Somewhere in the Skies - BONUS: The Thing (1982) - A Movie Review

Episode Date: January 21, 2023

In a special movie review episode, Ryan is joined by two of his closest friends and colleagues for another movie review! Returning to the show are television writer and filmmaker, Andrew Sanford, and actor/producer, Nick Westemeyer. The three discuss John Carpenter's 1982 classic sci-fi/horror film, "The Thing." Considering this film had somehow eluded Ryan as both a filmmaker and UFO researcher, it was about damn time he finally sat down to watch it. Join Ryan, Andrew, and Nick as they navigate their way through this cult-classic film where nothing is quite as it seems... and nobody and noTHING can be trusted as an alien threat invades not from above, but from within! Follow Nick Westemeyer on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/Nwestemeyer Follow Andrew Sanford on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/SanfordMinusSon Watch Dennis Cahlo's Video Essay on "The Thing": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhZ1MmwrbAI&t=24s Patreon: www.patreon.com/somewhereskies Website: www.somewhereintheskies.com YouTube Channel: CLICK HERE Book your Cameo video with Ryan at: https://bit.ly/3kwz3DO Official Store: CLICK HERE Buy Somewhere in the Skies coffee! Use promo code: SOMEWHERESKIES10 to get 10% off your order: https://bit.ly/3rmXuap Order Ryan’s book in paperback, ebook, or audiobook: https://amzn.to/3PmydYC Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryansprague51 Twitter: @SomewhereSkies Instagram: @SomewhereSkiesPod Read Ryan’s Articles by CLICKING HERE Watch Mysteries Decoded for free at: https://bit.ly/3rJpbd7 Opening Theme Song, "Ephemeral Reign" by Per Kiilstofte Copyright © 2023 Ryan Sprague. All rights reserved. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/somewhere-in-the-skies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Terms apply. Thanks, yours too. What does RAV stand for anyway? To me, it's the remarkably advanced vehicle. Really? To me, it's the runway approved vehicle for its amazing style. What about remarkably adaptable vehicle because of its versatile cargo space? Or really admired vehicle? Oh, or really awesome vehicle.

It really is the recreational activity vehicle. The stylish 2026 Toyota Rav4 Limited. What's your Rav for? Guys, Ryan Sprag here from somewhere in the skies. Welcome to a very special live stream tonight. If you've been paying attention on our social media, you know what's coming at you tonight, especially with that intro. We are going to be reviewing John Carpenter's The Thing from 1982, a movie that I admittedly have never seen. And both of our guests tonight, two of my closest friends and colleagues, couldn't believe that. And a lot of you couldn't believe it either. But I finally watched The Thing. What did I think? of it. What did they think of it? We're going to get into all of it tonight. So without further ado, I only have them for a limited amount of time. So we are going to get through this thing. And it's going to be a lot of fun. So thank you for joining us, guys. Without further ado,

let's bring them in. We have Nicholas Westermeyer. We have Andrew Sanford. Welcome back, gentlemen. Hi. Hey. Hello. Welcome. Welcome. I can't believe I have you both in the same digital room. This is the first time we've done this since, I think, God, the found footage one. Yeah, probably. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, that was a while ago. So I know Nick and I did Halloween recently, which was, it was okay. Movies very controversial, I guess, for many horror fans, but this one's going to be a lot of fun, alien themed. So I know a lot of our

audience is going to dig that. But let's get into it, guys. What is your history before we even get to it with this movie. Have you seen it? When was the first time you saw it? Nick, let's start with you. So I actually was kind of like you. I didn't watch this movie until Halloween. So because I miss both of you guys and especially Andrew at Halloween time, I started just watching horror movies because I was at homeworking. So I was like, oh, I haven't seen the thing in my brother's like 47 years old. So obviously this is like, this is peak him, right? Like this is one of his favorite. So I got to watch this movie. So I, I don't. First of my had seen it.

I loved it. I had a lot of thoughts about it, but I thought it was just brilliantly executed, except for one thing, which I'll bring up later. We'll get there. Andrew, how about you, buddy? Okay, okay.

What's your history with this movie? I did not really go on dates or hang out much in high school. I spent a lot of my time going to the Best Buy in my local mall on Friday nights, buying a couple of movies, isn't heading home. I particularly remember purchasing this one. It was a special edition DVD

that was like when they actually used to care about like what the box was like. And I remember watching it and being absolutely blown away by what I ended up saying. I apologize if you hear my children in the background, but they're great, so I don't super apologize.

They're awesome. So yeah, so I saw it. I'm relatively young and it's been a real favorite of mine. No. No. Sorry, no spoilers in the chat. Jay Ellen Heineken says no spoilers.

Jay Ellen Heineken, this might not be the time to watch this man, because we are going heavy in the spirit of the right. That's what these movie reviews are for. I apologize, buddy. But go watch the movie. Come back and watch this. It'll be here forever now. It's now on the internet.

In perpetuity. Yes, exactly. Cool. All right. Well, that's cool. I just saw this for the first time a couple days ago and then I watched it again today so it's fresh in my mind

I'm ready to talk about it let me get I'm such a professional I have a slide show You've come so far in these things Don't you love it? I go out I go all out for these movie reviews I should probably be doing this more for the actual

Summer in the Sky show but no I love doing this you guys know Exactly. And this is like the other side of me that a lot of the people who follow my work don't really know about. I'm a screenwriter. I'm a playwright. I'm a huge sci-fi nerd too. And I love movies. So I really do like going to all out for these. As you guys know. So why don't we just go through the quick, you know, really quick kind of, I guess history of this. This is from 1982, John. Carpenter, directed by John Carpenter, written by Bill Lancaster, music by Ennio Maracone, who was mostly known for westerns. So we'll talk a little about that. The effects were by Rob Boteen. I think we're going to be talking a lot about him tonight, who worked with Carpenter on the fog, and is known for the effects in the howling as well. 23 years of age at the time when he made

the effects for this movie. Doesn't that make you feel like the hell is I doing? That's why that's yeah. That being said, he was a little in over his head with this movie, and they had to call in someone to come help him with the effects on some of the scenes in this. And who was that? None other than Stan Winston came in to kind of save the day on a lot of these effects, too. So, yeah, yeah. A lot of people worked on this movie, which is really, really cool. Let's get to the cast starring Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimley, the diabetes guy. Yes, thank you.

T.K. Carter, David Cleaning, Keith David, who I love, love, love. I didn't know this. Andrew, you might know this. Keith David narrated the entire Monday Night Wars series. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. for WWF. He did a few of them, too, I think. There's a couple DVDs.

I think he did narrations for them for, because you just need that voice. Yeah, it's incredible. When I was watching Monday Night Wars, I recently rewatched it, I'm like, that voice sounds so damn familiar. And then when I looked it up, like, yep, there it is.

He voiced, oh, because again, children, the Princess and the Frog, he was the main villain in that too, wasn't he? Oh, was he? I think so. And also, I think of NAS effect, which I'm playing right now, replaying. I think he's also one of the voices in that. Okay. And which one?

Mass Effect? The Cat. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like stellar. I am. He's also, gargoyles. Oh, my God, yes. I tried to. David is, like, I don't use the term legend lately, but he's a legend, and he's also

this is his first of at least two Carpenter collaborations. What's his other one? They live. Yep. I've not seen that. That iconic fight scene with Roddy Piper.

I knew we would get enough wrestling references into this episode. Well, and what's really cool, too, is this entire cast except Kurt Russell. I didn't know this. We're all stage actors prior to this. Oh, interesting. Yeah, buddies. You kind of get that. You know, from the feel of this movie.

Yeah, yeah. Let's go through a quick plot synopsis before we dive into the actual movie, guys. In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp, and they discover the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot, played by Kurt Russell, and the camp doctor, Richard Dysart, lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off one by one. That's the official plot synopsis on IMDB.

I think that covers it pretty well. Let's see. History of this, let's just get to that. Just to show that it did my research. You know, we've got, this is a remake of 1951's The Thing from Another World, which Carpenter was a huge fan. of. It's based on a 1938 novel who goes there. Oh, sure. Yeah, which actually Carpenter stayed more faithful to that than the actual first original movie. Toby Hooper was originally at the helm of the project, but ended up leaving,

and that's when Carpenter was brought on board. What else? The entire cast, like I mentioned, were stage actors, and last but not least, and we'll get to the end of the movie, obviously, but Universal Studios wanted a happy ending when they filmed it but Carpenter refused to put that in. We'll get to that actual ending in this review. Let's do it, guys. Hello to everyone in the chat.

I need to just get through this, so I'll try to put your chat up. Guys, if you really want me to see them, put them in the super chat, help out the show and we'll be sure to shout you out here. Super chat. The Supal. Did I say suple?

No, I said super chat. because I can't talk. That's that theater training right there. Speaking of which, I'm drinking a winter warmer beer from Bedfordshire. I thought it was appropriate for tonight. I'm drinking a blade and blow.

Damn, blade and blow because, you know, whiskey in this movie is heavily relied upon. J&B, yep. What do you got? A pomegranate cherry, Canada dry. Ooh.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Going all out, buddy. He's the responsible pair Whatever. Whatever. It doesn't matter. I've got some of the behind the scenes images here, too. If you're watching this on YouTube, this will be an audio format, too. So in that case, we're doing a lot of visuals tonight, guys. So, look that's a sweater.

Go watch this YouTube version right now. The sweater, I know. Carpenter is the bottom left. Like, what a looker, man. Where was this film? Where did they film this? Like, the actual. So, they filmed a portion of this in Alaska. And I've got a clip, actually, that I might play of how miserable it was filming. So they actually did go to Alaska. Brilliant.

Dude. Amazing. And then they also shot on a soundstage in L.A. You see that lower image there of Kurt Russell, where he looks like really sickly and frozen. The sound stage, they actually put the temperature down to, like, I think negative 10 or something to keep them in character and make it like actual freezing in the same stage. Right, right, right. Um, so again, they went out all out for this thing. It's one of those things where those kind of stories, I feel like got romanticized for so long. And like,

look, I think the results are like undeniable of how like how great this movie is. But man. the idea of somebody being like, look, don't tell the actors, or maybe do tell the actors, whatever he did, but just crank it down. Crank the temperature down, tank it, crank it right down. Make sure, I want them to know they're cold. But, John, they're actors. They're going to act.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want them freezing. Andrew, I did, I shot a horror movie where I did a scene, it was in Ohio. In any of you're from the Midwest, you know that Ohio in, like, February is just fucking brutal. And we did that.

