The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #2: The Amityville Horror (1979) & The Conjuring 2 (2016) (Reupload)

Episode Date: April 2, 2021

In this episode, we review the new James Wan film, "The Conjuring 2'" then put on our leisure suits and get back to 1979 for the original "The Amityville Horror." Sometimes you just need to get out of the house. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns THR Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorrorreturns/ Join THR Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1056143707851246 THR X: https://twitter.com/horror_returns?s=21&t=XKcrrOBZ7mzjwJY0ZJWrGA THR Instagram: https://instagram.com/thehorrorreturns?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= THR TeePublic: https://www.teepublic.com/user/the-horror-returns SK8ER Nez Podcast Network: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-p3n57-c4166 E Society Spotify For Podcasters: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/esoc E Society YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCliC6x_a7p3kTV_0LC4S10A Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

Greetings, listeners, you have found the horror returns. For all of you who delight and dread, fantasize about fear and glorify gore, welcome home. This is the podcast that proves that the horror never ends. Each episode, we seek out and review a brand new horror movie or book. Then we go back and find a classic work with similar themes, looking at both similarities and differences. Our goal is to explore how our perceptions of fear remain the same from generation to generation, but also point out how the presentation can change based on the social and the political climate of the times. Although we always do our best to avoid spoiling the new release,

sometimes it may be necessary to talk about certain details in the course of our conversation. We generally assume you guys have already seen the classic film, so there will often be spoilers when discussing anything that has been out for at least one year. The other thing we may do from time to time is use a few four-letter words. This is a horror podcast, and horror movies tend to be R-rated, so you can pretty much expect us to be, too. Let's start with our highlights of the week. Brian, Philip, what did you guys check out this week? Philip?

Man, I didn't really watch a whole lot this week. I watched my movies and The Ultimate Fighter. That's about all I can give to you, man. It's that and work. Any horror in that? any broken bones or anything? No, no. It wasn't real super scary.

Except, you know, coming home late, my wife gets mad. She's kind of scary. That's horror enough. Brian, what about you, man? Been a little bit under the weather this past week, so I only checked out one movie. And Crimson Peak. It's okay.

It's more of a, like, the best way I've heard it described is a gothic love story. See, I heard bad things, but it looked interesting. I wanted to see it. It's like Guillermo del Toro, right? Yeah, it being his movie, that's where it was a little underwhelming. Expect it a little bit more.

That makes me sad. And checked out first episode of Preacher. Oh, yeah, that was kind of cool. Yeah, we saw that too, man. What did you guys make of that? A lot going on in that first episode. Yeah, I'm not sure I get it yet, but I'm interested. Yeah, probably, I heard you'd be able to get it better if you read the book.

Well, I would imagine, but, yeah. Dude, it's an AMC TV series, you know? A lot of people haven't read The Walking Dead, and it became amazing. A matter of fact, I won't read ahead in The Walking Dead just so I can watch it happen in the show. Yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you one thing about the first episode of Preacher. watching it with my wife and I was really uncomfortable. I kept looking over and saying, gee, this is really kind of weird, isn't it?

Because I was thinking she wasn't enjoying it. And by the time the show ended, I said, well, you're probably not going to finish these up with me, are you? And I was kind of surprised to hear her say, yeah, I want to know what's going to happen next. So who knows? You know, have you guys seen the second one yet? I haven't seen it yet. No, I haven't either.

but they had that one show with the samurai guys and it was like in a futuristic post-apocalyptic but everybody into the bad land into the bad lands yeah I thought that was super cool what happened to it is it still going I think it's coming back for a second season

okay because the first season was like I don't know six episodes and then I don't know what happened to it yeah and that that's a pretty much all I checked out. Well, I, uh, I had the pleasure of watching a, a movie that goes by the name of Zumbies. You guys heard of this one? Oh, yeah. I saw it. I didn't watch it. Saw it, but didn't watch it. And Brian, I think you had something to say about it too, didn't you? Yeah, I turned it off after about 15, 20 minutes.

Well, I couldn't do it no more. I'll tell you what, for a movie that you're watching with a five-year-old, and a 10-year-old, it was a blast. It was a blast. I really loved it. I love the horrible, cheesy special effects. I mean, you're talking to CGI so bad that it's almost like looking at a video game

superimposed over a movie. That kind of makes me want to watch it. It was horrible. Yeah, absolutely. And then you've got a little girl that beats the shit out of a rabid raccoon with a baseball bat. I mean, it happens off screen.

It happens off screen. You don't actually see it, but that kind of, kind of makes it a little bit funnier too, actually. So, yeah, I mean, I enjoyed the heck out of it. If you're in the right frame of mind, I would say if you're with a younger crowd or if you're on some kind of mind-altering substances,

it's probably a good thing to watch. So I had fun with it. Shark Nado-ish? Very shark-nadoish. We take a look at the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. Brian, what's our first new trailer to talk about this week? Our first trailer to talk about is the ring

versus the grudge. Oh boy. I'm not buying it. Is that a real thing? I didn't think so until I actually seen the trailer and I still don't think it's a real thing. Okay, but when we saw

the YouTube trailer of it, there was a bunch of the ring versus the conjuring on the side of the screen. So I'm not entirely sure how real what I just watched was. Yeah, I don't know.

looked a little too comedic for me. Yeah. I just, I don't know. I just, I wasn't feeling it at all. Okay, so Lance, Lance tells me to watch it, and I think, no, this is not a thing. What are you trying to do to me? And I thought it was going to be completely retarded. Are the Wayans brothers in this movie?

Because I'm not watching this preview. But after watching the preview for it, it doesn't look terrible. it almost turns it video game-esque, you know, and looks like an action movie. Yeah, I could see that. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be good. Yeah, well, it looks like.

