Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome to the Sinister Sisters podcast. I'm Felicia. I'm Lauren. We're best friends. And we like spooky stuff. Oh, yeah. Do you have recommendations for this week?
Movie Talk: John Wick and Keanu Reeves
00:00:25
Speaker
I do. I have some new ones. I can go first. I mean, they're not real horror movies, but in preparation for the new John Wick movie, James has me watching all the John Wick movies. Oh, my. What?
00:00:41
Speaker
I mean, what are those? Have you ever seen them? Are there action movies? No. So they are not for me. Okay.
00:00:51
Speaker
I can appreciate them from the standpoint of like, basically the two guys that I think like the two guys that directed it maybe, or like created it the whole thing are like stunt guys that created this whole new, basically like choreography version of doing stunt stuff that like I can objectively look at and be like, okay, this is really cool. The stunt stuff is better than ever. It like,
00:01:20
Speaker
I should say too, for better or for worse, I feel like I've really come around to Nicolas Cage as an actor and have gotten more on board. Oh, yeah. I can't say the same about Keanu Reeves. I've heard that everyone says he's super nice and I can see he got into amazing shape for these movies. He learned how to do all these stunts. All of that part is so cool. But it's not enough for Lauren. It's not enough.
00:01:48
Speaker
He's just so wooden to me as an actor. He'll be like, and this will be my next line. And I'm like, what? Why are we spending time with him? It just doesn't do it for me. And I feel like in The Matrix, it's like as a bit or not as a bit, but you get it. Why he's that way.
00:02:11
Speaker
And I always feel like when he's in regular movies, I really don't get it. And in John Wick, it's like, okay, he's like a badass hit man and he's gone through a lot of trauma and like I get it kind of, but the other performances are just so much more interesting to
Media Sensitivity and Escapism
00:02:30
Speaker
me. Like there's, I don't know.
00:02:31
Speaker
Defoe is in like Willem Dafoe is in the first one and he's really amazing Always and he's actually playing a good guy for once in this. Oh, I know edgy, right? But like there is like, yeah, I can watch it and be like, wow, this is like objectively impressive stunt work I also I don't know if we've talked about this. I think we've talked about on the podcast. I'm really sensitive to gun violence post 2020
00:02:58
Speaker
Interesting. I didn't know that, Lauren. Yeah. It really bothers me. I think because I've probably consumed so much more news and fun stuff in the news than ever before, but it's very hard for me to watch and it really unsettles me. There are sometimes that I have to close my eyes or I don't know.
00:03:21
Speaker
Look away. It's so real. It's so like we're watching it happening all around us. So it's like it's hard to fictionalize it. And it's so messed up of me. Right. Like I can watch horror movies where like people are being tortured and it doesn't bother me in the same way. Yeah. Like I don't know what it is. I think I could like look at horror movies gore.
00:03:42
Speaker
and be like, wow, this is how they did it. This is impressive. This is in some heightened reality. But just shooting a man from two feet away, I'm like, oof.
00:03:53
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's just so much more realistic because it's like that feels like saying that could happen to you or like to your loved ones Yeah, and it's just like done like it's like just shooting random people and I'm just like oh I can't yeah, so it's been hard to watch I think it's like yeah, I think like you can look at it and say like all those like things that I said like it is like an impressive feat in stunt work and like I do think it's really cool because
00:04:20
Speaker
stunt actors I think are definitely short end of the stick a lot of time or like people don't realize what they do. So I'm really like impressed by them like having this whole successful movie franchise like basically just about stunts.
00:04:34
Speaker
But that's wild. Yeah, not my favorite franchise. And then the only other thing I have to recommend is I've just been watching trash TV. And I think it's like a weird coping mechanism for being stressed out. But I've been watching The Bachelor this season and I have been watching Love is Blind, which is just hilarious and dramatic and ridiculous. I love that.
00:05:00
Speaker
And yeah, I think it's like too, like there is something about like watching these people and being like, man, I have my life so much more together. I'm doing fine. Yeah. Oh my God. I totally feel that. So last week I recommended a nap and this week I will recommend an activity that is, I think it's probably going to blow your mind that I did this.
