The Reel Rejects - Why The Dark Knight Changed My Life

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Support The Dread Campain! https://shorturl.at/nFqIh The Dark Knight changed my life — literally. In this heartfelt deep-dive, Greg Alba (Reel Rejects) and writer-director Patrick Hogue explore the cultural earthquake that was Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), how seeing it in IMAX shaped Greg’s love for cinema, and why it remains one of the most impactful movie theater experiences ever. From Heath Ledger’s iconic Joker performance, Christian Bale’s Batman, to the unforgettable interrogation scene, the Gotham City opening shot, and the prologue before I Am Legend, we unpack why this Batman film redefined superhero movies forever. We also dive into IMAX as a format vs VOD, nostalgia vs spectacle, and compare experiences to movies like Barbenheimer, Cabin in the Woods, Iron Man, Batman Begins, Dark Knight Rises, Hereditary, Talk to Me, Evil Dead, and 28 Days Later. Plus, Patrick shares the logline and inspiration for his debut horror feature The Dread, influenced by A24 horror, The Babadook, It's a Wonderful Life, and Evil Dead 2. If you love Batman, Christopher Nolan, Heath Ledger, elevated horror, or movie nostalgia — this episode is for you. COMMENT below your most unforgettable movie theater experience & SUPPORT “The Dread” via the Seed & Spark campaign in the pinned comment! Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is the cold habitual and it is the cold of the cold at his summit. Coos light

in view a fruade celebrate to be able to have the legal for consume to the alcohol.

Thank you to Liquid IV for sponsoring this video more on them in just a bit. You know what I was thinking

about the other day is the dark night I want to talk about I want to talk about why the dark night kind of changed my life in the movie theater going experience there

keeps being a champion of what is what is the thing that's going to get people to go back to the movie theaters and i don't know the answer a lot of people don't know the answer it seems like hey you have to have crazy gimmicks and have people losing their shit at minecraft or something like that that's i don't know this is the future there's there's got to be some virgin like what's a big 10-fold movie and my mind started thinking about the dark night because sinners is killing at the box office right now right and i wanted to talk specifically about the experience of watching the dark night in iMacs in the theaters i want to take my mind back there i haven't talked about it in detail i wanted to go then i wanted to hear some impactful movie theater experience from you

all right um because in centers on the iMacs we saw iMac 70 millimeter at universal that's where nolan screens his movies to make sure they're all doing that's right that big aspect ratio change happens there's super awesome aspect ratio and the sound but whatever i sit down at universal iMacs nothing nothing compares to when you first watched the dark night on that iMac's screen so really the first experience for a lot of people in L.A. when they saw any bit of IMAX Dark Night was I Am Legend. Did you see I.M. Legend in theaters? Not in theaters. I would have been 13 and I don't think my parents thought I could go handle that movie in a theater. I was a really sensitive kid. Well, before I am of the prologue that they released before. Yeah. And I didn't know that when they released a pro. I didn't know they were going to do that. That wasn't a thing that I heard announced. And I would have loved to be surprised by that. It was the coolest surprise in the world. All right.

So when that starts playing, I wasn't even 100% sure because I'd never seen anything like that in the theater before where they're going to play on an entire scene. I kept thinking this is a weird trailer. I'm like, this is a trailer for like the Dark Night, right? Like that's the Joker. Right? Like that's the Joker. I'm trying to like piece it together. Like are they showing us a scene from the Dark Night right now?

And that first shot, see, the IMAX scope thing is a thing that people really sell people on right now. Sinners does it beautifully with their transitions at times it looks like a video game cutscene or not even a cutscene. It looks like the whole movie's a cutscene and then you're playing the video game when you're going there. There's an interactive quality. You're like, I'm there right now in a weird way. Exactly. It's so cool. But there's not that shock that the Dark Knight provided.

because when the dark night had the first shot of the opening city i saw this movie there's two different greggs when it comes to movie theater experiences there's gregg before youtube and gregg after youtube and gregg after youtube the second this channel started suddenly became about having to watch things and making sure my my brain was on to review it and talk about it and whatever even in the days and it was getting like 50 views it was a very different mindset moving forward i saw the dark night nine times in the theaters before there was a youtube channel and i have never done that with any movie it was solely because i loved it so much and that first opening scene almost every time i saw it there were people in the crowd that opening shot of gotham where

people were oh you could hear people murmuring people uncomfortably laughing at how scary it was to see this one giant shot now we're so used to it but damn back then it was something because look I was not I was not um uh I didn't have a great first time the first time I watched our night I saw it in a regular screen I had waited outside for like 12 hours and that was stupid because it was midnight and I was so tired so and John you were there right and I had been dipping in and out of sleep and it felt like a nightmare and i thought it was like a joker showing up at weird interval and it was such a dark movie from watching batman begins it was such a dark movie that i didn't really appreciate it so then i went back the second day on a regular screen

and it was so much better but i'm trying to replace that feeling of missing out on the first and then when i saw it on i max and then they had all those other scenes in the imax and just watching Christian Bale and Heath Ledger in the interrogation scene on the big screen, I knew this was a rare time where on this massive format, this format where you are truly sucked in from the sound and the visuals, that this is going to be a rare opportunity and I need to soak this in. So after work, back then you would have to go to, I would go to Costco to get these discount AMC tickets and they would allow me to get it and they didn't do reserve seating.

and I wanted my perfect seat. So I would get there a couple hours early, and six times on IMAX get there a couple hours early, and I would, I wouldn't go to the bathroom, even if I had to go. I had to absorb this film. And ever since Dark Night, I feel like I have thought about this movie

at least once a day since I saw it. It is just something that pops into my head every once in a while. It is undoubtedly, Like, when I talk about it, some people will, I'm not here to try to sound smart, obviously. I'm not trying to be like, because the themes and, you know, and with Batman's sacrifices and criminals and choice. Talking about the Kuslov effect and how Batman in the dark neck are next to each other. See, that stuff. I'm just talking about the movie theater experience was unrivaled to me back then with that specific film.

