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215 - House of Wax (2005) w/ Ariel Powers-Schaub
60 Plays1 month ago
“We almost finished what Ma started.”
We’re back from our bye week, rested and ready to start a whole new year of podcasting! We’re kicking off 2025 with a gritty horror remake and who better to join us for the discussion than the author of Millennial Nasties and contributor to The Pod & the Pendulum, Ariel Powers-Schaub! Together, we discuss our histories with motor vehicles, our mutual dislike of Nick, and reckon with Paris Hilton and the “See Paris Die” campaign for this movie!
If you truly can get used to anything if you’re around it long enough, it might explain why Ariel Powers-Schaub keeps coming back to join us! She’s rad and you should check her out on the following platforms:
- Buy Ari’s book, Millennial Nasties wherever books are sold! Amazon! Barnes & Noble! Vinegar Syndrome?? WAL-MART?!?
- @ari_hellraiser on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Xitter and @arihellraiser on Bluesky
- Check out Ari’s coverage of the I Spit on Your Grave franchise on the Patreon for The Pod & the Pendulum!
Basically, we’re all just trying to keep from dropping our stupid lip balm. See how successful we are at the following social media platforms:
- @Disenfranchpod on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and YouTube.
- Email us your thoughts or requests to disenfranchpod@gmail.com
- Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
- Find Stephen at @ChewyWalrus on Bluesky, Instagram, and Letterboxd.
- Check out Stephen’s first novel - Check In, Check Out - on Amazon, now available in paperback or ebook: https://amzn.to/44idk8y
- Find Brett at @sus_warlock on Instagram and Letterboxd, and @suswarlock on Blusky.
- Find Tucker at @icenine09 on Instagram and YouTube, and @Tuck_Mugs
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:22
Speaker
A franchise right alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. Hello and welcome to the disenfranchised podcast, that podcast all about those franchises of one, those films that fancy themselves, full-fledged franchises before falling flat on their face after the first film. I am your host, Stephen Foxworthy, and joining me are these two lovely wax statues I have with my co-hosts, Brett Wright and Tucker. um They couldn't be here in the flesh, so they're here in the wax.
00:00:52
Speaker
And that could not be more appropriate for today's episode. um But before I tell you what it is, like you didn't see what the episode title was when you clicked on it, I do need to introduce the person with whom we would not be doing this episode without. She called dibs on it.
00:01:07
Speaker
immediately and we we we will be postponed it and postponed it until we could get her on and she's here. We got her. ah the author She literally wrote the book on this movie and many others like it. It's called Millennial Nasties, available now on Amazon or wherever you get your books. Arielle Powershop. Ari, welcome back to the disenfranchised podcast. Hey, thanks for having me. It is, I can honestly say, always a pleasure to have you on the show. It's always fun to be on.
00:01:37
Speaker
Absolutely. we We love to have you. You've joined us for a few other Millennial Nasties, as I recall.
Past Film Discussions and Guest Expertise
00:01:45
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah Gosh, we did Black Christmas, Sorority Row, and then we did Stay Alive, which is adjacent to, although not included in Millennial Nasties. You guys let me come on and talk 2000s trash.
00:02:01
Speaker
Honestly, I can't think of anyone else we would rather talk two thousandths trash with, frankly. oh That's the highest compliment I can receive. Well, I mean, it's it's first first of all, not only are you just a joy to talk to anyway, but it's hard to find someone with the depth of knowledge that you have in this particular field. So ah it the the pleasure is always on this side of the podcast, believe me.
00:02:24
Speaker
And we've got you scheduled for a couple more episodes later on this year. So this no not this will not be the last we hear of you. OK. Yeah, that's good. I should maybe put those on my calendar. I'll remind you of what they are at the end of the recording so that we can make sure we get you in. Perfect. And so, of course, we brought you back to talk some more 2000s trash with ah the 2005 film House of Wax.
Discussion of 'House of Wax' (2005)
00:02:52
Speaker
Yes.
00:02:53
Speaker
directed by, ah I'm always curious as to how to pronounce this myth man's first name. Is it Jaume, Jamie, Colette Sarah? ah I think I say Jamie, but now I feel underconfident about that. Okay. The thing that throws me is the U. The U throws me. There's a U in there. I think it's, I've heard it said Jamie Colette Sarah, so that's kind of what I say, but now I'm unclear.
00:03:18
Speaker
um but Directed by Jamie Collett-Sarah, written ah by Chad Hayes and Kerry W. Hayes, and starring Alicia Cuspert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Damon Harriman, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, John Abrams, Robert Richard, and a few others. What a cast! Ari, what a picture. What a picture.
00:03:41
Speaker
So I have to ask, because it's usually the first question that I ask on these shows. What is your history with House of Wax? Why House of Wax? um What role does this play in your evolving love of the millennial nasty? ah Lay it all out on us. Yeah, yeah. So this movie is from 2005. And five and um that was the year I graduated high school. and so And so that was a year where I was really watching a lot of these movies. you know i I don't remember ever having trouble getting into an R rated movie if I wanted to. But like, when you're 18, there's less of a question and there's even less trouble. And so like, I could go see these types of movies at the theater and rent them myself. And so they became way more accessible to me. um And so I saw this when it came out. um
00:04:33
Speaker
I know we're going to talk about Paris and the See Paris Die campaign, but I certainly was swept up in that too. I wasn't necessarily like chanting sea paris or like We Want to See Paris Die or anything like that. But I was like, oh, this is interesting. I know who Paris Hilton is.
00:04:51
Speaker
Um, I had zero history with any of the movies that this movie is referencing. I had never seen them or heard of them any house of wax previous or tourist trap. So I just went into this like understanding sort of that it was a remake because this was a big time of remakes and just going in for the fun of a slasher. My enjoyment of it and appreciation for it has grown over the years, I think, partly just because like digging into millennial nasties, my appreciation for most of those films grew as I was like analyzing them and really digging into them. um But especially for this one, because I think when I first saw it, I was like, well, it's kind of long.
00:05:41
Speaker
And there's a million characters that I don't really care about. And it's really not very gory. And so like, it could have been better. But now I'm like, no, this movie like relishes in the setting that it worked so hard to create. And you're spending time in it. And you're spending time with characters that you don't normally get to do in a slasher, where you're really like getting invested in some of their lives. And um the important stuff isn't necessarily the blood and gore in this one. It's the family lore and the backstory. and
00:06:19
Speaker
the horrifying things that are going on in this family. So um I like it the more I watch it. And it's part of our 2000s white tank top trilogy of final girls, along with Wrong Turn and the Texas Chainsaw remake. um I think Alicia Cuthbert is a queen of this era. um She also is in another millennial nasty that I wrote about called Captivity.
00:06:46
Speaker
So I think she's great. So yeah, House of Wax, way fun. People should really revisit it if they remember it just being kind of in the pile of remakes and not worth watching. It's a really good one.
00:07:00
Speaker
it it As even as someone who is kind of outspoken about his general dislike for the genre, there was a lot to enjoy in this one, but more than I thought, personally. So i I didn't have a totally bad time with it, but still there's a lot of elements that I'm just like, okay. But but you know um this this one, I minded less than some of or minded yeah i minded some of those elements less than some other... but You understand what I'm trying to say. I do. This one's higher up. It's higher up than some others. That's what it is. Right. This one might be, at the moment, might be one of my reigning millennial pasties. Excellent. I love to hear that. This is a good pick, honestly.
00:07:44
Speaker
Because it's not so it's not so like gory death games, traps and bleakness. It's more of a slasher. It's got a folk horror element. there' is and There's some room to breathe in between the nastiness that is there. And the visuals are really impressive. I mean, outside of, you know, kind of the ugly patina that most of these movies tend to have the like bluish green, yellow, kind of over everything. There's some really incredible set pieces and the wax figurines in particular are yeah really well done. Yes. And the House of Wax
00:08:27
Speaker
the titular house of wax. Yeah. So what if there was a house made of wax, they said. And they really did build that house and melt it for the big end sequence. And so like that alone, ah you know, we used to make things. That's a movie that makes me go. We used to make things. We used to be a proper country. damn Yeah. Even though this is filmed in Australia, I'm going to say
American Horror Tropes and Cultural Themes
00:08:50
Speaker
we used to make things in this country. and
00:08:54
Speaker
Well, and maybe that's why they put it in Australia is because they wouldn't let them make things in this country. So I'm sure the insurance was cheaper. Yeah, I have to imagine that's the case. Like, particularly something like this, like, and this does fit into that kind of films in the vein of like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre of a bunch of teenagers being places they're really not supposed to be in small town America. Like this really fits that vibe very well. um And again, as these movies are getting remade in the in the aughts, then we see um kind of the resurgence of that, that poor trope again. And it feels like this movie is just doing it like to the hilt. Yes.
00:09:37
Speaker
not Yeah, these kids have gone off the map, literally. And they've gone so far off the map that they're not even in a town. They've just stumbled into a family. You know, it has so much in common with Texas Chainsaw and Wrong Turn.
00:09:54
Speaker
where they have stumbled upon a particular family and really sort of disrupted that family's life yeah and are paying for it. And, you know, in any of those movies I mentioned, you can argue the culpability of the teens and whatnot. But, and House of Wax, like, they don't make as much trouble as the teens do in some other movies. Like a couple of them are pretty disrespectful, you know, breaking in and picking at wax figures, pretty rude thing to do. Right. um But it's like they really are trying to get out of there. They have the classic car trouble. And they're like, we just need to get this part for this car and then we'll be out of your hair. ah But no, they're gonna get turned into wax.
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, that's I mean, that's good. Look, don't you kids know you just wandered into the middle of a horror movie? Come on, right read the title. Let's go. no It's just the you know, the audacity of Jared Padalecki just walking into this house with and again, his his logic is just flawless. It was unlocked. Like that is permission to do a thing.
00:11:03
Speaker
Right. And it's the same it's the same thing that kids do in the ah the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They just go walking into a house that's not theirs, and they get brutally murdered as a result. Yes. I mean, it's again, it's kind of one of those classic horror tropes that, because we're remaking all of these, is kind of seeing its resurgence here in the aughts, which is, I think, it's always nice when some of those things come back around, frankly. Yes. Yes, very much so. And even like,
00:11:31
Speaker
wrong turns, not a remake of anything. And it's got some of those themes. Joyride is another millennial nasty where you've really got like, you know, kids not from around here, thinking they're entitled to certain things. And I think um there's all that's always going to be a good area to explore in horror is people who just walk up and think they're entitled to certain things and what happens to you. right um I was thinking about, we just recently had a conversation on the, on the pendulum when we were doing our top 10 about how Australia loves to make horror films about someone needing the kindness of a stranger and that getting turned on its head. This is kind of like the dark side of that where they need to rely on the kindness of a stranger, but they just barrel in and try to take it.
00:12:18
Speaker
instead of what often happens in Australian films is they look for it, they ask for it, and then something bad happens. So I've been thinking about that. And I don't know where I'm really going with that. But that's something. No, that ah absolutely is something just yeah in it. Again, the fact that this is movie is filmed in Australia. um Something. Right. There's there's something in there. Yeah. But and I think I think the the inverse of it that that we're seeing here is the that's kind of the I don't know, maybe the American manifest destiny of it all kind of playing out yeah is that, well, this is mine because I'm American, and so I can take it. If this were, I think, in a foreign country, that might feel like commentary. The fact that it's in America, it becomes a class disparity. Exactly. Because it's the the know the rich kids, and then you know the the hill folk from from you know the other side of the swamp kind of thing. yeah Literally, in this case, the other side of the swamp.
