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Obsession (2026) with Amanda Woman
58 Plays13 days ago
Rick and Trav are back, and they've brought backup. This week we're covering Curry Barker's debut wide release film, Obsession.
(00:00) - Meet Amanda Woman
(04:06) - Bone Temple PSA
(05:00) - Intro
(06:55) - Synopsis
(08:10) - Viewing Experience
(13:37) - Curry Barker’s Comic Roots
(16:55) - Overall Thoughts
(36:20) - Casting
(44:00) - Production Notes
(48:44) - Scare-O-Meter
(51:11) - Highlights
(54:35) - Awards, Pt 1
(01:16:40) - Our One Wish Willows
(01:28:45) - Awards, Pt 2
(01:32:00) - Scream King / Queen
(01:41:00) - Outro
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Opening Question
00:00:00
Speaker
you ever actually like flirted with Nikki? I'm gonna go get some shots. I'll come with you if she means this much to you. And I know she does. Say, Nikki, I think we should grab a drink sometime.
00:00:14
Speaker
Nikki, wait. I was gonna ask you, um What? i I lost my train of thought. Hi. Good night. What else? Why?
00:00:28
Speaker
One wish well. get one, Malish. wish Nicky seemed to love you more than anyone in time.
00:00:47
Speaker
All right, we're back.
Return from Hiatus and Podcast Theme
00:00:49
Speaker
Nothing like taking a short four-month hiatus here. And honestly, it might be longer because we have a few recorded episodes that we still haven't released. But, you know, for the sake of picking up things we enjoy doing after taking some time off, were we're back into it.
00:01:06
Speaker
We're watching scary movies again. rick how are you doing, man? I'm just happy to be here, Trav. you know we had We had to take a hiatus. I think we owe our audience. ah We need to earn their ah their loyalty back. And so I think a way that we can do that is give the gift of friendship, the gift the gift of a third share.
Introducing Special Guest Amanda
00:01:26
Speaker
We have a very special guest with us to help to help ease ourselves back into the mainstream media, into the conversation, the national conversation with Amanda,
00:01:38
Speaker
Blank. We won't say her last name. Amanda woman. How about that? Amanda woman. Is that. My defining identity on this episode is is just being the female voice represented. And I'm happy to I'm happy to be that. Yeah. Thanks for having me guys.
00:01:54
Speaker
We were happy to have you too. You are a a fellow cinephile. You, I think you enjoyed this movie. If I did peek at your letterboxd review. Um,
00:02:05
Speaker
we We may or may not have been former lovers. and didn't know you were going to say it like that. That's crazy. Look, the thing about this pod is that this is ah this is a Chesapeake just open, cathartic, real, because no one really listens to that we see in real life. There's like three people. Ricky has now had multiple guests on the show that he's labeled as his former lovers come on and talk about movies with us. So this is becoming a new trend.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I was gonna try to keep it, you know, I'm not, I'm not bare in the sense I'm hiding everything, but I was, I wasn't gonna make it, a you know, i i didn't want to say that you were not the first. X to be on the show. Yeah, I did think that was important. But you are you're the X that I think loves movies the most.
00:02:50
Speaker
and i I'll take that. Honestly, that's that's even better than being the first one on the show.
Amanda's Insights on Relationships and Cinema
00:02:56
Speaker
You know, I texted Ricky this. I said relationships are temporary, but cinema is forever. So this is this is beautiful that we still we can still share. Can't take that away from us. You know, Cupid might have taken taken other parts of the relationship. The movies still there.
00:03:11
Speaker
For sure. And you know what? I think my taste in movies expanded a lot through knowing you for sure and um always been a big movie lover. But there's definitely things I watched that I never would have watched without you in my life. And I think I've not, you know, I haven't even really been much of a horror person historically, but in recent years have watched more and more of them. I can't believe I saw an early access screening of this movie. Like I had no business being there.
00:03:38
Speaker
But I'm suspicious of this. I feel you're doing the compliments early on and you're just going to like tear me down later. So I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it now. You've always been honest with me, Amanda. And so I'm going to take your honest ah compliments and say thank you. And i Trav, I know we normally do movie news at this point.
00:03:58
Speaker
I feel like we have no news except that horror horror films are back. Yeah, I think we can, you know, just jump from our last episode we recorded but have not released. So unlikely will be released before this was watching 28 years later, the Bone Temple.
00:04:16
Speaker
Hopefully we do eventually release that movie. um Ricky, I'm speaking for both of us, but I know we're agreed and we both loved that movie. Oh, yeah. And this is a very late, but yet another PSA for if you haven't seen it, please go see it because the fate of us getting a third installment, the end to that trilogy, um really depends on it being streamed because it's one of those funny movies where everyone who sees it loves it. Extremely high letterbox score, box office bomb.
00:04:43
Speaker
And hasn't done super well as far as I could tell streaming yet. So that is not news, but that's just a shout out to when we last connected and fast forward to four months and we're here.
Podcast Name and Host Introduction
00:04:54
Speaker
Also, probably good time to mention, this is the Sunday Scaries. I'm Travis Telerik. I'm Ricky Townsend. Today, we are covering Curry Barker's very, very surprising what smash hit of the year thus far, in
Introducing the Movie 'Obsession'
00:05:11
Speaker
Obsession. 15x multiplier.
00:05:13
Speaker
Oh, I think it's way higher than that now. putting in week Opening weekend. Okay, yes. Yeah, opening weekend. um So yeah, today we're talking about Obsession and talking about this whole...
00:05:24
Speaker
comedy to horror pipeline where we are seeing, I think, just some of our best horror directors of the past decade now. So a lot to say about this movie. Amanda, we're so glad to have you here. It's fun. Whenever there's a movie, Rick loves to use the term gendered, which just means if there's a horror movie with a girl in it, he's like, oh my God, we need a girl. not true. We need a girl in the podcast.
00:05:47
Speaker
So thank you for being our stand-in for all of womankind. I told him he's girl the podcast, a woman on the podcast. I texted him. What did I say to you, Rick? I was like, this movie demands a woman's voice. You said it demands a female perspective. And i I didn't understand that before I saw it.
00:06:06
Speaker
I then saw it. I felt a lot of ways about it, but I couldn't like finish my own sentence or like connect the neurons of like what I
Re-watching 'Obsession' from a New Perspective
00:06:14
Speaker
was feeling. Because i think a lot of it is like, we talked on the phone last night that, uh,
00:06:20
Speaker
you kind of have to have a lived experience of being a woman to like understand the film completely, I think. And you brought up some things that I felt were very vital to ah to unpacking this. And it like you're not speaking for every woman that ever existed. We understand that that's too much pressure.
00:06:38
Speaker
But I do think you have a unique perspective on an all male podcast to help, you know, us see it in a more intricate and like holistic way.
00:06:49
Speaker
a way that should be seen. And so I'll give the synopsis. After breaking the mysterious one-wish willow to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic gets exactly what he asked for. However, he soon discovers that some desires come at a dark and sinister price.
00:07:08
Speaker
You know, Amanda didn't know this, but our relationship started because I actually also found a one-wish willow in Lower Greenville. And ah it was only temporary. But luckily, neither of us died.
00:07:20
Speaker
um wouldn't say it was always dark and sinister, though. It was pretty flowery and nice. But ah yeah, those one wishvillas, man, they'll get you. Man, it's a concept. The premise for the movie, this One Wish Willow, is the supernatural supernatural element in of the movie. We've seen it done before. you know Stephen King, famous for his book Needful Things. This is decades ago of like the shopkeeper who's really the devil, where if you buy something, you get short-term benefit but at a huge
Exploring Supernatural Elements
00:07:49
Speaker
cost. It goes back to like you know the fairy tale or the fable of the monkey paw,
00:07:54
Speaker
where you make a wish for someone to come back to life and really it's a horrible decision to to ask for that. But it was done really well here. It was a really fresh take on this and I i liked it because of that. So I'd love to, what should we start with your guys' relationship with how you heard about this movie? Because it kind of came out of nowhere.
00:08:15
Speaker
I know Amanda, you said you saw an early screening. Like I'd love to hear about that. Yeah, we usually talk about where we heard about it, where we saw it, and then what we thought. Yeah, I just I just went to, you know, like typically the weekend before a movie comes out, they'll do like a Wednesday night, like one showing screening.
00:08:34
Speaker
And i I really don't know. I think it's just because I listen to a lot of podcasts about movies. So I typically know. what's coming out or what people are talking about. So I knew there was a lot of early buzz about this, like best horror movie since Hereditary was kind of like the what I was hearing. That's that's yeah by the way, that's royal. That's Trav's favorite horror movie of all time. Just a series yeah that is his number one.
00:08:57
Speaker
Yeah, that movie rocks. but i And i like I said, I'm not really huge into horror, but I love to be in a conversation. Like that's the same reason I went to see The Substance. I was like, this doesn't appeal to me, but people are talking about this and I just want to be a part of it. And I felt like that was going to happen with Obsession. And I just had that Wednesday night free.
00:09:15
Speaker
And I was like, okay, let's go. And I dragged friend to come with me because I was like, I don't do horror movies alone. Yes, smart. And mark I watched it halfway through my sweatshirt, like held up to my face like this the entire time because I'm really jumpy and like a baby when it comes to horror. But I just loved it. So I don't i don't actually don't really know how I – heard about it. I just knew that it was going to be buzzy. You're very up to date on what's coming out. I just knew it was coming out. I knew it was going to be like, it was like this and back rooms and a few other things that are just like, there's a horror moment happening right now. And was just curious about that. I mean, I haven't into it in short. I think that's the same reason that Trav and I were like, all right, we got to get back on the pod because this is kicking off what's going to be seemingly a pretty great year for horror. Yeah. Did you see it in Dolby with your A-list membership? Yeah, I it in Dolby, which I think is a great choice. Yes. Oh, and the darkness, the shadows and stuff.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yes. What you guys? You just saw it, Ricky. I just saw it, yeah. ah I went to the AMC Village at the Park, which is like 10 minutes from my place in Plano. The last Dolby screening in Dallas.
00:10:26
Speaker
Uh, so says Johnny at the, at the MacGuffins bar had, had two, uh, I, I, I ironically had a voodoo Ranger IPA, which I thought was interesting considering there's like a voodoo element to this, right?
00:10:40
Speaker
It's a stretch. Yeah. He's in the voodoo section of a store where he finds the one wish Willow. Yeah. It was right next to like voodoo dolls on the shelf. So. Now, me and so here's me and Amanda talking about our cool late night screenings. Travis, as a dad, is pretty used to going to like some real sexy 3 p.m. matinees. Yeah, so i I love that you go with friends to see horror movies. I wish I could do that, but 90% of my horror films are midday matinees, so we have childcare.
00:11:09
Speaker
I go by myself. I saw this at 3 p.m. um What else is notable? I've switched to AMC. We moved. I know we don't have video, but now my closest theater is AMC, so that that was fun. um The concessions, the food choices at this AMC theater are far, far superior to Cinemark. Have you joined A-list?
00:11:29
Speaker
I did. i joined A-List right away. i am I've been in this theater a handful of times. When I do go to movies with people, I take my daughters to my four-year-old and five-year-old. We see one movie together per month now. We've been doing that for the past few months. Oh, that's awesome. So we saw um Hoppers, which was the new Pixar movie. we saw the The last one we saw was the new Super Mario Galaxy movie. But this movie, I would not take a four and five-year-old to. So I went by myself, 3 p.m. Only other eventful thing is I typically like to sit in the back.
00:12:02
Speaker
And I always cut it close to miss previews so I can be efficient with my time. And there was a group of girls with one girl sitting in my seat. And I'm pretty chill. there's a It was surprisingly full for Tuesday matinee once the movie's been out for over a week.
