The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #68: The Guest (2014) & mother! (2017)

Episode Date: February 19, 2022

This week we are joined by Carl McCalla to discuss mother! as well as The Guest. Thanks for listening!

victims for those of you delight and dread who fantasize about fear who glorify go welcome you have found the place where the horror returns listeners beware this podcast contains major plot spoilers in the foulest of language. Join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst in horror. ...and dread. Or fantasize about fear and glorify Gore. Welcome home. This is the podcast that proves the horror never ends. Each episode, we seek out and review a brand new horror movie and go back and fight a classic work with similar themes. As you know, if you've listened to us and

if you're our first time listener, welcome. We picked up a couple last week, which is always nice. We are going to include spoilers for the new film, but we're going to wait until the very end of the show to spoil the new feature. We'll let you know before we do so with a distinctive spoiler alert. And, you know, if you don't want to hear it, just turn us off at that point. We promise you guys won't miss a thing. We generally assume that you've all already seen the classic film for the most part,

so we're always going to spoil anything that has been out for at least one year. The other thing that we may do from time to time is use a few four-letter words. This is a horror podcast, and horror movies do tend to be R-rated, so you can pretty much expect us to be, too. I'm Lance, and with me, as always, are my co-host, Brian and Philip, and tonight, once again, the fans take over the show. Our big fan, Carl McCalla Jr. is joining us, man. How's it going tonight, Carl? It's going pretty well. I'm going to how we guys.

Doing awesome. Thank you. You're not really a fan. That's not a thing. Oh, most definitely. That's crazy. It all started with the, uh, it all started with the, uh, the binge cast and then lands from Texas. And then I moved over and you guys and the after midnight podcast and all that stuff.

Oh, man. Oh, man. Appreciate it a lot. Thank you. Yeah. You're, you're naming all my favorites, man. I'm starting to gush as a super fan right now. So, hey, Carl, we listeners probably would like to get to know you, man.

So, you know, we talk with you a lot through Facebook and whatnot. But first time we've had you on the show, we really appreciate you coming on. So tell us, man, what got you into horror movies specifically? And, like, what would you say is your all-time favorite horror movie book or whatever? So really horror movies, I think they started. I was born in the late 80s, so that was kind of the height of the Freddie and Jason era and things like that.

And then when I, I guess, kind of sort of became of age, things like scream and all those other ones kind of piqued my interest. So, you know, I think that's how I kind of really got into them.

And as far as a favorite, I think it kind of, like, I think kind of that, the classics like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, things like scream. And then as I got older, actually,

I know we were talking about uninvited guests as kind of the theme. The strangers has kind of ranked up for me over the years through, you know, multiple rewatching. So it kind of fluctuates from supernatural to, you know, things that could actually happen and things like that. That's cool. Got it. Well, anything you guys want to ask, Carl, before we get started?

No. Corl, why did you kill your mother when she was a zombie having birth? I'm sorry. Had to go there. All right, well, let's switch gears on that one, because we knew that was coming. Just wondering how long it's going to take to hit that one. Three-minute mark it is. Carl, what's the coolest thing you've seen this week, man?

I think our feature attraction was very polarizing, but that was kind of the coolest thing that I saw this week. I did the revisit, and the guest was, it kind of surprised me. It came out of nowhere, you know, when I first saw it and then rewatch, you know, kind of brought it all back to me,

but I could still get into that later. And some of the other cool things, not necessarily watching-wise, but I did get into the movie pass thing, so I'm very much looking forward to that. Oh, yeah? And we've got, I'm actually done.

down in Maryland. So there's the Baltimore Comic Con is coming up this weekend. So I'm looking forward to going out and participating in that. Cool. Yeah, have you started using the movie pass yet, or you kind of just ordered it?

So I ordered it, I think, on Sunday. So probably by the end of the week, I should have it, and then I'll be able to start using it the next week. So. Is it still like 10 bucks or whatever they had the whole controversy about? Yeah, it's still going strong at 10 bucks. So We'll see how long that lasts.

Man, I really got to get on this thing. Yeah, well, what's your cool of the week, Phil? You know what I watched this week, and it's going to end up on my top movies of the year. Baby Driver. Really? Yeah, I checked that out this week, too. That was kick-ass. No shit.

The dude totally jacked my style, but that's okay. No, it was great. movie very musical great soundtrack um it it was kind of one long music video kind of you know like it was it was very uh everything was done to the tune of the music um so it was like like you remember the trailer for uh atomic blonde where you know the bullets were hitting just right at the right time yeah this whole movie is like that and uh they they did a great job it's like uh quentin tarentino with the director of Snatch

what's his name Guy Ritchie Yeah yeah So like those two combined Made a movie And it's not really on that caliber of either one of those But man it's pretty damn close

It's really good Mm-hmm If he had to If Edgar Wright had to drop out of Ant Man To give us this I was it was well worth it then Yeah I was super impressed

It was it started a little slow And I was like all right What am I watching what is the kid doing? The whole rest of the movie was just amazing. Real quick, before I get to that, I want to send some get well wishes

to Santos Allen Jr., past guest. Oh, yeah. Just get well, buddy. Oh, I happen. He's having some medical issues right now, so. Oh, that sucks, man. Yeah. If I ever get around to looking on that again.

And want to send some. birthday wishes to another guest of our former guest, Kevin Nez. Oh, yeah. That's birthday, big Kevin. And also, happy anniversary for the show, the

E Society, one year anniversary for the show. Oh, nice. Wow, it's already been a year, huh? On the spinoff show there, huh? Yeah. Wow. Which, bringing up Kevin leads me to my not-so-cool of the Witch board two?

No. That might have been, would have been better. I've been using my movie pass. I got a movie pass. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now. And so I used it to go watch Wish Upon. Oh, no. Yeah, this might fall into my worst of the year.

This movie was so underwhelming. It might be because this movie is not made, not made from my demographic. This is more for like, you know, teenage, you know, early 20s. That was the gist I got from it. Yeah, but I don't know.

Like, especially like the death scenes. I didn't know if I was supposed to laugh or what was going on. And then the ending was, the ending was really predictable. So, yeah, Kevin, Kevin liked it.

Yeah, he did. So, so that, that's, going to fall in my not so cool of the week. Oh, man. Oh, well, now I got to watch this piece of shit. Dude, I'm looking at the cast. Please don't tell me Ryan Philippe and Joey King had a relationship going.

Oh, he's the father. Okay. Woo! Scared me there for a minute. I thought we were going into some Victor Salva territory there, but we're not part of the show yet. No. You can only play heartthrob into your 40s. Okay.

Woo. All right. Well, Michael of the week was going to be the final couple of episodes of Preacher, which were really good. And I like the way they tied it up, and yet they totally opened it up for season three. But then I saw the new episode of Fear the Walking Dead today at lunch. And I got to tell you that fucking shit zombie in the toilet or in the down in the underground with all the shit. Anybody's seen it yet? I don't want to spoil it.

No, but that sounds kind of gross and awesome at the same time. Yeah, crawling through the sewer and coming in contact with the shit zombie. I'll leave it in that. Fucking awesome. Fear the Walking Dead does this for me all the time. It starts out, every season for me starts out super slow, and then they've got some kind of visual spectacle that pulls me in. A couple of seasons ago, it was all the zes.

zombies falling off the hotel from the top floors of the hotel. And this was definitely it for me this season. So I'm all in. You watch that show, Carl? I do. You know, I actually, since the new season started, I haven't been able to catch up yet, but I do, I think I started like the, I don't know, maybe the first five minutes of the first episode of this season. But yeah, it definitely follows that trend where it's very exciting season premiere. And then people start making dumb decisions and then it starts winding down you're like all right well i guess we'll do this next summer so gotcha so people do yeah brian whatever happened our stupid people segment dude i haven't heard you do one of those in a while uh i'm i'm working on a sounder for it

so i've been kind of kind of saying oh that'd be great all right didn't like patrick's idea there if frank zapp is dancing fool huh that was a good idea but i've been trying to work on something So. All right. Well, cool. So I guess now it's time for horror headlines brought to you by Brian. Take it away, man. But we lost another person.

Harry Dean Stanton passed away a few days ago. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, uh, fuck, yeah. Yeah, it's just, uh, seems like every week, um, somebody's, somebody's going. Um, I also want to say, uh, RIP to, uh, because, uh, I'm a big wrestling fan.

So Bobby DeBrain Heenan passed away a couple days ago also. Yeah. He was like, I don't know, 90-something or something, huh? Yeah, and he believed he had throat cancer, I believe. Okay. So, yeah, RIP to them and condolences to the family. Okay. On to some news here.

I'm sure you guys heard about the monster opening weekend it had with over $123 million. I'm a lot of... I'm constantly being called out on Facebook and reminded I'm the only person who hasn't seen this yet. Yeah, I think you are, Lance. Everybody I know seen it. Well, it set another record with a $60 million second week, making it the biggest September release of all time.

Wow. Of all time. Yeah, it is. It blew mother way the fucking. out of the water. It is currently... It's expected. I mean, the type of movie it is.

