The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #488: Funny Games (2007) & The Strangers: Chapter 2 (2025)

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

We are joined this week by Michael Caissie, writer and director of the brand new film No Tears in Hell. Cool of the week includes Alien: Earth, Chad Powers, Diablo, and Peacemaker. Trailers are The Carpenter's Son and Frankenstein. The podcast spotlight shines on Talk Bloody to Me. And we get feedback from Michel Prazeres, Brian J Godsill, Rob Cheshire, Ammon Lu, Anderson Quintero Avila, and Third Channel Podcast. Thanks for listening! The Horror Returns Website: https://thehorrorreturns.com 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 Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thehorrorreturns?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== THR YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thehorrorreturnspodcast3277 THR Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thehorrorreturns 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 Music By: Steve Carleton Of The Geekz

This is Richard Brake who plays Doomhead, and you're listening to the horror returns. Stay tuned. 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. 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've got Philly the Kid. We've got Brutal Brian.

Those names are getting to stick, guys. But tonight, we got a special guest. You know, we got a special guest tonight. Director and primarily writer, I believe, Michael Casey. What's going on, man? I'm just happy to be here, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Yeah, we've got a format that we follow here. But before that, we've got to talk about the movie. So, Brian, you want to go first? I know you had a question. Well, I don't know if it introduces movie first that we're here to talk about. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That would be helpful.

Okay. I'll go with the punches here, guys, as you can tell. So, yeah, I wrote direct and produced a movie called No Tears in Hell. I'll start off by saying it's available to purchase and to rent on all major streaming platforms like Amazon, obviously, iTunes, Apple TV. the film is a very intense serial killer horror based on true events, the Siberian Ripper in Russia in the early 90s. Oh. It's a true crime. I did take some creative liberties as for narrative purposes and some changes were made, but by and large, we did do as much research as we could.

And yeah, it's not for the faint of heart. I really strive for like a fly on the wall type situation where we really sit in the filth and the violence and I don't shy away from it. And it was a really hard film to write. It was a really hard film to direct. It's a really hard film for me to watch. I'll be honest. Yeah, it's a little rough. Yeah, it's not a comfort movie that you're going to put in before you go to bed.

And I'm well aware of that. And I just wanted to, you know, stay true to the material as much as possible. not glorify this killer by any stretch, but tell this story and really kind of do something that was really dialed in and on a tight budget. We had an extremely tight budget, but I'm really proud of the film and really proud of the team that put it together. So that's my overview of the film. If there's anything else in particular, you guys want to touch on or ask about or whatever, but that's my very small short leaf pitch. If you're into four movies, if you're into like violent serial killer movies, true crime, check this out.

Yeah. What drew you to the story? Actually, the story by credit is by a guy named Alexander who is from Russia initially. So he and the other executive producer, Mike Tadros Jr. We all got connected and Alex was like, hey, I want to, I want you to write a movie about this and gave me the details and the Wikipedia page and some links and stuff like that. Am I interested in my writing background and directing backgrounds primarily in heart and four anyways and it's my favorite genre? So I was interested in telling it and then as I was writing it I knew pretty early on I was like I don't know if I should even attempt to

direct this because just how hard the writing was I was like literally getting up and taking break. It's not normal for me and I was like kind of getting like agitated with the story because that it's just so graphic. There's no, like, in the film, there's, like, these shots of, like, animals and things like that, these cutaways and stuff. And, like, that's kind of the breathing realm, if you will, for the film. And then the rest of it is just you're in this very claustrophobic kind of terror of, like, these victims.

And it's kind of told somewhat narratively from the killer's perspective, which was a decision I wanted to do pretty early on because I think that was an interesting way to go instead of you meet the victims and stuff but i think his psychological aspect between him uh i should have mentioned this he his mom is complicit in all of this as well so she helps him lure of victims and the victims are predominantly uh homeless uh people in real life it was young children for the most part and that's oh my god yeah yeah so that was the change i made for obvious reasons uh um but the mom would lure help lure him in and then help get rid of the bodies and kind of cover up his stuff. And so there's like a psychological kind of psycho Norman Bates type thing going on between mother and son throughout the film.

So I really wanted to try and elevate the material and the voiceover and stuff like that. That's all, I obviously don't have any act. I can't get to what was inside of his head. So that's me. But I want to do something interesting. And I have this, I've noticed that actually was just talking to an actress that I work with quite a bit. I was like, I had this thing where I want to, like, give information to people as they're watching my films or TV shows or whatever. And so, like, there's always these, like, tangents of, like, just random stuff.

Obviously, this is about cannibalism and things like that. So, but his voiceover stuff is just something that I kind of came up with that kind of do, like, a narrative. Oh, and another, I should just mention this because I think it's important. There's a film called Snowtown out of Australia that was based in the Nodown borders that was heavily influential in terms of, for me, for this film because of the pacing and some of the stylization. And there's a scene in that movie. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but there's a scene in a bathtub that is like stuck with me since I've seen it,

like years ago. And sorry, I have these crazy cats that are running around. So if you see lights shift, that's this. That's all right. So Snowtown, there's a scene in the bathtub and I won't remember for anybody,

but it was like so intense. And I was like, I want to make a movie that has that intensity through as much, as I possibly can, and that was kind of the driving force for some of the intensity and the ferociousness of this film. Yeah. I imagine the fall of the Soviet Union in Siberia was probably not a pleasant place to be. Yeah, that's one of the, some of the feet, like some of the reviews or like things online, people are talking about, like, you know, bringing it to America, you can never justify, like, just how harsh it was during that time. minutes.

Right. I get that, but I'm not going to Siberia to shoot a movie. Yeah. I don't blame me. On the budget I have. So, you know,

I tried to, you know, recreate that kind of homeless atmosphere and stuff here in the United States because we have that, I mean, it's not to the level of that was there, but yeah,

also, that's also why he got away with it for so long because they just didn't have, I mean, you see this a lot with true crime in general, too, earlier on when there's no, like,

communicated with each other and there was no like interpol or fbi or ca data gold like so now that now it's a lot more communicative in terms of agencies and stuff but back then they actually thought the real killer they thought he was still institutionalized so they actually thought like oh this kind of looks like something that this guy would do but it's not him he's in the institution and he was not on the institution so like records horribly kept and so they just it kind of he he could have probably been caught a lot earlier had that you know not have thought in the case. So, and there wasn't really a whole lot of information online about, um, the actual

investigation. So all of the detective stuff is just stuff I had to kind of implement and work into the story for that kind of storyline. It's not very available for, at least I couldn't find it when I was trying to do research for this. Well, I imagine it's not a very densely populated place either. So probably get away with it a little longer. Yeah.

Well, we, that's why we actually filmed, um, a lot of the exteriors and some, um, body double shots in this movie in Whittier, Alaska, because it's so isolated and I think is like 250 total people, and they all kind of live in one building that we stayed at while we were filming there. So, yeah, all the winter landscapes and stuff like that, that was all Whittier, Alaska, and then the bulk of the actual movie was filmed in the dead of summer in Alabama, of all places. Really? Okay.

So I had to marry those two pieces. together and so that's why if you see a homeless person with shorts that's because it was like a hundred and ten degrees and that's not a background actor that's one of my crew members that was nice enough to go and pretend to be a homeless person so you had any questions as to why the homeless people wear shorts well i couldn't go buy jeans for 110 degree weather and it's bad enough they had those big winter coats on the poor main actor and stuff in the dead of yeah that was not my because in russia we know need pants yeah That's how we shot the film.

So, yeah. Luke Baines, I believe, is the actor that was in the lead role. I think he knocked it out to park playing this role. Was he always, did you always have him in mind or did he audition? You know, I actually, the casting on this was very unique in the sense that Debbie Sheridan was the casting director. She did a fantastic job. But the two leads, Luke and Gwen, were handpicked by Alex and Michael, the two EPs. And so I know Gwen put herself on tape and auditioned because when we cast the young mom,

we basically found someone that kind of looked like it could be a younger mom. And then we let them listen to her audition because Gwen has a very unique speech, manures and pattern, if you will. And so it was between two actresses to play the young mom. We were like, here's what the older mom sounds like, can you mimic this? and when we went with Kathy, who did a phenomenal job, not only acting, but also mimicking the older, mother character.

Luke, I think, was handpicked. I mean, I had seen him in, there's a film called The Girl with the Photographs, I think. It's like a West Craven presents movie where he plays another crazy killer. And so he's the sweetest human being. And so it's just so crazy to him go to these, like, incredibly dark places.

And then as soon as cut is done, he could be sitting here having a beer with us and you would just be totally comfortable with him. He's so kind. But yeah, all the psychopaths, dude. That's right. No, you can't find anyone to say anything big.

I mean, he's just, he was such a sweetheart to work with, and he's so talented. And, yeah, he really, I agree with you. He just did such a great job. I was just so thrilled with his performance. And lucky to have him. He actually reminded me a lot of the kid in funny games, which we'll be talking about later.

Oh, he reminded me of a young David Byrne. from the talking heads. Oh, okay. I don't know. Which one from funny games? Not Michael Pitt, the other actor? Yeah, Michael Pitt a little bit. Yeah, he sort of had that, I mean, maybe not as wicked, but still had that same vibe with him.

I think he did pretty well. Thanks. I appreciate that. I'm sure he'll listen to this or I'll pass it along, but you said that. So where's the movie available? Like if our listeners want to go out and check this out. If I had my choice, I'd have everybody rented on or buy it on Amazon. But it's also iTunes and Apple TV.

And then there's a few other like pay streaming platforms. It hasn't reached any of, like, Shudder, Netflix or any of that stuff yet. But as of right now, it's just available to rent or buy from Amazon, iTunes, Apple TV. So it's like the main ones. Yeah, it's like four bucks to rent it on Amazon, I think. It's not bad. Yeah. I've rented it a couple times.

Got to throw it in there. Well, it's like when you do a film, like this film was also unique because we filmed it and we finished production on this film like four years, almost four years ago. And they just, it was in a line of like the executive producers had done a bunch of films. And there was like films and had a bit to get through post. And so we were just sitting there. There were a lot of us that were like, this movie's never going to get done. And then they were like, oh, it's your post. And so I had a little break from it.

And then when you're going and you're doing something in post, you just keep watching it over and over, over. And then there was a break between when it was finished and like maybe three or four months, five months, whatever it was until it came out. So I hadn't seen it in its entirety without like editing or I'm not listening for music. And so I've seen it a couple times with people that have never seen it.

And I'm like looking at them for their reaction. So I'm like, please don't not hang around with me after you watch this film. Well, look, Michael, it hits the whole. Holy Trinity, man. You got cannibalism, necrophilia, and torture. Okay. And the necrophilia, in case the actual killer is listening, I had to change it to necrophilia because he would rape his victims. And this is going to sound crazy considering how insane this film is. I just couldn't bring myself to do like these graphic rape scenes where the women are screaming. And I was like, so I went the route of like, all right, they're already dead.

And there has to be some kind of sexualization. So that's, I hate to say that was my choice. I'm like, it's already so much that you have to watch in this film, so you get to sit there and watch all these girls scream for hours. I just couldn't. I'm at my head around trying to do that. It's definitely grosser, but it's kind of better. There's a lot of easier to film, for sure. I have a quick question about the filming.

