goes, help. And it would echo across. It actually says help, does it? It does, honestly what it sounds like. I'm sure that the top production team could find the sound of a peacock going, help. And it would whistle across the wild and windy moor, like the voice of Kathy, come home,

wanting to be let in at the window. It was most distressing. It was borderline Monty Python. Bring out your dead, all of that. I'm not dead. Help. Anyway, on the show, assuming I don't pass out from the rat fumes. There is a rat in our kitchen.

What am I going to do? You're going to do. We're absolutely right. What are you reviewing later? Well, I'm going to feast on rat, obviously, later on. We're going to be reviewing the new live-action masters of the universe. Didn't know we needed it, but there it is. There's a new scary movie movie.

Oh, nice. It's Scary Movie, aka Scary Movie 6. And also Savage House, which brings us to our... are particularly special guest. Yeah, Richard E. Grant. And there's his book on my bookshelf. I mean, he's done a number of books, but anyway, that was the first one. You talked to him for that one.

I did, with nails, yes. Lots of stories always with Richard E. Grant, and he's always a very fine guest. So we'll talk to him. And in take two, we have a film which, brilliantly, the poster gives you a phonetic description of the title. So it is called Erupcia. and we'll be doing that. And also, it literally says on the poster, in phonetics, it explains it. And then Bridesmaids is back in Cinemars for its 15th anniversary reissue,

once again reminding us just how old we all are. You can get Take 2 with no more of our brilliant ads by heading to our Patreon page. We have getting people saying, I'd like to follow. I'd like to be, you know, patron, I'd like to be Vanguard Easter. But I still like the ads that you do. Is it possible to have the ads that you do? but not have the ads that made by other people, to which the answer is no.

I don't believe that facility actually exists, but thank you very much for your commitment. So last week on the programme, you had a lost ring, discovered ring story. Here it is. Still here. Which has provoked an avalanche of information. Andy Grunel, dear Boromir and Frodo,

after hearing Mark Sad, obviously then happy, lost ring story. Let me tell you about our story. Eleven years ago, my son's first birthday, my wife lost her engagement ring in the gravel park of Chester Zoo when loading the pram. We didn't notice it till later in the day when I managed to find a lovely group of seven local detectorists, metal detectorists, who volunteered their time scouring the area for four and a half hours. No luck.

And then the final twist was that the car park was entirely tarmacked the next day. Sad times ensued, you would have to say, that's that, would you not? until the dinosaurs return. So my wife ran a story in the local press just in case it had fallen anywhere else, but nothing. Fast forward 10 years, 10 years. That's 10 years.

And the Duke of Westminster decides to get married and a local woman in Chester wondered what type of engagement ring the bride had. So she searched it online and found our historic story. I'm not quite sure why the Duke of Westminster and Chester. Anyway, this is how, after all these years, my wife got a phone call to say,

I think I have your engagement. engagement ring. She had found it earlier that fateful day at the zoo and, quote, knew it was so beautiful it had to have a story behind it, keeping it safe at home, believing one day the owner was destined to find it, which we did. Tarmac be damned, destiny and kindness can change the world. Also, to make this missive film related, shouldn't Tuna be called Baby Grand Driver? Very good. Kind of works. That's very good. That's very good. So someone had found the ring and was keeping it until they found this story. Also, while we're here. Isn't that a little bit like the Father Ted thing about the money was just resting in my account? Yes, that is also true.

Elton has been in touch. Dear Polycrates and amasis. This is Elton from Classics Chancel reporting for duty. Last week, as Mark told the charming story of finding his grandmother's signet ring, grandfather's signature ring. Something triggered my classicist antenna. whatever that looks like. When he mentioned the folk tale of a woman throwing her engagement ring into the sea only to find it later inside a fish, it brought to mind a famous episode

from Herodotus. Polycrates, ruler of Samos, as you know, Mark, in the 530s BC, formed an alliance with the Egyptian pharaoh Amas II. Concerned by Polycrates's extraordinary good fortune, Amas urged him to cast away his most treasured possession to avoid divine envy.

Polycrates obliged by throwing his signet ring into the sea. Days later, a fisherman presented him with a large fish, and inside it was the ring. On hearing this, amasis ended their alliance, convinced that such luck foretold a disastrous end, as indeed it did. To be clear, I'm not suggesting any morals for Mark here. This is strictly ancient Greek fatalism at work. You can always rely on the Greeks for a darker worldview. Not it'll be all right, but rather you can't judge a life as happy until it's over.

Oh, thanks. Okay. I, for one, I'm looking forward to Nolan's Odyssey, annoying those who think 300 is a documentary, down with the Nazis, stealing ancient Greek ideas without understanding them from Elton, from classicists' chancel. Fantastic.

Fantastic. Yes, and you know already that we're going to get lots of people writing in after Odyssey saying, can I just say that the swimming technique that they used, again, which was inappropriate. And finally, because we're not done with this yet, Neil says Professor Enoch and Mungo, Mark Half recalls a story about a ring returning to the owner via a fish.

I think he might be recalling the story of St. Mungo, the son of St. Enoch and patron saint of Glasgow. This relates to the fish part of the Glasgow Crest, which has a fish and a tree and a bird and a crown and what looks like the Pope at the top or some bishop. I have a picture of it in front of me. Okay. This relates to the fish part of the Glasgow Crest and the mantra that every Glasgow kid is taught.

The bird that never flew, Mungo restored life to a pet Robin that was accidentally killed by classmates. The tree that never grew. He rekindled a dead monastery fire using frozen hazel branches instead of wood. The fish that never swam, he found Queen Langurettes,

lost wedding ring in the belly of a caught salmon, proving her innocence to the king. King and the bell that never rang, he brought a miraculous bell back from a pilgrimage to Rome. Down with Bowser and up, up, up, down, left, right, left, right, B.A. for the rest of us. I'm not sure what the B.A. bit is there. Yeah, no. It was sounding like Bernie the Bolt before that. Up down, left a bit, right a bit, fire. Anyway, we do have a peacock sound. Oh, do we? Oh, fantastic. Before we hear it, Mark, you do your peacock sound. Okay, this is what a peacock sounds like when it's calling the,

Oh, help. Okay, and this is a real peacock. Excuse me. Excuse you. That's uncannily close to, so you are now a strutting peacock in our eyes. Yes. Well, I always have been in many ways, but seriously, many impressions actually closer to the, you're closer to wildlife than you are humans. But it does sound like it's saying help. When you said, does it, actually say help. That is the word that you hear. Just just play that again, Don. Play it once more. Help. It's clearly shouting help. It is. And a particularly reedy, weedy voice for such a flamboyant, magnificent bird. Anyway, there'll be more strutting peacocks when we get to Richard E. Grant later in the show. But before we do that, there is a, I mean, I'm not even slightly

interested in this film, unless, of course, you entice me in. with your words. Tell us more. Masters of the Universe. No thanks. Master of the Union. Thank you. No thanks.