First Dungeons & Dragons Experience
00:05:21
Speaker
But so, oh, I barely, I have no time to watch anything right now. But I went to our friend Matt's house on Saturday and I, for the first time, played Dungeons and Dragons. Oh my God! How did you bury the lead?
00:05:42
Speaker
I don't know. I kind of forgot because I'm just tired. But yeah, it was fun. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah. So his roommate was like the dungeon master and like did a really good job like building the story. And I'd never done that before. So like I walked in not knowing anything.
00:06:01
Speaker
because she had done like a lot of work on it and then my character was like tilled in this like elf queen love and it was fun like on like I was still like I'm still like so confused about all the rules and stuff like the dice and like things like that but it was overall like a pretty fun experience it was so different than like anything I've ever done
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, how much acting is it? Like 90% or like 20? So you can either you can like do stuff in character, or you can like say it like a story like and then my character did this.
00:06:42
Speaker
And it's kind of like you'll say like my character's gonna do this and then like the dungeon master will be like okay to succeed in doing that you have to roll this number to fail on doing that you have to roll this number blah blah and so I don't know but it was very interesting it was fun it was like so it's like very playful like it's like very imaginative play as like an adult which was cool
00:07:06
Speaker
I love that. I think that's so sweet. I've, yeah, I've never done it. My little brother did it for a while with his improv group or like a lot of his like alumni friends. And he had so much fun. Like he said, it was like a theater outlet. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Yeah. I don't know. Overall was fun. Yeah. I still need to figure out some of the rules and like, but I think I'm going to go back and do it again. Cause I think it's like you're supposed to go back and like continue the quest.
00:07:34
Speaker
I was going to say, are you guys like doing like a regular thing or it's just, it's just gonna, I think it's just gonna be like, it's not going to be weekly or anything, but like, I think we're going to like try to find another time at some point to come back together. I love that. That's so sweet. I'm so happy for
Book Recommendation: Then She Was Gone
00:07:52
Speaker
you. I also very, very quick, just because I never read books, I did read a book. I can't remember if you gave it to me, but I read Then She Was Gone.
00:08:03
Speaker
Oh my God, so good. Yes. Yeah. I don't think I gave it to you. I don't think so. Oh no, maybe it was my aunt. I thought it was so interesting and good. Yeah.
00:08:13
Speaker
It's just I love all those type of like what I call domestic thriller books. Yes. I love that stuff. Yeah. That's such a good way of putting it for anybody. Yeah. It's basically about a girl that goes missing and kind of her mom's quest to figure out what happened to her. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. It's a good one. But you like I like couldn't put it down, which never happens with me.
00:08:38
Speaker
Yeah. There's a book that I started reading on my vacation, but I haven't finished it, which is the Paris apartment, which is like a girl shows up to visit her brother and he's missing. And I haven't finished it, but it's, will I finish it one day? Maybe, maybe, maybe. I think you will. One day. Okay. All right. I'm going to, I'm going to go for it.
Cursed Film: Rosemary's Baby
00:09:01
Speaker
So today I'm talking about,
00:09:05
Speaker
the cursed film set of Rosemary's Baby. So it's not necessarily a lot of things that happened on set, but more things that happened after the end of the filming.
00:09:26
Speaker
But if you've never seen it, Rosemary's Baby is a horror film from 1968 about a pregnant woman that moves into a Manhattan apartment building with her husband. And the neighbors are members of a satanic cult that are basically trying to groom her to use her baby for a satanic ritual where basically
00:09:54
Speaker
I think it's like the, the, her husband or fiance, no husband, wanted to have a successful film career. So he like was like, you can have my baby if you give me a successful film career.
00:10:08
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much. So yeah, it came out in 1968. It stars Mia Farrow, who's amazing in it, and is directed by the evil Roman Polanski, who is not allowed to come back to America anymore. But we'll get into some of that in a bit. But it's based on a book by Ira Levin from 1967. And
00:10:36
Speaker
As soon as the book came out, it was a bestseller and William Castle, notorious horror film producer, picked up the rights immediately and the movie came out in 68. So it was a pretty fast turnaround. I think he had initially wanted to direct it himself, but then he had Roman Polanski do the screenplay and direct it.
