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EPISODE 111: THE HOLIDAYS ARE TERRIFYING!
1.1k Plays1 year ago
HO HO HO (emphasis on the HO!)... Happy Holidays, FriGays! No matter which you celebrate, Matty and Andrew are wishing everyone a joyous and happy season… full of terrifying horror films and encounters with the paranormal! This special holiday episode—our only episode for December 2023—explores the tradition of Christmas ghost stories, global traditions, and more. HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 🎄
HORROR IN THE MOVIES
We watched BLACK XMAS (2006) and BLACK FRIDAY (2021) in our Christmas pyjamas, nestled up by the fire, sipping hot cocoa. You should do the same.
WHATCHA BEEN WATCHIN’, BITCH?!
Listen in to hear what we’ve been watchin’... bitch!
SLEIGH OR NAY?
Of these holiday traditions, which do the boys think SLEIGH, and which do they think are NAY?! Listen in to find out!
–
A proud, independent podcast
Support FRIGAY THE 13TH: www.frigay13.com/support
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
The
Introduction and Show Promotion
00:00:01
Speaker
13th Horror Podcast is a proud, independent podcast. To learn more about the show, visit www.frag A13.com. Are you tired of the same old Christmas music? I mean, I kind of like it. Well, you're in for a treat because coming this Christmas is an all-new take on those holiday classics. But like, what about tradition?
00:00:26
Speaker
That's right, it's now this is fucking Christmas, volume 3!
Episode Theme: Terrifying Holidays
00:00:31
Speaker
Wait, where are the other two volumes? Get ready for all new classics like Deck the Halls with Boughs of Molly and Santa Clauses coming on top! Oh my heavens, wow! Songs you'll never forget and you can share with your friends and family like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Alcoholic and Silver Balls! Okay, I don't think those sound very family friendly.
00:00:53
Speaker
Instant hits like the little drummer boy. Well that one sounds normal is dead Oh, no, it's episode 111. The holidays are terrifying.
Humorous Banter and Listener Interaction
00:01:05
Speaker
I Am the writing on the wall the whisper in the classroom
00:01:13
Speaker
I'm Marjorie Greene, and I approve this message to save America, stop socialism, and stop China. They defy we honor thee from life to death's horizon! Whoo-hoo! Power in real life. Doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they are going to get it wrong. Power out their memories. Where are you going to go? Where are you going to run? Where are you going to hide? Nowhere.
00:01:56
Speaker
I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. Sometimes, that is better. And you can take part in our morning of giving today, Leslie Horne. We got Leslie's name too, did we not?
00:02:12
Speaker
Peaches, cookie fingers, peaches, cookie finger down in the parking lot. Okay, what? Is that my stripper name? It's called elf, Christmas elf. What is the elf's name? Peaches, sticky fingers, cookie fingers.
00:02:34
Speaker
Because Peach's sticky fingers is a better stripper than her name is what I'm thinking. Everything is fine. Everything is fine here. Ho, ho, ho, and welcome to another edition of Friday the 13th Horror Podcast. My name is Maddie.
00:02:52
Speaker
And I'm Andrew, and if this is your first time with us on Friday the 13th Horror Podcast, we are the podcast that talks about horror. Horror in real life and in the movies from an LGBT perspective. And this is our 111th episode. I had a little lisp at the end of 11th. That's okay. I feel like Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol right now.
00:03:15
Speaker
Um, so this is a great one folks, because this is our, I guess this is, is it an annual tradition now for us? Do we always do this? Uh, we always do something around like holiday holiday, whatever. This is holidays are, the holidays are terrifying. Um, and we're, we're happy to have you with us. We've got a great show lined up for you today, talking about a whole bunch of
00:03:36
Speaker
scary shit around Christmas and Thanksgiving and all that bullshit in the real life. And we've got Black Christmas from 2006.
00:04:10
Speaker
a monumental film in
00:04:17
Speaker
But we kind of looked at each other and we're like, let's do movies that maybe people haven't really talked about that much. And so I'm like, well, I want to talk about Black X-mas, which, depending on where you look it up, it goes by two different names. And then Maddie was like, hey, by chance, do you have this movie Black Friday? And I was like, oh, Devin Sawa, Bruce Campbell. Sure. Yeah, sure. Why not?
00:04:44
Speaker
We'll get to it later. Don't tell them yet. Don't tell them yet. Anyway, I just thought that was kind of a little funny thing. But yeah, I'm excited to talk about the holidays. The holiday season is really fun, especially because now we have two different perspectives on it. One from the American holidays and one from the European holidays, which is really cool because we get to see like how different
00:05:09
Speaker
areas celebrate the holiday season, whether that's, you know, and honestly, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Thanksgiving or just December 25th.
00:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And I have some interesting traditions on that later, but I just wanted to say happy holidays to all. Happy holidays. Happy holidays, even. And I hope you have a little bit of time. I know a lot of our friends in retail and restaurants don't get a lot of great time around this season, but I hope you get a little bit of time to spend some time with your loved ones.
00:05:42
Speaker
And Andrew too, before we get started, I just want to mention, and I'm not going to drop any names here, but we received a really special email from a listener. And I'll keep this private, but I will just read you a couple of lines from what this person wrote. Is that okay with you, Andrew?
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is a person and I won't name their name but they wrote to us and this was last week and Andrew said you got to go check the check the email right now and
00:06:18
Speaker
So I did, I forgot our password, I had to figure it out so that I finally got it. I was like, oh yeah, that's what our password is. And so this person said this, let's see here. I'll start with this one. The last time I used any mind altering substance was November 6th. I went to detox on November 8th and I want you to know that your show got me through the hardest few days of my life.
00:06:43
Speaker
I've now listened to every episode and I feel like I know you guys personally. It was like having two friends sitting beside me helping me by talking about my favorite thing, horror movies. There were times where I should have been in agony from withdrawal symptoms, but I found myself laughing at your banter or getting emotional hearing you discuss current events. So from the bottom of my broken, bruised, but healing heart, I thank you for that. You really did help save my life.
00:07:10
Speaker
And this person goes on from there and we will be talking to them further because they've got some great ideas but you know look we run a horror podcast about horror and real life and horror in the movies and we told the story of our origin many times.
00:07:29
Speaker
And it'll be six years in February that we decided to kind of make a joke and put the stuff that Andrew and I were talking about all the time anyway onto a podcast. Maybe do 10 episodes or whatever they would be. Our friends would listen and that would be it.
00:07:45
Speaker
This turned into something that has become a project that is near and dear to both of our hearts. We've met hundreds of people through doing this. We have a community of thousands around us on social media. And we have made lifelong friends and connections we never thought we would. And I gotta tell you,
00:08:03
Speaker
An email like this is one of those things where I'm like, I can't believe that our words have such power. And it's a good reminder that they do, that the things that we all say as human beings and the connections that we make really matter.
00:08:18
Speaker
And so, you know, this person, they know who they are. I just want to thank you so much for sending us this message because it meant a lot to us. And I am so happy for you that you've gotten through, you know, the step in your recovery.
00:08:34
Speaker
and we're gonna be here for you even further and I'm wishing you the best holiday season possible and we just we really send you a lot of love thank you so much and I just I I'm still blown over by this email truly yeah it was
00:08:52
Speaker
I mean, a lot of people reach out with like little comments here and there, but this person took the time to send a multi-paragraph thank you letter. And I've been crying this whole time. I know. Right. Right. And you know, it's an interesting thing, too. I told my brother about this. My brother is like our top fan in the world. And he said this, Andrew, and this will be good for you to hear, too. He's like, you know what?
00:09:19
Speaker
Our lives are just so interesting the way that they weave. And he was like, think about it. You never meet Michael two decades ago. That means you never meet Andrew. And that means you never start a podcast. And that means that this person never hears it. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Oh, it's crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Thank you for that. This holiday season, we are very thankful for
00:09:44
Speaker
I don't even want to say fans because I hate that the community, the Friday's. Yeah, I just I'm so thankful that people listen to this and that they actually like take the time to reach out and everything. So, yeah, because look, I mean, as thankful as people are for our show, we're thankful for them. Like, oh, God, we wouldn't be doing it.
00:10:04
Speaker
Yeah, but even beyond that, we have fun too with all of you. It's a fucking blessing to have all these people around that we get to talk to and interact with. My life is richer for it. I'm sure yours is too. Thank you.
Current Events and Political Commentary
00:10:20
Speaker
Thank all of you. That's so fucking cool.
00:10:22
Speaker
And listen, I'll just use the first initial J. J, let's get back to depressing the hell out of you now with the certified terrifying corner. Turn that steering wheel to the right and get onto the side of the highway. All right, so look, folks, we'll start with a fun one.
00:10:41
Speaker
Representative George Santos of New York. I'm so fucking sorry, man. I got to tell you. So this story is just hilarious. So, OK, first of all, we are recording this. By the way, we're doing one episode for December. So this is going to be your big December end of year holiday episode. We'll make it worth it.
00:10:58
Speaker
Exactly. So it is Saturday, December 2nd, as we record this. Lord knows what will happen in the rest of this month, but here we are. Anyways, it was just yesterday, actually, on the 1st of December, that George Santos became, I think, like maybe the eighth Congress person. Six. Six. The sixth Congress person in history to be expelled from the House of Representatives. So what this means is that he's no longer a Congress person, right?
00:11:23
Speaker
And so he's this is happening because it was discovered that he used campaign funds to get Botox to have only fan subscriptions and to like travel and like he bought a belt at Hermes and like a bunch of other shit. Like this story is wild. But we already know that like he was a secret drag queen and like all the just insane.
00:11:48
Speaker
And now he is gone. And I got to tell you, the memes and the gifs out about this right now are so good. Just just fucking search at any whatever platform you want. You're going to find some choice shit out there. And it is fucking funny. So that is just a fun one to share right now. Goodbye, George Santos.
00:12:08
Speaker
This is why gay people should not be. No, I'm just joking. No, this guy sucks. Not my representative. So hopefully he's gone forever and we never have to talk about him again. Yeah, just I mean, I got to be honest, I don't even care if the dude goes to jail. Like just it's almost like just let him fade into obscurity. You know, don't give him any attention at all. Just go.
00:12:37
Speaker
Literally, this is the last time I on this show that I ever want to talk about them because this guy does not deserve the time. Yeah, just just really gross. The next item here is just another continuation of the Israel Hamas war. It's going on to the second month now. Thousands are dead on both sides of this war. Just terrible stuff.
00:12:57
Speaker
I think what's interesting to update folks on now is just that there have been hostage exchanges in a very short-lived truce or sort of a mini ceasefire. And that ceasefire was broken by Hamas when Hamas went into Jerusalem to a bus stop and shot three people in Jerusalem.
00:13:21
Speaker
It's wild. It's insane. And I still stick to my guns that the rise in anti-Semitism is just so pernicious right now. You mentioned Hanukkah earlier, Andrew, and I think it's really important to note that
00:13:38
Speaker
There are cities all around the world who are not putting up like, you know, just like you put up the big Christmas tree in the town square, they put up the big menorah too. There are, most places aren't doing that. I actually walked by the Chris Kindle market in Chicago when I was there last week.
