The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #439: The Ring Two (2005) & Smile 2 (2024)

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

This week we pass the savings (and the curse) onto you with the brand new Smile 2 and The Ring Two. Cool of the week includes Hysteria, The Shadow Strays, Killer Heat, and Ancient Apocalypse. Trailers are Street Trash and The Strangers Chapter 2. The podcast spotlight shines on Dead with my Friends. And we get feedback from Mia Hughes, Tara VanEpps, Michael Prazeres, John Eggers, Todd Copeland, Johnny Ray, Evan Sapien, John Pollock, and David Barta. 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

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Bruce Campbell, and you are listening to The Horror Returns. Greetings, victims. For those of you who delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify go, 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. Welcome back, everyone, to The Horror Returns. I'm Lance with me as always. We got Brian and Philip in the house. How's it going, guys? So, I know. Yeah, good. Have y'all been able to sneak any horror movies in between all this football we're talking about and everything else going on?

My other question is, did I sneak any football with all this horror stuff going in? I know. It's a big month. Big month. Lots, lots going on. I'm sure I did, but I couldn't tell you what I watched this week. So I'll let you guys jump in with Cool week first before I get it. All right.

You want to start, Brian? because I got a struggle to find mine too that we're not going to talk about later. I got a movie. I got a movie in another show. The show is another Peacock original, and it's called Hysteria. It's set during the time of the Satanic Panic era in the 80s. Okay. How have I not heard about this?

This sounds great. It sounds familiar. And the premise of the show is this high school kid gets kidnapped. A lot of people in the town think it has something to do with satanic cults because the whole satanic panic thing going on. Sure. And there's this band.

They decide to take advantage of all the satanic talk and change their metal band into a satanic metal band, which by doing that makes them kind of number one suspect. into kidnapping. Uh-oh. And you said it's a series, right? Yeah. The Osborne.

So is it like, are they all up at once, or is it one where you got to, you know, like wait a week for every episode or what? When I talked about T-Cup a couple weeks ago, that was going week to week, but I think Satanic Parenthood, or not Satanic Panic, hysteria is up, is all up there. All right. I am adding it to my friend of the show, Bruce Campbell.

Oh, okay. Well, you can't go wrong with that. Yeah. And there's a couple of other recognizable faces in there. So. I just added it to my every expanding watch list. And the movie I checked out was a new, I've talked about this director a bunch of times. I'm probably going to mispronounce his name again.

And that's Timo Tejanto. He did the cult segment in VHS. Yes. He's done a lot of great violent action movies. He's supposed to be doing the Train to Busan remake. He just finished wrapping up. He's directing Nobody 2 with Bob Odenkirk. Okay.

And he just had a new Netflix movie come out called The Shadow Strays. Okay. Now, he didn't do the first nobody, though, did he? No. That was one of the John Witt guys. Okay. All right. So they're in good company then.

It sounds like they're kind of the same ilk. It's still those guys are like on as producers. It's just Timo's directing the sequel this time. I kind of like that idea. Philip, that makes sense, isn't it? Yeah, they're probably all into martial arts. I'm sure they keep a very safe set, right? Because I'm sure they're all used to a lot of stunt work and whatnot.

So they're probably like super cautious. Well, those guys used to all be stunt workers. So that's match made in heaven. That's the perfect people for it. So it makes a lot of sense. The shadow strays, I won't spoil anything, but if the first 10 minutes don't sell you on it, then you're not going to be into it.

because the first 10 minutes is a Japanese crime lord. I think it's Japanese because it kind of looks like a yakuza. Okay. It's taken out by a 17-year-old assassin, some decapitations, a lot of gunfoo and swordplay, a lot of violent stuff. So if the first 10 minutes doesn't sell you, then you're probably not going to be into it. But if you've seen his films before, a lot of great choreography, a lot of violent action, a lot of gore. All right.

Yeah, sounds right up our alley, Philip. Yeah, I like it. That one's called The Shadow Strays, and it just came on Netflix last Friday. Oh, damn. Oh, man. I've not seen that yet. I think I saw the box art for it, like when I was scrolling through Netflix. The shadow strays.

All right. So you got that, you got hysteria. Yeah, that's it still trying to catch up on 30. That's a lot. Okay. Let's put them both down, man. What do you think? Are we okay to put them both under Cool of the Week in our description?

We can do whatever we want. They both sound pretty cool. All right, I found one. Okay. Well, Philip struggles. Okay. I think I figured it out too. All right.

Joseph Gordon Levitt, guys. This dude is in fucking. everything all of a sudden. A child actor who's like, he's kind of a big name star now. It's like every time I turn around, I see him in something, but there's a new movie on Prime called Killer Heat,

if you guys heard of this one? Is this like a heist movie? It's not a heist movie. It is, it is, and this is what I liked about it. You've even got like, well, you've even got the voiceover. Joseph Gordon Levitt is like a private investigator. Okay.

And he gets hired. Yeah, he gets hired by a lady who's, I guess, it's a very complicated, super rich family. But basically, like, she is the sister-in-law of the dude that allegedly fell off a cliff accidentally. Even, like, what do they call it free? Y'all know what I'm talking about when they just climb up without any gear and everything. Like, free climbing or something? Yeah, you all know what I'm talking about. pretty sure like all of those guys die at some point.

Yeah. Yeah, well, this one, she thinks it's a murder. And then, of course, you find out everyone is not who they think they are. But what I loved about it is it was just like those old Philip Marlowe detective stories or those old 1940s and 1950s, you know, the gumshoe. Kind of like the Roger Rabbit thing, right? Yeah. Yeah. The guy's sitting there, he's got a bottle of whiskey in his desk.

And then the, and then the dame walks in. and it's just so retro in old school. It really felt nice. It was refreshing. It was like going back in time. And Jake Lord Levin, man, he's got some acting chops. The dude can, he can pull it off. He definitely convinced me that he was a burnt out alcoholic private investigator.

He still solved the crime. Of course. I like him in just about everything I've seen him in. I can't, I mean, I can't think of a bad movie. I can't either, man. I can't either. So Killer Heat. It's free.

if you have Prime. There you go. No streaming is free anymore. We talked at that last week. To be still. Yeah, hey, with Prime at least you get the shipping, right? Yeah, free shipping.

Knock on some wood here. All right. You ready, Phillip? You got shoes? Okay, so I finally watched in a violent nature. Oh, okay, cool. I'll give you that.

I thought it was... Walk, walk. Yeah. I could see both sides of the argument because the idea is super, is super cool, and I like the filmography and all that stuff. Like, it's a really good-looking movie.

But yeah, man, there's like just a lot of scenes of just walking. My argument on that to both of you guys is that that was all done completely by design. Oh, yeah. Totally done to throw you off.

Yeah. Was it needed? I don't know. We'll see, dude. We'll talk about it again at our end of year list. I guarantee you. There was a point in the movie where I drifted off and something finally happened and I was like, oh shit. And I had to rewind it and figure out what happened. I could understand that. Was it the Slyndermann?

Was that the one where it was so quiet in the woods and shit? Yeah, it gave me that kind of vibe. But did the Sender Man have a couple of kill scenes that were as good as the ones in this one? Oh, no. I think the movie was fantastic. I think you could have cut like 10 minutes of walking out though. 10, more like 30, right, Brian? 30 was the damn story being told at the end in the truck.

Yeah, that was weird. I didn't like the ending. Yeah? Why would you do that to your movie? Oh, man, there's a reason I loved the ending, but I'll talk about it more later after it's been out a little bit longer. But I just love a good miss. direction in a movie.

