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EPISODE 147: BUGS ARE TERRIFYING 🐜🦟🪳
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Grab your bug spray, babes—because this one’s gonna itch. From swarms in the wilderness to microscopic infestations in your own mind, we’re diving deep into nature’s creepiest crawlies and the paranoia they inspire.
HORROR IN THE MOVIES
🎬 TICKS (1993) – Steroid-mutated ticks turn a camping trip into a bloodsucking nightmare.
🎬 BUG (2007) – Ashley Judd + Michael Shannon + government conspiracies + imaginary infestations = a love story inside a nightmare.
HORROR IN REAL LIFE
🐝 Bees: thriving in some places, in trouble in others—why the buzz isn’t the same everywhere.
☠️ The most deadly bugs in the world (spoiler: mosquitoes still win).
🧟♂️ Zombie ant fungus will make you glad you’re not an ant.
🌈 And yes, bugs can get it on with other bugs of the same sex.
WHATCHA BEEN WATCHIN’, BITCH?!
We’ve got A Nice Indian Boy, Clown in a Cornfield, Until Dawn, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Bring Her Back, Chief of War, Presence, and Somebody Somewhere.
🎧 Listen now wherever you get podcasts.
💀 Support us at frigay13.com/support.
🩸 Follow: @FriGay13 on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, TikTok.
#BugsAreTerrifying #Ticks1993 #BUG2007 #HorrorPodcasts #QueerHorror #LGBTQPodcasts #GetSlayed #HorrorMovies #CreepyCrawlies #BodyHorror #AshleyJudd #MichaelShannon
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Transcript
Wilderness Love and Bug Challenges
00:00:02
Speaker
Ah, visit fridayate thirteen com ah the great outdoors. Love being out in the wilderness.
00:00:15
Speaker
Ugh, it's the best. Oh, damn mosquitoes. Didn't you apply bug spray? Oh, I think that was a black fly. i think I got my bug spray mixed up with my spray lube.
00:00:27
Speaker
Maddie, look out for that. Ah, oh, ah.
00:00:31
Speaker
Fire ants! Aw, jeez, are you okay? Ooh, ow! I think I just got stung by something. Oh my god, I have a tick. Get that vampire bug off of me.
00:00:43
Speaker
Here, here, I got it. And, uh, actually, a tick is not, is an arachnid, not a bug. Well, that's gonna make this episode awkward. It's episode 147, Bugs are Terrifying.
Episode 147 Introduction and Horror Theme
00:00:57
Speaker
I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom. I'm Marjorie Greene, and I approve this message. To save America, stop socialism, and stop China.
00:01:12
Speaker
Faith and five, we honor thee. From life to death to rise. Woo-hoo! Horror in real life. Doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong.
00:01:24
Speaker
Horror in the movies.
00:01:31
Speaker
Where are you going to hide? Nowhere. Because there's no one like you left. What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!
00:01:42
Speaker
Let's go! What are you waiting for, huh?
Live Mishap and Humor
00:01:46
Speaker
What you waiting for? I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. Sometimes that is better.
00:01:57
Speaker
This, uh... Oh, oh, oh, oh, what is that? That's because it's hot outside. Stuff like that happens. did Was that live? Are we live? Oh, brother.
00:02:09
Speaker
Bradwell's either got attacked by a large bug or a small drone. I'm not sure which. He needs to shake it off. Buzz, buzz. Welcome back to Fragge the 13th Horror Podcast. My name is
Bug Experiences in Urban Settings
00:02:20
Speaker
Andrew.
00:02:20
Speaker
And my name is Maddie. And if this is your first time joining us, this is the podcast that talks all about horror. Horror in real life and horror in the movies. And today we are bringing you a bug-worthy episode. it is. filled to the brim with the butterflies. We've been bugging to get this episode out.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah. No, it's it's very appropriate because it's summer. All the bugs are out and about. You're getting bit up right as you walk out the door. You know you know what really bugs me?
00:02:53
Speaker
Getting bit by bugs. u Mosquitoes, flies. Ah, the the sweet smell of fruit flies coming out of your drain. Yeah.
00:03:04
Speaker
it's It's that time of year. I'm sure that people of Chicago are getting used to seeing those little weird creepy crawlies that you find in your bathtub.
Humorous Insect Facts and Favorites
00:03:13
Speaker
You know, it's um I'll tell you, i the for people that aren't from Chicago, like that is a Chicago just like Staple. Everyone has that in Chicago.
00:03:23
Speaker
And, you know, since I moved, like when I moved to this place, is it's like I always lived in like really old places in Chicago. um And like since I moved here, I've been in the same place since since I moved here.
00:03:35
Speaker
um that This place is like brand new. Basically, i was the first one to live here. i have had barely any bugs in this place. ah That's very nice. like Like a couple of things have flown in the door, you know. Well, considering you got it's considering you all don't believe in screens, that's very – I know. But i've had I think I've had only one spider, but none of the creepy crawlies, um which are basically centipedes. I don't really know what they are.
00:03:57
Speaker
I don't know the difference between centipedes and millipedes. Well, it's the number of legs. Centipedes have 100. Millipedes have 1,000. That's not true. That is absolutely true. Millipedes. but's Whatever. This is modern day America. We can say whatever we want and it's true. true ah Wait, I want to look it up. Hold on. How many legs do they have?
00:04:17
Speaker
Millipede legs number. Millipedes suggest, okay, so suggest that, okay, yeah. but I want to keep thinking 1,000. Most species have between 34 and 400 legs.
00:04:28
Speaker
Jesus Christ. The legiest millipede known, Eumillipes Persephone, has 1,306 legs. um That really freaks me out, man. That's absolutely fucking insane. Jesus Christ.
00:04:42
Speaker
So as we get into our discussion, i had one simple question in our worksheet, and I hope you've had a little time to think about it. But do you have a favorite bug? Yeah, it' just it's just it's a bumblebee.
00:04:54
Speaker
Okay. That's it. Because I think that they're, I think they're cute and and they do really good things in the world. And um I like, like I, you know, now that I have like flowers and stuff in my balcony, I love going out. So just like watch them do their thing. Like I and i love, I love bumblebees. They're cute as hell.
00:05:12
Speaker
Have you ever been stung by a bee or a wasp or something with smear? Yeah. Not, not, not often, but I have been stung before. I've only been stung once and it was kind of my own fault.
00:05:23
Speaker
I was rolling down a hill as a child and I didn't realize I had a beat. And it kind just smushed into me. don't if it actually stung me or not. You know, that' I think the thing with them, you know, hopefully everyone knows this, you know, you don't bother them. They're probably not going to bother you most likely. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
Unless for Thomas J in My Girl. Well, he he he had it coming. yeah Oh, God. Andrew, that's awful. Why would you say it that way? Jesus. ah what's What's your favorite bug? um I waver between a butterfly and a um praying mantis i think are kind of cool praying mantis or whatever the plural of them is um they freak me out like those are fucking those are aliens like those are little like little humans my god that bug is just astounding that thing my god just it's it's kind of just crazy to me to think about like that they exist yeah for real yeah all right well do you want to talk about some deadly bugs i would love to hear about some deadly bugs
00:06:26
Speaker
So I have the top five deadliest bugs to humans.
Deadliest Bugs Discussion
00:06:31
Speaker
So not necessarily to other species, but these are specifically deadly to humans. Okay. um Number five is the common housefly.
00:06:40
Speaker
um It is one of the most dangerous insects due to its role in spreading disease. Houseflies are notorious for carrying pathogens on their bodies and in their saliva, transferring them to food and surfaces that humans come into contact with.
00:06:55
Speaker
They are known carriers of disease like typhoid fever, cholera, and dysentery. So all the diseases you can find on the Oregon Trail. Jesus. um Making them a significant threat to public health. Now, I seem to think that every time a fly lands, doesn't it throw up?
00:07:12
Speaker
Isn't that the thing? well it's I've never heard that before, but that does not surprise me. Yeah, it's like that's how they like digest food. Like they throw up, they throw up on it and eat it. God, fucking gross.
00:07:24
Speaker
um Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's either it's either they throw up or they poop. I can't remember. who but both Both are both are so wonderful. My God, either option. Coming in at number four is the sand fly. Sand flies. I think this is what we had in Honduras.
00:07:40
Speaker
yeah if i'm not If I'm not mistaken, when we were on our little beach area. They were absolutely terrible. We all had horrible rashes. it was awful. um Sand flies are tiny but dangerous insects that transmit leash injury.
00:07:54
Speaker
Leishmaniasis. Yeah, sure. A parasitic disease that can cause skin ulcers, fever, and in severe cases, damage to internal organs. so that's So that's what was wrong with us. It wasn't a hangover the whole time. Yeah, it was just skin ulcers. Okay, gotcha. Interesting.
00:08:11
Speaker
Even better. Oh, don't go to Roatan. It's not worth it. Really not. Like, if you're going to go to the Caribbean, just, like, go somewhere that is, like, actually developed. Just do a favor. Sorry for our Roatan listeners. My God Almighty.
00:08:24
Speaker
All right, number three is the set sea fly. um The set sea fly is a dangerous insect that spreads African sleeping sickness. Oh, gosh. um This disease affects the central nervous system and can be fatal if untreated.
00:08:39
Speaker
Jeez. um Number two is the kissing bug. Oh, don't get caught by the kissing bug. no um The kissing bug, a type of assassin bug found mainly in South America, is a serious threat to human health. The insect transmits Chagas disease by biting humans, typically around the face. Oh, my God. They bite in the face. ease That's not really a kiss. That's a bite for God's sake.
00:09:05
Speaker
And then they defecate near the wound. Oh, my God. The parasite in their What fuck is wrong with these bugs? Why are doing this? Like, who said go do this? Enters the bloodstream and cause serious heart and digestive issues. Well, yeah, it's poop. Oh, my God. gosh.
00:09:22
Speaker
Even years after the infection. Jesus. Listen, yeah that they call that the kiss of death. Seriously, we need to get rid of these kissing bugs. They're they're spreading horrible disease through the love language. wo And then number one, um I know you can see this on the on the ah worksheet, but what do you think it is? It's mosquitoes.
00:09:42
Speaker
Yeah, the worst ones. Mosquitoes are responsible for more human deaths than any other insect, making them the deadliest insect in the world. That is just crazy. It honestly is. They transmit diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and Zika virus by feeding on human blood.
00:10:03
Speaker
um Infected mosquitoes pass their pathogens through into the bloodstream, leading to millions of deaths and injuries globally each year. Modern pest control initiatives have helped reduce the harm caused by mosquitoes, but they remain the top of the list of the deadliest insects. Wow.
00:10:21
Speaker
Wow. That is correct. I cannot even tell you. i mean, I grew up in the woods. Mosquitoes are a ah ah ah bane on this universe. completely Completely. it's' I'm glad to live or where we don't have them.
00:10:35
Speaker
and uh i don't miss them i'm not gonna lie they're just such a pain in the fucking ass and i'm definitely like i i have a pretty high pain tolerance so i definitely like get eaten up by mosquitoes because i don't even realize that i'm being bitten by them like you know i will say i got bit last year by a horsefly at least no was a horsefly and i'd never been bitten by one by one before And I was, that's a bite, not a sting. Yeah. I was flying to Croatia the next day. And, um, and so I, I had to go to the doctor. Well, no it wasn't the next, it was like two days later, I think.
00:11:10
Speaker
And i I was out for a run. And yeah I mean, when I tell you it felt like I got shot in the leg, I'm not joking. I seriously thought like there were like some teenagers behind me. i was like, did they have like a BB gun and they shot me or something?
00:11:24
Speaker
Like it was a fucking, I screamed when I got fucking bit by that thing. so I wonder why I bit you. jesus I have no idea. But it was it was two days later, and then the next day I was flying Croatia.
00:11:35
Speaker
Two days later, on the back of my leg, this thing was swollen. Like swollen, swollen. yeah I was worried about i was like, oh my God, what if there's something really wrong and I'm about to get on a fucking airplane?
00:11:46
Speaker
Or you have like an allergy that you don't know. Exactly. Right. So I went to the doctor and he was like, yeah, probably a horsefly. And I mean, that thing didn't go away for like a week and a half. and And even worse, the doctor was like, okay, well, if if it gets swollen out beyond this circle that I'm going to draw on you with a permanent marker right before you go on vacation to Croatia where you're going to be wearing shorts the entire time.
00:12:10
Speaker
I was like, did you have did you have to do that, motherfucker? You know what i mean? Yeah. Couldn't you just like tell me, hey, if it gets worse, like, let me know. kind of. Right. Oh, my God. It was ridiculous. That's funny. um Yeah, I can't think of it. It's been a long time since I've been bitten by anything by like ah other than like mosquitos and things of that nature. But ah yeah, i I mean, I definitely did couple weekends ago and I'm looking at them right now and they're still drying up.
