Too Scary; Didn't Watch - IS GOD IS (w/ Mallori Johnson)

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

We got to talk to the absolute superstar Mallori Johnson about this special movie, which we HIGHLY recommend going to see in theaters if you can!Movie Intro @ 22:05Trivia @ 23:20Recap starts @ 27:24Interview with Mallori @ 2:01:00 TW: Domestic violenceFollow the show: @TSDWpodcast on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.Check out our Patreon for bonus episodes and additional content!Rate Too Scary; Didn’t Watch 5 Stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and leave a review for Emily, Henley, and Sammy.Advertise on Too Scary; Didn't Watch via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. This is Emily, Henley, and Sammy. And you're listening to Too Scary Didn't Watch. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Too Scary Didn't Watch, the horror movie recap podcast for those Too Scared to Watch for themselves. I'm Emily and I am too scared to watch scary movies. I'm Henley and I'm also too scared to watch scary movies.

Oh, the silence is deafening. Sammy's not here, but it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. She's not here just for this intro. of the episode. Very confusing. She will be here for the recap. A little peek behind the curtain. Sometimes we are not able to record those at the same time. So it's okay. She'll be here. I promise

you just have to make it through the next like, I don't know, 15 minutes of just me and Henley talking. And if you can't fucking stand that, there are timestamps in the show notes for when we begin the recap. First, before we get in

to that, I actually wanted to start with just a little bit of haunted housekeeping. Yeah, please. This is for me too. I don't even know what she's going to say. I'm throwing Hanley for a loop. Little bit of haunted housekeeping. Okay, look, summer's approaching fast. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking what the fuck's happening with Helchella. Yes. And look, I'm not to put the cart before the horse. We, an official update, an official announcement will be coming. But I just, I feel that people are beginning to get a little uneasy with a lack of information. And I never, life is hard enough. Everything is stressful enough. We are, we don't want to add to that. So just take a deep breath. It's happening. I promise you it's happening. Woo, the crowd goes wild. The crowd is going wild. So just, we got you. It will look a little different this year. Okay, don't freak out. Heltale Tokyo Drift. It is going to occur before actually last year's Helltale in the timeline of the podcast. It's going to confuse you, but it's okay. It will look a little different this year.

We, too, were not expecting an onslaught of new horror releases in May. We had a new episode, new release horror movie recap last week. We've got one this week. We've got one next week. And we've got one the week after that. Look, it came out of freaking nowhere. Yeah. It's kind of like Helchella's happening now, but unspoken.

Yeah. So it's like, it's a little mini, mini preview Helcella. The official Helchella will be later in the summer. And again, bigger better than ever. International into Tokyo. So just, you know, it's every way you got you and it's good and it's going to be great. And the fact that we're covering new releases now doesn't mean that we're not going to do Haltell. It just means that they're happening now.

And baby, you got to roll with the punches. So I just wanted to say that. Little titty bit fief. Just a collective fief for everyone. also sometimes I know I know sometimes when it's like wait a minute wait a minute there's three hosts I love my three hosts I want my three hosts there's only two of them what's going on people are freaking out everybody don't freak out everything's fine everything's fine here's the thing historically in the coming on seven years of doing this podcast and can you freaking believe that this summer marks seven years well I know that's what they don't tell you about podcasts when you start is that they go until you die. They go until you die. You actually don't decide when it stops.

You just die. You just die. That's just how it works. It's a lifelong contract. It's a lifelong contract, which we have sold our souls and we are thrilled to have done so. Historically, we've been putting out six episodes a month minimum. Now. With like no breaks. Yeah, with no breaks, which we love to do.

We love this more than anything. this is we actually if you guys can believe it this is not our job this is extracurricular for us and we love to do it and I love to do it and I've already been talking too much sorry but I just want everybody to know with that we do this because we love it and we love you and we want to keep it up forever and we will because we have to until we die but we are busier now than ever before as three adults who did not know that we'd be doing this podcast for seven years and our lives have changed and our careers have grown and we our families have grown. And, you know, we live on two different coasts, three different schedules. We tend to only record on Sundays. And I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but typically there's only four in a month. And so getting six episodes in sometimes is pretty tricky. We wake up early in the morning to do it. Sometimes sometimes do it in the evening after work, but then to then Hanley's so tired, it's, we're doing a little bit of a juggling act. And we love to do it. And we'll do it forever. But sometimes when it's like, we can't, we got to do five this month, not six. I'm so, so sorry. It's not because we're falling apart or we are disappearing or we're

here for you forever, but sometimes we're here for you five times a month instead of six. And we are so sorry and we love you so much. And we are doing everything we can to give you everything we've got. And we'll try to do our best to like give you a heads up about when we will be, you know, taking a week off or whatever. But just know that it's not, there's no greater meaning behind. There's no greater meaning behind it. And it's like we love this and we love you and we love each other. And we always want to all three of us be here. We would do this.

I'd do this every freaking day of my life if I could. I know. We should become like those Twitch streamers and just do it eight hours a day every day. Yeah. Maybe someday, but not yet. And so I just wanted to just put a little note out there because I know change is hard. We're all stressed. We're like, what's going on?

That's all that's going on. there's nothing else going on. Everything's great. That was a beautiful monologue. It was a long monologue. I just felt the need to speak to my friends, speak to the people to that you know that everything is great. We're just a little busy and that's okay.

And this life things ebb and flow. No one knows what's around the corner. We've got to be here in the present moment with you, which is what we're doing. Yeah. And that's all I have to say about that. Thank you for sticking with us while we, you know, go through an ebb instead of a flow. Yeah. We'll be back to a flow. We'll be back to a flow. God, we love a flow. We love a flow. Yeah. That's all. Great. Great. I love it. I love it. No notes.

Great. Great. Well, it was perfect. Henley, did anything scary happen to you this week? So I guess the thing that I want to talk about is I went to a screening of a movie, which is so I'm very thrilled that we have been invited to some press screenings. So we've gotten to see some of these movies early, which feels like, man, wild. Peek behind the window, love it more than anything else. I feel honored to be invited, honored to be included. very excited. You know, one drawback, unfortunately, is that it means going to see a horror movie.

So I don't know whether you guys know this, but horror movies aren't, you know, they're not usually the thing that I'm... You don't love to go watch them. I'm not seeking them out to see them by myself. However, that being said, like getting to go into New York by myself to see a movie in this day of age, that is a real fucking treat for me. And so I went into New York to see a 6 p.m. screening of something had plenty of time, had plenty of time, left myself ample time. I do take a small weed gummy. Yeah, I'm sure. Sure, sure, sure.

Upon arrival. Because I'm like, I want to have like a little tiny, like just a little wheat. You know, it's a small. Just a small one. Just a small one. Just a small one. And have dinner, you know, like have like a nice early dinner. So I do all of that.

What would we have for dinner? I went to sugar fish, which I love that. Just like easy, you know. No, I love it. A million times. Gotta say the sugar fish I went to was like in the dark. It was like in a basement. It was so dark.

It was a beautiful day outside. I walk into this restaurant. Literally like I'm like, I'm blind. I can't see a single thing. So that was disorienting. Then I'm. where the screening is. It's the same location that I went to a previous screening at. So I like know where I'm going. Then I get a call from someone that I've been waiting to talk to you

for a long time. And I am on the phone. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, we're really kind of closer. I got to get up for that screening. But I also really need to have this phone conversation. Also, the week of me is kind of kicking in. So I'm also starting to feel like, am I feeling paranoid actually, more than relaxed, which I know, I know people are going to say, of course, a weed gummy, it makes you paranoid. Yeah, I know, but like I am like a frequent wheat gummy user, like a small one, a little one, a little teeny one. A little teeny one. And usually just makes me feel like more, kind of actually like more alert in a way, more like aware of like the sensations around me. And I like kind of like like that. So anyway, I get off the phone. I'm like five

minutes, whatever. Get in the elevator. Go up to the top floor. Immediately you start second guessing my into like everything being like I don't know and walk into the lobby where a woman was sitting before the first time I went to the screening location different women sitting the same location but it's like on a couch not at a desk and she's a laptop in front of her so I come in and I'm like hi like I'm here for the the screening she looks at me like why are you talking to me and I was like oh I'm Henley Cox I'm here for the screenings screening, like, and she's literally like, looks at me and then looks behind her. Like, I must be talking to someone behind her.

And I was like, oh, I'm so sorry. Like, do you not work here? I thought, I assumed you were checking people in. And then she goes, we're not screening that movie. We're not screening that movie. And I was like, and I was like, what? I have an email here. And then I look at the email.

Oh, no. The screening is happening in the. the same, the name of the building is the same, but it's like three blocks away. What? It's like two different like post lab studios. It's like the same name of like the post. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Affiliated but separate buildings.

But it's a different, it's only three blocks away. But also it's like the screening is starting like right now. And so then I'm like, oh my God, I'm so sorry. Also, good of you to apologize to her. How dare you do that to her? But also I'm like so flustered. and like out of my element. And the weed gummy is kind of kicking in second guessing everything.

So then I get in the elevator to go down. And the two people who had been in the elevator when I was coming up get out. And they say that the elevator is not working. And this woman is having like a claustrophobic panic attack. And the man is trying to like convince her that it's okay to get back in the elevator. Oh God. But she doesn't want to get back in the elevator. She wants to take the stairs.

And meanwhile, this is on like the 12th floor of a building. Meanwhile, I'm like, well, can I take the elevator? Yeah, I'm not scared of the elevator. I would like to take the elevator. But this woman is like, the man really wants her to just try again. And the woman does not want to try again. And now you're caught in the middle. I'm in the middle of like a drama, like a marital drama where this woman is, like she needs a moment.

She does not need to get back in the elevator. Yeah, give her a fucking moment. And so I am like kind of like, why don't you just sit down? You don't know, maybe she should sit. There's a nice lady in the couch. Go talk to her. Have a seat. Eventually, the man relents and they don't get in the elevator.

I take it down. It's fine. It's fine. It works. I don't know what's going on there. Now I'm running. Oh. Running, running, running, running, running, running, running.

Run to the screening. I get there. The woman, like, checks me in. And she was like, okay, great. Now we can start. And it's like, I've made everyone there wait like 10 minutes. It's like 10 minutes late. Okay.

So that is okay. I know, but still. But that you do hate to hear that. You do hate to hear that. It was full. I got the last seat. Everyone heard her say that. And so obviously I'm like...

Nightmare. Everyone hates me better lock into this fucking horror movie because that's all you can do. It's your only option now. You're not going to make any friends in this room. No one's here for you. No one's here for you. Wow. Wow.

Anyway, so that was my scary thing. That is scary. That is scary. I hate that. We were really brave. Thanks, Em. You're really brave. It is pretty wild.

That we are, we, you and me are watching movies. And the ones that we've been able to see so far, I've loved. I've, like, really enjoyed them. Yeah, I've been like, I guess I can watch any scary movie. That's not true. There is some that I really don't want to watch. But, like, I think I can watch more of them than I think. Yeah.

As long as it's not like extended. As long as it's not, uh, oh yeah, that, I don't care, I don't care as much about that. As long as it's not, um, like, like a psychological torture vibes, you know, and physical torture. I don't like that either. But honestly, like, that's more tolerable to me than having to witness any kind of like child abuse stuff going on. Well, sure. I'm not, again, ageal debate. I'm not saying I like it. I'm just saying, I know. I know that switch is, is, is, it's, it's, it's, it's, Yeah, for the other, I don't know. I don't know.

We're getting brave. Seven years in. I will say, though, in a press screening, it is a little embarrassing to cover your eyes and close your ears. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You got to act tough. You got to act tough. Like you're at least watching the movie. Yeah.

Yeah. How was your week? Tell me. Well, the scary thing that happened to me, Hen, is that I went bowling. Joel and I went bowling yesterday. We've been saying for a long time, we're going to go bowling. I, in some sort of. fugue state booked us.

I was like, we were going into the valley to see a movie yesterday. Yep. A 4D movie, 4D screening of Top Gun. It's fucking awesome. But I was like, we're going to be in the valley. We should like make a day of it. Found a bowling alley. I was like, you know what? Great. Let's do it. Let's bowl. But I was worried Saturday bowling

is going to be so crowded. And the only way to pre-the only way to like reserve a lane was to pre-book online in like an hour-long chunk. Okay. which like I so often honestly feel like the the arrested development moment of how much could a banana cost Michael $10. Like I feel like I don't know what things are supposed to cost. So it was like book a lane, unlimited bowling, book a lane for an hour, it's $95. And I was like, what a great deal.

Looking back, I'm like, that's actually insane. We didn't need that. But whatever. It was like made sense to me at the time. And it also turned out that if you booked one hour, you got one hour free. So I reserve two hours of bowling for me for just me and Joel. Wow. Okay.

Yes. Thinking it made perfect sense. And then we showed up and I was like, this is so much bowling. Yes. Because also all my experience with bowling is you go with a group, right? And so you're bowling once every, I don't know, 10 minutes max, 15? You're chatting, you're drinking, you're eating. Socialize and eat.

It comes up to your turn every so often. No, when it's two of you, you are bowling constantly. You are bowling constantly. Whoa. We were both covered in sweat. We were so tired. Like, I couldn't, I, like, didn't want to get up and keep going. I was like, I'm fucking exhausted from a point.

We bowled five games. I can't believe you bowl that many games, Emily. That is so many games. I feel like the most I've ever bowled is, like, two or three games. It was psychotic, Henley. The fact that you're sweating, you made to the point where you were sweating. And to the point where I was like, oh my God, that's right. Bowling is physical exertion. If you only do two games of like eight people. And so you're bowling once every, again, I don't know, 15 minutes. You're getting up there like three times. I mean, I guess you get up there 10 times no matter what. But like it's, come on. It's nothing. Yeah. This was an exhausting physical exertion. I am sore. Is your shoulder like unmovable today? Can you move it? I can move it. I can move it. But I'm sore. I'm sore. Do bowlers just have huge, it's like a picture.

One arm? Like one huge. Massive. Yeah, I think so. I think they have one huge arm. I, look, it was just wild. I just couldn't believe it. Did you eat and drink too?

Were you able to have some drinks? We had come from, we went to brunch and then we went bowling. So we were like, we're full. So people around us were getting like onion rings and like buffalo wings. It smelled so good. We weren't hungry. We just like drank water and bowl for two hours. like psychopaths.

