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🏚️🔑 Episode 163: LANDLORDS ARE TERRIFYING 🔑🏚️
379 Plays8 days ago
The lease says one year. The nightmare is forever.
This week Matty & Andrew dive into one of the most universally relatable horrors imaginable — your landlord. From Matty's own front-row seat to the Dublin housing crisis to the very real terror of LGBTQ+ people losing their homes during the AIDS epidemic, we cover the full spectrum of landlord horror: the passive-aggressive newsletter, the unannounced inspection, the company town where your boss owned literally everything... and the eviction notice that changes your life with a single sheet of paper.
And then we watched some movies. 🍿
🎬 THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS — A thirteen-year-old nicknamed Fool breaks into his slumlord's house to save his family from eviction. What he finds inside is a locked labyrinth, a captive girl, and a man living in the walls. Wes Craven doing Wes Craven things. Matty: 5 ⭐ / Andrew: 4 ⭐
🎬 DARK WATER — Jennifer Connelly. Tim Roth. Pete Postlethwaite. Roosevelt Island. A ceiling that drips black water. A ghost who just wants a mother. An ending that will wreck you. Matty: 4 ⭐ / Andrew: 5 ⭐
Plus: Horror in Real Life, Whatcha Been Watchin' Bitch, and a closing game of LEASE OR DECEASED — landlord saying, or horror villain quote? You decide.
🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts!
💸 Support the show: frigay13.com/support
#FriGay13 #LandlordsAreTerrifying #horrorpodcast #lgbtqpodcast #queerpodcast #PeopleUnderTheStairs #DarkWater #WesCraven #JenniferConnelly #housingcrisis #horrorcommunity #getslayed #horrorpodcasts #queerhorror #gayhorror #tenanthorror
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Transcript
Introduction to the Freigay the 13th Horror Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Freigay the 13th Horror Podcast is a proud independent podcast. To learn more about the show, visit freigay13.com.
Maddie's Misunderstanding and Tenant Protest
00:00:09
Speaker
Maddie, why are you standing outside with a suitcase?
00:00:13
Speaker
I'm being evicted. Evicted? How do you know? My landlord left a note that said, we need to talk. That's not an eviction notice. It is in landlord language.
00:00:26
Speaker
Why would your landlord need to talk to you? There may have been a few incidents, like when I organized a tenant protest over the laundry machines. It's not terrible. We had a drag queen portraying the ghost of affordable rent.
00:00:41
Speaker
Anything else? I put the basement on a ghost hunting website. Why? just to to build community. Maddie. Fine. There was also the emotional support, Peacock, but the city has Mr. Feathers now.
00:00:55
Speaker
Give me the note. Here. Maddie, it says we need to discuss renewing your lease. ah ah I'm not being evicted?
00:01:06
Speaker
Somehow, no. Great. I'll celebrate with a basement seance. It's episode 163. Landlords are terrifying. I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom.
00:01:22
Speaker
I'm Marjorie Green, and I approve this message. To save America, stop socialism, and stop China. They define the odyssey from life to death to rise.
00:01:34
Speaker
in real life. Doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong. Horror in the movies. Where are you gonna go?
00:01:46
Speaker
Where are gonna run? Where are you gonna hide? Nowhere. Because there's no one like you left. What do we want? Justice!
00:01:57
Speaker
When do we want it? Now! Let's go!
Landlord Issues and Housing Struggles
00:02:00
Speaker
What are you waiting for,
00:02:06
Speaker
I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. Sometimes, that is better. One woman says her landlord is a slumlord.
00:02:18
Speaker
It's in every room. Mold in the bedroom, a leaking toilet. This is how much moisture comes out of the toilet. And a broken heater. This wire is supposed to be attached. The problems are so great. County of Sacramento, notice of violation.
00:02:33
Speaker
Code enforcement has given the manager of Brookstone Apartments 72 hours to fix the problems. But resident Michelle Clark isn't holding her breath. stick you list So this isn't the first time code enforcement has been here? Oh no.
00:02:44
Speaker
They come once a month. Welcome to Fragge the 13th Horror Podcast. My name is Andrew. And my name is Matty. And if this is your first time at our wonderful little podcast, this is the podcast that talks all about horror, horror in real life and horror in the movies. And today we're talking all about the terrifying thing that is the landlord and the rent that you'll pay for the rest of your life. Awful, terrible, terrible, terrible. um I've had some bad landlords in my life, not gonna lie.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, I've had some bad ones. I've also had a pretty good one too. That's fair. about that But um i'm not going to I'm definitely not going to be that not all landlords guy on this podcast today. God, no.
00:03:28
Speaker
No. But yeah, it's it's a shitty thing having to figure out rent or or a mortgage for that matter. I mean, i don't and I know we're not going talk about mortgages this this episode, but like just figuring out that staggering amount of money that you have to put towards housing every month is... just so terrible to think of especially for most people that are either marginalized or discriminated against that we'll we'll talk about um but just like the average person trying to scrape together rent every month yeah it's just for the for your entire life like it's it never ends like that's the thing like if you don't have the equity or the um financial stability or for that matter, like a family member that hands down money to you, that you can buy a place that you then spend 30 years paying off. And then if you don't have that, then you got rent for your entire life, no matter if you are 75 or 35 or 25 for that matter. Yeah, I remember, yeah you probably remember this too, you know, like when you're in like your early 30s, you know, mean really throughout your entire 30s, let's just face it. Yeah. And you see all these friends of yours that are like, you know, the Instagram post of like them with their keys, like going in the place and whatever. And I just always remember thinking your parents helped you with that.
00:04:57
Speaker
Mm-hmm. like i yeah Like, don't get me wrong. I'm happy for you. But like, I know for a fact your parents helped you like fucking hardcore with that. And it is definitely one of those moments where I'm like, it must be nice while I continue to rent and I am 43 fucking years old. um You know, it look it it gets old. It it gets very old. and and you And then at the same time, like, it also like there there are still freedoms of it that I still really enjoy.
00:05:25
Speaker
do you know what I mean? Of course. Yeah. You know, like you you and Michael have a lovely, lovely house, um a condo in Chicago. It's beautiful. I remember, what was the last thing that happened that you were telling me about?
00:05:36
Speaker
like oh gosh. Windows. We had a leak. ah yeah Yeah, you had a leak. And I remember thinking, oh, my God, that would be such a pain in the ass to deal. mean, we talked about it. Such a pain in the ass to deal with. And like not to bring that up and like open a wound for you. But it's like those little things where I'm like, oh,
00:05:53
Speaker
That's like the the good part about renting is that if it ever happened, I just call the landlord and it's taken care of. Right. But like, Andrew, what if you have a terrible landlord who doesn't really take care of it or who like, you know, just kind of puts a bandaid on it. And then the problem just comes back over and over and over again. Like it it's just like there's never.
00:06:13
Speaker
do you think we're ever going to be at peace? Do you know what I mean? Like ever in our lives, ever with anything else? No, not the way that I see the world going right now. i i literally think we've digressed 10 years in the last year and a half. So I i don't i don't think so.
00:06:30
Speaker
Ain't that the truth. You know, and so just said it right there, but I i am still renting. i've I've rented my entire adult life. I've never
Housing Crisis in Dublin and Chicago
00:06:39
Speaker
owned anything. um And I can tell you that renting in here in Dublin is very different than renting in Chicago.
00:06:48
Speaker
oh interesting. So in Chicago, you know, and like, look, I haven't lived in Chicago now for it's it's almost five years now that I'm gone, which is crazy in itself. But when I was still living there, granted, it was the end of COVID. So like, you know, things were naturally weird that anyway. But like it was still as far as I recall, and you and you you can correct me on this, although you haven't rented in a while either.
00:07:11
Speaker
But like there was still ah a good volume of units available, number one. Number two, a pretty good spectrum of like, of like prices for rent, right? So like, you could still get a good place in a good neighborhood in Chicago and like, not pay ah some sort of like crazy insane amount. But of course, if you wanted something more luxurious, something really nice, you could also get that too, right? So like those are things that I remember about Chicago. On top of like you know there's plenty of transportation. you know you you you never live too far away from either an L stop or at least a bus stop.
00:07:52
Speaker
um you know it's It's a very walkable city. there's There's things like that. There are plenty of places, no matter what neighborhood you live in, to like go get something to eat or go to the grocery store or like go see a movie or go to a bar.
00:08:06
Speaker
So like is that still the way that it is in Chicago right now, do you think, or or has it changed? Access is still there when it comes to getting around. I mean, the CTA, as much as you want to complain about it, is a very robust system that works for Chicago. Does it have its flaws? Of course. yeah But it is what it is. like um As far as rents and availability go, we're way overcapacitated. You can't find anything. i We have a friend that's...
00:08:37
Speaker
um had just been looking and she could not find anything. And we're talking one bedrooms, not really anything bigger than this. Yeah. One bedrooms for less than $1,700 month.
00:08:51
Speaker
m I mean, yeah, that kind of makes sense. Wow. Okay. And we're, and we're talking like, this is a friend of ours that wants proximity to the highway for the airport, not to go downtown. So it's not like she has to have like the, uh, like luxurious neighborhoods like river North or she she's not, she's not living in a Lincoln park. she's She's looking up, you know, and by, but she'd be fine with Rogers park or Avondale or any of those like kind of neighborhoods. So just think about it that way, I guess. That's interesting. I mean, when when I left Chicago, um i i was in an apartment in a neighborhood called Ravenswood, which I love Ravenswood. Just what a great neighborhood. Still a great place. Still a wonderful place. ah When I left that apartment, now granted, I had been there for a long time, almost 10 years. And like,
00:09:40
Speaker
look, the Andrew will vouch for this. This was by no means some kind of luxurious apartment, right? It was, no you know, very small galley kitchen, like, where, yeah, it sure it was, it was a, it was a enlarged one bedroom.
00:09:54
Speaker
But it was still a pretty good classic Chicago apartment, right? Like, it had a, Big old you know living room, a big old dining room. And you had good proximity too. Yeah, and great proximity. The bedroom was definitely too small. it only It didn't have enough closet space. It had a tiny little balcony off the back, whatever. like it you know It wasn't supposed to be like like like my forever home or anything like that. But I think I was paying for that one by the time that I left. I was paying like $11.50 for it.
00:10:21
Speaker
for it that's now That's good. It was really good. And I'm sure now, you know, whoever is either renting it or or maybe they've got rehabbed it, who knows, they're probably doing it for about 1700, maybe even more than that.
00:10:34
Speaker
I can tell you that when I moved here, my rent basically doubled right off the bat. And that was wild. And so now I live in a one bedroom in Dublin.
00:10:46
Speaker
and I've been in that same one bedroom since I moved here. um And it was pretty wild to like have my housing costs basically double and not just my my my rent, but also the cost of energy here is way higher.
00:11:01
Speaker
um it's It's an electric only place, thank God. So I don't have to pay for gas in here. or That would be even more. um the The cost of your Internet, the cost of this, the cost of that, the cost of this, everything goes up for you. Which leads me to to speaking a little bit about the Dublin crisis here.
00:11:17
Speaker
um But it's not just in Dublin. It's really a housing crisis all across Ireland. And I thought that might be interesting to just sort of, you know, to to discuss a little bit here um because it is different from a city like Chicago, where, like you said, there is a good deal of volume. It might be more expensive than it was, that's for sure. But you can still like go find something. You might cry when you pay for it, but there's something still there at least.
00:11:40
Speaker
I can tell you here, um you know, when I moved here, I had a service that would that like looked for apartments for me, which was very nice. And a lot of companies do that when you relocate. So I had this very nice woman. God bless her. And it was Joan. She went looking at places for me. She would send me videos, all that kind of thing. So that's how I find. Yeah. And like generally people like that, they probably have relationships with the different developments and the different like, you know, ah like building managers and stuff, larger landlords, building managers. So like they can get in in a different way than like normal people can.
00:12:13
Speaker
So I've only ever gone to look but myself at one apartment here. And I was thinking about moving a couple years ago. there There was this pretty cool apartment right above a coffee shop, right by the cinema. I was like, oh, that'd be awesome. So I went to go look at it.