00:13:54
Speaker
There would usually be a menorah there. There was not one. And it's just a good indication of how Jewish people are feeling, which is they are scared to be visible right now. And I have friends who have taken the mezuzah off their door. They're not wearing their mug and David's. They're not wearing their kippahs or any other sort of covering. And they're hiding themselves from the public of being Jewish because they are terrified of what might happen to them on the streets.
00:14:23
Speaker
And so to any of our Jewish listeners, I send you a lot of love and a lot of support because I think what's happening in this world is terrible. And I think nowhere near enough people are talking about it, especially right now. So that's my take on it.
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, well, if you do live in Chicago and you want to see some representation, Lincoln Square does have a huge menorah. Oh, go ahead. I'm glad to hear that. Right next to the Christmas tree. And the Christmas tree is decorated in blue and white. Oh, good.
00:14:59
Speaker
If you want that little bit of celebration or maybe you want that photo opportunity with your Jewish family, you're more than welcome to come up to Lincoln Square. It hit Andrew up. He lives right over there. And Lincoln Square, if you've ever been to Lincoln Square in Chicago, let me tell you. In Christmas? Ooh, child. It's like going to a little tiny German town. It's just so, it's so cute. So get your ass to it. We do it right up here in Lincoln Square.
00:15:24
Speaker
Now, the final thing I want to talk about is something that is specific to Dublin. And I was in the United States of America for Thanksgiving with my family. Got to see Andrew and Michael when I was there, as well as Kyle Curry. Kyle, hello. Nice to see you. And thank you for... Kyle also gave me a really lovely gift. You gave me one too. Good. A book all about Belfast. I really treasure. And then thank you for that.
00:15:49
Speaker
But while I was in America on Thanksgiving, it was really awful to see on Twitter, because I just happened to sort of take a glance at Twitter for a moment while I was hanging out, that there was suddenly a riot that had erupted in Dublin.
00:16:09
Speaker
And and what happened was this. There was a a child and I believe her parents in an area in the north part of the city called Parnell Square. And these they were coming out of this child's school and a crazy person who happened to be Algerian, but also an Algerian that has lived in Ireland for like 20 years. We don't know why, but for whatever reason, he stabbed these people. He stabbed them.
00:16:38
Speaker
which is insane and terrible and very fucked up and shouldn't have happened. He was captured and the Garde, which is what we call the police, you know, have him in custody and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. At the same time, that knife attack was stopped
00:16:54
Speaker
by another immigrant to Ireland who comes from Brazil. He is a delivery driver. Deliveroo here is Grubhub basically. He got off his scooter, took his pretty massive scooter helmet, and beat the fuck out of that guy so that he would stop stabbing these people.
00:17:13
Speaker
So then the Irish far right, man, I got to tell you, you want to meet some really annoying motherfuckers. The Irish far right are fucking annoying as fuck. And they are going to get some clarification really quick on the far right, what it goes in. Does far right in Irish or in Ireland mean far the same as far right here? It does. Yeah. Basically, it's like, you know, right and left are a little bit different. Like, you know, I think I've talked about this before, whereas like
00:17:43
Speaker
the ruling the ruling parties here right now, the people who the parties who are in power, like they are considered right wing parties. But like, honestly, Fianna fall and finna gale, those are the two parties. They are they're basically Democrats. OK, that's what they are. No, the only reason the only reason to ask is because like I've been listening to a lot about Australia lately. And Australia is kind of like the backwards. Like when you say like something is left, that means right here. Like.
00:18:12
Speaker
I don't know. It's because they're on the upside down of the world. So I just wanted to make sure I understood. It's definitely a good question. But the far right people here basically believe this. And I won't spend too much time on this, but I'll let you know because it's a pretty interesting thing that has occurred here.
00:18:29
Speaker
The far right in Ireland believe in something called Ireland is full. And that is a phrase that they use all the time because they think that immigrants are bad. And they especially think that what they call unvetted men from the places that you would usually think that far right people would hate. So like the Middle East and South America and all that other bullshit. They think that unvetted men are coming into the country to steal jobs and rape their women and kill people. That's the basic mode of thought here.
00:18:57
Speaker
That is not the case in Ireland. As an immigrant, I can say that, although people love to just kind of think of Americans as not immigrants, but we are. Anyways, so the far right used this opportunity to get on Twitter and rile people up and get them into the center of town and wreak fucking havoc. These people burned a bus. They burned our tram system here, which is like, you know, like the owl in Chicago, it's called the Lewis. They burned a Lewis.
00:19:25
Speaker
fucking train, which was insane. They destroyed shops. They looted everywhere. They beat people up. It was crazy. And when you watch these videos of what was happening online, you've got the far right people going, look, it's all the immigrants doing it right now. You go ahead and watch the videos. You know who the people are. It's a bunch of white Irish people doing it. That's who was doing this.
00:19:48
Speaker
And the other thing that's interesting about Ireland is that our cops, the guardee, or we call them guards, the guards don't carry... And Andrew, this is crazy. They don't carry anything with them. The only people that carry shit are the response unit. So there are people that have shields and they have batons and they have pepper spray, but that's only a small part of the force. Most of the cops out there, they don't carry a fucking thing.
00:20:13
Speaker
Not even like tasers or anything? Not even tasers. They don't even have body camps, right? So they had to go into this in fucking insanity in town with like basically their bare hands, which was just wild in itself. So it was wild. It was crazy. And I got to tell you, like, as people might like, I think that some people here might find it cringe that I say this, but I don't give a fuck. Like as an immigrant here,
00:20:38
Speaker
I found that pretty terrifying. I really did. And I really did think, you know, before I got on the flight to come back home, which is, you know, where I am now, I was thinking, boy, do I feel like comfortable going into town and like having people hear my American accent right now? You know what I mean? And that's a pretty fucked up place to be.
00:20:58
Speaker
So I don't know, you know, we're going to see what's going to happen here in Dublin. What happened was crazy. Something like this hasn't happened in a very, very long time. And it's going to be weird to see what's ahead for the city and for the country because this is going to have reverberations for a very long time.
Bizarre and Unusual Holiday Traditions
00:21:15
Speaker
yeah I told you when we met up that like the only footage because the footage is very limited here of course the only footage that ever was shown was always of looting a footlocker and I was like why but like so like
00:21:36
Speaker
I don't know if you've kind of noticed this and I don't know if this is like just like a media thing or like what but like they always love to show a footlocker being like broken into like everyone wants the shoes.
00:21:52
Speaker
Are shoes like a hot commodity that I don't understand? Well, to be fair, if you were to go in there and I'm just guessing, I've never looted before, but if you were to go loot 10 pairs of Jordans, you know what I mean? You could sell those for a pretty penny. You could sell each one of those for like, I don't know, 300 euro at least. And just right there, you'd have 3,000 euro for fucking nothing. I don't understand shoe culture.
00:22:22
Speaker
I have my shoe things that I really love. I've got a couple pairs of Jordans and a couple pairs of this, that, whatever. But I keep it calm, but some people go fucking over. Yeah, it's crazy. I don't think I've ever spent more than $80 on a pair of shoes. I am shameful. I've spent too much on shoes.
00:22:40
Speaker
Anyway, anyways, folks, that is the Certified Terrifying Corner on with the show. And Andrew, did you know? Well, wait, we've got a couple of things we're going to share from from us right now, aren't we? Yeah. Where do you want to start? Oh, with like the general stuff.
00:22:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I think that maybe we should do a little bit of personal stuff. People love when we do personal stuff. They do. Yeah, they like to hear about our lives. So do you have in your history? Because let's face it, you're either a good gift giver or you're not. Yeah. And let's face it, my parents were not
00:23:14
Speaker
the best gift givers. They tried their best, but there definitely was a series of time in my history where we would go through the Sunday newspaper and literally clip out pictures and hot glue them to paper and give them to our parents so that they would know.
00:23:32
Speaker
exactly what to get us. Um, because they could not be trusted with just saying what we wanted. Um, and so do you have a favorite or least favorite Christmas present that you can remember from your childhood? Oh boy. Uh, favorite probably would have had to have been like when I got my Nintendo 64, I would have been like, I was so happy. I was like, Oh my God.
00:23:59
Speaker
i have to i have to ask you this because we also got a nintendo 64 but it was a quote unquote family gift oh was this was this for you or was it for the family i think
00:24:14
Speaker
Like, did you ask for it? Yeah, I was asked for it. I'm pretty sure it was like just for me. But like, of course, like, I mean, like me and my brother played it all the time. And even like my sister Katie was, of course, of course. So like we all played it. But that that was definitely my gift. Now, the interesting thing about that, though, was that was the year that I asked for a PlayStation first.
00:24:33
Speaker
And so of course. So but but here's the thing. I got the PlayStation and I didn't like it. And so we took it back and I was like, you know what? I do want the Nintendo 64 after all. And I ended up getting that and I fell in love with it.
00:24:49
Speaker
Nice. So I can remember a least favorite gift and a very confusing gift for a young probably like 12, 13 year old. So I'm opening presents and of course, you know, you get the clothing. You always get some clothes.
00:25:10
Speaker
And I open this gift, and it's a- Which also, I hate getting it Christmas. Don't give me clothes, please. Just let me pick out my clothes. Thanks. Bingo. Because ultimately, you're going to insult me in some way, shape, or form by getting me the husky jeans. That's so true, exactly. So I'm opening this, and it's like a pack of clothes. Whatever. It's got stuff in there. And I look at this one t-shirt, and it's a picture of a bright green alien head.
00:25:40
Speaker
And it says on it says on the shirt, my ideal man. What? And to a young gay kid who was not out at the time, I.
00:25:55
Speaker
was petrified that I had just been outed by my mother. And your mom got you that. And I think she just thought it was funny. Oh, my God. That's not funny. But like I took it now would be a different way. Oh, my God. Like you don't get that for your kid. No.
00:26:16
Speaker
Oh, listen, I OK. My mom is not the greatest gift giver, like she's just not like that. It's not really. Well, and it's it's no like, listen, she passed it on to me because like when I am forced to give gifts, you know, the holiday season, birthdays, da da da da. My mind goes blank. I don't know what to get people. Fair enough. However, if I'm somewhere and I see something,
00:26:43
Speaker
I can automatically assign that to someone and be like, oh, that'd be a really good gift for somebody. And I will buy it and I will give it to them. It's the forced gift giving where I panic. If that makes any sense. I get that. The thing with me is that I'm not really a big gift giver in the first place. I like getting gifts.
00:27:02
Speaker
I mean, I'm really the same. Like if somebody gets me something, I'm of course very grateful. I prefer to give a gift instead, but I would much rather like just go have dinner or go do a thing or have an experience and like get something from somebody because I just, I already have all the things that I like and I'm a pretty picky person and I don't need someone to pick something out for me if I'm being honest, like it's probably not gonna be
00:27:28
Speaker
the best. But I mean, I've gotten some lovely things like, you know, I've got a couple of sisters who are excellent gift givers. And like, when you get a gift from them, it's like, Oh, that's incredibly thoughtful. Like, thank you so much. And like, you know, to be fair to like, my mom worked, she how on earth she managed to get gifts for nine children over all those years and make and make Christmas make Christmas really amazing every time. I really mean that especially for a woman who grew up so poor, she never got Christmas gifts from her parents.
