The Flop House - Ep.#435 - Night Swim

Episode Date: October 12, 2024

What's that? The chilly nip of Shocktober on the wind? That's right, kiddies! It's your old pal the Flopkeeper, with another spookifying or snorifying yarn! It's called Night Swim, and it's about a HAUNTED POOL! Is there pee in the pool too? Probably! Terrifying! Grab your goggles and let's dive in!We're in season 2 of FlopTV! Pop in for individual episodes, or get a price break with a season pass! Peruse the full line-up and/or get tickets here! And hey, while you’re clicking on stuff, why not subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, “Flop Secrets?!”Wikipedia page for Night SwimRecommended in this episode:The Substance (2024)A Different Man (2024)The Verdict (1946)Go to Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch, go to https://www.squarespace.com/FLOP  to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

On this episode we discuss Night Swim. Ba-dum! Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do Hey everyone, welcome to the Flophouse, I'm Dan McCoy. And I'm Stuart Wellington. I'm Elliot Cailin. Oh boy, oh boy. Oh man, did you hear the spooky wind whistling through the trees? The leaves are falling? The cackle of a witch in the distance?

Chains rattling? Chains everywhere. Creaky doors. Don't oil that door up. Wait till November to do that. No, yeah. You got to keep it creepy and creaky for the season. Creepy crawlies crawling underfoot? Uh-huh. Yep. Along with all those crunchy leaves on the ground. Yep, and all the various colors.

Creepier than a crunchy leaf. And the ground is filled with zombies and tremors and shit. Yeah. Chuds and whatnot. Chuds and whatnot, Stuart. Why do you... Man, I'm going to get roasted in the comments. Yeah, as you can tell, obviously, from everything we just said, we're in Shaqtober, the part of the Flophouse calendar year where we talk horror movies.

In the old days, we sort of did it all the time, but now it's been sequestered to its own month. That was when Stuart got to pick the movies more often. Well, it was when we did a lot more picking the movie we were going to talk about the night that we were recording. We're like, this seems good. Why not this? Yeah, this little movie poster looks terrible.

Yeah, this is worth our time. Sorority House Row, yeah, sure. But for this first Shocktober surprise, we watched Night Swim. I mean, this feels like a blast from the past in that it does feel like the kind of movie we would settle on Just by seeing what's available on a streamer Department about the haunted pool guys Yeah

I mean it wasn't surprised to me about a month ago when I Texted you guys that I was on the treadmill and I was watching night swim and Dan's like we're gonna have to do that for flop Shocked over well, you might as well, I hope you like it. I'm like, shit. Here's the thing. I do like it. Horror in general has been better lately than it was for a while.

I was looking at recent horror movies that we could do for Shocktober, and this was kind of the most major one that got a lot of bad reviews in recent memory. So normally I would have been like, yeah, that's fine. But I kind of had my sights set on this one. Although I don't know, it sort of turned out to not have a lot of electricity in it.

No, I mean, spoiler alert for final judgments. This turned out to be, again, a blast from the Flophouse past and this is a real filler of a movie in a lot of ways. Like it's a real time filler. Our boys over at Blumhouse are cooking up some bland stuff for us to eat. But it's a, but we'll talk about it, you know, but it's funny that Dan was like, oh boy, we better get better dive into Night Swim. And while I was watching it, I was like, yeah, this feels like, you know But it's funny that Dan was like, oh boy, we better dive into Night Swim.

And while I was watching, I was like, yeah, this feels like, you know, it's a movie. There's movie stuff going on. Technically, yeah. It was one of these movies that I saw the trailer and there's a lot of like, chuckling in the theater because people were like, oh boy, a haunted pool, no thank you.

What are those ad wizards in Hollywood kicking up for us today? You know, like, and I actually watched the trailer being like, I don't know, like, if approached with the right spirit, this could be fun. Like, I like that sort of silliness in a premise. Yeah, pools can be scary, dude. What if you do a sick-ass cannonball

and your underpants fall off? Well, but also pools are scary, like people die in them. It is the most dangerous thing you can have in your house after a gun, basically. Which is why you have a pool out back. Well, that's why I have a pool that I shoot a gun into. Yeah, I feel like they keep each other in check is what you're saying, right?

Exactly, every now and then when the gun's acting up, I throw it in the pool, and if the pool looks like it's got some ideas on its mind, I shoot it a few times. When you throw the gun in the pool, do you imagine you're the guy from the Irishman? I always imagine The Irishman, okay Yeah, yeah the one who paints us the one who the one who's an incredibly old young man. Yeah. He's like, oh Joe Pesci

I'll paint your house for ya Yeah, but for having sort of like... Red blood, black bullets, green clovers. Oh, if you don't leave me alone, I'll chop me fucking fingers off. I don't... What if that was the Irishman that was in it? I mean, Terry Condon, who's in this movie and is in the band she's having a share in. Let's say criminally wasted in this movie. Let's say underutilized, that's true.

Certainly is not given as much to tear into as she is in her work with Martin McDonough, that's for sure. Yeah. I don't want to get out of- Oh, I figure I might not put the pool in the back. It seems a wee bit haunted. That's the Irishman in Night Swim. Yeah.

I don't want to get out over our skis too much and make a judgment too early in the show, but I do think that- You may change your mind, yeah. Well, no, I do think that part of the thing was my anticipation that maybe this would be fun was based on the idea of leaning into the silliness a little bit more.

I feel like the movie could use a bit more of a grind housey spirit, maybe. Yes, I will say this about it. In a movie about a haunted pool, the haunted pool was the least interesting part of the movie for me. And I found myself wishing this was a story about a family that's dealing with a major transition in their lives

and that there was not a haunted pool in it. And it has more pool stuff than the movie Ponte Pool, which has no pool in it. So you gotta give it that. And no Pontety Pool, which has no pool in it. So you got to give it that. And no Ponty. Yeah, whatever that is. There's also 0% Ponty as well. It showed up with fucking receipts against Ponty Pool.

Okay, let's dig into this. Let's dive in. Yep, okay. Let me just get out my notes. Okay. Stewart put on his reading glasses and it's like he's weight... It sounded like he was fomfering so that we would comment on it. They had their great-looking glasses.

I'm a very good physical performer, Elliot. Okay, so the movie opens. We have, it's night, we have a house, there is a pool in back, that's right, the haunted pool is in the back of this house. Inside the home, there is a sick kid hooked up to some machines. His little sister or big sister. But it's a little girl named who we will find out is named Rebecca goes outside because she thinks there's something going on with the pool.

She sees his like toy floating in the pool. Then it goes a little bit like a little motorboat. Yeah. Which is a super important detail. And she gets put in. I mean, it shows up multiple times throughout the movie, so you might as well describe it now. Which is weird because if you're gonna have a toy that is inexplicably in a pool,

put something that doesn't normally go in water, right? Well, what's strange to me about it is it becomes the thing that the spirit in the pool is using to lure people in, and it's like, why did it grab onto this one toy boat as like its thing? If this, in theory, this thing has been around since time immemorial and it's had many victims, how come it's always that boat?

But it's because it's what they established in the beginning of the movie. Isn't that what Georgie was chasing when Pennywise ripped his arm off? Well, it was an origami boat in it. Yeah, it was like a paper boat like you'd make out of a newspaper, right? Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, our friend Kurt's daughter was like savage about Georgie and IT, by the way. I thought it was so hilarious. She was like, that kid deserved. Why are you gonna believe in a, why are you gonna do what, a clown in a sewer does? Yeah, well these city kids are built different, Dan.

That's true, then those kids in Derry. I mean, but it is all, I mean, they're tied to the fact that they have to fulfill what the audience expects from the first version of that story, Georgie Girl, with its famous theme song, Hey there, Georgie Girl, listen to the clown inside the sewer. Yeah, I remember that song.