00:13:16
Speaker
Right, right. Yeah. And I have questions about why they brought that beautiful American muscle out to tracking in the woods, to but that's neither here nor there. and And again, I think it's because that's dad's car, like dad paid for that car. That's not our car. We don't need to be careful with it. That's dad's problem. Dad will fix it. That'll reimburse me for the part later once I buy it.
00:13:42
Speaker
That makes me really sad though, because if you get to drive a car like that, you should respect a car like that. I'm inclined to agree, which is why I would never drive a car like that. Right, me either. I've never owned a nice car. I drive beaters because I know that's what I will take. That's that's how I approach taking care of a car. You and me, Ari?
00:14:01
Speaker
yes Same. I was telling, when I went to go get my tires fixed this weekend, I was telling the guy at the tire place, that's, I only ever buy used cars and I drive them till they break. That's how I do. yeah and So when they break, I got to take them into the shop and generally have to have triple A to get them towed there. that's Oh my God. That happened to me with my last car. And at the dealership, when I was buying a new car or like a new used car, they were like, are you trading in? I was like,
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, I guess, but I don't think you want it. What are you i you? You won't give me Blue Book. You can't give me Blue Book for that thing. Absolutely not. Yeah. Now, the thing that really does surprise me about that whole car interaction is that he knows exactly what part that is and exactly what size he needs. That does not seem like his M.O. The kid driving it? Yeah. Jared Puddle up you. I'm not sure. I only will ever think of him as Dean from Gilmore Girls.
00:15:00
Speaker
Right. i Whereas i know him mostly and sam well i know I know him mostly from the 2009 Friday the 13th remake. Oh, um yeah, yeah, yeah. Which we did cover on this podcast previously. yeah um See our previous episode with our mutual friend Mike Snudian on that episode. So that was a good one. ah Yeah, I was gonna say I bet Mike had some thoughts about that the Friday the 13th franchise is close to his heart.
00:15:28
Speaker
But yeah, Pedelecki, he does know exactly what part is missing and what he needs. And so I think I wonder about that because the the the wax family, they steal that part from his car to lure him into their town.
00:15:46
Speaker
right And so did they steal a part that they thought he would know? Like they didn't just rip something out and make it unfixable because then they couldn't lure him in as easily. So like how strategic was the part that they took to lure him in? It's it's just because as someone who's had many fan belts break on him over the years. It's it's an easy and cheap enough part.
00:16:11
Speaker
that it seems likely that, you know oh, well, this is an easy fix, so we can just go, where's the next town? Let's just go there and and get the part. Versus something like if you were to rip an alternator out, that's still not a super expensive part, but there's a lot more work that goes into securing an alternator. Not every auto body shop is gonna have the alternator that you need for your car, but any gas station or auto body shop with their salt will have fan belts. Okay, so it was strategic.
00:16:40
Speaker
And i you know we once we get into the town, we realize these people have been doing this for a long time, yeah like a very long time. So we they we we realize that they've probably got this down to a science at this point, right? Like they very much know kind of what they need to do to get these people in to scare them. um Have you watched any of the deleted scenes from this movie at all? I'm not sure if I have or if I've read about them.
00:17:09
Speaker
You know how that is in your brain? I do, very much. i I caught the deleted opening on YouTube this morning when I was doing a little bit of research before I was getting ready for work. And um they have the deleted scene, the deleted opening scene where there's a woman on the side of the road and she calls whoever on her phone is like, I ordered a tow truck like half an hour ago. It's not here. And it's, of course, pitch black outside country roads. They're not taking her home, I can tell you that.
Unmade Prequel and Deleted Scenes
00:17:39
Speaker
And she sees, you know, the telltale headlights of the Sinclair car coming up the road. It's like, oh, nevermind, it's here. Just hangs up immediately. Like, doesn't like hang on the line with me. Stay on the phone. Right. Just, oh, there's headlights. This must be the person I'm waiting for and not some random stranger trying to murder me. Driving, or just somebody driving by. Right. Unrelated to you. And so she's like walking towards the car and there's like, I don't think there's any dialogue spoken.
00:18:08
Speaker
But the person in the driver's seat ends up grabbing her and starts driving and just chucks her into her own windshield. Which feels a lot less subtle than what they do to these kids, frankly. And maybe that's why it was cut, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, that's a great opener to a horror movie, but it doesn't really fit their MO because they need the body is preserved really specifically, probably to do their wax thing. And so if you chuck a body into a windshield, is that going to work for your wax figurine later? Right. I mean, are you gonna like maybe you can seal up all those cuts with some wax? I don't know. ah Because her face is pretty cut out.
00:18:54
Speaker
Yeah, then the realism would fall apart then. Maybe that was like an old strategy that they abandoned. Maybe or maybe she's one of the people that they're just going to put in a pew in the church. And so the face isn't really you don't need to see the face because they're all facing the other way. Yeah, yeah, yeah like, ah Oh, what do they call it? ah You know what I mean? A thing over your face at church. That's a thing. Yeah, the church hat with the yeah, it's a veil. Like, yeah. over the yeah Okay.
00:19:21
Speaker
I feel like there's a word I'm not thinking of, but I'll probably remember it in the night and sit up and say it. And then text it to me and then we'll try to talk or edit it in. Just send us a recording of you saying the word like revelatorily and we'll just throw it in like right here. And if you didn't hear anything, it didn't happen. There you go.
00:19:42
Speaker
um But yeah, no i you get the impression these people have been working at this for such a long time to the fact that they've even got like, and we again, we don't find this out until the very, really the film making tells us this at the end, but they've even got another brother out there working for them this whole time. Yes, the twist brother. The the the sequel hook as it were. Yes. Yeah. yeah So that was one thing I didn't know that, like, I didn't know that this was ever thought about getting a sequel. Well, they actually had a prequel planned for this. o um According to one of the screenwriters, Carrie Hayes, they they had wanted to do a prequel, ah but they just, you know, the movie hit the box office, didn't do as well as they hoped. And as a result,
00:20:39
Speaker
Yeah. like So yeah, but I mean, probably my guess would be of the family in the 70s, like from that opening that we saw that gave me yeah some strong Black Christmas remake vibes, honestly. Yes, yes. There's a lot of that there. And I think Black Christmas didn't come out till the year after. So maybe Black Christmas is cribbing from this a little bit. Could be.
00:21:02
Speaker
Or maybe that's just something in the water of if we're making ah a tortured remake of ah of a classic slasher, we've got to add you know some dark, gritty backstory. Yeah, maybe. they
00:21:15
Speaker
Granted, I think I would have much rather been a part of this family than the Black Christmas family. Oh my god, yeah. I would watch a prequel about this family. I think in the Black Christmas remake, we get plenty of them. I don't think we they need their own movie. No, they don't. Absolutely not. I, in fact, let's be honest, kind of glad we didn't see it. Yeah. But yeah, um now House of Wax, it's no it's it's it's kind of fun.
00:21:43
Speaker
um the can we talk about the Can we talk about our cavalcade of teenagers? Yeah, there's so many. Let's talk about our meddling kids. They're coming out of the waxwork.
00:21:59
Speaker
and this
00:22:02
Speaker
so Literally, we meet our core form. We're like, all right, these are our kids. These are your following. And then Chad Michael Murray in What's His Face just come walking out of the gas station. You're like, more? There's more.
00:22:13
Speaker
yeah Okay, so they're on a road trip to see a football game. I think a college football game. That would be my guess. um They don't say Bama, but in my head, they're going to see Bama because they're in the south and it's really important football. pal I add head cannon where I need to. That stands to reason. Honestly, that's probably as good a guess as any. Because people like you kind of think about a football team, people really go bananas far. So, um,
00:22:41
Speaker
and who go Yeah, but Bama's a good one. If it were up in this area, I'd say maybe Michigan, Ohio State or Notre Dame. but Yeah, I mean, there's one of those teams that's worth rooting for. Go go blue.
00:22:53
Speaker
um
00:22:56
Speaker
My mother went to the University of Michigan. We have allegiances. my My aunt worked for the University of Notre Dame, so so do we. I see. Well, now we have to fight. ah I didn't want to do this. no We don't have to.
00:23:09
Speaker
That's true, that's true. um Yes, so they're on a road trip to see football and we don't usually get this many kids in a slasher. No. And I'm saying kids, they're young adults, older teens. College age. how On their way to college-ish, so. Yeah. um Call them kids because they're younger than me.
00:23:31
Speaker
The fact that they're all played by 30 year olds, though, makes it really, and I think that's part of the reason why they do that is so, you know, teens have an indiscriminate age. Like, you don't need details. Don't worry about it. Exactly. And, you know, I think it could be a gift and a curse of how many of them that there are, because on the one hand, it gives us a lot of kills, which is great. So we have a lot of opportunity for that.
00:23:58
Speaker
And there really is some interesting character development. And it's not all the way realized, because it's not what we're here to do. But I do actually like that it's there. um There's been discussion. I don't know quite where I stand on this, but some people find the relationship between um the twin brother and his friend queer-coded. And I think that that is possible.
00:24:26
Speaker
i I think as queer coded as maybe you can get in the early aunts or the mid aunts, because again, that wasn't really something we were doing a lot of. We were not acknowledging queer people on screen. Unless it was to make a joke. As a joke.
00:24:42
Speaker
yeah which is kind of what they do like oh don't look at me dude I'm not kissing you all come here you probably like it like that or right they're doing that brand of 2000s weirdness right we've got a set of twins a boy and girl set of twins and they're weirdly close.
Sibling Relationships in Narrative
00:25:01
Speaker
I mean, I guess twins sometimes are and siblings are a whole theme of this movie. right Like sibling relationships and what siblings do for one another is a whole theme of this movie. But um I'm like, you guys are 18 and you're very close. Maybe it's a twin thing and I just don't get it. We've got girl twin and her boyfriend and
00:25:27
Speaker
girl twin, Alicia Cuthbert's character right is on her way to the big city for a big magazine job. And I love that. I love that magazines existed. It was like a job you could aspire to. It was nice. Absolutely. And I feel like that was kind of one of those early aughts, like,
00:25:47
Speaker
like jobs for women kind of thing. like a web is this What does this female character do? I don't know. Let's make her work for a magazine. She works for a magazine in the city. What city? Doesn't matter. Capital T the capital C city. Yes. Yes. And she's conflicted about going to the city or, you know,
00:26:08
Speaker
going with her boyfriend or staying with family. I was going to say, she, I think, is pretty committed to going to the city. That's true. He is the one trying to get her to stop. Yes. Because he does. He's the one that's conflicted. Jared Padalecki, aka boyfriend, Wade, I think is his character's name. He's the one who's very conflicted. She is going regardless. It's just the question of whether he's going with her. And good for her. Right. And then my favorite is Paige, played by Paris Hilton.