00:12:19
Speaker
But I went up, there was an available seat right next to her. That was the only open seat. So as I was sitting down, she looked at me and she's like, oh, is this your seat? was like, yeah, but that's totally cool. As long as no sitting in my seat, like it's it's totally fine. We can switch. Suspiciously too nice. It's a nice guy move. It was a nice guy move. So that was shortly followed up by, i'm I'm not nearly as much of an extrovert as you are, Rick, but the movie's just getting going and she's like reaching over, offering me like popcorn and snacks and stuff like that. good movie I was just like, no, I'm good. Thank you, though.
00:12:51
Speaker
She was very friendly while the movie was still friendly and not scary. And then when shit hit the fan, no more offers of food. She remembered you were man and then you can't be trusted. no longer trust this strange man sitting next to me. also definitely jumped like for the first jump scare, which it's embarrassing when you jump and you're by yourself and sitting next to a stranger because she did not. She had nerves of steel, apparently. And I was like, holy shit.
00:13:16
Speaker
and And I think maybe the little respect she had for me went out the window and she saw how frightened I was about this movie. All right. So we've talked about where we saw it, what we were doing.
00:13:26
Speaker
I have to say it's really cool when what you thought were two unrelated things in your life converge. And so I really quick want to give a shout out to Curry Barker because for years now I've watched a comedy group on, yes I don't have TikTok, but on my Instagram reels called That's a Bad Idea, yeah which is Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson. Cooper's in the movie as well. He's the supporting actor, but not the lead role.
00:13:52
Speaker
um And they have really funny sketch comedy. I've been watching them again for a few years. And so when i i heard about the film independently, i hear all the hype that's surrounding it. It's now part of the cultural zeitgeist, as we say.
00:14:06
Speaker
And so when I looked up, well, who's this Curry Barker guy? And I like looked up his picture. I was like, holy shit, this guy made a movie? And like this is the big movie? And so that was... ah It was exciting. you know It feels like someone who I have a more intimate relationship with who's made me laugh for years now. And that makes it all the all the more charming that this lesser known director and guy famous for his shorts is now putting out you know what's the most successful horror movie in in decades, is at least as profit far as you look multipliers, like you said, and profit. too so you have jordan peele you have zach crager you have you can add danny mcbride he's written a lot of those like halloween remakes and stuff and the philippo philippo brothers were youtube funny guys who who've now made a few now amanda you have never seen the sketch the sketch comedy stuff right no i think you'd it's like ah very awkward
00:15:05
Speaker
and sometimes turn dark social situations between Curry, his friend, Cooper, Cooper Tomlinson. Yeah. And there's a few actors in their little troop that show up in this movie. I think you'd like it. I know that, I know that your phone is a brick. Sometimes you have good phone hygiene and that Instagram is not accessible. I tried to send her ah a reel that they had done and she's got good. She's got these, this like phone. What do you call it? It's um a brick that shuts down your apps or something.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, the Brick, but no free ads. Make make Brick yeah sponsor you before I talk about them. No, I do love my Brick. If you're addicted to your phone, I highly recommend the Brick. Yeah, i i was I wasn't familiar with his stuff, but obviously once I...
00:15:44
Speaker
once I love a movie, I will listen to as many things as I can that the filmmaker has done. And it is interesting to listen to him talk about, um, he was on an interview. He's really interested in the way that the brain like processes what's scary, like his.
00:15:59
Speaker
And so, and he talks a little bit about how it's the same in learning about like what the brain thinks is funny, you know, like, like he's very interested in learning about human reactions and human behavior. so in the same way he had to figure out how to elicit the the comic reaction from people.
00:16:18
Speaker
It's a similar like study of the brain to figure out well what is it that makes people genuinely feel afraid. And I feel like you can feel that when you watch the movie. like It feels like the scares aren't cheap. They're like thoughtful and intentionally designed to elicit not just fear, but like distress or like true terror out of you. It feels more like psychological than just like a a jump. I agree. that There's like something else going on. So he talks about that a little bit in some of the interviews he's on that he's really interested in. brain and why we react that way. I couldn't put words to it, but like, I'm realizing now after hearing you say that, that is a reason, one of the reasons, I think we can all agree, we all love this movie, right? Nobody's... Yeah, good.
Character Analysis: Bear
00:16:58
Speaker
That's one of the reasons I loved it, I think, was that never once, the only thing I thought was cheap was complimentary. Like, wow, I could tell... how intentionally smart they were being about the budget. Like it was low cost, efficient, but nothing cheap or hollow about how they got those scares at all. like well-crafted design. The jump scares got me. I know there's one that we'll talk about that like I think I was a sucker in. Amanda, you saw it coming.
00:17:27
Speaker
i did not. We'll talk about our categories. But that even got me. And so, yeah, I was unsettled. And I couldn't put a finger either on that of why I was unsettled either because...
00:17:41
Speaker
You know, it's like ah it's a small scale movie with only a few characters and it's not in like a completely it's not a completely original premise. Like we've seen stuff like this before, but why did it hit different?
00:17:53
Speaker
And honestly, Amanda, talking to you last night really like helped me name some of what those things were. And I, ah my question to you was like, what stuck with you?
00:18:04
Speaker
um and I'd like actually you to lead with that because like, it helped me color in some of these things that like, why was it, why was it sitting with me? You know, why did it sit with you? Cause you had, you saw it a week ago and we're still talking about it.
00:18:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I saw it. Yeah. Over a week ago now. um Okay, I'll say, i think like we all, I guess I'll ask you guys, like when you watch the movie, you you sat in for Bear, right? Like Bear is like the audience surrogate in a way. We're experiencing the events of the movie as him and seeing like what's happening and he's the one that's kind of like impacted. um And we watch the movie from that perspective, even as he becomes increasingly clearly the villain character throughout the movie, we're still seeing it through his eyes and through his lens.
00:18:50
Speaker
I feel like as I like played the movie back in my head, as I started thinking about it more and more, I found myself replaying the events of the movie like as Nikki and like adopting that perspective. Because I think, obviously, we're doing spoilers. When it hits the point of the movie when you realize that she's not just possessed but more like trapped yeah and actually present and observing and experiencing the things that are happening, we we can we can replay the entire movie differently.
00:19:19
Speaker
And in watching it from her perspective, it just wormed its way in like such a more icky and like insidious fashion. So for example, like think if we go all the way back to start of the movie before she even becomes we'll call it Freaky Nikki, the version of her that's kind of taken over. Because girls love that, right? They just love when you make it them and like demean them and just call them names they don't like.
00:19:43
Speaker
Yeah, but men love to like kind of neg us as if that works. And I love to, I'm just like, I'm like, do you think that's going to work on me? It's really not working. I 100% like that was, this is why I've had very few girlfriends over my life. And thank God I've been married for almost a decade now because I thought to get women to be attracted to me. I was like, you just got to make fun of them and they will love that. So it's, yeah just it is unfortunately so true. I love Cooper Tomlinson, like giving him the idea to be like, yeah, call her this nickname she hates. She's going to love it Which totally recontextualizes later when you learn that they had some kind of relationship and like Ian's not genuinely trying to help his friend get with his friend, obviously. But anyway, all that to say, so i in going back and thinking about the movie from her perspective, one thing I was thinking about is if you go all the way back to the beginning, even before the One Wish Willow, and just think about her relationship, her friendship with Bear, this is...
00:20:37
Speaker
we can assume that there's a level of closeness there, that she trusts him, that she feels like a level of safety and comfort with this person. this is someone that she assumes cares about her, respects her, or whatever, right?
00:20:48
Speaker
And so I think what has stuck with me is this feeling of like, as a woman, it's not like strangers in a dark alley that I'm scared of.
00:20:59
Speaker
It's like the idea that anyone in my life that I presume as like a safe person could potentially do things to harm me ultimately. And that's the feeling that was like sticky and icky a little bit and feeling like, I don't want to say, i don't believe that all men are capable of doing what Bear does in this movie. So I'm not going to say like, oh, men are going do that. But what I will say is like,
00:21:22
Speaker
it It could be a person that you're really close with. It could be someone that you feel really safe with. It could be someone that on the surface claims to really love and respect and care about you. um And so at worst, those people could like do a significant harm.
00:21:38
Speaker
Maybe it's just that they don't really like respect us ultimately or like our autonomy. I think you get that in the scene where he wishes, he go he calls the guy and is like, I don't want to cancel it, but I do want to like adjust it. you yes Yeah. Which we can get into that scene later. But it's like in that scene you see, you know, he he doesn't see...
00:21:56
Speaker
he thinks that he loves and cares about her, but really he doesn't ultimately like really respect her. So as a woman, that's just kind of a weird thing to be like, well, I have, I have wonderful people in my life, but at the end of the day, like to what extent could they be capable of something like this? So I think that feeling of just like, oh, it is, it does feel kind of deeply inherently unsafe to be a woman sometimes, even in relationships that,
00:22:19
Speaker
you perceive as very safe that's the thing that i can't like get over about this the stickiness that's the stickiness and going back and like what and replaying all the events of the movie as nikki and not as bear it's just like a totally different movie it's a and i'm like i'm dying to see it again and basically watch it from nikki's perspective rather than having bear as the surrogate yeah you i feel like it's just a totally different movie that you'd be watching yeah I think it's like one of the best parts of the movie too, is it's a believable evil.
Bear's Character Relatability
00:22:47
Speaker
Like we have so many horror movies where the antagonist is in this insidious presence where you're like, okay, I get it. But in real life that that doesn't happen as much. And here, even though there are supernatural elements to movie, it is believable and you know even relatable where this happens, where someone wants someone to love them as a selfish desire for one,
00:23:11
Speaker
to be loved, but not really thinking through what's the best for this person. And that's why I i really do like Bear's character. I think like the some of the best villains right are the ones that think they're doing the right thing. And that's a different category. right That's like the Thanos example. right He's like, I'm going to restore the balance.
00:23:28
Speaker
um But then you have characters who maybe start off that way. But then just ares are so they let selfishness kind of succumb them. And I think i think ah Bear is one of those people. I think he starts off what he thinks is an honest, you know, he's not he doesn't think this wish is going to work, right?
00:23:46
Speaker
He doesn't. And then she's acting very strange, and he convinces himself that he's just this passive. He's like, what? there's I don't think this actually worked.
00:23:57
Speaker
if he If he at one point thought he was doing the right thing or doing nothing, that had to have changed consciously at some point because there's alarm bells going off everywhere. His friends are saying she's not acting right. They're like we don't even know if we believe in magic, but just from like a mental health perspective, like she's acting completely strange. different and like she's lying about her dad having cancer and stuff but he really takes the mask off and I think for himself too to to say like it what's what's so wrong what's so wrong with being with me like that's where it's like okay this is all about you dude that's what and then Amanda you said this last night not to take words out of your own mouth like you were like yeah he's the one who's obsessed he's obsessed with feeling loved and like yeah I think to to both your points the movie is so smartly
00:24:39
Speaker
paste and the character development of Bear is so smartly done. Because I agree, in the first 10 minutes, you're given this very sympathetic, very non-threatening male character. yeah And in fact, I found myself being like, well, who hasn't had like a completely debilitating crush that made you feel like you didn't know how to like be a person or like you don't know how to speak to them? Because you're just so... So you're you're given this surrogate character to be like, well, I know what that...
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I said.
00:25:14
Speaker
sympathy and then that's what makes it complicated as it gets increasingly hard to stand by him as the movie goes on and i think we're given like really clear checkpoints where it's like, okay, dude, I think the first like very clear one to me is like when the entire door is taped, which by the way, is one of my favorite frames in the movie when he turns around and you see the door. I mean, I like my, so my like chest left my body when that happens. It's so I've never seen something like that in a movie before. It was just so weird. And so just so creepy. But that's the first moment where you're like, any normal person would be like, something is not right.
