The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #531: Psychological Horror, Part 6 - Bug (2006) & Take Shelter (2011)

Episode Date: August 3, 2026

It's Michael Shannon week at THR. Cool of the week includes Frankie, Maniac Woman and The Transformers. Trailer is Ebeneezer. And the podcast spotlight shines on The Horror Virgin. 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

Regings victims, for those of you who delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify gore, welcome. You have found the place where the horror returns. Listeners beware. This podcast contains major plot spoilers. and the foulest of language, join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror.

Welcome back, everyone, to the horror returns. I am Philip, and with me is Brian. The two am megos today. You have two of us again. Ah, that's all right. Well, man, what's,

what do you got for cool the week this week? I think last week I talked about doing the MCU rewatch but starting with the X-Men movie since they're in Doomsday. Oh yeah. We watched number three

X-Men last day and that movie is garbage. Way too many characters. Well, when they started over it was good. Yeah, we're on to that next. took a break to go through the tom haul and spider-man movies to get ready for the spider-man brand-new

day so we're we watched uh spider-man homecoming and spider-man far from home what you think about the re-watch uh i liked home-coming a little bit more than i did originally uh far from home was a little kind of confusing because they started the whole Zendaya Tom Holland relationship which seemed to come out of nowhere if you read watch the movies like there was no

hint that either one of them liked each other and when you first see Tom Holland he's working up to courage to ask MJ oh yeah and I'm just kind of like where the fuck did this come from that's a good point

that was the one with Mysterio right yeah Yeah. Yeah. That was probably my least favorite of the Tom Holland ones. He was a cool villain, but of course, they killed him all. Yeah.

I'm sure he'll be back for something, Marvel. Yeah. And as far as horror, I did watch one movie called Frankie Maniac Woman. Frankie Maniac Woman. It's like a Frankenstein thing? No, it's, um, I should probably have it pulled up. I watched this short film because this director, Pierre,

I'm not going to try to pronounce his last name, did these movies. I think we reviewed one of the trails one time, so I was kind of going through his filmography, and he had a short film. And I checked it out, and it was pretty cool. It was the main chick, the killer, Frankie, that plays Frankie. co-road starred and co-produced the short film

and they turned the short film into a feature-length movie and it was pretty cool oh okay so it was good yeah it's basically this lady Frankie played by Deena Silva

she's a songwriter and a singer songwriter in L.A. and just her childhood trauma like kind of materializes into a inner voice that tells her to kill people and do violent things

well it's like a Lizzie Borden thing yeah kind of and it was pretty cool it was very independent practical effects were good but I would say mostly check it out for Dina

was performance in it. Okay. Well, damn, that ain't, man. That's what I got. All right. Well, my daughter has been working on Transformers for some reason. And so we're checking out all the Transformer movies again. She's watched Bumblebee.

I don't know how many times. That is a good one. Yeah, it was a good one. And then it rolled into the first Transformers, which was also pretty good. Shire. Yeah, Shia LeBuff. Pretty crazy Shia, I think. Maybe he was always crazy.

Yeah, I think a little bit of that was in there always. But that's on right now. And it's a fun one. Yeah, I think that's, I think that's all I got, man. We're going to have a quick show this week. Yeah. Because I don't think there's a lot. for news.

Uh-oh. Well, I guess we can skip news and head straight to the trailer park. Let me. Double check. See if there's, yeah, double check. See if there's anything. It's time for the news. But there's not a lot of news because we covered most of it the other day.

Yeah. It's a problem with heaven shows so close to get. there. I know. Comic Con was there anything else there? Other than what we talked about, no, not really. Yeah. I know a bunch of trailers with big second trailers

for stuff we've already talked about. What about the one with the dinosaurs? The last street on what is it? Yeah, so whatever the hell that is. The last something of. Oh, there it goes. Oak Street. Yeah, I think that's on the schedule for next month.