That is so funny. Also that both of you committed. This is what you do, I guess if you're like really working on your phone, you're like a good, it's like weird. We're surrounded by children and families just having a good all time and we're like,

Joel kept laughing. There was a little girl next to us who is using like the ramp that you put the bowling ball and you push it. And he was absolutely destroying us. Like absolutely destroying our scores. We, we, and I also need to say like caveat here is that

Joel is a good bowler. I've seen him be a good bowler. He's got four. He's got 10. technique. It's been a while he was having an off day. But we were bad and we got a little better. And we got pretty good for game three. And then we got worse. And then we got catastrophically worse. It was like, that was actually, I watched your Insta story. And that was a beautiful representation of what happened. Yeah. It was like, we were like, we were like, we were like, first game, okay, fine, we're bad.

Second game, we're like, okay, get to be. And third game was like, oh my God, like, these are respectable scores pretty good. And then it was just like, absolutely. I mean, it's such a bell curve. I just really, I just don't feel like I knew what I was getting myself into. And we had a fun time, but it was just a weird day. It was a weird day. And I guess I didn't realize that bowling is a sport. You know, the last time I bowled, I must have bowled since then. But the last time I remember bowling was when Tim and I had first started dating and he was

going to leave for South Africa and I was going to leave for Los Angeles. And so we were like, it was our last couple of weeks in New York. I left my job. And we were purposely like, okay, we're going to have like two weeks where we're just going to like do a bunch of fun stuff in New York, you know? Yeah. And bowling, classic. And one of the things, we literally though, we were literally like, I mean, we were running out of options. We clearly did like absolutely everything we could.

But one day, it was like 11 a.m. And we were like, why don't we go bowling? And so we went to this crazy bowling alley near Times Square that's like, a nightclub basically. And similar thing, you've after like rent of lane. No one else was there because we were there a Tuesday at like 11 a.m.

No one's bowling at that hour. We're the only ones there. And also I remember wanting to like get a beer, but you couldn't just get one beer. You had to get a beer tower. And so Tim and I got a beer tower.

Hell yeah. which was like, I've never seen a beer tower again, I think, in my life. Yeah, I don't know if I've ever seen an IRL. I can imagine it. It's just like a cylinder that's super fucking tall and they bring it out to you. And then it's like, I guess it has like a little spout at the bottom that you pour into your coat. Oh, sure, sure. So then we drank so much beer. I got so sleepy.

Yeah. And I just remember being like, I don't even like bowling. Like bowling was fun for like maybe half an hour. I had a point in the middle where I was like, I'm so. bored. I'm so bored of bowling. That's how I felt too. That's how I felt too. I remember feeling what I'm just standing here throwing a ball. Let's like, what if I just felt so stupid. I was like, this is so dumb. Well, because also, I don't even really like drinking beer. So the novelty of the beer tower was very fun. But then the second we had the beer tower, I was like, I don't actually want

I. I don't actually want all this beer. And Tim and I were just like, okay, we got to go home and nap now, I think. I'm pretty sure that's what we just. went to sleep afterwards. Yeah. I came back around to having fun with bowling, but I really, I went on a journey. You really did. Getting bored, thinking it was dumb, being like, oh, I think I'm getting good, then nope, I'm actually getting, I'm actually getting worse, I'm bad, I'm tired. A lot can happen in two straight hours of bowling. A lot can happen. A lot can happen. Okay, well, if you're listening, you have a crazy bowling story to tell us. Tell us about your bowling story. And also, it's like, I do think it's very impressive if you're very

good at bowling. But if you're not, it just feels stupid. Yeah. You know, that's all. That's all. Okay, but another thing that both of us did this week is, speaking of screenings, we watched this week's movie. Mm-hmm. We watched it at a pre-release

screening. Very cool. It's a sensational movie. We're going to tell you about it. This week's movie is God is. Released May 15th, 2026, just been out for a few days as record. It was directed by Alicia Harris, written by Alicia Harris based on the play, Is God

Is God Is, by Alicia Harris. Spoiler alert, she's a genius and we love her. We love her. It is starring Carrie Young, Mallory Johnson, Janelle Monet, Erica Alexander, McKelty Williamson, Josiah Cross, Vivica A. Fox and Sterling K. Brown. Stunning. Stunning cast. Stunning movie. I loved it. I felt so lucky to get to see this movie in theaters. I felt so grateful for that. They haven't done a huge marketing campaign around this movie at all. It's not showing in that many theaters, which is devastating to me.

Because I really, like, everybody should go see this movie. It is so special. I know. It's so worth seeing. It's not too scary. A word of mouth expansion. I hope so. Let it be happening here.

Let us be part of that chorus. Please. Go see this movie. Everyone in it is absolutely sensational. there's very little trivia for this movie because it did just come out and again it's like not only people are talking about it yet but this movie has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and 85 on Metacritic which as of right now is the highest score for any major studio film this year on Metacritic. Holy shit. On a 7.4 on IMDB. Wow. Massive. Massive numbers there. A plus plus.

It had a budget of around $750,000. Box office so far, $2.2 million. We love that. They made their money back. But come on, let's get those numbers through the freaking roof. Wait, the budget was only $750,000. Isn't that shocking?

That is actually shocking to me. That doesn't make any sense to me because it's like, they filmed in so many different locations. So many, like, unbelievable actors. Sterling Kay Brown, Janelle Monet, Tony, twice Tony Award winner, Carrie Young. Like, And like the music is incredible.

Excuse me? Everything about this movie is incredible. It's stunning. For $750,000, you fucking kidding me? You fucking kidding me? You fucking kidding me? You fucking kidding me? Absolutely insane.

Wow. Okay. I don't know. This is Alicia Harris's feature film directorial and screenwriting debut. Again, astounding. Astounding. Absolutely astounding. there's very, very, very little trivia online about this movie,

but I did read some articles that I gleaned some trivia from. Tell us. One in the New York Times. Don't know who wrote this article. Didn't check the byline. I'm not going to give them any credit, but they were talking to Alicia Harris,

and she mentioned that the drama of this original story, the play, was partially inspired by Rihanna's Bitch Better Have My Money music video. I love that. The quote she says is, What struck me about Rihanna's video was that she was playing out with such aggression

and totally unapologetically this narrative of redemption. I love revenge narratives but I also haven't seen many black women in them. Yeah. So that was really inspiring to her, which is really fucking cool.

Yes. And another article in the New York Times didn't check the byline. She lists directorally some inspirations, Alicia Harris again, some inspirations being Lady Snowblood, the Spaghetti Western

Once Upon a Time in the West. Oh, brother. We're art thou, daughters of the dust, and moonlight. It's just such a stunning movie. Yeah. I'm so glad we got to see it. I'm so glad we get to talk about it. At the end of our recap, Henley and I also got to speak with Mallory Johnson,

actress in this movie who is just so talented and so delightful. And it was wonderful talking to her about the whole process. I know. And she's one of those actresses where you're like, wow, are we getting to talk to you now? And you're going to be like so famous one day because she's so talented. She's so talented. And like, just so lovely. I just was, I'm like, I want, I just, I feel like very strongly about this movie in a way that I, that is like such a wonderful thing to feel.

It's just to be like, wow, I like care. I care about this movie. I love to be made to care. Yeah, it's special. We don't get a lot of movies like this right now. It's truly special. And I think it deals with some really complicated topics too that are worth examining and thinking about. So it's like both visually stunning and extremely well written and also kind of the one that stays with you and you kind of think about afterwards. So, oh man, I just loved it so much. Loved it so much. And I can't wait to talk about it with you, Hen, and with Sammy, who is going to be here for the recap, I promise. So she's coming. She's coming. Without further ado, should we jump right in? Let's do it. Let's do it. I'm in a constant state of trying to get my life together. And that includes trying to be more intentional about what I'm wearing day to day, you know, less indoor soft pants type of outfits, more put together, you know, comfortable, but effortless. That kind of vibe. That's what I'm going for. And Quince has been my go-to. The fabrics are elevated. The fits are flattering. And everything just works without overthinking it. Everything at Quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the

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Quince.com slash too scary. We begin. We are in a park. The scene is sepia-toned. We are behind two young girls sitting on a bench. were just on their backs. We can't see their faces. Some kids run in front of them playing, kicking a soccer ball. Notice the girls laugh, call them ugly, and run off screen. One of the girls gets up. We see her walk over, pick something up off the ground. It's a bat. And we see her walk off screen. And we hear the sounds of a bat hitting children and them screaming. And then she walks back into front of. frame sits back down on the bench, puts her arm around. I mean, they're very clearly twins. They're dressed the same. Their hair's the same. Even though we're only seeing them from behind,

we know that they're twins. And she puts her arm around her twin sister and we see her hand is all bloody. It stands out. It's like vibrant red in the midst of this sepia tone. And they sort of like rest their heads on each other's shoulders. Titles is God is. All right. It's important to note to We're getting a lot. Like, voiceover is used a lot in this movie in a really cool way.

And I am absolutely not going to get it correct when things are happening in voiceover or not. So apologies that I'm going to miss those. As I was watching a movie, I was like, oh no,

I'm not going to be able to tell you when this is happening. But that's okay. We're doing our best. There is a lot of, like, audio stuff that happens. And when they do the opening credits, there's like this chorus in the background

that's like, ah, ah, uh, is, God is. Like, it's like this very like, It's very playlike, but it's fucking cool. Yeah. I think my screening room had surround sound because, yeah, I was really, the sound in this movie is so cool. And I, like, Will highlight it at a couple points

when the sound like really moves all around. It's, yeah, it's, and it's like, she's really, um, making the choice to, which I love when shows or movies do this, where sounds that you know exist in a very, like, muted way in the real scene are, like, really turned up. So it is all feels like sounds that are naturally occurring, but in a way that it's like wouldn't be happening in the environment.

Right. I think it's one of the things that makes the movie, like, move really quickly is just, like, the sound of it is, like, very... Yeah. You're immediately kind of in it in that way. And again, like, I'm not going to be able to tell you all, like, it sounds cool here for the most part, but just like know that it always does.

Cut to these twins now grown women. They are in their probably mid to early 20s. Early to mid, that's the way that goes. And they're getting ready for the day. We're getting a voiceover now. This is Racine and Anaya. They are twins. We're really emphasizing the twin nature.

They're so insane. So are they not twins or what? You said it a lot? No, no, no. I have said it a lot. They 100% are. It's not one of those things that's like, they were never twins.

Like they all. But it's them being twins is like it's they are like so we watch them. They like make their bed the exact same way. They're they're almost like one entity. They sit down at the table for breakfast together. They are like handing each other things in sync pouring their cereal at the same time. But like they are so locked. And that's like what the voiceover is letting us know too.

Like they are just so inseparable. We see that. So Anaya. most of her face and like down to her left shoulder are very scarred with burn scars. So her face is pretty heavily disfigured with burns. And Racine all down one of her arms, I think her right arm, is very heavily burn scarred as well. And her last two fingers on that hand are almost like fused. So something has happened to these girls They are both heavily burned We see them rubbing ice on each other Yeah, they like take turns

Putting ice on their burn scars Oh so it's like kind of recent Or is that something you do for a long time? It seems like it's like a life long Really? I never knew that And I wasn't sure if this is like an actual Like if this is just a comfort thing They do for each other or what the purpose is necessarily of this

But like their whole lives seem intertwined. And they're just making that very clear. We see them later at work. They're sort of custodians for an office building. And it's nighttime. They're cleaning up. There's just one woman left in the office.

She's beautiful. We see Anaya kind of watching her. And the woman gets up to leave and drops her scarf. And Racine sees it, picks it up, and hands it out to the woman. And calls her like, oh, you dropped this. She's holding it out to the woman with her burned hand. The woman appreciative goes to take the scarf and then notices her hand and is clearly a little throne, tries to mask it, but we see her see it and so does Racine. She then clocks Anaya standing further back and is even more shocked.

Again, Anaya has scars over most of her face. And Racine sees her see Anaya. and the voiceover at this moment says, when you look like Anaya, you don't have the ability to be mean. Racine got all the mean. And we see Racine sort of get in this woman's face, like, what are you looking at?

What's the problem? And the woman getting like nervous. And we see their boss come in and see this interaction. Cut to them driving home. They've been fired. Seems like this is a rhythm that happens a lot with them. Racine must have been with the one with the bat. Racine was the one with the bat.

Anaya's like a lot more sweet and timid and quiet. But together they're like in their comfort zone. They're, you know, I mean like, man, that guy's a bitch. Like who cares about him? And they're undeterred still having a great night, having a great time together, driving home. Another cool thing about the voiceovers is that they're done in third person, like storytelling.

But whenever someone is being spoken about, the voiceover is done by that actor. it's just a really cool feature that yeah it's again this movie's doing things that I'm like whoa whoa whoa I've never never experienced that they get home and they find they've received a letter Racine opens it and reads it it was addressed just to her

and it is from their mother who they thought was dead and Racine's like she's not she just wrote us she wants us to come see her Racine is like all for it like she lives nearby Anaya is, like, why didn't we know she was alive? If she lives nearby, why wouldn't she have told us? Pretty good. Pretty good questions, I think. Yeah. And Racine's like, one way to find out, like, let's go see her. And Racine lets Anaya know that their mother is dying now. That's what the letter says. Such whiplash. Oh, my God. She's alive and now she's dying. My God. It's a lot. And when they're brushing their teeth that night, they continue their conversation about.

whether or not to go, but they have it telepathically. And so we just see words appearing on the screen and they're just communicating to each other about this without speaking, which is like really, really cool. All twins can do that. All twins can do that. And Anaya says, you know, why didn't she write me? Like, why did she just write you? And herstein says, well, I don't know, probably because you get really emotional about everything. And she's like, I do not get really emotional about everything. And they just have their little argument. Later, they're icing each other's burns. And, Anaya's like, well, we can't go. Like, I have a date.

And Raystein's like, ooh, is it with old dude? And she's like, yeah, it is. Racine's, like, surprised that they're still together. We're kind of into it and asks her about it. And Anaya lets us know that he only has sex with her from behind. And Racine's immediately pretty upset about this. And Anaya's like, it's fine. Like, I accept my lot in life.

