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When the Screaming Starts (2021)
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Now available across North America and the UK, take a stab at 2021's British black comedy horror mockumentary, When the Screaming Starts.
Inspired by the modern day obsession with serial killers and true-crime documentaries, WHEN THE SCREAMING STARTS turns this popular sub-genre on its head, whilst questioning the contemporary fascination with serial slaughter. This fresh, new mockumentary examines the dark subject matter through a comedic lens, resulting in a pitch-black horror-comedy that will have you "laughing and wincing in equal measure"
Directed by Conor Boru, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ed Hartland, who are both producers of this film alongside Jared Rogers and Dom Lenoir, Cinematographer Adrian Musto, Editor Alan Rae, Sound by Paul Caton, and Composer Michael Palmer. Starring Ed Hartland, Jared Rogers, Kaitlin Reynell, Octavia Gilmore, Yasen Atour, Kavé Niku, Ronja Haugholt, Vår Haugholt. Now back to the On Second Watch crew
Special thanks to Jared and the whole WTSS crew for letting us preview this film! Go check it out today
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Transcript
Introduction to 'On Second Watch' and Episode Setup
00:00:00
Speaker
And now your feature presentation.
00:00:17
Speaker
In the world of big budget blockbusters, travel back in time to explore the epic and not so epic movies of yesteryear. This is On Second Watch, a movie nostalgia podcast.
00:00:39
Speaker
Hello and welcome to a very special episode of On Second Watch. And I know I say
Introduction to 'When the Screaming Starts'
00:00:43
Speaker
that every time, but this time's a little bit different because normally we review movies from our past, but this time we get a chance to review a movie that just came out. I'm going to introduce you to 2021's British black comedy horror mockumentary, When the Screaming Starts.
00:01:01
Speaker
And my name is Tim and joining me are our resident horror experts. Emphasis on the whore, Chris and Dan. I'm a whore. God damn it. Taking a note to save that clip again. You're welcome. And then on the total opposite end of that spectrum, we have Dana and Nikki.
00:01:28
Speaker
Hey, not not fans of the horror genre very much, but. And then it's safe to say you're you're an occasional horror fan, right, Carrie? Yeah, I'm in the middle. That's not an occasional not an occasional horror fan.
Film Premise and Production Details
00:01:43
Speaker
I mean, you know, whatever goes. Oh, my God. She's an enthusiastic man. Yeah, that's. She's your high priced whore. Just high quality, only high quality. She's your biggest whore.
00:01:58
Speaker
No, that is not high quality. It's like the opposite. I spent some money on them. So now we're not going to go there today. All right. And I'm going to let the power of Descript AI introduce you to this film and the key cast and crew. So take it away. Movie voice guy insert movie voice guy.
00:02:23
Speaker
Thanks, Tim. Inspired by the modern-day obsession with serial killers and true crime documentaries, When the Screaming Starts turns this popular subgenre on its head whilst questioning the contemporary fascination with serial slaughter, this fresh, new mockumentary examines the dark subject matter through a comedic lens, resulting in a pitch-black horror comedy
00:02:46
Speaker
that will have you laughing and wincing in equal measure. Directed by Connor Boru, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ed Heartland. Both producers of this film alongside Jared Rogers and Dom Lenoir, cinematographer Adrian Musto, editor Alan Ray, sound by Paul Catton and composer Michael Palmer, starring Ed Heartland, Jared Rogers, Caitlin Raynell, Octavia Gilmour, Jason Attor, Kaveh Niku,
00:03:14
Speaker
Ronya hog hold and Var hog hold. Now back to the on second watch crew. Jump cut. Thanks movie boy Skye.
00:03:25
Speaker
Uh, so for my fellow podcasters out there, that entire monologue by our movie voice guy was done completely in D script using their AI overdub. I use D script for all our post-production basically makes it a lot easier for me because I'm just editing a document because of all the transcripts.
Ratings and Initial Thoughts
00:03:43
Speaker
So if you're interested in D script, go to OSW podcast.com slash D script.