It looks fun. Yeah, I am going through everything and I'm not seeing nothing. Super generic name, though. The last house on Oak Street, is that it? Yeah, that's it right there. It just sounds too close to like four other movies. Do you think it's going to end up being a secret Cloverfield movie? well maybe

are they still doing that I know JJ Abrams is supposed to be doing an actual cloverfield movie really everybody's trying to make the connections because he's

a producer on this one oh maybe I mean I don't know the last one that they made a Cloverfield movie was obviously not one, and they just sort of weaseled it in at the last minute. Here's something. An animated Texas Chainsaw Masker movie is happening.

Okay. I don't know how I feel about that. Yeah. Can't say I'm super excited for it. Roberts Ager's is joining the Monsterverse. What is this? casting for the new

they're doing a spinoff show to that Monarch series on Apple. I hear nothing but good things about that one. I really got to watch it. Yeah, I'm kind of working my way slowly through it. It's pretty good. Especially

Carl Russell's son. Yeah. He's going to be the star of the spin-off show. It's going to take place in like the 80s. He's been pulling some pretty big roles. I like him. him and Dennis Quaid's kid need to get together. Oh, Jack Quaid.

Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing. All right. Well, we'll take a little trip down to the trailer park. We're going to bring you the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. What's our trailers for today, Brian? Our one and only trailer is Ebenezer starring Johnny. Johnny Depp in the main role.

This is interesting. It's directed by Ty West who did X. Pearl Maxine. Oh. Which by watching the trailer, I wouldn't even thought that that director made this trailer because this movie seems more family friendly than I assumed it would be.

I was like, that is not the person I would have picked to do a Christmas story. movie. I mean, watching the trailer, it looks fine, but nothing really jumps out that I need to watch this. Yeah, I know.

I kind of thought the same thing. It does have almost a Tim Burton vibe to it, but that's probably just because Johnny Depp's in it. Yeah, it's Johnny Debb doing another character with prosthetics. I mean, it looks fun.

but like it looks like something that should have come out in the 90s yeah definitely Ian McKellon's in it Daisy Ridley what's his name Ron Weasley from Harry Potter okay it's got a pretty decent cast yeah I mean I don't know how much stuff is coming out at Thanksgiving

but uh it looks it looks fun for a Thanksgiving family movie Yeah, but I don't think you and me will go to the theaters to watch this one. Yeah, probably not. This will definitely be on Lance's 25 days of Christmas. That counts. Yeah. Yeah, if you're doing Christmas movies, you may as well get a new one in that looks like it's halfway decent. Yep, so Evanizer comes out November 13th before Thanksgiving.

I'm not mad at it. Get you into the Christmas spirit. I don't know how much money it's going to make, but it looks okay. Do you think Johnny Depp's still a draw? I don't know. Has he come out with anything since that trial? I think of Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

Oh, did he have another one? Yeah, I don't think nobody watched it. Yeah. That might be part of the same problem. might get parents to take their kids to the theater. But yeah, I don't know if Johnny Jepp is the draw that he was. That is our last, our only trailer. All right.

We're going to skip listener feedback this week because we didn't get our shit together in time. This is a very thrown-together last-minute show. I do have a podcast spotlight. All right. Let's go. It is on the horror virgin. Let's see. What's your favorite scary movie? Are you a fanatic or friday cat?

Either way, we've got you covered. Each week horror fan page will take horror virgin Todd through the encyclopedia of horror one movie at a time. Okay. And I think they definitely get the stamp of approval for. from Nez because I've heard him talk about the horror version a few times. Oh, yeah. Well, it's always fun to see somebody, you know, watch one of your favorite movies for the first time and see what they think about it.

Yeah. So everybody check out the horror version. All right. And don't forget our feedback contest. You can email us at the horror returns at gmail.com or go to our Facebook group, the horror returns group, and leave us a comment. For input, we deem best feedback.

We'll send a free whore returns t-shirt of your style, color, and size choice. Points will be based on originality or if you make us laugh on air. If you can break Lance, there's a good chance you're the winner. Let's go. Our intro and logos come from Steve from the Geeks. Be on the lookout for some more great stuff from him. Original skull artwork from Natsulani.

And if you'd like to help us out, please consider becoming a Patreon patron. All right. On to our movies this week. And I don't have them pulled up, but I'll give you some trivia here. We're going to figure it out on the fly. It's Michael Shannon Week. Yes, it is. What's the first one?