00:12:39
Speaker
But I do have a couple of bug bites, literally, right now. Just chop off your arm. Yeah. All right. Go ahead. Gotta go. it's It's my dominant arm, but it's gotta go.
Zombie Ant Fungus and Horror Implications
00:12:50
Speaker
All right, Maddie, have you ever heard of a thing called the zombie ant fungus? Unfortunately, I have heard about this, and it in it freaks me out.
00:13:01
Speaker
So this is something that is only common to insects, mainly ants. But I did, you know, we'll have to do a future episode where we talk about, ah you know, parasites, ah because there's a lot for humans as well. But this one is common to ants um It's basically a fungus that it's it's carried by spores and it attaches to an ant's exoskeleton, and then it begins to penetrate it.
00:13:30
Speaker
um Once inside, the fungus consumes the ant's internal organs and spreads throughout its body. um At a certain point in the infection, an ant's behavior changes.
00:13:43
Speaker
It becomes erratic and wanders before being compelled to climb to a high point, often a leaf or a twig. And that's when it develops death grip.
00:13:54
Speaker
ah The ant clamps to into onto ah the leaf or twig with its mandibles and often what is called a death grip. And then after the ant dies, the fungus sprouts from its head, releasing more spores to infect other ants.
00:14:12
Speaker
I don't know why we are not freaking out about this more because i already see the horror movie coming where this becomes human, like ant fungus. That is fucked up for real.
00:14:25
Speaker
Like, can you imagine someone just like on the top of the Hancock building with a death grip, like on the antenna, just spreading spores? I mean, like like that that's that is the kind of stuff where you're just like, okay, it happens for the ants, of course. But like, you know, it's not too far away that you could like think about that happening to humans too. And then you've got the last of us in real life.
00:14:46
Speaker
You know, like thats that's really crazy shit, man. Yeah, and hopefully it's a better story than that show. But that's fine. You why don't like that show? i like the first season. I think the second season really lost me.
00:14:58
Speaker
Oh, I like it quite a bit. um But zombies with fungus are fucked up. Yeah, a lot of a lot of weird mind controlling funguses and parasites that are, you know, um at one point kind of fascinating, but also like very terrifying because they get in in so many different ways.
Insect Behavior and Homosexuality
00:15:18
Speaker
All right. One thing that I had to ask myself when we were preparing for this episode, because listen, we a gay old podcast. We've been doing this for almost eight years and, you know, we gay. So I had to ask myself, can bugs be gay?
00:15:31
Speaker
What do you think? Well, what's funny is that I actually, before I saw the worksheet, I was looking up the gay insect stuff. So yeah yeah i I actually do know the answer to this. um But ah it's, it's what's interesting about this. And I know you're you're going to go into more details, of course, yeah is that it's a lot more prevalent than you would think.
00:15:51
Speaker
And um it's really interesting the reasons why it tends to happen. and So it's, it's crazy stuff. and it's and it's And it's funny because everything that I was reading, it was all about male insects.
00:16:05
Speaker
Like, it there wasn't a lot of, like, homosexuality within females. It was almost all through, ah i guess, like, quote-unquote, like, male bugs. that' whatever Whatever you want to, like, really talk about that. It's because the lesbians are quiet about it. That's why.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, we didn't do any research on the females? Shocking. Exactly. Right. All right. So in short answer, yes. Actually, up to 50% of copulation attempts.
00:16:31
Speaker
I like how that they put copulation attempts by males. I know. um Are directed towards other males in some species. Now, there are a couple different reasons for this. ah One of the main reasons is just ah make a mistaken identity.
00:16:44
Speaker
And many, and so they're like, oh, penis, what? No, and I don't know what you call that. ah I guess it goes bug by bug, but. Yeah, sure. um In many insect species, males may not be able to clearly distinguish between males and females before or during mating attempts, ah leading to same-sex interactions. Yeah, I've seen some bottoms that have tried this attempt. so Yeah, nice try, bottom. Yeah.
00:17:07
Speaker
Silence bottom. um Other factors. Some studies suggest that same sex behavior and insects can be linked to competition for mates, social interactions, or even accidental encounters. According to live science.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah. I've been to some of those parties. i'm Yeah. For sure. Fair. Fair. not ah Not a, not a, another one is not a choice. Unlike humans and sex don't have a conscious understanding of sexuality or make a deliberate choices about their mating partners based on gender identity.
00:17:36
Speaker
So, you know, born that way, bitch. That's so interesting interesting. It really is. And then some examples, same-sex interactions have been observed in various insects, including male flower beetles, male flies, and blue-tailed Dempsey flies.
00:17:52
Speaker
So, interesting stuff. So, listen... I don't know how else to tell you all this, but gay happens everywhere and it always will. So just be nice. Get over it. mean, just like, well, I mean, just like get over it and stop thinking that it's some sort of abnormality because it's completely not.
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, I think you have some fun stuff to talk about. Our nice little friend, the
Bee Population Concerns and Solutions
00:18:14
Speaker
bee. do. You know, um one of the things I thought about was, you know, how we we really have been hearing for a very long time that bee populations are are declining.
00:18:25
Speaker
which is not good because bees are pollinators and they are incredibly important for so many things in the world. But, you know, least of which is, i should say, not least of which is your is your food, for one thing. Like bees are absolutely...
00:18:40
Speaker
vital for the the the production of food all around the world. And I just did you know a little basic research on it. And it's it's interesting to see that you know while bee populations are in decline in some places, it's not everywhere.
00:18:57
Speaker
And I think that's a really important perspective to to look into because generally that's that's all that we've been hearing but about about bee populations. And so look- Could it be where there are more humans, there are less bees? Well, maybe. i need us to i'm I'm not entirely sure that that that the research goes into that, really. But, like, i think um i think I think in a world where it's just constant bad news, it's just it's just constant bad news. Listen, I know we have a of fucking podcast about horror in real life. I understand.
00:19:27
Speaker
But like it is just constant bad news, whether it is what's happening in Gaza, what's happening in the Ukraine, shitty things in America, frankly, shitty things over in this part of the world now, too. Like, I'm just I'm so fucking tired of it.
00:19:41
Speaker
I was like, you know what? Maybe a little bit of hope isn't the worst thing in the world. so There's a great article from earth.org, which I don't really know that well, but I just kind of figure like, oh, you've got to be at least a little bit progressive. I'll be completely honest with you. But it's um it's from, this was from March of this year.
00:19:58
Speaker
And so i i back I'm not going to read the whole thing to you, um but but I will give you some some of the key takeaways and you're welcome to go go find it on your own. The article is called Key Takeaways from Bees Are Not Declining. Well, I should say, these are key takeaways from bees are not declining everywhere, a global perspective on population trends.
00:20:17
Speaker
um So first of all, the global trends are mixed. They are not uniformly negative, as I as i was saying. So a lot of headlines paint this very dire picture of bee declines, but the data shows that trends um to really vary significantly by region.
00:20:31
Speaker
So in North America, there is a steady decline. And in the U.S., there has been a ah managed managed ah managed honeybee colonies. Those numbers, ah they've been dropping since the 60s due to factors like habitat loss, pesticide use, climate change, disease, and parasites.
00:20:49
Speaker
Ice raids, you know, getting those. Exactly. They're probably being deported. um But I mean, there's there's no none of that should shock us. Right. um But in contrast, in Canada, there's a slow upward trend.
00:21:01
Speaker
And in Mexico, they're experiencing fluctuation, but generally their numbers recover. So, you know, in North America, you've got, you know, right in the middle, you know, the the United States in decline in Canada, slowly going up. And in Mexico, it goes up and down, but it generally kind of stays on the average.
00:21:19
Speaker
So it's, it's, it's interesting to see like on just on that one continent, how things can be so different. But then in Asia and parts of Africa, there are increasing populations.
00:21:30
Speaker
So in countries like China and India, they're experiencing strong growth in managed beehive numbers with nations also like Turkey and Iran seeing steady steady steady increases. Pardon me.
00:21:42
Speaker
my My voice is not great today, folks. I'm sorry. Usually my voice is melodic and gorgeous. I know. But today is not one of those days. um In South Korea, their rise is more gradual right now, too.
00:21:54
Speaker
So that's just really interesting to think about. I mean, especially in China. Right. OK, like, look, America is fucked up. America's got a lot of a a lot of pollution, but blah, blah, blah, whatever. But so does China. Like, yeah, China has way more people, way more pollution in their cities. I go on and on and on.
00:22:10
Speaker
So it's really interesting to see that that you know that the the bees are increasing there. it's but Thank God for it. I wonder how much of it has to do with climate change too. Like just like they're going to different climates, like where it's warmer.
00:22:23
Speaker
i don't know. Absolutely could be. and And I mean, the research here about the contributing factors says that a climate conducive to beekeeping, which I don't really know what that climate is. It'll be very real. But I would guess just sort of like warm and temperate basically.
00:22:36
Speaker
Yeah. I think so. Yeah. Biodiversity tradition and a strong push for commercial apiculture in China. Expansion and beekeeping helps offset declines in wild bee populations. So, I mean, it sounds like the government, which is a very serious fucking government.
00:22:53
Speaker
They are just saying, Hey, bees are going down. Great. We're just going to have a bunch of people do beekeeping. There you go. And they're going up, which is probably not a bad idea for America. Just saying. Interesting. Make something a priority. Exactly. here That isn't, you know, separating families or bombing bombing women and children and and men, for that matter, that have done nothing in Gaza.
00:23:14
Speaker
It's also tiring, Andrew. I swear to God. i We all need to jump off the fucking bridge. I'm so fucking tired of it. um Looking ahead, there there is an outlook from this research too. So from 2025 to 2034, the outlook, the forecast is suggesting that managed beehives will likely decline further in North America without enhanced conservation efforts, no surprise.
00:23:35
Speaker
ah but But in Asia, in Europe, and in Africa, projected to see continued steady growth. So the research and that in this article also gives um some some different strategies that that that could support bee resilience.
00:23:49
Speaker
um And those include using probiotics to improve bee immunity against disease and climate stress, encouraging diverse floral habitats and protecting natural environments, reducing synthetic pesticides in favor of safer biopesticides, and embracing sustainable farming practices such as polyculture and crop rotation to strengthen ecosystem health.
00:24:13
Speaker
And the bottom line here is this. The notion of a global bee collapse is overly simplistic. Bee health outcomes are region specific. So while some areas are declining, others are thriving. Fostering positive outcomes globally means learning from success stories, using data-driven localized approaches, and scaling effective conservation practices.
00:24:35
Speaker
So, you know, look, that's ah that's that is hopeful. Like, I'm glad that bees aren't dying absolutely everywhere. Because, I mean, honestly, I thought that they were. So until I read this article, you know, I was i was none the wiser.
00:24:48
Speaker
But like I said, you know, like, you know, Andrew, I know you guys got stuff on your balcony. And, you know, a lot of us live in urban environments. We can't exactly, you know, go plant a big garden anymore. But I really think like whatever you can do is is helpful. Like, yeah, even just putting flowers on your balcony, if if that's all that you have, then the bees have something else to so collect for pollen.
00:25:08
Speaker
Like and that's a wonderful thing. Well, yeah, I can tell you that the, you know, there's a been a big effort here in the Northern part of the city of Chicago yeah of, of, of, um, putting back all of the prairie lands, um, yeah and the flowers and everything to the, to the riverfront.
00:25:26
Speaker
And that's not only for bugs like, uh, you know, um, butterflies, uh, we now are an established monarch thoroughfare again, um and the the bees and everything, but it also just encourages cleanup of the river.
00:25:39
Speaker
You know, it, It encourages wildlife. It encourages, you know, conservation. And theyve they've done a really good job. And they're now saying that the river could maybe be swimmable in the next five years, which is crazy.
00:25:53
Speaker
Is that for real? Yeah, yeah. that they They've done such a good job that they're already, like, just they're seeing the rates of pollution in the water go down significantly just because of the natural way that plants use the water and clean it and do all things and And, you know, you know, wildlife is, is back. You know, we, we went on a river, uh, boat ride last year. did, we rented like this weird little electric boat. Um, and we went up the river and we saw beavers, we saw cranes, we saw all kinds of stuff that I had never seen before on the Chicago river, which is pretty insane. That's, you know, that's really cool.
00:26:30
Speaker
You know, look, bugs, um, but bugs in general bug me um i'm not a big fan of bugs but some are really important some are really beautiful i mean like the praying mantis we talked about earlier is absolutely terrifying but also like it's gorgeous it's this but if it looks at you in the right way you could fall in love oh my god and that's gonna eat your head after after you fuck it um and you know And look, bees, you know well while well some bees, of course, can can be stingers, like in general, like they're just so important for us. Just leave them alone. Everyone and everyone can take up space, even little bees. and you And you know what? Mosquitoes might not be very fun, but there are other bugs and other animals that eat them.