Yeah, it is currently sitting at 176 million worldwide total for two weeks. Wow. Too shabby. What did you think of it, Carl? You know, I really

did like it. I saw it at an early screening maybe about, I think, maybe a couple weeks before it actually came out. You know, it was actually really well done. I'm not necessarily frightened by clowns, but I think it was just the overall kind of the presentation of it all was done really well. Right. And hopefully they don't rush the, I know they're probably bringing back all the people behind the camera, obviously, but I hope they don't rush trying to like cash in on part two.

Yeah. I can see that. That makes sense. because I think it's probably really critical to get like the the 27 years later characters right instead of like well who's hot right now and then we filmed it and then it comes out and you know it's not nearly as good as you know as part one so yeah it's pretty insightful way to

to look at it now yeah I'm glad they left out some of the things that were in at least the first half of the book especially the weird it's the weird kid stuff I guess after they they beat Pennywise the first time so oh the this the orgy or whatever

yeah I was reading about it I was like yeah I'm glad they made that that was a good cut to make so yeah I read they left out some stuff they were going to do for what was Henry Bauer's character oh okay yeah

yeah some lot of weird perverted sexual stuff see I heard they they left out some, like an origin story for it with Scarscard. Yeah, apparently it's going to be on the Blu-ray. There's going to be an additional, like, 10 to 15 minutes on the Blu-ray of stuff they cut out. Okay.

Cool. We got some announcements for some release dates. John White, Chapter 3 is getting released May 17th, 2019. Yes. Good. And the Hellboy reboot, January 11th, 2019. Did you guys buy any chance to see the photo? Yeah.

Yeah. David Harbor. Is that really him? Yeah. I'm happy with it. Yeah. I thought it was well done. It looks good.

He looks like Hellboy. The only thing that worries me is the January release date. so. Yeah. What are you saying shades of the bye-bye man, Carl, or what? Yeah. January and August, or late August, never really good, good times for big budget movies,

especially something like Hellboy, which seems as though it should be, you know, like a summer, you know, a summer release or late spring, early summer release, but I guess we'll see. Yeah. Split did pretty well for January. Yeah, they can also be going to Deadpool, the Deadpool route. Deadpool cleaned up in February.

I guess all the rules are out now that the Deadpool hit it big. Yeah. Well, less to compete with. And plus this upcoming February, we got Black Panther coming out. Right, yep, yep, yep. Okay, get into a little bit of Star Wars news. Probably sure everybody's heard, Colin Trevro, who is going to direct episode nine is out. and they're bringing Jay J.J. Abrams back in.

Oh, boy. And there's already a petition by fans to remove J.J. Abrams. Oh. People bitching and be bitching, man. There he go. Yeah, I don't think that was necessarily a J.J. Abrams problem. The thing was like a script thing. You know, a lot of people were the main complaint for episode, what, seven?

that was kind of a repeat of episode four. But it was written by was his name, Lawrence Kasden, who did like five and I think six. So, I mean, he's pretty old school when it comes to Star Wars, so it was kind of like, well, what's familiar. JJ Abrams' direction was not really the problem.

I think there were other things, you know, besides the actual direction, because it looked fantastic. Right. Yeah. Everything kind of seemed as though we had been there before. Yeah, but it was still good. Yeah, you know, if for directors, I was kind of surprised they didn't either do Ron Howard and doing like the Hans, or he's, I guess, filling in or the Han Solo movie or at least try to at some point rope in Spielberg.

Because I know back in, I guess it was 83, they were trying to get Spielberg to do Return of the Jedi. So, I mean, that would have been kind of a closing the loop on that, but, you know, we'll see. Yeah, I guess we'll see. I just, I don't know, why do they keep changing all these directors on all the Star Wars movies? It's got me a little bit nervous. I mean, there's been some talk that a lot of these directors they're hiring are up-and-coming directors, and maybe they're not falling in line with what they want them to do. Because, you know, a lot of these young directors, you know, have their own vision and stuff,

their own style. And a lot of stuff I'm hearing is that's why the directors from, the Han Solo movie were taken out because that movie was a couple weeks from finishing filming and they just were, I guess they didn't like what they were doing over there. You know, there's kind of a,

I guess there's kind of a formula or a template for Star Wars and I think at this point they've made, I guess, they sunk $4 billion into buying Star Wars. So I think they kind of want to make sure that they're doing things that are going to recoup that and, you know, it all follows that kind of,

that Star Wars kind of house style, I guess. Yeah. Firing directors always kind of worries me, though. It's like when you have a whole bunch of writers on a movie. Yeah. Give me the kiss of death. Yeah, the only time that that actually worked out well was on Spider-Man Homecoming.

Yes. Along with this news came a change of release day for episode 9. It was supposed to be May 24th, 2019. They were going back to the Iraq. original, well, for me, it's original because I'm used to seeing it at that time December 20th, 2019. I'm used to seeing when Christmas time comes,

I'm getting used to, you know, at Star Wars, Christmas and Star Wars, so I think that's a smart move on their part. Yeah, I think so too. And we are going to finish with probably the biggest news in the horror community. Jamie Lee Curtis is returning to the new Halloween movie. Oh, that's right. We got some feedback on that, I think, too, Philip, don't we?

I assume that we do. We'll find out. We've got a lot of feedback. And, of course, this is the direct sequel to Halloween 2, directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by Danny McBride. Oh, boy. Danny McBride, huh? Yeah, I'm interested to see where they're going.

I think, and I hope having Danny McBride co-write it, it's going to be different. It's going to be taken somewhere where none of the sequels went. And it's just really interesting hearing that before Danny Bride became an actor, he didn't even want to be an actor. He wanted to be a writer, and he wanted to do horror and fantasy. That's what he wanted to write. So he knows this genre. So my hopes are high for this. Yeah.

Well, he's trying to make a new name for himself. And I think he's doing an okay job with this so far. Yeah, he said he said he's, I guess they love, he and David Gordon Green, they love the franchise. So if they, you know, as long as they don't have sharing moon zombie on like a white horse or Jamie Lee Curtis is throwing Activia at what's his name, at Mike Myers, I think we'll be good. Oh, Jesus. Oh, wow.

Oh, active here. Take time of this shit. Regular shit. And with that, that is all the news we have. All right, that's the news. So, Carl, you said you're from, where is it, Delaware? Maryland. Oh, Maryland.

And where the hell do I get Delaware? It's close. It's right next door. Okay. All right. Well, do you guys have trailer parks up there? I think we do. Hopefully we're going to one right now.

All right. Well, then let's, why don't you tell us where we're going, man? I think we're taking a little trip down to the trailer park. All right. Far as one we're going to talk about is Tragedy Girls, starring Brianna Hildebrand, Alexandra Schip, Josh Hutchison, and, Kevin Durant, not Kevin Durant, Kevin Durant.

And he's doing movies? Fuck. You know, when I first seen the name, I kind of glanced it. I was like, oh, he's going to pop up in this movie. Okay. But, no. Directed by Tyler McIntyre.

What are your guys' thoughts on tragedy girls? Carl, what are you thinking, man? You know, I saw it a little bit earlier today when you guys sent it to me. And I think some of the reviews or some of the, I guess, quotes in the trailer actually gave away some of my feelings where it said it felt a lot like Heather's. Okay. So, I mean, it looks fun enough. So, well, you know, hopefully it doesn't, you know, kind of start out well and then it kind of tank and turn it into something else. But I think, you know, from the trailer and the feel of heathers and things like that, I think it could hopefully be good, especially in this day and age and how people.

you know, kind of seek fame and things like that. So, yeah. Apparently, it's so fetch. It was in the trailer. I thought that was kind of cool. Stop trying to make it happen. Yeah, yeah. I looked okay.

You know, I mean, it's a teeny bopper horror movie. Right. They keep it on aging. Now, this one is about social media. Yeah, by any chance. Have you guys seen the trailer for the, the TV show for Heather's? No.

Didn't, uh, know there was one. It looks fucking horrible. Oh, no. Teenage suicide, do try it,

huh? I don't, I don't even know what they're, it's like they took, you know, we're getting off on a, you know, what we usually do,

but, um, yeah, it's like they took what the original movie was and just said, we're not going to do any of that. Oh, no.

Yeah. I don't know. I don't even know what network is coming on. A lot of these shows are popping up on networks I never heard of. Probably free form, I would guess. But, yeah, I'll give it a watch when it comes out. This is not exactly on top of my list to check out, but it looks interesting. Yeah, no, I'm going to say, it looks like a lot of fun to me.

I mean, as long as they, you know, they keep up with the humor, the way that it looks in the... I like the part, like, for example, when they were, I don't know, like breaking down that dead body or whatever, and the guy comes in and changes the trash can just walks out. Those chicks look super familiar. Oh, one is... Yeah, the one is Storm from the last X-Men movie and the other, she was in Dipple. She was a... Oh.

teenage negasonic war yeah so and it's it's also to see uh josh hutcherson getting some work i ain't seen him since the hunger game so i don't know what he's been doing could be could be a good reason for that man uh got a release date around the corner of uh october 20th all right i'll give it a try All right, moving on to our next one. Upcoming Christmas Horror Comedy Better Watch Out, starring Levi Miller, Ed Oxenbold, Olivia Dajong, Dachray, Montgomery, Patrick Warburton, and Virginia Madsen.