I had to be shirtless in a unheated warehouse. And I can tell you, that's not, at least they had coats because like, holy shit, it's, it's not good. Like,

all the pain is real. It's just real. Is, have you been in a movie where you weren't shirtless? No, why would you ever, why would they ever get cast on someone else in? I swear to God,

every movie this guy's in, they're like, um, can you take your shirt off? Hired. Listen, you just gotta pay the bills, buddy.

Yep. I get it. I get it, man. It is what it is. No, know your talent. My talent is. The nips, baby. And then die. We can all only aspire. I know, I know.

Awesome. We ain't eaten. Oh, there's the group. There's our group photo, guys, our whole crew. They're so happy. Isn't that they look so, so happy. So happy. This starts. Let's talk about the opening scene.

First of all, the actual opening scene, which I'm going to be honest, I didn't really dig, we're in space and a UFO is flying to Earth. Oh my God, and I know you hate those things. Yeah, UFOs are amazing.

It just, it completely, I don't know, it wasn't what I was expecting this movie to open up to. I just wanted like a shot of like desolate Antarctica. That's why I wanted this movie to start. I have a feeling that opening UFO coming to Earth was definitely like not a John Carpenter choice.

I could be completely wrong. But I feel like they're like, we need to establish aliens are coming to Earth. So let's literally show the UFO coming to the planet. I don't know. Am I wrong on that? Because you see the UFO later. So it's like, I mean, it's there and it is,

but like it's not necessarily, I think, a shot that's needed in terms of establishing story. The only reason I would say yes, keep it is because, yes, we do see that ship later, but that's a while. It's a while

before we get that information. And I do think it kind of at least gives you for because, and I think we see this a lot in other, um, this episode is brought to you by Netflix. Most valuable promotions in Netflix are hosting

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Story because a lot of the TV shows, movies, and things like that have ripped off this story ad nauseum at this point. Oh, yeah. I mean, technically this is a, you could call it a rip-off or knock-off or whatever. But the idea of finding something under the ice, I don't mind them almost immediately clarifying, like, hey, this thing isn't from here. Because I do think you could easily have that other, almost even like confusion of like, well, has this thing been here for a while? Whatever is attacking them? Has it been here a while?

Is this like something that they unearth that's been hiding or something that's new? What I would, I will say, like, I could understand there being some confusion in the fact that we don't find out until. later that that spaceship was landing millions of years ago, I think they say? Yeah, it's pretty clear. 10,000. Or 10,000.

Like, it's, you know, it is established that whatever it was has definitely been here for a while, but it's not from here. And I do also think that that opening could be looked at more as like a nod to the original film that Carpenter loves so much. So, like, you know what I mean? It kind of a entering...

Got that B sci-fi movie feel. Yeah. And it also is just like, it's like, look, he does something vastly different, both in tone and a, well, not vastly different in story, but tonally especially, and the way that they portray the monster. So I think it's almost like him going like, hey, you know, I still love that other. I love that other thing. Like you said, Payne Homish, something you got to come from. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good point. You know, as far as like an establishing image goes, the story is about an alien being out in the middle of nowhere. so they show us an alien out in the middle of nowhere.

On the middle of no one. It's so funny because I agree with all that. It's just I'm so basic. Like, and again, it's not. No, no, no. Right or wrong way to watch a movie. I'm going to own my basicness in this. I'm not saying it's wrong.

I'm just saying I'm basic. And I'm like, because I know these movies age. And so the practical effects in this, I'm sure we'll talk about are so fucking good. Like, they're so good. And they have, this movie made me again appreciate practical stuff, as I always do. but that was like the one scene where I'm like

oh that didn't age well but again I know that like that's just a product of which is why I said it's basic it's a product of just what it is but in totality of all the effects in this movie it's always like that shows up I'm like oh because the practical of the ship in the snow looks great like I know the sets of the sets on this are pretty good

that they feel lipped in and real and yeah I mean even the helicopter stuff like since we're kind of the beginning. Like, I love, it's funny how much you forget what that looks like as a, as a viewer in, um, watching movies, like to see an actual fucking helicopter, like, then using, using a real helicopter as opposed to something that is digitally altered or CGI or CGI or CGI and not real.

Like, you feel it. All that grittiness and realism built this world really quickly. And I forgot how much I missed that watching movies. Like, how much I missed real shit in a movie. Well, to be fair, sir. Marvel does get all their military equipment real because they do not take any shots of the U.S. military whenever they portray them in their film. I did not. No, look, you're seeing some real stuff because it's being loaned.

Well, I'm just, you know, if you guys finish this review, I will just, I'll piece out. Bye. No, but you're not going anywhere. I don't, I think, to your point, like, I'm just being a jerk. I think you're 100% right. and there's and there's and it's it's tough as well um to play slightly devil's advocate because i've also been um oh what was it i was watching and i don't disagree yeah nothing beats practical effects um but it does come to and this kind of gets into the idea uh the conversation we

were having about the temperature uh messing with the temperature is that sometimes it's like we're growing to a certain point where it's just like if we this movie were to get made now, the dogs would probably be CG. I don't think that's a huge problem. Mainly because I think it comes down to what would you prefer that you see a dog on screen when there's supposed to be a dog on screen,

but you know that that dog probably did not want to be there, has no idea where it is, got shoved into a truck when it was done, and taken home to be taken to another set the next day. Or are you just happy that like, oh, it doesn't look great, but no animals forced labor at anybody. I wonder if it would be both, though.

I'm one of those things where, like, I wonder if they'd go the del Torah way, where it's like both, where you get a real dog for those things that aren't like super super important and then CGI, because that always is why I love the most, but well, let's let's talk about it.

Be you're right, Andrew. We could talk about the dog for 10 hours. Probably the best actor in this movie. Dead dog fucking killed it, man. That dog. deserves an Oscar right here. If you give it like joint, like him and Richard Mazer,

who we're seeing in the picture right now, the eventual president of SAG for a while. He was also in, he has a great turn as Stanley Euris and the It miniseries from the 1990. That's who he is. Thank you, Andrew.

Yes, I think he has that face. He's great. He's like, that's a journeyman's actor, if there ever was one. But he had action, more than that. Yeah, he's fantastic.

But his chemistry, of those dogs is so wonderful and he's probably the most, like the most tragic character of the whole film. I know. I know. You'd have every reason to believe that it's him that's been trying to do it at. No, no, no. It's not. He's literally like one of the only ones not.

We'll get there. Let's talk about this dog. The movie opens. This helicopter is coming in. It's trying to shoot this dog. Very poorly. We don't know why. Really bad shots.

He missed like 10 shots. I know. To the point where he's like, screw it, I'm going to throw grenades at this. Which also poorly. Yeah. And we don't know why, which I love. I love this idea that like, okay, why is this happening? What's up with this dog?

So we come to find out, you know, the helicopter that was chasing this dog eventually crashes, pilot dies. The guy shooting at the dog gets out. He's speaking Norwegian to our Antarctica group. group here, this Navy research group, and they have no idea what he's saying. And he starts shooting at them. They shoot back and kill this guy who was trying to kill the dog. And then that's kind of where this all starts to unfold. Our dog, you know, wrangler here takes in this husky. Clearly, it's traumatized because it was just being shot at. And it becomes, yeah, yeah. And they take

this dog in, probably the biggest mistake they could have made. So that's kind of our opening of the thing here. We've got the UFO coming to Earth, and then we have the scene with the dog. Who wants to take it from here? What comes next? What stuck out to you next? Well, next we kind of meet everybody at the facility, right? Like, we kind of get around. Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. We got 12 different guys. Yep, yep. Each, how did you think they, how do you think they did? We've got 12 guys stuck in the middle of Antarctica. How'd they do character-wise?

I think everybody gets a nice little establishment. Everybody feels different enough that you can track everybody, which is really key with a dog was actually Daniel Day-Lois. When you are, you know, because you're trying to be quick here. Like you want to get everybody to know everybody, but you don't want to linger too long. You definitely want to connect with

everyone, but then you want to get a cold agreement. Everybody's killing it in the comments right now. We got some good comment. Everybody's doing a great job. Yeah. But, yeah, I know. I think the character work is really strong, and I think it's why

the movie stays endearing throughout. And you also, you get Kurt Russell getting an incredible introduction where he's drinking and playing chess and is losing to the computer chess and then just destroys it in a response, which really just gives you what you need to know about him for the rest of the movie right after that. Absolutely. Yeah, and you kind of get the impression that, you know, these guys have been here for a while. We don't really know what their research is, but I almost don't need to.

I just assume, as many do, that we always have. of people, military, you know, involved up in the Arctic doing weird shit. We know science-y stuff. The U.S. has a presence there. Canada does. That's our space force is located. That is not a joke. I'm learning so much today.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's, I think it's more like Greenland, but I guess that kind of can't. That's normal. I mean. Yeah, but they, uh, space forces up there is basically like to keep an eye off. on missiles. Space and forces. You know, something that

with these characters that I felt really strongly and again, looking at like time is it felt, again, I agree with Andrew. Like I think you get a really good establish of,

they establish all these people really well. And I think that one thing they do successfully is that everyone's kind of a character, like an 80s character show. Like I was like, oh, I've seen all these characters in an 80s movie before. If I'm watching John the Dead

or any of those movies, like it's very, it feels very similar. and not in a bad way. Like it allows me, it allowed me to be like, okay, I know each of these guys are like,

you have like the stoner guy. You're like, oh, he's the stoner guy. Copy, got it. You got Kurt Russell who's like the, like,

anti-hero hero guy who is fed up with where he's at, but he's going to do it anyway. But I think that what Carpenter does so well in this is gives you those characters, but you like all of that, which is where I liked about the dog trainer. Like you said, like for him,

that character is when I was just like, Oh, you like him immediately because there's this very different relationship with the different people in that camp. Or like the general who like nobody likes and you can tell off the bat, nobody fucking likes him. I just feel like it was a good use of stock characters in a creative way. Like they could have been less than they were. And Carpenter does a good job at like building that out. So you feel for or so you clock, which I'll get to later. So you start clocking each of these people because there are always a lot of people to fit into.

like to cram into a movie like this. Sure. Right. And I'm not going to lie. Like they started to kind of blend together for me. Like I did get confused on who is who at certain times and whatnot. But I think that kind of plays into this because you've got a quote unquote alien, a thing that assimilates or or I guess becomes these people.

