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Bring Her Back (2025)
54 Plays2 months ago
In our pilot episode, Rick and Trav dive into the Philippou brothers new film, Bring Her Back.
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Transcript
Introduction and Pilot Announcement
00:00:10
Speaker
This is great. This is great. I love it. This is the Sunday Scaries. I am one of your hosts, Travis Telerik. I'm Ricky Townsend. We like to talk about scary movies, and that's what we're doing today with our pilot episode. We're talking about the Philippou Philippous, their brand new movie, Bring Her Back.
00:00:29
Speaker
um We're going to be talking about this today.
Ricky's Horror Passion
00:00:32
Speaker
Rick, since it's our first episode, before we go right into it, why do you like why do you like horror movies? Why do you like scary movies? I just think it's a great it's a great ah canvas to express so many different things, whether it's like societal anxiety, which I'm sure we'll be talking a lot about with 28 Days Later in the future episodes, personal anxieties, trauma. ah I took a horror film class in college, which is ah Travis and I went to school together.
00:01:04
Speaker
um And I remember there was this concept of like,
00:01:11
Speaker
the alligators in our soul. Meaning like there was an argument that ah showing kids and people, the general society horror films, that it would it would kind of make them want to do bad things but the horror community and some you know some psychologists and others their response was we all have these weird carnal desires and sometimes there's an argument that you got to feed those alligators of your soul with the meat of of these weird ass stories and like i think i have a big imagination and i think this satisfies that i
00:01:49
Speaker
whether it's extreme or satirical or situational. I just, I go back to the answer your question.
Indie Filmmaking in Horror
00:01:56
Speaker
It's a big canvas that I think I love watching filmmakers of all stripes express themselves.
00:02:01
Speaker
And I can tap into those things either as escapism or to relate or whatever. Yeah, I love it. It really is. You know, there's these people listen like crime podcasts and stuff. And this is this is kind of our vice. And ah I think more than that, Joe, it's just for film and cinema overall.
00:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. I love horror. I feel like it's an area where you still get a lot of indie filmmakers. You could do it very low budget. Yes. You get to see a lot of directors actually like this is where they can start their career they do it with shorts they then come out with their first feature film you don't need a big name you don't need a big one by the studios people could go in some really creative directions and so while it might be panned sometimes at the awards um yeah it's kind of like you know college football to the nfl people have their preferences here horror is kind of like our college football or at least college football pre like nil deals where you're going see a lot of this younger talent
00:02:55
Speaker
you They'll try and run trick plays occasionally.
Unique Horror Fan Base
00:02:58
Speaker
the fan base is just a lot more passionate. right There's a really, really passionate group of horror fans. And I don't think you find that with other film genres. So that's why I like it.
00:03:07
Speaker
Again, it typically is panned more at award ceremonies. But I think you see a lot of... a lot of the true guts of making a film and in horror that sometimes you glossed over when you have huge studio productions, you prioritize horror over any other genre. oh yeah You have a much more limited time than I do with three kids and, ah selling the the real estate of the greater Denver,
00:03:32
Speaker
area. Yeah. So, plug so how do you, how do you prioritize? Because you got limited time.
Balancing Life and Horror Films
00:03:39
Speaker
So then ah do you go like, cause you know, in our film club that we're in outside of this podcast you're obviously a movie lover, but you have shown me in the last couple of years, even though we've been friends for longer, that, that horror film takes the cake in terms of like where you're going to put your time, your thoughts, all that.
00:03:57
Speaker
Another benefit, and specifically to that point, most horror films have a pretty decent running time. Typically, like around 90 minutes to 100 minutes, I'd say, is the standard. So they're a little smaller, easier to fit in.
00:04:08
Speaker
And then it also helps um you know when you have three kids who run you down all day.
First Horror Films for Kids
00:04:13
Speaker
And if you're your wife is the smart one and passing out by 9 p.m., it gives me a block to fit in an hour and a half movie after that or occasionally sneak out since I have a flexible work schedule. What's going to be the first horror film for your oldest?
00:04:25
Speaker
Well, we... We have watched nightmare, um, before Christmas, a handful of times now. Okay. We'll get into genre stipulation a lot.
00:04:37
Speaker
Is that a Halloween movie or, or a horror film or both? it's It's a Halloween movie, right? so It's not necessarily horror. It's not supposed to scare, but it is Tim Burton. So there is some abstract kind of spooky stuff in there. And I think it's kind of the gateway movie. Just just like, i mean, if I think back in my childhood, that was like Scooby-Doo for me.
00:04:58
Speaker
Big, big into Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo, the 2000, is it 2002? ah The one, the first feature live action film. having a big reclamation the last few years. Oh, okay. well let's let's And you know who who wrote that was James Gunn.
00:05:16
Speaker
Oh, I did not know I love James Gunn. That's great.
Synopsis of 'Bring Her Back'
00:05:19
Speaker
Okay, let's talk about Bring Her Back. um to So tell me, Rick, try to keep it short, but tell me what this film's about, and then we can kind of get into the details beyond cast and crew and production here.
00:05:32
Speaker
but What is the premise here? Yeah. So, um, you have a a, a young girl who is impaired, um, and her brother, they are siblings. Visually impaired.
00:05:44
Speaker
Sorry. it troubles saying Yes. She's not, she's not completely blind, but she has, she can see shapes, which Doesn't, um don't believe it played a huge role in the film later.
00:05:55
Speaker
did Did you remember that? Yeah, it's a good point. I was kind of waiting, I was waiting for like shapes and stuff to kind of be a thing, whatever. um She's ah of Asian Australian descent, I don't know. And the guy's white, so you clearly know that somebody's adopted, right?
00:06:12
Speaker
They wake up to a horrible trauma, a horrible situation, which I'm not gonna say this is a spoiler, because it's the opening scene, right? Roque saying what they find. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. That's the premise. If you look at the synopsis, it tells you. Oh, it says that? Okay. Yeah. The father's dead.
00:06:26
Speaker
It's time to go to... Their mother's out of the picture. They got to go to foster care. ah They want to stay together. the guy almost to The brother's almost 18. and ah But the only way they can stay together is he if he proves that he can be a responsible guardian. I guess he has some like problems.
00:06:43
Speaker
He has some criminal past. They end up at this former psychologist or this former child counselor's house, uh, who's also had some loss in her family and is using nefarious means and using the children to, uh, help fill that loss.
00:06:59
Speaker
And I don't want to get more into that, I guess, is it spoiler territory, but there that's the haunted house. I mean, the, the, the movie, the house itself is a character, which I want to talk about. And it's important that she, when they show up, there's another child there already who she says is another foster child. She brought in, um, Ollie.
00:07:16
Speaker
And he's not doing so great. And he's, she's saying he's not speaking really because of her own past trauma that she had to go through. And, and so the interplay there is where all the horror comes. that ah He, she is in Sally Hawkins. Oh yeah.
00:07:31
Speaker
More of the mom says that's why Ollie's not speaking. Yeah. Ollie's seen some shit. Ollie's not doing so. So let's talk about now. Hey, I think that's a good synopsis.
00:07:41
Speaker
Actually, before we get into production details so quick again, and we can flesh this out a lot more as the episode goes on. Did you like it? Yes, I liked it. ah you you like so we're We're agreeing. i mean you You like these guys more than me, but I'm very excited by their ah they' to talk to me to bring her back, double double feature.
00:08:04
Speaker
the In quick succession, they've like installed themselves as a force to reckoned with. One of the very few YouTube to feature film transitions that's actually worked. um um You know, something that I heard later, Travis, which i actually made me appreciate the movie more, um is that they had an opportunity to take on a Street Fighter movie after tech Talk To Me. don't know if you saw that. but Oh, I did not know that. Yeah, I mean, Talk To Me did, what, 90 million? was like an indie hit, an A24 darling.
