The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #420: Unwelcome (2023) & The Watchers (2024)

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

This week, we are joined by filmmaker Douglas Downing III, writer/director of Death's Sonata, to talk about some recent Irish folk horror. Cool of the Week includes Devil in Ohio, Clipped, Closure, Property, and In a Violent Nature. Trailer is Alien: Romulus. The podcast spotlight shines on Homos on Haunted Hill. And we get feedback from Marcey Papandrea, Neil Lemoi, Kimberly Ashcraft, Ish Richard, JT Breeze, Jason Chapman, Markey Christopher Wilson, Susan Orchard, Brain Galloway, John Mark Graham, Cathy Gutkowska, Teresa Tinsley, Steve Warnick, and Paul Finch. Thanks for listening! Douglas Downing III IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2247263/ Douglas Downing III Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/v5BSp16Dt1HvmYws/?mibextid=LQQJ4d Douglas Downing III X: https://x.com/dcdowning3?s=21&t=wunbT0B2lDwyAAY2cQVdWQ Douglas Downing III Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dcdowning3?igsh=aHZobDI0NmM4N2Zt Douglas Downing III YouTube: https://youtube.com/@douglasdowning7493?si=435SBKIk2ztmlTEQ 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

Hi, I'm Tom Savini. You might know me as Sex Machine from Dusk Till Dawn, and you're listening, and I don't know why, to the horror returns. Greetings, victims. For those of you who delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify gore, welcome, you have found the place where the horror, returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot spoilers and the foulest of language. Join us

in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror. One. Every boy, every girl, every them. Well, you're all welcome here. The Horror Returns, and I'm Lance.

Your host, and we got our co-host here. We've got Brian in the house. What's up, Brian? What's up, man? We've got Phillip. What's going on, Phil? Oh, I'm here, man. Just trying to keep up with kid shit.

Transition in the summer. Yeah. All right. We got a very special guest tonight. So this is why we do the show. We like to have guests, particularly that are actually in the industry and not just talking about it like us assholes do every week, but we've got Douglas Downing the Third, writer and director. And, you know, what else do you do, Douglas?

Thanks for joining us, by the way. Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be on the show. I've been in the industry since 2004, started my career, film school in Florida, like, you know, then realized it's a bunch of bullshit because you really can't teach someone to make movies. So I moved right to L.A. when I was 20. and then I started my career and I got lucky enough to make my first feature at 21

called Closure and from there kind of took off got picked up by William Morris and then I have again I can go on about my past this and that which is I have a whole fucking story of shit New York to L.A. This and that. But a big thing, this is a horror podcast I'd like to tell you about now Death Sonata

that was the movie that it's been like five years of my life. I've been spending on it and finally it's done. It's been in post more than it's been filming because most of the time post is longer than anything else okay yeah so the movie took almost over five years to finish yeah so the post part of it i'm not sure if you got you saw the trailers or yeah i did oh yeah so anyway so now it's finally out there in a few months it'll be out there on streaming um but the process of getting it done was hard for me just because it's like it's a passion of mine i came up with the idea over 20 years ago with a short film called i don't know

I'm sure you didn't see it at Boy Name Death. I checked it out. Oh, you did? Okay, yeah. So anyway, that's loosely-based. Like, I came up with that idea, like, right out of high school, and I'm like, I like the story of a man suffering from schizophrenia, but boy named death is about a child suffering from it. And it's, like, pretty much the story of Charles growing. So, like, Death Sonatas about Charles as an adult, suffers with schizophrenia has, like, horrible anxiety. But the main part of the story is this psychotherapist who's obsessed with not curing Charles. So I was thinking of like how to make it more interesting.

Like Charles is not really the focal point. It's more about Charles, Matthew, and William, the therapist. So William is just basically obsessed with Charles can never cure him. So he just finds his weakest patients. Matthew suffers from bipolar disorders. He's obsessed with oxycodone. So he just, yeah, you find him. I'll give you this.

He'll give you a fuck. He's going to, you know, dies. He finds a new patient. And Charles is just. Oh, wow. Yeah. And Charles is just. literally thinking he's doing the job of the angel of death, which is death, you know, but he's

schizophrenic. So is it real? Is it not? So the whole point of the movie is like, is he just really crazy or is it really fantasy mythological? So basically, I don't want to get too much spoilers away, because like you said, in a couple months, it'll be out. And basically, I'm making a sequel in a third. So it's going to be a trilogy. All right. So where is it going to be available? Have you made any like signed anything yet or is it just going to be on the circuit first i'm talking to like right now it hit a couple of festivals but festivals don't mean sure okay all right nowadays it gives a fuck if you're not in cons if you're not in sundance you know people make bullshit festivals so it don't matter but did that for a couple of months i like yeah i don't care

but um i'm going through different distributors right now to see what's best for the movie other way it doesn't work out nowadays you do where the fuck you want you put your movie out there you know so it'll be you know Amazon, Tobe, Hulu so hopefully before Halloween because I feel like that's the right time Now have you Have you already written the sequel?

Like you've already got like the ideas and stuff In the sequel's called Yeah it's called Death's Messiah Okay And then the third it's called Death's Resurrection So it's like Death's Messiah It's a whole different story It takes place 10 years later up north

In a cult town So think children Oh wow It finds It's a town like children in the corn. It's quiet. Nothing's going on. And it's a town of all these people just,

this one guy calls himself the Messiah. So he's barringing all these weird people to these young children. It's got a deep meaning to it. And Charles is just killing them off one by one. But everyone, you know, thinks it's Charles again. So a big time person from the city comes to try and solve it. And so it's building up to the third one, which is the trilogy, it's, I may be going too far with it,

but it's like, yeah, it's end of the world kind of shit. You know, hopefully, for the third one, I have that. We're shooting next summer for the sequel, so, yeah. Better than having him go to space, Douglas, right? Yeah, that would have, nah, man, I'm thinking differently. That'd be great. Just him and space.

Like Jason X. What was it, Jason X where he's space, yeah. So where are your other films available, man? Like your other featured lead? They're all on mostly YouTube. There's a few on Tooby. I don't know if the other one that used to be on Netflix, the documentary I did. But like the past two years, I've been focusing on this.

I don't know if you saw that other movie because remember you showed me the, it's called Fraudal and Conversion. I have two movies coming up. Yep. I don't know. Did you see the trailer for that? You know what? Brian, did you check it out? I didn't have a chance to see it.

I did get a chance to watch Closure and a couple. of your short films. Okay. Oh, you did, you said, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Closure was my first thing I made when I was 20,

right out of film school. Whole story behind that, that could be a whole podcast in itself. Ridiculous, but that was my first feature. But, you know, it's got me to get William Morris to represent me,

which was good. Yeah, I've heard that name. I've heard that name before. Yeah. I was part of that whole when they endeavor and Willie Morris joined forces and my agent got to let go.

We had to go to UTA. And, yeah, it was all nonsense. but that's the film industry. So that's why I came back to New York, live in the woods, and do what the hell I want now. You know, like, don't need the Hollywood to tell me what movies to make.

That's the beauty of independent filmmaking. You can do whatever the hell you want. No one to tell you what to do. Yeah, you don't hear a move to New York and go to the woods very often. That's what I... Well, I say woods. I'm literally maybe 90 minutes from New York City,

so I'm not that far out of New York City. Yeah. It's there. It's there if you get the itch, right? Yeah, exactly. If I got the itch, I don't know, I don't go to New York City, but why? Right. All right, Douglas.

We get a hanker and get robbed. Yeah. And we appreciate you hanging out with us. So look, you know the drill. Like, you've read the notes. What is your cool of the week? Coolest thing you've checked out this week. All right.

So like I was saying, everything I saw this week sucks, specifically, if you guys don't mind me saying. since we're talking about cool let me just tell you the stupidest thing was the first omen and I don't know if you guys watched it. Oh yeah. I'm like, this is Rosemary's baby.

What am I watching? How does this any different than Rosemary's baby? Like, so that's... There's been a bunch of those lately. Yeah, it's fair have been. I called the Omen first Omen if it is like... Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know how you guys felt about it, but I was just like, come on, what is this? I thought it was right in the middle. I'd like give it, Brian, like a four or five, something like that, middle-ish. That's kind of generous for your scores. I think we all were kind of meh on it. Yeah, like, I was better not thought I was doing. But the story, I'm like, how, this is boring.