00:12:28
Speaker
And when I got there, I was the first there. But I'm not joking when I tell you there had to have been at least 100 people lined up behind me. not That's crazy. 100 people lined up behind me. And that is what it's like for every single unit in Dublin. If something opens up, there will be possibly hundreds of people that show up to look at it. It's all cattle call. They don't do any sort of like timed ah viewings or appointments or anything like that. I'm lucky that I got in first and I got to apply for it. But like the rest of the people, if yeah ah why they even waited, to be honest, in that line is sort of beyond me. But it just kind of shows you how desperate people are right now.
00:13:12
Speaker
It's not uncommon here now to, especially if you're a student, um to, and I, i it's it's diabolical the way that landlords do this, um but to rent not just like a room in an apartment, but to rent a bed in a room.
00:13:30
Speaker
And when you rent a bed in a room, Andrew, it's pretty common. You're still going to pay at least $750 for that bed in a shit room. Not even joking. There are horror stories that I've heard from people um where like, I mean, God, there there was this one person told me that he was like sleeping in this room with another guy and the other guy would like...
00:13:56
Speaker
the other guy would at this like not to get crazy but like the other guy would like jerk off and like leave it in a cup and like oh my god yeah he just like had to deal with it and he was paying a thousand euro for that bed and that she is and he wasn't even close to the city center like he was like far out there when he told me that i was like gotta be why are you doing this it's absolutely insane um And, you know, now the rent that I'm paying is astronomical for one bedroom. It's ridiculous. out it's it's ridiculous's the reason why I'm looking into buying a house now because it's stupid for me not to.
00:14:27
Speaker
And I can tell you that, you know, I've been in here for a while. i am i have rearranged this little Euro one bedroom in every way I can. Yeah, to make it the most like efficient, if possible. Yeah, and like to make it like the most livable. you know like i' I'll put my books here, I'll do this, I'll move it around, whatever. And I've done a pretty good job of it, but I'm tired of it. you know like it's It's too small for me. And you know i i don't want to live on my own forever and you know all those kind of things.
00:14:54
Speaker
And i can tell you, I'm terrified to go look even right now. Like the housing market here is so bad because there is no volume here. When you come to Dublin, you'll see that there are very few tall buildings. and We are about to build the tallest building in Ireland, just a little bit down the road from me by Houston Station.
00:15:17
Speaker
um And even that is not going to be, it's not going to be that tall. I think it's going to be like There might be like maybe 15, 20 floors to it, something like that. um So the way that we think about density here is just completely different. So you've got all these um these new people moving to Ireland. You've got a lot of students coming here. You have a lot of people like me who are still arriving for jobs. um it's the It's the tech capital of Europe.
00:15:42
Speaker
So all these big companies like Meta or Google or, you know, whatever, they all have all their people move here. You also have a lot of foreign conglomerates buying all of these units. And what do they do with those units? They literally let them sit there. They don't let anyone live in them, which is just insane and absurd.
00:16:02
Speaker
um there's ah There's some protection that gets offered from the government. There are rent pressure zones where the rent the rent increases get capped. But usually um it's ah it's it's protecting like existing tenants instead of newcomers. so yeah But a lot of people don't even know that stuff though. like you know like There's a lot of that stuff in place in Chicago too, but like unless you know about it, your landlord can do whatever the fuck they want. And they will because they know how to do it. um not Not only that, but when it comes to like deposits, it's pretty common here now. You're going to pay at least two, if not three months rent up front, which is insane.
00:16:43
Speaker
So wait, is that a is that ah is that a fee that you get back or is that a what we call now in Chicago a move-in fee? Yeah, exactly. It is a fee you get back, thank God. But imagine having to come up with four months of rent right off the bat. Four months of rent.
00:17:00
Speaker
Well, I remember when I first moved to Chicago, the security deposit was still a pretty common thing. Yeah, fair. There was usually like a cleaning fee or like ah like a like, don't know, like $100, move in cleaning fee. And then there was a security deposit, which is usually a month's rent.
00:17:15
Speaker
And but you always had the idea that you would get that back at the end as long as you didn't do anything crazy to to the apartment. Now, everything is that month's rent is just a move in fee. Yeah. Like it's not it's you don't get it back.
00:17:30
Speaker
Which is like, i I just like, where is that money even going? Like right it's in the pockets of people. It's literally just paying them. It's paying them more to live there. It's fucked up. um In Ireland, at any given time, there are usually and this is in the entire country, not just in Dublin. So the entire country. there are usually fewer than 900 units available.
00:17:54
Speaker
Wow. Across the entire country, which is the size of Indiana. So like even just think about Indiana as as a great example, right? Imagine only 900 apartments are available in the entire state of Indiana. that That's insane.
00:18:08
Speaker
um Rents over the last decade have completely doubled. It's pretty common that there are 10% annual increases in ah in a lot of in a lot of areas. 10%? Jeez. 10%, which is crazy. And like I said, there are some RPZs out there, but like it's not all over the place.
00:18:23
Speaker
um when you're when you're going for an apartment you don't just apply anymore and like have like a few references you have to like have a letter from people you have to like write a letter yourself talking about like what a great person you are like it's wow it is it's absolutely fucking bizarre here. It's so, so bizarre. And um you've got a lot of people then, and and this this this causes a lot of problems because you have these landlords who are going absolutely overboard on on what they're charging and how they're charging people. um And then because they're doing that, you have all these people who are blaming the housing crisis on the wrong people.
00:19:11
Speaker
they're well Welcome to people. Exactly. Right. But, you know, so you know, naturally, as you as you might imagine, you can probably see where I'm going with this. It is very common to hear that the renters crisis or the housing crisis in general is the fault of guess who immigrants specifically, they usually target Indian people. They target Nigerians and they and they they don't tend to target Americans because they were mostly white, to to be completely honest. But any sort of like person of color that is an immigrant that is not Irish, they are the ones who get targeted. It's very common to hear people say the complete misinformation and lie that um as soon as someone gets gets to Ireland and they're a migrant, they're given a house. They're given these things right away, which is completely untrue.
00:19:56
Speaker
So, I mean, look, I could go on and on and on about this because it is literally my
Andrew's Landlord Experience
00:20:00
Speaker
life. um I'll stop there, though, before I get too depressed. That's the situation right now in Ireland, ah Andrew, which is pretty, pretty crazy.
00:20:11
Speaker
I will say like, um just to kind of build off of your ah talk about like not having enough housing is that um our our governor, J.B. Pritzker, just announced a new initiative called the Build Initiative. i don't know if you know and anything about this. i haven't heard of it yet.
00:20:26
Speaker
um It's it giving people $15,000 to the purchase of their first home. um And it's also basically rewriting the infrastructure so that more ah building code, like it's like bringing down like the the harshness of the building code so that people can build different kind of houses and these different houses.
00:20:49
Speaker
<unk> so' It's all across Illinois. It's actually a really good initiative. You should look it up. It's called the Build Initiative. That's really cool. um but It just shows that like and not to get too in the weeds here, but like um and we'll get right off this as as soon as I'm done, but like it just goes to show you like when you have a government that tries at least to work for the people of the state or of the of the of the the country, um it it really does work and it helps people, but That's then you get to those people that are like, you're so lazy. why don't you just get off your fat ass and go get a job and save up money and buy a house? And I'm just like, it's not like that anymore. It's it's just shut up. but Not like that at all.
00:21:35
Speaker
But anyway, um I wanted to talk a little bit about my experiences ah renting. i mean, i've only we've we've owned our condo for just under five years. um But we were in a similar predicament that you were in that we were like, we're tired of throwing money away that we're never going to see back. Like we'll literally never see it. Yeah, exactly.
00:21:55
Speaker
At the time, i we had a nice apartment. Granted, the bedrooms were like, you could only fit a queen bed in there and a dresser. And that was but but it. But it was a great apartment, though. That was that was but that was a really good one plenty of living space, but we were paying almost $2,000 a month. And so like it was one of those moments where you're like, well, what are we doing? And so you know we invested, but it took a long time. i think that we looked for four years for a condo. um so And we're very happy where we are right now, but like it was a very tough process. And you know that landlord ended up being our real estate agent, which was really nice because he let us out of our lease whenever we wanted.
00:22:36
Speaker
And it was a very good situation we were put in. So I'm very thankful for that. I'm very lucky to have that situation because a lot of people don't. But I did want to talk a little bit about the time that I was a landlord. Oh, Andrew, talk about it.
00:22:51
Speaker
So I bought a house when I was stupid and 22 years old as a part-time student and part-time worker at an Applebee's. So you can only imagine. That's crazy, Andrew. It's so crazy. This was eight Right. does that make sense? Maybe a little bit. but well Yeah, because I had graduated. I was i graduated the same year. um But it was at the time when they were giving out 0% down ah houses. Like you didn't to put any money down.
00:23:25
Speaker
um But it came with these insane interest rates or insane balloon payments or any of this. The arms. Yeah. I struggled for a very long time and I, I, I bought a duplex because I had it in my head. You know, me and my friend will live in one side and we'll rent out the other side and hopefully we'll at least make the mortgage if not a little bit more. Um, but we never saw it as like a longterm investment property, you know, like it was, the house was built in 1912 for God's sakes. It was not like, you know, and so, um,
00:24:00
Speaker
For five years, I lived in that house and I rented to various, ah I should say, on my side. I always had, if not one, i think at one time I had four roommates just trying to make the mortgage payment. Sure, yeah. And then on the other side, I would always try to rent out to either families or i think I had just a couple of college students up there at one time. But I will say...
00:24:26
Speaker
I only had, I had, I had two really good renters that were there for a very long time. and I treat, I treated them very well. I never, I never raised their rent because I never wanted them to leave because, ah because the other people that moved in there, I had, um, once I moved to Chicago, i had to go up there and blind rent to people. So basically go up there for a weekend, clean it out, and then hopefully get a renter by the end of the weekend. um and i had to make some decisions on some people and they turned out really, really bad. and um I had, I had a, a one family in there who ended up being like a big drug dealer, like family. And they ended up, um, there ended up being the last straw was somebody shot at the house. Like it was, it it was not a good situation.
00:25:14
Speaker
Um, and you know, thankfully I was able to sell that house 10 years later and i and it's so this, this just shows how the housing crisis was really bad.
00:25:25
Speaker
Okay, so I had the house for 10 years. Guess how much money I made at the end of the day and and and in equity selling the house after 10 years? Like $10,000, $20,000? $10,000. That's it. That's it? I mean, i I knew it wasn't going to be a big number. that' that that that that's ah That's why i said that. But that's that's insane. So I guess like my my thing, like when I'm talking to people that are thinking about investing in property is that you're not just investing in property, you're investing in people and you're investing a lot of them.
00:25:56
Speaker
And you really got to think about it because it's not always going to be the bright, shiny object that you see on like Selling Sunset or like whatever, those all those real estate shows. Like these are people with real lives, with real circumstances that you're going to have to deal with. And so ah really, really think about that when you when you think about becoming ah a landlord or a property manager. as it not It's not all glitz and glamour, I'll tell you that
Discrimination in Housing
00:26:20
Speaker
much. um you know another Another story that I had ah just about ah renting that I thought... i that i
00:26:27
Speaker
That's just so funny. But I rented this tiny, tiny studio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. it was on Gay Street, if that helps. there there are It's so funny because there are two streets in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There's a gay street and there's a straight street. They're on two different sides of town. It's really funny.
00:26:48
Speaker
um But Gay, i think it was Gay Avenue, actually. um And it's only, the Gay Avenue is like one block. Like it's not a long block. So there's only like, what, let's see here. One, two, three. i think there were three houses and maybe one like larger building on it.
00:27:01
Speaker
And one of the houses across the street was a bed and breakfast. And that's where the landlord lived for my house. So she lived across the street. And this was not a traditional apartment building. This was an old Victorian house that they turned into apartments. So I essentially lived in the living room of this old Victorian house. Oh, and my God. Uh, and so they put like a little baby. i had like, it and so you, you would open these two closet doors and that was my kitchen. Like it was like a kitchenette, like a play school kitchen. That's crazy.