Okay, so as I said- It's gonna tell you what you should do her. Hey there, Georgie girl. So it's a feeling where like the fans are gonna understand after having seen Georgie girl, that Georgie in it is gonna listen to this clown, yeah. Yeah, so back to Night Swim, Rebecca gets pushed into the pool by a ghost that Georgie in it is gonna listen to this clown. Yeah. Yeah. So back to Night Swim,

Rebecca gets pushed into the pool by a ghost and then she, the pool like spins her around and then drowns her. Okay. Years later. Classic haunted pool. Classic haunted pool. You know, I'm not actually someone

who's like sensitive to child death in movies as a- You love it. Yeah, you ask for it. I just know that like parents... Dan's like, who could kill a child? Me, in a movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Parents love to talk about... Yeah, he's like, Manchester by the Sea.

I wish more kids had burned up in that house. I'm just like, parents, especially new parents, love to talk about like, oh, I can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. And as someone who has not had that experience, I'm like... No, no, well, you can't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore. And as someone who has not had that experience, I'm like. No, no, well, you can't do it anymore, but it's because the kid keeps you from getting into that mood, you know?

But I certainly, as I grow older, like this bothered me more than most because it was sort of realistic in the situation. Like I know how dangerous like pools can be for kids. And, you know, so unlike say assault on precinctinct 13 where the death of a child is sort of like Almost a shocking dark joke like it's very rare that it's very rare that someone just drives up to a kid on the street Randomly and shoots them in the face Yeah, it's I would go as far as to say zero time guys

That movie's wild. It is a wild movie. But you're right, there is something much more realistic about a kid drowning in a pool. I mean, that's the number one type of person that is killed by pools is children. But the strange thing is, even though knowing that that is a danger

that my own children occasionally face, and I'm always worried about them, every time one of my kids goes underwater to swim swim I get very nervous just for a moment before they come up again. It didn't affect me that much maybe because like I don't know this movie is um I think if it was... You made sure that your pool isn't haunted? Well the one thing is there's a fence around that pool. There's this pool in this movie did not have a fence around it. Pool owners you gotta put a fence around it. That's the most important thing. Put a ring on it if you want to keep her and put a fence around that pool if you want your kids to stay safe.

Oh, man, these are important. Very quoteable. But I think the movie was trying so hard to feel serious, I think that it kind of went around the bend for me. Yeah. In some ways. Yeah. So we get the title. Yeah. Oh, yeah. The title. Years later, we meet a new family who is house hunting in a little

suburb near the Twin Cities from what we're told, which again, I do have to point out that seems like a weird location for a house with a haunted pool. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like that's not you're not going to get to use that pool that much of the year. No, you're not going to get to use that pool that much of the year, right? No, you're not going to get to use that pool that much of the year. Especially, no, in winter it's done, in autumn it gets really cold. But you guys will find it's that the pool was more built there because of the presence of a natural spring. Okay, I thought you were arguing that the water is more haunted down south than it is around the Twin Cities.

In the Bayou, you better believe it is, that's for sure. Yeah, that's true. There's all that voodoo floating around in there. That's where a swamp thing lives. Yeah, you know it. Okay, so we meet this family. We have the father. Down here we got some haunted water, not like your safe water off north.

When I moved, that's cry daddy, he goes, when I moved to Connecticut from Louisiana, I think I missed the po' boys, I missed the beignets and I missed my haunted water. Wow, that was a plus for him. Long way to return of Hot Crawdaddy. Yeah, the haunted water was a plus. So you go swam, you don't know what you're going to get. You're going to get wet, you're going to have a nice time, you're going to get dragged down

to the underworld. That risk made it worth while Yeah, but up here in Connecticut. Yeah, this cement pool just nice Never never tries to drag you down. Yeah. Yeah, that's weird the things you miss, you know, yeah We all grow up crawdaddy I spent so much of my life wishing I didn't have to worry about the water spirits pulling me down to the underworld That's true. Now I kind of miss it.

Like that song Stay by Lisa Loeb. Wasn't a fan of it when I was young, but now it hits me with the nostalgia. Really wild pronunciation. That's how they say it right there. Yeah it's like he's pronouncing clurb. I once brought Lisa Loeb some cheese, but I just wanted to mention that. Legally? Unsolicited?

No, no. Our friend Sarah Schaeffer had her on her live talk show. Oh yeah, I operated one of the cameras for the recording of that show. And we were like, we've got a big We got a big guess for once we got to bring her some cheese Complained that she had nerd sweat all over the cheese I was yeah, I was I was starstruck. She was just sitting in the back doing crosswords though. She seemed to enjoy the cheese I don't know. That's all I got to say about that. All right. Well, what a story. Yeah

Okay, so we meet this family the father is Ray played by what's his name? Yeah, why Russell Kurt Russell's kid third generation Russell. Yeah, he is a recently retired or on leave baseball player he was he is on he is a Experiencing medical problems and so he has had to go into a early retirement. We will learn later yeah we'll learn later that he is suffering from what they describe as a secondary progressive MS and it seems to

be getting worse but baseball is his life he loves baseball all he wants more baseball. His wife Eve played by by Kerry Condon, is a... Academy Award nominee. Academy Award nominee is a, what, a school administrator, and she is excited, one thing she's excited about is the prospect of settling down a little bit, because I guess they've traveled a lot for Ray's work. And though she loves him, she, you know, she also,

she wants to make sure he understands he's not just baseball, he's also a father. But he's Mr. Baseball. He's Mr. Baseball. Oh wait, no, that's Tom Selleck. That is Tom Selleck, yeah. And he's not Mr. 3000, that was Bernie Mac. And he's not Mr. Clean, that of course is a bald mascot for a cleaning. Or Mr. Mister, which is a band.

He's not Mr. Wonderful, the famous shark that Dan is always trying to pitch ideas to in his mirror. That's a shark. Is that a shark tank thing? He's not one of the Mister Men, you know, the series of children's books where they have little characters with different things about them. Oh yeah, like Little Miss and Little... Yeah, yeah, exactly. Little Miss can't be wrong. No, legally. Yeah, legally by act of Congress.

So their elder daughter is Izzy. We know that she likes to swim or she develops a crush on this kid who's in the JV Christian swim team. Which just seems like a lot of additional things there. There's a lot of adjectives there. She's the more athletic of the two siblings. More outgoing, more athletic. And then they have a younger son who seems like a little nerd, kind of a turd, and what do they name him?

Elliot! Yeah, his name is Elliot. Spelled wrong. Spelled right. You're in the clear now, I guess. And he's a little kid, he's like, he worships his dad, he's small for his age. He just wants to spend time with his dad,

but his dad is very focused on initially having MS and then recovering. Yeah, there's this vibe that they can't relate. He can't relate as well to his son because his son isn't athletic or- His son wants to be good at baseball so he can get his dad's love and approval, but he just doesn't have it.

He's just not good at it. It's just like the Kalen household. I mean, I want my son to be so good at baseball because it's all I care about. It's the only thing that I care about. And I mean, it's totally the opposite of the Kaelin household because my older son, all he cares about is baseball. It's all he wants to do all the time.

And I'm like, can we talk about anything else? And he's constantly pushing you down, being like, get out of my way nerd. Yeah, before the year. He does get up in my face a lot. And he gets up in my face and starts beatboxing a lot, which I don't love. Oh wow.

I do kind of like that. That's like a Connor O'Malley bit. Yeah, but I will say, so this is what, I started watching this movie and I'm like, it made me really miss, it was like, there is a time when Hollywood would make a movie that was about a former professional baseball player dealing with MS, his family is having trouble

adjusting to the fact that he is life feels empty because the one thing he cared about is not there. He's having trouble relating to his son because his son just does not have the same skill and talent that he has for this one thing. And then the wife is kind of trying to figure out how to navigate these emotions. And I was like, I kind of just want to see that movie. Yeah, I just want to see like the ordinary people or whatever about that family. And so every moment before the haunted pool,

I was like, can we just be a movie about a family and they don't have to have a haunted pool? You want to watch a night swim based on a novel by John Irving. I mean, kind of. I mean, not quite as quirky, you know? But if you think about the movie, The Great Santini, which I don't love, but The Great Santini, which I don't love, but like The Great Santini,

until it starts getting into like movie plot territory, it's like you're seeing a family and you're seeing how they interact and like there's an entertainment value and a dramatic value to that. So it just made me sad for, oh yeah, there was a period where Hollywood made a lot of movies that were just about like people, you know,

but now they gotta have haunted pools. What are you gonna do, you know? So they're house shopping. They find this house that has a pool. It's the same house as the opening. Ray, at one point they see the pool. Ray's kind of obsessed with it. And he sees that there's a baseball sitting on the pool cover and he reaches for it.