00:26:38
Speaker
Um, she is such a good friend. She's such a good friend. And I know a lot of slashers have that final girl best friend trope who's like, such a good friend, but Paris Hilton really nails it here. Because she's so supportive of her friend.
00:26:57
Speaker
She takes a lot of shit from other people and she remains a good sport about it. like She pretty much has to. yeah There is a storyline. She's like exclusively taken the shit in this. like oh Well, for sure. And that has to do with like the meta way we are treating Paris Hilton. Which we absolutely have to get into later. We do have to get into.
00:27:18
Speaker
um and there's There's a storyline that's not fully realized with Paige where she might be pregnant. And we never find out if it's exactly true or not. She she thinks it might be the case. right And she is getting ready to tell her boyfriend but she doesn't get a chance to.
00:27:40
Speaker
And it's very interesting to me that they would make this character potentially pregnant and not realize it to kill her off. It's like, did they want to make her death that much more brutal? And if they did, why didn't she say for sure she was pregnant? Like, I like that storyline and the richness it brings, but it's not fully realized. And I don't know if that is an intentional choice or if something was cut for time. It's hard to know.
00:28:10
Speaker
Ari, that was great. that i I loved all of that. We're going to get back to that in a second. But there's something really weird about this wax statue of Tucker. Uh, here, I think I just saw its eyes move. I'm gonna try to peel some of the, I'm gonna try to see maybe, maybe there's something under there. I'm gonna try to peel some of this wax off here. Let me just reach up here. Ouch! Oh! Oh my! Oh no, it's alive! Tucker, it's been you the whole time? It's been me the whole time. Sorry about your cheek, dude. Ouch. I didn't realize. It'll grow back.
00:28:48
Speaker
here's how Well, I'm definitely not going to do anything with this wax statue of Brett then. I'm just going to know. Probably just leave that one alone. Right. I'm just going to let that one be. Sorry, buddy. ah maybe Maybe when the weather heats up, the the it'll melt the wax. Who knows to say?
00:29:03
Speaker
maybe um But Tucker, since you're here, um and you do know that we are covering 2005's House of Wax, um why don't you tell us a little bit about your history with this movie?
00:29:15
Speaker
2005? Really? I thought it was 2003. Are you sure? Did you look it up? I'm looking at it right now. I'm just going by memory and I thought it was 2003. I mean, Ari literally wrote the book on this, so I think she would make it. I guess so. That book? That's the one right there.
00:29:37
Speaker
Oh, do you know what's under it? Can I can i share something with you real quick? Yeah. moving fast for a guy covered in wax. So do you remember the last time we were talking about your book and I was saying that I used to get a bunch of books at the library when I was a kid. Yes, I do. Similar to that. And there's one in particular that I always think of, but I can never remember what it was called. So one day I spent about four hours just looking through those used books websites and just trying to figure out what the book was. And I found it.
00:30:09
Speaker
It's Terror on Tape. This is the book that um when I read your book, I was like, oh, it kind of reminds me of that book a little bit, except this doesn't really have much of a theme. It's just a bunch of movies. It's like it's it's like a Leonard Maltons guide, sort of, but just for horror films. And I remember a lot of these back when a lot of these photos were like the first things I saw of any of these movies.
00:30:36
Speaker
like the photo of Dr. Fives there will live in my memory forever. American werewolf in London. These still photos. Oh, yeah. No matter how many times I see the movies, whenever I see Amityville 3D, whenever I see this link out happen, I'm like, oh, shit, that's from the book. He does the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the screen, man. Yes. So many of these um the bees with John Saxton just Stuff I watched based on recommendations from this book kind of built me as a cinema fan. yeah And i found it I couldn't believe I found it. I'm so glad that you did. And I am so honored to be have my book compared to that. Yes. it's like Your book is going to be that for a for a future cinephile.
00:31:28
Speaker
I, that's the dream. There's no pictures in my book though. That was not licensing. That's fine. I'm looking for, I, on my DVD shelf, I'm turned away because I'm looking for something because I have a really special thing like that to talk or where. Yeah.
00:31:44
Speaker
I had this DVD that I got for Christmas, like the first Christmas we got a DVD player. and it's it It was a DVD called Boogie Man. and It was about like iconic horror killers. oh nice and it was It just had like little vignettes and clips. on like It was almost like a tale of the tape for like horror killers. and It would show some clips from their movies and tell you about them. and There was Chucky and Freddie and Jason. and All these ones that I never, like my first memories of so many of those killers is from this boogeyman DVD that I just watched over and over and over and over again, because it was all I had. ah So like, before I ever could ever get my hands on Phantasm, I had seen stuff about the tall man on that DVD. So like, yes I know what you mean when you're like, those images are the ones that stick. Yes, the one, let me find it real quick.
00:32:39
Speaker
The one that I watched the movie specifically for was, you remember the old The British Tales from the Crypt movie? Yeah. They made a sequel called The Vault of Horror, and this image always stuck with me. Oh, that's creepy. The hippie vampire gal with the switchblade. Oh, my. Yeah, that's quite the reason I ever watched this movie. It's because I saw this picture of this book.
00:33:04
Speaker
It's not as good as Tales, but it's it's still it's still a pretty good ah British anthology horror. It's the reason we can't cover Tales. I could have sworn Tales didn't get a sequel, but it it totally did. Speaking of writing a letter to Daddy. Oh, well.
00:33:20
Speaker
I was singing along with that when it came on. Like, it's not my favorite part of the movie, but it's one of my favorite times where another movie is shown in a movie. It's in House of Wax when they play Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Because that I do always love that song about siblings. Like this movie is siblings all the way down. Right. Yeah, dude. Indeed.
00:33:45
Speaker
So Tucker, tell us about your relationship with your sibling i mean your relationship with House of Wax from 2005. Well, I saw this at the movie theater when it came out, and I really liked it. Not because it's a good movie. I mean, it's not bad. It's a pretty alright movie.
00:34:02
Speaker
I would say it's above average. it's It's on the good side of mid, but it's the production design and the art direction that really just brings this one home. like Your bases are loaded and the art director comes up there and just grand slams that shit.
00:34:20
Speaker
Oh, it's so fantastic. All the wax stuff is great. I love I watched it with Marv and he didn't know that the whole town was wax. And I got to watch him figure that out. And it was very fun because he's like, oh, there's a lady in the window.
00:34:35
Speaker
And I was like, you know, it sure fucking is, buddy. I tell you what, there's money in that And it's so clever. but now Like when they go to the church and they open up the way the camera pans up, like if you don't know, you think that the preacher is just like surprised. huh Oh, man, I love it. There's so much about this movie I love. But when I saw it at the movie theater, I was particularly disturbed not because of this film, but because of the reaction to Paris Hilton's death in this movie.
00:35:05
Speaker
The entire theater cheered. And ah even though I didn't know ah what we know now about her upbringing and everything and how terrible that was, I still thought that that was real fucked up. Real, real fucked up.
00:35:22
Speaker
I think it's time.
'See Paris Die' Campaign and Media Culture
00:35:23
Speaker
Let's let's rip the Band-Aid off along with half the cheek and let's talk about let's talk about the Paris Hilton of it all because that was the big um the the big marketing push of this movie was the See Paris Die campaign.
00:35:40
Speaker
um And this is, I think, at the height of her, for lack of a better turn of phrase, cultural ubiquity yeah in this in this movie. like She is kind of everywhere. ah The simple life is halfway through its run. This is two years after the sex tape leaked. um like All of this is... ah kind of at a head and she is the it girl for all intents and purposes. yeah I can honestly say I was not the nicest person to Paris Hilton in the in the aughts and I do regret that. um What were your guys's relationships with Paris Hilton around this time? ah I didn't really know it personally, but like
00:36:25
Speaker
i fool man well no i always I always give people the benefit of the doubt, at least I try to. and especially um Especially when everybody else seems to just kind of hate them for existing.
00:36:41
Speaker
I'm like, well, that's not that's kind of fucked up. Like, I don't know her. And like, yeah, she was doing some dumb shit. But like, still, like, that doesn't affect me. Like, why? Why talk shit about somebody? Like, why? Why be that person? Like, I've never never really understood that. um i I mean, I wasn't a fan either. I wasn't watching the show or I didn't really care what she was doing. I was pretty much indifferent. But at the same time, like I said, that reaction in the theater, I thought was just a little fucked up. It's a little fucked up because like, you don't know that person, man. You don't know what that person's going through. And come to find out, I was right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some fucked up shit was happening to that gal. And that's not cool. Yeah.
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, um, gosh, so I was pretty young. And when the sex tape came out, and I I didn't have all of the vocabulary and all of the understanding too. Like I knew that I thought it was wrong and I knew that I didn't like that that had happened. But it was also, I'm sure it's not the first sex tape ever leaked in history, but it's my memory of the first one. It feels like the first big one, especially with the ubiquity of the internet.
00:38:02
Speaker
and regular people being able to see it. And this is a this is a weird time because it's pre social media. And now celebrity is so much more sort of diluted where we've got influencer culture and there's many more tiers of celebrity and that didn't used to be the case and now we also have so much more access to celebrities than we ever did before because of social media we feel like we know them
00:38:32
Speaker
part of their brand is like selling their life to us. This is still when all we knew about celebrities came through either trashy tabloids or their PR team. So we got extremely polished or extremely salacious.
00:38:50
Speaker
And that's all we knew. That's all how we had to know about celebrities. And it's just really different than it is now because I think if this See Paris Die campaign ran now, first of all, I don't think it would. But if it did, you'd have staunch defenders of their you know their fans would be on the internet saying, this is wrong, we don't like this. But there was no place to really say that before if you felt that way. And there was really no reason the we didn't know to defend Paris at the time, other than I think this is fucked up to do to a person like we didn't know anything about her. And she really had to go along with the see Paris die thing like some people point to it and they're like she was such a good sport. She's smiling by the posters. She's doing the promos.
00:39:38
Speaker
um Well, she had to like, she didn't have a choice. Like you have to be a good sport quote unquote and go along with that or you don't get work. And there's sex tape jokes in the movie.
00:39:52
Speaker
i I couldn't believe it. Honestly, I was i was shocked. Oh, this is your first time, Steven? This is my first time, obviously. Of course it is. Okay, okay. Oh, I'm actually, I'm surprised. I didn't know. No, I mean, again, as someone kind of new to horror, like I wasn't into this at the time. And then when uh you know when i've realized we could cover it for the podcast it's kind of one of those well if i'm going to cover it for the podcast i'm going to try to go in as as fresh as i can so i just kind of put it off until then again this sub-genre of horror is not my immediate go-to so um and and you know i mean
00:40:31
Speaker
The poster for this movie is literally Paris Hilton covered in wax. Yeah. up mill That is the poster. And it's very sexualized. It's like bukkake. Yes, very much so. And it yeah, and and again, all the jokes that we see like the first one I was kind of like, well, that's bizarre. And then we get like the the blowjob slash or the road head slash picking up my lip gloss. She dropped her chapstick. What are you talking about? Right.
00:41:00
Speaker
And Paris Hilton didn't realize it was gonna be cut together that way as a sex tape joke on her. right So when she saw the final edit and then it hadn't come together that way, she was really sad. yeah But she couldn't say anything about it until years later. Now we've got interviews from her where she gets to talk about this because we're so removed from it. right almost It's unfortunate that we have to be that removed about it from it to talk about it, right? It it really does suck.