00:25:51
Speaker
And then it just kind of escalates and you get more of those moments. Then like you get the the and the scene where they go out to dinner, which is like a lights out scene for Indy Navarrete where she's like, um don I dinner. I love that scene. No, no, no, no, no.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yes. But that, and that's another like checkpoint moment where it's like clearly this person's not right. And then, then he gets on the phone with, curry barker on the other yeah and finds out you know that nikki is like actually in some way trapped he's learning all these things and then ricky i think the culminating sequence of that is the scene you mentioned where he finally gets a chance to talk to his actual friend who he's loved all these years and all he can say is like well what what would be so wrong about being with me and by that point in the movie i like there's just no sympathy left for that character like i think by that point he's just turned
00:26:45
Speaker
it's It's like an i a completely irredeemable character. But to your point, Travis, it's also based off of this like nice guy archetype that's like everyone has a friend like that.
00:26:56
Speaker
Every woman I know kind of has a friend like that. where And so that it there's it's so complex how you feel about that person as you're moving through the movie because you want to keep believing that there's good in him and that he's going to make the right choice and he's going to do something and then he just doesn't and just over and over and over until the very end he can't make the right choice I think that's nail on the head because I love a fallible protagonist i I don't want the perfect character because that's hard to relate to. And so I think what defines him is he makes this mistake early on by wishing for her love.
00:27:30
Speaker
And it's how he reacts to that over time. Like you said, that slowly over the course of the movie and well-paced erodes our trust in him. Yeah. And I like that because obviously there's other movies. I really like movies with the protagonist makes a mistake and spends the rest of the movie trying to redeem themselves. And you...
00:27:50
Speaker
That's real life, right? We all we all do make mistakes. that's That's the person we like to cheer for more commonly. um And so we keep holding on thinking like, okay, is he going to be able to redeem himself here? And I'd say sometimes like he does make some attempts at it, right? It's not as black and white where it's like a descent into...
00:28:09
Speaker
Madness or true evil from him. But at the same time, you see, okay, well, he's he's never really fully acknowledging that she is in the place she's in because of what he has done. And there are outs, like you said, there's some off ramps.
00:28:25
Speaker
And he's just like, well, I don't want to unwish this. I want to adjust my wish. And so there's indicators like that where you realize until he fully comes to terms with what he has done, um he's not going to be able to fix it. And unfortunately, it comes too late for him in this film. And it's not even it's not even like outside like external forces were corrupting him.
00:28:46
Speaker
I think we were seeing in real time somebody's true colors slowly showing, revealing themselves. Because when you're put against a wall or in a corner, that's when it shows you who you really are. Yeah. So maybe that's too nice of a glory review of the character, but that's why I like it. i Watch out. Nice guy, Trav. Watch out. That makes it just more believable. Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
yeah i But I think that's right. And that's what I call into question is like, and I think that's the sort of, trope or societal archetype that the movie is really smartly writing about is that sort of like nice guy that feels like, well, when women say all men are like this, they can't be talking about me and they can't be talking about my friends. So who are they talking about? Because we're like the good ones. We're kind of like exempt from that. And I think the bear character is set up to be that type of character, like a character that you would never, if that person were in your life, you would never expect them
00:29:40
Speaker
to be able to harm you or take advantage of you or do anything to disrespect you or whatever. But then when given the opportunity, he is not only capable of that, but continues to do it over and over and over again and can't overcome his own cowardice or lack of self-control or whatever it is. So yeah, I do i think, I think it's interesting because I agree that it is that like,
00:30:05
Speaker
That feeling that, oh, well, maybe there's something in there that is trying to do better that makes him seem in some way redeemable. But I'm like, but that's what that's what I think partially this movie is saying in a way. was to say that's like what makes it a great movie is that we can have conversations like this. the Matt Johnson himself, I saw in a Hollywood Reporter article, like and of course they're going to lead with this, is like... but Michael Johnston. Is it Michael? Yeah, yeah.
00:30:31
Speaker
yeah He ah they asked them, yeah they said, you know, there's so much discourse that he's the real villain of the movie. Do you think the bear is a victim of the curse wish or do you think his desire to be with Nikki and control made him the real villain to start?
00:30:42
Speaker
And his answer is interesting because he's he's on Travis's side. He's like, I never thought of bear as a villain. But what drew me to the story was the gray morals of it all. I love that it's not black and white. it Doesn't tell you how you should feel. It's really for interpretation. um The truth is, Bear does have good in him and he has bad in him, like all of us.
00:31:00
Speaker
But I think he does lean more towards the bad in a lot of ways. He goes on, he goes on, he goes on. And then he says, ah I'm not trying to judge his decisions when I played him, but I would say he starts as the protagonist, as we're saying. And I would tend to agree that I can see him becoming a bit of an antagonist. I love that fully. i don't know. I would say, though, the key is that he didn't know the wish was going to work, but his desires themselves were incredibly selfish, 100%. Mm-hmm. going work. He dug himself into such a deep hole. He didn't really any see see any chance of getting out. So he just keeps digging himself deeper and deeper and deeper. But I love the discourse. It's so interesting. So like disagree with them, agree with them. I think it is, it is, there's enough like nuance in the movie that where you can like reflect on it and think about it because, and I'd like to see it again for a second time too, to see like where I go because, you know, we've all been in shitty situations, but it's like, what do you do to get out? How far do you go?
00:31:51
Speaker
And, but yeah, I think what, what, where I kind of land the plane though for me is like, again, Amanda, you were, ah
Indie Navarette's Acting Performance
00:32:00
Speaker
you and i talking about her performance and his performance. And like, I didn't really understand why she was like self harming.
00:32:05
Speaker
You know, i was like, she's just doing a scary possessed thing. Like that's what you do when you're possessed. You, you know, hereditary, the mother is like sawing her head off or like and most evil dead movies. There's like some type of self mutilation.
00:32:19
Speaker
And it wasn't until we talked to Amanda that was like, Oh no, she's like trying to escape. out of her fucking skin. And so i thought this would be a good segue to talk about her performance and how it stacks up against other ah like just the body control, the switch in personalities, the lack of control, like to to exhibit lack of control. I just thought was like incredible.
00:32:44
Speaker
Like I was just mesmerized by her the whole time. Yeah, that's just my interpretation. have no idea if that's what's really going on. I like it. It could just be like girl possessed going crazy. But like you said, he's a thoughtful director. I wouldn't be surprised. I think the choices that he's having her do have to be meaningful. And also the way that in the same way that the the movie progresses with Bear getting like increasingly sort of insidious in his choices against her, we also see her character getting increasingly like taken over by this spirit demon, like whatever you want to call it from the first scene. I think one of her best scenes is the first scene when she comes back to the car window right after he makes the wish.
00:33:33
Speaker
And you just get the subtle little changes in her demeanor when she snaps back into herself. And when she, and like, that is so, so good. She's so great. and but As soon as that scene happened, I was like, oh shit, we' I'm locked in with with whatever this girl is going to do. And then it just gets crazier and crazier from there. But as you go throughout the movie, you're kind of seeing her battle.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yep. herself and and the internal voice that's trying to kind of break out. And so that's just how I interpreted like that scene at the party. She's just – she's doing like weird, creepy stuff all the time. She's moving around in weird ways and she's reading weird ass poetry from her book for her friends and at the party. love that. She's doing all this weird stuff, but she's not doing – it doesn't make sense to me that the obsessed character would like try to harm herself. So when she grabs a piece of glass and like stabs her face, the only way that I can interpret that is like a moment of the real Nikki trying to kind of like take control and maybe like end end it, like end the misery or the horror that she's experiencing. I'm really interested in in seeing it again and seeing how those things play with each other. Like what is her and what's the –
00:34:48
Speaker
erratic version of her that's yeah she even from right when she gets possessed or taken over there's a few outbursts of what I now assume is like her true personality trying to get out trying to escape try to ask for help and so you see it from the get-go but it becomes more clear especially you know just cemented later in the film that Indy is or Indy's character is still alive Nikki is still in there somewhere and what first starts as her just trying to get out becomes like, please just end it for me because this is, this is hell. This is hell for me. One more thing on this. was going say, it's like the more erratic the possessed version gets, the more extreme the internal version has to be to try to like, right? So like the crazier that outside version is behaving, the more erratic she has to act to like,
00:35:41
Speaker
i make something happen is kind of how i started to see that. i yeah I agree. And I just wanted to piggyback on that before, Trav, you get to your point because I didn't think you're about the segue, but it's ah i am I see a lot of comments on Letterboxd and Reddit and stuff about just how crazy Nikki's character is. But if you really think about it, the craziest character in this whole thing is Bear.
00:36:03
Speaker
that he is sticking with this person while she's going through an episode. And like you, like you said, the door is duct taped. He's, she's making him cat poop sandwiches. She's pissing on the floor for him to go along with this. That's insane. Like that is, that is true insanity and obsession. Rick, you've done a lot of pods with me, so kudos to you for having your Spidey sense ready when I am trying to pivot. I merely was, we we keep talking about Nikki's character, Bear's character. i think it's a good time to give.
00:36:33
Speaker
Just, yeah, quick run through casting. yeah Like you said, it's a small cast, but they were so good and relatively unknown, so I want to give them credit.
Cast Performances Compared to Iconic Roles
00:36:41
Speaker
This is our production notes part of the pod. Exactly. But ah Indie Navarette plays Nikki, our ah female lead, who...
00:36:49
Speaker
We mentioned it briefly, but her performance carries this film from the casting. I think the cast overall were all fantastic, but people are comparing her to like, you know like Isabella Johnny from Possession, which is one of the best female leads in a horror film of all time. And I do think it's deserved. And so. She she leads as the female lead. Michael Johnston, again, we we mentioned him. He plays Bear.
00:37:12
Speaker
um Outside of them, Cooper Tomlinson. So the other half of that's a bad idea with Kurt Barker. He plays the role of Ian, like Bear's quote unquote best friend, but was also you know sleeping with Nikki that you find out later in the film.
00:37:25
Speaker
He's great. He's so funny. like i I'm really glad yeah him and Kurt Barker did this together and I hope they continue to work together because all the good comedy duos, you know, like Crager lost his best friend, Trevor, um key and Peele broke up. So I'm just like, man, it's early stages for this new comedy duo. But I hope they they keep working together. because Cooper Tomlinson is fantastic. Megan Lawless. She loves her notable actress um for the main four. But she plays Sarah, the other ah employee who works with them and their friend. And she was so good I loved her.
00:38:01
Speaker
She she like ah like the the conversation with her and ah and bear in the car towards the end. Like it was, it was so heartwarming. it was so real. i saw him finally, as I was hating him for a while. And I was like man like, I'm starting to see a glimpse of who I thought this guy was. And then she's just like this sweet person and was like trying to make sense of it. Doesn't know everything. And the interview you sent me, Amanda, where they, they talk with them. she's She's like, my character is like defines empathy. And I completely agree with it. Like she, you can see her reacting off of the larger characters, like the the bigger stars, but like, she's such a mirror for like,
00:38:41
Speaker
what they're going through or or the general unease of the friend group. I just, I loved i loved her performance. It's like really good. That scene in the car is the reminder, like you said, Rick, I completely agree with you that Bear was the one who was obsessed because he was...
00:38:58
Speaker
so consumed by this selfish feeling about Nikki that he couldn't get out of his own way and realize there was a fantastic girl. You know, the yeah the girl next door, the friend who's always been there, who was also seemingly interested in him.
00:39:12
Speaker
Like he had that relationship. He had that person who was willing to love him and he he couldn't get out of his own way to realize that until it was too late. So she's great. They talk about in there's ah an an interview that the two of them did, actress who plays Sarah and the actor plays Bear. and They talked about how I think originally that scene in the car was written much shorter, like the script was much shorter, and they kind of advocated for More. So give give this more. And it's a great choice. I think originally um they weren't supposed to do the whole like letter of acceptance opening or maybe it was right after that, that the scene stopped. They didn't go any further. can't remember exactly, but it was supposed to end much earlier than that.