Media franchise from Mattel first came to the script. I think the first time. I should point out at the beginning that what I know or indeed care about Masters of the Universe is fairly small. So if I get any of these details wrong, forgive me.

I'm a 63-year-old man, all right? I think the first live action adaptation was the 80s version, which had Frank Langela. Is he Langela or Langela? Angela as Skeletor and Dolph Lundgren as He-Man. So now we have a reboot, which incidentally features a cameo callback

in which the torch is passed to the next generation. This time, we have Nicholas Galatine as the central He-Man, starring alongside, and get this for the cast, Idris Elber, Camilla Mendis, Alison Brey, James Puell. Foy, Kristen Weig, and as Skeletor, Jared Leto, or as Skeletor, Jared Lito, if we're going to do the pronunciation game. The funny thing about this was I got a message from Simon Brew, he of film stories, saying that he thought that Master of the Universe was the first Jared Leto-proof movie,

because it is perfectly possible to watch Master of the Universe without ever recognizing that it's Jared Leto, because he doesn't have his face and his voice doesn't sound like him. So, anyway, that's a good thing, instantly. So the story starts in Eternia, where sensitive Prince Adam is transported to Earth after an attack by the forces of darkness, and he's transported through a wormhole, holding onto the sword of power, which he loses in the process. Cut forward, 15 years, dorky cheesecake, Adam, played by Nicholas Galatine, is working in human resources in an office, whilst still a...

attempting to find his lost sword and at the same time simultaneously workshoping, you know, team building exercises. Of what he thinks might be the sword, then turns up in a forbidden planet style story. If you ever been to one of the forbidden planet things, you know, comics, figures, characters, all that kind of stuff. And so now, once he's found this sword, he is reconnected with the old world of Eternia and must now join forces with the heroes that he left behind to fight Skeletor, Jared Leto or Skeletor, Jared Lito, and to become the he-man that his father always wanted him to be, a muscle man in a leather skirt. Here is a clip. Can you come help me with this?

Whoa. It is quite heavy, so if you could just... Oh, my God, yeah. So, how does it feel to be the mighty warrior? All things considered. I feel pretty great. Not quite sure what happened in my shirt, though. My pants.

Do those come back or I have to buy a new pair every time? You're 62, by the way. Not 63. Well, I'm about to be 63. But anyway, so look, that's basically the tone of it. So he suddenly turned into he man with the thing. And then, oh, where are my trousers? Or pants, as they say.

So this film has been a long time coming. There was a sequel was planned to the 1980s film. it was dropped. It was then the idea was picked up again sometime in 2009. There were multiple iterations of what they were going to do. I think various people were going to star in it. The Nie Brothers were announcers, or the Neighbred, the Nebrothers were announcers, directors and co-writers.

Then the rights went to various, I think Netflix and then Amazon, and then Travis Knight came on board, and then Nicholas Galatine ended up going. Anyway, so it's been going on for ages. It's one of those things that just kept turning up in the, trade. So now, the final film, as we have it now, credited as directed by Travis Knight, written by Chris Butler, Aaron Knee, Adam Ney, and Dave Callahan from a story by The Knees, Alex Litvak and Michael Finch. So Uncle Tom Cobley and all. The tone is essentially playful, lots of silly costumes, lots of silly characters, brought to life through a mixture of pantomime

dress-up and shonky CG. And I should say that the shonkiness of the CG is particularly remarkable, considering the massive amount of money that this cost. I mean, it's somewhere between $170 and $200 million. And you go, okay, but it is still pretty ropey. The thing is, the whole tone of the film is so unserious. It's like a kind of camp pantomime that in a way, the shonky CG is sort of like, well, of course the shonky CG is rubbish, because it's, the whole thing is, it's a camp pantomime and nobody really cares whether that weird tiger, lion, funny creature looks like it's in there in the real world or whether it's just completely CG generated. The primary joke of it all is that the central character is a dork who specialises

in group therapy and, you know, touchy-feely, all that sort of stuff. But then discovers that he needs to specialize in being a big butch he man wearing the leather skirt and smashing things with his with his sort of power. So he talks like he walks out of a Bill and Ted movie, but he rumps around like Arnold or like Dolph Lundgren and the gag is the disconnect between the sword and sorcery environment and the dialogue, which sounds like it's out of a different film. And some of the set pieces are smashy fun.

Some of them are bargain basement sub-Star Wars dogfights. Many of them remind you how much better films were when people had to build sets and models rather than do things with CG. I mean, it is essentially a load of colourful nonsense. It's closer in tone to kind of Super Mario than it is to a superhero movie. And it's made with little enough commitment to any form of seriousness that it makes those, the most recent Wonder Woman movies, look like Now Voyager. On the plus side, I do think that Nicholas

Galatine has got dorky charm. And as I said before, and as Simon Brew pointed out, Jared Leto is unrecognizable. And it is perfectly possible to watch the movie and not realize that you're watching a Jared Lesser movie, which is why I think Simon used that phrase. On the downside, it's at least 90 minutes too long. I mean, there's no, no film this flimsy needs to be 140 minutes long. It's just silly. And it's, it's so jam-packed with colorful explosions that nothing ever actually packs a punch. That said, I did laugh a few times. when we were waiting in the FOIA beforehand, they were doing, because the soundtrack is,

it's Daniel Pemberton, it's got contributions from Brian May, and then there's the darkness involvement. So, you know, everything is just like, let's just throw everything at it. Let's just throw absolutely everything at it, and every sort of two or three minutes make a joke about, isn't this ridiculous,

I can't find my trousers. That's basically it. It's a lot of money to spend to make that joke, but I think it is, the best Jared Leto movie since he got Huey Lewis and the Newsed in American Psycho. There's a guy called Ed Hyde. I think this was on Blue Sky. Okay.

Who said, I can't wait to hear what Kerman Omeo make of this. And he's Photoshop or he's copied this from X. Okay. So where obviously you and I don't go anymore. But Max from Quebec is on X. And he says, it is with intense. sorrow and deep regret that I must report to you that Jared Letto gives his best performance of his career in this movie.

Is Max from Quebec, correct? Is that right? I think we're on the same page. As I said, I mean, it really is one of those things in which you could, because even the voice doesn't sound sort of Jared Letto. I know that we have to say Leto, because I know this has been pointed out, but I'm just not going to start doing that. I literally listening to the voice at one point in thinking,

who on earth does that sound like? And I realized that he sounds like Jermaine Clement. So it's almost like you're watching an animated skull with the voice of Jermaine Clement, but it turns out to be Jared Leto, Leto, Leto. Correspondence at covenomere.com, if you want to join in, still to come after the break. Scary Movie Six, Savage House, with our guest Richard E. Grant, back in just a moment.