Directed by Chris Peckover. Lance, what is your thoughts? Oh, man. I had no fucking interest at all. These kids look... No, man, these kids look like a couple of little fucking dweebbs and, you know, I mean, they're so over the top with...

No, what are they saying? Like, it's home alone meets the strangers. Well, fuck, dude. Take any two home invasion movies and you can say it's this meets that or whatever. But no, man, no interest at all. I'll watch it if it comes across Netflix. I feel the same way to buy this one that I did about the other one. I think having a movie pass,

it will have paid for itself. So, yeah. Yeah, I think I'm right there with you guys. Got a release date of October 6. Okay. Okay. On to our final trailer, Jeepers, Creepers 3, starring Gina Phillips, Meg Foster,

and Jonathan Breck as the creeper, directed by the actual real creeper, Victor Salva. Oh! I'm gonna let I'm I just realized I'm gonna let you guys take this one I did not even watch this trailer so it popped up it was on the trailers to mother and I was I literally irritated by it yeah like I was watching it and kind of had a like a look on my face like a like a stank face you didn't have good memories of Meg Foster being high as a fucking kite at the at the at the 31 thing that we went to at the Like some bright bear.

Yeah, boy, she was out of it. No, man. I think Victor himself is a piece of shit, and I'm not, I'm vetoing this movie. Fight the power. You're not alone. Okay. I think it was, it was weird,

like I said, I think much like Philip, it was weird watching the trailer. knowing knowing is past uh I think I first saw I guess Jeebers Creepers was in 2001 so I was kind of like okay well you know

this is the same guy that directed powder uh answer and you know it was that was an okay movie I guess at the time and then you know see Jeeppers Creepers and the Jeevers Creepers 2 comes out and I think that's when everyone kind of became really aware of what was going on so you know it's kind of like

this is really weird and then you know when uh jeepers 3 Jeepers Creepers three, there you go. You know, when they said it was getting release, I was like, man, they're still letting this guy make movies. And then watching the trailer again, it's just kind of that really gross feeling throughout the entire thing. Oh, man.

I want to know where the hell he found Stan Shaw and where he's been hiding all this time. Because that dude, I swear, hasn't done anything since the 90s, right? No. I don't know. I was kind of thinking of the same thing between him and Meg. I mean, hey, Meg, we love you. It was fun meeting you, but God damn it, you're out there, lady.

She hadn't remember. She won't remember. So if anybody's even interested at the least, September 26th release date. All right. So, Philip, you said we got a little bit of feedback this week, right? So Marcus Will Turner says, How do you horror hounds feel about Jeepers, Creepers 3 controversy with director Victor Salva? The replies, Austin Wood says he should burn in hell and have creepers eat his soul.

Now, Austin. Come on, buddy. That was great. That's a little rough, brother. Mikey Trobotras says, separate art from artist, just like Roman Polanski, Michael Jackson, and others. It's insanely bad what he did, but we all watched one and two without bitching about it. Oh, I think I bitched about two.

Yeah. Cynthia Talbot says, LOL, read his bio headline on fandom here. Victor Salva is an American film director, pedophile, writer, rapist, and producer, most known for his work on the films Jeepers Creepers, Jeepers Creepers, too, and raping the 12-year-old actor from Clownhouse. To which Mikey Tromitrash replied, well, it's not wrong. Our very own Brian Stitcher says,

I enjoy the character of the creeper, but I don't understand how he's still making movies. I don't. Yeah. And Patrick Lear replied, probably the same way some guys are still allowed to play football. And if that was a dig at my boy, Zeke, I'm upset. No proof.

No proof. Regarding the new Halloween film, Lars from Denmark simply stated, Lori is back and Marcus Will Turner. I'm beyond ecstatic that Jamie Lee Curtis is returning to Halloween next year. As iconic as Myers remains to be, the franchise just hasn't been the same without her.

I'm freaking ready. That was kind of tame for a Lars post. Regarding Polar's. Polaroid, Carl Macalah, said, that's our man. What did you say, Carl? Can we please discuss this movie? This looks atrocious. I think I'm going to have been around when they were using Polaroids.

I'm not really sure why that's a thing that people get creeped out about. Like maybe if it was an abacus or something, those are things that I don't understand. So maybe that was something that could be possessed or, you know, could freak people out or something like that. But a Polaroid is kind of, I think they're stretching now. Yeah, that was in my previews to Mother, too. And I kind of got the same sort of feeling from it. That's pretty bad. I don't know how to say this one.

Beed. Dayday? Yeah, bead. Beed Jermaine from Super Network says, hey, guys, I hope you all check out. my review on the smash hit horror film, It. Did the film manage to live up to Stephen King's classic novel,

or did it end up being a disappointment, disappointing adaptation like the 1990 TV miniseries? Read on and out. Okay. Check it out on horror returns group page. Man, I don't think the 1991 was disappointing.

Oh, man. One thing's for sure. We're getting a lot of talk about it. yeah uh josh youngblood again he says a question fellas why all the hate for the friday the 13th at nightmare and elm street remakes ryan stevens uh because we have we have to bitch about everything marcus will turner says uh i believe the reason most hate on these remakes stems from the old moniker of don't fuck with the originals uh both films are such staples of iconic merit that the simple idea of anyone remaking them just garnered extreme almost boiling hatred from the get-go.

It doesn't really matter what the finished products ended being in terms of quality. He says, I personally like the Friday remake immensely and thought the nightmare remake was semi- adequate. That's fair.

Patrick Lear says, there's a saying, don't fix what isn't broken. I'm not against them making more movies. Just don't make them reboots or remakes. If you have a story you want to add to the lore, fine. Make it worthwhile. If you want to know more about the character, go back and watch your original.

Stop being lazy. Okay. Hey, Carl, you're our... Yeah, these guys... I mean, there's a lot of good points there. Carl, you're our guest, man. What... Where do you chime in on this?

You know, I think one of the things... Actually, I've talked to some friends and things about that before. I think, again, like I was mentioned in there, they are staples of the genre and things like that. But one of the things that always threw me off with the remakes was they were a little too slick and clean versus kind of grungy and grimy and kind of dirty. I guess that was kind of just a staple of the time just because technology and the way that filmed looked and things like that.

But something that kind of worked for me was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the one in 2003 with Jessica Veal. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did like that. Yeah, that came out when I was, I think, 16, and it was just the grit and grime of that house was off-putting. So just the setting itself was off-putting. And then, of course, there was, you know, a guy running around to chainsaw and things like that. So, I mean, I think that kind of paid homage to the original enough that it wasn't kind of this over-glossed and over-slick kind of presentation of, hey, we can do the same thing just with better technology.

So, you know, I mean, and also there were some classic kills in Nightmarell Elm Street that kind of weren't replicated in the updated one. Yeah, I can see that. Get creative with the ways to kill people. Yeah. Makes sense. There was no Kool-Aid bed like with Johnny Deppin in the remake. Well, that's it for leasing her feedback today. Thanks to everyone who reaches out to us.

we love the feedback. As always, you can reach us at our Facebook or Podbean page, or you can email us directly at the Horror Returns at gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you. Check out the Horror Returns Facebook group and leave a review on iTunes. Please, please. All right, cool. So, hey, are you guys by any chance check it out the new season of American Horror Story? Yep.

Brian, are you all caught up? Yep. Okay, what are you thinking? I am honestly about ready to tap out. Oh, man, okay. What about you, Carl? Are you sitting there haven't? No, I actually started the first season when it first started,

and it rapidly became way too over the top for me. So I wound up tapping out like the first season. like the first season, but I know I have some friends that every, every season there, they're back in and they let me know what's going on. So this one, this one's like a cult or something? Yeah, cult. And yeah, I guess, I guess I'll be the, I guess I'll be the odd man out here because I'm really enjoying this season so far. You know, I know we're only a couple episodes in, but, man, I mean, for me, it's kind of returning back to form a little bit. And I I think Evan Peters' character is so fucking creepy that I think he's just doing a great job.

I think Sarah Paulson's doing a great job. That's where it loses me right there, Sarah Paulson. Yeah, she's... Her character is annoying to me. No. Yeah, I remember you tell me that. And you said you're caught up. Yeah.

Huh. Okay. All right. Well, I'll tell you what. Let's switch gears now and we'll turn it over to our friends at Zach Baxter and the Knights of the Drunk Watch. Brian, we could say they are watching it so that you don't have to. Audience, Zach Baxter at the Knights of the Drunk Watch.

I'm Zach. I'm Andrew. Crystal. And we just finished watching episode two of American Horror Story, and we're here to review or talk about what all went down. So let's raise our glasses. And let's say, Andrew, we are the nights of the drunk watch. And now our talk begins.

Very good, everybody. That's great. All right. So, episode two... Don't be afraid of the dark. Don't be afraid of the dark. There's a lot of dark scenes. A lot of dark scenes.

They gave us what we wanted for that part. We were afraid, so we failed. Take it away, Kate. All right, so the first one, we get introduced to the neighbors. So these new people have moved into the Chang's house, like two days after they got murdered. And we see them moving a lot of blue barrels into their house. We also find out that they're beekeepers. They also happen to be witnesses on a news reel that we see of Kai.

getting, like, running for mayor or whatever. He could feed up. Yeah. They witnessed the attack. They witness the attack. And, yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, there are witnesses on the newsreel. And then they're the neighbors. So, but they're very strange.