So I think that kind of plays to the aliens benefit, you know, that we don't really see a ton of character in each of these individuals, because then they eventually become, quote, unquote, the thing. And it almost makes it more suspicious to figure out who is who, because they don't have these very specific character traits. So when they're acting a little weird, we're kind of like, that wasn't like the person I saw in the beginning of the movie. They're clearly the thing.

I don't know. I could be totally wrong on that. But again, you're barely seeing a huge cast. Well, it's a huge cast. I think a lot of that plays into the acting. as well. And like, look, it's not like anybody, like, they're not like power rangers. It's not like each person wears a different color or it's not like they're, you know, they're all dressed similarly. They're all reacting to things in any similar kind of way, which is panic. And I think they're also, they've been there long and up. There's a lot going on. And I think it has to do, I think everything that you both have brought up are like great points about them and they both work in the positive, which is that we, we want to know these people, but not know them too well. but know them well enough that we can tell them when they're acting strange, but also maybe not be sure that they're acting strange,

because, like, oh, maybe they're just a fact. Like, you know, a lot of that is tension and tone, and it's the acting and it's Carpenter. It's a lot of things working at the same time. So I think it's, you know, I think you guys are nail that on the head. I also might be looking too much in this, but I feel like this movie starts off immediately with questionable decisions.

And what I mean by that, and this is where I'll get into, like, my plot thing, the fucking general, the main guy, the main, like, military dude, older, guy, breaking the goddamn window to shoot his gun. I'm like, you're in the middle of the Arctic and you're breaking. Not the best choice. Yeah.

There were so. There's some choices going on with this thing. I'll get into it. Like, we're like, that to me is like a theme. Like people making not smart choices but not smart choices. But what would you do? You know, like we have the, you know, the benefit of being in our nice little closing apartment. It's freezing fucking cold.

Yeah, but you don't have someone shooting at you, Nick. Come on, man. No. Just let me replace that window. It'll be great. It's easy. I know what you say. I get it.

Well, let's kind of get into, okay. So, Norwegians. They're, you know, we don't really know. Yes, we're going to get it in Norwegians. Finally. Let's break down Norwegian. Oh, man. They're dead now.

And we don't really know what's going on. We adopt their dog. I mean, you will if you watch the prequel film that came out in 2000. 11, thank you for. We're not going to watch that film. We'll get there. I've got a little tidbit on that. So the dog, they put it in with the other dogs.

They got a bunch of dogs here at this research facility to, you know, live with his own. And this is where the movie just goes to 100. They put the dog in this little canine cage with the others. And immediately, best acting again I've ever seen. from an animal. This dog was terrified. The dog like slow walking in is fucking great. And the other dogs start barking at it and growling because they know something's up.

And then we get our first kind of John Carpenter moment. Who wants to describe this? Well, at first it goes into the room, right? They have the little moment where it goes into the room. It sneaks in the room. You know who's in the room. You just see a shadow. Good.

And what's fun about that too, and I could be wrong on this, but if I remember correctly, for that particular shot, they use like a key grip or somebody like that. So nobody could recognize them. Yes, they use a shadow of somebody who is not a cast member in the film. Oh, Andreas. Andreas, we're so sorry, but we meant nothing by it. You just can't.

You're not shooting helicopters. Andreas, what would be a Norwegian cuisine that I could make? here in the U.S. Get back with me when you get the chance. I'm trying to cook other kinds of foods lately. And I don't know what's... I don't... You know, I think there are the...

I don't know why I'm hijacking the podcast for this. I don't know. There are certain, like, if you go to, like, you know, Mexico, I'm going to try tacos or if I'm going to... And even that sounds more basic than it actually is. Or, like, certain regional foods. I don't know what there would be in Norway, but I would love to know.

Can I get in your... Oh, never mind. Actually, maybe I'll finally try it. I like fish. Hey, what about Norwegian base? Because I like baking. So, give me those tools to do it. I think you bake Lutefisk.

I think that's baked like a baked. Is that baked? I'm on it. I think it's like a bake. What the hell is happening here? I think that Lutfisk, and this is based almost entirely off of an episode of King of the Hill that I love, that Lutfist is not only a Midwestern Minnesota's kind of deletion. as well, but it is like fish that you bake like a casserole.

This is how you cast for like two plus hours when we do it. I know. We don't have the time tonight, gentlemen. Look, this movie's perfect. What are we going to do? It's a public trolled on my own show. All right. So, despite Norwegian cuisine, what do we think of this first kind of

boutine special effects we got going on where the dog, just gets destroyed. It's fucking great, man. It is great. It's incredible. It is paste really well, like, just with the transformation, it is horrifying. Like, one thing I love all the it transformations, like, the, just, like, texture of it, the, like, wet, like, goopy, like, so you're, you're just, you're sucked into this thing that's

happening, and you're just both horrified and disgusted in the way that it should be. I feel like, oh, like, you feel that for the dogs, but you're like, what the fuck is this thing going to do? It's brilliant. Yeah. And it literally annihilates these other dogs. Oh, man. It's really sad.

You know, like, I knew going into this movie that I was going into a quote unquote, like kind of body horror movie. But I didn't know to what extent. And I was eating chili when I was watching this one. Oh, buddy. No. Oh, biggest mistake I could have made. And like, I'm not exaggerating when I say, like, I almost, I almost threw up.

It was the first time I've watched him. Besides Hereditary, when the scene. Oreditary, I think you throw up? Almost at the head part. And your question before you. Were you apparent when you watched Hereditary yet or no? I was not. No, not yet.

Okay. Just I'm letting you know. Yeah. That shit real. Like that happened. My wife in the stairs and I was like, oh, sir. She's like, what happens? Yeah, sure, sure.

That was the only other. I had a hard time watching Clerks 3 last night, so I'm already. It gets worse, dude. Oh, man, that one, nice. Well, that one, I mean, Clerks 3 is heavy. I didn't see me, yeah, if you ever. I think, yeah, Clarks 3 is, I really enjoyed it, but it's, it's heavy. I, yeah, watching horror with kids.

Now, I have a, if anybody wants to, I write for a website called P-A-J-I-B-A, and if you look up like, if you do Google, like Pajibah, Andrew Stanford, Child's Play. I wrote a piece about watching Childs Play for the first time. Did he mean to say that? I'm sorry.

Oh, I don't know. Sorry to distract you, Gays. I think he meant guys. I don't know. Watching Childs Play as a new dad was the first time that I felt specifically affected by what I was watching because of having children.

which I have purposely not watched films that I usually watch, for instance, like Pet Cemetery. That being said, I did listen to the Pet Cemetery audiobook in October. So I was still steeped in there a little bit. But dog guts getting sprayed out. That's another thing, man. Those poor dogs didn't want to wake up that day and get sprayed in the face, whatever the fuck they were sprayed in their face. It's nice to see G-GI back to your nickname.

ASPCA announcement of the night. Yes, I know. But it is. It's incredible. And it's, what's great, too, is it is,

and this is the case, um, with the monster. All we know about it is that it can mimic and copy other people. We don't know how it does that. We don't know, like, all we do learn at a certain point that it's at least on like a very base,

like molecular level because they can even, tell if it's like if it has recreated your blood because it would have had to do that so there's like there's something very like it is what is going on is beyond our person our human perception um and because of that it frees the movie of doing too much exposition it allows us to stay firmly in all of the main characters uh p ov which is very effective so we feel confused by what they are confused by. Nobody has all the answers, which ratchets up the tension, except for Wilford Brimley. But having all the answers kind of makes him go nuts, you know, like, which is very, it's very lovecraft in that way, the whole movie. That's a really good question. Something I thought

about watching this movie, because I was trying to track, like, when people get infected, if you even can, right, which I know is very ambiguous. And I was wondering, so, so, so. So I was like, is welfare, is he, is he infected from the beginning and the breaking of the, where he starts doing like all the analysis, right? Like, how long will it take? The likelihood of someone else being infected 75%. How long will it take for the world to get infected? It brings those numbers up.

And so the first time I watched it, I was like, oh, he's running these numbers and he freaks out because he realizes like where this is going to go. But then rewatching it, because he clearly, spoiler towards the end is infected, right, is, I was like, well, shit, is he infected then? He's doing the numbers of how long it will take him to do this, which then explains why he starts breaking fucking everything. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I was like, I could be wrong, but I was like, well, maybe he already is.

Maybe that's a choice he's making. I don't know. The only reason I would say no is because I don't think it's an infection. I know where your head's at. And I think that makes a lot of sense what you're saying. but because it gets down to the fact where if they, like when they test their blood and they find out who is actually in fact, or who is taking over a recreation,

the blood moves like it's its own organism. So by the time we are seeing a version of them that is the thing, they are no longer them in any semblance of the word. Now that being said, I can see what you're saying because they still talk and act like them. So it could be within that thing's nature to say, I am pretending to be this guy. So I have to keep freaking out. So maybe I'll just say this stuff.

And you never see when he gets taken. Like that's the other thing. When he gets, he's in the secure room. Everyone's inside that building, which I'll get to you in a second. But all of a sudden he is like, he's it. And he's like building fucking chips. And so I was like, man, is he like, is he like, is this, is he this monster even into that autopsy?

like, I always think about the autopsy the dude's hand gets fucking cut off, but like during that autopsy, he's taking shit out and he's very chill about it. Like this thing isn't alive and I'm like, well, man, maybe he's an alien and that's the long game. It starts there. I don't know. I made it

too deep into all this. No, I honestly, I think it's a fair question to ask and I think what's kind of fun is there almost isn't an answer. Like there's like Schrodinger's cat. the beauty of the script.