I don't know if you guys understand symbolism. He reaches for it and he slips and falls into the pool. And he has this like series of visions of himself playing baseball before he manages to drag himself out and they're like, we're buying this pool. So they buy the house, just the pool. You use the pool, you got to buy it now. Yeah. Let's just say that movie, we bought a zoo.

It's because he wanders into a zoo. You got to buy it now. Yeah. We'll just zoo. It's because you walk into a zoo. You gotta buy it now. Yeah. We'll just sleep on the pool. Like, no, the pool comes with the house. You gotta buy the house. You have to get the house. We can't just get just the pool.

What if we buy like the pool in like one of the rooms in the house? No, no, it's a set. You gotta buy the whole thing. What if we do sort of a pool share with whoever owns the house? Yeah. Where we get the pool and we share it with them sometimes. No, no. Yeah. What if it's like a pool share type thing where if Cher where we get the pool and we share it with them sometimes. No, no? Yeah.

What if it's like a pool share type thing where if Cher wants to use the pool, we'll let her use it. I mean, that's an outstanding rule. If that's going to happen, then sure. I mean, if Cher wanted to use your pool, I don't know why you would say no. Yeah, if Cher showed up to use your pool, Elliott, would you be like, no, thank you? I'd be like, turn back time to before you ask me that question because the answer is no. Okay, so part of the reason we take this house is that again,

Ray is like, his doctor suggests some low impact exercise, like swimming, and he's like, hey, I got pool therapy again for maybe two months a year again. I don't know if it's that short. I don't know if it's that if it's just too much. What the swimming season in the Twin Cities is? It's at least nine weeks, let's say. So they move in very quickly.

We get almost no footage. That's what that movie Nine and a Half Weeks was about, right? It was about how long can you use a pool in the Twin Cities. Yeah. Where you legally have to dispose of it. Yeah, that's what I told my parents when I rented it from the video store. I thought it was about pool use in the upper Midwest. Like, rent it for me, Mommy?

Okay, so they move in very quickly. We see almost no footage of that. Their home looks immediately lived in. I don't know that we need to see the move. Stewart's like, how do I know that they moved in if I don't see it? Yep. And then we are introduced.

Dan backstory McCoy took over Stewart's brain for a moment there. Stewart has take some issue with the movie because we are introduced to cider the cat. And I'm like, as soon as that cat shows up, I'm like, evil pool, there's a cat. They're going to kill this fucking cat. You know, that cat's not going to not going to last it. Okay, unless they're going to do an alien thing and it's just the cat and one other person that's that would have been really cool. Unfortunately, I don't think that's if it's just the cat and one other person that survives. That would have been really cool.

Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. If the pool saved the cat, then the pool would be our hero. That's right. Good point. That's what that book, Save the Cat, is all about. When pools are good and when they're evil. When pools are evil on Fox. Okay, so...

We talked to Glenn Danzig about his pool. Yeah, pretty sure it's evil. That's just because he hasn't cleaned it in a while. It's filled with Glenn Danzig back here. Can I go out and swim tonight? That's his song. Oh yeah, that's true. And he keeps swimming with makeup on.

That's a bad idea. He clogs the filter. That's pretty bad, yeah. So they're starting to get situated in their various, at school, and they're starting to make friends Yada, yada. They're cleaning out the pool to get it all set up. They They are my hand as a family they have drained the pool and they're scrubbing it by hand Have you ever done that Elliot? I have not ever done that no, it seems very silly to me in the process

I'm really also because like a pool ladder doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the pool So I don't know how they're all gonna get up out of the pool I don't know maybe the shallow area is is shallow enough that you probably find out skateboard out. Yes Stand a couple of Z boys or whatever Well, yeah, that's what skater die means is because if you can't skate your way out you die in the bottom of our Yeah, that's what skate or die means, is because if you can't skate your way out, you die in the bottom of the pool. Wow, horrible.

Okay, so they bring, at one point, Ray cuts his hand while fishing through the drain. That's gross in that. That was dumb. Don't reach into any kind of drain with your bare hand. Don't do that. And then they bring a pool guy in who explains that this pool is not connected to the, like the sewage system,

it's instead connected to an aquifer under the ground, so it's supernatural, and people believe it has healing properties. This is a- I like this guy, I like this guy. He had a lot of personality. This is a character that for a second, like I looked away from the screen,

and for a second, hearing the voice, I thought maybe it was Paul Sheer, because it had sort of that vibe of like, we brought in Paul Sheer to do this character, you know? I believe- He would've crushed it. He would've crushed it. he would have crushed it yeah if this was a sillier movie that would impulse I believe this is Ben Sinclair from high maintenance all right okay yeah no shade to him just okay so we get a little scene of the

family swimming in the pool which is important because there's a sequence where they're swimming they're fishing for quarters have you ever played this game Elliot where you chop quarters and? I've not played this game. Just because we're Jewish, Stuart, doesn't mean that all our games are about money and my children racing after money. That's man, got me fair. No, I as a gentile, I've definitely done this. I have, yes, swum to try and find an item that has been chucked to the bottom of the pool. We've certainly done that.

We certainly throw like a like a toy that's meant to go down to the bottom. They pick it up and not not money. It's because frankly, it's a waste of money. We need that money, Stuart. Yeah, we're hungry for our gumballs. Okay. They find an old magic camcorder. Every once in a while we'll have like TVs flicker on and show us like weird flashbacks that may have happened or may not have happened might be a fantasy. It feels like the magic of the pool extends far beyond the borders of that concrete pond.

There's a variety of different pool shenanigans that make us believe that the pool is not all it's cracked up to be. At one point Eve is swimming at night and she feels like basically it messes with her. Like she feels like somebody's right behind her or like whenever you go underwater you see somebody at the edge of the pool then when you come up they're not there that kind of stuff cider goes the cat cider goes missing almost immediately so they they find its collar but that's it so they get a pool cover which will kind of matter later Ray is oddly recovering super well. It's like the pool is the pool from cocoon.

But instead of aliens, it's ghosts. It is like the cocoon pool. So like his hand heals miraculously fast. And then his MS is like regressing considerably. Yeah, he's doing great. He's even like, he set up a little gym in the garage where he's watching either real home movies he's made or fantasy movies. I don't know.

And he's pushing 185 and that's not nothing, man. That's a serious weight. I'll let the character know that you approve. Yeah, yeah. If he's repping those out, that's pretty good, bud. Yeah. Okay. And he lets, at this point, he is so preoccupied with pushing that 185, which I get it, man.

You know, Gaines don't sleep for no one. But he's- He just don't sleep for no one. Now that's farce. So he's- Gaines are asleep, but they don't do it for no one. No, no, you can't let, yeah, you can't let, you can't let them rest.

You gotta work on them. Okay, so he's so busy pushing plate that he can't go swimming with his son who just wants to connect with him. And so he's like, oh, just stay in the shallow end, bud. And I'm like, this feels very irresponsible. This is very irresponsible. This is bad.

You should always have an adult at least watching a child. And so, of course, the ghost starts to... The ghost pool messes with him. It throws quarters in there somehow. It makes him believe that there's somebody at the edge of the pool or on the diving board. And then there's a little ghost girl hiding in the...

In the filter. In the filter. And it's got like hair and crap. It's really gross and it scares him. And it's got hair and crap, it's really gross, and it scares him, and it also shares a name. The name is Rebecca. So of course, Elliot is... Rebecca is to winter. Well, when she said her name was Rebecca Summers,

I'm like, wait, that's not Phoenix's name. No, that's Rachel Summers. So, it's Rachel Summers, yeah. I know, I messed that one up. So of course, Elliot immediately goes running to his mom to cry about the whole thing, getting Ray in trouble. To be fair, to be fair, he's a sensitive lad and he also saw a ghost. Yeah. Yep.