They're very open. One's gay. Yeah. He's gay. He's gay. He's a survivor. He's a friend because they're 35 and single. Yes.

Yeah. Which is, she can't stand to be touched. She'll like her. Skin can't hurt. Because she had skin cancer. so she doesn't like to be touched. So I think for me the strangest thing was they said

we watched the news and saw the house and pounced on it. Yeah. That is a strange like they don't tell you oh this murder happened at 1601 Blueberry Street. No they don't yeah. They had to like look at the look for the, like there was some investigating

on, I feel like there was some investigating on their part to find that house. No. I mean in terms of the grand scheme of like oh, these people thought it on the news, they went, find that house we can get it for cheap. But the thing is, is they're part of the cult. Yes. They knew that. Well, we're assuming they're part of the cult.

Yes. I mean, if we're going off of, like, because we've seen a lot of stuff about hive mines, and he's a beekeeper, and he talks about how, like, the hive is this perfect thing, and they all commit 100% and they never question, they never worry about themselves. So it's a perfect community, which is crazy town, but... Also, If they were part of the cult, they may have committed to murder,

which means they've been to the house already. Already. Right. They could be part of the clown. Also, it's a hob that the clowns could be in her house because they're right across the street now. Yeah. Yeah, and they're also, like, oddly, like, they seem oddly affiliated,

because they're kind of like, oh, lesbians will raise it up, and they're not very good at being, even though they're so open, and they're very oddly blunt and rude, and they have a bunch of guns. Yes. But they're liberals? Like, they align themselves. But they were worried that Obama was going to take their guns away.

I don't think we really could see a fine line between... I mean, I think they just feel like they believed Obama was coming for guns and started hoarding guns, yet they, like, lesbians are good for the neighborhood, and one of you's handy. And so, I mean, I think they're just... Quite frankly, they're probably like most of America. It's like people like guns And they like gays

You know? Yeah It's not one or the other That is possible You don't like gays with guns That's the thing Gays with guns Does that scare you a little bit?

We have gays with guns In this house Hey-oh I've got more guns than you Yeah you do You have like Way more So next

So next nugget So next is Kind of Allie's dissent Essentially Because they're there they're in the house and they get an alarm call so for some reason

Ivy's like oh I'll go and then the son's like no don't and so then other mom is like no I'll go it's fine I don't like scary things but I'll go to the murder restaurant whatever that's cool and sure enough there was a murder there and so she decides to fortify

the house so she puts bars on the windows and the doors she gets a gun from the neighbor yeah they bring the shrink around and he's like all right that's not great but I don't agree can't tell anybody. So I think this is kind of us seeing her dissent into

like complete a war-ophobia. Yeah. I find the path though interesting because I mean unless going back and re-watching it later, is there a manipulation there? She's like, oh, the alarm went off,

I'll go. Could she have predicted that she would say, I'll me go. You never get to see her as child, you can put him to bed, I'll go. Could she have predicted that? You know, or was it just fortuitous? What does that mean that Ivy was part

of the cult? Have we all agreed that Ivy's probably? I mean, if Ivy's part of the cult and this is... I'm 50-50 on her. I'm 50-50 on right now. Okay, hang on. Y'all keep using that word. What the fuck does gaslighting mean? By the way, I'll camera, well, or in your microphone, because this is a podcast,

is Mark, who wasn't here tonight, but he showed up and he's here now. So it's essentially like just doing little subtle things to set people off. Like, and they don't really know that it's happening. It's mind-screwing. It's-issing them that something's happening that really isn't happening. Okay.

To make them go crazy. Right. The point is to, and then, and then I feel like the other part is to cast them off as, oh, you're just thinking, you're just, you're crazy. Yeah. You're to seeing things. But what it is is you've been creating things for them to see and making it look like it never happened.

Yeah. So I think, and I feel like the reason I say that because I feel like it's working for, Ali, she's starting to rationalize. Well, the election happens, so the world's gone to hell. So I guess it's no wonder that there's clowns everywhere or that these bad things are happening.

So it's not me. I'm acting rational because there are bad things happening. Yeah. The fact that she managed... Someone is murdered. So she's... Justifying her copias. Yeah.

Which is not great. No. But I think it's what the cult, if they are gaslighting her is what you want. That's true. Yes. That's what they want. To do. Yeah. Because she's getting desensitized to all these different things.

And we also get that interaction between her and Kai. If he comes to the door, which it started out and like seemed kind of seem to make sense between everything. Or even if it wasn't benign, it made sense. But this. his like spiral down into all of the classic let me into your house. Yeah. All that I have candy little girl. Yeah.

So you know, I use your phone. Clearly I'm injured. My car broke down. It's hot outside. Can I get a job? Like he used all of them. Yeah.

I mean, but the thing is he was obviously saying them on purpose. Yeah. It wasn't like he was. He wasn't getting in. He knew that. But it also kind of, and this is,

goes to our next one of winter, why is she's still there? Why are they still letting when they keep being like you let her next door again, you let her with the neighbors, you let her alone. Do you, yeah.

Okay, this is me thinking as a, maybe, this is why I don't have a partner. Do you think Winter possibly is thinking if there's another woman in the house, maybe there'll be some possible relationship tension that may, I don't know, come to the surface.

Help with the gas lighting? that or just as a relationship like you know like well either that or if Ivy is part of the cult already and Winter is part of the cult already it could be they're playing their double teaming right there's that aspect of it I think Ali I think Ivy is part of the cult

I know we know I think so I'm like I said I'm 50 50 well she keeps saying She keeps telling her wife, are you insane? Something wrong with you? You're crazy. Like, hello, your wife is not mentally stable. You know this. You know she's taking medication.

You don't tell somebody on medication. Why are you acting so crazy, Kate? Are you insane? Are you seeing things? Yes. So that's why I think she's just, she's the worst. Ivy's the worst wife, I think, in the history of lives. I'm not going to say that.

I think Skyler on Breaking Bad, I think, was number one. Ivy's number two. She's not very supportive. And I don't know. Why would she let her go to the restaurant? You know your wife is super fragile. Period. You know she's super fragile.

Why would you let your super fragile wife? For the podcast, there's a cat in the frame now. Now there is. A nice pretty little black fluffy cat. Why would you let your triggered wife go to a check security? That doesn't make any sense. I'm like 7525.

I just I don't know what's going on We're laughing Because the hatchet was just throwing At someone's crotch on TV Well not real It wouldn't cry Anyway

So and then we also have the weird Like winter She's just so She's definitely manipulating And I guess I agree I kind of want to talk about

Why are we Why? And we talk about this a little bit Why are we Targeting Allison because, I mean, if Kai is manipulating winter to manipulate the house. But is Kai manipulating winter or is she part of his cult?

I mean, but if she's part of his cult, he's manipulating her. If it's his cold, then yes. Right. But, like, I guess, you know, whoever is doing the meeting, why are we, unless it's, I guess, because Ivy is in it and she wants her wife to be in it too. I think so. Like, because Allie is vulnerable right now. And when you're vulnerable, you're more susceptible to certain things.

No, it's more than that. Like I told Andrew before, I do believe this. If those clowns wanted to kill Allie, they would have done it at the grocery store. Oh, absolutely. They are not trying to kill her. They're trying to scare her because she even said, how do they know all my phobias? They have holes. They have all these things.

They know. It's like they know what I'm scared of. So that's proof that they're just either trying to. I think they're trying to desensitize her. I think maybe Kai convinced Ivy that he can cure her of this fear by just oversaturating her and proving that she can survive. Well, yeah, that makes sense. This is the thing that I'm beginning to think, you know.

Or it could be the doctor saying. The more that we talk about, like, being part of the cult, trying to make her part of the cult, blah, blah, blah, makes the more I think, to me think about, the more I think of the Stepford wives. Uh-huh. And so maybe it's kind of like a Stepford. wife's thing. It's like you have members

of the cult like Kai or Ivy or Billy Eichner and then you take their partner and you like you know don't make them into a robot but you like so they're programming

Ali to not to be a member of the cult but to be Ivy's ideal. To be an enabler. Right. You're not going to report us. You're not going to turn us in. But she's but she's going to be ideal.

Right. You know, she's going to be her ideal. But not an active participant in what they do. Okay. I can see that. So this whole thing is to, is scaring the crap out of her to where programs her to behave in a certain way. And that, you know, maybe that this cult is spread out all through this Michigan town. And they're trying to like slowly take over the town.

Yeah. Getting rid of the undesirables. and populating the town with their... With bees. Calt. With bees. Okay.

So the last thing is, and the last kind of scene or the exciting part of the show... You have two minutes. I know. After the... After the lady time in the bathtub was when our...

Yes. The alarm goes off, the lights go out, and we have a scary time. She dropped her bean down there is what happened. Yeah. Is that what that was?

She was looking for her being, her magic bean. She was allowed. Is she found magic beans? Um, but yeah, so the lights go out. Billy Eichner shows up and he's like, oh, it's across 11 states. It's terrible. Oh, this is so scary.

Through the window. That was so weird. Yeah. And then Winter's like, peace out. I got my clay ceramics at home. I don't want to lose those. And she leaves. They could have been figurines.