Two hours, come on. Right. Yeah. I think what did it for me is I think I've seen Immaculate. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that was, yeah, but Immaculate was much better done. Well, what about what have you been working on this week, man? Like, as far as your projects?

Like, have you been doing any filming or post-production? Friday, I got to go on set to check out one of the projects we're, like, doing. But right now, just writing Death's Messiah, finishing it up. And I'm at that point where I'm like, yeah, because it's got to be done in my head by end of summer. Because if we're shooting next summer, you've got to start pre-production. Because I hate rushing shit. Like, that's the thing with the movie Fraudgeon and I did. That wasn't even supposed to aid.

we're supposed to do a movie called Kingston. But, Sack. Yeah, so Kingston was the main movie we're supposed to make. But COVID protocol. I was going to say SAC protocol. SIG Protocol screwed up the next movie because the SACC came. But that was COVID protocols fucked up Kingston. We're supposed to make it.

They're like, no, you got to have someone on set. It's going to be an extra 30, 40 grad and this and that. Oh, wow. Yeah, that sucks. You kidding me? All they do is sit there and put your mask on and, you know. Oh, my God. So we're like, let's just make a movie that's non-sag, you know, non-union.

So that's where Fronchling says. conversion came from and shit was put together in like a week and we shot in two weeks and then that movie had probably everything that can go wrong go wrong why wouldn't it because when you try shoot a movie that fast why would it work out well nobody got shot no it got shot but i went through four dps two main actors yeah it was a nightmare but i'm like oh let's get three houses that we're right house you know so anyway yeah so hey but but but You got it done, right? Oh, no, it got done.

Did great in the fast full circuits, and now it's, now it's like, who's going to distribute? Like, we're talking to a couple distributors, then we're just like, which one? I don't know. At this point, I'm focused on Ted Sinai. I'm going off track, but, yeah. All good, man.

But, anyway, that's what I've just been doing, yeah. All right, let me rephrase the question then, so we can get something, something in the show notes. What's your favorite film you've seen this year? I'm trying to think of mine. Yeah. I think I saw my. I think I saw mine last week.

Can it be a movie I've seen already? You know, you can speculate, I guess. It's one I've seen yet this year, because I really haven't gone on the movies as much, just watching on streaming. One that I saw this year that I really liked, I can't even think of it. It's like, everything I've been watching lately, I just been like, eh. Kind of man. Kind of easy. It is a good movie, but I'm not in the mood for it.

So I'm like, eh. Yeah. Yeah, that's the big. I do that, too. I get in, like, serious moods. Like, I watched every. like a thriller that was on Netflix in like a week. And I loved them.

But now I don't want to watch them. All right. Well, we'll circle back around, man, think about it. Philip, what you got, man? Man. You know, I had something on my head a minute ago. Oh, no. And now I can't remember what it was.

But it was, it was another one of those. like docu-series or some bullshit like that that I was watching. So nothing, nothing super horror related. Oh, I know what it was. It was Devil in Ohio. It wasn't really a docu-series. But it was like a limited series on Netflix.

And it was about this girl from a demonic cult. And she moves in with this foster family. I think it's like Zoe Deschanel's is the main character in it. And it's kind of cheesy, but it's fun. It's not too bad.

It's a bad shit starts happening. Very crime and thriller, but like very cheesy in the middle of it too. So take that for what you will. All right. Brian, anything great this week? Let me check the list here. Oh, here we go. go, Douglas. Here we go.

Like I said, I got the completest. I got to check out some of Douglas' short films and also checked out Closure, which I really enjoy closure. Well, thank you. Which I would definitely, if you made a podcast about the story

behind that, I would definitely listen to that because... It's all true story to us. Yeah, because both your short films and Closure, when I watched it, I was like I want to know the story, behind why you made each of these films. So maybe there's something to take into consideration

and maybe making a podcast. Because closure itself, the story is how came up to be and how it was optioned by focus features originally and then they dropped it and then like, I had a whole story behind that. But why I wanted to make it is the more important part because it's an important story. Sorry to interrupt, but it was just an important story to tell.

Because back then when I made it, no one was making movies like that. And now you see what's, Hollywood is. Yeah. They are. You know, like, so if you see closure,

you know, it's all coming out now. Like, it's really, it's really happening. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely, uh,

go check out those. I recommend those. Uh, checked out that screener we got, Lance, uh, mind, body spirit.

Yeah. What did you think, man? We're, we're interviewing them in a couple of weeks. It's, it's very, it's very slow.

I like slow. A lot, a lot slower than I thought it was going to be. I think, without spoiling it, I think they missed out on some opportunities for some body horror in it. I could see that. I thought we were going to get that. Well, I guess I'll talk after I've seen it.

And very heavily influenced by hereditary and a couple other films, but it's a decent watch. It's a fast watch. I think it's under an hour and a half. Okay, that helps. That helps. Let's see.

out a new shark movie on Netflix. I heard everybody talking about called Under Paris. Oh, I was almost going to watch it and I haven't done yet. I heard. I actually had a lot of fun with it. Now, the CGI on the Sharks is not

the best. Imagine that. But it's a pretty... It's a pretty decent story. And then when you get to the last like 20, 30 minutes, it just goes off the rails. and it's super fun. And you got another mayor from Jaws character in there.

So there's characters to root for it to get eaten. Trust me. Right. I got another screener for a Brazilian movie called Property. You guys hear about this one? Uh-uh. No, it's a new one to me. Yeah.

Essentially, it's a rich landowner. him and his wife go to their little farmhouse and when he get there the workers, the laborers that work for him on his land are revolting, trying to take the land back because it used to belong to them and they want the money that they're owed

and so they take him hostage and the wife runs out to the car which I'm trying to figure out what the husband did for a living because he had a heavily armored car with bulletproof windows and oh boy she kind of locks herself in there and then it turns into a standoff trying to get her out of the car

because they need yeah it's it's it's really good it's it's i wouldn't call it a horror call it more of a dramatic thriller but it's it's really good so i definitely i think i think originally it was released in 2022 but i think it got picked up by a studio who are re-releasing it wider so think it's available on streaming platforms now so check that one out what's what's it called again property property okay and uh let's see if anything else i checked out uh checked out civil war oh how was that i haven't seen that yet it's a very believable thing that can happen but the the sides that got together i don't think would ever happen like that i'd do like that i'd like the perspective you were telling me lance of it's his perspective of the war photographers

and i thought the acting was was fantastic the cinematography was great and Alex garland man you know Alex garland uh jesse plemons even though he's in it for oh yeah he was great yeah already chewed up some scenery yeah um i believe uh the young lady that was the young photographer. I think she's in the, she's the lead in the new alien movie. She was pretty good in it. Kirsten Dunst, a lot of, a lot of big names in here. And my last one, I checked out the first two episodes of the new Star Wars show, The Act Like. Okay, what do you think so far? I like the perspective. I like we're getting to see more of the dark side. Yeah, without spoiling it, I'll just say there was a,

big name in the show that doesn't last long, so the show's not afraid to kill off. It was a character predominantly featured in the trailer. Hmm, okay. And they don't last maybe five, ten minutes. Stevenson. Stephen's boy.

Stevenson. Now that could be a whole podcast right there. Just shows up, flipping people. What the hell is it? Right. Working for Russia. Yeah.

He ran over somebody's dog in a tank. That's the thing that happened. He's like, he deserved it. Like, what? I think that's all I have this week. No, the court movies or anything like that? No,

I saved that for those special episodes. We do. All right. Steve's got to be there and suffer with us. All right, guys. Well, you know, I missed the show last week. Had too much stuff going on. You guys did awesome.

Definitely appreciate it. It's a lot of fun listening. Sometimes it's fun not to be on the show just so I can listen to you guys. you know, fucking bust my balls while I'm not here. Fucking Nez said, I'm going to pull it Lance. I didn't see the movie. Like, okay, real funny, Nez, real funny.

But yeah, I'll carry it over from last week, guys, in a violent nature. Have you seen it, Douglas? Yep. Oh, my God. This is my kind of slashed your movie. See, I love the old Thai West when Ty West was Ty West, like House of the Devil, where he actually did slow burn and didn't try to do all this commercial stuff

like he's doing that, which is good. Hotel one, he did. Yeah, the hotel one he did. Remember? Yeah, the interloper? No. Oh, the innkeepers. The innkeepers. Yeah, with the piano.