No other movie has been able to quite capture that. And whenever I sit in those IMAX seats, I'm brought back to that nostalgia. So that's why I say a lot like, hey, I don't shill for any studio, but I will show for a format. And that is the IMAX format. So, yeah, I think that was like the most impactful movie theater experience. I have other stories of impactful ones, but what's like an impactful movie theater experience for you? It's nowadays, it's very much looking at technology and like seeing something like sinners and how. having ten poles like The Dark Night,

like as points of comparison where you're kind of activated of like, oh, that's what movies can do. And especially being someone who has the subjective experience of like, I love movies, and like it's part of my DNA. It's part of just understanding that other people don't care about them

as much as I do, but then you have those rare experiences like seeing The Dark Night in IMAX where everybody, even if you're a movie fan or not, kind of has a collective, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're all like understanding like, this is different and that there's a kind of fundamental now point of comparison for and why like I think the dark night like stands so strong as a movie that you can think about every day because

they're still it's still kind of the best version of like a lot of those examples whether it's like other superhero movies were coming out talking about themes talking about like deconstruction and artistic intent and christopher nolan's batman being specifically his in comparison to now other versions but that that feeling of oh that's what movies can do like he keeps Chris Rennelan keeps saying that iMacs is just 3d without the glasses and that sense of feeling involved feeling like immersive and feeling like it's a medium that we still have not explored like the greater you know boundaries of and sort of that but for me the dark night just had that experience of like whoa wait you can do that with Batman you can do that with a movie like

love Batman begins I was 13 I was in that same summer as Iron Man. Like, the Dark Knight was one of those kind of activators for me in terms of like, oh, wait, other people take movies seriously in that I'm going to take the reality of this world kind of at face value. I'm someone who grew up with Batman and Robin, grew up with Batman forever, and just understood

that that is that category of films, but the Dark Night was the 13-year-old of unconsciously not thinking about IMAX as a format, unconsciously like not, you know, really thinking about the intent, behind all these decisions but understanding of why does this feel different it looks different it like is engrossing in that way so having and being obsessed with two-faced for a while after that movie of just that is the scariest thing i've seen in a pg-13 movie like ever an understanding of that was a

movie that kind of spoke to me in terms of like hey you're old enough to understand that the love interest does not make it out of movies you're you're old enough to start understanding that it gets complex when you're dealing with a toy box and you're dealing with something that represents ideals. And so the Dark Night is in that kind of pantheon where it's the less kind of obvious like, oh, that was a movie theater experience that actually shaped kind of how I was supposed to intake movies. So yeah, I object against when people say it's like only due to Heath Ledger's performance because, yes, we'll be like the millionth, billion person to say that it is undoubtedly one of the greatest performances of all.

time especially though like in the theater experience he there was there's a weird relationship with the audience at the time because we all knew that heath ledger had passed and this was his final huge on-screen role he had that uh terry gilliam one pernasses or whatever imaginary you know of dr parnuscus so i don't i know that was like eventually going to come out but this was something completely different this was this huge temple movie and he's playing the joker and this was our chance to experience Heath Ledger in his raw and one of his really raw performances

and he gave us that and you got to really feel like you were living in it when you were on the big screen with him especially in the IMAX format like the interrogation scene wasn't even done with IMAX cameras yeah but in the format it's still like the scope and the size and the ability pull you in but then even

the damn the the chase scene when the Slaughterhouse one and then with the bike all that fun stuff those sequences are not even that doesn't even have music in most of that scene and you were just wrapped in the sound design of this fight and the tension of this chase sequence that is not reliant at all on being bombastic with noise that are letting you take in the night i i'm trying to understand what was it about and on top of that too yeah because because in the theaters

It is also an incredibly menacing film. It's a very menacing dark movie. It's not an easy watch, but it's super watchable. That's what I mean. Like, there's not quite like it. It's so entertaining, yet it's a really kind of grim tale. It's almost the kind of, the phrase doesn't apply, but it works here. When people say it's greater than the sum of its parts, all of its parts are fantastic,

but it has this weird magic. And you're kind of illuminating something I've never thought of of just, It has that engrossing element where the technology is going into making sure the action sequences are like, you're in it. You're like in the chase scene. You're in the final Batman fight. But even if that interrogation scene isn't shot in IMAX, it still has that immersion quality just because of what Chris Minnallon is really good at directing, it turns out. And also just that element of, I don't know, it's the first example of like, oh, it's a different Joker than the one we're used. We're so used to now doing the comparison game to other movies.

but this is the first one that's like, no, no, no, you understand what has come before and this is how we're using it now. Sit in the moment, live with it, see how we're doing it specifically and understand that, like, this movie is trying to say something with the pieces it has versus, oh, it's Batman, you know he has to fight the Joker.