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button. Sign up for your £1 per month trial today at Shopify.com.ukau.uk slash take. Go to Shopify. Dot co.com.uk slash take take you further? How can working at your local Tims take you further? Sure, you can level up your teamwork skills. You also get a chance to receive a Tim Horan's scholarship award. Ready for what's next? Apply today at careers.timhorans.ca.com. Okay, well, if there are any other wildlife sounds that you want Mark to do impressions of, by the way, having heard his uncanny ability to be a peacock, then Mark, because he doesn't do Twitter, but he could do tweet of the day, which I think Radio 4 did for a while. Very good. Mark, could you be a starling or Mark could you be a blackbird? All this would be quite fun.

Just let us know. Correspondence at codemodecom. Box office top 10, beginning confusingly at 10. Passenger. Which I liked. I thought it was a well-told sort of folk horror story. And I've got a thing about cars at night and woodsy setting, so I enjoyed it. Number nine here, number 16 in the States is Power Ballad. I got an email here from Stephen. Right. So I'm a Mark, long-time listener here, first-time caller, Irishman in Lisbon here.

Right. I've worked years in the music industry. I was listening to your review of Power Ballad. and had already seen the trailer. There's something about it that I find troublingly sad. I will keep this brief. The film very clearly appears to tell the true story

of an unknown struggling Irish singer-songwriter, you don't need to mention his name, met a struggling major pop star, don't mention his name either, one evening. Drinks were had, stories were shared, and according to the Irish songwriters' account, he effectively handed over

what would become that pop star's biggest ever hit, which I'm not going to mention here. even mega pop star has laterally acknowledged some truth to this story. Now, there are ins and outs to that story, and we don't need to get into all of them here, but the result was that the pop star became a superstar from the song, while the songwriter never received a credit on the song, but did get a small payment, I believe. Whether people believe that version of events or not,

it is hard to deny that it would have a profound effect on someone's life and psyche. seeing a song you had such a big hand in, had such a big hand in, become such a phenomenon. What strikes me now is that not only does the songwriter who was very young at the time feel he has lost recognition of the song itself, but it seems that even his story itself

has been taken from him and repurposed. It's like he's been robbed twice. When Mark reviewed Michael, he raised the question of how you can make a film without acknowledging the elephant in the room. For me, a similar issue exists here, regardless of where you stand on the arrangement, original dispute. Surely some

acknowledgement by the filmmakers of the songwriter's story should exist. Love the show Stephen in Lisbon. Well, I don't know if the filmmakers have ever been asked about that particular story and I also don't know the internet. I mean,

I've heard a version of the story that you're talking about. I actually think that in the case of power ballad, it's a far more general story than that. I mean, clearly there are parallels But, I mean, it's like there are parallels with many stories. Number eight here, 11 in America is the Super Mario Galaxy movie.

Number seven here, 13 in the States is tuna. Someone called, looks as though they're called Dumbkoff Crow, a bunch of numbers, by our YouTube channel. I quite enjoyed it, not particularly as tightly constructed as the typical crime drama, but the characters here are flawed, very compelling to watch. needed more Dustin Hoffman. If Yuri was more menacing, it was a bad guy,

there could have been bigger stakes, but even he had some scruples not to destroy his own operation like crime bosses in other movies. Anyway, I enjoyed it more than Dumbopf Crow. Yeah, I think you and I both enjoyed it. I thought the performances were very strong.

It was an interesting interview because I thought that Leo Woodall found it quite hard to talk about the film, which is interesting because then, having watched the film, his performance is completely convincing. I mean, he really does convince as that character. He does. I think it's a good film. Number six is the sheep detective still there. Yeah, charming, lovely, weird, shouldn't work, does work, can't explain why.

Strange old world. Devil wears Prada two at number five. Yeah, doesn't work. Isn't weird, isn't strange. It looks like it was put together on a draft board by a whole bunch of people going, yeah, well, there's that character they like, and there's that character they like, and there's that character. Now give us a narrative that joined them altogether. It's not without a certain amount of charm because when you have that much talent on screen, it's impossible for it not to work, but it isn't any good. Number four here, two over there, obsession. So there is a long discussion going on at the moment about, you know, I'll be living in a golden age of horror and certainly there are a lot of very, very interesting horror movies around at the moment and we'll get to the biggest one of them at number one.

The thing I like about obsession is that it is a story which has a, supernatural sort of framework to it, but actually it is about something which is very down to earth. It is a story about coercion and a story about control and a story about domestic abuse that is told as a fantasy, I wish, be careful what you wish for, monkeys' poor style horror tale. And I thought it was terrific. Michael is still hanging around at number three, number four over there. Which I thought was not terrific. Yeah, number two here, three over there is Star Wars, the Mandalorian and Grogu. Tim, on an email. The biggest indication that the film was a big episode,

is that it didn't explain the Mandalorian's states. There's no explanation of what he's giving up to Father Grogu, but it is kind of about what he's like in terms of how he makes different choices and takes different risks. I think this was dictated into a voicemail. I saw it early in the West End view, and I have to say that of the six of us in the room,

one bloke behind me snored audibly through the midsection. As a Star Wars film, it had all the themes of the saga, but they were briefly explored in action adventure. The middle bit where the healing and the bonding happened was quite different from anything I've seen in Star Wars. So it was a proper Star Wars film to me, but visually a lot of fun and plenty of references for the fans. It's not Empire Strikes Back,

but it's arguably more accomplished than Solo. Up with the New Republic and down with the Galactic Empire, says Tim. I mean, I would draw listeners attention to the review of Child One, who is a big fan of the series and says, quite rightly, I think that there are things in it that are charming, if you like the series, most specifically the puppet work, but it does look like half hour episodes bolted together. When you read that email out, you said the cost of the thing involved to Father Grogu. And I thought, Father Grogu, he's a priest.

Oh, no, sorry, Father a verb, as opposed to Father a noun. Correct, yes, absolutely right. And number one, so here's the thing, number one here and number one there, is backrooms. Yes. So this is this huge breakout hit from a feature first timer who, as we said last week, A21's youngest feature director, either 20 or 21, depending. You mean A24? What did I say? A21.

Did I say A-21? Yes. A-34, which is the road from Cornwall into London. A-21 is the one that goes around the way at A-24. Wow, I can't believe that I said that. It's because he is 20 or 21. and that's what my brain was doing. And I thought it was really well done.