Okay, so. Paddling on that ghost. Yeah, so Ray at this point wants- That was always the worst. When I was a kid, I don't think kids get this as much now. When I was a kid and I was being bullied and I would go to a teacher or someone and they'd go, don't be a tattletale.

I was like, what the fuck is this? That's insane. No, it, yeah, this is a thing that we all- I got told that so many times from adults. Crazy. Grew up with a bad attitude that I'm glad is gone, but I can only assume- Look, do you want to be a snitch kid?

Are you a snitch? Is that it? Are you guys thanking the terrorists for making us, turning us into a see something, say something culture? I didn't say that. I think I'm thanking child psychiatrists. I think a better understanding of bullying not being like a fun thing. Yes, of course.

I think we now live in a culture that I think no longer heroizes the bully the way that once did. Well also, you gotta believe, that was just teachers being lazy, right? That's like, I don't wanna deal with this shit. I think that was half of it. I think half of it was teachers being lazy, and half of it, I mean, I think a third of it was teachers being lazy.

A third of it was them looking at me and being like, I would bully you if I could. I don't like you either, weakling. And a third of it was this idea of like, come on, it's all in good fun, toughen up, you know. Yeah, and I feel like the narrative is- There's only several times you can be walking down a hallway and someone punches you in the side,

that it stops being fun, so. Well, you said the idea of like, society heroicizing the bully, and I think that's not, you're close to it. I think the idea is that, like, pop culture has really focused on the idea of the bullied kid turning around and like and defeating the bully in some kind of show of strength or width.

In a way that, exactly, is on the same wavelength as the original bully challenge. That like, oh, if you're bullied, you should probably bully back. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like, turn this into your crucible for which your strength is forged. Okay, so he complains to his mom and his mom's like,

listen to him, she's concerned. It did, you're right, it did work for Conan. When he strapped to the wheel of pain? I would also say that Conan, let's just taking it at face value, he also lives in hyperborea, a time before time and a history before history, when only the strong survive

and the only law is the sword. So we don't live in that world anymore, you know? I mean, I feel like Conan really could have done with some therapy, you know? Yeah. I mean, everyone can, but especially a guy who's been strapped to the wheel of pain for his entire childhood, yeah.

Now, Conan, this thing about wanting to hear the lamentations of their women, that seems something we should unpack. It's true. I think he's just telling his audience what they want to hear, though, at that point. something we should unpack. It's true. I think he's just telling his audience what they want to hear though at that point. Yeah, he is, that is true. Okay, so-

He's playing to the crowd and the crowd is warlord, yeah. So Elliot has a baseball practice and Ray gets invited because of course he's a- I gotta go, sorry guys. I didn't mean to double book like this. Don't forget your short pants and long socks. No, you don't wear short pants when you play baseball. You don't wear short pants and long socks? No. You gotta slide into bases. You can't do that your short pants and long socks. No, you don't wear short pants when you play baseball.

You don't wear short pants and long socks? I've got to slide into bases. You can't do that in short pants. No, but I mean those pants that like... That go to mid-calf. Yeah, mid-calf. That's what I mean. Okay. They're like tight capris, right? Yeah, but they don't really wear those anymore.

They don't? No. They drink Capri Suns. They do that. I mean, that they do, yeah. That they do, young Daniel. That they do. They bigly chew.

They just chomp it down by the fistful. They're trying to teach kids not to use a starter pack on their way to chewing tobacco. So I think bigly chew is no longer the hit it once was. You know, bigly chew, if I'm remembering this correctly, one of the creators of it was Todd Phillips, the director. And then he got cut out of it, basically. Yes, Todd, no, not Todd Phillips, Todd Field. Todd Field, I'm sorry, Todd Field, yes,

not Todd Phillips, Todd Field, that's what I mean. Yes, I do, that is a true thing, or at least something that I've read, I don't know if it's true. Todd Field, thank you, of the two Todd's, the one who's moving inside the- The one who is in the bedroom. I don't know. Something I've heard. Todd Field, thank you. Of the two Todd's, the one who's... The one who is in the bedroom. I'd like a little more.

Yeah. Well, that's wonderful. Although, Tarr and Joker are kind of the same movie in a way, right? You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's that moment when Lydia Tarr gets joker-fied. Okay, so...

She's one step away. If there's any other fictional character who's going to be joker fight, I imagine it's Lydia Tarr. Yeah. So there, uh, they, Ray tags along to baseball practice because he's a, you know, former famous professional baseball player. And, uh, after, you know, after doing some coaching, they're like, Hey, Ray, why don't you give it a shot?

He takes a couple of swings and you're like, Oh man, yeah, this is probably a bad idea. And then he has this vision of the, he channels the power of the pool and he gets super baseball skills and strength. He sees visions of himself being a bad-ass baseball dude and he just dings that thing right into the fucking lights, baby. It's crazy. The lights tears part of the hide off that ball. Yeah. He's the natural. Um, okay. I mean, it was a supernatural.

Yep, that's true. Oh man, that's a better joke. Alex, delete what I just said and just make what Elliot said sound kind of like I said it or inspired. Mine doesn't make any sense without yours. Oh yeah, that makes sense too. Okay, so back home, Ray is kind of obsessed with the pool

and he's like staring at the TV of baseball highlights or whatever. He and his wife go out leaving the kids home alone. Elliot of course is customizing action figures, which is pretty cool. And then Izzy has her Christian swimming boy over. They play romantic Marco Polo in the pool for a little while, and then the ghost does some shenanigans. Christian Swimming Boy sounds like a poorly translated foreign romance novel. Yeah, it does. Yeah.

Yeah, so the ghost is like... And they were playing Marco Polo, so the ghost is now like, Polo, which seems silly to me. We're led to believe later that this is this kind of ancient force that's always been around. And the idea that it likes to toy with its victims seems silly to me, but. Well, you know, it's hung around long enough.

You know, it's picked up a few things, I guess. Unless this is like a Tom Bombadil type ancient evil force, which is very silly. Is this the part where she like sort of swims down and then she's in sort of a void beneath the pool and you can see like just like the one window of light. I thought it was pretty neat. I think so, that happens here and it happens later too.

But it is neat, it's a cool image. Impossibly deep, it's like she's traveling down into Raleigh where Cthulhu lies dead streaming. Live streaming, yeah. Dead Cthulhu live streaming or wait streaming. Is he just lying or is he waiting? He's waiting. Okay.

Or it depends. Because the waiting is the hardest part. Actually, you know what? When you're Cthulhu and the stars aren't right. Yeah. I think we should just take a boat out there and check. You know, I don't think this caused any problems. Well, let me call up, let me...

No one's ever had an issue doing that. No. In the history. I got this idol that I bought at a store and it gives me a headache when I look at it, but I think we should still check. Very, sounds legit. Okay, so afterwards Izzy wants to keep it quiet that the pool attacked her.

She and Ellie get into an argument, and at one point Izzy's like, what makes more sense, that the pool is helping us or that it's haunted? Like neither of them makes more sense, that the pool is helping us or that it's haunted? Like, neither of them makes sense technically, man. The pool. It shouldn't be either. She also doesn't want to get into trouble.

She doesn't want to get into trouble for having a boy over, too. She doesn't want to get into trouble, and also that, like, in general, aside from pool attacks, their life seems to be better. They haven't had to move as much, their father seems to be recovering. They haven't had to move as much. Their father seems to be recovering. They are hostages to his mood in a way that the movie is not,

doesn't really get into, but again, would make a better movie that when he is feeling strong physically. You mean a movie called The Shining? I mean, yes, in a lot of ways, yeah. But when he is feeling physically strong, the family is doing better, you know, because he is feeling confident and powerful. And exactly, so the family seems to be doing better. Why rock the boat just because this pool seems to have

a little bit of a haunted problem, you know. Speaking of rocking, it's time for a pool party. You don't make a movie about a haunted pool without a badass pool party, right Dan? You gotta have a pool party. And everybody shows up. You have a big hairless guy who's really weirdly muscular. I really wondered who that guy was

and why they invited him because nobody seems to like him and the dad doesn't know his name. He just calls him what a bald Shrek or something like that? Hairless Shrek. And I'm like Shrek's already hairless I think. I haven't checked out any stakers. Yeah, you haven't checked it all the way. I like...