Fill in the blanks, we'll go in from there, but it's the fill in the blanks for this movie are the, you know, a hero lives long enough to become the villain. It has, again, all the themes, all the deeper things that, like, past the textual level it just again why each visual like you can have the comparison the two sides of oh that would can we swear yeah sure he's just fucking awesome in terms of a shot but then also

what does it mean what does it mean in terms of Batman psychology and then like joker psychology in terms of how we see society and it's that just again the proof of like this is what movies can do folks like this is Batman fighting joker there's car chases and everything and you can present it big but if you have the intentionality of like what all this iconography can do you're left 17 years later still being you know kind of raptured by maybe the third Batman not you know dark night rise is not resonating as much there's something about that movie at that time with those elements with Heath Ledger with everything that has kind of that lightning in a bottle that you know is what filmmaking is is people trying to intentionally catch lightning in a bottle

and for the first one to use iMacs as the biggest frame, the biggest sensor to capture stuff, they did it. And it's that kind of proof positive of, there's some things that are unplanned, but a lot of that was made by these human hands that came together and gave you this little masterpiece. And I don't know,

it's that chasing that kind of perfection, even though it might not be the perfect movie, but it's kind of the perfect movie in that way. And I don't know, like as a 13-year-old that just had that. I don't know what's going to beat this like godfather schmodfather it's it felt so a lot of people go back to like Batman begins is the thing that that did spawn this thing where people were like let's do our reboots and make them real and pretty that but dark night I think doubled down on feeling real yeah I think it felt more real than Batman begin still felt like a fantasy a comic book movie yeah with like some real more realistic Batman origin for sure but it's definitely had like something that felt a little fantastical about it and we could we could pick that apart all day but the dark night was like all right let's try to feel even more real and somehow it and i think dark night rises kind of swings back to a little more fantasy which i think

gives it kind of the criticism of how but when you go real it's hard to reintroduce yeah bane and like you know an atomic bomb flying through the city even though and chalking up Plop convenient points because it's fantasies. But I'm like, but Dark Night is a fantasy, sure, but it's attempt, though, is stripped down to feel even more grounded. And now to go back to a little bit more layers, again, I'm just sort of unpacking this. Now it's like a place to who we were at that time, right? Because maybe someone our age now who watches the Dark Night and, let's say none of the

IMAX movies has happened in Dark Night to come out now. I don't know if someone our age would be just as impacted. But specifically for me, what are you ever starting? I feel like I should know this. 2008. Same year as the first Iron Man. I was 17 when it came out. I would have turned 18 later that year, but I remember it's a summer movie.

So I was 17 when it came out. I was living in a home where eventually it would be foreclosed on because we were constantly worried about us going bankrupt. And I was cooking hot dogs in North Hollywood, a place called vicious dogs. And I was not going, I didn't finish high school. This is my only thing I had going, which was going to pay. nine bucks an hour and I was planning going to college. So I had like zero direction. Everything was looking up and up. I had zero direction. But what I had was 10 minute drive away

to look forward to for the next few weeks was this experience and this experience and this escape that truly did. It's weird to say inspire influence because then you want to follow that up with, like, sentences that make you sound smart of, like, here's what I did following the inspiration. But I didn't, like, write a Batman story. I didn't write a comic or a script that was at all inspired by The Dark Night. But for some reason, it is stuck around with me like a friend. It is stuck around with me and my memory. Like, sometimes I'll be just exercising and I'll hear music and I just get into it.

And then I'm just thinking about Batman in the Dark Night. Like, it is, it's that weird companion of a friend. It's like, when you say influence, I'm like, I'm not even sure exactly how it influence, but in some way it's changed my life because I've thought about it almost every day and I've done a lot ever since I've seen that movie. So there's something in that film that has somehow changed me and I don't even know exactly know what it is. It's the unconscious, it's the power of art. It's the unconscious knowing that somebody who participated in making that thing that just touched you, it's like, somebody gets me. Yeah.

Like even in that's the beauty of you come from the smallest town and or you come from Boise, Idaho, or, you know, Cincinnati, Ohio, it's, it's, like, when you see a movie that just connects with you, if you're, if you're in the worst state in your life, and, like, there are moments in my life where I just, no direction, no idea of, like, what I'm doing, but I see that there's a protagonist of a movie that just, oh, I get that guy, and I'm seeing him overcome, like, and that's just, you know, one element of a film, but then there are films where, ooh, that felt triumphant just in the creation of that thing and just to know that an entity outside of yourself can be triumphant in that kind of way i don't know like it's like the power of art is just this

unknowable thing it connected to me and i could try to reason it out but that's what therapy sessions are for or i could just kind of feel it in that where like the score comes on and like the the mood of a scene and that's where just i see like filmmakers as magicians where they're taking all the technical aspects to wow you. And it is just that do I want to intellectualize it? Do I want to answer all these questions to why a movie is hitting me versus just, I came out of that. And I just, I feel more connected with something, whether it is like a force greater than myself. But yeah, if somebody made that, maybe I'm capable of kind of doing the same thing, whether it's filmmaking or pursuing a career anywhere else. It gave me the feeling of a wish fulfillment, because

I grew up on the Batman, the animated series, and I would read Batman comics. I could distinctly remember being in school and just bringing comics and not paying attention in school and reading some Batman comics. I can't tell you the names of the artist. What the hell the names of the books were? I just know that that's what I did. Because it would be from my aunt. My aunt who was super into comics, or my brother, Jabby. So there's someone who had comics, and then I would just take the comics.

I'd watch, like, Batman Masked the Fantasm a lot. So I already had a big affinity for Batman. And that, not even the Tim Burton one game, and granted, I never saw Tim Berger one in theaters, and I only saw it at home when I was a kid, and I loved it when I was a little kid. But the dark night was, and I think Batman kind of pierces the veil of any, of like, pretty much any comic character. Spider-Man probably is the equal one of people who grew up on. a character in some fashion, whether it be television show or comic books.