I'll tell you what, guys, I'm going to disagree. Brian, did you like it at all? Are you looking forward to this? No, I'm not looking forward to this one. Okay, I'm going to be more on your side. As far as I'm concerned, I never really did get into any of the Japanese horror movies that much. I will tell you one thing,

from the trailer, though, these Japanese kids sure do no fashion, don't they? I actually like the Japanese horror stuff, man. It was creepy when creepy wasn't around anymore. But yeah, it's... I never got much out of you, guys.

I mean, you know, teach their own, I guess, but I don't know. I was just never a huge fan of that stuff. Am I going to pay money for it? No, but while I watch it? Yeah. Yeah. I can kind of agree with that.

Yeah, I think I'm going to pass on this one, guys. Yeah, it's a pass for me, too. So please tell me we have something else to choose from this week, trailer-wise, Brian. And our next trailer is Clown. Yes! I loved it. Okay. At first, in the trailer, it looked a little cheesy, and I was kind of thinking the same sort of thing that I was with the ring versus,

is the grudge. It's like, what are we watching here? Is this some sort of it knock off or something? And then the further end of the trailer I got, it looked really interesting. I'm a little bit psyched about this. I really want to watch it. Yeah, this has

David Cronenberg body horror written all over it. You know, that's what I got from the trailer and the fact that the guy couldn't get the clown suit off no matter what he tried to do and it was becoming part of him. And I think it was explained that it was demon skin

or something of that nature. I'm really intrigued by this one. Yeah, did you feel like the trailer gave away a little bit too much? Possibly. Possibly. Because I mean, you know, you would hope that a movie like that you wouldn't know exactly what was going to go on. But at the same time,

it was kind of almost like maybe it had to, you know? Yeah. Yeah. People to watch it. I know it was filmed quite a long time ago, from what I understand it, it's been filmed for a few years, hasn't it? I believe and that's always a bad sign

yeah I believe since 2013, 2014 something like that I had no idea because it looks it looks like an indie film because it's such a different kind of concept

but I and I think that's probably why they gave so much away in the preview because I mean if you I mean you're not you're probably not going to create a lot of buzz

out of this movie especially if it's older which I didn't know until now but I still think it looks interesting and the preview made me want to see it more. Well, it's produced by Eli Roth, but I noticed that it's directed by a guy named John Watts, W-A-T-T-S, a real young guy.

Have you guys ever heard anything about this guy? Not really. Okay, well, he directed a film that came out last year called Cop Car with Kevin Bacon in it. Oh, no. Such a fantastic movie. No, this movie was great.

Great. I've never said it. Yeah, I loved it. It was a perfect balance of humor and dread. And it was one of those few films that I think he got a real good mastery of making you laugh out loud in certain parts. And then wonder and really, really worry for these poor kids a minute later. It was extremely well done. But the big thing that this director is tagged for is the upcoming Spider-Man Homecoming movie. Okay, that's where I recognize the name from.

So, guys, I think this could be a good movie. I'm a little worried about the fact that it hasn't been released in a few years. I can't figure that out. But, you know, and Eli Roth, he's kind of hit or miss sometimes. So just because he produces something doesn't mean that it's God's gift to horror. It's an oddball concept. Sometimes those are the best movies. Yeah, well, they usually are critically, but not necessarily for the public, you know?

Yeah. What do you guys think about Peter Stormair? I noticed he had a pretty big part in it looked like. Oh, he's awesome and everything he's in. I've never seen that guy in anything that I didn't enjoy watching him in. Oh, exactly. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I can't think of anything else that he was in just off the top of my head,

but I know I've seen him in a thousand things and I like him. Literally a thousand things. You guys ever watched the TV show Prison Break? A little bit. of it. Yeah, he was really good in that one. And of course, he's been in pretty much every Fargo, who could forget him in Fargo, right? Mm-hmm. And he's been in a ton of dramatic films as well as a ton of comedy films. He's really good at both. He's one of the nihilists and the Big Lubowski. Big Lobowski, man, you can't

go wrong with that. Yeah, he's been in everything from like independent movies to blockbusters. You know what? That guys, that kind of gives me some hope for this movie. The fact that this guy directing it and the fact that Storm Air is in it I think both of them can handle drama and comedy equally I'm hoping this movie will be a really good hybrid of both and I'm hoping that you know that it's something we're going to remember for a long time yeah I'm I'm all in on this movie

I think it'll be cool but it's not going to be like a public success it's like Daniel Radcliffe right now has got so much Harry Potter money that he does whatever the hell he wants to and every single movie that you've seen him in since then has been fucking weird. But they're pretty cool. Yeah, he picks some pretty weird roles. Have you guys seen the trailer for Swiss Army Man? That was the one I was talking about.

Yeah, I've seen that one. When she was sitting next to me, this is a weird fucking movie, but I guess it's not like he's trying to make money with it. He's just doing what he loves to do. Yeah. I don't get it. I don't get it. And then I was thinking, are they putting us on here?

Because I noticed when the trailer was rolling on that one, you would see these scenes of like using a dead guy with rigor mortis, using his arm to cut wood, using the dead guy to fart to move you through the ocean. And then in the background, it had all these things like a masterpiece, New York Times. One of the best films ever, Rotten Tomatoes. It's like, what the hell is going on here?

It felt like a put-on. It's going to be good, but it's not going to be the success. It's going to be like this clown movie. Yeah, we'll see. But yeah, Brian, the trailer for Clown definitely has me looking forward to it. Yeah, me too. Okay, and now it's time for the horror headlines brought to you by Brian. Brian, what are our headlines for the week?

Okay, Robert England wants to be in the next Nightmare on Elmstreet movie, but he does not want to play Freddy. What you guys think about that one? I'm okay with that. I do not believe I could separate the two in my mind. Not sure how that would work out. Yeah, go ahead. I think it kind of pays tribute to the old school ones.

And, well, I mean, he had already talked about this guy, and, you know, you guys were not a big fan of the New Nightmare on the street, and I kind of liked it. But I think that having Robert England in there does add a little bit. bit of validity to it. So I kind of like the idea. Yeah, he kind of put a rumor out there that the next one would be a reboot of Nightmare and Elm Street 3 with elements of 4.