That's just, you know, original to me. It was like a breath of breath. Well, I guess it was. You were kind of waiting for something to happen, and then it didn't. Oh, there you know. It's been out long enough. I just came out of that movie thinking, I now know what walking on grass sounds like. I know.

Yes, you do. And the little bugs in the background and the... Actually, really relaxing. The little limbs breaking as he walks by them. swayed me to sleep. That and the new season of ancient apocalypse is at. Oh, yes! I've been dying to hear about this.

Yeah, Graham Hancock is doing his rounds on the podcasts and talking about his ancient civilization stuff. Yes. And this one is about the Americas. Okay. Because they've cleared out some stuff in the Amazon rainforests and found evidence of, like, roads and, like, all kinds of. things that are very man-made. And supposedly there weren't any tribes in Amazon. Men to make them.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. There's got to be something to that, man. So they go back through all that, and then they delved into... No, I didn't mean interrupt, dude, but I get excited about this, too. But think about, like, big-time physicists, right? Big-time astronomers.

and they know that, you know, they know that even just this Earth has been here, you know, so many millions of years before any recorded history of humanity. Yeah. So you really think it was like just a bunch of dinosaurs and then they down off from an asteroid and then us and that's it? I don't know. Right. We didn't all evolve.

That's hard to swallow. That's weirdly different to like that quickly, I think. But they found some like 23,000-year-old footprints in the sands of New Mexico. Mexico and people were not supposed to have been in the Americas at that point in time. And geologically, that 23,000 years was like a blink of an eye ago, right? Yeah. So can you imagine? Yeah.

That was like before the last Ice Age. So it was kind of cool. Like, so maybe some, there was some origin of the species here too and in Africa. And I don't know, maybe maybe there was all kinds of. of stuff happening but he gives you a pretty good explanation of all that and there's one episode that even focuses on like ayahuasca and some of the hallucinogenic rituals and stuff that may have may have shaped the cultures because there's a lot of the like drawings and stuff that are even done today that are very geometric and look very much like the art that was on the walls

in New Mexico from like 12,000 years ago, the, some of the hills and stuff that are in the Amazon are kind of dug out the same way. It's all real weird. It's a whole lot of weird similarities. And then Easter Island. Holy shit. Coincidental.

And every culture has pyramids. Every single culture ever has pyramids, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then the Easter Island thing is, is pretty interesting because if if if you go with regular history it says they stop building or they only built those giant heads like from I think 900 years ago to 400 years ago or something but there's like a thousand of them on this island there's not

that many people it's not very big I know strange right it's weird and so maybe they had more than just the Polynesian heritage there. I can believe that a lot easier than I can believe that video you sent me that that dude was really channeling an alien name new. That was a laugh. Have you seen that, Brian? You got to send that to Brian, Phil. There's some guy that's channeling an alien on some, I don't know, some broadcast.

It's like a New Zealand journalist or something that's interviewing it. and he like and then channels this alien and starts talking to him and he sounds ridiculous it's like a cartoon character is so funny I mean they're it's supposed to be serious which is what makes it like I don't think it's meant to be a joke

which makes it more of a joke right yeah but yeah so those those are my couple weeks man I like that ancient history stuff. It's pretty cool. All right. Well, we made it through. Brian, what kind of headlines do we have this week? We're just going to get right into it. Blade. Delayed indefinitely. I thought where I thought you were going to that. But, rumored are the Midnight Sun's

movie is being fast-track. So I think what will happen, we'll see Myershal Ali as Blade Okay. In another movie, not in a solo book. That makes sense. So I'm trying to think was Werewolf by Night

in that Midnight Sun's Ghost Rider was, at least at one point, right? I'm trying to think who else was in. You can have Moon Knight in there. Moon Night. Yeah, yeah, Moon Knight. He's established now, right?

Great actor, so. Yeah, but how well did it go? Like, I guess if you give him another shot at the character, Yeah. Because I don't think people are going to get super... Yeah, I don't think people are going to get super stoked if Moon Night pops up in a movie right now.

Maybe not. But if Blades in there, I think they will. Yeah. Although that, uh, that, that, uh, God, what's the other Marvel movie they're coming out? Craven? Looks pretty cool. Marvel is, right? Yeah.

So, Sony, Sonville? Or, Mar-I. It is. It is. He's in the Spider-Man universe. I forgot. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, but the Venomverse. The rumor is on that one,

Venom 3's post-credit scene is going to have Tom Holland. Well, there you go. We'll know next week, right? Isn't it? It's right around the corner, I think, isn't it? Venom 3, I don't know. I don't care about it. I think so.

Yeah, I'll see it. I think it is. I just saw a review of it on YouTube. I didn't watch it. I just scroll past it, but like, So I guess it's either out or almost out. Well, we're going to find out, right? Some good news here.

The prey follow-up movie, Predator Badlands, gets a November 7th, 2025 release in theaters. Oh, really? Cool. I'll bet you that they do prey also. What do you think? A re-release? I wouldn't be surprised, right?

And they kind of like release them together so you can see both of them on the big screen. I wouldn't be surprised. Jammin didn't do a double feature. Gosh, I remember when we did three from hell, I accidentally went to a triple feature. After I already watched House of a Thousand Corpses and Devil's Rejects and then I went to the theater. I didn't know I bought tickets for a triple feature and I had to watch the first two movies all over again. Oh my God. However, did you go to the bathroom, man?

I think I took a nap during the second movie. I was going to say, that's a good time to take a nap. That's a lot. That's a lot to take you. That's a lot of zombie. But that's, I know it's not until 2025, but the theatrical release says they're very high on this movie. Okay. Kind of exciting?

Yeah, man. I think they should have released the last one in theaters. Yeah. Yeah. It was that quality for sure. De Man Hanzu. probably mispronounced his name. He's a very recognizable actor.

Uh-huh. Him and also Lauren Lavera, which was Sienna in the Terrifier movies, is going to be in Darren Lynn Bausman's horror thriller, The Monster. Okay. Okay. Chung, glad to see that she's starting to get more roles now. Yeah.

Sounds like she will. She's pretty good. I like her. Please tell me the monster is not going to be, get another Frankenstein retelling. Because it sounds like it might with that name. I don't think so. Okay. We've had plenty of those.

Side note, I rewatch Terrifier 2. Yeah? And my daughter walked by and sat down and watched the whole goddamn thing and loved it. Of course you did. She is stuck on that franchise now. Let's see here. C.M. Punk and Justin Long are set to star in the upcoming horror movie called Night Patrol.

Is C.M. Punk done anything? Yeah, he's done stuff with the Saskas sisters. Oh, that's right. Okay. What was that movie he did? Something on the third floor. Yeah, he was in the house that, It was a house of ill repute back in the day, but they would, like, kill people in it. They would kill the, they would kill the whores after they did their business. And like, they were all wearing masks and standing around watching.

Do you all remember this? I don't think I've actually watched anything that he was in. He's not bad as I said. He's not bad at all. No, he's really, kind of has that Henry Rollins-esque. I mean, that's what professional wrestling is, right? Yeah. And right now he's a hot commodity because he just had a, we talked about it.

a couple episodes ago. He had a hell of a match a couple of weeks ago at a paperview. Very bloody. Man, a lot of these wrestlers getting into acting. Yeah. Well, I think the company that owns WWE now, TKO, I don't think that's what it's called. I think

they're all about the dollars, so they can push this wrestler into this movie role or this TV role and it's going to bring in some income or more eyes to the product and that's what they're going to do. Mike Flanagan is adapting Stephen King's

carry into an eight episode limited series for Amazon. Wait, I thought he was doing the Dark Tower thing or something. They're talking about it. I think it's going to happen because I just keep constantly reading

about how him in the studio are back and forth with ideas. I think that's going to be something that needs a lot of work. Yeah, it sounds like it may be something much later down the road. Hopefully not too much later. At this point, I hope I'm still alive

to see it. Shit, I'm getting younger, guys. If he's going to do the carry thing first, then we'll see what happens after that. Oh, or maybe this will be like a whole series of Flanagan doing Stephen King in a series and like a one series bam done thing. I like that idea.