Batman really pierces the veil, though, I think is like the top tier, biggest one of all time. And that was the first time with so many comic book movies now, they just don't quite have that it factor that the Dark Knight specifically did, where it really felt like, and especially in the theaters, it really felt like I am in Gotham City and I am with Batman. with the joker this is it i'm watch i'm watching them right now and in this rare opportune time and i'm i'm noticing like re releases are actually doing all right in the box office now and i think they should be doing more of that but by the way guys this is patrick this is patrick has been on the

channel before we're actually last of us two's uh have you been watching the show oh the i haven't seen the last episodes okay spoilers please but yes keeping up with so pat and i did a review of the game here on this channel years ago. Very different type of vibe with the channel. A little more intimate. A little more a computer with some dinky mics. I really think Abby is

a well-developed character. And yeah, we were really much on the defense for that game when a lot of people were very much on the offense. People were very angry. They're angry and now people who haven't played no one. And now they know.

That's called empathy, folks. But Pat has actually been in town. I might as well talk about it now. Pat has been in town. He's been from, I read this one of the earlier drafts. He did an excellent job. Everyone knows, like, who watches this channel. My biggest passion is in screenwriting.

And kind of what we connected on, like outside of anything else. Yeah. Like, I don't even know what it was. I remember, like, going to you about something. And then next thing you know, we're like, we've written so many, like, things together. Scripts being pat, like, can you read a version? of my draft like we've collaborated on stuff but it's also it's like hey i just banged out like a new draft can you read it and give me nose by tomorrow i'm like all right let me sit down

like go through a script and and i thought like well pat just come on and and then let's just talk how we would talk because everything every other version sounded like some weird insincere influencer way to like fucking just insert you into something i'm like i'm not going to just have you like interrupt a video or so we can talk to you like why don't we just talk the way we normally talk and then it's like the way we normally talk does vibe well with how we talk here on the channel that's where i'm like i did gregg i'm here to go with the flow like this is the first time that i've done anything like this so i'm like i don't know how to be like my own marketer anyway so anything that's the easiest like way in to be like can we just have a conversation and

i have my beats and i can be you know as buttoned up but there's yeah my whole process right now is to be authentic and to not kind of be performative in weird ways. So it is like, you know, like I want to talk about it like of just what I'm here to talk about today and like, you know, getting feedback and understanding, you know, differences and opinion of stuff. But, you know, sharing passion and, you know, talking about the dark night and something of like, you know that. And I didn't tell Pat. It was like, I just knew I wanted to talk about the dark night, but I didn't tell Pat like, hey, we're going to talk about the dark night today. Something I don't get this into the flow. It's like, gosh, what, like.

Like, Akira Kurosawa film, are we going to try to, it's like, oh, Batman. Okay. But, I mean, part of my thinking is I wanted to sort of do some, because because of the big drive of this channel is the movie reactions. So sometimes people have to skip out in the movie theater for the VOD experience. Like, John has drawn the short straw for sinners. I have drawn, John the short straw for Thunderbolts. So you haven't seen it yet.

So I'm not seeing Thunderbolts in the theaters. Other people are. John and Roxy and Coy did so they are doing coverage for the so we're doing both you know discussions I always think about if like who has to wait like a month sometimes it is a little tense for some people not going to lie and I I'm a big champion though of the movie theater experience and I wanted to kind of do something where we just because I have other movie theater experiences that'll never leave me yeah dark night is probably one of the most influential ones um drag me to hell John that with that one we could talk about that's that could be a video um the 28 days later

like I don't remember the movie at all but I remember the experience and why and uh return to the king like I was long list and I thought maybe through that journey we can start finding like natural ways of oh here's how there's some maybe ideas of how people can go back to the theaters and stuff so I feel like it's a good way to support it rejectionation summer's Coming up fast. Which means we've got beach days, hikes. Maybe one or two outdoor shoots lined up, maybe. And if there's one thing I've learned while getting in shape this year,

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Liquid IV actually helps, so you can go to Liquidiv.com and use code rejects to get 20% off your first order. That's liquid ivy.com code rejects. Thank you again, Liquid Ivy for partnering up with us yet again. Love you so much. And so I want to hear like one of your experiences because we've made it all about the dark night, but Pat's been working on cranking away.

He moved too neat. Can I talk a little bit? To give, let's lay the groundwork. Pat is not from here. And then he lived here for a while and then we became real close and we were right. I was really bummed when he moved. I was really, really sad. I don't know to see what he moved.

but I knew he had to do it to do his own life. He moved to New York, and I honestly thought a guy leaves L.A. He's going to move to New York. He's not going to do shit. You're not the only one who thought. That's how a lot of people do. They end up not doing shit.

Have fun killing your career. Good luck. And then next day I know, that's like really hardcore, like getting even more disciplined and more intense. And he ends up writing this script that these won't shut up about to me and he's so unbelievably passionate and it's like a dramatic psychological sort of supernatural horror it's a lot of different things that are are not the dark night but it's it's

it is very much the patrick ho script that i would expect and like influences of things like batman is in it though the yeah he's who can now use him uh yeah but you know like things like hereditary talk to me bob adduke cabin in the woods cabin and in the woods. You know, a lot of these kind of genre, it's 824-ish horror is kind of elevated horror is the weird term, but also can't help but kind of have like a little glottal like, you know, label to that. But we can show a nice little JPEG on screen, but we have this poster here of the Dread. The Dread. My debut feature film that is not filmed yet, but we are in the process said this is me doing my first marketing campaign, but

Can't be totally honest for you. When you first had the dread in your title when you first pitch it, I thought that was like, my God, Pat, that could be such a pretentious ass, silly, stupid title. I don't know what you're thinking, but I'll read your dumb script. And then I read it. And I was like, no, this works. It's very much the line between B-movie Schlock and pretentious, like, full of himself. Like, that's my vibe where it's like, I take myself too seriously and I don't take myself seriously enough. I had a long conversation with John about that just yesterday about like, I have the silliest job in the world that I take way too serious, which means I take myself too serious. Because you know how much fun you can have while doing it, but you know that fun, you know, what we talk about in terms of getting ready to perform for something. You have to do all of the work so that you can get there to play. And it is, it is when you see people that are not ingrained in the process of it, they think, oh, it must be so much fun. And once you kind of cross over the veil of just understanding what it takes to make an operation like this or a film production, like you do realize that, oh, it's not just a gilded gate that just opens. And now you are in the land of like creators doing all of it.

