Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Azrael
14 Plays2 months ago
Today on These Guys Got Juice, the guys are reviewing Azrael, the latest film from director E.L. Katz. Starring Samara Weaving. (IN THEATERS NOW)
Next Review:
Joker: Folie a Deux
Email us here:
[email protected]
Follow us on Letterboxd
Doug:
https://letterboxd.com/thedouggernaut/
Nick:
https://letterboxd.com/newers93/
And on twitter (never calling it X):
https://x.com/Douggernaut_2
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to 'These Guys Got Juice'
00:00:18
Speaker
I'm Doug Davenport. I'm Nick Ewers. And we're These Guys Got Juice. And we saw Azrael. Picture this. I'm a bag of dicks. Put me to your lips. I am sick. I will punch a baby bear in your shit. Give me lip. I'ma send you to the yard. Get a stick. Make a switch. I can end the conversation real quick.
00:00:38
Speaker
I ain't crack. I ain't like kick a lion in this crack. I'm the shit. I will fall off in your crib. Take a shit. Pinch your mama on the booty. Kick your dog. Fuck your bitch. Fat boy dressed up like he's Santa and took pictures with your kids.
Musical References and Tonal Shifts
00:00:54
Speaker
I thought you were going to keep playing. I should have just done the whole song. It was crazy when they stopped mid movie and then Killer Mike just came out. It was Killer Mike and LP were just like in the movie and they fully performed the song and I was like tonally
00:01:12
Speaker
This is like different from the rest of the movie, but I kind of respect it. But you expect it from E.L. Katz. That's what you go into an E.L. Katz movie wanting is a run the jewels song. Yeah. I mean, you know, like looking at this, haunting a Bligh Manor.
00:01:30
Speaker
Just all the run the jewels that was in that TV show that was a show right not a movie Sorry, I'm just trying these jokes are just so off the cuff. I just can't always keep up with them
00:01:43
Speaker
Mike Flanagan should have Run the Jewels music in his next show or movie, you know what I mean? It's just like something like Somber, like with the same tone as the rest of his stuff where it's like really somber, kind of like a melodrama that happens to have supernatural stuff. And then it's like, run the Jewels back, run the, run the Jewels back, run the, run the...
Exploration of 'Azrael' and Personal Experiences
00:02:03
Speaker
Is that De La Roche's conventional? Yeah, it's like someone dealing with loss and they're just like looking at a picture of their like dead wife or something. Run, run, run, run, run, rule. Anyway, Azrael. Azrael. This is a Shudder original that we saw in the movie theaters. I literally didn't know that until the logo came up. I never know that, except for in a violent nature.
00:02:29
Speaker
I knew that Late Night with the Devil, because I feel like it was kind of with the role. Was it a late night? Did you see it late at night? I watched it maybe during the day. I don't remember. I saw it late at night with the Devil. Because the empty theater is really scary actually, a really eerie feeling.
00:02:49
Speaker
Did I ever tell you about my empty theater experience watching Skinema Rink? And how fucking tripped out that, like because of the sound design, I was just like looking behind me constantly of like, that was the movie, right? Like there's not, Skinema Rink's not like in here with me. Skinema Rink was there. He's everywhere. Skinema Rink's here.
00:03:10
Speaker
in our hearts. For the listeners, I was pointing to my heart. Yeah, you were patting your chest. I was like, what's in Nick's shirt? What are you talking about? Yeah, I pulled out a gun. On his goosebumps shirt? Yeah. Shout out to Nick's goosebumps shirt. Shout out to Cavity Color. Cavity Color sponsor us. We would love to do ad reads and be, yeah, come on, man. I would gladly do a Cavity Color ad read.
00:03:38
Speaker
Um. Their shirts rule. They do. So this is a Shutter original. On the Shutter original. Directed by E L Katz. The director of, I don't think until you told me.
Film Discussions: 'Cheap Thrills' and 'Atlanta'
00:03:47
Speaker
Cheap Thrills. That I, cause I, when it, that was like 2013, it was a bit ago when Cheap Thrills came out. I was, I saw it and I was like, oh, this is great. There's something about Cheap Thrills that like,
00:04:01
Speaker
I don't know for some reason I thought like I've like known about that movie for so long, but I've never seen it. Have you seen it? Oh, yeah, I really liked it. I know some people are anti that it might be a
00:04:14
Speaker
Is that one where it's like people, possible spoilers for cheap thrills, but is that one where it's like people keep like ramping up different things they're doing to each other, to themselves for money? Yeah, like David Kickner from Anchorman and his wife are like rich, they're a rich couple and they, these two down on their luck guys who like are just, I think one or both of them might've been fired recently and they're just giving them increasingly like,
00:04:42
Speaker
more messed up things to do. And they have the cash on them. They're like, we'll pay you right now to like pull your teeth out, you know, like. Ooh. Like your front teeth, like with these pliers. That's what they start with? That's not what they stood. No, they escalate to like just like slap or silly like game. Like it's it's it's low stakes initially just to show the like, oh, that's simple. And you're going to give me like 100 bucks for that. And then it's like keeps going to like, oh, you're going to pay me this much to do this? Well,
00:05:12
Speaker
and they need the money so it's yeah it's it's like it's there is like a watch it I feel oh do you think I can handle it it's cringy but more in terms of like
00:05:27
Speaker
What's your seat? Because I'm locked in with the character, so I'm like on that emotional journey and it's less the physical what they're doing in the cringing of like, fuck, like it's making me question my own morals, because I feel like a lot of things. Movies or shows will invoke financial desperation, but a lot of times you don't really like feel it. And that movie, like you could feel the desperation from it. Another show that I feel like
00:05:55
Speaker
handle like that was one of the things I liked about Atlanta. It was like, oh, this feels like that someone realistically is depicting the experience of being poor because they probably like they, you know, had they at least remember what that was like and like how hard and stressful that is, like even just like trying to take your girl out for a day and you don't know if you're going to get overdrawn or not. And it's like, damn, that's some real shit. Oh, definitely. Yeah.