And I hadn't seen the viral web series beforehand, but I watched the film, and I saw an interview with him, and then I went back and saw some of the viral web series, and I can see how the two things connect together. But the thing that impressed me the most is, if you don't know anything about it, because of the way the narrative is constructed,

you're led into it by characters who don't know anything about it. And then I also mentioned last week that there's been a lot of, well, Cain Parsons can't possible, have directed it because that's just not possible because he's 20-21. And this is a bit like, you know, to quote that line from Clockwork Orange, it was old age having a go at youth. I saw him interviewed and he sounded like he knew exactly what he was doing. And Backrooms has really become a big hit. Someone who appears to be called Gilbert toxic squall. So, all right, Gilbert. A lot of people are complaining about the script. This is services on

backrooms, but that messy writing actually leads to an interesting point. The film ends up connecting with real life in a way that feels even scarier than the movie itself. The backrooms were born on the internet, which was supposed to be this big utopia where everyone could connect. Yet the ultimate nightmare that came out of it is not nuclear war aliens or some giant apocalypse. It is complete isolation in empty corridors that feel like bureaucracy turned into architecture. That says a lot about modern fear. Maybe the scariest thing is not the body dying, but the mind becoming irrelevant. Eternity is not fire and brimstone. It is an office floor with no exit. In that sense, Parsons film feels less like fiction and more like a very honest documentary with a yellow filter.

When a building falls apart, demolition solves the issue. But when the ruin is your own life inside an endless cubicle, who exactly do you call to complain about the old carpet smell? Good luck figuring that out. Very good. All right. That's a good. I like that email very much. And I like the,

I like the comparison with, with the onset of the internet. Very good. And Frankie Ward has sent us an email. Well-known, ESports gaming and entertainment presenter. Okay. And as an interview with Parsons on her YouTube,

YouTube.com slash Frankie Ward. Anyway, hello, no clipmark and backrooms lurker, Simon. As anyone who works in gaming and got to go, oh, as someone who works in gaming and got to go to a previous, screening of backrooms. I thought it might be useful to give a backstory for backrooms. Director Kane Parsons started creating his soon-to-be viral takes on the backroom's creepy pastor of the teens' forum age. Creepy pasta, basically an internet horror folklore, catch-all term for horror content on the internet. Apparently it came from 4chan. That's originally where it came

from. And is a version of copypaster, which was copy and paste when you're taking a, bunch of texts. Oh, that's where that comes from. Okay, I did cite the creepy pasta origin in my review. Right. Thank you. I was just updating it because, oh, thank you, Frankie. Yeah, yeah. Makes reference to the Parsons made his original shorts using open source design software called Blender. And with the 1990s camcorder effect, it's uncanny at the start of the original film. And I think that's also why the film is at its most confident when we're exploring the seemingly limitless backrooms. The film doesn't have enough of a reason for Tuotel Edgeefor's Clark to be pulled into the backrooms. A flickering light doesn't quite have a feel up the basement

and discover a portal through a wall compulsion to it. But once his camcorder is on, his cohorts in tow, the film shows the potential of the world Parsons has built. And I hope he gets to see his nine episode limited series he's hoped for fulfilled, says Frankie Ward. Frankie, thank you very much. Well, thank you. Yeah. Can I just say nine episodes doesn't feel like a limited series. That feels like a very, very long series. Not limited in any way. Apart of the fact, you can't go to 10. That's all. Single figures only, but yes, you can go to nine. Anyway, more discussion on current films in our overflow car park on take two available via Patreon. More in a moment. Hey, y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online

and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Fabio Semin Tilly. Big hearts, big voice, big laugh. A rock star hairstylist who drove a Porsche. He was like a wizard behind the chair.

The killers came for Fabio in his own backyard. You can't rationalize it. You can't figure it out. There was rampant speculation about everything. But every wild theory was wrong. Because the truth was even more unbelievable. Well, is anyone hearing what I'm hearing? And even more heartbreaking. The uncertainty of not knowing is a form of agony.

From Sony Music Entertainment and novel, this is Cut Color Kill. I'm Jonathan Hirsch. Cut Color Kill is available now on The Binge. Search for it wherever you get your podcast to start listening today. Subscribers to The Binge can listen to all episodes, all at once, add free. So I guess this week needs no introduction. And then whenever that phrase is used, there is then a very long introduction. But I'm genuinely not going to do it this time.

Okay? Because all you need to know is it's Richard E. Grant. He has a new movie out called Savage House. You'll hear our conversation with Richard after this clip. Sir. Dee. From the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. They're to begin their yearly Yorkshire tour.

And one of their hosts, Lord Verlon, is apparently succumbed to a grisly batter the pogs. What? What, what, what is it? They need a place to dine and sleep in ten days' time and are curious if we can. No, no. Yes! And that is a clip from Savage House.

I'm delighted to say that we've been joined by one of its stars, well, it's star, really. Richard E. Grant is with us. Hello, Richard. How are you, sir? Very good. Thank you, Simon. Thank you, Mark. Nice to see you. That's a very nice linen shirt you have. Can I just compliment you on that? And whilst we're pointing out things on my bookshelf here, with nails, the film diaries of Richard E. Grant, which you sign, I think you signed to everybody back in the day as you mad-fitted Richard E. Grant. In the last century.

Yes. Because I'm not old. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. Anyway, Richard, very nice to speak to you again. Introduce us to Savage House and also Sir Chauncey, your character. So just take it away. It's an 18th century, rakes progress, a man who has enormous appetites and pays the price for that. He marries, you know, he's a Welsh working class upstart who marries into the English aristocracy. and leads an utterly debauched life of enormous excess. And as you two boys are old enough to remember Barry Lyndon, it struck me as kind of Barry Lyndon or masculine.

May I just say, before we go any further, I sent a message to Simon because I'd seen the film before him. And one of the phrases I used was, Barry Lyndon with leeches. That's true. A little more speed. there are leeches yes indeed there are leeches because my character suffers from gout so have leeches put on to my infected toes your character suffers from gout your garret character also suffers from gangrene and during the course of the movie you go from a state of poor health to a state of worse health it is it is a movie that festers as you watch it does and you're referring to a scene where just before this dinner that

the whole movie is based around the anticipation of Duke and Duchess of Devinter coming for dinner, I have to have my arm amputated so it suddenly tips into multi-plython-like mode when limbs are coming off.

Okay, so give us the setup of what's happening with your character, who is coming to visit, and why have they been thrown into completely ecstatic disarray as a result of a letter that they receive? They receive a letter saying that in the middle of this pox, meltdown, whatever, quarantine,

that the Duke and Dutchev would like to come and stay in their house for a few days. So they don't really have enough money to afford looking after these aristocrats, but they pawn every last jewel that they have in order to pay for it, do the house up, get the best food and chefs that they can possibly muster. And inevitably, you know what's going to happen. The people who say they're going to come may not come. And in the midst of that, this character Chaunce sees alcoholism and gout and the other thing, stuff happening on his arm.