It is hustling. It is figuring out what doesn't work. It's being emotionally heartbroken. It's like, it's a career. It's a job. And it is the assemblage of, you know, all the things that didn't work. and now us kind of being at the moment of no we dreamed to be here this is the thing but and like there are those days where I kind of like I'm exhausted I have to fly to L.A. to promote my like

movie that I'm trying. What am I talking about? No no I'm excited to be here and it is the that relation of oh man like this takes a lot of work but I would not do anything else. Dude tell me tell me why you wanted to do this story and then tell me what it's about tell the people I mean I know it's about but tell me as if I've never heard what it's about first tell me why you wanted to do it to you know to do the most top level version of us being talked you know being activated by movies of this is a movie about someone that I relate to in terms of a main character that needs other people to understand that they understand him like it is it's just that feeling of man I

And it sounds so simple, but it really is until you know what you kind of want to make, like this phrase of, oh, I'm making a movie for me. Like, this is a movie that I really wish 13 year old me could like see in terms of, oh, somebody does get me in that, wow, I'm dealing with that same emotional issue or I'm dealing with, you know, I wish somebody could verbalize it. And when we're talking about A24 and we're talking about this elevated horror of it ends and you have all these discussions and forum posts and you have to kind of. sift through, you know, the interpretation of it all. I love those films. I love discussing. I love everybody kind of coming out and having a different idea. And on the opposite end, I love Friday the 13th.

I love Nightmare and Elm Street. I love when it's just blood for blood's sake. Like horror is just this range of just something that I've been drawn to, not consciously, but just kind of instinctually in terms of letting people suffer for me to kind of learned from those lessons. And for me, this is a film that I really want to exist in the middle of that of it's, you know, without getting too much into it yet, it's about a blood ritual, it's time travel, it's flowing, it's very much like, no, you're getting the outer limits, Twilight Zone kind of freak of the week vibe to it. But then having the strong thematic core

that is, you know, a personification of trauma. Like, you know, hereditary and like, you know, Ariaster, Robert Eggers films or Jordan Peel especially are really good at being, let's be interpretive with how you feel and then a lot of those films people can come out of it triumphant or they come out of it very you know despondent like there's a very nihilistic view and I can be cynical I can be a pessimistic person but I don't know this film and every story that I really want to tell is I always think there should be a point to suffering and I think horror movies are the perfect avenue for that on top of giving actors the ability to go there giving you know

having that range of if we're going to go to these depraved depths we should have the elation of overcoming those depths and that's for me like that is the tone that is the vibe of

as I look forward to the kind of stories I want to tell and what I want this to be the embodiment of I really want this to be a fun awesome horror movie

that like you can bring your mom to in terms of that we come out of it and you're like huh there's some stressful moments but it was worth it

in the end without getting into anything about what it's about What's about? I like that. I like that a lot. I like hearing what moves you. To give the kind of log line, like initial pitch, the dread is about a young man who turns to a sinister time travel ritual in order to prevent a traumatic moment in their life they know as the dread. But as they go back throughout their life, they start to realize they might be a little bit more responsible for this dread than they previously believed. So basically, it's a wonderful life, someone reflecting on their life mixed with Evil Dead 2.

That's the comparison I'm using where it's about a young man, kind of without getting two spoilers, starting in Meteores of he's turning to this time travel blood ritual to stop this trauma from his past. And he has somebody who's kind of instigating this ritual, who's giving him the tools he needs to do it. But as he goes back to all these moments that have been kind of fueled by this trauma and been fueled by this anger, he's going back to them with a new perspective. And each time he's able to go to these moments that ended terribly, they actually resolve with a conversation. They resolve with an empathy. And for me, that's my philosophy of just the ultimate failure of anything is not being willing to listen to somebody else. The ultimate failure of just everything wrong in society comes down to like, oh, I'm not listening to you. I'm not seeing it from your perspective.

I might not agree. I might like, but empathy and under, like, I've had so many. moments in my life of I lead trying to like be a nice guy and I try to you know do the best I can to not hurt people or you know and then I have moments where someone's like hey you know that kind of hurt me or like made mistakes and me feeling that defensiveness of like no I led with compassion what are you talking about but it removing yourself and seeing it from their perspective and understanding it's like it's only because I'm in my own head that I thought I did the right thing taking that moment to kind of have empathy and see it from other people's perspectives makes me grow as a person

makes me you know see that we're all just trying to figure it out together and that's very kind of top level that's very like you know kind of psychological in that way but it's a movie that's kind of the embodiment of that of somebody so closed off to other people's mindsets that they have to turn to something like an evil blood ritual to be able to like prove their point and that's you know like that's me trying to find that balance of it's a horror movie it's a blood it's evil dead it's all that but it's thematic it's very much you know there's a humanness behind trauma like i don't know like it's all these ideas that are fit into what i hope is a 90 minute like little cabin in the woods thriller that has some expansive themes and all that but it's me kind

of feeling like i have something to say for the first time like i've written a lot of scripts before. I've made short films, but it's now kind of channeled through, oh, that's the kind of message I needed to hear. And the best way to kind of for me to get that message is Friday the 13th, but with a little thematic underpinning to it. Well, guys, Patrick right now is here as well to mention something's launching for it. Next Monday, May 5th, we are launching our seed and spark campaign. This might be out after. Which is fine. It's going for 45 days. We're going to launch this, the five days left on the