00:27:36
Speaker
And, uh, I had this landlord there and she ran the bed and breakfast across the street and she was the most passive aggressive person I've ever met. Oh my God. Every month, she would write up a newsletter for the building. Keep in mind, I think there were six people living in this building. um And she would slip it she would slip it under everyone's door every month. And I, at the time, the only one that was directed at me is I had a dog at the time, Boston, my golden retriever. Good dog. He was a great dog.
00:28:09
Speaker
And to his, to his, like, he was a little bit aggressive because he only had this one room. Like, I felt really bad. I i should have never had a dog in that place to begin with. But um and he would hear people come in and out of the building and start barking. And um at the time I worked a night job. So I worked from like, I think I worked from like five to 11 at night.
00:28:31
Speaker
Um, and he would bark at night. And finally i get this newsletter under my door that was like, barking will no longer longer be ah tolerated within the building and dah, dah, dah, dah. And it was like a whole article about dog barking. And I was like, God damn it. Just come over and talk to me about it just I don't understand that that that predilection in people to not just find a solution to the problem first without, you know, like going full bazooka mode. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
00:29:02
Speaker
Right. um Do you want to talk about a little bit about some of our hot topics for landlords are terrifying? Oh, please go ahead. So the couple of things i found, um really the one big one that stuck out to me because, you know, our our yeah our our crisis is always LGBTQ plus crisis is the AIDS crisis during in housing the discrimination during that time. Oh, for sure.
00:29:27
Speaker
I honestly didn't even think about. But now. after going through covid and everything i'm like well duh why wouldn't that be happening like of course um but i'll just read a little bit about this um during the height of the aids crisis in the 1980s and early 1990s many lgbtq plus people face a second nightmare on top of a deadly disease losing their homes fear misinformation and outright prejudice led some landlords to refuse housing to people with hiv or aids to find excuses to evict tenants after learning of their diagnosis. Because same-sex relationships lacked legal recognition at the time, surviving partners could also find themselves suddenly displaced after a loved one's death with no legal claim to the apartment they had shared for years.
00:30:13
Speaker
The housing insecurity created the AIDS epidemic became one of the more way queer communities were marginalized during the ah period of immense grief. Activists fought not only ah for medical treatment and dignity, but also for basic protections that would protect people from becoming homeless simply because they were sick of ah Or because the society refused to recognize their relationships. It's a chilling reminder that sometimes the scariest monsters aren't supernatural. They're systems built on fear and discrimination.
00:30:44
Speaker
So just think about that. And that's, that's, these are the things that like when people say like, we don't need pride month and all this. I don't know why i always put a Southern accent on these people. but that's Yeah, but it kind of works, though. It kind of works.
00:30:58
Speaker
But like that's when people like say things like, we don't need Pride Month or you know Pride is over, we won, da-da-da. And I'm just like, you guys, you're not, you don't even, you get i don't know. I don't even know how to explain it. But I'm just like, we're not that far out.
00:31:13
Speaker
And ah certainly today, we're not that far out from just being completely discriminated against again. no not at all i mean it look if it the the the if they could find a reason to it's it's like um did you you might have seen this video recently of like this uh this this really he's a he's a great speaker i can't remember what what what state it's in but like he's responding to like this total mega dude on on some sort of like panel and he he's he's a black guy wearing a hat that says donald trump is wrong And, uh, or download shop was wrong about everything, something like that. But you know, the, of course the, the mega guy on the panel has given him a bunch of shit and the guy kind of, you know, barks back with like, you know, look, we know that you're, you're just a racist.
00:31:57
Speaker
And like, if you could give us negative seats in, in the house, you would. And that's just the truth of the matter. Like they'll, that's what they're trying to do right now in Tennessee. Yeah. They'll look for any way that they can to to take away the things that give us the ability to live.
00:32:15
Speaker
And, you know, if if we're if we're not careful, if we're not constantly fighting for it, then that is exactly what will happen. I mean, there' there's ah There is a place in is it Alabama or Tennessee. I can't remember which, um but they it's been on the news a bit. I think they're getting sued now. It's this community ah where they're building houses, but in order to build houses in the community, you have to be white.
00:32:40
Speaker
like with alabama This is Alabama. Yeah. yeah you You have to prove your European heritage. And like, look, in Donald Trump's America, that is just that's going to be a reality. But it's not just Donald Trump's America. It's Nigel Farage's UK. You know, it's Angela Maloney's Italy. Well, it's it's maybe maybe ah scarily one day it could be right here in Ireland. I don't know. But if we're not fighting against these things, that could happen.
00:33:06
Speaker
Well, yeah, and it's it's it's it's the permission structure to be that way. like it's like when yeah it's It's one thing to think like power corrupts, but like it does. like Whoever's at the top, it delineates what like what what it's going to be like. and i don't know how to I don't know how else to explain that to people, but like when you elect a people to power, when you elect people ah to officials,
00:33:35
Speaker
Those are the that is what the culture is going to be. The culture will trickle down. The money won't, but the culture will. And I don't know how to explain that to people without them understanding. Like it's it's mind boggling that people can't understand it.
00:33:49
Speaker
Well, i I think in general we have um we we we are no longer beings that want to live in community. And I think that that's i think that's really scary stuff. I think that we are all um sort of obsessed with being remote in whatever way that we can. So that's not just remote from our jobs, but also remote from each other.
00:34:11
Speaker
um And i think that I think that we are resigned from resolving differences. And I think we're more prone and apt to distrust each other and to fight with each other. And to feel that the only way out of anything is to fight.
00:34:30
Speaker
You know, is is is to be the one that's right as opposed to the one that might be making things better. So, you know, I think um i think that that that sort of speaks to to all of this. i think I think in order to believe that everyone deserves a home, that everyone you know should have access to you know affordable housing, you know they don't have to own it, but they you know they need somewhere somewhere that they can live you know in in in an affordable way that doesn't wreck their entire lives. But I think in order to believe that, you have to believe that community is a good thing.
00:35:03
Speaker
And that living with, with people is a good thing. And you have to believe that like human beings are, are by their very nature, desirous of community, you know, like we, that, that, that's what we seek. But I think we keep getting taught that that's not what we should be doing. I think that's, that's, that's, um I think that's pretty scary stuff.
00:35:24
Speaker
It is. Yeah, one ah one project that just opened up ah by us up here, um and when I say up here, I mean in Lincoln Square in Chicago, is um I don't know if you remember this old motel called the Diplomat Motel. It was across the street yeah from the grocery store up here.
00:35:43
Speaker
A five-star luxury motel, let me tell you. I think this was up by the hour, if you hadn't if you know what I mean. Right. Yeah. But um they just got done converting it. um So it's a non-denominational um a place for people that are coming out of homelessness to live rent-free. And they also on on campus, and I should say that's not campus, but it's like a little area. on on They have people that are- Andrew, andrew just just just really quick to clarify. When you say non-denominational, you mean that there's no religion attached to this?
00:36:23
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. It's a basically on campus, they have people that are helping them find jobs and then they have people that are helping them find housing once they are ready to move out of that.
00:36:36
Speaker
um And it gives them a place where they have their own room. They have their own bathroom. They have their own. They're not, they don't have to share with anybody. It's giving people a little bit of dignity to get back into society, which I think is really, really important. That's awesome. um And i'm I'm really happy that it's right around the corner. I know a lot of people in the neighborhood are not very happy about it, but I think it's a great thing. And I think that it it gives people dignity once again and gives people a way to get back in the community.
00:37:03
Speaker
And I'm sorry, like those people in that neighborhood, ah I people know who they are. You well know. well you Okay, you do know, but at the same time, like these are, I guarantee you a good number of those people would call themselves Democrats. A good number of those people voted for Kamala Harris.
00:37:21
Speaker
A good number of those people voted for Biden. I could go on and on and on. I won't. You get the picture. These are nimby people, not in my backyard. And it is sad and pathetic. It's sad and pathetic. If we want to change the world to be a better world, you have to like, you have to be a part of it. Like you can't just suddenly you can't just like say that these things matter and then demand that poor people like get put away like in a
Community Resistance and Housing Initiatives
00:37:49
Speaker
closet somewhere. Like I think that's really fucked up. I'm not going to lie. It's really fucked up.
00:37:54
Speaker
I don't like you can't complain about tent communities if you're not going to give them an opportunity to do something else. ah hundred One million percent. One million percent. What do you want them to do? Like, you're not giving them any opportunity. They can't do anything.
00:38:09
Speaker
Like, you know, if you don't if you don't walk, you know speaking of like tent communities or even just like, you know, a homeless person in a city, ah if you don't walk by those people and think to yourself, there but for the grace of God go I,
00:38:24
Speaker
you ah Maybe you should. Maybe you should. Because the reality that I think so many people just don't ever really understand is that you are way closer to being one of them than you will ever be a millionaire or a billionaire.
00:38:43
Speaker
you are so much closer to being a homeless person. In fact, you're like four bad paychecks away. You're one layoff away from that possibly being your reality. And that's the truth, man. Or one eviction, if you're talking about landlords. Or one eviction or one terrible thing happening in your life, which is usually the case for a lot of those people. They didn't wake up one day and go, h I want to be homeless.
00:39:08
Speaker
They woke up one day and like something really bad happened to them that they couldn't correct on their own because most people, not just in America, but in the world can't even afford $500 emergency. So like if if you really are a NIMBY person, you need to really look deep in your soul and think about um why you are, why you are so uncomfortable with people, you know, say this in quotes, like that being that close to you. There's something wrong with your heart. You should fix it.
00:39:42
Speaker
Yeah. And if people want information on that um place, it's called The Haven on Lincoln. That's really cool. I'd like to hear that. That's good. and tell me this I think that, what are well, no, you know, actually we're going on a positive note. Okay. Tell me about, tell me about a couple of apartments that were really good for you.
00:39:59
Speaker
Oh,
Nostalgia and Challenges of Renting
00:40:00
Speaker
gosh. Well, I kind of already I think I talked about my best apartment, if I'm being honest. That's fair. um But we because of the first apartment I moved into had roaches. The second one I moved into had a horrible landlord. The third one I moved into with Michael was ah a nice place, but it was kind of a party house. So it was kind of a little more torn.
00:40:19
Speaker
um And then the one I lived on on Hoyne. I loved being by Winnemack Park, but that place was so small. So Winnemack Park, if you if whoever's listening, if you ever go to Chicago and you haven't been there before, or even if you have Winnemack Park is this tiny little park in Ravenswood and it is just beautiful. It's such great. It's one of those kind of parks where you're like, am i in chicago Chicago? Yeah. Cause it's real. um And I lived like, I lived basically across the street from it and it was, ah that was the best part of living in that apartment. I loved it there. um As for me, i had um I've had you know some bad apartments. I've had some good apartments. I'd say the first apartment that I moved to in Chicago, um my friend Stephanie and I, we didn't know how good we had it. I'll be completely honest. like We were each paying $3.75 in rents. Oh my God. um The place was gigantic. It was the top floor. We had a huge...
00:41:12
Speaker
A stone balcony outside. It wasn't the best location, but it wasn't bad. It was right by the Western Blue Line stop. um we had ah i had um an apartment it on, what was that on It was I can't think of it right now. Oh, on Oakdale, 421 West Oakdale. um And it was this beautiful old co-op, but our apartment absolutely sucked. But God, that was a cool building. um And then there was, ah let's see, a Beacon Street. I can't remember than the the number, but Beacon Street in Chicago, right by Graceland Cemetery. That was a cool place. Me and Courtney, huge apartment. That place was very, very large. I always thought it was so funny that you and Courtney lived across from Courtney Elementary. Yeah.
00:41:58
Speaker
Oh, we did. That's right. ah God, Andrew, I never even thought about that. It's weird. I remember that apartment had a really long hallway. Remember that? It was just yeah it looks like a mile long. And then 5115 North Winchester. I loved that apartment as as much as it drove me nuts sometimes. I will say when I when i was leaving it, i was I was pretty emotional leaving that one just because so many things happened there for me. But my favorite ah rental of all time, even though the landlord was a complete psychopath, a coke head and was an absolute tyrant with us, was in college at IU in Bloomington. It was 519 South Fest, and we still think of it very, very fondly. I still go outside of it whenever I visit Bloomington and and just look at it for a moment, just because we had so much fun in it.