00:03:48
Speaker
and try it out today. So when the screaming starts, Rotten Tomatoes has this film at a 100%. IGN says it's an 8 out of 10. IMDB says it's a 5.5. But again, there's only a handful of reviews on either one of these sites. So honestly, the only true measurement that matters is ours.
00:04:10
Speaker
So take that special shout out to Jared and the whole team at when the screaming starts for allowing us to screen this movie. This is our first chance to get to do something like this. So it was kind of cool to take a look at this film, but let's jump in and kind of go around our virtual table here and share our thoughts on what we thought this movie was going to be going into it, what we got out of it and give a score out of 10 spans. We don't normally start out with you. Why don't you go first? I thought this was going to be kind of.
00:04:40
Speaker
Well, I didn't really know what it was going to be like, because I didn't read too much about anything about it. So when you said mockumentary, I kind of took me to what was that the mask of Leslie Vernon or whatever it was? Wow, if you're gonna if you're gonna butcher a movie I enjoy, why don't you completely do it? What's it called? But it's behind the mask, the rise of Leslie Vernon. Yeah, so I thought it was gonna be something like along the lines of that.
00:05:09
Speaker
because I also liked the movie, but I've only seen it the one time when Chris showed it to me, I think 10 years ago. So that's why I couldn't remember the name of the movie, you ass. It
Comparisons and Character Insights
00:05:21
Speaker
was a slow start to a movie, I guess. I kind of, I kind of fell asleep during the first maybe 20 minutes.
00:05:30
Speaker
I was kind of on and off of sleep. And then it kind of caught my attention. After that, it started picking up. I would say they did a decent job with this. It was a good movie, though. It was decent. It's a good watch. I would recommend this movie to somebody. Maybe get some good sleep before watching it. But I'd give a 6.6 for me.
00:05:57
Speaker
A flat six. Yeah. Nikki, did you get the chance to finish it? Yes, I did. I watched it this morning.
00:06:07
Speaker
I also went to a mockumentary I had already seen, which is Spinal Tap. I was like, oh, maybe it'll be kind of like Spinal Tap, which I love that movie and need to rewatch it actually. I really liked the main actor in it, Aiden. Pretty much every scene he was in, he did something like an expression or something that made me at least giggle. So I really liked him.
00:06:30
Speaker
And I don't know why I didn't like expect it to happen, but when stuff got real in the movie and they really did what they were setting out to do, you know?
00:06:41
Speaker
I was like, oh, man, that this is not funny. Not funny at all to me. And so it was it took a while to recover from that for me. And it was like the party was kind of funny. And then I thought what happened to the main character in the very, very end, how he was reported on the news, which I won't spoil, but that obviously made me laugh.
00:07:05
Speaker
So overall, I definitely thought there were some funny elements to it. And if you like a mockumentary type of movie, I think it's worth giving it a shot. But it's dark. I would just give a warning it's dark. It's very dark. And that really, I mean, I say it's a five for me. So it's kind of in the middle for me, just because there were like, really funny moments and moments where I was like,
00:07:31
Speaker
Could like I had to not watch like I put my hand in front of my There's Nikki for you So But yeah, I'm sure other people will I mean it's obviously just a movie right it's not like it was real so But was it was it? You know
00:07:56
Speaker
a film crew following. Right. I know. I mean, that was just absurd to begin with. But, you know, it's the hope, the point. So it was especially for an indie film. I think it was pretty decent. All right, Chris, we'll go to you. So Spaz basically took all the wind out of my sails.
00:08:14
Speaker
by utilizing my movie that I was gonna make as the crux of my comparison. So, like he said and butchered horribly, behind the mask, The Rise of Leslie Vernon was a 2006 horror mockumentary that I really, really, really enjoy.