00:27:16
Speaker
And so everything serves a purpose in the circle of life, as they say in The Lion King. So, you know, look, but bugs... God, just crazy.
00:27:27
Speaker
Now, I will say in the movies that we have today, bugs are especially fucking ticks. Jesus fucking Christ, Andrew, what a fucking movie. um its say Listen, we know that we know that ticks are not technically bugs, but get over it. so If anybody ever comes to us about that, like, go fuck yourself.
00:27:46
Speaker
Like, really, if if you listen if you want to make a podcast about nerdy things, go make your own fucking podcast. Got some news for you. listen nerds well i mean honestly like i i really can't stand it when when when people get like that it's like stop please stop unless unless you're giving us 100 bucks a month shut shut shut your mouth thank you yeah most of you are listening for free patreon.com if you like to become a patreon member of of this podcast that we've been doing for almost eight years if you can believe it you can join for just a dollar a month that's all that it is
00:28:17
Speaker
um Andrew, anything else to say about bugs? No, I just think, you know, we're all on this earth for, you know, a short time. So maybe just show some kindness to some of those bugs that really do do a lot of great things for the world. And maybe you don't need maybe don't need to spray everything or kill everything.
00:28:37
Speaker
Maybe just coexist sometimes. unless you're Unless you're one of those top five, then, you you know, those you can kill. Exactly. so I was going to say, I want you to remember that the next time you get bit by a skeeter. you know there is There is a movie called Skeeter that I almost.
00:28:51
Speaker
No, I think I've i've actually seen Skeeter before. It's awful, but. Oh my God. in this In the same way that ticks is kind of awful, but we love it. so exactly Exactly.
00:29:02
Speaker
That will do it, right? you might that we're We're doing one of those things where're where we both keep jinxing each other with with the transition. that it that Andrew, that is it. We we we agree on this. let's ah let's Let's stop here and move forward to what you've been watching, bitch.
00:29:19
Speaker
Let's all go to the lobby. Let's all go the lobby. Let's all go to the lobby to get ourselves treat.
00:29:30
Speaker
And we're back with what you've been watching, bitch. What been watching, you little buzzkill bitch. And if this is your first time with us on Fraggy the 13th Horror Podcast, this is the segment of the show where we talk about what we've been watching.
00:29:43
Speaker
Yeah. So, tell us what you've been watching.
Film and Series Recommendations
00:29:47
Speaker
Yeah. All right. My first one is called a nice Indian boy, and you can watch this on Hulu. I also believe anything that is on, I'm just going to put this out there as like a blanket statement. I think anything that is on Hulu is also on Disney plus. So just go with that with what you will.
00:30:01
Speaker
um A nice Indian boy is about this guy ah who is, I would say probably like mid twenties, maybe early thirties, somewhere in that age range. But he's, ah he's been, he's he's an adult enough to where the movie opens with his sister's wedding.
00:30:16
Speaker
um And it's ah it's a big Indian wedding. And he's just, I don't know, not jealous, but he's just like, well, when am I going to find somebody? And um the next you know the next sequence, he he goes to pray at his local temple and ah a white boy comes in.
00:30:31
Speaker
but then And the white boy is played by Jonathan Groff. And um he starts to pray as well. And he's like, what the fuck is this all about? And, but he's like attracted to him. And then they kind of have like a meet cute. And you find out that Jonathan Groff's character was adopted by an Indian family when he was very young. So it was, he grew up India, like with Indian culture.
00:30:51
Speaker
Interesting. and practices and everything. And then it's all about like introducing the white boy to the Indian parents. Basically. Um, this is a wonderful little movie. If you have not seen it, and because it's very heartfelt. I texted Maddie immediately after I watched this movie and I said, you do have to watch this movie.
00:31:09
Speaker
And I would encourage anyone that to watch this movie because it is just so beautiful and it's such a really cute little love story. So that's a nice Indian boy. I'm looking forward to watching it. ah My first one is bring her back.
00:31:23
Speaker
And this is the new one from the guys that directed ah talk to me. um Their names, their brothers, they're from Australia. I forget their names now, but whatever.
00:31:34
Speaker
Um, bring her back is very much it in the same style. Uh, Oh, uh, the Phillip who brothers that that that's their name. It's very much in the same style as talk to me.
00:31:46
Speaker
Um, it has, it, it's it's ah It's a very disturbing movie. um So so ah the in the movie, there is a a brother and a sister.
00:31:57
Speaker
the sister is blind and the brother, um you know, does he's not like her caretaker, but like he minds her basically. but And he does so lovingly. um And at the at the the the the the onset of of the film, is isn't this isn't a spoiler, their dad dies and it's not a great death.
00:32:16
Speaker
And so they go into foster care They are almost split up, but then they are put in put in together with this one woman played by Sally Hawkins.
00:32:28
Speaker
um And um I'll leave it there because there's a whole lot that you have to discover by seeing the movie. um You know, the Philippou brothers very clearly enjoy...
00:32:40
Speaker
forty Yeah, I mean, putting putting really, really wild and really gruesome things on screen. And, you know, doing it in in a way that is um that is very, I'm trying to think of the right word. It's just like all I can think of is like contemporary, right? So it's not like old slasher. It's like that this this new, very like hyper-realistic like violence that that that is on that is on screen right in your fucking face.
00:33:09
Speaker
And i mean, there is there's one, you know, like in in Talk To Me, the scene that everyone, you know, talks about is when like the the little brother, when he's possessed by the whatever whatever it is, the the the spirit from the hand.
00:33:23
Speaker
um He like bangs his head into the fucking table over and over and like, yeah, I was just out his eye. There's something very similar to that again here. but what's What's interesting about the Phillip who brothers and how they're, how they're clearly developing their, their catalog of horror is that it is often about children.
00:33:41
Speaker
um well i shouldn't say often i mean there's only been two films from them um but like it's it's a it's about kids and i i do wonder like is that something that they're going to continue to do you know for is this what there is this will this be the hallmark of what they do in horror will it always be with children at the center and that's that's something interesting um i don't know what I don't know what you're saying with that, if I'm being honest.
00:34:08
Speaker
I'm not sure I get it. Is it is it that you're trying to is that you're trying to reach a certain audience by by creating you know really horrific scenes that involve their particular age range? Is that it?
00:34:23
Speaker
Is it that... you know, violence and and and paranormal um paranormal horror in children, is that is it that that is just like extra scary?
00:34:36
Speaker
i i don't know. i just, I want to get a peek into their brain and like just and just like go, why are you doing it with kids constantly? What is that about? You you know? um Anyways, look, I think it's it's definitely a good one that you should see. um there It's a little sloppy. It's sloppy. I'm sorry. I'm going on probably too long about this.
00:34:54
Speaker
um it's ah It's sloppier that than than Talk To Me, I think, um because there are there's multiple threads in there that you're if when you leave the movie, you're like, wait a minute. why What about that?
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah. why did Why was she doing that thing? And why did she do that? And why did they do this? And then, like like, the next day, you kind of tie it together yourself. But like that's stuff that shouldn't be so untied, if that makes sense to me. like and And you know me, i'm not I don't need to have every answer in in a film.
00:35:22
Speaker
But like, I don't know, something about that just just didn't work for me. I don't think you need to see this one in the cinema. Seeing it at home is just fine. um But you should probably see it if you're into horror. So there you go. yeah Bring her back.
00:35:33
Speaker
This one was weird because it had like a weird release here. Like I know it was in theaters, but they didn't do a lot of like advertising for it. i remember seeing a ton of previews so for it like upcoming, but like six months i ago. You know what mean? Oh, that's interesting. Yeah.
00:35:48
Speaker
And then it kind of just came and went. And now I don't even know where you would find it. um Maybe on on demand. I'm not sure. That's really i think it might still be in some cinemas here. There was definitely good marketing here because I felt I felt really informed about it.
00:36:03
Speaker
And like, because, because it's them, I was like oh, i've got to see it in the cinema. Right. I saw talk to me in the cinema and I was scared to fucking death. But yeah, another wild one from those guys.
00:36:13
Speaker
My Lord. Interesting. Someone needs to get them therapy. Yes, yes, yes. Um, much like Ari Aster. where oh like What happened to you, my friend?
00:36:24
Speaker
But my next one is brand new, just came out on Friday. um but I know it was making a lot of these circuits of like the, uh, like horror community, like, uh, screenings and stuff like early on.
00:36:37
Speaker
Um, but it is called clown in a cornfield. Wow. Um, it is currently on shutter. You can also watch that if you have AMC plus, um, which is ah A far superior streamer, but that's fine.
00:36:51
Speaker
um ah Clown in a Cornfield is all about a girl who is moving to a rural town because her dad has been named the ah practitioner, like the ah doctor of the town. Like he was hired to be like the town doctor.
00:37:06
Speaker
um Much like kind of like um ah Pet Sematary. You know what i mean? Like how he became like the town, the college doctor. um But in this town, there is a tradition that they celebrate a certain clown that was the spokes. Like, what do what do you call that? Not spokesperson, but like the...
00:37:26
Speaker
the Like the the spoke, I guess spokesperson is the best way I can I can put it of a local factory for corn syrup. Like it was like this is Pele the clown for corn syrup. Oh, my God. um But you see at the beginning of the movie that there's maybe something more sinister happening in this town. And I don't want to give anything away because this actually was a pretty good one for a shutter movie.
00:37:51
Speaker
you know i think we we we talk about this quite a bit on this show, but Shudder is definitely like one out of five is good. and i but i think that this is the one out of the five that you should consider if going log on to your Shudder account or your AMC Plus account.
00:38:06
Speaker
Um, pretty gory, uh, pretty fun. Um, it's definitely just kind of more of a run of the mill slasher. So if that's your, if that's your jam, um, but there is something interesting that they're trying to say with this movie. I think if I, if I read it correctly, um, and I, I had a good time with it. Some familiar faces that you like be like BC actor people.
00:38:28
Speaker
Um, but they're definitely, they're definitely turning in an actual movie, which is great for shutter. Yeah. And I had fun with it. So if you want just like a fun slashery type movie, clown and cornfield might be for you.
00:38:40
Speaker
Nice. That's very good to hear. um My next one is called chief of war. This is all. I saw the preview for this and I was not impressed. Hopefully it's better. No, no, no, no. It's, it's, it's very good. This is on Apple TV, but I don't know what the preview was, but this is, this is a really fantastic show. And for a number of reasons, um the very, the first, so first off the chief of war is about, um,
00:39:02
Speaker
It is about the the story of the unification of of Hawaii. So back in the day, Hawaii was was ruled under four kingdoms, under Kauai, let's see if get them all, Kauai, Oahu, Hawaii, and Maui.
00:39:17
Speaker
And um they all had different chiefs, of course, and they all had different kings, and they all fought against each other all the time. And so there ah until Kamehameha the Great united all of the Hawaiian islands, they were always at war, basically.
00:39:32
Speaker
So this is about what happens sort of like just before Kamehameha. And, uh, and like if you've listened the podcast, you know, like ah I used to go to Hawaii a lot and I'm kind of obsessed that I love Hawaii.
00:39:43
Speaker
Um, but, uh, this is about, this is about Jason Momoa playing, ah Kayana, who's a warrior chief of Kauai. He travels outside of the islands. He returns home and he comes back and he joins this crazy bloody campaign um until at the very last minute he rebels against the unification of Hawaii under Kamehameha.
00:40:04
Speaker
So it's it's only, i think there's only two episodes out right now. The third one comes out probably tomorrow, I think maybe. I think it might be Mondays. um But um what's what's really cool about it is that it's all in Hawaiian.
00:40:16
Speaker
So like it's, and and if you've never really heard Hawaiian, Hawaiian is a beautiful language. It's really, really gorgeous. And it's not like I know a lot of it, but yeah it's really pretty.
00:40:27
Speaker
pretty And to have a whole like major television show like this that is well produced in Hawaiian, I think that's really, really cool. I mean, especially especially in a time when like indigenous languages are starting to fade and, you know, the children that that grow up in these cultures, they're not like learning them in the same ways that they, that they, that they might have before.
00:40:48
Speaker
So to have something like this, it's really cool. And so far it's really well done. You know, it's, it's a very like, um it's a very like like actiony show so there's like a lot of fights a lot of like battles and like all all that kind of stuff you see jason momoa's butt all the time you know i'm not really into jason momoa but if you are and you want to see his butt you can see it the entire show um because they all wear like you know thongs basically the whole time which is just crazy um and there's there's like even parts for like they're like climbing up on a rock or they're doing this or they're doing that.
00:41:22
Speaker
And every time it happens, I'm like, wow, they really did a great job with the thongs on the show because ain't no nuts showing any, no slippage, like none, not a bit. And like, you know, in a show like this, you kind of have to to take care of that. Right. So whoever did the costumes, well done.