That was a good one. But, no, I love the way this movie just fucked with you because we had these off screen kills. And I was thinking, are we going to see any gore? And what do you think, Douglas? Did they pay off on a couple? Thing is with me, like when it started, I'm like sitting there watching a picture frame for a few minutes, some bad voiceover acting in the background. Very bad. Yeah, I think that was better.

Yeah, we're not watching it for the acting. But for me, I'm like, come on, do something. So obviously, when it finally happened, I'm like, all right, there's a kill. Right. But, yeah, so I liked, the yoga one was kind of ridiculous, but it was funny. You know, like, for me, I'm like, I like the fun of it. And, you know, because the movie, it's like this is just a new, you know, you cannot stop thinking Friday 13th when you're watching it, obviously. And it's, and the thing is, I don't know if it's true or not, to be bullshit,

but supposedly he wrote it as a Friday 13th movie, they turned it down. So he had to change shit and make it, you have any of you heard that? I don't know if it's true or not. Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah, so they said, no. We talked about it to last week. Yeah. Yeah.

So they said, no. So he was like, fuck it. I'll make it myself. And I really didn't know much about the movie, about the makeup artist. And I took the guy who edited for my last three movies. Chris, we saw it together. And he, you know, was telling me about the visual effects are supposed to be the practical, which is good. I like practical.

You know, and so I thought they were done very well all the effects, you know, especially the wood chip machine. I like that, you know. Oh, God. Yeah. It set the pace, you know, like, you know, because they kept saying, oh, there's. there's like 10 minute death scene. I'm like, that wasn't 10 minutes. Maybe the setup, because he breaks his spine and then he's lying there and then. Okay, I could see that. Yeah. So overall, I thought it was okay because I couldn't, you know, the walking after a while. I'm like,

what am I? I love the third line. So I'm like, yes, this is the thinner. You're not playing a video game, right? Yeah, exactly. So he says it red dead redemption. Yeah, exactly. So I'm like, I'm watching the back of his head. And I'm watching him play with a car. Then we see his face first. You know, like some bad acting here and there. Um, the one thing. The one thing that's that distracted me the most was like the ADR. The whole movie is pretty much 80-yard. Okay. Yeah, like you can tell a lot of it, it's, again, this is dumb movie guy shit.

Like, for me, as a filmmaker, I'm like, all right, they recorded that in the studio that. Obviously, the walking you have, can't just fucking... What does what does the ADR mean? It's just, you literally just, like, all the, like, my example, like, is, you saw the movie? I haven't actually seen it. Oh, yeah, but anyway, I want to give up too much, like, stuff, but...

But that's fine. We talked about it last week. Okay, yeah, there's a specific thing. On the dock, the two girls, remember on the dock? And he's walking. Sure. You know, and then you just hear the, you know, the audio's too. Anyway, ADR is just, yeah. It wasn't picked up on set, so you shoot it in the studio in a soundstage.

Oh, I got you. So you're literally just watching yourself and you mimic your own voice. Like, I had to do it with a sonata. Like, I don't know if you saw it, but I had an ADR so much shit. And I'm in the basement, ADR and shit, because the audio sucks. So you got to redo it. So you have to just acting in a studio. So with that movie, it's all walking.

So there's no way they're just live recording. So it's literally just something doing the footsteps, ADR. Sure, sure. And like, if the audio sounds way too clean, that's ADR. You don't get that shit on set. You know, it doesn't happen. Yeah. So it's all done in published.

I've seen some really bad, like, B movies that do it where you can tell that they're, like, acting over their own lip-syncing. Yeah. Exactly, yeah. And, like, the audio's off of it. Like, yeah. So that kind of threw me out of the movie. with that because I'm like the audio is just I understandable audio from the movie than just hearing

them recording everything studio yeah I know it was low budget which I think was made for under maybe half a million I don't know but it's like that ain't that ain't low budget to me exactly it's not what I'm saying their terms you know right again I don't know if that's the 100% the budget but you know those practical effects were insane so that had to cost something yeah yeah yeah so anyway that was my two cents in the movie I thought it was okay All right. I enjoy it. Fun, but I didn't like it.

Circling back around, have you come up with something you want us to put down as your cool of the week? Or just something you want to throw love to that's come out lately? I don't want to throw love to it, but I'm a huge sports fan. I've been watching that stupid. Okay. On Hulu. Which one? Clip.

It's called Clipped on Hulu. It's about the 2013-2014 Los Angeles Clippers and about Donald Sterling losing his team. Ed O'Neill plays Donald Sterling. there's a lot of actors in it oh shit yeah okay yeah so yeah al bunty and so yeah al bunty plays him he plays the racist owner who loses his team he loses his team but he gains three billion so it's like how is he lose anything anyway so i i i there are only two episodes there's only six total that didn't come out yet i watched the two it's a guilty pleasure i thought it was fun you know because i'm like obsessed with like my other thing is sports i'm obsessed with football and basketball watching

league. So, so that show. That's my cool of the week. We got a cool of the week, guys. We got a cool of the week, guys. We got a cool of the week. All right. Quick, quick take, Douglas. Dallas coming back in the finals, down 02. I think, honestly, I think they're going to take one at home, but I think it's going to be a gentleman sweep for two. Okay. Yeah, Celtics. I'm rooting for Dallas because I, you know, I'm from New York. I can't stand, you know, Boston. stuff so it's like see i like but when i grew up the mavericks sucked so they won you know what was it 2011 yeah yeah they've had good years and bad years right that is in the mix so well when i was growing up there mostly bad years so it's kind of nice to see yeah well you were there you were there dude you were in Dallas so that makes a different that makes

them seem a lot worse they really are right that's probably true now that that's They were pretty bad in the 80s. All right. Okay, that's cool of the week. Now, Brian is going to bring us some horror headlines. What's going on, Brian? All right. We're going to start with TV news first.

Bill Scarsgard officially returning as Pennywise for the Welcome to Dairy Series on Max. Okay. Well, how can you put anybody else at that position? Which was a little odd. They can't use Tim Curry now, can you? It's a little odd. They were so far. to filming, then they're just now adding

him. Yeah. That's a good point. That has me a little worried about what they've filmed so far. Yeah, true. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Kind of feels like they filmed something, looked at it, and it was like, we need to get Bill.

Call Bill. Give them all the money he wants, so we can't be using Elijah Wood. Creaky, but not quite scary. All right, Elijah, calm. Let's see. A friend of the show, David Howard Thornton, is going to be Steamboat Willie in the Mickey Mouse horror movie Steamboat. That sounds about right.

The cast of that better. Additional casting for 28 years later, the movie, I swear, we talk about every week. There's some kind of news about it. Aaron Kellyman. She was recently in Willow, I believe, House of the Dragon, I think. And Captain America and the Falcon TV series. She was the lead villain in that one. Trying to remember.

Douglas, does that ring a bell? Yeah, because I literally just met the whole cast the other day of House of the Dragon. I'm trying to see if she was there. Okay. She might not have been a House of the Dragon. Last Monday, they're doing a photo op in Manhattan, and I was there. Okay. And it was, I don't know, I never saw the show.

I know of it, but I'm trying to think if she rings a bell to me, is she the middle of the main characters from the show, or? Yeah, with the red hair and freckles. The red hair and the freckles, but she looks like she's mixed. Yes. Yeah. She wasn't there. The only people that were there were the older lady, the main girl.

Again, I'm sorry, I don't know the names. That's right. The main guy, the guy with the eye patch. Yeah. And then someone like, I don't know. I know I shouldn't be, I'm like, yeah, I was there, but I don't know their names. Like, you know. You know.

I was there. I'm getting my fantasy, getting my fantasy movies, middle, or TV shows mixed up. She was, she was from the Green Night. Oh, okay. It's from the Green Night. Yeah, I remember the Green Night. All right. Mystery solved.

Let's see if there's anything else. News has been slow. again. Another actor joins Ryan Johnson's Knives Out 3 movie Wake Up Dead Man. Thomas Hayden Church joins the cats. Okay.