But what if the fact is that he's hairless everywhere except downstairs and there's just a it's just a thick, tangled, thatch and thicket. Terrifying. Around his gnarled ogre penis, as crooked as a wizard's staff. I like this idea, Stuart, that I feel like you were sort of getting into, that a pool party has certain required characters, and one of them is a big hairless man. Yeah. I don't know who the others are.

He throws the kids around and always wants to play chicken and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And their realtor shows up with a super boozy cake and talks about her husband's famous G string as if that's some kind of threat. Yeah, it's really fun. The while like the party's going on, Eve is cutting some watermelon and learning Yeah, it's really fun. While the party's going on, Eve is cutting some watermelon and learning the tragic backstory of the house. Of course, any time a character is cutting something in a somewhat horror movie, I'm like,

don't cut your finger off, please. That stresses me out too much. But yeah, she learns that the previous owners had children had gone missing and there were some terrifying things. Meanwhile, in the pool, Ray takes a young baseball prodigy onto his shoulders to play chicken. They go deep into the water. The son of Elliot's baseball coach, who Ray connects with so easily because they're both into baseball. And you can tell Elliot is left out of this. So they get, you you know they're wrestling, Ray and the kid win but they end up getting getting too deep in the pool and then some like black water goes up Ray's nose and then he get ax possessed and he drags the kid even deeper into

the water and it's almost like he's trying to drown the kid. Yes and after this I mean so like the kid is you trying to drown the kid. Yes, and after this, I mean, so like the kid is, you know, they get the kid out. Elliot sees this from a distance, like raises the alarm, they get the kid out. Elliot is videotaping the party from what, his room? Which is creepy. He's acting like a little creep.

It's creepy. But he does, it does mean that he saves the kid's life. I don't think he's doing it for creepy reasons, right? No, I don't think so. There's no implication. No, this is, he can only live through a screen, like so many of us. Exactly. Yes, I mean, it's a little bit, the movie briefly turns into The F implication. No, this is, he can only live through a screen like so many of us. Yes, I mean, it's a little bit,

the movie briefly turns into The Fablemen's, I guess, yeah. Yeah, but he saves the kid, and then his dad is also almost drowned, and they bring him back, and the parents of the kid, look, I get that you're going to be mad that this happened. This is terrifying. Your child almost died,

but the degree to which they're like, you stay away from our family. I'm like, well, there is an explanation here that this man has a disease that maybe made him clamp onto this kid and he almost drowned too. Like it felt like such a horror movie thing of like, not just like I am angry and shaken,

but like stay away from us, you know? I mean, I can understand it to some extent, but it's also like, I am angry and shaken, but like, stay away from us, you know? I mean, I can understand it to some extent, but it's also like, I think the first part is correct. Like, I feel like people, when presented with something that even in a rational moment, they'd be like, oh, he is suffering from an illness. Yeah. It wasn't his fault, but in the heat of the moment,

you're like, stay away from us. Yeah, I've seen parents react that way to things. Like, I think it is partly a heat of the moment, you're like, stay away from us. Yeah, I've seen parents react that way to things. I think it is partly a heat of the moment thing. Their son did almost drown. So they are, the party's over, it was kind of a hit, but it had a bummer ending. It did not have a great ending, that's true. And they're like, and though the parents

aren't going to press charges. I made all this jello, and everybody left before they ate it. What am I going to do with this? On the plus side, there was watermelon. On the minus side, there were two near drownings. So they're kind of shunned by the parents and the local community. Eve's first decision is like, we need to get the fuck out of here. There's something wrong with this pool.

Ray's like, I don't think so. We shouldn't. I love the pool. But they get in the car and they try and leave. There's something wrong with this pool. Ray's like, I don't think so. We shouldn't. I love the pool. But they get in the car and they try and leave. But then Ray starts choking on water. What? What's happening? So they got to stick his ass in bed and Eve starts to do some detective work. She does a little bit of Google work. She does the kind of research that and I know they were in a rush to buy this house.

The kind of research most people would do before buying a house. Yeah. Is looking up whatever you can online about the past history of it. I certainly did that before I bought my house. Yeah. Yeah. Was there any terrifying backstory? Sadly, no. Oh, yeah. Just a regular house. Yeah. So she's able to kind of hoping to be a murder. It would be like a murder house or maybe like a mysterious, you know, like, uh, you know, a gangster lived here and maybe buried some gold gold in the basement and he's going to want it back, but there's not even a basement. TV sucked a child into it in this house in the past. Yeah, exactly. Nothing like that.

Didn't have a black dolly or anything? No, nothing. Not a dolly of any color whatsoever. Okay, that's too bad. Purple though? So her Google work leads her to a very lovely home owned by Lucy, an older woman, that we learned was the mother of Rebecca, the little girl we saw in the beginning. Yeah, former psychiatrist, unlicensed, used to pull a football away from another kid.

Yeah, same Lucy. Yeah, I mean, it was after that that she got that drug that let her use 100% of her brain, right? Yes. Yeah, exactly. That's how she ended up in the sky with all the diamonds. Yeah. Okay.

So is the Lucy from the movie supposed to have gone back in time and met Lucy the hominin? Is that the hominin? Is that part of the movie or no? Because she does meet like a pre human Like I think so. Yeah. Yeah I wonder if that's supposed to be the famous Lucy that was dug up In the in the 60s, you know, yeah, you might be right actually Man, that's trippy stuff right that movie. What about it? What a ridiculous movie so much of it is a Samuel is that is Sorry is is a is a dream in?

Oh, no is Morgan Freeman just lecturing made up nonsense? Where he's like, oh yeah, 50% of the brain's used, you can travel through time. And his audience is like, uh-huh, yes. What science is this still taught? This is an audience that has been doped down by explaining YouTube videos that are like, check out this crazy good spirit.

Yeah, it's true. Okay, so she has a conversation with this woman. You learn that her son is a huge success. What is he, a senator or something? He's like a diplomat. Yeah, he's a big deal. He's involved in some kind of international aid work. And he had a horrible illness when he was a kid

that he miraculously recovered from. This conversation happens inside a dimly lit parlor that has a very noticeable water feature that is also very loud. At one point, it's a weird indoor water feature. Yeah. Lucy's explaining the she's explaining the kind of the history of the region and the water of the region and basically explaining the the mystery of how this ancient aquifer heals people but requires a sacrifice in return. And she explains this while she's pouring herself a glass

of water and spilling water all over the place. When she is pouring the water, it is kind of funny. She is so overflowing. It's supposed to be spooky, but it just comes off as like, she's so distracted she's not paying attention to what she's doing. This scene definitely puts a lot of weight on the idea that we're just gonna find any water scary. And I'm like, is this, I don't know, is this the same water?

I'm led to believe that this pool is scary, but why am I led to believe that all water is a simple evil? You're supposed to be in the audience being like, there's water, it's so frightening. My own body, 80% of my own body. I can't escape it. Packing cells away. Yeah, exactly. Get the water out of me. Yeah, the audience is the aliens from signs. Spoiler if you haven't seen signs yet.

OK, so Eve, you know, Eve is concerned. She's like, that's not that's not a real like a sacrifice. Isn't like in this situation, you, you're doing something for benefit. You traded your daughter's life for your son's life. And then Lucy starts to act weird, and then black stuff starts oozing out of her eyes and mouth, and then she speaks with the voice of the water. And she's like...

You know what? You know what? I thought she seemed familiar. Sorry, guys, I'm going to have to break into a little episode of Elliot in the Isles. That's right. Lucy is played by Jodie Long, who among her other roles, she's an Emmy award winner. I saw her last year in A Little Night Music at the Pasadena Playhouse. She was playing the older the older former actress who was kind of reminiscing

about her, the lovers that she had. She was really good in it. She was really, really good. Did she have black water oozing from her eyes during that performance? No, she didn't. Strangely enough, in this performance of A Little Night Music, Steven Sondheim's musical about kind of like love and how love kind of runs its course or returns and the foolish ways that love makes us act, she did not have black water pouring out of her eyes

at any point. Yeah, you didn't go see A Little Night Swim music. I think it would have been a strong choice, Elliot. I don't know. I talked to the directors. I mean, I didn't produce this production. I didn't put it up. I just went and saw it.