And, like, I get things out of it too and it's fine. But Racine is not happy about this. But Racine does finally convince Anaya that, you know, we should go see her mother. We should see just what she has to say. And the voiceover says, where Racine goes, Anaya follows. Cut to them arriving at the house, the address they were sent to. There's a sign on the door that says, welcome Racine and Anaya. Anaya is meaning like, my name is spelled wrong.

And Racine's like, it's fine. Like, don't worry about it. This is going to be great. And Racine says that before they go in, she's like, it's like we're meeting God. And Anaya says, how is it like we're meeting God? And she said, well, she made us, didn't she? And then I hears this.

And they both have a moan with like reverence of like, because, you know, they thought their mom was dead. And they're like, whoa, it's the person who made us. Which what a fun way to look at the world. Whoever made me must be God. And then Anaya also says, you're going to get struck down when Racine says that. Like, don't say that. Like, it's like a little bit like blasphemous to say that.

But also like, you know, that's how. their brains are working right now. Yeah. And it is clear that like, yeah, we're seeing the dynamic of like Racine has the bigger ideas. She's got more fire. And Anaya's used to just like sort of humoring her and getting caught up in her spark. They go in and it's very immediately like they're walking it through this house. It has the feeling of like when you walk into like a crystal shop where the energy just feels like very charged and you're and you feel like you need to be quiet and you're not entirely sure and they're like kind of like looking around and they they walk into a room they part these like beaded curtains. Oh hell yeah. And walk into this room to find in the center

of the room a bed facing them their mother, Vivica A. Fox, the actress. Um, in the bed, her whole face is wrapped up in it's like a it's like bandages, but it's like a it's like a mask that she probably puts on every day. Um, but we see the parts of her face that we can see, are very heavily scarred with burns. She's surrounded by, there's probably three or four women around her bedside, all braiding her hair.

It is very like godlike. Like she's being like tended to and treated like a religious figure. It's very hushed. It's like, click, click, click, click. And you can hear, this is one of the moments where the sound is so cool. And we keep zooming in on the women's fingers

as they're braiding her hair. They all have really long acrylic nails. and so you're hearing like the click clacking of their acrylic nails, but it sounds like one of those like rain machines inside of a stick that you'd make when you were kids. It's like so much louder and more pronounced than that sound would be, but we're like, that's what it is. It's a very like mystical, magical moment.

And the girls feel that too. And they're very much like, hi, mama. Like, you know, this is a stranger. And she immediately recognized, these are my girls. Racine and Naya, come here. She very quickly is like, Anaya, I would have written you, but you always get so emotional. Like you always did even when you were a kid. Told you.

Told you. She beckons them to her bedside. They're nervous, but they come over. And they're like, hey, we thought you were dead. And she says, it was better for you to think I was dead than to be raised by someone like me, clearly indicating her appearance. She is what we can see. she's also wearing like pretty high gloves she's scarred everywhere and racine asks her what happened like presumably they've never really been told this story um and as soon as she asks the women stop braiding

and they like back away from the bed again very play like very choreographed this is moment of importance and the mother begins her story they all go child they all say that at the same time it's very like Greek chorus style. Oh, it's, yeah, it's really cool. And so she starts to tell her story. And as she's telling it, she's narrating it and we're seeing it. Again, this is a sepia toned scene. So we know we're in the past.

And we see Vivica A. Fox. She says, I was cooking dinner. We see the twin girls around the age that we saw them in the park scene, but a bit younger. Sitting and watching TV and Vivic A. Fox is making dinner. and we start to hear really loud banging. She's looking around. She's like, you know, I was telling myself, maybe it was a tree against the window,

but I knew there were no trees by our windows. Maybe it was the neighbors, and we were just hearing it over and over again, the bang, and we can see in her eyes the fear and we're following her as she's walking through the house. This is the part that I was like the most scared. She grabs the big butcher night that she was holding when she was cooking dinner.

She's got it behind her back. She's clearly terrified. she's got her daughters in the house she's like looking around for like what this noise is we don't know what she thinks it could be but she clearly has something she's afraid of goes into the bathroom looking around and as she turns around

there's a man there and it's important to note that we only ever see this man for the most part until we tell you otherwise like mouth down like we're literally only seeing like below his nose

So we see this man approach her. Sterling K. Brown kind of mouth? Yes. It could be. It could be an extremely recognizable mouth that you're certain at Sterling K. Brown. And he like puts his, she drops the knife and he like puts his, strokes her cheek with his hand.

And she's looking nervous, but kind of going along with it. And in voiceover, she says, you know, I could have reminded him that, you know, the restraining order said he couldn't be with an eye. 100 yards of our house, or I could just let him touch me. You know, he could have a tender side. And very quickly, the stroke turns into him choking her until she passes out. We then see him place her unconscious body in the bathtub, pour gasoline on her, and then go grab the girls and bring them into the bathroom.

And she says, he told you girls, it was a game called Wake Up Mommy. He lights a match and drops it into the bathtub. And we follow him as he walks out and we just hear screaming. Oh, it's so horrible. Horrible screaming. It's so horrible. And we just stay on him as he opens the front door, leans against the door jam, lights a cigarette, and just fucking hangs out for a bit.

It's awful. It's so, it's long. It's long. It's long. The screaming. We watch him just smoke a cigarette while we're hearing horrible sounds. Oh, it was really tough. Oh, I did not like, I guess I didn't like this part, but you know, you got to do it. You got to just sit through the bad parts. It's like life. You know, you got to

do it into bad parts. It's just like life in that way. We cut back to the present and the girls are shocked. They did not know that this is what happened to them. We see Anaya's tearing up. She runs outside. She's like, I'm going to throw up. I'm going to be sick. She like takes a beat runs out. So they just had no idea how they had burn scars all over them. I think they were told there was a fire. Their mom died. I see.

Okay. And we learn later they were like raised in foster care of their whole lives. So presumably their mom and dad died in the fire. They know that they were burned and they don't have parents. Like that's basically what they've known. Yeah. To ask. And so they, you know, they,

sit with this horrifying realization. And so their mom says to them, and I, comes back in, mom says to them, so girls, I'm dying. And my one hope for peace as I leave this earth, I have a dying wish for you. I brought you here today. Make your daddy dead.

Make your daddy real dead. Dead, dead. Dead. And the girls look at each other And they're pretty quick like Um Oof. Okay.

Isn't that a bit? Isn't that a little bit crazy? Kind of has some lasting implications for us as well. And she says, crazier than lighting your wife and girls on fire and leaving them and moving across the country and changing your name and marrying somebody else and starting a different life.

And they're like, no, that, yeah. Okay, that's, that's, a point. It's not a point. And Racine says, wouldn't it just be better to forgive and forget? And she says to the women surrounding her, she says, pull back my blankets. They oblige. Both girls are standing at the bedside.

The women lift the blanket up. We don't see what's underneath. We just stay on their faces as they. see and like immediately are like, like, horrified at what their mom's body is. And that we stay on that for a little while. Blanket goes down and Racine asks, where can we find him? Wow. She says, so you start with the woman that he took up with after the trial.

She's like, you'll know what the house that it is. It's in this area and it has nasty purple steps. She's like, it's like the ugliest house there. Cut to the women. They're the girls driving and Anaya's not talking. She is like not happy that they have disagreed to go commit a murder. And Racine's like, you know, they're always on the same page. And so she's like, pull a car over.

Like, we need to fucking talk. What's going on? Why are you being a bitch? Like, we need to fucking do this. God asked us to do this. Like, this is important. And Anaya says, we're not killers. Like, that's not who we are.

And Racine basically is like, he killed us first. Like what he did to us, what he did to God, they called our God for the rest of the movie. What he did to God, like what he took from us, think about all the foster parents,

all the daddies who looked at us who looked at us all the kids who called you ugly, everyone who laughed at us. Imagine the life we would have had if he hadn't done this. This is all for him. This is his fault. He fucking did this.

Doesn't he deserve to pay? And then she says, you know what? Like, I'll do it. You don't even have to do it. I just need you to keep me company. And an eye is finally like, all right, I will keep your company. But like just him, right?

Just him. We're just going for him. She's like, yep, that's it. I do want to say that, like, they cut to this fight right after they see what happened under the blanket. And then it's like the tone changes. All of a sudden we're in like a Quentin Tarantino or like a, like, it's like fun all of a sudden. Like it was like serious. It was always like a little, little fun.

But it was like serious and fucked up. And then Anaya's like, okay, we're going to do this. And then suddenly like the music kicks in. It goes back to Vindiccate. We're dancing. It goes back to Vindakabok being like, he took up with a woman named Devon. You'll be going to know because of these stairs. And it's like immediately you're like, yeah, we're in the fun and games portion of the movie now.

Like this is exciting. Yeah. And it's like this movie is so many genres at the same time. But it never feels disjointed. Like you should have whiplash from that. But you are like hell fucking yeah. Let's go. It makes total sense.

It makes perfect sense. We're fucking on board. Like, hell yeah. Let's go kill our dad. Let's go kill our dad. Fuck it. We pull up to this house that has, yeah, Vivica Fawkes described it to us. Y'all know when you see it.

They see it. They pull up. They go in to discover that this is, in fact, it's a church. I'm not certain of the denomination, but it seems Pentecostal-esque. It's, so this woman, her name is divine. She is the sermon. Everyone in the room is in white. She's in all white with silver knee high boots

And she's like, the devil's in this room And the devil's, we're watching the devil like fly around from patrons And they're like, I feel him. And they're like freaking out and like throw the devil's like throwing them back. And she's grabbing the devil and like it's just it's spectacle. The girls walk in and are like, oh, this is not what we thought we're walking into. And they kind of hover in the back. Try to back out quietly.

Yeah, it's very obvious that they're there. She's staring right at them. And so she is finally says, oh, looks like we have some visitors here and she also clearly knows who they are. So we cut to after the sermon, she is sitting and eating a big plate of ribs while like she's got a young man standing behind her

and an older woman and the older woman says to them, you know, like, let divine have a moment with you, let her bless you and she'll bless all those scars off your body. Like this is like full blown cold. Everyone is obsessed with her and thinks so she can do actual magic. and the girls are sort of like okay yeah no we're good thanks the ribs are taken away

Devine licks her fingers and is like you're his girls aren't you they say yeah do you know where he is we're actually we're looking for him and she says I'm looking for him too he said he was going to come back I'm waiting for him he left some things here but he's coming back for them he's coming back for me

like she is in the love with him he is the love of her life she says oh he came to me after what happened and with you girls because they say like how could you be with someone who did what he did and she said oh when he came to me he was a broken man and he and i healed him and he healed me and it's like this whole narrative of like her power and his power and like also can't imagine that he was telling her the truth about stuff probably not probably not telling her the truth about stuff and yeah she says

when i met him he was a mulling calf but he was a bull by the time i was done nursing him and then the young man behind him goes nursing. And then she's like, Ezekiel, these are your half sisters. So this is their half brother, the young man standing behind them. And I guess she was with him during the trial. Okay. Uh-huh.

So she does presumably know at least whatever was said at the trial. And, you know, she gives this whole story about, you know, he's going to come back here. I'm waiting for him. And she's like, see, I have all his stuff. And she opens this like,

It's like a TV cabinet, one of those old school ones where it opened the top. It's like a big space for the big blocky TV. Picture it exactly. Yeah. And it's basically a little shrine. There's like purple lights in it and all of his stuff is like laid out. But it's like mentos, some coins, deodorant. Well, you never leave these behind. He's a single shirt. Yeah. It's like obviously coming back for those. He's fully not coming back. And. And Racine does say, like, when did he leave? And she says, when I was pregnant with Ezekiel, who is like 18 years old or something. Okay. And Racine's like, let me get this straight. You are worshipping, waiting for a man who left you while you were pregnant after lighting his wife and children on fire.

And... Well, when you sit like that... She goes, he must have been laying some serious dick. And then divine is like, ah. Yeah, and kicks them out. It's like, get out here. So they're thrown out as they're like going back to their car. Anaya's so pish.

She's like, what was that for? Like, you always get mad and we didn't even get any information. We don't know where to go next. And Racine reveals like while she was freaking out, I grabbed this out of the, presumably out of the shrine closet. It's an address book. And then I is so excited. She's like, oh, yes, good job.

We open it up. We find a lawyer's card and we realized that was his lawyer for the trial. Lawyers famously allowed to give information about their clients to anyone who asks. Of course. Of course. It's a card that says Chuck Hall, the lawyer. And so they're like, okay, great. We're going to go talk to him. They're all excited. We're back to having fun. And as they're getting into the car, we see Divine and Ezekiel and a bunch of church patrons running out. And she's like, they have the high dress book. They have. She's freaking out a part of her shrine. was taken. They jump in the car and drive off, but they're like being chased, but, you know, nobody gets them in time. And they, like, flip them off as they go and they're, like, having a fucking great time. Now we're really having fun. Now we're having a little driving montage. We see them get out of the car at the, like, Welcome to Virginia sign. And music is playing. They're like, they're both, like, twerking on the Welcome to Virginia sign and, like, having a really

fucking great time. Things are going well for us. We're loving it. Later, they're, um, eating lunch on the hood of their car and they're once again communicating telepathically. Racine's asking like, how are we going to kill him? Or Anias, I was like, what are you even going to do? Like, how are you going to kill him? Like, let's actually think this through. And she's like, a gun. She's like, where are you going to get a gut?

Like, no, you can't get a gun. She's like, okay, hammer. And she's like, that's horrifying. And I says, poison. She's like, that's a bitch way to kill somebody. Like, I would never kill somebody with poison. And I was like, well, I don't like blood. You're like, okay, fine.

we will figure it out. Like we don't have a plan. We'll figure it out. This is interesting because I feel like this is different from my weapon of choice. Like I feel like I've chosen my weapon of choice in defense. Self defense. In defense, yes. Of like someone is trying to kill me and I need to defend myself.