It might. And they're saying they're saying adaptation of Stephen King's novel. And I just found out some things I never knew that were in the book, that were never in the movies. Like, Carrie was overweight. Okay. So it might be more true to the book then. Yeah. Okay. That's cool. Yeah, I haven't read the book. Sorry if you hear my dog jumping around.

That's all part of the show. I think everybody's used to that by now Between the three of us He can't seem to figure out whether he wants to lay on the bed or the floor You can't blame him And I think Oh no Found another

Godzilla minus one is getting a re-release For the celebration Of 70 years of Godzilla November 1st Okay So if anybody missed the theater run of that, be on the lookout for that. We talked about

American Psycho getting a reboot or remake or whatever they want to call it. And it's got its director, Luca. How do you say his name? Gordadino, I think. Yeah. He got the Suspheria remake. Yes, yeah. Actually, one of my favorite directors.

You know, well, I was going to say non-horror directors, but then again he did Susperius so I don't know I think it I think it'll be a good match I wasn't a huge fan of the tennis one with Zendaya that just came out that one was kind of a kind of more of a yawner than his stuff usually is but he's always got like a super super dark element behind all of his characters so I think I think he'll do well I think he'll do well let's see a third season of Netflix Monsters is in production and it's going to be on Ed Gein. Oh, nice.

That was the monsters. That was the Menendez brothers. And who was the other one they did? The guy that liked to eat people. Yeah. Okay. And from what I understand, Charlie Hunnam is going to play Ed Gein.

Okay. But wait. Jack's Gein. Oh, okay. No, I'm thinking Gacy. So, yeah, Gine, okay, he was a skinny little guy, wasn't he? Gine was the inspiration for leather face. Yeah, that's right.

He had, like, things that were made out of skin and junk. For the club. Okay. I watched a little bit of the Menendez one. It's not bad. Yeah, bored me to tears, man. A.J. watched it, but I couldn't handle it. Wait, she watched it, but it bored you to tears?

Yeah, I know. The Jeffrey Dahmer wouldn't believe, huh? I haven't seen that one either. The Jeffrey Dahmer one was great. You haven't seen the Jeffrey Dahmer one? Was it? Nope. I'm not missing out.

I don't want to watch the Menendez brothers. I saw enough of that to know. I'm not interested. Yeah, I was getting, I haven't watched the whole thing, and I'm not like super excited to get back into it, but my wife was watching it, and so I was in the room. Yeah. Well, the Ed Gein one will also feature Alfred Hitchcock,

which will be played by Tom Hollander not Tom Holland and Lori Medcaf will play Ed Gein's mother Hmm well I'm in with Hunnam

I'll give it a chance Let's see what I'm actually Even if the movie wasn't great That he was in I always enjoyed his performance in it Yeah especially when he does the American accent. It's always Jacks.

No matter what American character, he's like Negan. Every character he plays now is Negan. It's so weird that when he got cast in Crimson Peak, everybody was British except for him. He was in America. Correct. It's just like, my.

Is that all the news? Yes, that is all the news. All right, moving on. So maybe we'll get all these movies knocked out tonight after all, after the show, Brian. Ah, I know where we got to go, Philip. You know where we're headed, don't you? Oh, down to the trailer park. Yes, sir.

Brian is going to bring us the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. What is the first new trailer tonight, Brian? We're going to talk about Ryan Kruger's remake of, I believe, the 80s. cult hit horror movie Street Trash? Who was talking about this a couple of months ago? Maybe it was six months ago. Was it Nas? Yeah.

Yeah, somebody covered the original one. Maybe it's a year ago. Time flies when you're old like me. You're asking me to remember a year. I think, I think, Nez, if you're listening to it, brother, if I'm wrong, let me know. But I could swear you've covered this one before, the original street trash. And it sounded fascinating, the way they were. were describing it. Well, the synopsis is a group of homeless misfits must fight for survival

when they discover a plot to exterminate every homeless person in the city. That's one way to do it. And judging by the trailer, I don't remember, I know I've seen the original one, but I don't remember it. But judging from the trailer, this is going to be gory, disgusted in probably funny as hell. And colorful. Very colorful. So it's going to start, so it's going to start Gavin Newsom is the one who's ratting them all up at executing them then, or what? It sound like Kiwis. Yeah.

Well, Ryan Kruger, he did that movie, Fried Berry. You ever see that one, Phil? I haven't seen that one. I heard of it. You never seen that, Phil, or Lance, you're blowing my mind tonight. I know. I've heard a good thing. I've heard good things.

I know we watched the trailer. It's alien stuff. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll take that. What's called Friedberry? Yeah. Okay. It's really, it's not a movie you watch with the kids.

Gotcha. Well, if you're watching Terror Fy or two with the kids, maybe it is. Saying. Spoilers. If I remember Friedberry, I think there's some. dicks swinging around. Oh, yeah, I don't want that. Violence is cool.

We're trying to avoid the sex. That's why my daughter, she's, she's watched a lot of horror movies, but there's certain ones that we haven't delved into. We haven't delved into the Hellraising movies because a lot of sex. Yeah. Julia and all that. So. What did you guys think of street trash just based off not really knowing much about the original going off of this trailer?

Yeah, I didn't even know the original existed. It's not a movie that was ever on my radar. But this looks super cool. Like, very stylized, which I'll always give that a try. You're doing something different. Hey, I like it. Yeah, it looks fun. Looks very trauma.

to me. Yeah. But like 80s retro, more mainstream trauma. Okay. I can see that. Yeah, the original one came out in 87. Okay. Yeah.

They captured 87 in the trailer pretty well, I would say. Yeah. It's got with the color scheme and everything, it's got that like, you know, retro arcade vibe. Mm-hmm. Totally. Totally. I think this one says release day October 17th in the United States. This year? I think that's wrong.

Well, maybe we can find it. Let's see. I just added up on street trash, huh? Make sure I'm looking up the right one. Not rated. I'm not showing a release date, though. 24. Oh, yeah. No release date here. Just the year. That's what it says, October 17th. On IMD, it's what it says. That had to have been like a festival or something. Oh, yeah, maybe.

Yeah, a lot of times they get release dates that are way before the movie ever actually comes out because they're doing a festival circuit. I know one of the logo, there was a bunch of logos ahead of this bloody disgusting Cineiverse and then popped up with screen box. So this might be a screen box original. Okay. Yeah, they've been getting more stuff lately. I'm a little impressed with them. Pretty soon their price is going to go up too. Oh, man.

I hope not. That's the selling point of screen box. I know. It's just a couple bucks. It's like a couple of dollars a month. Kind of like night flight, right? Literally like two or three dollars a month. Yeah.