00:42:47
Speaker
We had so much fun in that house, and also we took care of the goddamn thing. We really did. So look, I hope that you folks listening to out there that um if you're renting, that you're in a rental that you like. And then if you're not in a rental that you like, that you have a way out of it in the right way soon.
00:43:03
Speaker
And I hope for all of us that we, I don't know, that we get to own our own places and and and experience that peace that I was mentioning earlier, Andrew, you know?
00:43:15
Speaker
i don't know if I'd call it peace, but it's something. Listen, I'm hoping here. I'm hoping for peace. Yes.
Media Reviews and Horror Discussions
00:43:21
Speaker
All right, folks, that does it for this segment. We'll be right back with what you've been watching, bitch.
00:43:29
Speaker
Let's all go the lobby. Let's all go the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves a treat.
00:43:40
Speaker
And we're back with what you've been watching, bitch. What you been watching, you landlord bitch. That's right. um Landlords don't watch any movies because they're too evil. They're too evil to watch movies. they're just They're maliciously planning terrible things for their tenants all day long. But these two people do watch movies because we're not landlords. So, Andrew, tell me, what have you been watching lately?
00:44:04
Speaker
All right. My first one is on AMC Plus or for Shudder if people are still investing in that weird platform thing. but But this is this is not a test. Have you heard anything about this one? Not at all.
00:44:18
Speaker
um So this is kind of your typical zombie setup. It's a zombie apocalypse, um but it takes place with all of these kids that have um gone to their local school to find refuge. And it's them like existing in the school and trying to figure out um because none of their parents survived the zombie apocalypse. but they also So there there is a zombie thing happening. They go to the school to get away from it.
00:44:44
Speaker
Correct. I got you. I did not go in with too many expectations around this movie because it was, first of all, it's a Shudder exclusive. So I never know. I never, never know. i'm i'm I'm surprised one out of four times. So it's kind of like, ooh, yay. But this one was one of those surprises because like it's kind of the tip. it's kind of the typical setup of a zombie movie, like think Dawn of the dead, but instead of a mall, you're in a school.
00:45:09
Speaker
Um, but I thought all of the acting was really good. I thought the web places that they took it were really good. The only name in it is Luke McFarlane, which he plays kind of a creepy, ah a creepy teacher guy. um and But like it kind of like all new people. i thought it was really good for like the zombie kind of like genre that um I kind of am sick of. But every once in a while we'll get surprised by one of these movies. And so I was happy to report that This Is Not A Test is a pretty good. Oh, and I just realized that's why it's called This Is Not A Test because they're in a school.
00:45:44
Speaker
Oh, OK. good for you and Good for you. That's right. That's the way. But fun movie. I would definitely check it out. This is not a test on AMC+. That sounds cool.
00:45:54
Speaker
um I wonder how... I don't think I can get that one over here, but that does sound interesting because I don't subscribe to Shredder anymore. um and I don't have AMC over here. You can actually get a subscription through Amazon if you really want to go down that road.
00:46:08
Speaker
i'm I'm kind of done giving Amazon money to. i Yeah, I understand. Anywho, my first one is Hocum. I'm sure you've heard of this one. I'm sure everyone has heard of it. um This is a new ah horror film um ah starring Andrew Scott. I completely forget the director's name right now. No, not Andrew Scott. Adam Scott. Pardon me adam scott I was like, wait, what?
00:46:31
Speaker
Well, you know, that would be a very different movie if it was yeah if it was Andrew Scott. Anyways, Adam Scott is in this. um And there's there's a a couple of other um of like Irish names. there and there's I wish I had the cast list in front of me. I don't know why I didn't pull it up. It's okay. yeah People can look it up. but um you ah Look.
00:46:49
Speaker
This is a movie that I really wanted to like. And um I managed by the barbarian guy, right? I think so. I'm going to it right now. Let me just look really quick because I just I hate not having the answer because someone's going to make fun of me on this. I'm sure directed by Damian McCarthy. Um, so Damian McCarthy did, uh, oddity caveat. He dies at the end, never open it, hatch the roommate, um, and, and some other things. Um, he's an Irish, an Irish filmmaker, but I think that caveat and oddity are the, are the only oddity is really good. Yeah. I was going to say an oddity is definitely a good one. I haven't seen caveat, i but I've, I've heard it's okay. And Hocum is just a mixed bag.
00:47:31
Speaker
Um, you would expect that with, with Adam Scott in it, that this would be, uh, you know, pretty good. um it's' It's a pretty big name to have for this. Oh, and David Wilmot. That's the other person. David Wilmot um is an Irish actor. And David Wilmot has been in ah a ton of films and TV shows. You might not like know him right off the bat, but he was in Hamnet. He's been in some of the Harry Potter movies. He was in um Station Eleven, the TV show. He's been in a lot of Irish stuff beyond that. But he's a pretty big actor. And also, he's pretty fucking good. I'm not going to lie.
00:48:03
Speaker
So with Hocum, um ah how how can I explain this? Hocum is about Adam Scott going to Ireland. And he's going to Ireland because he has the ashes of his parents with him. And he's going to basically like put their ashes by this tree. And he knows this tree because he has some of their belongings. And one of their belongings is this photograph of his mom like hugging this tree with the name of a um of a lodge in Ireland on the back of it.
00:48:37
Speaker
And so Adam Scott goes there and Adam Scott in this movie, his name is Om, which just on its own is very strange. ah But he's a writer and he's he's apparently a very successful writer. And so he goes to Ireland for this thing, right? But as soon as you start to meet this character, he's just a fucking asshole. I'm not gonna lie. And he's an asshole pretty much the entire movie, even, and I'm not going to spoil it for you, of course, but like even once things sort of like resolve, he's still an asshole. And that just makes it hard to like, I'm not going to lie.
00:49:14
Speaker
And there are also like some of the writing in this is just like, it's It's really stupid, especially if you live here. And so for for an Irish director to like allow some of this dialogue is cracked up. And I use the word crack on purpose because he gets to the hotel, right? And Andrew, like you do you know what crack means in Ireland?
00:49:37
Speaker
C-R-A-I-C? No. No. So like crack can mean a couple of things. It can mean like fun or if like somebody says, hey, what's the crack? It means like what's up or it it kind of means like, hey, how are you having fun right now? good kind Kind of deal. Everyone says it over here. Even I say it. And like it's just that's just a thing that you do. But like when you get to the hotel, like the person that checks them in is like, oh, hope you have a little bit of crack over here. And by the way, crack means blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's so I mean, truly, it's so cheesy when you watch it. And I'm in a I was in I saw it in the cinema.
00:50:09
Speaker
Everyone in there was like, you could hear the groans from the audience, truly. um But not only that, like he just populates an Ireland that is full of stereotypes. It's full of drunks. It's full of addicts. It's full of like folky weirdos. It's full of like philanderers. And then it's full of like masculine men. And like they're carrying, I'm i'm i'm taking stuff from my own Letterboxd review right now. They're carrying around like flasks of alcohol. They're like talking about folklore nonstop. They're like talking about goats. They're telling like scary stories to children. And like that's just that's not Ireland. Like that's the Ireland that you get fed when you grow up in America. So it was almost sort of like offensive in some strange way too.
00:50:54
Speaker
I don't know. You know like, look, I could go on and on and on. Now, here's the thing. When the film gets scary, it does get fucking scary. I'm not good like the parts where like he wants you to fucking jump and be scared. You will jump and you will be scared. There's one scene in particular um that i I won't give you any spoilers. I'll just say it's in the basement that like is very disturbing. Like it it will stick with you for a while. But he just doesn't stay in that long enough. And he doesn't, I don't know, maybe he doesn't trust himself in the film enough. I don't know.
00:51:28
Speaker
it's it's It's definitely a mixed bag. I don't think I want to see it again. I'll be honest. And I really did not like it very much, unfortunately. That sucks. I missed this one in the theater. It's like, but like there were like a horror movie a week right now. So I think you'll be fine watching it at home, to be honest. honest Although, you know, i I think that you should watch it. I'd love to hear what you think of it.
00:51:50
Speaker
Yeah, I'll definitely watch it. But i at this point, I'll just wait till it comes to digital. Maybe the one that you watch will put will star Andrew Scott instead. Yeah, right. One can only help. No, i I don't mind Adam Scott, but that's Neither here nor there. Let's save our our ah shared one till the end. So my next one is a show on Netflix. It is called The Big Mistakes. Have you heard of this at all? Not at all.
00:52:14
Speaker
um So this stars Dan Levy and Taylor Ortega as siblings. And um he is a pastor or minister. I kind of still don't understand the difference, but it I think it's denominational, but i he I can't remember which one he is. A pastor would be more like evangelical kind of thing. And like a minister or a reverend would be more like Catholic or Episcopalian kind of thing. Well, he's he's still gay in it, so I guess it's got to be the the latter. set probably Yeah, probably. But ah they play siblings, and they are it kind of the inciting incident is that they are looking for a a necklace for their dying grandmother because she had this like very precious necklace ah that she had... ah
00:52:57
Speaker
and And they want to give it to her for went her dying wish, essentially. um And they go to this thrift store and there's kind of a shifty guy behind the counter and he won't sell the necklace that they want to to them. And so the sister steals it.
00:53:13
Speaker
And so that the inciting incident causes a a snowball effect of them getting into essentially the mob and having to do things for the mob. That's a lot for a...
00:53:26
Speaker
For a necklace. Wow. Geez. um And it also, ah the their mom is played by Laurie Metcalf and she plays a insane mom character. i can't even explain you. You just have to watch it. um But this show was really fun. We finished it in like two days. And so it's a, it's, they're like half an hour episodes. They're not long. It's not a long commitment.
00:53:48
Speaker
um I know it's already coming back for a season two. it was really fun. um It's really fun seeing Dan Levy get to do stuff where I don't know. I feel like he's he's very typecast. And I think that he's still a little typecast in this, but it's not as typecast as maybe something straight out of Schitt's Creek. It's it's it's pretty much like the same thing for him all the time, which which is, yeah you know, it's not bad, but it's like Schitt's Creek is definitely the best that he did that for sure. So it'd be nice to see him do some different things.
00:54:15
Speaker
But when you throw in Laurie Metcalf playing this insane lover, like it's, it's really fun. i would definitely check it out if you're looking for like a ah lighthearted, like something to watch, you know, as you're, as, as you're going in between your true crime, crazy documentaries and you want something a little more lighthearted, i would definitely recommend big mistakes.
00:54:36
Speaker
Very nice. um As you know, because i just don't ever have time in my life for anything, ah I've done some rewatches. So ah two rewatches that I'll put into one entry. a rewatch of The Shining and Doctor Sleep. Did them because Manuel had never seen them before. So that was pretty cool um for him to see those things. And Doctor Sleep is... um Still an underrated gem. Just love Dr. Sleep. And I haven't more people seen it. Why are it why is it not remembered more fondly?
00:55:08
Speaker
I don't know. But what's interesting is that he was telling me because he must have Googled it or something. He was like, well, it got kind of mixed reviews, didn't it? And I was like, you know what? I honestly don't remember. But if it did get mixed reviews from anybody, I'm just kind of like, why?
00:55:20
Speaker
Sorry. Like, i all I remember is watching or is seeing it at the Davis the first weekend in yes out and skipping out of the theaters. A hundred percent. Like we were I remember when we went as a group and we were also like happy about it. Like it was I'll never forget like when when they when they're going back to the Overlook and like the music comes on and the camera sweeps down and we're all like, holy shit, fuck. Yeah.
00:55:43
Speaker
And then at the end, of course, when it's our wonderful, oh, what's her name? Who who plays Wendy in it? What's her name, Andrew? Alex Esso. Alex Esso. We see Alex Esso at the end holding Danny's face like, oh, my God, is how how beautiful that was. Another wonderfully underrated actress. ah Alex Esso, we still love you to death. um Or, you know, just the the viciousness, like when when the, um when when the whatever whatever they're called, ah the the the true knot, when the true knot gets like the baseball boy and like rip him apart, how vicious and terrifying that scene is.
00:56:15
Speaker
It's just a great movie. And thank God for Mike Flanagan. Thank God for him. It was just, it was wonderful. Manuel liked it better than The Shining, which I thought was pretty funny. And it was wonderful to to watch it again. It really, really was. so if you're looking for a good rewatch, look, you're you're never going to go wrong with Dr. Sleep, in my opinion. You you you really just won't.