Whatever. And then all of the windows are still unlocked and the doors are. And the doors were unlocked, because she went out of locking everything. But the thing is, is all that it's behind bars. Yes. You know, you lock your window and you have burglar bars in front of it? Shelby does. Yeah.

Who's Shelby? You know who Shelby. But, and then, like, the alarm doesn't work. The wires are cut. Yeah. And then scary clown shows up. Yeah. And then more scary clowns.

And she, yeah. And then at the very very, end, we forget, full circle, she shoots Pedro bringing the box of supplies. Yeah. Ivy had sent Pedro to the house for some reason. Which I don't understand why. Ivy's excuse was that she has to meet the restaurant, get the generator up so they don't lose a whole other meat locker. Right, like they did last night. They lost a meat locker to being a murder scene. The week before, yeah. Yeah, or whenever

the murder was. Why have you got murdered there? Oh, someone that we did that She said. And so she reorders everything and takes a second mortgage on the house to do it, she said. Yes. Well, maybe it was just a phrase. Yeah, she spent a lot of money to get all new meats. And if they can't get the cooler running, you lose it. Supposedly.

We don't know. I don't understand if she is part of the cult, why would the cult make her buy a whole new meat locker? That seems pretty shitty for a cult It was part of her initiation Well but maybe it is a phrase Oh I had to take a second mortgage Because really the cult has plenty of money

Oh okay Because also what they want to get rid of Is people like Pedro Oh and Pedro It's true Okay well that's our time Last remarks at last remark said Well I was just saying so they can't just be

At the restaurant with the lights shining bright And pretending over the phone because there are people at the restaurant who aren't part of the cult. That's true. So I guess I think just a big question now is who is part of the cult and what is the cult doing? So basically the entire point of the show is what's still going on. That's fair. That's fair.

I like it. We're having fun. Yeah. Allie is not part of the cult. Any cult. No. Zero. Not a member.

He's a cult of time. Not yet anyways. All right. So we are the Zach Baxter channel. You're on the Zach Baxter. No, you're not. No, you're not. I'm Zach Baxter.

We are Zach Baxter. We are the Knights of the Drunk Watch. And let's go. So make sure to go, if you like this content, make sure to subscribe. Go to our, our youth, my God, go to our YouTube page and subscribe to our channel. Leave a comment in the sections below

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So we are on the knife to the drunk watch. And now our talk has ended. Good night, everybody. See you next Tuesday. Bye. That was our weekly update. Guys, we appreciate you submitting that so we can play it on the show every week and keeping Brian up to speed so he can safely tap out.

All right. So now it is time for our featured attractions. And this week, uninvited guest. Not you, Carl. You were invited. But yeah, uninvited guests take center stage. How are you getting here?

We're going to discuss the new film Mother as well as Adam Wingard's the guest. And there's a little trivia with Adam Wingard specifically dealing with the horror returns, guys. He is now officially our most covered director, as he is also known for your year. next, which we've covered. Blair Witch, which we have covered in Death Note, which we covered a few weeks back. So congrats Adam Wingard, man.

Send you a T-shirt. That's kind of awesome. I respect you, dude. Yeah, yeah. It's you know, he's starting to become a name. And it was written by Simon Barrett, and Barrett has worked with Wingard on every single film except for whatever

reason, Death Note. Maybe maybe he knew something. But get into a couple of trivia items here. According to Director Wingard, the original rough cut of the guest was over 20 minutes longer than the final theatrical cut. I could see that. Yeah, that definitely makes sense,

because there's some things that didn't cover. For sure. Yeah, for sure. After the version was screened to a test audience, it was cut down. And after another test screening, the audience was confused at the sudden arrival of Major Richard Carver and his team at the Peterson home,

which is why some scenes with Carver at KPG headquarters were added in the final cut of the film. I still think it was missing some stuff, don't you guys? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Adam Wingard made a point of deliberately casting a left field choice as David. English, of course, now he's a household name, but at the time he was pretty much unknown.

Dan Stevens, and I think the only thing people knew him from at that time was Downton Abbey. So anyway, you are our guest, Carl. So if you'd like, man, you get the opportunity to go first and chime in here. Please don't murderers. No, the guest was, I think I first saw it last year and then obviously did the revisit for tonight. And I think at the time, I really, actually, I really enjoyed it. You know, it's, again, obviously it starts out.

And I think Adam Wingard normally does this, especially in your necks where it kind of subverts whatever tropes or whatever thing you think it's going to be. You know, where, you know, the guy he comes in and it's like, hey, he's the replacement brother and he helped people with their problems and things like that. And then right around that halfway mark, it takes that turn and it switches over to, oh, this guy is really crazy. Right. But I think, especially in your next, but in this as well, like I said, it flips a lot of those things. on its head and then and then we're kind of off to the races with murder.

Yeah, so you enjoyed it, Carl. Oh, yeah, definitely, definitely. Especially watching it the second time, you know, picked up on a few things I hadn't really picked up on before. And also, I love the dad, Leland Orser, because he's always that nervous guy in every movie that he's in.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that, like his, His porn stash. This was the first time I've seen this movie. And it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it. It definitely had some things that were missing. Like, why is he the way that he is?

And what happened to him to make him like this? Because, I mean, you know, halfway through the movie, he just was like, all right, I think I'm just going to start killing people. And but aside from that, I mean, I still think it was a lot of fun. It held my attention all the way through. And I really enjoyed it. I think there was some parts that were a little hokey. And they had some plot holes in there.

But all in all, I'd say a good movie. Definitely worth watching. I know you guys had talked about it a long time ago when we first talked about Adam Wingard. And I'm glad I finally got to watch it. What do you think, Brian? I love this movie I don't like it as much as you're next but as far as Adam Wingar movies

this is up there I thought Dan Stevens played this role great because you know even though he comes off you know charming and polite you still get that kind of cold like you know there's something wrong with this guy and like

one of the scenes that I don't even know why it was just okay but when he was talking with the with the son about getting bullied and he had gave him that knife and I believe the line was if they take the knife from you and beat you up you go to their houses and you burn their families

with them inside and everything is just oh okay makes sense and then at the end he was like you did good kid when they stabbed me in the gut I also sick and twisted world perspective

I also like I don't know if I'm going to say her first name of Micah, Mika, Mika Monroe, the lead actors. Yeah, yeah, the two groups from It Follows. Yeah, I really enjoy her. I don't know where her career is going because she had did this and It Follows. And then I believe her last few movies was like the Fifth Wave and the New Independence Day. Oh, boy.

I really would like her to stay away from those, I guess, bigger budget movies and do stuff like this. I thought she was really good in it. another thing I really like I like the music throughout this movie oh yeah absolutely I thought it just it kind of fit you know it kind of felt like it was

a throwback with the music and the action and the haunted house at the end I thought that was a that was real throwback too oh the the most biggest budget high school haunted house at there I know right

that was straight out of stream or something wasn't Carl? Oh yeah, definitely. Yeah. In this little fucking country town in the middle of nowhere. They put a lot of work into that haunted house. There was all kinds of special effects. But yeah, I really, I really had a lot of fun. And I think this movie gets a little better with a rewatch. I do, there is stuff missing.

It's just kind of like, especially this whole, like, when he flips on everybody and he's got to protect the, his mission and what is what is your mission you know what do you what do you protect what the the project what is the project you know it's just never really was

explained with the ending I always hope that there be a sequel but apparently this movie was a bomb in the theater so I don't necessarily know whoever get that sequel but overall I had a lot of fun with it yeah and they did

what you start out in the movie not really knowing what's going on and they sort of give you little clues along the way and piece it together. Sure. I like that. That was kind of cool. Yeah, it was a good buildup and then like probably going into the third act, I think they, it felt a little bit rushed.

And I think those are probably some of the scenes that we were talking about that they took out. But hey, Philip, you're our, you're our resident veteran here. how realistic to be honest with this man you're not in anymore so you can tell us the secrets now how realistic is this man of what really goes on i mean you know veterans don't just come out and start killing people i tell you that and i imagine he probably would have got his ass whooped in the bar by those four teenagers but uh i mean this dude is obviously obviously some sort of Jason Bourne Special Forces motherfucker.

They just don't explain any of it. Right. But, you know, I was thinking about that. And I feel like had they put those scenes in where they explained what he was doing there and why he was doing it, it probably would have been too long. And we'd have been bitching about that. Oh, could be. Yeah. I could see that.

It's a pretty well-paced. Like I said, it's a really. well-paced movie right until I think like I said, the part where Lance Reddick's character shows up and it just kind of, I don't know, from there it's sort of seems to be moving too fast and then they get to the haunted house which I, like I said,

I really like that. You guys said it was super unrealistic, but I thought it was a lot of fun. That's fun, yeah. Yeah, I mean, all in all, I think it was probably one in Wingard's best two or three movies in my opinion. Yeah, I'll agree with that. Definitely. Do his, so are we all in agreement that you're next is his best? So do his movies kind of go down as they go along, like,

your next is the best one, the guest, and then Blair Witch and then Death? I still haven't seen Death Note, so I don't know how it compares to Blair Witch, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about Blair Witch. Yeah. Well, I wasn't super enthusiastic about Death Note either, but. It was okay. It was, it was all right. Yeah, it was okay.