00:27:57
Speaker
ever, ever from her parents. So like she, she, she took her experience and was like, my kids are going to have whatever they want. And that's what she did. And I'm so grateful for that. But also I'm like, mom, you didn't have to do all that. Like looking back at it, like I wish I hadn't asked you for anything now. You know what I mean? Yeah. Speaking of terrible gifts.
00:28:17
Speaker
Can I share with you some terrible gifts that I found online? Yes, please. So this first one, my extended family used to do this thing where you'd put your name on a piece of paper and put it in a hat and then draw someone out. Secret Santa, you know, everyone does it. I got two terrible gifts on consecutive years. This is really funny to me. I don't know why, but the first terrible gift was a DVD of Fast and the Furious 3.
00:28:45
Speaker
I literally never watched even a second of those movies and I'm pretty sure the franchise was up to like four or five at that point. That is wild.
00:28:57
Speaker
The very next year, someone got me a cheap pair of fake leather driving gloves and they were about two sizes too small. So for me, not being a quote unquote car guy at all has somehow convinced my aunts and uncles that I'm secretly a Tokyo drift racer or something. Wow. Very, very strange.
00:29:17
Speaker
Um, the next one I bought my whole family tickets to see James Brown live literally with it in minutes of them opening their presents. It was announced on the, on the news Christmas morning that James Brown died. Oh no. Oh no, you poor person.
00:29:35
Speaker
And then finally, an ex gave me an engagement ring for herself on the idea that I would propose to her. She also gave specific instructions on how and when I should do it, as well as stipulations on when and where the wedding would be planned.
00:29:55
Speaker
We had a terrible relationship and I had been planning breaking up with her right after the holidays, which I did. I think that that was that was a wise move person and that is terrible. That's awful. And then one more, just because I think it's really funny. This person, they literally just put a set of miniature butter knives with ceramic arts, ceramic fruit and vegetable as the handles. I can actually see those in my head right now.
00:30:24
Speaker
We we all know what they are from an aunt who said I was quote unquote too hard to shop for. I was seven. Oh, my God. That reminds me. So I have a my godparents.
00:30:39
Speaker
are insane. I don't know why my mother and my father chose these people, but they did. My godfather is in prison for being a cocaine dealer and my godmother is in prison for election fraud. That's just how my parents wound up.
00:30:55
Speaker
But my godmother, her name was Debbie, who was pretty awful, to be honest. I think that's everyone's godmother's name, Debbie. Debbie, One Christmas, got me an alarm clock. Cool. But an old person one, it was a clock radio. It literally goes like A-E-A-E. It was a clock radio that the bitch probably got on a Walgreens, you know what I mean? I remember opening it and thinking,
00:31:24
Speaker
What the fuck like am I like I'm at like 40 you're like, why did you give me this? Like I was like, oh, thank you. Great. See ya.
00:31:36
Speaker
as stupid as that is, if I would open that as like a 13 year old, like, wow, I am an adult now. Wow. Thank you. This is amazing. Thank you. I can wake up on time with my mother. I can listen to the radio as I go to sleep. I can listen to Delilah as I fall asleep. Delilah.
00:32:00
Speaker
Oh, listen, I don't know if we've ever brought up Delilah on the podcast before. We've had many, many musings about our childhood with Delilah. Remember how much Delilah loved? That bitch was always talking about coffee. Remember that? Yeah. Oh, it's just a nice big warm cup of coffee right up here at the microphone with you tonight.
00:32:21
Speaker
Oh my God. We should get Delilah on the show. Is she still alive? I have no idea. She's still on the radio? Listen, if anyone has, if you know who Delilah is, and I actually really mean this, if any of you have a connection to Delilah, you get in touch with us and we will have her on the show in one way or another. She's probably a secret horror movie fan. Who knows? Yeah. All right, Maddie, the next question.
00:32:43
Speaker
Do you have a favorite holiday song? Oh, yeah, I actually I have many, but I'll narrow it down. So first off, I'll give you an album and I'll give you an actual song. So the album, the album for sure is a Charlie Brown Christmas from the Vince Guaraldi trio. I adore a fucking adore Charlie Brown Christmas. I watch it every year. Like I also watch The Muppet Christmas Carol and I also watch the Christmas Carol. So good. It's so good.
00:33:12
Speaker
And Charlie Brown Christmas, it's all jazz, because it's Vince Guaraldi. And you can hear that music in your head right now, that do, do, do, do, do, do, do. So I love that album. I actually put it on today because I put up my Christmas tree today, Andrew. We're putting ourselves up today, too. Yeah, we did it. Yes, we are gay.
00:33:29
Speaker
Um, we, uh, that's my album. My favorite holiday song though, around Christmas is Oh, Holy Night. And I love Oh, Holy Night. I start crying like every time I hear it. There was one, there was one Christmas where me and Bridget, um, put together a playlist of every version of Oh, Holy Night that we could find and then just turned it on.
00:33:52
Speaker
and kept listening to it over and over again. I just, I adore that song. I think it's a beautiful song in the original French. It's gorgeous too. And it's just, it's gorgeous. I think also I love it because it's, it's my mother's favorite Christmas song. And she gets really emotional when she hears it. And so I think just from Chris, like childhood watching her really love it so much. I think that's what probably engendered it in me too. How about you?
00:34:18
Speaker
Is it is it weird that I think that song is spooky? Mm hmm. Like in certain renditions, it sounds just like a little bit like ominous and spooky. Well, I mean, so I mean, here's the thing, like, I mean, no one expected a little bit of like church geek, but I mean, the season is spooky.
00:34:35
Speaker
I read a good article the other day from my friend Tim Brown, who's a Lutheran minister in America, and he was writing about how the Christmas season when you go out shopping and whatever else, it's so bright and light.
00:34:53
Speaker
But the idea of the season leading up to it called Advent is that it actually starts in darkness. And so it starts with being really, really dark. And then slowly the light begins to build and build and build until finally the light is there at Christmas.
00:35:10
Speaker
So it's two different ways of looking at it. Um, and you know, like, actually there's one of the things I was going to talk about today was how the, the, the original traditions for Christmas were actually telling ghost stories at Christmas and not like, you know, sharing stuff about like, Hey, here's a good Samaritan. No, it was like, here's a ghost story about how shit is fucked up. And like the season's kind of hopeful. I mean, think about a Christmas Carol, right? It's a story about ghosts. So like, I mean, I actually get that it, that it feels a little bit creepy to you. I think that makes sense.
00:35:40
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so classically, I am not like, listen, I think Christmas has like, it's, it's great times. I love getting together with people. For me, Christmas is a little bit too heavy on expectations. Oh, 100% agree with you.
00:35:57
Speaker
Like I get it gets me a little stressed out. I'm not going to lie. We've had a episode all about holiday stress. You can go back, I think like three years ago when we, when we talked about holiday stress. But, um, my favorite holiday song is one of the newer, if you want to like put it in cannon, it's one of the newer quote unquote ones, but it's from like the eighties. So it's not really, but I always really love a wonderful Christmas time. Oh yeah. It's lovely.
00:36:20
Speaker
I just, uh, Paul McCartney, right? Yeah. Um, I just, that one always like gets me just like my shoulders shimmy in, you know? So I, I like, I like that one. Um, of course there are a lot of ones that I really do like. There are a couple of ones that I really don't like.
00:36:38
Speaker
Yeah. Um, like, uh, what's the one where she talks about buying the car, like down the chimney tonight, Santa baby. Oh, I hate Santa baby. I really, really hate it.
00:36:52
Speaker
The one where he talks about raping the woman, essentially. Okay, wait, wait, wait. I don't agree with that conjecture. I don't. He's trying to get her drunk, so she'll stay. I don't like it. I don't like that one. I think they're just two people on a date is what I think. I think people read a little bit too much into that one. Well, we can agree to disagree on that one. Fair enough. Okay, so did you grow up with any weird traditions in your family?
00:37:21
Speaker
Not really. I think it was all pretty standard American fare. Everyone does it a little bit differently. I would say that for us, Christmas Eve was always the big event as opposed to Christmas Day. So Christmas Eve was when somebody would have the big party and everyone would go and the adults would get drunk and the kids would play and all that kind of stuff.
00:37:42
Speaker
send them down to the basement. Right. Yeah. And then like Christmas would be, you know, just like everyone just stays at their house basically and, you know, plays with your new toys. Other than that, I mean, like, you know, for us, I guess going to going to midnight mass was definitely a tradition for sure. And that was when midnight mass was actually still at midnight or it would be like it would be like eleven and then it would end at midnight. Sure. So that was always fun. I actually really did enjoy doing that with my mom never went, but my dad would always want to go.
00:38:14
Speaker
And my dad would also watch the Pope doing Midnight Mass in Rome too, so that would have happened at like five o'clock probably on Christmas Eve. So I would always like watching that with him. And just like, you know, kind of the usual shit, like, you know, sing songs and eat a bunch of food, like, you know, that kind of stuff.
00:38:31
Speaker
Yeah, I think the only tradition that was quote unquote different was that we would always get to open a present on Christmas Eve. Oh, us too. Yeah. And honestly, nine times out of 10, it would be hand-picked and it would be pajamas. So it was a secret signal to go to bed.
00:38:53
Speaker
The only other thing I can think of is I would always wake up super, super fucking early on Christmas day. And so I would wake up my little brother and we would always watch VH1. I don't know why, because VH1 would always take an interesting tradition.
00:39:12
Speaker
Well, because you would always play like Christmas song music videos. Oh, I gotcha. Yeah, sure. So we would watch that until my parents woke up, like because we weren't a lot. My parents had a very strict rule. And I think now that I'm an adult, I understand that they wanted to sleep in. But they were like, you cannot wake us up like we will get up. We will open presents. It will all happen. I promise. But don't wake us up. So.
00:39:40
Speaker
I thought that that was a funny one. Do you want to hear some weird, and I don't want to say weird, it's just strange to us global holiday tradition. Tell me some, go ahead. So the first one is from Catalonia. This is the pooper and the pooping log. See, I don't like poop. So I would not be into this tradition.
00:40:07
Speaker
This is actually in it. When I read about it, I was like, this is so funny. Like somebody just did this as a joke one time and it just caught on. So it says for some. Oh, and this comes. Where did I get this from? I forget. Board Panda, I think was the website that I got this from. The pooper and the pooping log is for some inexplicable reason. Catalans observe not one, but two poo based Christmas traditions that would put a smile on your face. That's so weird.
00:40:36
Speaker
The first is the Kaganer, roughly meaning the pooper, a figurine of a pantsless peasant laying a cable that's snuck into the nativity, and by cable, I mean a poop, that's snuck onto the nativity scene alongside Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
00:40:57
Speaker
So imagine I saw a little figurine of this. It's basically a little figurine of a man squatting and you put him somewhere on the nativity scene. He's just there.