How intense did it get? Did you guys have to take breaks? Doval? You know what? We had a really quick shoot, so the whole bulk of the actual performances of the film was shot over 15 days. So I had talked with all the actors. We had a stunt coordinator there. So we kind of like anything that had to do with the violence, we had an intimacy coordinator for the nudity aspects of it and closed down the set.

And that's like a close set for those things. But I was very open with the actors beforehand. And I told the crew this as well. And this was something that I just kind of came up with before we filmed that. there's a moment when you're, even though you know something's fake, when you're filming it, when it has violence involved, where your human instinct, or at least for me, I'm hoping it's slept this very much, it kicks in and you want it to stop. Like, you know it's fake and if the actors are doing their job. And so my instinct is always to say cut the moment it feels uncomfortable,

but I was very open with the actors beforehand as well as the crew. And I was like, it's going to get uncomfortable. We're all going to want it to stop. I'm going to let it go a little bit longer, not more violent, but just let whatever's happening happen longer. and I think that was a smart thing. I think that's like really what sits in the pit of your stomach is that the camera should turn away or you should turn away and you're forced to sit there longer.

So in terms of like there were people walking away from monitor like crying. Like I was like I've never seen that before and I was like and I had to like I was getting kind of because you become a family on a film set too. And so even though again I know it's fake, it seems like especially Gabriella who's a good friend of mine now. I met her on the set actually. But seeing with her where she's getting strangled and then brought back to life and strangled and

brought back to life. It was like incredibly hard to watch. And that was like one of the harder ones to write as well because I was like, it's just so fucked up. Like who would do this and who would want to sit here watching it? And so yeah, there was it was enough. Like in between takes, there was, you know, I think there's one outtake that I had posted online that I can share with you guys where everyone just started cracking up laughing.

It involves Luke putting his hand in someone's mouth and just. the making of the noise and the two of them just crack each other up. So there were these moments like where we were able to read a little bit. I know some of the casting crew went whitewater rafting on some days off. So there was there was a lightness that. And I think Luke has a lot of, I give him a lot of credit for that. Gwen as well, when she was filming, this won't ruin it because it's, I think it's in the trailer. But they would dispose of the body.

They would at least start cutting the bodies in the bathtub. And there's a moment. And so Gwen was 92. she's recently passed. I found out she passed in December. She was 92 when she filmed this movie. Wow. No idea.

And so she stops, she's got the saw in her hand, the dead bodies in the tub, and she turns and she looks back at all of us and she goes, I can honestly say this is the first time of my career. I've ever done this. All right, let's do it. And then turned back. It was just so, and she told her deadpan.

I think that was her sense of humor because she was, her and Luke shared her story. They were talking. There's just the two of them, and she was like, have you told anybody like that you're doing this movie and what it's about yet? And he goes, no. She goes, yeah, I don't know if I should be telling people. She's like, I'm a little nervous about their reaction. So she was so sweet and so cute.

And I think she gives a really great performance as well. So there was this lightness. And to answer your question, yeah, I think that was also a part of it is there's a responsibility because this is a true story. And again, we change some things for creative reasons and other reasons. there's a weight that comes with that. Like we're telling a story of people that lost their lives and yes, I'm doing a narrative and I'm being creative and I'm telling a story and I'm being a storyteller.

But like, so there's also that added weight. So I think it was just really important for us to not take ourselves out too serious once the cameras weren't rolling. I think it was just kind of, and I think that's part of the director's job in particular is create a safe space where actors can go to these really awful places and just know that once we see, say cut that there's, you know, a gentle hand and people are going to take them back in and it's

okay. And I think that actually, we achieve that. So I feel really good about that. This might want to answer to your question. Nice. No problem. All right, man. Well, again, we really appreciate you sharing the movie with us. And I think we all liked it. Is it three thumbs up, guys? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, very, very well done. Like, it was a pleasant surprise.

I sort of expected this to suck when I turned it on because I didn't know anything about it. And I was like, oh, wow. Like, this is a legit movie. He thumbs up and it didn't suck half of it. So thanks, guys. I appreciate to checking it out. It means a lot to me. And thanks for having me on this podcast.

Yeah, thanks for coming. Yeah. You're welcome back anytime, man, if you get free time. So I love that. Next thing that we do on the show, Michael. is a little thing we like to call cool of the week. And we usually allow our guests to go first if you want to, but it's the coolest thing that you've watched,

read, a concert you've been to. What is your cool of the week, Michael? The week, that's a cool question. You know, like the first thing that comes to mind is I watched the Alien Earth series on Hulu. Yeah. That's been coming up a lot. It's so good.

And the first couple episodes, I was like, oh, you know, I can see what he's trying to do here. And I think it's like right around episode five where it really dives into like the terror that like alien and aliens had years and years ago. And I was like sitting there watching it and like just like my skin was crawling. And I was like, okay, he's achieving everything. And, you know, I was like depressed when the series, when the episode was done. I was like, oh, now I got to wait for like hopefully end up season two. And so I just thought, yeah, fool of his. Just really well done, really well thought out.

I thought the acting was great. The story, the writing was great. And, yeah, it kind of brought me back to my childhood watching Alien for the first time, way too young. That same kind of vibe of like, oh, my God. And they did some new creative things that I hadn't seen before. And so I was like, couldn't wait for, it comes out on Tuesdays. Yeah.

Like every Tuesday, I was like, yeah, you know, what's happening later today? I know what I'm doing? And that's like my whole, like, so I'll see that's my answer. Yeah, that was my. My biggest problem with it was that it's over. And they sort of left you. That's a problem. That's a problem. And I was upset.

I was like, oh, my man. It's ridiculous. I still feel like there should be like one more episode. Yeah. But I think that's a big, probably do that on purpose. Because I was surprised. I didn't realize it was the series finale when I was watching it. Yeah.

I think this week there's any other one. Oh, great. So cool and not cool that it's over. That's my answer. All right. Alien Earth. What you got, Phil? Okay, so I've got a

Not Cool the Week. I can't even remember really the name of it. It was a lifetime movie on Hulu. Lifetime movies. Okay. Yeah, I get into those sometimes. There's like a girl in a shed and a girl in a cabinet and a girl in the closet. You sure this wasn't the porn parody?

Oh, no, no. And this one was, I think it was called Vanished. in Death Valley or something along those lines. And it actually had some recognizable people in it, but it was bad. The story was bad. The acting was bad. The writing was worse.

It was rough. But my cool of the week is another football-related one. Football definitely is my cool of the week. But I checked out the check out the check. Cad Powers series on Hulu. Oh, yeah, I was wondering about that. Yeah, Glenn Powell. And, like, it's based off of the Eli Manning stuff

where he dresses up and pretends to be, like, a fake guy to go to tryouts. I don't know if you guys have seen that, but it's funny. Okay. Interesting concept. Yeah, so this, yeah, this Chad Powers thing. It's only a couple of episodes in, but it's pretty funny. I like, I like it. You know?

I'm loving the football-related stuff right now. Yeah, that's that time of year. Brian, you want to go next? Do you get 100 things again? No, my call the week for the rest of the month's going to be light because of 31 days. I'm going to talk about that on a separate show. So a couple TV shows I got in. Me and my daughter are still going through The Walking Dead.

We went through season seven. She wanted to quit after the first episode with Glenn. Right. But I told her to stick with it, and she ended up saying the finale of season seven was one of her favorites. Really? Yeah. Cool.

And I think, I can't remember where I left off. I think season eight is going to be a complete first time for me. Yeah, I'm not sure I caught that last season or two. A few people didn't. Yeah. I know I know I neither season eight or nine I can't remember is where I left off so we'll see we'll talk about that next week

caught the first couple episodes of Marvel zombies on Disney Plus thought the animation was pretty cool you get to see your favorite superheroes and villains and zombie farm fight each other so it's cool yeah it's pretty cool so far

but my cool of the week is going to be an action thriller from Scott Atkins called Diablo I've heard of this you guys heard of it it's got him and I think the other guy that plays the villain is Mark Zucco he was one of the bad guys in John Wick chapter 4 so if you like Scott Atkins

kicking ass and check this out you know the story's basically he's trying to get his estranged daughter back from the people that have her and he kicks ass through the entire movie, basically. He pulls Scott Atkins. Yeah. He's got a very particular set of skills?

Yes. Of course. He has a new one out called Prisoners of War that Louis Mandelor, he's a friend of mine that Louis directed and Scott stars in it with Peter. should oh i don't have to surpass peter's last thing um that's really good really really good i highly recommend a lot of great action uh scott does a great performance on that too i think that's available to rent or buy on amazon as well just i just think just came about last friday so

put that on the list i recommend yeah hot off hot off the press right yeah yeah i got i got a little behind-the-scenes taste because louis a friend and um i talked to scott a little bit before filming as well so Wow, that was pretty cool. So he's a really cool guy. So I highly recommend prisoner of war. That's what it's called. Prisoner of war. Okay.

All right. All right. So you guys caught up, are you guys caught up a peacemaker? No. No, I haven't started it yet. What? Yeah. Michael, do you watch that?

I'm in the show. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. Are you a, are you a D.C. guy at all? D.C. comics? I mean, comics are superheroes in general. I mean, I love the Dark Night in that franchise and stuff, but I'm like the boys. I'm like the boys is like my. Yeah,

I got you. I can, I can dig that. The Gen B or whatever the one, the spin-off. Yeah. I'm ready to get into season two of that. So yeah, I mean, I grew up like with comics and stuff like that. I think I just kind of got burnt out. Like, it's just so much. And so I also, I just, there's just so much content that, and I get it. I always get like these recommendations and I write them down. I'm like, I'll get to it. And I mean, I was like so late to like breaking bad to give you an idea of like sometimes how I am. Yeah.

I was too. I binge while I was breaking bad maybe like a year after everybody was like, it's the greatest or whatever. Yeah. And then it was overhiked for me. And I was like, damn, I should have watched it earlier. But so I apologize. Yeah.

I mean, I apologize. But I'm in the dark here. So, but if it's your. Okay. Cool, the week. You're not going to ruin anything for me if that's what you're waiting. All right. It's still James Gunn directing it, right?

It's James Gunn. Yeah, I think he writes every single episode, dude, Taylor Sheridan style, right? Oh, that's cool. Man, all I'm going to say, I can't see if you guys haven't seen it. I can't say anything on this most recent episode. I'll just say, I did revisit Superman again after watching this, and I'm like, Brian, apologies that I call it. it super meh the first time I saw it because uh definitely better on a rewatch and I

definitely like the uh the side characters on there and of course as you as you know some of them show up in uh peacemaker Brian yeah okay so all I'm gonna say about this latest episode of peacemaker and James Gunn he went there he fucking went there and I'll leave it at that. You'll know at the very last 30 seconds of the show, it just goes bad shit. And that's my cool of the week. Peacemaker, Brian, do we have any horror headlines this week? We got a few. Are you guys familiar with the comic series, afterlife with Archie? The zombie. No, no.

Well, it was basically Archie and all those characters in the zombie apocalypse. Oh, God. I like it. That sounds great. Disney Plus is developing a live action adaptation. Live action. Yeah. Like Riverdale, Part 2, huh?