00:08:30
Speaker
There's a lot of similarities with this film, obviously different plots, this one being more so leaning into serial killers, the other one being more in the fantasy serial killer realm, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, etc. I think it's already kind of been mentioned, but yeah, overall I would recommend this film if you are a fan of really dark
00:08:53
Speaker
comedy with a little bit of horror aspects. I don't want to give it a horror title because to me, it wasn't scary. It was more funny. The cat scene got me. I'm not going to lie. Yes. That sounds so good. It really was.
00:09:12
Speaker
Like I did, I had a good handful of like laugh, like out loud, like chuckles, the cat scene. Basically any scene that Jack was in, like, I don't know, the fish selling scene would like maybe laugh when he threw the fish into the bag. Like it just got me. I don't know. It was.
00:09:34
Speaker
But overall, it kind of ebbed and flowed. When it was on, it was on and I enjoyed
Pacing, Humor, and Standout Scenes
00:09:38
Speaker
it. But there were times where it really like a lulled. If the pacing was just a little bit tighter in certain spots, I think it would have just made it shine. Not to say that it's a bad movie. There's just parts where, you know, it kind of winds down and so like really slow. And like I had a hard time like hanging on to the plot. And the plot is pretty thin on purpose. You know, you're just kind of supposed to be like a bystander in this whole thing playing out.
00:10:04
Speaker
So overall, I would definitely recommend it to those that have seen Behind the Mask, you know, that like dark comedy. Behind the Mask definitely leans more, very much more so into the horror aspect. Whereas this one is very much to me, like I said, a dark comedy, a black comedy. So if you like the kind of stuff, you know, some of the humor is very dry. I like that. It makes me laugh. So overall, I would give it like a 5.5. It's definitely good. I recommend it if you're fans of that genre. And if you're not, I think you might struggle a little bit.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah. Dana and I struggled the same thing. We're just like, is it really a horror? I don't know. Cause it was just, it was a very, very dark comedy for sure. But there was, it didn't really kind of scratch that horror itch, you know, that I was expecting in a way, but. Right. There was nothing in there that made it like a quintessential like, Oh, this is horror. Boom. This, this part, this, this plot, this whatever scene it's horror. Like was it graphic at times? Certainly. But I mean, half the time I was laughing.
00:11:00
Speaker
It was more, I would say for me, like not scary, but like shock. I was like, gosh. Yeah. They had a little bit of like shock and awe. I mean, for me it did surprise me and props to whoever did the practical effects. I think they did a banger job. Yeah, I wouldn't know.
00:11:17
Speaker
I'm just kidding. A lot of the stuff I did, like the eye scene, I thought was well done. But yeah, there was nothing in there that made me on edge or I was like, oh, this is a pivot. To me, this is a dark comedy. I mean, it's kind of like saying Shaun of the Dead is a horror movie because it has zombies. I mean, people will argue that it is because it has zombies. I have a very hard time justifying that.
00:11:39
Speaker
I gotcha. That's a good comparison. Carrie, would you like to go next? I would be happy to. And a lot of my sentiments kind of match the others, definitely pacing issues. A little slower, especially in the beginning. But I remember, so just you guys know this, but for listeners, I have been very out of it recently.
00:11:59
Speaker
Timmy sent the link and I clicked it. I thought you're making me watch Knives Out because the cover of the movie looks exactly like the Knives Out one. I was so confused by what we were... I was just like, what is happening right now? And then I'm like, oh, okay. So I click in. Yeah, I don't know. So I've never... I don't think I've really watched like a horror mockumentary before. Like I'll be honest, I think it was a little new for me. Probably the closest one to it I've seen like dark comedy wise would be like just drop dead gorgeous. I just have not seen that many. So it was definitely different.
00:12:26
Speaker
it kind of gave me a what we do in the shadows vibe a little bit too which was kind of funny there were definitely like a few problems you know in in terms of like pacing but overall not so bad i liked the weird like narcissistic glamorization of you know the serial killer obviously that was kind of
00:12:45
Speaker
I don't know. It was kind of funny because I don't know if that would happen. I'm like, this is so 2022. I actually kind of enjoyed that aspect of it. I don't know. I guess I'm kind of looking at this as an indie mockumentary too. For me, pleasantly surprised in that sense. I'm going to go with this.
