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Episode 75: The Last Horror Film featuring Dais Johnston
77 Plays2 months ago
Our spooktacular continues with journalist Dais Johnston whose got an especially wicked treat in their goody bag, The Last Horror Film (1982). From former song-and-dance-man David Winters, it’s many things and one of those things is a meta-horror film about Joe Spinell’s Vinny stalking Caroline Munro’s famous scream queen Jana Bates at Cannes. It was filmed guerilla style in France, has a cast of friends and (probably) people just found on the street and it’s full of inexplicable nudity and montages. Sometimes the last two are even combined. Anyway you slice it, this horror film got our attention, so tune in!
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Special Guest
00:00:18
Speaker
It's bad to be bad, and guess it's understood that you would if you could, and you know that you should, yes you know that you should.
00:00:39
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. It's the only podcast that's brave enough to ask the question, if this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:52
Speaker
We're your host, I am in fact your first podcast host, Chris Anderson. And ah with me, as always, I have my own personal Jonathan, Mr. Greg Bossy. How are you doing, Greg?
00:01:04
Speaker
Hi, I'm doing all right, doing all right. How are you, Chris? Well, I'm hanging in. I'm getting over a cold, but Anna is still in the thick of our household cold prayers up for Anna. It's been such a stretch. We miss you, my dove.
00:01:20
Speaker
But we do have with us a very special guest. You might know them as a reporter. You might know them as a playwright. You might know them as a person about town.
00:01:32
Speaker
But to me, there are own personal Janibates. It's Daze Johnston. How are you, Daze? I'm doing great. Thank you for that lovely introduction.
00:01:43
Speaker
Well, it's all true. It's all out. And you chose... I came to you ah to ask you to be on the show, because obviously I wanted to have you on the show. But also, I asked you about a horror movie, because obviously...
Discussion of 'The Last Horror Film'
00:02:16
Speaker
That's right. It's spooky season. And I asked you for a scary movie and you came instantly right off the jump with the last horror film. Yeah, it's my favorite bad movie and it's my favorite bad horror movie. So nice.
00:02:30
Speaker
It's firing on a lot of cylinders. I got to say listeners, if you haven't seen the last horror film, here's just a short summary to hold in your mind.
00:02:46
Speaker
an incredibly sweaty New York cabbie, flies to the Cannes Film Festival to stalk the starlet of his dreams with the hopes that she will star in his first horror film.
00:03:03
Speaker
Fair enough. Yeah, that's that's ah that's real bare bones because this this is so much more. It is. It is so much more than what you would find in your TV guide.
00:03:14
Speaker
Now, Daze, you told me, yeah, that this is a favorite of yours. do you remember how you first encountered the last horror film? So I honestly feel like this movie has always been with me, but I know that sometime around after i graduated college in 2019, got really into the films of David Winters.
00:03:33
Speaker
Okay. okay I want to say that it was like a space mutiny kind of... That was my intro. Okay. It also could be... The movie he made after last horror film was called Thrashin'.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yes. And was... i would I wouldn't call it a Romeo and Juliet adaptation. I would call it a West Side Story adaptation. It's a Xerox of a Xerox, but it's about right a love between rival skateboard gangs and Josh Brolin is in it and Tony Hawk is in it and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are in it.
00:04:10
Speaker
I am in the theater. I am i have bought my popcorn. Wow. So might have watched that and be like, oh my gosh, whatever this guy is cooking, I'm there.
00:04:21
Speaker
And I might have found it that way. i cannot remember for sure. But ever since then, David Winters and I have been very, very close in my bad movie watching ah endeavors.
00:04:34
Speaker
And this has always been my number one. i Also, the fact that I watched this the same year that Joker came out played a big role that. Yeah, this is very Joker fight. That is absolutely true.
00:04:46
Speaker
Greg, had you seen this one before? No, I hadn't really no idea what this was like. Even I was confused up to right before watching. i was like, this is the last horror film or the last horror movie.
00:04:57
Speaker
Like which of the two? Because I was like, I don't know either of these things, though. I hoped it was this one. And that was the correct hope, I think. Yes, Anna and then i had to repeatedly correct each other, be like, it's Last Horror Film.
00:05:10
Speaker
Last Horror Film? Not Last Horror Movie. And thank goodness, because Last Horror Movie looks like ah found footage torture porn. and i Yeah. And I'm really glad I'm not watching that. Yeah, me too.
00:05:22
Speaker
ah Yeah, but having not seen it before, I had a ball watching this movie.
Greg's Initial Thoughts on the Film
00:05:27
Speaker
Mm-mm. I don't think it's, you know, a perfect lost gem. I think it certainly has a couple of flaws. There's a couple of, you know, things I would do differently, but there's a lot of inspired choices that really excited me in this movie.
00:05:42
Speaker
Oh yeah. I was surprised how cinematic it was. Usually when you watch bad movie, it's like, oh wow, this is filmed like an episode of television, but there are so many shots in this where I'm like, oh my gosh, this is cinema.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, really ambitious, lots of really striking visuals in this movie. You know, and it's just fundamentally also is very strange and like not what you would think it's going to be. Like you think it's going to be a slasher and it's definitely much weirder than a slasher.
00:06:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's there's there's King of Comedy in it. There's Taxi Driver in it, which is weird because it was partially inspired by Hinkley and track Taxi Driver is name dropped multiple times in the movie itself.
00:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, it comes, life imitates art, imitates life, imitates art. ah but and But then there's just like constant boobs in it as well. Yeah, yes.
00:06:45
Speaker
In strange scenarios.
Insights on Film Background and Director
00:06:47
Speaker
It's got a lot going on for it There's a lot to love. Well, ah do you guys want to hear about the the context that I found out? Yes, please.
00:07:09
Speaker
I had some context about the background of the film. Script director, actors on set. What's going on on screen? I want to hear some details.
00:07:21
Speaker
Gossip stand to all that shit. Can't imagine all that.
00:07:37
Speaker
All right, so the last horror film came out October 9th, 1982. And as Dave's mentioned, our director is David Winters. And it sounds like you're very knowledgeable on this subject, Dave. Feel free to jump in and fill in any gaps you feel I'm missing.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, this is a special interest of mine for a hot second. oh Yeah, yeah. I only had a week to throw this together. If you had at your leisure, I'm excited to find out what more there is out there.
00:08:02
Speaker
But I did get, we've got four taglines for the movie this week. Tagline number one, a deadly game of hide and seek. Hmm.
00:08:13
Speaker
Not great. me Yeah. It sounds like it should be taking place in a department store overnight. and That sounds like ready or not's tagline. Yeah. not That's not the tagline for this film.
00:08:24
Speaker
No.
David Winters' Career Highlights
00:08:26
Speaker
Number two, inescapable fear descends upon the French Riviera. Okay. okay SAT words.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like French Riviera, it makes it sound like someone's just generally stalking the French Riviera instead of specifically stalking this starlet. Yeah. Number three, she's dying to be in his film, Ellipses.
00:08:53
Speaker
yeah okay that's just fundamentally untrue but i feel like it evokes the truth better than the other two it's selling something that the film has to an extent and number four similar but different babes are dying to be in his movie exclamation point huh i like that better that one's pretty good yeah yeah i think it draws attention yeah it's more evocative of david winters's vision yes i think so it certainly speaks to something that the other three don't so uh who is david winters
00:09:34
Speaker
He was born at David Weitzer in 1939 in London and moved to the U.S. sometime around 1953. I saw some sources saying he was in New York at the age of 12 and another source saying he moved to America at 14, somewhere around there.