00:56:37
Speaker
Cool. All right. My next one is Tales from the Crypt, not Takes from the Crypt, like it says. Like the original or what's going on with this? Yeah. So this is the cool thing that Shudder just did is that they bought all the rights to all the Tales from the Crypt store, like an HBO show. That's cool.
00:56:53
Speaker
That's cool. And so I access this obviously through AMC plus, but they've been releasing a season a week. um I think there are seven total seasons if I remember correctly. Awesome. um And we're just about done with season one, which is kind of a mixed bag for me because I remember i used to watch Tales from the Crypt with my grandma back in the day, like when I was like 10 years old and not really understanding a lot of the themes or a lot of the, you know, the things. Because Tales from the Crypt, if remember correctly, was kind of like racy for the time. Um, and ah so watching season one, half of them, I remember, and half of them are new to me. And so that, that's been really fun to go back. And like the one we just watched, um, sit, uh, sin, sin deep, I think it was called, uh, had Leah Thompson in it. And I have not thought about Leah Thompson. That's awesome. And so it's been really fun to watch. I'll definitely get through the entire series. I love the cryptkeeper. We met the guy for God's sakes. Yeah. That was so cool.
00:57:50
Speaker
I love it. It's, It's just been really fun to go back to like a 90s horror anthology that like was such like a big thing for people of that time and just like relive it again. So I would definitely recommend checking out Tales from the Crypt on on AMC+. plus That's very cool.
00:58:05
Speaker
um Look, I am only just one episode in right now, but the... Oh, oh. I know, I know, don't say anything. But the new and final season of Hacks, I'm finally on that. now. It took a little bit longer for it to come over here. It it's just yeah ended here. Because like um like obviously you have it on HBO, correct? Yes. You must. And over here it's on Sky and like we just got HBO over here so like I don't know. i I think like things are just kind of like messed up on when they get released exactly and and how that all works. But um I am looking forward to just straight binging this the rest of the weekend. I can't wait to get to it. I've seen a couple of headlines about the the final episode being really good. And I hope that that is true. i hope that that is real. um And I hope that no one ruins it for me. So I'm very much looking forward to um to to to watching it come to an end. I think it's been a really, really great show.
00:59:04
Speaker
Really great. You'll speed right through it. Hacks is such an easy one to binge. Ugh. Hacks is one of the greatest shows that we've had in the last five years. Fair. And and here's what I'll say about it and what I'll say about the final season yeah is that Hacks really works when the two main characters are getting along.
00:59:24
Speaker
And in the final season, they're getting completely they're getting along the entire time and so just take that for what it is and go on a ride you and i have talked about this before like the season where they were like mortal enemies like it's fun for like half the season and then you need them to get back together Yeah. And then inside of you you're like, you know what? i'm I'm honestly tired of watching you be mean to each other. Like it got it got tiring. And I'm very glad that that the the creators understood like, okay, people really love these characters. They don't want them to hate each other. And thank God they made that decision because it was it was becoming too much. It really was.
01:00:04
Speaker
Yeah, there were two seasons that I almost checked out because I get it i need them to be friends. don't know what to say. completely agree And so the final season is a very good send off. That's what I'll say. That's great to hear. Good.
01:00:18
Speaker
And I can't wait for the spinoff that they have to inevitably do with two characters, but why won't they? oh All right. And so our last one, i think we share. and I think that we can't, I think that we can't give the, listen, we're going to splooge all over this. So just deal with it for a second. But we both went and saw obsession in the theater.
01:00:40
Speaker
And holy mother of God. This is, it it is, um i think I think people know that I'm sort of like prone to go nuts on things that I really like and watch me do it right now. um It is one of the best horror films I've ever seen in my life.
01:00:57
Speaker
It is so good. the The cast is incredible and they are mostly people that you don't know, to be honest. mostly unknowns yeah Except for Andy Richter, who was randomly in this movie.
01:01:10
Speaker
um Everyone else, you don't really know them. um The director, ah Curry Barker, what else have they done? They've done... He's a YouTube guy.
01:01:21
Speaker
A YouTube person. Okay, gotcha. yeah So, like, in other words, then, nothing like super big feature Hollywood kind of stuff. Nope. All this stuff has been on YouTube before this. Yeah. And I got to tell you, this thing just fucking rocked. It absolutely rocked. if we ah we We saw it here in Dublin, of course.
01:01:37
Speaker
And um we we were going to see Obsession the night we saw Hocum. And we saw Hocum instead on like a Tuesday And I walked out, you know, disappointed, like, eh, it was all right. And then Friday we head off and we were like, you know what? Let's go see Obsession. Everyone's talking about it.
01:01:52
Speaker
I'm so glad that we did. And everyone in the theater, this was a great one to see in the cinema because everyone was jumping out of their seat, yelping, and everyone was really into it so no one was being a dick no one no one was like on their phones too much or anything like that and i walked out of the cinema truly disturbed i was disturbed after this movie and we had like go get a drink we had to talk about it and it it still bothers me if i'm being honest like it's just a very intense movie with incredible acting just incredible acting So it must be Michael Johnston is the main guy and Indy Navarrete. I'm not sure if I'm not really sure how to say her I think it's Navarrete if I remember seeing interviews. Both of them have barely been in anything. got to tell you what, Indy or Inda or however you say her name, this is an Andrew, when we were texting about it, you were telling me like I've heard it's like hereditary style, like it's like that quality of acting. absolutely like give this woman a fucking Oscar for what she did in this movie it's incredible give him an Oscar too while we're at it he was fucking awesome just and the whole story my god don't know Andrew say something how did you feel about it
01:03:07
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that this is a a movie that you absolutely need to see in the theater because it is an atmospheric nightmare. um And it will make you feel gross inside. It will also make you laugh at certain parts. It will make you cringe at certain parts. It will make you...
01:03:27
Speaker
Jump in your seat at certain parts. um I don't want to I'm not going to give anything away, but there is a certain, there is a certain scene in a bedroom ah where I couldn't stop Like, I don't know. I don't know how to say it but I was like squinting the entire time because I was like, what is happening? So like, i don't know. This this is incredible, incredible first go for this director. I hope that he maintains this quality um because it's ah it's a great little piece of work. um I hope it doesn't get milked to death or like re- constituted in certain ways. I hope that he has other ideas that he can work off of from this um because I could see the the success of this movie. I think he made it for $750,000 and it's now just reached over $100 million dollars here. Wow.
01:04:18
Speaker
And so I hope that that he can take that success and have some more original ideas because sometimes these first time directors get really quote unquote obsessed with their original idea and can't quite move on from it. I'm really hoping that because he's so young, he'll come out and do some more great things, but i can't say good things about obsession. It's a very, very, very, very very well done movie.
01:04:39
Speaker
I saw a headline ah where where they grouped this in with some other horror films and they called it incel horror. And I thought that was, I need to think about it more and I don't want to talk about that too much. I don't want to give things away.
01:04:53
Speaker
But I was like, huh, that's kind of an interesting lens on this. That's that's something there there think there. I think it's giving incels little too much power, if I'm being honest. No, no, fair, fair, fair. But, like, there there are some things, like, in this movie that, you know, you said, like, you'll you'll feel uncomfortable, or or Harvey said of you'll you'll you'll feel gross.
01:05:11
Speaker
There are some uncomfortable things in this movie that you do have to kind of deal with. And, like, ah There are some decisions made that are you know wacky. and And I don't know. like it's um It's a lot. It's a lot. ah like we We could talk about this, but I don't think that we can without giving shit away. We have to save it for a full review. Yeah, exactly. um So if you haven't seen it yet, like Andrew said, you really should go see it in the cinema. Like, trust us on this. It's, as you said, it's atmospheric nightmare. And like, you will hopefully have fun with other people also freaking out around you. um So go see it in the theater. Don't wait. Go see it today. Go. All right. Well, that does it for what you've been watching, bitch.
Analysis of 'The People Under the Stairs'
01:05:54
Speaker
Maddie brought us to Hokum, The ah Shining and Dr. Sleep.
01:05:59
Speaker
and Hacks the final season. And Andrew brought us This Is Not a Test on AMC, ah Big Mistakes on Netflix, Tales from the Crypt on Shudder slash AMC, and we both brought you Obsession, which you can go see in cinemas right now.
01:06:16
Speaker
Folks, that does it for What You've Been Watching, bitch. We'll take a break here and be right back with our first film of the episode, The People Under the Stairs.
01:06:27
Speaker
In every neighborhood, there is one house that adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid. Now, Wes Craven, creator of A Nightmare on Elm Street, takes you inside.
01:06:47
Speaker
Something's in there. We gotta get out of here, Leroy. All sorts of rumors about what goes on in that house. The police never took it serious. She's been feeding that thing between the walls again.
01:07:00
Speaker
Very, very tense about this. What goes on in this house
01:07:08
Speaker
is a sin. But what goes on under the stairs is a nightmare.
01:07:27
Speaker
Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs. It's a classic case of upstairs, downstairs. And here we go with The People Under the Stairs. Andrew, tell us all about them.
01:07:41
Speaker
In every neighborhood, there is one house that adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid. A 13-year-old boy named Fool, desperate to save his dying mother and prevent his family's eviction, breaks into the home of their slumlord with a family friend named Leroy.
01:07:58
Speaker
What they find inside is far worse than they imagined. A locked labyrinth of rooms, a captive girl named Alice raised in terror and obedience, and a man named Roach living inside the walls punished for his sins ah his parents invented.
01:08:15
Speaker
Directed and written by Wes Craven. Production and distribution were handled by Alive Films and Universal Pictures. the Fool is played by Brandon Quinton Adams.
01:08:26
Speaker
Daddy is played by, a God, I hate these. Daddy is played by Everett McGill. Mommy is played by Wendy Robey. Alice is played by A.J. Langer. Leroy is played by Ving Rhames. Roach is played by Sean Whalen. And grandpa but Grandpa Booker is played by Bill Cobbs, of all people. When he showed up, I was like, what the? fuck i know this is rated r released on november 1st of 1991 it comes in at 102 minutes and was filmed in and around los angeles and new york city the budget was six million dollars and this came oh wow this grossed 31.3 million dollars it was really popular yeah all right maddie have you ever seen the people under the stairs before and what were your initial thoughts
01:09:09
Speaker
I have seen this before. um it came out in 91, so I would have been, i guess, about nine yeah yeah nine years old when it came out. um On my way to being a big old 10.
01:09:23
Speaker
um i don't know. like I remember i was telling you before we started, when I was a kid, I probably would have watched this movie. i either would have watched this movie with like one of my best friends, Kevin, um who was like my best friend then, or it would have been with like my, like my brother-in-law maybe over at, over at their house. And I remember the part where Roach shows his tongue because their, their tongues have all been cut off. And I remember that really freaking me out.
01:09:52
Speaker
And then I remember like daddy in the gimp suit, which You know, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but here we are in in the early 90s. That also really freaked me out. I remember mommy being like really scary to me because she just, you know, she's a fucking freak. um And I remember it also being a sort of like a cultural phenomenon, right? I mean, like people really loved this movie when it came out. People really, really loved it.
01:10:23
Speaker
um So I don't know. I guess watching it now through the eyes of a 43-year-old, it's a pretty interesting movie, isn't it? Like, you've got these these two white people who have this gigantic house who are clearly, you know, pretty fucked up.
01:10:42
Speaker
And they've got these people living in the the basement ah behind these, these, these like crated walls. Um, they have one living actually in the walls.
01:10:55
Speaker
Um, and you've got one daughter upstairs who they are, you know, obviously abusing, uh, probably in many ways, um, terrifying her so that she doesn't become a bad girl who gets put down there with them. um And then on the other hand, you've got ah you know some some people of color from from outside of the neighborhood, both Hispanic and black, who are dealing with the socioeconomic ah pitfalls that they've been placed in. And they are desperate for money and they hear about there's a place that they can go rob. So what if they rob this place and get the money?