00:41:27
Speaker
um but Yeah, how she's allowed to be human now. How did that happen? That's because now we have influencers to hate. Oh, gotcha. People worse. Yes.
00:41:40
Speaker
yes But you know, we had Paris, Brittany and Lindsay Lohan that we just hung out to dry in the 2000s. And yeah, I think it's time for Lindsay Lohan to come back. I'm ready for it.
00:41:56
Speaker
Absolutely. If she wants it. Are they doing a Freaky Friday? They're doing a new Freaky Friday. That's true. They are. They're doing Freaky Friday. OK, I'm ready. I'm in. Me too. And I think we will be covering Freaky when that comes out. Yo, that record she put out in 2003 was pretty good, too. I used to have that CD. Rumors? It was like all neon and stuff, and she's like on the front, and there's like lasers and stuff. I don't remember that. I have no idea.
00:42:26
Speaker
I have the movie that she did in 07 called I Know Who Killed Me. Oh, that was that that Paul Schrader movie? I don't know. She did a Paul Schrader movie. I don't know if that's the one. It's very weird and trashy. And I love it. It's like Bad Joll-O.
00:42:46
Speaker
I I wanted to like it, but like my expectations swung in the other direction and I got real disappointed by it. Yeah, because of how fantastical the trailer was like, look how fucking cool this is going to be. Yeah. And I saw it and I was like, this is not cool, actually. It's not at all special to me, but it's like not good. Yeah.
00:43:09
Speaker
um Maybe I'm thinking of someone else who did a Paul Schrader movie, because that was not Paul Schrader. OK, I was like, I don't know. Rumors was the record I was talking about. OK, at least the song. nineteen two thousand No, the album is called Speak. Ah, that's it right there. You can barely see it, but that's it. She's there's like, yeah, OK. I had that CD and it was pretty good. I remember. Yeah, it was totally fine.
00:43:41
Speaker
I don't know anything about it, so I will keep quiet. Although I would say regarding Sea Parastai, I really want one of those t-shirts just for the cultural artifact of it. And I feel like I deserve one. Like I've earned it. I would frame it.
00:43:59
Speaker
I wouldn't judge you. Again, you wrote the book, Ari. I think if anyone deserves it, it's you. Because I want to like point to it and be like, never again do we do this. so I mean, they have them on like Tea Public and Red Bubble, but those are I'm sure reproductions and not the actual things.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah. Is it i is it OK to buy shirts from there? Is that like legit? Are those not the type of places that like scrape images from the Internet? ah Yeah, there's a lot of copyright infringement that goes on in those sites. But I would I would argue that something like a reproduction of a Watch Paris Die t-shirt would be OK to sell because like there's no like they made a promotional run of them.
00:44:46
Speaker
And they're not gonna make any more, like nobody involved with that. involved with If the people involved with that movie thought that they could make enough money with it now, they'd be making them themselves. That's true, not just selling one to me. Yeah. right yeah Yeah, I posted a link there in the in the chat there if you're... Yeah, thank you for that. No problem. That that seems like it's a little bit more of a reputable site, the yeah Threads to Kill site. so There you go. you can get to you can get your You can get two. You can get one to hang on the wall and one to wear. One to wear, yes. Nice. Oh, yes. She wasn't a Paul Schrader movie. It was called The Canyons. Lindsay Lohan? Lindsay Lohan. It's an erotic thriller directed by Paul Schrader and written by Brett Easton Ellis. Oh, hey, I know that guy. Well, not personally, but. We got to the bottom of the mystery. There we go. Speaking of mysteries.
00:45:47
Speaker
Who's doing all the killing in this town of Wax, I wonder? Could it be the only humans in town? yeah Probably. You know what? man ah Look, I really like this movie, but they should have just kept it being one dude.
00:46:04
Speaker
Um, as this, I will always consider this more of a remake of tourist trap than house of blacks. So I always liked that Chuck Connors was, he was talking about his brother, but it was really him in a wig and a goofy mask. And even the brother in this one, he doesn't wear a wig, but it's long hair and a goofy mask. I even showed Marv. I was like, this is what he looks like in tourist trap.
00:46:26
Speaker
Except it's just one dude instead of two dudes. Well, and here's the thing, they're played by the same actor. So I i have to wonder if that wasn't the initial intent. Yeah, I wonder. But but then the twin angle like you've the fact that we've got two sets of twins in this movie.
00:46:44
Speaker
It feels coincidental almost in a way that it's the twins that survive, the the final kids, I guess, or the twins. And then they're up against this other darker pair of twins. I wish i wish there were more, they did more, of the movie did more with that. It's like it comes so close to being something about twins. And then you've got, so you've got, you know,
00:47:11
Speaker
the the two that evil twins, plus their brother. It's like we went from one in tourist trap to three. he and yeah know And we don't even know the third one's a brother to literally the final line of the movie. It's like, oh, there weren't two, there were three. And then a quick cut to, you know, the hillbilly from the beginning, just goofily waving at them as they drive out of town. I love that they time it perfectly because as soon as they say there are three brothers, right before he comes on screen is when your brain makes a connection.
00:47:45
Speaker
Mm-hmm immediately. You're like, oh shit. I knew it Just be the only other person we've met in this movie. Yeah, but you forget about him after a while cuz crazy shit happens Yeah, that's true. A lot of crazy shit happens. And I mean, all he does is pull a prosthetic hand out of a pile of animal carcasses, really. Yeah. And, you know, even though he is evil, he was right to be offended by them because like they they were like they like apparently they've like never seen a redneck before or something like because that dude couldn't do anything without them. Like this dude sneezes and they're like freaking out like. Yeah. And like they're driving. They're they're not.
00:48:26
Speaker
like They know where they are in America. yeah like They should not be culturally shocked by anybody. But I think that's that entitlement we were talking about earlier, right? Like it's it's that, well, you're not like me, therefore you are bad. um You know, that that class disparity that this movie comes so close to commenting on um without actually going through the door of
Thematic Elements and Narrative Critiques
00:48:53
Speaker
commenting on. This movie comes so close in so many ways. So close. Yeah. And again, I think I would like this movie more if it actually like, followed through on some of this stuff.
00:49:03
Speaker
Like, again, the kills are great. And I love the the the visuals are phenomenal. But like in terms of making a point, like I just I want it to connect on on one of these levels. Yeah, that's that's not what it's doing. It there's a lot of threads that, you know, don't end up getting wrapped up. It's like they could have cut maybe one or two of them. Mm hmm.
00:49:28
Speaker
and followed the other ones, but what are you going to do? Right. And it might have improved the movie overall, but that's not what we were doing in 2005. No, we were doing, let's get our tits out. Let's do some kills. I want a wax shower. And I want Jared Petalecki right in the middle of it trying to scream, yeah but he can't. He has moan no mouth, but he must scream.
00:49:58
Speaker
Yes. Oh man. I do love that how he just keeps, why would you keep pulling at it? Don't pick at it more. That's always my question. Wait for the medical professionals. He just keeps grabbing it. He sees that he's pulling and then he just keeps going. Yeah. He just keeps going. Maybe it's that, well, maybe if I try it from another angle or maybe if I change my tactic a little, it won't be so bad. It's never gonna heal if you don't stop picking at it. That's true.
00:50:27
Speaker
Man, that's what my mom always used to say. Look, the killer in this, well, the the long the disfigured guy, and not the not disfigured guy, I guess. Vincent? That's Vincent. That's Vincent. Is my favorite line in this movie. because there's she has why are you why does he be who gives a fuck so they're down in the little basement right the brother and the sister nick that's nick uh they're in the basement nick and his twin sister and and all of a sudden all of a sudden vincent comes in and she looks right at him as he's running towards him it says that's vincent and you're like great that's fucking rad now can we run or something why are you telling me this at all
00:51:11
Speaker
And so at every point after that in the movie, every time a character appears on screen, I just say that's, and then their name. Nice. That's Nick. That's Wade. Hey, there's Vincent again.
00:51:26
Speaker
That's Tucker. Hey, that's Ollie. There's Bo, look. It's Bo. Golly. And Papyrus for the fonts on the the baby seats. I don't even think they had that in the 40s.
00:51:40
Speaker
they didn't have papy likevatar font like come on james came came and get the fuck atie I love this movie unabashedly because it is both really great and also really bad and everything in between. Does it remind you of the ah Simpsons Treehouse of Horror Bad Twin episode, where you guys know what I'm talking about. I love that with Hugo. Yeah. It's the scar was on the other side. what reminds me of that If that were the case, and that means the evil twin would have always been. Oh, don't act so surprised.
00:52:21
Speaker
there. It reminds me of that because there's this moment where you're like this one's the evil one. No, it's not. That's Vincent. Hey, that's Vincent. That's Vincent. Vincent.
00:52:36
Speaker
um Yeah, again, like, should it have been the same person? Would it have made more narrative sense for it to have been the same person? Like, I almost thought it was going to be. And then we do that, the scene where we're quick cutting between him and Wade, ah Vincent and Wade, and Beau and Carly. And I was like, okay, so they're not the same person, because now we've got two people trying to kill these, like, two different characters. Yeah. Yeah.
00:53:04
Speaker
You know, they're sufficient, though. They're sufficient. They're efficient, though, because they always go for the feet and leg area first. Right. Every time you disable them. What are they going to do? Yeah. Every single time they know what they're doing. That's why they have all those people. Those are all the wax figures, you guys. Every single one in the town is somebody they just plucked off the interstate. So they've got some practice. I'm sure they've had some trial and error.
00:53:30
Speaker
we were talking about that earlier, how like when we were talking about the car, like pick the fan belt, which is an easy enough part to replace, that you could probably find it anywhere. And so you're looking for the nearest town, so that they can easily like someone comes along and you're like, Oh, hey, I'm missing a fan belt. Whereas if it were something like an alternator or something that might be more difficult.
00:53:53
Speaker
Like talking about just the practice with which they've obviously done. Because again, as many people as there are in this town, they've clearly had a lot of time to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn't.
00:54:04
Speaker
know yeah
00:54:09
Speaker
i One of my favorite scenes, it's really all sort of in one, where she gets her lips glued together. o And she sticks her finger out the great
00:54:24
Speaker
Yeah, but he's so sneaky about it. It's fantastic. But like any loves, he just revels that every time that he gets exactly what he wants and hides it from the other guy, you can just see how pleased he is with it. So happy. He makes me happy with how happy isn't that and for him? I'm like, that's fucked up. But man, I'm excited for you, actually. Good for you, man. Good for you. And I would like to.
00:54:51
Speaker
Next time you watch, watch for this. So she gets her lips glued together and she eventually tears them apart and her lips are all bloody, right? But then like a couple scenes go by and it's just red lip gloss. They've just made it beautiful instead of horrifying. Yeah. You know, it should be all ragged and bloody and nasty. But she's like, actually, it's made me more beautiful somehow. Watch for that. It's very good. It's very 2000s. That's hilarious. That cracks me up.
00:55:22
Speaker
And yeah, that is kind of the thing that we were doing. You can't disfigure someone too, too much, at least not our final girl. Right. Not in a slasher. At least not the final girl. You can't do that.