00:09:52
Speaker
ah But part of his backstory is he shined shoes to pay for dance lessons. Okay. And by the age of 15, he was a professional dancer. Oh, all right. Good for you. I'm singing in the rain. Yeah.
00:10:03
Speaker
He worked on Broadway and Hollywood. ah He played Baby John in the original production of West Side Story and A-Rab in the film West Side Story. One of the few actors to go from Broadway to the film adaptation.
00:10:19
Speaker
and And that explains those roots in Thrashing that you were talking about. Exactly. This clearly story that speaks to him. He just made West Side Story again. Yep.
Production and Filmmaking Tactics
00:10:28
Speaker
It's all coming together, Greg. Can't you see? and no It's coalescing into gestalt.
00:10:34
Speaker
So he worked as a choreographer with Elvis and Nancy Sinatra and Anne Margaret. He did Liva Las Vegas, all that frenetic Anne Margaret wow trademark dancing. That's all him.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah. Huh. In 1968, he started directing musical TV specials for the likes of Anne Margaret, Raquel Welch, The Fifth Dimension, and Tom Jones.
00:11:02
Speaker
Good names, yep. And ah then, in the mid-70s, he started making things that were really strange. and In 1975, he directed the Alice Cooper concert film, Welcome to My Nightmare.
00:11:18
Speaker
Okay. Okay. He also directed the comedic pornography, Linda Lovelace for president. He was dating Linda Lovelace at the time. Yeah. He was like, oh man, I'm going to make Linda Lovelace the next star. And then he realized, oh no, she can't act.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah, really much more of a pornographer. Best known for starring in Deep Throat.
00:11:42
Speaker
as the Yeah, the titular Deep Throat. ah In 1978, he was the choreographer for the Star Wars Holiday Special. I was waiting for you to mention that one. It's the real capper to a career.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, that' that's a touchstone that a lot of people are going to be familiar with, and that will that will give you his vibe. Maybe the Bruce Valanche of dance? Yeah. Wow, that is a strange statement.
00:12:07
Speaker
He has a weird ties to another great foundational a bad movie guy. ed Wood's ex-girlfriend became a songwriter for Elvis, and the song she wrote for Elvis was choreographed by David Winters.
00:12:22
Speaker
Nice. Wow. Three degrees of separation. Exactly. Well, ah in 1979, he directed the tennis comedy Racket.
00:12:33
Speaker
Huh. Challengers who Yeah. I bet it's, I bet. Have you, have you seen racket days? I was reading about it today. i'm like, how have I not seen this so next time? I was.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah. i'm I'm going to put that one up on the Plex for sure. So basically the vibe that I was getting off of this man at this point was that he was just sort of having a very eclectic career of following his bliss, just doing literally whatever sounded interesting to him at any given time.
00:13:04
Speaker
and with enough moderate levels of success that he could keep doing it. Yeah, he has notoriously straight theater guy energy. Okay.
00:13:16
Speaker
In the most derogatory way possible. Okay. Yeah, okay. So you're saying he was doing a lot of drugs. I'm saying who was doing a lot of women. that is also true. So in 1981, he makes The Last Horror Movie,
00:13:29
Speaker
so ah in nineteen eighty one he makes the last horror movie He teams up with writer slash producer Judd Hamilton, who had acted in Racket and had also executive produced Maniac, which also starred Joe Spinell and Caroline Monroe.
00:13:46
Speaker
So that's how this team all came together. This is occasionally marketed as Maniac 2. Yes. The cut that I saw was called Fnatic. Yeah. Yeah. Now, it was ah shot on location in Cannes during the 34th Cannes Film Festival.
00:14:03
Speaker
You guys say Cannes or Cannes? I say Cannes. I say Cannes. oh Oh, fuck, Greg. Sorry.
00:14:12
Speaker
Now, ah they did not have film permits, so instead they shot the film Guerrilla style. Nice. They caught footage of Isabella Adjani, Karen Black, Marcello Mestriani, and Chris Christopherson all appear in the film, all without their prior consent.
00:14:29
Speaker
Nice, I guess. if Also, a lot of topless women possibly filmed without their prior consent. That would make sense. ah They even had a fake press conference that was partially attended by Real Reporters.
00:14:46
Speaker
Wow. If I heard that there was a movie filming and I had time, i would absolutely pop in there. Yeah. Oh, for sure. Now, it ah premiered at the Sitges Film Festival in Barcelona.
00:15:02
Speaker
It's actually Barcelona or Barthelona. I say Barcelona. And I've actually been to that film festival a couple of years ago. It's in Sitges, Spain itself, which is close to Barcelona.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah. Like 40 minutes down the coast. Yeah, Barcelona. ah Beautiful. And i it was ah it's interesting to me that it premiered there. That makes sense because it's ah it's like horror cinema, but sometimes with a fantastic element to it as well. So this fits right in with the kind of thing that's going on.
00:15:35
Speaker
A lot of production of this was based out of Gibraltar as well for various reasons. So the Spanish ties make sense. Yeah. Okay. It did win best cinematography.
00:15:47
Speaker
And I don't know what was up against, but I think the cinematography in this was very good. Yeah. ah It only found very limited theatrical distribution in the U S in 1983. And edited down version was released on VHS. Yes.
00:16:05
Speaker
Now, there is a restored edition that brought back more gore, but they can only find, like, really poor quality copies of it. So there's one cut. I think this was a cut that I watched that had a couple of shots that were, like, noticeably worse quality.
00:16:23
Speaker
And, like, the sound was, like, pretty low on them as well. Yes. But...
00:16:30
Speaker
There's a newer edition that I should probably should have tried. That's what I watched. I sprung for the Blu-ray couple of years ago. Yeah. When I saw your booklet, I was like, that looks like the booklet that comes with like the limited edition DVD or Blu-ray.
00:16:44
Speaker
ah had to know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're great booklets. I love buying those things. So the original full print was found in the early 2020s in the archives of La Cinémathèque Française.
00:16:57
Speaker
And it was used to re-release a 4K cut by Severin. I'm assuming that's the one. Yeah, Severin. So that's my my sort of big picture. Are there any details for context that you think I missed out there, Days?
00:17:11
Speaker
Okay. So in the booklet, there is an essay by Judd Hamilton, who you said is the producer and also features in the movie. I forget his character's name because i look at him and I will go there's Judd Hamilton. um But he plays Jana Bates, his new boyfriend.
00:17:27
Speaker
And ah in the the the essay he wrote is called How Not to Make a Horror Film. And he talks about how his first mistake was hiring David Winters.
00:17:38
Speaker
well How he was a horrible person to work with, ah would never stick to any budget, When they left, if they found out that he ran up a $3,000, uh, champagne tab.
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, and he talks. So I read that and i was just like, okay. And i born I wanted to get the other side of the story. So I opened up David Winters' autobiography, ah Tough Guys Do Dance.
00:18:09
Speaker
Okay. Nice. And in that, he talks about how, a how he invited his girlfriend to come to ah filming, but then had to tell her to leave because his wife was coming soon after.
00:18:25
Speaker
I believe his wife is in the film. Yes, his wife plays... ah cold open. ah Yeah, the blonde in the hot tub. And the girlfriend, one of his girlfriends he brought to filming is in the paddle boat with him in like the scene after.