Yeah, but from what I understand, the comic books, it won't be like the CW. show. Okay. It would be a little bit more dark. Huh. Michael, what do you think? I find that interesting. I mean, it's, I like when they do these kind of crossover things and they take that

familiar IP property and kind of do something horror-based, well, particularly horror because a huge horror fan. So I'm, I'm interested. I mean, the live action part is curious to see how it would lay out. I don't know. I'll give it a shot. I'm in. I think it's interesting.

Yeah. I'll watch it. Let's see. FX has officially ordered a pilot for very young Frankenstein, the prequel series. Very young. This is like Young Sheldon. Mel Brooks. This is the Mel Brooks thing, right?

Yeah, this is executive produced by Mel Brooks. The pilot episode is going to be directed. by Tycho Watiti. Ah, good choice. So far, they have Carrie Elway's, Kumel Nunjani, and Zach Galaphanakis, I believe is going to be playing a young

Dr. Frankenstein. Seems a little old. Frankenstein. Especially to be very young. Yeah, right. Okay, we'll see how this plays out. Mel Brooks has never done us wrong than I know of.

How old is Melbrook's? Brooks. In his 90s? Michael? Yeah. I think 90s. He's probably 90s. Yeah.

I think so. Yeah. So, let's enjoy them while we have them. Yeah. This was just announced today. Robert England has confirmed he's returning as Freddie Kruger

in an animated nightmare on Elm Street movie. That's kind of a cop out. I was going to say, that doesn't count. You know we're all going to still watch it. Of course. I mean, I'll take it. We haven't had anything nightmare on Elm Street since 2010. Yeah, Fred Freddy versus Jason.

That was so long ago. Right? Oh, no. It's the remake. Been a while. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't count that either, Jackie Earl Haley. Didn't do it.

Didn't do it for me. So many backstories about that movie that. I'm in, I'm in, I watch that one. Yeah. And finally we got former WWE star Braun Stromen, aka Adam Shear,

confirms that he's in talks to play Jason Boorhe. He's in the upcoming Friday to 13th revival. Now, I kind of don't like this because this will be a very large Jason Borges. Braun Stromen is 6-8. 350 pounds oh god

man unstoppable what do you guys what do you guys think yeah if this cane hot or not available or I don't that's just too he's still doing the

the circuit Texas fright mare and and all that I think it's not broken why I mess with it but again I just like the nightmare series if there's

if there's another Jason thing, I meant. I thought the remake was really good. And I know not everybody loved it, but I, that's one I kill back to. I watch it a couple. I really like it. I like the, the 2009 one. Yeah, that duo, that writer, I mean, that director Marcus, I think his last name, and the DP, they, you know, they did the Texas Chainstall massacre remake too.

Okay. Yeah. Boston. I think it's the same time. It's the same writing duo, too, Swift and just these two guys that do, also the remakes. Marcus Dunstan? I don't think it's, I can't think of the director's name.

I know the DP is the one that DP, the original director of photography of the original Texas chainsaw massacre. So he did the original original, then did the remake and then he did the Friday the 13th remake. I forget the director's name is Markets, but the writer, it's a writing duo, something swift and these two guys, they do all the remakes of, they didn't do the Nightmare on Street remake. that was

you could tell maybe they should have well yeah true stories but when I joined the Writers Guild of America

pair you up with a mentor and you meet with the mentor and my mentor it's like a group there's like four or five they pay you like five or six they ask you like what are your favorite movies

and your writing style and stuff they paired me with the writer of that remake and he's done a bunch of other stuff I think he did lights out and a few other movies and it's done

some really talented writer but like sitting there you know, you're able to ask him questions. And I'm like, bro, what happened? Like I was saying it's nice thing. He's like, good. And he's like, oh my God. He's like, everything that I tried to write, he was like, I didn't want it to be this. I didn't want to be cliche.

And he's like, I don't know if I should be repeating this, but whatever. He's like, the first day I showed up to the film shoot, he's like, I knew I was fucked because the director was so pissed about something. He was like, rant and raving. He's like, I don't even like Freddie Kroger. I don't know the fuck I'm doing it. That's not a good sign. And I'm like, what the hell?

And so, like, there's the scene in the movie, and it's not, not spoiling at this point, but where the truck is driving and Freddy's, like, in the road or whatever, he was, like, telling that story. And he was like, I specifically didn't want that to be like that. And, like, that was the first thing that he showed up. And he was like, Freddy was in the road. And he was like, what is this? Like, so I think they took his script and they just butchered it.

And just, and this happens a lot. It's unfortunate. Yeah, yeah, it's not good. It's one of the reasons, you know, I got into, like, directing and producing because as a writer, it's unlike, like, if you're a novelist or a playwright, or if you're a filmmaker, a writer in Europe,

it's the written words a lot more respected there than it is here where, like, screenwriting is supposed to be, like, the skeleton of the movie, so it's like you hand it over, and then there's all these chefs that come in, and it's, you know, then it's a director's medium, but there's producers involved, and then there's, you know, every actor start giving notes and things like that.

And so from a very early part of my career, I started to see, like, when I hand a script in, like, it's bought or goes in a production. Depending on the director, sometimes I, that's it. I don't have any other say. And then they go and they change it. And I'm watching the movie almost for the first time, even though I wrote it. Jesus. And I'm like, horrible.

Or like, you know, or, man, come on. Or, you know, and then even like, you know, Hangman that I co-wrote. I remember we were getting notes from like the director, the producer, all three that was Pacino, Carl Urban, Britain Snow, all the actors were giving conflicting notes. And I remember saying to Johnny, he was the director,

like, I don't know how to rewrite this because if I follow this thread, I follow this thread, like it's just going to, I don't know where to go. He's like, just go where Al wants you to go. Like Pacino. And I'm like, that's fair. That was the note. but that movie, in general, that whole process, because that took five years of development

and getting off the ground and different directors were attached. Chuck Russell was attached at one point. The director of, like, the Dredd remake was Pete Travis was attached at one point. John Chavolto was supposed to star at one point. So I saw, like, how, it was originally a found footage movie, and now it's not a fun version. So just to give you, like, the evolution of that, I started to see that, like, if I wanted to have more control over the storytelling process, to get at least behind the, a camera as a director, but also in any capacity as much as I can produce because

that's, it's weird. It's not like writing a book where, you know, you hand it over to an editor, but if you're a good writer, luckily, most of the time you can have kind of final say, you know, in filmmaking world, even as a director, sometimes you don't get final cut. Producers type of eat that sometimes too. So it's just a weird. So it's one that after like, when I did Hunter's Moon here, I had so many things happen that were beyond my control. And this is not about too many chefs in the kitchen, but after seeing how hard it was to get a movie made from scratch and to produce it and do all these other things, I'll never openly bash another film. I don't care if it's like the worst thing I'd ever seen.

Like if we're having a conversation one month, I'll do it. But like just to get a movie finished, like, I'm fucking Marigville. So like I appreciate like storytelling and filmmaking and television way more now because I'm like, if something's messed up, I'm like, and you see it in reviews. Well, the script wasn't good. I'm like, did you read the script? and they're always like, no. And I'm looking, how do you know it's the script?

Like, just because of the words coming out of the actor's mouth. Right, right? Like, yeah, it's just crazy. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm always hesitant. Like, I think that Nightman All-Street movie, who knows how it kind of thing. But I don't think it was a lot. I know firsthand, I don't think it's the writer's issue, which I'll stick out.

Especially when the studio gets their hands involved. It's crazy. Well, you guys see the documentary on Aliens 3 that Fox cut down and approved. I haven't. I haven't seen it yet, though. It's one of the best documents you'll see in the sense that I'm like, so this is what Fox approved? How horrible could the rest of it have been that they cut out? Because this makes Fox looks terrible. I mean, it was like, it was amazing.

And that's David Fincher's first film. Yeah, David Fincher. Yeah, and I love it. I love it. I can see why he hates it. And I understand why it gets dragged all the time. But it's like, you know, they had like three. Rennie Harlan was attached to direct at one point.

And he signed on and specifically in the documentary talks about this. He's like, I'll sign on, but I'm not going to do what two directing masters did part one and part two. He's like, if you're just looking for like a repeat of what they did, I don't want to do that. I can't duplicate what they did. I want to put my own fingerprints on it. I don't want it to be different. So I'm not going to be compared to these two legends. They're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they went all through like pre-production. And then like it got to the place where he was like, they're just having me redo alien aliens too. So he quit. and he parted ways they had another director or a British director they were building sets and everything else like that and then he was like he quit too because he would give them like they would have like pitch meetings or whatever and he would say like here's what I want to do here's what I want to do here's why and his his story actually sounds very similar to like what alien earth ended up being where it's more of a story about people and characters and things

like that and it was more of a human kind of thing that was like colonies it was very based on that and he's like I would give them my ideas and they would hate all my ideas and just like the stuff that was key to be like yelling one and two so he quit and when fincher came on it was like two weeks before they started filming like he had like two weeks of a ramp up of this massive budget film that I'm like yeah that's like an independent world kind of ramp up with someone who's been involved in the very beginning and that's like so just seeing that documentary and then like just hearing like why things happen I'm like these are I don't know maybe I'm like going to blacklist myself from this podcast for probably not

Somebody's got to hear it first. Well, probably not. It was the same thing. I mean, like Fight Club was just, you know, the executives were trying to bastardize that too. Yeah. Thankfully, Brad Pitt at such a poll at that point, Morgan Freeman and Venture started to do that. But Fight Club was never going to see the light of day, even once it was greenlit because of executives. It's like, what the hell is what's going on here?

Like, why? Having these executives just bastardize creatives. It doesn't make any sense. It's frustrating. Yeah, it's always a warning sign if they're juggling directors and writers. It is a challenge, yeah. So we'll see. Let's see how that goes.

All right, that is all the news today. Very slow news week. I thought that was some good news. Yeah, good to know. Strange news with the Archie thing, but okay. Yeah. All right, Michael, you ready to go with us on down to the trailer park? Yes, let's do it.

All right, we're going down to the trailer park. Brian is going to bring us the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. What's our first trailer to talk about tonight, Brian? First one is a new religious horror titled The Carpenter's Son, starring Nicholas Cage, Noah Jupe, and FK Twigs. This is also written and directed by Lofty Nathan. Did everybody get a chance to see the trailer? Yes.

what did you guys think it's a weird one I'm speechless I hate to say it this looks every once in a while Nick Cage does a movie that's really really bad to me sorry guys

it's just the trailer but this looks so bad to me somebody who'd be much in the trailer it's kind of short it looks bad about it fair enough yeah fair enough it just looks cheesy man but they had a cage rage moment

did they I missed it so maybe we'll get some more of that well you know we'll have beat on the show it is short so I was wondering if this is like an early trailer and they're going to have more of an extended one or something I don't know

probably this trailer just dropped a day and before they were dropping little teasers that were like 30 seconds long maybe 20 seconds yeah So, I mean, Nicholas Cage is in it. I'm definitely watching it. He does have a Cage rage moment in it.

I am interested to see how the story plays out. I'm not really into religious horror, but I'll definitely check this one out. I feel the same way. I think he's also lately, you know, he's been doing some really interesting movies that kind of go in all different genres. And so I think he's really gravitating towards the, like, whatever the material is, just kind of going with it. So that part continues. I'll check this out.