00:08:36
Speaker
yeah And so what happens is when you have young talent, I mean, the guys are younger than us, So that's young, right? We're still, yeah, they are. They're like three years. I think they're two or three years younger than us. 32 or something 33, but, uh, but yeah, it's like the perfect, it's like a rookie, you know, it's, ah it's trying to get that championship deal, right. For a ah team, you want to get a quarterback while they're still the rookie deal. So they flock to these young guys and it's like, okay, take on
Philippou Brothers' Career Transition
00:09:00
Speaker
this IP. Here's the money. Here's the money.
00:09:02
Speaker
And they thought about it, but at the end of the day, they're like, no, let's take a risk and go back to an original story that we've been wanting to tell for a while. And I just love that about them that they like, didn't just make that deal with the devil. And they're like, no, let's fucking. they They wrote this again, just like they wrote. So their, their first film, and this a good context was, um, talk to me, which came out two years ago, again, a 24 production. These are, these are two twin brothers from Australia.
00:09:27
Speaker
um And so that was their first film and it was a huge success, kind of out of nowhere success. And so this is their sophomore debut um coming up with this one. And again, as an original work of theirs, they brought back a lot of their same crew as well from the first film. yeahp um i I like it.
00:09:43
Speaker
I think you already alluded to that. fact, I really it. You really like it, yeah. we could get more into. I really like Talk To Me as well. I think- um what other can I want to ask you though, between the two, like what's the what's the carryover?
00:09:53
Speaker
what's What's connecting the two that you, love how do you describe your love for the Phillip brothers? So I think if I had to find general trends in their two horror films to date, I think you'd You know, you could have your criticisms that it's too in vogue right now, but I think they are going for what we like to call like elevated horror, which means.
Elevated Horror Approach
00:10:14
Speaker
This isn't slasher cheap kills, jump scares over the top CGI effects, but instead it's usually building a lot of dread through past trauma for some truly scary moments. Like they are really taking a swing for the fence in that we want to scare our audience.
00:10:31
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of ways you do that. just scare, not just scare, fill you with dread, like you said. It's like this poison pill. that That lasting scare, too, where it's not the jump scare that makes you jump quickly, but you see something that you truly struggle with and and you have to grapple with later. And so they like that.
00:10:46
Speaker
But I think where there's nuance here with them, as opposed to, you know, you think of your other big elevated horror films in the past decade, Hereditary, obviously, being my favorite. The Phil Foo's...
00:10:57
Speaker
They like to intermix some pop culture, some brevity, some, some relief from the sense of dread. And they do this with a lot of times like music beat music. Yes, exactly. You, this film opens, I think with empire of the sun blaring.
00:11:12
Speaker
And I love that. I think good pacing like that in horror films always makes it enjoyable to, to catch your breath real quick before you dive back into the nightmare.
Personal Impact of 'Bring Her Back'
00:11:22
Speaker
um So I think they do that really well.
00:11:24
Speaker
um And, and, I did like talk to me a little better than this film, but maybe that's because that was so out of left field and their first debut where I now have a much higher bar in my head for what I was holding the second film to, but I still think it delivered. I think it was really good.
00:11:39
Speaker
So I, you, you talk about having that lingering dread. i and there was only a few films in my life where, I just felt like, man, I feel like shit after this.
00:11:51
Speaker
Like, I just don't, I just don't feel good. and And not because the movie was bad, but because the movie put horrible images in my head or made me think about my own life. So, uh, unlike you, I don't have kids, but I have often thought about the prospect of having kids.
00:12:07
Speaker
And this movie didn't help with that. When all the baggage that comes children and, and how you can fuck up their lives so easily and how ah it just made me not feel good about the human condition whatsoever.
00:12:25
Speaker
And I'm still, and I want to talk about it with you about this because like, I'm at the point where I can recognize that it was very successful in building. In both films, I'll say this.
00:12:37
Speaker
Where they get me is they're masters of tonality. Like, they use lighting, ah color palettes, sound design incredibly and scary images mainly with the eyes and like and like sensitive parts of your body your face like gorgeous like and not quick splatter stuff but like let's really show you things that you don't want to see or feel or emulate i think that There's very few movies that made me feel the way this movie makes me feel, made me felt, especially coming home by myself.
00:13:15
Speaker
i just I just moved, I'm house-sitting for somebody for the summer and it's a big house and I didn't want to sleep or couldn't sleep. So that's... That's a testament. Because I see a lot of, we both see a lot of horror films and this was like, made me feel fucking weird There's different sub genres of horror, right? But this is truly a scary film.
00:13:32
Speaker
That's what they're going for. This isn't satire. This isn't, you know, we'll talk about Final Destination soon. Love those movies. Very gory, over the top kill sequences, but you don't, it's, this sounds morbid, but it is more, those are more fun films. This is truly going to scare you.
00:13:49
Speaker
Um,
Rookie Actors' Performances
00:13:50
Speaker
so, so yeah, they brought back a lot of their crew. Um, we've talked a bit about them. I think the other really cool thing with the Phillip who brothers is they may talk to me. That movie is primarily a cast that are younger adults, teenagers, and who are complete unknowns. Again, they don't have a big budget. They, think had a budget like four and a half million dollars for talk to me.
00:14:10
Speaker
Um, and so they get a lot of actors who don't have experience. Yeah. You know, it's elevated horror, so you need to show a lot of depth, range of emotion, personal transformation. These aren't paper thin characters, but deep. And they did that really well with who they cast in the first film.
00:14:27
Speaker
I think once again, they did that here and bring her back where besides Sally Hawkins, which we could talk about her right after this, because she's a very interesting casting addition. But the other leads are the brother and sister.
00:14:40
Speaker
And then the the other boy, Ollie's at the home. And all three of them are very much, two of them, it was pretty much their rookie film debut. And then the brother who plays Andy, I think he's had a few small roles to date. But these are,
00:14:52
Speaker
very inexperienced actors. They're not bringing in big name people who, who have to carry the weight of very deep parts of going through this grief because that the film doesn't work without, without seeing them realistically having to deal with the death of their father and then adjusting to this new normal.
00:15:08
Speaker
and And so I think it's kudos to them that they're able to get these rookie child actors, essentially, or teenager actors and, and find success with them. So I think you have to, especially with these, these guys movies, you have to have talent that can like handle a script like this, because what it asks, it asks them to make a lot of choices, you know, whether it means like being scared or being scary in terms of Ollie, yeah it's a lot, that's a lot of work.
00:15:36
Speaker
Um, I do want to touch on though, like where my hesitation is to be as enthusiastic about the film as you are. Um, and I can break it down to as best I can, but like clearly from talk to me, you can, I mean, like you said, elevated horror and, you know, films, horror films that like use trauma or grief as an allegory or as a inciting incident that then we like you that is the inciting incident that then we just try to grapple with the whole time.
00:16:07
Speaker
Some of these movies suck. Some of them are amazing. One of them is your favorite horror film of all time, hereditary, which I think does it the best. Um, I don't think i don't think top Talk To Me fumbled the bag or anything. I just think it was like anything innovative, anything like supremely innovative.
00:16:23
Speaker
And I think the same thing to bring her back. I don't think they're doing anything that new, which isn't a huge problem to me. Like ah movie doesn't have to be groundbreaking. You know, we've talked about this off mic. yeah could just If it could do a thing well, what I'm now struggling with, and this is at the heart of how I felt when I was watching it. And I've seen now that a lot of people online, and what i'm sorry, i don't want to make generalizations.
00:16:45
Speaker
Because what does a lot of people online mean anymore? like i I liked like eight – People are saying. People are saying. No, there was like eight or nine reviews that I then liked on Letterboxd that tapped into – Now, their review was way more incendiary than mine was. I gave it like three out of five. I really liked it or I should say liked it.