Again, what was the script writer's name? Bill Lancaster. I just, I love that everything is so perfectly paced in this movie. You know, like, I had some issues with overall story, but like script-wise, the pacing, and that has a lot to do with Carpenter, too, the way scenes are set up. You have these fade-outs in this movie, which you didn't see a lot in movies at that, time. That was a very old school kind of technique of using fade-outs to transition. You have a homoice to the original? I think it was. They did that too in the original. But I also think it sets up like

these are little scenes playing out. So the minute you kind of are comfortable in a scene and trying to figure stuff out, it fades out. And then we're thrust into the next scene that's about to unravel, figure out who is the thing and who's not. I do want to step back a little bit here. with you guys before we move on. We got to talk about when they actually... So they retrieve these videos from the Norwegians, and it shows them, you know, going to this site where this craft was, this UFO.

And they actually go to it, and this is where they start to figure out, whoa, okay, something's messed up here. There's a bunch of, you know, just crazy, crazy shit going on. They end up getting, this creature or person that they bring back to the research facility. And this is kind of where things really get bad shit crazy, in my opinion,

where we start doing the autopsies and trying to figure out what's going on. Brimley, like you mentioned, is doing this autopsy. And I love it because he's like taking out these human organs and whatnot. And he's just going, ugh. He's still good, man. He's incredible. Like, his gutteral reactions. I always think he is.

I was wearing a mask. Why has no one wearing a mask in this bullshit? I would not want, like, alien shit flying in my mouth. No gloves, no masks. No, just like reaching there and go that shit out. Boom. He put a pencil inside that guy and then put the pencil behind his mother-effing ear. Oh.

That's how much he doesn't give a fine. So again, that kind of plays into like, oh, he doesn't care. Like, is he a thing already? Or is this just the way biologists worked back then, very haphazardly? I don't know. I'm sorry. I need to ask, how old do you guys think Wilford Brimley is in this movie? No looking.

Like 45. I'm going to say, yeah, I'm going to say like 40. I'm going to do the prices. right i'm gonna say 46 fuck you okay well i'm actually kind of annoyed because yeah because right i think it's like 48 47 something like that's right i got to be honest the reason why i guess lowest i read

because i was reading about him like is that the quaker roads guy got you and then i started reading like that he was in some movie he was cast way old or he's like the youngest of all of the cast calcule and then he was like a rodeo person and a blacksmith that dude had a crazy fucking life yeah yeah yeah yeah go look him up

it's worth the time yeah well for brimley is the man that was like awesome i was like is that the diabetes guy and i was like oh he's the wake erode guy too mind blown mind blown um so i mean we don't have to go through the movie beat by beat i know we don't have a ton of time but okay may i mention a moment real quick before we get it because it might actually be um my favorite scare uh in any movie uh specifically because i remember the moment that i first time i saw it i'm sure i'm i'm there's no way i'm the only person

person that thinks this, maybe not even on this podcast, but the defibrillator going down, a couple, I think it goes down like once, maybe twice, and then goes down again, and the man's chest opens up and bites off the hands. Dude, yes! It sees pound for pound, one of my favorite practical effects ever. I think it still looks amazing. It's so perfect at the point of the story that it's at, because it, it, you know, I mean, talk about like the through the looking glass kind of moment.

Like from that point on, like that's when it starts turning it like with the dude's head coming up and like it's shooting up into the roof. Like everything, it's almost like the monster keeps hitting a reset button on what we know about it. Right. Which just makes it even scarier. And it's, yeah.

Yeah, all of this. Ugh, just incredible. Incredible insane stuff. It's so fucking cool. The other moment with that, because I agree, Andrew, like, I love that part. The other moment I love, like, with the facts that is a little bit simpler, but not when you think about it is when the dude's fingers go through the guy's face. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, man.

I just, like, every time I watch him, it's like, oh, oh, oh, but it's so fucking well done. Yeah. Like in how long you see it, all of it. Sorry. It's amazing. No, I was going to say a little bit of trivia. I just found this out today. The scene where, you know, the defibrillators go inside.

And the stomach eats the guy's arms. They actually, they hired an amputee who didn't have arms. Really? And they threw a mask on him. So if you, if you pause during that part, you can tell it's a mask. But in the moment, you have no idea. Amazing. They actually hired a guy with no arms.

That's great. I always love, they did that one of those for the remake of Donna, the Zach Snyder and James Guns, Donna the Dead movie, where there's somebody with no legs. Love that movie. Yeah. Love that movie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Good stuff. Okay. Well, I mean, wait, again, we could talk about each Bonnie horror moment. This is kind of a good example right here. If we've jumped, if we've jumped to kind of these parts of movie, can I please say my one issue with this movie? My one issue with stories where I was like, God damn it, guys. So you know, like at this point in this movie, you're like, okay, there's a fucking alien floating around that's going to like kill us, right? And it looks like us and it acts like us.

why would you let anyone ever not go in parties of three? Like, there are people floating around by themselves. There's people floating around in parties of two. I'm like, my first thing is like, first of all, stop drinking.

Number two. Number two, parties of three. Always parties of three. If you have to go anywhere, no one's going fucking anywhere. And they're just like, they're like, Kurt Russell, you can go to your shack.

It's cool. Go to your shack. Go get some ice cream. take one person with you. And I'm like, well, if there's an alien, he attacks you in the shadows, you're fucked. So why are we not doing parties of three? All the time. Parties of three.

I was like, you're all stupid. Everyone in this camp is stupid. Stupid people. Again, I just, and I understand it. The only defense I have is like, we weren't there. Like, decisions are poorly made. Every one of them at some point make a poor decision. and I think that kind of is a testament to the situation, the isolation, the paranoia.

You just, like, everything is so uncertain to a point that it will drive you crazy and you're not thinking logically. And of course, we have the helicopter pilot who kind of becomes the leader in all of this when it should be Wilford Brimley, in my opinion, who goes. Yes, he's already an alien. Exactly. And they end up putting them in a shack and saying like, You're on your own, buddy. The shack with the fucking noose. The like, news in shot. I was like,

and then he's like, guys, there's news. And then he's like, hey, I'm okay now. I'm still great. I'm totally not the thing. I love that. I love that. I'm not the thing.

I think that's the best acting in the movie. I'm good. Another moment, probably my favorite moment in the movie is when Wilford Brimley's character is shooting at one of the other guys. And he runs out. a bullet so he just throws the gun. Yeah. Yeah. That's great.

I saw that. I thought there's an old as Nelskit where it was like Superman and they're like shooting Superman. He's like, ha ha ha. And they throw the gun. Superman. He's like, whoa. That's all. It's those moments. Like there are some moments of levity in this movie. Again, with the spiderhead part, probably the most iconic moment in this movie, in my opinion, when the little thing is like skittering across the floor. Sure. And we get the famous line, as someone pointed to. in the chat there. Like, you gotta be effing kidding me.

Like, this is where we're at. Yeah. I love it that Carpenter put those in there. And there were a few others, I think, in the deleted scenes. Like, you know, the big question in this movie is, how come there were no female researchers? And, like, take of that what you will. This is a movie in the 80s.

Like, it might be like, I'm a bad person. Yeah, like, maybe people were thinking, oh, there's one woman there with, like, 11 other guys. Oh, whoa. I could honestly see that being against military regulations at that point. That might be. You're probably right, actually. But apparently there's a deleted scene where what's his name?

Kurt Russell's character, McGrady, he finds a blow-up doll in one of the guy's rooms, like a sex doll. God, I wish they kept that in there. I mean, that would have explained so much. God, I love the thing. I love it so much. I love it. But you know what, it doesn't have, it doesn't have a sex doll. God, it just was.

I would love the movie so much more of it at a sex doll. I need parties in three, but I need the sex doll. That's what we're out right now. And there is he says a perfect film. Someone's going to clip this audio and be like, oh, Ryan, it was a sex doll. Thanks. The Kathy comic is always here going like, chocolate, act. And with Ryan's at sex dog.

Oh, my guy. What am I doing? Let's, let's, okay, so we have all these scenes where like, no one knows who's the thing. Maybe a few people, maybe none, who freaking knows. Everything is all flipped upside down. And that bottom right-hand corner image you see there is probably my favorite scene. So good. In this movie.

So good. where McCready decides to tie the remaining people to, you know, these chairs. And even the dead people he tied up, which I think is hilarious in the back there. Well, someone's getting ridden off, so it makes sense to me. Yeah, good point. Well, isn't it? Yeah, and also the defrosted body they bring back is also like part of it. Yeah.

That was a, yeah. Yeah. They'll go in groups of two, but they're not fucking around with people. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I also about, because I think it's, it also speaks to like the maybe why they don't always travel in groups because they just, they don't trust each other so much of these, tying these people down. And it's one of those things where it's like, you understand that impulse, but it also gets those people killed when the shit goes out. Exactly. So it's, it takes like.

Wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Andrew. It takes every fiber of their being to like even like, be loyal to one another in the. tiniest of ways because they just don't know.

And that's the tension that just kept my anxiety going, this entire movie. And it was so incredibly paced. And then you get to this scene where McGrady's like, all right, shit like, I'm done. We're testing blood. We're going to figure it out. If you're one of these things, I'm burning you to death and we're going to, you know, figure this shit out. And this is probably my favorite part of the movie, honestly.

It's no music, nothing behind it. And he starts testing their blood one by one in literally every second. And again, this is my first time watching it. I had no idea what was about to happen. I know I will never have that luxury again. But even watching it a second time, my anxiety is still there. Oh, my God. Yeah, dude.

Of him testing each person's blood, you can hear it. You can hear like he's using this little electric shock thing to see. It's like the Yeah. Yeah. And it's just the tension. I've never seen a scene like this in a movie. Maybe in like a Tarantino movie,

but other than that. It is one of the best pop scares. Because it's such like underrated pop scare that you're not like, because again, even watching it, like you watch this first time, you don't know what's going to happen when he nails the button. To have it like explode in that way,

it was like a, for the thing I love about a lot of John Carpenter films, like even if you look at like, the original Halloween is that, like, he doesn't build it on pop scare as he builds tension, which I love. I think he's really, really effective in this movie,

tension and, like, claustrophobia and tight, and being those tight quarters. But, like, if he's going to do a pop scare, it is simply really effective.