Bug. Bug. For 1992, right? No, 2006. Oh, my bad. I think a few movies. Oh, I was looking at the notes from last week. Oh.

Bug, starring Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon and Harry Connich, Jr., who is not a terrible actor. No, I always enjoy him when he pops up. Yeah. Director is William Friedkin. writer is Tracy Letts. I'm sorry, say it again. William Freakin known for the exorcist. Oh, I said William Freakins also known for the Exorcist.

Oh, perfect. The Exorcist. All right. Let's see. I got some trivia here. According to Lynn Collins, director William Freakin never took more than four takes to get a scene in the film. And in fact, it works so fast that these actors sometimes had to beg him to do another take.

That's the only one that's interesting. What did you think about this? I enjoyed this one. This definitely falls into psychological horror genre. Great performances from Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon, especially Michael Shannon. They're slow descent into madness. yeah because when you first meet Michael Shannon you think he's just kind of a regular quiet guy

very polite very helpful then as the movie goes he just kind of loses it goes into this whole story about how he's uh was in the military and a volunteer for some experiments and they tried to lock him away in the hospital and he escapes and he thinks he has little

bugs with transponders or something inserted into his bloodstream and he's something that sounds crazy yeah and he's so convincing

with his story that he gets heard to kind of believe his story and then she eventually goes mad she's the queen bug yeah he's the drone he has the drone and she has the queen and when they fucked

they started they commenced the real experiment released the baby yeah and I just really enjoyed the performance of Michael Shannon just where he started and where he ended in the movie

yeah actually Judd too yeah and there's a lot of body horror in this movie yeah especially the scene where he thinks a bug has gotten into his tooth

and he just without hesitation just goes and just gets some pliers and just rips his tooth out not immediately because that tooth was not coming out oh it's a crazy movie yeah what so was it real

I don't think so what was the ending you know now I'm thinking about it there was like some stuff in the in the credits or were they just like just strung out

I don't know did he ever do any drugs in the movie because I know he said no to when they were doing lines of coke and stuff he was just like no yeah but they sounded very drug-fueled at the end maybe he was just paranoid and she was drug-fueled

I know she had a lot of trauma in her life, so maybe she was susceptible to somebody else's manic shit. Did they really kill that guy? I think so. Do I think he was a military doctor looking for him? No, I don't think so. Just a psychiatrist? Yeah, that kind of found him and was trying to talk him back

and ended up getting stabbed to death. Fell in love with a crazy person. Yeah, what'd you think? Yeah, I think Michael Shannon always pulls off this kind of character really well, like the quiet sort of creepy, ominous guy. And he definitely leaned into it on this one. This is a weird movie.

was kind of all over the place, I thought. And the dialogue was weird. But I think that was on purpose. Yeah. Towards the end, it starts, like, the whole third act is totally insane. They've got, like, the room wrapped in tinfoil, and they're trying to stop all these bugs. But see, that's what gets, like, they kept talking about these bugs, and it seems like the bugs were, like, a figment of the their imagination or whatever, but they kept picking

him up and showing people. Or were they? Because when he first tried to show her the bugs, he was like, look, right here. And he's like grabbing a lamp and putting it close to the bed sheet. And she's like, I don't see anything. He was like,

it's right there. And he like puts his finger on it and holds it up. He was like, right there on my finger. And she was like, I guess that could be a bug. So they just made up these but man, to be so convinced of a delusion that you're willing to rip your tooth out.

I mean, it can happen. It's crazy. Or maybe it's a metaphor for drugs. Yeah, maybe what I was thinking. Reading Wikipedia said Agnes's room was later shown completely intact with no sign of aluminum foil. No. The body of sweet is then.

shown lying prone in the foil-covered room, which is undamaged by fire. It is left unclear which shot, if any, was real. So it's one of those that's up to you, huh? Yeah, pretty much. I don't hate that. So choose-your-own-adventure kind of movie. Yeah.