They were both kind of okay. Yeah, I would say that. You guys excited for his jump to a big budget movie, Godzilla versus King Kong? I don't know, man. What do you think, Carl? It's, I don't know, it's a little shaky. I think Godzilla was, there was a lot fewer moments of Godzilla than I think anyone would have liked. Right.

and King Kong or Kong Skull Island I guess It was fun But I think there's a lot of Literally a lot of growing that King Kong has to do Yeah Because Godzilla's a skyscraper tall And But I mean

Like if he does the same thing he did With like your next and the guess Where he kind of flips the You're kind of I'm expecting this to happen And he just kind of goes with I guess kind of goes with his gut it could definitely

it could be good I mean they're obviously their classic they're classic monsters that aren't in rubber suits anymore so they obviously look very realistic and you know I mean

even the fight scenes in and actually in both of them were really good just took a long time to get there especially in Godzilla so and hopefully I guess

Quicksilver won't be back so hopefully not at least so right well in Marvel in comic comic book movies you never know I mean never say never

yeah exactly Hey, I want to ask you guys a question about Wengar Because we've reviewed a lot of his movies But they've been typically newer ones Have you guys seen any of his really old Kind of like experimental stuff Like homesick or pop skull or any of that stuff? I remember you talking about Pop Skull though

Yeah, we need to We probably should cover one or we I know not to Wingard out here But we probably should cover You know one or two of those for the show at least somebody watch a couple of them because I know that Pop Skull is like a fucking, about a, basically a trip that a pillhead is having.

And I know that, uh, I had another movie. That's right that I heard about that I've never seen called Autoerotic, which is, who knows what the fuck that's all about. That sounds interesting. Follow four interconnected Chicago couples as they explore the boundaries of self-pleasure and sexual expiration. Sign me up. Okay, yeah, we've got to check out some of these other movies.

But have you guys ever heard of someone making such weird shit and now getting to do fucking Godzilla versus King Kong? Right? Definitely not. He definitely came out of nowhere around, I guess, whatever your next came out. And then I guess, have you guys seen any of his stuff that he did for, like, the VHS movies or ABCs of Death or anything like that? Yeah. Yeah.

Seeing all those. Okay. So I assume that those were good, then. Um, I, I assume I couldn't tell you who directed what because there's so many, especially in the fucking ABCs of death, you know, you've got all these different little mini movies. I know the Saskas sisters did one that was like literally a fucking minute and a half long, you know, so.

Right. I don't know. Um, you got, Brian, do you specifically remember? You're kind of our story. Yeah. When it comes to those movies, I don't. necessarily know who did what, especially the ABCs of horror, because they're such

short, little, straight to the point, you know, stories, and they just kind of move, you know, I don't know. Apparently his segment was called Q is for Clack. I don't know if that Oh, no, the one with the duck that they killed or whatever, they blew up a duck or something like that. That was more of like a

comedy thing. Okay, well, I think that's the one. Listers, let me know if I'm wrong on that one. Q is for Mark. All right. You guys ready for scores? Yeah.

Carl? Yes, do it. I'd probably give it a six. Okay, cool. Not bad. I'm going to give it a, I'm going to give it a seven and a half, man. I really, I really enjoyed it. Aside from, you know, the few plot holes and that kind of thing.

I really liked Dan Stevens. I thought it was, I wasn't bored at all during this movie. Yeah. Kind of a breakout breakout role for him. Yeah. I'm also going to give it a seven and a half. I thought it was a lot of fun. Love the music in it.

Dan Stevens and shit, I forgot how to pronounce it. Micah Milo. Micah. The blonde chick. Yes. I think she could be a star choosing the right roles. I thought she was really good in this. Right. And like I said, I love the action.

and yeah seven and a half cool yeah man I'm with I'm with Carl I'll go six I really uh no you know what I'll go six and a half this is probably my favorite wind guard short of your next and I think I gave it about a six and a half so yeah

I really enjoyed it a lot more than than not probably my second favorite of his that I've seen so I guess yeah basically it sounds like we all agree that it's worth checking out the guests yeah most definitely All right, you guys ready for the big polarizing love it or hate it?

This is going to be fun. Yeah? Yeah. All right, I hope so, man. All right, so we're going to move on to the new film, Mother. Director and writer was Darren Aronofsky. He's also known for the Black Swan and The Fountain. The film was originally titled Day Six.

The film received both booze as well as a standing ovation during its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. This movie received an F on Cinema Score, the worst possible score, which is very rare, according to the trivia here. And according to writer-director Darren Aronovsky, his inspirations for the film, a little homework for us here. You guys are interested included Luis Buneuels movie, The Exterminating Angel, from 19. 1962 and Susan Griffin's. And Susan Griffin's 1978 book, Women and Nature. And I read about the

Exterminating Angel. It looks really interesting. Have you seen it? Or any of you guys seen it? Yeah, I never heard of it. I think I've heard of it. I will get to it later. Yeah. I mean, it looks pretty interesting, man. I'm going to seek it out now, actually, based on the description. So, Carl, you ready, man?

I hope so. It sucks to go first on this one. I just finished it a couple hours ago, so I hope I'm ready for it. Awesome. Oh, hell, you haven't even had time to digest it yet. A little bit. Oh, bad fun, bad pun! Oh, yeah, good point. I read some of the feedback, and, you know, it helped me, you know, get other people's

perspectives on it. So I think we're, uh, it'll be a fun conversation, I think. Cool. All right. Well, uh, what, yeah, what we're trying to do, uh, was, I, you know, you listen to the show, man. We'll save the spoilers for after the, the alert, but like in general terms, what, what'd you think, man? Yeah, and we'll probably have to go pretty quick here, uh, without getting into spoilers, because I think spoilers are going to be the big part of this one. Yeah, exactly. That's what I was going to start off by saying. I think most of my, most of my, my thoughts are probably going to be in the spoiler section. But, you know, as a movie itself,

I really, I liked it, but I think I need to see it a couple of more times to pick up on everything. I think Ryan and Aaronowski sometimes goes really, and this hopefully is not, it's in super spoiler, but sometimes his films are really heavy on symbolism versus story. Like when he started with,

like uh, uh, uh, uh, Wrecking for a dream and pie and things like that. I mean, there were some symbolism in it,

but it was a lot heavier, a lot heavier on, on story. And then we did like black swan. It was more, um, symbolism and a little bit of a story. And then of course,

this one, uh, from the booze and the cheers and the F cinema score, I think he's leaning more towards, towards that other end now. But, uh, overall,

oh yeah. It's shot is exceptionally well. There's a lot of closeups, which kind of free, me out at the beginning. Yeah. Had to get really used to. And Jennifer Lawrence is actually very distracting.

So. And also Michelle Pfeiffer is still looking good at, at, right? That's what I said. I was like, damn, she still got it. She's got to be like 60, right? All right. Yeah, don't disagree too much with anything you said. Philip, what do you think?

I still am not entirely sure what I think about this one. I think I got something totally different from it than what it's actually supposed to be about. And I kind of wish that I knew what it was supposed to be about before I watched it. This is one I think that you guys can go ahead and listen to the spoilers on this one. unless you just want to go in with a clean slate and figure out your own metaphor about this movie. But if not, I think it helps you along a little bit because the first three quarters of the movie,

I had no idea what the fuck was going on. Not a goddamn clue. Like they sit you in the middle of this island and they're like, figure it out, you know? And nothing really happens. I mean, there's buildup, there's character development. I think all the actors did amazing. But nothing really happens until the end.

And then it goes bat shit fucking crazy. It doesn't make any sense at all. Right. Because it's all about, you know, the metaphors and what he's trying to symbolize here. And I think knowing what he's trying to symbolize makes a whole hell of a lot more sense throughout the whole rest of the movie. and I still feel like I wish I had known that going in. But I really liked it. I think I enjoyed it.

I'm going to have to like it. It's weird. Oh, man, I love it. I don't think actors know what to think about it. When I went into watching this, I had a lot of fears that it was going to be another movie. that we had previously reviewed. It was going to be fall along those lines. And I'm happy to say it didn't.

It was a little slow until... Oh, my name? Yeah. Okay. It did pick up, and then when it picked up, like you said, Philip, it just fucking went crazy. I did pick up what the movie was about. I don't know if it was early on in a movie or not, but overall, I think I liked it. too. And I kind of

applaud Darren Aronovsky for making a movie how he wanted to make it, you know. Right. Which is what I thought the whole goddamn thing was about. Yeah. Carl, I do agree with you. There was a lot of

close-ups of people's faces, like super close-ups. Yeah, but you caught Yeah, but you caught all those little reactions. Right. Yeah. Like with Jennifer Lawrence, I mean, she did great with the little facial expressions where you could tell. Like as soon as somebody said something and she'd just do this little eye twitch and you could, you know.