I thought it was worth it. Yeah. Yeah, I like it. Hey, I actually really like religious horror. And with Nick Cage involved, I mean, I can't complain about that. I don't know what it's about yet, but we'll see. What can go wrong? Is it said in biblical times or it's what it looks like? It says, the setting is Roman Egypt.

Okay. So yes. Probably don't like. Well, we know we're going to watch it, so. Yeah, I'm in. I'll watch it. Is Nick Cage Jesus in this movie, guys? That's what I thought at first.

He is a character titled The Carpenter. Well, that would be Jesus, maybe, right? Maybe. It's interesting. Well, this comes out just in time for the holidays, November 4th. 14th. Nicholas Ketchis Jesus. For Thanksgiving. Yeah.

Feel good Christmas movie. Okay. And our final trailer we're going to take a look at is Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. The stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob E. Lorty, Christoph Waltz, and Mia Gop. Damn. Michael, what did you think?

I'm all in on this one. I just, I mean, Gailant Tutorial does just phenomenal work. I thought visually it was like breathtaking. And I'm a fan of like every one of those actors too. And I think that part is fascinating. Jacob playing the monsters.

Like, I was like, okay, I was most curious to see how that played out. Because when I remember the casting, I was like, right. Such a handsome guy.

And I'm like, all right. Yeah. Oh, dude. Saltburn was a really fascinating movie. So I was like, all right, let's, yeah, he almost makes me want to watch a TV show he's from, almost. But, um, euphoria. Yeah, euphoria.

Yeah, I've missed that one so far. It's just, it's not made for me. And it makes me feel uncomfortable, the man in my 40s. It's, I'm like, I'm so gross kind of watching it. I try to watch. It's well done. And the acting is great, but I'm out. I'm like, I have young kids.

I'm like, I can't watch this. I feel like, I'm in the wrong. I feel like I'm kind of pervy. It's weird. Yeah. I felt the same way. But this movie I'm in. I think it's just, and I, you know, for nothing but I think it premiered at either Venice or the Conflint Festival and I had like a huge ovation.

Not that that's always a good sign. Sometimes it is something. But I mean, I just, his work, I can't think of a bad gambit to, it's horrible actually. I mean, I think he's, he's also. really been pushing for like just storytelling and and like just the art of storytelling and filmmaking in general and so I think this is really

like his this could be his like toward a force and he's already done these amazing movies so I sign me up I'll watch it yesterday. I'm in yeah definitely it gets me more excited than the mobster Frankenstein movie. Oh the bride

the bride. Yeah the bride! That one may be cool too. It's just weird. this this one i was like oh wow all right this this this is a movie here this this is this is what i want to watch it's it's also like now now all the universal movie things that they were trying to do like years ago it seems like now they're kind of getting that done between yeah one and and then uh nosferado and i know it's not quite the same but now he isn't he doing like the wolfman and stuff too but brechtor's name is escaping me right now so i i'm just you know like these are

like the horror guys that we grew up on. So I'm down. I'm excited for this one. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to remake a movie, let's get one from that era, you know? Yeah, I'm definitely in on this one. Just the people involved from Guillermo to the cast,

I really didn't need a trailer. But watching the trailer, I think the visuals look fantastic. And I'm ready for it. this hits theaters. I believe it's getting a limited theatrical release on November 7th. And I think I don't see it here, but I think it's coming to Netflix

in December. Oh, wow. Well, you, yeah, Brian, you answered the question I had because I thought it was coming only to Netflix. And I was going to say, if this movie comes only to Netflix, I'm going to have to go out and buy a bigger TV screen. screen. This thing is gorgeous, man.

They do the, I think they do the limited theatrical too, so it's eligible for Academy Awards and stuff, because I don't, that goes right to Netflix. It's not. So I'm hoping. It makes sense.

Yeah, makes sense. Hoping limited isn't like five theaters nationwide. New York and L.A. I live in L.A., so I'll be able to see it, but that just seems like, let it be limited like 2,000 theaters nationwide.

But that, that'll be fine for a couple. something, you know, then go. People will go see this. I think it's Gereyamoldo. Oh, fuck yeah, man. Yeah. I'm down.

And I do like that it's going to Netflix, so then when you see it in the theater, then you can watch it again. Yeah. So it'll be soon. So that part's cool. I like that, too. All right.

That's it for the trailer part. Cool. All right. On to listener feedback. This week, we're going to shine the podcast spotlight on Talk Bloody to Me. Talk Bloody to Me is a show for horror fans hosted by fans that focuses on discussing new and old horror films reviewing horror related events

and featuring interviews with people from the horror industry such as authors and filmmakers. Like Michael here. Talk bloody. Talk bloody to me? Is it bloody to me? Okay, sure. A little poison reference. I like it. Right, I was thinking that too.

In regards to violent ends, Michael Prezaris says, looks interesting. I don't know what that is, violent ends. Brian? I just post the news, posters, trailers. If we're not reviewing it, I don't watch the trailer. Okay. Okay, well, there it is. Violent ends, okay.

I like to be surprised when I watch a movie. Yeah. And the, I like it spoo. podcast, gave us a shout out, said thanks for sharing. All right. Thank you. In regards to Hellfest, Rob Cheshire says it could have been a lot better. But Ammon Liu said love this movie.

Yeah, I'm more with Amman. I had a blast with this. Did you see that movie, Michael? Hellfest. Oh, where is it? How can I see it? It's fun. I'm going to look up and see where it's streaming.

We interviewed the writer, Brian. Let's see Hellfest. It is streaming Oh, hell There's a Hellfest TV series now, guys. Oh, wow. I think that's an older one. It's, uh,

nah, it's for purchase, man. Like, uh, Prime Video from 3.79. So there you go. That is one one. Worth it, I'm sure. Yeah, I'll check it up. Yeah, Seth, Seth Sherwood, was the writer that, uh, that episode.

a week before, Brian. I think he did leather face too, didn't he? All right. He wrote a, yeah, he wrote a leather face. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. I wonder what they did to his group.

All right. In regards to the Elixir, Ammon Luce says Indonesia Horror, but Zobie movie. Cool. Yeah. The elixir. Good combo. Good combo.

In regards to Hayden Penitieri back for Scream. Anderson Contaro Avela says fake news. Uh-oh. Is it on again off again? Like all the scream stuff? Third channel podcast says... What's that?

I don't think they were supposed to announce it. That's why I think they later said she was not confirmed. I think it was supposed to be a surprise. Okay. Oh. Whoops. Third channel podcast says anyone who's listened to our discussion, on Screen 4 knows that Derek is certainly excited by this news.

Hmm. So is it or isn't it? I don't know. I think it will be. There's a lot of fans that are clamoring for this. I'm not a huge scream fan, Michael, are you? Oh, my God. I have a huge screen fan.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I thought Screen 1 was one of the reasons I got into screenwriting, actually. Really? Yeah. I was like, I think I was in college in 19. So it became like a somewhat of a religious experience every time the new screen would come out. I would take the tea back in Boston to my hometown in Massachusetts and go see the movie with my best friend and a few other people. So we would always, it was like just like excited for the next one.

And then I, a quick tangent story, I met Kevin Williamson at Sundance in between Scream 2 and Screen 3 at a party, a private party. And we shared a cigarette. And I was just telling him, like, you know, how much I admire scream. And I think he was talking about Dawson's Creek, all those other stuff. And he goes, just so you know, I'm not doing scream three. I go, okay. That was like the beginning of conversation. Right.

All drinking and stuff. Towards the end of the other. Just so you know, I'm not doing screen three. And I'm like, like, what the hell is? Okay, man, I get it. And then I saw screaming three. Okay. Uh, he's like, yeah.

He's like, I was talking at like a lecture. or something and some student told me there's two mistakes in Scream 1 and you mentioned it to me and I go oh that's crazy what is it? He goes I'm not going to tell you the mistakes. He had to figure it out. I was like so I went back and I watched it and I was like

I think there's like a I think the thing is like there's two glitches where maybe they one of the two killers couldn't be in a certain place at the right time or something. It was like really minor stuff. Yeah probably picking the fuck out of it but but you know I mean I think it's I liked the last one much more than the previous one before that one.

But I think the first one is just always near and dear to my heart. I just think that script is really well done. Like if you want to read a good horror script that kind of pops off the page, it doesn't surprise me that it got the attention that it did. And West Craven, Nightman, Albstreys, it's always, again, that's one of the other things that got me into horror in general, and Stephen King. So, and you pair those two together.

I'm just a fan, so. But yeah, it was, it was almost like a parody movie in itself, but it was still good. Very meta, before meta, right? Well, I do like meta aspect, too, because, like, I mean,

even, you know, funny games has, like, a, has the meta thing gone on too, right? Like, the original and the remake, too. And I just wrapped a movie that's crazy meta. So it's like, I just think that's fascinating when there's kind of the breaking of the fourth wall and the wink and the nod. and if you're going to do something cliche,

acknowledge it or flip it on its head and just, you know, sure the intelligence that most of us have and just kind of play with the rule. I think that's fascinating. And I thought it was scary. So, but I saw it at the right time, too. I think that's also.

Yeah. plays into it. All right. That's it for feedback this week. We still have a t-shirt contest going on. So if you leave us an Apple podcast review, we'll send you a free horror returns t-shirt. of your choice designed by

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the horror returns.com and click the shop now button. All right. All right. Steve Carlton from the geeks does all our logos and t-shirt designs and stuff. Natsulani has our original skull artwork and if you'd like 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 a month or more. You also a commentary for a feature bonus show. And talk to us. We'll probably let you on the show with us. Or two commentaries, right, Brian?

Yeah, we're not. All right. On to feature attractions. We're going to do funny games from 2007. Two psychopathic young men take a family hostage in their cabin. Director and writer is Michael Henake.

I don't know. Also known for the original funny games and Time of the Wolf. Tim Roth said making this film traumatized him and he'll never watch it. All right. I have something to say about that. He said he was particularly disturbed because Devin Gerhardt resembled his own son. And that's all we got for trivia. So Michael, what do you think about funny games?

I thought it was fascinating. I'm a big Michael Pitt fan as an actor. And Roth as well. And now we watch, right? So I think that's just fantastic. I like the psychological aspect. Again, I like the meta thing. This is a 2007 movie, so not to ruin it.

But the looking, I think the Peter character does it the most. The looking right at the camera and then like the rewind with the remote part. It's like really like a. it's like a fuck you moment to the to the people watching. Yeah. You think there's some kind of like resolve that's going to happen and you're like, you're like, you're like, yes. And then they're like, no, fuck you.

That's not going to happen. So I like this. And, you know, I'd seen the original too. So I thought it was a great choice to have the original director and writer just remake it and make it an American version. And, you know, there's some Americanisms that he put in there.

So it resonates with the American. audience, but by and large, it's a shot for shot, remake of his original thing, which, so, I think it's just it's a very intense unnerving. God, I mean, if you watch it, and it also speaks to like, it's another fly on the wall thing, like you're watching this violence,

and you shouldn't be watching it, and you're stopping, you should stop. And much like your, I think his name's George. George and George and George, he wants the son, wants the dad. But the dad is like, you know, as a man, you're watching it, And as father, I'm watching it. And it's like, I can't, you can't protect his family.

