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91. PODCASTATHON: JJ Cares, 825 Forest Road, Rule of Jenny Pen
11 Plays2 months ago
In this special Podcast-a-thon episode of Streaming Demons, host Jim Phoenix dives into horror reviews and charity with a mix of sharp humor and real talk. First up, Jim reviews Shudder’s 825 Forest Road, a supernatural thriller with a Hell House LLC vibe, and The Rule of Jenny Penn, a psychological horror featuring John Lithgow and Jeffrey Rush that delivers eerie suspense with deep emotional weight.
Then, it’s time for the Podcast-a-thon Charity Spotlight, where Jim introduces JJ Cares, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit providing scholarships for the families of U.S. veterans to attend community college or trade school—no sky-high GPAs or standardized tests required, just a commitment to education.
Tune in for horror, humor, and a cause that matters. Hit play and spread the word!
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast-a-thon Event
00:00:01
Jim Phoenix
Hey everyone, Jim Phoenix here, and today we've got a special podcast-a-thon, that's right. We're doing a bit of charity-a-thon, on, on, on, on episode.
00:00:12
Jim Phoenix
So we've got a charity talking to us today, as long, as well as, I should say... The rule of Jenny Penn. And no licking the buttholes.
00:00:24
Jim Phoenix
That makes sense later. And of course, one more from Shudder. 825 Forest Road. Hey, that was my address. All this and more on this streaming demons. Hit it.
00:00:43
Jim Phoenix
Streaming, streaming. Kidding.
00:01:23
Jim Phoenix
Don't we all say we all
Movie Reviews Overview
00:01:25
Jim Phoenix
everyone. I'm Jim Phoenix. Like and subscribe before I talk. It's better that way. Trust me today on a special streaming demon. It's just me.
00:01:33
Jim Phoenix
It's just Jimbo. Box human is on special assignment trying to get a passport out of anywhere. I guess I know it's today is our pack has a thumb. We've got a special special guest coming a little bit later.
00:01:47
Jim Phoenix
But first, I've got two joints from Shudder. We call them joints still? don't I'm calling joints. I'm bringing that back. We've got 825 Force Roll and The Rule of Jenny Penn.
00:02:00
Jim Phoenix
It's a bit older movies, meaning, you know, the last couple months. But I got the screeners and actually I had to look up and see if I could talk about one of them now.
00:02:10
Jim Phoenix
And I can. All right. Here we go. Deep breaths. Hold it but And for those of you in the mutant army fandom, whatever it is, before you flame me to death, I just want to say, enjoy Joe Bob Briggs when you get him.
00:02:29
Jim Phoenix
Honestly.
00:02:31
Jim Phoenix
Don't complain that you got like, oh one episode a month. Holy shit. It's better than zero. Right? That's how numbers work. Anyways. Here we go.
In-depth Review: '825 Forest Road'
00:02:42
Jim Phoenix
825 Forest Road.
00:02:44
Jim Phoenix
The storyline is after a family tragedy. Chuck Wilson hopes to start a new life in Ashland Falls with his wife Maria and little sister Elizabeth. But he quickly discovers that the town is a dark secret.
00:02:57
Jim Phoenix
Oh boy. Goes on. okay The ghost of Helen Foster has terrorized residents for decades since her own suicide back in the forty s Finding Helen's old home is the key to undying the hauntings, but their address...
00:03:09
Jim Phoenix
They have as match in the town's existing streets. So they had to do some sort of mapping thing. And then map quest got involved. and It's like, i'm not a thing anymore. And then something, something, something jazz hands, bad roofing.
00:03:21
Jim Phoenix
know. That is a long storyline. IMDb. Holy crow. This is coming from Stephen Kodakti. Kog netty. Sorry. And if you looked at any of the hell house LLC stuff, that's him.
00:03:38
Jim Phoenix
In nutshell, he's written directed this one. I guess it's the first non-Hell Hell or non-Found Footage Feetage. What? Huh? Say that one again.
00:03:49
Jim Phoenix
The non-Found Footage Film Feeture, right? That he's done. And it's Hell House-ish, right?
00:04:00
Jim Phoenix
Meaning, the acting's well done. The directing's fine. You know, it's... got the spooks it got the scariest oh my gosh the oh this is much shorter one after a family tragedy chuck wilson helps to start a new life and then uh discovers his town has a dark secret i think they just put that up as i was reading this nice so the acting's fine like brian anthony wilson's in it mike sultan's in it joel pandelli that's better you know vermilia
00:04:33
Jim Phoenix
They're fine. They worked. They're great actors. Really. Sincerely. The sound works. The jump scares. Sure. Why not? The color is fine. It it all works out. It starts out almost like a hell house, right? like Oh, no, it's but it's not phone footage.