00:18:42
Speaker
Okay. okay um And she's the daughter of the guy that Raging Bull is named after. like Everybody in this is somebody something. That's so crazy.
00:18:54
Speaker
That's a family I wouldn't want to mess with. Exactly. This is short-sighted. The biggest thing I learned about the production of this is that after filming was done, i Judd Hamilton was like, I'm going to take over editing. You've done enough.
00:19:11
Speaker
Let's just call it right here. And Dave Winters says no. Judd Hamilton ran away with the film cans, uh, Dave Winters and a couple of, and of the funders were like made a police report, had him arrested.
00:19:27
Speaker
It was a whole thing, and it was tied with the Lloyds of London, like,
Conflicts and Challenges in Production
00:19:33
Speaker
fraudulent. It's the biggest like financial fraud case in British history, and part of it was through funding movies like this.
00:19:43
Speaker
So, ah at the end of the day, David Winters did get Final Cut, which is why there are so many boobs. um But... in That was never Judd Hamilton's vision. And when Severn released this new version, they let him do a producer's cut.
00:19:58
Speaker
And I tried watching it and it's literally the same thing, but without the boobs. It's just like a pain. That's hilarious. Yeah, what a what a worse way to make that movie.
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely the wrong call. I got a side with Winters on this one. exactly exactly yeah it's a it's crazy autobiography by the way day winters he also claims that it was joe spinel that ran up that champagne tab sure well i i'm i wouldn't say no to joe spinel he cut a very intimidating figure in this film he does he was in the godfather he was in rocky yeah he also is very convincingly deranged uh do you guys want to talk about the plot of this movie yeah
00:20:44
Speaker
Alright then, I'm gonna play the plot bumper.
00:21:06
Speaker
Plot bumper, listen to me. I'm gonna give you the plot summary. Come on, baby. Here's the synopsis.
00:21:18
Speaker
Plot bumper, plot bumper.
00:21:32
Speaker
So we got our opening title and it reads fanatic.
00:21:38
Speaker
So already I've been in danger of confusing this with the last horror movie.
Plot Setup and Narrative Development
00:21:42
Speaker
Now I'm also in danger of confusing it with the John Travolta film fanatic. I think once you've seen both, it's easy to distinguish them.
00:21:51
Speaker
That's true. Boy, that John Travolta movie, Fanatic, is wild. It's crazy. Yes. this where where he goes What's the British phrase he kept keeps repeating? He's like, oh, yeah, because he dresses as a copper on the main drag. yeah Yeah.
00:22:08
Speaker
The main thing I remember was it being directed by Fred Durst. And fred at one point, Devin Sawa leans over to his son and says, you like Limp Bizkit? Yeah, that's a great part.
00:22:19
Speaker
yeah i'm fully believe red dirt saved the movies anyway anyway that we then see a hot blonde skinny dipping in a hot tub uh this hot blonde is played by obviously david winter's wife jaylen winters uh then she gets electrocuted to death by a pair of gloved hands and then we see end
00:22:50
Speaker
I got to say this movie looks like it was unsatisfactory in terms of plot structure. That's really more of an opening shot to a movie.
00:23:03
Speaker
But the audience of the film is eating it up. Specifically this guy, Vinny, who is watching the film within the film. He is Joe Spinell. He is sort of a hulking,
00:23:16
Speaker
ah tiny Tim looking fellow. sure shrek-esque yes yeah uh he's got like a pencil thin mustache and long greasy hair and uh yeah he does have a very shrek like a body great actor i i we need character actors yeah i'm sure he cleans up well he is not cleaned up here
00:23:47
Speaker
Uh, but, uh, then we get our opening credits, uh, which is, uh, rolling over footage of an editing table. And then, uh, we see Vinnie the cabbie and he's chilling out at the cab Depot reading starburst magazine and dreams of acting opposite and also directing scream queen, Jana Bates.
00:24:10
Speaker
And we get a little fantasy sequence and Vinnie probably gets, i want to say somewhere between six and nine fantasy sequences in this film. Yeah. Yeah. all ranging and derangedness yeah yes they're always great though yeah uh and it really allows david winters to get a little bit more surreal with his imagery and he does ah a good job he he takes that opportunity well um ah But then we come back to the real world and the other cabbies are all busting his balls.
00:24:43
Speaker
So he heads home to his mom, who's played by Joe Spinell's real mother, Mary Spinell. She's fantastic. Philomena Spagnuolo. It's a big Martin Scorsese's parents vibe.
00:24:56
Speaker
Yes, she's very cute. She's very genuine. She's beautiful screen presence. I loved her to death.
00:25:06
Speaker
But he tells her that he's flying to Cannes to make his movie. And then we go with him. And we're at the 34th annual Cannes Film Festival. We see posters for movies like Thief and Possession and Excalibur and Quartet and the Battle of Algiers.
00:25:27
Speaker
And also we see lots of topless babes. Yeah.
00:25:32
Speaker
Cinema Verite. That's right. I feel like this movie is like laser directed at Roger Ebert. If it weren't a horror movie.
00:25:45
Speaker
So Vinny checks into a hotel room and has adorned the walls with photos of Jana Bates. Do you say Jana or Jaina?
00:25:56
Speaker
It's Jana in the movie. yeah Okay. ah A radio announcer talks about John Hinckley shooting Reagan for Jodie Foster. Every time he turns on the radio, it's another new atrocity inspired by some pop culture thing.
00:26:13
Speaker
But boy, isn't that the real world, eh? Topical. I love those moments when they would come up in the movie. like They found those moments to be really satisfying. Yeah.
00:26:24
Speaker
They're like, think about it. thank And this movie does play a lot with, you know, fantasy versus reality. I think pulling in, and these would have been very contemporary at the time.
00:26:35
Speaker
Yeah. yeah you know And I like, I looked it up. was like, does this happen in 81 as well? It's like, yeah, it did actually. It's like, it's all like kind of nuts. Yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
So then we cut to a critic screening of Jana's new movie scream. Yeah. Yeah. A horror movie called Scream. It would never work. No. yeah Now let's get back to this meta horror movie that we're watching. That's commenting on a horror.
00:27:04
Speaker
ah Now, they just watched footage of her getting her face set on fire and like she's screaming in pain and terror. And they're all like, this is great.
00:27:15
Speaker
And they they all circle her name on the ballot up against like Meryl Streep. I can't remember who else was on the ballot, but it was great.
00:27:24
Speaker
Um, let's see. Then, ah to tu to soon Jana herself flies into con and, uh, we meet her and her entire retinue at a nightclub that night.
00:27:36
Speaker
We got her fiance, Alan Cummingham played by Judd Hamilton, the writer producer. Uh, we get the, uh, producer, I think slash husband played by ex-husband Brett Bates played by Glenn Jacobson.
00:27:54
Speaker
And then we get the director, Stanley Klein, who's played by the director, David Winters. And then there're there, there just a couple of other guys around.
00:28:06
Speaker
There's Marty Bernstein, who's an agent. There's a woman named Suzanne, who's also in the mix somehow.
Horror Dynamics and Cinematic Techniques
00:28:15
Speaker
It was really difficult for me to keep track of characters and in some ways to know who was even important to keep track of in no sense.
00:28:23
Speaker
janna yeah yeah i yeah those i got those i got really easy but like also the the cast is ordered in appearance which always makes it really difficult for me because i tried to go to imdb ahead of time to like help myself out and i was like obviously like cop number two is not important to the overall cowboy who drops off guy at the beginning of movie yeah yeah What a character.