And so this is my murder weapon of choice would absolutely be poison. Yeah. Poison is like the least involved, I guess. Yeah. Well, that's why that's why Racine says it's a bitch way. to do it. I know. I'm a bitch. And I'm a bitch. Hey, if I'm going to order somebody, I'll do it like a little bitch. I'll do it like a little bitch. Oh, I think she also says like we could drown him and they're

like, that's, that seems complicated. Yeah. So they're working it out, but they don't really have a great plan yet. Yeah, poison's probably mine too. Yeah. Gun is probably second for me. I'll be honest. I mean, gun. Yeah. But there's just a lot of ways that can go wrong. Exactly. If the gun gets in the wrong hands. Plus, you have to know how to shoot a gun. You have to know how to shoot a gun and you to shoot it in the right place and you're probably going to have to get a bunch in before, you know, it's like, I don't, it's not, let's not export it. Hammers, honestly, not bad. No, hammer's the worst.

Oh, that's so brutal. I couldn't do, I don't think I could do that unless I was like really, really desperate or in like a real moment of self-defense. Well, but that's, well, we ever talked about that that self-defense and that's different. And then, in that case, you're using Wolverine claws. Then I have Wolverine claws that are retractable into my, into my fists. Exactly. So you don't, why would you need the hammer?

because you already have claws. My version of looks maxing is getting retractable Wolverine claws put into my fists. Yep. And then you can use it as a little micro-needling too. You just kind of have them come out a tiny little haircut. A little haircut when you mean.

Anytime I'm like trying to get something out of my teeth. I'd say quickly chop up and saute veggies for dinner. I mean, how else is a mom supposed to do it all? Anaya, I think, is like starting to get upset. This is all like a bit much for her. her. She, again, is not a killer. She doesn't love this. And Ray Sting kind of talks her down by reminding her of their, she's like, remember with our second foster daddy? We like, when he would smack the belt when he'd be like coming downstairs. And I was like, no, because he never did that to me. He only ever did it to you,

because you caused trouble. I didn't. And Ray Cine and they're like laughing about it and having like a fun, you know, they've always had each other's backs. And Raycine says, second foster daddy was the first man I ever killed. And I was like, you didn't kill him. He had a heart attack. She was like, he had a heart attack because of all the trouble I gave him and how much he was always beating with that belt. And I gave him a fucking heart attack and I killed him. And that is like, it lightens the mood and they enjoy laughing over that. We do get little, I know, we get these little nuggets of like, without being told explicitly, but that their foster experience was not good. Imagine. Imagine that. And they really have a bond forged in literal fire. So they arrive at the lawyer's office. And the first thing we see is this commercial playing of Chuck Hall, the lawyer, it's like very cheesy, like him jumping around and wearing costumes and just being like, I'm your guy, Chuck Hall, call me, I'm a good lawyer.

Very like cheesy TV ad. And we zoom out and we see that all the ads are playing on TVs in the window of the lawyer's office. Before they go in, it's like the middle of nowhere seems kind of abandoned, but we hear inside the sounds of what sounds like a physical fight happening inside. So before they go in, Racine asks the night to take her sock off and she does and get it to Racy

and Racine picks up a big rock and puts it inside the sock and it's like, we don't know what we're walking into like, just want to be prepared. They cautiously walked on the hall. They walk in. We find Chuck Hall, the lawyer, having the shit kicked out of him

by what looks like a sex worker. Like a woman, she just like kicks him and sort of steps away for a second and see how it lands. It's very like half-hearted. She's just like doing what she's been told. She's doing it for him. Yeah.

She's clearly like, okay, like here you go. Like, I don't know. And then she, you know, grabs some money on the table. And it's like, okay, same time next Thursday and leaves. The lawyer sees the girls and immediately is like, you're his. He seems, I think there's a voice over this point that says Chuck Hall, I've been waiting for this moment, his whole life. So he's been training himself to be able to handle. pain. Essentially, he's been paying people to kick the shit out of him as like preparation for

having to deal with this family again at some point. Some some real forward thinking there. Yeah, and it definitely would work. It would definitely work and be good. Clever plan. Or actually, he doesn't say you're his. I think he writes it on his. His old dry race board that he writes on to communicate with them. They ask where he's, can we find him. He says, don't look and writes, your dad equals very bad. Yeah, no, I wrote this down because it was so funny. That's the other thing about this movie is that it's very funny. It really is. I mean, you shouldn't lead with that because if you tell someone this is funny, they're going to go in and be like, they're going to be pretty upset. Yeah, but very funny moments.

So he has this whiteboard. He writes out on the whiteboard in one of the moments where they're like, just tell us where he is. He writes something, it takes a while, and then they turns it around. they read it. It's in small print. It takes up the whole whiteboard. We like watch him like for like a minute writing this whole message out. We're like, oh my God, we're going to get the information. And then they see it. And then they both read it out loud. And it says, go home, apply to trade school or a community college, find a handsome young man and live out your life with as little misery as possible considering your plight. And so they read it out loud. They're like,

what? And they're like, we don't fucking care about this shit. Like just tell us. Like we're here for every. She's like, God send us. We're here on a mission. like give us the fucking information. And then the voiceover is like, he'd been waiting for this, this whole moment. And then as though a lamb to the slaughter, he does what he's been meaning to do. He offers themselves to him.

So he like stands up. Like he's like basically like, okay, like this is that like, that's what I've been waiting for. Yep. So then Racine fucking like hits him as hard as you can with the rock. And it's the first time they've like been violent really with someone. And Anaya is shocked. Anaya is like.

is like, you actually fucking hit him with the rock? Like, what the fuck? Yeah. And Racine is also kind of shocked. Like, this is what I said I was going to do. He asked me to fight. He does get up to be like, you're going to have to fight me for it. And she's like, okay. And fucking hits him in the head with the rock. And it's obviously a horrible experience for him. All the preparation he's been doing wasn't great. No, he's like, immediately like, okay, well, yeah, I mean, I don't want that to happen again. So he sits back down and then he tells them what you're about to explain. So we hear a voiceover. presumably is writing this down, but we get him giving the

voiceover, again, another sepia-toned scene, and you know, we learned that he was his lawyer. They won the trial. And he remembers, he's like, he's in the driver's seat, a man who may or may not be Sterling K. Brown is in the passenger seat, but we're only seeing him from his mouth

down. And he's thrilled. They're celebrating. He won the case. He's so, so happy. We see him just like laughing, laughing and his lawyer says you know I I can probably get you visitation rights for your girls now that you won like we can work on that next and the man says no we shouldn't do that I'd probably be tempted to finish the job and laughs and laughs and laughs and laughs and Chuck Hall we see him like this is the moment where I think he realizes like oh my god

this man is a horrible monster. Shoot, shoot, shoot. And he says, but you can't let people like that see that, you know, he tries very quickly to mask his fur and also laugh along. But he's like, men like that always know. And we see this change happen in the, just the part of Sterling Kay Brown's face that we can see. What an actor. He's so good. I mean, you can see.

We see this change happen in him who looks over at. Chuck Hall and slams his head into the steering wheel. And I believe we cut back to the president is that when he writes on the whiteboard, for fear that it would wag he took my tongue. Yeah, ripped it out my mouth. We'll be back for the rest of me. Ripped by hand. And they ask, they say, just tore it out and he said, and he nods.

I'm glad that they got the clarification. Because, yeah, that's the first question. And we do cut to one more moment of him alone in the car. Do you think that's physically possible? Probably. I guess. Don't you think it's like connected to other stuff? I guess but if you're strong enough.

I don't know. If you're strong enough. I mean, it would be really hard. Do you think maybe it would just like kill you if you were ripping it out? I would think so. It would like rip your whole throat out. It goes down into your digestive system. Oh.

No. Where does it end? Where is the tongue end? People are taking tongues out in movies all the fucking time. But usually with knives and scissors. Usually with knives and scissors. I mean, who knows? Maybe he started with the knife

and then tore the rest. Right, like made a little perforation. Exactly. To start with. Sure, yeah. But yeah, I mean, he's a really, really, really, really, really bad. Man. Yeah.

But Racine is like, he won't come back for you because we're going to fucking kill him. And he writes, I believe, that he's like, you look like him, you have his eyes. Yeah, he says you're like him in the eyes. to Racine. We've never seen those. We never seen those.

But, you know, no one loves to hear that. Racine doesn't love it. Anaya doesn't love it. Yeah. But he does, we see him right down, resigned right down on a sheet of paper. He knows he's not going to be able to dissuade them. And there's a,

the voiceover says, like, he didn't know whether this was his most cowardly or most valiant act. But he gives them the information about where to find him. He also writes out before that. to he says be careful with vengeance one doesn't know where the blood will land some pretty ominous final thoughts here um but they take the information they go to leave and just as they're about to be at

their car they turn around he has come back he has written another note for them that says he had more boys and then erases it and writes twins more more twins. Well, they are genetic. They are genetic. They continue their drive. They have another fight. Like, Racine is like really into a song. She's playing. Anaya's like turning it down. Racine's turning it back up. Anaya is a lot more affected by everything that's happening on an emotional level. All of this, I think, is like fueling Racine of like, you know, it's understandable. She's like, this guy's the fucking worst. We're going to kill him. All of this is like more justification for her to go kill him.

We're solving the problem. I got this. I got this. Whereas Anaya is, first of all, just being really horrified by what she's hearing and is like,

we shouldn't be going to this person. Like, this is really just like, and also just not loving that Racine is amped. Yeah. Like she's not loving what she's seeing in Racine. That hitting him with the rock was really hard for her to watch. Her being like seemingly unfazed.

Now hearing that their dad is, a psychopath. It's like really not sitting well with Anaya. But they're usually like so in sync, so on the same page. So there's also like this feels like presumably the first bit of real tension that's being experienced or at least that like Anaya is asserting herself in a way that's different from Racine. Racine is like, I'm not going to feel sad for giving him what he deserves. And their voiceover is like Racine was always going right up to the edge. And Anaya always felt like it was her job to like bring her back. before she fell in. And then Racine is saying to Anaya like, I'm mad twin.

And they call each other twin a lot. She's like, I'm mad twin, aren't you? And Racine has this like moment of being like, I want to tell someone they're ugly. I want to step on someone for once. I want to see what that feels like. It has to feel good if people keep doing it to us. I want to know what that feels like. And I feel like that's such an important moment just because it's like, yeah,

that's a cycle of violence right there. It's like when that's happened to you so much. much. You're like, I'm going to fucking do it to other people. Clearly, other people get something out of it. So now it's my turn. It's the only way I've ever, like, seen power asserted. And, like, I'm going to fucking take it. Yeah. And Anaya's, you know, just trying to, like, kind of walk her back, like, calm her down. I mean, it's really interesting because Anaya is the one who is called ugly, right? Like, it is more Anaya. Anaya's scars are more visible. And also, it's really important to note she is still stunningly beautiful. Like, it's really,

great makeup work, but my one note to this is like, would people really, like, she's still, you can still tell that she's fucking stunning, but people are mean. Sure. No, sure, after you've gotten over the initial, like, oh, she has burns scars all over her face. Was you spend 30 seconds looking at her, you're immediately don't even see them anymore. You're like, you're just beautiful. Like, I can't even see the burn scars anymore. But not, you know, I get it. And people are assholes. Like, that's fair. But it's, yeah, it's a really interesting, like, Anaya seems to have processed this more and is more like, accepting. accepting and also like not letting it define her as much. Whereas Racine, because I think she gets

to be the one who defends Anaya and is like, people can't do that to you. Like, she's like a lot more angry about all of it. Right. So yeah, we're seeing the like rift of that now in their relationship. I think God, you were able to take actual notes, Henley, because I was like, as I was watching this movie, I was just like, I'm not going to remember that. No, I'm Emily Vardy. You've memorized literally everything. 90%. I got the plot. You got the details, baby. And you're about to take over 100%. I can't wait. They pull over to pee.

We see Anaya is like crouched in some tall grass. Racine is kind of wandering around. And she's a little further down the road, Racine is. And Anaya can see a motorcycle coming up the road. But there shouldn't, there hasn't been anybody else in this road. So it bumps for us. It's like, and he's like coming right towards us, basically. He pulls over behind their car.

he gets off the motorcycle, he leaves his helmet on. He's like an all-black leather and a big black opaque visor helmet, gets off the motorcycle, has a hammer, walks up to their car, opens a hood, and just starts fucking smashing shit. So Anaya sees this, almost as if sensing Anaya's fear, not actually seeing anything herself.

Racine comes running. They see this, they look at each other, and they fucking run. And now we have kind of like a fun little like it's almost, it's scary but silly at the same time, the tone of this little like chasing cat and mouse thing that like they're running and they run into this big like construction lot basically. There's like tires and an abandoned worklifty guy and like a little shed. There's no one there. But they're like running and hiding through there. They get split up. The guy starts chasing after Anaya. She manages to. they're doing a little like he's coming around behind the forklift. She's scooting past him so you can't see her and it's like, oh my god, oh my God, it's he going to see her. She manages to jump into like a stack of tires so he doesn't see her.

We're like, few, she's fine. We see him like go the other way. So she finally like crawls out of the tires, looks up. He's like standing at the top of this big dirt mound staring at her and like, oh fuck, so he chases her. She runs out. He ends up going. There's always like tubes that Anayas or that Racine's.

hiding in and he like goes and he starts banging all of them or if you see her be like fuck fuck fuck he finally like manages to get racine when anaya comes and has like picked a bunch of rocks and just like throwing rocks at him they're just like tag teaming trying to like get the better of this fucking guy they managed to finally push him into like a shed and lock him in there and there's a little hole in the wall that he like bends down to and it's very scary we're like what who the fuck what is happening and he like gets down to of this hole and he takes his helmet off and it's Ezekiel, their half brother. And they're like, very quickly like, Ezekiel, what the hell? Like, what the fuck are you doing?

And he's like, you can't kill my dad. He who made Ezekiel, you can't kill him. And he's like, all of a sudden he has his own, like, religious fervor about like how they see their mom is God. He's like, my dad is God. But it's a really funny, weird little turnaround where they're just like, oh, you fucking idiot. Like, get out of here. You're nothing. And they just like leave him locked in that shed and leave. but they don't have a car anymore. No more car. No more car.

Take it away, hen. So they don't have a car anymore. They still have got to keep going. They do have this address that the lawyer gave them. So presumably have an idea of where to go in mind, even though they're walking. They're walking. They're talking. They put their hair up.

They're laughing. It's kind of like nice. They're going through a cornfield. They come upon a water pump. They see the water pump. They're so thirsty. They run up to it. They turn it on.