00:55:34
Speaker
And i'm I'm still kind of amazed with, even though there's more of these kids than there probably would be in your standard slasher, how they still manage to get in like all the tropes of your slasher movie. Like you've got your your jock, you've got your whore, quote unquote. right um You've got your your goofball, your doofus, your final girl, your dude with the bad attitude. Like everyone's accounted for, everyone's represented.
00:56:00
Speaker
All the friend groups, all the friend types are there. Right. You guys, guess I hate all these characters pretty much, but boy, boy, I hate Nick a lot. Nick sucks. Nick sucks. He really sucks. He's the kind of look. So I drove two weeks ago, I drove from New Hampshire to Indianapolis. And then a couple of days ago, I came back and of those four days of traveling,
00:56:25
Speaker
Five people, five individual human beings actually tried to take my life intentionally on the road because that's how people drive now. and When I was watching this movie today and I saw Nick, I was like, yeah, that's those motherfuckers that were trying to run me off the road. That's them right there. That's that. That's the same person. That's the kind of person who would do something like that, who would because because you offended them somehow by whatever you were doing. They decided that they want to actually maybe kill you.
00:57:00
Speaker
Get in front of you and break check you and then when you try to get in the other lane they swing in front of you and break check you again that's very scary and Nick that's the kind of motherfucker that was in every one of those trucks that tried to kill me in the last two weeks
00:57:16
Speaker
That's next. Yes. And also, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. That's all I hate driving so much. The more time goes by, the more people become like just aggressively psychotic. Yeah. And it's it's really scary. I just want to move to a big metropolitan area where I don't have to own a car and never fucking drive again. Well.
00:57:38
Speaker
Come here, man. You know, I love driving across the country, too. That's difficult for me to say because, like, big old solo road trips are like my favorite thing in the world. But fuck it, man. I just can't do it anymore because everybody's completely psychotic. Come back to the Midwest. Come to Chi-town.
00:57:57
Speaker
I don't know, man. You and I can road trip up and hang out with Ari some weekends. Kick it. Oh, I don't know. You don't know? I may. I may find my way. from that area at some point. You never know. I'm still floating in the wind. That's true. I don't know how much longer I'll be in New Hampshire. I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see. Just drop that into the middle of a conversation, all casual-like. Yeah. Could be a couple months. Could be more months. Who's to say? Who's really to say?
00:58:30
Speaker
um yeah Man, fuck Nick, is all I'm saying. No, I don't disagree with you. That he that he becomes one of our final pair without really learning anything. um kind of But again, it's the 2000s. No one's really learning anything. But like, if anyone in this movie needs to learn something, it's Nick.
00:58:53
Speaker
Nick does what he does out of loyalty to his sister. And I have to imagine just a little bit because he's the type of person who just thinks all day about like beating somebody up or shooting somebody. You know, like those people who are like, oh, somebody breaks into my house. They're dead. People just want to just want an excuse to shoot a motherfucker. Like that's Nick, too.
00:59:18
Speaker
So like, some of that shit, like when he's on top, when he's doing the beating and stuff, I'm pretty sure he's having a good time with that as well. Man, fuck Nick! I don't like that dude. He also strikes me as the kind of person that just remembers every bad thing that's ever happened to him and absolutely has a list of names, like written down somewhere. Yeah, he's a chip on his shoulder kind of guy. Yeah, absolutely. He will invent a chip for his shoulder if he doesn't actually have one, as he does through most of this movie. Yeah. right and yeah yeah he's Phantom chip. Not happy unless he has someone to be pissed at.
00:59:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, fuck Nick, man. But how cool is that House of Wax when it melts at the end, though? That's all I want the show notes to be to this. Motherfuck Nick. That's the entirety of the show notes. I'll let you write the show notes this week, Tucker. Fuck that guy. I've known people like that. Those people suck. They do. Oh, the worst. But you know what doesn't suck?
01:00:24
Speaker
is when the house of wax melts because it's made of fucking wax. The whole, yeah. That is rad. And you guys, i don't I don't know who did the production design and the art direction and all of those wax figures and everything that went into just making the whole mood that is the second act forward of this film. ah But they deserved an Oscar, I think. Yeah, I'm gonna agree.
Production Design and Practical Effects
01:00:51
Speaker
Because this I think this would be a silly little fun movie if it weren't for all that shit. But I yeah i would not remember it. I would not still be talking about it at all. But I will talk about House of Wax any fucking chance I get, because just I love everything about it. That's not the main characters, basically. Yeah, the just the the ball ziness to build the set of wax and then melt it.
01:01:21
Speaker
And they're like, they're touching hot wax, they're burning their hands, they're all hot, they're climbing through it, getting like, that is a commitment to movie making that I really appreciate it. That's where like, the the film person in me goes, it's still real to me, damn it.
01:01:38
Speaker
why know And and just like, i I don't want to wish for actors to get burned on set. That's not what I'm saying. I don't want anybody to be unsafe. But I just appreciate such commitment to making something look so good. You know, because now it would just be sort of forgettable CGI and it'd be really flat. and Right.
01:01:58
Speaker
Well, and i I want to say there are a few CGI shots in this movie, and they're honestly, like, objectively not that bad. But everything, the 99% of everything else that is practical, it that, especially that one CGI shot where they're in the sign and it's melting, that looks really bad. Not because it looks bad, but because it's being compared to everything else you're seeing. Right.
01:02:23
Speaker
And digital effects will, I mean, it's it's ah damn near impossible for them to stand up to the practical ones. There's something about the viscerality, the tech the tactile-ness, tacticity, I don't know what the word is, but like just that that ability that you can actually reach out and touch the thing.
01:02:42
Speaker
that is so palpable. And I think that carries across on the screen, which is why I think the 2011 remake of the screen, of the thing rather, excuse me, like was hurt so badly, is that they took out all the practical effects that they actually filmed the movie with and replaced them with digital ones. Dude, and that movie deserved better because that was a pretty damn good movie. That movie gained like two whole stars with practical effects for me.
01:03:09
Speaker
I used to have the Blu-ray and it had some behind the scenes and unfortunately it didn't have like full deleted scenes or full scenes of the the practical but it had some behind behind the scenes stuff and it looked just as good as the original just as like interesting and like gross and slimy and icky and weird but no studio didn't want that.
01:03:38
Speaker
It's unfortunate. I do still like that movie. I wish the effects didn't suck, but I really appreciate the effort they made to do something new while keeping it exactly the same. But still, it's it's kind of a prequel and it's really cool to watch them back by back because without the credits, they do run into each other.
01:03:56
Speaker
Oh, that's like the in the ending scene of the thing 2011 is the beginning of the thing. It's the helicopter chasing the dog. I need to watch it. And the music is the same. So you could cut them together and make them one film. That's kind of rad. One day, one day, one day we'll cover it on pod and petrol and get those practical effects. Let's find them and clean them up and put them back into the movie, guys. Let's do it.
01:04:24
Speaker
There it is. I want it. Do the TopherGrace-esque fan edit of the thing. Yes. um But no, and I mean it is it's the the practical effects of this thing are Really spectacular like the actual wax statues that we get all of the all of the wax work Honestly is really really phenomenal. It's it's I think what makes this movie stand apart from other millennial nasties of this era is that even even with the kind of greenish, golden, weird patina that it has that a lot of these movies do have that I've disparaged before and will probably need to stop doing. Yes, that one. I love it. The effects still manage to look s good. And I really, really dig that. like that's And I think that's what elevates this movie for me is that even when it's
01:05:21
Speaker
a little too nasty, even when it's a little too um gory or what have you, like it still looks rad as hell. Yeah, it does. I agree. I think the whole town looks good. um Set design is fantastic. like I love how it's very believable that at a distance, you wouldn't notice. And then the closer you get to something, you start to notice the cobwebs. You see that it's in disrepair. You see that that's not really a person. And and I love that. like The first shot, when you're you're seeing it
01:05:56
Speaker
from the perspective of ah Sammy and Homegirl. And ah they're just kind of walking into it. They don't know anything's amiss. But then as the film goes on, you get closer to all of this stuff. You see these things more times and you start to see the cracks. And I think it's really cool. Like I said, the I mean, I don't even, you could cut the entire first act of this film.
01:06:26
Speaker
And I would be fine because I don't need to know where these people came from. Just start me out of the town. So ah from there I will tell you ah the production designer on this movie was Graham Grace Walker, ah who prior to this had been the art director on a little movie called The Road Warrior. Ever heard of it?
01:06:49
Speaker
Yeah. He was production designer for a little movie called Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. You guys, can we just get Beyond Thunderdome? Jeez Louise. I don't know if we can ever get Beyond Thunderdome. Dead Calm, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Oh. The Marlon Brando one, Pitch Black, Queen of the Damned.
01:07:11
Speaker
Man, what a resume. Ghost ship. This is a family show. Since when? um Ghost ship. The first, the best first 10 minutes of any movie ever. There you go.
01:07:24
Speaker
that you Um, but yeah, like, and then after this, he does the reaping, the condemned whiteout, the Kate Beckinsale movie. Oh, yeah, I told you about that. Because remember, you were like, what's that? And I was like, she's got face blindness. And I don't remember who the guest was. But you guys, because that's how I sound. But you guys didn't believe you have like a straight up whiteout. And yeah, sorry, callback. Ari also did a production design for one of your favorite movies, The Collection. Yes. Oh,
01:07:54
Speaker
Um, so yeah, like, uh, really quite end future episode of this podcast, the 2018 remake of super fly. Oh, fuck. You just reminded me that i existed again. Dang it. Sorry, bud. Sorry, man. I hate to be the guy that does that to you all the time, but yeah. Just try not to mention it to me until we have to do it on this show because it just really brings me down every time you mention that it exists. I mean, it is on the schedule, but we'll, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it.
01:08:24
Speaker
Um, but yeah, like that's, that's, so that is our production designer on this movie. And, um, that might be why it looks as good as it does is because this guy is clearly a pro who has done very good work. Yeah. Historically. So yeah, big, big fan of the way this movie looks. Um, what are our thoughts on the director of this film? Jamie Collett, Sarah. Oh.
01:08:52
Speaker
Mm hmm. There it is. J. Michael and Sarah has done. Let me kind of walk through some of his movies. ah Orphan, little horror movie called Orphan. Oh, yeah. It is equal to that. and That girl was like 15 years older. Yeah, it is a prequel. It was so fun. It's really. It's on your recommendation. I liked the first one. It's good. You're going to have fun. OK. All right. OK.
01:09:21
Speaker
And then he does a trio of Liam Neeson action movies called Unknown, Nonstop, and Run All Nights. Okay. Which, had passed as far as I'm concerned, could be a a trilogy. um He does a ah Blake Lively Surfing movie called The Shallows. Cool. Another Liam Neeson movie called The Commuter. Did he do a Tooken movie though? No, he did not do a Tooken because his next two movies ah His next two movies, Tucker, a future episodes of this podcast starring one Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Jungle Cruise and Black Adam. Oh, he did Black Adams. Mm hmm. Damn. And then this year, he directed a ah an action thriller from from this year that a lot of people have been talking about dropped on Netflix not that long ago called Carry On. Oh, yeah, everybody's talking about that. Yeah, it's supposed to be pretty good. Isn't there somebody in that that I know? The Bateman.