00:11:01
Speaker
Roman Polanski at the time was married to Sharon Tate. And obviously we're going to get into her tragedy briefly, but he had wanted her to star in the film. But William Castle was like, it has to be Mia Farrow. She is the one. And they eventually hired Mia Farrow, who was this is like so like Hollywood
00:11:28
Speaker
all these things. But basically, she was married to Frank Sinatra at the time. This is like, do you know any of us know that they were ever married? I didn't know that Mia Farrow and Frank were married. Yeah, it's like freaking crazy. Like her whole
00:11:45
Speaker
life story is really wild. So she was married to Frank Sinatra in 1968. And when she got this movie, he read the script. He was like, I don't think this is a good fit for you. I want you to do this movie with me instead. And so she's like, I want to do both. So she signs on to both movies, her movie and whatever Frank Sinatra movie was happening at the time. And she's kind of
00:12:11
Speaker
The Rosemary's Baby shoot was first and it took longer than expected, so she was trying to go back and forth. And it was putting a big strain on their new marriage. And so Frank Sinatra was like, it's me or the movie, babe. And she was like, I'm picking the movie.
00:12:29
Speaker
Honestly, amazing. Yes. So the Frank Sinatra, I mean, he did. I mean, it's just so mean. So he served her divorce papers while she was on set. He had someone bring them on to the set like while she's freaking doing something. It was like, yeah, you're getting a divorce. Congratulations. Here you go. And she signed the papers that day serving the divorce papers is your job. Apparently, like Olivia Wilde doing it to
00:12:58
Speaker
Or no, Jason Sudeik is doing it to Olivia Wilde on her premiere. That is so insane. People are insane. Okay. Anyways. So, so yeah, so that was a bit of drama that happened on the set itself. And now we're going to go to things that happened after the movie came out. So obviously the movie is about satanic worshipers, whatever.
00:13:28
Speaker
And so the first thing we have to talk about is the murder of Sharon Tate by the Manson family. So this is like, you can watch hundreds of documentaries and
00:13:39
Speaker
videos and podcasts about this murder. So I'm not really going to go into it too much, but Sharon Tate was pregnant with Roman Polanski's child and was home while he was out of town with a few friends and some of the Manson family broke in and brutally murdered them and also
00:14:06
Speaker
Not that they were so they also like use this is going to come back later. They wrote like culture, Skelter on the wall in blood and just like made this like huge, horrible scene. So it's it's a very, very dark story. If you want to look more into it, you certainly can. But it's very bad. So
00:14:25
Speaker
So that happened and I brought up the Helter Skelter thing because another thing that happened was the apartment building that they filmed Rosemary's baby at was also the location where John Lennon was assassinated. That's a choice of location.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah, it's just like this weird connection of the Manson Family using the Helter Skelter song and killing the wife of Rosemary's baby's director. And then John Lennon being killed at the place where that movie was filmed is just a weird... I mean, I'm sure it's all coincidence, but it's just crazy. Definitely.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, so also the film composer, Christophe Comadom, just a few months after finishing his work on the movie, fell off a cliff in Los Angeles and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and went into a coma and died. So that's a dark one.
00:15:35
Speaker
And William Castle, the producer, he started getting all of this hate mail and such about the satanic stuff and Rosemary's Baby and like how could he produce this movie and all this stuff? And he eventually developed these like really, really bad kidney stones. And while he was in surgery, he hallucinated and was shouting Rosemary, for God's sake, drop that knife.