00:28:50
Speaker
um Okay. Okay. Okay. Where was I? Where was I? Yeah. when We meet the whole retinue at the nightclub. Vinny, he wants to get to the nightclub, obviously, because that's where Jana is. say I can finally pitch her on my script.
00:29:03
Speaker
And, ah but he gets kept out of there by bouncers. So he goes back to his hotel, which is above a theater showing Cannibal Holocaust. Which is great. Yeah. And then he puts on a white suit and a fedora and he grabs his camera and he uses that to like sneak in with another crew to get into the club.
00:29:22
Speaker
And we see some of the footage that he's shooting. And whenever we cut to that footage, it's in black and white. And the soundtrack just cuts to his heavy breathing. And I think it's really effective. I think it's really cool. It's also that trope that I talked about last week too, but from the perspective of a camera person, which was an interesting one to see as well.
00:29:40
Speaker
Yeah. Interesting commentary there. Yeah. A good, a good twist on the trope for sure. Not to put a hat on a hat, but it's also an interesting thing because walking in confidently with a camera is how they filmed a lot of this movie. Yeah. That makes sense.
00:29:56
Speaker
Yeah. Once again, life imitates art, imitates life. This movie is going to bake your noodle, Greg. It's true. Charlie Kaufman. are You ain't shit.
00:30:09
Speaker
So the next day, Jana gets a bouquet of flowers with a note that says, you've made your last horror movie. Goodbye. And then ex, Brett, gets a similar note with a bottle of champagne.
00:30:24
Speaker
And then when Jana goes to visit him in his hotel suite, she finds him in the bathroom decapitated. Yeah. She doesn't see that there's someone else in the bathroom filming the whole thing.
00:30:40
Speaker
Now, ah when the police arrive, they tell Jana and boyfriend Alan that there was no body in the suite. Jana insists, I've seen enough fake blood to know the real thing when I see it.
00:30:53
Speaker
but Alan dismisses her anyway. Classic boyfriend in a horror movie.
00:30:59
Speaker
And I just want to mention really quick, cause I haven't yet. Jana looks really wild in this movie. Yes. She's got what they call nowadays, the money pieces, uh, in the front. Okay. Yeah.
00:31:13
Speaker
the chi The hair is bleached at her temples and combed back. She looks like a lady Mr. Fantastic. It's 80s Bride of Frankenstein inspired. like And then the eyeshadow is always painted on an inch thick. And she it she's gorgeous.
00:31:32
Speaker
I love her. But yeah, it's it's a look. It's an intense look. Yeah, it's very big, very loud. can see it from a mile away. Uh, now let's see. da da du that the He, Alan dismisses her that night.
00:31:49
Speaker
Vinny almost joins a group of new bile skinny dippers down at the beach, but instead he just picks up their, hosiery and starts sniffing it. And then one comes over and, uh, mocks him.
00:32:02
Speaker
Very strange scene. Yeah. A real, real maniac. They, they, they, they kept playing with this idea of like, like proto silence of the lambs compulsion and it's really close, but in a really interesting way.
00:32:18
Speaker
Yeah. I think, well, anyway, anyway, anyway, next day, the newspaper, it says that Brett is missing and Alan says, it's probably all a publicity stunt. He's a horror movie guy. This is a horror. This is a movie festival. He's just trying to drum up some publicity.
00:32:37
Speaker
Um, Then we move into the middle act of the movie, which is involves every five minutes. There is a needle drop of another like random song that was written just for this movie.
00:32:53
Speaker
Like there's just like a brief music video yeah every five minutes for the next 40 minutes. And it's just montage of B-roll they got while standing around.
00:33:05
Speaker
It's really strange. And it brings the movie to a grinding halt. It's a real problem. So for me, because this movie iss a little discombobulated and even I, at this point, as I'm watching it, I was writing is like, are we supposed to think Vinny is the killer?
Critique of Film's Pacing
00:33:26
Speaker
Because there was something like, this is weird for me, like watching the whole thing's weird. And so these music montages had the effect of the the bomb conversation that ah Hitchcock was talking about, where I know something weird is happening. I know something wrong is happening. Like, here's a fun little montage. is' like, no, no, no, no. Get back to the... I don't want the potatoes. I want the meat. I don't want the potatoes. I want the meat.
00:33:47
Speaker
Like, let's get back to this. And so this like just kept getting tension going. It made it feel stranger. And like when you're at like. It definitely made it feel strange. Yeah. it It made it feel more frenetic, which I guess added to the tone, but maybe not more watchable.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah. It's certainly an issue. Maybe. By the fifth time, it became distinctly noticeable and a problem for me. I'm going to say. High wire. high wire. Don't worry. High wire is our closing song. I will be playing high warrior.
00:34:25
Speaker
so I'm crazy about high wire.
00:34:29
Speaker
But I'm going to say this is the most needle drops we've had in a movie since Gotti. It's wrong. Check out our episode about Gotti. ah Now, Vinny overhears an agent, Marty Bernstein, ah while he's winning in line for the telephone.
00:34:45
Speaker
And he introduces himself, but ah Marty brushes him off. And then we get another montage. And then certain members of the crew show up at police headquarters to ask for protection. And the police are like, that this is just a publicity stunt. Screw you.
00:34:59
Speaker
We're French. We don't care. We need to worry about traffic. We've got this big film festival. We don't have time for your phony murder investigation. And then Marty gets a note from Brett Bates, the allegedly missing guy, asking him to come to a screening room.
00:35:16
Speaker
But when Marty shows up there, he gets murdered. And then we get another montage.
00:35:24
Speaker
And then ah Vinny calls his mom to say that he's doing great. And Jana walks by and Vinny tries to follow her, but he gets shut out by security at her press conference. And I believe this press conference was the one, the fake one that they staged and brought in real reporters.
00:35:39
Speaker
Yeah, where they have the random British lady go, so the violence happened on the movie and I know it's fake, but it's scary. Yeah. They have a really great like direct conversation about the themes of the film, which is a really funny thing to happen 40 minutes into a movie.
00:35:57
Speaker
ah And one of the reporters there is Robin Leach, host of Lifestyle, The Rich and Famous.
Themes of Fantasy vs. Reality
00:36:02
Speaker
Which I would like writing a note. mean, it was just like, what would you say about the violence? And I was just like, what is that Robin Leach? What is happening? And I looked up. was like, oh, wow.
00:36:13
Speaker
little too old of a reference for me. Oh yeah, that's him. Yeah, that's that's Lifestyles of the Rich rich and Famous. yeah ah Fantastic voice. You'd love to hear him in here.
00:36:27
Speaker
ah But they ask her about the intersection between horror movies and real world violence. ah But also, this press conference is crosscut with footage of Vinny rubbing his exposed nipples in front of a slideshow of Janet.
00:36:41
Speaker
Evocative shot. Yes, very powerful stuff. Like that's something if if somebody used it in ah in a movie today, there'd be like a still shot of that on Twitter. Like, oh my gosh.
00:36:52
Speaker
Like that happened in Severance. People wouldn't stop talking about it. Not the rubbing the nipples part, but this the slideshow part. Yeah, and but I mean, even thinking of something like Red Dragon with having Ralph Fiennes with his phony cleft palate, I'm going to say Vinny being played by Joe Spinelli is more confronting of an image, him shirtless, than Ralph Fiennes in Red Dragon.