Yeah. And I'm not the biggest Jennifer Lawrence fan. I'm more of a fan of hers when she does stuff like this or works with David O.Russle and those movies. You know, I'm not a fan of her when she does these bigger budget movies. Right. And I thought she was, you know, I thought she was really good in this. and it was shot very well. And, yeah, it's really, like,

I think we should just go ahead and just get the spoilers. But overall, I liked it. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, I, when I went into this movie, guys, like, well, look, you guys already know I was looking forward to it. I mean, I think I gave that away a couple of weeks ago, that this was like, you know, probably the movie I was most looking forward to. So, I mean, those are usually the ones that really, really disappoint me,

because I'm, you know, my expectations are set so fucking high that there's absolutely, you know, no way on God's Green Earth that, no pun intended, that a movie is going to live up to that, how much I was looking forward to it. I like most of Aronovsky's movies. I did not actually care for Noah that much. But yeah, I mean, Black Swan was one of those that, like, on the second and third viewing, I liked it a lot better than on the first.

And I think it was way overhyped for me because so many people were telling me how great it was. I actually probably the only person who hasn't seen Requiem for a dream, but that will be corrected at some point. I thought Pye was really good. So I like Radovsky a lot. But, yeah, like I said, I walked into this. I had no idea anything. I didn't know what it was supposed to be about. I didn't know what any of the plot twists were going to be.

I was kind of thinking, like, in the first act, I thought it was going to be a haunted. Did you guys get the feeling it was going to be maybe a haunted house movie? Yeah. From the trailers. Yeah. Well, even during the movie while I was watching it. Yeah, no. There was a few things that I don't think I can say until spoilers, but like it was, I was like, is she dead?

I don't understand what's happening. Yeah. You know, I'm thinking more about like the, man, I'm tried, there was just so much going on in this movie for me. it was so visceral. Like the way they would walk on the floor and the floors would creak. And, you know, the way that everything looked kind of tarnished and older and everything. And then, you know, I mean, I'm very morbid. So, of course, I kind of assumed that certain things were going on that, you know,

maybe were or maybe weren't, but it's kind of the way I interpreted it. Yeah, you guys are right. We can't say too much without spoilers here, can we? Right, yeah. I want to know what you guys thought about it, like, from after watching it without knowing what it was about. I'm going to, all right, I'm going to say this before we move on to scores, and then we can spoil. But I will definitely say that it was the best performance of all four leading actors that I've seen probably in their careers, except for possibly Ed Harris, just because he's got such body of work. Yeah.

But Michelle Pfeiffer was fucking brilliant. Right. And terrifying. Yeah, she was amazing. Absolutely terrifying to me. So without giving too much away, you know, I'm, this is this going to be a pretty, pretty big, pretty big moment here for the horror returns because you guys all know how I typically score and how tough I am on movies.

So, you know, are you guys ready to move on to scores? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Carl! All right. Well, uh, That's a terrible red compression

It's okay It's still funny I get them at least twice a day So it's okay Wow I think I think watching it the first time And definitely needing to watch it again

And probably multiple times And do You know Search Reddit and do all these other things You know It'll help Up my score but like I said, the film itself beautifully shot, well-written.

I think there was a little, just because I saw it today and was thinking about it in the movie, Jennifer Lawrence's, her dialogue somewhat consisted of, excuse me, and that's not yours, but I did it. This is my house! Exactly. And maybe that's because Darren Aronowski apparently only wrote it in like five days or something, so maybe you didn't have time to actually flush out of dialogue. But, no, I think I would give it a seven just off of initial watch, and then picking up on the symbolism and some of the other things.

I did a little bit of reading afterwards, and we'll get into it with the spoiler section. I think it's a very strong movie that's probably going to grow over time. I think the reaction from people is because it wasn't spelled out as much as people normally get in movies and that kind of like what the hell's going on and all those other things but overall i'd give it a seven on on on a first watch it'll probably uh only go up on uh on subsequent watches so cool not too not too shabby man yeah i like okay so when i first left the movie um i was i was at least happy that they had some sort of ending instead of just leaving it completely wide the fuck open,

which is what I was afraid that they were going to do. And I was going to give it like a fucking one if that happened. I was totally expecting that to happen, actually. Yeah. I was like, this movie's going to end in the middle of a conversation or something where they just don't wrap anything up. But they didn't do that. So I got to give them credit for that.

When I first left the movie theater, I probably would have said six because I wasn't sure. And since then, since I've realized what it was about and done some reading and thought about the movie some more, it's gone up to an eight. Wow. Holy shit. And I think it may very well, I mean, I'm going to have to watch it again. It's definitely one that I want to watch again. And I think the score is really going to only go up from there. I think I'm also going to give it an eight.

I seen this movie last Thursday, so I had a lot of time to think about this movie. I also did some research just to help me process what I've seen, because, you know, there was definitely a lot of what-the-fuck moments in this movie. Had a conversation with my wife about it, and the more time I had to sit and think about it, my score grew. So it might possibly go up with further viewings, but right now I'm at 8. Cool. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up, Brian, about the conversation with your wife,

because actually, AJ went with me to see this movie. You know, she normally doesn't watch horror movies at all, as you guys well know. And she's walked out of more than one. And, man, there were a few scenes in here where I was really tense, whether she was going to be able to handle what was getting thrown up on the screen. But she hung in there. And, yeah, we went to had lunch after we saw the movie, and we sat down and talked for about an hour and a half about it.

Guys, this is it for me. I mean, I really did not expect this to happen on our, you know, what, a year and a – we're not even a year and a half into the horror returns here. And here we are. It's my favorite movie since Clockwork Orange. Oh, wow. It's a fucking masterpiece, guys. It's a hell of a talking piece.

You know what? There's so many movies. Well, there's not a whole lot, but there's at least a movie every five years or so that I'll give a nine or a nine. I'll give a nine-point-five-two. Jaws, the Exorcist, the Matrix, Children of Men. These are all fantastic movies that I consider very close to being perfect. You guys know the only ten I've ever given is Clockwork Orange and Mother gets a ten. This is it. Wow.

This is a fucking beautiful masterpiece. Work of art. So much here. So much here. On that note. What else can we say? This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned.

This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. I think it's spoiler. times. Yeah. Yeah, I, um, when I, when I, when I left this, this movie guys, I just, um, had so many things going through my head and absolutely not what, well, I did kind of get with the, with the Gleason brothers there. I kind of got the Canaan Abel thing, but I didn't know this was all based on

the Bible while I was watching it. Yeah, it's like what I brought up earlier, you know, I really just, even, they even released a poster that led you to believe this was going to be a, on the lines of Rosemary's Baby. Right. And I'm really glad they did something different from that. Sure. But that's probably where I picked up where the movie was going was when the Gleason brother showed up.

And then I thought back to the scene with Ed Harris in the bathroom. And he had the scar on his back, right by where his ribs were. And then the next day, his wife shows up. And so I was like, okay, I know where this movie's going now. So I read about that, but it didn't click at all. while I was watching a movie. Nah, me either. I'm not, but you know what?

I'm more of a secular humanist. I am a Christian. I mean, I have certain Christian beliefs and whatnot, but, you know, I don't know. I mean, that might be strong to say that I'm actually Christian. I mean, I don't go to church or anything like that. I used to. I have read the Bible cover to cover, but that was decades ago. But, man, this just hit all the right notes for me.

It was just so, I mean, every fucking moment of this movie, I felt it like I was in. it like it was happening. And I didn't know what it was. And I thought it was, first I thought it was a horror, a haunted house movie. Then I thought it was a home invasion movie. Then I'm very morbid. So I assume that this was the afterlife and that they were, that they were dead. And I'm still not convinced that that might not be one way to interpret it.

You know, I mean, there's so many different things to take away. When we were done watching it, my wife turned to me and said, now you know how I feel. And that meant a lot to me to hear her say that too, because, you know, I got a lot of those kind of feelings. It's not just a religious doctrine here. I mean, it perfectly spells out the whole story of the Bible if you go back and look at it beat for beat, but there's a lot

going on here. Yeah, most definitely. Yeah, when I first watched it, I thought I thought it was more of an artist thing. Like, he was the poet, and he created this work of art.

It was his labor of love. And was, you know, taking everything that he could from, from his wife. And, you know, the publisher or whatever she was came along, and, you know, they want more and more and more from him. And they want him to basically sell out and stop being such a poet, you know? So he loves the adoration. Dance for us, dance for us.

Right, exactly. And so he loves the adoration and he split between these two worlds, you know, with with his wife who needs him there and his fans who he wants to please also. And then, you know, everybody's had that person in their life at some point who, you know, you give and give and give and give and give and it's never enough. and you give everything that you can and they're still not happy until they take it all. And I think that that's where it hit a chord with a whole lot of people, even though that's not really what the movie was even about. You know what I mean? I mean, I guess it kind of was, but I just, the Bible thing didn't even cross my mind.