01:10:20
Speaker
Jason Bateman. The Jason Bateman. OK. And it's also got Taron Edgerton, if if if that's a guy that you're from from the Kingsman films. You ever you ever been watching Jason Bateman in a movie and just be like, damn, I wish that was Greg Keneer. Almost exclusively. That's a very specific wish. I like Jason Bateman. I like him in TV shows, but whatever he's in a movie, for some reason, I'm like, well, they couldn't get Greg Keneer. Come on.
01:10:50
Speaker
And Lord knows Greg Kinnear could use the booze. Let's be honest. He needs work. He needs the work. Last big thing I saw him in was the unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. He's been in some movies. He was in Brigsby Bear. That wasn't big, though. It's only big to me, I guess. I was going to say. Is that on the straight up schedule? It is on the straight up schedule. Is it soon? Because we really need to talk about that one. Dude, I will tell you all the things ahead of it on the schedule. You'll be like, oh, no, but we got to talk about that first, though. I know, I know this month, I'm excited about this month. Yeah, don't say it or you're gonna have to bleep it. You're not wanting to do a lot of editing on this episode, so don't do it. I can't even access my bleeps. My bleeps are on my computer. My computer's in the shop.
01:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. I got no. Are you going to be able to fix it? I got fucking no bleeps. I have no idea. I have no idea. The bleeps, the sweeps and the creeps. I got none of that shit anymore, man. I don't even have the theme song. I don't know what I'm going to do. Hopefully I emailed it to somebody. I emailed it to you, the remaster. Oh, I don't know about the remaster. I'm sure we've got a copy of it in the. Play it on your phone and record it on your computer. That's perfect. Savage. Savage. Is this Gorilla podcasting, okay? At this point, you're absolutely right. Absolutely right. I refuse to pay for any software and so I've done some weird things to edit. There it is. You are an inspiration to us all. I love that for all of us. What else can we say about House of Wax that we have not already said?
01:12:30
Speaker
Uh, Jared Padalecki hadn't even started doing supernatural yet. No. It's same year, right? Oh, five is when supernatural came out. Is it? Let me check. Correct. Whoa, calm me down, everybody. Kitty cats. Yeah, I just had a I just had a cat go ballistic there. That's what cats do.
01:12:51
Speaker
It is actually, in fact, what cats do. Yes, so the ah supernatural starts in September of Aught Five. This movie comes out in May of Aught Five. So a mere months from the start of this movie. So this was Sammy getting casted just basic based on his chops, not like the Friday the 13th remake where they were like, oh, writers strike. Let's get one of them Winchester boys on this movie. Correct.
01:13:19
Speaker
which is the same logic they had for My Bloody Valentine. My Bloody Valentine. Oh, Jensen Ackles. I love my boys. I love both of them so much. I was telling I was telling Marv. I was like, Marv, Jared Padalecki's in this movie and he's like, who? And I was like the guy who's on my guitar strap on the button. Yes, of course, Jared Padalecki's on my guitar. Why wouldn't he be? Oh, but I still won't watch Walker. It's really strange. I don't get it. That is really strange. Why would he be straight? up man I don't know.
01:13:49
Speaker
Maybe. Ari, a right closing thoughts on on House of Wax? I'm going to say rewatch it, if you haven't watched it in a long time.
Soundtrack and 2005 Cultural Reflection
01:13:59
Speaker
um And see how it feels now that we're damn near 20 years removed. We are 20 years removed. As of this year, it's the 20th anniversary of House of Wax. Yes. Happy anniversary, House of Wax. Why we're doing the movie now. Yes. Yes, and it was planned.
01:14:18
Speaker
Uh, the soundtrack. yeah had We hadn't originally planned to do this in October of last year, but yeah. no no I would say when my chemical romance comes on in the credits, my partner went, just lost it. She yeah loves my chemical romance. of course Her favorite, one of her favorite bands of all time.
01:14:40
Speaker
As soon as this movie starts, I lose it, because it starts with the GD De Fonte's, dude, the Deftones. First song in the movie, and you're like, oh, OK, I'm ready. Let's go. Yeah, this movie is clearly solidified in its time and place by its soundtrack. It's right between where like like Emo and New Metal were kind of yes sort of turning into each other. And oh, man, so many, so many great tracks on here.
01:15:08
Speaker
So many like I had to tell Marv to like these are my people like we this may not be like like 1999 or 2000 but I was about the age of these characters in 2005 I was like early 20s like, you know 21 22 ish So to be clear the characters not the actors. Oh Yeah, cuz they're probably all in their 30s when they made that correct very important distinction I Absolutely. But yeah, this like the rage carry to like idle hands, for better, for worse. These are my people. This is my group. This was my crass. As us Piconanists refer to them. These are the people that you can't separate yourself from because they are just there's their reflection of society at the time, as you remember it. And that's this movie. This movie is 2005, as I remember it.
01:16:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And the music just really drives it home. Really does. Really, really. I had wanted to talk about that and I had completely forgotten that that was something I wanted to mention. So thank you for bringing that up, Tucker. I know. Absolutely. It's what I'm here for. It is what you're here for. And I'm glad you continue to have my back. Yeah.
01:16:25
Speaker
man yeah um Well, in that case, let's talk about this movie coming out on May 6th in the Year of Our Lord 2005, low these 20 years ago. um It is the number two movie at the box office. The number one film at the box office I saw in theaters, and not opening weekend, but definitely saw it in theaters. It is the Ridley Scott historical epic, Kingdom of Heaven.
Box Office Performance and Industry Context
01:16:54
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah, I didn't see that. oh Yeah.
01:16:58
Speaker
a movie that does not exist by today's standards. you had me at ridley ridley scott you lost me at historical whatever i see you lost me after historical ah honestly epic is what i said epic it is yeah i i i stopp listeninging see that like four hours long It is. It's very long. It's got Orlando Bloom, Edward Norton in a vocal cameo only. I feel like maybe that's a movie we could cover on this podcast. Oh, wait, maybe you said Orlando Jones is in it. I'd watch that. Not Jones. No. Boom. Orlando Bloom is the one that Orlando Jones ah showed up in Abbott Elementary and it's just so good to see him. That is so nice to hear see him. That is nice to love Orlando Jones. so He just went away for a really long time. Yeah.
01:17:46
Speaker
I don't know what happened, but then now he's back. And I love that for him because I love him. We're friends. So I don't think, uh, no, nevermind. In retrospect, we cannot do kingdom of heaven on this podcast. Bummer. Um, but, uh, in number two, we've got house of wax opening to 12.1 million. Uh, it is on, it's a war opening.
01:18:08
Speaker
No, it's on its way to 32.1 million. It'll get another 38 million ah international for a worldwide box office of 70 million on a budget of 35 million. So it does double its production budget worldwide, but it needs to make a lot more than that domestic in order to just break even. So the planned prequel that we mentioned earlier was canceled as a result of the poor box office for this movie. and It could have just called that one tourist trap. You could have. That would have been so rad. But then make it more like House of Wax. House of Wax 2 colon tourist trap. Get somebody to do the Vincent Price role, you know? Yes. Give him the mustache and everything. Like like the guy at the beginning of ah another Dark Castle film, House on Haunted Hill.
01:19:01
Speaker
So if we were doing this in 2007, who would we cast as Vincent Price? Is it just Jeffrey Rush or are we doing something else? Yeah, no, we just keep Jeffrey Rush, but we do a better makeup job on him. Oh, that's fair. Yeah.
01:19:15
Speaker
ah In third place, another movie I absolutely saw in theaters, ah this one I did see when it came out opening weekend, the weekend before, ah The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I did too. I saw that at the movie theater. And boy, I can't believe how much I hate that movie now. I used to love that movie. When we watched it for the podcast, boy, I was like, this fucking sucks. Made that well. Couldn't believe it. Did I bring my towel to that screening? Yes, I absolutely did. Best believe you did.
01:19:44
Speaker
Sure did. In fourth place, another movie I would eventually see in theaters. um it It would go on to win the Oscar. It's called Crash. Oh, yeah, that's Cronenberg. Not about the good Cronenberg one. Were they fixing in the crashes?
01:20:03
Speaker
where there's sexing in the caches, not that one. That one came out a decade before this one. This is the one where, um you know, what if what if we what if we weren't racist, but in fact, we really, really, really are.
Vin Diesel and Film Projects Discussion
01:20:16
Speaker
yeah In number, in in fifth place, did I, I think I saw this one in theaters too, God. Every movie, what house of wax I saw in theaters this year? It was my last year of college. I was seeing everything. It was always last year of high school. It was my last year of college. Yes, I absolutely did see this one in theaters. It's the Sean Penn, Nicole Kidman thriller, The Interpreter. He lost me in Sean Penn. Like they had to sneak him into the game right for me. That does not exist.
01:20:45
Speaker
They just sneak that sucker in there, man. ah the remaining The remaining five in our top 10. In number six, we've got a sequel, XXX State of the Union starring Ice Cube. Oh, nice. I like that. i like I liked all three of those movies, you guys. I never saw that. yeah You know what? ever I can't look. I'm not going to watch the Fast and the Furious movies.
01:21:11
Speaker
but i outside of that um or I also implore him to reconsider um outside of that I always try to check out what Vin Diesel's doing man because I've seen the short film that he made oh god like and I've seen find me guilty. So I know this man is like an artsy fartsy like, dude, like he's not like he's, he's not the the guy in those movies. He's not the guy he's he's selling now. Like this guy's an artist, dude. And so like, I'm just waiting for him to do that again. Because now is an artist. I'm just saying good for him. Do what?
01:22:00
Speaker
What if I told you that the first Fast and Furious movie is about a heist of DVD players? I've seen the first one. I saw the first three, actually. And then I was like, no, thanks. Oh, my God. Just watch the fifth one. I was going to say you got to get to five, man. You got to get to five. That's one. And then watch the seventh one and then the ninth one. Well, here's here's a deal I'm willing to make you. And I don't know if you knew but either of you guys knew that we were making deals right now, but we are.
01:22:32
Speaker
I didn't have my deal making hat on and I have a copy of the art of the deal right here. Oh, no, I will. dont I don't have a copy of the art of the deal. I was watching. I will watch every single Fast and the Furious movie if you guys watch both Find Me Guilty and Multifacial.
01:22:55
Speaker
Multifacial you can find on YouTube. That's the the original short that when Vin Diesel was trying to get roles in Hollywood and nobody wanted him He decided he was going to just write a role for himself. And so that's what my Spielberg saw that got him cast in praise haven have ryan and That's what got him cast in Iron Giant as well and Then of course me find me guilty. You know what that is Stephen as May film and ah it it's it's It's pretty mid for a Sidney, Sidney Lumet film. But just to watch Vin Diesel do his thing in that movie is it's really magical. Yeah, dude. He really becomes that character. And he it look that movie doesn't work if his performance isn't believable. And that movie works like it really, really works. I will watch those movies.
01:23:49
Speaker
because I want you to watch The Fast and the Furious so much. Yeah, same. I'll watch them. I'll watch them. I'll do it. ah Do I have to watch them? I should probably watch the first three again, because I saw them like when they came out. Here's the thing. I think they're worth a rewatch. They will at least inform what comes next. Yeah, I thought the first one was fun, but then like I just kind of lost interest, really, it was all it was. The second one is directed by John Singleton, which is interesting enough in and of itself.