They're splashing their faces. They're splashing their hair. They're laughing. They're looking at each other. They're drinking out of it. And then they stop and look at each other. And Anaya is like, twin, this feels too good to be true, don't it? And then they wake up and they're on a bus.

They're having a shared dream. Yeah, I guess so. Twin stuff. Yeah, exactly. Classic twin stuff. There's not a lot of this in the movie. So this is kind of like a moment of this kind of like almost magic that you don't see a lot of. But it's very effective.

They are on a bus. The bus pulls up, stops. They get out. The bus stop really feels like in the middle of nowhere. They start walking. They get to a very fancy house. It truly feels like like a mirage in the desert. It's like nothing, nothing, nothing.

And then like green, a pool, a big house, palm tree. Like it's like sprung out of nothing. And it actually made me realize I hadn't been thinking that much or at all really about like the socioeconomic status of everyone in this film so far because it was all pretty like, you know, nothing out of the ordinary. But seeing this house, all of a sudden you're like, oh, now we are in like the upper class. Like this is this is different. I would say if anything, it's like everyone we're seeing so far seems to be the houses are small. The like Racine and Anaya's place. that they live in together is like they share a bedroom, they share a bathroom. It's like a, you know, but it doesn't feel like the point is that like they're not doing well, but it is, it is, yeah, in contrast. Dark contrast to what we're about to see in a way that, yeah, you don't feel it until you see the difference. And it's like, yeah, really makes you think about a lot of things. It's surrounded by palm trees. There's a shot of the pool. There's a shot of their luxury

car in the driveway. Yeah, we do like just a series of like this gorgeous giant living room. They're gorgeous giant kitchen. Like all these like it looks like out of a realtor spread of just like luxury. Then also we have a very stylistic introduction to the twin boys, their brothers. And the way that they're introduced is they're just like sitting in a fancy chair in the middle of the living room like while the voiceover is talking about like this is Scotch. He's the tough one. He's, you know, he masks his vulnerability. He's using strength. And then like cuts to the other. twin. And this is Riley. He's the quiet one. He masses vulnerabilities by being silent. And it's kind of this very stylized introduction. The Scotch voiceovers being done with the actor who plays Scotch, the Riley voicemovers being done with the actor who plays Scotch. It's like, it's just really

fucking cool. And then we meet their mom, Angie. This is Janelle Monet. She is in a silk bathrobe. She has cleaning material in her hands. She has a wild look in her eyes. And, And even though this beautiful mansion is already spotless clean, she is going around, spraying everything, wiping it down. There's a voiceover talking about how, you know, this is Angie. She is doing what she's always done, wiping, dusting, organizing. Everything, you know, belong. Everything has a place and everything in its right place. And she's clearly in charge of maintaining the house.

Putting his things exactly where he wants them. His lover shoes over here. His boots over here. His shirts arranged by color. his pants arranged by the, like, it's all that he wants what he needs. And if it's wrong, he gets very upset. Yes. So she's clearly trapped in the situation. Even though they're in a beautiful house. It is not fun. And there's a moment where she's cleaning and then she sits down in front of a mirror and she has like sudden flashbacks. And it's flashbacks. It's very brief. But you kind

of see her screaming. You see her crying. You see her getting hit. Again, we don't see like him, his face. But I mean, she's being physically abused. Yeah. And then it flashes right back to the mirror and she looks at herself in the mirror and she goes, Not today, Angie, not today. And then it cuts to her in the shower and she's peeing. And the voiceover is Janelle Monet going, Today, Angie is choosing a new path, a different path.

We're going to do something different today. And then the camera zooms out and you realize she's been peeing into a spray bottle in the shower. And then she like turns her like a little nozzle back on it. Then she goes around and starts spraying like his glasses and his watch with her pee. And so that's how she's choosing to spend her day. Getting her kicks. And then she packs her bags. And she has two roly bags.

She's in a beautiful, she's not in her silk robe anymore. She's in a gorgeous blouse, gorgeous pants. Like full charcoal gray, stunning ensemble. Absolutely stunning ensemble. Big, beautiful. sunglasses, she walks outside of the house, stops, and then screams at the top of her lungs, like an absolute maniac for her children to come out and help her. Her two boys, Scotch and Riley, they are, I guess, they must be like 19 years old or something like that. Because

if they're, if Anaya and Racine are like 24, they're probably like five years younger or something, I don't know. Yeah, or like, maybe they're like, seniors in high school. Maybe like 17. Because of how they react to Yeah. What comes next. Well, and it seems like Ezekiel must have came In between. Yeah, Ezekiel's in between. And Ezekiel might be like 20. Iszeco's

like not much younger than the girls probably. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, no. Maybe they're 25. Ezekiel's 20. These guys are like 17. I really struggle with this age range. I know. Yeah. I also can't ever tell how old anyone is. Yeah, it's hard. No. Me either. So the boys come out. Riley is like,

Mom, what's wrong? And she's like, help me get my packs into the car. They help her load up the car. She says, I love you. I'll see you later. Riley says, like, I love you, Mom. And as she's, they're kind of, I don't know, they're not really thinking much about it. But as she's leaving, we hear a voiceover. And it's saying that Angie has a plan. She's going to drive to Las Vegas or she will gamble 300 of the $1,100 that she's been able to squirrel away from him without him realizing. she will make as much money off of the $300 as she can, and then she is going to go on to Connecticut, who wouldn't, where there's like a new life waiting for her, a new job, a new driver's license, a new name, et cetera. She's like clearly been planning this for a really long time and also really alarming that like, however long this has taken,

the only amount of money that she's been able to like squirrel away is barely $1,000 when clearly they have a shit ton of money. Financial abuse is a real thing. So, Angie is escaping. This is the day she's leaving. We get some Janelle Monet dancing in the car. Singing in the car. She's feeling great. She is ready to go. She is singing in the car.

We did see, as we were getting the voiceover and introduction of the characters, the girls had come up to the house and we're like looking through the windows. So they saw this house. They saw the twins. They saw Janelle Monet. And I at one point, like, it was like, in her and goes like, pretty. Every scene's really pished. Like, what's the fuck matter if she's pretty? And she's like, I'm just saying it.

Like, she's pretty. So they have clocked all of this. She's like, is that Janelle Monet? I know. Like, she's made a stunning. Yes. So they have clocked all of this, made some sort of a plan. And this is their plan.

They are just sitting in the road. They're sitting in the road next to each other. Genel Monnet is like turns the radio down. driving up to them, sitting in her car, finally comes to a stop. For me, I was like, drive around them. I was like... Absolutely drive around them. Drive around them. Yeah. There's not a huge ditch on either side. You could make it drive around them. You're in like a fucking range rover. You can off road a little bit. She doesn't do that. She stops. She shoes them. She goes like this shoo-shoo through the windshield. Well, yeah, definitely don't do that.

And Racine was like, is she shoeing us? And Anaya's like, oh, yeah, I think so. And Racine's like, I'm going to make her come to us. I'm not moving. I'm going to make her come to us. So, Jail Monnet is like, okay, these crazy people are not getting out of the road. I guess I don't have a choice. Turns the car off, gets out of the car, walks up to them, and it's like,

excuse me, you're in my way, which is also just so funny because it's like, this is very purposeful yeah you don't think they know that they're in your way on purpose yeah um and i think grace scene says we're his kids and she's like you're what i'm sorry i don't know what you're talking about she goes we're his kids his first kids the first set of twins and she's shocked she says you're alive he told me you were dead i thought you were dead i thought you were dead And Racine is like, bullshit. That's fucking bullshit. She's lying.

You're lying. And Anaya's like, he could have lied to her. We don't know. Seems pretty likely. Yeah, that he lied, obviously. But whatever. She's like, yeah, he told me you all died in a terrible accident. Mm-hmm.

And she's saying, what do you want? Are you here for child support? Do you need help? And she then, she's wearing a big, fancy pearl necklace. and she says here, and she tries to take off her necklace, and she tries to hand it to them. And she says something about the provenance of this necklace. She's like, these pearls are from blah, blah, blah, blah.

There's like real Japanese, whatever. And Racine is like, nobody wants your pearls. They get like aggressive with each other. I don't know exactly like how. I think it's because Racine's like, wow, he left God. And you're like living in this luxurious house. you have this fancy fucking life must be nice. And Janelle Monet says something about like,

you know, whatever happened with your mother, it's very unfortunate. But if it was really so bad, she should have left. Like, clearly very proud of herself for her big plan to leave. And like, and also victim blaming of being like, whatever happened with her and your mom, like, that's her fault.

She wasn't strong enough. She should have left. So that's, I think, when things start getting pretty heated. They steal her keys. Racine grabs her keys out of her hand. So then she's like, I need my keys. He's like, I have to get out. You don't understand this is really important. And then tells them, yeah, you're behaving like a pack of animals.

And they say, we're not animals. We're on a mission from God. And she's like, what the fuck? And then I think she starts really insulting their mom then. She's like, starts saying like your mom, just because like your mom was like a bitch ass, like fucking horrid. Trash. Like, yeah. A piece of garbage. And then Janelle Moni hurls back and spits in Racine's face in like the most disgusting

vile way. It was really nauseating, like a huge spit. So gross. And the girls stop. And they do this thing that they actually did in the beginning of the film too. They do it again. And they both just start going, bitch. I said bitch. You said that though. They really said that. Yeah. And they're like kind of like hopping around. Like they're like, oh my God. Oh my. She did not. She did she just spit. She just spit. Oh my God.

Oh my bitch. And Janelle Monet is kind of like, oh, like, like, feeling a little bit like, mm. And then Racine has the rock in the sock. And she just fucking takes it, swings it back, slams her right in the skull. Crunch. Real hard. Real hard. Crunch.

Crunch. cronch limbs are in the head crunch and then she tries to run away Racine chases after her

we stay on Anaya who's like all of a sudden realizing even though she had just been like worked up with Racine in the moment before

now she didn't not like this yeah she was like oh fuck I didn't not like this and so we're just seeing Racine

and Janemone is on the ground behind the car so we can't see what's happening to her but yeah we just see Racine fucking going and going and like blood is spattering back at her. And it's staying on Anaya who's like in front of the car not looking but hearing everything

and looking away like shaking like fuck fuck fuck fuck and then eventually she's she goes twin stop stop and Racine stops immediately. And part of me was like is Janemone's still alive? I mean no. No. She's definitely not. She's definitely not. But I was very dead. But Racine was like still going because she's like really mad really mad a lot of anger about a lot of things so then they go back to the house bracine was covered in blood but i guess she's taking clothes out of angie's luggage i was trying to think like how does

yeah maybe they've like cleaned themselves up they don't have blood all over them they walk back to the house ring the doorbell Scotch and Riley their half-brothers answer Scotch is the older one the like not the older one but you know I kept doing the two I kept writing that in my nose the older one it's like he's taller

he was first out of the room and he's the race scene of that he's like he's the assertive one so he like reads older yes but again they're twins yes and Scotch and Riley look at them and I don't know if they say something

first but I know that Scotch immediately is like, dad did this. Like, this is dad's work. Well, they open the door, and it's like the two of them on either side, but side by side. And they open the door, and we get a frame of like, what we see them like top to bottom, like split screen. And they all at the same time say, twins. And then, yeah, Scotch says, did dad do this? And Racine said, yeah, dad definitely did this.

And he's like, yeah, dad did this. Come on in. And so Racine and I are like, oh, yeah. Okay, I guess they seem to understand what's going on. They walk in. But then they immediately over here, Scotch saying to Riley, dude, strippers. Dad got us strippers. It's got us fucking strippers for our birthday. And Riley's like, what? No, like, that doesn't, this is like feeling off. And Scotch is like, dad always surprises us for our birthday. Like, that's definitely what this is. And Riley's like, our birthday isn't for two weeks. Like, I don't think that.

that's what this is. It's got just like, who cares? This is awesome. Like, don't be a stick in the mud. Come on. Like, don't, like, have some fun. He's like, dad's on his fishing trip. He won't get back till because Rale's like, oh, let me just call dad and ask. He's like, you know how dad gets me. He's on his fishing trips. Like, just let him be on his trip. Like, stop being just sticking the mud. Let's have some fucking fun. Anaya and Racine are overhearing this and are like, they think we're what and they communicate telepathically, which is really fun. Yeah. In Twin Speak, they're on the couch going strippers, strippers. And then Anaya's like, are half brothers. And Reese's like, let's just go with it.

She said, just go with it. Just go with it. Just go. And I says, there are brothers. And Rene says, half brothers. And then she's like, just don't think about it. Don't think about it. So the boys are like, oh, welcome. Like, why don't you want to go get changed?

And they are like, okay. So they go back into Angie's room. Scotch calls some friends over. Gotta get some friends. And Srippers. Anaya and Racine are getting changed. They're getting dressed up into Angie's lingerie. They're looking at each other.

in the mirror. They're loving it. They're like fancy long. They're like having a fun little like moment just the two of them in the fancy bedroom. It's like very cute. And we cut to the boys like sitting on the in like a in the den where they have like party lights going just like drinking beers waiting for the strippers. And like where are they? Because they're just like having a little like moment to themselves feeling good. And while they're getting dressed, Anaya says to Racine like, listen, you have to swear to me that you're not going to hurt anyone besides. our dad, like you can't hurt anyone else. And Racine is like, okay. And I was like, I'm fucking serious. Like, if you have to promise me, you're not going to hurt anyone except our dad. You

have to swear to God. And if you go back on this, I will walk away and you will be on your own. And so Racine hearing this swears, but even when she does it, you can kind of tell she's hesitating. And then they're putting their makeup on in the mirror together in their lingerie. And Racine looks at Anaya and she goes, why are your boobs so big? And then she stops and they look at each other. And Racine is like, you're pregnant. And Anaya's like, mm-hmm. Yeah. And Racine is like, the old man? The old man? And Anaya's like, yeah. And they both start laughing. They're both kind of like shaking their heads. Like they can't believe it, but it's not bad news.

They're just sort of like, whoa. Oh my God. And Anai's like, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. But it also feels like she does know. Like it feels like she's known. Like she wants to have a baby. And Racine is also like she's happy. I mean, she's happy for Anaya and she's really surprised, but they're happy about it.

Just got to take care of one little thing before all that. And then it's just one little murder and then we're good. It's easy. So all we've got to do is strip for our half-brothers and then murder my dad. And then that's our two art things. And then we're good. Easy breezy. Have a baby.