And so it's very emasculating. And so it really plays into that aspect of like the psychological part. And then the, is it Anne? What's the, what's the, what's the, Homey Wants character's name? I think so, is it Ann? Yeah. Yeah. You know, so then he's kind of like separating the torture, if you will,

from the man and the woman and doing two different things. And then, yeah, I can understand why Roth, like, doesn't, want to watch it because, you know, that kid reminds him of his kid and then the director does a great job at leaving that part to your imagination, which I thought was pretty fascinating.

And so, you know, it's so in your face, the whole movie and then probably, in my opinion, the worst thing that could possibly happen watching the movie, you know, happens off screen and you don't see it. So it's just, you're sitting there and you're like, you're just seeing the aftermath. So I think it's a really well-done film. It's intense. It's out. It's not

for everybody. It's going to get the anxiety going when you're watching it and I think it achieves what it's trying to achieve. So as a fan of films and of Home Invasion movies too, I think it's really well done. It's really well shot. I think the acting is great. And again, I wish Michael Pitt would do more work. I mean, I just think he's

so good. Yeah, he's like not in a ton of stuff. Yeah. I've heard like, you know, and I don't speak, I've heard that sometimes he's hard to work with. And so I think that's not a especially if he gets a golf club well it's not it's not a big secret so like it was like great in boardwalk empire and they had to like

I think write him out because of how Hardy was to work with and unfortunately yeah and I think as soon as he and the actress who have talked to a couple times for names of scapeering but that plays his wife in that show as soon as they're not longer on the show I feel like the show like loses something so it's still a great show from start to finish but I'm like as soon as he was gone, I was like, so that's

I find that on the depressing side. But he, yeah, he's got a really captivating thing about him. And in this movie, he's just so awful. Him and the guy that plays Peter, I'm just like, God. But again, it's like you can't look away, you should look away. And it's just the psychological aspect of it.

I think it's really well done. Yeah. All right. Brian, what do you think? Yeah, I really enjoyed this one. I remember when I first watched it, I didn't know what to think about it since it was going to be a shot. for shot remake, but I ended up really enjoying it. I thought the performances were great.

It's very unnerving at times with the scene with the dog. Oh, God. Don't kill the dog. But you know what happens to the dog. Boy, and then they like show the dog's dead body. Yeah, flopping around. Which was very realistic. Yeah.

I think it was a real. It looked like it was real. Right. I like to think it wasn't. I hope not. I've seen something fake dead dogs. I think it's a fake dead dog. But yeah,

it works very well. Another scene that really makes me uncomfortable is when they have Naomi Watson dress. They start commenting on her body and stuff like that. No jelly rolls. Yeah. And another thing that I really noticed this time was the performance of Georgie, the son.

Yeah. Because he put in a great performance to the point where I'm thinking was, was that actor okay after this movie? Yeah, I'm wondering that kind of thing. Jeez. And Michael Pitt, he's been great in everything I've seen him in. Tim Roth. I love Tim Roth.

Tim Roth's character does, I mean, I don't know. I would like to know what I would do in that situation, so I can't say what I would do because I've never been in that situation. Not that. I mean, even with one leg, I would think I would still fight someone who only has a golf club and not a gun or a knife or anything. I was like, motherfucker, you got a broken leg, you're not dying of cancer. Kind of like the, hey, what was the remake that we all saw last year? The Americanized remake where they were kidnapping the kids.

Oh, speak no evil. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like that, that douchey guy in that one. Yeah. Yeah. shit, there was something I was going to say, I forgot. I'll pass it over to Lance.

If I remember, I'll jump back in. Lance, what do you think? Yeah, no, this was an interesting experience for me. I thought I'd seen this movie before, but I think I just saw parts of it, or maybe it was the original that I just, like, caught part of it or in passing. So I was watching this one on my phone because I was kind of pressed for time. We were doing clothes out at work and all this kind of stuff. I'm looking for it on my phone, Brian.

It's not streaming anywhere, dude. It's not on Netflix or Hulu or, I'm sorry, Disney Plus. Excuse me. But yeah, I couldn't find it. And so as a result, I went out to YouTube and I typed in that proverbial old full movie, you know, the name of the movie and then typed the words full movie. And it came up, but it was in French. So I'm like, I flunked French, guys.

I took it like my freshman year at high school and flunked the class, moved over to Spanish. But it was, it was kind of, it was kind of interesting watching it, the first 20 minutes in French until I went ahead and said, this is pretty damn good. I'm going to watch the movie and go rent it on the TV. But you see a lot, at least for me, I saw, I noticed a lot more visual. Like, you notice that when they're going by the neighbors, it's like a real posh neighborhood and the gate that opens and closes to keep them safe, you know. And they're just, flaunting their wealth. He's setting down a pair of shoes and there's like six other pairs of shoes on the floor. Man, this is their fucking vacation house. Really? They got a sailboat. They got all these golf clubs.

I think these guys are going to get it. So I'm like, this is interesting. I want to see what's going to happen. Okay, so I switched over and rented it on Amazon. And yeah, the movie had me, like really, really had me until, this is a little controversy a lot I'm going to say this I know exactly what he was trying to do he's trying to subvert your expectations but I thought that the remote control

was kind of a cheap shot truly I think there could have been another way he could have said this is how a horror action movie is supposed to turn out an Americanized horror movie but this is we're going to rewind it

you're not going to get that satisfaction and to me it felt like a cheap shot you know maybe that's a good thing right maybe that means that the effect I had the effect that was intended by the director, but it kind of really felt wrong. And then, of course, he gets in, you know, they get in the boat. And you remember they put the McGuff in there early, right, with a knife that fell down. There's a knife in the boat, and she's tied up.

We all know what's going to happen, right? Right? And it didn't happen. And that was pretty cool. So, I don't know. A little bit mixed feelings on this. I think I just was shocked by that remote control scene. That's just one of the wildest things I've ever seen in a movie.

It was definitely out of place. Yeah, that's my takeaway. That's my takeaway. I think that's a fair takeaway. It comes out of nowhere. Nothing in the film makes you think that that's ever going to happen. So it's not like... Well, there is a little talking to the screen early on, but...

Yeah, but it's not like, what does that click or what is the Adam Sandler want? Oh, yeah. Right. On the click established and then they do it, you're like, okay, I get it. But I think to your point, it's kind of a low blow. And I think that might be the intention, too, where it's just like, the fact that you're agitated about it. probably the intention. I don't think so. Helps the movie, hurts the movie, but I think

your take is an absolutely valid one. Like I said, there's nothing else in the movie that makes you think like it just comes out of nowhere, which is it, but it's not fair. You're right, so I get it. Totally good. Well, and because, like, in these kind of movies, I always sort of put

myself in that position and I'm like, what would I do here? And because the whole time I'm like, you've got to fucking attack one of them at least. I mean, they're going to kill you anyway, at least take one out with you. And then she finally does it. And then he hits the fucking rewind button. And I was like, what the fuck?

Because at first it was like, yeah. And then, uh, all right. So yeah, that was, that was the reaction I had to it. But still, still a really solid movie. Uh, that, that scene is weird. Right. But I don't, I don't know that I hate it. I mean, I hated it at the time.

Same here. Same here. but it was an interesting choice and I thought all the actors did great yeah Tim Roth was driving me fucking nuts in this movie

of course that was the intention I think part of it right yeah I'm like come on do something what the fuck yeah like Naomi Watts is like trying to she's all tied up and she's in the middle of trying to get up

which is actually really cool scene because it's like, well, how do you manage that? Because it's probably difficult. And obviously it was because you were watching her try to actually do it. But Tim Roth is just like laying on the fucking floor, dude.

Are you going to do something at some point in this movie? I'm in Florida. If it was filmed here, he'd have a handgun in the drawers. Yeah. Now, we'd fix this movie real fucking quick. over in the first three minutes.

As soon as they start dropping the eggs, he's like, fuck, that. Yeah. Oh, you're not going to get out of the house? Okay. How about now? But yeah, and this one did a good job of kind of putting you in that situation and what would you do? And I think that that's purposefully why they did a lot of that stuff. And I really enjoyed it.

I've seen it before, but I couldn't. really remember it. And so this was a fun watch. Cool. All right. Let's go scores. One to ten. Michael, what do you think?

The ten. Okay. I'll give it a seven. Yeah? A solid score. I think that makes sense. Brian, what do you think? Yeah, I think a seven's fair.

I'm also right there. I thought the acting was solid. The storytelling was solid. It kind of makes you go through different emotions, the frustration, the fear, the tension. The thing I forgot I was going to say earlier is I like how nonchalant they were about everything. You can tell they've done this so many times before. It just made you more mad. They're having conversations about things that have nothing to do with anything.

Right. Good point, yeah. Even to the point where he keeps referring to the other one is tubby and they're just like, don't call me that and they're having this argument while you've got people tied up over here. Which in my mind adds to the frustration because there's so many times where I'm like, okay, they're

distracted with their conversation, do something. Yeah. And they don't know. But yeah, I think seven is pretty good score. Lance. Seven. Is this going to be one of those nights? Yeah, because I'm

going to give it a seven too. I think it was a real. solid movie. I almost want to go up a bit, but like, no, I think seven is a fair score. Michael, Phil is usually our... Phil's usually our high watermark. Although, you know, they just get a little, little more cynical. Not quite a reasonable person. It would normally high, too, but I have to just remind myself that there's just so many great movies.

So if you go too hot, like it kind of puts you in... Like on Instagram and stuff, they always have like these blind rankings and things like when they someone has a list or whatever and people, they always think now when I'm like going to rate something. I'm like, I got to remind myself, all right, this is a seven, then, you know, what's the godfather? Like, where is this? Right. Sure. Clearly it's a really well done film and I'm comparing it to other movies, at least in the genre, a horror thriller genre or whatever. So I think it's a seven. I could, if you said eight, that wouldn't shock me. If you said six, that wouldn't shot me, you know. Yep. yeah it definitely falls in that range i think i think seven works man i really i really like that guy uh the the actor that played the psycho kid what's his name again michael michael michael pitt yeah i want to say michael scott i was like that's not right that's uh that's the office uh yeah he's he's kind of great and it doesn't surprise me that he's difficult to work with because he seems like he murders people in his off time right they were very convincing

very convincing right yeah to brian's point like i think that's the scariest part like they operate like have you ever gone like when you're in the hospital or like you see like the nurses and the doctors and stuff because they're there that's their job they do it every day they're having those conversations whereas like you're like you're like thing and you're like

they're just like oh what are you're doing this weekend and then like that's how they are especially when you see the end of the movie you're like okay that's why they operate like this because this is like To your point, Brian, not the first time they've done it. Clearly not the last time they're going to do it. So there's just this like, you know, similar to like Pulp Fiction when they're driving to go do the hit.

And they're talking about the burger and, you know, we're all with cheese and stuff. And that's how like we all operate. Like if you're at your place of business, what someone sees is extraordinary or way out of the way. But if it's something you've done all the time, it's just nonchalant and normal. And that's so unnerving to watch because none of us have done this, hopefully. I'll speak personally. I've never done crazy. Not yet.

Not yet anyway. I still have some years left. So you're watching it and you're like, God, these guys are acting like this is just to your point, Brian, just a regular Tuesday. And they're just like,

I think that's part of the unnerving aspect of it. So, yeah, really, even up to the end, they're having a conversation about time and space. Oh, that's right.