01:24:16
Speaker
And the third one's got the kid from Slingblade in it. Who is the coolest character in the entire franchise. but What about the kid from Slingblade? Does he ever come back? The kid from Slingblade. Do you want me to answer that question, honestly? with He's the guy with the accent, the main character, and the third one. What you need to know.
01:24:37
Speaker
about the Fast and Furious franchise is that it has a lot in common structurally with the Saw franchise, where they go backward in time, they go forward. This character you thought was dead was really over here. Now we're doing this and we're back in a flashback. So if if we say, does someone come back? It tells you something, but it also doesn't necessarily tell you when or how. see And so I really just think you need to luxuriate in the experience. And I'll also say this.
01:25:06
Speaker
When you watch the Fast and Furious started in 2001 or 2000, goddamn 25 years, right? You can see the evolution of what society found attractive in a butt over the course of 25 years. the The evolution of the butt you is documented anthropologically in the Fast and the
Future Podcast Ideas and Critiques
01:25:31
Speaker
Furious. Through these films, these are the historical documents.
01:25:34
Speaker
Yeah, ah yes. I don't know if anyone has ever told you this before. But you're a goddamn poet. I don't know about it. And did it was Ari. I'm just saying you'll see the truth.
01:25:54
Speaker
um Number seven and eight on the top 10 are two future episodes of this podcast, one of which Ari may want to join us for. ah Number seven, we have the Matthew McConaughey vehicle, sierra ah Sahara, not Sierra, Sahara. And in eighth place, we've got the remake of the Amityville Horror. Oh. and Yes, that was 2005. That was. Do you have interesting things to say about that? I don't know. I haven't watched it in a long time. okay Well, I watched it for book research and crossed it off my list. And so because it doesn't quite fit the criteria of a millenial nasty. not really I didn't find it nasty enough. And I set it aside mentally. I that's fair. I'm not quite trashy enough for your sensibilities. I don't know. Maybe it is. And I just don't remember.
01:26:42
Speaker
Okay, that's fair. I'm sure it's trash, I'm sure it's trash. I saw it when it came out and I bought the DVD and I showed it to a handful of people and I haven't seen it in years, but from what I recall, I quite enjoyed it. So I'd be very interested to go back and rewatch it and see, hopefully it's not another Hitchhiker's Guide. I have long wanted to do a spooky-thon that is just horror remakes.
01:27:12
Speaker
um Well, we kind of did with the Romero stuff, but it was like the original and the remake we would do. Right. We were i mean we did this specifically for like one director, but I want to do one that's just like all horror remakes. Honestly, we could do it this year if you wanted to. Let's do it. fuck i could I can just throw Amityville Horror on that list.
01:27:36
Speaker
Yes, indeed. i mean I'm into it. I'm going to do it. I'm putting it on there right now and then i'll I'll figure out the rest of the month later because I'm looking at the straight up for that month and it even fits the criteria. so Look, as long as we can do 13 goats. I mean, 13 goats. 13 goats. As long as we can do 13 goats, I'm into it. So put that one on there too, Steven. That's a lock right there.
01:28:00
Speaker
That's the one I'm locking in. The Steve Beck film 13 Goes. Was that man? I don't know the monkeys in it. And straight up, Stu from Scream is in it. Matthew Lillard. And Ra Dega.
01:28:14
Speaker
from the flip mode squad, man. So dangerous. And on that she was that song on that song and the score by the Fugees called Cowboys because each of the members of the Fugees has another person rap with them back and forth. And so Lauren Hill raps back and forth with Radiga on Cowboys. And it's arguably the best song on the record, which is a hot take, I think. Most people would call me crazy for that. I think we can all call you crazy. yeah I'll allow it.
01:28:44
Speaker
And then in ninth place we have a lot like love the Ashton Kutcher Amanda Pete rom-com and In 10th place speaking of rom-coms the Jimmy Fallon drew Barrymore rom-com Where the third part of that triangle is the Boston Red Sox? It's always a baseball win. Yeah, it's the baseball. Yeah base that's Great I'm glad that was the thing that happened that I never saw and never want to and never have to. I mean, maybe your research, I don't know. The Tomatometer score on this one is a 28%. Unfair. The critics' consensus bearing little resemblance to the 1953 original. House of Wax is a formulaic but better than average teen slasher fic. Or pic, sorry. Flick. Good God, my brain is, my my brain is off. My brain is done checking out for the night. Sorry, guys. My brain.
01:29:39
Speaker
do Goodbye. ah And the Metacritic score. The Metascore is a 41% based on mixed or average reviews from 36 critics. Tucker, care to take a stab at the letterbox score. Oh, this one's so complicated. um Look, I'm gonna say 2.8, 3.2. It's a 2.9, well done.
01:30:04
Speaker
Nice, nice. I'll take that. That's your first, that's your first get in a while. Well done. And so Ari, the time has come for us to ask out of five stars, how are you rating 2005's House of Wax? Let's see. What clever, ah clever thing am I gonna come up with? ah I give it three out of five prosthetic hands.
01:30:29
Speaker
Oh, there you go. Another thing that I wish was followed up on the prosthetic hand in the animal pit. I'm so sorry. 3.5 out of five. Oh, that half star means a lot to me. And I fucked it up while I was trying to be clever. No, you're fine. Well, Tucker will fix it in the edit. Don't worry. Yeah, fix it. i walk um Normally, I would, but i I don't really have a lot of options this week. So right.
Guest's Current Projects and Social Media
01:30:56
Speaker
Tucker, what about you? How are you ranking this one out of five?
01:31:00
Speaker
I really, I can't decide if I want it to be a three or a 3.5. And I think I do want to say 3.5. Yeah. Yeah, you do. Just because, just because of how, um, there's nothing like it. Like I'm always going to watch this movie. Like I was pretty mad when I went to grab my DVD and it's not there. Apparently I lost it in a move. I had to rip it. Oh no. Oh no.
01:31:29
Speaker
I'm so mad that I don't own it anymore I'm wondering if there'll be a 4k I think there's at least a blu-ray so I'll just buy it to again on blu-ray at least it'll be a HD upgrade instead of just having it in standard def but yeah I think I'm gonna hit it with the 3.5 I've been trying to figure out if I which one I wanted to do this whole time but I think I think 3.5 I think I think it's a three, but then also, like, I don't know what my life would be like without knowing that this movie exists. So that's that half an extra star. Like, my life is better because this movie exists. It's part of me now.
01:32:08
Speaker
That's fair. i'm I'm going with three. I actually had it at at a 2.5 for most of this recording and just talking about it, I bumped it up to a three just now. Yeah. Nice. So there we go. That's the thing that just happened. um But yeah, that is our episode on 2005's House of Wax, the long-anticipated, long-awaited House of Wax episode. Yay. Ari, thank you so much for being here.
01:32:38
Speaker
Oh gosh, thanks for having me. I said it at the beginning, and it it remains true. It is always a pleasure to have you on. Always a pleasure to talk to you. Always a pleasure to get your perspective, particularly on this era of horror. um it you're You're a delight, and I'm always happy to have you on. um Tell us what you got going on. What's what's coming up the pipeline? ah Where can we find your work, et cetera? Lay it on us. Yeah.
01:33:06
Speaker
Well, the main thing that I'm working on right now that I can talk about is my work on the Pod and the Pendulum, the other podcasts that Chewie and I appear on from time to time. I'm just wrapping up my coverage of the I Spit on Your Grave films on the Pod and the Pendulum Patreon. So we're recording our last one soon.
01:33:25
Speaker
So if you're a patron, you'll be able to listen to in-depth discussions of all the I Spit On Your Grave films. And then we just made our schedule for 2005. So we've got all the franchises that we're doing in the work over there. It's gonna be such a fun year. It's so good. I'm excited. I keep thinking like, oh, what franchises haven't we've done? We've basically done them all. Not true. No, there's so many we haven't done yet. So many big ones still that we haven't done yet. I know, it's crazy.
01:33:53
Speaker
Like we're just getting to the Exorcist and you're like six. I know. It's wild. I'm very excited for that. Same. So all my writing and podcasting you can find on my socials. You can find me at re underscore Hellraiser everywhere. I'd say I'm mostly on Blue Sky and Letterbox, but I'm also on Instagram and sometimes Twitter. I don't know, it's all getting to be too much. So you find me, you find me, I'm around.
01:34:20
Speaker
Yeah, and buy Millennial Nasties, ya mooks. Come on. You could do that if you want to. it's a good um It's a good coffee table book. It's a great read, too. It's a really fun read. You said it right there because...
01:34:36
Speaker
It is because it's it's the kind of book that you can read as like a whole thing or you can you're just like, oh, wait, what does Ari think about this movie? Oh, there it is. And then I mean, you still get a taste if you've read it before you can go back and hit certain ones and you'd be like, oh, yeah, that's we talked about that before. And yeah, it's just it's really cool in a lot of different ways. Did I go back and reread her chapter on this movie before we recorded this episode today? You better believe I did.
01:35:04
Speaker
yeah You guys are so kind. Thank you you. I can't thank you enough. But I will say the cover's very cool. I didn't design it. But if you have it on your coffee table, it makes you look like a really interesting person. So if you want to look like an interesting person, you should buy a copy of Millennial Nasties. Absolutely.
01:35:24
Speaker
Absolutely, you should. um This is, of course, the disenfranchised podcast, you can find us wherever podcasts are sold. ah Hit us up on our email, disenfranchpod at gmail dot.com. Let us know what you think of what
Host's Social Media and Personal Stories
01:35:38
Speaker
we're doing. We would love to hear from you. ah You can also if you want to support us, leave us a five star rating and review on your podcatcher of choice, especially if that is Spotify or Apple podcast that helps us find listeners like you and we think you're pretty cool. So we'd love people like you as well.
01:35:54
Speaker
um and then if you want to support us monetarily you might as well swing over by our patreon patreon dot.com slash disenfranch pod where you will find hours straight-up days of content behind that paywall or if you don't want to pay the money but you still want to get in on the conversation you can join the official conversation of the disenfranchised podcast by joining for free over on ah patreon dot.com slash disenfranch pod. And who knows if you comment on an episode, maybe Tucker and I will comment back. Because that is a thing that we do. ah You know who else could potentially comment back? Ariel Power Shob, who is a free member of the podcast. So she is also a part of that conversation. So if you want to be like her, then become a free member.
01:36:43
Speaker
And who would you listen to this? possess And you're like, oh, that's ahs straight up what I aspire to be as a person. Well, now you kind of can can achieve some of that. You can get closer to that. You can. That's true. You can. It's true. It's so easy. it It is within your grasp money. Yeah. No. Yeah. Three ninety nine. That's it. And without the ninety nine, though, just free, and just straight up free.
01:37:08
Speaker
FOC. So free. um You can find us on us what is we're on what blue sky letterboxed Instagram and YouTube at disenfranch pod are we on the west page. Are we on face literature anymore? stephen We know we're still in the face literature, um mainly because it's so easy to connect from Instagram to the facelit like oh yeah so easy.