Okay. Yeah, I don't know what you said. And what does that mean exactly? I remember Nightmare on Elm Street, but I don't remember all the numbers. Was three, three was three the Dream Warriors or was that four? I think both of them would be Dream Warriors and Dream Master. Ah, okay. So these were basically the kids that were learning how to go in there and fight back against him. Yeah.

Okay, that could be interesting. Those were actually two of my favorite of the films in the franchise after the original. Yeah, I don't know. I don't necessarily think we need to really reboot those movies. Those like you said, those are favorites of mine too. so. And even if they do reboot it, they're going to be more serious with it than they were in the original. Exactly. You think so, huh? Why do you say that? What do you made more serious? That's what they did with the remake. They made it a whole lot more serious than the original ones. Yeah, but do you think maybe they learned from that? And now they're going to kind of go back to the more 80s cheesy aspects of the original? I can't imagine that they're going to. I don't see it work.

without Robert England if they're doing that. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I guess something like this, I'll wait and see. How about that? Yeah. I mean, anything that England's in, I'm going to watch, all right, period. But not going to get too excited about this one until it comes out,

until I know a little bit more about it. Yeah, probably not going to see it in the theaters unless you guys force me to. Could happen. Okay. Okay. The next news item is. John Boyega has been casted as the lead in Pacific Rim 2. I heard about that, and I like that actor.

I liked him in the Star Wars movie. And I really liked him and attacked the block. If you guys have ever seen that one, that was kind of his breakout role. Yeah, I'm really happy with this casting. I didn't really like Charlie Hunnam. I kind of, I don't like his acting. He was actually in the movie I watch. this week, Crimson Peak, which was really odd because they casted him.

He's in real life, he's British. Yeah. But they had casted him in that movie as American, among other British people. Sons of anarchy. He was, you know, American. My dog's name is Jacks, by the way. That was my wife's decision, though. Yeah, my wife is a fan of Jacks, too.

I think everybody's wife is a fan of Jacks. I know mine is. Yeah, I'm really happy about this casting. I'm happy about the casting. I don't know about the movie, man. I thought the first Pacific Rim was, yeah, it's probably enough for that franchise. I thought the first one was really fun. It was all right, man, but it wasn't, I didn't expect another one.

Hey, I enjoyed it, and is it just me? Or did you guys think that in Pacific Rim, He basically was Jacks, the same exact accent, the same exact attitude. The only thing he was missing was the white kicks. Yeah, I think that's the only voice he could, other than his actual accent, I think that's the only voice he can do. That's his range, huh? Probably, how many accents can you do for an entire series?

Okay, and our last news item is Amazon has ordered a pilot of Guillermo del Toro's Carnival, Roe. I saw that, but I have no idea what Carnival Row is. Can you enlighten us? Okay, I got a quick little synopsis right here. In a fictional Victorian town, fantastical creatures, vampires, and fairies live alongside humans. These mythological inhabitants subjected by humans are forced into neither menial or criminal lines of work to merely survive, such as drug-dealing vampires and fairy prostitutes. When a serial killer begins murdering the fairies a la Jack the Ripper, a human detective who's been engaged in a taboo relationship with one of the fairies becomes the prime suspect

and he sets out to clear his name by finding the true culprit. That is the synopsis for that one. It does sound very garumato. You beat me to the punch. I was going to say the exact same thing. I mean, he's creepy as hell, but that dude is so. into the fantasy stuff? Yeah, I'm watching just because he's involved.

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's... I really love the strain. I don't know what happened to that one either. Is it coming back? Yeah, the strain is coming back. Isn't it? I like it, too. It gets a lot of shit, but I'm stuck with it. Yeah, I've stuck with it too. It's one of the few that I have stuck with, you know what I mean? Because a lot of those... A lot of the newer shows, man, they get weird after the first season because they ran out of writing or something.

and this one I think is pretty cool. You're saying a lot of the shows now jump the shark really early, huh? Yeah, well, how many cool shows were there for the first season, and then the second season, when they got picked up again, they're like, oh, shit, we've got to write something, and then it comes out completely weird and not like the first season at all. Yeah, a recent show, you guys watch Banshee?

I haven't seen it, but I've heard good things. Yeah, I actually haven't seen either of those shows. I haven't seen The Strain or Banshee. Banshee. Yeah, Banshee was one of my favorite shows, but the final season was complete garbage. That's what I heard, but I also heard the finale was pretty good. Yeah, the finale was they had to make up for, because it was only, I believe, eight episodes, the final season. They had to make up for, like, at least six of them.

And if you want to go classic, you could talk about, like, Lost or Heroes, you know, where the first season was some of the best television ever. And then... That's a good point. totally. That's a good point. Although, I think loss got a little bit better in, like, the second and third season, and then I think it started falling apart a little bit. They lost me.

Yeah, I agree. I agree with Heroes. Heroes was a fantastic first season, and then I dropped off after the second one. One of my favorite all times. Yeah, and unfortunately, what was the Heroes Returns or something like that that came out last year? Yeah, I want to be a lot. think Heroes Reborn or something. Heroes Reborn. Yeah, geez, man.

That, unfortunately, that was not what we were looking for. Yeah, that one was canceled before the finale came out. That's probably a good thing. Probably a good thing. Except I was trying to follow it, although I wasn't super disappointed that it didn't continue. But as far as Carnival Row, I'll check it out. Oh, absolutely. I mean, for me, that sounds like must-see TV.

The only problem is, did you say that it's on Amazon? Yeah. Yeah, that's probably like the one platform I don't have, actually. You don't have Amazon Prime? Do you have to get Amazon Prime? Yeah, but you got to prepay for the whole year up front, and that's what always turned me off. I don't think what you do anymore.