00:39:51
Speaker
And they decided to give it more space. And they talk about it's kind of twofold because one, that extended sequence makes it makes it so much more believable and gives that extra layer to their relationship that adds a whole extra dynamic to the whole friend group and kind of love quadrangle situation that's going on. But also from the horror perspective, increasing the length of the scene, it makes that whole experience so uneasy. Because like you said, Rick,
00:40:19
Speaker
I don't know, it got you, but I think for most people, you're kind of watching both windows being like, is Nikki going to up on Bear's side or is Nikki going to show up on Spill's side? But I feel like she's got to interrupt this at some point. But because the scene takes so long, you have to sit with that on for so much longer.
00:40:37
Speaker
And so it's really effective in that way too. But I also just think giving them more space for, I almost wish that we had a little bit more of Claire and Nikki in the beginning too. I think you're given just enough to understand why he's into her. She's clearly like a cool girl and like they they obviously have a great dynamic and there's like trust in whatever there, but I i would have liked a little bit.
00:41:00
Speaker
I think 90 minute Amanda is saying she wanted to the Amanda is famous for loving a tight 90. She's like, if it goes beyond night, you start to get to the two hour mark. It's like, what are we doing, folks? i think 100 minutes. Oh, yeah, that's your 40 minute movie is the perfect length for a movie. And I will stand by that. And the only exceptions are Avatar, The Way of Water and Babylon. Those movies are a lot to be long. and everything else hard forty Babylon Hive, up. And i do I do think the movie is like pretty perfect as it is. It doesn't need anything more, but I could have used just a little bit more of like the f friend the f friend group intricacies. Because a lot of people who are young in their 20s have that almost dysfunctional friend group dynamic where it's like the relationships within this friend group are not healthy. And they're not, we think that they're healthy, but they're not really benefiting us ultimately. And you get a little bit of that, but...
00:41:52
Speaker
could have could have your time before Amanda, you're um you said two things about the car scene, which was that a it gives you ah more depth to their relationship and be there's more attention.
00:42:05
Speaker
Because of the first part, I was so enraptured with the relationship. I didn't i feel the tension that you guys did. like i wasn't expecting Nikki to come out of nowhere. I thought this was going to lead to them having this like come to Jesus moment that, like hey, whether we're going to be dating or not, like we should at least be closer and be friends and figure this out together. I thought she was going to help him solve the problem. And so I just thought like I was so enraptured with their their thing that I didn't even see it fucking coming. I just i loved it.
00:42:36
Speaker
You missed one guy, Travis. Are you going to say it? I was going to say Andy Richter's in this movie. Yeah, I did not know that at all. He's Megan Lawless's dad or plays Sarah's dad, the owner of the little music store the court works at. He probably gives my...
00:42:54
Speaker
favorite line of the film it's like a throwaway line i guess i know we're going to categories but i have to say it now because sarah's character arc is about her applying to get into what she wants to be a musician or she's applying to like music school and she keeps getting denied and there's one scene like kind of in the background where she gets the second to last letter and she finds out she got rejected it's Wait, Andy Richter, he's trying to comfort her. This is her dad. And he goes, well, you got to get in somewhere. Somebody will have to take you. Of course. um So very limited screen time, but he he's always great. I love Conan. Did you recognize him though? I didn't recognize him until I read saw the credits. Oh, yeah.
00:43:41
Speaker
do Do you watch a lot of Conan or? I do. I mean, that's why I was surprised. It was just like, a I didn't even catch it until I, the credits, which are like a minute long. There's like nobody in this movie. a Very small crew.
00:43:54
Speaker
I was super surprised. So small crew to that point. We mentioned Craig Barker's name a few times, but wrote this, directed it, edited
Blumhouse's Production Influence
00:44:01
Speaker
it. um So this is very much his his baby, his brainchild.
00:44:05
Speaker
um I will say on the production notes, We, in 2025, we were ragging on Blumhouse because they had not had a hit in a very long time. We're putting out a lot of garbage. Jason Blum got involved apparently prior to their festival debut last fall and came on to be a producer for this film as well. So it's a big win for Blumhouse um that they actually identified talent and are in part responsible for, you know, the viral marketing. I think that really,
00:44:35
Speaker
led to this movie becoming such a part of the culture right now that everyone's talking about. Yeah. um Trying to think of other, we talked about It's a Bad Idea, again, with Curry Barker and Cooper Tomlinson. They've worked together for years. Anything else that you guys know, Tim, that's about the movie production?
00:44:51
Speaker
I do want to give a shout out to, we're talking about development. Like, while Blumhouse eventually ah gave them the larger budget, it was ah a film producer called James Harris out of a little of T-Shot Productions that saw Barker short the chair, um which he made before he made a not short, but not really a feature. It's 63 minutes. milk and i think it's what milk and cereal is that what it's called? um He's the one who was like, Hey, um,
00:45:22
Speaker
I can get WME, the agency, to package a $1 million dollars deal for you. And so that's how I got the production budget. And then Blumhouse purchased it after seeing you know seen seen what he could do. And then that's how they got the marketing budget, you know which was probably like five times as much as the production budget. um But like Blumhouse has an eye for talent. But that guy, James Harris, how in in the in ah economy right now, it's super hard to like get unnamed and you know stars that don't have a huge footprint. I'm guessing his like Instagram you know ah exposure probably helps a bit.
00:45:59
Speaker
But also, they just saw talent. So yeah, Blumhouse needed a win, man. They had they had been like kind of floundering the last year and a half. Yeah, but you're 100% right. Shout out to T-Shop Productions. They really scout the talent early on. And then Blumhouse was just an early adopter and helped kind of, like you said, give it the marketing budget to really make the push. because Talking about numbers very briefly, under a million dollar production budget.
00:46:26
Speaker
Last I checked, domestic, so we're just a little over a week here in past release. It is now at $27 million domestic box office. Wild. So just a gigantic multiple in only a little over 10 days time. What did you say, Rick? Opening weekend was 15 or 16 million? No, opening weekend was 17.2.
00:46:49
Speaker
Okay, yeah. So a huge hit. It kind of had the traditional track of like, let me make a short, let me make a longer short, try to get on the radars of these producers and agencies in town, get some sort of budget between 750, they report to 750 and a million and then just like do something with it.
00:47:08
Speaker
Have you seen the chair? No. So it's a completely different like story premise. um So it was kind of like a beat. They they said you guy that said, we really like what you have. And then apparently Curry Parker was like, awesome. Well, here's another idea for a movie I want to pitch to you. yeah So the chair is great. It's a fun short if you want to look it up on YouTube. But it's also pretty cool that they put that much trust in them to be like, okay, need something really scary and cool.
00:47:32
Speaker
Fun fact. Go do something new. Curry Barker, 26, same age Spielberg was when he directed Jaws. just but Is he only 26 right now? or He is
Curry Barker's Multifaceted Role
00:47:42
Speaker
so young. yeah Holy cow. i I love his interviews. he's like you know He was at TIFF and stuff, ah the film festival where it premiered. And he's like just there with his parents. And like that's what you do. I think was living. Was he living with his parents maybe? Oh, was he? don't know that. You're going have to fact check me on that and just erase this whole part. He's very earnest. like I thought maybe he was. Just a lover of movies. He's so funny too. I think we mentioned his only role in the film itself from acting is he's the customer service rep you hear over the phone, yeah which is probably one of the funniest scenes in the film because his tone is just so like black and like. You want to do a cancellation request? Yes, I do. we don't really do that, man. You made it sound like you did. You said cancellation request. Yeah, we don't do that.
00:48:32
Speaker
All right, so Amanda, this is your off ramp if you'd like to take I don't want to take it. You don't? Fuck yeah. All right. I don't. Well, let's do like an expedited categories. Let's do it. So we like to start at the top. We have to do this for every horror film. The only one we will never skip is we do our scarometer.
00:48:51
Speaker
It's a zero to 10 scale. This is not how good the movie was, although we all agree this was quite a good movie. It is purely radiant based off how scary it was. We have never given a 10 for reference.
00:49:05
Speaker
nine Nine is the ring? The ring is nine, right? Yeah. Okay. The ring is nine. Do we have one other? Yeah, give me out a couple for context. Okay, yeah, actually. yeah I have it on Letterboxd. I'll pull it up.
00:49:16
Speaker
Just give me like four examples so I can situate the movies I've seen. yeah You guys know me well. I know. ricky Ricky was about to spend 15 minutes reading me an entire list. so um I'll give you an example. So at the at the bottom, um our average lowest is Final Destination Bloodlines.
00:49:35
Speaker
Is that a two? Middle Ground? is ah together with James Franco. OK. And his wife, Alison Brie. Weapons of seven. And then the hot the two the top three bring her back 7.5, Conjuring eight, Ring nine. I don't know how how many you've seen of these. mean, I was trying to pick the ones that are kind of more well known. I've seen a lot of those. OK, that help.
00:50:01
Speaker
Enough context. yeah All right. Do we want to do it on three? Do we do a countdown for that? We actually, we usually do that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want guys be influenced. All right. Now you're going forever be part of the Canada of the show because we take the average of our three ratings and that's the official.
00:50:17
Speaker
Yeah. All right. On three, one, two, three, seven, six, Wow. Whoa. I almost went seven. That's pretty close. That's pretty close to being unanimous there. I like that. That feels right. Seven plus seven plus six. Because it's six, six, six, six. Oh my God. How did you do that so quickly? Wait, that's crazy. Yeah. and honestly, for a movie that's about possession,
00:50:46
Speaker
that That works for me. I think that's solid. All right. I like that a lot. that's Wow. That's our first 6.6666 rating. That's great. It's scarier though. It's definitely on the scariest side of things. Like you said, Rick, like even there are a few good jump scares, but like the car scene is a great example of just building tension and building tension. And even though there is eventually like a jump scare associated with that, like, oh, that gets under my skin.
00:51:11
Speaker
So um highlights, we kind of already stepped on highlights a little bit because we just yeah naturally all three love this movie. and Any other scene? yeah I'm probably good here, but any other scene? have one. i have one that like just it's kind of part of a scene. um It's where he wakes up. He doesn't see her and she's in the corner. Oh, yeah. and the way she is moving, the way that her jacket is like draped over her the way that she hides, reveals, hides, you can't find her. It's just like, I was like, any creepy bed movie or scene in a movie, I'm like, get me the fuck out of there. um So that was one of my favorite scenes. So I'm going to piggyback off that because you're absolutely right. And I think you mentioned this earlier already, Rick and the Pod, But great use of lighting. Like, I don't know. you You guys are more technical than me. I don't know if this is their director of cinematography or who's, if they're doing this all in post. But she is constantly obscured, looking more like a silhouette, hard to spot, like you said, in that scene, because her her face will be shadowed or covered or low lighting settings. And that's genuinely creepy. They they do it very, very well in this movie where there's multiple instance instances of...
00:52:27
Speaker
Her being hard to see. But no, Trav, they shot most of this in daylight. Oh, that's right. They did so bad. They shot day for night. um And so where on set he could see all of her facial expressions and everything that's going on, um they they boosted like shadows and and and darker lensing and night filters to like...
00:52:50
Speaker
mess with it, but which I think is a but great idea. you should if you If you're going to have to choose one or the other, it's probably it's usually like Nope did the same thing. Shooting daylight so you can get as much exposure as you can see everything and then manipulate it and control it on the back end so you can kind of get the exact look that you want. I thought it was a ah great idea. And like i I was initially unsure if I liked how dark it was.