00:13:02
Speaker
like a solid five, I think, for this one. In their information they sent over to me, they kind of highlight the runtime, the genre, the synopsis of the film, and then inspiration and comparisons. They have the office listed and then what we do in the shadows. So you're dead on. Oh, really? Oh, that makes me feel so happy. Their approach went so for sure. I can definitely see the hints of what we do in the shadows. Yeah.
00:13:24
Speaker
And I was reminded of the office with like the style of filming. So I almost mentioned that that's really funny that they included both of those. Yeah, it was it was more of a mockumentary like the office, not like a like like a regular documentary you would watch. It's just very much like it relied on expressions from people looking at the camera like what just happened? Absolutely. Dana, how about you?
00:13:48
Speaker
All right, I'm sure you're gonna help me out with this a little bit as we had a very detailed discussion earlier. Overall, I don't know what I was expecting. I was just kind of like, okay, let's do this. I definitely laughed out loud in the beginning of this movie quite a few times, which I can actually say that does not normally happen for me when I'm watching most movies. And then it got really dark really fast. That being said, I was trying to predict the twist long before it happened and ended up being right
00:14:17
Speaker
right where it was at, which I was a little bummed out by that. But at the same time, I didn't mind watching it unfold either. I thought it was decent. I still don't think that it necessarily hit the horror genre at all. I didn't like, didn't hate it. Didn't particularly say, oh, like that's the best movie I've ever seen. So I'm going to give it a solid five as well.
00:14:39
Speaker
So very similar to Dana. I cannot tell you the last time I watched a film and laughed out loud. I normally just like, that's funny. But this, there were several moments that I found myself laughing, especially at the very beginning when they're
00:14:54
Speaker
showing like the news broadcast and it's it takes itself very serious and all of a sudden it jabs you with a comedic line that just kind of gets you out of nowhere like the one news anchor saying Because when it comes to murder someone always ends up getting killed like it's just like the most random obvious thing it just had me just laughing out loud because it just like no kidding, but that's so much of this film just had like a serious
00:15:21
Speaker
kind of tone to it, and all of a sudden a jab of comedy, which I thought worked really, really well at the very beginning of this film. When they're playing Guess Who serial killer, it's like, is it a white guy? Yeah. That was great. I know they probably spent some time putting that game together just for this one joke, and it hit, and it was hilarious.
00:15:48
Speaker
I love the moment where the goose is like, I need to go kill a goose or a swan. And the goose is really aggressive or whatever. I got bit by a goose. Oh, gosh. That was great. I love the scene in the movie theater where he's like, sometimes I just want to, I like to picture who I want to stab and the guy, he just turns back and he's just like.
00:16:10
Speaker
get all excited and he turns around. Those kind of things I thought worked very well for the film and they all happened pretty early on.
00:16:20
Speaker
on another scene where they get like the retractable knives. They're just stabbing each other. Oh, yeah. That was really funny. The identical twins going at it was hilarious. He's like into them. He's like, what constitutes an orgy? That did make me laugh. I mean, there's only like so that'd be three of us. Well, that's a three.
00:16:47
Speaker
yeah i mean and then they just totally shut them down i was like oh man the car scene too was pretty funny like that that really got me
00:17:01
Speaker
I love how he goes to chloroform and immediately just smacks his hand. Yeah, the way he smacks it away is really funny. I guess he got chloroformed by the guy or something because he was like, I got choked out by the guy. I won't lie though. I think one of my favorite parts, and I didn't talk about it earlier, is the music video for cannibal deaths.
00:17:20
Speaker
Oh, that was funny, yes. As somebody that listens to any of the people on this podcast can tell you, I am primarily a metalhead. So watching them make fun of black metal and doing the symphonic and then shredding on the witches group. That was funny. It reminded me so much. And they do it on purpose. But I'm going to blank on the name. Necrogoblincon.