Critiques on Trauma Usage
00:17:03
Speaker
um There are some people who they're saying things in a way that like – They're just talking about how it's depravity for depravity's sake. That it's about grief, trauma, and abuse, and that's it. There's no investigation of it. It's just like, hey, look at how fucked up this is.
00:17:20
Speaker
Isn't it fucked up? Look at it. And like there's not a lot of gravity when it comes to like what is it what is it interrogating? Is it asking us questions about these shameful, depraved things we're seeing? Or is it just using it as ah shocking thing?
00:17:33
Speaker
And it and and i'm I'm struggling, Travis, because You know me, like I try to find... Art is a very weird thing. When we try to like rank things in art, it's like, well, there's but it's all subjective, right?
00:17:46
Speaker
But the the part of me that wants to give it more grace, this film, is that the very fact that I told you how I felt about it on the drive home and I was just sick and I was just like, wow, this...
00:17:59
Speaker
for that very reason that, that, that has to be an effective movie, right? I don't know if we're leaning now into ethics or philosophy though, when I really drill down and think about what it's trying to say, I'm not sure what it's trying to say other than like, I don't think every movie needs to be Aesop fable where you walk away feeling enlightened. You, you, you watch shoot them up action thrillers. I don't think there's always some moral imperative that that's trying to convey, right? I don't necessarily think- But and but there's a difference between being a big fable and like, and like but what what did you think the film was delivering or trying to do and did it do it successfully other than just creating this like suffocating, close and personal, like,
00:18:44
Speaker
Everything was just so, this is horrible and I'm going to make it horrible and it's I'm going to make this hard for you to watch. To what end? Other than just, hey, you're in a horror film, so we want to make you uncomfortable.
00:18:56
Speaker
Yeah, I You know, I could grapple with that a bit. I'm not certain. Again, i think a good scary film is going to make you feel pretty down at the end.
00:19:08
Speaker
um You are seeing, because, you know, life's not all roses, right?
Originality in Horror Tropes
00:19:14
Speaker
You are seeing selfish decisions by characters who have been through something traumatic, but that is that is part of life. And I don't know. I don't hold it against the film as much. i do like can see where you're coming from maybe on the trope of...
00:19:29
Speaker
past trauma and grief really being mainframe to these elevated horror films. But I also think you can always iterate a bit on that and show in a bit different light. I still felt like there's enough originality with this film.
00:19:40
Speaker
But I but i think i do want to... I guess what i'm saying. If you're going to show like straight up child abuse, which is let's be real, like there's gratuitous amounts of it on on screen.
00:19:52
Speaker
I needed a bit more... ah context answers about these this cult that's involved in these videos they're watching.
Success Metrics in Horror Films
00:20:00
Speaker
If there had been a bit more philosophical untangling of that and reasoning other than like this woman is just unhinged, yeah and would have I would have been able to like grapple with this more. It was just kind of like, hey, here's all this horrible shit that happened and we're going use you as a punching bag audience.
00:20:15
Speaker
And again, that's where I go back to. If you could do it effectively and make someone feel like, oh my God, I'm so scared and I don't like this, that's successful. But to what end? As a film, I don't know if I appreciate as much as I did as an experience. Okay.
Sally Hawkins as Villain
00:20:30
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, that's fair. right. I want to keep moving this along though. so i I do want to talk about casting real quick too specifically. um So unlike talk to me, they have a bigger budget here. They have $15 million. dollars They use some of that money. I'm sure for the set at this awesome house that they film a lot of the movie and for the effects, the larger crew, but part of it had to go, they got a decently big star, but um helping lead this movie and sally hawkins most famous for she was the lead role in the academy award winning ah film for best film of the shape of water yeah how did you so yeah so i guess i want to talk about sally hawkins you know my relationship bring her back yeah i want to talk about her and bring her back but before we do shape of water this is a best picture winner so i have for you rick um i thought this would be fun we're gonna play the game marry fuck kill
00:21:20
Speaker
with three best picture winners from 2020. And I want you to tell me which you will marry, which you will sleep with, which you will kill. We're going to it with the shape of water. I'm going marry the film or the person in it? yeah The film itself. You got to choose and separate for these three.
00:21:34
Speaker
You get to choose between the shape of water, crash, and nomad land. Those are the three best picture winners I'm giving you in the last 25 years. Who are you going to marry? you going to sleep with? who I never saw, just ah as a disclaimer, Nomadland is one one of two best picture winners I haven't seen in the last 20 years.
00:21:53
Speaker
But, ah so I'll have to say, but between, I already know I'm going to marry it. I already know I'm going to marry. um Here's the thing.
00:22:04
Speaker
I'm going to fuck Crash. who are you killing? I'm fuck um fucking Crash, for sure. I'm with you. There's some hot actors and actresses in there. It's kind of all over the place. I think like in 20 years, people are going to reclaim it. Cause it's just, yeah it gets shat on all the time. yeah I also have a personal connection with it because I did work for the, one of the producers who got an Oscar for that film. And like, I always felt bad walking by her office. Cause she's like, has the Oscar display, but not as prominently as you think somebody might, because maybe I'll, and that was my and in my head cannon, like, is she kind of hiding it because of ah all that shit?
00:22:37
Speaker
so I'm going to fuck crash. Um, Who is it? Is it Thandie Newton that's in there too? Thandie Newton's in there. Matt Dillon. Matt Dillon's looking real quick. Brendan Fraser. Oh, yeah. You have a great cast. Free Whale, Brendan Fraser.
00:22:51
Speaker
you I'm going to annihilate Shape of Water. I think that is an abhorrent film. yeah I think it has no business being inexistent at all. In my opinion, that movie is about... Zacchiano Del Toro.
00:23:03
Speaker
It is. And I like my boy, del toro he's he's a such a a gift to film and a treasure that we should all keep alive as long as we can. But anyway, so that's Sally Hawkins. That is the big name. She's been in but um the wonderful films as well.
00:23:17
Speaker
um
Humorous Game and Sally Hawkins
00:23:18
Speaker
But they bring her in. And i I actually think she did a really good job in bring her back. She is, again, the um the foster mother who takes in Andy and Piper, the brother and sister, brother and sister.
00:23:30
Speaker
um And I think she is wonderful. She's kind of the villain of the film. And I don't think that spoils too much. And I think she was great in that role. I feel like she's going to get a little, she's going to get some, some non Oscar awards group is going to give her some love, whether it's the globe or whether it's the critics choice as some, somebody is going to give her like definitely the horror, you know, the,
00:23:52
Speaker
the ah all the horror little festivals yes recognize her. But I think she's going to break out of that and there's going to be a bit of a... Because it's amazing. i mean she's i Just like the film made me very uncomfortable physically, i don't think I've ever hated a character.
00:24:07
Speaker
And when I say that, I mean that's complimentary. like she Her gaslighting and... Here's the, okay, this is a, you'll appreciate this. Um, you know, the app run pee that I use. Yes. Okay. Tell you when to take the best pee break during a film.
00:24:24
Speaker
Well, the CEO, Dan or whatever his name is, he's such, he's such a hero. However, he could not get a run pee time in yet. Cause I saw this on a, I think I saw this on a Thursday, right?
00:24:34
Speaker
Did I see this on a Thursday preview? Um, he would He had not gotten his run pee times in yet. So I had to get just kind of like use my best judgment um of when to go.
00:24:44
Speaker
actually you always have to pee during a film? yeah actually I held it. It's only 90 minutes long or 100 minutes long? No, that's why i'm I'm backing up here. That's not what happened. What happened was I was running late.
00:24:56
Speaker
Very late. And so what I did was when I was when i realized that I was going to miss about the first five minutes of the film factoring in trailers, I pulled up the film ah on my phone through a means which we will not advertise on here, but there is a way maybe to find a horribly transfer of that film. So I'm like, I watched, AKA watched, like had it playing as I was driving, like the first like 10 minutes.