00:37:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:21
Speaker
Because he's not Hollywood pretty. He's not Ralph Fiennes. He's this very creepy looking dude. We need to protect character actors so much. yeah Yes. ah So then Vinny decides to go to a local strip club.
00:37:37
Speaker
And there he imagines himself stripping. And then he storms the stage and gets kicked out and he's calling the stripper Jana. It seems like Vinny's really going around the bend at this point. I think this guy might be a little crazy.
00:37:49
Speaker
That scene, by the way, according to David Winters, was inspired by Joe Spinel randomly showing up one day on set wearing lingerie under a trench coat. So once again, art imitates life.
00:38:03
Speaker
Yeah. and And once again, this shows David Winters in the mode of following his bliss. You know, he's open to inspiration coming from the universe. That's right. love an artist that approaches the things that way.
00:38:15
Speaker
Also, I want to mention that the stripper in the strip club, her act was a sexy baby act. She was wearing like baby nappies. She had a bonnet. Yeah.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah. So that was weird. Then Vinny goes to a screening of Caller in the Night, a Stanley Klein film. Stanley Klein, the character played by David Winters.
00:38:39
Speaker
There is a hobo in it that eats eyeballs and somebody gets really cut up. And Vinny seems into it, but then he storms out. And he runs into Stanley and he says, You shouldn't be alive to make films like this, Stanley.
00:38:55
Speaker
So scary stuff. Maybe Vinny is the murderer. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. The police have now identified Marty's corpse.
00:39:10
Speaker
They're like, okay, Marty is dead. Someone has been killed. Now the police are willing to admit there's a dead person. Now, Suzanne, the other actress who is also here for some reason doing something, she wants to go home. And all of a sudden now it's us, the audience's problems.
00:39:27
Speaker
So Stanley says that he'll send her home tomorrow. But first, tonight, he wants to show her this really cool clock tower that he found. This is the weirdest part of the movie. Classic straight theater boy thing to do.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. First, let me take you to another isolated location and put a lot of pressure on you. You never follow the bee to a second location. do you want me to have to drive you back in a bad mood?
00:39:53
Speaker
Uh, now he basically does start to menace her. Uh, and then she follows him around the clock tower,
Climactic Showdown and Conclusion
00:40:03
Speaker
but then it turns out Stanley, not the murderer. He's just a creep and he gets killed.
00:40:09
Speaker
Uh, but then, Oh, sorry. Good. Yeah. yeah Yeah. RIP to a real one. And then, uh, ah Suzanne finds his body on top of the clock tower, but then she gets shot and she falls off the tower and somebody films the whole thing.
00:40:25
Speaker
Our mysterious killer. Then we probably get another montage. And then Vinny calls his mom again. Oh no, sorry. Now we get another montage.
00:40:37
Speaker
And then Vinny stalks across the roof to break into Jana's bathroom to give her a bottle of Moet. This is the montage that is to Livewire. Livewire is the only song that's used for two montages. That's how you know it's the best one.
00:40:51
Speaker
Also him, i forgot. i like i just I write little notes to myself where I am in the movie. Him walking across the roof to the Martinez or whatever it is sign, like him walking in front of is beautiful image.
00:41:03
Speaker
I really like that image a lot.
00:41:07
Speaker
uh, so yeah, he hops into through her, uh, bathroom window and, uh, she yells at him to leave. Understandably. And he's like, I just want you to be in my movie, the final scene.
00:41:19
Speaker
And, uh, when she says, get out of there, he takes it poorly and he smashes the champagne bottle. He starts to threaten her with the broken bottle. And then he starts to direct her. He's like, turn your head to the left of the,
00:41:34
Speaker
Yes. And it's really creepy. It's a really very creepy, very tense scene.
00:41:42
Speaker
But then luckily the tension is broken by a friendly bellboy who has arrived with flowers. Jana uses this distraction to escape. She runs away in a towel and the whole crowd in the lobby the hotel thinks that it's all a publicity stunt.
00:41:58
Speaker
Janna then runs through Khan to find Alan. And Alan escorts her back to the hotel, which it seems like a weird choice considering she was almost murdered in that hotel. I thought that too.
00:42:12
Speaker
Let's go back to the scene of the crime. Come on, you need to go back. Let me take a look at what happened in there. I don't see a murderer. ah do see some broken glass, sure.
00:42:25
Speaker
Were you drinking champagne in the bathroom? ah But then let's see. No, Alan is actually taking it seriously this time. saying Okay. I think something happened. So he calls his friend, Jonathan, who happens to own a nearby castle and keep a retinue of security guards.
00:42:44
Speaker
Yeah. The great touch. it Once again, it was literally just David Winters, his friends had a castle nearby. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, if you have access to a castle and you're making a horror movie, you'd be crazy not to use the castle. It's true.
00:43:00
Speaker
and It seemed like a pretty nice castle. Sixth century, apparently. Wow, that's an old one. I feel like i definitely seen it in in a vampire movie that I've seen, but I feel like you might be able to say that about a lot of castles.
00:43:13
Speaker
The many loves of Dracula. Yeah.
00:43:19
Speaker
Uh, so then, we get another musical montage of everybody driving out to the castle and Vinnie follows them in his own car. And, uh, Jonathan tells his guests to make themselves comfortable. And then he's going to go for a walk.
00:43:33
Speaker
Vinny sneaks onto the property, and he's really impressed by the gas. He's like, wow, this place is so neat. But the security guards on the property hear him, and they chase him off.
00:43:45
Speaker
Once he's outside, they actually open fire on him, and Jonathan gets shot in the crossfire. Fire.
00:43:57
Speaker
It's also interesting because they're like, he's got a gun, but what he has is a camera. But there's also the mixing of the gun and the camera several times in this film. so Yeah, it's almost like a camera is a gun.
00:44:11
Speaker
In a way. And a gun is a camera. Think about it. It steals your soul just like a bullet. Uh, so they drive back to con in the morning.
00:44:23
Speaker
We get another nice little montage and it's just a time for awards night. And, uh, so Vinny goes back to his hotel room and he swept, uh, swaps out his Mets gear.
00:44:35
Speaker
Obviously he's a Mets fan. And, uh, but he puts on a little gendarme uniform. Uh, And Alan and Jana, they show up to the award ceremony looking really swagged out.
00:44:49
Speaker
And Jana's seats get filled by a body double. Placed by Judd Hamilton's daughter, by the way. Okay. Okay. Okay.
00:45:01
Speaker
Well, I mean, keep it in the family, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. But this leaves Jana alone backstage with an assistant.
00:45:12
Speaker
And then when the assistant goes to get a drink of water, Vinny grabs Jana using a chloroform soaked rag. Sure. Classic. it Tosses her in his car and drives her back to the castle to film the last scene of his movie.
00:45:28
Speaker
And he says to protect her from someone else that's trying to kill her Sure. Likely story. Yeah, like I'm going to believe a psycho.
00:45:40
Speaker
But yes, and he's revealed the title of his film is The Many Loves of Dracula. So he takes her to the candlelit set. And he's dressed like Dracula. I'm going to say convincingly.
00:45:53
Speaker
And then he hammers a stake into her chest. But this was all visual effects trickery. Movie magic. That's right. But then there's more movie magic because Brett Bates is there.
00:46:06
Speaker
What? And he's operating a camera. And he did fake his own death with movie magic. And now he's been killing everyone else and framing Vinny.