All right. Our final trailer and Lance, I swear you and me were talking about this a couple of weeks ago. The Strangers Chapter 2. Okay. We probably were. Well, we were trying to see what direction they were going. right and i think this kind of answers some of the questions we were you brought up richard break and the

townspeople and yes yes heavily featured in this trailer thank god thank god we don't just get 30 seconds of richard break and then he's gone and i'm not going to lie i'm very intrigued with where i am too now maybe we know what he was up to by doing almost a shot for shot of the first one yeah okay i've definitely not in a definitely not in a mobile home park this time philip yeah i heard a lot of people say after they they feel like after the chapter two and chapter three come out people are going to go back to chapter one rewatch it and say it's going to make a whole lot of sense in the whole scheme of things with the trilogy i like it i like it

if they keep it interesting and it looks like it's going to be pretty decent i i got to say Like, the strangers' movies are not exciting me, though. Yeah, I know. I wish I cared more, but I kind of don't. I kind of feel like that's why this movie feels like they're going to go a completely different direction. Yeah. With the townspeople. And I think that's a misdirect in the truck when she gets picked up.

I think they're making us, I think they're making us think those are the strangers that were in the first one. I think it's going to be like a cult of people. Yeah. Looks that way. Yeah, always love a good cult movie, especially when it's like a religious cult, you know? And they're definitely like quoting scripture and stuff like that on the trailer. So, yeah, it has promise. You're going to find their way to the spaceship.

It may be. And this one, it doesn't have a set release date, but I heard this is coming out like November or December. Okay. So. But this year? Yeah. All right. Don't have long to wait. And from what I understand, chapter three would be sometime early 2025, like January, February, March sometime in that area. So they're all done filming, so.

Oh, well, good. They were just trying to space them out. Philip, are you drinking old Milwaukee? Is that, uh, that can't look suspiciously like old Milwaukee. It's a lone river water thing. Spicy water. It's a spicy water. It's a spicy water. Is that Mario?

Something like that. No, it's like the mask, right? A spicy meat bowl. It's a me, Mario. Was there that scene where like he swallowed a bomb and he went, me fall. A spicy meat fall. I don't know.

Me and my daughter, we just watched that too. She never really, she's seen parts of it. She never really watched it. The mask? Yeah, she's got a list. Yeah, the mass. She's got a list of movies,

but she, she, like, categorizes them in, like, by decade. So it was on her 90s list. Cameron Diaz was smoking in that movie. Oh, dude. She has never been hotter than in that movie. I don't even think she's that hot now, but in that movie she was. I know.

She's supposed to be coming out of retirement. Yeah. So is Daniel Day Lewis, from what I hear. I think he's got out of retirement also. Well, that, from what I understand it, sounds like because his son is directing a movie. That'll do it. Just ask M. Knight. Yeah.

All right. Feedback. Oh, feedback. All right. There we go. My bad. All right. This week, we shine the podcast spotlight on Dead with My Friends.

Dead With My Friends podcast is the product of a friendship that goes way back to first grade, bonding over a shared love for movies and music. Over time, our taste naturally broadened from our initial favorites to exploring a mix of genres. That's why we decided to start this show. to create a platform where we can talk about all the things that we enjoy, whether it's our all-time favorites or the new flicks we come across over time. Click link at the bottom and listen in our first episode and get to know us. Dead with my friends. That's cool.

Yeah, great title. Let's see. Regarding the continuation of the Saw franchise, Mia Hughes says, please stop with these BS movies already. It gets old. They keep making 100 million plus each movie. They're not going to stop. The saw seems like a gimmick, though, where you can kind of keep going. Like, it doesn't, to be honest, I don't think the story matters a whole lot. It's about the tracks and the creative kills, you know?

Right. In regards to Leatherface, Tara Van Epps says, Lamedest Movie Ever. Oh, Harre. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. Which one was that, where he was young? Yeah, the young.

Okay, yeah. He was a mental patient. Apparently, Leatherface used to be a good-looking young kid. Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah, that was, I forgot. I even watched that one. In regards to carved, Michael Pazeris says,

worth the watch, guys? Question mark? John Eggers says... Brian, you've seen it, but you can't talk about it yet, right? Yeah, you have to wait until we get to that. Oh, okay. John Eggers says, Fun to Watch for October,

and Todd Copeland said it sucked kind of. So that doesn't help you at all. We're all over the place on this one. Well, there seems a small little bit of positivity and it sucked, kind of, because it didn't suck all the way. Well, exactly. Exactly. Just the tip.

Yeah. In regards to Smile 2, Johnny Ray says Smile 2 does indeed go hard. I haven't screamed at a jump scare like that in years. Oh, wow. Okay. Evan Sapien says Great Flick. Enjoy. I'm pretty sure he meant to say Enjoy, but you know. Damn, typos. In regards to Terifier 3, John.

Pollock says just out of the cinema a good few moments of turning to my wife and mouthing bloody hill the film licked the salty underbelly of the original Texas chainsaw massacre movie for me for insane gore as well as a slapstick dark comedy thank you channeled oh thank you channeled Charlie Chaplin on crack with a chainsaw bloody hell Charlie Chaplin on track with a chainsaw I like that. That's not a terrible description. Lick the salty underbelly of Texas chainsaw.

That sounds gross, but I exactly know what he's talking about. In regards to Zombiland Double Tap, Dave Bartas says, Great sequel, Love the Edition of Madison. She was a fun character. Yeah. That's true. You couldn't trust her, but she was fun.

Yeah, it's all right. Wasn't as good as first one, but it was all right. All right. That's it for listener feedback. Our show intro and new logos come from Steve Carlton of The Geeks, original skull artwork from Natsulani. And if you want to help us out, please consider becoming a Patreon patron. I'll let you pick the movies for a future show at any amount.

And for $5 or more, you also get a commentary for a future bonus show. but October's almost over. So this will be the last episode that we touted on. Well, next episode too, right? No. No? Because by the time that episode comes out of week. Ah, that's true.

The way things are looking. Yeah. So you guys got what a week. Last chance. This is it. Get on board. If you join at the $5 tier and stay with this at least three months, you'll get six coosies, a t-shirt, and a pop figurine.

And I've got to figure out who I still owe the pop figurine to. I know it's somebody. Yeah, stay on our ass about that. You have a T-shirt, too, still. If you're listening, don't be shy. Reach out to us. Yeah, just email us at thehorreturns at gmail.com. This is not our day job.

We forget things. All right, on to the featured attractions. This week, we see Smile to and go back. to check out the ring two for some reason uh uh there was a lot of comparisons the original smile to the ring and it follows right right makes sense we already did we already did those movies so i know we did so i was like what else would do pair it with we kind of running running low uh all right so for the ring two 2005 um six months after the incidents involving uh the lethal videotape New clues prove that there is a new evil lurking in the darkness.

Director is Hideo Nakata, also known for Darkwater and the original Ringu. Writers are Aaron Erhren Kruger. I don't know. Another Krueger. It's probably just Aaron and it's spelled stupid Kruger. Koji Suzuki and Hiroshi Takashi Takashi. Takahashi. My bad.

Hideo Nakata has disowned the film and claims to hate it. Oh, no. He blames the film's negative... He blames the film's negative reception from fans and critics on studio interference, as Paramount executives would step in during the shoot and either force him to reshoot key sequences, delete certain scenes, or change existing scenes, until they bore little resemblance to what Nakata had in mind.

Uh-oh. Why does that not surprise me? Not a good sign, right? All right. Brian, you want to start us off? Yeah, I feel kind of bad after hearing that little bit of trivia because knowing all that makes me feel bad for saying that I hated this movie. Did you? It feels nothing like the original.