00:25:24
Speaker
While you're peeing, okay. No, no, not while I'm peeing. I'm saying I was late. Yes, but where were you watching it? You were just walking around, like walking into the theater while watching the phone?
00:25:37
Speaker
I had it on as I was driving, and then I got to the movie theater. So you illegally streamed something while you – and then were trying to watch it while driving is what you're – Well, it was just to the side. i just It was just kind of off to the side. What I'm trying to say is I thought that I had watched the whole first 10 minutes of – but I didn't. I watched the first eight.
00:25:58
Speaker
And then when I got in and there was two minutes that I missed and I found out when I got home, I watched those two minutes. I didn't know that she was a former child psychologist. wow I was like, how is this woman? I knew she worked at that place. I knew she worked.
00:26:10
Speaker
They're like, we know her, blah, blah, blah. But now all the gaslighting and manipulation and pain transference and just, just all that. And I also figured out and not until later that,
00:26:23
Speaker
all the brother needed. He wanted guardianship of the girl. Oh man, you're missing some key pop points. Okay. So we'll, we'll get into that here in a minute, but I i got to ask you about one other actor, Jonah run Phillips. He plays the role of Ollie, who is again, we're starting to get light spoilers here, but I think a lot of this is presented the trailers and we'll go full, full spoilers. Another minute.
00:26:46
Speaker
There's something wrong with them. He's clearly possessed demonic. Um, So his role in the movie, I just have to ask you, I found him incredibly scary.
00:26:57
Speaker
Where does he rank in your list of scariest children in horror films of all time? Okay. And I have, I have a few nominees for you. hell are You did not ask me about this list. I'm surprised you.
00:27:10
Speaker
So here's, here's my short list of scary children. You got the Exorcist. This sounds like a rhetorical question. You got the Exorcist. Well, want you to choose from this and tell me where he ranks from from this movie and bring her back.
00:27:23
Speaker
You got the Daughter and the Exorcist, the Sun and the Omen, You could go with any of the children in children of the corn. Um, the daughter who also goes through the foster system and gets adopted in the orphan or the, depending on which version you watch the kid who gets brought back from the dead in pet cemetery.
00:27:42
Speaker
I think, are there any others of really creepy children and horror films? Anyone you got, I mean, I guess Chucky's a doll. Yeah. Um, There's ah the the the blinding light that is one on that list that I don't think anybody can surpass. I mean, you got to go with Reagan from Exorcist. From The Exorcist? Yeah, I mean, that's just like iconic. So where does Jonah run Phillips? I think that's the right take. Where where does Jonah run Phillips? but Is he on the Mount Rushmore at least? No, I don't think... Top three, top four? I don't like doing Mount Rushmore for a movie that just released. We got to see how this thing sits and lingers.
00:28:16
Speaker
I thought he was pretty damn scary. think Jonah did an incredible job Does the film around him lend itself to being canonized in the annals of horror film? I don't know. But I do know that this kid better get more work, hopefully in horror film. Did you find him scarier than the children of the original Children in the Quarant?
00:28:35
Speaker
Dude, those kids were... Those kids suck, dude. The answer is yes. The answer is yes. Okay, so he's scarier than them. Okay. yes So we get a win there. Okay, cool. Let's move on.
00:28:45
Speaker
Unless you have anything else on the cast. Wait, you're not going to give McNeil from Hereditary a little shout out? I mean... Oh my God, I missed a huge one. Yes. Yeah, that's your beloved. The daughter from Hereditary. She... Oh man, the...
00:28:59
Speaker
So i was i was i was toxic I was talking with Blue. And then another, sorry, real quick, another one of your favorites, they don't have a lot of screen time, but the Twins and The Shining are pretty fucked up too.
00:29:10
Speaker
That's true. Yeah, yeah. As moments. Talking to our mutual friend, Blue, and and you know hopefully we'll have him on the pod one of these days if this becomes a pod. ah And the he was like, you know, what makes a great horror film is when when a director or a soundist, they find a sound that they can keep going back to, you know? Yeah. A sound that can linger.
00:29:32
Speaker
And I thought immediately of Hereditary. Yeah. like that that con of That is They made a just normal sound become so creepy thanks to their... Well, yeah, because you just see her you see her doing it and something's wrong. and um So, yeah, I was like, that that she helped. Okay, yeah, she's scary. You're right.
00:29:53
Speaker
Okay, let's move into... So we're going to move to our categories now. So for our listeners, this is where we're we'll go full on spoilers. So if you haven't seen the film yet, um I think we're going to start off right away with...
00:30:04
Speaker
Highlights from the movies. We're talking about the best scenes or set pieces. Rick, i here's my short list. Again, I'm going to bring it up and you tell me if I'm missing anything when you add to it. I got five for you.
00:30:15
Speaker
So one is what you might have missed part of, but the film opens on this VHS tape of a ritual. It actually cuts to it a few times throughout the film. so actually probably had a scarier version than you because I saw a snuff VHS film on a rip off film of the movie and with a video camera, like I probably saw it in a more snuff situation.
00:30:40
Speaker
You were watching on a device of them filming on a device within a movie. Um, so here you see people actually practicing this ritual, which will, I do want to talk about the ritual a lot more, but right now for highlights, um, they they're essentially murdering one, one girl to bring to life another.
00:30:57
Speaker
And in classic,
Shocking Scene with Laura and Andy
00:30:59
Speaker
you know, VHS found footage style, the camera's shaky. It goes to, what do you call it? To snow or blanks out a lot of times and skips. So that's one.
00:31:09
Speaker
Number two, um this is a full set piece. By the way, this is, you we're doing best scenes or best scare? Best scenes. Highlight of the movie. Best scene or set piece. Number two would be um right after their dad's memorial that Laura's brought them to. She brings them home.
00:31:25
Speaker
And she asks Andy what he likes to do for fun. And he says, getting hammered. So she says, okay, let's do it. And it's the whole set piece. This is one of the high points of the film, I'd say, or again, where the Philippou brothers give you a bit of a break as you see them, you know, drinking, even Piper, they let drink, which is very questionable. I think she's 12 years old.
00:31:44
Speaker
But I think it's offend think it's in, I think it's in theme with this woman who's making questionable decisions. Exactly. Exactly. Because I too was like, what is, what is happening? But, oh yeah. Yeah. They're playing drinking games. They're doing like, what are the odds? um They start singing. There's a montage of a sing along.
00:32:00
Speaker
um And then as Piper passes out, you know, this is a long set piece. It goes to Andy and Laura doing this back to back kind of grief counseling and asking you more intimate questions where she, yeah she finds out more about him that she leverages against him later in the film.
00:32:12
Speaker
And then it concludes with you find Sally Hawkins squatting, pulling down her underwear and ping in a cup. that she then sneaks into Andy's room and pours all over him. And you find out that she is the culprit pouring piss onto him every single night in the middle of the night while he sleeps so that he would wake up and think he is wetting the bed.
00:32:33
Speaker
And so that is one long set piece, but that's definitely a contender for me. Travis, have to mention a letterboxd review that I just absolutely loved. it was a from Connor, and he said, pissing someone else's pants is diabolical.
00:32:48
Speaker
That's all mess it I I don't think I've seen that in movie before when I saw that. I have not. What way to paint Laura as absolutely insane. i knew i know that I know that like, and again, the drippy kind of dramatic trauma ah trauma discourse in this movie is not going to be one of my highlights because that's where i think the film falters.
00:33:10
Speaker
But I needed to find a way to award the concept of this pissing somebody, like using your own urine to make somebody else think that they piss their pants. Yeah. So I don't know if you've rounded out the five, but like I'm already going to say – because i also I think it was between that or the really creepy, ah you know eyes wide shut slash hereditary slash ritualistic cult-like found snuff footage movie.