Nonchalantly push her over the boat and then just go on to the next house. going to get more eggs yeah so wild four eggs go buy eggs asshole

I was trying to think like in the original was it eggs or was it something else or like I'd like to maybe now go back and watch the original and see what yeah me too

me too because the shots are I think the shots were the same but I know they did some different American things I'm just curious as to

what that is it might be like not golf clubs or something I don't know. Like, they made cricket things or something. I don't know. Yeah.

But the, what the changes. I'm curious. I'd probably go, maybe this weekend I'll watch the original. Go back and compare it. It's streaming. It says it's streaming on Disney Plus right now. And HBO Max. How can that be?

Because one of them's Warner Brothers. God, it's a crazy world right now, Michael. It's a, guys, it's a mixed-up world. Probably because you can get them as a bundle. Probably so. Okay. But Disney Plus, man, maybe when my kids are 8 and 10, so maybe movie night will watch the original funny games on Disney Plus. There you go.

And this all started with Phillips rant about CBS All Access. I'm telling you. You remember that back in the day? Was I not right? You predicted it, dude. Philip was right. Now they're all charging you. All right.

I've had a hard time watching sports with all the resilient. app. Oh, yeah. Just like, what game is the, what is baseball on today? What's football on? Every night it's something different. I know. Jesus.

Yeah, baseball's real difficult to watch without some kind of subscription. Yeah, wrestling's that, wrestling's that way too, right, Brian? Scattered all over the place. Yeah. I was not happy with the new ESPN deal. Very, for first event on there, paying $29.99 a month for Afton. I'm just going to use once. Yeah.

That's great. Yeah, it's nuts. All right. On to the strangers, chapter two. Did they find a way out? Okay. Did you make that up? Yeah, I don't know.

Left stranded in a small town with no way out. Maya must once again face a night of terror, courtesy of three deadly killers. whose rampage she must put to an end. Director is Rennie Harlan, also known for Cutthroat Island and Cliffhanger. Huh. Been in the game for a while, yeah.

Name me around Street 4, too. Oh, there you go. That's right. That's right. That wasn't a really good one either, if I remember. I like that one. I like that one.

Yeah, I have a soft spot for that one, too. Well, there's a backstory. Have you guys seen the Never Sleep Again, documentary. Like they did that in the middle of a writer's strike. They had no script. They were writing the script as they were going. Oh, wow. I have such respect for him as a director

because I don't know how much of this is true, but he supposedly was like almost practically sleeping on the couch outside Bob Shea's office for like weeks just to have a meeting with him to be the director. And Bob Shea at Newline was notorious for like giving new directors jobs, especially like the nightmare franchise. It's a lot of first time directors are, second time directors or whatever.

And then like the story gets more interesting because Robert England, he brought in all like the puppet stuff and like the miniatures and stuff like that. And Robert England was like, this movie's going to suck. Like he just had no watch it at the premiere and he was like, he went up to running. He was like,

I really have major apologies because visually, I mean, Cliffhanger is one of the most suspenseful movies I think ever made. So clearly the man under suspense, but like I thought 9-Rall Street 4 was really well done. And so like they were operating in the middle of this writer's strike and had no, material that had we're working like really at a disadvantage

and with all those things considered I think it's I think it's one of the I mean it's like the original one first and I think three is the next best. Yeah three for me. Yeah but four is up there for me I mean maybe it's after three it might be four I mean I don't know. Plus I have

a soft spot for Lisa Wilkart She's awesome Yeah Yeah Is it that soft? All right writers are Alan Cohen and Alan Friedland

Rennie Harland Rennie Harlan simultaneously filmed all three films of this trilogy The producer explained that the lead star would film scenes for the first film in the morning and scenes for the second in the afternoon commuting to many different locations for filming several times a day

Wow Hmm Huh interesting Well yeah I remember I'm talking about they filmed it all at the same time. Yeah. All right. Michael,

what did you think about the Strangers? Spoiler free, right? Yeah. Spiler free. I'm going to give anything away. I actually really like this movie

for many reasons. I think Reni Harlan has a really good visual grasp on filmmaking in general. So there's like subtle things that I picked up on when I was watching it. It's like blinking lights and like me on lights.

and the playing with audio stuff, even like when there's nothing on camera, like when it's like black screen, like there's knocking. And so he's just really playing with like these audio thing and visual things going like back and forth. And there's a lot of like space and the suspenseful aspect of it where the camera is kind of moving along with the main character

and you're waiting and you're waiting. And it's like the, you're waiting for the jump scare kind of thing. Kind of reminded and there's also, there's a meta aspect. Like, not meta, but like, it reminded me a little bit of scream because there's a scene in this won't run involved, spoiler free for sure. There's a scene in the diner where they're really playing with this out. I think at the beginning of the movie also, I don't remember the number of it talks about how certain amount of people in the U.S. are killed by strangers and there are people.

And so there's a scene in the diner where they're kind of really playing on that where it's like, the killer could be anybody. And they're showing like, they don't say it like that, but they're paraphrasing a little bit here. but they're showing all these different characters. And I also thought it was really elevated in the sense that like there's kind of these intertwining stories. You're seeing bits of the past from part one and then you're seeing childhood from a character that you don't rest around who that character is. And you're trying to make, there's like a lot of like red herring and kind of like look over here, don't look over here. And I just, I sat there like. And then it was, it's also really, there's a lot of tension.

I was kind of like really felt like I was in the main character's shoes in particular. where I'm just like, like, that's really uncomfortable. So I was achieving. And so I, I, I, I'm a fan of this movie. I don't want to give away anything, but I think, yeah, it also, like, funny games, it operates on, like, if I was in this person's shoes, what I do. Right, right, right. And the whole franchise does that, right?

Even the original one where it's like, God, this could happen. I mean, that part's scary to me, the fact that, you know, and I think that's why Scream was scary to me, too, initially, too, where it's like, this isn't Jason Bore. or Freddie Krueger, this is just real people doing fucked up stuff. And we live in a really fucked up world. And this could happen to anyone of us at any point. And so every time you go to some cabin for vacation, now I'm thinking, God, there's

going to be a knock on the door. And so it plays into a lot of our fears, whether they're realistic or not. Unfortunately, in this environment, it's realistic. So I think it plays on that a lot. I think visually, I thought he did a really great job here. and I think acting was really good too. I will say this. I don't know that actor's name or Brack, Brack or it's the guy that has the

Richard Brite? Yeah. Yeah. Good old Richard Brick, Brian. So like, anything he's in, he's just so jarring. So, like, in a way, like, because he's just so creepy. So, like, he is a creepy man. He's up there.

Every scene I'm in, I'm like, oh, that motherfucker's the kid. for sure. Yeah. Play like a teacher or like, you know, or the father of this little kid or whatever. And so he, you know, he's playing the sheriff in this movie. And it's just, I just remember thinking like my skin's crawling every time he's talking. And I'm just like, I really want to work with the guy because I'm like, he just has this thing about it where it's just like, oh, shit. So, yeah, hats off to him for being crazy.

Yeah, he definitely murders people in his off time. I'm sure he's probably a nice guy. I don't know. I don't know personally, but I'm like, God, the whole scene, like, there's a scene, I think it's the trailer, actually. He's interviewing Survivor or whatever, and I'm just like, my skin's crawling and I'm like, this poor girl sitting. I'm like, she is not making her feel safe at all. I would be like, is there another sheriff in town, please? Yeah, I don't know. So, yeah, I really enjoyed it. And I think there's a lot of like cat and mouse and running and chasing and who's the killers. and I think that part was really well done. So I'll leave it at that.

I enjoy this one. All right. Brian, what do you think? Yeah, I agree. This is definitely a step up from the original one. Now we're the first one we got basically the original movie done all over again, but now we're in new territory. I like the whole aspect of not knowing who to trust, who's the killer,

who's good, who's not. And Richard Brick, I think, is. still being underutilized in the movie. I mean, he's used more considerably compared to the original one. But I'd like to see him a little bit more. I think we will in the third one. Yeah. And I was thinking, I think my problem with these movies is,

I kind of felt like maybe it should have been a limited series. Okay. Yeah. Because I have a lot of questions due to some flashbacks. And we'll talk about that when we get the spoilers. Okay. It's kind of the problem I had when we watched the first movie. He was like, okay, I'm not going to understand why they did this until we watched the next movie.

And now we're at the next movie. I'm like, okay, I'm not understanding this. We got to wait until the next movie. Yeah, I see what you're getting at. Yeah. Yeah, that kind of bothers me a little bit. But I like that we're in new territory now with the cat and mouse. aspect.

The we don't even know if the town's even involved or if it's just a lot of people in town. Mm-hmm. And we all have our,

we all have our theories, right? Yeah, I thought the acting was pretty solid. Yeah. And filmmaking wise, I thought it looked great. So, but I'm still

kind of up in air on my score because just of the the score. the whole aspect of, we got to wait till the next film to figure out this when I kind of wanted answers now.

Understood. I mean, it's a middle movie, though, Brian, we knew that going in, kind of like the ending of, what was the, the second Star Wars movie that everybody loves, where Luke got his hand cut off at the end of it. Does everybody love that?

Oh, you're talking about the empire. Yeah, I'm talking about the empire. Yeah, that ended You're talking about the Ryan Johnson one. No, not the Ryan Johnson one, dude. That would, although I love his mystery stuff, man, that poker face show is awesome. You guys haven't seen it.

That's really good. I'm looking forward to the wake-up dead man or whatever it is. But anyway, no, it's, yeah, anyway, Brian didn't mean to interrupt you, man. Oh, no, go ahead. I get it. I get it. I understand the frustration.

Because nothing was tied up, right? Well, I didn't expect it to be tied up. I just expected more. things to be revealed as we go along. I feel like the majority of what I have questions about is going to be revealed in the final movie. Yeah, I almost wonder if this is like horrible for their marketing, but like

is this, should we just wait until all three are out and then binge watch them because then you have that gratitude. It's like when a T-Pol drops all at once, I get so excited because I don't have to wait. Now, like, now, even streaming platforms have been doing that like one a week once a week drop and I'm just like so annoyed, but you know, I'm 40, almost 47. So I'm like, well, that's how TV shows used to be. So I think we're just, right.

I think we're just spoiled now. And it also, it depends on how long do we have to wait for the next one. If it's only a couple months, then I'm okay with it. But if it's, you know, there was a time when like the Sopranos was like two years in between seasons. Yeah. I feel me one of those things. I'm with you.

I'm going to be so annoyed just because. And then you get, you don't remember all those little, there's nuances. This one was very, there's a lot of like layers and stuff that they threw stuff in there. too. It's like, God, is there something in the first one that I missed? And it's just laying the foundation for part three. I like that from a sophisticated intellectual aspect, but I can see where that would be frustrating as a viewer, for sure.

Yeah, and I'm looking at the box office numbers. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the third one is probably going to go streaming. Uh-oh. That bad, huh? A $5 million opening weekend. What? really oh rennie well man

i don't think it's his fault they put the last one out and it was just a shot for shot remake i know and then this one yeah i get it i think the first one didn't do any justice to get to this one unfortunately yeah that's that's a fair statement yeah all right lance man the way that

that Rennie was treating this poor girl. I got heavy Brian De Palma vibes, like woman in danger vibes. It was just like, who, uncomfortable sometimes to watch, man. But I'll tell you what, I love the original prom night movie because I remember it had a very, very long chase scene, right?