campaign. We're going to really prolong the upload of this video. It's a campaign retrospective. How did it go? It could have been nice for a little bit more support. But no, this is like for me to be as transparent as possible, like knowing you, kind of calling in the favor of like, hey man, this is kind of the first time I feel

the confidence that this is the first step I want to take forward. We've been building our Seed and Spark page, which is what it's launching on. We filmed the whole video for it that gives the kind of brief pitch that I gave, even use the, it's a wonderful life meets Evil Dead 2 comparison. So that's a good beat to use. Don't blame me for using it twice. But yeah, no, it's mainly like I'm here to kind of what we're talking about of when I moved to New York and had that feeling of, oh, I'm starting over again. There was four years of a life I built out here. There was momentum. There was like I was acting in short films. I was doing more acting. I was writing. We were working on stuff together. COVID hit. And then a lot of kind of

priorities got re-evaluated for me of my families in New York. I would like to be closer to them. And it took a little while for me to kind of get back to the place that I was when I left L.A. But I had this community here and I had this whole family here and I came back multiple times. And now I'm at this place of, ooh, I have the thing to kind of channel all. of my experience into this film has really been a nice what have i done before who have i talked to what if and in spite of what this year has been in terms of like a lot of crazy world events it's been really great to have this goal this like purpose to like work towards and to come here and to share that on monday to get back to the the pitch and the the promotion of we're launching the

seat and spark i'm going to be going throughout la putting up these posters that'll have a QR code and there will be a link to it. But yeah, we're just trying to raise a little bit of money to... I will contribute to your campaign. Thank you, Greg. The $5 is really going to be. Oh, I got it on me. I just hand you it.

I don't know if they'll classify that as a contribution, but it is in my heart. No, man. I fully support you on this, and I hope that this campaign actually takes off for you because you've done like a couple of short films that have done. That's would have been probably better to mention earlier, right? right because you've had a couple of short films I've performed pretty well I was I was looking through the comments on oh my god I am the worst friend uh it was on the fucking you don't know my catalog I don't remember the title I can tell you exactly what so uh yeah I was like I can tell you

everything it happens in it um but there's what what channel was that uploaded that was on crypt TV crypt TV which uh often would like usually distribute um some pretty awesome horror short films. There's like channels like Crypt TV. There's Alter and shutter on YouTube. You did you did one. You started in one for Altar. Yeah. And then you also wrote and directed one that went to Crypt TV. And if you guys watch it gives you great idea of like Pat style and the comments for a short film that was really DIY. It turned out great. And even looking at the comments on that, you don't know that many people to have it be fake. It is. It is. It is. It is overwhelmingly positive in those comments.

And it's, it is cool to see, especially on a lot of the horror shorts, kind of just go for like the blunt to see something like that, which was more deliberate and more along the tone of what your thing is here. I'm like, okay, yeah, so Patton knows what he's doing to be able to pull this off. And that's some guy coming on here begging for money or some shit. That's, and it's me being as transparent as possible as there are so many people out there that like when YouTube came around and I was 12, I was like, oh, I could make movies. Oh, I can like, there are people literally just with a camera and other people can see it and

have that response. And this film has been kind of the channeling of all the lessons I learned where I made that short film in L.A. And you were super gracious. And like, after I showed it to you, you called me and said, hey, man, like, a lot of people talk about doing stuff, but you actually did something. Like, congratulations. And just all those, like, little emotional boons.

that we talk about, just kind of me realizing that just because you finish something, you carry that experience over. And that was an example of, I kind of gave the film to the first person who was interested in it. And CripTV was like, oh, yeah. You can upload it, but it's also like, you have to change the aspect ratio. You have to change the, and like all these kinds of things. And we own the rights to it for a year.

And, like, didn't do a festival circuit, didn't do anything. And now it's the first time where, ooh, it's a film. market it's a product you're bringing it to the market and try like i come from such a passionate place and like seeing youtube it's just this ability to like get the feedback and see the response and like to see people comment on something i made like on that scale was a real like ah wow this is the first of that experience in that way and now i'm here promoting something for the first time in that way the dark night the dark it's you know guys we worked really hard iMacs was really great

The Roman Empire of Nerd movies Oh, Caesar, my Sears. And, you know, like a lot of people, like we are with a lot of even just brand deals, honestly, a lot of people hit me up. This happens with anyone with any remote following. You know,

you can have like 20,000 subscribers and you're going to start encountering this. And then if you have any remote following, encounter where people hit you up and they want to promote their thing. And most of the time, I'm not like an iron fist kind of man, like, no. But I do like to really have some type of emotional investment in it in some way. If I'm going to say yes, beyond like, I'll do my buddy is solid. You know, and so it's a

be I was like, well, I have something that I want to do here. And I want to promote Pat's thing because I read Pat's thing. So let's, yeah, let's figure something out. And it also is a level of vulnerability and commitment that it takes for you to do what you did. So yeah, you have my full support man and i hope other people go support and go check out his short films if you have any doubt about his capability those sort of films were a while ago they were just the most popular ones and so his skills have only evolved since then as craft has already evolved since then but i want to make sure you guys hit the link in the pink comment description box and pat we got to tie it back now got to bookend it what's a movie theater how about

how about we narrow it down a little bit more than what doesn't have to you're We're going to have to clear, I want to clear your mind. I want to clear your mind. I don't want you to answer this question because you're like, what can I answer that will make it sound like I will know what to do with my film. The trip. I just want you to be honest and give like an honest experience. What is a, but still will ask, what is a horror film movie theater experience that you had that changed or impacted you or just for some reason comes to mind, even if it's just a fun one? What is the one that? this comes to you. Cabin in the woods. Cabin in the woods. Tell me about when you saw Cabin in the Woods in theaters. Saw it twice opening weekend. Did you plan on seeing it twice? So you saw it and then you were like, I got to go back. Literally, literally all of my intellectualism in terms of seeing a movie has recently given a way to, am I just viving with it? Is it keeping my entertainment, like my attention? How old were you roughly? That, that would have been 2011 or 2012. That would