00:33:38
Speaker
It was between that because that – Yeah, well, those are two. I have three more if you want me to keep going. Oh, you only did two? I've only said two. So these are longer scene set pieces. i got three more that I think. So i go this one, this one, you know, it it probably wins the movie, but it might win some other categories
Terrifying Melon Scene
00:33:55
Speaker
as well.
00:33:55
Speaker
But of course the next scene then is with Piper and Laura out of the home. And Andy offers to give Ollie a bite of cantaloupe or a melon on a knife. And that scene of... Can I pause you real fast here? Yeah.
00:34:10
Speaker
We're going to get into some weird overlap territory, though, because yeah to me, that's... I almost feel like... Let's table it. I'm fine. let's say Let's pick from the others because we have a lot to talk about that scene specifically. um Two more.
00:34:22
Speaker
One is when, um you know, Andy's of the house. He's at the um foster care center, I think, because Laura's kind of pushed him out. Piper's playing some awesome form of dodgeball, which I would love to talk about more as well.
00:34:35
Speaker
um Laura returns to the home and Ollie is making a huge mess. He is bloated and deformed and he attacks Laura. he He's eating his own flesh.
00:34:45
Speaker
He bites her and that entire set piece. Things aren't doing great. Or the last one I have for you is, and again, this is gonna a little overlap here, but, um, when they discover Andy and i think her name is Wendy, the foster care administrator discover Ollie eating Kathy's frozen corpse.
00:35:09
Speaker
Kathy is Laura's um daughter. They realize something is not right. They tried to run out of there and then out of nowhere, you see Laura come through in her.
00:35:21
Speaker
Fuck. What was that? Like some SUV and just plows through them like a quick cut of her accelerating and taking them down. um So those are my five. So again, VHS ritual tape.
00:35:34
Speaker
Well, I guess four. I was nice hearkened back. Ritual memorial and sing along into ping. um when Ollie attacks Laura eats his own flesh or Laura just driving her SUV through Wendy and Andy.
00:35:48
Speaker
So I was harking back to the Raka Raka videos of old because I did do a little bit you watch them? Okay. Oh yeah. Have you seen them? No, I haven't. I didn didn't know you were watching them. i I finally get, I mean, at first blush, you're like, what is this?
00:36:04
Speaker
These are- They basically are like elaborate scripted pranksters. Like they'll have scenarios and really wild scenarios. Like one is like ah these guys go into a supermarket or whatever and they they're demanding money from the cash register. And then like all of a sudden it's a big food fight.
00:36:21
Speaker
in the thing and it's it's filmed very chaotically and it's very violent. Like they're throwing Dippin' Dots at each other and somebody's like slamming somebody's face into like really sharp parts of the the store. There's another one they have where like Ronald McDonald comes in to a Burger King or like a KFC or something and just brutally murders everybody in there and the like the staff is mainly women.
00:36:44
Speaker
And, like, he's, like, throwing their heads into, like, deep fryers like, fucking punching them. And, like, there's a very, like... It's very like post. And this is what made them famous. This was like their first. This is like, it's like extreme Australian wild ass antics.
00:37:00
Speaker
But, yeah but the fight choreography and like the bizarre wild nature of how they cap. I mean, these guys are, these guys are pranksters. They're wild. If you see them in interviews, like they're very energetic.
00:37:11
Speaker
And so I think there was a big confusion when they went to the very somber filmmaking. Yeah. But the reason I say all that is is that that scene where the when Wendy and Andy just get fucking plowed by the car and it's a quick cut with some actually pretty good comedic timing despite the yeah horrific aftermath, I did feel like ah that was a rock-a-rock-a It was awesome that that shot, because the car is coming at you and it plows directly through Wendy direct hits. Then Wendy's corpse or body or dummy that they used for her is coming right at the camera.
00:37:46
Speaker
And that's such a cool shot. let's Before I get my answer from what I think is the best scene. have a quick question for you. Yeah. Did it, and maybe it, maybe I'll leave this for a dull knife award, but did you think that Andy was dead?
00:38:02
Speaker
Are you asking me, did I think he was dead when the car drove through him or after she drowned him? When she was drowning him, did you think he was going to die from this? i I didn't know which way they were going to go.
00:38:13
Speaker
And that's why i kind of liked it. because he's i mean I was shocked i fact that he died. because i think i think and and and And maybe it's not a dull knife award. Maybe it's more so like... Because was going to say, can you really, I held my breath as i as I usually do. When I see somebody getting drowned in a movie or they have to be underwater, I hold my breath at the same amount of time.
00:38:32
Speaker
And it wasn't a long time, but I was like, ah, but he's also like hyperventilating and he probably. And he did just get hit by a car. I didn't think about the bio internal energy. Yeah, that was, it was a slow, I mean, quick for drowning, but it was interesting. You had this quick cut of Wendy just getting absolutely obliterated and then a much slower gas fell off for him right right then.
00:38:54
Speaker
Um, so my favorite trap, I know I was earlier talking about the urine scene. I think I like that more as a concept. I want to go with what ultimately what I wish the movie was more about, but is also an amazing scene, uh, is that opening of like, just this, like things are off, off frame and they're all.
00:39:16
Speaker
The found footage. Yes. okay I love the found. I feel like in itself, do you, i feel like in itself be of of do you of uh of found of this whatever this was you know the pot-bellied guy as well as all those other actors i heard i heard this um elsewhere as well on another podcast those were all the demons or undead from um from talk to me from their first film they called them back all those minor roles and so that's that was pretty cool but um yeah i like that film i I think I have to go with the the celebratory night, the one kind of high point where you think, hey, maybe this family is going to come together.
00:39:51
Speaker
That quickly turns south when you see Sally Hawkins, her character, Laura, squatting and peeing and then pouring it on Andy, which is the big reveal that he, no, he has not been peeing his own pants.
00:40:02
Speaker
She has been peeing and just pouring her out the water. Travis, isn't that an average night at the Sig Epp house when you live there? Just having played, playing a- Maybe she was just a prankster. Playing what is it, have you ever or whatever, and then waking up with sleepwalkers piss all over the other day. It wasn't his piss.
00:40:21
Speaker
All right. Best scare. let's where And I think this is the scene we didn't want to talk about already because i I think there's just one scene that stands out here. Now, and unless you think of others. When you say scare, do you mean specifically a jump scene that like gets you out of your seat or just like a spooky part of the movie?
00:40:40
Speaker
Yeah. usually this is more there has to be some shock value but i would argue this scene still had that shock value because of the way it is shot let's combine this let's combine don't know if you have how many you have for each of these next two categories but i only have one i only have one that's all we need honestly Yeah, so we're we're in agreement. Okay. So this is when I think it's it's the part of the movie that I keep returning to. Yes.
00:41:06
Speaker
you see Andy and Ollie alone at the house. He offers Ollie some of the melon he's cutting up and he offers it to him at the tip of a ah large carving knife, a large carving knife for the fruit.
00:41:19
Speaker
And first off, Andy grabs the knife itself. And you hear Andy say like, oh buddy, like don't grab it too tight, which all he clearly is, um, the kid's not all right.
00:41:30
Speaker
But then the camera follows Andy while he turns, turns his back on Ollie ever. So I'm watching I'm watching it again right now. And then the cut comes right back to Ollie.
00:41:40
Speaker
And this is something else that Phillip Poo brothers do really well. The audio, the, uh, what do you call The fully artists as you hear, very loudly, like an over-exaggerated sound, and you see a close-up of Ollie chewing through the melon directly onto the knife and starting to mutilate his gums. And it is you know straight straight up and down. it is not a flat blade, but the that knife edge is going right into his top gums.