I thought Elliot was going to say talk to the hand because he's lifted his hand up. But it was a great production. Anyone gets a chance to go back in time to the production of A Little Night Music hand up. But it was a great production. Anyone gets a chance to go back in time to the production of the Little Night Music of the Bastille and the Playhouse. I guess let's say he used 50% of my brain. I can do that.

Okay, so. He was really good and she was really good in it. So Eve flees the evil woman possessed by the water. Meanwhile, Ray's at home taking a shower and guess what? He gets possessed by the water too. The pool then lures Elliot out to the pool using the sound of the cat. And he thinks he's helping the cat and then is, I'm guessing, a ghost cat or something. And it drags him into the water.

And then the magic evil pool starts closing the pool cover to trap Elliot in the water. Eve runs out. Eve and Izzy try and stop the pool cover. And they I guess they stop at about halfway. She dives in after her son while Izzy runs inside to go get help. She slips on water. Oh, no. And you can't get away from it. It's a handful of broken glass for trouble.

Meanwhile, her dad starts chasing her around shining style, saying Marco Polo and shit. And also he has like the water seems to be leaking out of him, like he's Hydro Man. Meanwhile, underwater the pools impossibly deep. She swims deeper and deeper until she finds her son floating down there. They are beset by ghosts and spirits. They like she's dragging her son out and they find the ghost of Rebecca, who gives them a magical quarter, and that gives them the idea to swim in which direction to escape.

They can put that in the machine from Big, so that they can get a wish. Zoltar? Zoltar? Yeah, yeah, something like that. Zoltar or Zoltan? It's Zolt something like that. Zoltar or Zoltan? It's Zoltar, but I'm not sure. Oh, like the movie Tar. You got it. What if the movie Tar was about she turned into that machine or she got a wish from it?

What if? Yeah, yeah, well, if that was her defense for her behavior, she's like, I'm just a little kid who got big. I didn't know better. My moral sense isn't developed. Okay, so Izzy, so they like, they get out of the water and then Ray shows up and then Izzy starts hitting him with a bat. So she beats him with a bat because he's being a brat. And he starts having visions of the good times they had, and then the water starts pouring out of him, and he's back to normal.

But Elliot is still not recovering. The pool won't let him go. So Ray knows what he has to do. He goes swimming into the water and Yep, he sacrifices himself Yep, it's really great That's it. That's the end of the movie. Well, no, I don't know. There's one and there's one last little bit at the end they're like They talk about how like they could move and the daughter's like but then it'll just happen to another family

Dad wouldn't want that. And this is while the pool is being filled in, which is like what I was saying, like just fill in the pool. Like I don't know why they can't fill in the pool and then move. That's true. But also what I like is they're watching the pool

being filled in. They are feet away from the pool as this bulldozer is about to dump a bunch of stuff into it. It's just like, there's no way of letting them stand that close to this construction site. Like, you gotta step back a little bit. But yes, they are filling in the pool and they will be the guardians, I guess for eternity,

passed down from generation to generation of this evil, demonic, freshwater spring. To invoke Poltergeist again, it's like when Craig T. Nelson pushes the TV out of the hotel room at the end. This is, you know is filling in the pool. Yeah, similar level of joke. Okay, well, the Shocktober category.

Yeah, what are they? Was this totally scarifying? Was it totally snorifying? Or was it frighteningly funny? And of course, totally scarifying is the equivalent to kinda liked it. Here's the thing, I didn't like this movie, but if there was a category that's like,

yeah, I don't know, I don't mind this, well, you would kind of fall in there. So even with our special October categories, we still have the same problem we always have, which is the categories don't know. I don't mind this. Well, we kind of fall in there. Even with our special October categories, we still have the same problem we always have, which is the categories don't adequately explain human art. Yeah, they don't encompass all of existence. If you're going to pin me down, I'd go mild snorifying. But the thing is, actually, there's some stuff in this movie

I liked okay. I think, you know, Carrie Condon and Wyatt Russell, both actors I like, I think they know Carrie Condon and Wyatt Russell both actors I like I think they do a good job in the movie. I think the movie actually looks pretty stylish During a lot of it. Yeah, it's a movie. Yeah It's just too thin an idea to sustain a whole film even at a relatively short length It feels like the fun of a movie about a haunted pool The fun would be the different ways you force characters

to have to be in the pool or go to the pool. And instead the characters just kind of keep going swimming. Like there's no, it's not, there's no, the fun of like why these characters have to be dragged to a pool. It feels like there's such a commitment to the, like the real story of it, like the family drama element of it.

And as you said, like that's in many ways more interesting than the kind of mishmash of kind of overdone haunted stuff ideas. But it also makes it less of an effective horror movie because I'm like, well, I want it to be fun and scary. I don't want to. Yeah, if it was more drama, it would be better. If it was a silly or a horror movie,

it would be better probably. Yeah, it's trying to be both and it succeeds not at all. I would say it's snorifying. I would also call it snorifying. Again, I would, I'd rather see it, like I said, I'd rather see this movie without the pool and just have it be a family movie, but as it is, I agree. It falls between two stories.

You could still call it Night's Rules. Yeah, so I mean, it be a family movie, but as it is, I agree. It falls between two schools. You could still call it Night Swim. Yeah, I mean, it could still be about, like, they have a pool. Like, you can still have a pool in the movie. It still could be called Night Swim, but it's a, yeah, it's kind of not silly enough to be a pool horror movie and it's not deep enough. It's not shallow enough to be a good horror movie and it's not deep enough to be a good drama,

but they're trying. You know what? Give them credit for trying. You know what? Give them credit for trying, you know? Sure, yeah. Everybody had fun. Participation trophy for Night Swim. Yeah.

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it and then you told us he told us about it. It's true. Good job. And now I'm going to tell the listeners about something. Hey, everybody, it's not just October. It's not just spooky season. It's flop TV season. That's right. Flop TV season two, the one hour televised online version of the Flophouse where we broadcast live

the first Saturday of every month and then that episode is available to watch at your leisure afterwards. It's going on right now. Each episode is packed with entertainment. There's a new presentation by one of us, a video segment from one of us. We take questions from the viewers

and we give the Flophouse treatment to a movie we've never covered on the podcast before. And this season, Dan, what's it all about? Sequels. That's right, sequels. We're talking about movies that are's it all about? Sequels. That's right. Number twos. We're talking about movies that are real number twos. Sequels that is. We already had our Robocop 2 episode.

This episode will be coming out after we do our Breakin' 2 episode. That's the Electric Boogaloo, of course. And our next episode coming up will be on- Famously. Yes, famously. Our next episode will be on Saturday, November 2nd at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. We'll be talking Caddyshack 2. It's all number two movies.

And then later on in the season, we'll be doing Ski School 2, Highlander 2, Ninja Turtles 2, Secret of the U's, lots of twos. We love the number two. Stewart's eyes lit up as soon as Ski School 2 was mentioned. Like, oh, finally, some good shit. Something for Stewart. Yeah, something for me.

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and now we're really pushing it even more. We're doing more with video, we're having more fun, we're joking more, laughing more, living more, loving more, learning more, twice of everything. My doctor just told me I'm not allowed to love anymore. At all? I'm already loving too much, guys. Okay. Your heart's too big. My heart is too big. Also, I'd like to make a little plug here, guys, love anymore.

Your heart's too big. My wife Charlene is opening a studio gym in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. It's called Jiggle Studio. It is a body positive studio gym that is focused on moving the body you have. The Kickstarter just went up because we are hoping to get some help opening this cool little space. You can find us on Instagram at jiggle underscore studio BK. You can find us on Kickstarter. We're already doing really well, but every little bit helps to help us get over that finish line.