01:11:29
Speaker
So that's the premise of the film. um Watching it now executed. You know, i don't know. It's pretty stupid. Do you know what I mean? Like it's it's not this isn't like a smart movie, um but there are some parts that I think still work like the the the the the how can I say this? Like the the cruelty and the the sort of just like strangeness of how they keep the people under the stairs is is pretty it's pretty brutal. And, you know, the fact that they cut out their tongues so that they can't talk, um you know, when when when fool is is brought down there with daddy and they're cutting up Leroy like that's that's pretty fucked up to feed him to the people. And dad is like, got to keep him hungry or whatever the fuck he says.
01:12:20
Speaker
But he's also eating him. Yeah, I know. It's pretty fucked up shit. It's just that like, I think that what we have here is like a movie where Wes Craven was like, ah, here's a bunch of hot button stuff that's going to really hit people.
01:12:35
Speaker
And let's just put it all in one movie, right? And that's that's kind of what it is. It's like, oh yeah, there's cannibalism. There's a gimp suit. There's an abusive mom. There's like half zombies that aren't really zombies. There's black people. Like, I mean, it's like whatever he could do to like fit in topically, like right there at that moment in 1991, he was doing it. And they were capitalizing on it. I mean, look, it came out November 1st. So this would have come out you know, whatever hot but Halloween weekend it was in 1991.
01:13:06
Speaker
They were making a Halloween movie that was going to, you know, hopefully ah appeal to as many people as possible. And if we're being real, they kind of did it. You know, like, I mean, it was fairly low budget for a Wes Craven movie and it's made, know, 31, 25 million on top of it. So it, um it worked.
01:13:27
Speaker
What can I say? Yeah. um People Under the Stairs. I have not seen this since I was a kid because I remember seeing it as a kid and not really liking it that much. So I was like, you know what? I'm kind of excited to watch this again. i haven't seen it forever. um i like Wes Craven as a director quite a bit. I think that this is his era where he had more misses than hits. But because I know that what comes after this is Shocker, which i don't if you've never seen Shocker, that's another mess of a movie. um But I don't know. This one just can't, it doesn't hit for me. I i like the premise. I like that it takes on this, like way like what you said, the socioeconomic ah downturn of the late 80s, early 90s, when everyone was coming off the 80s, when things were so were were so prosperous and then all of a sudden Reaganism didn't work and we all went back down in the 90s. And I think that there's some good stuff in here. I think that you know taking revenge on the landlord is a pretty satisfying idea. um But then there's like there's all these like weird if I if I had to put this into terms this is kind of like um Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets the Goonies if that helps anyone frame That's kind interesting. Yeah okay. um
01:14:43
Speaker
And it's just. There's just so much of this that doesn't work. Like why in this, in this, in this universe of this like rich people that you're going to go steal money from, why is it all about ancient gold coins? Why can't it just be about money? Like, you know what mean? Yeah. Like, well, need to be fair though, like, I mean, and not, not to interrupt you early on and in your, in your bit here, but like,
01:15:06
Speaker
it it bare like At the end, it kind of is barely about the gold coins. I know. I know. Like at the end, at the end, when the house explodes, it's dollar bills everywhere. It's weird. um And I think that the way that we treat the people under the stairs is a little funny to me because they're just people with like their tongues ah cut out.
01:15:25
Speaker
they They don't, they don't, they haven't lived in a cave. they like're It's not like the descent where they've lived in a cave for like a millennia. You know what i mean? But they're like transformed into like, green skinned zombie They're like zombies. Yeah, exactly. And I'm just like, they're just like stolen children that they cut up the tongues out of. So I don't really understand like why they're so deformed um apart from Roach because Roach apart from just being kind of dirty is a pretty normal looking. Yeah. And so that's like that's one thing that I'm just like, what are we doing? And then we'll talk about my most egregious ah part of this movie and later in my review. But um I just think that this is just a little bit of miss. I'm actually really surprised that a movie like this has not been attempted to redo because this one I think you could redo. Well, that's interesting because there's an article from 2023 in Fangoria, The People Under the Stairs Being Remade by Jordan Peele's Monkeypaw.
01:16:21
Speaker
ah you make That actually is perfect. Yeah. Remake of Wes Craven's Bizarro 91 horror film will be written by Ezra Clayton Daniels. Now, the only thing that was that that was last updated March of 2024 by Scott Wampler. So I haven't heard anything else since, but apparently Jordan Peele was thinking about it.
01:16:38
Speaker
Well, yeah I mean, that makes more sense than it makes more sense than white Wes Craven writing and directing this. Yeah, fair. um But um listen, I applaud him for actually tackling some of the issues that he does in the movie for the time period.
01:16:53
Speaker
I think I just think that. And the other thing about this movie, it's way too long. And that's it's too long. Yeah. and that's both of our movies today they're both too long for the story that they're trying to tell yeah um and and and it's a little bit repetitive like how many times in the movie are we going to sick the dog after them and them not be successful in killing it or finally when they are like yeah we and we all love dogs and all but i got some news i'm i'm fine when this dog died like i'm i'm one million percent okay with it Keep in mind, he's only ah he's only a depiction of his of his upbringing. Whatever. I don't care. I was like, fine. You're finally fucking dead. like We're done with this.
01:17:31
Speaker
um I do think that there are some really funny one-liners in this. um I will say that, especially coming from Leroy early in the movie, like when he says, maybe the president is going to make secretary of pussy.
01:17:42
Speaker
Or when he says, like, oh, 13, that's the worst age. You're too um you're too old to get tit, but you're too young to ass. And i was like, whoa.
01:17:54
Speaker
But we and and that's kind of my initial thoughts on the film. I think it's all just a little too weird for me given the groundness of like what the movie is supposed to be. um and i there are just certain things that I... Why is mommy so priss pants and 50s housewife and daddy is in a gimp suit? Like I don't... What...
01:18:15
Speaker
What is this? It truly doesn't make a lot of sense. Can I talk about my most egregious complaint in this movie? You sure can. How has nobody complained about these people in the neighborhood?
01:18:29
Speaker
I don't understand. They talk about them like they've this these this family has lived in this house for a millennia, essentially, because it's like passed down craziness, passed down money. It used to be a funeral home. and They only get crazy. that I guess they're inbred. I don't really know. It's kind of ah it's kind of alluded to that. Or not. Yeah.
01:18:47
Speaker
Or it turns out that they're brother and sister, not mommy and daddy. Yeah. And so my most egregious thing about this is that this guy is shooting up his entire house. He's he has taken a shotgun to the house.
01:19:00
Speaker
And then when the police come to investigate, and this is another thing that I fucking hated when fool gets on the phone and he says, I want to report child abuse. yeah how about i want to report that there are people under the stairs or that there are dead bodies in the basement or title of the film and then and then the police come and they're like oh oh you've never had children okay i guess we'll just let this go even though there are shotgun marks in the throughout the entire house someone has spilled blood in their foyer that they casually cleaned up i'm just like what the fuck is this just are we just trying to say that cops are bad because they mostly are um and especially in movies um but it was just like how can we let this go they like thankfully the neighborhood comes and like kind of takes control of like the situation but I was just like what the fuck are we talking about this is the most egregious thing that you would just say like oh the cops didn't notice anything in this house that we've been tearing up for i don't know 90 minutes at this point yeah I mean
01:20:02
Speaker
Oh, gosh. um Some other things I noted in my notes. um three days the three days lent is Three days late on rent is triple your rent. Yeah, and no wonder nobody can fucking afford this place. That's crazy. Come on. yeah but um Also, I put in my notes...
01:20:18
Speaker
No one can hear these gunshots. Like he's he's firing a full on like shotgun in a residential neighborhood. They're not out in the country. They're in, I think, l L.A. But at some points I thought they were trying to say they were in Detroit, one of these like major metropolitan cities. I feel like it's supposed to be l a Yeah. um I thought I heard somebody say Detroit at one part in the movie and I was like, wait, what? um There's another part where ah our main our main guy, Fool, he's looking in the living room and he says, and it's 80 yard, you can totally tell it's 80 yard, but he says, there's enough food in this house to feed 10 families, but he's looking in the living room?
01:21:00
Speaker
And I was like, what? I don't know. think it's just a sloppy movie. i think I think it's a good idea within a sloppy movie. I think that's all I have to say. but but Yeah, I mean, there's there's not a whole lot more to to say about it if if I'm being real. There are there are some fun sequences. I think all the like ah booby traps and stuff are pretty fun. It's obviously kind of inspired. Home Alone is kind of inspired by this. like They probably came out around the same time, I guess. But I mean, like, you know looking back at this, I mean, people, mean, look, people really did love this when, when it, when it came out. I mean, once again, clearly just looking at the box office, people really enjoyed it, especially in 1991. It's just, you know, as I was saying earlier, like watching it now with, you know, 43 year old eyes, it's not that I, I didn't hate it i if I don't hate it either. I, it sounds like I did didn't hate it. no, no. Yeah. And um I, don't, I don't think that you do, but and well, and even if you did that, that's totally fine. It's just, yeah. you know, it's just not very good. I don't know. i don't know what else to say about it. It's just, it's not really.
01:22:00
Speaker
The one part I really did like, um and this is good. This sounds bad because it's like the most gross part, but like when Roach brings Leroy's body up and is kind of like making the people under the stairs think that he's like either like a zombie or a ghost or something. thought that was actually pretty funny. because then they get all scared and he kind of like peeks up behind Leroy's dead body. He's like, he he I thought that was pretty funny. I mean, you know, that that is that's just it. I mean, there are some performances in here that are just sort of like they are kind of classic now, like like Ving Rhames. Come on. Ving Rhames in anything is always kind of just he's always himself, but he's and he always adds a good bit of energy to it.
01:22:37
Speaker
And then it, go And even Mommy towards the end. Yeah, even Mommy towards the end goes batshit crazy. It's pretty good. It's kind of like Carrie level of mother, you know? 100%. And then, you know, what's his name? Brandon Quinton Adams. Like, you know, when I was a kid, I thought he was pretty cool, you know? Yeah. And then you've got Bill Cobbs in this. I mean, like, come on. It's pretty, it's pretty, the performances aren't the bad part here. No, not at all. I think that the bad part is the script, which is just kind of stupid. And just some of the conceptual elements in general, they don't really work very well. And that's just the reality of it. As you said, it's not that we all know Wes Craven is a great director, but every great director has some bullshit. This is his bullshit era. And that's just it.
01:23:21
Speaker
um I don't know if you noticed this, but there's a part in the movie where, um what is her name? Alice, right? uh alice yeah alice where she is being punished um there and this is this is the part these are the parts where i actually think is the acting is really well done there's there's two parts um where she's being put into a bath of like scalding water and which is which is pretty terrible it's pretty awful it i was definitely getting like cringing at that part was like that would be and then the mom is like taking like a like a not a sponge, but like ah a, Brillo pad and like scraping her terrible. Um, and the other part is when she's being punished and she goes to clean up the blood. I don't know if you noticed this, but like, I think that that was an outtake that they just went with because when she slips in the blood, it looks like she really slips in the blood. And I was like, I think that they just went with that. Um, because you know, early on with Wes Craven, a lot of it was kind of not guerrilla filmmaking, but it was filmmaking on a budget. You know what mean? For sure. For the time. um
01:24:21
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm trying to think if there was anything else. I think the daddy character for me does not make, mommy makes more sense to me than daddy, but daddy, like, what what are we supposed to take away from daddy? I don't i I don't know. i mean, like as as I was saying, i I just kind of feel like Wes Craven was like, well, how can I make how can I make all these characters? OK, yeah, let's just take some some crazy out there examples from this thing, from that thing, from this thing, and put them together. And then we've got some fucked up people.
01:24:51
Speaker
I think that's what he kind of did with mommy and daddy. Yeah. We'll make them religious. We'll make them crazy. We'll give them guns. We'll give them a gimp suit. well It's like he could have just kept adding on to that list. Basically, yeah.
01:25:05
Speaker
um I think that this movie suffers from that um kind of like leftover 80s thing of like everyone has to have like a a last word before they do something. And you don't say a prayer. You got a prayer. Say it. that that I was like, no, just shoot him. Which is also kind of a badass line, we're being honest. Like that is that. know a prayer. Say it. That's it.