I think about the hand hitting the glass in the first Halloween movie inside the car, I mean, escape to this, right? Like, when he touches that blood, and it just,

it blows up and you're not, because you have no idea what that reaction is going to be. And I think it is, in terms of, a building tension for that moment, it's really well executed. Which I'm just saying, everyone knows

John Carmer's a fucking nasty horror. Well, before we go any further, I do want to bring up what Grant LeVoc is probably one of the biggest Kurt Russell fans ever. My buddy in Australia, who's in the chat here. He clearly loves this movie as I do too.

Now, I'm a huge fan now. He brought up the AIDS epidemic, which actually in terms of like social commentary was a big thing when this movie came out. And I think it does play into it a lot, this idea of something, you know, spreading. And you just don't know. Right. Has it? And everyone was paranoid.

We didn't know. Yeah. Was it transmitted? Could you get it from coughing on some? Like you just don't know. So I think that that's, and I think that played against the movie actually. and why it did so poorly when it came out. We'll get to that later on.

But I do think the AIDS epidemic played a big part in this. Whether it did subliminally or on the actual surface of the Bert Lancaster writing this script, I don't know, but you can't deny the parallels between those two. I think we're just talking about this. I'm a college professor too for contacts. But we were talking about this in a meeting. Like whenever we teach art, right, we teach theater, teach art. you teach like anything within, really anything, right?

When you're going into teach, like you can't separate, it's really hard, I think, to separate traumas of the world that are going on, right? So like, if we're looking at this film, like, whether that's purposeful or not, like, that is a real trauma that is happening at that time. So, like, you can't take that stuff out of context. Like, people always will contextualize what's happening. And so when you talk about this, like I think about a friend of our, you know, Ryan, you know, Wayne, like, talk about talking about.

about living in New York City in the 80s and walking down the street and seeing people dead, right? Dead of AIDS. Like, they die on the street in the village or in like the Lower East Side. And so I think that's a really good point. Like you can't, you can't separate those things. Just like I think for like for us, right, as we watch things that I was watching the last of us, right, or my wife and I were. And they talk about like the funk. Did you not like it? We can. Oh, no, I loved it. Oh, God. We just talked about that one. I've been seen it yet. That was a bad side. When that show is done, we should talk about that.

Good stuff. But the intro of that show literally talks about, like, they're talking about pandemics, right? And I think if you had not lived through a pandemic, you'd be like, oh, man, yeah, that shit's scary. Because the game was made before the pandemic. And so, but now that we've lived through a literal pandemic, you're like, oh, fuck yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so I think that, like, you're right, like the AIDS aspect of this, whether it's purposeful or not, like, that is a thing that people, are dealing with in a very real way,

especially when you think about, like, who's writing and acting, people coming from New York and L.A. where a lot of this shit is cast, right? In dealing with this stuff in an everyday type way, you can't separate those things, right? You really can't.

And even I think about watching this film, in a modern sense, you know, going through what we've all gone through. Like, that still plays in, right? Like, what is, like, the sickness or, like,

who is sick, who isn't sick? Like, is it a cold? Is it a cold? Is it a cold? Yeah. Like, all this. these unknowns. That's so fresh

to us now as a culture that I think that you can't pull those things apart whether it's intentional or not. Like it's always there. It's baked in. It's baked in trauma, I guess. Baked in trauma. That's so, that's the most academic thing I'll ever say in your podcast. Thank you, Professor

Nick. I love it. Well, I guess let's get to kind of the end of the plot, quote unquote. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get there. So like, You know, we have the famous, you know, the thing. We're seeing more and more of the fame as more and more people die.

And then we finally get to, I guess, the final moments where, you know, McCready is like, we got to blow up this whole place. Like this, we have no choice. This is the only thing we can do to stop it from spreading. We're blowing up the base. So he... We're all going to die. I mean, he says, like, we're all going to die.

Pour our whiskey into the computer, maybe. Yes, exactly. So him, child, who we haven't really talked about a lot, because he is very unassuming throughout the film. We kind of see him as having a really good relationship with McCready.

And, you know, they have a moment of tension, I think, at one point, but they are kind of... They have, like, a couple moments of tension. Yeah. They do. Like, you know, it's all a dick measuring contest at a certain point. It is. It is.

They're the two tough guys. Exactly. And him and a few of the others go down into the, you know, the basement of the place where, who was it that was kind of planning this big, was literally building a new spaceship. It's Brimley's character. That's why I thought he was a fucking alien from the big game. He's trying to build a spaceship. I don't know if he, like, is he playing on me? How are the old parts?

I'll be old helicopter parts and all that shit. Yeah, which is the most unrealistic part of the movie, I think, but also hilarious. But so they see this. And then we get the final moments of the most unrealistic part. A dog spray is liquid on another dog and becomes that dog. That's scientifically sound, Andrew. I checked the science before we got on the night. This is somewhere in the skies, Andrew.

That shit is active in the Pentagon. Liquid dog. No, you're rolled there, buddy. Yeah, that's, that's, that was factual. So, okay, so our final characters start getting picked off. And we finally kind of see the thing in its big form. I don't have an image here, but guys, go watch the movie if you haven't. And it's pretty, pretty grotesque.

And we're kind of left with a final showdown between McCready, our helicopter pilot, the hero of the film, and the thing. That monster is a very moist. It's a very moist monster. It's a very moist monster. It's been down there. It's sweaty. It's got a lot going on. And that's when McCready decides, all right, just going to blow it all the hell.

And we get these final moments, right? Am I missing anything? No. We'll get to the very last scene because that's the, oh, God. I have so many thoughts on the actual ending. I love the time. scene in this movie. I think, again, we talk about, like, another really tense scene of this film. I think the dog, so we, like, go through, like, really well-constructed tense scenes.

The first dog, the dog-caped scene, and dog walking in that happening. The, the autopsy scene, the first one, the second autop-like, the hand-ripped-off scene, the blood scene, and then the tunnels. The tunnels, I feel, like, the way that's shot and the way it's paced, it's so both frenetic and built. Like, you know, you feel that climax coming. You're just waiting to see like, how is this going to unfold? Because now I always get this feeling

they're out of their element, right? They've gone like the building, buildings are their element. Like they understand that. They understand the space. They've lived in it. And when they leave that and go underground, now they're leaving their environment,

their turf. And I think you feel that really distinctly as they try to like set up this explosion. I think that's really smart too. They take them out of their environment into a brand new environment. even though it's the same place. Which I liked a lot.

Interesting. Interesting. I want to thank Arike very quickly here, Ortiz film. Should the Among Us movie just be the thing remake in space since The Last of Us is very Walking Dead? Can I do another shout? Eric, he's a filmmaker I've worked with. That dude is awesome.

So if you get a chance to check out his work, you should. He's a good dude. Awesome. Well, thank you for the super chat. I'll definitely have to check out his work. Thanks for being here, man. Thanks for checking us out. Hope you'll become a subscriber.

Subscribe below. I had to do it. Sorry, guys. We know what this is. Okay. So, Andrew, take it, man.

McCready blows this shit all to hell. Yeah, yeah, he blows it up, and then he's left with Childs. And I think we already got the question in the chat, which is whether or not Childs is an alien or if he's normal, which I think, somebody said it can be answered in it either way. I personally think no, and I will explain why two things.

We're going very base with it. By the time it's just the two of them, the alien has no reason to remain childs in that moment or to have it be the kind of tense, quiet moment that it ends up being. The other reason I would say no is because I think it goes against the themes that are being established in the movie, particularly when it comes to trust and how humans especially can often get in our own way when it comes to trusting people down to

our own detriment. And I think that happens several times throughout the movie, where you see if there, you know, if people would have just calmed down and talked and not turned on each other so quickly or maybe tried to trust each other a little more, things wouldn't be as bad. I think it would be, I think the true poetry of the movie would be that these two, humans are left together. Both of them are fine. But the trust is just not there. So they freeze to death. And I mean, they're going to freeze to death anyway, but there's no, there's not any solace that they're going to die together as the last two humans. They just kind of die bitter and afraid and alone. This is the most nihilistic ending to a movie I've seen. And it was up there. Perfect. These are

the last lines in the movie. Well, let's just sit here for a minute. I thought that I think it's fucking great. And you're just like here for a little while. See what happens. Oh, man. When I saw that, I'm like, oh my God. I wish I could write an ending like that someday. And then the thing.

And then that credit. And then like that's everything in terms of good editing and filmmaking. And then boom, the thing. I just like it ends on such a nice period in a way that I think is just like, oh, it hits you. And you're like that, yeah. Well, yeah. Period is, I would agree, Nick. But clearly the franchise of the thing didn't think so.

Because we actually got a sequel. And we got a prequel. What's the sequel? So the sequel's the video game. The video game. The video game. There was a video game, Nick. Let's talk about this for just a moment.

That came out where, you know, the U.S. military comes to figure out what the hell happened here. And then it kind of unfolds from there. Clearly something lived on, something of the thing survived. And then we see the military fighting the thing. And that's the game. It's a first-person shooter game.

It's actually pretty good. It's not a first-person. It's third person. Oh, it's third person. There might have been a first-person one that came out in conjunction with the prequel movie. Don't quote me on that. But this one was third person.

added on my PS2. I actually played through it twice. And both times, the ending is very difficult. Super good. It was a lot of fun. I'm not sure how it holds up now, but one of my favorite things about it, especially at the time, was there was a mechanic where you would basically be collecting team members, kind of, as the thing was gone on, because you would be going through. And the game is really good, Eric. But you would be, like, collecting team members and then having to like they could end up getting like too scared and you had to have to try to calm them down and you would calm them down by like giving them a gun or like trying to give them a pep talk or like trying to give like a first aid pack that they could hold on to so you'd be trying to like earn trust um from the people on your team and then you could also test people's blood if you weren't sure about them and um there was a big you had a big emphasis on using like flame throwers to find a lot of these things which is super fun mechanic um And now I never got to witness this myself, which is kind of a... Because I remember both times I played through, there's a moment in the very end that I just could not get past for whatever reason and did not have enough space in my memory card to attempt it enough to actually...