00:46:17
Speaker
I'm not quite sure why, but whatever. ah They try to run, but Brett grabs Jana.
00:46:28
Speaker
Then Vinny distracts Brett long enough with the headlight from a motorcycle ah that Janet can escape. And then he cuts off Brett's head with a chainsaw.
00:46:40
Speaker
Hell yeah. yep Yeah. Fantastic. And then the cops roll up and Vinny lets out an anguished cry before we zoom out and reveal that this is also a movie within a movie.
00:46:55
Speaker
It's Vinny's movie that he's showing his mom.
Final Thoughts and Ratings
00:46:58
Speaker
And then mom asks if the two of them can split a joint. And then the credits roll. well yeah yeah He also asks, do you have any more baked macaroni?
00:47:08
Speaker
Yes. And she says, no now give me that joint. Yes, that is a fantastic capper to the movie. It's truly the button it needs. Well, final thoughts, five star ratings.
00:47:22
Speaker
What do you guys think? Greg, why don't you kick us so All right. So I enjoyed this one quite a bit, actually. i liked that. So admittedly, yeah it's got some problems, ah but I feel like it had such a strange point of view that was not necessarily following one character.
00:47:42
Speaker
So as I watch a horror movie, I'm often trying to kind of sort out where it's going, trying to make some amount of predictions. It's just kind of how I work. And I was a captioner, so you kind of had to do that to try to figure out who is what so you can label them properly.
00:47:56
Speaker
And in this one, I was just like, I don't really understand how this is even going to end. I don't understand what the yeah scenarios are. and as it keeps going, it just you feel more off kilter and weird.
00:48:07
Speaker
And every time it went to like a montage or like news footage, like it was just like, we're in Vinny's space, we're in Jana's space, we're in the con space, we're in the mother's. like It just keeps shifting perspectives so much that it was difficult to know how it could even end. And I found that really enticing and really interesting.
00:48:27
Speaker
ah so I'm going to give it a watchability of four. i think a lot of people could certainly have some trouble with it, and it's not for everybody. But I thought it was just a blast to watch. And in the music, well, the montage is maybe where the loft putting the music was so stupid that I was just having a good time. Anytime the song came, it was just like, hell yeah. All right. And it was just like, they're just talking about the movie itself. Great.
00:48:52
Speaker
A lot of interesting little commentary in there and stuff. So that was fun. I had trouble figuring out how weird it is. Now after talking, I think I'm going to give that a four as well because there's so much happening in it. It's hard to remember all of the other parts of it.
00:49:10
Speaker
It's like I can remember the sexual side of it and the creepy side of it and the montage side of it, but never all at once because it's got so many sides and that it is in and of itself pretty weird.
00:49:22
Speaker
Absolutely. It's it's overwhelming. Yeah. I gave it a three and a half in watchability. I thought it was very visually inventive and I thought it was a lot of fun, but I do think it had an unusual narrative structure that made it harder to follow. Sure.
00:49:38
Speaker
And I, I think all those needle drops killed the pacing. I thought they're all fun individually, but they were less than the sum of their parts. I could see that. For weirdness, I gave you this a four and a half. I thought it was a very East Coast horror.
00:49:53
Speaker
You know, I think at this time, in terms of low budget horror, there's both East Coast and West Coast vibes. And this has very East Coast vibes. I think Joe Spinell is a big part of that. But it also feels kind of like if an American horror movie had been inspired by Jallo instead of Halloween.
00:50:09
Speaker
yeah like it does feel very european and it but it also feels like it's then doing meta commentary on this american horror movement that never existed yeah you know what i mean ah so it it like i said it really does bake your noodle in a way that i think is pretty fun and and pretty weird yeah days what about you in terms of watchability and weirdness give me your five stars So I think it's a four in watchability because i when I watch a horror movie like this, i do it from two perspectives, which is one, if I'm sitting down and watching a movie, and two, if I was at a party and this was playing at a very low volume with the closed captions on. And this is such like Halloween party vibes for a very specific group of people.
00:50:59
Speaker
Yeah, where it looks fun. And if you were just to tune in for any random 30 seconds, you'd either find yourself, well, statistically, probably in the middle of a montage, which is yeah pretty great, or some weird slasher mitt, or some guy looking incredibly early 80s, you know, being frantic. And I think that's great.
00:51:19
Speaker
um That said, i I have a pet theory that choreographers make the best directors because they understand how bodies move. you know know You're Gene Telly's, you're Bob Fosse's, you're Kenny Ortega's.
00:51:35
Speaker
And ah I think David Winters has a great eye. i do not think he is a good writer and he co-wrote this with ah Judd Hamilton and neither of them are especially great screenwriters.
00:51:48
Speaker
But the ideas that are there are interesting. So if you can make it a better movie in your head, it's an amazing movie. Yeah. yeah Yeah. ah In terms of weirdness, I'm with you. i said four and a half just because it's so crazy. The fact that I watched this, like i think it was like the week after I watched Joker and I was like, oh, this is that what that movie wanted to be.
00:52:14
Speaker
It has the weird fantasy sequences. It has the kookiness of it all. the the I was reading they used a different film when they were doing the night scenes in the fantasy sequences.
00:52:29
Speaker
that had never been used in a feature before, according to David Winters. And who knows what he's saying, but yeah, that's what he said. And it looks really cool. It does. Yeah. the the And the, the, the ending, I always come back to the ending of it was all movie and they're going to smoke a joint. It's just so there's no other way that this movie could end.
00:52:51
Speaker
Yeah. It really is just a sweet little button on the movie. We're like, Hey, at the end of the day, We all had a fun time at the movies. Exactly.
00:53:03
Speaker
Well, you guys want to get on to act three of the show. I've got a little tiny little segment about gorilla filmmaking. Yeah.
Introduction to Guerrilla Filmmaking
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:32
Speaker
Trends in film, they do happen. Trends in film. Trends in film, that's the segment.
00:53:43
Speaker
Trends in film.
00:53:58
Speaker
Now, guerrilla filmmaking is a low-budget filmmaking technique that involves shooting in public locations without permits. That's a definition I'm going with right now.
00:54:09
Speaker
Okay. Now, normally this requires small crews and casts to avoid detection by local authorities, but is normally a tactic used by small-budget filmmakers anyway, so running lean and mean shouldn't be too much of Now, most guerrilla films sort of get lost to time.
00:54:31
Speaker
You could argue that all pretty much all home movies are guerrilla docs. I'm not going to sit here and yeah list a bunch of home movies. But there are a couple of notable breakouts. A lot of Ed Wood's early films, when he would shoot out on location, you could say were guerrilla films. We don't have permits.
00:54:47
Speaker
Run! Exactly. Roger Ebert described Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetbacks Badass Song as a textbook on guerrilla filmmaking.
00:55:00
Speaker
Nice. oh And I think you could probably find a couple more examples from early blaxploitation that were shot without permits. I would not be surprised.
00:55:11
Speaker
Yeah. 90s was sort of a golden era with the the indie movement of the 90s. So in there you've got, though this I think was before the ninety s Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, which is made on a budget of $175,000.
00:55:26
Speaker
thousand dollars ah Later on, Spike Lee wrote the book Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It Inside Guerrilla Filmmaking.
00:55:37
Speaker
Possibly the most famous ah Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi. yeah Yeah. on a $7,000 budget, mostly raised from maxing out credit cards and donating his body to science for medical experiments.