Nah, me, me either. Yeah. Yeah, same here. Carl, and then I looked I looked it up and I was No, no, go ahead. I looked it up and then I was like, okay, well, that makes sense. I kind of wish that I had known this going in

and I feel like the first three quarters of the movie where I was totally lost would have made a little more sense to me. Right. But I kind of enjoyed being lost. I kind of enjoyed going on the journey here. Yeah, they just took it a little too long. I mean, it was like, I mean, they throw you out into the abyss

and just kind of let you float there for a while. Carl, what do you thinking, man? No, I thought it was a bumpy ride. But, you know, but after, like I said, after, I think when you mentioned earlier that it was originally titled Day Six, and as we started talking about, the movie actually looked up, you know, what happened on creation with Day Six and things like that. And that was where, you know, God creates all the creatures that live on dry land. He creates man and things like that. It's man. So maybe it's like a, you know, like a Garden of Eden thing,

and then obviously bringing in Cain and Abel and Adam and Eve, I guess. Right. And so, you know, once you start, I guess once you start piecing it together, it's kind of, I don't know if it's like a, and obviously all of the people that visit the Garden of Eden, I don't know, I guess obviously with the symbolism of the baby and what happens to the baby later, you know, if it's taking, if it's a condemnation of organized religion,

it's just something again that needs to you know where it's like hey and again like you guys were saying isn't this enough and it was no I need more and there has to be more and more and more it's like can we just have take it take it from what it is and progress from there but I think you know even

even just looking it up while we were talking about it it puts a lot of things into context and again probably seeing it again for me we would definitely would definitely bump it up and And I think, you know, some, I guess either sometimes people aren't willing to look into something further. And, you know, maybe that's why it got the reaction that it did.

But looking at it overall after watching the movie and talking with you guys and kind of the different interpretations and things like that, I'm liking it. I'm liking it more and more. Yeah. There's a Vanity Fair article that explains everything. but basically Jennifer Lawrence is Mother Earth and

Javier Bardem is God and they're married and when he when he creates man they take everything from Mother Earth

but he's still focused on his creation instead of right because you got that I'm sorry you got that scene where

where chaos is just happening and they're just tearing apart the house. You know, the house, the house is the planet. That's how I took it. Right. Absolutely. And they are just taking and destroying the planet. And, you know, another thing I did not even realize,

because I kind of hung around to see the end credits, I didn't realize through the whole movie, no one had a name. Yeah. Yeah, it didn't click to me either, but I'm bad with names, so I don't ever remember them anyway. Yeah, it's just, it's another thing if you didn't really know, if you didn't really fully understand, I think just, you know, looking at the cast list and what they was casted as,

it's just like you brought up the publisher played by Kristen Wig. She, her name was Harold, you know. Right. Harold. I thought that was really, really smart that they made her the publisher of his work. You know, the Harold was the one that, spread the word and I thought that was really, really smart how they did that. And so, and the reason that they threw Kristen Wig in as that character, Darren Aronofsky

gave a little interview and he said, uh, he, because it was supposed to be kind of this fever dream and it was, you know, this craziness. And he wanted you to have that, that moment where somebody shows up that's familiar, um, Kristen Wig, who's this, you know, comedic actress. And you're like, oh, you know, that's comfortable. I know her. And so they just stick her into this dream. So it's like you're having some kind of crazy fucking dream, which is pretty much what this movie is. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, and they definitely threw that comfortability out of the window when she started executing people. Yeah. Well, and that's why I was like, that's why I thought, you know, she was, you know, corporate America. And she's like, ah, well, we're going to take control of everything and destroy. all of your artwork, you know? Sure. But I was wrong. Yeah, I was, I was wrong.

I was wrong on so many things about this movie. And that's what I loved about it. As it, you know, as it developed, there was, man, it was just, I've heard it described as a roller coaster, right? And I guess that's a good way to put it. But at first scene, you finally got after the, the quote, unquote,

flood there. When they, when they break the, they finally, they finally break the counter that she's been worrying about the whole time and the water comes up to wear. And then you finally get a little bit of peace and that happens for a little while

and then here they come back again, you know? Right. And man, it was just absolute chaos and I just felt like I was right there the whole time and just, I don't know, I told AJ that it was the scariest movie to me that I've seen in years as far as just terror.

I mean, it just had me on edge. And she said, well, it wasn't really scary. she said, I thought it was more about just talking about what really happens, what life is really like, what's really going on. And I'm like, wow, there's so many different ways to look at this thing, you know? Yeah, plus if you've ever had somebody squatting in your house before, this will ring a bell. You did it. No, I got that one totally. Yeah, we've all been there.

Definitely unsettling versus scary, but even unsettling. can sometimes be scarier than something trying to be scary. Sure. Yeah. Did you guys get a little bit of like a Virgin Mary vibe going on to? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, with the instantaneous pregnancy that happened. Right, right.

Oh, yeah. And she just knew. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's, that's all in there for sure, man. And life imitates art and maybe the Bible is art. Maybe it's truth. Maybe it's gospel. Who knows?

But, man. is the layers of this thing. I'm ready to go back and see it again. I mean, I think this is... I kind of do. Yeah, I think you could probably see it a good half dozen times and get a different movie every time. Yeah, I see that.

I mean, just the scene with the chaos in the house at the end, you know, there was just... Obviously, what he wrote was... People interpreted different. Everybody, it meant something different to everybody. Sure. It was just each room had something different going on. and it was crazy.

I can see where, you know, there was some, to me, there was some scary parts because I could see people behaving this way. Oh, easily. It's very, you know, it could be very jarring and scary and, you know. Yeah, things can get out of hand real fast, can't they, when you bring humans into the equation. Real fucking fast. Just unbelievable. I was a little worried there for just a minute that it was going to go, the Rosemary, Rosemary's baby route

and they had the altar set up there and everything with the candles. Yeah. But it didn't. No. It definitely did not. I was just, I was so worried that it was going to end

like without wrapping anything up. And as abstract as this movie was, I think it wrapped it up into a nice, neat little package. And I loved the ending. I loved that. Mm-hmm. I did too. And there's apparently, in the Buddhist religion, it says that the world has been, you know, created and started over an infinite amount of times. And so it's just this infinite loop.

Sure. Yeah, that's what I'm going to ask is with the new mother created at the end, you know, was it, is this just a test for humanity? and all those people were kind of the test subjects of are we, you know, kind of good enough to be sustained on Earth? Were they? Yeah, that's a good question, man. Different Mother Earth is the second time. Man, yeah, well, it's, and it kind of ended the way the Dark Tower books end, you know,

which if you've read the series of books, you know, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, but if you've seen the movie, I have no fucking idea what I'm talking about. No, I mean, it was, I'm with you, Philip. It was wrapped up perfectly. Like I said, absolute masterpiece. Probably one of the two best films I've seen in my life. And I think I'm only going to appreciate it more and more as the years go by. Nice.

I think you guys convince me. I'm bumping it up to an eight. Wow. Nice. I think just talking about the different layers and things like that, just definitely, you know, put it more perspective for me. And I think on subsequent rewatches, again, those things will hit me probably earlier on in the movie.

It will obviously now that we've discussed them, but it'll put it more into context. And it won't be like this, like we were talking about before, this fever dream of like what the hell is going on and having. Yeah, we're totally lost the whole goddamn time. Yeah, I think that's where the people that didn't like the movie, I think maybe that's what happened. Carl, you said after you watch,

watching a movie, you kind of like did some homework on it. Like, yeah, I don't think people did that. No, I don't think they did either. And people still don't know what the hell is going on. Because it kind of baffles me that it got a cinema score of, what was the F? It was an F. Yeah. Because a lot of people I've talked to that watch this movie, majority like this movie.

Mm-hmm. And. Well, in our circle of friends, a majority like this movie. Yeah, true. You know. But we're like horror movie fans I mean it's not like The fucking Nightmare in Elm Street

Is not a goddamn cinematic masterpiece It's pretty good man I think it's just I think it's just probably the trailers You know I think people The impression it was going to be Something that it wasn't more scary Than either unsettling

You actually had to think about And it's coming out It was like I was expecting X Y and Z And they gave me something different. Yeah. But I think if they had advertised it as a religious or something that discusses religion,

I don't know how many people would have gone in with the thought of looking to dissect a religious movie. Yeah, because the last trailer I seen was actually they played it right before it. And it was basically telling you to, after the movie, go buy your tickets because this is going to be the sickest, most disturbing movie of the year. Yes, I think I remember hearing about that. Yeah. Because it's reality, because we're killing Mother Earth. Speaking of which, you know, what do you guys think about all these hurricanes in this earthquake in Mexico City today? And I mean, is this coincidence?

Does this happen all the time? Or are we on the verge of getting stabbed with a piece of glass for Mother Earth right now? I hope they fucking stop because I just bought a house on the beach. I don't know. It's a lot to think about, guys. It's a lot to think about. Yeah. All right.

Well, listen, as always, we want to thank you guys for listening to another episode of the horror returns. We would love to hear your feedback, and as Philip is proven time again, we will read it on the air. No matter how long it takes. But please, yeah, do reach out, and we've got one week left for you guys to get your iTunes reviews in for a T-shirt. I've got about eight T-shirts being printed Friday, so you can certainly throw few more on there if you guys get back with us. Hopefully this, we do apologize for getting it out late this week, but hopefully this will be up by Wednesday for you guys to hear. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Podbean, just search for the horror

returns. Next week, boy, we're going to take a different approach. It's time for some spy-five fun as we review Kingsmen, the Golden Circle, as well as the James Bond Classic Goldfinger. And just for fun. Philip. What else? I like gold. You got it, man. Where else

but a horror podcast can you hear us talk about Austin Powers Gold Member? So Carl, thanks for joining us, my friend. We really appreciate it. Hey, guys. Thanks for having me on. This is great. And Brian, until the horror returns again.

Good night.