00:41:10
Speaker
Uh, that is, that's so weird. Yeah. Um, and the second is the cagatillo or the pooping log, which is a small stick with a smile on its face that lives at the dinner table in December. It's quote unquote fed every day with nuts and sweets to keep him warm and it's kept warm with a blanket. Then on Christmas Eve, it gets beaten with sticks to poop out the presents.
00:41:44
Speaker
I love it. I kind of love it though. Don't you want a little candy nut on Christmas Eve? That is just that of all the traditions that could have come to be in Catalonia. I just would have never thought that those would be it.
00:41:59
Speaker
You know what I mean? They just they just really like a good movement in Catalonia. I guess so, don't they? My goodness. All right. The next one is from Iceland and the Yule lads. Icelandic kids don't lads. Bless them.
00:42:15
Speaker
The Icelandic kids don't just get one Santa Claus, they get 13 mischievous trolls roaming the country in the fortnight before Christmas, like Snow White Seven Dwarfs, each of the 13 Jola Svenlnar, I think, which roughly is Jule Logs, Juleads, I mean. Julelog is a totally different thing.
00:42:37
Speaker
has his own personality including doorway sniffer, spoon licker, sausage swiper, candle stealer, curb gobbler, and the ominously named window peeper. Each takes turns visiting children who leave shoes in their bedroom window dropping off presents for the good kids and rotting potatoes for the bad ones. Wow. Just wow.
00:43:03
Speaker
I had never heard of this before. So to see doorway sniffer, spoon licker, and sausage swiper, I was like... The sniffer thing that reminds me of my brother-in-law as a sheriff in Indiana. And he talks about there's this culture of... I guess there's a culture of ladies who really like policemen. You know what I mean? Yeah. And do you know what they call them?
00:43:27
Speaker
No, don't hold me. Holster sniffers. Oh, no. And every time I hear it, I just laugh and laugh. It's so funny to me. All right. And one last one. La Bafana in Italy, because you know about La Bafana. I do know about it. We both visited Italy together. It was very fun. So Italian Christmases are celebrated with a wine drinking witch. And no, we don't mean just saying that out loud. It's so stupid.
00:43:57
Speaker
And no, we don't mean that alcoholic ante from the dodgy side of the family. Oh my god, that's hilarious. Twelve days after Santa's visit on the eve of the epiphany, January 5th, families across Italy leave out a glass of vino and a plate of sausages for La Bifana, who pops down the chimney on her broomstick, according to folklore.
00:44:21
Speaker
The old lady knocked back an invitation from the three wise men to witness the birth of Christ and was so devastated about missing it, she spends every Christmas time gliding around the country, searching for the baby Jesus. La Befana. Thank you, La Befana.
00:44:38
Speaker
by a wine drinking witch. I do. I do like that. But can we end? I do want because I found this totally interesting and you brought it up earlier. I do want you to share about this history of ghost stories at Christmas time and then we'll move on to the rest of the show.
00:44:56
Speaker
That sounds good. This has been a fun segment. So, yeah, there is a history of holiday ghost stories. And this article comes from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. It's a good one. So I'll just I'll go ahead and read it to you as I often do in episodes. So the song jingle bells, chestnuts roasting over an open fire, various types of poultry and assorted shrubbery and horror stories.
00:45:20
Speaker
One of those things doesn't quite seem to fit with the others, but scary ghost stories and tales of the glories, you'll remember that from a song, have been an integral part of Christmas celebrations for certain cultures for centuries. But how did something that is now much more associated with the fall and Halloween end up a quintessential but quickly diminishing Christmas tradition?
00:45:45
Speaker
Like so many of the things that we now celebrate as part of the season, we must look past the symbols used in Christmas celebrations to earlier pre-Christian times. Oliver Cromwell may have been hinting about the less-than-Christian origins of some holiday traditions whenever he and the Puritans, what awful people they were,
00:46:04
Speaker
created an ordinance in 1644 following the outcome of the English Civil War, which abolished the feast day of Christmas, as well as Easter and Whitsun, another name to the festival of Pentecost. Shops were to remain open, and soldiers would patrol the streets and seize food being prepared for a feast on those days.
00:46:25
Speaker
Oh, well, Oliver Cromwell, by the way, who was the scourge of Ireland, he was an actual demon on this earth. He was a piece of shit. And I hope that he is roiling in the flames right now. Anyways, we really want to abolish feasts. That's what they did from 1659 to 1681. The Massachusetts Bay Colony in what would become the U.S.
00:46:48
Speaker
banned the celebration of Christmas, they were a lot of fun here too, with the penalty being a 5 shilling fine, approximately 3 days wages for a skilled tradesman. Many modern Christmas traditions are a conglomeration of cultural and spiritual beliefs throughout time. The yule log as well as yule season are often linked to pre-Christian celebrations of the solstice in pagan traditions.
00:47:12
Speaker
The winter solstice, also known as the highmole solstice, or simply midwinter, is caused by the angle of the Earth's axis, reaching its maximum tilt away from the Sun. The event causes the seasons on Earth, with the solstices falling on the points where the axis points directly towards and away from the Sun.
00:47:33
Speaker
In the southern hemisphere, this is reversed, with the Winter Solstice falling in June, making surfing at Christmas an appealing thought. During the Winter Solstice, it was tradition to sit around the fires built to ward off the darkness with the Yule Log and celebrate the rebirth of the sun.
00:47:52
Speaker
Humans haven't changed much biologically in several thousand years, and a person's physical reaction to a harmless scare, elevated heart rate, endorphin rushes caused by adrenaline, is still essentially the same. The reaction to hearing a ghost story around the burning Yule Fire became a tradition, a feeling of warmth and group bonding at what was the coldest and darkest time of the year.
00:48:18
Speaker
This tradition lasted for several hundred years until Christmas celebrations were halted by the Puritans. Despite many of the traditions making a resurgence during the Restoration around 1660, the damage had essentially been done. Along with reducing the importance of feast days during the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, many Christmas traditions were now seen as old-fashioned.
00:48:40
Speaker
This abruptly changed in 1843 with the publication, and I said this earlier, of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. While there was a small resurgence of Christmas spirit taking place as a counter to the dehumanizing aspects of the Industrial Revolution, Charles Dickens was able to capture this burgeoning moment in the text.
00:49:01
Speaker
His story helped reinvigorate Christmas traditions with a focus on the more humanistic aspects of the holiday, global peace and forgiveness, filial love, and goodwill towards humanity through good works. This caught the Victorian imagination
00:49:17
Speaker
and spawned an entire set of Christmas works by Dickens, including The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life, and The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain. Most of these works revisit themes about the crushing effects of capitalism and redemption that are found first in A Christmas Carol, though interestingly enough, never quite approach the commercial success of his first work in the genre.
00:49:41
Speaker
From there, a Christmas carol, or as it may be thought of, a holiday ghost story, has become a cultural phenomenon. Bahumbug, the phrase most often representing Ebenezer Scrooge, has entered the popular lexicon. The figure of Father Christmas helped inspire Thomas Nast during his creation of the modern portrayal of Santa Claus.
00:50:02
Speaker
and the story has been retold in film no less than 27 times since 1901, most importantly immortalized as a cultural touchstone in 1992 by the Muppets. Thank you very much. And you need to watch the one with the added number because that's the only way to watch it. 100%.
00:50:21
Speaker
So, this yule season, relax in the glow of the yule log, friends and family, and perhaps consider something to send a chill down your spine that isn't necessarily from the weather. It is one of the oldest traditions, after all, and as Dickens reminds us, let us keep Christmas well. What a great little article, huh? Isn't it? Yeah, it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I loved it. And I think that, like, is...
00:50:49
Speaker
as a mostly Christian nation in both of where we live, let's not remember where our traditions come from. And you echoed it a little bit in that article, but it all comes from pagan traditions. So stop with all your Christian craziness, the crazy Christians. You stole everything anyway. You did it. You stole it all.
00:51:13
Speaker
So, look, folks, that is our horror in real life episode, not episode segment. Thank you. This isn't the whole episode. Hope you enjoyed it. And, you know, look, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, whatever it is. Hope you enjoyed
Media Reviews and Recommendations
00:51:28
Speaker
that. And let's move on, Andrew, to what do we do next? What's next? Next? Well, the logical place to go is what you've been watching, bitch.
00:51:37
Speaker
Let's all go to the lobby Let's all go to the lobby Let's all go to the lobby To get ourselves a treat
00:51:49
Speaker
All right, kids, it's that time of the show where we're talking all about what we've been watching. It's the best segment in the world. What you've been watching, bitch? What you've been watching, you ho, ho, ho, bitch. Yeah, so this is the segment where we literally, I just told you, but we're gonna start with what we've been watching. So, Matty, what you've been watching, you little Christmas bitch? The first thing that I've been watching is I'm gonna start with The Crown.
00:52:19
Speaker
So The Crown is entering its final season. They're doing it in two parts. The Crown, of course, is on Netflix. I have been a devoted fan of this from the very beginning. I have a bit of an extreme fascination with the royal family. I don't like the royal family, but as an American, I am just
00:52:44
Speaker
fascinated by people who think that, like, this is actually the way that it should be. You know what I mean? And I got to tell you, this show is just astounding. It's so fucking good. And like each of the queens have been because they they've followed, you know, Queen Elizabeth from, you know, when she was a fucking kid to, you know, when she's dead, basically, in this season.
00:53:05
Speaker
And each one of them, Claire Foy and Olivia Coleman, and now the woman, I can't remember her name, I hate myself, she's in Harry Potter, whatever. They've all been so good. And the people who have played, you know, the Duke of Edinburgh, the people who have played Prince Charles, people who have played Diana, just,
00:53:23
Speaker
The show is so fucking good. And the kids who play the kids, Harry and Wills, I love it. And they're doing this final season in two parts, so I watch part one now. And that was six episodes. And then the next part, I think, comes out in January. Maybe I can't quite remember.
00:53:40
Speaker
Or maybe even this month. Anyways, whatever. I loved it. It was great. If you are a fan of the crown and you haven't watched it yet, watch it. I'm sure you're gonna love it too. But it really, it made my little heart very happy to watch it again. It was really good. I'm very happy for you for that. Yeah.
00:53:57
Speaker
My first one is a show that I don't think anybody's watching, but I think everyone should be. And that's Shining Veil. I don't know if I talked about the show on the show the first season or not. I don't remember, but this is Courtney Cox and Greg Knier are the two big stars of the show. And it's about a family who moves from New York City to Shining Veil, Connecticut.
00:54:27
Speaker
And it's kind of all of the horror tropes that you expect with like a comedic twist. That's something I can put it like the whole first season is kind of like the shining, if you will. Sure. And the whole second season is.
00:54:42
Speaker
So good. The show is so good. And if you have not watched it, listen, everyone loves to talk about Jennifer Aniston. She was not my friend. Like she was not my, like, quote unquote, fresh on the show. Corning Cox was always my favorite.