00:04:51
Jim Phoenix
Excuse me for the big mom my chair. And it builds up suspense. It is a decent run time. It doesn't like go on and on and on and on and on.
00:05:03
Jim Phoenix
You can knock this out and still have time for tea. you know
00:05:08
Jim Phoenix
I'm not trying to spoil it. so I'm trying to like talk around the major plots. Which is very hard to do with a movie like this. But let's just say you're going to remember Hell House when you watch this.
00:05:22
Jim Phoenix
So if you liked Hell House, you might like this movie. If you liked a lot of the paranormal investigation, you know, you're going to like this movie.
00:05:37
Jim Phoenix
If you like Conjuring, you will like this movie. There's a lot to like about this movie. And the reason why, because it takes bits and pieces of all of it. And this is what kind of works against it.
00:05:50
Jim Phoenix
If you were a Conjuring fan, you're going to like the Conjuring part of it. but Be like, I've seen this before. You might not like the rest. If you are a paranormal witness, you're like, oh, I've seen this before and might not like the rest.
00:06:03
Jim Phoenix
I think it has a problem with being too big. The story kind of falls underneath its own weight. It's part Scooby-Doo, part, oh, we have figure out this mystery, part, oh, it's a doll that comes alive. It's Annabelle, part, oh, it's a haunting. It's a possession. It's all this stuff.
00:06:22
Jim Phoenix
We've seen these from other movies before. It's kind of like he took a bunch of movie scripts, put them in a blender, said, fuck it, let's see what happens. And I'll just film whatever pops out. So like the tap technical aspects of filming, the technical aspects the sound and the coloring and the acting and everything else, it works.
00:06:43
Jim Phoenix
You're not going to go like, oh, that's a low budget. you know It works. I don't know the budget is right now. It's the, God, I don't give a fuck.
00:06:54
Jim Phoenix
I think that's what it is. It's the, I've seen this before in multiple movies and they all did it better. I'm not saying this is a horrible movie. I'm not getting it to get one or two, but it's something you could check out for yourself.
00:07:09
Jim Phoenix
It's a shutter original, eight to five forest road. Really check it out for yourself. I think it's, it's watchable, that but not rewatchable.
00:07:22
Jim Phoenix
think that's what it might be. I say if you are kind of locked in your house on a rainy day like I was today, knock yourself out. Why not? and know, out of five Cthulhos, I give this a three.
00:07:35
Jim Phoenix
It's not the best. It's not the worst. Three Cthulhos. Check it out, though. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this is your jam. You know, maybe you hate it more. I don't know. I think because of the acting strength and the directing the strength, it pulls it from a 2.5 to Otherwise, not much going on or maybe too much going on.
00:07:53
Jim Phoenix
You decide. There's even like an AA type meeting. I'm like, what the fuck? They start talking. There's like the found footage, but not found footage. It's a lot going on, man.
00:08:05
Jim Phoenix
It's lot going on. So that's 825 Forest
In-depth Review: 'The Rule of Jenny Penn'
00:08:07
Jim Phoenix
Road. Next up, we've got the rule of Jenny Penn. And and and then I wanted this. I saw who was in it.
00:08:17
Jim Phoenix
And I was like, my God, I know nothing about this, but I want it. The rule of Jenny Penn. Confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within the stroke-ridden body, a former judge must stop an elderly psychopath who employs a child's puppet to abuse a home's residence with deadly consequences.
00:08:36
Jim Phoenix
That does not do it justice. And it's a judge, so it might be justice, right? It is beyond that. Far, far, far, far beyond that.
00:08:51
Jim Phoenix
I'm just going to give you, it's done by James Ashcroft. James Ashcroft directed it, wrote most of it with Kent, Elliot Kant and Owen Marshall. But the stars, Nathaniel Lee, nicely done.
00:09:05
Jim Phoenix
but that you Not bad, not bad, not bad. Jeffrey Rush. If you don't know him, look it up. You're like, oh yeah, that guy. And this one dude, i don't know if I'm going to say this name right.
00:09:16
Jim Phoenix
It's okay. I'm gonna try my best. jean x Jean? No, no. john He won best actor at the Kenelonian International Film Festival for this, by the way. so John, John,
00:09:32
Jim Phoenix
the the John Lithgow. Yeah. Jeffrey fucking Russian John Lithgow's in it. Do I need to say more? That's why I'm like, yeah. What the fuck? Really? Give me this.
00:09:43
Jim Phoenix
I had no idea what the movie was about. I went with it. I went with it. And if you're like, what the fuck? why Jeffrey Rush sounds familiar.