00:55:56
Speaker
Good for him. A fantastic film. Yeah. I mean, and nothing but love and respect for Robert. Agreed. Agreed. ah Yeah. Pie by Darren Aronofsky made on a budget of $68,000, mostly raised by selling a hundred dollars shares to friends and family.
00:56:13
Speaker
Couldn't spring for the 69. Yeah. You really blew it. Classic Aronofsky. Uh, and, uh, another famous curio, the movie, uh, escape from tomorrow.
00:56:26
Speaker
This is my touchstone. very apparently Yeah. It was a, a horror film shot inside Disney world in 2013. Oh yeah. Yeah. I remember hearing about it, but I never heard if it was good or if it was just the premise.
00:56:40
Speaker
It was gimmicky. Yeah. Okay. It's kind of what I heard. Yeah. Well, Hey, God bless them. They did it. Yeah. and a movie I can't take that away from two cakes. But yeah, that that's my little primer on guerrilla filmmaking. Do you guys want to play a game? Well, I know a few other small examples. So one, I know for ah Q, so it's not the movie, but Q, whatever the crazy lizard movie is from the whatever. The Winged Serpent? Yeah, so I know that they didn't have permits to film in the Empire State Building, and they just did that shit.
00:57:14
Speaker
Okay. I think that director or producer who was kind of known for that kind of thing. ah Larry Clark? i wouldn' Yeah, yeah. So it's not like it's not like the whole movie, but it's going to be certain sections. like they go They go to an airport, they like they're they're just going to film that and move on.
00:57:29
Speaker
And then also portions of Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer with Scarlett Johansson. I know afterward they got some of it cleared, but have either of you seen the movie?
00:57:39
Speaker
No. No. So it's a story of Scarlett Johansson ah as an alien, basically. Oh, yeah. Going around rural Scotland picking up hitchhikers.
00:57:50
Speaker
She actually literally picked up men, drove them around and talked to them. They had like three cars surrounding it the whole time. ah So that she could get the experience of picking up people so you get real footage of actual hitchhikers talking to her.
00:58:05
Speaker
I know at one point she like falls on the street. That was all just done. You see people's natural reaction to Scarlett Johansson falling and helping her and stuff like this. They also film in a nightclub.
00:58:16
Speaker
And I know they're like, we just wanted it to feel like a real nightclub. And we knew it wouldn't if we didn't go to an actual nightclub and not tell anybody that we were filming. It's like, it makes sense. Fair not Yeah, I don't want to show off my film cringiness, but I, in college, and i watched a lot of Red Letter Media and they have that phrase, shoot the rodeo, which is if there's something happening, you should pick up your your camera and make it part of your film because that's built in production value. Right, right. yeah That's basically what this movie did with K-On! is we have a bunch of extras right there who are here, blooming over movie stars. Let's take advantage of it.
00:58:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's much easier than trying to recreate an international film festival on a studio backlot. Exactly.
00:59:02
Speaker
All right, well, you guys want to play a little Guess the... Oh, yeah, Guess the Title? Yeah. Okay, here we go.
00:59:17
Speaker
Let me tell you about this brand new game, where you guess the movie's name. You just tell me what the title is, and prove you know about show is... Guess the title!
00:59:33
Speaker
Whipper, whipper, whipper, whipper! Guess the title! Gooby, gooby, gooby, gooby! Guess the title! Come on, honey. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:59:59
Speaker
That's right. We're playing Guess the Title, and we're doing it with movies produced by the company Action International Pictures. Ooh. After David Winter made Thrashing, he decided he wanted to produce his own movies because he had to make cuts to Thrashing that he didn't agree with. So he's like, I want to be the producer. I want to be the guy that's making the final call.
01:00:19
Speaker
So he started up a production company called Action International Pictures, and every single movie they made is insane. Oh, yes. Uh, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to read you a description of an action international picture, and I'm going to read you three titles.
01:00:37
Speaker
I want you to guess which one is the real title. I want you to buzz in. You'll buzz in by saying your own name. If you get it wrong, your opponent will have the chance to steal. If we get our own name wrong.
01:00:49
Speaker
ah Well, I hopefully you can say pretty much anything. If you get the name of the film wrong, they can definitely steal.
01:00:57
Speaker
But we've also had people just ah ah ring in by saying, like, Blorp, it's fine. Make a noise and I'll roll with it. Question number one. A former movie star returns to the big screen along with her younger boyfriend.
01:01:13
Speaker
But she becomes jealous of the attention he is paying her body double. And this jealousy leads to murder. Is this double vision, double threat, or double trouble?
01:01:28
Speaker
man threat is in like every other AIF movie. Greg. Greg? ah Cool my eyes with that double vision, Chris.
01:01:42
Speaker
now I'm sorry, Daze, can you steal? i I'm going to say, going to go against my instincts and say double treble. You got to listen to your gut, Daze. It was double threat.
01:01:53
Speaker
That's right. Plenty of game left to play. Question number two. An American reporter in Nicaragua learns that four army buddies from World War II are now all vampires fighting their own personal war against a Nicaraguan general and his army of vampires.
01:02:15
Speaker
Is this Jungle Blood, the Endless Soldiers, or The Lost Platoon? I want to see this movie and I want all of these titles to be the name of this movie.
01:02:27
Speaker
Can you read them again real fast? Absolutely. Jungle Blood, The Endless Soldiers, or The Lost Platoon? Greg.
01:02:39
Speaker
Greg? The Endless Soldiers. No, I wish. Yeah, I'm pretty sure just in terms of of adjective noun that they love to go for, i want to go for ah the first one. Which was it? like um Jungle Blood? Jungle Blood, yeah.
01:02:59
Speaker
That was the lost platoon. last Good news, Greg. I'm going to be putting all of these on the plex. Everyone that I can find. It sounds so much like ah like a Tom Hanks movie.
01:03:13
Speaker
Question number three. In the future, a cop with a big robot hand protects a reporter from a crooked renegade cops that are trying to kill her.
01:03:25
Speaker
Is that Future Force, Hell City, or My Hand is My Badge? please days ladies That is Future Force starring David Carradine. Correct.
01:03:38
Speaker
I'm going to write Future Force. Days on the board. I'm going to write Future Force down. Greg, you and I have watched Future Force together with Finnegan, I think. Did we? I think so.
01:03:49
Speaker
not I know I've seen it. There's a whole chapter in David Winter's autobiography about David Carradine. It's a whole thing. Oh, I'm sure. Question number four.
01:04:01
Speaker
This one I'm very curious about. Two Vietnam vets dream of their time in country, but wake up with fresh injuries every time.
01:04:12
Speaker
They realize that their dreams are in some sense real and use them to travel back to Nam to save a friend that died in a POW camp. Is this Night Wars, A Second Chance, or Deadly Dreams?
01:04:29
Speaker
ah Greg. Greg. Wars. Night Wars. yeah You're correct. Greg is on the board. Deadly dream is such an AIF title. ah Yeah.
01:04:40
Speaker
Yeah. they God, if I could have pitched these guys in their heyday. oh my God. I would have made upward of $800. In his later years, David Winters was like it living in Thailand as like an expat because of course he was.
01:04:54
Speaker
So a lot of these are informed by that. Fair enough. Question number five. An alien impregnates an earth woman so she can deliver an alien Messiah to take over the world.
01:05:06
Speaker
And only a newspaper reporter can stop it. Is that space God born on arrival or alien seed?