00:54:58
Speaker
always from the beginning because I am a Rachel. I am I am that kind of person. But and so I watch her on everything. I liked a Cougar town like all these shows that she's done. This is probably her best. And I think that everyone should be watching this. The second season picks up and I'll try not to have too many spoilers, but at the end of the first season, she goes to a mental facility because she's like lost it, basically.
00:55:27
Speaker
And this is her coming back and reacclimating with her family. And this sounds really serious, but it's all comedic. It's all funny. It's so good. I don't know how to tell you this, but it's got a little bit of the exorcist in this season. It's got a little bit of...
00:55:48
Speaker
I don't know if you saw that movie, The Boy, where people live in the wall. It's got a little bit of that. It's basically these writers, and Sharon Horgan, who is a very famous British actress, is one of the creators of this show. And if you've ever seen anything that she's in, she's hilarious, so you kind of get the humor. But this is the subtle humor that I love.
00:56:11
Speaker
because there are so many shows out there that try to hit you over the head with humor. And this one's just like, if you get it, you get it. And if you don't, you don't. Like, I don't know what to tell you. And everyone should be watching this. It's on stars. I'm sure you can buy seasons on Amazon or whatever. But like, this show is definitely worth it. And I don't hear enough people talking about it. So that's Shining Veil season two. Okay, cool. I will check that out. You would love it. You would actually love it.
00:56:37
Speaker
You know, I've been watching more funny stuff lately, which is good for me. And, um, uh, like I watch, I watch, well, actually I'm going to tell you about one in a moment. Anyways. Um, my next one is called what I'm sorry. But I'm really excited to be watching more funny stuff. But my next one is Schindler's list. Oh, no, no, no, no. I'm going to talk about a different one first.
00:57:06
Speaker
Um, well, you know, okay, well, I was like, I watched Schindler's List next, but I, well, I'll tell you what, yeah, yeah, I'll talk about that because it's too, it's too funny not to, you know. Um, so yeah, no, I did, I did watch Schindler's List again recently. It's been, it had been a while since, since I watched it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you're totally fine. Uh, look like Schindler's List. Okay. The reason why I watched it.
00:57:29
Speaker
was because, I mean, number one, I own the movie. I genuinely love the movie. And I think it's a very important film for people to continue to watch. And I also think it's one of those films that like people sort of like poo-poo.
00:57:46
Speaker
And they're like, oh, Spielberg is just way over the top and ridiculous and is too emotional. And I'm like, what the fuck do you think the Holocaust was? Like, do you think it was a fucking like party? Like, do you think people were like making it up? Like, this is what it fucking this is what it was. Fuck you. You know what I mean? And so I think it's it's one of the most important films about that period that has ever been made.
00:58:13
Speaker
And it's wonderful. As wonderful as a movie about something so terrible could be. And with all the stuff going on recently, I was like, you know what? I just need to watch it again. And it reminded me of just how important it is to educate ourselves about the Holocaust.
00:58:29
Speaker
Yeah, of course. And to educate ourselves about anti-Semitism and about how these things start. And it reminded me of what's going on right now in Israel, where there are Jewish people saying, Hamas did these things to us. They raped a bunch of people. They killed children. They burned people alive. And people are going, no, they didn't. No, no, they didn't. I don't think so. No,
00:58:52
Speaker
Israel is just a big occupier. I love what they are. I'm on TikTok all day long. This is the fucking narrative right now. And that's exactly what was going on during World War II. Exactly the fucking same thing. Jews were telling people the Germans are killing us. They're putting us into these camps and no one believed them. Not one person believed them.
00:59:14
Speaker
So I think it's important for us to remind ourselves that never again is indeed happening now. And taking that actually seriously and believing people about what they're saying is going on. It's not fucking Benjamin Netanyahu saying it. It's people who were fucking there. They were there. They were at that music festival. They were kidnapped by Hamas. You fucking name it. And so that's why I think it's really important to watch it again. And especially if you've never seen it.
00:59:44
Speaker
You should watch this movie. It's such an important film. So show there's list. There you go. Yeah. No, I have seen the movie before. It's been a long time since I revisited it. But, um, yeah, I just remember being very depressed and obviously that's the point of the movie, but yes, it's, it's, it's, it's tough to watch, but I will say that it ends in hope though. I do, I do think. Yeah. Yeah.
01:00:08
Speaker
Um, similarly, what was the movie? The boy in the stripe pajamas. Oh yeah. Got crazy one. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um, my next one, uh, turning a hard left to totally different way is the whole well have no, no, I'm just joking. No. Um, this is saw X or saw 10. Yeah. How was this?
01:00:32
Speaker
So, Saw 10 takes a little bit of a sharp turn in the Saw storyline because it's actually set in between two other movies. So, it's set in between Saw 2 and Saw 3.
01:00:49
Speaker
OK, sure. And if most most people of the Saw franchise that love it, which I'm hit or miss on a lot of them, I don't like a lot of them. But there are a couple that I think are, you know, have some good messages or whatever. OK, sure. I think that most people in like the Saw aficionados say like Saw one through four is kind of like the, you know, Heaven's Gate of. Sure.
01:01:13
Speaker
That's, you know, like that's, that's the end. And then after that, it kind of goes off the rails. Um, so this being set between saw two and saw three, I was like, Oh, I'm interested. Let me see. So basically what, what this is about is, uh, John Kramer, who is our, our main saw killer. Okay. Um, this is after he's been diagnosed with brain cancer and he's trying to find a way to cure himself. Meanwhile,
01:01:35
Speaker
It's so funny because you're rooting for this guy who's actually killing people. He's trying to find a way to cure his brain cancer because they're basically saying it's inoperable. There's nothing we can do. Your insurance won't cover it. And so he stumbles upon this miracle therapy that's out of Switzerland, I think. It's out of Eastern European, Nordic countries.
01:02:00
Speaker
And they basically say like, yeah, we can cure you. Here's a person who's been cured. He meets them in like a support group and they he goes to Mexico to basically undergo this treatment. And this is not a spoiler because it's in the trailer. Basically, these are swindlers like they swindle him out of a bunch of money. OK. And this is his revenge on those people, basically like setting them up to like get repentance for taking a solid. Yeah, basically.
01:02:29
Speaker
You know what? I liked it. I think that these movies are very visceral, obviously. It's a Saw movie. But I thought that this one actually took a little bit more time to develop the story and to develop a little bit more of the characters than a lot of these do.
01:02:51
Speaker
And honestly, if you even saw a little bit, I think you'll like this one. Interesting. Okay. I liked it. I thought it was good. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a Saw movie. You're going to get your torture and everything. But I thought that the message this time around and given the day and age we're living in,
01:03:14
Speaker
They put a little bit more effort into this one, so I would recommend it. Cool. Nice. My next one is called The Killer, which you can watch. So that's advertised, yeah. Yeah, I watch this on Netflix. This is a great movie. It's really, really good. I really enjoyed it. It stars Michael Fassbender.
01:03:31
Speaker
And it was, who directed this? Let me remind myself, crew. Oh, duh, David Fincher directed it. And just a really great movie. Did you ever see Alien Covenant? Yeah, yeah, I did, yeah. Where he kissed himself. I mean, look, I wouldn't mind kissing myself sometimes. If I'm being, you know, kissing yourself, I think you're probably the perfect partner for yourself. Let's just face it, you know? I mean, like,
01:03:58
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, so this this stars Michael Fassbender, but like the cast here is amazing like fucking Tilda Swinton is in this for God's sake And I mean like it is it's really good. I don't want to give a lot away But I had a wonderful time watching this It's basically about this isn't giving anything away. Michael Fassbender is an assassin essentially and it starts with
01:04:21
Speaker
Actually, no, I'm just going to say that because, yeah, I'm just going to say that Michael Fassbender is an assassin. That's all you need. Go watch it. I had a great time watching it. It's it's about old. Yeah, it's about two hours long. It's on Netflix. So all of you can get it. And I really I enjoyed it. I don't want to tell you anything else, though, because at the very beginning, things do happen and it would just spoil it for you. So just take my advice and go watch the movie. There you go.
01:04:49
Speaker
Cool. I definitely, I definitely will. I mean, I love Michael Fassbender. I think he's same. I think he's like weirdly sexy. Yes, I get that. Yeah. Like not like traditional my type sexy, but I don't know. Totally get that. My next one is that one of the newest ones on shutter. It is this. I'm sorry. This is the longest title ever. And I don't know why they didn't shorten it. But this is Hell House LLC origins, the Carmichael Manor.
01:05:17
Speaker
This is a sequel to the original Hell House trilogy. I guess I shouldn't say sequel. It's like a side quill, if you will. It happens on the periphery of the other movies.
01:05:36
Speaker
These two women and the one woman's brother, they're going to investigate the Carmichael Manor, where in the not so distant past, a man went crazy, killed his family and then disappeared. OK. And so they go to investigate the house. They're the only people that have been given permission to investigate the house. And then we find out that the clowns from Hell House LLC, which we've talked about on the show before and go back to our Halloween special a couple of years back.
01:06:05
Speaker
Um, those clown puppets are in one of the bedrooms in this house. So dear don't, and you don't know why. And I don't want to give it away because that's kind of the twist of the movie, but, um, they come across those clowns and you know, inciting incidents happen.
01:06:21
Speaker
Listen, I think you also loved the first Hell House LLC. I think the sequels are okay. I think the second one's pretty good. I think the third one kind of goes off the rails, but this one comes back because this one was really scary and really fun. I think that you'll like it because it does...
01:06:45
Speaker
I struggle to give you this, like, as you personally, Maddie, as you recommend, because I know you don't love found footage, but it's in the style of the original Hell House LLC, which I liked. So this one, I think it just, it gave a little bit more, um, how do you say like a little bit more history to kind of like what's going on with the whole, like,
01:07:09
Speaker
the clowns and those, those characters. And I think it opens up the franchise for like a new way of kind of like taking this. So interesting. If you even liked Hell House LLC or the sequels, even a little bit, I would definitely recommend the new one, the Carmichael Manor. Okay, cool. Awesome. And my final one is none other than just simply curb your enthusiasm.
01:07:36
Speaker
Look, I've watched the show before, it's nothing new for me, and I'm sure a lot of you have too. Have you ever watched an intro, actually? I actually never have. And I think I would like it, because I've seen clips, but... Oh man, I fucking love, love, love this show. It's so good. Is it still on?
01:07:54
Speaker
No, no, no, no. It's definitely it's definitely not. It's not still on. But it is have didn't have like a reboot of sorts a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, it did. But like like this, like the good OG curb is just so fucking funny and like.
01:08:10
Speaker
You know, I think that there are, you know, you either like Larry David or you don't. Yeah, of course. You know, it's sort of like you either like Seinfeld or you don't. There's really no in between. And I think that Larry David is just like, he's a cultural phenomenon in America. And like, I think that the people who really like Larry David are the ones who look at his comedy and look at the show and they go, oh my God, like that's kind of like my life. Like it's not your life at all.
01:08:37
Speaker
But like you watch it and you're like, God, that that same kind of shit happens to me, too. Like we're just people drive you fucking insane. You know what I mean? And that is what the show is basically about, about people driving Larry David crazy and blaming him for everything. And I love it. It's so funny. You know what? It's been really nice for me to like not constantly watch about a bunch of just like really heavy shit.