Oh, God. I was sitting next to a guy. One of the guys I was sitting next to in the screening room was so expressive and very funny and clearly not having a good time in this movie. Like he was afterwards, we were in the elevator together and he was like, I'm a rom-com type of boy. I like the devil wears Prada. That's what I like.

Devil Wars product too is what I'm excited for. We're sitting right next to each other. And he kept in the last moments of this movie, he kept looking at me going, and like holding his iced coffee being like, no, like blocking his face. So it started with this half-brother stripper stuff. Yeah, sure, sure.

Nobody loves it. No one loves it. So they go out into the living room, which, yes, Scotch has set up some kind of red lighting. Sammy would be impressed. I'm sure there are some Amazon lights going on here. For sure. He has his other friends over.

Racine and Anaya are doing their like dance. They're not stripping. They're just kind of like dancing and twerking in their lingerie. And it seems like they're like really enjoying it for a minute. Like I think at first they're like, we're feeling ourselves. Like this is fun. Like it's kind of like seems like it's just for them. Yeah. At first. They need this. They need this. And they like feel hot. You know, they need that too. Yeah. They feel good. But then Scotch tells Anaya, you've got to turn. You. You've got to turn. turn around. We see him clocker scars and like whisper to his friend and they laugh. And then he like stops them. And before this happens though, um, Riley gets up and leaves. Riley's like, this isn't for him. He like thinks it's stupid and he like, he's out of the room at this point. Okay. Well, also also rude. Yeah. And when Anaya like clearly is like upset, he's like, don't be mad, don't be mad. And she just like turns around and leaves. And Christine is clearly fucking pissed, but makes the decision. to keep dancing through it. You can stay beautiful.

Like keep going. And we see her like, yeah, like white hot anger on her face. And we watch her, it like change into like, okay. She's like, all right, get fucking ready. And yeah, and she starts dancing again. And then we see Anaya in the kitchen. She has a hoodie on. She's not just in her lodger anymore.

She's feeling uncomfortable. And Riley is also hiding out in there. And they're kind of awkwardly standing together. And Riley asks her, he's like, how did you get those scars? Like, what happened? And Anaya's like not in the mood to tell that story, obviously. So looks away. And then he's immediately like, oh, I'm so sorry.

I didn't mean to offend you. Like, I'm really sorry. I don't know. I don't know what came over me. I shouldn't have asked you that. And she just kind of ignores it. And then she's like, why aren't you out there? Why aren't you out there having fun?

And he's like, that's not really for me. And she kind of like has this moment of recognition in him. And she goes, he's happy or strange. And Riley's like, what the fuck are you talking about? She's like, your brother. Like, he's happy. You're strange. He's happy.

You're different. Gives him permission to be who he wants to be because he's doing it for you. it's like to make you happy. And I wish that I'd like been able to write down exactly what she says. I know. It's so good. But it's such a moment of like she's saying it about him, but obviously it's about her. Right.

And he's looking at her a little confused, but also like there's a realization. He's like, I've never thought of it that way, but maybe I guess, yeah. Like he does sort of go like kind of get. Yeah, maybe. And we cut to. Scotch alone in a room. We just see his head. It's leaning back.

Yeah. So we saw before we cut back to the kitchen, Ania like comes up to him dancing, stripping and like whispers in his ear and he gets really excited. Or is it Racine? Sorry, Racine. Sorry, Racine. Like was ringing his ear.

And, um, and he like all excited gets up and like follows her to a room alone. Yes. So then we just get Scotch leaning back in a chair. Um, fully. amped, you know, all we see is his face and his neck, leaning back. Big exposed vulnerable neck. A lot of neck. Just so ready to get a-

God, what a neck. Just so ready to get a blowjob. I'm sure that's what's going to happen when crunch. Crunch. When crunch. She, Racine, has got that fucking rock and a song. Maybe that's our weapon of choice. Such a multi-use weapon.

Oh, yeah. They're getting a lot of use out of this. Would never fathom slitting a throat with a crunch of a rock and a song. But turns out you can't. Oh, it's a slight, it slices. It's not a, I mean, it's a pulverization. She just like fucking hits him really hard. In the throat.

Yeah, and he, then we see him like stand up and he's holding his throat. And he's like spraying blood, can't breathe. And he like, out of the throat or out of his mouth? Blood out of his mouth. his mouth, but from the throat. The throat is crushed. The throat is crushed, and it's causing blood to come out of his mouth. Got it.

But when this moment happens, the rock crunch, Anaya and Riley are in the kitchen, and they hear something, and Riley says, what was that? And Anaya has this, like, and again, I think it's really the twin connection that she's like, she knows exactly what the fuck just happened. And the look on her face is, like, pure fucking terror. Then Scotch. zombie walks back into the living room. His friends are oblivious.

It's dark in there. There's party lights. They don't not understand what's going on. He's like spurting out of his mouth and then collapses on the ground. He does one last big spurt of blood that gets on to all of them and they're like, what the fuck? And he collapses and they turn the lights on and see that everything's covered in blood. And they just run out.

Red light covers that shit right now. Exactly. And yeah, and they're teenagers, teenage boys. So they're just like, let's get the fuck out. you're like, what the fuck, what the fuck? And just, yeah, totally. Don't try to help them. Abandon ship.

Don't even really take a second look. Just run out as soon as possible. Just then, Riley runs in, sees Scotch on the ground, runs up to him, starts like cradling his head. He did. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Anaya had come into the room with Riley. She looks at Racine. She's appalled.

She's like, you fucking promised. This was, this was tough. She says, you promised, you promised me. And Racine is like, he called you ugly. Like, obvious, you know, this is something, this is the very worn dynamic between them. Racine defending Anaya. Like, someone calls you ugly, you know what I'm going to do. I have to kill them with a rock in a sock.

And a rock and a sock. And then. I got to crunch him. I got crunch. Anaya, you know, it's clearly not on board. Anaya says, I am ugly, which was like, devastating. But also she's like, I have scars on my face. People aren't going to like it.

Yeah. I don't need you to kill somebody because of this. And Racine is like past that already. She's like on to the next phase. She's like, well, now we have to kill the other brother because otherwise is going to tell. So like, let's just fucking go. Sorry. It's inevitable.

And so Anaya's like, hold on. Wait a minute. I just had a bonding moment with him in the kitchen. We're not going to kill him. And Racine is like, are you fucking kidding me? If we let him live, he might say that you tried to kill Scotch. Like, he might blame it on you. And you didn't even do anything.

Like, you're going to let this guy go. And Anaya is, like, standing up to Racine for the first time. She's like, no, you have to stop. And she gets, she puts her body between Riley and Racine. She's like, because you can see Racine is about to, like, go and crunch him too. And Anaya's like, no, I will not let you do that. And she puts herself between the two of them. And Racine is like, get the fuck out of my way, Anaya.

Like, get the fuck out of my way. Like, she's almost like about to hurt Anaya. And Anaya's pushing back. They start to fight. And then Anaya tells Riley, she's like, you got to run. Run as fast as you can. So Riley runs. Anaya follows him.

They run outside. They run to the pool. And they hide behind like a bush next to the pool. And Anaya is next to Riley. She looks at him. he looks at her and there's a voiceover in that moment that's like Anaya in that moment wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to tell him the things that she had never been able to tell her scene.

She wanted to share, but before the voiceover can finish, Riley just shoots his hands out and just grabs her by the neck and starts strangling her. So it's this moment of like, oh, was Anaya and Riley, were they going to like have a connection where we going to find out things? He like, he turns to her and he says, thank you. And then he starts fucking choking her. Trying to kill her. So no, that's not the direction we're going in.

For a moment, I was like, oh, this is interesting. Is this where we're going with this? But no, he starts trying to kill her. Why he said, thank you? For saving him. For saving him. And then he's like, now I'm going to fucking kill you. So he's really choking her.

He's doing really well. You're pretty worried for a moment, but just when things are looking really bad. Now it is. Now we do want Racine to come out and crunch. Now it's crunch time. Racine comes out with the rock to crunch. And she does. She crunches him.

But just a bit. She waxes him with it enough to get him off Anaya. A light crunch. And he turns on her. They start fighting. He like punches Anaya, pushes her away. She's also like recovering from having just been kind of strangled. And now we see him.

He gets on top of Racine and he starts really choking her. And he's like, you killed my brother, you killed my brother. And she's past, like he's strangled her enough to make her pass out. Like she, like, it looks really, really bad. When stabbed in the spine by garden shears, by Anaya. Wow. So she killed him to save Racine.

And then she pushes him into the pool, blood everywhere. It's a really cool shot. When he, the way he falls into the, he like stands up, stumbles back, falls back first in the pool. the like the cannonball effect of the water like is immediately like all blood filled water like it's so it just looked really cool I don't know how they did it because I don't think there'd be that much blood that fast but it was really cool well you probably don't get like too many takes of that unless it's CGI and they probably had to nail that on the first take it probably wasn't CGI that was really good it was really cool so ristine is passed out anaya has killed Riley

and just then a car pulls up And Anaya is like, has to hide Racine's unconscious body, just starts dragging Racine back into the house as fast as possible, intercut between her dragging Racine's body trying to hide them. We're seeing a car door open. We're seeing two feet walk out of the car. Oh, my God. His shoes were so triggering to me. So triggering. he's wearing boat shoes, but not just boat shoes. They're like the ugly, they're like the ugly modern

boat shoes that have like plastic on them. They're like spary. They're what every frat boy wore in college for me. But they're not even like traditional sparries. They're like the, they're like the modern, like 2024 version of sparries. I'm sure they're very expensive. That's probably the whole point. I'm sure they're like fancy. But I also, aside from how triggering and ugly the shoes are, I was also like, he's like been described to us as the most evil man on planet earth and so to see like boat shoes well he was on a fishing trip he was on a fishing trip but it is just such a it's such a specific and fascinating choice for how this character is introduced to us in this way where it's like oh he's just like a dad in boat shoes oh it sent a shock up my spine in recognition i was like of course of course he's wearing those fucking shoes because he could have been wearing like big like what are those fucking slickers or whatever, you know, like scary big rubber boots or something. Oh, you know what you did last summer. He's wearing like, like just sort of rich dad boat shoes.

No, but Henley's right, though. That is like sinister in its own way in like a very like frat, like, frat boy. Scary frat boy way. Yeah. You're like, am I on the beltway? Am I in Washington, D.C. right now? Like, this is sick. He's not just wearing boat shoes.

He's wearing a full, like, technical. fishing khaki outfit with like performance khakis and like a performance fishing button down. Still not seeing his face though. I was going to ask if he was wearing a funny little fisherman's hat but I would have assumed that we would not know. We're just seeing him calmly walk into the house.

This is all again all intercut with Anaya trying to hide for scene's body. He's calmly walking and you see him walk into the house. You see him very calmly slips off his boat shoes. He puts them into some house slippers. And then he turns and walks slowly into the living room, never changing his cadence, never changing the mood. Clearly he's not affected by what he's seen, but you can tell he clearly can see. He sees Scotch's body, pauses for maybe the briefest of moments, continues on, looks outside, sees Raleigh's body in the pool, okay, continues on, goes into the kitchen and he makes himself a sandwich.

Yeah, he pulls out the mayonnaise. He gets the roast beef out. we get a whole shot of him making a sandwich very calmly. He cuts it in half with a knife. I did really want this plate though. Like he makes himself a little sandwich and he cuts it in half and then he puts pours like potato chips on the plate. And it's just been so long since I've like made myself a sandwich and poured chips on the plate.

I know. I was like, this looks so good. I was like, don't ruin this for me. Don't ruin a sandwich with potato chips for me. You're ruining it for me right now. Especially like for dinner. There's something about that. that's so like, oh my God, we get to just do a cold sandwich with chips on the plate for dinner.

I'm like, fun. Hell yeah. Fun. So then Anaya, by this point, has pulled Racine underneath their kitchen table, which has a big, it's a circular table. It has a big tablecloth over it, and so she's hiding, like, under the table. Of course, he just made himself a sandwich. He pulls out a chair for the table. It's still like a jump scare.

He's like, oh, sits down. Anaya so scared trying not to make a noise trying to be so quiet and then you know he takes a bite of a sandwich calmly says like seems like we got a lot of talk about huh why don't you come on up here really calm really calm and and in this voice we're like surely that's not Sterling K. Brown do mine ears deceive then even though Racine still passed out she says in twin speak like I'm going to go up there don't worry like like you stayed on here. It's going to be okay. Like she like tries to like reassure. Leave her voicemail. Yeah. So she like goes up. She's shaking. She has the rock in a sock.

Oh, she says to Rasey and she goes, I have the sock. Like it's going to be okay. She like goes up, sits staring at him. And we're seeing like shots of him just like eat from this sandwich. And then is this the first time we see his full face? I do think we finally do see his full face. And he just looks so nonplussed. Like he's just like, let's have a comment.

And it's important to note he's like so soft spoken. Like he is his, the choice, because the man I could do anything, he's not, he's like a very non-powerful voice in any way. He's sort of like, it's sort of like lilts when he speaks. And it's just like, seems like we got a lot to talk about. Oh, you ask me a question? I'll ask you a question. Like it's like...

Unexpected. Enough to make you go. Unsettling, but also like in a way that you're like, could he be as bad as that like he's being so like normal? Like it's just, it's an... You see how it would work to throw an eye off

because it does seem like he's not acting like a monster. Right. It doesn't sound like a monster. It fools even the audience, I would say. Because even me in my seat as an audience member who knows his name in the fucking.

film is the monster. But I am like, maybe we heard the wrong story. Right. Right. It throws you off a little bit. And he's like, well, let's take turns. Why don't we take turns? He also just has such a reassuring face.

I know. Yeah. He goes, you go first and then I'll go. And Anaya says, why did you light her on fire? Great. First question. And he goes, because she wouldn't hold me. And she's immediately like, don't you think that was a bit of an overreaction?

Like, what the fuck? And he's like, hey, it's my turn. who did you kill first? And she goes, Angie. Or maybe she said your wife. And he goes, Angie, he doesn't even know she's dead yet. This is the first time he's learning of that. And then it's her turn.