You don't? I'm not sure. Free shipping. Free shipping. Dude, I order stuff from Amazon on almost daily basis. It's probably a bad habit. well shit but you know what it's so fun when a package shows up

of course it is I'm gonna have to pick up CBS all access when the new Star Trek show comes out in February so I guess I'm gonna have to pick up Amazon too huh yeah any uh any word on when the premiere is supposed to be Brian they haven't said

all right well right now that right now they just ordered a pilot and that is the news that is the news all the news that's fit to print huh Yeah, slow week, slow week. All right, well, now on to tonight's featured attractions. So we start with a review and a discussion of The Conjuring 2, directed by James Wan, and written by Chad and Carrie Hayes. Then we move on to another case from the files of Ed and Lorraine Warren, and that would be 1979's The Amityville Horror, which was directed by Stuart Rosenberg and written by Sandor Stern.

So as we typically do, we'll start out with a little bit of trivia for The Conjuring 2. Conjuring 2 was directed by James Wan, who of course is known best for Saul, Insidious, The Conjuring, and of course Furious 7. Writers were James Wan with Chad and Carrie Hayes. Now these guys started out doing a lot of work for television, and they did shows including Baywatch, Beastmaster, and the original Flash. they then moved up to make to made for TV movies and they finally busted into the feature film scene with uh with the 2005 masterpiece house of wax have you guys seen that one

paris hilton paris hilton that's right it wasn't as bad as it look we we can cover house of wax on another show okay let's move on all right on the first day of shooting a priest was brought in to blessed the set. And this is true. This is trivia, guys. The movie was originally given an October 23rd, 2015 release date, but as of October 21st, 2014, the movie got pushed back to June 2016. The same story was told in the miniseries, The Enfield Haunting, which came out a year ago. The infill story attracted considerable press coverage in British newspapers, such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror.

and it's been the subject of books, been featured in television documentaries and dramatized in horror films. And in 1992, the BBC aired a mockumentary entitled Ghost Watch. This is written by Stephen Volk and based on the infill poltergeist.

So, going into the film and I review of the film, Philip, would you like to kick things off tonight? Man, I loved it. I really did. I don't get a chance to see a whole lot of horror movies in the theater anymore, but I'm so glad that I want to go see this one.

I thought it was on or close to the level of The Exorcist, which is, that's big words, man, because that's my, that's my all-time great horror movie. And it's, I don't know, I think it produced. It was super creepy. It had a lot of jump scares, but it was still pretty genuinely creepy. Yeah, I, I, I jumped a couple times.

Yeah. It was tense the whole way through. Like, I want to say more stuff about it, but I can't. Yeah, I'm going to totally agree with you. I want more conjuring movies. I love both these movies. I love this one. I might actually like this one a little bit more than the first one.

Oh, absolutely. This is my favorite horror movie that's come out in a long time because they went straight up old school with it. They've got the whole, like, the Beatles accent on the British kids, you know. Hello, father. And I don't know. It's super creepy and they've got jump scares. I was pretty impressed.

Yeah, and I think the little girl, I think she did an exceptional job. She was when they needed her to be creepy, she was super creepy. Yep. She plays a great 72-year-old man. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

You've anything else that really took your breath away? No, I'm kind of afraid that was kind of a spoiler alert, and so I don't want to say anymore. Yeah, that's right. We try to keep away from the spoilers on the new stuff. But it was definitely worth watching. I mean, you take a look at it, and Rotten Tomatoes gives that one. I've got it pulled up here. Hang on a second.

There it is. Okay, so Rod Tomatoes, the critics gave it a 75%, audience gave it an 89%. And then if you compare that to, where you are, you don't even want to compare it to the Amityville horrors. Don't look that one up. But if you compare it to the Exorcist, I think the Exorcist got like 75% too. That's it? Are you serious?

Yeah, I'm not joking. These are both very underrated. the critics in my opinion. But for a horror movie, that's pretty good reviews for a horror movie. You don't get kick-ass reviews for horror movies or comedy movies. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, and these were two top-notch, man. Well, here's what I'm going to say about the film, guys.

I have not always been totally sold on James Wan. I think Furia 7 got the franchise back where it was supposed to be, but I think The Rock probably had more to do with that than, Juan. That movie was ridiculous. It was fun to watch. They're fun to watch, but they generate a lot of money, right? You can't argue with that. More, yeah. As far as insidious, I was never really sold on that.

The first conjuring, I didn't think, was the best thing ever. Dead Silence was pretty boring, quite frankly. Guys, James Wan is at the top of his game here. There's no doubt about it. This particular movie here, in my opinion, probably is the best horror movie I've seen in the last year and a half or so.

Easy. Really, really good. It's got... Absolutely. It's got everything you need in it. There's some complaints from certain critics that I try to stay away from listening to the critics, but you get your Facebook friends and stuff like that. Because they're a bunch of people.

Oh, come on, man. There's certain people who've made a point. Yes, it is a long movie. It's for a horror movie. You expect your horror movie to be nice and neat. Cut to the action. be an hour and a half long. It was about, what, two hours and 15 minutes?

It's probably one of the longer horror movies I've seen. I would consider this a horror epic. This is what I really liked about it, and I'm not going to spoil anything here. But if you think about this movie, and you think about it in the context of what most people are doing now, with all this fever, franchise fever, everybody wants to make the next Fast and Furious,

the next Avengers, the next nightmare on Elm Street, Everybody wants this stuff to just continue on and on and on and on and leave these little nuggets and not quite tie the story up for you and not give you an end and make you, you know, die for the next story. I really, with all the things that they were introducing in this movie, I really fully expected at the end to have a cutaway from a really exciting scene and then all of a sudden on the screen to be continued in the Conjuring 3. Folks, that did not happen here. Every storyline that they brought up in the beginning of the movie, and I'm not going to spoil anything, they tied up neatly, they tied it with a bow, and it was absolutely brilliant.

I love this movie, guys. Yeah, and I also, I didn't realize the movie was that long. It kind of just, it kind of went for me. Yeah, me too. I didn't notice that it was long. And I don't know. I thought it flowed really well, Pay attention to the letters.