01:09:01
Speaker
And to end some of my days, it's just like watching a couple of hours of curb and just laughing at it. So it's been nice to return to it in this year. And I just, I love it so much. So if you're looking for a good laugh, you can go back to even the earliest seasons and still get those laughs because it's still fucking funny.
01:09:20
Speaker
Do you know what show when I see clips of this show it reminds me of and I don't know if you've seen this but it's the the comeback with Phoebe buffet I can't think of her actually right now, but That that that reminds me of like cuz she always kind of like gets blamed for everything Yeah, sure, but so I if you if you love Kirby your enthusiasm and you are out of it check out the comeback because yeah, I will like it but
01:09:49
Speaker
All right, my last one is currently still in theaters. I don't know by the time this comes out if it will be on demand, but I'm assuming it will be quicker because this is how things go now. It is Thanksgiving. Oh, yeah. The Eli Roth movie currently in theaters. This movie. So I actually heard
01:10:10
Speaker
So what this is based off of, if you've ever seen Grindhouse in its original kind of two feature long with commercials, there's a trailer in there from Eli Roth called Thanksgiving. And originally what I thought was this was the movie version of that trailer. Since then I have heard interviews with Eli Roth and he basically, what he's saying is that
01:10:39
Speaker
that trailer is a lost film and this is the reboot of that trailer. So he put stuff in there that like homages to the trailer, but it's not actually that movie, which originally was what I thought. But I love that.
01:10:58
Speaker
I just think like, listen, I think Eli Roth, his movies are very hit or miss for me. I think that him himself is very sexy, but I think that some of his gross out humor is not so sexy. And I think that some of it is a little distasteful if I'm being totally honest on some of his movies.
01:11:18
Speaker
This is not one of them. This is just gross out fun late 90s, early 2000s slasher craziness. Like it's it's not going to reinvent anything for you. But if you like movies like Scream, like Urban Legend, like Valentine, like those kind of movies, this is going to be right up your alley because it's just all about a horror. So basically what the movie is about is a horrible Black Friday
01:11:48
Speaker
ding, ding, ding, something we'll talk about in a little bit. Black Friday incident happens and the carver, the carver, the colv, I can't think of his name right now, but basically a serial killer comes out of an incident that happens on Black Friday a year previous and then the next year on Thanksgiving, he's taking out his revenge on all the people that were involved. That's the basic of the story.
01:12:12
Speaker
And listen, this movie is just fun. Like, it's so fun to just go see in a theater and just be like, eat your popcorn and watch some people get stabbed. I mean, you'll see in the trailer, there's even a fucking those little corn cob things that get stabbed into some of these ears. So hilarious.
In-Depth Movie Analysis: Black Xmas
01:12:30
Speaker
I don't know. But if you're a fan of like a traditional kind of like late 90s, early 2000 slasher, you're going to love this. So just go see it. Excellent. I can't wait to see it.
01:12:41
Speaker
Well, folks, that does it for what you've been watching, bitch. Andrew brought us Shining Veil season two on Stars, Saw X on demand, Hell House LLC Origins, the Carmichael Manor on Shudder, and Thanksgiving in theaters now.
01:12:57
Speaker
And Maddie brought us The Crown season six on Netflix. Schindler's List, which I'm sure is on demand somewhere. It is The Killer on Netflix and Curb Your Enthusiasm, which you can now stream on HBO, whatever it's called. Yeah, whatever it is, basically. So, folks, stay tuned. We'll be right back with our first film of the episode, Black Xmas. Fifteen years ago on Christmas Eve,
01:13:27
Speaker
His family... became his victims. What have you done? Now. All roads and airports are officially closed. This one is not gonna let up. A group of college friends. That sucks. Everyone should be home for Christmas.
01:13:54
Speaker
are about to discover. Lauren, we're opening up the presents. Why don't you open the present we got you? Their house. I got it. Is he his home? All is calm. All is bright. Who is in my house tonight? Don't you have lots of toys to deliver to good little boys and girls? You really shouldn't provoke somebody like that. And on December 25th. You're definitely getting punked.
01:14:25
Speaker
All he wants for Christmas is a new family he can treat like his very own.
01:15:15
Speaker
Christmas. You've seen White Christmas, now get ready for its weird cousin, Black Xmas. Andrew, tell us all about it. This holiday season, the sleigh ride begins. An escaped maniac returns to his childhood home on Christmas Eve, which is now a sorority house and begins to murder the sorority sisters one by one.
01:15:38
Speaker
Written and directed by Glenn Morgan, also written by Roy Moore, the production company was Adelstain, I can't even say that, Perus, and Hard 8 Pictures, along with Hoban Siegel Productions. Kelly is played by
01:15:54
Speaker
Katie Cassidy. Melissa is played by Michelle Trachtenberg. Heather is played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Dana is played by Lacey Chabert. Lay is played by Kristen Kloeck. Miss Mac is played by Andrea Martin. Lauren is played by Yann K. Crystal Lowe.
01:16:09
Speaker
Kyle is played by Oliver Hudson. Billy is played by Robert Mann and always played by two different people. I didn't realize that. Well, it's the it's the it's the there there was like a young Billy and an old Billy. The old Billy is Robert Mann. And the young one is who? Canan. Canan Weeb or maybe. And similarly, Agnes is played by Christina Cravitchie and Dean Friss. And Billy's mother is played by none other than Karen Conoval.
01:16:39
Speaker
This is rated R. It comes in at 95 minutes, depending on which one you watch, because there are a couple different releases in this movie. Released on December 25th of 2006, locations where it included Vancouver, British Columbia, the budget was $1.5 million, and it only brought in about $268,000, which I think is because of it came out on Christmas. Exactly, right.
01:17:02
Speaker
Um, so obviously this is a remake of the original 1974 something with the movie. Um, listen, is this going to be that movie? No, no, but I think that it has something to say and we'll talk about that, but Maddie, what are your initial thoughts and have you ever seen
01:17:24
Speaker
Black Xmas before. Yeah, I have seen Black Xmas before. And I remember the first time that I watched it was with my ex-fiancee. And I think that I had actually asked you because it was just after Thanksgiving. And I think that I had asked you, like, what's it like? Is there like a holiday horror movie that we could watch? And you said this one and then we watched it. So we're looking back at that night. Anyways,
01:17:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, look, so I watched this movie twice for this episode, which I sometimes do. And the first time watching it again, which would have been the second time that I watched it, you know, in total, just sort of was like, this isn't hitting me right. And I just wasn't into it. Second time watching it was definitely better, I'll say. And it just, you know, I was able to sort of stick with it a little bit more and it kept my interest
01:18:12
Speaker
More I don't really know why that is maybe I was just having a bad night on the first watch that could very well be it. But you know whatever like I mean look it is it's a it's a reboot or remake every want to think about it and it is what it is is what I think this isn't one of my favorites I don't need to watch it again even even next Christmas.
01:18:33
Speaker
But I think that, I don't know. I'm not really sure how many people don't like this movie. I think that you probably have a better read on that than me, I would say. But I don't get why people would hate it. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I think that they do a pretty good job with it. And I think that Andrea Martin, I am an Andrea Martin stan. I love her.
01:18:57
Speaker
I fell in love with her first with Hedvig and the Angry Inch. She plays, if you've ever seen it, she plays Hedvig's agent. And she is just one of the best parts of that movie. Like, she's just, she's so fucking good. And anything that she's ever in, you know, she kind of always just plays herself, basically. But like, that's cool because Andrea Martin is fucking weird. She's such a fucking weirdo. And so I loved watching her in this again.
01:19:23
Speaker
I think that everyone else does a pretty good job too. I think in the first watch for me, Billy's mom was maybe just a little bit overboard. She reminds me of the mom from
01:19:37
Speaker
That Thanksgiving movie we watched a couple years ago, Blood Rage. Oh, yeah. God, I forgot about Blood Rage. Yeah. And that makes sense. So I mean, when it comes to that stuff, I think that, I don't know, some of those parts didn't hit me right. But once again, on the second watch for this episode, it hit me a little bit better at least. So I don't know. I mean, where am I going with this? I think for me, it's definitely not bad. It's not one that I'm a huge fan of or anything. But
01:20:04
Speaker
You know, look, second watch. I enjoyed watching it. It was fine. Um, and that's, I don't know. That's really kind of it. Like in terms of like my first initial thoughts. Um, I think that, um, uh, on the second watch, like the Billy and Agnes thing was definitely, was definitely a little bit more like, like fucking weird for me. Like that's some weird shit. And also it reminds me of what was the movie we just watched recently where the guy was eating eyes. What was that?
01:20:31
Speaker
Oh. Movie theater. Yes. Not in English. The last matinee. Yes, the last matinee. And that guy eating eyes and I hated watching that. And I was watching this. I was like, why you got to eat eyes? Why you got to eat eyes? It's so hard to watch because we all have eyes and I don't want my eyes to be eaten. Do you know what I mean?
01:20:53
Speaker
Yeah, listen, if you're not an if you're not an eye guy, this movie is not for you. It's really not. I don't don't watch it. But yeah, so those are some of my initial thoughts. How about you? So I actually did go see this in the theater when I did you really? Yeah, I distinctly remember like just being so excited for this because I love these kind of movies like these stupid slasher movies. I don't know. Yeah.
01:21:17
Speaker
I was initially drawn in because of the cast. I mean, this is Lacey Chabert, fresh off of Mean Girls. This is Katie Cassidy in her prime. This is Michelle Trachtenberg, fresh off of Buffy. Like, this is like my cast. So I'm like, that's what like drove me to the theater, basically. And like, honestly, I
01:21:37
Speaker
Love this movie. That's awesome. I I think that the atmosphere that they set up with this is so 2006 that it's like it transports me to like college because like this is like when I was in college, like, you know, and like I knew these bitches basically like these were people that I knew. And like, I don't know, there's just something about the writing that I think is
01:22:04
Speaker
actually really smart, especially amongst the sorority sisters. Um, I think that like when, uh, Lacey Shebert, she's like, I'd like to bury the hatchet with my sister too, right in her head. And there's like, there's a part where Michelle Trachtenberg, she runs up the stairs and the one girl, um, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, which I think is her name is Heather in the movie. She's like, we're, we're leaving. And she just goes, I'm not leaving without Lauren, you bitch.
01:22:34
Speaker
There's like little things like that that I always remember about this movie. Listen, I think that this movie is hated. I think it is. I know a lot of people that think that this movie is really stupid and really gross. And listen, it is.
01:22:53
Speaker
But like, I think that that's like where I think that it kind of just like knows what it is. Yeah, sure. It knows that it's sleazy. It's knows that it's like kind of gross and like over the top. And if honestly, you know, there are a couple of releases of this movie. There's the one you can currently find on shutter slash AMC plus slash Amazon. That one is a little weird. I'm not going to lie. I'm not sure where you were. Where did you watch this?
01:23:20
Speaker
I watched the, uh, where did I watch? I watched this on, I had to rent this actually. Okay. So I don't know if you, did you have the cut where there was weird, like fade to black moments?