The original had a slow pacing that kind of built up the tension and the dread. this one was just kind of going, going, going and less creepiness. There was I mean there was a few scenes in there like what was the little boys

named Aden when he was in the bathtub and the water was flowing out that looked super cool yeah okay but those kind of scenes were too far and few yeah okay

fair enough I feel like they tried to cram in some backstory Yeah for Samara and kind of gave her different power settings

than the original one because the original one she was cursing people through the tape and now this one she's trying to possess the body of the kid somehow. That's always awkward, right? Yeah, it seems like if that's what she wanted, she'd have been

doing that the whole time. Yeah, because they mentioned when they go and visit the mother. I think the orderly said, like, somebody always comes to visit, like, every three years. It's like somebody new. So it seems like this has been tried before many times. So why didn't it happen in the original one? Good question. That's not, yeah, that, that sucks, dude.

So they changed all the rules. That's never good, right? Like, at least Saul, like you guys were talking about Saul, at least at least that, It's always the, you know what to expect, right? It's giving you the traps, right? Yeah. But if her fucking powers change and the way she doesn't change, changes, what's the point? Yeah.

Because it seemed like the tape wasn't needed in this one for her to hurt other people. Only in the opening sequence, right? Yeah. Which was like a scream cold open, right? Which I kind of like that opening sequence. You thought it should have stayed like that, right? He thought she watched the tape, and then he thought she didn't watch the tape. And it just kept going back, did she or didn't she?

And then finally got to see her face, and she said I put it on, but I just, I covered my eyes the whole time. And I'm like, okay, that was pretty good. Yeah, it's kind of clever. A scene I cannot forgive this movie for is the fucking C.G. I dear scene on the highway or the. Yeah. That was so awful. and that seems like studio interference right here.

You think? Because it made no sense why that would be happening. Yeah, they didn't tie to any of the legend, right? I mean, was he possessed by Samara by then? I guess. Or they thought he was? They were frightened of him, the deer? Because one of them saw him when he was at the carnival, remember?

I can't remember. They were like staring at them or whatever. Then we got the insidious thing going on where you can see Samaria through pictures taken from a camera. Oh, Lord. Yeah. And she was just full-fledged flying around like a fucking ghost at some point. Yeah, so they completely, this kind of shocks me that this is from the guy who did directed the original Japanese version. Well, according to him, it wasn't.

Like, they changed everything. So you can't blame him for being pissed off, right? Yeah, sounds like there's a director's cut somewhere floating around that they need to release. Yeah, but I don't know if I even want to see it after this experience. All right. Lance, what do you think? I was really, really, really confused because I could have sworn at the beginning of the first movie, Did they not solve the problem by putting her to rest or whatever?

Or am I thinking of a different movie? Like, I thought they solved the ring problem because they put Samara to rest or something? There was still the tape because they found out if you make a copy, you have to give that copy to someone and have them watch it and basically have to continue the chain. Sure. Okay. All right. Well, that was throwing me off a little bit, right? Because I was like, well, wait a minute. Why are we? And second, why are we still involving Naomi Watts' character again, right?

Why does she have to be the focal point of it? Why does the boy have to be the focal point? Why couldn't they have just jettisoned from that first scene, right? Like, so you've got, that would have been a lot more fun, right? Like, you just have seen after scene of new people that are either being exposed to it or trying to get someone else to look at it or whatever. Wouldn't that have been a better movie? Yeah, because I was done with the whole.

whole kid's robotic acting in the second, the first movie. Oh yeah, this kid was like super annoying and weird. He's like a really bad, huh? Very tiny, but full grown, like, Dane Don. It's like, I don't know, it's like they told him we need you to be creepy,

and then they wound up his back and then let him go. And then he was just a little robot. Or it's what AI would have thought was creepy or something. Yeah. That might be it. You might have nailed it, Brian. There's no AI revolution going on. AI has been running us for centuries, guys, and this proves it, right? Very good possibility. No, this movie, this movie honestly did not know what it wanted to be. Was it a creepy kid movie? Was it a possession movie? Was it a flying ghost movie? Was it a insidious look at them in the picture and you can see him but look straight on and you can't type of movie? Was it a pass the curse along movie? Was it a evil videotape movie? It didn't know what's.

the fuck it wanted to be. I'm going to say yes to all those things, Lance. No, I'm going to tell you exactly what it was. It was a fucking cash grab, and that's why they brought Naomi Watts back. Yeah. And it's like, okay, well, she's star power, you know, let's trap her into a contract or give her a, you know, huge, let's back up the money truck or whatever and get her in here again.

People will flock to the theater. It's the ring. It's Naomi Watts. Get, you know, get them in. And then, you know, you bring the kid back. Was that other guy that, like, or quasi love interest or whatever he was. Was he in the first movie or?

No, the love interest in the first one we found out at the end was his father and he died because he watched the videotape. Oh, that's right. Okay. Well, that makes sense, I guess. But yeah, it's, yeah, I don't know, man. This just felt like the most unnecessary movie of all time. And then I remember there was another one called Rings, right?

Yeah, we reviewed it. Have there been any others? Japanese ones, rings. Was this it? Like, is this the end of the franchise? For the American version? Yeah, as far as the American version? Yeah, rings was it.

Okay, thank God, right? Yeah. Was that the only other one? I thought there was more. Rings was bad, too. They brought the character back in Japanese movies. Yeah, yeah. But, I mean, there weren't any more American rings.

It was just these three? Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought there was more in between there for some reason. I thought there was too. I think they're like 12 of them. Or are we talking to, are we thinking of four? We may be thinking of the children of the corn at this point, Brian.

Maybe. That kid would have fit in to children of the corn movie. That's for damn sure. But yeah, no, I wasn't a huge fan. This was totally unnecessary. This struck me as nothing but a cash grab. And there were no rules. Like you guys said, they kept changing the rules, right?

What can she do? what can't she do? How does she show herself? Is she taken over this boy? Does she come get you through the videotape? What are the rules? It's just a bit of a stinker, I think. So I think I'm going to agree with the director on this one. And if her whole thing was to take over the body of the boy, why would you not try to play along with everybody? Good point. And then when she did get, when she had him possessed, that's when he started being real sweet, which was not scary at all. I mean, I think they meant to go for something that was a little unnerving, but it wasn't. It wasn't really creepy. I was like, oh, well, suddenly this kid is almost normal. Now, why did he call her by her name,

rather than mom or mommy? Is that, is that just so they? No, he's just a weird kid. Okay. He sees the size of his head. There's something wrong. with him. Something wrong with this kid, yeah. The toxic Avengers offspring or something, right? But yeah, I didn't even think that part was scary. And then, like, if he's already, if she's already got the boy, then like, what's the end game to sit on the couch and fucking watch cartoons? Like, where are you going from here? I guess. Because it was like still trying to hide itself or whatever. right and pretend it was the little boy until it didn't get its way but it was like is this what you want you just wanted to have a body so you could hang on the couch i don't i don't get it yeah eat cheetos and watch cartoons yeah whatever we'll never know uh but yeah i i i wasn't a huge fan of this movie eater um yeah that deer scene was kind of stupid it also didn't make sense

Um, and like they were trying to be that scene from the, from the, the omen with the monkeys. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. Yep. I can see that. But like, when's the last time you saw a bunch of deer attack anything? Not often.

Like it seems like they would run away from you. They would run away from the evil night and not trying to get into it. I've seen videos where there's a deer running and trying to jump over the road, jumping over cars, but not like a whole herd. A flock of deer. Especially like trying to attack, attack you, you know what I mean? That was weird. No, I like that. I like that, I like that theory of it being a call back to the monkeys from the Omen. That makes perfect sense. That's exactly what they were trying to channel. But the scene with the monkeys and the Omen was really creepy.

And this one was just over the top and bad CGI and I, it didn't make sense. There was a lot of bad CGI in the movie. There were a lot of bad visuals. Like every time it would go to the black and white and then the water dropping into the tub and then what was that CGI fire tree? Where did that come from? What the fuck was that all about? Because she was dreaming.