01:25:26
Speaker
But at the same time, it's like, yeah, kid, just shoot him now before he does the fucking trick with the stairs. Go on. Just fucking do it. um But yeah. ah Let's just rate it, Andrew. Let's just rate it. Come on. so What's your rating for this? Here at Fragge the 13th, we judge on a seven-stripe scale for the seven stripes of the gay old rainbow. So if you think about that, a 3.5 would be an average movie. I'm going to give people under the stairs a four.
01:25:50
Speaker
And I said, love that Wes Craven was willing to go there with this topic in the early 90s, but the execution is just a little repetitive and there are way too many plot holes. I also gave it a four. I wrote down a five at first and I think I did that just because of the nostalgia factor of it, if I'm sure honest, but it's definitely a four. And I said, you know, it is sort of a classic now. like if If we're being real, it's a sort of like one of those like cult classic things. And I think that people still do love it for that. But, yeah you know, so it mostly works, but it's just also kind of silly. Let's be honest. All right, well, that does it for the people under the stairs. We'll be right back with a completely different movie. And that is Dark Water.
01:26:42
Speaker
think we picked the perfect place to live. Just perfect.
01:26:48
Speaker
We have so much unpacking to do. You're gonna love it up here. We're two blocks from the school, which is one of the best in the city. Wait,
01:27:05
Speaker
Get stuck in here, huh? What, Mommy? I'm gonna reach the ceiling.
01:27:13
Speaker
What's that?
01:27:25
Speaker
There's a leak in my bedroom ceiling. I can hear that there's someone running water upstairs. Did you say upstairs?
01:27:40
Speaker
So I went into an elevator and the buttons are burnt off.
01:27:50
Speaker
Why was the door open? It was locked. Someone else open it. Hello? And it's the bestie skyder. Well, feel bad again.
01:28:53
Speaker
Oh, I can't see. i can't see. I must be swimming through some dark water. Maddie, tell us all about dark water. Some mysteries were never meant to be solved.
01:29:05
Speaker
Dahlia Williams moves into a crumbling apartment on Roosevelt Island with her young daughter, Cecilia. fighting a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband. The ceiling leaks black water.
01:29:18
Speaker
a small red bag keeps reappearing. The apartment above is empty, but something is in it. As Dahlia unravels, every adult in her life treats her as unstable.
01:29:28
Speaker
The ghost wants a mother. The price of giving her one is everything. That's a really weird. i don't, i didn I guess I didn't read that before I copy and pasted it. Anyways, the director for this movie was Walter Sales, written by Rafael Iglesias, the screenplay was, based on a short story called Floating Water by Koji Suzuki.
01:29:47
Speaker
um Also, this film was was ah was a Japanese film in 2002. This is a a bit of a a reboot or remake, however you want to think of it. ah Produced by Touchstone, Pandemonium, and Vertigo. Distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Dahlia, played by Jennifer Connelly. Ceci, played by Ariel Gade, or Gade. Jeff Platzer, the lawyer, played by Tim Roth.
01:30:09
Speaker
Kyle Williams, play he's the ex-husband, played by Doug Ray Scott. Corey Murray, the estate agent, played by John C. Reilly. Vek, or Vick, played by Pete Posslethwaite. And part of me, Natasha and and young Dahlia played by Perla Hanny Jardine. It's rated PG-13. 105 minutes long, made in the USA and Japan, released 8th of July 2005, filmed on Roosevelt Island and New York City in New York.
01:30:41
Speaker
Budget was 30 million, grossed 49 and a half million worldwide. Andrew, that is those are the basic vitals of this film. Tell me about your viewing of Dark Water. What did you think?
01:30:55
Speaker
Yeah, this is one that I had seen, i think, rented from like a blockbuster or something. I don't think I saw this in the theater. um But I remember really liking this movie when I saw it but ah previously. And I mostly stick to that. um I still think it's a pretty good movie. You can definitely see like the trappings of this era of horror of just like...
01:31:16
Speaker
Like just like the um like how everything is so like what's the word I'm looking for? So contrasty like it's so like the the colors are very deep. You know what i mean? It's just like a sign of the times like it's it's that era of filmmaking. And so I still enjoy this movie. I definitely see the the flaws in it. I think that some of the acting, especially from like the ex-husband, is um a little bit iffy, if you will. sure um and some of the And some of the writing doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But overall, I still have a good time with this movie. And by saying a good time, it's a very depressing movie. So I don't mean that as like I'm happy about it. But like um I think it's a well-done movie. I think that... Some of this stuff, i we'll talk about it in a little bit, but some of the stuff about women in this in this era that I was just like, what the fuck are we doing and why did we ever do this before? um But we'll talk about that in a little bit. But overall, I had a good time with this. Was this the scariest movie? Not
Review of 'Dark Water' and Related Themes
01:32:20
Speaker
really. I think that it gets a little scary towards the end, but the jump scares, I remember this being scarier, but it's actually more of a drama than like a horror when it really comes down to it. um So that was interesting to realize.
01:32:34
Speaker
And finally, everything in this movie, I could not have believe the prices because we'll talk about i know but the prices in this movie for New York City. Like like it was like it was like a thousand bucks for or you said under a thousand for Manhattan. I was like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, yeah, exactly. Or 30 or 30 dollars a week for child care. Like that's nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing at all.
01:32:57
Speaker
um But those are my overall things. I think the mother-daughter aspect in this is played really well by Jennifer Connelly and um the the young actress, Ariel. Ariel Cade. I think that she... it It was refreshing to see a movie with a little kid where she is not like a weird, like, oh I'm such an adult for a child. um Because that's what we see in this era of child horror. um She was just kind of a little kid in this movie, which I liked.
01:33:25
Speaker
um And so... i I like this movie. It's not like number one of this of this kind of like Japanese-Korean remake era, but it's pretty up there for me. um And so, yeah, that's kind of my initial thoughts. What about you?
01:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, i i think it's I think it's okay. um i think... um i'm not ah I've really been down on the um on the writing for films lately. I'm just not a big fan of the writing in this one, I guess. um I watched it like one and a half times. I'd never seen it before, so I watched it you know sort of like halfway again today just to get more of the drift.
01:33:58
Speaker
um Jennifer Connelly can be tricky for me. i i She doesn't always hit me in the right way. there are films There are films where she really does. And those are sort of like the obvious films, like especially like, oh, I can't think of it right now. ah Requiem for a Dream is just one of them off top of my head. um And then there are other ones where I'm like, eh, not your biggest fan, if I'm being honest.
01:34:18
Speaker
Pardon of me. But if we look at the rest of the cast here, like it's a pretty all-star cast. You've got Tim Roth in this, for God's sake. You've got Pete Puzzlethwaite in this. You've got John C. Reilly. And so you've got sort of, and you've got Jennifer Connelly. And Cameron Manheim, which was not in our initial list.
01:34:37
Speaker
So like, there you go. And you've also got the guy who fucking did the score for Twin Peaks and Tony about a bottle Menti. So like you've got sort of a Lynchian group of people together right now without David Lynch. I feel like this movie could have dealt with everything more.
01:34:56
Speaker
we dealt with everything better had it sort of gone into the more Lynchian, if I'm being honest. um But I mean, you know, overall, it was okay. I didn't hate it, um but I definitely didn't didn't really love it either. I think Pete Possilthwaite as Vec was a total waste. he's he Pete Possilthwaite is a fantastic character actor. um And I think they just didn't use him nearly enough. I think John C. Reilly's character was um You know, I think John C. Reilly did what he does really well, which, and I mean this in a good way, he plays kind of annoying and he can play annoying, like in a very endearing and like authentic sort of way. he's our landlord. Yeah. And i I think he mostly accomplishes that. He's definitely one of those landlords who's just, you know sort of trying to pass the buck over and over again, however he can possibly do that. And he and he does that here.
01:35:49
Speaker
um i think that the uh the kid i agree with you does does it very well arielle god or god a and and why i can't say her name um it's definitely too long as a film it just is ah but by the end of it i'm i'm sort of starting to not care any longer but i agree with you that it's a really dark ending um i would love to see the japanese version of this have you seen that Um, I can't, I i honestly can't remember. yeah These, this was a ah time period where I was trying to watch like the originals and the new ones. And I just don't remember if I've seen the original or not. Yeah.
01:36:24
Speaker
So, I mean, I don't know. Like it's for, for me, it's sort of a toss up, but you know, am I glad I saw it? Yeah, I guess so. But do I need to see it again? i don't think so. Yeah. I realized that the word I used earlier was contrasty and what I meant was saturated because all the colors are very saturated in this That makes sense. Sure.
01:36:41
Speaker
I think that like the biggest thing for me in this movie is like I don't think it's ever rained this much in a movie ever because I was like, of course... like it they the The course of the movie, I would say, is probably like a week and a half or like a week. And it's never not raining. And I'm just like, that's not... Like New York is not that right. Like Ireland, isn't that rainy man? Jesus. A couple of things I had in my notes. Um, uh, she goes on an interview and the woman is like, why do you really want to work here? And then they kind of get to it. And i was like, man, I really wish interviews were more like this. Exactly. For real.
01:37:17
Speaker
yeah. And i I guess I didn't know. And I i meant to look this up before i got on the podcast today, but forgot. Do you know anything about Roosevelt Island? Like what the like ideal before it was or anything? Honestly, I don't. But it sounds like I wonder if it was like a WPA kind of thing during the Depression. That could be it. Or if it was like meant to... like ah Originally, it was like where the power plants were to like like it kind of power New York City, and then they tried to populate it. It was very interesting, because you don't hear many people talk about Roosevelt Island when they talk about New York City. Yeah.
01:37:54
Speaker
ah The island was called Minahanak. It was renamed Welfare Island in 1921. Following several proposals to redevelop a Welfare Island in the 60s, the UDC leased the island, named it after the former U.S. President FDR in 1973, and redeveloped it as a series of residential neighborhoods. The first phase of North Town...
01:38:17
Speaker
Pardon of me, the island's first community was completed in 1974, followed by the second phase, North Town 2, 1989. South Town was developed in the early 21st century, along with Cornell Tech Higher Education Campus. In addition to residential towers, the island has several buildings that predate the residential, including six New York City designated landmarks. The island is accessible by numerous modes of transport, including a bridge, an aerial tram, and the city's subway and ferry systems. Many government services such as emergency services <unk> are provided from Queens, but the island also has a post office and a pneumatic garbage disposal system. There are several parks on Roosevelt Island, including a promenade around the island's perimeter and four freedoms park at its southern end. In addition to Cornell Tech, the island contains an elementary school. There you go. Several houses of worship are located on the island and numerous community organizations have been founded there.
01:39:15
Speaker
um So just a little bit of of information there. It looks like it was also a hospital and prison island in the 19th century. ah There was a penitentiary that was there. There was the New York City Lunatic Asylum in 1839. There was an octagon tower, which must have been a panopticon. There was a smallpox hospital as well there. So, wow, lots of history on that island right there. My goodness.
01:39:42
Speaker
I'm surprised when people don't talk about that tram because it's very and it's a very interesting way to get around. yeah and it's It's very different for you for ah for New York too. Or for for the U.S. in general. Yeah, for real. um So a couple of things in this movie that – so do you want to know what I thought was the scariest part of this movie?
01:39:58
Speaker
Please. is when she gets on the phone um after she's taken a nap and all of a sudden she was like, I lost a day. And I was like, that is scary that you would just that is weird fall asleep for like 24 hours. um And ah we talked about the ah prices in this movie because the prices are insane. Like the the fact that this guy has a apartment in Jersey City for $800 a month or that she can even get a uh, New York city apartment for $900 a month, even though it's, you know, it's kind of shitty. It's not, it's not, you know what? I've lived in a lot of apartments. Her apartment's not that shitty apart from the, you know, the water stain that leaks. And I mean, the water problem is pretty fucking bad. Yeah. yeah
01:40:45
Speaker
Like it is. It's pretty, it's pretty awful. But yeah, I mean, have I lived in some, in a couple of, uh, you know gross places? Yes. But fuck, this place is pretty terrible. However, I will say, I mean, is that, is that why she's doing it? Is she doing this obviously just to make, you know, her ex-husband's life harder? Is that it?
01:41:02
Speaker
No, I think she's trying to stay in the city where her kid can go to school and be able to afford it I mean, it's it's interesting. when When I was watching at the halfback today, I was like, because lot because last night when I watched it, I was like, man, this place really sucks.