So she says, don't you think lighting her on fire was a bit of an overreaction? And he's still eating a sandwich, still very calm. He says it's a perfectly appropriate response for a young man who's out of control. and she's like, what? What? But also reminded me of the way that we excuse bad behavior, like, in society. He's really adopting the, like, I was not in my best, that was my best version of me. Right.

But that's the best I could do in that moment, and I've grown and changed. And this me wouldn't do that, but that me had to. And then he does a little bit of a monologue, or he's like, He's not like it was the right. It's a good thing I did it, but he is like, but I mean, I did have to. What else was that going to? Like, what else was a young man going to do? Like, that's how young men are. Don't you know that? You ever just, you know, have something that feels so like a spot that you need to get out, just a spot that you need to get out. That's a little spot that feels so catastrophic to your being. It feels like it won't go away and it's so, it's just destroying you. The way that it stays there, it's done. And it's like causing, it's causing your body to, like, react. And there's, there's, there's, there's, there's pus and there's he goes on this like long monologue it's like I was young I was young and I'm sorry and you know you just have to factor in every piece of the puzzle she could have just let me hold her but she wasn't letting me do that and Anaya's like listening to all of this and she's like

yeah no I'm hearing I'm hearing that she she like she like stands up and she's like so we were just pus to you we were just pus to you and he's like You're not listening to me. Oh, his monologue was about, you know, when you pop a pimple, that's where the pus came from. I was like, he was talking all about pus, but why? When you pop a pimple, but there's still, there's still pus in there. And you got to get it all out. And she was like, we're supposed to leave it alone.

What you are. Yeah. But nobody does. Let's be real. And yeah, she said, that's like we were just pus to you. And she says, just so you know, I have a baby coming. Like, I have a baby coming. You're going to be a granddad.

then he says you think I tried to kill my own babies you think I tried to do that because you did yeah and she says you brought us into the bathroom and he goes no no she got lit on fire she grabbed you she she grabbed you she tried to she tried to get you to save her yeah but you told the lawyer that you wanted to finish the job so but he's so convincing in this moment he's so calm and like I know it's hard to believe not watching it But it's like Obviously he's a monster and terrible But you see

He's also starring Kay Brown And you see how badly And I wants what he's saying to be true That he's just That she's been through so much Even beyond this time that we've spent with her And she's about to have a baby She's scared

This is her father She's never known a parent he's telling her that he actually loved her all along and he didn't want to hurt her. And he's so, oh, my God, you have a grandbaby. Let's like, drop the rock in the socks. Don't crunch me. And you can come back here and I'll be, I can sit, you know, bounce my grandbaby on my knee and like, this can work. Like, we can be a family.

And I want that. It's also because it's like, that's Anaya. You know, he's saying, you think I would try to kill my own babies. And Anaya, I'm sure, feels the same. same way. You know what I mean? So it's like hard not to believe someone when you're like, that's how I feel. Right. That's the rational. Exactly. Slightly more rational. Yeah. Perspective. She wants to believe like that's true and everyone. She just wants it to be true. Yeah. And everyone because it's true in her. I get that. But his other kids are dead in the other room and I just don't see. I know. It is like,

I just in this moment where I'm in this scene, I'm buying it for a second where I'm like, look, yes, he lit he lit he lit her on fire in this very bad. but I'm like, we don't actually know for certain what happened with the girls. Exactly. Because it was just her story. We've never met the mom before either. The mom also disappeared. And so we just have the moms. She didn't even spell Anaya's name right on the like welcome sign.

How much can she? So you are in this moment of like, I guess it's true that like we don't have, we only have everyone's individual story and he's saying this. And what if we'd heard him first? Like we would think she's the monster. And the only thing is Chuck Holt talking about him ripping his tongue out. That kind of, that really does. tongue out saying that he was going to come back and finish the job. And also the first part of the

story where he said he lit her on fire because she wouldn't hold him. Like there's a lot of really bad, really, really bad. A lot of things here. I get what you guys are saying. Yes. But I kept remembering, I was like, but he did see his son's dead and then made a sandwich. I was like, that's a psychopath. Oh, no. He is such a psychopath. It's just that Sterly Kane Brown is so good at acting. He makes you. He's just so good acting. And it's really that like Anaya needs this to be true right now because if it's not, things are so bad. Things are, I mean, she has to kill her dad. I think she doesn't want to do.

He does say he's like, if you, because you goes pick the rock up and he's like, see, if you do that, I'm going to have to fight back. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to hurt my grandbaby. So like, let's not. And you would want that to be able

to be true in that situation. So she's picking it up, but he's convincing her. She slowly puts the rock. rock back down. It's also a very intimate moment. They're very close to each other. He's like, and you are scared. You are scared. And she puts the rock down. And then he grabs her hands. They're holding hands. It's kind of emotional. And he does, like, lead her over into a chair. It's like, have a seat. Like, we're going to be okay. And you're like, okay. And then he punches her

right in the face real fucking hard real fucking hard and it reminded me also it mirrored the moment in the very beginning with vivicay fox telling the story of him confronting her face and then yep yep she has this line in the beginning where she says men like your daddy always have a tender side and it's kind of a warning because it's like that's exactly what he fucking pulled on her in that moment so punches her knocks her out and then we get like a... He's like, the first... The older one, not older, but like Scotch,

he was really gonna be something. That's exactly what he says. That first one, the first one, the one over the old one, not older, because I get how it works. But he was really gonna be something. And we get a montage of him, like, collecting the, like, he's smoking,

he's drinking. He's, like, collecting. He's getting Riley's body out of the pool. He's, like, putting him in the foyer next to Scotch. He's kind of, like, organizing the crime. crime scene essentially with this yeah voiceover talking about how scotch was going to

be someone blah blah as he's doing this he comes back into the living room where he had knocked Anaya out and he pours himself a bourbon and turns around and Anaya is not unconscious anymore great

Anaya gets up and she gets the rock and this time she's like yeah we are going to fucking do this and he's like okay he puts up fist she hits him with the rock he is getting the upper hand. When Racine comes in, she's come to. And they've got the upper hand and they start beating the shit out of him. We stay on both of their faces as they take turns like kicking the fucking shit out of,

like pulverizing him, both of them with equal fucking fury. They destroy him. And then he stumbles his way through the house. They push him into the bathtub. They cover him in the scotch that he was. was just drinking. And they flip a match, throw it on him. They're both standing there, like watching him be fucking lit on fire in the

bathtub, screaming, screaming, screaming, screaming. Everything's being lit on fire, screaming, screaming, screaming, they're standing there kind of like shocked that they can't believe that this is what they've done. Seems kind of like a perfect answer. A perfect no-brainer closing of the circle to me. Racine apologizes to Anaya. Anaya takes a beat, forgives her. They turn and hold hands and go to walk out.

And then he grabs Racine and pulls her into the fire with him. And there's nothing Anaya can do. She's immediately engulfed in flames. Like it's like a big fire. Yeah. Racine is fully. They're both just. You can't get someone out of that.

You'd only be getting yourself into it. It's a complete inferno. And so she has no choice. Anaya just runs out of the house. It's interesting because she couldn't get in the fire, but there is a moment where it's like, could she try to do something? Could she try to douse the fire?

Could she call? Like, I feel like there's this, also this actress is amazing. I do feel like there's this moment of her being like, I'm letting it happen. And she leaves. I think that that's actually, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of ways you can interpret that.

I guess one interpretation is that they did try to help their mom. And when they were kids and like it in a way like ruined their fucking lives. Not that they shouldn't have done that, but it's more like she's already been through this. And like they were. And the thing about vengeance, the like thing about like the path race scene was going down. I was just like it. It just ends like this. Closing the circle.

Like this is what it was going to be. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And like Anaya choosing to say. save herself for the first time ever. And a baby. She also has a baby. And a baby. Yeah. So she has another person she's looking out for not just, not just for a scene anymore. So all she can do is run. She runs outside. She stands outside. She watches the house just fucking go down in flames. She just stands there until like as long as it takes. Like she's just

out there watching the house go up in flames. Yeah. You typically want to linger at the crime scene as long as possible. It seems to be in the middle of nowhere. So no one's coming. No one's no one's no one's showing up to help until finally like the sun is coming up and the house is like down to its studs. And then you just see Anaya walk back to that bus stop. That's in the middle of nowhere. We're getting a voiceover that's saying it was quiet. It's too quiet. The quietest it's ever been just on her own for the first time in her whole life. And then kind of these shots of like what she would be seeing outside the bus, like going along the road, seeing, you know, woods and this voiceover is saying, like, but she knew that she was going to be able to see the good running alongside the bad.

Like she was going to do everything she could. Like quiet, made space for her to see the good alongside the bad. Yeah. And then there are shots of her holding a baby. And, like, twirling around with the baby and the voiceover being like you know she promised that she was gonna tell that baby all about her auntie racine and teach her to see that life could be

beautiful even for people like them and she like looks really happy and peaceful in a way that we haven't seen her mm-hmm and that's the end in the movie wow yeah I was shocked when racing got pulled into that fire I know

I was at first and then I was like oh no I guess it makes sense like it does but I was just like oh we're gonna we're also adding sadness to this move we're not just like whoa I know I know yeah I know really a stunning story incredibly well told incredibly well acted unbelievably impressive I'm like I'm it's one of those news that afterwards I was like well I need to look up this woman and everything about her and I need to look up all these actresses and everything they've ever like I was just like Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody is so good. Yeah.

Ooh, I loved it. And, yeah, I really want to see it. Yeah, Sammy, I think you're really going to like it. And thank God you took notes, Henley. Oh, my God. I mean, I don't think so, Emily. You have, like, a photographic memory for movies. Emily, you do have the, for you know, like literal photographic memory.

I wouldn't be able to remember one thing about a movie after I see it. It's like gone. It's gone at a second. I'm forgetting things about movies as I'm watching them. Yeah. What are we doing again? is happening. Where are we? I really loved it. I think everybody should go see it. And now I'm so excited to jump into our interview with Mallory Johnson, aka A. A.k.a. A.k.a. A.k.a. A.k. A. A. A. Never been

happier in my life. Mallory, thank you so much for joining us. Emily and I were thrilled to get to see an early screening of this movie. Both of us loved it. We've been telling everyone, they have to go see it. I want to go see it again when it's in theaters. I want it to be huge. It needs to be huge. It needs to be huge. It is such an unbelievable combination of like excellent storytelling and direction, like, beautiful direction.

It's so unique, like truly unique in a way that is like one of those reasons afterwards. You have to like look up everything about every single person who was involved. Like that's how I felt afterwards, which is such a special feeling. Oh, that's so good guys. I mean, you have no idea how happy that makes me. Oh, my God. Seriously, I'd love to hear it. I would love if you could tell us a little bit about your journey with the source material, like the first time you encountered either the play or the screenplay, the first time you read it, your first reactions around Anaya, and then kind of like where that went for you, like, how it started and then what you kind of learned about her over the process, like through filming and then finally seeing the final. cut like what about her did you discover what was surprising like she's she is such a complicated character i mean i think all of them are and i'd just love to hear your process with her oh my god it was

i mean yeah that's a great question i i didn't know the play like i wasn't familiar with the play as carra was carra had gone and seen it at so ho and which is so dope i wish i had seen it But no, I didn't know. And I got the audition in my email. And I was like, I remember I read it to my friend. And I was like, oh, I got this audition for this thing called Is God is. And he was like, It's Got Is? No, we're doing that right now.

He was like, open it. Open it. We're about to read it. Yeah, I feel like the people who are in the know were like, this is huge. No, it has its own like cult following. I mean, because the source material is so amazing. and it's so great. And so he was like, I love this, you should do it.

And so we read it that night. And I remember, like, being really touched by it. Like, I mean, the screenplay. I hadn't read the play yet, but even the screenplay was like, I have to do this. So I was so gun-ho about doing, like, getting this. And I remember I just wanted it so bad. And I would read the script every day that I was, it was like four different callbacks. And yeah, I felt like Anaya jumped off the page for me.

I felt from the moment I read the script that I kind of understood her the core of who she was. I understood her sensitivity, but I also understood her, like, deep desire and need to be normal and, like, loved and, like, have a family. I think that my instinct about that, though, grew as we started filming. Because one, also, too, sorry, I don't mean to be so long-winded. No, no, no. This is literally why we're all here. Okay, good. This is great.

I'm so long-winded, so great. No, as we started filming, I mean, there were guys, there were so many things that I learned just because I was like the least experienced out of everybody on. set. Everyone around me were pros. They knew exactly what they were doing. They knew how to work camera angles. They knew they were just like giants. They were people I look up to. And I learned so much from the I learned. I'm not even joking when I say every single day I showed up, I learned something new about myself, about my character, about acting, about everything. And so it was a learning process throughout the entire thing. But specifically with working with prosthetics,

I had never done that before. And I had no idea how challenging it would be. I didn't even know it would be a challenge. They kind of told me in the beginning, but I was like, yeah, yeah. It's makeup. It's makeup. I'll look different. No, but guys, it was like I didn't know that like when you turn to the side, you know, your features are muted in some areas, like, because one side of my face is covered, so I would have to do things like, you know, look at how my face was looking in the mirror if I wanted to make a certain expression, how to do that. And I had no idea that that was something that I had to do. But that's something I learned as I went on. But in terms of sticking to what I understood about her as a character, I just felt like,

her moral complexity, like what she was trying to juggle in terms of what was right and what was wrong, in terms of how much she should protect her sister. And in her protection of her sister, I think I realized as it went on that Anaya is so much more, actually she's so much more of the protector in their relationship than Racine seems to be when you first read the script.

So as it went on, that became apparent to me and just my bond with Kara. God, there were like so many things that happened. It's hard to pick one, but it snowballed into, yeah, this, this like beautiful, complex 3D spirit that I still feel when I watched the movie back. There are like so many places I want to go. I know. I'm like, wait, can I go off script? We had questions written, but now I'm like, I want to ask something. Let's go.

Let's go off script. I'm so curious. You and Kara have such amazing chemistry. And I, to play sisters with someone, let alone twins, I'm so curious about, like, was that connection instant? I'm assuming you guys did a chemistry read. Like, how did you build that relationship between the two? Because it feels like you've been sisters your whole lives. First of all, I'm so glad it feels that way. I feel like I'm sisters with Kara. I, and this is not, like, I know it can be like, yeah, we're sisters. But truly, like, when I first met Kara, actually the first time I met Kara, it was like on the street in New York. Because she randomly came up to me.