Gangrene sets in after a duel in which he's wounded. So his arm has to be lopped off on the day that the Devonshers are about to arrive and have dinner. and why is it such a big deal that the Devonshire? Who were the Devonshire's? Are they really that important? I think in this world of Chornecy is so enamored of trying to be, pass himself off as an aristocrat and be accepted, that he thinks that this is his final chance to, I suppose the equipment would be, I don't know, if Brad Pitt and his wife wanted to come and have dinner with you and you were living in the middle of nowhere,

or the current king and queen said they're coming to visit you and you lived in, you know, the out of Hebrides or something, maybe this would get people excited and willing to sacrifice everything they have in order to entertain as a royal as possible. It's not a documentary as to come out. Now, we should say, Richard, that you, Chauldsey's married to the wonderful Claire Foy, who we've spoken to a number of times on the show, hello to her dad, who always writes in and says,

how about getting my daughter on your show again? But you and Claire Foyt clearly not only get on very well in the film, but your characters do love each other and you go like hell for leather into chaos. Yeah, against all odds, these characters fall in love with each other. She's an aristocrat who marries a lowly Welsh upstart and because she didn't want to be falling to the trap of being an aristocrat's wife and leading a very dull embroidering away life so chauncey is the guy who's full of

life and excitement and extreme in excess so that is what attracts her to him um and luckily because it's not always the case you know that the the chemistry or connection you have with somebody else in real life if that translates into a screen partnership then that's the real bonus of it and frankly, I'd never thought that at the right age of 67 as I was then, three years ago, I would be, I would get a lead in a movie. So it felt like he's on a double bonus. Yeah. And can you explain the kind of the social significance here, Richard, there are a number of references throughout the movie to, there's an outbreak of something that's going on. There's a jacket by uprising. And also there's an eclipse, which we're all

waiting for. So what's going on outside of the house? Well, it's basically the 18th century version of COVID. So everybody's in lockdown. And you'd have to ask Peter Glanz, the writer-director, about the significance of the eclipse. I suppose because they were obsessed with science and discovering the nature of the new world being discovered at that point, the eclipse was an extraordinary event, as it would be now, but I think even more so then, with the invention of telescopes. And what is the third thing you asked me? I'm trying to remember this. The Jacobite uprising. The Jacobite uprising, I think, is probably what's going on in America at the moment with Trump

dividing the nation and what is happening here on our own island, with people being very divided about the politics, ready to, you know, turn on a hairpin and take to the streets and set things alight. I don't think anything has really changed in that department. There was a quote from your writer-director who said, I love period films. They allow us to be a step removed, to look in the mirror and see ourselves

and hopefully laugh ourselves without the preconceived baggage of modern life. And what you're saying is that this is an 18th century story, but it's about today. Oh, I would never be so portentious to say that. But I think you just did, Richard. Humanity doesn't really change that much, does it? You know, weed and social upward mobility, all of those things are rampant.

So whether this was set in Wall Street in the 1980s or in the 1780s, I don't think anything really changes except for the way that people dress. And I certainly have a wig that is about 15 feet tall, which I love wearing. So at one point, Claire Foist says we're going to have to have the ceilings raised if your weeks get any larger. Because of this, in that period, the men's clothing, was far more flamboyant and peacock-like than anything that the women could come up with. So that was a huge delight to be kitted out in all that stuff. Did you arrive on set, Richard, flamboyant and shouty, or did you have to be encouraged to dial it up?

Because you are magnificent throughout the film. Well, thank you very much. That's very generous of you to say, said, Simon. There's no way that you can do this part going at it half measure. and mercifully we'd had rehearsals on the first four of a pub in North London in advance of starting doing the shoot, which you knew that you couldn't sort of go to half measure. And the great advantage of wearing these huge wigs,

white makeup, beauty spot, ruffled clothes and high heels and in these actual great historic houses that we filmed in, it sort of gives you the license and the courage to go for it. But when you arrive in your civvies at 5 o'clock in the morning, every single day I did think, how the hell am I going to try and do this? But you have to. You have to take a great leap at it. And how different is your character to Saltburn, Sir James Caton, how, you do seem to do these roles magnificently. I just think somehow there's something special with having you playing one of these aristos. And I think you're going to, are you in

Queen of Fashion soon, I think. So there's another one. I am in Queen of Fashion. Yeah. So what is it, do you particularly enjoy them? What is it? Is it your voice? Is it your manner? Is it your bearing? What is it? That is for somebody else to decide and to analyse or

casting director. I have no idea. The best way of my answering is that the first screen role that I ever did 40 years ago this summer, with No and I played such an extreme character that I think that if I'd begun my screen career playing, an uptight butler, like in the remains of the day, I would have had a

completely different career trajectory. But because of that first thing, being so extreme and vicuperative, I suppose that's inevitably led me in the direction that I've played. But it's, I find it very hard to analyze yourself. It's how other people see you. So, you know, if I'm offered a part like that, I think they're great. May I offer a suggestion? I think that one of the things that is key to this is the quality and the nature of your voice. When I was at Radio 1 in the 1990s, you very kindly recorded a load of interstitials for us for our film review show that we then used for four years because you have a particularly strong voice. And it's interesting because, of course, you grew up in Swaziland. The voice that you have now is a voice that you have

worked on and developed. And like Morgan Freeman or like other, this. This voice didn't arrive out of nowhere. You have a remarkable instrument in your voice and it has fitted particularly well to roles, whether it's with Null or this. And it is an unusually versatile instrument, I think. I've never been told that, Mark, and I'm blushing with kind of embarrassment and delight at the same time. Thank you. Nobody has ever said that to me. Thank you. And just at the mention of Swazer, and before we finish, Richard, I just want to put this on the table again. I have mentioned this to you, but years ago,

and this has cropped up in some of your storytelling, Mark mentioned Swaziland. I used to share a room at university with a guy called Beketemba Gametzi, whose father was the last minister of education, who's the first minister of education in independent Swaziland? And your father was the last minister of education in British-run Swaziland, correct? Yes, yes. And when you tell the story of your father's funeral and a priest throws himself into the grave to try and raise your father up from the dead, that's Becky Tember commits his brother who is the priest. So this is my unique link to your story, Richard.

That is absolutely extraordinary. And it is totally true. Becky had come back from doing evangelical course in America and he was very young and impressionable. And he misguidedly believed that he could raise my father. from the dead, jumped into the grave, undid the casket and tried to raise him from the dead. And then he had to be consoled and dragged out of the grave because my father, you know, weighing 69 pounds, are dying lung cancer, lay inert. Yes. He taught me some, is it Saswati, I think, the language? I can still say, Lalagach and Maginibaba, which I think is good night, mother and father. Would that be right?