01:05:18
Speaker
Days. I'm going to say alien seed just because it's got that vibe. Yeah. yeah They love an adjective noun for sure.
01:05:30
Speaker
Question number six. A Russian cyborg with telekinetic powers terrorizes a city. Yes. Is that red eyes, fire head, or blood and steel? like Greg.
01:05:45
Speaker
Greg? Red eyes. I'm sorry, Greg. It's not red eyes. title ah I'll go blood and steel. yeah I'm sorry, that movie's called Firehead.
01:05:59
Speaker
What? That sounds like what you call a ginger kid on the playground. I would never come up with the title Firehead for that movie in a million years. Weird.
01:06:13
Speaker
Question number seven. A ruthless businessman plots to dump toxic waste into the water supply of a small town. And only a group of skydiving teenagers can stop him.
01:06:23
Speaker
This movie co-stars Timothy Leary. Is it called Ripcord, Fatal Skies, or Jump? Oh, man.
01:06:34
Speaker
oh Greg. All three of those are very feasible. Greg. Jump.
01:06:42
Speaker
I'm sorry, it's not Jump. I'm going to say Deadly Skies. Fatal Skies? Yeah, that one. You're correct. Yeah. and They're pulling away.
01:06:54
Speaker
Two questions left. Greg, you can still tie it up. We'll see. Question number eight.
01:07:02
Speaker
This one I've already tracked down. A woman finds she is part of a Nazi breeding experiment creating a new race of supermen by crossbreeding women with elves.
01:07:15
Speaker
When she's trapped in a store with an elf, only one man can save her, a renegade store Santa.
01:07:23
Speaker
As this called... The Nazi Elves That Almost Ruined Christmas, Silent Night, Evil Night, or Elves?
01:07:36
Speaker
Daze? I'm going to say Elves. You've got it, Daze. Yeah. I was leaning toward that one because I feel like maybe the prior one was meant to throw us off so we wouldn't think Elves would be the one.
01:07:52
Speaker
e I wish I put that much thought into it. Okay.
01:07:58
Speaker
This one I watched over the weekend. Oh, boy. Actor Robert Culp introduces trailers for and scenes from all your favorite Action International pictures. Oh, boy.
01:08:09
Speaker
Yeah. Is that That's Action, Action in the Isles, or Shootin' Film?
01:08:18
Speaker
Greg. Greg? Shootin' Film. I'm sorry. I had to do it. I had to it. That was Greg Bate. yeah Action in the Isles is not much better, but I'm going to go with that.
01:08:34
Speaker
no I'm sorry. The title is That's Action, and it is weird.
01:08:41
Speaker
Have a guy being like, take a look at the finest in action, and then you see Night Wars. It's got to be a good sampler. little little tasting course.
01:08:52
Speaker
It is. It is a little Whitman sampler. I recommend it. Oh, it's the Batty Awards. You can find it on Tubi.
01:09:06
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're on athole with the Batty Awards.
01:09:19
Speaker
Congratulations to all the nominees.
01:09:32
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. It's the Batty Awards. The only Batty Awards. Greg, do you have one? Yeah, I do.
01:09:42
Speaker
so So as I as a watch movies, I'm constantly, like, if there's something I think might be a baddie award or something I want to put in, basically, I write down my nominees as I see them and I underline them. So that way I can always go back and be like, okay, yeah, I can do So I picked this one pretty quick.
01:09:58
Speaker
and then it And then it inadvertently turned into another, basically another Chekhov's wheelchair. ah It's for when they land at the airport, there's a person holding up a sign that says, I want to be your body double. Yeah.
01:10:11
Speaker
And I was just like, or I want to be your double. And I was just like, well, that's kind of fun. And a silly thing that you would see in a movie like this about going to the movies. And then later he's like, remember that woman at the airport who looked like you? We'll get her to fill in. And then like 20 minutes later, he was like, that was the woman holding the sign.
01:10:28
Speaker
I didn't see that woman. Wow. What a payoff. So, yeah. So for me, it's yeah it started to just be like an award for a fun sign, but it's an award for a Chekhov's fan sign. So. didn't quite look like like had the same weird dye job yeah of course yeah i mean that gets you 90 of the way there and if the dress also fits then yeah good enough yeah you gotta keep in mind most people are going to be at least 30 feet away and most of them are also going to be very drunk if it's like any other awards show exactly and
01:11:02
Speaker
I'm giving my baddie award to ah the most problematic, coolest car you could ever have. And that is, of course, the Confederate flag painted Corvette that is driven by the Texan that Vinny meets at the beginning of the movie, who I thought would end up being more of a character, but is just in only two scenes.
01:11:24
Speaker
But he is driving a Corvette that is painted like a Confederate flag. That would be cool, but also it's not. What are the chances that they just found a guy with a cool car and said, Hey, you want to be in a movie?
01:11:36
Speaker
feel that might be what it is. Yeah. I think it was definitely like, can we put your cool car in our movie? Cause I mean, they couldn't have brought it with them. They, they, I have no idea how that a car like that would even end up in the South of France. yeah It's what's completely mind boggling.
01:11:54
Speaker
Days. Do you have a batty award? ah Yes. And it's appropriately meta for this movie. My Maddie Award goes to the awards show scene because that the part of that, at the very least, was the actual can Golden Lion Awards.
01:12:12
Speaker
no And they apparently their plan for shooting that as reading was they would. decided if they walked in confidently and had a video, like a ah movie camera following Jana, they paid somebody to save two seats in the front and then walked in confidently with a movie camera following Jana.
01:12:32
Speaker
And everybody was like, Oh, movie star and started laughing. And they did that eight times. Well,
01:12:44
Speaker
And shows to go. Yeah. Yeah. ah By the end, uh, apparently according to David Winters autobiography, uh, they started getting booze. So he's like, okay, I guess we got the shot.
01:12:56
Speaker
Um, but yeah, real shout out to the people who unwittingly sat through ah little production scene while they're waiting to hand out, you know, best commercial short form or whatever.
01:13:09
Speaker
Yeah. Hey, God bless. a beautiful film. Thank you so much for bringing it this week, Daze. It was a lot of fun to watch. Good times. Yeah, something I didn't know I was missing and perfect for spooky season.
01:13:29
Speaker
Daze, do you have anything to plug? What do you have going on right now? Yeah, so I'm always writing over at inverse.com if you need your bill of Star Wars theories.
01:13:40
Speaker
um I'm doing a bunch of reviews this month and next month, and ah that is my day job. So you can always find me over there, and I'm at the good old days with a D-A-I-S on ah Twitter and very occasionally Blue Sky.
01:13:59
Speaker
All right. Check it out. Follow days. And hey, come back next week when we're going to be joined by Christy Admiral. And we're going to be talking about a movie.
01:14:13
Speaker
It's based on a Stephen King novel. ah I was looking at it today. It's graveyard shift. Okay. Join us next week as spooky season continues.
01:14:27
Speaker
um
01:14:33
Speaker
yeah
01:14:38
Speaker
Don't forget also to join the ah discord and don't forget to ah rate, like, and subscribe, review, whatever you do, do stuff. And ah yes, until next week, be good and goodbye.
01:14:56
Speaker
Goodbye.
01:15:19
Speaker
Something about your lips got me sizzling hot. Something about the night got my heart on fire.
01:15:31
Speaker
Don't think I'm crazy. I'm just filled with desire. And I dream get a little strange when they leave me here stranded on the highway.