00:41:39
Speaker
But yeah, it's a, it's something very different. And, you know, I think Apple TV can be like shutter sometimes. I i think there's more good stuff on there than shutter, but like, I would say on Apple TV, like every three of five are going to be okay. You know, be at least good. if If not, yeah, pretty good.
00:41:55
Speaker
This is definitely one of them. I i think this one, hopefully it's, know, when the third episode, I think it has eight episodes in the, in this first season. Um, hopefully the um, the rest of the rest of them are good because this is one that I i hope really succeeds. so Yeah, i'm I'm glad to hear that. but But I think what I was responding to is like, I just, i there is something about Jason Momoa that I just cannot take seriously.
00:42:17
Speaker
i don't know what it is about. I don't know. i just, every time just like, what are you, what are you, why are you playing? You're just playing. I don't know. It's weird to me. don't know. If I'm being honest, you you should probably give him another chance. Like he's, he's, he's really good.
00:42:32
Speaker
and and the the fact that he is, the fact that he's speaking fluent Hawaiian in this and doing a bunch of shit, it's It's pretty admirable, I'll be very honest. So that this one might be a different one for you then.
00:42:43
Speaker
I'll give it a try if I subscribe to Apple TV down the road. um Cool. I'm glad you like it. sounds It sounds at least interesting, especially the language ah thing. I think that that's pretty cool. yeah I haven't seen something like that since Prey, which was all them like that. so Exactly.
00:43:01
Speaker
That's something cool. Yeah. All right. My next one just came to Netflix. I missed this one in the theater. I meant to go see it. But the way that theaters now are, if you don't go in the first two weeks, good luck. like It goes so fast.
00:43:15
Speaker
um and But it is now on Netflix and it is called Until Dawn. Have you seen this yet? No, I don't think i've actually even heard of it, to be honest. um So it's based off of a video game. um it's It's a video game that was kind of like a choose your own adventure type game where like little decisions that you make in the movie are making the making the game um affect the outcome of the game, which is kind of an interesting thing that they're doing with video games now.
00:43:40
Speaker
um But this one is all about a in and like, I will say this, this is a loose interpretation of what the game was. Like i kind of just take the idea and run with it.
00:43:51
Speaker
It's not like an actual retelling of the video game. So you can kind of get like enjoyment out of watching the movie, but also enjoyment of thought watching someone play the game. Cause I don't, I don't play these kinds of video games anymore. It's too hard for me. So I just watch other people play them.
00:44:06
Speaker
So I'm more of a Mario cart kind of guy now. know and they also They also just take forever for God's sake. Yeah, no one has 40 hours to devote to this. I don't. So Until Dawn, the movie ah is all about a group of friends that are on a road trip because ah the the main girl's sister went missing the year prior.
00:44:27
Speaker
And they still have no answers about what happened to her. So they're kind of doing like a trace back like where she was and yeah Try to find any clues that maybe could lead to you finding um the sister.
00:44:39
Speaker
ah But what happens is they they end up in this small town where there's literally only like a welcome center. And the welcome center is kind of set up almost like ah like a historical like museum of the town. Because what you find out, and this isn't this isn't really a spoiler, but like the town like burnt down, basically. And so this is like the only building left.
00:45:00
Speaker
um And they they kind of go there. And what they discover is that they are now in a time loop. Oh, and no. And they have to, ah whoever can survive, quote unquote, until dawn um will get to live. But until they kind of all, until one of them lives through the night, they can't get out. So they're just in this, they're kind of in this disarray.
00:45:23
Speaker
death loop like they each time like there's a new like foe that comes to try to kill them god so listen I think that the movie itself is pretty fun um it's nothing earth shattering but there is some sequences that I think are pretty interesting um but if you're like if you're going into this thing like oh this going be so cool. going to see my favorite video game on the screen.
00:45:45
Speaker
I don't think that that's where you're going from it. Yeah. okay So but yeah I guess take it with a grain of salt. I still had a really good time with it. um One of the main actors is that actor from love Victor that I think is really cute. yeah um And so like there's, there's some things in here for everybody. There's like a little bit of slasher, a little bit of like monster stuff. It's, it's pretty fun movie so if you're looking for a fun sunday afternoon or maybe saturday night with your little boyfriend and girlfriend this could be fun so that's until dawn on netflix very nice now the next one that i watched is one that you've watched before and i watched it i rented it
00:46:19
Speaker
um Presence. um i It's uneven. i really, i really hated this movie. Oh, no. Oh, it was, it was, ah forbi if if people like it, then you like it.
00:46:34
Speaker
I like it could I could not stand it. the The dialogue was so incredibly fake, so incredibly fake and so incredibly just truly bizarre, like bizarre dialogue.
00:46:49
Speaker
And the um like, just like the the same camera movements over and over and over and over again.
Critiques and Reviews of Films
00:46:59
Speaker
it was so repetitive that I was like, oh, great. So you're going back in the closet again. Hooray.
00:47:04
Speaker
And like at the end of it, I was just like, I'm being real. Like, thank God it's over. i really, really disliked this movie. um I thought that Lucy Liu was weird in it.
00:47:16
Speaker
I thought Chris Sullivan, the who plays the husband, was also bizarrely cast in that role. It did. it did it They did not make any sense together at all. And um the kid the kids were fine. the the the villain kid was i i don't I don't know what Steven Soderbergh was trying to do with him.
00:47:37
Speaker
Like, why why was he speaking in such a strange way? I just, like, was he trying to make him creepy? Was he trying to, like, make him, like, a a serial killer creepy kind of thing? I guess maybe that maybe that's it.
00:47:52
Speaker
But it just ended up so, it's it's just, like, it's bald. It was it was very weird. I got to tell you, I never want to watch that thing again. really, really know. You didn't make it and it's not your fault.
00:48:04
Speaker
um But it was, it was, oh man, hated it I still liked it. I know that some of the acting was very uneven and I think that they let them cook a little too much. Like they let them have, but Andrew, the dialogue does, I mean, does that make sense what I'm saying? Like, no, I think I, but I think that that's at fault of the director because I think that, I think a lot of it was not i why improvising. That's the right word. I think a lot of it was improvisation and that should have been more scripted and it just didn't. like Let me tell you what I've said it before.
00:48:34
Speaker
If you don't know how to improvise, then don't do it. and And also, if the movie doesn't really need it, then don't do it. Like, don't don't do it. Like, just script the motherfucker.
00:48:46
Speaker
fucking Listen, have AI write it for you. I don't even fucking care anymore. I really don't. But if you're going to do improv, it better be it i it either better be so good that you cannot tell or it better be so bad that it's basically best in show. And by that, I mean it's so bad that it's actually good, right?
00:49:03
Speaker
So like unless it's unless it's comedy, I don't think improv actually works. And like to improv a movie like this, i I'm sorry, I don't understand. You're going to improv a movie about about ah a girl a young girl getting raped.
00:49:17
Speaker
Why are you going to improv that? What is the fucking point of that? white Why? what In fact, why would you do that? It almost seems irresponsible to not have something written down that deals with something so incredibly troubling to watch.
00:49:31
Speaker
So, you know, if if all we're going to get from that is like some some some actors who are jerking off trying to do it, And like some kid who's spewing poetry, like he's a fucking, you know, like like like but the the ah ah Charles Manson or something.
00:49:44
Speaker
it It doesn't work. And so if Steven Soderbergh, as I look back over the years, I'm actually like, you know what? I actually kind of hate everything that you do. And this is yet another of his that I really can't stand.
00:49:55
Speaker
Okay. I'll never recommend another movie by him, D. Andrew. It's not your fault. You didn't make it. And I don't watch only what you recommend. I'm just saying that I really didn't like this. Okay. All right my last one is I Know What You Did Last Summer, which I'm still kind of pissed off that they didn't come up with a better title because I'm really sick of this like rejiggering of old movies but then giving them the same title. Yeah. It's it like it's like when i did when they did Scream 5. They got to just scream. I'm like, just fucking call it Scream 5.
00:50:27
Speaker
Seriously. what are you doing? Why are we doing this? Jesus. um But anyway, this is the... I knew I know what you did last summer. um Listen, this is where I'm going fall with this movie.
00:50:37
Speaker
Do I think it's a good movie? No, not at all. I actually think it's a way too fanservice-y and like way too like in its own in its own butt. Did I have fun with it? Yeah, i because it it ah it definitely does give like some, you know, some good stuff to like people that were fans of the original. But I think what these filmmakers under didn't understand about the I know what you did last summer and to a lesser effect. But, you know, i still know what you did last summer is that it's a really dark story.
00:51:07
Speaker
And it's a really like it's a really like when you watch the original I know you did last summer. It is sad. The entire movie is just so sad. Yeah. And I think what these people tried to do is they just tried to funify it too much. They tried to make it too. Wrong. Wrong. Too fun. And like too like, oh, that we're going to do all these references and all this stuff. And at the end of the movie, you're just kind of like, well, what was the point of that?
00:51:31
Speaker
Exactly. It was just, it was too goofy. um i don't I don't know if I'll even ever watch it again, but like, it was still kind of a fun movie, if that makes any sense. But where in the in the echelon of putting it into the universe of I Know what You Did Last Summer, I don't know.
00:51:48
Speaker
I don't know, dude. That sucks. save Save it for when it comes on demand. That's all I'll say. right ah My last one is actually a rewatch of Somebody Somewhere. i fucking love this show so much.
00:52:01
Speaker
What a, what ah what a great show. Um, and yeah, like I, it's just, you know, sometimes you just, you just have those shows that are like comfort shows for you.
00:52:12
Speaker
And there are just times where you're like, you know what? I just really want to watch an episode of that. And so I yeah did that with, with this, with this series. And then I thought, eh, let's just kind of put it on the background while I'm working and, you know, just kind of do, do a, do a, a, a sort of like a halftime rewatch, if that makes any sense.
00:52:28
Speaker
And um and it's it's just it's such a lovely show. It really is. It's such like a hug of a show. yeah and you know if if if you've never watched it i i really, really encourage you to.
00:52:41
Speaker
Because it it's a show about... it's It might just be like one of the most like normal shows I've ever seen in my life. It's just so it's so normal. It's so about just, you know, everyday life in an everyday place in America. That's that's what it's about.
00:53:00
Speaker
And they're very real people. i think the actors all do a great job and they they end up creating. I think sort of like a Schitt's Creek of, of Kansas almost, but, but it's not, it's not as like, it's not as pucky as, as Schitt's Creek. You know, it's not like a bunch of things going wrong or a bunch of people who are just sort of like dildos that don't know what they're doing.
00:53:22
Speaker
that It's like, these are like, these are like real people having, having real lives and just sort of getting through it in a real and normal way. And real problems. and like And it's, and it's, it's a, it's a lovely, lovely thing. And I think it's a, it's a really good, um It's a really good show, too, when you're thinking about just like, you know, the the seasons of change in in life as you get older and as, you know, as your your friends change and your family changes and as you change.
00:53:50
Speaker
It's a really good show about that. um And there's there's one line in particular that the... um the sister, Trisha says that it always it's always really stuck with me. They're they're having an argument. It's and it's in season two.
00:54:03
Speaker
And Trisha's talking to Sam, who's played by by Bridget Everett, who's the main character. And Trisha says, you cut people out, Sam. You cannot keep doing that. There won't be anybody left. And I just think that's such a great line that that should really stick with everybody.
00:54:19
Speaker
And like, you know, not to get weird about the world again, but like, That's all we're doing is just shutting people out over and over and over again. and like, I don't think people really get it.
00:54:30
Speaker
i don't think people really fucking get it. Like you're shutting out your family for politics. You're shutting out your friends. You're shutting out like people that you care about that have been with you your whole life. And like, and this is everybody. Like we, we, we cannot continue to live in a fucking world where all we do is just fucking hate each other.
00:54:47
Speaker
And that's the world that we're in That's the world we're in every fucking day. And it is so, fucking tiring. Like when are we going to when are we actually going to change and get over that?
00:54:57
Speaker
So like then you have this show. That is the antithesis of that. Like people somehow figure out a way to just live. And there's something really pretty about that.
00:55:09
Speaker
There really is. So if if, once again, if you haven't seen this show, cannot recommend it enough. It's only three seasons. There's 21 episodes. It is very much worth it. ah The Dupless brothers ah produce it and direct some of it.
00:55:23
Speaker
It's wonderful. Give it a watch. They win again. Duplass brothers, that so far, they have not steered me wrong. So truly, truly good stuff. All right. Well, that does it for what you've been watching, bitch. Maddie brought us Bring Her Back, Chief of War, which is on Apple TV Plus, Presence, which here in America you can watch on Hulu, but maybe not if if you if you want to follow Maddie's advice, and Somebody Somewhere, which is currently on HBO. Yeah.