00:53:11
Speaker
But like, i kept thinking about her silhouette. I kept thinking about like the little light i lighting on her eyes. Like it was very, very well done. It really works. I also love that even more because the actors talk in their some of their interviews and they've talked in some of their press tour about watching indie and like being genuinely yeah frightened by her performance. or like during And that's even better if you think of them, if it, if it just like being daylight and she's just behaving that way and it's still freaking them out. Yeah, I agree. i'll filming That's amazing.
00:53:42
Speaker
um We've talked a lot, a lot of scenes. I'm, I'm holding the, the Sarah one for a different category, but is there any other scenes guys that just, we have to mention that we haven't yet? the scene where he calls the customer service. I think that's just like a masterclass because it's the scene that probably got the most laughs in my completely full theater. But it also is, I think the most emotionally distressing scene of the film. Cause it's where you realize what's really happening to her. And, and the she's worked yeah they're both yeah the way that that plays and goes in and out of humor and horror is so, is so genius. So I think those two scenes are big standards for me. And then the one we mentioned earlier where she kind of breaks through and,
00:54:22
Speaker
you know asks him to kill her and all that. those are Those are the scenes that stick out to me the most. And then I think the final bio scene and is is crazy too. We can talk about that later. um been The Ben Gardner jump scare award, Shrav, are we ready?
Effective Jump Scare Analysis
00:54:36
Speaker
Name Ben Gardner for the guy's head who you see his body floating under the water in Jaws. Yes. Nice. The famous Ben Gardner. The famous Ben Gardner. Best jump scare. It's easy for me. I don't know if you guys have another contender, but it it is when it's the scene I've been wanting talk about the whole time. you guys saw it coming. i did not.
00:54:54
Speaker
They're like having this connection, Sarah and Bear. And all of a sudden, Nikki, I don't remember. Does she break through the window? is that how she does this? is she Yeah. Breaks through the window. She just with her hands? Glass gets into Sarah. Yeah. I think she had a brick.
00:55:09
Speaker
okay she had because She reaches through, grabs Sarah's head, like the back of her hair with one hand, has a brick that she puts right front the steering wheel, it looks like, and just really goes to town. pulverizes her face against it. she Okay, so it's not just the steering wheel. She puts a... I think she has brick an object to that. yeah So as a...
00:55:30
Speaker
you know not former but I guess I formerly had concussions. i will forever have these concussions. I'm a current TBI person. I always hate, I hate watch head trauma, face trauma, but I also kind of love because I'm like, I'm so scared of it that I hate that it makes me feel weird. I'm like, I got to keep watching. And that one got me. It was came out of nowhere, slamming this beautiful, kind person who's opening up this guy, and all of a sudden her face is just raspberry mush.
00:56:00
Speaker
Instantly. and like, i I, freaked out. I like jumped like popcorn spill. Like I was, i shrieked. So I don't, that was my, that was a clear award winner for me. that It had to be like 10% of their entire budget just for the effects for that one scene, I feel like. It's like a whole Sarah dummy. They talk about it. Oh, really? In that interview, yeah. They like made ah like a dummy version of her.
00:56:22
Speaker
and They also talk about how like the glass that they broke through, they only had like three of those, like three of those panels. and one of them got dropped before they even like started filming. So they literally only had two chances to like do that entire sequence.
00:56:39
Speaker
and He seems pretty perfectionistic too as a director. That must have freaked him out. Yeah. i I also just fully, I think, I shrieked. like I screamed out loud when that happened. Even though I was like expecting it, and it still got like a a pure shriek. That was probably the loudest that I was. But there's kind of two others.
00:56:57
Speaker
Well, really one other that I think like really gave me a jump and it was just like sound alone, which is when she's in the shower and he's like standing outside the door. He's trying to go to that party at Ian's house. Yeah. And he tells her like, Ian's hosting a thing and like, I think I'm going to go. And like just the water shuts off. Yeah.
00:57:15
Speaker
And she like screams or something. That really got me. And then when she yells, stay, when she yells for him to stay, when he's trying to walk in, she's like, stay. Stay. Those were good jumps for me as to, I mean, the the jumps are pretty much exclusively sound. Yeah. yeah They're they're yeah really well done sound design. But yeah, I mean, I think the the car scene probably has it, but they definitely got me a couple other places too. I got got. Right at the start of the film when he first possesses her and she comes back to the window, like we're saying at the car, and they start to make out in the car.
00:57:49
Speaker
And suddenly that's the first time you really see something's wrong. If you guys remember, she suddenly stops and she screams at him to stop as if she's like coming back to herself. That was the one where jumped in my seat and the girl who was sitting next to me stopped offering candy and Or like the bed maybe, like right when they go back to his place and she does that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there is a few of those. Cool. Then we'd like to move to our Cantaloupe Award. Have you seen Bring Her Back, Amanda? We haven't. Should I? Okay. I don't want to spoil it then, but this award relates to that film. And instead of jump scare, this is the other type of scare we like to highlight, which is
00:58:31
Speaker
cringiness gets under your skin unnerving um sometimes it can be gross sometimes it can be gory sometimes it could just be a moment of heightened tension so getting kind of your your heart rate up a bit and uh so for me I thought I had an answer. and Now I'm trying to remember.
00:58:51
Speaker
um Oh, it it actually was probably the diner scene. We've brought it up before. Not the scariest scene in the film, but it's like watching the TV show, The Office. That is so anxiety inducing because you are so embarrassed for these characters. And you're like, oh my God, if this ever happened to me or my date like stood up and made a big scene in the restaurant, which is speaks...
00:59:16
Speaker
volumes about how shallow I am as a person, i would lose it. And this scene was just over the top. It was so well done. I was just like wringing my skin with how anxious I was watching her freak out um at the diner.
00:59:32
Speaker
Yeah, I was trying to think of what scene made me feel that way. i pick something else because it's it's it's less on the tension side. It's more just gross. you It's hard to watch.
00:59:43
Speaker
But you're exactly right. That is the scene. i was like, score me. And I was like, oh, my God, everyone's watching. And you know, you know me. I'm i'm typically i don't get embarrassed too easily. But like in that scene where there's a huge conflict and she's standing up and yelling, and i was like, oh, my God, get me out of here. um The one I picked was ah ah When he opens his lunch for that day and it is cat.
01:00:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And. Ostensibly his cat, right? Like his dead cat. Correct. And she has a name, Amanda, Sandy. yeah. Call her by her name. Yes, RIP Sandy. The craziest fact I just showed. I'm so sorry. That Nikki ends up feeding to him in his sandwich. i The delivery of that too was just so well done. Where Sarah flips over the Tupperware lid to see the sticky note that just says, what's the verdict?
01:00:33
Speaker
What's the verdict? Cat question mark. I love it. She just keeps going, what does that mean, Bear? Bear, what does that mean? What does that mean? She's asked the same question ever and ever. Yes.
01:00:45
Speaker
Yeah, i ah I don't know. I've had cats before. Not not eaten them. like had I've owned cats, I should say. And ah i can't I can't imagine consuming them. and So that yeah it freaked me out. Those are both good picks. The cat the cat was was kind of my first instinct, though. The only other one from like a cringe perspective is just the party scene. Yes.
01:01:07
Speaker
So I think you already know that no one really wants her there. And so you're hoping like maybe she'll just pull it together for just a second. and And then, i yeah, just that whole sequence made me so deeply uncomfortable. But specifically when he pulls the Jenga card and it says to kiss the person on his left and you just know that she's about to. And then it pans to her and she's making that frowny face and she pulls Sarah's chair away and goes like, that whole sequence just...
01:01:36
Speaker
like made me squirmy. Yes. Her acting, that scene, it was so prolonged, so dragged out. Like she drags Sarah back in her chair, slowly walks around the circle, drags Sarah back in her chair, gets into position. So she's now to bear's left. yeah And the whole thing takes about probably two minutes.
01:01:51
Speaker
And it was just so well done that they chose that portion of the movie to drastically slow down the pace to really just make you sit and how uncomfortable you were watching that. um Hey, so...
01:02:04
Speaker
Not a good segue for this, but I have to bring it up. During the diner scene and probably the party scene as well, I started coming to a quick realization that the behaviors Nikki was exhibiting are actually very relatable to me.
01:02:22
Speaker
So I am a dad of three girls. Their ages range from two to five. i just want to walk through some of the symptoms Nikki was exhibiting here real quick. Um,
01:02:33
Speaker
Emotions swing wildly around, almost as if they're manic or bipolar. um Has accidents, pees themselves. um Won't go to bed when you ask them to. When they make a mistake and you ask them why they did this, they say, i don't know.
01:02:48
Speaker
ah i think that was all. and Won't obey your commands and frequently shouting back at you in response. Yeah. So this movie is literally as the sole parent here, I'm going to tell you guys, it it really hit a nerve because I was like, Oh my God. i think but And maybe that's why I relate to bear a little more and have a bit more sympathy on him. Cause even though this was his fault, I'm like, man, this would, this makes me a worse person when I'm in it for too long without giving myself a break. But, uh, watching this movie, I was like, yeah, this is relatable. I get it. I like it. Um, next one.
01:03:24
Speaker
Yeah. So, um, Going back to expediting, I'd love to maybe skip a few of the sure though great twists or anything like that. We we could probably jump what right to deaths. ah Yeah, like the cannon fodder and the best death award. Cannon fodder could be Sandy the cat, RIP. I had, I had cannon fodder as so cannon fodder, man, is like death just for death's sake. Like it's not a really important death. It's just like, we just needed more violence or crazy things happening. I thought, it and or it's funny. I thought Ian's death. He just gets shot. It's like, that's a good point. He just gets shot. Like he just won a billion dollars. He's like, i got all this money. I think it's a billion dollars. Boom. He's fucking dead.
01:04:04
Speaker
So that was my cannon fodder one. Okay. Yeah. He didn't really need to die for the plot. The cat needed to die. The others needed to die for the plot. He didn't really need to die, but it is just like, that's a great point wait for laughs basically. what do Yeah.
01:04:16
Speaker
Best death. What do you guys think?
01:04:21
Speaker
I think Sarah's was the most gruesome, but Bear's death at the end does give the entire film i put the tragedy genre, right? It's almost, Cory Barker said he was almost going for the Romeo and Juliet ending. And what he went was honestly far scarier because as they alluded to earlier in the film, when Bear dies,
01:04:40
Speaker
then Nikki is free from the wish.
Tragic Film Ending Analysis
01:04:43
Speaker
So you get this horrible scene of, you know, the moment Bear passes in Nikki's arms because she suddenly comes back to herself now surrounded by, you know, even though Bear was quote unquote the villain in this movie was her friend. It's this horrible circumstance of he's dead, Ian's dead, Sarah's dead. They're all in the room with her.
01:05:03
Speaker
She's been possessed for weeks now. yeah, because Sarah's body's there. Yeah, Sarah's body's there. So they're all in the room with her. And she comes back to where that was just a very powerful ending. And she's watched all of this happen. It's not like she's waking up and being like, what's going on here? She could just fully acknowledge it now. She's fully aware. ending is really, really sad.
01:05:26
Speaker
Mm-hmm. It was really hard to sit with. And I mean, I love a credits rolling while someone's crying, all of Timothee Chalamet and Call Me By Your Name. And there's another one. There's another one.
01:05:38
Speaker
What's the other one think you have? That's great. There's one where woman is crying at the the one I would picked. All way through the credits. I have to think about what that is. But i love like a credit sequence rolls while we get. Oh, oh, um Mia Goth in Pearl. Oh, in pearl yes. Mia Goth just like cries. Yes. Redded sequence of Pearl. Agreed. Yes.