He's good, man. I haven't seen him in much since Sideways, but he's pretty good. Oh, is he the Wings guy? Yeah. Yeah. I got you. Currently rumored Tom Hardy is allegedly really Tom Hardy.

That's cool. I like it. Why not? I don't know what this biker movie he's doing, but... Oh, yeah, the biker writer. Have you guys seen the trailer? What is this voice he's doing? It's in the guy who played Elvis.

I forgot his name. Yeah. Austin Butler. Just listen to tell him about this. And he still sounds like Elvis. He's like, all right. We're going to get some photo cycle. I said, I said.

And Tom Hodge is like, better take this fucking set seriously or otherwise, you know. It's like, all right, guys, calm down. A normal man. All right. We talked about a couple months ago. They're doing a sequel to Prey, the Predator movie called Badlands, and they've cast El Fanning. Oh, really? Okay.

Do we have any kind of plot to that one? Things I'm hearing is it might end up actually being a Western like we talked about. Oh, okay. Is it nothing to do with the girl from the first? Is she not going to be in? It's like a whole separate story? It's separate story. but he's also Dan Tractonberg

I believe the director he's also doing a sequel to that one. Oh, all right. Oh, so two separate movies. Yeah. They've announced both of them at the same time. Does this one like Wild West Predator? I'm down

for it. Why not? The fucking Billy the kid pops up. Reach from the sky. Oh, I miss this one, another casting for Knives Out 3, Josh

Brolin. And we'll leave off with I'm going to pronounce his name wrong. Grant Sputor is the new director for the next Godzilla Kong movie. Because Adam Wingard dropped out. He didn't drop out, I think.

They kind of mutually part of it. I don't know, man. I was enjoying the monster stuff in the monster movies. Yeah, we talked about it. A lot of these directors. that kind of get burnt out because a lot of these blockbusters take up years of your career. Yeah.

And I think he's going back to doing like a kind of action thriller, his next film, kind of like the guest. Well, especially since that one was probably mostly green screen. It's kind of like doing an animated movie, I imagine. But I did read it is officially the highest grossing

movie in the Monsterverse. Oh, geez. Did you check it out? Yeah. Did you check it out, Douglas? No, I didn't see. it. Yeah. All I'll say is tooth extraction, right? It's one scene. Just bothers you. All right. Dan Stevens is good though, right? I'm sure he'll work with him again, don't you think? It's ridiculous, but it's a monster movie about monsters,

and that's it. Like, the people don't really matter. Fair enough. Fair enough. We've been asking for for a hundred years. Yeah, and we got it. All right, that's the news. all right so uh douglas you want to come with us down to the trailer park man all right yeah all right brian is gonna he's gonna bring us the big the small and it's like this sounds like a terrible idea sort of i know you want to go to the trailer park i'm down for any let's do it that afterwards god we're making myself with this is terrible i mean yeah but i don't want to like get arrested or anything yeah that'd be a bummer right

That'd be a bummer. Brian, what's the first new trailer to talk about tonight? First and only trailer we got is the official trailer, because we talked about the teaser, is for Alien Romulus, directed by FedE A. Alvarez. Douglas, you get a chance to see the trailer? Yeah, so what did you think? I'm glad they're bringing it back instead of the whole Prometheus, and what was the other stupid one? What was it? Covenant. Yeah, Covenant.

I feel like going back. Make an alien movie. Let's not have people on a freaking shit. And they're like, Prometheus, are you seeing this? The ship's annoyed, yes. You know, like. So I like, I'm interested to see it. Like, looks like it's coming back to the

1979 one with, that's what 79, right? Yeah, with Sigourney Weaver. Yeah. Back to what it would work. You know, get Ridley Scott out of it. Get Joaquin Phoenix out of it with his American accent, doing Napoleon. Remember that?

I don't know if you guys saw that. Everyone's doing a British accent, but him. He's like, I don't care to do the accent. I'm a Joker, too. And Ridley's like, come on, man. It's a $20 million movie. Keanu Reeves and Dracula. They're like, you know what?

Just don't worry about it. Keanu tried, though. Yeah, he tried for about half the movie, right? Yeah. He's like, we need to attack their left. What does that even mean? I don't care. I'm making 20 million. But anyway, yes, I feel like it's going to be...

On that note. What'd you think, Phil? I'm kind of digging it. I actually am a fan of Prometheus, at least. I don't know about the other two. But I like the direction that Prometheus was going. This one looks like it's more of a straight alien movie, and it even has some really throwing.

back graphics in the trailer, which is pretty cool. I'm stoked about it, man. I'll totally watch this one. Yeah, I'm in. I've enjoyed everything. Fedé Alvarez is done. He's said this is going to be mostly practical effects. Nice.

Throughout the movie, this definitely, from what I'm hearing, is going to be a hard R. Very violent, gory. It's also going to be set between alien and aliens, and I think they kind of captured that tone. Yeah, they're going to have to top that scene with a chest hugger. And I like the little Easter eggs in the movie in the trailer,

because I think the lead character, I think she's got on the Reeboks, the same ones that Ripley had on. Okay. Like, just a little attention to detail. Like, you know, that close to the original one, then of course you know that's what you know somebody would be wearing but I'm definitely for an issue

what you think Lance well the original alien is like one of my top ten horror movies of all time and then like a lot of people say well aliens is better I mean aliens is more fun I don't know if it's better as far as the film but yeah I like what you guys said like Douglas said this is like getting back to the original vibe and the original look and aesthetic and everything.

So, fuck, man, I'm all in, especially if it's hard art, you know. Get some good gore in there. I'm all in. All right. This hits theaters August 16th. Okay. On to listener feedback. Let's see what we got here.

This week we shine the podcast spotlight on Homos on Haunted Hill. There you go, man. Original title. I love it. Join queer host, Kevin and Chris, for casually weekend. Casual weekly discussion celebrating the weird, wild world of horror cinema. New episodes on air on Tuesday. Check out Homo's on a Honored Hill.

That is the fucking best name ever. I love it. In regards to mind, body, and spirit, Marcy Papanjew says it's a cool poster. Yeah. That's why we wanted more. body horror, right? Brian, because the poster kind of made it look like she was like being

contorted in every which way. You don't have to spoil it. She's doing yoga, so... Yeah, I was just going to say that. I looked up the poster. It's just yoga. Yeah. All right. That's all I'm saying. I agree. Brian. It's all I saw it on the notes. I'm like, yeah, she's doing yoga. Well, Marcy liked it.

Marcy liked it. In regards to pieces. Neil LeMoy says, bastards, bastards, bastards, bastards! You guys ever see that movie? You're talking pieces? The ones in the 80s?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I've seen it. Okay. Well, she says that line, she's got to scream on her. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Just the kid just packing people up and, you know.

Right. That's a good one, man. I remember enjoying that one a lot. I figured I wasn't delivering the line correctly, but it's there. In regards to the Roller Blade 7, Neil LeBoyce says... Roller Blight 7. There is a sequel to this. Maybe 2.

Maybe 7. Maybe 28. Kimberly Ashcraft says, thanks for letting me join. All right. Welcome, Kimberly. Thanks. In regards to this. Strangers Chapter 1 streaming on P-O-V-D,

uh, ish Richard says, uh, okay, what the heck is P-O-V-D? I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking the same thing, okay.

Occasionally I have miss-ups on, because apparently I, I put the wrong date on a Rob zombie behind-the-scenes photo and I got lit up in the comments. I bet you did. With the same comment. I'm like,

you not read each other's, comments saying the same thing 20 times okay so not a new thing it's just VOD okay it's paid video on demand it's

pretty simple yeah is there a new disease god damn I gotta give them not that's made a VD vaccine it's every disease combined you're immune if you have right

in regards to the Friday franchise J.T. C. Breeze says, I believe Kane Hodder was the best person to play Jason. But the second Jason from the Part 6 film being my second choice. But sadly, most, if not all, the movies Hotter has been in are probably the worst in the franchise. No fault of Hotter, just bad scripts and directors.

Who made Jason Takes Manhattan? Who is Jason in that one? Kane Hodder. He was? I think so. Oh yeah. Living in the same thing. But it's good, Jason.