PS2 of memory cards, doesn't matter. They... I couldn't get past it, but at the end of the video game, when you succeed and get helicoptered out of there, you are picked up by someone. who helps you escape and then introduces themselves as being Bear McCready. So in the world of the movie, kind of, at least in the video game, he did survive. Well, we should mention to John Carpenter, he has said that this video game is an official. Really? Oh, cool.

He didn't know what I'm there for it. He did. He fully supported the game and he said, yep. Yeah, I'm all for this story playing out. And I love Yeah. Before we dive into the, I will say, I think I have to get going, unfortunately.

Oh, absolutely, man. No, no worries at all. No. Let me have for a little bit longer. Okay, thanks, Nick. Hey, Andrew, before you go, buddy, I got to put this up. First of all, a very happy birthday to you guys.

Happy birthday was yesterday. Thank you. Hey. And you celebrate. Tell us about your short film before you get going here. It's a short religious horror film called Pay the Tith. It's about two couples who go to celebrate an engagement out in a house in the middle of the woods,

and then a wounded priest arrives and starts turning everybody against each other. And as he does, his wound begins to heal. Very proud of it. I wrote and directed it back in November of 2021. And we premiered at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival back in October. We'll also be at Pensacon in Pensacola, Fuller. Florida in February, the end of February. So we're out there still waiting to hear on some other dates or other festivals and things of that nature.

And then we'll eventually get it online so everybody can see it at their leisure. But if you're in Florida, you're the Pensacola area will be at Pensacon. I think it's like the 24th and 25th. Andrew, before you leave, I was very lucky to both read this script and get seen early cut of it because Andrew is a lovely human being. It is incredible and it is beautifully done and executed. And so kudos to you, Andrew. And if you can see it, it is, check it out. It's worth every minute you watch.

Thank you. Yep. I appreciate it. I have the pleasure to you. So check it out, guys, when it becomes available. You can follow Andrew on Twitter, right? Yeah, Twitter at Sanford minus Sun. I have Instagram, but it's private.

Andrew's the only reason. Unless you know me, don't worry about it. That's fair, buddy. Any final words on the thing before I... I love it. Find the video game if you can try. track it down. I'm sure you could probably find an emulator of it at this point. Watch the movie

if you can get it, see it. I think there was a whole thing that Mick Garris was talking about in 2022 because I think Fathom Events did something for the 40th anniversary, but the screening did not look good. So if you're going to go see a screening of it someplace, make sure you're watching a good one, apparently.

And don't do Fathom Events or do, sorry if you work for Fathom Events. And yeah, just you know, I love the thing. And I've never seen the prequel. you guys can fill me in later, but maybe I just know one of the dudes from dumb and dumb er

is in it. One of those dudes is from where I grew up, so I don't know which one though. The one I'm thinking of was also in quite a few episodes of community. He's funny. He's probably... Is he the one that played Jim Carrey's character? Yes.

He's from... I know. He's from Davenport, Iowa. I know who you're talking about. We'll get to the prequel. As well as you have... of that movie where you can't, where no one can talk. That's true.

That's fair. Quiet. I'll let you go here, buddy. Bye, Andrew. Love you too. See you guys later. Thank you for joining us, buddy. Of course.

Thanks for having me. Have a good weekend. You too. Happy birthday. Is it even worth continuing with the end you're gone? I mean, I'm worth nothing. I'm literally worth nothing. We just cut it now.

All I got was here. Let us know in the chat. Should Andrew is. Should make it. Yeah. Well, Nick, let's talk about, I did not. The real conversation begins. Let me just...

Yeah, let's talk about it, Andrew. I did not see the prequel. Apparently, it follows the story of the Norwegians, and we get to see their story play out. And it's one of these Rogue One-esque sort of movies where we see it play out, and then the final moments of the prequel lead right into the first moments of the 1982 thing. So it's cool. It's a cool idea. It's a cool concept, you know. But it kind of demystifies the whole nature of it all, in my opinion. And here's the other thing. The prequel was all CGI. They did practical effects for everything. And the practical effects looked amazing. I watched it behind the scenes. I haven't seen the actual prequel, but I watched it behind the scenes. Practical effects. I know. Seriously. They were incredible and they wanted to do it to pay homage to the original. original. And then, of course, the hands of the executives and the producers at Universal got it got their tentacles around it and said, we don't like it. It looks too 80s and retro. And this is before like the 80s was cool again. And they changed everything to CGI and it was horrendous. You know, something that like I was having this conversation with my wife because she just worked. Oh, I can't. No mind. She worked something that was she, my wife does events. It's almost it. But anyway, you know, she, she, they were honoring a. filmmaker that we all like a lot.

And something I like about that filmmaker is that the blending of CGI and practicals. I will go to my fucking grave standing by they are the best thing to watch. And I understand like doing a prequel and wanting to like smooth thing out, smooth things out

with CGI because CGI is great for that. When you watch something like Hellboy, right, which is all these practical effects to it. Or Cabin of Curiosity, if you like, that kind of stuff. Like, things can get smoothed out with CGI and look great. But,

like, the idea, like, there is something about practicals that are really tangible. And for a movie like this, right, where what makes that alien so great,

um, is, it feels real. Or even, like, I'll even go to like, because Stan Winston, right?

Like, go like the original Jurassic Park. That shit holds up because it is this really nice mix of practicals in CGI. Um, so I think that, like, making that choice, I get it, I understand, and CGI has come a long way and you can do cool stuff

with it. But when you can use practicals, I really think that it, it allows your film to stand up more. It's one of my biggest things with like the Star Wars prequels, like when I watch them is like, it's so overly CGIed and green screen that like you feel it because it doesn't age. Whereas like you watch Jurassic Park where obviously not all of it aged perfectly, but shit holds up. And the thing's the same way. Like, Even the stuff that doesn't look real, like when they use like a stuffed dog or Amtronk dog and some of that in the scene of the dog, you're getting just massacred. But like the fact that like that alien is so visceral in the way that it's created, it just draws you in, right? Because it's one of the things where you can like, it sounds strange, but like you can feel, taste, like you just knew you get all your senses are engaged because you don't have any disconnect by knowing it's a computer.

And listen, I love CGI. CGI has made some amazing movies that I love now. Like, Supero movies are at our peak because of CGI. Like, you don't get that cool shit without CGI. But there are just things where like sometimes it's better to just create it. It just is. And there's magic to that. There is.

Yeah. And it's a magic we don't see that often anymore. We did see a lot of it, I would say, in stuff like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yeah. And they pull up. Hold the fuck up. They hold up so well. But then you get to the Hobbit trilogy and it's all CGI because they just didn't have time.

And they got rid of everything. All the costumes, all the props. Well, and Peter Jackson was supposed to directed. So that also makes it. Exactly. That's a whole other story. I know. Well, while we're on effects, I've got three quick clips that I want to run through with you, if that's cool, buddy. Because I know you've got to get going to.

Yeah, I got about another 20 minutes. So. Okay, perfect. That's all I need. If even that. Here's a clip of John Carpenter. Here's a clip of John Carpenter talking about the effects in The Thing. I did want to play this.

The thing can look like anything. It doesn't have to look like one creature. It could look like every life form. It's imitated throughout the universe because it's been on travels, on its travels for a long, long time. So it was a chance to create a monster that was designed-based. and based on the movement we can give it and based on some really crazy kind of offbeat ideas.

I don't know that there's been a monster done like this. Yeah, there has it. This movie, just everything about it, I just, I'm so happy I finally have been introduced to it. It's a master class of filmmaking. It really is. I mean, this is where I wish we still at Andrew. as someone who is like a behind the camera

a writer too, but like you know, a director. You know, it just, like you said, my only bet peeve was the three-person thing. I was just like, why would you not be traveling with three people? And that's going to be nitpicky. I was like, what can I nitpick about this? If that's the gripe, then you're doing pretty damn.

That's my gripe. It was like, you're drinking a lot, which I guess I get, but it was just like traveling threes. But like the pacing, the character, the everything that's tangible about, just what he said. Like one of the things I love, you know, following somewhere in the skies or listening to the stuff you do from my perspective, like, and looking at like aliens, right, is I love when it's just fucking out of the box, right? Because where it's not like a gray or something that is really that we can really connect with as humans, we're like, oh, we recognize that. And we can like, it's humanoid.

We can contextualize it, which is what you see a lot of aliens in pop culture, video games, movies. like that's how they do it because it's relatable I guess I don't know maybe that's not the right turn this is where I'm out of my schemes it fits in our box of comprehension right thank you um and so I love what especially carbon you're saying like where you have a monster like a monster like an alien that is a monster that is just so far beyond anything that we can even like understand I think that the creature creation in this does that so well by just being almost nonsensical like there's fucking dogheads popping out Well, and it plays into the biological aspect, too. Like, it's trying to replicate cells.

And clearly, you know, it's having, excuse me, guys, I apologize. I'm still getting over the, you know what. Not the thing, the other thing. The other thing. Biologically, like, it's trying to replicate and personate. And it's having kind of a hard time doing that. So that's why you're getting, like, the dog popping out. and also like the head of one of the guys.

And it's just like, it's like AI. It's trying to self learn as it's replicating. It's brilliant. And that's, it's brilliant. It's disgusting. It's beautiful.

It's, and with this film in general, like this is the thing that I really appreciate. And you know, I appreciate about this with almost everything I've watched from John Carpenter. Like as I move through his library as I, you know, watch films.

Um, because I, I think we've talked about this with Andrew and he's been here. Like, Halloween is still like a pinnacle for scary movies for me. Like, it is, it is my

foundational horror movie. I will always go back to it like that is that is what did it for me. And what I love about, and he mentions it's like his stories are complex but yet they're so very simple, right? So that thing, like the thing can be anything because it's a thing. And so

that allows him as a filmmaker and the people that are creating this film around him to just go fucking crazy and like it really un, it unlocks this like, it gets an out of that box. And I think it's beautifully executed.

And then within that, everything else in the story is simple, right? Like, it is people trapped in a remote location in a small area in a very, where, like, it's a person, like you talk about themes and storytelling, right? It's a person against environment.

It's a person against a thing, like an exterior force and people against people. And so it's such, he hits on all these themes of storytelling that we look at when we study theater, right, beautifully, because you have people, you have people fighting people and you have people doing things that make that conflict worse, drinking or having internal conflict or people who are just in general, like, like McCurt, McCurdy, McCready. Yeah.