Yes, it's a laagache. See, a good one of a good thing. Thank you. Okay. And might I take this opportunity to say to any listeners enjoying this, if you haven't seen Wah-War, do, because that's a really, really interesting evocation of that particular period that Richard is responsible for,

and is I think one of the films that you made that gets overlooked. Thank you very much. And Richard, are you on stage next? Is it Hayfever in the West End? I am with Christine Barowski. Noel Coward's Hayfever. It starts in September. When was the last time you were on stage in the West End?

I did My Fair Lady at the Chicago Opera House in 2017. Okay. So if you're going to go and see Hay Fever, an old coward's Hay Fever, turn your phone off, otherwise, you know, they'll be held to pay. You know how to behave. Richard E. Grant, always a great pleasure. Savage House is his new movie. Richard, thank you so much for your time this morning.

Thank you, Simon. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. He has a great smile, doesn't he? He has a great actor with a wonderful voice, as he pointed out. but also when he grinned, you're thinking, okay, a little bit of sunshine in your life. Also, magnificent hair, magnificent hair. That is true.

And when you look at the old photographs of him, because I've got one here for the width nails, his hair is kind of, I mean, he's got more grey, but it's all there. Look at that. That's amazing. It's a full head of hair. He looks great. He's always very watchable. Tell us what you think about, Savage House.

Well, so just to recap, because I mean, obviously we just explained it, but just to recap for the purposes of the review. So this is Savage House is a British black comedy period drama from Peter Glances, the writer-director, who previously did the longest week in 2014 and went on to be one of the co-writers on Captain America, Brave New World. So the best way to describe this is it kind of comes on like a, and I know this because I had written this to you, because I'd seen the film before you had. and you said vaguely what's it like. I said, it's like a cross between the draftman's contract, the Young Poisoners Handbook, the Favorite, the Crown, and Saltburn. And it also, as the thing that I cited, it's a bit Barry Lyndon with leeches,

which is a phrase that I used in that interview, but I liked it. So it's set in 18th century England, I think it's 1715, time of Jacobite unrest, outbreaks of the pox, as you said. And Richard E. Grant is the hideously bewigged and slowly festering, as he said in the interview, he was quite revealing in the interview because he literally told you what happens.

Sir Chauncey Savage, who is a chancer who's married. Is he Chauncy or Chauncy? Chauncy. Choncy. He's married now Lady Savage, thus acquiring her wealth without ever being able to shed his own humble beginnings. And we see sort of flashbacks to him as a boy from very humble beginnings. And he keeps having these visions of pigs everywhere. And he longs to be taken serious.

by Posh Society. But he lives in this mansion that is crumbling and his finances are crumbling and his body is everything, it's like the fall of the House of Usher. And then this note arrives saying that this couple who, you said yourself, it's the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, right? Yes. Why is that such a big deal? Why is that such a big deal? And as Richard Lee Grant said in that interview, well, just because he just wants any social uppage that he can get, they say they're going to come and stay, can they be accommodated? And so his entire life and the life of the whole household falls into disarray as they attempt to prepare for the staying and the feasting of this couple who they consider to be so high up the social ladder that they will do anything.

And in preparing for it, and it's very much like we know from the beginning, it's going to be like waiting for Godo. They are just ruining their lives even further. Claire Foy's character is having to sell all the jewelry that she's been hanging on to. You also made an interesting point that the funny thing is is that the couple at the center of it, the couple played by Claire Foy and Richard E. Grant,

both of whom, incidentally, I could watch read the phone book, but both of whom I think are having an absolute riot doing this. Weirdly, despite the fact that everything is falling apart and everything is crumbling and everything is rotting from the inside and they're all fornicating with others,

they sort of do love each other in a really kind of bizarre way, there is this relationship with the heart. She, Claifoy's character keeps saying, he didn't lead me in. So I chose him because he was exciting and different and weird. And that's what I wanted. He was my choice. But as I said, everything is falling apart. There is also this weird Barry Lyndon thing going on.

So the cinematographer is Adriana Goldman. And there are certain shots, particularly the dueling scene, in which it's the landscape. the mist. But it's almost like someone has taken the aesthetic of Barry Lyndon, drained all the life color out of it, and replaced it with a kind of pestilence, a sort of, you know, pustules and darkness and gray. And there is, as we imagine the thing, there is gangrene. There is, there are full chamber pots. There are entire piles of poo. There is an awful lot of handsomely healed shoes stepping into steaming piles of poo, and there's lots of inflamed spots.

And the interesting thing about it is that all of this kind of matches the dyspepsia of the drama, the comedy. I mean, there are, I wrote this down as I'm going, there are yucks as in comedy yucks, and there are yucks as in, that's gangrene and poo. I mentioned that thing in the interview about the writer-director saying, I like period films because it means that you can look at and laugh at yourself without, well, feeling disconnected. And Richard E. Grant, in that interview, said this thing about,

well, you know, it is very much like, you asked about the Jacobite thing. And he said, well, it's like Trump's America, isn't it? And then when I said to him, so what you're saying is that it's a period film, but it's actually about today. And then he said, well, I wouldn't possibly say that. Richard, I think you did just say that. The tagline for the film is, polite society has never been so savage,

which pretty much lays out the Bill of Fair, which is these people are, well, from the very thing about the name, that the savage house, and there is a savagery at the heart of this social climbing. It's a little bit like Gromboof meets waiting for Godo. It's the kind of, well, in that particular case, you'd be like the bourgeois satire,

the thing about these people who are desperately trying to crawl their way up the social ladder, and they will do it even if it involves cutting off their own arm in order to impress visiting, not even royalty, just visiting poshos who may or may not actually turn up. So the thing that I enjoyed most about it was how much I thought that Richard E. Grant and Claire Foy were having a board. I've not have had this rule in the past, which is the more people, enjoy themselves on set, the less you enjoy watching it. This isn't the case here. I do think Richard E. Grant has got a tremendous voice and a tremendous screen presence. It was interesting that he himself raised Withnell in that interview. And there is something of that grandiloquence,

that pompous peacocking, you know, that incredible sense of self-earned self-esteem. but there is also all the way through this, I mean, actually it is true of Withnell and I because they are living a pestilent existence. So that thing when the heating goes off and he covers himself from head to foot in deep heat in order to warm himself up. So I can see exactly why Richard E. Grant loved doing it. I think it's really important to say that if Claire Foy wasn't as good as she is, the thing wouldn't work. Because through her, his ridiculousness is kind of mediated because the thing that the drama has going for it

is that in a weird way, despite everything about him that is rancid, she loves him. And because she loves him, you sort of, sort of, sort of love him to, even,

but you know, but you know what I mean? I don't mean you don't actually love him, but you tolerate the pomposity, the ridiculousness, the beweakness, the powder, the powder.

and the beauty spot that looks like you're literally sticking on a bit of the black death onto the side of it. I mean, it's a feted film, isn't it? Oh, yeah, yeah. And if you tolerate this, then obviously your children. We'll be next. We should mention the lower classes, led very well by Bell Polly and, is it Bell Pauley? Yes.