00:09:55
Jim Phoenix
Where did I see him before? Pirates of the fucking Caribbean. Probably the book thief for other people. It's going to be a lot of stuff that you've seen Jeffrey Rush and they're like, oh my God, it's that guy.
00:10:11
Jim Phoenix
And he does. The judge character so well. So well. he He really hits it home.
00:10:23
Jim Phoenix
You're hooked from the first minute. You have like no idea. I didn't. When I said I wanted it, I wanted on who was in it. I didn't actually read what it was about. That's how little I knew going in on it.
00:10:34
Jim Phoenix
was like, oh, screw I'll just do this. And it was and insane.
00:10:43
Jim Phoenix
It was absolutely and insane. The hook, the hook they have from the first to the last. And you don't know where it's going.
00:10:56
Jim Phoenix
And this is part of the horror part of it. If you really want to talk horror, what's scarier than growing old and trapped in your own body? Not fucking much.
00:11:08
Jim Phoenix
Being surrounded by death, right? Right.
00:11:13
Jim Phoenix
It works well. It works stupidly well. Because it's scary on multiple fronts. And it makes you wonder, is John Lithgow's character really a fucking psychopath?
00:11:31
Jim Phoenix
Or is he possessed? Or does he have some sort of like Because they say they have dementia. So is it an aspect of dementia acting out?
00:11:47
Jim Phoenix
But there's some sort of like, this one reviewer says sadism. Like, yeah, maybe sadism. Maybe it's a sadist or sadist, right? i I think this is something that you can watch and sometimes it's hard to watch.
00:12:02
Jim Phoenix
If you ever spent time in a nursing home, you know why this is going hard to watch. It's hard to watch people have you know, smushed up peas and carrots dribbled all over them because they can't get it in their mouth or even the being spoon fed. They can't quite swallow. They had a stroke or whatever.
00:12:21
Jim Phoenix
It's difficult to go from being a judge, like being someone in power, even not he wasn't young, right? He was still powerful though. And having it all taken away from you, it's weird. And and they really go and discuss this in a realistic fashion to a point to a point there's there's there's one point that i will absolutely come back to in a minute but you you have all this and you have a story that could well have been baba hotep
00:12:59
Jim Phoenix
You know, the supernatural, you know, the JFK and Elvis have to fight an evil mummy. It could have been that, but it's not. It's not. They ground this so well. You don't know.
00:13:15
Jim Phoenix
You really don't know. have to watch this again, probably. You don't really know if the way they're grounding it is because they want everything to be in reality. mean, this could happen. This could happen to you.
00:13:28
Jim Phoenix
Or if they're giving you plausible doubt to see if there's any supernatural aspect of this. Because for a while, it looks a bit like it could be a supernatural throughout. And it kind of goes away from it. It comes back to it. It goes away from It comes back to it. Not because it forgets anything.
00:13:43
Jim Phoenix
Because it wants to make you doubt. And I think it pulls it off well. The acting is phenomenal in this. The supporting cast, I don't know where they got them from.
00:13:56
Jim Phoenix
I loved it. I will say one thing and don't know.
00:14:07
Jim Phoenix
If you are in a nursing home and that much abuse is going on, i would hope someone notices it. However, we've all seen those specials on nursing homes where people just don't fucking notice it.
00:14:19
Jim Phoenix
So it's a cautionary tale as well. The cautionary tale as well. I think this one is a five out of five Cthulhu's. I would watch this again.
00:14:31
Jim Phoenix
i want to thank Shudder for the streamer. I think was Shudder. If it's not Shudder, thank you anyways.
00:14:38
Jim Phoenix
I think you need to watch this one. I kind of said like 825 Forest Road was okay. Give it your own shot. But this one you you need to watch. The rating on IMDb is not generous.
00:14:50
Jim Phoenix
And it's one of those. This is not my cup of tea. I'm like, well, then read on the fucking thing and find one that does work for you. it It works well.
00:15:02
Jim Phoenix
It works well. And if you actually know, it's an hour 44 minutes. And if you actually know or have an idea on if this is supernatural supernatural, I guess psychological horror, let me know. Drop me a comment, man.
00:15:15
Jim Phoenix
Let me know. I really want to discuss this one. I was like, oh man, this is something great to discuss. This is really what horror should be. Honestly, five out of five Cthulhu's. And that brings me to the podcast-a-thon on, on, on,
Exploring the Podcast-a-thon Charity Initiative
00:15:28
Jim Phoenix
on. That's right, folks.
00:15:30
Jim Phoenix
Podcast-a-thon. Oh boy. They're saying Podcastathon.org is about convincing as many hosts as possible to dedicate one episode of show to a charity of their choice and release it all in a coordinated effort mid-March 2025. This has been going on for a couple years, and we got invited. And you know Jimbo. I get invited. I'm coming through it.