00:16:04
Speaker
which is insane. Yeah. And so, and he had like all of this fear around Rosemary's baby and even has talked in recent years about like not necessarily regretting making the movie, but the movie also came out and then the kind of like satanic panic happened in the following years. And I don't know, I think,
00:16:31
Speaker
people made him feel responsible for some of that by putting out this movie. So the writer of the novel, Ear 11,
00:16:44
Speaker
He, you know, had obviously great success with the novel and then the movie coming out, but eventually his life started to crumble after the movie was released. So the same year the movie came out, his wife left him and he started getting all of these, I guess, threatening-ish message from people like in support of the Catholic Church and
00:17:15
Speaker
And he put out these statements saying, like, I don't believe in witches or Satanism. I just wrote this book and yeah, people are not happy. So his life kind of fell apart. And then the last thing, and I'm not really going to go into this because it's mostly just, once again, it's like one of those things that
00:17:35
Speaker
If you want to know more, you can research it because it's just horrifying. But so Raymond Polanski in the years after this, Sharon Tate and his unborn child were killed, he just kind of spiraled out of control. And in 1977, he, I don't even see, I mean, so basically he was arrested for
00:18:03
Speaker
basically raping a 13-year-old girl in the house of Jack Nicholson when he was out on another film shoot or something. For instance, he was staying in his house. He brought this 13-year-old that he had got to model for him. It's just this horrible story. Then he spent 42 days in jail
00:18:27
Speaker
after being arrested and then he fled the country to avoid prosecution.
00:18:34
Speaker
And he has never, except for those 42 days in prison, he has never, you know, really had to serve any time for his crimes against that girl because he just left the tree. And he's still, I mean, and people know, and this is like what comes up, it's like Rosemary's Baby is, you know, such an incredible movie and it's so celebrated. And then it's like,
00:19:00
Speaker
And you know this guy had this horrific tragedy, but he also created another horrific tragedy for somebody else. So I don't know. It's all very complicated. And the fact that he just... Yeah. Him and his lawyers put out the most horrific statements about why he wasn't guilty of rape, and it's just sickening stuff. So yeah, that's terrible.
00:19:26
Speaker
And yeah, and so even despite, you know, Rosemary's Baby being such a famous movie, and I think it won. See, yeah, it says it received almost universal acclaim, grossed over $30 million, which was a lot in 68.
00:19:48
Speaker
And they had multiple Golden Globe nominations, two Academy Award nominations. They won Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon and is considered one of the greatest tour phones of all time, but really has this kind of like dark history around it and like this dark shadow of
00:20:10
Speaker
Roman Polanski, who has been considered such an incredible filmmaker, but has done some like truly horrifying stuff. Yeah, that is really. Hollywood is just a effed up place, I'll say. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And by the way, like Roman Polanski is like still working, which is also really. Yeah. Like he has a movie coming out.
00:20:40
Speaker
or came out in 2022, like he has continued to have a career. He just doesn't come to America. Wow. Yeah. That's insane. That's a crazy. I mean, all of that is such a crazy story. Yeah. Yeah. So that's it. It's kind of short. I think, doesn't Shutter have a curse films thing? I think so. I wonder if they have a Christmas baby.
00:21:08
Speaker
I was going to say I'm not. I'm not sure I watched some of them. I know there was an exorcist one that I watched, but I can't remember all the movies. This one's also like most of the like the stuff that's like cursed about is really just stuff that happened after the movie came out. But but yeah, and then some people say like it's cursed because they like, you know, gave Satanism like a platform. And so it's like the people that made the movie.
00:21:35
Speaker
you know, let that into the world. And so this is like what they got back or whatever. But I don't know. I know. I was just going to say it's like, yeah, I had a conversation with somebody about John Wick, which is the same thing, which is like, you know, does the does seeing gun violence in movies lead to more gun violence or is it that we're making movies that reflect things that are going out the world? Yeah, it's it's just scary, but.
00:22:01
Speaker
Yeah, that was so interesting and all of that stuff is just wild and almost it's like more. Yeah, I feel like it's more scary that it's like all just like real life. Horrors up stuff. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, I'm going to take us.