And is it Bell Pauley? Is it? And Jack Farthing. Anyway, I thought, you know, so they're downstairs. Well, Richard and Claire are upstairs. Just occasionally, because Claire's doing a. posh voice. I thinking it's the queen who are married to the queen,

and the queen should have more jewelry than this. But anyway, it was good, it was good fun. Always nice to speak to Richard E. Grant. If you see it, let us know what you think. Correspondence at coda mea.com before we get to Mark's hotly anticipated review of scary movie six, quick reminder, you can get take one and take two, add free, plus our bonus take ultra every fortnight,

plus access to the Wittentatainment community if you go via Patreon. That's the thing you have to. to remember. And now we step with, how would Richard E. Grant do? It wouldn't be gay abandoned. But he was...

Triumphant, fabulousness. With an air of fetid, fecund. Fetted feck and disgust. Into the laughter lift. Here we go. Yeah. Right. Hey Mark, you know I love karaoke?

I do. Can't get enough of it. Well, the unthinkable happened at the weekend. I was in Showbiz, North London's top karaoke night spot, the acoustic larder on Saturday, and after unsuccessfully attempting the intro to Danger Zone from Top Gun four or five times, they'd kick me out. Apparently, I'd exceeded the maximum number of log-ins attempts.

Hey! So to cheer myself up the next day, I went to the pet shop, the Companion Atelios. A. Pst, said the owner. Do you want to buy a talking centipede? Well, who doesn't? So I slapped a tenor down on the counter and took the little fella home. A bit later I said, hey, Centipede, do you want to pop to the artisanal pub, the fermentation

project for a pint? There's no answer. Boy, excuse me, I said, do you want to come to the pub with me, little fella? Still nothing. So I up the volume, Mr. Centipede, do you want to come to the pub? then came from the tiny little box a voice I heard you the first time I'm just putting my shoes on Centipede

Yes Very long walk A very long walk For a centipede Incredibly long Yay Still to come Mark's review of Scary Movie 6 plus

Any What's On Business In just a moment The 2006 Chevrolet Equinox Awarded the most dependable compact SUV in the US By J.D. Power is designed for your everyday and with available all-wheel drive, you can handle your to-do list with total confidence.

Start your build at Chevrolet.ca. Details at J.D.power.com. Now, the Muppet game has really caught fire. I mentioned it a few weeks ago, and everybody wants to cast films where you replace everyone with Muppets, but you keep one central character. Yeah.

Nicola T. In Bruges with the Muppets, please. Ray, Colin Farrell, will keep him. Ken, Fossey, Bear, Chloe, Miss Piggy, Harry, played by Animal, Canadian guy and partner, Stattler and Waldorf. Animal chasing Ray through the nooks and crannies would be amazing. Mark Pipkin, Dear Stattler and Waldorf, long-termist and etc.

The film that immediately came to mind for the Muppet game was Whiplash. J.K. Simmons playing the ruthless Terrence Fletcher as the only non-Muppet cast member, an animal playing Miles Teller's character, Andrew Nyman. And the fact that he's already an accomplished drummer means that he can avoid the usual months of preparation for such a role. Whilst there are not many other major characters in the film, Miss Piggy would be excellent as the girlfriend who Andrew discards to concentrate on his music. With Kermit, a good fit for his supportive father,

the other music students can be played by members of the electric mayhem, Dr. Teeth et al, with Fossey, Gonzo and other Muppets filling out the numbers for the band scene. There's loads of these. We'll do some more. Do you want one more? No, should we get to... Yeah, let's do...

One more? Yeah, gone one more. Okay. Florian. I couldn't believe how attuned I was with Simon on his second spontaneous reaction. That is to say, Wuthering Heights when I watched it two months ago,

very early on in the screening, I thought Margot Robbie's Kathy, with all her spoiled brat petulants, reminded me so much of Miss Piggy. I simply could not get it out of my head. This is going to actually spoil the movie, if you go and see it again. Not even the weird, fleshy bedroom scene.

I was still thinking of the Muppets. Henceforth, all attempts at conveying any sense of tragedy or Gothic obsession were undermined and I found the flawed movie simply hilarious. Tiggily Tongue down with the Nazis, hello to Jason Isaacs. Muppets do Peter Pan and he's hook.

How about that? Lawyer, Floris Lawyer, Florian. Correspondence to COVIDemair.com. Let's get to the business in hand which says Scary Movie 6. Although actually Scary Movie. I mean, it is the sixth one, but it's called Scary Movie.

So, back out, the Scary Movie franchise has grossed nearly a billion dollars worldwide. The first two Scary Movie movies were directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, co-written by Sean and Marlon Wayans. The first one cost $190,000, took $278 million. The second one cost $45, took $191. Then the Wayans is left or ousted from the franchise. An airplane director David Zucker took over for three and four. Scary movie three and four, which were co-written by... Well, not Jack Thorne, because that's not his...

The other one. It must be Craig Mason. Craig Mason. Okay. It's becoming ridiculous, isn't it? It's, I think he wrote my phone book. Anyway, so the new film, Scary Movie, Six, is the first time the Wayans have been back there since Scary Movie 2.

And it is described as, quote, the spiritual sequel to the first two films. The spiritual sequel to the first two scary movies, meaning practically that there are entire generations of Wayans involved in the credits. And the action also includes a lot of jokes about the Wayans being pushed out of the franchise and then some of the actors in the franchise continuing to work in the franchise despite the fact that they should have jumped ship because the Wayans weren't there. And there's also a very, very unfunny, long-running joke, which I'm setting up because it's in the clip about a character being called Tuesday.

as opposed to Wednesday for contractual reasons. Here's a clip. There's a serial killer on the loose. Hello, Tuesday. I had been preparing for this for years. Hello, mother. You look like... I really want to, but I'm a Republican now,

so I'm supposed to be racist. Oh, girl, I think all white people are racist anyway. Come here. Okay. Okay. Okay. And, oh. Okay, so this, I suppose,

reboot is what it is. It's directed by Michael Tid, I think it's Tiddies, T-I-D-E-S, written by Marlon Wayans, Sean, Sean, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans and Rick Alvarez, Marlon and Sean, other returning actors, Anna Farris, Regina Hall, a whole bunch of people. Essentially, a group of friends are real friends and frenemies, reunited because the masked killer from the way back, Ghostface is back again. So the film opens with a cameo from Tiana Taylor making a one battle after another joke about Pussy Don't Pop, which is a joke that refers back to a film that was fairly recent, but all that stuff has already been and gone,

because we did a whole bunch of stuff about it, and then it won, you know, best film and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and things. But because obviously it's the nature of films, if you're making a joke about a film that's that recent, it's going to immediately be out of date. So it opens with a joke that's out of date about a film that is nothing to do with horror that was the talk of the town last year. It ends with a joke in the credit sequence about a little-handed killer, which kind of combines a previous callback character with what I think is a joke about long legs, but I wasn't entirely convinced. And then in between, we get all the stuff we had before.

the jokes about the rules of horror movie because the whole thing is, you know, it was scream, and then the scary movie was the parody of scream. So the about the rules of horror movies are stupid and the jokes about how formulaic the nature of sequels and reboots is, and the jokes about how stupid the whole thing is. Oh, and also, incidentally, a joke about white chicks. White chicks, the film.