01:05:58
Speaker
But yeah, so, but I, the end is just really, it's so sad. And i was telling you, Ricky and i were talking on the phone last night. I'm like, I mean, Nikki's, she's She's done. She's going to jail. Her prints are all over everything. like no one's going to believe anything. Yeah, you can't believe really, heartbreaking ending. um I don't know. i think it's a perfect ending. I don't know that I would have preferred anything else. like I guess the only other option is let them live happily ever after each other's wishes. not this Curry Barker was going to have her die as well. Yeah, right. It's so much better because you're thinking about like what you both just said. The life that she has to live with now, whether it's in jail or a mental hospital or on the run, it's not going to be good. And that's what is, quote, horrific about it. And I wonder, you know, i don't i don't see...
01:06:45
Speaker
ah i mean I guess we've talked about it with the mom a little bit, but like Curry Barker was like very influenced by Hereditary. and the the i was trying to like tie in where what he was connecting, like what he was influenced by.
01:06:58
Speaker
i think a lot of it is like instead of familial drama, it's like social drama. like It's like drama within friends, but like really tragic drama. And then it's also just like a gut wrenching ending. Like in both cases, it's like, holy shit, this whole family is ruined. And in this case, this whole friend group is ruined. Um, so I, I, I thought a little bit about his, this girl's life is ruined. yeah I mean, I think again, not, I mean, know you, you invited me on here to be the female perspective. So I'll do that one more time before we leave Amanda woman. But that I, I, that idea that, um,
01:07:34
Speaker
in these situations if we're thinking about like consent, assault, whatever that might be, like lives are completely ruined forever by the choices that these that that people make and the impact that that has. And like, you have to live with you have to live with the impacts of that. Yeah.
01:07:52
Speaker
yeah And yeah that's that's very much depicted when she wakes up and you see like, oh, that's that's very real. Yeah. And poor Andy Richter just lost his entire workforce in one day. Poor employees. That's horrible. I did. They're really funny. I'm like, this was a Letterboxd review that was like, the most unrealistic part of this movie is that four people have to be stopped at this like tiny ass restaurant. There's no way that there's four employees working hi all day, every day at this store. Which fun fact was the store they filmed Wayne's World in?
01:08:25
Speaker
Really? Yes. That's really cool. But it is it is no longer there, unfortunately. no Nor is a Bear's house. It was burned in the LA fires recently. Yeah. Yeah. Sad
Favorite Movie Lines and Scenes
01:08:34
Speaker
times. do you Do you guys have any other best lines from the movie you want to throw in there? I know I kind of had my throwaway Andy Richter line, which didn't get near as many laughs as I thought. So now I'm retreating back into my shell. I'll let you guys out something you love. it was yeah It was a delay on the pod. ah That was funny. Yes, yes.
01:08:55
Speaker
Amanda, you have anything? I'm trying to remember. i'll i While you're thinking...
Themes of Desire and Consequence
01:09:00
Speaker
One scene yeah one scene that that did, like I guess, make me laugh. don't think it's like the best quote, but just after she comes and bashes Sarah's head in and kills her, and she just comes around to the other side, and she's just like...
01:09:15
Speaker
you wanted this, like you wished for this. i just thought that part is very like, it's just, it got a lot of laughs my theater just cause it's like so crazy. But then it's like, well, he kind of did wish for that, but just that she's like, she's like, this is all your fault. Like you wanted this.
01:09:32
Speaker
um I don't know that that's like a best quote. No, but it shows like where Spells out pretty clearly like you did want this. So here you go.
01:09:44
Speaker
It's not maybe how you wanted it, but this is it. Mine is less.
Consent, Control, and Identity Themes
01:09:48
Speaker
It's not funny. This one's creepy and it's it's where the the consent thing really like drives it home is. ah I think it's a response when he says, what's so bad about being with me? And she goes, Bear, I've never been with you.
01:10:04
Speaker
Like, that's not me, dude. That is a voodoo version of me that I can't control. That's not me. And it's like paralysis, trapped, horrible. And that line is what stuck with me the most. That's great. I mean, both lines back to back. It's really just getting to the core of both characters.
01:10:21
Speaker
Like him yeah being obsessive with her. Like what's bad about being with me? And her being frank and being like, this isn't me. Yeah. yeah have You manipulated me. You're unsafe. I trusted you. and here I am.
01:10:33
Speaker
Yeah. I'm going to try again, but apparently it's a tough crowd tonight.
Humor Through Misunderstandings
01:10:38
Speaker
um After you brought up the point, Amanda, where Sarah's grilling him after asking about what's the verdict on cat and he's getting sick.
01:10:48
Speaker
And do you remember what he says right before he throws up?
01:10:52
Speaker
He just goes inside joke, which I love. Oh, yeah. And then Bear goes home. And I just love how he berates Nicky by just saying, he you can't cook the cat. You can't do that. You can't cook the cat.
01:11:09
Speaker
Doesn't he like practice before he says it to her? He's like in the car. forgot about that. He's like, you can't do that, Nicky. like i don't think you I don't know what you guys, I would not have to rehearse what to say to somebody if they cooked a cat. I'm just like, I'm no longer speaking with you until they get help.
01:11:27
Speaker
And then also, yeah, don't cook
Dark Humor and Absurdity
01:11:28
Speaker
the cat. And then I love when he goes back to the voodoo shop near the end of the film for the second time and confronts the male employee at the front desk. First off, I love that the male employee was fucking with them being like, wait, what do you mean one wish willows? He's like, i' just kidding. We moved to the yeah the store. Harry. His name is Harry played by Darren Tunder.
01:11:45
Speaker
Okay. And then love Harry's line a little later where you know, bears voicing his frustration, trying to figure out how he can undo it. And Harry just goes like, or you could die. Just kill yourself. You know, just spitballing there.
01:11:58
Speaker
yeah oh Multiple people keep telling Bear he needs to kill himself too, which is kind a dark part of the movie. but i' Sometimes you got to do what got to do.
01:12:09
Speaker
Oh,
Segment: 'Dull Knives' and Criticisms
01:12:10
Speaker
okay. That's it for line line reads. Dull Knives. Should we go to Dull Knives? I only had one, which is odd. because This Amanda is... our nitpicks of the movie right things that maybe didn't land with us it could be just like plot like how's this believable or sometimes if it's a movie we really didn't like we'll just go all in on railing on the production yeah it started off as like this is improbable but we kind of use it now to like this is something that just I didn't really enjoy um I've already told this to Amanda Travis I want to see what you think about this
01:12:41
Speaker
i I love Curry Barker. I love his career choice here. i love the this movie, the comedy he was doing before, the horror now. Happy for him. Hope he has a great career And I'm excited for Texas Chancellor of the Massacre. he's's He's the next person to adapt it. So that's cool because that movie inspired him to do horror films. He saw it when he was 11.
01:12:59
Speaker
What I didn't like, I did not like the Barker's Pub. barker's pub Yes. I'm glad you called that out. I thought it was way overt. like Why? That is so... I told Amanda, the example I gave was like if you're watching like Raiders of the Lost Ark and they're eating at Spielberg's like grill, is are you going to be a little distracted? Or like, hey man, your name's already on the fucking movie. like we We get it. The only concession I'll give is like if there's some...
01:13:27
Speaker
family, it's an inside joke. you know It's an inside joke. If there's like some family thing, like a dream they had to own their own pub, or if that's actually their family's pub, I give it a pass. That's cute. But if they if they sent the production designer out into the world and made that on a stained glass thing and like put it in there, I just think it's like, like dude, they're we're going to know who you are either way. That was that was my one hang up.
01:13:48
Speaker
I like it. I didn't even notice that. My only point, and we keep going back to it, so I'll keep it brief, is Like, what kind of... shitty sandwiches has this guy been eating for the past few months where he can get like five bites into eating cat without even raising an eyebrow until she tells him like, oh, is this cat?
Plot Holes and Inconsistencies
01:14:08
Speaker
The bar is low. He was unfazed, just chewing it. Like i I don't have the best sense of taste, but usually I can distinguish if this is like a very foreign or exotic meat where i'm like, something's wrong with the sandwich.
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, that that's a really good one. i Okay. this is This is just like movie nitpicks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I guess like I'm actually totally down with not getting a lot of understanding of like the mechanics of the one wish willow. I think it's actually like I like that we didn't get a lot of like lore about all of that. But I do have questions about like how quickly the effects of the wishes again because like Nikki's kind of is gradual and like takes a weird amount of time, but kind of not really.
01:14:52
Speaker
But then when Ian wishes for a billion dollars, it's like it's like instant, it all rains down. all it's not like It's not like over time he comes into a lot right right And then same thing at the very end when she wishes, I guess we assume, for him to like be in love with her. That also is like immediately he snaps out of it. It's like, I must go kiss this woman.
01:15:10
Speaker
But that's like not really how it happened for Nikki. I guess the wishes could be different and can result in different ways. But I'm like, I don't know. but How do these wishes work? Do you get it all at once? Or like, is it doled out over time? Or like, why are some of them...
01:15:23
Speaker
nefarious and others not I don't know but I again like I think it works that you don't really get any of that so I don't I don't I don't really care but so I know you're a movie podcast fan from what Ricky just told me Amanda do you listen to the rewatchables at all with Bill Simmons part of the ringer verse so they always have a category about would this make for a good mini series yes And I would 100% be down for a One Wish Willow
Potential for a Miniseries
01:15:49
Speaker
miniseries. And Craig Barker even said, like, if that could come up in the future, yeah and yeah if all wants a anthology that would be yeah fantastic. I totally agree. Sort of like American Horror Story style where, like, every season has a different...
01:16:01
Speaker
context characters whatever i would be so down for that but i do wonder like if they did something like that don't you think they'd have to explain the lore a bit more or not really oh yes i i think you're absolutely right i i'm with you on i like tight horror movies 90 to 100 minutes are great so they gave us just enough of here's how it works but there's a lot of mystery behind it and i am fully on board with that i i wasn't wanting to sign up for the extra 20 minutes of going to the backstory of like where the product came from and how it's from an old witch or Wiccan ritual. Completely They have lost me there. so Yeah. um
01:16:34
Speaker
Cool.
Exploring Wish Consequences
01:16:35
Speaker
Yeah, not lot to rag on this movie. It's fantastic. What Okay, one question for you guys. If you had a one-wish willow. Oh, God. oh Yes. Would you, I guess, let's say you have to use it. Cause I guess what what we all should say is like, I just wouldn't wish for anything. Cause I'm, cause I know not to, but. And the same rules. You can't wish for other wishes.
01:16:56
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Yeah. You can't wish for other wishes. genie Genie rules apply. No, they don't apply. The genie rules don't apply. because you can ja You can't mess with love. Yeah. and yeah Oh, okay. Yeah.
01:17:07
Speaker
So you can't raise somebody from the dead. You can't make somebody fall in love with you. And you can't ask for more wishes. that' I think that's the three. The three wish the three rules of the three wishes. yeah so You're saying the only one wish, Willow, is you only get one wish. That is the only rule. Yes. I'd say that's the only rule.
01:17:25
Speaker
And man, I haven't thought about this. Amanda, have you thought about this yet? Or is this on the fly? No, this is on the fly.
01:17:34
Speaker
i it's I guess the idea is that you have to be so specific. You do. Otherwise, like you can't leave any room for anything.
01:17:47
Speaker
Yeah. hey wire Okay, you have one? Yes, but it's so lame.
01:17:55
Speaker
It's so lame. that This is something that I used to make fun of other people saying, especially at beauty pageants. But now with how the world is, oh now our current administration, and the environment, and what's happened. I'm just world peace, man.
01:18:10
Speaker
I just want world peace. I want world peace against each other, against the against the planet. Is that so wrong? I'm not even trying to do nice guy trademark, nice guy registered. I'm not even like trying to do that.
01:18:23
Speaker
i'm I'm just so stressed out about what's like international politics and in the environment or the environmentalism. not It's not a nice guy wish. It just scares me because it's so broad. And like if we go monkey's paw rules, which by the way, I i just read the monkey's paw for the first time after seeing this movie. I had never read that short
'Monkey's Paw' Concept Discussion
01:18:42
Speaker
story. Have you guys read it? Oh, the which the one that you were talking about earlier, Trav?