be 16 or 17. So like at that kind of threshold of, oh, what is college? Like, what am I doing next after this? You were in high school during this in Canada? No, in, in, uh, joking. No, I'm a trick. The common joke is everyone thinks Pat lived in was right again. It's the fun. Once everybody finds out, I'm Canadian. They're like, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. They think you just like grew up there your whole life. No, I moved to the United States when I was five and it's been great. There have been no critiques I've had of the United States. but was in high school and like again like grew up with horror movies kind of was always a scaredy cat a little overly emotional kid but that was a movie that just just the whole time

when it ended it was like no no I want more what is this this deconstruction this like kind of piercing through the veil of let's talk about what horror movies are while still making sure that we're a horror movie and like that movie is the perfect and it's still used in the lexicon today of describing of like in comparison to cabin in the woods like how well do you do the five friends going out like to that or how well do you do meta talk and humor and for me as someone who loves like the most gruesome dark movies and again loves the most schlocky like that found that threshold of like it gets gross it gets like self-referential but just has this like light touch and this love for the humanity behind it and the humor behind it and can I spoil it or like

yeah sure about it without like it's just the way it ends of like you can do that you can just end a movie and like it's not like not concerned

with like anything outside of itself it really is just this perfect encapsulation of its idea and then sees it through to a very logical end in a way that's not afraid to kind of piss people off

but the movie is so lighthearted that it's really not trying to piss people off I don't know it's just it's a perfect object and there are some movies like I look at something like whiplash I think is a movie that's like kind of a perfect object of it's not wasting your time it has a premise it gets in it gets out and it moves through it as fast as possible while still having the beat or two that really grounds it of no these are real people and I don't know like cabin in the woods which is that like no horror movie has really hit that high for me in terms of the four quadrant quality even though that's a movie that did okay when it came out, but like, to me, anyone could watch it, even though that's a movie that has decapitation, that has nudity, that has, like, people getting sliced through the throat.

Like, it just knows how, like, how to handle that in a way that I just see is super, like, like, making a souffle of, it's a very delicate object that you have to use with a lot of craft, and there's not many ingredients you've got to use, but if you use them perfectly, it's just, like, this perfect kind of object. I don't know. Like, that movie just is the tone that maybe I'm not trying to hit, but proved to me as like, oh, someone sees horror movies in that full spectrum emotional way, whereas a lot of people are, like, kind of denigrating towards horror movies.

Why specifically the theater for this movie? Why that theater experience? Like, I mean, let's say you could watch that at home and maybe had the same review of the film that you just gave right now. What was it about being in the theater that night when you saw it? I think it's just, and you know, the Dark Night is the perfect comparison because everyone goes into a movie theater with an expectation. We all know what a movie is. We all know, you know, it's like the beats that kind of, even subconsciously, like people who aren't in depth with movies,

understand there's a character, conflict, change. Like, we all kind of have a prerequisite. and as everybody who loves movie theaters who kind of champions them it's like it's kind of a church it's kind of like this like collective okay preconceived notions at the door like what do you have for me and for a movie that is a roller coaster and for a movie that kind of sets you up like you've seen evil dead or you know the premise you know like you're going into a horror movie called cabin in the woods five people show up at a cabin in the woods and they're going to start dying like but to have everyone kind of have the same realization for a movie that is like an ogre

and like an onions got layers like that just pulls back it's like that's that collective when you're showing a movie to a friend and they're like not watching during the parts you really want them to watch that is a movie that is all about all the parts that I love like that is a movie consisting of nothing but oh and then there's this theme and then there's this moment and it just keeps escalating and for me again that realization of someone else sees a horror movies like this to share that with other people to like oh this is possible to do in a movie it's just that it like in the most simple way like surface level possible it just brings people together it's the like i'm you know i love horror manga i love like body horror i love do you

recall if people were laughing in the theater yeah no it's i never saw in the theater that that collective of just it's it has the stoner character fran crayons who should show up in more movies like that's it you know it's the Joss Whedon kind of like stable of people but then early Chris Hemsworth and it's like oh he has this light touch of these characters a little bit more defined than what you would see

in other like horror movies and you can just kind of feel that buzz through the theater of just like wait why are they actually speaking witty why are they actually like having this characterization why are like they're sorry you

I hate to interrupt but I'm going to okay I'm doing it all right I love it yeah I could have

I could have been like you know what never mind continue Patrick shut the fuck up it's

I suddenly got a massive insecurity but the thing I'm going to forget that's why I wanted to say it is is I don't think about that about the movie

the big part why i wanted to start doing these talks is to is to uncover like the experiences again and to see what is like we don't experience that often now and that what we do experience with these specific ones is i'm trying to figure out like what is what is this thing about cabin in the woods that you're getting that other people like couldn't you get this at home on blue ray but the after effect yeah that even if you're not talking with the people in the theater where you could feel the energy of the people around you and that that buzz that elation of what you're talking about or even if you hear like whispers or murmurs of people just having a good time or you could feel the like feeling the energy because the energy is very physical the energy is very tangible

and it can warp your state of being and yeah you can you can achieve that at home you can I think you absolutely can. I was playing movies. I've seen that. It put me in a great mood afterwards. I saw a heretic recently, and I was like, damn, this movie really freaking is. That one really stuck with me.