00:55:49
Speaker
And Andrew brought us A Nice Indian Boy on Hulu or Disney Plus, Clown in a Cornfield on Shudder. That's a hard one to say. Clown Cornfield. Until Dawn on Netflix. And I Know What You Did Last Summer, which I believe is still in the cinemas.
00:56:04
Speaker
So, folks, that does it for what you've been watching, bitch. Stay tuned. We'll be right back with our first film of the episode, the Oscar-winning Tix. The Oscar-winning
00:56:20
Speaker
Come get your bags, guys. This place looks worse than the project. It started out small. it's got measles bumps. It's a tick. Vampires of the insect world. A part of Mother Nature's wonder. What's so inspiring about bugs and insects and snakes? But then they grew. Don't move.
00:56:41
Speaker
There's something on your back. and grew yeah just don't touch it if you don't know what it is. Don't touch it. It attacked me. Unimaginable.
00:56:52
Speaker
Ticks do not get this way. Unthinkable.
00:57:01
Speaker
Unbelievable. There's a huge fire in the moment. We're supposed to take things in this way. Where civilization ends.
00:57:15
Speaker
The nightmare begins. Everybody get upstairs! Go!
00:57:39
Speaker
It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature. You know it really ticks me off? Having a tick on me. Andrew, tell us all about this film, Ticks.
00:57:52
Speaker
Troubled teens on a wilderness retreat discover steroid-mutated ticks that turn a weekend in the woods into a blood-sucking siege. A group of inner city kids and their counselors head to a remote camp to kind unquote bond with nature.
00:58:08
Speaker
Nearby a marijuana growers, steroid experiments mutate local ticks into aggressive, fast breeding monsters. As the creatures infest the cabins, paranoia and body horror escalate. eggs and hat Eggs hatch inside hosts and the survivors battle their way out before the swarm overruns the forest.
00:58:29
Speaker
Directed by Tony Randall, written by Brent V. Friedman. Production and distribution were handled by Republic Pictures and First Look Pictures. um I should also point out the executive producer was Brian Usna. We'll talk about that in a second.
00:58:45
Speaker
This rated It was released October 12th of 1993. Depending what version you watch, it's either 85 minutes or 94 minutes. alfonzo rivero plays panic clint howard plays jarvis tanner and peter solari plays charles dancing this is rated r it was released on october twelfth of ninety ninety three depending on what version you watch it's either eighty five minutes or ninety four minutes And it was located the filming locations were a Big Bear Lake and San Bernardino kent National Forest in California. And the budget was one point five million.
00:59:17
Speaker
The gross we couldn't find. So I know for me that this was a VHS staple from the local family video. There you go. But ah Maddie, was this your first time with the experience of ticks?
00:59:32
Speaker
it It was unless I watched this when I was younger and I truly don't remember it. But I don't think that's the case. Yeah. um So, yeah, look, this is, you know, this is this is a funny little movie.
00:59:44
Speaker
um A lot goes on in this movie, um not least of which is Alfonso Ribeiro or as we all know him, really, Carlton um from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. um i said that really weird right there. Yeah, I'm like Bel-Air. Fresh of Bel-Air. of Bel Air. That was really strange.
01:00:01
Speaker
um But I mean, like it's, it's if you've never heard Carlton say Holmes so much in your life, oh my God, they call me panic because I don't. that' like What a character.
01:00:12
Speaker
And you know, like, look This is, ah i put this in my main takeaway, and I feel like it's like the thing and the aliens having a baby and it's an afterschool special.
01:00:25
Speaker
like that said it was a We said it was a reaction to arachnophobia. Oh, yeah, sure. and And yeah, I could see that too. But like, it if i I was telling Andrew, i i couldn't get the film. i think it's It's on Amazon Prime in um in in the States.
01:00:42
Speaker
Here, it's not. And I think like the, I can't remember what it was. that The rental wasn't that bad. But I was like, is it on YouTube? Which which often happens. Somebody will put some kind of cut of it on of of any movie on YouTube. And you can usually find a free one to watch.
01:00:55
Speaker
And I did. and so, you know, mine, i wouldn't say mine was the best quality, right? Whereas Andrew, it sounds like you watched the 4K re-release that came out in 2021. So if it's 4K, you would have had, you know, crystal clear vision on this.
01:01:09
Speaker
I do think that like the um the version that I was watching, It's like, do you remember do you remember the show Wishbone? Oh, yeah. so like i yes I loved Wishbone. RIP. RIP PBS. Right. i think I think I had a crush on the kid. It's probably why i like the what why I like Wishbone so much.
01:01:27
Speaker
um i When I was a kid, by the way, everybody, just in case, I'm just saying that, got it. we all said We also had crushes on Thackeray Banks. It's fine. Exactly. you know That's how everyone thinks about gay people now. like You've got to be careful or they're going to say terrible shit about you.
01:01:40
Speaker
Anyways, um ah like i that if you can think of the screen quality of Wishbone right now, that was the screen quality that I had of Tix. It might add to the experience. I don't know. well i And that that's it. I actually think it kind of did because they it i I said after school special there and it kind of felt that way.
01:01:59
Speaker
But like this would this would have been a really high quality after school special, right? And you know it's um it's it's complete with you know like punching sounds and slapping sounds, like that kind of stuff.
01:02:10
Speaker
um and some weird gay things that happened i was gonna talk about this yes weird very weird there is a gay villain in this that i'm like why why why did you make the villain gay why did you have to do that um that was very very very weird i'm not gonna lie ah um It's almost very like Trump and J.D. Vance. Yeah, very much.
01:02:33
Speaker
um But, you know, you've got a you've got ah a little baby Seth Green in this who does a great job. but And in that this is what I was coming to is that, you know, for a sort of silly thing like Tix, this, you know, this is not fucking hereditary, right?
01:02:47
Speaker
For a silly thing like Tix. and I think that the actors actually really do not all of them, but, but the the ones that matter, they, they, they give their all for it. Like, like there's, there's never a moment where I didn't believe that Seth green was really working for this and that Alfonso Ribeiro wasn't like he was, I'll tell you what his ass was working hard in that role.
01:03:09
Speaker
He was working fucking hard. um The ticks themselves are disgusting. They are very, very gross. I like how they skitter. Oh, God. they're there're They're so nasty. like like the The first one that you really see when it's got that syringe stuck in it going all over the fucking place. um it does it did it it should make you think about tick safety. it I was definitely thinking about it.
01:03:32
Speaker
I'm like, oh, yeah, next time I'm in the woods, I should probably be a little bit more careful. There you go. um But yeah, you know, look, it's it's fun. Now, you saw this when you were a kid. um Tell me about what that experience was like. Yeah. So I will i will tell you, um every Friday when we were of a certain age, we would go to family video and you could get seven movies for $7 for seven days. Wow. Wow.
01:03:56
Speaker
But they had to be all from like the middle section. Sure. Like you couldn't get new releases. Yeah. um And so me being a little horror freak that I was, i would just simultaneously go through the horror section and just pick out whatever ah cover looked interesting. to as As your mom is thinking in her head, like, something wrong with my son? ah No, she was like, they can be entertained for an hour and a half. It's fine.
01:04:21
Speaker
um But yeah, one of those times was ticks. And it just always stuck with me because I think distinctly what stuck with me was the um birth of the of the ah main tick at the end.
01:04:33
Speaker
Like that, that transformation always stuck with me as a kid. um And then just kind of. The rest of the movie, I didn't really remember what it was about. So coming back to it this time was pretty interesting.
01:04:44
Speaker
um Like I said earlier, the executive producer on this, Brian Usna, if that name sounds familiar, it's because he also directed a movie that we watched a long time ago called Society. Oh, oh, really? Okay. but You know what? Some of that makes sense now.
01:04:59
Speaker
If you think about the body horror in Society, it makes a lot of sense. That makes sense. um And so, like listen, there was like a period of the 90s. We talked about Skeeter earlier.
01:05:10
Speaker
There was Bats. There was a ton of these like creature feature movies, but they were all like very low budget. And so like there's a little bit of nostalgia there for like that era of just like going to the movie store and like watching a B movie.
01:05:24
Speaker
um And so I think i think I'd like probably like this a little more than you just for that reason alone. yeah um But I also think... like i have to give it I have to give it a little bit of um a little bit of punches here because there are a couple things that in this rewatch where I was like, what are we doing here?
01:05:41
Speaker
um Most of the reason is, what are these inner city kids learning at this at this camp? Because they don't really do anything like that.
01:05:52
Speaker
it's it is it's It's bizarre. And and not only is is the camp experience, I don't know really what you call this, um bizarre, but like just think about how the movie opens.
01:06:05
Speaker
The dad drops him off. In middle of the L.A. River? Literally. Literally in like a drug zone or like where where the mafia goes to dump bodies or like where where uranium is kept. I don't I don't fucking know it like truly in the middle of nowhere. He gets his son out of his truck and says, I'm doing this to help you or something like that or doing this so that you can get better.
01:06:31
Speaker
But keep in mind, the counselors have not showed up yet. So he's just dropping him off in the middle. He just pushes him out and then he drives off. I mean, and I mean, like, I don't mean just in the middle of nowhere. I mean, in the middle of fucking nowhere, this dad does this.
01:06:44
Speaker
And it's not until five, 10 minutes later, i would say that the counselors show up in this big van ah for after he's, he's, he's about, he's already had death threatened upon him by, by panic.
01:06:58
Speaker
I mean, like it's, it's, it's a bizarre experience. It's a bizarre opening for sure. Yes. And then the other thing that I was struggling with this time around is like, they really play fast and loose with like this LSD. Um,
01:07:14
Speaker
uh feature that the ticks can can kind of because sometimes they bite you and nothing happens and then other times they bite you and you're like on a drug trip where you can't even stand so it was like right what what are we doing here guys because we need to just follow our own rules when it comes to our scenes right um but listen that's all to say i still had a really enjoyable experience i kind of forgot that like no one in our main cast dies like everyone lives like which is a pretty interesting by like creature feature standards yeah um but when you think about like okay but like ticks like what's the lasting factor of those bites so we'll see these people in you know five years um and but listen is this just like a fun movie where like ticks eat marijuana and become larger than life yeah
01:08:04
Speaker
That's what it is. Basically, yes, that is it. um I did find it interesting this time around because, you know, we get like the ah the steroid um tick at the end that kind of births out of Rifantin's or Panic's body.
01:08:19
Speaker
um i thought that that was interesting just because I've never seen someone take oral steroids because he kind of does them like a chewable almost. Oh, is that yeah. Is that a thing? Because I thought all steroids were kind of like synthetic. like you mean I mean, I don't know, but I don't think so. Yeah. I mean, bodybuilders proved me wrong, but I thought that steroids were... Anybody on steroids, could could you let us know?
01:08:43
Speaker
um At least those kind of steroids. I'm not talking about like a medication. I'm yeah talking about like that. You know, they they make it a apart um very blatantly obvious that the ah Latino guy who is the the boyfriend, because that's literally his only my god his only plot devices that he's Latino and he's a boyfriend, um is that he has ah bodybuilding steroids because he's obviously like very jacked up. You know what I mean?
01:09:06
Speaker
Yeah. And I thought like I honestly when I thought back on this movie, I really did think that those two characters died. The like stuck up girl and the the and her boyfriend. I thought that they I thought that they died. And I thought when she was going into that, like ah drug den in the middle of the movie, that that was when they died. But she lives till the end.
01:09:27
Speaker
And um I will say that Amy Dolenz, she kind of had like a. kind of a career. because so i was like looking at her and I was like, what else have I seen her in? And she's plays a lot of B characters like in Can't Buy Me Love and andtro those kind of movies.
01:09:42
Speaker
And so when I really started to look at this cast, I was like, wow, this is kind of a kind of Great cast for like a B move like creature feature. I mean, yeah we have Seth Green, we have Alfonso Ribeiro, then we have Clint Howard, who doesn't have a huge part, but he's in a ton of stuff.
01:09:58
Speaker
And then Peter Scolari, who's still acting to this day, he was just the dad on girls. um And so like, i don't know, this is a pretty stacked I mean, it is. and And early, once again, early Seth Green and frankly, early Alfonso Ribeiro. It's kind of crazy.
01:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, I did not appreciate that the ah stuff with the dog and how we had to be... ah We had to so concentrate on that for so long. but Also, like, I love it when panic is like, I'm going to have my dog rip off your leg.
01:10:27
Speaker
yeah And like, and then the camera goes to it. I'm like, that dog ain't ripping up shit. Are you kidding? It's, it's not like it's a fucking like Doberman. You know what mean? Like what is a sheepdog?
01:10:38
Speaker
The dog is miscast for sure. Completely. like if we're going to talk about anyone that's miscast, it's the dog. Because you need like ah you need like a junkyard dog for that kind of role. Completely. Entirely.