00:42:06
Speaker
And you quickly see that, and you realize the horror,
Impact of Body Horror
00:42:09
Speaker
and as does Andy in the film, who yells at him to stop. And that was... It was a type of... body horror or physical discomfort that I haven't seen done before in a film.
00:42:20
Speaker
I think they truly found something novel here and it was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. And as Andy tries to get him to stop, he only chews with more ferocity, with more intensity. He's determined to chomp steel here.
00:42:35
Speaker
absolutely determined. Uh, I just, we have, we have consent there. unanimous agreement. No, we always have consent, Travis, unlike your Sally Hawkins and shape of water.
00:42:46
Speaker
Uh, we have consent to us that that is easily uh, watch through your fingers. Can't yeah want to look away. i want to talk about this scene for a second for the same reasons you do.
00:42:59
Speaker
um you know i don't know if other people have had this fear but when i was younger i always had this fear that like when i was drinking out of the walk the drinking fountain at school that somebody's going to come back and like slam my head into the drinking fountain and just mess up all my teeth i think teeth in our dreams you know whenever you dream about losing your teeth um it's usually a sign that you're worried about a loss or change of something quite permanent or serious because once you lose your baby teeth and then you have adult teeth you can't get these fuckers back like everybody getting veneers and stuff like that's fine but like you're never going to get your real teeth back and so i i don't know why i don't know if i'm i'm ah and a minority here or if the philippo brothers know that like this is something that we all kind of have the ick about but like
00:43:48
Speaker
mutilating a part of your body that you know is going to be forever deformed is is a type of terror and gruesomeness that like really sits the bottom of my belly. And I could feel that fucking blade going through my front teeth and up to the gum and he's just chomping.
00:44:06
Speaker
And yeah, the sound design, it just, for me, he pressed on something that I like, It was super effective. Super, super. I agree. And I think it's, I think it wins both the categories. Our next is watching through your fingers. so I literally did. It's not necessarily just care, but when you know something horrible is going to happen or you, you can't, you you have to watch, but at the same time, you can't.
00:44:30
Speaker
um And so you're covering your your eyes with your fingers. And I think this was so effective because it's the initial shock of what he's doing. But then he keeps all he keeps chewing on the knife.
00:44:42
Speaker
And that's where now you've been scared. And now you are terrified and you are trying to cover your eyes, cover your ears, because visually audibly they portray this so well. You're right. You're right. you see that makes the movie mean I think you're hitting on something they do really well, which is like they don't just gross you out.
00:45:00
Speaker
they they take a gross, horrible looking thing and then add terror to it because he's doing something so inhuman. Like doing something that only an animal, or not even an animal, like yeah a demonically possessed person would do.
00:45:13
Speaker
So I think that's why it's so effective. it's because it's like, if you just accidentally chomped on that and he's bleeding everywhere, yeah, looks gross, but he's doing something insane. And we have to sit there and watch and you don't look away. This, this movie takes a lens and like makes you watch it.
00:45:29
Speaker
Again, for better, for worse is horrible to
Limited Deaths and Shocking Scene
00:45:32
Speaker
watch. It makes you feel like dog shit, but it's, they do it a good job at it. Yeah. um Okay. We're going to move on to best death.
00:45:41
Speaker
um You know, there's actually only three deaths in the movie for a horror film. um There's their dad dying at the very beginning. And then there is in very quick succession. i i I don't think he did. i had to read the production notes and in it wasn't that well portrayed or or maybe I missed it. Right. not the sharpest a tool in the box.
00:46:05
Speaker
Sharpest crayon in the box. Can't even get the quote right. Or man in the closet. Apparently he was, he was dealing with cancer illness and, and it had overcome and he died because of it during like,
00:46:19
Speaker
But is it his treatment? Was it self-inflicted? I don't think it was self-inflicted was the point. It truly was an accident. What I was reading again, it's not that clear where you you don't know, um but it's his death, which it is, you know, you, you don't see him die, but you see the aftermath of that and him passed it on the bathroom floor with vomit.
00:46:37
Speaker
A lot of vomit. It was also hanging down. And then you see that the horror movies these days, it's, it's not a good horror movie unless you have at least one dude with his junk out. Like you're, you're going to get full frontal from guys these days because that's when you know they're being serious. Well, it's also like It's the me too for men, like the nineties and two thousands horror movies, a lot of topless, lot of female nudity.
00:47:02
Speaker
And now, now we're a little more sophisticated, right? It's me too. from men i want I want you to, so so we're, we're getting a lot of full frontal from the, from the men. So are you saying that these men are undergoing pressure by high powered executives to show body parts and that we're going to have ah revolution and hopefully I'm just saying,
00:47:21
Speaker
male hanging hanging dong in horror films was repressed for a lot longer than needed to be i don't want to point fingers name names i don't know who was putting that downward pressure on it but now there's a lot more freedom to are you saying it's a reaction to me too because we we were clearly treating women a certain way that shouldn't have been and so the response the rubber band effect is instead of sexualizing women we're just gonna like hang dong everywhere That's but what a good point. What a gift.
00:47:49
Speaker
What a gift to these women. Instead of humanizing the woman, men we're just like, all right, we'll get naked too. Right. Zero sum game here, guys. we're not going to let you cover up. We're just taking ours out. We're not going to sell these court cases or give you what you need. We're going to hang on. It's death at the beginning and then just the two deaths near the end of the film in quick succession of Wendy getting ran through by the car and then Andy getting drowned.
00:48:09
Speaker
So for me, it's a really clear choice for what is best death. I'm curious which you thought the most entertaining one was. I mean, it's Wendy and Annie just getting yeah rocked by a suburban. It's that.
00:48:22
Speaker
It's that. Especially, i mean, I guess Wendy dies directly from that. So it's that cut. um I think we were going to do a cannon fodder award for best just like out of nowhere kill. And that that's it as well. or Oh, yeah yeah. less important character kill. and a fodder meaning like They're just there die.
00:48:35
Speaker
they're just there to die They're just there to get killed. Wendy you would technically win that award because Andy dies for much larger reason, yeah which I do. Maybe we should answer that another time. but like Why do you think... Why die? Why why have Andy die?
00:48:48
Speaker
yeah This is where it gets back to like showing despair for no other reason and except to inflict pain on the audience. because I don't think there was a real narrative reason that he died other than just like, well, life is horrible.
00:49:00
Speaker
I'll i I do want to get to some of the narrative points with the Andy, because I agree with you there. um But let's let's table that momentarily in for the sake of time, because this has taken almost over an hour here. so um So next award, don't go in there, Ward. So this is just a ah poor judgment by character here. they They've made a choice that I think a reasonable human wouldn't always make.
00:49:25
Speaker
I have won. But it wasn't that big. i had to reach for it a bit. So I'm just curious. Did you have anything jumping off the page for you? No. prayer So the only one I had is, um so Piper is playing dodgeball. She is out of the home when Wendy and Andy come, discover what Laura's up to with Ollie, find Ollie eating ah Kathy's face, and then Laura kills them. She murders them, runs them through with her car, drowns Andy.
00:49:51
Speaker
She knows she needs to go get Laura now before the authorities get onto her. So she has to clean up quickly, I guess is the thought, or Laura has to go pick up Piper. She has to clean up quickly before she gets her and picks her up from dodgeball.
Horror Logic in Body Disposal
00:50:04
Speaker
But for whatever reason, she brings the bodies inside, but she left Wendy's body just on the living room floor and then put Andy on the bathroom floor. And I know, I know Piper is visually impaired near blind.
00:50:16
Speaker
i If you were going to take a minute to move the bodies, maybe, maybe a bit more out of the way than like the living room floor and the bathroom floor. Yeah. In the nicest way possible, ah that's a lot of dead weight for Wendy.