01:37:32
Speaker
You know, just flip the little switch at the bottom and it's there. It's great. yeah There it is. no womp There it is. And there it goes. on there it went And if you don't know now, you know.
01:37:45
Speaker
I am your host, Steven Foxworthy. You can find me on certain social platforms at Chewy Walrus. I like to leave in a mystery so you can come find me. Some of them I use more than others. Care to find out which ones? Take a guess. Though I will say I've been getting a lot of followers on Blue Sky right now and I think it's because of the pot and the pendulum. It's because you're clever and witty and you're skilled at social media interactions. Not on social media so much, honestly. You don't do your straight up brackets anymore, dude. Remember your brackets of legend? I actually just announced on my Facebook page that I am discontinuing the brackets as dead at the end of this year. I haven't been on Facebook in like 10 years, but no.
01:38:31
Speaker
You put so much effort into them, Steven. That's the problem. I have too many other projects going on to commit as much time as I need to the brackets. And it's wonderful to see the brackets. ah An arrow gone. That's it. That's fine, Steven. Sometimes you gotta know when to bail. Everything has to die. You don't have to continue everything forever. In the immortal words of Kenny Rogers, you gotta know when to hold them and know when to fold them. Know when to walk away, know when to run.
01:38:57
Speaker
And the moral words have your money. When you're sitting at a table, we time enough counting. When the deal ends down. Love it. Have I done that song at karaoke before? Oh, are we back? Absolutely. Got to. Absolutely. And I don't know what else I have to promote. Probably nothing. Tucker, what about what's going on with you these days? Go read Steven's book.
01:39:27
Speaker
It's on Amazon, you can straight up buy it there, like a hard copy or probably a Kindle, if if that's it's true if that's your thing. How have you been enjoying my book, Tucker, now that you have finally have the copy that you purchased months ago? Well, I'll tell you what, I still haven't finished that Brian Wilson autobiography. I hit a big snag and then I haven't been able to sit down and read for a while. So I still have to finish that.
01:39:49
Speaker
um which I'm glad it's that book that I've taken a big break from because Brian Wilson, I i love him and he's a fantastic man. but He's batshit crazy. It's not his fault. That's like the whole thing about him. That's why he's so brilliant is because he's completely fucking nuts. And so his book is just like,
01:40:08
Speaker
disjointed rambling thoughts just kind of going from one thing to another in a surprisingly entertaining and like engaging way like I love reading that book because I'll be reading it and in a matter of 10 minutes I'll go from one place to another and I'll be like wait a minute how did How did we get here, Brian? How did we get here? Who am I here? Yeah, well, he jumps all over the place. He'll be talking, oh, I did this thing a few years back. And then in the 60s, you're like, hold on, man, can we just have a consistent narrative here? But no, it's good because you can jump back in at any time, and then you're just hypnotized and right back into his lunacy, yes. And I love this book because it was written around the same time as Love and Mercy was being made.
01:40:53
Speaker
So a lot of the same things in that film are touched on in the book. Okay. And it's a really good book. I got Jimmy. Jimmy got it for me for Christmas last year and then I got him a copy this year for Christmas because it's so good. Passing future guests, Evan, Jimmy Toohey. Yes, that's the one. That's the guy. Got a record coming out at some point. Who knows? That's that guy we know.
01:41:18
Speaker
Yeah, he's so he's from Indy too, so he comes to Indy for Christmas, and so we get to see each other every year and hang out. I saw that picture you posted on your Instagram. Dude, yeah. It's good to see you two together. Can I tell you just one little quick little story of something that happened, and then I'll move on with my socials. It's my only story of my Christmas, here's my Christmas vacation story, you guys. So we were outside of Imbibe, which is a bar in Fountain Square. It's in the Fountain Square Theater Building.
01:41:47
Speaker
I'm familiar with it, been there before. And ah so Jimmy and I, we always go to a bar on Christmas night, the night of Christmas, we go to a bar, him and I, because we're buddies and stuff. And um this year we decided to go imbibe. So I went to pick him up from his parents' house. We went back to my sister's house who lives like three blocks from imbibe. And we hung out on the porch like drinking whiskey and smoking joints and stuff until probably about midnight. And then finally we made our way to imbibe.
01:42:16
Speaker
We go in there and we're playing pinball and drinking some beers and it was really cool. We went outside to have a smoke. And while we're outside, about three blocks, two or three blocks down the road by where like the liquor store is, you know, the liquor store in Mountain Square, that one that's like a close to the White Castle headquarters building thing. That one, yeah.
01:42:37
Speaker
There were some people down there that were ready to take each other's lives. And i I say that with confidence because they said as much. They were both prepared to take each other's lives. They were very angry about something. It's two o'clock in the morning, Christmas night.
01:42:56
Speaker
and as someone who was born and raised in indian Indianapolis I immediately kind of got myself behind a telephone pole so I didn't catch a stray and so that's the move so the guy one of the guys like they're like fuck it whatever and the one guy starts walking across the street to leave when the other dude just can't leave it alone and like he says some shit and they go right back at it and I'm almost certain we are mere seconds away from gunshots and bodies hitting the ground, when little old Tukey here, in his infinite wisdom and blind courage, peeks out from behind the telephone pole and says, but you guys, it's Christmas. Oh, my God. And I'm not kidding you. I am not shitting you. This actually happened.
01:43:47
Speaker
They immediately stopped and they stood there for a second. I couldn't hear them because I mean, they were shouting before. That's how I heard them. They're like two or three blocks away. um But and the last thing I saw them do was hug you guys. Oh, my God.
01:44:02
Speaker
i say like man it saved christmas spooky saved christmas a christmas fine miracle I didn't know what else to do man. i didn't I just didn't want to see that shit on Christmas night. Like I don't want to see it any night. i don't like see it any yeah Spending as much time as I do in Fountain Square with my sister lives there and whenever I'm in India, I'm staying with my sister.
01:44:22
Speaker
So it is not unusual to be sitting out on her porch, front porch at like one or two o'clock in the morning, smoking a cigarette cigarette and hear somebody three or four blocks down the road, unlock unload a clip. Right. You know, the shit happens. Listen to those police scanners. The shit is wild, dude. And it used to be way worse than it was down there. So much worse. It's gentrified as fuck now. My dad won't go down there to this day for that reason. I get it. You got to take him down there because I wouldn't believe it either if you told me.
01:44:51
Speaker
Like if I hadn't been down there in 20 years, I'd be like, fuck you, I'm not going to fountain square. You can fuck right off. My data board's downtown it out at all costs. Oh, what, have but it what, what is, bless his heart. I'll say bless his heart. like god ah but yeah theres Something that happened and I just wanted to tell that little story because it's fun. I got a lot of other Christmas vacation stories. Maybe I'll tell on the next, what are we watching?
01:45:15
Speaker
um which will' record at some soon I think maybe whenever I get the computer back, probably I'm down for a late night, so whatever. like got another recording there friday right Yes, I know. um okay So ah you can find me on Instagrams and the YouTube's at Einstein. Oh, nine. That's I C E N I N E. The number zero and the number nine. Also, Tuckmugs, big resurgence on Tuckmugs. So like true Tuckmugs kind of went dark after October for a minute. Like, I don't know what was going on, but that shit went dark.
01:45:52
Speaker
Uh, and then December rolls around and it's, it's literally Christmas, like, and we almost had more because the whole time I was at my sister's house, she's like, Oh, I got something for your tuck bugs. I want to show off my Bronx Sue, uh, mug. Cause she's got, she got a mug at the Bronx Sue and like, it says Bronx Sue on the outside, but then it has little giraffes on the inside and it's really cute.
01:46:18
Speaker
Oh, that is fun. I mean, it's not Christmas themed, so she can still do it whenever, but her and her husband are in New Orleans for their vacation for their anniversary. Oh, that's nice. Well, it they they've made the plans before all that shit happened, obviously. Obviously.
01:46:34
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of a bummer but also they promised they'd go to the voo Voodoo Museum for me because for about five or six years I was going to New Orleans every Christmas and I always wanted to go to the Voodoo History Museum and I'd always get so close and something would take me away from it or distract me. It's almost like the Voodoo spirits didn't want you there.
01:46:57
Speaker
I guess not. But anyway, tuck mugs, there's three posts in December. That's three times as many as ah November. Because you know who sent us a mug shortly after their last appearance on this podcast? Oh, you haven't posted it yet.
01:47:18
Speaker
I mean, the social, uh, do not look behind the curtain. Uh, the social media manager didn't post it yet. Is it when we got locked and loaded? Is that what you're telling me? No, I'm saying the person that, that, you know, uh, Ari gave us a, a mug to post on tuck mugs, uh, shortly after her last appearance on the podcast. oh Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:47:44
Speaker
fuckk ba found it yeah dude i mean yeah posted back in June and it's a great mug and if again
Closing Remarks and Gratitude
01:47:53
Speaker
if you're you're wanting to be like Ari you just you you you find her an aspirational figure as we all do who wouldn't if you're asking yourself the question what would Ari do she would send a mug to tuck mugs that's true that's true because she's and the proofs in the pudding because she's done it before That's true. And she might do it again. Who knows? Another another step towards being just creating like your whole personality around a different person. but You join our Patreon for free. Yes. You join our Patreon for free. Submit something to Tuckmuds. It's not hard. You can email it to us at disenfranchpod at gmail straight up dot com. um You can send us just a DM.
01:48:38
Speaker
you can message me I mean the social media manager for tuck mugs direct message tuck underscore mu mugs with that shit it's just that easy it's so simple that you'd think that we would just have more posts in general Right. And yet, here we are with yeah a total of 58 posts over the course of the time that we've been around. About a year, though. That's not bad. Not bad. I mean, there have been there have been some months where it's been like nothing in November and nothing in July. It's kind of one of those when it rains, it pours kind of things. The first mug got posted on April 2023. So we're coming up on two years. Nice. I love that. I like tuck mugs. I'm still proud of it.
01:49:24
Speaker
You should be. It's a fun sight. Yeah, dude. I can't imagine how anybody could come in and just make that negative. That's what I like about it. It's just like, just look at my mugs. Look at my mugs. That's all. And if you want to get an idea of what Tucker's husband looks like, it's on one of those pictures, him and his special lady friend. Yeah.
01:49:46
Speaker
that's the Yes, my husband and his girlfriend. Yeah, it's a fantastic photo. It's a great photo. It's a good man. And you can find it in Toughmugs. So there you go. Love those guys. Love those guys. Friends of mine for sure.
01:50:03
Speaker
All right, let's let's land this fucking plane. This has been our episode on the 2005 film House of Wax. um Ari, once again, thank you so much for being, I don't know why you put up with us. That is that is a tall order and you you just, you you take it, you you just- We have fun, we have fun around here.
01:50:29
Speaker
We do. It's it's great. we We love having you on. And again, we've got you on the schedule a couple more times before the end of the year, at least. So so there we go. And so until next time, I'm your host, Stephen Foxworthy, ah for my co-host, Tucker, for the WAC statue of Brett Wright, and for the incredible RAL Power Shop. Until next time, um did you guys know that Elton John was gay?
01:50:58
Speaker
That's Vincent! That's Vincent! Oh, I've been calling him Crandall! That's Vincent, you guys. ben seen