There's some cool rewards, including shirts, water bottles, etc. There's some and there's some cool art done by some local artists and fans of the show. And every little bit helps so you can go check that out. She's worked very hard on this and I'm very proud of her. So please check that out. She's worked very hard on this and I'm very proud of her. So please check that out. Hey and you know while we're talking about stuff I want to say if you haven't subscribed to the Flophouse newsletter, Flop Secrets, if you go to flophousepodcast.com there's a field where you can put your email in there and it lets you know about what we're all up to.

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You know just some silly comedy stuff is in there. So you know why not? If you're interested, why not? That's my slogan. It's a cool way to make sure you don't miss any of the various things that we are doing. Yes, and it's literally free. It's free. It's true. Hey there, it's KT at Max Fun. Have you listened to the Flophouse's bonus content?

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starting at just five bucks a month. And when you do, you get to feel good because you're supporting the show, and you also get access to the bonus content for every other Max Fun show too. So go on over to maximumfun.org slash join. Thank you so much for your support. Let's move on to letters from listeners.

This first letter. Open up that spooky Halloween mailbag. Ooh. Ooh. Are those letters or are those the, is that the hair of the dead witch? These are her eyeballs, ooh. These are her letters.

These are her field grapes. Oh no. We just received this from the ghost office. Oh, I mean, honestly, that's pretty fucked up that you just be like have a bunch of spaghetti like cook spaghetti and like peeled grapes. Yeah, what kind of meal is that? That's crazy. I guess the opposite of the Atkins diet, right?

A lot of carbs. Yeah. This is from Ben Last name withheld, who writes? Ben 10. Hi peaches. My wife and I love each other immensely and we have a lot of the same tastes and things. Food. Sounds like it's working out.

Well, no problem here, we can move on. Tastes and things, food, humor, vacations, books, et cetera, all golden but not in a creepy way. The only major sticking point. I'm sure et cetera encompasses a startling range of sexual peccadilloes as well. Yeah. The only major sticking point we have is film choices.

She's got more of an arthouse taste and I have a more flop house palette. She loves your podcast by the way. We can sometimes meet on certain grounds like A24 Films, Edgar Wright, Wes Anderson, Sorry Not Sorry, and such. However, a lot- I think that was directed at Stewart since listeners should know.

I think Wes Anderson is a film artist of the high school. Yeah. Yeah, no, there's only one third of the podcast that's directed it. However, a lot of the time- He's not listening, guys. Be our friend. However, a lot of the time, we end up sitting on the couch, lobbying titles at one another, then eventually settling on Taskmaster, which is great, but we're running out of episodes. Any advice?

Thank you in Godspeed. Ben, last name withheld. I mean, it seems like the first thing is you could alternate. That's the first thing, yeah. Honestly, that was also where I was, like, I feel like I have this problem too with Audrey, where it's not like we don't like the thing that the other person wants to watch. Most of the time we do, but we also want to be in control.

We want to be the one saying, like, this is the thing that I'm interested in tonight, and the best thing we've found to do is to just alternate choices. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, and if you want any, I'm sure that they also want like some, um, some, uh, middle ground movie, middle suggestions, you know? I mean, like, uh, although the first one that comes off top of my head is sorry

to bother you is a movie that I feel like is it, it's an somewhat of an artsy movie, but it's also somewhat of a bonkers movie. So maybe, somewhat of a bonkers movie so maybe and I think it's a great movie I think it's really great so that could be one that that does something you know but there are plenty of artsy movies that are also on the stranger end of things you know because that's another one house house that's another, you know. Yeah. And House. And the American House. It's very artsy. Yes. I think maybe like George Wentz in it, dude.

Like take a stroll to you through that psychotronic video guide. Maybe make a kind of a love game out of it. You know, I would say we have recommended a lot of movies on this podcast and you can you can do, I'm sure we've recommended some artsy ones. We've recommended- Some fartsy ones? Oh, you beat me to it. Oh. So yeah, I would, yeah.

I thought you were saying, like just like alternate back and forth between Elliot and Stuart picks and then- And occasionally meet in the middle of the Dan pick. Yeah. I'm not allowed to say Dan picks anymore anymore. Uh-huh. Yeah, you never too many megabytes of data The family plans fucked up because of Dan so they can't send me

Yeah, the flatbass family plan Like dude you use the poor data More than his fair share. Yeah, the Flop House family plan. Yeah. Like, dude, you used up all our data. This is from AndrewLastNameWithheld. Even used up all my data action figures from my SDTNG collection. AndrewLastNameWithheld writes, hey guys! Did you say that loudly? Well he did have an exclamation point. I get it.

Okay, fair, fair. Your Roadhouse episode. Hey, real quick guys. What? When you guys communicate with people digitally, do you use a lot of exclamation points? I use more than usual. Yeah, do I use too many? No, no.

I feel like there's such a presumption of passive aggressive anger in digital communication. You need to use exclamation points more than you actually mean to. Yeah, real talk. Like, do I use too many emojis, guys? Yes, but that's a different thing. Do you? No, I don't think so. I don't. more than you actually mean to. Or I can delete all these gifts that I don't need. I guess so. My palm trio isn't running as fast as it should. All my beautiful gifts are being thrown in the garbage. It's hard to get those gifts these days. This is the dumbest thing, but I was like,

when I was trying to make a PowerPoint, I was trying to find gifts, and I feel like there's a couple of websites that have like locked them down so you can't just easily save those things. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, the internet, it's harder to find things in general than it used to be, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's almost like tech companies are bad and don't have the user's interests in mind.

It's almost like that, but I know that's not the case. They love us. In Shitification. Hey guys, your Roadhouse episode reminded me of something I've been thinking about. Roadhouse. Opening a roadhouse? Yeah. Advice? Uh, why do you think... Yeah, like where can I get a fencing person who can fence in my band?

Yeah. I mean any person who builds fences can probably do that for you. I've seen chain link fences for outside the building, but where do you find those ones that go inside the building? Good fences make good bands, as Robert Frost said. Why do you think they used to make so many TV shows about a hero who goes from town to town, meeting new people and solving their problems before driving off into the sunset?

And crucially, why do they mostly stop making these? The example I know best is the A-Team. The craziest example I can think of is the Canadian show, The Littlest Hobo. Yeah, The Littlest Hobo. In which the hero. It was a kid, yeah. The hero was a dog.

Oh, a dog, sorry, not a kid, a dog, yeah. I think a lot of cowboy shows were like this, and now I can only think of Jack Reacher. Were we more trusting of armed strangers in the past? Did we want to become armed travelers? Or did writers used to enjoy writing these stories and then they got tired of it? Thanks a bunch.

Andrew Lastname withheld. I mean, I feel like there's a couple like, for shows that are currently still like that, I mean, Poker Face, the Natasha Lyonne, Ryan Johnson show, is exactly that. Roaming Colombo. And also there's that show Tracker. Roaming Colombo's High School Reunion? Yeah.

Yeah, Tracker is like that. Tracker's exactly that. And the thing is his name isn't even fucking Tracker. It's something else that's like super cool though. He does have a ridiculous name, but his name should be like Zack Tracker. Yeah. Zack Tracker will get your man backer. Yeah.

There's two reasons. There's two reasons why they used to make these shows and they don't make it anymore. One is episodic versus serialization. TV shows used to always be episodic because under the understanding is once they air the first time, they will never air in that order ever again. If they go into syndication, they will air in random order. You don't want a viewer to feel like they had to see all the episodes leading up to this one

in order to start watching, because you may be in the third season of a show and you want new viewers to try it. So shows back then were serialized, sorry, were episodic, not serialized. And a way that you could do that more easily is if it's almost an anthology of stories where the same main character interacts

with new people each time. You don't have it going over from one episode to the next. You don't have to worry about it. They're easier to make that way, easier to distribute that way. It's just the way that people watch television back then is different than the way they watch it. If you back then, if you might miss an episode, you may never see it. So you can't have big story points that are necessary for a much-earned episode. The other is economically, it used to be a lot cheaper to make shows like that. You could pay the actors less

because they were cycling through in and out. There were a lot more kind of standing sets you could just rent. There were a lot more locations you could just go to to shoot things cheaply. And now a lot of that stuff is just much more expensive. It's cheaper now to have like a few places that you shoot and not be kind of just going out to some valley somewhere

and shooting a bunch of stuff and then coming back. And it's just a different economics in the way that industry works. So those are two very valid, very real reasons. But the main one is I think that unfortunately, except for network television, everyone decided that they liked serialized storytelling the best. And I would argue that this is a, this was a bad move for television. It was at first when things moved to serialization,

it seemed like it was having an enriching effect on television. It was making more sophisticated. You could tell deeper stories. But I kind of feel like it's time for us to swerve back in the other direction because when I watch it, when I try a new TV show, I don't want to always have to start with the first episode and I don't want to always have to jump into the middle of the series and have to pick up with the story as whereas if you wanted to watch a new episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, Columbo, Incredible Hulk, A-Team, any of those, you could literally just be like, okay, I'll watch the episode that is on tonight and I'll see if I like it. Well, there should definitely be more of a healthy mix.