00:50:29
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Wendy wendy miss daily wait wasn't missing meals. She could even left. i mean, like, why even move her out? Like, just throw her in the pool or something at that point. Like, you had to bring her in the house. And then the most common area of the home is where you thought you could have her while still keeping up the ploy with Piper that everything's A-OK. Yeah.
00:50:48
Speaker
For somebody who's plays 4d chess with these kids, it wasn't a good strategic, not a good move. Yeah. So I did have to reach a bit for that one, but that one made me chuckle. Um, okay. Last, yeah, that was it. Last awards here. We're getting to, um, best line, best quote from the movie. Did you have, uh, I'll let you start again.
00:51:06
Speaker
Did you have any of that you really liked? Um, I, What does she say at the very end about ah trying to justify – she's screaming at Wendy, and she's just like, I'm doing – it's almost like a Tim Robinson, I'm doing something.
00:51:25
Speaker
like let me do this or whatever. it was just – I can't remember the quote exactly, but i remember the energy, which was just like she was desperately – she knew that Wendy was like – uh being very suspicious yes she's like i think and that's where she i think she name drops the movie but she's like i could bring her back yes yes yes so i can bring her back i and ah you know i was like leo in the in that gif where he's like yep right there she said it also mentions talk to me in the movie as well yes i did hear that he it should be a thing they do for every movie they did a fun way because andy says something like
00:51:59
Speaker
I could talk to you or you could talk to me. hey but but i They should do that in each of these somber elevated art house movies. Okay. um okay I had two others. I really liked at the memorial for andy and Piper's dad.
00:52:13
Speaker
when Laura is with Andy saying, Hey, you need to go see your father, but not that part, but when he's actually standing over his dad and she is just like strong man and him strong army. I'm into kiss your dad, Andy, kiss your father.
00:52:27
Speaker
Um, what was that about? Um, you know, I, was really like, but it could be her wrestling with them for control. And, um, but part of it is she's insane.
00:52:40
Speaker
Um, and then the, the other quote of course is, um, after Sally Hawkins, after Laura slaps the shit out of Piper to the child abuse part you were talking about, and then tries to pin it on Andy and they get in a big yelling match in front of Piper.
00:52:54
Speaker
And she goes, Andy, your testosterone levels are out of control. which i love that. Like you've seen him just drinking creatine. Well, I just, I just love it really. The family, the smash, the smash cut to like him just rocking some bench press, drinking some creatine. A lot of,
00:53:09
Speaker
Talking about it, I guess, you know, this gets us right into the last one. So our our last category here, or second to last rather is what we call our dual knives. Not necessarily critiques, but just parts that we could poke a bit of fun at and Yeah.
00:53:23
Speaker
Lifting weights was a very big part of his character that didn't really seem to have any payoff at the end. Similarly to how you brought up Piper's. yeah Yeah. Every movie has to be signs, right? its asthmatic in The and the inhaler saves them at the end. But it was very interesting making these big character points with like... Yeah, it was a little... fu pararamet They didn't tap into that well too much. I think...
00:53:47
Speaker
I think it's one of those things where like you can shoot him as an imposing figure just by the way you shoot it. Like i have an upward angle or have him like yeah show how tall he is.
00:54:00
Speaker
i don't think, I mean, he's a what, a 17 year old kid, pretty good shape. I don't think we had to see him like pumping iron. i don't know. It was, it was a strange choice. and i mean, it's not like it detracted from the movie, but it was just like, what, where, how does this tie in? We know he's a strong boy. He looks like a strong boy. Yeah. Yeah. I thought like, you know, after he gets hit by the car, maybe like he's been physically conditioning his body good enough where he could like still get up and try to save the day or something.
00:54:24
Speaker
I thought it was a horrible point. Travis is going to 24-hour fitness so he can withstand getting a hit by a car. I like this. It's like, have you seen, that you know, dodgeball, right? Like they they condition themselves having wrenches thrown at them and they have to dodge traffic. Speaking of dodgeball. Had been doing that.
00:54:38
Speaker
Speaking of dodgeball. You want talk about dodgeball? I love the dodgeball scene. I hope that's another movie right there. Just like that. um of Piper playing dodgeball. how So that's a real game. And actually it has a name. i looked this up. It's not dodgeball. It's called um
00:54:57
Speaker
Goreball, I think it is. Do know the rules? and I do not know the rules, but that was a fascinating part of the movie. I loved that part. um oh of that it's hard goal it's goal it's goalball goalball thank you not coreball was like that's a medieval sport where people are like just bludgeoning each other i did love to see like piper's character again shout out to oh man what is this rookie actress it is sora wong her first film ever i thought she did great as well goes back to the point i was making earlier with these model young child actors have to convey a lot of emotion and ah
00:55:32
Speaker
express a lot of grief, but you could see that is where she is getting her
Unique Dodgeball Scene
00:55:36
Speaker
anger out. Um, what one other nitpick though? Um, one other nitpick was, let's see here what I wrote down.
00:55:45
Speaker
Oh yeah. So about, about Andy. Yeah. but So, so I guess this goes in line with some of the writing in the direction they were going is, um, this was the biggest one for me.
00:55:57
Speaker
And their father dies and they are talking to Wendy at the foster care system, it is initially determined that Piper would go to live with Laura. And Andy is old enough. He's about to reach 18 where he could just live by himself.
00:56:11
Speaker
And then when he turns 18, get guardianship of Laura. ah Sorry, get guardianship of Piper. Instead, Laura sounds like she changes her mind to let him come there, which as you realize later in the film, though, her whole reasoning was Piper. could Piper was like her daughter, both vision impaired. andwe So the rest of the film is spent of her trying to like get rid of get rid of Andy. like it's It's almost like she's trying to flex on him. Like, all right, you can still come and I'm just going to mentally and physically dominate you.
00:56:44
Speaker
ah Like rub rub salt in the wound. It's ah it's ah great it's a great nitpick because like... So do we go do we know for a fact that it wasn't Wendy who changed her mind? it was Sally Hawkins' character? It's a good point. Yeah, maybe maybe Wendy forced Sally Hawkins' character and that would maybe make a lot more sense. But I was so confused because the I would have thought...
00:57:11
Speaker
well It seemed like Laura really wanted Piper there. And as you learn, for the ritual, um and I would have just thought there had been easier ways for her to accomplish her mission without absolutely flexing on Andy there. We can do a bonus pod that dives into the bureaucracy of the child foster care system and the state-funded just have hole that is this system.
00:57:33
Speaker
A good pairing. so I know one other category, but I'm jumping ahead. We could talk about pairings for this movie. My go-to reaction was... um ah talk to me because that's their other film. and I think they came out within two years of each other.
00:57:45
Speaker
You could also do The Orphan, you know, yeah lead into the foster care system. That's a good, that's a good horror movie pairing there. There's another one that came to mind. i mean, The Omen, just because it's a great scary kid movie. Yeah.
00:57:58
Speaker
I love. Yeah. There's another one. i' I'll have to, i have to tell you off mic because I just remember this other movie being like about, uh, trying to bring somebody back to nefarious means. And it's just like, does it work?
00:58:12
Speaker
It doesn't work. Yeah. Wait. So I want to talk about that real quick. No category here, but before we go into our last one, there's been a lot of horror films to date about, um, about trying to revive someone, bring someone back
Critique of Overcomplicated Ritual
00:58:24
Speaker
from the dead. That's a pretty common trope.
00:58:26
Speaker
I thought this film very interesting because they they go a few layers deeper than that. Because there's also been a few where in order to revive someone, you have to sacrifice a living person to bring someone back from the dead. I've seen that before as well.
00:58:39
Speaker
You trade one life for another. But this one added the third layer, which honestly was a fairly confusing you know ritual and system. Very interesting Then you have to have third person. You have the dead person, you have the living sacrifice, and then you have to have this intermediary, right? so Like you said, bureaucrat.