00:17:50
Speaker
Oh crap, there's a band out there that does similar stuff. And it is so reminiscent of what they did. Insert band name here. Yeah. No, I was right. It's Necrogoblicon.
00:18:03
Speaker
So yes, like Necro goblin con. I'll rolled in the one and I'm probably butchering that name. But anyways, I just wanted to, I wanted to give them props for the entire cannibal death March music video.
Memorable Moments and Music Video
00:18:19
Speaker
Cause that was phenomenal. I wrote that down because it was so great. Yeah. When I saw that, I was like immediately thought of, Oh God, Chris going to love this.
00:18:30
Speaker
Yup. And I did. That was really funny. Yeah. I mean, it leans so hard in the fact that they're making this on a budget. And so the, obviously the graphics were just very, you know, not good on purpose. And I love the fact they have like the witch burning to the tree. There's people walking in the background just going about their day in the party. The guy with the dog, just like looking. Yep.
00:18:56
Speaker
Sorry, I was just gonna mention the the part where they're practicing like with weapons and Like it almost kills the guy that really got me It's like oh My gosh, I love that. He's going along this whole movie. Just like this isn't yoga, but I'm just here for it I guess. Oh, right. What are we practicing yoga? Oh
00:19:22
Speaker
So, I mean, we just rattled off a bunch of funny moments in this film that I was truly laughing about. And that's kind of what I liked about it was the fact that it was just serious, serious, serious, and all of a sudden, jab, here's a comedic moment.
00:19:37
Speaker
But then, as you were saying, kind of the pacing. So I love the fact that the whole music video was in there, but it was the whole music video. And then the scene where they're interviewing different people, that just dragged on really long. Some of the moments were funny, but it was a lot.
00:19:55
Speaker
And even though this film was just under an hour and a half, it felt longer than that. I guess maybe it was just the pacing kind of it slowed it down for me. But, you know, some of that, I think, kind of leans into part British comedy, part mockumentary style just kind of has lots of scenes in there. So I gave it some grace there. And the fact it was an indie film, the fact this is a directorial debut, this is producers, the first time producing a film.
00:20:20
Speaker
The acting in it was was really well done. I think every character kind of portrayed who they were. And it was just, I don't know, it was fun from that regard. And I thought they did a decent job at it. But again, pacing and some of the things it did drag on a little bit. Oh, and one more scene, I gotta mention it. When they're doing the party celebration,
00:20:41
Speaker
and Aiden's trying to make it all about him, because he's the brain, you know, even though he didn't do anything. When he pulls the popper to celebrate and everyone's just standing there, just staring at him like, what are you talking about?
00:20:55
Speaker
Something that I didn't notice at first, but noticed after the fact, is Norman is standing there, but the balloon's like right in front of his face. And then he just hits it out of the way, just, I don't know, just like those little things where they just purposely positioned a balloon just to be just floating in front of his head when they're all just staring at him. Just, I don't know, it's just funny, funny scene.
00:21:17
Speaker
where everyone was just wondering why he's celebrating this great victory when he literally had no part of it. But anyway, there are definitely funny moments and this film shined when it was being funny, I think. And it was great when it went dark, dark, dark funny because it caught you off guard and it kept it lighter. But then towards, I think, the second half of the film, the comedy kind of went away for the most part.
00:21:42
Speaker
And it, like you guys were mentioning that the commentary about the obsession with the serial killer and the fact that they immediately gave this, this, you know, what they call him the, um, the pop-up van killer or something. They already, they branded him as a serial killer, gave him this name and then, you know, just, I don't know. It.
00:22:07
Speaker
The obsession with serial killers obviously ever remembers the killers and the victims. Nobody really knows, you know, it's just, I think they, great commentary on that and, you know, kept it lighthearted in that regard.
00:22:18
Speaker
But I'm going to come in with a six because of what they were able to pull off on an indie budget. First time doing this, like everything for like the visuals, the setting, you know, that I thought the sound was great. The music was good. Cinematography wise, I thought it was great. You know, it captured that mockumentary style. And it looked like in many ways, like you guys were saying, like the office.