01:10:49
Speaker
Like a Doberman or, I don't know, just something that's a little more menacing to people that are scared of dogs. You know what i mean? Yeah. That's like ah that's like a lassie dog. Completely. Um, ah but the other thing that drove me nuts about this movie, and and this is only because it's a rewatch and, you know i had to watch it with the the eyes and ears of an adult is that how do they not panic for earlier?
01:11:14
Speaker
Like they don't see these like egg sacks, these giant egg sacks everywhere. completely Like when Seth Green discovers that egg sack in his closet and they still don't do anything about it. I was like, what are we doing here, boys? Like, like it's not normal.
01:11:30
Speaker
um Some of the lines that I found were were really funny, or I guess one line or another two that I kind of wrote down. um One is from the ah veterinarian when she goes, when in doubt, squish it out. Oh, yeah.
01:11:43
Speaker
And also that squish was disgusting. there's some There's some really gross stuff in this. if you If you are a body horror person, this movie might be for you because it's honestly even on levels of like the fly type of body horror. and um And then the other line I thought was just really funny because this is an early 90s movie is where Dee Dee Davenport is laying in the sun sun tanning and um the you know Holly says, hey, do you want to go fishing with the girls? And she's like, oh no I got to stay in the shade. You know, that whole ozone thing.
01:12:14
Speaker
And she's literally like suntanning so it's a little freak um and then so let's let's dive in to what we discovered about this movie and that it has very gay undertones which i did not remember at all yeah this comes at the midpoint of the movie where we are introduced to i guess like a crop owner and his farmer I think yeah like we we we don't really know. i mean, its they me ah they murder the sheriff. So to me, it seems like, yeah, he he's he's um he is a ah a weed proprietor.
01:12:56
Speaker
And um this guy is like his like shitty muscle, I guess, basically. Um, yes it's like, it's like, he's like a hillbilly muscle, i I suppose. So he like has him do like his, his, like his, you know, his dirty basically.
01:13:10
Speaker
Um, but it's a, it's a very strange relationship because the, I forget what the, what the, what the yokel's name is, but we only learn that the guy's name is sir.
01:13:21
Speaker
That's it. And so like you have this like master, like this dom and sub relationship going on. And like, it doesn't, it's not like a funny thing. Like it's like, it's like, it's it's like real, like like it's it just keeps going on and on and on.
01:13:36
Speaker
And it's bizarre. And then there's the part where sir has the shotgun on, on Alfonso Ribeiro and like, like drags it down like towards his crotch and is like, do you like me?
01:13:50
Speaker
And then the, what does the yokel say after that? Well, the one the sir says um now say yes, I'm a faggot like Alfonso Ribeiro. And then it's funny because he turns it back on. I mean, he says, like, yes, you're a faggot. Yeah, it's really funny. But the the the implication there is that he's about to get raped.
01:14:08
Speaker
but right So it's like, wait, what turn did we just take in this movie? Whoa, that's crazy. It is an it is a and i like a very weird turn that I did not remember at all. Yeah. and there's even like parts where you kind of think that they maybe are in a relationship of some sort, but it's very like way to me.
01:14:31
Speaker
um it's almost like yeah i think you best put it was like the dom and sub of it all way um but he like makes him like he like he's the one that runs out to the van to go get you know the stuff with the with all the ticks out there and everything but like it is like oddly sexual and i i'm glad that you picked up on it too because i was like What are we doing here? and i mean, and this is just, you know, like, I mean, 93 wasn't that far out of of AIDS. I mean, in fact, it was still in the AIDS era.
01:15:00
Speaker
So, you know, you're you're and and here we go getting all heady on stuff. But, you know, but welcome to our podcast. um Like this is the era where gays, that there were there was no positive gay um presence on the screen. then Not really.
01:15:17
Speaker
um Gays were either dying or they were villains. That was it. And so, you know, here's another example of, you know, one of the villains that that isn't, you know, an insect or arachnid, whatever.
01:15:29
Speaker
But, um of course, they're therere maybe they're gay um and and they're a villain. you know that just It just kind of sucks, looking it that way. looking at it that way um Some other things I had in my notes is it was surprisingly heartbreaking when Panic died, like the way that he dies in their arms. Like, i agreed whoa, we just got really serious in a very silly movie.
01:15:53
Speaker
i I think. But what one of the things about it's it's sort of like talking about like like like the Philippou brothers earlier, like because they're kids in the movie. And so like i I felt the same way. But and I think it was because I was like God, he's just a fucking kid, man. Like how sad that actually is sad. Yeah. Yeah. And the way the way they handled it for this being like a b movie now B movie creature movie, it actually was done pretty well. I agree. Yeah.
01:16:18
Speaker
Um, I liked a lot of the miniature work in this. I don't know if you noticed, but anytime that they showed like the forest fire or like the cabin, like they, they were all in miniature, which I thought was pretty fun.
01:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I, I did make a note in my notes though, that, um, the forest fire is pushing all the ticks to the cabin, but no other wildlife. So, um, I guess that's all that's left in this forest is ah vampire bugs. But I guess that kind of makes sense because wouldn't they have killed everything else?
01:16:49
Speaker
Maybe I'm thinking too much into this. I don't know. Yeah. What I will say about this movie is do not watch this movie. If you have any sort of epileptic, like, any sort of that kind of thing, because there is so much flashing lights at the end of this movie that I was almost even like, whoa, can we, can we, can we hold it back a little bit? Like, this is a lot.
01:17:12
Speaker
So just keep that in mind. If you're going to go and watch this up based on our, on our thing. um Another thing that I thought was really funny and a kind of a nineties staple is that there was like, quote unquote safety in the city.
01:17:24
Speaker
Like the, like the country, the country is the scary place. Yeah. Um, because we even have at the end, we get like a sweeping shot of LA and it just looks like yeah absolute garbage LA early nineties before they cleaned a lot of things up. And you're just like, Oh, that's what we had to look forward to. Great.
01:17:42
Speaker
um But I did like that. That's had like the classic monster movie ending where like we, we, you know, we kind of scan the, grit the, the, what a the graveyard. That's not right. The car yard. Or what, what do you call that place? Junkyard.
01:17:56
Speaker
Yeah. The junkyard. Thank you. um We scan the junkyard and we come in on, you you know, their, their bus that they were on and then it goes under the bus and you see, ah, there's an egg sack for it's not over Yeah.
01:18:10
Speaker
And I just, I don't know, there's something very nostalgic about those kind of endings with monster movies. Ticks part four. Well, no, there are no more Tick movies. Sorry. you guess you have to watch a Mimic 2.
01:18:23
Speaker
Oh, Mimic. Oh, my God. You know, and i it's it's surprising that there wasn't another Ticks movie, I'll be honest. um Well, when you look at gross question mark, I think that's why. Well, yeah. I mean, I wonder, I i i don't, do you know much about how it was received back in 93? Yeah.
01:18:37
Speaker
I only remember this being kind of like a sleepover, like special, like where you like rented it and you watched it with your, with your buddies and, you know, like had sleepover. And so like, I don't, I don't even remember this being in the theater. So I don't know what, like kind of the, the, the critical eye looked at this movie.
01:18:54
Speaker
True. But, um So, Matty, tell me now on a scale of one, two, seven, because we grade on the great scale of the Gay Old Rainbow here at Fragate the 13th Horror Podcast, what do you give Tix? I'll give it four stripes, a little bit higher than than my initial um of assessment.
01:19:16
Speaker
And again, i I think it is kind of like if the Fang and Alien had a baby as an after school special. That's kind of how I think about it. I think there's, you know, surprisingly some some good acting in this silly silly little film. There's some weird gay shit that that you guys, as you heard us talk about here, weird gay shit that is maybe a little bit too weird.
01:19:35
Speaker
um But overall, I mean, look, am I going to watch it again? No. But am I glad I saw it? I am. Yeah. Great.
Introduction to 'Bug' Movie Analysis
01:19:41
Speaker
I also gave it a four. I said it's a classic creature feature. While some things don't hold up, like how we never learn what Seth Green was in the when he got lost in the woods. And we never learn about what that was about because of the beginning of the movie. There's little girls saying help, help, help.
01:19:56
Speaker
And we never learn what that is about. But that's fine. Where is she? While those things don't hold up, the special effects and the gore definitely do. Nice. Well, look, folks, that does it for Tix. We'll be right back with the next film in our episode, Bug. When you dropped us off, come to the jukebox.
01:20:18
Speaker
I want to introduce you to somebody. You're
01:20:24
Speaker
very beautiful. I like hearing talk.
01:20:29
Speaker
you want, you can stay here tonight. That'd be nice. They live in your blood.
01:20:37
Speaker
What is that? Hey, did you see it? It's Jerry, you can't stay here. You're throwing me out? Get out! The place is crawling with these things. And they feed on your brain. There's no bugs on your skin. You have to dig it out. I'll dig it out. I'll show you. This from the Academy Award winning director of The Exorcist, comes the movie The Chicago Tribune calls one of the most disturbing horror movies imaginable. We have to kill her.
01:21:10
Speaker
They want you to know they're there. Bug. We'll never really be safe again.
01:21:25
Speaker
Well, if we couldn't have swung the pendulum any further away from Tix, we'd find ourselves at Bug. Maddie, tell us all about Bug. In a seedy motel room, a lonely waitress and a damaged drifter spiral into shared delusions of infestation, conspiracy, and doom.
01:21:45
Speaker
Agnes, traumatized and isolated, meets Peter, a twitchy veteran who believes government experiments left him infested with microscopic bugs. As their intense relationship deepens, Peter's paranoia becomes contagious.
01:22:00
Speaker
The pair tinfoil the room, rip out teeth, and hunt for non-existent insects while fending off Agnes' violent ex and a doctor, who may or may not so be part of the plot.
01:22:12
Speaker
Reality collapses in a feverish blaze of faux-la-due. Bug was directed by the legendary... Amazing. actually, I'm really sad that he's dead.
01:22:24
Speaker
The, the, the, the incomparable William Friedkin, Billy Friedkin, uh, written by Tracy Letts, Chicago zone from Steppenwolf, uh, adapted from his play that was originally produced at Steppenwolf theater, uh, produced and distributed by Lionsgate.
01:22:38
Speaker
Ashley Judd plays Agnes white. Michael Shannon plays Peter Evans, Lynn Collins plays RC. ah Brian F. O'Byrne plays Dr. Sweet. And Harry Connick Jr. plays Jerry Goss.
01:22:52
Speaker
It is rated r It's 102 minutes long. Made in the USA in Louisiana and California. Released May 25, 2007 with a budget of $4 million and it brought in $8.2 million.
01:23:05
Speaker
um Some interesting things about this too. Michael Shannon ah played that role in the original play as well. Also from Chicago. um Yeah.
01:23:17
Speaker
Not my first watch. Certainly. Andrew, it wasn't for you, right? No, I had seen this not in the theaters, but maybe like right as it came out on like DVD or whatever we used to watch things on in 2007. Mm hmm.
01:23:31
Speaker
um But yeah, this is a this is bug. Listen, um I'm just gonna put this out there. This movie is not for me. It's not like it. This is
Themes and Character Analysis in 'Bug'
01:23:40
Speaker
definitely a Maddie pick if you ah want to you know put it in a category.
01:23:44
Speaker
um But I still enjoyed it. um I will say like. I don't know. i was thinking about this a lot. And I was like, would I put this as a horror movie? And I think because the last 30 minutes, i I would say yes. But I think the first hour or so is more of a drama, ah more of like a a think piece, a more of like a get inside people's head and try to think how they think.
01:24:05
Speaker
um But then it devolves into horror towards the end. And then I kind of had to like resolve that, you know, with just like how we, you know say what, what is horror, which I don't like to define at all, but because I think horror is different to every person.
01:24:16
Speaker
um And if you like to, if you like to debate whether horror is real or not, just go on Twitter like everybody else. yeah she I mean, that, that really, im not not to interject on you, but like, that is just, yeah. Listen, it's our podcast. If you don't think it's horror, I don't really give a flying fuck. So if you don't like that,
01:24:32
Speaker
You're welcome to go listen to somebody else. I really don't care. You know what i mean? Like, fuck off. um But overall, like um this movie, this movie is definitely interesting. um i would like knowing that you have seen the play. I'd love to get your take on a few things as we as we ah start to, like, you know, really talk about the plot and everything. but Overall, really, really enjoyed seeing Ashley Judd on my screen again. i mean, Ashley Judd was a staple of like the mid to late yeah um ah Truly, she's she's incredible. I love Ashley Judd.
01:25:03
Speaker
Love her. You know, double Double Jeopardy is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. So good. um You know, Kiss the Girls. We we know we had a ton of Ashley Judd in the the kind of a a spread of the late 90s, early Totally, yeah. And I think that this was kind of a return to screen for her in 2007, if I'm not mistaken.
01:25:21
Speaker
um But like, listen, does she does she play a very flawed character for sure? But does she do it really well? I think so. I don't know. I am here i get your take on like um comparisons of other actors that have played the Agnes role.