Like chase, hide, chase hide, chase hide, is he here, is he here, is he here? Can she hide here? Is she going to be found out? So to me, they did an excellent, job. And I think, was that like the first 20, 25 minutes of the movie at least? It's really.

Really, yeah. It's in the first half hour I think for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I got, I enjoyed it so much I was kind of almost wishing that this whole movie was just going to be that. And then she was going to end up somewhere at the end. But yeah, they threw some clues in there. People would like start saying something and not finish their sentence. And yeah, they kind of showed that. I don't know. I I don't know.

I'm with Brian. It's kind of up in the air until we all chime in, I think. But I like what they were doing with the red herrings. I like what they were doing with the, you know, somebody, I don't want to spoil anything. Like somebody almost says something and then they don't finish it. And it's a character you were talking about, Michael. So there's shit going on to this town. But what the hell is going on?

I get the paranoia. I think they did a great job in one scene. where she was like in the middle of, like she couldn't get out if she wanted to, if something went south, and just the paranoia. I also like the, not to cut you off,

the camera shots when she's having conversations with people that she's not sure to trust. It's like up close to her face, real uncomfortable stuff. Yeah, they did a great job of that. I agree. And I know the scene you're talking about, Lance where, yeah,

she made a try. choice and yeah. Yeah, it's yeah, for a second movie, it's cool, but I'm with you guys so much frustration, right? With all these little nuggets being dropped and we have no idea, still

no idea at all what the fuck is going on. But I am going to say that it was very well filmed. Lots of suspense. I love the chase aspect. I loved it when she was like running through the rain and that where those horses were.

I guess that little farm or whatever, and then other scenes later, it just, I thought it was beautifully filmed. I love that. The young lady, she's such a good job acting. I don't even really know who this girl is, but she was selling it. She's definitely, she definitely stands out in the film. I mean, she does a great job. I mean, she's so believable.

And like, yeah, I was really impressed with her performance. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking about it earlier. She was from Riverdale, the TV show. Oh, okay. Was she one of the main girls? Like, I can't even remember their names now.

Sherry. I never watched it. I don't know. My wife watched it. W.B. It was a little out of my time. Yeah, I know. I know.

We'll put that with Grace Anatomy. That shows like that. Yeah, there you go. I don't want to be able to grow up and wants me to start watching stuff with it. That's different. But, yeah. Yeah, I really thought the makeup job. I mean, sometimes people don't always talk about that, but like the bruises and stuff like that and the cuts, the makeup was phenomenal.

Really well done. So, yeah, I better be quiet before I go into spoiler territory. But I think I enjoyed it a lot more than I didn't. On that front, I did question, like, and this won't be spoiler free, but I was like, when she's running away and this again this is all in the trailer stuff but that's like what were the injuries from the first one and like how how athletic can she be versus like you know a lot like she's a lot more than tim roth well it's true she was in the hospital tim roth was her she'd be dead he'd be dead but i just remember like she's running downstairs

and going and i'm just sitting there was a question of whether or not she was going to be alive from the first one, right? And even to the point where... Sure. Yeah, a little hard fetch. Some of the people in the movie are like, oh, well, it's a shame what happened to that couple on, and there's this, like, reveal to the other characters, like, oh, she survived, meaning like it was kind of up in the air whether or not she's going to live. Yeah, yeah.

Doing this marathon run, and I'm like, okay. Iron man. If I have a cold, I'm in bed for, like, three weeks. But, like, I guess it's running from my life. life, the adrenaline starts going and you can really kind of do that. But I was wondering about that as I'm watching. I'm like, how bird is she? So there's something when you were talking just made me think about that. It was like, not a knock on the movie, but it is a fine line. I'm sure the director and the actor, like you can't just have her Tim Roth through the whole movie

from funny games because it was curious about that. All right. I don't know if I can give this movie a fair. review because I didn't have time to go see it. And so I found it by other means and it was not a great copy. And I zoned the fuck out for the first 20 minutes in the movie. You went to the Philippines to watch it, huh? Yeah. Iraq.

So, yeah, I'm going to wait to give this one another chance. Fair enough. Yeah. Hoping that it gave us a little more story. because, you know, that sort of hinges on whether or not the first movie's any good. Right. Because if it was just a shot-for-shot remake with like no, you know, satisfaction at the end, then like, why do we do it?

So I guess we'll wait until the third one. All right. Scores. Mike, what do you think? That's a tough one to score. It is. That was the same problem we had with the first one. Yeah, I mean, there's parts that I really love.

I think it did a really great job. I mean, I'll definitely watch the third one. I mean, so I think it accomplished when you have a middle film. That's kind of the whole idea, right? It added to the, you know, to the first one. I think it's, I think it's better than the first one. I'm going to rank it like if I'm going to score it comparatively to all of the stranger films, maybe that's the best way to look at it.

Sure. I use probably six, maybe. I'm going to go at stakes. Do you think it made the first one better? The first one in this, the very OG first one. No, the first one in this iteration. I think it made the first one better because it adds to certain things. And so I'll put it this way as a filmmaker,

I'm kind of wondering when they're sitting there and they're editing and they went in knowing that they were going to film all three, so I find that fascinating. Like, was it like, let's hold stuff back? And then the way the narrative works in this one I find fascinating. So I'm wondering, did the first one suffer in a way

because it's a trilogy? And so there's certain levels and things that had to kind of happen. So it's almost like judging the first one without seeing the second one or judging the second one without seeing the third one might not be the way to grade this.

Right. Yeah, it makes it tough. Well, like, all right, take the Lord of the Rings. It's totally going to a different genre, right? But I feel like all three of those or is a three yeah all three kind of can stand on their own i think they're extraordinary films but collectively epic thing it's amazing right so like i would never want to just want to watch one of the lord

of the rames and not the other so i feel like if i'm going to give that same thing here so i think six is fair with the caveat of like i can probably bring that up or down depending on how three plays out so i feel comfortable with a six if this was just like a one-off i probably would grade it higher from the execution standpoint, but because it's a trilogy, but then I'm going to go with six, and yeah, I feel pretty good about that. All right. Brian, what do you think? I'm going to go a little bit higher and give it a six and a half. I love that we're in new territory now, and I thought she did a fantastic job.

I think her in the pronouncing name, Madeline Petch. I thought she did a great job in the movie, and I just love the whole mystery of who is who and maybe the people that we think are obviously bad might be good and I would love to see... But we don't know! Yeah, I would love to see after the third one

if maybe that, I don't know if they would do it, if they would make like a super cut of all three movies in one movie. That's a good idea. That is a great idea, actually. Godfather. saga kind of thing. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I like that idea. And I like the dude that's in it, that he was in a night agent on Netflix. Okay. Peter, Peter, something? Peter Sutherland. Peter Dinklage?

No. Thinking of a different movie. Anyway, he's pretty good. Lance, what do you think? This is not fair. This is not going to be fair at all. No matter what I give it, it's not going to be fair because it's a second movie and we don't know what's coming.

and it makes it very frustrating, but I kind of got to go six. I mean, until, I mean, I guess the score might change. If the third one's like a masterpiece and, like, you know, Richard Brake is like running this town where it's all a cult or something, you know, then it makes sense, then the score might go up. But for now, yeah, it's a solid six. Definitely, definitely liked it more than I didn't like it. All right.

Richard Brake is a cult leader. I'm telling you, I like that. after because we're all we're all going to see the third one maybe we'll rethink our scores for the whole series maybe they yeah maybe they'll change we should yeah because we could rate the whole series collectively or then we can go back and rate each one too because you know yeah make a lot more sense right but even the original original strangers like you know I liked it I didn't like I didn't think it was like groundbreaking or whatever

I liked the second one a little bit better. I did too. But I also think of like the courage franchise too, right? Like I liked the second one way better than the first one. I just thought it operated on different levels. But so I think it's also, we all know this is just a personal opinion in place. But I think it's a good film. And it's unfortunate that it's not doing all that well at the block box office.

So that part stood disappointing as a horror fan as an filmmaker. Well, on the upside, they've already got the third one filmed. That's right. That's right. All right. All right. All right. Well, I'm going to abstain from the score because I don't feel like I can give it a fair one.

But we'll move on to spoiler talk. 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. alert, you've been fucking warned. I'm going to harken back to what Michael said.

The more I think about it where you were talking about, it's like she's running a marathon and very athletic and like shaking everything off. For me, there was almost a jump the shark moment, or shall I say jump the hog moment in this movie. I love that. Her fucking legs would have been off, right? At that point, I don't know if you're mauled by a, I don't know. I think, yeah.

So this is like, I'll look at it as like a, from a writing perspective. Like this happens all the time, right? Like for me anyways, as I'm writing and I'm going like, what can I put the characters through where people are not going to be like, it's so unrealistic or like, but it's also like you are making a film too. So and like tension and adrenaline is elevated. So like you hear these stories like mom strengths, for example, like where moms can lift up bars for their babies.

That's real. No one's making that up. Incredible Hulk. Well, exactly. So, like, if, you know, this is why the strength, uh, funny games is so annoying from a dad perspective. Like, you would have to murder me 10 times. Yeah. They look.

I will murder all, all three of you and not think twice about it. If it's between you guys and my kids, I'm sorry. No disrespect to you guys. But that's just. Yeah. That's what you do. And, you know, so it's like, I can't say what I would do in this. I think about this sometimes because I've never went to.

war, but I'm fascinated by war movies. Like, I don't, if I had to go to Vietnam when I was an 18 year old kid, I don't know how these guys did it. And then I'm, like, thinking, like, well, you did it or you died. So, like, there's this whole thing of fight or flight, and the human body does crazy shit. So

you're talking about the scene with the fucking wild boar or whatever the hell it is. And it's like, yeah, to your point, she's probably done right there in the real world. I don't know. Yeah. Eat more. things are vicious but to but to brian's point it's not a great scene so i was sitting there going like

oh my god like you know yeah i know i know the balance it really works and i didn't clearly didn't see it coming so that part i appreciate too so yeah i didn't even know what it was at first because you just see the camera coming in super fast and then then you hear it and i was like oh it's a wild pig yeah and then you actually see it and i was like this is something i didn't expect that's why I enjoyed it so much. Yeah, it's a good point. Big films, too. Like, because I'm in the business,

sometimes it's hard to shut the mind off as a writer, director, whatever. That's why I appreciate horror, because horror done right, I'm able to, it's the only genre where I can just shut it off. I watch it. It's not like I'm going like,

that's the killer or I'm trying to figure out. Other genres, I'm like, okay, they're establishing this. Action, like, is like the worst for me because I'm like, the first 10 minutes, the person's wife or kids are going to die, and then he's going to be revet.

For the dog. For the dog. The formula is so formulae. And so with this film, I didn't know. I was like sitting there like, I know. I couldn't figure it. At that point I thought was really well done because I'm like, I don't know what's going to happen next.

So I appreciate that as a viewer who is in the business. That board, yeah, that wild war scene didn't see it coming to your point. Brian didn't even know what it was initially. I was like, what the fuck is happening? But it was like, I was. engaged, totally engaged. So there wasn't a part of this, and Phil to your point, like,

if I was probably watching the thing with the pop-ups with the casino, all that stuff, and it's different language, it might have been, someone's going down to their theater seat to sit down in the middle of the shot, it's a lot easier to check out.