Like, like Abby's saying, in moderation, you know, like let's have the serialized stuff, let's have the ones you can just dip in and out. Those are also a delight, and you know, I think you answered this much better than I could, so. Hey, no problem, dude. I would also, this is just my personal bailiwick right now, but I would argue that serialization

has hurt comedy shows especially, because it is hard for characters to remain funny if they are accumulating the trauma of previous episodes over multiple seasons. And it's like Barry in the beginning could be like a dark comedy. And then at a certain point it was just like, it just became a dark show with minimal comedy,

because at that point the characters had been through so much horror that like, you can't do that anymore. I think that is a tough example because I feel like that show is exactly what the creators wanted it to be. Maybe, maybe it is. And then I'll try to think of some other ones, but I feel like there is a,

I feel like serialization fights the kind of like, the kind of fun of comedy. Well, I do think that there's something to be said in comedy for, like, you know, on the one hand, you wanna get to know these characters, like comedies are always gonna be funny, funnier once you know the characters.

It's why, you know, like the first season of sitcoms is rarely the best season of a sitcom. But on the other hand, there is something where you want a reset. You kind of want it to be like a newspaper comic strip where it's like no one ages, no one changes. Like no one learns from their mistakes. Yeah.

Setting aside the all the racism in it, Seinfeld is such a funny show to me, partly because the characters accumulate cast members, like they remember things that happened before, but they're not emotionally affected by it. So it's not a matter of like, ugh, I'm still carrying all the feelings that I had from when this thing happened, because that fights comedy for me. Yeah.

Let's move on to recommendations. I'm going to put Stuart up first, because I think I know where he's going to go here. You know, I just sent away from my kit and I injected the activator into my veins, baby. I've been substance-pilled. Man, I fucking loved the substance. If you haven't heard about it, it is a like a body horror, gonzo feminist movie starring Demi Moore

and Margaret Qualley. Yeah, it's great. It's like super intense, super in your face, directed by Coraline Farragut, is that her name, who directed that movie Revenge, which is also very good. And it's, yeah, it's like, to me, I've heard it compared to a David Cronenberg movie, and I feel like that's a little bit false.

I feel like the closest thing it makes me think of is like a like a very stylish, very focused Brian Usenow movie. And it is a little bit long, but I feel like I'll cut it some slack because I think I think everything along that movie makes sense. Every step makes sense. And it goes it gets wilder and crazier and it's really fun. I loved it, it's super intense and fun. To me, it reminded me of the biggest,

most stylish Tales from the Crypt episode because it has such a very focused morality tale plot line and the same sort of cruel gonzo comedy too. Yeah, and I mean Demi Moore gives such, the plot line and the same sort of cruel gonzo comedy too. Yeah, and I mean, Demi Moore gives such, the physicality of her performance is so incredible. She is all in on this and it's really, really great. Well, also part of the reason I wanted to set Stuart up first is that my movie recommendation is, in a weird way, on sort of similar themes.

I recently saw A Different Man, which is also kind of about a person going through a dramatic physical transformation and the emotional. I can't believe I walked into this. Yeah, I was a trap. Oh man, wait, I'm the butcher and I'm trapped in. Yeah, I was a trap. Oh man, wait, I'm the butcher and I'm trapped in. And the substance is sort of a wild, gross horror movie.

A different man is sort of more a emotionally painful, wry comedy. Like it starts out sort of like grounded in semi-realism, even though absurd things happen. it starts out sort of like grounded in semi realism, even though absurd things happen. And then the twist that it takes as this character has a new face and changes, and then finds himself in situations where like, it's hard to, I don't want to get into it

without wall spoiling, because I think that part of the pleasure is seeing it unfold, but he finds himself in these situations that he can't be totally honest about who he is, and because he's gone through these physical changes, he emotionally doesn't really know who he is, and the way it compiles and compounds upon itself just has a lot of just sort of knife twisting like awkward humor to it.

And so I also enjoyed that a lot. Elliot. My recommendation is a fun movie. It's not one that I think is super amazing, but it's certainly an entertaining way to spend it. Sp spend your time. And there's one thing in particular I really liked about it and that's the movie, The Verdict from 1946, not The Verdict with Paul Newman, which is a great movie.

This is The Verdict. This is the first movie that Don Siegel directed as a feature length film. So the movie stars Sydney Greenstreet as a Scotland Yard superintendent who has accidentally sent the wrong man to the gallows and now is living with the shame of that.

And his best friend who is Peter Lorre, who is kind of like a suave creep. And I really love Peter Lorre's performance in this movie. He comes off as such a like, such a decadent cool guy. Oh, do you think that guy can be a creep? You think Peter Lorre can be a believable creep? But he doesn't come off as like a creep who's like creepy. Instead, he's just kind of like a guy

who's always on the make. He's always looking for girls in a good time. And Sydney Greenstreet now is, there's a friend of his is accused of a murder and he has to try to get him off the charges and the replacement superintendent of Scotland Yard, George Caloris from Citizen Kane and The Prisoner, is determined to prove that he knows what he's doing

and Sydney Green Street is wrong. And just a fun little kind of like murderous mystery movie with a twist at the end. But I really love Peter Laurie's performance in it. It's great to see Peter Laurie playing a character who is not like a, who is not a monster in some way, but instead it's just kind of like the ladies man, you know. I went to my letterbox.

I see it's already in my watch list. I think because Tarantino mentioned it in cinema speculation, his book, I believe. He might have. He may have mentioned it in that. It's a Don Siegel movie and he is a fan. And it's funny to see, it's funny to see a Don Siegel movie and yeah, he is a fan and it's funny to see it's funny to see a Don Siegel movie that It in many ways it has similar things with his other movies But it's funny to watch him working in a like

1890s London milieu when I think of him as more of like an American action filmmaker, you know while we're in recommendations I just remembered I wanted to say if you live in New York I just remembered, I wanted to say, if you live in New York, I just saw friend of the show, Natalie Walker, who was on our Cats episode, on the, what, the Sharon Tate, Haunting of Sharon Tate episode. She was kind enough to do the reading of The Boy Next Door with us on YouTube.

She is appearing in a show called Big Gay Jamboree the big gauge every Off-Broadway downtown. That's the original title of the country bear jamboree. Yeah I you know, I look it doesn't need our help. I think it's doing pretty well. There was a sellout crowd But if you're in New York It was really good and she was really funny in it. And it was exciting to see her in a show that good. So check it out if you can. Yeah, and I guess that's the end

of our first Shocktober episode. So spooky. For 2024. Boo-gins, as Stuart likes to say. As Stoog Stuart likes to say. Thank you to Maximum Fun, our podcast network over at MaximumFun.org. You can listen to a lot of other great podcasts,

funny ones, ones that'll learn ya something. Check it out. Thank you to Alex Smith, our producer. He goes by HowlDottie all over the internet. He does music, he does Twitch streams, check his stuff out. But that's it for the Flophouse. I've been Dan McCoy. I've been Stuart Wellington.

I've been Ellie Kaelin. Okay. Bye. On this episode we discuss night swim. Let me caution you. If you are a knight, do not go swimming. Your heavy armor will drag you to the bottom of the pool. You will drown. This is a safety update from the flop house.

Very relevant to this movie. But what if there's a lady in that lake? Just let her throw you a sword from her own location. You stay on the shore. Okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artist-owned shows. Supported.

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