00:06:21
Speaker
Yeah, so anyway, back to this movie has nothing to do with Atlanta or Donald Glover. Shout out to Atlanta, though. The show rules. Yeah, one of the best, quietly one of the best shows that like it had all this buzz from season one and then season two still had some acclaim like it won Emmys and stuff. But then like I feel like three and four just like it was just nothing like it was like completely off the radar in terms like critics and even like a lot of audiences just slipped off of it.
00:06:48
Speaker
I think it might have been the amount of time it took to come out, but all of Atlanta is just
In-Depth Analysis of 'Azrael'
00:06:55
Speaker
great. It's a perfect TV show for me. For me too, yeah. Agreed. Yep. Well, Raiden review is five stars. That was already Atlanta.
00:07:07
Speaker
Speaking of no we're talking as real speaking things to begin with this is a very Christian movie We're review. I love that you asked them like you're like is this a faith-based film I thought it might have been at a certain point just like from a
00:07:22
Speaker
I feel like we've talked about various religious aspects of both of our upbringings, but I have a pretty evangelical side of my family. They couldn't even celebrate Halloween because it's like satanic or even read Harry Potter or stuff like that. My uncle at one point just gave me one of the books from the Left Behind series. My parents had those books too.
00:07:47
Speaker
And he didn't give it to me as like this is a fun like interesting like kind of fantasy horror concept is more like like educate like here You need to read about what's gonna happen and one day Nicolas Cage is going to be in one of these movies like this This is factual. This is how it will happen and you need to be ready. Yeah, that's all on the rapture that kind of like
00:08:10
Speaker
That was a pretty scary concept for me as a kid. Oh, it's scary. And I think there is good stuff that explores it in a very interesting way. Like, I start thinking of the leftovers. Yeah, well, so should we say we're going to spoil this movie? Yeah, up top. Because like, never. We're not going to do a spoiler bumper. We're just going to go right into spoilers for this movie. Go see it. We both enjoyed it.
00:08:32
Speaker
I had a great time with this and there's stuff in it that's going to stick with me and I want to rewatch it because it was a very compelling experience. Even though we're going to talk later about things that were similar, like one specific similar theme that's been in a lot of horror this year, but it still felt
00:08:53
Speaker
unique, like its own thing. I mean, there's several things I'm going to bring up that it reminded me of and likely very inspired by. A lot of the movie, I was thinking of The Last of Us 2 because there's a cult in Last of Us 2
00:09:09
Speaker
that they're like religious cult and they they whistle. They communicate by whistling. They don't have the no speaking thing. They just silence. They wordlessly communicate when they're hunting you. So it's like so they can like stealthily sneak up on you and stuff. But they like they talk to each other like when they're in their like camps or OK. Yeah. So spoilers ahead for this movie, but we both really enjoy it. I have I might point out some things I didn't like.
00:09:37
Speaker
That didn't fully work for me, but I think it's safe to say we both enjoy it. Yeah going forward expect spoilers But yeah, so we were talking about the rapture elements behind this movie. I thought we started talking about that I don't know if I even knew like I didn't see the trailer I knew that there was gonna be some kind of no-speaking Religious cult. Yeah, we both went in pretty blind for this movie but um
00:10:02
Speaker
What did you think about the inner titles that were like at the beginning, like laying the groundwork? Because there's no basically no dialogue. I mean, there's one guy that she hitches a ride with for like a minute, but he it's unsubtitled dialogue. So we don't know what he's he's saying. And it's not like they're having a conversation. So it's basically a dialogue free movie. But we get these like text intertitles that kind of the beginning of like set the stage of like what kind of what this world is or or specifically
00:10:32
Speaker
Cause we'll talk about, I don't think the whole world is dealing with this situation in the same way. I think it's this group of people has a specific belief system that they're clinging to and like using to navigate this, this thing that probably is affecting the whole world. Like the, maybe the rapture did happen, but like, I don't think this cults the way this, this group of people are dealing with it is like universal.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree this movie It felt very small and contained for what it was it this didn't feel like oh, this is a small part of like a giant Group like a nation. You know what I mean like that one camp
00:11:34
Speaker
The like text blocks or whatever. I say inner titles but like I don't know if that's accurate like when they talk about the text in a silent movie that's inner title. Yeah it did have actually like even the font of like a Joan of Arc or something like that.
00:11:39
Speaker
felt like this was all of it.
00:11:50
Speaker
That'd be interesting to like a black and white cut of this where you take out the sound design even though the sound that we'll talk about the sound design was one of the most effective things for me in this Mm-hmm, and I could be wrong Joan of Arc might not be the movie I'm thinking of but pretty sure an old silent Yeah, but like the font for the whatever you would call those again, but um they so it starts off with um something about the rapture and then it talks about people
00:12:19
Speaker
Is it a vow of silence because of their spoken sins? They phrase it as a vow because of the sin of speech that they do it in the inner tells. But as the movie goes on, I was like, I don't think they physically can. Like they have this mark over their neck. And that made me wonder of like, are there just vocal cords completely?
00:12:41
Speaker
unusable because they did something uh had had some kind of like well not everybody had that mark because some people were able to produce sent i don't think that camp uh of people had that mark and did whatever to their vocal cord it seemed like that's why they targeted uh those two because they did what they saw it seemed i thought they were part of a different belief system where they did whatever to completely remove their voice and that's why they were kind of like
00:13:11
Speaker
Targeting these two out in the wild because they like look at their neck almost and they're like do you see this? Do you know remember what I'm talking? I was like really trying to figure out what was going on so I might have like missed a few details or might have like gotten some things wrong and
00:13:28
Speaker
I think that's a read you can take of it. I think this movie because of its dialogue free nature does. I mean, it's it's there's a lot of effective visual storytelling, but I think intentionally, like it's not other than those little intertitles, like it's not explaining this world or who these people are kind of and just like through the performance in context, you're kind of just have to intuit.
00:13:51
Speaker
like some some like base emotions or like what's going on but I had a different take because I thought I did see people in that camp that did have the mark like I thought that pregnant like Reverend mother leader she had a thing on her neck and I thought like one of the woman women that was hunting Samara weaving also I thought we saw that on if not her than someone in her group that was with the
00:14:16
Speaker
her hunting Samara weaving hat also had. I took it as this. She was a part of this community. So I read the description and said she was a prisoner who had escaped from these people. Right. So was she a prisoner? And then she's like due for a sacrifice.