01:25:36
Speaker
But we can kind of get to that as we as we kind of talk about things. But I think overall, I don't I don't like skin movies like skin picking movies. And then This is definitely one of those. like pressure And it really freaked me out, um especially when we get the kind of the reveal of what um what's his character's name of what we get um when we get Peter, when he lifts up his shirt and you see like what's been going on in the last like, i don't know what time frame because they don't really give you like a solid timeframe of how long they've been in this hotel room. But when they showed that, when he showed that to RC, I was like, Oh no, this is not going to end well.
01:26:13
Speaker
Yeah. So like, I think just overall, like this is kind of a weird mixed bag one for me because like, I appreciate what they put on screen and I appreciate all that the actors put into it. I just like, this is a,
01:26:24
Speaker
This is it. This is just a one and done for me. But yeah overall, I still liked it. If that makes any sense whatsoever. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah it definitely does. um And actually, I've never seen the play. I know i thought you had.
01:26:37
Speaker
i never got. I've read the play many times. I've done like scenes from it. And like, you know, when I was in college and and then, you know, the all all that kind of thing. um but never got to see it because, and and I was actually wrong. i just looked this up. It did not premiere at Steppenwolf. So forgive me for that. think it premiered in London, right?
01:26:53
Speaker
It premiered in London at the Gate Theater. And in Chicago, its premiere was at it was at a Red Orchid Theater, which is no longer there. It's but it's been gone for a while. um least At least I'm pretty sure it's gone. If it's still there, I'd be very surprised. But they they did some really incredible stuff. For for a while, ah Red Orchid in in Chicago was like,
01:27:13
Speaker
it It was like Steppenwolf and a red orchid. Like those, those were the two big ones and Steppenwolf just had a lot more heft behind it. And so, you know, like Tracy, let's a Michael Shannon. they They're all, uh, uh, company members there, but Michael Shannon would have been ah company member at a red orchid.
01:27:29
Speaker
where I actually met Michael Shannon was at a red orchid theater. I met him once. I'll never forget that. He was really just like a normal dude. yeah he's, he's any, any he is exactly like how you see him on screen is exactly how you see him in life. The same voice, same everything, same mannerisms. He's it's, it's really kind of cool.
01:27:48
Speaker
Um, I've seen the movie multiple times. um I think it's a really fascinating story about um about the power of trauma and the ability for conspiracy to creep in. And I think, i'm but here I go talking about the world again, Andrew.
01:28:14
Speaker
um Look around in America right now, everybody. And everybody listening over here, look around in Ireland. Look around in the UK at all the Ireland is full people and this and that.
01:28:26
Speaker
And think about all the conspiracies that these people believe. Like, really think about that. Like, the big conspiracy over here, there's many of them, but one of the big conspiracies is that...
01:28:38
Speaker
ah Yeah, the immigrants come here and they're immediately, I'm not joking about this, Andrew, they are given a house when they get here. That is something that people honestly believe. Or in America, i'm sure you could think of of of a conspiracy that you've just heard you know recently or one that you know about off the top of your head.
01:28:56
Speaker
Right. it's It's the worst plague on our modern society. Exactly. And and look, we and speaking of plague, we just went through a plague that everyone seems to forget. We went through a factual, actual plague, a real plague that killed millions and millions of people.
01:29:13
Speaker
And there are still people who believe all the conspiracy theories about it. Think about them. So, I mean, like this, this movie seems far out there. But when you when you think about it with that kind of lens, it's really not.
01:29:28
Speaker
It is very easy for people to become indoctrinated into a conspiracy or into like ah a strange way of thinking. Especially when they're so isolated too. like Bingo. Especially when they're isolated and especially when they have experienced trauma.
01:29:42
Speaker
They are looking for some kind of answer, something to hold on something to give them a pathway, something to give them the myth that they need to keep living, to keep walking forward.
01:29:56
Speaker
And in this case, it doesn't make a lot of sense to us, right? But Agnes is is given that path. by Peter and she doesn't know how to let go of it.
01:30:09
Speaker
In fact, when, when, you know, when, when RC comes over, which I think is funny, her name is RC, because this reminds me of Royal Crown Cola, still my. We'll talk about Cola in a second. Right. But, but when, when RC comes over, they go to the, they go to the liquor store like RC, like cops on to how clearly there are no bugs here. There's nothing wrong with you. You guys are going crazy.
01:30:34
Speaker
And he has that wacky seizure and he kind of goes nuts. And then they, they get him on the bed and they wrap him up in a blanket. And then, um, and then Agnes says like, why are you trying to take away the one thing that I have in the world?
01:30:46
Speaker
And she slaps her and then she slaps her. And, and I, I knew that moment was there, but I haven't watched it it for at least a few years. And so I, I forgot about that slap and that slap is huge.
01:30:59
Speaker
And it it's such a well-done scene, of course, because, you know, Billy Friedkin directed it. But in that in that moment, it's it's not just, you know, her her romance.
01:31:12
Speaker
It's not just that, you know, whatever she's feeling for Peter. It is that the thing that she has to hold on to could be taken away from her and she can't let that happen. That is what's happening in the world today.
01:31:24
Speaker
These people have nothing else to hold on to because no one has ever given them a thing. That's just it. you and and I'm sorry. I'm squawking on for a while here, but I i like this movie. um you know You mentioned earlier. What did you say earlier, Andrew? Oh, what was it?
01:31:38
Speaker
um about Agnes, about you know how she's maybe not the most admirable character. Right. Right. Right. But like also, like she's ah she's a victim of circumstance in so many ways. you know she's She's been ah clearly in a very abusive relationship with with Harry Connick Jr.'s character.
01:31:54
Speaker
you know she works at it She works at a bar where you know she's ah I'm sure she's treated just wonderfully by all the male lesbian bar. Right. Right. um But you know like i mean ah there's she doesn't have a good life. She's living in an old rundown motel in the middle of Oklahoma.
01:32:09
Speaker
and like with nothing to show for it and no doing drugs and and going downhill, that matches a lot of where we are right now. And ah unless we're, and I don't mean to get super political here, but you know, while I have the mic, unless we start to give people a way out,
01:32:24
Speaker
All we're going to have is people who believe in conspiracy theories. so That's it. That's what the world is going to be. Is that the world we want? So if we don't start helping people, it's going to get fucked up.
01:32:36
Speaker
No, that's an aside. Moving on from there, I think what this movie does so well is it just lets it happen. It just lets it fucking happen. And it is insane.
01:32:48
Speaker
And the way that they, the way that, that, that, that William Friedkin just allows the set to be a character too is incredible.
01:32:59
Speaker
It's beautiful. I have something to say about that. Go ahead. What is that? No, it's just, I think it's so funny that like, where's the hotel manager in all this? Or I guess the motel manager in all this? you know what, Andrew?
01:33:10
Speaker
That's a good question. As I eat this protein ball. I have no idea. No idea. Like he would just let them tinfoil the whole room up. I don't know. i mean One thing that I kind of wondered, I was like, well, we don't really see anybody else come in or out.
01:33:25
Speaker
Right. Right. um A lot of the other cars that they look like they've been there for a while, but then we do see some of the move and in other shots. um I was thinking like, okay, she's in kind of a big motel room, isn't she? Like she's in a big one.
01:33:40
Speaker
Like I wonder like, does she have some kind of like job at the motel too that we just don't know about? Actually, if they added that layer in, it would make a lot more sense. yeah Yeah. You know, like like she is like she has the one that has a full kitchen and a back door and like all that kind of stuff.
01:33:54
Speaker
Because she's in like an apartment instead of and instead of a motel room. Yeah, because it's got like a kitchenette type of thing. Exactly. right ah That was just one little small thing. I mean, it's ah it doesn't ah give me any like pause on the movie. It was just like, has no one come down here and just knock down the door for a while? my God.
01:34:12
Speaker
um the The one part that really made me... so Obviously, the movie is about paranoia. The movie is about codependency. The movie is about you know a lot of things. but like The thing that drove me drove me over the edge, if you will, is when the pizza gets delivered and they like tear apart the pizza and they're looking at the pizza under the microscope and I'm just like, what are we doing? Also, I was... i was i was ah i mean, I've watched it before, of course, but I was i was yeah i would not super hungover, but i was I was out late last night.
01:34:42
Speaker
Yeah. um And I saw that pizza come up on the screen. I was like, why just eat the pizza? Like, i would I would be eating this pizza right now because I am hungry. Guess what we did after we watched the movie. Did you get a pizza?
01:34:52
Speaker
Yeah. god God love you. Good for you. um The other part that drove me insane is she there's a part where like it's in the morning time and and I forget what happened right before this, but Agnes is really stressed out. I think it maybe is right after ah ah what's his face. kind of Jerry went after Jerry makes his first visit.
01:35:11
Speaker
um But she says like to to Peter, she says, make me a vodka and Coke. um I don't want to, you know, that basically, but ah he goes around and serves her a vodka and Pepsi.
01:35:23
Speaker
And I was not happy about it. just Interesting. Very interesting. Um, no, I think that there's some good stuff in this. so some questions I had that I was hoping to get your opinion on how much do you think the phone, because the phone plays a major role, like not only in the beginning, but it also plays over the credits. So what do you think that was in her head or do you think the phone was actually ringing?
01:35:50
Speaker
Um, I couldn't put it if it was a delusion or if I, you know what? I don't know. I mean, like, uh, because what gives me pause on if it was real or not is that there's that little light on hotel phones or that they used to be on hotel phones that wasn wasn't blinking and it wasn't blinking. I thought had the exact same thought.
01:36:12
Speaker
Yeah. i had the exact same thought i think that it I think that it could be either, to be honest. And I think i maybe it's a bit of a Rorschach test for for for whoever might be watching.
01:36:23
Speaker
yeah um But like i I think, you know look, if if it's imaginary, um then it plays into the paranoia that she already has. plays into to her fairly significant drug use. I mean, yeah won't i don't know...
01:36:39
Speaker
The pipe that they're using, like, look, I'm i'm very familiar with cannabis. The pipe that they're using, i don't know what they're smoking in that. I'll don't either. I couldn't determine if it was just plain marijuana or if it was more like meth or something. i don't i don't think it's I don't think it's weed. I think it's like, and I don't know if it's meth exactly, but it's something. Or like heroin or something. Something amphetamine related. i just i just don't. know what it is the doctor the doctor takes a toke off of it when he visits yeah and it definitely has like a different reaction than just marijuana yeah so like i i i know you didn't ask about this but that because you mentioned that part though i did forget about that part i did forget about that doctor if well no not the doctor but the doctor smoking that pipe and
01:37:25
Speaker
And if I have one criticism of of the play, the the the script and the movie, it is that they shouldn't have had the doctor smoke that pipe. i Yeah, it doesn't really make sense in his. I don't really understand why he does. i don't get i I really don't get it. doesn't make any sense to me. That was a silly thing.
01:37:46
Speaker
My only
'Bug' Movie Ending and Symbolism
01:37:47
Speaker
thinking is that he's trying to get Agnes on his side. And so maybe that's like showing like he's he's like, I'm like, what do you? Like, look at me. like but yeah but he But the actor plays it off very like nefariously, like very like sinister ways. So I don't really know how to read that either.
01:38:04
Speaker
It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. yeah um but But I'll be honest. I think the doctor scene and the doctor portion of the movie is the weakest point in the movie. Because it adds on another layer of what's really going on here, but it's not, it's not around long enough to give you pause to like, think about because he just like shows up, starts spewing all this stuff and then they kill him.
01:38:27
Speaker
Like, you know what i mean? It's not true. We don't get to sit with that character long enough to really make a determination of, first of all, is he real? Second of all, what is the real role that he plays in Peter's,
01:38:40
Speaker
um healthcare care like is he actually a doctor is he like a drug dealer we don't we don't really know like we only know what he says but we don't really get like time to like think about what is the grander scheme of his like ah way his ways because he also offers to help find lloyd which is agnes's uh i'm assuming deceased son But I don't know because we never get any wrap up on that and on that storyline. We all we kind of get like what Peter feeds her, which I don't think is what happened. I think he was probably kidnapped, um not by his father, but maybe by someone else. You know, did did did you see the very, very final scene after the credits?
01:39:21
Speaker
I think so. What happened? at What happened? Where where it, if it's, ah it goes into, it's not like all the way after the credits, but it goes, it's, ah it takes you into a child's room. you what you presume is, and there's like a little like toy, was it like a toy fire truck, I think.
01:39:39
Speaker
And like some Legos and there's a bike and there's like a shirt or something kind of draped over the bike. And I'll be honest. I don't know if I've ever seen that scene before.