A dream sequence. CGI dream sequence. Okay. Yeah. Well, and because she doesn't sleep, she doesn't dream. And I, for some reason, I guess drugged her up and put her to sleep so she was dreaming and a big flaming tree popped up. I guess that's what was in her dream. That's what I got out of it.

I don't know. Hey, makes as much sense as any other theory. That's for damn sure. What makes less sense is when she just dropped her kid off with that dude and, like, just took off. He's like, I'll be back in a couple of days. I will say I liked, what's his name popping up in the movie? Ricky Bobby's dad. Oh, yeah.

The realtor. That's right. Gary Cole. I'm going to need you to come in on Saturday. Yeah. He was such a sleazy realtor. Did anything happen in this house? Yeah, I think they bought a condo in Seattle or something like that.

Anything for the sale, huh? Offer me anything above asking it, it's yours, wink, wink. He's got up carried all this fucking balloons. That was kind of a humorous scene. Yeah, that was pretty good. He did a great job. Even Gary Cole couldn't save this, right? I did like the.

cameo from Sissy SpaceX as the mother. I thought that was her. Okay, I thought that was Sissy SpaceX. There you go. What if she's going to be in the Carrie series that's coming out? I'm sure she'll be the mom probably, right?

Oh, that would be cool. That would make sense. See, and I don't mind that they went, they tried to go back like further into the history and the lore and stuff like, tracking down her mom and trying to figure out, you know. But I felt like,

if you're going to track down the mom, you should be figuring out how Samara got to be Samara in the first place. And like all you come away from, all you come away with is you have to kill your kid. Like, what? Well, shit. If I'd known it was that simple. I know. I could have done that for. I drove all the way out of here.

No shit. Well, fuck. Thanks for let me know, bitch. Yeah. So I thought that was a stupid answer. And then even when she got trapped in the little digital realm or whatever, like her escape for that was jumping off the cliff like in the video, which also doesn't seem to make sense.

See, that reminded me of Mama. You remember that? Yeah. Was that Fettie Alvarez that did Mama? Oh, it was Andy Mochetti. Machete. Machete. Okay. All right. Yeah.

I don't know, was that before or after this one? It was a little bit after, right? But yeah, I mean, well, in the first ring, they had that scene in the video where she falls off the cliff or whatever, and that's where that came from. Okay, okay. But it just doesn't make sense that that's how she gets out of the little digital realm that she's stuck in somehow.

Yeah. I don't know. It wasn't awesome. It was kind of long. It was a chore to watch. Maybe she ended, maybe, maybe. Maybe she ended her third life and ran out of quarters or something, right? I guess.

I had to come back to... I don't know. It's a meat, Mario. All right. Scores. Brian, what do you think? There were a couple cool visuals in there, but they were overshadowed by a ton of bad CGI.

I didn't like the plot, so I have to give this two CGI deer. out of ten. Ooh, that's tough. Not enough to smash the shit out of your car. Well, that probably is. Lance, what do you think? Two. Another two.

Another two. Man, I don't need. I'll give it three, because I got to give it a little bit of credit. For what? I don't know. I don't even care about this movie. It was bad. don't bother with the ring too

it's bad. The the rings movie after this was better than this one. Aye. Eich. Okay. Wow. Yeah, watch the original Japanese ones and then watch the first one. And then I think you'll be okay.

And then you're done. You skip the rest. All right. On to Smile 2. We'll see if we can keep our suck fest going. Uh, 2024. About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Sky Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Sky is forced to face her past.

Director and writer is Parker Finn, also known for the original smile. The scar on Sky's knee is the shape of a smile. Oh, did not notice that. I'm going to have to go back and look now. Indeed. A number of In Universe songs by Sky Riley were released on iTunes.

Hmm. Yeah, that's one thing I can say about this franchise is the first movie they did the people popping up at different events and sports events. This one, they also did that,

but they made like social media accounts and released music for this character like it was the actual real person. So they do a good job. job on their marketing for this movie.

Yeah. Like a guerrilla marketing campaign. I would say so. Yep, I would say so. Some of the songs were fucking catchy too, man. Yeah, I mean, they were poppy and cheesy, but not bad. And I think because Naomi Scott also was in the live action Aladdin movie. I think they hired her for that movie because she's actual, she can actually sing in real life. So I wouldn't be surprised that this was her action.

music. Probably so. Probably so. Yeah, wasn't bad. All right. Brian, what do you think of the movie? I liked it. I thought it was a worthy sequel to the original one. I liked how we started not too far off from the original one. I thought Naomi Scott knocked it out to park with her performance because this was more psychological this time on what was really happening or what wasn't. And I thought just, her progression from start to beginning was just phenomenal and I did have a problem with some CGI effects in the movie but it didn't take me out from it there was some brutal

kills the important thing there was some brutal kills because when they went for it they really went for it with the kills do that very first one yeah yeah it was great Scratch Little disappointed that that character didn't last longer I know I'll get to it in

spoilers but yeah like I said Worthies sequel and I know there's people that actually like this one more than the original one I don't know if I'm there yet but yeah a great second movie from Parker

Finn because I thought the whole concept was going to be played out in this one. I wasn't really this wasn't really high on my list of movies coming into it, but I'm pleasantly surprised. It kind of turned me around on it by the end. I thought you were looking forward to this one or more Brian for some reason. I was and then I seen a couple like TV spots in the second trailer and I was just kind of like, is this thing going to get kind of played out? By halfway through the movie, I'm just kind of like, doing the same fucking thing. But I just kind of felt like they added more psychological stuff to it.

And like her trauma that she went through in her life, her drug addiction and stuff like that, her anxiety just kind of all played in real nicely to the plot. And, yeah, turn me around quickly. And I hope to see Naomi Scott Moore. I know she's been in some movies that haven't done well. The Aladdin didn't do well. She was in the Power Rangers reboot movie, which I liked it, even though I'm not a Power Rangers guy.

Oh, yeah, that one wasn't bad. Okay, I haven't seen that one yet. Hopefully, this will kind of get her some bigger, better roles. Yeah. I'm sure our buddy Steve Carlton has seen it. Oh, yeah. You think Power Rangers, he's in... All right. Lance, what do you think?

Oh, man. I was not looking forward to this movie. Brian, you remember when we saw the trailer for the first time? And I was saying that I was so scared, right? Like you said, I was so scared they were going to just play it out and overdo it, right? And like the same beats and, you know, like, do we really need this? Do we really need a pop star to get into the Smile Universe? Is this really necessary? So, you know, I go in, and before that first scene even starts, you've got, like, the logo, you know, going across the screen like it did in the first movie, and you've got that sound that just fucking pulls you in.

And I'm like, oh, my God, here we go again. Parker Finn, I don't know what it is with this dude. Does he have a music background, perhaps? Or does he just work really closely and find really, really, really good sound design people? The only thing I know of him other than the smile movies is the smile movie was originally a short film he did called Laura Hasn't Slept or something like that. So I don't know if the credit goes to him or the credit goes to whoever does his like sound mixing, sound design, you know, music for it and stuff like that or if, you know, if it is the same team or whatever. but this was just as good as the original to me as far as sound design and really making you feel like you were there. Right.

Like that deep. Yeah. But they even did a couple of little like nuance audio tricks in there at some points that sort of pulled you in. It was really cool. Yeah. And like I said, the music was fucking phenomenal. The music is something you would literally hear a pop star do on the radio now and sell millions of copies. it was that good. It really was. And I don't know how much of it had to do with her. I don't know how much of it had to do with his, you know, with his people. And I don't know how much had to do with Parker Finn himself. But I'm going to tell you, Parker did it for me again. Parker. They say Parker Lewis can't lose. That was an old show when I was a kid. I'm going to say Parker Finn.