00:14:34
Speaker
Okay, I did get the sacrifice implications of that. Yeah, I had never read the plot description. I was like, maybe that'll clear some things up if I actually read what's in the description. But if they like make, cause that, so the one girl, our main character, she tries to scream at one point and like nothing comes out, but those other people when they're like, I think trying to like summon or like get one of those monster things to come. They're doing like throat breathing, like synchronized like,
00:15:04
Speaker
I don't know if they'd be able to produce a noise like that if they did the same thing to their throat, right? I think that's correct, but I also could have sworn I saw a couple, at least I got people in the camp with that marking. I did Google. I was like, can you still whistle without vocal cords? And you can.
00:15:24
Speaker
Yeah, because that's just air that you're having passed through to create the sound. But I don't know if you can do the hoo hoo like sound without a vocal chord. So maybe it's like some of them did, but what do you know why they would have done it? It seemed like it was a part of a ritual or a specific decision.
00:15:43
Speaker
There's a well in saying that she's a prisoner then raises the question of like, was she part of this community and then committed some kind of sin or trespass that they're like, OK, we're going to sacrifice you now? Or do they just do regular sacrifices? She ran away because she didn't want to be sacrificed. Like was it this just some kind of like lottery basically where they're just like, and you you drew the short straw. Now we got to take you to the woods. And it's a real hunger game situation.
00:16:13
Speaker
You could say she's the cat-ness of this world. I mean, she is like running through a forest and like stealthily like waging guerrilla warfare, kind of, so this is basically a Hunger Games movie. Mm-hmm. No, uh, yeah, so like I- that's interesting that yeah, maybe she was chosen for sacrifice and then she escaped and then her boyfriend maybe helped her escape and that's why he was in trouble too.
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, like that he was like, OK, well, we're going to get you out of here, obviously not down with you getting sacrificed. And then they were both just. And so we're
Themes of Fundamentalism and Oppression
00:16:45
Speaker
capture. So when we're the movie's beginning and like she puts out the fire, maybe because she's like doesn't want to draw attention.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah and so they're on the run and so we're starting right when they're like basically being captured on the run and it's a series of her continuously trying to escape from her being sacrificed and is the sacrifice in some way going to benefit this demon baby being born or something? Yeah so that's the thing that I would really need to pay attention to on rewatch because
00:17:19
Speaker
like it is connected into like what they believe they're sacrificing things people to these things in the wood that would then the crests are called burnt people I was kind of thinking like oh zombie demons because they have some zombie like qualities in their movement
00:17:34
Speaker
And they're- some of the best movie monsters I've seen in a really long time. They were- they were scary. They were very effective. They were. The sound design was really good too. It gave you- it like made you uneasy and honestly I felt like genuinely scared whenever they made a noise.
00:17:50
Speaker
and just the way the other noise sounds so creepy and their movements too were like they're like twitchy but then also like they're not like they could chase her but they're also not great at walking or balancing they yeah which did lead for some comical like moments which intentional or not i enjoyed them in the movie um they look good in daylight and at night
00:18:14
Speaker
yeah it's like a rare you like you see them in daylight to begin and yeah they they look great in both um is so because originally i was thinking of like is the sacrifice like something to appease them so they can be like okay they're like
00:18:31
Speaker
We gave you some some blood a blood bag and then you just leave our community alone for this amount of time and then they regularly need to but then by the end I'm like there's some kind of deeper connection they have with these things because like they clearly are connected to
00:18:47
Speaker
I'm just going to keep calling her. I mean, the creds list some names like I'll call Samara weaving as real because that's apparently what her name is. But this the leader of this group was like some kind of Reverend mother. Like she looks very like there's and there's like imagery in this church. Like I think they're intentionally like styling her of similar like how a lot of art depicts the Virgin Mary of like that. She's like because this is a Christian movie.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah, and so she's pregnant with this demon baby and they worship it. The zombies or the monsters have some reverence for that.
00:19:30
Speaker
When when Samara weaving has the blood that she gets from the pregnant belly on her, they're just like, oh, they smell it, but they don't actually because normally any time there's any blood, they just fucking chow down on that shit. Yeah, loved the very violent. It's very the violence is very well done, too, for what I assume is a pretty low budget. It's better than a lot of the most. A lot of a.
00:19:58
Speaker
Any CGI, and I don't know it's just it looks great. I see it's practical and I'm like a dude's head gets ripped off at one point I was like really gross gross in a slightly comical the way They're just like shaking the blood from the head to like drink it. Yeah, it made me think of
00:20:17
Speaker
I guess like spoilers for an image from when evil lurks, but there's like a possessed person that's kind of like eating the top of someone's skull, like a buck and a popcorn. That's funny and upsetting at the same time. Cause it's so casual. It's one of those. Yeah. So not to spoil what it is, but it's one of those where I was like, Oh my God, this movie went there when evil lurks had three moments where I was like,
00:20:43
Speaker
it went there it went how Wow when evil lurks fantastic movie I think that might be streaming on shutter check that might be the best shutter original I think I've seen check that out check out Damien Rugna I believe is his name he's an Argentinian director he had a movie that he did
00:21:00
Speaker
before that it's not the same as when evil lurks but thematically terrified has some similar stuff it's just like he captures this feeling of like no one's fucking coming to help you like here you're completely on your own with this like what feels like unwinnable situation it's just like
00:21:19
Speaker
She's like, good luck, buddy. We're not. There's no police or exorcism or anyone. No, no one, no one can help you with this. Yeah. Which is which is great for horror of like creating this sense of helplessness. There's a little bit of that in this, not of helplessness, but just like she's on her own in terms of like she has to
00:21:41
Speaker
do all of this. There's so many times where she's like, she gets pretty fucked up where she's like captured, like hits her head, like her drops from big distances a lot. Well, there's a one take fight scene that happens in the movie where, I mean, she has to do a lot in order to survive that thing. You know, it's not easy for her.
00:22:03
Speaker
You talking about the when the guy has the gun, he's just like clubbing her with it and like they're like wrestling in the forest at night. Yeah. Yeah. That scene was so intense and it kept going in ways that it felt very real.