Yokai Tales: Nure Onya and Ubeime
00:22:32
Speaker
to a different kind of story, which is going to our favorite, one of my favorite, I guess, topics. So I'm covering the Nure Onya, which is another Japanese yokai, which I know we've talked about before, but basically that's like a class of
00:22:52
Speaker
supernatural entities in his folklore. I was reading a little bit more about them. I still am like, I don't know if people would really care about, I don't know if people would care about more, but basically it's like, they give me monsters, spirits, ghosts, phantasms, mythical creatures, all of that. So the Nureonia is a reptilian creature and she has the head of a woman, the body of a snake,
00:23:21
Speaker
And we are said to appear at seas or rivers and their name actually comes from, like it means something to do with their hair always being wet. So you'll see in some of the images and even, you know, there's like another version that I'll talk about too. It does kind of remind me of Samora with her, you know, black, wet hair. So there are two kinds of variations, main variations.
00:23:51
Speaker
And one has no arms and is basically just the snake tail part of her.
00:24:00
Speaker
And then another version does have human-like arms. The kind of interesting part about them is that their faces are hideous. So not that classic, like luring people in with a beautiful face. Oh, wow. She's just ugly. But she does have serpent-like features, a forked tongue. As I said, has long black hair that sticks to her wet body, is wet hair.
00:24:29
Speaker
She's mainly pictured as being 30 feet in length, which feels pretty big to me. 30? Yeah, right? It feels big, but there are also some versions where she's 2,070 feet long. I can't comprehend what that means.
00:24:48
Speaker
I can't either. I should have looked up how many football fields that is, but more going into, I feel like Loch Ness Monster or like big sea creature territory. With that big measurement, sometimes she's described as being so big she can stretch from one town to another, which is crazy.
00:25:10
Speaker
but the Nereonia would appear by the sea and this is also just like a I feel like kind of a age old story but she would be holding a baby and would basically like so the first version she's kind of like a
00:25:27
Speaker
What am I trying to say? Like a sidekick for the Ushi Oni, which is another kind of monster that is basically an ox head and their body is depicted as a spider with like six legs and long claws at the end of each leg.
00:25:42
Speaker
I know. I just feel like, I don't know, we don't have creatures like this. I know. That's not fair. I want some crazier creatures in America. Yeah, like a bull. What did I just say? An ox head with spider body. Yeah, that's awesome. Crazy. So she would like be holding this baby and lure in a person and then kind of like use that or give that person to the Ushione.
00:26:07
Speaker
So the person was, you'd like, she would like ask the person to hold the baby and then they would usually, you know, look down and the baby would have turned into this heavy stone that like sunk the person down so that they would be killed and eaten by the Ushione according to legend. So it's therefore said that like to avoid this, apparently if you like were asked to hug the baby and you were wearing gloves, you could have the gloves on and then just like,
00:26:37
Speaker
take off the gloves and you would be able to escape this baby rock thing that happened. So the motives of the Nere Onya are unknown. In some stories, she is a monstrous being that is powerful enough to crush trees with her tail and feeds on the humans herself. So some make it seem like, you know,
00:27:02
Speaker
She's hunting humans as her food source. And that's the only way she can live, sustain herself.
00:27:11
Speaker
But all of the versions of her is that she's crafty and using trickery, luring in people with this baby bit. So some versions, as I said, she doesn't have the Ushi Onni to whatever, she's not part of that. And so sometimes she would lure people in by just holding this baby, crying out for fishers and sailors or anyone passing by.
00:27:38
Speaker
And in some she could just like sit at the edge of the ocean. And that was kind of how she lured them in. Sometimes she could even use magic to change her tail into a pair of legs. And then similar to what I described before, but she would, you know, once the person came to offer, like offered to help hold the baby, it would become heavy and prevent the victim from leaving. And in that version, she used her long snake like tongue
00:28:07
Speaker
to suck all the blood from her victim's body. So sort of vampirey there. Yeah. I like this other version too. There's like another sort of telling where she only comes ashore for a purpose. And that's that like, she just wants to like, come wash her hair, be left alone. And that if she's disturbed, then she becomes violent and enraged. She's just looking for a little peace and quiet. Just a little hair washing time.
00:28:37
Speaker
She just needs some fresh water. She can't wash it in the salt water. No. So she would, if you see her, you're supposed to just stay out of her way, let her keep doing her thing. There's one specific story I'm going to tell too. So there's an encounter with the Nereonia.