So far, Parker Finn can't, for me, can't lose. I really fucking love this movie. I don't know if I enjoyed it as much as the first one, but I will. know when I've seen it again, because I've probably seen the first one, yeah, at least three or four times. It's like one of those I like to show people, especially that scene in the end, you know, with the demon and all that. But yeah, I was really pleasantly surprised. I thought that this was expertly directed. To say that it was expertly acted, I mean, that's almost an insult to the main stars in this movie. I love the way that they started it and they kind of connected the first movie to it in that one scene. I think, thought it was brilliant the way that she portrayed the trauma, the mental illness, the substance

abuse. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but if I had a little tin in it and I had to hide my drug addiction because I'd had problems in the past, but yet I've got this intense pain from a really serious car accident injury and I have to kind of like hide my, you know, pain killers. And if I open up a 10 and three of them fell down the sink, I'd be down there with a wrench. opening that motherfucker up and just finding a way to, you know, I'm not trying to spoil too much, so don't let me go too far. Y'all need to pull me in if I start giving too much away. But safe to say, the same way that the first movie dealt with trauma and dealt with mental health,

this movie was masterful at dealing with mental health. And I just love the way that they did it. There were a couple of scenes in there that I'd like to know if a couple of these scenes took you guys out. They certainly didn't me. I kind of love the way they were filmed. I think it was really original, especially one scene in her apartment with a particular flash mob.

I really loved that scene. I thought it was super original, but hey, I'm a musicals guy, right? Did you do jazz hands again? I did. Yeah, no, this was, this movie, this movie was fucking awesome. I dug it.

This was everything I was, everything I was worried it wouldn't be, and I kind of hope we see more. And it definitely left it open for more. So, yeah, can't say too many bad things about this one. Philip, I hope you liked it as much as we did, man. All right. Well, okay, so I wasn't as giant of a fan of the original smile as you guys were, but I think it's because I didn't see it in theater.

I watched a shitty copy of it. Yeah, I've watched it online since then, but a better sounding copy at least did you say like a sound bar or something? Well, because it's it's out now so but like so I've watched it since then but I don't know that I really paid enough

attention to it because I probably didn't give it the credit it deserves because this movie was pretty awesome. I have some concerns and some questions but the audio was fantastic I like the tricky camera angles and stuff I thought that was

really cool. It did a lot to set the mood and put you in that chaotic headspace that she was in, you know? And dude, the acting, she blew it out of the fucking water. This was so good. Yeah, I thought

SoC. Bacon was great in the first one. I think she might have surpassed her. Yeah. And it was like Jump Scare Central. There was a bunch of them. But not

but they were so much yeah not so much in an annoying way they weren't fake junk scares and they were like they were kind of worth it because you know it would show you something

really fucking creepy or something just it they did a great job with it they got me a few times I definitely jumped out of my seat more than once um I

so I'll wait to get into that until spoilers. But yeah, I really enjoyed this movie, and I enjoyed it more than the first one. Nice. Yeah. I was very impressed because I wasn't super hyped about seeing this movie, but my daughter really wanted to see it because she liked the first one. Okay. So by them enlarginging the universe and the stakes, so to speak, right, by having a pop star, that did not ruin it for you guys.

Because that's what I was so worried was going to ruin it for me. I actually felt like that was one of the main things I liked about it because we've all heard stories about the industry about people constantly smiling in your face. So that just would have added to the whole who's really smiling at me and who's not, you know. I love that angle. Yeah, that's totally part of this. Absolutely. Let's see, there's yet another angle of it. So when I rewatch it, I'll pay more attention to that for sure.

I don't think there was a character I didn't like in this movie. That's saying a lot. Maybe her mom, but I mean, she did what she... But that's by design. You're supposed to not like her. Yeah. She was a momager. Yeah.

Brittany Spears mom, right? Yeah. All right. Scores. Brian, what do you think? With the exception of one question, CGI moment. I'm going to have to give this

a 9 out of 10. Lance? I'll give it an 8. Strong 8 out of 10. I'm going 9, man. This one really caught my card. It was so good. Like it had a lot of really

good legitimate scares. This is a perfect Halloween movie. Yes, that has a lot of stupid that too, right? A lot of gross out stuff, a lot of good special effects, right? Yeah. All right, let's get to spoilers. Brian, what's your scene? This is a motherfucking spoiler alert.

You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. The very end where the demon came out. I liked it. I liked it, but I was just like, the CGI was not the best.

That's true. but it was insane I enjoyed the mouth being kind of ripped open I liked that but when it was fully out standing on the stage in front of her I was just kind of like what are we doing? I figured that would

I figured that would take a lot of people out of it and I sort of had that thought for a second when it first happened but I was like you know what I like this this is cool when that happened immediately a thought popped in my head

and I looked at my daughter because she watched this one with me and I was like the demons confronting her now so now she's about to take her life in front of the whole crowd is that going to curse the entire crowd now? Yep. That's

yeah see and that to me that was the part that maybe went a little too far at the very end because like how are they ever going to rain this in but I guess I'm curious to see what he does if he does like a third movie and makes it a trilogy, you know? Or maybe, holy shit, if it's out there

to everybody. Or maybe it's just one specific person it goes to out the crowd. We're going to find, I think we're going to find out. Is it doing well at the box office? I mean, I think I read that it did better in its first opening weekend than the original

one did. Well, there you go. I think we're going to find out. Well, because is it just one demon or is it is that how it reproduces or can it possess multiple people? Like, no. Good question. Good question. Looking right here

off a $28 million budget, it grows $51 million over the weekend. Okay. That's just the weekend. Oh, man. Wow. Now, okay, I'm sorry. No, the part that I really, okay, the part of this movie though, that, because I was loving every minute of it, you know, especially when you had that

sound design and that sound that just sucked you in at the beginning, just like the original intro did. But the part that really got me and made me like literally kind of like shake a little bit, like, holy shit, that makes so much sense is when they flashbacked to the

car wreck. Yeah. And it's like it wasn't just that guy's fault. Yeah. And I'm like, no, fuck up and crashed. You guys talking about Jack Nicholson, son? Is that his son in real life? It is.

Yeah. Holy shit. I had no idea. But that explains so much, right? About the guilt. About the guilt that she's carrying with her? Yeah. Right.

Yeah. I thought that was a great reveal and I didn't see it coming until... Me neither. Not at all. Until the end. When they started that scene, I was like, oh. Great way to kind of tell two perspectives from that story. because you get the first flashback where she wakes up,

she's hanging upside down in the car wreck. Oh, my God, yeah. And you just hear her, frying and screaming. Yeah. Then you get the next perspective of, oh, you caused this by grabbing the wheel. Yeah. So, yeah, great, just great storytelling. And Lance, you brought up the scene at the apartment, the flashmop scene.

I thought that went so well with her being a pop singer, the way they were moving. Of course. Yes. They were moving like dancers. Was that her dance squad? It was that she was envisioning? Yeah, I think so. And were they really there?

Was anybody really there during the thing? Was that one character whose brother allegedly died really there? Like, you couldn't tell. That was the problem. That's the great thing about this movie. I think not only the movie was fucking with her character, but it was fucking with us at the same time. Well, that was my only issue with it, actually,

is because when you don't know what's real and you can just fucking erase things at will, then there's no rules. Like the multi-off problem, right? Just do whatever the hell you want. I think we want a whole story down the end of the road and none of that shit actually happened. Okay.