Villain's Role and Character Dynamics
00:22:19
Speaker
All the violence in this is so visceral. And I think a lot of that is the sound design that really like every hit
00:22:26
Speaker
like people get, you know, physically punched, need slashed at, shot at, like, especially I can't remember the last time I heard gunshots that actually almost like made me jump where I was like, fuck, like it feels really dangerous.
00:22:43
Speaker
Yeah, there was one gunshot in particular. I don't know if it's the same one, but it Basically it came close to making me jump it someone shoots at her and they hit a tree when she's escaping the camp yeah, and it's like a tree that she's running next to and it it looked like and sounded like they actually shot that tree it was like so real and like I
00:23:07
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah, it was really effective sound design. It added to the horror, but not just the horror, but the action, and not in a way that felt manipulative. It kind of put you in there with the characters. It was loud and overwhelming when it needed to be.
00:23:27
Speaker
It puts you because it's very immersive. It was like it was doing it to you. It was doing it to you and you then felt that this was being done to her because it puts you in her. I was completely immersed in her like struggle and journey of like how hard this was for her, especially like going back to that fight in the forest at night when
00:23:48
Speaker
She is like grabbing the gun as this guy is grabbing her. Like we've seen plenty of fights that end like this where someone, you know, our hero finally gets the gun and is able to like shoot the guy attacking them. And you can see that that's about to happen. But then I'm clenching for her because I'm like, she's about to fire this right next to her face. And like it does feel like the disorientation of that, like the sound design like kind of reflects of like
00:24:15
Speaker
like I'm not actually a gun guy but I know that like firing a gun right near you is like not great for your hearing yeah and I've never fired a gun or had a gun fired that close to me but I've had a gun fired maybe like 20 feet away from me
00:24:30
Speaker
It was really loud yeah, and it was like a couple of gunshots, too So yeah, but um and isn't that correct me if I'm wrong But that's right after she is already disoriented from a car accident to rise to keep going after multiple
00:24:47
Speaker
pretty serious injuries and it's like she does not get like a chance to like rest or stop because it'll just be like either like okay other cultists are here that she has to deal with or now there's the fucking zombies are back now she has to run it gave me like evil dead vibes kind of just how relentless it was
00:25:04
Speaker
With this one character, yeah, that just has to keep going and keep going. They're just like really being put through it. And when they're out of one situation, they're back in the next. And then, you know, by the end, yeah, you have this main character with blood on their face holding a demon baby around like other demons. It felt in like a cabin. It felt kind of like Evil Dead to me a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah.
00:25:28
Speaker
So let's talk. I mean, we'll get to the ending, but it's funny that Samara weaving is in multiple horror things where she's just like fucking drenched in blood by the end. Like I think she's like I don't we have like multiple pretty solid like scream queen, like like, you know, or whatever you want to call them. Final girl leading ladies for horror right now. Like I would say
00:25:55
Speaker
Damn, why am I blanking on her name in Long Legs? Mia... Well, Mia Goth is one. She's not in Long Legs, but like the Long Legs actress, she's in like so many horror movies. She was at... Maika Monroe. I mean, I say Mia. Probably because I was like queuing up Mia Goth, but then Samara Weaving, I would say is in that same league of like, they have like such...
00:26:19
Speaker
they're just really good in horror and like it that I just associate them with the genre in these kind of movies and she's like great at being able to pull that off and just like immediately make because there's like no dialogue so but she's immediately you can empathize with her and and like feel for like how hard this is for her and the journey that she goes on so I want to talk about of like
00:26:44
Speaker
what I think the movie is saying or is about because to me, because I was like, oh, she's like escaping this cult that she was a part of. It's kind of like indoctrination or fundamentalism when trying to escape that and how hard it is, whether it's a literal cult or
00:27:04
Speaker
if you're just like had a super religious upbringing and
Ending of 'Azrael' and Future Speculations
00:27:07
Speaker
like how hard it is to like finally fully free yourself from that because it's like she kept when you think that she's like getting somewhere or something they like they recap these right back and you even said that to me in the theater you're like I think she likes getting captured by these people that's like her favorite yeah
00:27:27
Speaker
Sorry. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. And so like thematically, I love that there is that push and pull of like they she just keeps being brought back to it. That did. My biggest problem with the movie would probably be the repetitive nature of it because it's a lot of this like capture getaway. There's a sequence with the zombies. She gets captured again. Getaway like it kind of there is like a
00:27:51
Speaker
like a loop it goes through basically like three scenarios that she has but every time even though it's the same kind of thing they come up with a new wrinkle for it of like every fight or action sequence against the cult is not they feel different and the encounters with these like zombies or burnt people feel different too.
00:28:12
Speaker
So I didn't mind her getting captured over and over. One thing I just didn't fully, that didn't fully work for me was the villain. I felt like if she felt more menacing, if she played it a little differently. So when you say villain, do you mean the main one who's chasing her or the like the head of the cult, this pregnant like Reverend Mother? The main one who's chasing her.
00:28:39
Speaker
Yeah, like if she kind of felt more menacing or if it there was more of a danger to her like there's a moment where And it was kind of like Suspenseful too when um, she's underneath Yeah, that part was great. Yeah, she's underneath it like was it a trailer or a church? Yeah, and I
00:29:00
Speaker
The villain who's like hunting her walks down and I don't know how she knows she's under this church I just fucking she heard her. Yeah, she just somehow I was like thinking like there's no way she would have known that right uh She always used to come down here And it's like the moment itself had a lot of suspense But then when this lady is the one who pops out I was like the menace isn't really like there with her I felt like
00:29:26
Speaker
Honestly, I felt like if she played it a bit more differently. I know the movie doesn't have dialogue, so a lot of actors are probably poster-like encouraged to do a lot of face acting, and she was doing a lot of that. I almost felt like if she just had more of a stoicism, she would have been a more effective villain, and her being captured or the fear of that would have been a bit more stronger.
00:29:52
Speaker
I get what you're saying in terms of like, she could be more menacing, but there was something interesting about the face acting she was due because a lot of these relationships are like what characters mean to each other. You kind of just have to infer from context. I mean, you do know her boyfriend, like you see her kiss. I'm laying on the actor's name, but he was Curtis in the show Misfits Child Misfits. It's like a British superhero show. It's like a better heroes, basically. But the British version, he could his power was like time travel, I think.