01:18:47
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's, it's from like 1904. It's like a very, very, very old short story. It's like very, very short. It'll take you 10 minutes to read it if that, but it's kind of the origin of this idea of like a wish gone wrong. I can just tell you. What's going to go wrong with world peace though. It's here you harmony.
01:19:03
Speaker
I know. But so in the monkey's paw, the idea is like basically the thing that they wish for comes true, but in like a way, can I just tell you? what happens at the very beginning of this. So the first wish, they're like, well, let's just wish for like money. Let's wish for 200 pounds, 200 British pounds or whatever. And then the next day their son goes to work at the factory and is killed by a machine and the company gives them $200
01:19:27
Speaker
pay payment money. So the idea is like, well, technically their wish came true, but in like a terrible way. That's the monkey's paw concept. And so when you say like, I wish for world peace, I'm like, okay, what the wish is- Humans are all illiterating. It's going to eradicate the human race. That's the only way to achieve world peace. So- cool, if that's what you want to do, great. I honestly think we should be doing that anyway. it Sounds like a good solution where we are in society right now. Let's let's start over. yeah But like with a with a wish that's really broad, it's going to do that. yeah the the The magic is going to work in a way that's going to- Let's hear some specific ones then, guys, because that's the trick here. You got to outsmart the monkey paw.
01:20:09
Speaker
The first thing that came to mind for me is somehow wishing for the people that are close in my life to be free from like major illness or like life threatening harm for like the rest the time. So I'm like, how could I get specific- love this game because all I'm trying to do now is poke holes. I know. All I'm trying to do is figure out- So I'm thinking about like, okay, a way to narrow in would be like, let's start with like the people in my phone contacts are like the target audience. Like, cause that's basically everyone that is currently close to me or has been close to over the past 10 years. So I want the people. i How many contacts you have in your phone?
01:20:43
Speaker
got Way too many, probably. A lot of men with first names only saved from like the past 10 years that I should be clearing out. Jimmy Billiards. Tommy Turner Joes.
01:20:57
Speaker
No, literally. There's a lot of that on my phone. So I probably need to be... yeah and And you know what? In the context of my wish, I'm also wishing for them to be free from harm. because That's nice of you, Amanda. But like something like I'm wishing for the people in my contacts to not...
01:21:11
Speaker
have any life-threatening illnesses from now until the day that they die or something. You know, like how can i basically protect people in my life from so some from like major harm? I think my wish would would veer somewhere in that. Like I would try to make it very specific, but protect people that I love. But also it's like, I don't know. You just don't want to mess with what's going happen.
01:21:33
Speaker
in the world. Like maybe I should just wish for like 100, should wish for $10 bills and just right here and I can just take them and like go buy a nice dinner for me and like one friend and just like have a lovely night and then like call it a day. I don't know. i don't know. The smaller your wish, the safer you are, I feel. um Some of those class action lawsuits, really bad things can happen and you get paid out in like really small bills.
01:21:58
Speaker
You know what i mean? And maybe it's not your kid going to the factory and you're getting 200 bucks. Yeah, that's true. I just keep thinking these are all going to backfire. I know. I'm going super, super niche because I want to make mine so niche where hopefully there's limited repercussions. By the way, Travis is famously a niche, not a niche person. this He's very serious about this. Yeah.
01:22:15
Speaker
um mid midwest I need to say something. Amanda, I knew you would say something, so I said it for you. i think i say that I think I say niche too because niche sounds like pretentious to me. Exactly. Gala versus Gala.
01:22:27
Speaker
um So my wish, this is, Amanda's going to take up the biggest fucking weirdo here, but um this is a little over a year
Embarrassing Stories and Social Mishaps
01:22:37
Speaker
ago. So our youngest daughter, she's two.
01:22:39
Speaker
She was around a year old or still very young. We had just had her and we were going to meet with another couple that was, they had just had their first baby. And so we were sleep deprived. They were sleep deprived. Their kid was like a week old. And you know, part of my personality has very much been a dad and comforting both my kids and my wife. And so I like to think that's where this came from. But when we got together with them, i can't get this out of my head. It's been over a year. the We're all saying hi, lots of hugs. The wife brings up, she's cradling the baby.
01:23:13
Speaker
She's kind of leaning her head over the baby. She comes up to me to show me the kid and I'm taller. And so i'm my head's above hers. When I lean in to give her a hug, absentmindedly, I like softly went in and pulled it like a Joe Biden and like almost lightly kissed the top of her head. Wait, the baby or the girl? white The wife. I was completely out of my, like I don't know, it's just where your body's on autopilot. And I so quickly pulled back. That she didn't acknowledge it and no one acknowledged it. But this has kept me up for like over a year of just like laying awake at night. getting like I really fucking hope she doesn't like she didn't notice it. Like I hope it didn't. You were just in dad mode and it was just like...
01:23:59
Speaker
Like you just, I don't, there was something just like, like, I'm so, like, not, not like the sexual thing, but like, exactly. I see you the baby. I see the woman. Like, I'm so proud of you. like is what i would do to wife yeah like Like, what I would do to my wife and I hugged my friend's wife and I, I very simply
Wishes and Personal Regrets
01:24:17
Speaker
kissed the top of her head and no one said, well, it's cause like, I literally realized what I was doing. Like as the lips were just hitting the hair, but not yet the scalp.
01:24:25
Speaker
So I don't know for sure if she felt it. How well do you know this person? Never been brought up. it's i I can't share it on the pod. It's too close to home. How well do you know them? um I know the guy well. I know his wife less well. Definitely not well enough to go. I've never kissed any of my friend's wife. I can't believe you kissed Harrison's wife, Clark. No.
01:24:47
Speaker
It was not clocked. So your wish to make sure that she knows that this didn't happen. Yes. My entire wish is just that she does remember this just for her to forget that one minute. Not even one. That one second. You just cost her to get dementia. That's what just happened. You just cost her to get Alzheimer's and she's going to forget her whole life. It's selfish wish. She's going to forget her whole life. I know. But just that one second of her life just escaped her memory, if it's even in there to begin with, I don't know. Like I would rest much, much easier. The safer wish would be for you to no longer feel any twinge of embarrassment when you think about that happening. No, you're only messing with yourself. You're not messing with her. If I make, if I make that wish, then like next time I see her, I'm going to be like, bring it in. Like way overly confident. You're going to make Travis way too shameless at that point. See, this is why the monkey paw is a great game because you can just like go around around. Well, and that's like the monkey's paw is such a – I feel like people use that term to apply to like any wish gone wrong. But it's very specific in the story to like the wish comes true but in a terrible way, in a way that – Not in a direct way. The wish comes true in a very indirect way that causes other –
01:26:05
Speaker
Other people are, other things are. That's like what the monkey's paw is kind of about. I can't remember how I read that. Like when I heard it was from like 1904, I was like, I can't believe there's things from 1904 that I can read. That's crazy.
01:26:16
Speaker
I have a... And I'll keep it really brief because I can still Travis's
Philosophical Comparisons to 'Stalker'
01:26:20
Speaker
posture. He wants to move on to the next category right now. go bed It's really quick. The movie Stalker, 1979. It's a Soviet Union film made by Andrei Tarkovsky.
01:26:31
Speaker
It's one of the best like slow cinema, philosophical, weird art house movies I've seen. The whole idea is that these people are trying to get into this middle of this what's called the zone. And the zone is like a...
01:26:42
Speaker
place of radiation and war after some bombing that happened in this fictional time of like Cold War. And supposedly there's this room that if you go into all of your heart's desires come true.
01:26:59
Speaker
And the whole time that they're going to this room, the discussion is how well do you know your heart? How well do you know what your desires are? You might think you're a good person, but what if you really want is the kind of stuff that bear wants, which is just like to have somebody love me no matter what.
01:27:14
Speaker
So this made me think of that. Cause I was like, it's not exactly monkey pop, but it's like, if if you all If we all got exactly what we wanted, would it be better for the world or not? And if you had no – it's not the things you're saying. It's how you feel. This room absorbs in what you're feeling and then acts in the world. So a really good movie. Stalker.
01:27:36
Speaker
Check it out. I would not want to walk into that room. I know. Same, same, same. It's kind of crazy actually that a movie with this plot has not already been made. Like it feels like a very simple idea of like wish someone wishes for someone to be in love with them and it goes very wrong. Does this movie already, like, does it exist in other formats? Cause that's like wrong. There's a lot of those, but this specific like wishing for someone that you have a crush on, So the book, I don't think it's been adapted, although knowing Stephen King, maybe it has. He has so many film adaptations, but his book Needful Things, that is the plot of that book. Okay, got it. You go to a voodoo shop, you purchase an item that's promised to help you with some problem or desire you have, but really it's the devil who owns the shop and the repercussions are horrible and lot of people die. And so... also recommend that it's it's a good read i'm a big stephen king nerd so all things horror yeah i can't think of one but i'm sure i'm sure there's other ones but yeah it's always like it's surprising that we got to 2026 without a movie with this plot and then it's done in such an original yeah i agree different way it's so great um any other yeah so here's just our kind of catch-all category as we wrap things up any other winners or losers from the film okay i i have some
01:28:56
Speaker
um One you already mentioned, Trav, it's it's comedians turned horror filmmakers. So Zack Greger, Jordan Peele, oh Curry Barker, Danny, what's his face? Bride.
01:29:12
Speaker
Another one I had was I really liked. So another way to save money, obviously, is that not having to pay out licensing fees or ah like appearance fees for some of these brands. So like instead of Reddit, it was Threddit.
01:29:24
Speaker
um instead of Google, it was Seek. that' I did not notice this. And then a third one was, um I don't know if I have this one exactly right because the movie's still new and you can't really figure it out, but it's it's like ChatGen LLM or l l something like that it was like a ChatGBT version of it.
01:29:42
Speaker
But I specifically wanted to point out I think all three of us, I think love Reddit and use it, um, you know, for just like opinions, think pieces, like whatever.
01:29:54
Speaker
So when it, when they showed the shot of like him trying to figure out if this is real, he like, right when he went into seek and was like, is willowish real? I said to my friend, was, dude, he's got to go on Reddit. You got to Google it and then put the word Reddit afterwards. And they don't show him typing that, but he eventually he gets to a bunch of Reddit threads or thread it reds, whatever thread it threads. Um, And one of them cracked me up so don't know if you guys caught this. It's like, you know, one person's like, it's not real. Person's like, it's real, not real. One of them's like, yeah, it's real.
01:30:24
Speaker
My mom wished to be gorgeous. She was ugly her whole life and now she's beautiful. My mom used to be ugly. I saw that. My mom used to be ugly. And I was like, that is such like...
01:30:35
Speaker
fucking bizarre yeah thread to read. and Like what a way for Curry Barker to like try to explain. and I, I loved it. i loved it that it was like, i think I think that's funny, obviously, but I also, it helped explain the lore without having to explain it. Like it works. Sometimes it doesn't, maybe, maybe it did work and people didn't realize it.
01:30:54
Speaker
It's just, ah it's vague enough that like, I didn't care too much to know the mechanics of it. I'm like, that doesn't matter to me, but there's something weird happening and it's working for some people, not for others. And I, that was just, ah i thought that was a win.
01:31:07
Speaker
Yeah. Those are my winners. Yeah. I feel like one one loser, I guess, of this movie, we kind of touched on this, but just like the construct of like your friend groups in your 20s like not not great. And just the concept like being best friends with your coworkers like doing everything together.
01:31:25
Speaker
Just like doesn't. I agree. Doesn't seem to go great for this. great. That's a great one. Sleeping with coworkers, sleeping with your best friends. And then not telling people in that friend group despite knowing that there's feelings. You know what I mean? like Yeah.