Yeah. Bad movies. In regards to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jason Chapman said the remake doesn't hold a candle to the original groundbreaking masterpiece and the way it was filmed. Liking the 2004 version is all right, but thinking that it's better than the original people are crazy. I'll agree with that. And real quick, I just checked that posting because I really try to get my postings right.

I said PVOD. It's in the post. What does PVOD mean? It's not paid video on demand. Is that what it is? I thought, is it? That's what I thought. Okay.

Well, it's a thing. I don't know what the hell it is. Let's see. And we've got a Markey Christopher Wilson. says Marilyn Burns was phenomenal in her performance and the last scene has stayed with me every time I see the end I get a chill. Brilliant. Still talking about the Texas Chainsawmasker series.

Nice. It's starting to interrupt, but it's premium video on demand. Premium video on demand. There is. Similar because you're paying for premiums, all right? Well, this is why it costs more. In regards to Halloween, Susan Orchard says, Nothing against Tyler Main,

but Michael Myers is a normal-sized man, didn't like that he was seven feet tall. That being said, Rob Zombie's Halloween, too, was an abomination of the franchise. Oh, boy. As was Halloween ends. Didn't like Mama on a white horse showing up. I don't hate the Rob Zombie Halloweens,

but I'm not a huge Halloween person. Hates a strong word, right? Yeah. In regards to Saw X, Brian Galloway says, jaw 3330. 330.0. It says Jigsaw goes, oh, okay.

Jigsaw goes to space. Jigsaw goes to space. this might as well be next in the damn series I'm sorry I fucked up your joke all right we got it in regards to the terrifier franchise John Mark Graham says Terrifier 1 was okay but I really like

Terrifier 2 much more awesome gore scenes and the kids trick-or-treat scene is a classic can't wait for Terrifier 3 are we talking about that one last week too yeah In regards to Pinocchio, carved from darkness. Kathy Gakowska says, because they can.

Mickey Mouse is also going to be in a horror film, as well as Alice in Wonderland and Bambi, can't name a few. Could Cinderella, Goofy, and the Seven Dwarves be next? Stay tuned. Oops, my goodness, we can't forget Bugs Bunny. The innocence of my childhood has been permanently shattered. I think that was the point.

I mentioned who ones? They had to do a Fragal Rock horror movie. Jesus Christ. That'd be easy. Yeah, that'd be great. Terrifying, right? Yeah.

You hear the song, you're about to die. What? In Fraggle? In regards to the hostile TV series, Theresa Tensley says, I'm so excited to hear about this. It's my favorite, it's my significant other's favorite movie, and my favorite director, maybe writer, not for sure, Eli Roth. Oh, boy, Eli Roth.

He's falling on hard times, in my opinion, Douglas. Hit or miss. I don't like anything he's done lately. Hitter miss. He's falling on hard times because you don't like him. I haven't like anything he's done in general. Lance was going to have a planned showdown with him

at Texas Rite Mayor But we didn't make it Alas The conversation was going to start Fuck you, Eli Roth I don't know if I talked about it last week But Paul Giamani is Starring in the Hostel TV series

Really? Oh wow, okay And we we have a few new comments regarding Brian's poll in the group which iconic franchise needs to be revived first and

why Friday or nightmare Stephen Warnack says if I was to create and revive either of these iconic chor flicks it needs to be examined and have some great thoughtful process to actually what makes them worth

something wanting to watch them no more of this craft like Jason and Freddie look deep into each other's eyes while traveling to Saturn with each other's dicks in their hands and it needs to be explosive and creative horror

something that's never been done with horror something to make them icons once more so that's a tall order which one I don't disagree with that we didn't get an answer did we although traveling to Saturn

with their dicks in their hands would be something I would imagine. It would be. Who's going to blow who's first? As long as it's not explosive, right? Yeah. Oh, Jason has the mask, so I guess Freddie's going to have to start

it up. I guess so. And it shows, wow, that was explosive. Freddy does his dream sequences and it's really just foreplay. Oh, yeah, yeah. Fucking Freddy waking up from a night Paul Fitch says

Definitely Friday the 13th. It's by far the best franchise. We'll see. We'll see. That's it for listener feedback this week. Intro and logos come from Steve Carlton from the Geeks. Original skull artwork comes from Natsulani. Check her out on Instagram.

and help us out on Patreon. We'll let you pick the movies for a future show at any amount, and for $5 a more a month, also pick a commentary for a future bonus show. And if you join at the $5 tier and stay with us at least three months, you also get six coosies, a t-shirt, and a pop figurine of our choice, because that's what we do for you.

Help us out, guys. It's a good deal. All right, on to feature attractions. With this being episode 420, we may have missed a very important holiday shout-out, but we just could not avoid the new Chamalon film, even though it's not that Shyamalan. We check out the brand new The Watchers and last year's Unwelcome. We'll start with Unwelcome from 2023. We've been gifted this beautiful house.

We live here. Can you believe it? Mayve wanted to keep the place in your family, Jamie. We really appreciate the house. Well, then you know. It's got a hole in the roof. The wheelings, they'll do a good job. Jamie, Maya, you just carry on with your day as if we weren't here.

There is one thing I need to show you and it's a little bit peculiar. Every evening before sunset she'd leave a blood off ring here. Sorry, did you say that? Blood? For who? For the red caps. No need feeding. Married couple Maya and

Jamie escaped their urban nightmare to the tranquility of a rural Ireland only to discover malevolent and murderous goblins. Lurking in the gnarled goblins? Is that what they are? I don't think they're... I guess. I don't know. Red camps. Lurking in the gnarled ancient woods

at the foot of their new garden. Director is John Wright, also known for the grabbers. That's a fun one. That's a fun one. They have to keep drinking. Writers are John Wright and Mark Stay. The Red Cap Goblins were not puppets. They were played by actors, Paul Warren, Rick Warden,

and stunt performers all wearing costume and practical goblin heads. According to the director, John Wright, they were shot on double-sized sets, which gave the illusion of people who are half-sized. Rather than use animatronics to animate the heads, they added CGI motion capture faces. Did not realize that. All right, Douglas, you want to start us out? What did you think about Unwelcome?

Wait, are we doing spoilers before we started into this? Oh, all right. Yeah, we can't with this. It's been over here. Okay, we'll do spoilers for Unwelcome. All right. Yeah, no, I wasn't a big fan of it. specifically that the goblins, if they were goblins, I don't know what they were.

Because the movie starts off promising with them being attacked to their home, move away, and they go to this other area, and it's like, all right, I got pretty bored of it. I won't spend too much time in it, but I just didn't care for it. I was just, right? The goblins, the effects, like, why bother even doing the CGI for using real people? Just do the animatronic. I'd rather see that, you know, because it looked weird. Because I thought it was all, like, it made it look like the whole thing with CGI.

because you have the cgai face but then you have the bodies with the like you said the the sets were bigger i just i thought it was cgri in general but man just didn't like it i just didn't care for i sat there like a i didn't like it you know it lans what you think uh you know what i i think i enjoyed it a little bit more uh than douglas did i um don't know i kind of like the setup um you know you've got that i i i i i i've got that i i i i i i I wasn't exactly sure where it was going to go with it. I kind of, for some reason, I don't know if it was just the poster artwork or whatever. I think I was expected more of like a lighthearted comedy type movie.

It's listed as a comedy horror. It's kind of dark, you know? I mean, you got, you know. I agree. I didn't see any comedy yet, but it was listed as comedy horror, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you know, okay, so it's this young couple. The wife is freshly pregnant, right? and they're actually happy when it's got a plus on the pregnancy.

You know, sometimes you're in those, you're watching those movies and they're like waiting for the results. You're like, do they want the baby or is it going to be like a hassle to have the baby or whatever? But they're happy and they're young, and he goes to get some champagne and these British hoodlum, you know, a lot of Clockwork Orange Punks come out and start fucking with him.

I'm like, Jesus Christ, man, this dude's fucking hands on him. The minute he walks out of the store, and this guy's not saying anything. So this movie to me suffers from the same problem that Speak No Evil suffers from to me where, why the fuck don't you do something? You're just going to sit there and take it? You know, and that kind of was frustrating, right? And he doesn't change.

To be fair, in that situation in the beginning, that's what gets him into trouble because he wants to say something. But I'm not defending him. Yeah, that's right. when he's... I think it's what was she's name. Jamie. Jamie's a punk throughout the movie. Yeah. Jamie's a punk, for sure. The wife is hot.