Yeah, I thought Ashley Judd did great her playing, basically a strung-out, and like the descent into it, where she started out as just normal, and then kind of slowly lost her mind. It's weird that they had the shared delusion, though. The movie confuses me. I have questions. But it's a fun one.

It's a fun one if you've never seen it. It's super weird. Yeah, and then like we said, Harry Connick Jr. shows up. Yeah, who has got some kind of acting jobs, you know? I mean, maybe he just plays himself in the movies. But everything I've seen him in has been really good. Because he's clearly a shitty person in this movie. Yeah.

But he's also kind of charming. Yeah. And that's pretty good that he pulled that off. Yeah. I mean, he did have to get mad and... smack a ho. So, uh, I, you know, I, I, I can't imagine that's what Harry Connick Jr. is like in real life. Isn't he a singer also?

Yeah. Yeah, he's a jazz guy. Yeah. I think he did, uh, American Idol or something for a little while. Oh, yeah, he did. But that's pretty much the cast, other than the guy that plays the alleged military doctor and then the best friend of Ashley Judd a pretty small cast

yeah and it all kind of takes place in this motel room so I assume a relatively low budget movie yeah let's see if I can pull up the budget was $4 million well I mean for big names like that that probably all went to Ashley Judd

and Michael Shannon yeah pretty much all right what's your score you know what I'm gonna give this an egg yeah I thought the performances were strong and uh it was well directed and then

just based off of I agree Ashley Jed was good but Michael Shannon really just carried this movie yeah I'm gonna go seven I wish I think it had something to say

and I'm just not sure what it was. Part of it, I think, was weird just for the sake of being weird. Which, you know, it's not always a bad thing. But good movie. Definitely worth to watch. I like the feeling of Michael Shannon movies, man. Yeah, he definitely picks some unique roles. All right.

On to our next one. We're doing Take Shelter from 2000. and 11. Frightening visions convince an Ohio man that a disaster looms on the horizon. Starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. Director is Jeff Nichols, also written by Jeff Nichols.

Also known for... Oh, no. Also known for my internet doesn't want to work. Let's see if I can pull it out. That's pretty good. Yeah, Midnight Special. That's another Michael Shannon movie. Oh, yeah.

I guess it is. Nothing else super sticking out to me at the moment. But let's go to some trivia. Doing it on the fly. Doing it on the fly. Tover Stewart, the little girl who plays Hannah, is deaf in real life, and so are both of our parents. that was one of the things that had me questioning in this movie because they were like learning sign language with their with their kid but like the kid knew sign language stuff that dad didn't like did he not learn this with the child doesn't he want to know how to talk to his kid he kind of seemed like even before we'll get into it

uh well what did you think about take shelter i enjoyed this one this one's a little bit more of a slow burn. Yeah, for sure. It definitely gets real slow. Not psychological horror, I would say, more a psychological thriller. Yeah. Michael Shannon had a very strong

performance. Jessica Chastain was good in it. Shea Wiggum. I know him. He plays the best friend. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's good. And I just like the vision, having this regular guy works

he's a supervisor under construction site and he just has these dreams these like apocalyptic dreams and visions of a storm coming and these birds and crazy people attack in and

rain and the rain is basically like motor oil and he has to get this shelter he's obsessed with getting this shelter up in time and he just kind of loses it throughout the movie to the point where the people in town are talking about him which comes to my favorite scene of the movie is at the fish fry or whatever they're

whatever they're having with all the townspeople yeah and he gets into it with a friend and then he flips the table over and then he just goes off on everybody telling him there's a storm coming one that you guys will never be able to get through and he'll be the one prepared. Yeah. I thought that was a great scene right there.

Yeah, I thought it was too. Man, Michael Shannon carrying this shit on his shoulders. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I thought he did a great job. It is a very slow movie. It's definitely not like a horror thing, but it's got a cool vibe to it. Like almost a sleepy kind of thing.

where it sort of lulls you into sleep and then something crazy happens. I like to think of it as like a Noah style visions, you know, like the storm is coming and he's got to save his family. Yeah, definitely. And then, you know,

the whole time you're kind of running with him on whether this is real or not. And like at one point, he has such a vivid dream that he wakes up and pees his pants. Yeah, and then where he takes an extra dose of his sleep medication, it ends up having a seizure. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, and his wife sticks with him for the most part. Yeah, and then they kind of throw you off with the introduction that his mom had to be committed. Yeah. So that kind of makes you think, okay, is this schizophrenia running a family? Yeah, which is what everybody else thought it was. thought he was crazy, but I mean, you know, if he's having these crazy-ass dreams like that that are that vivid, I'd probably follow him too. Yeah.