01:39:52
Speaker
I don't think I stuck around long enough. I remember the phone ringing, but... Yeah, I think I've always like shut it off when it was done, and I've never seen that scene before. wonder what that means. Yeah, I've been trying to figure it out myself, um and I don't don't know. because you're i'm I'm going to go back and watch it a couple more times. It'll just that scene anyway, just I can maybe try to figure it out because there's no real, um there's no like super clue in it there and there's no person in it. There's no dialogue. There's nothing. It's just, it looks at the bike and then it's over.
01:40:24
Speaker
That's it. Yeah. And we don't ever get like her like um fidgeting over like a toy or like smelling, you know what i mean? Like a shirt or like some kind of symbol to tie it together. Yeah. it's it's It's not there. So that's another thing that I was like, oh, well, I've never seen this before, but that is maybe a little sloppy.
01:40:41
Speaker
and But, you know, maybe there is some textual clue earlier on that like you and I just we've never picked up on before, which could very the case. But I'm not sure. Yeah. um my favorite my favorite dialogue in the movie is and this just shows um peter's uh his conspiracy mind is when they hear the cricket which turns out to be a fire smoke detector um but he um she says ah if you find it don't kill it it's bad luck and he says to her he says to her some smart ass cricket probably made that up i was like that's pretty it's good
01:41:18
Speaker
That's the thing. Tracy Letts is such a great author. He's a great actor and he's a fantastic playwright and and screenwriter for that matter. And so, you know, there there's so many great things in this, not to mention, you know, Agnes's crazy speech at the end where, you know, she's I am the super mother bug.
01:41:38
Speaker
And like, you know, shit, dude, Ashley Judd has done a whole lot of fucking shit. She gave 150% on that role. um Yeah, for sure. She did. she She took this role and ran with it.
01:41:53
Speaker
And i I think it's one of her finest things she's ever done in her life. Truly incredible. My favorite line reading by her in this movie is i think I think it's the part where RC is there. And, um you know, Peter's kind of going on and on about something.
01:42:07
Speaker
I forget exactly what the what the the new conspiracy he's trying to talk about now is. But um she has like this moment of just like a lot of like scene clarity where she just goes, oh, thanks for telling me.
01:42:18
Speaker
Oh, yes, totally. Yes, yes. It's so earnest. And I was just like, oh my God. oh it's But it comes off as almost like funny. because you're like Good catch. Yeah, I can see it in my head right now. I i like i like just before that too, where she's like, R.C., you didn't even get to tell him your good news yet.
01:42:35
Speaker
and And then she's like, Peter, she's going to be an auntie or a mommy or something. Yeah. And I do like the other part. The other line that I really liked was... ah haven't had any snakes yet, have you? And then she goes, nope, you're the first. You're the first. Yeah. Oh, it's so, it's so good. It's so well done. There's some, there's some good line reads in this. I think what like ultimately like why it's not a movie that's like a regular rotation for me is it's just like all the body stuff and all like the, I, I don't like feeling crazy and this movie makes me feel so crazy. And so like, and and you know, like that it does, it it does its job. I mean, and like, you know,
01:43:13
Speaker
i I really like this, but even me, like this isn't one that i that I can watch any more than once, like every five years, if I'm being honest. I just, I don't, I don't really want to. um But it's, you know, on on our show, we we we we agree that, you know, the horror is not just like a fun little thing. It can be, and it should be, but it's also like, it's a reflection of of who we are. And and in this this mirror that shows us a bit more about what it means to be a human in this era that we fucking live in. And I, and it should sometimes be uncomfortable like that. Absolutely. And like the point I think maybe this is, you know, besides the fact that we have a, our episode is about bugs.
01:43:56
Speaker
This is not a bad one for people to watch right now. Like, ah like think about the people in your family. Think about the people that, you know, who are saying crazy things, like think about that, like maybe give this to them. Like, I,
01:44:09
Speaker
I don't know what's going to these people. I have i have no fucking clue. i I don't know how to tell people here that, hey, by the way, I'm an immigrant and I didn't get given a house. I i i wish I had. that would be fucking fantastic.
01:44:22
Speaker
um But I can guarantee you it's not happening anywhere else either. And in America, you know, it would be great if people would, you know, I can't think of one. I'm sure you can, but like be empathic maybe. yeah So a little bit, maybe this is, maybe if we can't get through to them through reason, maybe art can, and maybe this is one where they watch it and they go, Oh yeah.
01:44:44
Speaker
I, maybe I believe some crazy shit. but Yeah. Maybe I believe some crazy shit right now. And maybe I should fucking think about that. Maybe I should think about
Final Thoughts on 'Bug' and Podcast Closing
01:44:53
Speaker
that. I do. I do think it's funny, though, that Peter, when he's on his like whole tirade, this is more towards the end is where he's talking about like how he cut out the chip that the government. Oh, Jesus. Oh, my God.
01:45:04
Speaker
How he starts. He starts listing all these people that are other people that have have taken out the ship. And it's like it's like McVeigh and like serial killers. And I'm like, Peter, you're not making a big ah play for her. You're not making this sound as good as you think you're making this for real.
01:45:20
Speaker
But I mean, but, you know, think about it because this this came in this this would have been first produced in 96. So, you know, the the mention of McVeigh, which if people don't know, that's the Oklahoma City bomber. um That would have been like everyone had that name in their heads then. Yeah, for sure. Now, it's bad especially this takes place in Oklahoma for God's sake. Right. Right.
01:45:40
Speaker
All right, Maddie. So given ah what we just talked about, what do you give Bug? Yes, ma'am. I give it a i give it a five and a half. um I think it's a brilliant play. I think it's a really great adaptation.
01:45:56
Speaker
And I think it is disturbing. I think it's provocative. And I think is absolutely fearless acting from Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. And honestly, look, he can be cheesy sometimes. I know it. But Harry Connick Jr. is pretty good in this too, man. yeah yeah he he plays He plays that role really well.
01:46:12
Speaker
Well, when you put that face and then you make him that a character, it is so it is so like um disturbing to your brain because you're so used to him as like a romantic lead or like something.
01:46:24
Speaker
like Or like ah really just like a nice guy like when he had a talk show and everything. And then you put him as like this abusive abuser. Until he fucking knocks her. knocks her at oh and That's a terrible scene. My God. Oh, jeez.
01:46:38
Speaker
All right. I gave this a five. I said this like Antichrist. to not to I'm not comparing it to Antichrist, but this is the last time I felt this way. i get it yeah um It's just not for me. However, I will not downplay the incredible acting and what they attempt here. hear Fair. I think we're both on the mark here.
01:46:54
Speaker
Folks, that does it for Bug and for this episode too. But we'll be right back to close out the show. So stay tuned. The roinous roach is destroying my food. Rags, the repulsive rat is wrecking my business. Termites are destroying my home.
01:47:08
Speaker
We want action, now! Get out of, get out of the Orkin Man. I'm Otto the Orkin Man, Otto the Orkin Man. To control your pest, Orkin is best, call Otto the Orkin Man.
01:47:24
Speaker
your pest ork in his bed fall until the or in man Well, folks, that does it for episode 147 of the thirteenth Horror Podcast. But before we go, as always, we have a little game that Andrew has cooked up.
01:47:38
Speaker
And the title of this game is called Some Buggy Fun. so andrew what a great name. Some buggy fun. I love it. Tell me how we're going to play this game. So I'm going to read you a fun fact about a bug, and you have to tell me what the corresponding bug that is.
01:47:55
Speaker
okay yeah Can I ask a question? These are all bugs that like I would know. Yes. I made sure to pick out ones that were not like the the the the blue fly of Africa or something. Okay. Yeah, I agree. Cool. All right. Yeah, these are all common bugs.
01:48:09
Speaker
Okay. All right. These were the first bugs transported to space in a V2 rocket on February 20th of 1947 as part of an experiment to study the effects of cosmic rays on living organisms.
01:48:23
Speaker
A cockroach? These are fruit flies. Really? Yeah. Really? A fruit Even in space, they will bug the shit out of you. That is, I kind of really thought that was a cockroach. Okay. right. Okay.
01:48:37
Speaker
All right. Unlike other species of these, they give birth to live babies one by one, similar to humans. Okay. I've never known this before in my life. um I didn't either. and it freaks me out. This is, this is going to give me a nightmare or something. Um, is okay. I'm trying to think of something that I, that I know.
01:48:57
Speaker
um
01:49:01
Speaker
I mean, is it is it ants? Do ants do this? So this is a desert bug. Maybe not classified as a bug in some ways, but because I think it belongs in a subcategory. Is it like a scorpion?
01:49:15
Speaker
It's scorpions. or oh I'm going to die. I'm going to literally find that. Oh, my God. That makes me want to fucking retch right now. my God. Think about that. Giving birth to little baby scorpions. I'm not going to think about that, actually.
01:49:29
Speaker
All right. Number three. These can run up to three miles an hour. Spiders. This is a cockroach. Oh, really? Yeah. Fuck me.
01:49:40
Speaker
So just think about running after a cockroach and it's going three miles an hour. i'll I'll tell. Let me just tell a little story here for a minute. um I am terrified of cockroaches. And like like a lot of people.
01:49:52
Speaker
And in Chicago, I had a cockroach once in my, ah what do you call it? My bathtub. I was truly, when I tell you I was frozen with fear, I was frozen with fear.
01:50:07
Speaker
I had to go to a corner in the living room or where wherever, it was something very far away from it. I had to call exterminator to come over and take care of this one cockroach. And And I remember the guy came in and he was the gayest exterminator I've ever had. I've i've i've ever known, which I don't know many.
01:50:25
Speaker
um And I remember i remember him saying, oh, that's a big mama jamma, isn't it That's exactly how he sounded. I'll never forget that experience. OK, how did you pay for this? I don't you know. Look, um I wasn't I didn't have a lot of money then. You know what I mean? who All right. Number four, these bugs can turn their head up to 180 degrees, giving them incredible precision when attacking their prey, making them one of the most stealthy predators.
01:50:55
Speaker
Okay. Is this the praying mantis? It is. stinging Ding, ding, ding. Good job. Okay. And then finally, number five, these bugs hear through their knees with a special auditory organ called a tympanum.
01:51:08
Speaker
What the fuck? What the actual fuck is nature doing? um Hear through their knees. Okay. What bugs have knees? Now I have to think about this.
01:51:18
Speaker
Hear through their knees. is Okay. Can I ask you, is it a flying bug? um I think some species can fly, but I don't think it's a common flyer. So is it ant? Is it is it an ant?
01:51:29
Speaker
This is a cricket. Oh, they hear through their knees. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? I guess you know their knees are kind of high up, aren't they? When I think about it. think that's where they they do their little sound from, too, I think. Wow. God.
01:51:44
Speaker
Ugh. You know what? Look, God bless bugs. I'm glad we have them. But the thinking of like thinking about that scorpion is going to really fuck me up for a while. I'm not going to lie. Yeah. Well, that does it for episode 147. Wow.
01:51:57
Speaker
Jesus. Listen, you just listened to an independent podcast. And listen... We don't need a lot of money, but some money is good for things like microphones or software that we have to use. So if you want to become ah patron, we would love for you to do it. You don't have to. Obviously, you just listen to this for free unless you're a patron. Thank you very much.
01:52:17
Speaker
um But you can buy a merch and, you know, discover us on Patreon through fraggay13.com slash support. And we have a new patron this this episode. And thank you, Christian.
01:52:30
Speaker
Christian, thank you so much. christian Christian, thank you so, so much for supporting our show. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, and if you can't monetarily support the show, we understand this economy and bobh blah, blah, blah. We do. um But you can leave us a review, and I encourage you to do so on either Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
01:52:51
Speaker
um if you have any questions for us, you can email us at friday13.com. um and um but You know, I just want to say something, too, because it it really did strike me. ah You know, like, look, we we are we're coming up on on eight years of podcasting.
01:53:07
Speaker
We've been doing this. We've been doing this for almost a decade, people. um So, you know, back to that back to that support thing. It really it really does matter to us. And, you know, Andrew and i always say, like, look, there there are other levels that you can support us at. Really, a dollar is just fine. Truly. it really is Yes. Yes.
01:53:26
Speaker
And it all scales out and everyone helps. And, you know, You know, look, we're we're we're living in a weird time, man, where like, you know, look, I don't think we're we're not we're not given any breaking news here or anything like that.
01:53:38
Speaker
But I think we are i think we are helping to to keep a conversation going about things that need to be talked about. And i and i i'm I'm proud of us for doing that. and and i And I hope that, you know, I hope as listeners, I hope i hope you are too. And I hope that...
01:53:52
Speaker
you know, the conversations that you've been a part of because you are when when you listen to this, you're in the conversation with us. I hope that they've been worthwhile. And so, you know, if if that is, if that's something that you would like to see, you know, continue, ah we encourage you to to to support us. We'd really appreciate it.
01:54:09
Speaker
For sure. But after all that, if you can't do any of that, we know you can do at least one thing. And that's for you to get slayed.