I'm going to tell you that beforehand. Without saying anything more. But I noticed that too at the very beginning when it showed the Warren's house. Now, it's rare that the second version of a movie is better than the first version, but this one is almost a standalone movie. You don't have to necessarily watch the first one. And I rewatched the Amityville Horror after this, and I know that it

is based off of a little bit of the Amityville Horror because in the beginning of the movie and this is not a spoiler because it's the beginning of the movie so don't send me emails it's a they have done the Amityville

horror thing and then three years later they go to this England haunting and try to solve that So I thought it was cool because it was based off of that and

It totally works as a standalone movie. It's way better than personal. What I really appreciated was the way they started the movie with the Amityville House and This is the spoiler. This was from the very very beginning the first frames of the film You see the camera rolling in through a neighborhood and you see those distinctive windows that you cannot deny Yeah And then this started with their case when they took took over investigating Amityville and they actually had a really cool scene at the beginning where they had a table set up just like it was a seance they had they had candles in the room

and uh the warrens were sitting there with i'm assuming the family and some other people they're investigating well it actually probably wasn't the family because they they ran away at the end of it never to be seen again but whatever paranormal investigation were there with them, they kind of walked through the original murder that took place before the neighbors or the family moved in and the Amityville horror. And she actually astrally projected herself into, I guess, the body of the killer and walked through all the murders and then walked down into the basement. And she had a vision, which was pretty interesting the way that that carried out later in the movie.

Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, because it was kind of the same. it was almost like the same opening as the Amityville Horror where they show the the shootings and it was her that was doing it and seeing through the eyes of the killer. And it was that that was where the creepiness comes in. You know, that one wasn't so much a jump scare. There's a lot of jump scares in this movie, which are, you know, fun but cheesy. And there's a lot of creepiness in it too, which I'm a big fan of.

well when she came back out of the the fugue state that she was in when she did the projection I love the line that she said she said this is as close to hell as I ever want to get yeah like I said I I'm looking forward to conjuring three conjuring four if they if they keep pumping them out like this I'm all in I was a little bit surprised that they actually called it the conjuring too I thought they might have done better to call it like you know from the files of the Warren family, the infield poltergeist or something, you know? Yeah, well, you know, they're trying to franchise

something. There we got to give it. Got to give it a name. It was sold out just about everywhere because I was like, a horror movie doesn't get sold out in the Friday night. Man, I'm not too worried about that. Sure enough.

They were sold out. Yeah, I just actually seen the movie like a couple hours ago and my theater was sold out. Yeah. There was a lot of people in there. Okay, now, all right, when I went to see a stupid Kevin Bacon movie?

I was the only one in the theater. I mean, it was a Tuesday afternoon. It was raining to shit. But one of the first previews that came on was lights out. And I was thinking, oh, shit, what did I get myself into? Because I was in theater by myself. And if you haven't seen that preview in a theater by yourself, then screw you. Because that shit was scary.

And then the movies suck. But if I had seen this one in a theater by myself, I don't know about that. I'm out of left. Let me ask you this, guys. What did you guys think about the cinematography in this film and some of the camera shots where the camera would go? I noticed there were a lot of continuous shots, especially early on, where the camera would kind of go through the basement, for example, and turn around and highlight certain things, and then it would continue moving. And also, I noticed once they got to England, there was a really nice continuous shot. did you guys notice

that as much as I did? I guess there were, yeah, I guess there were a couple of scenes where they switched from room to room and had it where it looked continuous and it was, it almost looked like a grid view of all the rooms because it was two-story house. Right.

Yeah, I mean, it's not something that really stood out to me a lot, but they did have a couple of cool camera shots. I don't know, for some reason, the camera shots just really got. me on this. I thought it was extremely good. The cinematographer was a guy named Don Burgess. Have you guys heard of him?

No. This guy. He's been around for a while. I was actually kind of looking back through some of his credits. Some of the stuff that he had done cinematography for, or he'd been the DP on. Forrest Gump, I thought that

was a pretty well-done movie. The original Spider-Man, the one with Toby McIre he was the he was the DP on that one that's the original that's the original

castaway yeah I know out of the 28000 spider man movies that was actually the first one I did a couple

of the Terminator movies Polar Express wait hang on a couple of the Terminator movie you gotta be more specific because a couple of them were really bad that's true

he did Terminator 3 not the best but oh hey cinematography you know you said a couple of

Okay. One of my favorite movies of 2011 source code. Have you guys seen that one? Oh yeah, it wasn't bad. Jake Jelinehall? Yeah. That's the one. Yeah, that was a good movie. That's the one, the book of... I'm tired of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking chain.

A little different. That does apply. You're right. That's a good one, man. Actually, a movie that was extremely underrated, that I really loved, especially a lot of the fight scenes in it. The book of Eli. Did you guys see that one? Oh, that was cool, man. Yes, that was a good movie too. So anyway, my point is

this guy's been around a while. So I think James Juan was smart enough to get really good people around him. He got good writers, he got a good director of photography, he got extremely talented actors. And as far as I'm concerned, like I said,

this is probably the best, or in my opinion, absolutely the best film one's ever done. Oh, yeah. Hey, is he? Okay, lights out. I swear to God I saw his name on that one. You think he's a producer?

He's a producer. Okay, that's what I thought. I thought that was kind of cool, because I saw his name as the director at the end of it because I didn't know who that was. And, uh, Brian, I'd like to hear more about,

uh, about your take on this movie, Brian. I really, like the atmosphere created. it was just it had you like Philip was saying paying attention to things in the background right because if you wasn't paying attention you might have missed you know I don't want to give nothing away it's just

a lot going on in the background yeah yeah it was this movie it was fantastic it has some uh something something something that reminds you of a little bit oh the six cents so they had some yeah I could feel that a little bit yeah absolutely stuff the background of it, you know, where if you're paying attention in the beginning of the movie, then it pays off at the end.