She's cute. I like her. I'm not sure what else she's been in, but I've seen her in a couple of things. She was the villain in Ant Man 2. Oh, my God. And she was one of the henchmen in Ready Player 1. Okay. All right.

Yeah, that's it. that you just hit my synapses there, closed them in my brain. Okay, yeah, now I do remember her from the Ant Man movies. But I think they both did a decent job. I mean, you know, unfortunately, he probably should have acted a little differently. I was super nervous when that one punk threw her onto the coffee table because I thought, oh, shit, they're going to lose the baby. I'm glad they didn't.

I'm glad they didn't go that dark. But then they go out to the Irish countryside and, you know, and then it kind of becomes, like one of these things where you're waiting for the goblins or whatever you want to red caps whatever you're waiting for them to show up so you get through all the way through act one then you get into act two where they go to the local pub and everybody has a bit of a bit of a laugh with them like uh acting like acting like they're not going to talk to them like they stepped into that movie men or something everybody's acting weird you know and then all of a sudden all of a sudden they're like ay have a drink on us you know so i don't know it seems like this filmmaker would probably be fun to hang

around with, but as far as, you know, being one of the best filmmakers of all time, maybe not. You know, it wasn't that great. I know our friend, Tim, from Horror for Dummies, absolutely loves this movie, and I can see the charm of it, but, yeah, I don't know. And then you get Chief Miles O'Brien from Star Trek in there, and he's like, call me Daddy, and I'm like, why the fuck are I going to call you Daddy? Where did this come from? But again, Jamie gets out there, and would you put up with it? Brian. I'm going to ask you, if you were in this situation where you hired a contractor, granted, he's probably the only contractor in town, but Ireland is a tiny country.

It's a fucking island for fuck's sake, man. Well, he wasn't the only contract. He wasn't the only contractor. They just didn't want to wait for the other one. Oh, man. That makes it even worse. Which means he wasn't as busy as everybody else. And you should have fired him before he started when they showed up early.

because they lost when he said we lost another job so we thought we'd come and start this one wow Brian would you put up with one second of the way that the kids were treating this kid no absolutely not first not I don't yeah the worst character he not to jump on your review or anything but he he doesn't in my eyes he never redeems himself you yeah you get this version of him when when the when they get jumped by those kids or young adult. I don't even know what they were supposed to be. Whatever you want to call them, right?

Yeah. And you're like, okay, when we get to the country size, you think you know the story's going to go. He's going to have something redeeming about his characters. And he really doesn't. Even when he stabs the guy at the end,

he apologizes for stabbing him. Yep. Like, the guy is trying to kill you. What a bitch, man. What a fucking punk. Jesus Christ. All right, so look, one thing I'll say about this movie, Brian, that I kind of enjoyed, especially that final sequence

with the way they lit the red light in the background and the camera went around her. And I guess she was becoming the Goblin Queen or whatever, but it did kind of remind me of my good old days of watching those Charles Band Full Moon movies. Like in the 80s and early 90s, I kind of got that cheesy, you know, Charles Banfield to it. The CGI, you're right, Douglas

kind of took me out of it with the little characters. I think they should have just like shown little people, right? With like big sets and you're done, right? Why fuck around with all that? But I don't know, man, I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. It was kind of in the middle, you know? I guess

that's my review. I remember liking this movie a lot more than I do now. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And I think I'm thinking of a different movie because Lance I also I swore when they get jumped in the beginning and she

gets thrown down I swore she lost the baby and that's why they moved Mandela effect maybe maybe that was in the other there's another movie similar to this I can't remember what where they moved to the countryside to get away from all the stuff in the city yeah what is it was similar kind of not really was it called straw dogs

the original Straw dogs, okay. Yeah, it was Dustin. They made two, but with Dustin Hoffman in the 70s and then 2010 with, I forgot the guy's name. Cyclops. Yes. Cyclops. James Marsden, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how that kind of was in the beginning. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I could see that. But he actually.

Problems in it, but that's the only thing I can think of all the top of my head. And he stepped up in straw dogs, right? Yeah, he did. Yeah. That's the difference. I already talked about Jamie and my frustrations with his character, but I don't know if that's where they wanted the character to go. I just, I didn't like that term for the character,

no turn for the character, I'm sorry. I believe her name is, the lead is Hannah John Kamen. I liked her in it. I like her and a lot of the stuff I've seen her in. I thought everybody did decently as far as acting. The Star Trek guy, Hodor from Game of Thrones was in there. Oh, that's it.

It was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't get much of the comedy because, like, there's murder and there's murder and assault and attempted rape in here. So I don't know where the, I mean, I guess with the, with the little lines, like, in the beginning when he was asking, what if the pregnancy test says negative, I guess all that sex was nothing. I guess those little lines are supposed to be the comedy. Yeah. But it just wasn't hidden.

I'm a little confused at the whole ending of her being the goblin queen or the goblin mother or whatever, because I thought they made it seem like this was a bad thing. And when you meet the previous goblin mother, she wants to be killed and put out of her misery. So I'm a little, a little bit. confused. I wish they would have dealt more into that. And with these Irish folks, folk stories, these creatures, can they

pick a name? Because they're fairies, they're changelings, red caps, goblins. Yeah. They're watchers. Yeah, right. We'll get into that one. Maybe they're all the same thing, man. They are, yeah. Aliens. Okay.

All right, hold on. Hey, Brian, Brian, let's, Philip, real quick, before I forget, dude, speaking of red caps, that reminded me of the red cap mushrooms.

Tell us your Santa Claus story real quick. Oh, the Santa Claus thing. All right. Yeah.

So the Aminita Muscaria mushroom is a psychedelic mushroom. It's not actually that psychedelic, but whatever it works. Raneers actually

will chase it. The caribu will knock your ass over while you're peeing after you've eaten those mushrooms to lick up your pee and get high

off these mushrooms, a.k.a. Flying reindeer, right? Okay. And there's so many Christmas cards of these pine trees outside in the winter with like amadneumascaria mushrooms underneath them. And they're the Mario mushrooms. They're the white and red spotted ones that look like Christmas presents. And the story goes, there was a shaman that would come down the chimney because they outlawed it. And so the shaman would come down the chimney. And so the shaman would come down the him need to deliver you these mushrooms, right? So you could go on your little trip. Anyway, so Christmas is about mushrooms. Santa Claus is mushroom. How about that? Learn something new every day, Douglas. Aren't you glad you showed up?

I know. Just high up there in the sky. Telling you, man. It's weird stuff. All right. So I enjoyed this month. movie for what it was. It definitely wasn't like super punch you in the face or memorable. Like I've seen

it before and I had to watch it again for this one just, but I enjoyed watching it again. I don't really see where the comedy is, but it was sort of lighthearted horror, I think. Okay. Right? With the little people. Maybe Darmy.

Maybe. Maybe. I guess. I guess. Yeah, that guy, that guy made me mad more than, more than those. And the villains were very over the top, I got to say that. But sometimes you need over the top villains that are not redeemable, so you can kill them. But yeah, no, I enjoyed where it went. I thought it was something a little different. The ending was definitely weird.

I have questions. But it was at least something different. and she's like spinning around in the blood mist which I would yeah yeah kind of weird right why did why did the previous one have to stay in that little cave or whatever

she gets to spin around outside in the blood rain maybe she's still young maybe she didn't their children yeah she maybe she didn't she just uh she just didn't know any better since she was that they took her I don't know

That's all right All right Let's go Scores 1 to 10 Douglas, what do you think? Well Three Three on 10

Kind of brutal That sounds like a Lance score What do you think? Oh my score I'll go six on this one I liked it more than I didn't like it I thought it was You know

Decently made movie yeah Jamie pissed me off but you know you got Cole Meaney in there hamming it up so and he keeps insisting call me daddy and they never gave the story of why so I'll go six I'll go six on ten it was a weird thing Brian what do you very weird if this was last year I probably would have gave it a seven but really breaking it down for the show I my score kind of went down to a four. There was just too much unexplained. Too much unexplained.

Characters were kind of frustrating. And yeah. So if we would have reviewed this last year, I don't know. Maybe I watched a different movie last year. For me, I couldn't keep it like my interest.