01:41:19
Speaker
And like, I know that like you don't have a lot of money. I know you're trying to find something, you know, that's at least kind of keep in mind that freshly divorced oh like damn this place really sucks it's gross like this is strange I don't know and I did start to think like well is that maybe part of this here like you know it's she she does seem pretty angry about like he and he we don't know much about it but he says the ex-husband says I made one mistake so it must be an affair Well, no, it is an affair because she says you moved to jersey city Jersey City because she lives there, right? Exactly. So I'm i'm trying trying to connect all the dots here, right? So like, you know, there's that part of it. like And I'm not saying that she has to move to Jersey City. Don't get me wrong. I would never wish that on anybody. I'm just saying like, damn, this place sucks though, dude.
01:42:04
Speaker
and so like Well, she's kind of conned into it. She's con artist artist yeah she is by John C. Reilly. Yeah. Yeah. Because he let he does the classic salesman thing where he like is like, well, there's another yeah there's another person that's coming. They're probably going to take it. And that he even does that thing to her where he like yells to a couple that are obviously not the people that are coming to see the apartment. um So she's kind of conned into it, really. um and she and And she doesn't really start to use her power until later in the movie when she kind of yells at Mr. Vec about like, if this doesn't get, if this doesn't get cleaned up, I will bring my lawyer in. And that's when the little girl sticks her tongue out at Mr. Vec, which I thought was really cute.
01:42:47
Speaker
Um, ah But like she's this is what this is what bothers me about the movie is that Jennifer Connelly's character is given no autonomy whatsoever.
01:42:58
Speaker
She has to be reliant on literally everyone around her to exist in the world. She can't just... exist Like it's, she has to rely on the, uh, Mr. Vec for any repairs. She has to, ah she has to rely on John C. Reilly's character for anything. She has to rely on her ex-husband for everything. She has to rely on, um, the teacher to get, to take care of her child. Yeah. just like It's, it's, it's, it's mind boggling and aggravating that a woman who has a child would have to ah be able to not be able to exist without like literally everyone at having to help her. Like that's, it just, it bugged me. It bugged me about the movie this time around.
01:43:40
Speaker
yeah. That was just like my minor thing. um One thing I did notice in the movie this time that was a huge mistake is so we open the movie on the little girl finding the backpack on the roof, right?
01:43:53
Speaker
Yes. But when the little girl falls into the tank, she's wearing the backpack. So oh weird. How did that happen? Unless Mr. Vec found it and pulled it it out. But that doesn't really make sense to me. You know what i mean?
01:44:06
Speaker
Yeah. but I mean, that's, that's, it's totally fair. I did i didn't even think about that. These are the little things that I always notice. I don't know why, but you're, you're good at catching those things. ah Maybe that, maybe that's what I should have been is that guy who, uh, what, what is that called? Where you have to make sure everything is the same from scene to scene. i forget what that's actually called. Continuity.
01:44:25
Speaker
Yeah. Continuity director. yeah. But um I think that, you know, what what I like about this one in comparison to a lot of the other ah remakes of this time of like either Korean horror, Japanese horror, um ah you know, Eastern horror, if you will, um is that I like that this one didn't rely too much on jump scares. Like the only jump scare that's really in this movie is when she's in the laundry room and there's a really bad CGI face in the wash in the washer. Yeah, fair.
01:44:55
Speaker
um Other than that, everything is kind of like either low stakes or kind of like when I kind of know stakes is a really good phrase for this movie. I mean, it is like nothing like she's never like at risk for dying until the end and until the very end of it. Correct.
01:45:13
Speaker
um But like the scares are very subtle. Like there's a scare where the little girl is taking a bath and then the other little girl comes out wearing her robe, but the robe has a hood on it and then she sits down. But then it's revealed that like that's the other little girl. But even that's not really like a jump scare. It's kind of just like a reveal.
01:45:32
Speaker
You know what i mean? Agreed. Yeah. um but I do want to talk about the ending a little bit because I think the ending is such a right turn for this movie um because I did not see that coming that she was going to sacrifice herself for her daughter and then become the ghost mother of the ghost child because we don't really have any moments apart from when she finds her in the in the tank on the top of the uh apartment building where she's like ah nurturing to her so like to take that turn to all of a sudden being like oh i'll nurture you for the rest of our ghostly existence it's kind of a weird turn for the movie don't how you felt about it uh i mean it it seemed a little much i don't understand why
01:46:25
Speaker
I don't understand the bargain, if I'm being honest. I understand why i understand why the ghost is angry. That makes sense to me. But I don't understand the bargain. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally.
01:46:37
Speaker
just i just why why Why is that the thing that has to happen here? Why does the ghost have to be... why does the ghost have to kill them? I don't, I don't, that doesn't make any sense to me. And it's not, why couldn't, why couldn't they say like, uh, yeah, we'll stay in this apartment forever or like, you know mean? Yeah. And I mean like, like to be fair, if like that is like, if that is the bargain here, then like we should have seen more of the ghost throughout the entire movie.
01:47:01
Speaker
Like trying to be like, there were so many parts where she was like snuggled up in bed with the little girl with Ceci that I thought it was going to be the ghost kid, but it never was.
01:47:12
Speaker
I mean, yeah, that mean that's that's just it. like I mean, I think that it's, um it's it it's and i i you know that I rarely say this, but like it it sort of only edges on horror if I'm being real. Yeah, it's more of a drama. I said that earlier. yeah It doesn't really get there until, but I'm just saying, like i I rarely say that I sort of, if whatever you want to be horror, I think can be horror. but it doesn't really get there until the end. And like, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm just saying like, if, if the big deal here is the bargain at the end and it is a big deal, don't get me wrong.
01:47:47
Speaker
I think we needed to see more of the pain and suffering of the ghost throughout the movie. we We don't really see that. We just, just kind of don't. So like it could have been done in so many ways. And I think that the team just chose not to do any of them.
01:48:02
Speaker
that's all Yeah. And and all of the um all of the stuff that we've could have gotten that would make you feel worse for the ghost was done via the lawyer. It wasn't done yeah via like like flashbacks or via um even going to see that woman in the hospital.
01:48:19
Speaker
It was all kind of just told by the lawyer. I think that they missed kind of they, they missed a little bit of the heart in this movie that makes the ending really hit hard. If that makes sense.
01:48:29
Speaker
Makes total sense to me. So do. But damn, I, that, that little girl is such a good little actress because when she was standing in that empty apartment with tears in her eyes, I almost teared up. I was like, it was really good. God love her. And I do like, do like that little moment in the elevator where she braids her hair and she says like, you know, if you ever need me, I'll be here. And like that, that, that was kind of sweet darling. Sweet darling. Well, I get a little bit more sensitive in my older age. know in our elder years. Tell me what you rated dark water.
01:49:02
Speaker
I gave Darkwater a five. I do like this movie. I said maybe a little long for the story they are telling, but all of the acting is really good and I was not expecting that dark of an ending. That's fair. I gave it a four and I said basically the writing's a little schlocky in some parts and it's a waste of peace of ah of, God, his name is hard to say. It's a waste of Pete Posslethwaite.
01:49:23
Speaker
So folks, that does it for Darkwater and for the films of this episode, but stay tuned. We'll be right back to close the show.
01:49:35
Speaker
landlord pearl later my red I'm getting out of here, man. She's nasty. No, no, no, Please. I need you to stay. gonna be ugly. Hi, Pearl. Where's the rent?
01:49:48
Speaker
You don't have to raise your voice. You pay you! I can give you half. You pay your bet. Hey, don't talk to me like that, okay? I'm dead on this crap.
01:49:59
Speaker
Look, i've I thought I was clear in my email that I needed a couple weeks.
01:50:06
Speaker
Can i just get two more weeks? I got my money. You need to relax. You're an asshole. Uh-uh. I got my money, bitch. Hey, don't call me bitch. I'm a grown man.
01:50:17
Speaker
Well, folks, that was episode 163 of Froggy the 13th Horror Podcast. But before we go, as always, we have a game that Andrew has lovingly put together for us. This one is called Lease or Deceased, which is brilliant, Andrew. You never, Andrew, your creativity knows no bounds.
01:50:36
Speaker
Thank you. It doesn't. Every every episode, i'm I'm even more amazed. Andrew, tell us about lease or deceased. How does it go? All right. I'm going to read you a quote. And you have to tell me if that quote is a common landlord saying or if it is a quote from a horror villain. And this time I did write down who the horror villains were.
01:50:55
Speaker
Got it. learned from my mistake. Hit me with it. Let's go. All right. The first one is the previous occupants left suddenly. I'm sure you'll be happier here. This is from a horror movie.
01:51:08
Speaker
No, it's actually just landlord saying. Oh, damn. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. The next you'll be staying here much longer than you expected. Horror film.
01:51:20
Speaker
Yes. that is ah That is Jigsaw from Saw. Okay. All right, the next one. You've accepted my invitation. The rest is out of your hands. Horror film.
01:51:32
Speaker
Yes, that is Count Dracula. um There are parts of the property you're not permitted to enter. Landlord. That is correct. That's a landlord. um Everyone who comes here eventually becomes part of the family.
01:51:48
Speaker
Horror film. Yes, that is the Sawyer family from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hell yeah. Um, many people have tried to leave. Few have succeeded. Horror film.
01:52:00
Speaker
Yes, that is from it, the town of dairy. Um, this house has a history, but I don't think that's anything you need to worry about. Horror film. No, that's a landlord. god You were doing so good. all right. We got a couple more.
01:52:15
Speaker
You signed an agreement. Now you must live with the consequences. Horror film. Yes. Those are the Cenobites from Hellraiser, which we have used do a Hellraiser movie on this podcast. I'm just reminding. um The condition was there before you moved in.
01:52:33
Speaker
Landlord. Yes. ah Once you're inside, the building changes people. ah It is a horror film. this should be very familiar because it is the shining. hell yeah.
01:52:46
Speaker
Um, the walls remember everything that's happened here. Landlord. No, that is, ah um, the haunting of Hill house. Oh, all right. Two more. I assure you the basement is perfectly safe.
01:53:02
Speaker
Uh, landlord. Yes, that's a landlord. And then finally you were chosen for a reason. Horror film. Yes, that is from Hereditary. Hell yeah.
01:53:13
Speaker
Hell yeah. That does it for lease or deceased. Nice, Andrew. Wonderful game as always. Thank you for that. Well, folks, listen, thank you for being with us for episode 163. I hope this was a great episode for you to listen to no matter where you were listening.
01:53:33
Speaker
Yeah. So listen, ah dudes, if you want to support us, you can. You just listened to an episode that's probably about like two hours long. We didn't charge you a penny for it. We didn't put any of it behind a paywall. You didn't hear any ads for that entire time. That takes a lot of time on our part. takes some effort, but we do it because we love it. Now, what we would like your help in is just breaking even as we do that, right, on this continuing project that we have been on for over eight years. So you can do that really easily. ah We need you to go to our website, www.frygay13.com slash support. Once you're there, you'll see a link to our Patreon. We want you to join for just $1 a month, $12 a year. And if you do that, you'll join in with a number of other people.
01:54:18
Speaker
And all of you together make sure that we just break even. That's it. We don't make any money on the show, I promise you. So it's a really wonderful thing to have the support of the people who have been with us for so long. And if you'd like to be one of those people, we'd love to welcome you.
01:54:34
Speaker
Yeah, and if you can't support monetarily, we totally understand. Absolutely. um But you can leave a review and that's mandatory. Sorry, you just listened to this. Now that's mandatory. So you have to go leave a review. So you can either go to, you have one of two options. You can either go to Spotify and hit a five-star review. You don't have to write anything there. It's just a five-star review.
01:54:54
Speaker
um Or you can go to Apple Podcasts. And if you want to leave us a few words of encouragement, we would appreciate that as well. But unfortunately, it is mandatory. So now you have to go do it. Thank you so much. that is the end of my TED talk. And that's just how it is. so listen, folks, ah thank you again for being with us. Hope you're enjoying the start of your summer no matter where you are. And Andrew, wherever they are this summer, i hope that all of them, that they go out there and they slayed.