What did you guys think about the little song that they were singing to try to help Billy stop stuttering? There was a crooked man. He had a crooked house. What did you guys think about that part? Yeah, they seem to pick some creepy songs, just like the song in Insidious. Right? Well, since he's England, it's creepy. Yeah, that was a creepy little toy right there.

Yeah, no kidding. I wouldn't have that. Of course, you know, Annabelle, same people. I wouldn't have had that one either. That was a creepy-ass dog. Well, let me ask you guys this. One of the things that really stood out to me in the movie and the way that they put it together.

And like you were saying, Brian, it didn't feel like it was two hours and 15 minutes long. At all. How do you guys think about the way that they mixed the two storylines together. Before the Warrens ever came out here to investigate this phenomenon, where they would show you what was going on in Enfield, right, in the house, and then they would cut over and show you concurrently

what was going on over with the Warrens, back where they were. And the fact that nothing was going to get them to start doing investigations again, they were done, no more cases. But then things started happening, and then the church came and talked to them, and there were just certain events that, in my opinion, I really thought it was cool the way that they put the two storylines together and then had them meet at the end.

What did you guys think of that? Yeah, I totally did not see that coming at all. Yeah, I really like that a lot. And I really want to say more, but I can't. But I was really... Yeah, it's very hard. It's a lot. I was thinking the whole time, you know, this is...

It's a weird villain to have. And then it all makes sense, you know? But it's, I like the way that they had the two stories that ran together, you know? And I like that it came off of the Amityville and they made it obvious that they were coming away from the Amidiville horror, you know? Well, one thing's for sure. These, Hayes, I'm assuming it's Hayes Brothers because you've got the two writers, their last name is Hayes. And they have worked with one from almost the beginning. You know, like I said, they wrote House of Wax,

which we all think was a piece of shit. Philip, you thought it was okay, right? I thought it was worth watching. All right. So after that, though, they did help write quite a few of the films that Juan's been involved in. So, I mean, obviously, having worked together a while, these guys have some, you know, simpatico going. Agreed. Yeah, I'll take it, man.

If they keep producing stuff like this, I'm happy. Brian, what else do you want to say about the movie? I recommend This is definitely a watch in the theater Don't wait I'm gonna go ahead and give my rating I'm gonna give this 8 out of 10 This is

By far the best Best horror film I've seen this year Eight out of 10 is pretty strong man Man I'm gonna give it a 9.5 Wow Holy shit It is when we look back at it One day

It's going to be in the classic list And I don't like these big Hollywood horror films. I like the smaller stuff because it's a lot creepier. But this one... You talked about that last week. This one was awesome. And I was super impressed. Definitely go see it in the theaters.

Yeah, I mean, I would agree with both of you guys. In my opinion, it's almost a shame that it is... And maybe this is just my mind and how my mind works. But the fact that it is a sequel and it's called The Conjuring 2, to me it almost seems like a shame. This really should have been a standalone movie, guys. And it really is the best horror film, and I've seen a lot of them, and I watch tons of them.

And this is absolutely the best one I've seen, at least in the last year. Yes. But I give this a really, really strong 8 out of 10. Really strong. Okay, moving on to our second feature film of the show. The Amityville Horror, and we did not see the Ryan Reynolds, remake. That was not the one that we checked out for this show.

We went old school guys and we actually went to the original 1979 Amityville Horror. So we'll start out with a little bit of trivia here and at the time of its release, the film was one of the highest grossing independent films

of all time. There you go, Philip. Your independent horror movie. This is your baby. So I expect you to have a really high rating on this one, okay? So anyway, it was one of the highest grossing independent films of all time An American International Picture's biggest hit ever. Now, I don't know if you guys are old enough to remember, but when this came out, the book was extremely popular.

I mean, it was really a phenomenon at the time that it came out. So when the movie came out, it was kind of, I think it was kind of custom made to be a big hit because so many people had read the quote-unquote true story of the Amityville Horror. So when it came out, it probably wasn't a big surprise that it was a hit, but not a lot of money went into it, so they definitely made a big profit. Speaking of which, the next piece of trivia, because the movie was made on a relatively modest budget,

James Brolin took less money up front, but with a promise of 10% of the gross sales after its release. After the movie became an unexpected blockbuster, At that time, it was in the top 10 of all time. Wow. Yeah, wow, especially after seeing it. No good. He eventually received about $17 million, which in $1979 was a lot of cocaine.

Yeah. If adjusted for inflation, that would be equivalent to a little over $55 million in 2014. He pulled an Iron Man. That's right. The Warrens are probably best known for their involvement in the 1976, Amity Bill K. in which New York couple George and Kathy Lutz claimed that their house was haunted by a violent, demonic presence so intense that it eventually drove them out of their home.

The Amityville Horror conspiracy authors, Stephen and Roxanne Kaplan, characterized the case as a hoax. Lorraine Warren told a reporter for the Express Times newspaper that the Amityville horror absolutely positively was not a hoax. A lot of the drama and even some of the horror in the movie centers around money problems. Kathy's brother loses $1,500 in cash.

George bounces a check, and his business seems to be in trouble. Finally, there's a very real concern that the house, aside from being evil, is an $80,000 investment that's going from bad to worse. So there may be some undertones here, you know, besides the in-your-face horror that the movie actually is. That's what you get when you buy a house that a bunch of people died in, dude.

Well, it can be hard to sell a house that a bunch of people have been murdered, and that's for sure. But yeah, I think it's time to go ahead and go into our reviews. And, Brian, you want to get things started here, man? Yeah. I don't necessarily know if I like this movie or not. It seemed to drags. if you want to talk about a movie that felt long this movie felt long yeah but I mean

there there are iconic scenes in this movie you know that definitely the house you know with the windows definitely recognize the house and I don't know I just besides James Brolin I didn't like anybody in this movie yeah man I'm I'm I'm kind of gonna agree with you like I know that it's a classic but it's It's one of the classics that I never have felt the need to go back and watch. Like, I know that I've watched it before. And even though I watched it a couple of hours ago, it's not something that really stands out in my mind.