You know, like, it kind of reminds I remember the movie the Brough? I don't know if you guys saw that. A Kronenberg movie from the 70s. Yeah. Yes. It kind of reminded me of that. with the little people and they were the again different movies but the brood i enjoyed right was this i thought of the brood right away when i saw the whatever they were the goblins i'm like all right that's kind of like the brood this house that this woman is giving birth to all these things with

that disturbing scene in the end with her giving birth like so right then and there i was like because then i'm comparing it to the brood so for me that's why i give it yeah totally It was very interesting. It was ahead of its time. Cronenberg effects. You know, Oliver Reed, who doesn't like him, you know, like... So that's... That makes sense.

All right. Well, I'm going to be the way high, man, on this total poll. I'm going to give it a seven and a half, man. I... Oh. I had a pretty good time with it. I thought it was definitely worth watching. Is it the best movie of the year?

Definitely not. But it's... It's... I think it's... worth watching. It's something a little different and I kind of like that. Okay. So there's that.

All right. Let's move on to our feature presentation. The Watchers from 2024. What is this place? Who are you? We're just like you. Lost. Every night. They watch us until the sun rises

again. It's a window on the other side. A young artist gets stranded in an extensive immaculate forest in Western Ireland, where after finding shelter, she becomes trapped alongside three strangers stalked by mysterious creatures each night. Director and writer is Ishaana Shamalan, Nepo Baby of Yeah You Know Who. on the book from the same name by A.M. Shine. Of course. That's not a fake name.

Yeah. A.M. Shine. I might just write the book and create someone else. Anyway, continue. It sounds like a name he would create. Am Shine. What? I take trouble.

All right. All right, Douglass. What did you think about the watchers? Well, first of all, that was my first thing. I'm like, all right. No colors. I'm like, all right, so it's that I'm giving his daughter a movie like David Lynch did with Remember boxing Helena?

Yeah, Jennifer Lynch, right? Yes, Jennifer Chambers Lynch. Same age, 22. All right, here's a million dollars. Make a movie. Julian Sand, you don't have sex with a woman with no legs? You know, like, I don't know if you guys seen it, but. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And Pazinger turned it down. Remember they tried to sue her. Yeah, she was supposed to play. I got that. Yeah, Kim Baster, you were supposed to play Helena, $10 million, and they're like, we're suing you, you dropped out. She's like, I'm not doing this crap.

Anyway, so, start off with that. Anyway, here we are, 40 years later. Amshy, I guess writes a book, which I still think N. Knight created this person I've never heard of so his daughter could make a movie 20 years later. I didn't, I don't know why you're making me go, I hate it. I just didn't like it. Like, I'm just, I, we're not doing spoilers, you said, for this one?

Not yet, not yet. I can't do my joke, though. But anyway, so I guess, so she's working as a bird, brings it to the woods, and they all stand there, you know, one guy, the watchers like to watch him, masturbate a lot, so that's a part. I'm kidding. But they're all standing in the watchers. They're applauding her and hitting the new people.

her husband escapes, pretends to come back. I felt like it was literally M. Knight was just sitting there with a thing in her ear. All right, do my camera pan from Lady in the Water. All right, the happening scene.

Do this. It feel like she just, it was all of his movies into one. It was like a 2005 M-night movie. Like, he didn't make a movie in 2006. But I just didn't like it. I went and saw it the other day in theaters. Again, I saw it in the afternoon

at 1 o'clock, so it was just me, some weird guy, and two other people. And I'm just like, perfect. That was me, the weird guy. In New York, all right. But I just saw everything coming. Again, I'm not going to say my joke because it's going to spoil everything, but it's just the whole time I'm laughing at this.

And I don't know, I just, it's just hard for me to watch it. It felt like M. Knight was just directing it. Like, if you're going to direct a movie, make your own thing. This is something M. Knight would direct. You know, it's a fantasy. I wouldn't even consider it horror. Yeah. The CGI just said signs.

Like, that's how I felt. The CGI, I couldn't take it serious. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so it's just hard to do that. When you're watching, like, change your name. Don't call yourself Shamalan then. You know? Right.

Like, at least Jennifer Chamberlinch went out of her way and made a weirder movie that her father would make. It's like this movie, a guy's going to cut off a woman's leg, make her watch him have sex with all the women. You know, that's what boxing the land was. You know, bombed. It was terrible.

Right. That's my thought. And then I'll give my spoiler when everyone goes because I have a funny joke, but it might not be funny. Everyone might be like that. We'll find out. Yeah, we'll find out. Let's what did you think? This was rough, man.

This was fucking rough. And you guys know I love folk horror and I love stuff that's set out in the woods and whatnot. But there were just so many things that couldn't be explained in this. There were so many coincidences. I guess after the huge third act twist

right you know yeah yeah yeah yeah it's like a twist

in this one maybe you can justify some of the coincidences and the near misses and the

narrow escapes and just the nick of time if you consider okay yeah that you was in

yeah okay but still it fucking sucked and My God, has this person never been to Ireland? So what is it? They're saying, they're in Dublin, but they're going to Belfast,

but yet go away is where the buses or whatever's going. It's like, you're literally, no, I'm kidding. Dude, you're hitting every fucking part of Ireland, and it's supposed to be within like a 20-kilometer area or whatever. It's like, number one, go visit the country you're going to film about, or at least do some research on the geography of the country. That's the first thing.

And then, Jesus Christ, everyone in here was horrible. Was that, okay, so when she was in the pet shop at the beginning, so I'll keep it spoiler-free early. So I'll talk about first X-F. When she was in the pet shop and he gave her the bird and said, I go see the Irish countryside. Was that the dude that played Banshee in the X-Men movies? the dude that said a lot of the Cronenberg movies,

the weird red-haired kid, because it sure sounded like him, but they, for whatever reason, they'd made a decision. Why did they make that decision? It's not like... I thought it was in the night at first,

just making them, I'm kidding. It might have been, with an Irish exit, putting us on, right? But no, but they didn't show his face at all. I'm like,

all right, this is going to pay off later on, and then I don't want to get spoiled it either. There's so many things that they set up that I felt were going to pay off, that never paid off at all, right? because they went in a totally different direction when they get to the end of this movie.

So there's nothing redeeming in here for me, guys. At least we got us a bottom 10 movie, finally. Finally. We review night swim, Terro. I gave night swim a six, dude. Same score I gave them. So this makes the bottom 10, this cracked, something cracked the bottom 10.

For sure, man Well, you never know We get a long way to go Brian, you and I still have our 31 days of horror to go Oh yeah A lot of gems pop up In that 31 days of horror every year But yeah, it's terrible

And oh my God When you get to the point where you're like Are we watching an episode of Lost here? What's going on? It's just It's like you don't want to say much You don't want to spoil it yet for our listeners that don't want to hear the spoilers yet that want to still see it.

But it's almost like it's so bad. I almost want to just throw everything out there and yell it right now. So nobody does go to see it. But this is rough, rough, rough. What do you think, Brian? Okay. Douglas, I think you hit the nail on the head. Why pick a movie that your father would have done if you want to stand out on your own?

This is, this might as well have been directed by him. This was not good. The acting was not good. And I like a lot of the people in the cast. I mean, I've seen Dakota Fanning do some good work. Georgina Campbell, who was in Barbarian, and another movie I can't remember that I've seen recently where she was a park ranger and she gets lost in the woods.

That was a really good one. Deep, dark, and lovely or something? Yeah, that one. Yeah, right? And Olin, Owin, Foray, the older lady. She's been in some stinkers. I mean, she was a peril.

That's right. Texas chainsaw, the remake from, or the remake sequel. The one on Netflix, that one? Yeah. She gets, in the ending, she gets shot like she's the original girl from Texas. Oh, no. Out. Everything was predictable.

this movie. I could have told you what the big twist, if you want to call it a twist, because it was so obvious on what was going on. Sure. It just, I had, I had so much trouble trying to pay attention to the movie. I was pulling out my phone to check time, checking emails, seeing what's going on in the world while I'm sitting in this movie theater watching this movie. It was bad. It was bad. And like you said, the whole blurring out the face of the pet shop owner who for some reason has this girl go on this long journey to deliver one bird. You thought that was going to pay off somewhere in the movie. I know I'm probably spoiling it, but at this point, I don't care.