00:30:22
Speaker
A better hero. I like that as a title. That's not the title, though? No, it's called Misfits. Because they're like juvenile delinquents, like doing community service, and then they get superpowers.
Closing Thoughts and Acknowledgements
00:30:34
Speaker
But yeah, so we understand that relationship is pretty unambiguous, that they're romantically involved. But other relationships, there's something about this lead woman who's chasing them that I'm like,
00:30:47
Speaker
She feels like she's determined to catch Samara weaving, but is maybe conflicted. Like she seems. Well, I was like, is she? Did she have some kind of.
00:30:58
Speaker
Was she like a motherly figure or like maternal towards Samara weaving earlier in life? And now she like doesn't she kind of she has this look of like she doesn't love that she is doing this. Like she's not going to not do it. Like she's committed in like it's you know, it's not like her faith is wavering or anything. There's never a moment where I thought like she was going to turn and like help Samara weaving. But like the look on her face is like almost like a pained one sometimes.
00:31:23
Speaker
And like that almost like that she was like uncomfortable or didn't love that she had this assignment that it was just like you kind of seem like you don't want to be doing this, which I think to me is like interesting. And that that's what didn't work for me. Yeah. So it sounds like, yeah, we kind of noticed like similar things, but it worked more for you than it did for me. It was just like it does take away from how menacing and scary she is of like the threat of her specifically.
00:31:50
Speaker
Like the long haired dude was kind of more menacing than she was. He just had a weird vibe and he seemed to be loving this. Like when they're there to sacrifice and they're doing like the they're like chants with the back turn to her. There was almost just like this like.
00:32:08
Speaker
ecstasy on his face of like that you hear about when people in churches are like speaking in tongues or like at I kind of went in a world religion class when I like went to this mosque I almost started to feel like this sense of like it kind of feels like I'm high and I'm like filled with this like sense of euphoria like I don't even like believe this stuff but I'm like there's like something here is like affecting me physically that's like getting me peped up in some way and like he definitely was like he was like I'm into this
00:32:36
Speaker
I think that would have, you know, maybe it was intentional having it being a woman that is chasing down a woman, but if it is a religious cult, it would have almost been a bit more disturbing if it was this man taking this charge and having this, like, pleasure that he's getting from it. I would have enjoyed more of him. I think it would have made the movie a bit scarier. Not saying that it's a flaw, not having more of him, but now talking or just imagining it as a possibility. Like, because he was...
00:33:04
Speaker
a very good character. He was probably one of my favorite parts. When he was on screen, I think the movie was cooking the most. He was consistently menacing, probably the most menacing cult member, I would say. I mean, the guy that she wrestles with for the gun, he's menacing in the sense of he doesn't immediately read or look scary, but you're like, well, this guy's not going to stop. That guy is threatening in that way. But we've seen enough bald villains.
00:33:32
Speaker
But it's interesting now that the bald guy always dies. You know, we're just we could know at this point. Right. Yeah. The bald henchmen. But like now that I'm thinking about this, it is interesting that this cult is almost like a matriarchal one because like their lead there doesn't seem to be anyone above the pregnant woman like that their leader and most revered figure except for Satan. Right. Satan's a guy, right? Yeah. Well, Lucifer is a guy. Yeah.
00:33:59
Speaker
the Dante's Inferno game, he has like three dicks. What does that say about men? What does that say about men? Yeah, women right in. Yeah, but that, because I'm still trying to piece together of like, how does that fit in with this whole like metaphor of like escaping this like fundamentalist like upbringing in this cult thing with, uh,
00:34:27
Speaker
because like to me the movie is her it's not just like about her getting revenge like she clearly does want revenge after her her boyfriend gets got the like she's like you know she's very upset about this but it also feels like just the symbolism of like she needs to burn and tear this down to like actually be free of it
00:34:46
Speaker
Um, oh when her boyfriend gets got to you real quick that caught me off guard so hard because for a second the pattern that we've seen of these things when they show up whether it cuz like the sacrifice doesn't go as plain but seems like they have the pattern of like they get one person they have a blood source they have a little blood meal and they're gonna take that person away the chow down on almost like they're like
00:35:10
Speaker
okay we're good for now this is our meal we'll come back later for the next you know blood that's uh that's ready so so when it's like zombies you can reason with almost or a piece right so when when they get the guy when they tear off that one guy's head and are chowing down and they're like taking his body away i'm like okay so they're they're safe for now because they got their meal they're like good yeah but then there's when he's like i got you he's like i'm still
00:35:33
Speaker
I'm hungry. I'm over here. He didn't see me. I'm fucking starved. Like this one got to the party later. It's like if you ever show up at a pizza party or at work when someone has cake and then you show up and there's like none of it. You're like, damn, I really wanted some cake. That was this one zombie. He was like, I didn't fucking get any of that guy. They were fucking pouring blood out of his head and shit. I need a little nibble. I need something.
00:36:02
Speaker
But yeah, he kills the boyfriend you you feel for her and I love how It's not by campfire too. I was just like damn He started with a campfire and he ended by a campfire favorite thing. Yeah, his favorite Thing we know about this character is he loves he loves his white women and he loves his campfires Maybe this is a campfire like a
00:36:26
Speaker
And the Dark Souls games campfires are like really important in like, I did start thinking about Dark Soul. There are multiple video games that I was thinking of in terms of just like, there's a trend in some games where it's like, they're not going to have cut scenes that tell you what the story is. You kind of just have to piece it together from like things you find in the like environmental storytelling, basically, where you like find a note or find these little things that kind of like, you can glean like,
00:36:55
Speaker
what has happened here are the history of this place and stuff. And that's all of Asriel in terms of what we know about this world other than the little inner titles. And Dark Souls is very much that same way. There's maybe one really brief intro cutscene with a voiceover. And then the rest of the story is you kind of just have to figure it out and glean it on your own. And so there's times where I was thinking, this is kind of like the Dark Souls of Rapture movies.