But there is the communal part of it, of when you are, I hear a lot of people being like experiencing it together, but when the lights come up, when the lights come up after it's all done, and just being around the vibe is kind of a thing that's unspoken of.

It's unspoken. It's a very, like, to use the metaphor of the theater being the church of, like, you just all just heard a sermon. And, like, the point of a sermon is to give you a relatable, you know, parable for everybody, even if we're in different places, to kind of have a relation to.

And, like, to just everybody collectively see a character, like, overcome something. Like, that gives us all unity in a way that is unspoken and just unconscious, let alone if it's something that just extra speaks to me and extra has that energy, and I get to extra share that with everybody, like, that imprints way more than any kind of conscious statement that someone could try to, like, vibes, I remember moments in my life from vibes more than I do, like, conscious details.

Definitely. That's why I was saying with 28 days later, that's it. Like, I don't, I want to rewatch it because I don't remember, like, pretty much the whole movie. Outside of, like, of fragments of the opening scene. but I remembered so much of what else you're talking about right and yeah like because it magnifies too it magnifies the energy like it is supposed to be like maybe that's why that Minecraft shit is taking off because there's something concert like about it and that is the everyone knows the difference between listening to your favorite band versus seeing them live

like I know these songs but damn when it's live the participation of it sort of those different things of like people are singing along and people are usually drinking or something whatever it doesn't matter but in a theater that's its own version of a concert where if it's a comedy for example if it's a comedy we get a collectively

share in the last like I don't really get as scared I get weirdly more scared when I'm doing reactions for some reason because I'm so focused and we're in the theaters I'm not that emotive and And I didn't get scared during sinners, but to hear other people screaming, having that effect was like, ah, yeah, I wouldn't get this at home by myself. It just enhances your relationship with the movie, too, because it's like, yeah, it's like, I'm, they're vulnerable enough to, like, have that reaction not consciously with me, but, like, around me.

And, like, that's just, it's, it distills back down to campfires and just, like, telling stories just to, just to. have a commonality with each other. It's, I don't know, there's that primal, just art bringing people together, but being on the opposite side, like, that's where I would love to be the orchestrator of that. I'm like, no, I'm going to make you all feel happy right now. And like, I'm going to make you all feel happy or sad right now.

And it's, I don't know, yeah, that's just that collect, we all now have a commonality after two hours where, you know, we might feel differently about it, but the experience was the same. And I just, I think we're always just looking to like be connected more with people, and like, let alone a theater kind of being the ideal way to have the presentation of that media. It is just, again, the chapel church aspect of it of just, huh, we all experience that.

And now, like, I might hate you outside of this, but we have this one commonality. And I feel it's can, when you see something like The Dark Night and everybody kind of understands that that is a game changer, it's everybody having that realization together on top of what the movie is also doing. And I think, I don't know, just like, it's those moments of when I have an awakening, seeing, you know, cabin in the woods and other people don't, that's okay, but I got to share that in the same room with them. And, like, you can have as much of an internal, like, compass for what that means for you, but I just, I know I love movies, like, so much and having to understand that people don't care about them as much, but when they're in the theater with me, it's like, oh, I can pretend that they do care about it as much as I do. You're right. Like, that is the part of the movie theater experience I have so not been thinking about how you are weirdly having a connection with other people. Yeah. I never viewed it in that lens before.

I've heard of, of course, like the communal experience and stuff, but movie experiences have now really become so individualistic in our experiences. hence like lack of theaters the streaming the video on demand and all this stuff and like fortunately what we do here we're usually watching with someone you know and it's still like it's different when it is a kind of a group bond experience even if you don't talk to them before or after it is a paranormal activity my god that's another one just popped into my head of like oh that's a great one i'll never forget uh because a lot of these favorite movie theater experiences aren't even my favorite movies which is the weird part you look at barbenheimer of just like what a what a moment for everyone to kind of be on the same page.

And it's just so easy to not be on the same page with, you know, social media and society, but to have kind of what Sinners is doing of, oh, this is kind of required viewing. There's a little bit of an aspect of I don't want to miss out. And I am firmly of the belief that people being unified is, you know, results in joy versus like being more isolated,

resulting in less joy. but, and just movies being the excuse that socially for us to, like, have a reason to come together of just, regardless of what's being shown, it's like, well, it's a format that we all agree upon, like, we can have a collective just kind of understanding with. And I don't know, like, it's, I'm making it too psychological and too, you know? No, there's a reason why it had been such a savior during, like, the Great Depression. There's a reason why it is, it is a part of society, you know, like watching, it's part of the fun parts about watching, like, Star Trek or Star Wars to me when I go, it's kind of weird in all these galaxies that a lot of them don't seem to have, like, television programs or some weird, like, box of entertainment, because that's how we are as human beings. we have this box of entertainment that gives us stimuli. But every cautionary tale, like in Wally or in like Ready Player 1 is like, ah, everyone's siloed off.

They're not like having a collective experience. And it's like, oh, what torture. Whereas some people are like, oh, that would be fantastic. Right, right. Well, dude, I had a, I had a great time talking with you. Did you have a good time? Yeah. I think we got into the flow.

This is like, you know, like admittedly, like I'm intimidated doing this for the first time. but in appreciating you giving me the opportunity to talk about something I care about so much. I didn't seem intimidated. That's a weird thing to say. Oh, thank God. Yeah, he's a great, great job acting. Thank you. I have one straight note for you guys. Hit me with a job.

It's the imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Parnassus. It was the Heath Ledger movie. I said Parnascus. I'm sorry, everybody. Anyway, guys, go support, Pat. Go check out. You can follow them on social media.

Go check out the Seed and Spark campaign in the description box and pin comment. Patrick, it's great seeing you, buddy. Great seeing you too, Greg. Anyone who else wants to chat? DM me.