Now, there's probably a lot less insane ways to build a shelter, but, you know. Yeah, I didn't understand what was the beef of the friend. Yeah, I thought that was weird that he, like, attacked him. He didn't want his friend to get in trouble, so he had him transferred to a number. other crew not fired, not suspended. And because of the friend talking about how he borrowed equipment, that's what got them suspended and fired.

That is a good point. So really it's the friend's fault. So I didn't understand what was his beef. I think he wanted to be a part of it. He was just mad that he got kicked out of the project. Oh, that could be true. Which is weird because that means that he believed him.

Yeah, but he ended up, he was the one gossiping around town talking about he's crazy because he was the one spreading the word. So heavy spoilers. Then a little storm comes, well, big storm. They take cover in the shelter, come out a little bit later

and everything's fine. There's just some, you know, tree limbs and shit in the road. Yeah, which they also play with your mind. on that one because he does not want to open the shelter doors because in his mind he still hears a storm and then she's trying to tell him there's nothing there's no nothing there's no storm going out there's no sound yeah and then uh i guess he finally resigns to the fact that he's crazy they go on a little family vacation how far away were they Myrtle Beach I wasn't sure where they were It said Myrtle Beach

Where's Myrtle Beach? I don't know Like North Carolina or something So they were like A ways away I think Yeah where they're supposed to be from Ohio Yeah it said Ohio man But that's the only thing that

Let me know where they were at the beginning And yeah Myrtle Beach is South Carolina So they were I don't know I don't think they were making it back to the shelter in time yeah LaGrange Ohio Okay

And uh Then while they're While they're at Myrtle Beach The real storm watch it shows up And it looks like it's the real thing Yeah and then she It shows a shot of her hand And that kind of oily rain

drips on her hand And then she just looks at them and says Okay So now she believes And credits The can't they make it back. I hope they drove there.

Yeah, I'm assuming they drove there, but that storm looked bad that was coming. Yeah, it comes in quick. The end of the world kind of storm. Which, uh, yeah, um, another strong performance from Michael Shannon.

Yeah, I like him and everything he shows up in. Like, he plays a great good guy and a great bad guy. was what I was just about to ask you. Do you prefer him as a good guy or a bad guy? I think I prefer him as a villain. Yeah.

But I like it when he pops up in good guy roles because although most of his good guy rolls are about like this. Yeah. Where you think he's some crazy hard ass and he's actually a good guy. All right. Scores? This one, because it was a little bit slower.

I still like the performances, and I like the story. I'm going to give it a seven. Seven. Yeah, I'll go, I'm going to go a little lower. I'm going to go six on this. And it's only because it was kind of slow, and I'm not sure how much it paid off. The psychological thriller part was very cool.

I like the atmosphere and everything. It just, you know, if you're going to go that slow, I want like stuff that hits pretty hard in there. Yeah, I got you. All right. Well, I guess that's it for this week. We did a quick show. Damn, that was super cool.

We promise. We promise everything will be back to normal next week. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. But as always, we want to thank you for listening to another episode of the horror returns. We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can always reach us out. the horror returns at gmail.com and you can find us at www.

thehorror returns.com. Follow all our social media links from there as well as hear the latest episode of the show. Get some great t-shirts. They're awesome. Next week, what do we have next week? We are doing a maniac cop commentary. Oh, that'll be fun. This one's been on the schedule and had to get rescheduled a few times,

but I think it's finally happening next week. All right. But the way the show has been going, if it gets rescheduled, just follow the Facebook group and keep you updated. We'll let you know when it pops up. All righty.

I guess that's it. Until the horror returns again, Brian. Good night. Thank you.