00:22:40
Speaker
It didn't look like a indie film in that regard. It looked just very similar style to The Office. So I think they did a good job with that. But I am going to rewatch that Cannibal Death March music video because that's a classic now. I'm going to, I'm going to reject and props to them for doing it.
00:22:57
Speaker
if you look up cannibal death march there's an instagram that redirects to when the screaming starts but not only that amazon music has burned the witch as an actual track to listen awesome uh i like nick he's like nick he's like no i thought the video was really funny like what they did with the guitar and but it was long it was a long part of it i was like so
00:23:24
Speaker
What's going on? You just accept it. Like basically they encapsulated like every black doom metal bands and music videos. I mean, don't get me wrong. I listened to those bands, but some of those music videos are just like that. And don't get like, like Dima Borgheir is a shouting example. And I only expect maybe Spass to slightly know that band name in this entire group. Ozfest. Yup.
00:23:48
Speaker
But then, yeah, then at the very end when they're doing the post credit scenes, all of a sudden it jumps right back to the comedy and some of the scenes that they were showing were hilarious. Like the our Yogi. Oh, yeah, that was a good one where he he's like, I made a big mistake. He finally he finally founds the girl that he's pining over. And she's like, I made a big mistake. She opened her mouth.
00:24:09
Speaker
That was really good. Her laugh, everything was just, you just see the unconsciousness of it all. It was just, that was a great moment, you know, and then, uh, Jack's stand, his incognito stand, he just puts a cardboard paper over his name, uh, to change it. Right. To Dave. Yeah, to Dave. So yeah, some, see, we can recall these funny moments and laugh about it. Um,
00:24:34
Speaker
But I just wish there was more comedy throughout. I think it did its best there. So with that, I still recommend this film. I think if anyone's interested in some quirky, funny moments, that documentary style with some some good jab, no pun intended bits of comedy, I think it's definitely there.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
00:24:52
Speaker
But
00:24:53
Speaker
Our average score, it comes pretty close to IMDB of a 5.4. So I think overall, we're all like, yeah, you should check it out if you get an opportunity to, especially I, for one, always support indie wherever I can, whether it's an indie movie, podcast, music, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones, give them a chance. Except that didn't exist. That did not come out yet.
00:25:16
Speaker
It kind of reminds me now that I think about it of Tucker and Dale versus Evil, where it was like really, I don't know if that's the right movie title, but there was there were so many solid funny parts. But by the end, it did sort of like it dragged a little bit. But I think what I liked more about that is that the
00:25:34
Speaker
murder scenes were more funny than these ones. And maybe that's what this is missing. If those were more comical in some way, then maybe it would have been... It's college kid blood. I don't know. We had a doozy of a day.
00:25:54
Speaker
Like the bees when he's running with the chainsaw. Anyways. Yeah. Dana and I did mention that it was that kind of a vein that reminded us of Dylan Tucker for sure. But all right. 5.4 for our average watch. Still recommend it. So go check out when the screaming starts. If you get an opportunity to do so, support these guys. Obviously they worked very hard on it. It looks very well done.
00:26:19
Speaker
and it's got some great, great comedic moments that I'll think about and still laugh and a great music video that I will share as well. So again, special shout out to Jared and team. Thanks so much for sharing this film with us. It was great to be able to preview this film.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:26:34
Speaker
And I hope it does well for you guys because acting wise, you guys killed it. It was great. With that, thank you for listening to On Second Watch. Make sure to follow us on all the social medias. But again, if you want to request us to watch a movie of your choice or pick a category for our spin the wheel, go to OSWPodcast.com as we can see all our stuff, everything that we have to offer. It's there. So until next time, I guess this kind of officially kicks off our Halloween season, guys. So happy Halloween.
00:27:02
Speaker
and we'll see you next movie review. I'm a whore.