He's not the person you want to put in charge. Like everything about him when they set that story, like, this is not the dude you want in charge. He's already at his wit's end coming into this. And so it just sets all these forces in motion Before you're even dealing with Like the monster, right? And so I think that Carver does that so beautifully

And like he doesn't Halloween, he doesn't the thing I mean, it's always like These very simplistic stories built upon tension Built upon people fighting against different things In the environment, but he never overcomplicates things. And I think that works so well in this film. He doesn't, there are so many questions that just don't need to be answered.

Yeah. And he just does it. He does it. And he does it at the end, too, leaving it so ambiguous that, you know, people left the theater pissed. And others are like, oh, that was brilliant. Timing. Timing is something we brought up earlier in the conversation, the context of the time, the AIDS epidemic, this, that, this that. When the thing came out in theaters, it was the same week, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe like a week,

difference with E.T. Steven Spielberg's you know, blockbuster film of a very lovable alien and his little buddy. And then you have this come out. This

thing, this extremely dark, desolate, nihilistic, like I said earlier, film that takes a different approach to the whole alien thing. So you had these two competing things I keep using the word thing.

I apologize. When did first encounters come out? When does first encounters in this timeline? Oh, gosh. That is a very good question. I don't know the answer to that. That's 70s, right? Like late 70s?

I want to say late 70s, like 78, 79, maybe. Someone will definitely correct me in the chat. I would love to know. So that's interesting to me is you have things like first encounters, first encounter, and then you have this idea of aliens and like how we approach it differently too. because even within E.T, there's aspects of horror. I mean, I think about, like, I just watched it with my son, like, five months ago. Like, when E.T. dies, right?

Like, E.T. is kind of scary. Like, E.T. is, that movie. There's some moments. When he throws the ball into the, you know, he throws the ball and then the ball comes. It's, like, pinnacle horror right there. Yeah. But then, yeah, you've got some moments. But, yeah, it was more of a family-friendly film.

These, I wonder at the connection of doing these. I wonder at the connection of doing these like 77. Thank you, Grant. I just wonder why thematically that was carrying over because that's, I mean, that's, to me, very telling you of these three from one, two from the same director, right, dealing with this idea of space and aliens and something coming to us, right? I don't know. Sorry. I'm spending. No, no, no. I think that's a very interesting thing to think about them thematically. It is. And again, it is thematically. And I think Carpenter did that so brilliantly. But clearly audiences did not want that at the time. I have a clip of Carpenter talking about how poorly the thing was received, which is insane that all three of us love this movie. It's considered like a masterpiece by many. It is a perfect horror film. The only other perfect horror film I can think of that did a genre perfectly. If you insidious. Insidious is another horror movie that I think like nail. its fucking genre of like haunted house type genre like nails it and this nails like

an alien like a alien monster movie yeah sci-fi horror movie yeah let's um let me play this clip this was uh carpenter talking about you know many years later how the film was received and it it didn't bomb let's say that first of all it uh it made 19 million in the box office against the 15 million dollar budget so it's like so it made it exactly exactly yeah So it didn't problem.

So I can bring up DC movies. Yeah. Critically and audience-wise, it just was people hated the thing back then. That's crazy. Let's watch this clip. Yeah. Over the years, people have asked me about the thing because on its release, it was not particularly successful with audiences or fans. But years later, because of home video and so forth, it got to be known a little bit better.

But my reaction, I was pretty stunned by it at the time because I had made a really grueling dark film and I just don't think audiences in 1982 wanted to see that. They wanted to see ET. And the thing was the opposite of that. The thing that disturbed me about it was that the fans turned out hating it so much. There was a famous magazine back then called City Fantastique,

which was loved and hated by various directors, and they had a cover story that said, is this the most hated film of all time? Which didn't do a lot to assuage my ego, but I'm very proud of the movie. I've always loved it. It's one of my favorite of my own films. That is heartbreaking to hear.

I mean, he is so proud of it, and it was so hated when it came out. It just, it astounds me. It absolutely does. I mean, the reviews were terrible. And until, like, we got out of the idea of, like, Spielberg and these, which you see in my background here, these are so serials I have. You don't have this lovey-dovey feel. Well, Grandpa, have a good point, too.

This is coming off of Alien, too, which is interesting, right? Didn't think about that, yeah. I mean, Alien is also fucking great. I can't lie. I mean, I can't lie. Alien is also fucking fantastic, but it's a different kind of horror film. It's a different, like, it's a different beast, right? But maybe that's two of the two?

I don't know. It's, I still like, I can't fathom it. Like, watching it now, I don't understand what you would like about this movie. Yeah. I just don't. Again, I think a lot of it came down to timing. I think it really was the time the movie released and what it was going against you hear that all the time when movies come out with like a marvel blockbuster and they

just tank and it's it has a lot to do with your release date um and then it has a lot to do with those uh you know writing these reviews and whatnot and he just got ripped apart i mean to the point where dude like he says this film ruined his career um he was never taken as seriously after this movie came out and people thought you know he he this is it like he had his one shot and in he was done. I wonder, sorry, now that I'm thinking about this, like, I wonder to, like, the only that I have a good point to, and this is something that, like, I think we appreciate, right? I think people probably appreciate it, you know, is because the thing is so, the actual

monster in this movie is so non-coporeal. I mean, it says caporeal, but, like, it's so, sorry, I'm trying to find the world. Like, it's not a set thing. It's, I can keep you some word thing. It's not a set being, right? It is this like really like it changes all the time. It's not this like an alien. Like we look at the other horror movie that Grant brought up.

Like you have alien, right? Like alien like you understand what that monster is. You see that monster. That monster makes sense. You can you can understand what it is to fear it and fight it. And like you can get into that mindset, right? Or you even look at like ET, which is not a horror movie. But like that alien makes sense.

And this alien does not, which is what I think is fucking brilliant about it. but like there's no like it doesn't it's so outside of our concept of what it is as what it is of something to fight or be in contention with that I wonder if that comes into play is it's like well this is so fucking out there that it doesn't even like it doesn't even make sense to us as a storytelling apparatus at the time because like it doesn't make sense that alien would be so successful but then this wouldn't right because again I will I will stand by I mean, you can all hate me now. I will take Sigourney Weaver's main character over Kurt Russell. I think she's a better written character. But aside from that, Kurt Russell is great. But there's just like a less, because I think he's doing something a little more complicated. Like, Sigourney Weaver is like, she's a pinnacle hero, right?

Like you put her into that, she's an underdog, it makes her a pinnacle hero, even if she is still those themes, right? fighting against an alien, fighting against place, and fighting against people, right? She still has the same three themes, but she is so likable and so, and so well-written. I mean, she's one of the best, that character, Ripley is one of the best written female action characters, and we look at this genre, in my opinion. So she's so easy to root for. And, like, Kurt Russell's character just isn't, I like him. He's charismatic, but it's not the same kind of, like, hero.

He's not the same kind of hero. then put up against a non, like, understandable villain, right? I think it just, it's almost like too smart in some ways. Or is it maybe that's part of it? Like, it's harder to like, I don't know, to engage with it in the same way. You're muted. I was just having a, you were just having a conversation with yourself. No, what I meant to say is I agree with you.

I think it was, it was, it went over people's heads. It was ahead of its time. you add like kind of the tail end of the cold war happening still and like that could have played into it too like this fear of like you know the red scare blah blah blah blah blah there's so many ways you could put this movie in the context of why it worked and why it didn't and I think that's what any good film does yeah and I think that's why like people in the chat said we're still talking about the thing

today yeah I mean like me are just getting introduced to it and then it holds up right that as a film oh god It still holds up. I think that's... This is better than 99% of the horror movies out there right now. I can tell you that much. Yeah. I mean, you rewatch...

Again, my brother was like, you've got to watch it. So I'm like, okay, you know, because he loves his 80 movies. My brother's like a true child of the 80s. And so... Yeah. And he's got good taste in my opinion. So, you know, I watch and I'm like, oh, yeah, this shit. Like, sometimes I watch, like, he made me when he's like, you got to watch Fight Night.

And I was like, oh, yeah, Friday Night's okay. Like, it's okay. Like, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm like, I'm like, you know, I. I get why you liked it. Like, I like it. But like this one, I was like, no, this shit holds up. This shit is, like Andrew said. Like, it just, you watch it.

I watched it again. And it whole different, like, I was like, wait. You know, like, my mind started like spinning on who is the first person to be the alien. But there's all these things that cover us, which we've talked about that I think just aren't utilizing film. The scene fade out, right? That's another thing that just where I think we appreciate it. We're like, oh, that's. great, especially as people who have theater backgrounds, but I could see someone watch them

and being like, that's stupid. Why'd you do that? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. It's interesting. Well, you know who did love this movie? Two people. The first one we're going to briefly go through is Chris Carter of the X-Files, so much so that he made an episode of the X-Files titled Ice, which, dude, if you haven't watched it, go watch it. Were you an X-Files fan? I don't know if I'm a cast. Yes, did not like you. X-Files scaled the shit out of me. So I was like, I watched it like with bated breath. Okay. They did an episode called Ice. It was in the first season, I believe, and it was in

homage to this film. I want to play a quick promo of when that episode originally released. I think it was back in 1993. Deep beneath the Arctic Circle and ancient terror sleeps. Nothing can survive for a quarter of a million years. It was their first mistake. Trying to stop it could be their last. The ex-fifference. Files, don't watch it alone. Put it down! Friday at 9, 8 Central. Dude, how much do you miss that Friday at 9?

Oh, love it. Don't watch it alone. One of the best episodes of the X-Files, but clearly, like, down to the dog, down to, like, the Antarctic sort of feel to it. Just a total homage to it. I highly suggest people check it out. Can we mention just how, like, fucking, so sorry, not on X-Files note. Just how fucking good Julian Anderson is.

Like, that woman has come into her own. Like, I think when that show, any people are like, oh, who she? And now you're like, no, she's fucking brilliant. She's incredible. I also have a big crush on her, so I just, I have a talent crush and an actual crush. Don't tell you. Who doesn't? My wife doesn't.