01:23:32
Speaker
I don't think, no, I don't think so. No. So the one that I watched was on AMC plus and I'm assuming it's also the one that plays for free on free V, which is Amazon's new streaming platform. Of course I can't get here. Go figure. And that platform you have to watch with commercials. It's kind of like, but they put the same cut on am on AMC plus. So it has like weird cutaways to where you're like, Oh, obviously that's where it goes to commercial on the shirt.
01:24:01
Speaker
on like the free version of this. Um, so it's a little bit like, I don't know. There's like a weird thing about it. Like it doesn't quite line up. So that was, if you watch that version, I mean, you go for it, but just be aware that that happens. Sure. Um, I also have, I also have this on DVD from what? 2008. Oh my God.
01:24:23
Speaker
And I have actually the unrated cut, which I watch. Wow. OK. The unrated cut is a lot grosser. I'm not going to lie to you. There's a lot more eyeball stuff and it's a lot juicier. Oh, I'm never watching it. Never watching that. Never.
01:24:39
Speaker
So I mean pick your cut if you will but overall like I just think that like this movie for me is like an annual watch and I'm kind of ashamed to say that but like I can't help it. Don't be ashamed. Why would you be ashamed?
01:24:55
Speaker
I don't know. I just know a lot of people really think this movie is really just trash. Like I said earlier, that's the thing that I don't get is I don't get all the hate that this gets. Like I said earlier, it's not my favorite. I don't really want to watch it again, but I didn't hate it at all. On the second watch, I had a pretty good time with it. But people who hate it, I can't understand what the reason is.
01:25:19
Speaker
I will agree with you, though, I do think that the flashbacks are the weakest part of them. Yeah. Just because it is kind of like a I don't know. I get what they're trying to do. I get that they are trying to expand upon the original Black Christmas because in the original Black Christmas, you know, there's not really an explanation for who Billy is or why he's doing this or whatever. And this gives a little bit more backstory and a little bit more like why he's doing this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
01:25:49
Speaker
Um, but I do think that it's, I don't know. It just, it's, it's really just over the top. Like, even like, even like his jaundice is like people that have jaundice are not neon. Like, yeah, it's like he came off of a fucking link, like UFO or something. Seriously.
01:26:07
Speaker
So I do think that some of that is not handled the best, but like some of the greatest gore comes from that flashback. Like when that I'm sorry, but like everyone talks about the Christmas cookies and that's really gross. I will give you that. Yeah. But like when that Christmas tree topper goes to step dad's head, that is some gross shit. And the eye comes out and she and like once again, the eyes, I'm like, fuck, leave, leave the eyes and the bodies, motherfucker.
01:26:34
Speaker
Yeah, I will say that I did notice on this time around that Bob Clark actually was an executive producer on this movie, so he did have a part in this movie. So that makes me a little bit more happy. Well, and actually Roy Moore, I think, wrote the original, didn't he? Oh, he did. OK. I think that's what I read.
01:26:52
Speaker
Could be wrong. A couple of things. I think that this this cast, we've seen a lot of them before in the movies. We've seen actually a Mary Elizabeth Winstead and the woman who plays Lauren. I can't think of her name right now. Lauren is played by Jan K. Crystal Lowe.
01:27:11
Speaker
Yeah, they both appeared in Final Destination 3 together. Oh, interesting. So we've seen these we've seen these actresses before, but like, I don't I can't think of another movie where we get so many 2000s like women all in one place. And then also Andrea Martin, which is just Andrea Martin is just so fucking good.
01:27:33
Speaker
And, you know, we should say Andrea Martin from the original. So, you know, reprise exactly not reprise as a role, but, you know, comes back for a role. I think she makes a great house mother. I love the part where she's in the car with Heather and she pulls out the ice scraper and Heather goes.
01:27:52
Speaker
What's that for? And she's like, you stupid southern. There's little parts like that where she's really good. I think that when she opens her present and it's the laundry and she's like, who am I going to wear this for? There's like little things in there that I think that, you know, just
01:28:07
Speaker
shows that she's the actress that we know and love with Andrew Martin. I think that Katie Cassidy is a very unsung screen queen. She was in a ton of these horror movies in the early to mid 2000s. I mean, we had Nightmare on Elm Street. She was in Harper's Island. She's in this. She's like she's everywhere in the 2000s.
01:28:30
Speaker
Now, Andrew, let me read you this statement and let me see how this lands with you because I'm looking I'm looking at folks know I like to look at letterbox reviews and you can see reviews from friends, right? So these are these are people like that, you know, we know from the podcast in one way or another or, you know, horror Twitter, basically. Keith Dooley says in his one star review of this.
01:28:52
Speaker
says that in this movie, they went the route of Rob Zombie's Halloween movies and over-explained the killer's origins and motives. Sometimes, keeping that kind of stuff a mystery is a good thing. While watching this, you can't help but wish you were watching Margot Kidder and Company in a movie that drips with suspense, character, and pure horror. How does that land with you, do you think?
01:29:15
Speaker
Listen, do I think the original Black Christmas has appeared to this movie? Absolutely. But they're two completely different movies. There you go. Yeah. So and I don't agree with like the Rob Zombie statement. I understand what they're trying to say with like the story of the killer. But like, I think that this movies. And sorry for people that like Rob Zombie's movies, but these this movie is
01:29:40
Speaker
10 out of 10 in writing compared to a Rob Zombie movie. Well, I mean, the other thing too is like, I mean, like, look, like I'm a Halloween fan, but I don't... I like Rob Zombie when Rob Zombie does Rob Zombie, right? So like when it's like 13... whatever the movies are, 13 ghosts or 13 corpse, 13,000 corpse. I can't remember the names of them, but you know what I'm talking about.
01:30:03
Speaker
Those are good because it's his shit and it just goes with it. Yay, cool. But when it comes to his remake of Halloween, I can't stand it. I would agree with Keith here that they way overexplain Michael Myers in ways that are just like, okay, it's like hammer over the head, we get it.
01:30:21
Speaker
But with this, I didn't feel that way. While I even said that the mom stuff was maybe a little overblown earlier, what I really meant by that was stylistically, it was overblown. I would agree with you. It's being told through a flashback, so I guess the style can be a little bit more in your face.
01:30:43
Speaker
in other words like her makeup is really accentuated it's a big like the the the camera angle is like sort of like it's like a jonathan demi angle almost it's like yeah like there's a big cigarette all the time and she's sort of over the top like the lights are way too much right exactly right right so i mean like that stuff i i definitely get but like
01:31:03
Speaker
I don't know. I don't think that the origin of Billy as like the hated child and then also as the the ill fated father slash brother of Agnes, like I don't think that that story being told takes all that much time. Right. So like the movie is what was it? It's ninety five. Ninety. It's like 90 minutes. It's not that long. And so like the little time that they do spend with that is not that big a slice of the pie, in my opinion.
01:31:33
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think that, like I said, I think it's the weakest part of the movie, but I don't think that it's like overblown. Yeah, it's it's funny where, as usual, when we talk about the film, I always talk myself up and I'm like, oh, you didn't dislike it that much, did you? Yeah. OK, great. A couple of things that I wanted to call out in this movie is so Kyle, who plays the ill fated lover of our main protagonist, Kelly, do you know who that is?
01:32:02
Speaker
What was his name again? His name is Oliver Hudson. I don't remember who that is. That is Kate Hudson's brother. What? Are you for real? Yeah, for real, for real. He's cute, too.
01:32:13
Speaker
Um, uh, I love the character of Lauren. I think her slowly getting drunk over the course of the movie is pretty hilarious. She has one part where she says, I'm starting to see the sugar bump fairies. I don't need to hear the little fuckers to Andrew. I just saw something by the way. Um, in our last episode, didn't we have a movie that was produced by Mark Cuban or something like that?
01:32:36
Speaker
I think so. Yeah, this executive officer on this one is Mark Cuban. I know. Got his hands on everything that little shark tank bitch. I just kind of kind of forget about that stuff anyways, but I'm sorry. I liked a little homage to the original where Eve gives the unicorn statue to Heather as a gift. I think that was a nice little homage to the original. I do like that we have several kind of like
01:33:03
Speaker
faux villains. Like we think it might be Eve, it might be Lay, it might be Kyle, but in all this we know that it's Billy. But what we don't know, we don't really know the status of Agnes. And that's kind of the
01:33:20
Speaker
You know, kind of the the twist, if you will. Yeah. What I don't really understand, and this is in the casting, is why they cast a man to play adult Agnes. Why do you think they did that? I don't know, because she's very clearly a female presenting like woman and girl, I guess I should say, as as a little girl. Exactly. Right. That that did.
01:33:45
Speaker
That did sort of mystify me, too. And I mean, the it's I mean, look, that would not happen today, like not at all. Yeah. And I mean, and if they did do that, I think the horror community would pillory those people. And, you know, to be fair, rightly so. I think that I mean, like I have no idea why they made that choice for what's his name, David, for Dean Frist to play.
01:34:06
Speaker
Um, also, do you know if Dean for us has done more stuff like that before? Do you know? I don't know. I mean, I would say like it's certainly, I mean, maybe they did it. Maybe just thinking here, they did it because of like, you know, what does it call that? When, um, uh, when it's, when it's incest, the, the, the, the, the coefficient, the, like the, the DNA coefficient is so like,
01:34:32
Speaker
you know there's different levels skewed and so like if it's a brother and sister like i mean it's or what oh no this would be a brother this would be a son and a mother right so like that that oh god it's gross saying it but like that that coefficient would be so incredibly high that like the the the the offspring would there's no way around the offspring would be deformed
01:34:54
Speaker
And so I will say that, like, I mean, and look, it's a fucking it's it's black X-mas. I'm not looking at it. It's a horror. But like, I mean, like, I mean, just, you know, it's a saying like if the the the young Agnes did not look anywhere near what a child with that coefficient would look like, like they would be their face would literally be deformed. And they they probably wouldn't even be able to live that long, to be honest, because that is DNA that that can't it's not it's not supposed to mix. That's just not how it works.
01:35:23
Speaker
So maybe they were just going for that. Like, yeah, I don't know. Make Agnes look as weird as they could, I guess. I don't know.
01:35:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure why they did that, but it just it struck me this time because this is one of the first times that I've seen this movie in HD because all the other times I've seen it, all the other times I've seen it, it's been on DVD, which is like HD of a time. But this was much clearer. I also think that this movie is incredibly mean. Like I will say that like it's a it's a mean movie. I would agree.
01:35:57
Speaker
All of all of these girls in this movie, you know, they have like their bitchy moments, but none of them are none of them are awful. You know what I mean? They're just college girls. Yeah, that's all that they are in the end. I will say that that might be one shortfall. The movie is that the the house itself.