01:31:40
Speaker
Like intentionally messy friend group dynamics. are very on display here and it's as a loser. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. That's great.
01:31:51
Speaker
Like not on the surface, but you realize how dysfunctional the friend group is towards the end of the movie. Mm hmm. All right. I think I know what Amanda's answer is going to be for this, the scream king or queen of the movie.
01:32:09
Speaker
Mm hmm.
Indya Navarrette's Future Potential
01:32:10
Speaker
But Amanda, since we probably will have cut out the part you said earlier, why don't you do the honors and tell us who is your scream queen or king of Obsession 2026? And it could be the director. It could be the writer. It could be a concept. It could be an actor, actress. Yeah. This is who a who won the movie situation. Well, we can't call it that because there's another podcast that does it. It's proprietary. Exactly.
01:32:35
Speaker
Right. Okay. um Yeah. I mean, I think Indy Navarrete like runs away with this movie. It's – I am so excited to see what she gets cast in after this and what type of stuff she will do.
01:32:48
Speaker
i had not seen her in anything before this. this is not This is not an original take. like Everyone is so astounded by her in this. And it's just exciting to see someone like dropped onto the scene that's this good.
01:33:03
Speaker
Yeah. yeah and Flawless. Yeah. It's it's such an insanely good performance. It's rare that I will rewatch a movie for someone. For someone. And like the movie's great, but I think her performance is better than the movie.
01:33:16
Speaker
Totally. I don't actually know. like It's hard to imagine this movie working. without a performance that's stronger working in the same way. I'm sure like the the the yes the scares might just feel like cheaper. It might feel like a more gimmicky horror movie. It would because it's it's a small scale film. You need something to pop. You need something to take us out of like indie college student film land. And like, obviously a lot of that is Curry. Like, and I'm curious, Trav, I feel like you're going to be in between Curry or Indy. not going to steal your vote or anything, but I just, Curry does a lot of setting things up, but it doesn't work without somebody like Indy. This, this, this goes away. This come, this flashes a pan and goes away. If you don't have, um, Indian Everett in this movie. Yeah.
01:34:00
Speaker
She's so like from the first, you know, the first like five minutes or so you're just hearing about Nikki. And so you get this idea in your head of like what she's going to be like. She has to be.
01:34:13
Speaker
She's almost painted like Manic Pixie Dream Girl a little bit. Like, yeah this is like the girl that everybody wants. And then, so I just, when I was like, well, she can't be like that cool. And then you meet her for like one scene and you're like, yeah, of course every guy is like in love with this girl. Yeah, she's just so cool. She's gorgeous. She's so like chilling down to earth and yeah smart and witty. Gives the homeless guy 20 bucks. Like. Yeah.
01:34:35
Speaker
Yes. There's all these really smart choices in her character and like how she plays it. And so even before she even, turns into what she turns into, you buy it from the beginning. And then once everything starts happening, it just, she just goes there. Like it's so, she's so like relentless. And I heard on ah an interview that she didn't do like any of her choices at the table read. Yeah, i heard that too. When they did the table read for this script, she just kind of read everything like straight. She didn't do all her like vocal inflection. She didn't do like all her screams and everything. So when they went to shoot, everyone who was scene partners with her was like,
01:35:11
Speaker
what the, like just genuinely surprised by her for her performance. So it's just, yeah, I just am really excited. this It's cool to see people who are like so young have such a big break like this. She'd be like, we're going to get to watch this person be in movies for a really long time. Is she going to continue to do horror? Does she have whole other layers?
01:35:29
Speaker
as a dramatic actress that we're going to get to see. i have no idea, but that is really, really cool. So I'm excited to see
Changing Views on Charity
01:35:35
Speaker
what happens here. I like to be our contrarian and I will give another shout out to Curry Barker, but I'm a hundred percent with you. Like Indie never at,
01:35:43
Speaker
is you you Okay, we're all in a grade. Just the scream queen of this movie, but like the the best horror performance in a decade, like decade and I have a very hard time thinking of anything else. I mean, I loved Natalie Portman in Black Swan, but that was like over 10 years ago. And even that, like I might prefer this over it. like This is one the best horror performances of all time. That's a little different too, because she's playing the straight person kind of in that movie too. like Things are happening to her, but...
01:36:11
Speaker
Yeah, she's playing that role little bit more. I also it's a movie that I thought of when watching this one, but it did make me. And again, it's kind of like another Natalie Portman thing because things are happening to her. But Naomi Scott and Smile 2
01:36:27
Speaker
I love that performance. She's really good. ah But this just takes it to a on another level. yeah she yeah this is This is a role also that could have so easily been bad. like It could have been so easily been ham-fisted and just like inconsistent or not believable.
01:36:43
Speaker
And like it's she's planes, perfect chords like there's not one thing off key at all. So that's my my clear winner too. And i have to give um when we were mentioning like you were mentioned how cool she is. She's like giving 20 bucks to a homeless person. I got to give a shout out to my partner, Sarah. I used to not give money to the homeless. I would only give them like food because my i'm not going to say who, but like people in my life growing up was like, oh, if you give houseless people money, they're just going to buy drugs or booze with it, which is what all a character says in the movie. Right. They're like.
01:37:18
Speaker
And Sarah, when we started dating, she's like, look, if they're that if they're that down bad, if things are that bad, like what what's ah what's another beer going hurt? you know Whether they get like a sandwich or a beer, like just let like they're hurting right now. So I now do give money. And I don't care where it goes. I hope they get help with it. But I just had to give a shout out. i was good That was one of my my winners. Good guy Rick here.
Societal Changes and Generational Reflection
01:37:41
Speaker
i was going to say, do you want your little nice guy trademark? Yeah. Yeah. I sure did give it nice guy awards to you guys for this entire podcast. Every time you're doing nice guy, I'm over here. Trav took his away by like ah kissing somebody without asking for it. So maybe he's like back to normal guy.
01:37:59
Speaker
i feel like nothing I've said on this pod has painted me in a good light. like I know Trav's been a bear defender. I'm more empathetic with the lead actor, yeah kissing other people's wives, kissing my kids. Trav's a bear defender. But yeah, bear defender. Indian Navarrete. Yeah, I mean, I hope. I don't know. you you know so you Sometimes you have people who jump on the scene and either you don't see them again, and I hope we do. I hope she keeps figuring this out. How old is she? Is she like 26 or something? she She looks super young, yeah. She's pretty we young. I think the guy who plays Bear is the oldest actor, and he's like 30.
01:38:33
Speaker
think he's the oldest of them. She was 24 when she was filming, so she's 25. Yeah. That's wild. She's born in 2001. People born after 9-11. No one should be- Before. it was March 3rd, 2001. Oh, okay. So she was alive when the towers fell. People, should say, just born in the 21st century. yeah um Yeah, no one should be allowed to be born after 2000. That's crazy.
01:38:55
Speaker
Just make me feel old. like That's how we'll get world peace, Amanda. if people just stop being born after the 2000s, don't worry. If people stop being born after 2000, I wouldn't have kissed my friend's wife on the head. I'm just saying. That's what's shown in her present. Maybe there's some truth to it. It's so hilarious that that's what you thought of. like You could have wished for anything and your brain took you to that moment in time. that is i really italy My wife is the only one who...
01:39:23
Speaker
knows the full story knows the other couple and she sees me what's the full story travis is there more to this story just that she knows who it is and i'm not gonna say their names on the pod and uh she knows that like once probably every other month suddenly am just like oh god i just remembered that i did that yeah This could be, Amanda, this could be 4D chess Travis is playing to make us think this is his biggest regret. This is the worst thing he could do, which then we go, it's not that bad at all. So it could be like a way that he's trying to make us think he's nice guy. You what this really is?
01:39:57
Speaker
You're not all wrong, Rick. I'm hoping that if our podcast gets really big again, but this person is going to hear the podcast, and that way we could actually have a conversation with whether they – even remember this or not if this was a so it's by way would they like that How would they know it's them?
01:40:14
Speaker
and maybe this is the bow on the episode here.
Communication Issues Comparison
01:40:17
Speaker
Just like Bear got himself into trouble, but just not being able to directly confront Nikki with his feelings for her. I am also trying a very indirect and unorthodox route to hopefully see if I can see if this person is aware of my most embarrassing moment of the past few years. So I'm sure nothing bad will come at this. He didn't even talk about He could have avoided all of this by just...
01:40:38
Speaker
having Having one conversation. the girl you have a crush on her. do the same You can do the same. You can tell your dad's wife that you almost kissed her on the head. Exactly. This is a movie for all the incels out there too. of ah Just get talk to a girl. I think it also answers the question that ah would you rather, what is it, Amanda? Would you rather run into a bear or a man?
01:40:58
Speaker
yeah. Travis, are you familiar with the man and bear discourse? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, now, now the question is pretty muddy because of the character's name. So it's like, don't think women want to be around either. Good point. That is the joke that's being made now. It's like, this is the first time that women wouldn't choose the bear. Yeah. That's great. Yeah.
01:41:18
Speaker
Amanda, thanks for hanging with us the whole time. I thought we'd only get you for the first half. This is great. I know. It was so fun. Thanks for having me. tight 90-minute pod goes over two hours, so we will have to cut down a bit and post it. Amanda will listen to it, and we can fit our required duration. She won't listen beyond 100 minutes, so we got to get it down to 140. Yeah, it has to be an hour and 40 minutes on the dot. Otherwise, I'm not listening. Please follow us on spotify and I feel bad to ask you for that after we've been gone for four months. like We're back. Follow us again.
01:41:51
Speaker
i've i' just feel bad for the guy in Council Bluff, Iowa because he was listening to us every single week and we just abandoned him. So whoever you are, man, I know we never met, but we still think of you the same as as much as Travis thinks about kissing that woman on the head.
01:42:06
Speaker
And that's apparently a lot. Once every other month. I don't want overplay it too much, but yeah Amanda, you've been an absolute delight joining us. um Please come back. and Be a repeat guest because you're not not to knock our other guests, but I had more fun talking about this movie with you than I have talked about most movies with just Rick alone. So we we'll need to have you back. Thank you so much. Yeah. Anytime there's a movie with a woman in it.
01:42:31
Speaker
See you guys next week.
01:42:47
Speaker
When Ricky I were dating, so Travis, here's my, and like, you can leave this in. Let the let the listeners know. Oh God, this is so bad. So much worse than I thought. when wait like Like when i finish a movie, my Letterboxd review will be done like before the credits are done. Like I pull out my phone, I type three sentences for the most part and then like we're done and I log the movie and we're done. When Ricky and I were dating, it'd be like,
01:43:10
Speaker
It'd be like three in the morning and Ricky's still just like meticulously dropping his eight paragraph long letterbox review. And I would like lean over and i be like, Ricky, Ricky, like it's it three people are going to read this. Okay. you know how you You know how many likes this has?
01:43:24
Speaker
Three. This from March 7th, 2023.
01:43:30
Speaker
Fragmented frames of the past lap against the coastline of our mind. We wish we said more, had more time. My parents provided me a life that in the tall reeds of my childhood felt normal at 33. I know now just how incredibly rare that that the warmth, provisions, and the love that my brother and I received were doubly so doubly so guys learning later about the difficulties between my now separated parents they were separated for like six months by the way no longer separated uh things that were they were able to successfully protect us from yada yadda yada yada and then i get to the ending and i go fuzzy sony handycam memories lay strewn across the floor of the treehouse in my brain
01:44:12
Speaker
Whenever I wander through that disheveled library, thumbing through the smorgasbord of my developmental years, I examine what I love about myself, what I hate about myself, what I know about myself with fondness, resentment, deep sadness, enduring joy, nostalgia, and gratitude.
01:44:31
Speaker
Humans are broken and are complicated. parent Parenthood's a phenomenon. Those who try their best at some level succeed.