This was before auditions, like before, this was like a year before even had this opportunity together. And she randomly came up to me. I was like in a show. And we were like walking to the theater. And she hugged me like the stranger. I was like, who is this? And she was like, I. love you. I loved you and Kindred. By the way, this this niche show, nobody watched but her.

And she was like, I loved you and Kindred. You were amazing. And I was like, thank you so much. Oh, my God. And when I walked away, the person that was with me was like, do you know who that was? And I was like, no. He was like, that's Carrie Young. She just won a Tony. And I was like, oh my God. So I was like, I, before I even. All of these like little threads. It's like, kismet. It's so fascinating. It's literally chismit, guys. It's crazy.

I was like, I knew from the moment I met her before I even got a chance to really get to know her that she was like, that's the type of person she is. She pours love into people. She is a genuine spirit. And I felt that when she came up to me on the street and like, you know, gave me my flowers for this show that, you know, like I had no idea she had seen. And so when I saw her again, I thanked her and I remember like us, I remember just feeling like there was something there. But as we went on, as we did the chemistry read, yeah, I was like, I could, I was like, I, you always are like, that person's going to get it.

You know, you never know about yourself, but you're like, she's going to get it. And then when we got it, I was, I was so happy. And we did a lot of work together. we started off. Alicia had brought us in and we did a lot of what's it called like exercises where we looked in the mirror

and we would like the toothbrush scene we like did we like practice brushing our teeth in the mirror and like doing things while trying to read each other's minds so there were like exercises that we did but I think ultimately it just came down to the fact that me and Kara lived together. We were working every single day together. We would text each other all the time and be like, hey, can you meet me downstairs?

Do you want to talk about this scene? But that's like the type of actor Kara is. And she was so down to spend all of her time working on this. And so was I. And I think that just we connected on that fact that we just were like so scrappy and like so ready to to give our all to this project. And that grew into like a genuine bond. Like I literally love her. I can't even explain how much I talk about how much I love her all the time. But it's true. It's true.

I really love her and I really look up to her as a person and an actor. So that was like real. Like all of that is very, very real. Very real. There were so many things that were inventive in this film. And one of them is the twin speak, the way that you guys, what you just referenced, like reading each other's minds. And I didn't even think about it until after I was done watching the movie. But I was like, that felt so natural.

I didn't second guess it once. It felt like, of course. Like, of course. And I think it's because the rhythm of it fits perfectly. And I was wondering how that actually worked when you were filming it. Like when you were actually filming it was someone off camera saying the words and you guys were reacting to it in the moment? Or how did it work? No, you just know what you're saying to each other and you're just, oh.

I love that. Yeah, yeah, but that's really, really, like, we were working on it all the time. And we were doing this, like I said, we were doing those exercises where we were like trying to feel each other. That's what was so great also, too, I will say about the way that Alicia did this. I mean, it just speaks to her brilliance and her grit as an artist, but she had us come in and do rehearsals before filming. Like, that's not even ever, that's never done, or at least in my experience of, film, that's never done. We don't get to reverse. You just come on and you do it the day of, but she had us come in and truly work on this like a play. Like she treated like a play. We treated it

like a play. And it paid off because we really like, um, we're feeling each other rather than just like going through the motions of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk more about working with Alicia Harris? I know that this was her first like, feature debut, but she's, you know, an amazing stage director. And what was it like getting direction from her? What was what was your experience like working together? It was amazing. I, again, I love Alicia. Sorry, guys, this whole thing is just going to be me being like, this is our favorite thing in the world. Yeah. Like, everybody should love, like, all I want to hear is not people loving what they're doing and loving each other. This is great. We need it. We need it right now.

That really is it. That is the spirit of this whole movie. But particularly, I love, I have so much, like, respect for her as a person. I love her. I think that she's brilliant. And I, yeah, I look up to her as, like, one of our, one of our grades. So one of my grades, she's my great, you know. And, yeah, she was incredible.

I mean, it was, like, from the moment I auditioned, too, it was so clear. what she set out to do with this film. She was clear. Like, she knew who these characters, who she wanted these characters to be, but without giving any sort of, like, restraint on us, which takes so much skill. Like, I mean, that just speaks to how amazing she is as an artist

and as a director. She was so clear about who Anaya was and who Racine was and her intention with writing them, but she never, like, told us what to do. She just kind of like, it was all all conversations. It was all like we were working. We would talk with each other as if these people were real. I mean, there was no like, I don't know how to explain it, but it was there was no.

You weren't like putting on a person. You were becoming them together. Exactly. Exactly. We treated, thank you so much for saying that. Yes, we treated every moment like that. like this was the this was this was like a real world we were building together and she was she just was very direct i just remember a lot of moments where she was just like no i i want this to happen and like you know what

i'm saying and she was so um and it wasn't in like a like a i want no it was like no i want this yeah and everyone would be like got it move because she demanded that respect in the room, even though it was her first time ever doing it. And she was very candid and honest about the fact that it was her first time and she maybe didn't understand some things. But she would be, when she knew what she wanted to happen on screen, she would be very direct and clear about it and made sure that it happened in the room. And that was something I, that stuck with me. Just as a woman also too, like, just as a young woman watching this, this woman, like,

take control of a room and be direct about what she needed, even in her, like, inexperience, right? As a first-time filmmaker, she was incredible. And she was very, yeah, it was really inspiring to watch her work. You feel the clarity of the vision so much in watching it. And it is, yeah, like I said, it's so unique and singular. And it feels so special to get to watch a movie where you, you know it is a person's vision fully realized because there's so many voices in film and so many,

like, studio and budget. And we so many, so often get films that you, once it gets to screen, you hear the stories of like, the director wanted to be this or it should have been this. And you, like, feel it being disjointed. This felt so, like, a cohesive, perfect representation of, like, what I hoped she wanted it to be. And I'm so glad to hear that she pushed for that. And you know what? And you know what, too? I have to also say that we all believed in it. Everybody who worked on it believed that it was special, knew it was special and felt that it was special. And I really mean that from like the crew, everybody on the crew, everybody in the cast, the people doing makeup, the people doing costumes. We all like look to her as this true leader of this project that we,

believed in, like, so wholeheartedly. And that's what made it, I think, feel so... That was part of the reason why I hope that it felt so cohesive is because we all were like, yeah, let's go. For Alicia. It really was like, for Alicia. Right to down. Every day. Just generally, was there really kind of a favorite day, favorite moment, favorite thing that happened on set?

Anything that was particularly, like, fun or surprising? God, there were so many fun moments. I think the, I think the twerking scene. So fun. The montage, by the way, guys, that was a whole day. That was incredible. And you deserve that. Yeah, you deserve that.

It was so fun. It was literally just us, like, running around, running on, like, the side of highways. And, like, trucks were, like, honking at us. You were, like, dancing all day. And we were just going to different stops. signs. They set up like these different like these different miles signs and they were like

Texas, you know, like the whole south. And we were just like working on the signs. It was very, very fun. And we were like driving around all day. So that was fun. That was like a really fun day. But I remember also too, something that was like really

funny and inspiring was Michael T. when we were working on our scene with him, because he's an acting teacher. He He would do this thing where before they yelled action, he would be like, all right, y'all. Yeah. Now watch this. And then he'd like yell at it. And he would go.

And then we would like genuinely be in the scene like, yeah. And then after like they yelled cut, he was like, no, did you see how I did that? That's so funny. Everything can be a teaching moment. No, literally. Like, that's how all of them were, though. Like they, all of them were just like took us under their wing in such an amazing way. They really wanted to like lift us up as young actors.

That's sorry, me. They wanted, I'm going to speak for myself because Kara is a two-time Tony winner. Me, you know, like I felt very lifted up and very encouraged and taught by by them every single day. So yeah, that was, yeah, that's how they always were. But that was genuinely funny to me. It's so good. I mean, you both are really the heart of this movie. You are really the heart of this movie.

And from watching it, like, I'll say, you don't feel like the young actor in the room. Like, it really, you really bring so much power to this story to this role. I'm curious if there was any scene or day of filming that you were, like, particularly, like, this is the day. This is the day I'm, like, most excited for, most nervous for. I mean, there's, like, you're doing scenes with. powerhouses you're handling really intense material. Like, what were those days for you? It was like almost every day.

Except for the twerking day? No, except for the twerking, I really let go. No, no, it was, there was definitely the scene with Sterling. And I won't, without giving way too much, there is like this, this kind of like, what do you call it? like do set. I'm going to stop. Like a standoff. It's, yeah, it's like, it's the final, like, showdown, yeah.

Final showdown. And I, I remember, like, me, I remember knowing what day that that was coming up on the schedule. And I was, like, so nervous for one, because this was going to be, like, my first time acting with Sterling. And I just, like, love, I look up to Sterling so much. So I was like, I've got to be ready for this. And it's so funny because that day, the day before we were supposed to be filming the scene with Angie and it was supposed to be the next day. So we were supposed to film the scene with Angie this day and then the next day we were supposed to do the manned scene.

So I was like, okay, I have some time. Then it started raining and they were like, oh, we have to move everything inside. We're going to do the man's scene. I was like, oh, no. Just so casually, like we're going to flip it and do the thing you're most nervous about right now. And I was like, oh, my God.

Oh, my God. I'm not ready. But what's so amazing about that is that it genuinely was one of those moments where I just had to go. I had to believe that all that work that had been done was with me and was under me. And that I could just trust. It genuinely was like one of those moments. where it's like, I just have to trust my scene partner. And I have to trust that whatever happens today is going to be enough to tell the story.

And so we were outside and I was like running lines with Garrett. I was like, Kara, we're about to do this. We're about to do this. She was like, you got it. You got it. That's not Garrett. It's like, she was just like, you got him out. You got it.

Let's go. Let's go. And we were just like running lines together and went in. And I knew when like Sterling came out and he was just so peaceful and so like his spirit is just so calming and he was ready to go. And he knew what was happening. And he knew that we had moved it up. And he was just like, let's go. You know, every that was like the spirit of it.

It was just like, I got you. We got you. We got it. Let's go. So yeah, that was. But at the time, I was terrified. I was terrified. But it ended up working out. It was okay.

I bet it felt really good driving home at the end of the day. You're like, I can sleep tonight. So good. So good, you guys. Oh, my God. So our podcast is technically we mostly talk about scary movies. And this isn't really like a horror movie. They're obviously horrific elements. But we wanted to ask you, just the question we ask everyone, which is what's your relationship to scary movies? Like, was there a scary movie you saw as a kid that left a mark? Or, you know, even in like this genre film of more of like a thriller or like a, I don't even know what to.

How do you put a genre on this film? Yeah, it's very challenging. But just like a really intense movie that maybe left a mark when you were younger. Oh, yeah. This is my, this is my shit. I love it. I love scary movies, guys. I don't know. I'm a scary movie being. Okay, well, you need to come back and be honest. Just talk about a scary movie. Please. Oh, we'll do it. We'll talk.

No, but I love scary movies. I would say my favorite, one of my favorites is midsummer. That stuff with me. I love midsummer. That is the movie that started this podcast because we're like, well, we need to talk about this movie. That's crazy. No, seriously, seriously. That is like my favorite.

favorite movie. It's so freaking good. And that genuinely stuck with me. But I would say like one that stuck with me, stuck with me. Like I, like, I watched it way too young and like it's like left a mark for sure is as above still below. That's literally, that's the type of horror that like genuinely scares me. Like that like, um. Because you're like what's going on in the catacombs? You're like what's going on? There. Yeah. What's in there? What's in there? It's so scary. It's so, it's like, that's the type of stuff that really scares me. That gets me more than like things jumping out. It's like slow burning like just like dread. Dread. Yeah. Dread. That's that is a good deep cut. We don't think we've ever had anyone say that as above so below was the one that really scary. Asbossobelow is so good. It's so good. And I wouldn't classify this as for either. I'd probably say it's like a it's like a thriller. There's moments that feel like.

It's like a kill bill revenge story. There's moments that are like buddy comedy. There's moments that are like family gothic horror. Like it's really, it's doing a lot of things. But seamlessly. And yeah, in a way that doesn't ever feel disjointed. It's like that's what this is, that's how you tell this story. You have to tell it in all these different ways.

Yeah. I'm glad. Yeah. Mallory, thank you so much. It's such a gift being able to talk to you. And we're so excited for this movie to come out for everyone to see. it and. Me too. I'm sorry. I'm so disorganized. I'm terrible with my thoughts. I'm terrible. No. This was so wonderful. Perfect. Good. Good. Yeah. I'm so happy to you so much. Congratulations. So happy to me. Congratulations. So congratulations. Thank you. Thank you guys. Have a

rest of your day. Okay. You too. Bye. Bye. And that was our interview with Mallory Johnson. What a thrill. What a treat. I love this movie. I love movies. I am on Cloud 9. You too. Wow. What a treat to be freaking story told to by my two best friends. Let's, okay, let's say the final goodbye and twin speak. All right. Okay. Everyone, go. From, oh, I see. From all us here. I'm too scared and watch. Goodbye. Goodbye. That works really well, I think.

We did it. We made it. Thank you all for listening to Twitter. another episode of Too Scary Didn't Watch. If you enjoy the show, please remember to subscribe and rate us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, five stars only, or we will haunt you. And if you simply can't get enough of us, we have good news for you. We have lots of bonus content available on our Patreon at patreon.com slash TSDW podcast. You'll get access to video trailer reactions, two bonus episodes a month, the power to vote for upcoming episodes and more.

And last but not least, you can follow us on social media at TSDW. podcast. We'll be back next week with a new episode. We love you. That was a HeadGum podcast. Hi, I am Mandy Moore. Sterling K. Brown. And I'm Chris Sullivan. And we host the podcast, that was us now on HeadGum. Each episode, we're going to go into a deep dive from our show, This Is Us. That's right. We're going to go episode by episode. We're also going to pepper in episodes with different guest stars and writers and casting directors. Are we? Are we going to cry? Yes. A little bit. Are we going to laugh? A lot.

A whole lot. That's what I'm hoping, man. Listen to that was us on your favorite podcast app or watch full video episodes on YouTube or Spotify. New episodes every Tuesday.