It's fine. She was even, like, she was even pretty, not bad looking as Margaret Thatcher, too. She's good. Well, that's the thing when they did when she played Eleanor Roosevelt. I'm like, she's too pretty to be Eleanor Roosevelt. That woman. Yeah. Nothing is on a Roosevelt.

Brilliant woman. But like, historically was not a looker. Yeah. And she just, she just says, like, just, I don't know, I'll tell you. She did it. We could get to a whole episode on Julian Anderson. We should. Talent crust, Julian Anderson.

Bring back the X-Files, Ian says. That voice over two was great. I love it. Nick, how much more time do you have, buddy? I got like, I got like, I got like, I got like, five minutes. I got me five. Okay. I got you for five.

Perfect. One more clip from our very good friend who absolutely love this movie. We didn't have him tonight, but he did send us a message. Is it Dennis? Is it Dennis? It's one of his favorite movies. Oh, you're going to go ahead and play the clip right now. Let's hope he'd be here.

Hi, everyone. My name is Dennis Callow. I'm a photographer and a filmmaker. And I'm also a YouTuber now, I guess, because I make documentaries about horror films and put it up on YouTube. And one of my favorite films that I just covered, there's part one and part two that's on my channel right now, is the thing, which is what you guys are talking about right now. And the reason why I love this movie is not just because it is a complete and total masterclass and masterpiece of filmmaking. But there's a really sad story that comes along with it.

And the story of John Carpenter sort of being called a hack after this movie was made. And it's kind of incredible to think about that now in hindsight. But there was a lot to do with time and timing, which I talk about in my series, that affected the film and that affected him as a filmmaker. Other than that, this film is just a masterclass intention and dread and winter horror, which is my favorite type of horror. I love cold weather. and I love cold weather horror because it just adds another layer cake of tension in that. And when you get a bunch of guys in a research station in the Antarctic who have been going stir crazy with nothing but like computer chess and whiskey to keep them company,

you're going to get a nice little recipe for disaster there. But it's really just a fantastic, fantastic film. I can't say enough about it, but I do say enough about it on my YouTube channel with the documentaries that I made on the film. So I hope you enjoy this discussion, and I'll give it back to Andrew, Nick, and Ryan Sprague, the king of the hour. Take care, fellow believers.

I love him. So much. I'm all about log rolling people that I'd like. So I long-rolled Andrew as a brilliant filmmaker. I long-wrote Eric, who's here, as a brilliant filmmaker, who I've been lucky enough to work with. Ryan and I had made a movie.

That dude, Dennis, you guys. Guys, go check out his stuff. He is, check out Ryan's podcast with him if you haven't seen that when we all chatted. He is a great man, a great filmmaker, and loves himself some horror in a beautiful way. Absolutely. Go check him out. Because he's great.

Go check him up. There's a link right down there, guys, in the show notes for Dennis's two-part series on the thing. Go check it out right now. His Halloween part free, which I had not seen to that, is also brilliant. Season of the Witch? Yep. Yes.

He's an awesome guy, guys. be on the lookout in the future for projects, maybe having to do with Dennis and Nick and myself. More to come on that. My shirt might come off. You never know. You never know. I mean, really, God damn,

it does come off from everything I did. It came off in my film too. I know. And your sister thought it was hot, which I'll never let you forget. God, don't remind me. It's a great shape. That's a great shape.

Nicholas Westmeyer. Can we get the last one of those? Can we actually do that? You shouldn't have Chris Mawson. It's his favorite video game. Absolutely. I got to go watch it. I'm probably going to watch that next.

I'm just going to message you about doing a side thing. Okay. This should be monthly, right? Guys, chat? Should it be monthly? It should be monthly, right? Should we do a monthly movie review, guys? I'm also.

You know, look at that face. Look at that face. You know what would get us some super chats? Take that vest off, Mr. Westermeyer, if you will. Bung-ch-bao-w-o-w-w-w- What? This is my sound for you.

I got the same. Looking good, buddy. Looking wintry. I love it. Hey, before we go, any last words on the thing that you want to leave the audience with tonight? You know, I can't sound as smart as Andrew or you. I think it's a great film. I think I really do.

I agree with everything that Dennis said, we used the master. We use the word masterclass a lot. And I mean that. Like, it is a damn near perfect horror film and what it is. Like, in the genre that it's doing and what it's trying to accomplish. It stands up really well. It was enjoyable in multiple viewings, which I always think is another thing about horror films.

If you can go back and rewatch a horror film when you know the plot points that are happening and it's still good, that's when you know it's well done. Because horror that doesn't have rewatchability, not that it's not enjoyable in the moment, but I think doesn't have that lasting impact. And this definitely is one that, like,

you can keep going back and revisiting it and, like, picking out stuff and making, like, thoughts about and trying to figure out what's happening. And I think it's just in that way, the fact that John Carbender is not considered, I mean, I know he is, but anyone would ever think he's a hack. It blows my mind.

There's like one John Carborder movie I don't like. And I should go back and rewatch it just to make sure that's true. Well, and this film makes me want to go back and watch everything he's done. I haven't seen that many. I've seen the Halloweens, and that's about it.

I've seen vampires, which is a whole thing. That's the one, that's one I was like, I need to go back. When I first was like, what, though? I'm sure I would find some stuff to appreciate about it. I heard the fog is really good, so I got to check that out. And I haven't seen They Live, which I heard is another brilliant, brilliant film as well.

So I'll definitely have to go check those out. But Nick, where can people check out everything you're up to, buddy? And yeah, give us any updates. So for me, so you can find me primarily on Instagram, which is at N. Westmeyer. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. I'm very not active on Twitter. and Facebook I'm active on, but, you know, Instagram is probably best.

Also, for my own log rolling, you know, somewhere in the skies, if you want to check out the movie Ryan and I worked on, please do it's on his YouTube page and also on, what's that site, Vimeo, that one. It was something that we spend a lot of time, a lot of love on, but also I love baking,

so if you like baked goods. And then Voyage Theater Company, which is a New York-based theater company that I'm a part of that's always producing new works, and Ryan and I have worked with them before. So go over, give them a like on Facebook. We'd love to have you. But yeah, Instagram is where it's at.

Absolutely. Yes, Voyage Theater Company was such a pleasure working with you guys. And Nick and I come from a theater background. And the thing is a straight up play, in my opinion, which I appreciated so much about it. It's 12 Angry Men in the Antarctic. In space, with a giant alien monster. Yeah, what else can you ask for? Oh, your head.

All right. I have to go be a parent now. Thank you, buddy. Thank you for having me, Ryan. You're great. All the people who came, thank you so much. Yeah. Keep looking up.

Is that what it is? That is. You got it, buddy. Oh, you can find me in your podcast when I was doing voices. Absolutely. You'll hear Nick very soon in some upcoming episodes as well.

Thank you, my friend. I always appreciate your time, value your opinions, and we'll talk soon. Thanks for having me. Bye, everyone. Take care. Bye. And then there was one.

huge special thanks to Nick and Andrew, both fathers and have a lot going on. It's still a little early on the East Coast where they are. So they got kids. They got stuff to do, but they gave us their time tonight to talk about the thing. And I'm just going to say it. This is now one of my favorite horror movies. I absolutely loved it from start to finish everything about it, the writing, the direction, the special effects, practical effects, I should say. It's just a brilliant, brilliant film.

I don't, again, I don't understand why it wasn't received at the time as well, but it is now. And sometimes that's what happens with movies. They don't really gain traction or get their legs until decades later when you can take it out of the time that it was made in and when it was released and all that stuff. And look at it with new fresh eyes. And that's what we did tonight for you guys. I hope you enjoyed this review of the thing. This will be a film I go to every winter now to, to watch. watch. So there's that. I do want to share a few things before I let you guys go here tonight.

See if I could pull this up. This was a poster that Grant LeVoc in the chat made. Grant, I cannot thank you enough, buddy, for being here tonight. I know it's really late or early in Australia right now. So thank you for being here, man. Thanks for making this fun little poster with me taking over as the helicopter pilot. I absolutely love it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And to let you guys know about what's coming up on somewhere in the skies, we have a new episode airing this Monday. It's going to be a brand new episode of Witness accounts where you, the listeners, call in and tell us your UFO stories. And we have, we got some good stories coming your way in that episode, guys, coming to you Monday. We have a other UFO podcast host that a lot

of you are familiar with telling their UFO story on the show. show for the very first time. We also have a Navy servicemen who had five different triangular UFO sightings over a naval base in California. So be on the lookout for that episode coming to you this Monday. It is available right now for our Apple premium subscribers and our Patreons, our Patreon subscribers. So if you want to hear that episode early, you can do that right now at patreon.com slash somewhere skies or you can become an Apple premium subscriber. You just go to your Apple feed and it should be right at the top. You just click subscribe and it should take you there to get the early edition of this episode and bonus episodes.

I'm dropping a ton of new bonus episodes over on Apple subscriber premium and also at Patreon. So check those out. Excuse me. Again, guys, still getting over COVID. So it's been rough. I'm not going to lie, but I had to do this tonight. And let's see. What else do we have?

Operation Saucer and the UFO Island will be our episode the following week where we travel to Brazil to look at a ton of UFO cases in Brazil. And on the Patreon and Apple premium subscriber feed, we'll have a bonus episode called the Mystery of the Lead Masked Euphologists. A crazy, crazy mystery. that happened in Brazil, that involved UFOs, and two gentlemen who were unfortunately found dead. And who went to investigate this case, none other than Jacques Valley. So that episode should be premiering on the bonus feeds on Patreon and Apple very soon. So be on the lookout for that.

And I think that's it, guys. I think that's all I have for you. Thank you so much for joining us tonight on this very special, edition movie review of The Thing here at Summer in the Skies. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to our super chats. I really appreciate the support, guys.

All of the money that you donate to the show goes right back into making it bigger and better and everything in between. So that is always appreciated. Again, if you want to support the show, you can do that in the super chat. You can become a YouTube member below or you can join our Patreon and our Apple subscribers.

My special thanks to Nick and to Andrew, and I'm going to leave you with a little funny clip that I put together here for you guys. And other than that, I'm just going to say, as always, keep your feet on the ground, but never stop searching somewhere in the skies. For the thing.