Like, I get maybe having seen it in the theaters, that would have been very cool for the time. And based on a true story is always a successful, you know, plot line. which, you know, the Conjuring 2 had also. But it's not... I'm definitely not going to say that it's bad, but look, if Deadpool jumps in, the movie's going to be over a whole lot faster.

Yeah, guys, my opinion of this movie, it's a 1979 bonafide piece of fucking cheese. Yeah, that's a cheese. I mean, this movie... Dude's got an awesome beard, though. Oh, dude.

Not only the beard, but the fucking hair. The whole damn look, dude. I mean, this guy, this guy oozed, if you know what I'm saying, oozed 1979. And all the excesses of 1979, all the self-indulgence of 1979. I mean, this guy, Brolin looked the part, he acted the part, and he was the part. There's no doubt about it.

But at the end of the day, I mean, this wasn't a great film. Yeah. This was not a masterpiece. This wasn't even good. Yeah, but like I said, besides James Brolin, I didn't care for anybody's acting. Yeah. I mean, especially whoever this guy is playing, what is her name, Margot Kidder. Yeah, she was.

She was. The guy playing her brother. Answering this one, and she had a nice... Yeah, what was when that scene with her doing fucking ballet moves in the bedroom and then he comes in there, starts fucking getting jiggy with it while she's got her fucking leg up in the air and stuff. I thought I was watching a photo for a second.

70s. That's true. That's right. It is... I mean, this movie is... This movie encapsulates 1979. Yeah. There's no doubt about it.

The only thing missing was a disco soundtrack and a bunch of people having sex and an orgy, you know? In cocaine. Absolutely. They did have one awkward sex scene thrown in there. Got to have that, right?

Yeah. I don't know. The more we're talking about it, isn't the more I'm liking it less. And it really, it really surprises me. After the new one comes out, the new one will be the 14th movie in the series.

What? That's what I couldn't believe! Oh, Brian, dude, I'm so glad you said that, man. You hit on the exact topic that I was thinking. How in the fuck was a movie like this inspiring 14 other movies? Come on. Nightmare on Elstreet.

Dude, the first nightmare on Elm Street was a masterpiece. Okay, but Friday the 13th. Friday the 13th, the first two Friday the 13th were really good, I thought. Yeah, I mean, it kind of created a different genre. I'll watch the whole Friday the 13 series before I watch any of these movies. Some of these movies I've never heard of. I haven't either. I was trying to look up the Amityville Horror and I was like, the Amityville, what?

Why are all these names popping up? What happened to the one movie I was looking for? Yeah, there's even a movie called My Amityville Horror. What the hell is that all about? I was trying to make sure I was watching the right one. I don't know. I mean, there's not a whole lot I have to say about this movie. I mean, it's, you know, super cheesy.

The editing is terrible. Absolutely horrible. The acting is cheesy. The direction is just kind of lazy. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, this movie, look, it's kind of fun to watch, right? I kind of enjoyed watching it. But what I go back and, like, if I, if I could go back and rewatch this again, or if I could go back and watch The Conjuring 2 again, 10 times out of 10,

I'm going to watch The Conjuring 2 again. Yeah, no question. I might get some hate here, but I might say that the remake is actually a little bit better than this one. Oh, the Ryan Reynolds thing? I mean, at least it had, at least it had Deadpool in it, right? Yeah. That motherfucker would have killed everybody. Yeah, I just pulled up the list of the sequels.

We got the Amityville Harning, Amityville Asylum, Amityville Death House, Amityville Playhouse, a new generation. There's one called It's About Time. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Seriously? Yes. Aminieville 3D. This is ridiculous. Oh man, you're killing us, Brian.

Well, they hit that name up for some money, didn't it? Wow. Yeah. I'll tell you what. I'm looking at the movie poster right now, and it says, for God's sake, get out. I could kind of say the same about the movie theater when you were watching this thing. It's not that bad.

No, it wasn't that. It's not that bad. I still think it's one of the classics. I just don't think it's one of the classics that gets put up there with, like, The Exorcist or Army of Darkness series and stuff like that, you know? Agreed. That's going to kick my evil series. I'm sorry, guys.

I really. Like I said earlier, the house is iconic. When you see that house with the windows. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, watch that. And then, you know, you got scenes like, you know, with the bleeding walls and the boy saying, get out. Yeah. Well, I will tell you one thing that cannot be denied, guys.

The producer, the main producer for this film was a gentleman named Samuel Z. Arkoff. Have you guys heard of Mr. Samuel Z. Arcoff? No, sir. This gentleman is almost on the level with Roger Corman, as far as knowing how to take shlocky, crappy, B movie horror films and make a lot of money out of them. This guy has produced over 143 films. And he has done like some really cheesy 60s and 70 stuff, like the old Corman Pit in the Pendulum.

He got a lot of money into Corman's films, the Abominable Dr. Fibes. He's done the people that time forgot, the island of Dr. Moreau, Empire of the Ants, the land that time forgot, the wild party, I don't know what that is.

Madhouse, I think that has Vincent Price in it. The guy definitely knows how to take something schlocky and make a lot of money out of it. So I'm really not surprised that this film made so much money. Yeah, let's not forget he made Blacula. Oh, Black, no shit! Wow! Well, that's his masterpiece right there.

That confirms everything I needed to hear. Absolutely. Yeah, Arcoff has it going on. That is a guy I would have liked to have had a beer with. Yeah, just judging from these movies, movie titles. Well, let me ask you this about this movie more so than the other one, but this is a theme that was kind of running in The Conjuring 2 as well. Did you guys notice how quickly the Catholic Church was ready to distance themselves from these events

once it kind of looked like things were actually going on? Yeah, I did. It's been a while since I had seen the movie. for a second there I forgot how it went and I thought some of them had involvement in what was going on in the house for a second seemed a little odd yeah I thought they made they had a lot more sense with it with the with the conjuring to and that which is the whole reason that the um ed and Lorraine were were headed out there was uh because they needed them to prove it to the church so that they could come out and investigate.