00:37:26
Speaker
I've never played Dark Souls, but I will eventually. We've talked about that off mic a little bit. They're good. Fuck, I forgot what I was gonna say. I already brought up the last of those two things. I did really like the moment too, speaking of like the way they got information across it being like a video game style. I like the moment where she does pick up a note then like a text bubble comes on screen and it just
00:37:51
Speaker
Says everything that's there or when she gets every time she picked up an object bubble came up. Oh, yeah, she like picks up a gun. It's like Everything is in a treasure chest for some reason every time she entered a new location She had to find a map for that location and a compass for that location when she opens the chest like
00:38:16
Speaker
I don't know why the compasses aren't universal too. She needs to find a compass at every new location. I don't understand it. It's weird. Maybe the magnetic poles are weird in this post-apocalyptic thing. Yeah.
00:38:33
Speaker
So should we talk about the ending? Cause I'm still trying to like, I don't think we should ever talk about now. We'll just end the episode. All right. Subscribe smash that like button. Rate is five stars. Five star review. We'll read it on there. You know, we can talk about the ending. Yeah. Because like the rest of the movie, we're going to talk about it. We're going to have a discussion. Yeah. We really need to have a con.
00:38:59
Speaker
The rest of the movie, I can fit together in terms like what it means in terms of this, like her journey of getting free from this and being liberated from this oppressive cult. Like that's why I think it's important that she does find one guy. I mean, she doesn't speak his language or understand what he's saying, but one person who's not part of this, so just like, oh yeah, there's life outside of this like way that she's been taught is the only way. Yeah, he's just speaking normally. Yes, that is a good fucking call.
00:39:27
Speaker
Like yeah, I think that's the point of even cuz I mean he dies pretty quickly So obviously the point of him like the village kind of the ending of the village to be like hey There's there's like regular people not everyone else is buying into this bullshit It's kind of like if we're you're watching the leftovers then like there was just a season where they're like yeah They're with this weird cult now that's doing this thing and then they go to like Texas and you know
00:39:55
Speaker
Yeah, so you mean what happens in the leftovers? Yeah, basically. Anyway, shout out leftovers. I mean, there's also a cult in that that doesn't talk. But that's like a nationwide cult. Right. Yeah. Sure. No, I get what you're saying. But it does have that thing of like, well,
00:40:12
Speaker
Cause I believe that this thing is effect probably around the world. You can find these like blood thirsty, like demon, whatever's like rote roaming around, but everyone's not dealing with it in the same way of like, okay, we're going to sacrifice to appease them. Our whole belief system is built around like birthing there.
00:40:31
Speaker
God or their Antichrist or something. I think there's plenty of other people who probably found different ways to survive or deal with this. There probably are other cults that have different interpretations of
00:40:45
Speaker
what all this is going on, because that's just like how people work. They have like different, you know, that's all because that's also a cool part of the leftovers. There's not just one cult, you know, there's like multiple factions that have their own like understanding of like, what is this thing that happened? Like this inexplicable, the world kind of ended like specifically here. It seems like it did. And the rapture did happen.
00:41:10
Speaker
This is the kind of shit that Disney should have been using Disney Plus for when they launched it. Like post Thanos snap or like during Thanos snap like cults like this that were like trying to summon the Antichrist because of the Thanos snap, you know. That's what Hawkeye should have been about.
00:41:29
Speaker
Oh, you didn't feel fulfilled from that one moment where Hawkeye goes to the bathroom and he sees someone scribbled on a urinal that Thanos was right. And then we never follow up on that idea of that there were like pro Thanos people. Yeah, exactly. It's just like one tossed off like almost joke. And yeah, because the blip is this like really interesting like
00:41:52
Speaker
dramatically weighty thing there's like when when endgame endgame the first hour is kind of deal I mean it's kind of like my favorite part of endgame is when we're seeing like how the world like moved on and dealt with this I was like man I would love a whole show seeing like how this was was for other people not even just heroes just like regular people how they navigate this and then how they navigate their loved ones just blipping back like
00:42:17
Speaker
years or however many years later does everyone come back it's five years five years later when everyone is suddenly back I'm like well what if you like moved on and remarried or something and then like your your original wife is just now back like I want to see something dealing with that that's like emotional messiness so imagine this movie
00:42:37
Speaker
It's her holding this Antichrist baby and it's about to end then fucking Ronin or whatever his name comes in and it's just like a wonner like when he's in Endgame and he just kills everybody and it's like oh it was a part of the MCU the whole time!
00:42:53
Speaker
The whole time, Doug. The whole time. No, I started thinking, because there's so many people I forget are in the MCU. I was like, is Samara leaving in an MCU movie? She's not, right? No, but death is in the MCU now. Spoils for Agatha all along. Death is in the MCU now, so why not the devil?
00:43:10
Speaker
I mean, in the Marvel universe, canonically, no, but there is literal, he is a demon, a devil, but there is like the Christian devil and version of hell does it. There's like multiple hells in heaven and because, you know, it's a universe where like God, like Norse gods and shit are real, but the actual Christian God and Christian devil do exist in the Marvel universe.
00:43:32
Speaker
But they're the real gods, right? They're the real ones. Someone stops and be like, so we all know that these are the real true, this is the one true god. Doesn't Captain America basically say that in the- There's only one god, man. I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that. That's fucking stupid. It's like, dude, your reality is shattered now. Shut the fuck up. He should be having an existential crisis. He should be, yeah.
00:43:57
Speaker
He should be freaked out that he's taking orders from a black man. Samuel Jackson unfroze him in his giving orders. He should be like, what? There was a black president? What? I don't know if Obama happened in the MCU because they...
00:44:17
Speaker
Politics and the Marvel Universe are weird, and I think they don't want you to actually think about it, even in the more political, thrillery ones. I don't need to get into a whole MCU talk. It's a weird universe. Yeah, Robert Redford's president. He's a white guy. That's all we need to worry about. I think he's president. He's head of the Security Council. If he's a white man in power. We know a white man. The white men are in charge. There's a white guy who's in power, or maybe, or is it a black guy in Iron Man 3? The vice president is white.
00:44:47
Speaker
He's a guy from Desperate Housewives, actually. In Secret Invasion, a show that we all loved and watched. The present is white.
00:44:55
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And we all remember what happened in that. Just make him Obama. Just make the president Obama and everything. If this is like a world where the president isn't corrupt, just make him Obama. Well, because you have real cities. It's not like DC where you're making up like locate. Well, I guess they have made up countries in the MCU, but we're like we're in New York. You know, Robert Redford's president and watchman.