00:58:57
Speaker
would i ask you about this? To transfer the the soul, I guess, of one person to another. If this was going to work, yeah which I think my biggest nitpick of the entire movie, the entire movie is this.
00:59:11
Speaker
I've already decided that this... this the movie this recently exists is just just like inflict pain on us and make us feel horrible, right? Why not go the full grand slam of that and complete the ritual?
00:59:23
Speaker
Kill, ah what was her name? so ah Laura's character, the daughter? Just do it. Do the whole ritual because like it's everything else. It's all shitty because I just wanted to see how the thing works. does the Does Ollie...
00:59:35
Speaker
get his potbelly all full of like, uh, Kathy's essence and then regurgitates it into, i think that's it. And you do all throw up. I think, you know, it's like, ah he has a load ready to go. And, uh, he does throw up at the end because he can't,
00:59:52
Speaker
Regurgitate it. Can't spit it into her mouth, but it was the ending. Okay. I love this film. Um, the ending fell little flat, but don't you think that not that I want more death, but I will, with this was like a
Narrative Exploration in Ritual
01:00:04
Speaker
darker movie. Yeah. And you see, you see Laura have a shred of humanity as she hears Piper call out mom to her, which i I did love that part, but then what it ends with, because they went that way is.
01:00:18
Speaker
Piper gets away. She's okay. Laura's in the pool. She's okay. Even Oliver, he gets out of the circle that I still don't, again, understand the means of how it works, but he breaks essentially the possession, curse, whatever it was going on. And he even returns to himself at the end.
01:00:34
Speaker
Don't you think they should have just completed the ritual with Piper? Like we've already gone so far. It's like, instead of like ending 75%, like, well go a hundred percent, just, just yeah complete it. Kind of like drag me to hell.
01:00:47
Speaker
Sam Raimi's drag me to hell. have you seen that? Yes. Yeah. Drag a lot of horror films. All the final destinations. close the final destin no travis know it's ah It's a promises made promises kept situation.
01:00:59
Speaker
The movie dragged me to hell is the title. And guess what? That bitch gets dragged to hell. Bring her back. They didn't, they didn't complete the promise. they They didn't bring her back. I want to see her get brought back. So great movie, but i wish, I wish the title, uh, had been fulfilled. Last, last category here. Um,
01:01:17
Speaker
nominating your scream king or queen. This is our MVP of the movie. Who is it for you? All right. This could be cast. This can be crew. Yeah. I mean, this is a, this is an easy, the house, the house is sick and I wish we had more time to talk about it, but the winners of this is it's, it's a tie, but it's between the twins, Danny and Michael Philippou, because to go from creating viral YouTube content,
01:01:44
Speaker
to then going into... i think they went to Norway to make some commercials for a bit. Talk To Me was not their first time on a film set, per se. like They got their there work and their feet under them on on commercials. But then to change their tonality and their sensibilities and to evoke two well-received... And I and don't know if you have the box office reports on how Talk To Me is... Or how Brigham Back's doing, but...
01:02:09
Speaker
It debuted at like, I don't know, around 10, I think, which is not bad for a small budget. yeah It's about at 10 right now. But I guess the word on the street is they sold the international rights already for like 15 million, which essentially recouped their entire budget.
01:02:23
Speaker
So they're they're doing fine. It's going to be another hit. It's definitely in the world. They win the movie because like it's it's always good for the industry that you
Philippou Brothers' Genre Impact
01:02:31
Speaker
have. Like you said earlier, young talent that is attracted to original storytelling and consistency. And I i love that.
01:02:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think it's the Phillip Pooze as well. I, I love what they're able to bring out of every cast member and a lot of these unknowns and even Sally Hawkins. In fact, it, It changed my opinion on Sally Hawkins to a much more positive one.
01:02:50
Speaker
What was it before? Well, again, i even though you're putting me on spot with Shape of Water, that is not a film I enjoy that much. And so I had associated her with that negative connotation too much. And this was a redeeming role. You started as Shape of Water truther.
01:03:04
Speaker
No, I named my three, probably the, not just mine, three most criticized Best Picture winners in the last 25 years. the options that we missed it, okay. um Yeah, okay. Last one, we do end year.
01:03:15
Speaker
We are going to do our Spookies. We'll come awards season March 2024. A lot of different categories there as well where we look across not just this film, but all horror films for 2025.
01:03:27
Speaker
Anything on your shortlist for this movie in particular that you think it should be nominated for? I love that. I love the inaugural Travis Spookies and I'm glad to be part of it as a co-sponsor.
01:03:38
Speaker
um One of your categories is... Is it isn't it just called like watch through your fingers scene or what is it called? Yes, it is the watch through your fingers. Okay. and I'm hereby and I know we made a rule before we started the pod that if we declare a nomination on a pod, we got stick to it.
01:03:54
Speaker
yeah i am so confidently putting the knife scene and watch through your fingers. Yeah, because I'll tell you, ah like I said earlier, it's I don't remember the like I might have been like 1210 years old the last time I actually had to put my hands in front of my face.
01:04:08
Speaker
I just haven't done it in forever. And or that I can't remember. I might have done it a few times, but no, it's it's for sure. that's That's the one. right. I got two. and And maybe I'm going a little too hard because it's our first episode.
01:04:20
Speaker
But again, we we will have to keep these receipts and and stay true to these. um I'm putting in Sally Hawkins out for Scream Queen of the Year. Best leading actress in a horror film. It had to be her squatting over again and peeing. And then the piece up to view she did with Andy's character. That's really what pushed it over the edge.
01:04:38
Speaker
entertaining and I thought she fantastic in this movie. So she's up for that and then really calling a shot here. But again, we're about halfway through the year. So i think it's fair to do this. If we want five to six nominees, I'm giving it a nod nomination for best horror film at 2024.
01:04:54
Speaker
That's how much I liked it. Do we have some music that we can play? So we only have a few cheap. that's a We have limited options on our sound board.
01:05:08
Speaker
But yeah, um I'm going to nominate for Best Horror Film of 2025 thus far. What's our cap? We can have five? Is it is the Oscar awards? I think about six. Yeah, I don't like the new Oscar rules. I do six. not new. At least give us an even number. 2008 was when they expanded its 10.
01:05:22
Speaker
Okay. But i with only 20 or so horror films we've seen this year, I do think we stick to about only five or six. But first episode already giving one a nom for...
Nomination for Best Horror Film
01:05:34
Speaker
best horror film of the year. i like that you're hedging by saying five to six as you ah nominate your first film. It might be five or six. Yeah, now that I nominated that one, we might need five more Okay, screwed up. but we're We're giving it the nod.
01:05:46
Speaker
Anyways, thank you guys. If you made it through this whole episode, this ran about 30 minutes longer than we intended, but we'll keep working on that. Again, this is the Sunday Scaries. I'm Travis Telerik, joined by Ricky Townsend. Thank you guys for listening. saying Oh, and we were going to preview our next episode. yes Rick, what are we, what, if you tune in next week, which movie will we be covering? Next week. You don't have to wait.
01:06:06
Speaker
You don't have to wait 20, 28 weeks. No, not yet. Next episode. What's the one before that one though? 28 days later are going to we're going to be previewing we're going to be doing 28 days later and 28 weeks later as a way to get ourselves and our three listeners hyped for 28 years later which opens June 20th I believe yeah June yeah June 20th so next week we'll do the 28 days 28 weeks I actually thought we were doing final destination bloodlines that's why paused you but I do 28 days 28 weeks maybe we'll see
01:06:42
Speaker
You're right. No, we are doing bloodlines next. You're right. You will be able to hear. we will do both those in very short order. So you will either get us on 28 days and weeks or you'll get us on bloodlines. But hope to have you guys tune in again next week.
01:06:55
Speaker
Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.