And we don't even really know what happened when it was happening, you know? I think the whole interaction with her best friend Gemma yeah. Okay. I think didn't happen. Right. But the Milton, is that his character? Yes.

I think that did happen. You do? Interaction? Yeah. I think it did happen. Like when she met in the bar and everything or even the part when he froze her or like got her temperature down. And you think that was really happening? I think part of it.

I think she was on her way there. But really she went to the show. Oh, man. There's a lot. She never made it. She never made it. Yeah. Although in her mind she thought she did.

Because she wasn't as beat up or anything. thing at the show. Or for all we know, the whole thing never really happened. And it was the demon fucking with her the whole time up until the point where it knew she was going to be at the show. Yeah. But I figured that was the point of the demon is to get in front of as many eyes as possible and infect all of those people. That's what I was thinking. That was my takeaway. That was my thought from the very beginning of the movie would be the end goal of this thing. Yeah. And then it almost looked like they weren't going to do that. And it was or wasn't it, right? Yeah.

And also, I like to shout out the performances of the two characters that were doing the smile thing at her meet and greet, the little girl, and then that creepy guy who had something wrong with his face. Yeah. They were great. Who later, she thinks she's at his apartment naked. Yeah, taking his clothes off down the whole way one of the time. They had to put the extras on it, show his, like, pissy, shitty underwear on the ground. Tiny white isn't with a shit stains. Skin marks, yeah.

But I was a little upset that I, because when I heard Kyle Galmer was back for this one, I thought he was going to be involved a little bit longer than the opening. Oh, yeah, that was sad. That was sad. But that was a good scene because when he killed that guy, that was brutal. Yeah. And I get what he was trying to do. He was going to pass it on to somebody that didn't deserve to live.

Scum bag. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, that would have been perfect. And then he would have passed it onto the other. Obsters and yeah. Yeah, that's justice, right? That's like Venom style.

But it was, it was a brutal kill because he was just, he was like, are you watching? Are you watching? And then he just stabs and stabs him, brings the knife up, takes it out, then slices, slices his throw. And I was like, that's, I understand why people say they kind of went hard in this movie. Yeah. Right, right. But then that drug dealers back there, but that drug dealers back there watching him. Yeah.

I'm just here to score, man. Yeah, which it worked out for him. Right. It's just that he should have been looking out for cars when he's running across street. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. Yeah, so he had the curse lifted and he was good until the car just fucking plowed through him. Yeah, it was just an unfortunate thing.

That sucks. Nobody lives. That came out of nowhere. That was the first jump scare that got me. Well, the best one, though, I think was... Well, you saw it in the trailer. I just didn't know it was going to be him. Yeah.

The best one, I think, was when she was talking to Gemma in the bed and, like, Oh, yeah. Her eyes and her mouth hit the headlights and, like, you hear a car horn and she wakes up. That was kind of trippy. So, were they just friends? Or were they more than friends? I think they were just friends. I don't know.

Okay. I'm okay that they left it ambiguous. It kind of seemed like they were best friends. and through her up and down past, maybe she did something wrong to her. Yeah, for sure. Like leaving text messages, fuck you, cunt. I'm never talking.

Because she seems surprised when, well, when we all thought she actually came, she seemed surprised that she was there. Until later she gets the phone call. Right. What are these text messages to keep leaving me? Which looking back, now we know, right? but at that time we didn't, which

Ropa doped us. Which even the guy that first her from the drug deal of the house, he was even saying the same thing because when she came to his apartment, he was like, why are you here? And you text me to come here. Yeah. I didn't even catch that

until you just said that. He was like, I got your text. You said it was okay to come over and he looked at his phone. And he was like, I really did. He's like, oh, okay, that was me. And we just thought it was because he was so high on fucking Coke or ketamine or whatever he had spread out on the table there hey if you're going through demons and real curses and demons do all the cocaine you need to and i like yeah you're fish and die

anyway right live it up and i i like i like that first scene because like well it wasn't the first scene but the when the the first smile kill you know yeah and the drug dealer's house because it kind of it kind of showed you what to expect with the with the insanity of what it's doing to your brain because like he even went in the room and then came back out and like had no idea where the fuck he was again oh dude yeah yeah just all all the subtle things that it says about mental health and like trauma and and now you bring the substance abuse into it in this movie and it's just like the trifecta right of all the things of fuck us up as human beings the hair pulling was oh man i can't That was rough, man.

And that her mom was like, it's okay, they'll fix it. It'll look just like brand new. Her mom was the worst. When she was like, I open up your schedule, you'll have the day. Yeah, I was like, gee, mom, thanks for the day. I'm missing a chunk of my fucking air. Just found me unconscious in my apartment. Everything smashed and you're going to give me the day.

Not even the day because what she had a concert later on that night. Well, she probably thought she had another, like, drug bender or something. Yeah, you would think that, right? That's definitely, that was the setup. Did you guys think that the one guy was sincere, like the friend that wanted her to do the charity event, or did he have some ulterior motives going on? It just seemed like a studio guy, producer. Yeah.

Yeah, I didn't look so much into that. Yeah, basically a stand-up guy, though, right? Like, he wasn't part of the conspiracy or whatever. Until that scene where she had everybody at gunpoint in the hospital, and he said something about thinking your career or think of the tour or something. I was like, oh, yeah, there's that money. Well, in that scene where she was at the charity event and trying to give the speech was super uncomfortable.

Oh, so awkward, man. But you knew it was going to be bad. It did a great job of making me feel how uncomfortable she was. You knew it was going to be bad as soon as she smeared that lipstick right before she went on. I was like, okay, this is about to be a show right here. Yeah. And then the teleprompter stopped working. Oh, yeah.

That's every star's nightmare, right? For a charity event and it's all just scripted for you and there's no script. I really don't give a shit about this charity. yeah she has a mini breakdown up there and then finishes off with basically body slamming an elderly lady off the stage that was nuts i did not expect that that was that was the part that brought me back i was really uncomfortable i don't know if i like this scene and then the old lady hit the table and i was like all right that was pretty awesome which did you hear the guy in the bar when they were at when they when they recognized her.

He was like, I watched the video you pushing that old lady off the stage like 50 times. It was hilarious. Oh, God. Yeah. Has a lot to say, man. Like fame and infamy, right? They're all kind of tied together now. All right.

Anything else to talk about? Are you guys ready to call in the night? I think that's it. Yeah. Yeah. So smile to go see it. That was worth watching Ring 2 for. Now, you saw it in the theater.

this time, Philip? Yeah. Good for you. I know. It was a shitty theater, but... It doesn't matter, dude. Hey, shitty theater sound trumps while trying to watch it on an iPhone

any day of the week, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, the screen and the sound was actually great. It was just the rest of the theater sucked. It was old. Well, it's cool, man. All right, so that's Smile 2. As always, we want to thank you guys

for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. We would love to hear your feedback and ideas. reach out to us at the horror returns at gmail.com next week. I don't know if I'll be here. I might be traveling. I might be in the air coming home from Houston, but I guarantee you we're going to have a Halloween party going on, guys, because we've got Tavares Ellis from Student of the Game podcast, our good friend,

and we've also got Sean coming back, Sean of the Dead, as I like to call him. So I guess Sean's kind of our go-to, commentary got, right? Brian didn't. We don't we typically... Been on most of them. Yeah. I think so. And we're going to be doing Halloween 5, the curse or the return

to Michael Myers or what? This would be... Revenge! Revenge. I'll get it right eventually. We'll do the shitty curse one next year. Nice, nice. All right. Well, we'll be back.

And until the horror returns again, everybody, good. I