00:28:55
Speaker
dating back to 1819. And it was written about in a collection of essays that was called The Discussion on Yokai Pictures, and it was written by Fujisawa Moriyoko. And this encounter took place on a riverside on the border of, it's basically, it's a Chigo province in Azu.
00:29:19
Speaker
This is another episode of just Lauren butchering Japanese words. You're doing great. You're doing great. There was a group of young men in several boats that was going to collect wood. One of the boats was swept away. The men spotted a woman washing her hair in the water. Upon realizing that they were witnessing a yokai, a monster,
00:29:44
Speaker
They screamed and rode their boats away to be reunited with the bigger group. And then the other men that were waiting for the lost boat claimed to see a large snake in the water. And those who had been swept away said like, please go away. This is much worse than a snake. And the men kind of like laughed and were like, we see it. It's not a big deal. So they came to like help or go in the direction of the snake woman.
00:30:12
Speaker
And the men who had seen her first said like, don't come, and they started leaving. But those who did not flee were entangled by the Nure Onya, and they were never seen or heard from again. So there's another kind of similar sort of creature that I wanted to talk about. So this one is called the Iso Onya, and basically is in like another part of Japan.
00:30:42
Speaker
And it's kind of interesting because the, as I said, like the, the Nure Onya is typically depicted as hideous.
00:30:48
Speaker
But the Isaonia to me like kind of reminds me more of like our stories of mermaids or sirens or anything else like that where they're very beautiful and alluring and like her wet hairs like around her naked body. Oh, yeah. Classic. Yeah. Just sexy. And they would not have that same like
00:31:13
Speaker
snake body, but basically it's just like a beautiful woman from the waist up. And then the waist down, her bottom half is just like nobody really knows what's going on. It's just kind of obscure, cloudy, hidden under the water.
00:31:26
Speaker
And when she's approached by humans, her bit is that she would let out a blood curdling scream, which stuns the victim. Oh, that's the power. Right. I kind of liked this one better. And then her hair pulls the victim into the water with just her hair. Oh, that's really good. That is good. I want to see a movie on that one. So when submerged, then the yokai would suck out the person's blood.
00:31:53
Speaker
And this time through her hair, which I'm also like, well, it's kind of powerful hair. So it does seem like these, you know, two creatures kind of came, you know, probably from the same source or same story and then sort of split off and had differences in kind of like.
00:32:10
Speaker
know, how they were shared through word of mouth. So there's what people think is like the OG yokai was the ubeime, which dates back to the 12th century, which is like as far back as I feel like anything was written, right? I don't know. It was like so long ago, but they were a ghostly form of a woman
00:32:33
Speaker
who died during childbirth, and then similar, would appear to pass her by as a woman in distress, possibly with her clothes drenched in blood, possibly holding a baby in her arms. And she would look for someone to give her baby to. And when she did, she would disappear. The person would look down at the baby. It would be a bundle filled of leaves and rocks.
00:32:57
Speaker
So it seems like the Nereonia is like a localized version of this story. And that's where people track it back to is like people telling the story. And this time, you know, basically just a pregnant woman who died before she could give birth and then is forced to like live in the world of the living after that to try to find help for her and her baby.
00:33:21
Speaker
which I just feel like we see time and time again. It's so, I know we talked about this before too, but I was just struck again by like, it just feels like so many female ghosts are like either moms or brides. Like I just feel like. Yeah, totally.
00:33:36
Speaker
It's a common theme of people trying to get help for their babies or there's just so many tropes in there too. Either a seductress who's using her sexualized self to bring people, sailors, whatever else in, or the older mother figure needing help from her baby.
00:34:00
Speaker
Yeah, it's just always interesting that like across the world and all these different cultures, it's like these are such similar tropes or stories being told. Yeah, that's true. That's it. That was a good one. I can't wait to see the visuals for this one in particular. Yes, I will. I'm sure some cool artists online have made some, yeah, just cool versions of her totally.
00:34:26
Speaker
All right. Well, we hope you have some sweet, sweet nightmares about Rosemary's baby and giant sea creatures with hair sucking the life out of you. Awesome. Bye.