00:45:19
Speaker
I forgot about that. That's what I was thinking about. I love that. Shout out HBO's Watchman. I should rewatch that. But, okay. So, Ezreal ends with, well, did you want to finish the president thing? No, let's get back to that. Ezreal ends with the birth of the Antichrist. I think that's what we were talking about. Yes, no, it was.
00:45:42
Speaker
The way she's holding this baby, because we see the mother that gave birth to her is like terrified of this thing. And then she fucking slits her throat. Does she slit her own throat? Is that? Oh, I couldn't tell like what happened. I was like, did this baby like throw a ninja star or something? Didn't look like the baby was doing anything except crying and then making like weird demonic noises. And then we see the race red baby. She picks it up. Doesn't seem to be. Yeah, it did look like eraser head until you notice like the horns and stuff like that.
00:46:12
Speaker
It's like, oh, this is the devil. And then as all these like demons burnt, people are lining up in this church, she like smiles. And so I'm like, is the so she's like free of this cult that was oppressing her and trying to sacrifice her. But is her smiling like kind of like.
00:46:30
Speaker
Supposed to be like, no, she's actually like, gonna continue this because she has the power now. Yeah, she's like, yeah, I'm gonna get good with Satan. She's like, actually? God left us all down here, you know, cause I mean, I'm not too like fully sure of what could, but the rapture is like all the sinners are just left down there to suffer, right? And the Antichrist is now born and he's basically gonna just have his way with the earth.
00:46:57
Speaker
like usher in an air of darkness or whatever, and she's like, what if I ushered in an air of darkness? That sounds good. I don't think the Antichrist is born into the world, but that's the thing these movies really like to do. I mean, they do it in interesting ways. Yeah. I think, especially all the movies. Now we gotta wait like 18 years for this Antichrist to like grow up, and so she's gonna raise the Antichrist. Honestly, she is in the most powerful position for an Earth human.
00:47:24
Speaker
Because the Antichrist won't have any actual autonomy until he's like at least a pre-team. He's gonna imprint on her like a little duckling. I just watched Wild Robot. I know how babies work. Oh, I thought you were gonna say imprint on like Renesmee from Twilight. Oh, Renesmee. Twilight. Wild Robot's a bit more topical, but Renesmee. Everyone's talking about Twilight. I don't know what she's thinking about. Actually, I did hear someone talking about Twilight today. Really? Yeah.
00:47:55
Speaker
that's funny yeah it's funny that they're are they rebooting though I don't actually care about Twilight we don't need to talk about it but anyway so the Antichrist is born she's actually now like down with it I should know that should have been the final needle drop
00:48:16
Speaker
Well, Donna the Dead already did that, so nobody can use Down With The Sickness anymore. Only one movie per song, so this movie needs to apologize to Paul Thomas Anderson, because they used Driver's Seat, which was in a party sequence of Boogie Night, so that's their bad. The El Cats, you know what you did. Apologize to Paul.
00:48:40
Speaker
immediately if possible No, they're good. There's only a couple like actual needle drops in it, but one it's contact It could actually make sense. It's like from this guy's radio. It was a really good moment I love how she looked at her like fucking chill out and enjoy the music because she first gets kind of shocked by Music of like it's like she like kind of jumps a little bit Yeah, how almost like a caveman how you think a caveman would react to technology of like what?
00:49:11
Speaker
It's like, lady, you probably heard music like six months ago. Chill out. Well, that's my question. They don't give a timeline. The Antichrist probably was birthed pretty shortly after the rapture. It probably has been no more than a year. They haven't been here for years. Like she would remember the real world, like the old world, basically. Yeah.
00:49:36
Speaker
Because that sometimes is a thing in post-apocalypse where it's like it's been going on so long that you have people who've grown up and like haven't known anything else. But like maybe it's just, yeah, she just- She could reasonably like text somebody in this movie. I don't understand why she couldn't actually. There's probably still cell towers. The world seems like it's probably functioning pretty well outside of this. It's like- They have cars. It's just the leftovers. They have cars. Where are they getting gas from?
00:50:05
Speaker
Why wouldn't there be gas station? And not like the world is on fire. No, I just mean, well, that's what I mean about time, because if it's gone on for so long, you would reach a point where all the gas gets looted. You know what I mean? Like people are just going to take it and hoard it. That didn't happen in the leftovers, though. But this is worse than the leftovers in terms of like how far society is gone, I think.
00:50:28
Speaker
is that the leftovers is like way more ahead in time than I think this would be. It's a way ahead of time but only 2% of the world vanished whereas in a rapture scenario. This is just all the believers so that would be way more.
00:50:42
Speaker
Right. So so so so there's like the world is a lot more sparse and like lawless because there's like still cops and leftovers, you know, like, you know, like there's like hospitals you can go to, like, you know, some services are still running. Like, I don't get the vibe that society existed to that point. I mean, I think the guy in the car is kind of showing like, well, things are still going on.
00:51:09
Speaker
Well, the things are going on in a different way. Like, maybe there are ways to get gas. Like, there are radio stations, like, still playing music. I'm sure. Like, just playing post a block. Which that guy, how are you not using, like, Spotify or something?
00:51:22
Speaker
Yes, rely on to the five. The Internet's down. All the Wi-Fi is gone. You just can't get a signal after the apocalypse happens. And did God like blip all the satellites out of space or something? Because the satellites were believers. So they got to go to heaven. Yeah. And then everyone just loses cells. Like I'm sure all the people running these companies all stayed on Earth and are still running them.
00:51:45
Speaker
Shouldn't they still be trying to make money and stuff like there's just a like Walmart and stuff Amazon is still like functional? Yeah, the head of AT&T. They probably are like, everybody stay home, we're just Uber Eats more, you know, everything became more corporatized.
00:52:00
Speaker
Okay, sure, when you go to work- You just had only bad people left to run the world, so everything just became corporatized and like Trump is president again, you know, it's like forever. Imagine Trump tried to make this movie. Just picture it. He couldn't do it. He couldn't even do anything with any structure. He couldn't even think of a movie like this.