Right. And so the church was like, okay, hey, look, we're kind of in a shitstorm right now. So the only reason that we're ever going to go out to anybody

is because they have definitive proof that this is a demonic possession type of situation. And in the Amityville horror, they were like, yeah, whatever, it doesn't mean anything.

Yeah. It was like, They were real quick to back now, right? You believe in demons? You're stupid. Right. I want to go back to the church and believe in God. Yeah, and that's the church saying don't believe in demons, right?

It's bullshit. That was the attitude that I got from the Amityville Horror. Did you guys think there was any particular significance with the fact that the stuff always happened at exactly 3.15 a.m.? In which one? In the Amityville Horror. I had no idea. Yeah, I had looked that up. I think they called the witching out.

or something. Oh, no shit. I had no idea. Well, I thought that was kind of interesting because I always noticed that their clock would turn to 315 whenever something would happen. I do remember it from an episode of The Simpsons. 315?

Yeah. No shit. Okay, there is something to do that. Because it's a classic movie. Maybe one of our listeners can give us some feedback and tell us more about exactly what that means because I thought that was kind of interesting.

I don't know. It just caught my intention. for some reason. I've said all I'm going to say about this movie pretty much. Brian, is there anything else you want to say? Go watch The Conjuring, too. That's all I have to say about that. Anything else you want to say about Amityville?

Amityville, man, it's a classic. It's worth watching once. You don't have to go back and re-watch it. It is a classic. It's not one of the classics. Agreed. Totally agree. right, Brian, so the original

Amityville Horror from 1979, what's your rating on this one, sir? Because it is a classic, I'm going to give it a six on ten. I did not really care for the movie. Like I said, the more we talk about

it, the more I probably will never watch it again. That's all I got to say about the Amityville horror, six on ten. I don't blame you at all because if you look up the Rotten Tomato knows for that one. It's like 25%.

I mean, I know the horror movies don't get the best reviews, but 25% hurts. Wow, and that was for something that when it came out was one of the top 10 grossing films of all time. Wow. I don't know when they based that

on, you know? Obviously, it's not when they came out. Apparently, Arkoff and the other guys were laughing all the way to the bank, huh? Well, hey, look, there's a lot of them that have done that. paranormal activity and you know the

Blair Witch Project Big money low budget This one I'm going to say Do you go watch Blair Witch Project Shit if you're talking about Low Money or

Big Money low budget That actually is watchable Yeah yeah yeah yeah this one is I mean I don't want to dog it too bad I mean I feel like we have But I can't give it more than a four, man. I couldn't pay attention to this movie.

And that may be because there were kids yelling at me in the background, but I still could not pay attention to this movie. Well, Philip, it's, we're on the exact same level because I also give the original Amityville Hoare a four on ten. And I'm not going to give it any more than that, no matter what.

And it might be a classic, but it's kind of a classic, you know, midnight movie. Yeah. It could be fun to watch just for a laugh once. I would say to our listeners, if you have never seen this before, see it. Just so you can see what all the fuss was about back in 79. But as they say, don't see the movie, read the book.

I think the book was probably a lot bigger seller at the time. But yeah, I'll give it a four on ten. And there's no way I'll watch this again. I'm glad I saw it again for the movie, but enough is enough. Kind of feel like I should change my rating now. Too late, man. You're six. Philip, so do we have any listener feedback this week?

Looks like we do. We have Nate Peterson from Uxbridge United Kingdom. Hello, Nate. He's informed us that Lights Out was originally a short two-and-a-half-minute film, which we watched and is a little bad up until the end, but it's cool. It's worth watching. Go check it out.

Yeah, it was a little comedic to me. Yeah, it almost is. But the end was sort of creepy, huh? Yeah, definitely. I was like, wow, okay, I didn't expect that. Oh, man, I love that final shot. Yeah. I love that final shot.

I just do not have the faith that the movie is going to be able to maintain that for two hours or an hour and a half or whatever. Did you guys actually get a new trailer for that one when you seen The Conjuring 2? Yeah. Yes. Oh, yeah. It seemed like it had a, like, it almost had a whole scene in it in the trailer. Cool shit trailer. Dude, okay, that movie looks creepy as shit. It looks... Yeah, I'm, I'm kind of on board with this movie now.

Yeah, I totally am. It looks like it's Jump Scare City, but, man, it's still creepy. You know what I mean? If you, you go back to, like, childhood original fears and clicking the light off and clicking the light. Dude, it looks scary. Anyway, thanks, Nate for pointing that out. We wouldn't have seen it without you. If you have any feedback or suggestions for us, please email us at The Horror Returns at gmail.com or message us at our Facebook page. You guys are very important to us and we'll answer as many questions as you have as quickly as possible. Most of that is Lance, but we're going to make it happen. All right, cool.

So as always, we want to thank you all for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. We'd love to hear your feedback, as Philip said, and all of you. your ideas. To reiterate, Philip told you you can reach us at thehorror returns at gmail.com. For up to the minute news, reviews, and interviews, visit our Facebook page at www.com forward slash the horror returns. And follow us at Twitter at at horror underscore returns. You can find us on Podbean at thehorrorreturns.com. You can find us on Podbean at thehorror Returns.podbean.com. And guess what, folks?

We are now officially on iTunes. So you can find us on iTunes just by doing a search for The Horror Returns. And please, guys, if you like what you hear, rate us and review us. You know, that way we can get our numbers up and we can continue to bring you bigger and better stuff. Bigger interviews, more movie reviews, and a lot more fun. Or send us feedback. That way we have something to talk about. Absolutely.

We love you guys. That's why we're here. Next week, we are going to be reviewing clown produced by Eli Roth. And we're also going to talk about killer clowns from outer space. Yes. And then in two weeks, we are going to be reviewing Independence Day of Resurgence and also Independence Day. So, until the horror returns again, good night.