Like, I think, you know, seeing this, like, you don't have those. I mean, someone's talking to theater. It's annoying a spot, but, like, sitting in the theater and watching this film, I was like engaged from start to finish. So that part thought was great. Yeah, I wanted to give it a real chance, and I wasn't.

So I was like, all right, I respect that. It'll be streaming somewhere pretty soon. Yeah. You guys have any more spoilers you want to talk about? Yeah. So am I to believe that Maya, the main character, is the original killer from the flashbacks?

Oh. was that her in the flashbacks I thought it was the other girl the one that they took her mask off or is that who you're talking about when she's a little child yeah mom's kind of thing

yeah I'm not sure who that is yeah there in lies the frustration right it kind of made me feel like they were trying to say it was her and the whole tamer game

we got to finally see who Tamara was which leads me to believe if that's her then why is she confused at what's going on in this town I don't think that's her okay we need to rewatch when the third was out Michael can we

can we go ahead and lock you in for the when we do that yeah okay Michael camera a reference to the original original strangers? Is that what that was?

Or is it from part one of this? Like, they're talking about, at one point they're saying like, oh, it's like a legend of the town or whatever. And I was trying to remember, I should have looked this up before this, but like, was Tamara involved,

like, was that name involved with the Scott Speedman one? Like the one. It definitely was in the original, but I think it was in chapter one, too. Okay, so they mentioned it both. Interesting. But the original one,

when they knock on the door, is that, are they asking the same, Yeah. Okay. If Tamara was home. So I thought that was interesting. So yeah, that sandbox, I love those scenes.

And I know whoever those kid actors are really great too. But I wasn't sure. Because when you see that girl on the sandbox, when it cuts back to the, it's showing this random woman who's sitting at the diner who. Yes. I thought that was her. I thought that was her. I don't know.

I'm so confused. I'm so fucking confused. This is a knot. I will say. this annoys me whenever they have actors and there's one of the saw uh franchise movies does this too where they have two actors that look very similar yeah that's right that's right louis mandelore's brother uh costis mandelar and and the other person saw when they're on the screen i'm like it could be brother i'm like and i'm like why can't you just cast one person who's

blonde and one person who's got black your faces look the same I mean, clearly, like, the four of us all look very different. So if we're all in a movie, no one's ever going to confuse any of us together, right? But in this movie, and I think they do this problem in purpose, but I'm like, there's just too many people that the girls, too many look the same. And I'm just like, like, and again, I'm in the theater, so it's not like a composite or rewind it or go like. Right, right. And so maybe when it comes out on streaming, like, I might, this could be totally be me where I just missed the office, right? so but I'm like yeah that sandbox thing I thought to your point Brian I was like yeah well that's the

girl who's in the hospital book but like when they come back from the sandbox that when she's like one girl they're also talking about like killers and stuff like that and then she like after the girl steps on the sandbox thing and she erases it or whatever it cuts to this like person who's sitting there in the seat and I'm like is that the main girl because I think her hair is lighter so I'm just like I that was I that was yeah yeah hair was like they do that a few times in a movie where we're with the main character and then they cut to a flashback yes then we're with one of the the killers and then they cut to the flashback again so i don't know are they trying to confuse us so it's the number well it's

just orienting so maybe just maybe just bad editing it's probably on purpose and once they and then we watch this collectively then we'll go like it all makes sense right so right I'm also, I'm a fan of not everything being so on the nose where everything's answered. I like that. The fact that we're even like just discussing this is that, to me, that's an achievement where it's like, it's not like we're dumb, which is great. I think like not everything has to be answered. That part I appreciate. But yeah, I sat there in a theater going, you know, I was like a little confused.

So I'm not sure if that's the killer. I don't know. I don't have an answer for it. It'll all be revealed, I guess, right? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I, I, were you, Lance, talking about the, uh, the morgue scene when she's like, I love the morgue scene. I think that's- I fucking love that scene. That was my favorite part of the movie. Yeah, so Phil, when you watch it, it's like, uh, she's like running from the killer and

she used to make, like, a choice of, like, how to hide and, you know, it's, it's, uh, there's, there's, up until that point, too, there's, like, some cool spots where, Like she goes in a dummy elevator. I think they did a really good job. Just like, I can't think of another movie that the dummy elevator. Well, Halloween H2O did it really well, actually, too, getting that dummy elevator and stuff like that. So there's, yeah, I thought the morgue scene was really,

I think the morgue scene and the wild boar scene were two of my favorites in this. It's the edge of your seat suspense. So, you know, just kind of just, or just like sheer like, old shit, like kind of thing. I thought that was really well done. all right good i hear wild boar and i think of that scene in hannibal that's right well you know who's in that scene

is michael pitt man that's no shit oh no shit the asshole brother and the hannibal with the pigs and you know it's based on but um he plays the guy in the book that your space gets dismembered i don't know if you read the books or not oh is that him yeah wow

that's cool Thomas the Thomas Harris books The series it's Michael Pitt is No shit The Wild Boars and he's A complete piece of shit The sister is

I forget how it plays out But that series is so fucking Oh yeah you're right In the series I got you yeah Oh sorry The movie Yeah yeah Yeah

Go to the series And Michael Pitt plays The guy that is kind of missing his face Yeah I knew I knew him from somewhere I've seen him in a bunch of stuff But I couldn't put him in That series Couldn't nail it down

It's really well done and beautifully shocked. Brian, Brian, when are we going to pick up with season two? Waiting on you. Okay. You heard it here. All right, well, Michael, thanks for joining us, man. We hope that you come back for part three. I'm here.

Yeah, we'll have a conversation. What else do you have coming out? What are you working on that you're able to talk about? I just, I have a movie called Rough Draft that's in post-production. it's actually almost done. But I wrote and directed, stars Jeff Fahey, Amina Savari, and Laughanneux. And the premise is Jeff is playing a novelist

who has all these successful books, like a best-selling novelist, and he's in this cabin and we shot at Missouri. And he's obsessed with, like, finding the perfect ending to his book. And his wife, It's called Rough Jop. Yeah. And his wife is played by Mina and she

knows his like idiosyncrasies and just he kind of just becomes, like he just gets so involved in the writing process. And it's similar to like a secret window or an episode of the Twilight. Black Matt Black, Black mirror.

As Jeff is writing the story, we're seeing the characters that he's writing and it's kind of like, Stranger Than Fiction means Friday the 13th or scream or whatever so these young kids are rented

the same cabin and so like these two worlds where the kids are on vacation and they're getting killed one by one by this guy in the mask and Jeff is obsessed with like trying to find the perfect ending and the gimmick if he will is every time he doesn't like something or it's two on the nose it's very meta

and so he's guessing like all the cliches and he's very up but Like, oh, the car's never started in these kind of movies or whatever, but it happens for a reason. When he doesn't like something, he highlights it and he deletes it, and when he deletes it, the film basically rewind. So that's the remote control thing, which is fascinating. Yeah. I did put the two and two together until I rewatch.

Full circle. Yeah, so interesting. But the whole movie is like this. So it's not so jarring, where it's like once the rules are set for 15 minutes, we get it. More like click. Exactly like click. Yeah. sense.

The characters, it's strange to the fiction, too. The characters start to get smart on this where, you know, they'll put the keys in the ignition. It doesn't start once it gets rewam. She goes to put the keys in the ignition and she's like, I already did this. Like, what the hell? Oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah.

And she starts to talk about it and Jeff's character is like, whoa, I didn't write this. Like, what the hell is going on? So the line's kind of blur. And so I'm like super excited about this film. Like, it's got the, it's more, even more production value. than no tears in hell, but it's much more of a marketable film in the sense that it's much more of a broader audience.

Like, you know, this is a date movie. You could watch it with everybody and no tears in hell. There's kind of people. It's just like, as much as I love the film, I'm aware that like, my mother was still alive. I would have her stuff right, though. So I'm really excited

about this. And of course, the lines start to blur. He starts to hear them. They start to hear him. It's kind of like this whole thing. So there's this, and it's incredibly meta. They actually talk about meta and break in the fourth wall. So I'm excited about that. That's in post.

And then I'm actually going to Kosovo on the 20th of this month to go film a low-budget horror movie. It's kind of in the vein of the Denzel Washington. Remember the movie Fallin? Yeah. Love that movie. With the time or something. I kind of took that notion. I put some young kid characters,

and they go to see this cave in Kosovo. They're on vacation, and this kind of entity gets released. They think they leave it in the cave, and then, like, one year later, one of them gathered them all together and says to them, like, we didn't leave in the cave.

We're secluded. We have to figure out which one of us is the killer, and we have to leave it here. Otherwise, it's going to get out to the world. So there's, like, twists, and it's kind of like a who is the killer, and I have a song. Obviously, I can't afford the Rolling Stones.

So I use a nursery rhyme, which is... Okay. Whatever works, right? Yeah, well, it's a public domain, so I have to pay for it. So I used running around with Rosie, and I have a cast that's from the U.S., the UK, some people from Kosovo. So, like, the song's going to be sung in different languages. I'm really excited about this, but a very, very tight budget.

But my hope is production value would be like on the par with no tiers. And it's, I think it'll be a fun movie. So I'm going to shoot that on the 20th. And then January, either January or February, I have another Jeff Fahey movie called The Gilt that we're going to film, I think, in Armenia. I filmed in Armenia a couple times, actually, which is kind of like, it deals with grief. There's a girl who was in a tragic accident. She can't get over it. It's messed up her entire life.

So her family brings her to this like asylum. And Jeff Fahey plays a doctor, very unorthodox. And so while she's there, all of the other patients are getting killed one by one by this killer that we don't know who it is. And so it has kind of like a nightmare on the street feel to it. When there's a drugs involved and therapy and all this. It's like American horror story. I didn't even, I've never seen it. But apparently there's an asylum one where.

Yeah, I love that. That's my favorite season. So it has that kind of thing. So the kids are dying in some horrible, like if you think of like asylums, I mean, it's really true. But I had all the actors ahead of time kind of tell me their personal struggles with mental health. And so I incorporated that in with the characters. So mental health isn't a big thing for me in terms of near and dear to my heart.

So it deals with grief. It deals with mental health. And it's wrapped up in this really crazy, violent horror movie. that has themes and says something important, but also a real roller coaster ride. So I'm filming that in January and February. So I'm working with Jeff Fadie again, who's a friend and incredible talented actor.

So I'm excited about that. And that's kind of what I got in the near future, if you will. And I would love it when these things come out, that you guys watch it again. And like you did, I'd love to hang out with you guys again. This was a lot of fun. Nice. Nice.

All right. We want to thank you guys for listening to a, or maybe watch it on YouTube, another episode of The Horror Returns. We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can reach us at Thehorror Returns at gmail.com or just keep it simple. Go to www.thehorrorreturns.com. And next week, it's going to be Anthology Week, Brian. Is that right? Yes, sir.

I think we're going to have Pedro? I believe so. Yes. It's going to be southbound. And, oh, the new VHS, VHS Halloween. So that'll be fun. So, uh, fill up until the horror returns again. Good night.