00:52:23
Speaker
You probably couldn't, for this one that's true. Yeah, that's true. For Megopolis, I was like, I think he could think of Megopolis. Yeah, he could have made Megopolis. I think he would relate to things. He would have had a bigger budget for the movie. He would have had a bigger budget. There probably would have been, if Adam Driver was his standard. He would have paid a better writer. He would have a guy like Damon Lindelof.
00:52:44
Speaker
and would have just dictated his ideas and Damon Lindelof would have made like, it would have just been critically acclaimed and like, you know, Prometheus or like Watchmen. Well, now I want to see that. That sounds good. The Donald Trump version of Megalopolis written by Damon Lindelof. Sounds good. Probably wouldn't get a theatrical release nowadays. It'd just be like a fucking streaming miniseries, limited series.
00:53:13
Speaker
Anyway. Francis Ford Coppola does think that Apple or Amazon are gonna basically control the film industry within a couple of years. Yeah. So that is like a Donald Trump-esque figure running the film industry. But what were you saying though? No, I was just agreeing that that
00:53:34
Speaker
probably will happen. I don't know that a lot of things are good. There's going to be like three media companies within a probably sooner than we would like there to be. Like there's going to be a lot of consolidation and shit. I'm not looking forward to that. But anyway, the back to Asriel, the end of the so Antichrist is here. And yeah, I think that's interesting thing to like have that ending of like that she tried so hard to get away from get out of this.
00:54:04
Speaker
but now kind of is just gonna start her own version of it, you know? Why not? Why not? I mean, if you can't beat him, join him. Cause there's like, it doesn't seem like- Yeah, the demons aren't killing her. They didn't go after her. She's holding him. She's just, I don't know. She's the most secure person in this world now.
00:54:25
Speaker
Yeah, like they're not gonna fuck with her. Also, are these demons just in the forest too? We did pose this question of society going on, but are they dealing with the demon problem? I didn't really think, like are they in our cities? Are they in our schools? They're in our fucking homes and our schools. Yeah, are we teaching our kids about them?
00:54:43
Speaker
I kind of imagine that we're in this wooded area because this is where this cold is located. But I thought I would think of it as being like when everyone got raptured away, that now there's just like fucking demons roaming around that wants your blood. So to me, that seems like a thing. I mean, like I said, there's probably I was imagining that there's probably different people dealing with it in different ways, like that they're not
00:55:10
Speaker
Yeah, I'd like to see more movies in this world. This is better than A Quiet Place. Oh, 100 percent. Yeah, I'm compelled and fascinated by this world. And I kept making the video, different video game analogies or comparisons like I would play a game like I just want to spend more time in this world like I would play a game set in this world. Yeah. Do you want to do some final thoughts or take a break?
00:55:35
Speaker
No, we can do some final thoughts. I don't have much more to say. I mean, we talked about the ending, but the lead up to the ending where she's like doing her all out like guerrilla warfare assault on this camp, like burning down and she has a gun. She's fucking like like sniping people in like it's it's really cool like. Yeah.
00:55:57
Speaker
it's satisfying because she's been oppressed by them, she's lost everything because of these people, so you want to see her tear it all down. But then it's just really well staged and thrilling. I mentioned to you during it, it reminded me of how in Cuckoo, I did not expect going to that movie that I was going to get
00:56:16
Speaker
pretty satisfying
00:56:32
Speaker
It's well staged. It's intense like like we said earlier like the sound design really makes you feel the danger of these weapons and then the guns and then there's just so many fucking badass moments like when when she runs at Okay, you know when she runs in that last guy cuz I guess the one gun she had grabbed was out of ammo She just fucking cleaves his head off. I was like, that's so fucking cool. I know this was
00:56:58
Speaker
This is one of my favorite shutter originals I think I've seen. The more we're talking about it, the more and more I like it. After this conversation, I like it more than I thought I did, actually. This is a very solid horror movie, and it's very effective. It's scary. It is scary.
00:57:13
Speaker
It's scary. Check it out. And like also shout out. We've mentioned the director shout out Simon Barrett. He wrote what for me were Adam Wingard's best things. You're next. And the guests check both of those out. They're really solid horror films. And it seems like he's he's even when he's not working with Wingard, he's doing really interesting stuff because as far as I know, this is all from his brain. This is not like based off like a book series or a graphic novel. And it seems like something that could have
00:57:42
Speaker
been. It feels like there's a world to this that we're not seeing. And I would like to see more of this world, actually. I'm glad we saw this in theaters, too. I am glad we saw this in theaters. But yeah, like like like I said, like a game spin off a comic like I would explore this world like an anthology show. Yeah. And like of just different characters of like how they're dealing with this and different perspectives and stuff. Yeah. Or like a station 11 type of show in this world. Yeah.
00:58:09
Speaker
I would be really good. Yeah. Yeah. I would. I would watch all of that. Like, I mean, I think that's the sign of a good movie that leaves you wanting more. So like, yeah, go check it out. That's all I got to say. Oh, yeah. I'm right there with you. Great movie. Yeah. I like it a lot.
00:58:24
Speaker
Uh, so anyway, Oh, great year for horror too, but great, great year for horror. Yeah. Uh, there's still something that I haven't seen. Like I still need to go back and see in a violent nature, but anyway, we should get on our plugs real quick. Um, the shows, Twitter at guys got juice. Follow us there. Uh, my personal Twitter at Doug or not underscore two. And then, uh, you got any plugs?
00:58:45
Speaker
Follow us on Instagram at These Guys Got Juice Pod. Shoot us an email, just feedback for the show, any suggestions, whatever you guys got. Rate and review the podcast. Review at five stars. If you do that, we'll read your review on the air. And remember to subscribe, tell a friend, do whatever. And follow me on Letterboxd at Nicholas Ewers. And I'm Nick Ewers. I'm Doug Davenport. And we're These Guys Got Juice. Have a good night. Down with the sickness. Oh.
00:59:30
Speaker
Uh, unless you had something planned, I kind of have, uh, for when we go and we saw, I mean, that would be pretty good to do some, some, when we start talking about the zombies or burnt people, maybe you should do like some of that. Yeah. Or if that sounded good, I'll put it at the end of that episode. That did sound good.