Okay. Which wasn't funny the first time round. We also get the jokes about the character who's gay, but says he isn't gay. We get a character who's trans. We get a character who's got a small Mr. Happy. We get a lot of humorless stuff about wokeism, which feels out of date. We get a bunch of stuff about ice, which bizarrely feels out of date.

We get some stuff about horror movies not winning Oscars, which just feels like, yeah, and. Here's the essential problem. The main problem with the scary movie movies is this. They began life as a parody of Scream, which is itself a parody of horror movies. It is a smart, scream is a smart, sine literate, parody of horror movies from a director who knows the genre inside out. Now, there's a program that I do on Radio 4 with Eleni Jones, and we did an episode not so long ago about parodies. And Ellen interviewed Kenan Ivory Wayans, and he said he didn't like horror

movies at all, wasn't particularly interested in horror movies. And that is the problem, because the best parodies are generated by people that love the source material. You think about Mel Brooks doing Young Frankenstein or doing Westerns in Blazing Saddles or doing Hitchcockian Chillers in high anxiety. Or you think about the Zucker brothers doing Airplane, which actually began life as a serious film, because Airplane is technically a remake of, I think it's called Zero Hour, and they took the script of Zero Hour and then put jokes into it. And then, weirdly, when David Zucker then took over the scary movies, they weren't good because I don't think he likes horror movies either. As far as the way

stuff is concerned, if you go back to things like Hollywood Shuffle, and I'm going to get you sucker, all the best gags in the new scary movie, which incidentally, I think you could argue is the best film in the series, although that's not a recommendation. All the best gags in it are from that previous era when you had things like, I'm going to get you sucker, in which they with jokes about, you know, racism and stereotypes and white liberalism and that joke that we heard in the bit from the trailer, it's okay, I don't mind you're a Republican. I think all white people are racist. That stuff is the funniest stuff in the film. The problem is that that stuff is completely unconnected to the horror stuff, although one could argue that the very beginning of

scary movie, there was the scary movie series, there was the joke about what happens to black people in horror movies is that they're always the first victims. But that isn't true. And it particularly isn't true if you're making a film which has got jokes about get out and has got jokes about nope. Those jokes aren't, they're not landing anymore because they're not landing anymore because the thing that they're laughing at is not true. So I didn't laugh. I could see how several of the broader gags could play perfectly decently to a Friday night audience, but there's nothing to do with being gags about horror movies. And that is a problem for ongoing horror spoof series. Wes Craven said, and I interviewed Wes, many times, that when

he saw the first scary movie, his response was, wow, this town moves fast. I think that this sixth installment in the scary movie series proves that it just doesn't move fast enough. And incidentally, the scream sequels let scream down really badly. So it's not like there's a moral high ground here. It's not like the scream series is up here in the scary movie series. Right now, they're all just sort of swilling around in the same slop. And particularly when you're in a box office top ten in which you've got things like backrooms, in which you've got things like obsession, this just all feels like it's very,

very tired and old. And there are some crowd-pleasing gags that are in there that are Wayans brothers' gags. And then nothing to do with horror. and it's just having to bolt them around the horror references is just tedious. It's a comedy, I didn't laugh. I can see that some people will. As I said, I think it's probably, arguably, the best in the series, and it's rubbish. Will it be number one?

Well, it'll have to dislodge back rooms, and that's an interesting scenario. But I think it'll open strongly because they, Because it's, you know, it's crowd-pleasing stuff in the lowest possible common denominator way. Correspondence at covenomereau.com, if you see it, and you'd like to pass on some information, which is also where you can send your voice notes and videos to tell us anything that is on around you or you're responsible for, which is cinematic or cinema adjacent. For example, Sam from the Shareborn Festival. Hello, Mark. Hello, Simon.

On Sunday the 7th of June, at 6 o'clock, the Sherbourne Cinema in Gloucester, a local bastion of independent film culture, is hosting a very special evening of short documentaries with a Strand Film Festival, continuing its 10-year anniversary celebrations. Expect vivid, humane, properly cinematic storytelling, exploring community, time and resilience. From reimagined folk traditions to immersive family portraits

and seven years of social change, captured on 60mm, thoughtful, big-hearted filmmaking with a Q&A. Tickets available via the Sherbourne Way. website. Sam, thank you. Sherbourne Festival News. And also before we're done, here's Derek. Greetings. My name is Derek Anthony Williams. I run join the night shift goth events. I'm running a two-day festival here in Doncaster at the Unitarian Church on the 20th and 21st of June. We are hoping to raise lots of money also by doing it for trans rights. As I feel very much recently, trans people have

become very much the focus of a lot of negative attention. We have a heck of a lot of music over two days here. 50% of all donations go to the Mermaid's charity, no matter what. Okay, so Derek, thank you very much indeed. So join thenightshift.com.uk. I imagine that must be for more information. And yeah, and we would like to see your videos and we'd like to hear your audio. If there's something that you'd like to tell us about, send it to correspondence at kodomah.com. That's it for this week. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. And this week's team, Jen, Eric, Josh and Scarlett.

The producer was Dom and the redactor was Simon Poole, who was briefly back in the country. How nice of him to grace us with his presence. Take two, we're heading from big screen eruptions in bridesmaids via a hotly contested five-question film club on the Goonies and even more topical movie discussion in the overflow car park. Plus questions, Schmestians. We'll be tackling whether YouTuber movies have finally shaken off their bad reputation and a question on BBFC ratings.

Why 12A and 15? And could those classifications actually change in the future? Come and join us on Patreon because it's a lot of good fun. Mark, what is your film of the week? Savage House. Back next week with reviews of Solomio, the fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Disclosure Day

with our special guests, Emily Blunt, Coleman Domingo from the new Spielberg movie. Thank you very much indeed for listening. I will bestow a year's ultra membership to our correspondent of the week, which, why don't we give it to Elton in the classics, chancel, who told us about Greek fatalism because it was something I didn't know about. Very good. Elton, thank you very much indeed.

We'll be back with you in a few days' time, and take two has landed alongside to this one.