Not really. The movie was horrible. And I honestly, if she is a talented director, I just feel bad that just because I'm looking at it, Her dad also produced this movie. Yep. So you know, Douglas, you're probably right. She's probably in her ears. Like, do this, do that.

The music. Everything, man. It just felt like an M. Knight movie, you know. Yeah, I could see that. I could see that. Yeah. Not good. Definitely in my bottom ten for the year.

I don't know that I'm going to put it in my bottom ten. I mean, it's right. probably not going in my top 10. But I didn't hate it. I've always liked Dakota Fanning.

It's good to see her back in some movies. She definitely carried this one. I don't know if it's her strongest performance, but they had some scenes that were pretty cool. They had like a mirror scene where she's up against a mirror, and then

if you watch it for long enough, it's hard to tell which one is her and which one is a reflection, which is kind of a cool effect. But, yeah, I don't know, man, I didn't hate it. Fair enough, man. Fair enough. That whole

last little third act after the movie, the third act had kind of already happened, and this was just sort of extra. And it seemed like some extra scenes. Went on too long, huh? Yeah, it may shouldn't have been in the movie. This, this, this, this looks to me more like it would have been a really good, like,

TV series. And, uh, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, sort of came up as, like, two separate sort of things that, uh, were not as cohesive as I would have liked them to be, if that makes sense. But we'll get into, we'll get into that in spoilers. All right, let's go scores. And then we'll talk to sports. Douglas 1 to 10. What do you think?

One. One. Ouch. Lance. He's overtaken. Hey, if you're handed the fucking keys to a city at 22, you better fucking do something. I'll give it to you. There was some decent cinematography and sound.

How about that? Man. Brian, what do you think? The acting was not great. The dialogue was horrible. The twist was pretty. predictable the CGI effects especially at the reveal of the watchers was horrible Yeah, I'm gonna have to give it a two

Oh, out. I was gonna go six. I thought it was watchable Okay, all right Yeah, dude, that's why we do this man. All right, let's go spoilers. All right Change my mind with just a good possibility Start us off Douglas. This is a a motherfucking spoiler alert you've been fucking warned this is a motherfucking spoiler alert you've been fucking warned this is a mother fucking spoiler alert you've been fucking warned well the professor and Maryam

Ginger so he literally what he did he call himself the professor or what else that like that yeah professor anyway so he's having sex with these fucking creatures and he's going off That's all I got from the movie. All right. Good point. Spent for 180 fucking these creatures. To build Halfling.

Getting his wife involved. Hiring people at a bird shop to come over. All right. Bring this bird. You're a halfling because I raped this inhuman creature. That's the one thing that he didn't show when they're watching those videos in the basement.

That was stupid too. It's like, oh, look at this magical door. Yeah, they definitely had some convenient data dumps in this one. that were a little much. Yeah, the computer with the data dump and then what was her name?

Madeline Olin Forre, the one that turned out to be a watcher. Or whatever, right? No, they call them halflings because he's fucking these watchers. The day walker. They're seven feet tall.

I'm kind of. Right. How are you going to break something seven feet tall? She's great, dude. It's the day walker. She was there giving out so much information that you just got to the point. This person's obviously one of them. Yeah, yeah.

Because she has not been there that long to learn all this stuff. And then the reveal of the Watchers was horrible. The CGI effects. And then the big escape to the raft, I had a problem with that because what was the character's name? Daniel? Yeah, Daniel. Yeah. The one I had clothes on, all the rest were naked?

Why? I mean... I'm talking about when they're all getting on the boat and then she sees Georgina Campbell's husband. Even though they came to the conclusion that the husband is dead, he's trying to save this guy. He's trying to save him. Daniel's trying to save him. Right? I didn't understand that.

Yeah. And then they're like, leave him. He's done. It's like, all right. That's all happened really quickly. Like, I can't even remember how it went. I know. It was bad. It was like, oh, bam, we're on the boat.

Yeah, conveniently the time it took to get to the boat was the time they had enough sunlight to get to the boat. And, of course, when they get to the boat, they're fine because the watchers can't leave the island. Nope. So it all conveniently worked out. And yet they all leave. Yeah, in the end, they all left.

Well, because they're halflings. And then how do they know the sign is exactly, how do they know the signs are all the way around or exactly enough space to get halfway there so you can make it back no matter what time of the year it is? Because that was the Madeline character that was her whole purpose

was to give out all the information and then be the twist that she's going to happen. And that's where they were so clever and that's why they just happened to find that trap door at the exact moment they were all breaking in because she had it all set up right i'm just i'm missing it okay and i think they missed out on a chance because you get to see where daniel's kind of losing in he locks them out i wanted more of that

more from all of them kind of losing it just yeah what some of them were there for almost like a year yeah allegedly yeah but we're that one part where he locks them out there hiding underneath and for some reason the watchers can't smell them i didn't get that and yeah very run they run to the door Daniel lets them in and she's like, I'll kill you if you do it again, you know, and then it's... Yeah. Why did they break the mirror? They can't do this again. They broke their mirror.

They can't watch people now. Can't watch a masturbate, Douglas? Yeah, they can't watch fucking Daniel beat off. All right, they want to see this. Everyone turn your fucking heads. The watchers need to watch. You really want to watch me. night was like, I don't think we should have this.

Do you want Blinding Edge to fucking put this out or not? You know, I already got kicked out of Disney. Warner Brothers is all I have left. You remember I cried in the office of Disney and threw the script at their face because they said Lady's the Water was stupid. She's the watcher.

Yeah. I was waiting for him. Remember when they got on the bus? Right, right? You thought M-night was going to be the bus driver or something, didn't you? No, it was hilarious, yeah. With an Irish accent.

Yeah. No, it's like a scene in the village. Remember a scene in the village? They don't show his face. Yes, yes, that's right. When the guy's stealing the stuff to bring the medicine to the fucking fake town of, you know. Uh-huh.

So I was expecting that to be the bus driver. Where are you going? All right. That whole twist ending was like a whole separate scene that seemed like an afterthought. I know. And it went on forever. Yeah, it was like, all right, the movie's already over. What are you doing?

I'm sure A.M. Shine is pissed. Oh, man. All right, Douglas. Where can our listeners find you, man? Where are you on the socials and all that? My Instagram's DC Downing 3. Check out my IMDV page, Douglas. selling a third update projects all the time.

You can check out work I've done before. I don't even know how my Twitter handle is. But that's what I'm based on mostly as Instagram. I'll put it all when we release the show. I put all the links on there. Okay, thank you. Yeah. But, yeah, and then you guys want to laugh.

You can check out my, again, this has been 10 years ago, my cartoon, Little Lewis. I don't know if you started when you looked me up. It was, yeah. I read about it. Yeah, it was bought by Fox. And oh, no, it is a whole. Again, I can have a fucking podcast of the dumb shit that I...

But it's a funny cartoon about a little Latin kid adopted by Rich White family. And we did about 20 seconds on our own. Yeah, Fox picked it up at 09. And then shit happens like a dozen Hollywood. And then 2011, we just produced it ourselves. And so there's episodes out there for everyone to watch for free. That's the funny part of me. And everything else is dramatic and horror.

All right. But the main thing is deaths. Yeah. So we're going to keep an eye off for that, man. Well, you'll keep in touch with us, right? Let us know when you're out here and we're and all that. You're definitely welcome back anytime, man. We had fun.

And I had a great time. I appreciate you guys having me on. It was a lot of fun talking movies and horror and sex and masturbation jokes for some reason. Not a lot. That's a watch for him for it. That's M. Shine. That's his kind of filmmaking. I mean, writing.

Always fun. M. Shine. Back. Well, as always, we want to thank you guys for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. You know where to catch us, thehorrorreturns.com or email us at thehorrorreturns at gmail.com. Go to our Facebook group and, you know, just keep up with us. We enjoy the feedback and we love reading it every week.

So, unfortunately, as Brian's pointed out, I'm only picking up about probably 20% of it. So if you gave us feedback and we did a shout out to you, it's not because we don't love you, it's just because we don't want to make it a seven-hour show. So next week we're going to salute Apocalyptic Action Horror with Doomsday and the Domestics. So, Philip, until the horror returns again, good night.