00:15:53
Jim Phoenix
I went through a lot of charities. I'm not going to mention how many charities turned us down. kind of depressing some of the charities turn this down because horror is not their image but i thought raising awareness would be their image fuck maybe i got that wrong bro you know i won't mention those names you know who you are or not because horror is not your image second is that your image too oh no shrug shoulders but we have one person who want to do it and their charities close down before they can come on. So maybe it's the kiss of death. I don't fucking know.
00:16:31
Jim Phoenix
And then we had some people who we will talk to later on. I am very appreciative. The scheduling just wouldn't be done for in time for podcast. And so without further ado, I don't like building this one guy up. I'm like, God damn it. I'm just trashing everyone else in front of him.
00:16:49
Jim Phoenix
Without further ado, I'm going to present to you. The charity we chose for the podcast-a-thon.
00:17:00
Jim Phoenix
Terror Reads. No, no, no. Wrong one. JJ Cares. JJ Cares is a U.S. charity. They give monies, with basically scholarships, to students who are going into a trade school or a community college.
00:17:20
Jim Phoenix
In the United States, if you don't know in the United States, there is sometimes community colleges or to two-year degrees, and you might get something done like welding or or maybe you're doing a slight mechanic thing.
00:17:33
Jim Phoenix
I have these people on because I believe not everyone has to go to a four-year school. I think that people really need to do what they're talented in, and no one needs to spend bazillion dollars to get a job, right?
00:17:50
Jim Phoenix
So JJ cares is out of Wisconsin. We'll just say the ghettos in the Wisconsin. And the talk about JJ cares is me, alter ego. I'm not going to break cafe right now, but we'll just say other me.
00:18:05
Jim Phoenix
We started this based upon two people who died recently, or I guess not too recently anymore, but still. And they were heavily in the trades.
00:18:17
Jim Phoenix
They were heavily in the trades, right? And at least one of them was a veteran. Hey, I can say it first time. So what we are doing is we are providing scholarships for children of veterans.
00:18:33
Jim Phoenix
Yeah, I get it. Oh, what about me? Oh, fucking find your own. Sorry. so this Here's my charity. I can trash it if I want. And we don't really care about your GPA.
00:18:47
Jim Phoenix
GPA is just a number. We don't care if your parents served or your grandparents served. You just have to have a family member who is a veteran.
00:18:58
Jim Phoenix
And it can't be dishonorable discharge.
00:19:02
Jim Phoenix
And it will be the United States, not Canada, not UK, not anywhere else, US. Sorry. That's where trade schools are, that we're funding right now. And you have to go to a real school.
00:19:16
Jim Phoenix
And you have to write us. We're giving away four scholarships away a term. So, A of the year, I guess. And if you want to know more, drop us a line.
JJ Cares Scholarship Program Details
00:19:30
Jim Phoenix
The website's coming out soon. and Until then, drop us a line at Haunted MTL, which is, say it out with me, Haunted MTL.
00:19:42
Jim Phoenix
Ooh, no one knew that. That was Montreal, it's actually empty hell. Because the devils are all here, motherfuckers. So there we go. JJ cares. That's our podcast a ton charity.
00:19:54
Jim Phoenix
i and I already did my two reviews. So if you want, if you're listening, if you know someone who was a veteran or son, daughter of a veteran and cousin, whatever, and they want to go to trade school, remember ACT, SATs, fuck them.
00:20:10
Jim Phoenix
GPA. Don't give a shit. You a citizen. Don't fucking care. As long as you were so connected to someone who was a veteran, you're Give us a shout out. What's the worst going to happen? Get rejected?
00:20:23
Jim Phoenix
Oh, well, you know, give us a shout out. You get into one of those trade schools, get into community college. It can be a local junior college by you. It does not have to be fancy. You can, you don't have to do a trade. You can like use a J junior college. I said JC.
00:20:40
Jim Phoenix
You can use your JC to spring into a four year if you want. But those two years, you know, they're important, you know, So that's it for today's episode.
00:20:51
Jim Phoenix
Next time, next time, next time. We'll talk about more stuff. We'll have some themes and features. All this more on the next Dreamin' Demons Hit My Musics.
00:21:06
Jim Phoenix
Don't we all? You know what we also love?
00:21:18
Jim Phoenix
Wow.
00:21:38
Jim Phoenix
And yes, National Guard is a fucking military. Enough of that shit.
00:21:43
Jim Phoenix
Just supply apply, man. Apply.
00:21:48
Jim Phoenix
Yeah, motherfucker.