01:36:16
Speaker
is not very sorority i would say and like it's it's like if that was a sorority that is one small ass sorority let me tell you well they do establish that a bunch of them are gone already because it's christmas eve i guess that's a good point but but isn't the house kind of too small too don't you think
01:36:36
Speaker
Yeah, I guess. But unless we're at a very small college, which that that could be the case, too. It does show on the doors. If you if you kind of learn names, yeah, like there are at least two people in every room. So we ever we don't find out where this is, though. Right. I'm not crazy. No, no, no, no. They don't ever say that. I mean, they say the college, but it's not like it's just going to turn. I don't remember that. I don't remember. It doesn't matter whatever.
01:37:03
Speaker
Um, but like I said, I think that that's like one of the things that maybe people can't get on board with is that we're supposed to like hate some of these girls, but it's hard to hate any of them because none of them are really that bad. So I think I don't hate them. I don't. I especially love Lacey Shabaira in this movie. I think she's hilarious when, when lay shows up and she's like kind of over explaining why she's there and, and Lacey Shabaira, like she, she interrupts and she goes, I just want to tell you, I love that coat.
01:37:34
Speaker
I think that's really funny. But and also, I think whoever was in charge of the special effects, I think did an incredible job, especially when it comes like blood splatter. I'm especially in the car scene where Heather gets killed. And it's just like, there's like nothing happening, nothing happening. And she's scraping the window. And all of a sudden, you see Billy's eye in the in the car.
01:37:59
Speaker
All of a sudden, there's this blood splatter that is so incredible. I don't know how they did it, but it shoots out like nothing you can even imagine. You think to yourself, what just happened to Heather? Did she spontaneously combust? What is that? It's very well done. It really is.
01:38:20
Speaker
I think the only unearned kill in my book, there's two that I think are a little unearned. I think Mrs. Mack's death is a little unearned because I don't think an icicle would kill somebody. Yeah, I feel the same way. Also, I'll be honest, when she was gone, I was like, that sucks. Yeah. Because I really want her to stick around.
01:38:42
Speaker
And then the only other one that I was like, do we have to do this? Is that when lay gets killed in the hospital at the very end because she's survived that long. And there's like the very, there's a very like set up storyline of like, um, she's now going to be, you know, quote unquote sisters with Kelly and girl, girl, you were almost there.
01:39:01
Speaker
I know some that makes me sad. But and then the only other thing I want to call out about this movie that I think is really well done is just the music music, the music when it when it comes in from the sugar pump fairies to we're all going to do like when all that music comes in, it's perfectly timed. And so let's talk about that for a moment. Here's something for you from IMDB.
01:39:25
Speaker
The last movie with a score composed by Shirley Walker before her unfortunate passing on November 29th, 2006, one month before the theatrical release of the film, the film was dedicated to her memory. How about that? Oh my gosh, I didn't even know that. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. Wow. Isn't that wild?
01:39:45
Speaker
That is wild. It's really sad. It really is. I mean that because she did an incredible job with that music. She did. She did a great fucking job, but truly, truly great.
01:39:58
Speaker
All right. Well, here at Friday, the 13th horror podcast, we score on a seven stripe scale based on the seven stripes of this gay old rainbow. Maddie, what do you give black X miss? You know, I started it started low and I'm going higher. I give it a four point five. And, you know, like I said earlier, it's not it's not my favorite. It's definitely not in my hate list at all. Am I going to watch it again? Probably not.
01:40:24
Speaker
But did I enjoy watching it this time? The answer is yes. And I even watched it fucking twice for this episode. So if you have not seen Black Xmas yet, it does. If Black Xmas has one that's missed you in horror films or if you want to give it another chance, maybe you should.
01:40:43
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, one thing right before I score it, one thing I did want to call out is that if you watch the original trailer, you can pull it up on YouTube of this movie. There are several scenes that they filmed, even alternate death scenes that are not used in the movie. Oh, crazy. No way.
01:41:03
Speaker
It is wild because there is a alternate death scene for Lacey Shabare that is in the trailer that I want to know how that comes to be. So anybody that is listening to this, go watch that trailer. Half of that shit's not even in the movie.
01:41:18
Speaker
That's really interesting. It's wild. Um, but anyway, I give this movie a five. Listen, do I think it's as good as the original? Absolutely not, but it's its own thing. And I think that like divorce it from that, just like the newest one, it's its own thing. What was that? 2019 or something? It's its own thing. Yes. Do they share DNA? Of course. Just like Agnes and Billy, they share. I was going to say just like them.
01:41:44
Speaker
But like, can you just like let it go and just enjoy a 2006 romp?
Review and Critique: Black Friday
01:41:51
Speaker
I don't know. I said it's not always bad to enjoy things. You know what I mean? Like just have. Yeah. Like I said, I gave it a five. I said this cast and this atmosphere is just me. And there are some stumbles on execution. Yes. But listen, this movie owns its sleaze. Love it. Well, folks, that is Black Xmas from 2006. Hold your horses and we'll be right back with our next film, Black Friday.
01:42:18
Speaker
Happy Black Friday. We love toys. We still on for pancakes tonight. Chris, you're on regs for the night. We're short staff. Wait up. I'm Emmett. You ever look retail before? No. Well, there's no day more harmful to retail workers than this day. What do we love? Toys. Good job.
01:42:41
Speaker
Places, everyone. Three, two, go, baby. Go, Black Friday. Thank you very much. Happy holidays. Holy... What the... There is something wrong with the shoppers. Oh, we gotta do something. We're one hour into Black Friday and we're escorting customers away from the store.
01:43:13
Speaker
Was that the new guy? Our shoppers are going crazy. Whatever you do, don't let them gather. They're building something. At this point, we're just in their way. We're gonna have to fight. I don't think this night can get any worse.
01:43:34
Speaker
Does anybody else just think that's funny? I told you they never die! We have to make a run for it! Exactly! Black Friday is over! Chucky says we're all going to die. Back up, homies! I love it here. The police are here! Thank God!
01:44:17
Speaker
Got your door buses right here, motherf-
01:44:20
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed that turkey dinner because now it's time to go shopping. It's Black Friday. Maddie, talk to us all about Black Friday. They have no idea what tonight has in store. A group of toy store employees must protect each other from a horde of parasite-infected shoppers.
01:44:41
Speaker
That's a brief description, but there we go. Directed by Casey Tebow, I'm guessing, or maybe Tebow, who knows. Written by Andy Gaskoviak. Produced by MFW Manufacturing and the Warner Davis Company.
01:44:56
Speaker
Ken was played by Devin Sawa. Marnie played by Ivana Baquero. Chris played by Ryan Lee. Brian by Steven Peck. Archie by Michael J. White. Jonathan by none other than Bruce Campbell himself. Emmett played by Louis Kurtzman. Anita was played by Celeste Oliva. Ruth played by Ellen Colton. And Dower Dennis, which is a talking bear, was voiced by Seth Green. Best character in the movie.
01:45:25
Speaker
Yeah, film was not rated. It's 84 minutes long, Made in America, filmed in Boston, released September 24th of 2021. And the budget information was not available for this. This was a first watch for both of us. I do know that. I will say that if you're going to watch this, folks, don't do what I did. It is on shutter. I just didn't
01:45:46
Speaker
Oh, wait, no, it's not on shutter in the US. Is that right? Yeah, it's only UK. That is. I do not. I don't understand that. I don't get it. You can watch with ads on places like to be or. Oh, there you go. So yeah, do that. Don't rent it like I did. Don't spend money on this movie. That's all I'm going to say as we start. But Andrew, why don't you tell me what you first thought about Black Friday?
01:46:09
Speaker
OK, so going into this movie, I remember it came out. I didn't check it. I don't know why I skipped over this. I just literally I think it was like that was still a weird time. It was like end of pandemic. One of the first movies that was like, quote unquote, like new after a pandemic type of thing. And I just missed it. And so like going back to it,
01:46:33
Speaker
I was seeing the talent that was involved with Bruce Campbell and Devin Sawa, and it was even executive produced by Devin Sawa, and I think Bruce Campbell, I think. I had high hopes because I thought the premise was really cool. I don't know if any... Did you watch the show Superstore?
01:46:56
Speaker
Uh, I watched a couple of episodes of it. I do remember it. So I watched all super story. I really, it was a really endearing show and I really liked it. And so like these like kind of like set in a Walmart, you know, quote unquote type of movie. I was like, Ooh, alien invasion in a Walmart. That should be really fun. And so I went into it like with kind of like weirdly high hopes, if you, if you will.
01:47:20
Speaker
Listen, I think that this movie, I think that for me, it just never quite elevated when it needed to elevate. It kind of just stayed one note for the whole time. I wanted it to get crazy or gory or anything or funny.
01:47:44
Speaker
I don't know it just never quite went past anywhere it kind of just stayed on like the middle ground and I don't know I didn't it didn't really do much for me if I'm being honest it's only it's only 84 minutes and I was I was kind of bored
01:48:03
Speaker
What about what about you? You know, look, so I will say I picked and Andrew knows this. I picked this movie completely randomly. You know, look, there's there's not a whole lot of Christmas holiday based horror movies. And we've watched a lot of them.
01:48:22
Speaker
And we've we've honestly we've gone through a lot of them in the last six years of doing this. So like, I mean, that's just that's just kind of how it is. So I mean, like, look, it's it was a it was a gamble, you know, no matter what was going to happen here. But like this movie is not.
01:48:39
Speaker
very good. And it's not good for a number of reasons, I think. I think, like, number one, the writing is pretty terrible. It's really not good. And the acting is odd, I would say, too. And it's not that it's bad. It's just weird. It's very, very odd. And, like, I don't know. The other thing, too, is, like, I was thinking about, like, retail horror in general, right? And, like,
01:49:10
Speaker
This movie primarily doesn't work because the people that are cast as the workers of this place don't make any sense. They don't. I'm sorry. And I'm not saying that like adults don't work in retail because they do. I get that. But this whole toy store thing is so made up. It's inauthentic. It's very inauthentic.
01:49:32
Speaker
And I was thinking, could this movie be better and still be a Black Friday thing? And I thought, absolutely. You know where this should have taken place? Costco. This should have taken place in Costco. And I think maybe this would have been better. And the fact that it was in this dumb toy store that I could, I don't know about you, I could give a fuck less about it. And it seemed so incredibly fake.
01:49:57
Speaker
that I didn't care about it almost from the very beginning. I really didn't. I think that the fact that it takes place in a toy store shouldn't have toys been a part of the plot. Shouldn't have we have used certain toys to defend ourselves or
01:50:15
Speaker
Like, uh, try to make, is there a race car that we can use to distract the aliens? Like, you know, they never use any of the toy store props. Whereas like, if this was like set in like what you said, like a Costco, like, okay, we can throw rotisserie chickens at it. And maybe they'll go after the rotisserie chickens. Like there are a lot of places where you could plus up this movie where they just didn't pull us up.
01:50:38
Speaker
I completely agree with you. And the thing is, I don't think that the premise of it is bad. No, not at all. It's a good premise to say, okay, how can we make a cool Black Friday horror movie? Black Friday in itself is totally horrific. And they just don't do that. It just ends up being a movie that doesn't know what it is. Is this an alien movie? Is it a retail horror movie? Is it a zombie movie? Is it a zombie movie? We don't know anything.
01:51:05
Speaker
I also think like, look, I love Devin Sawa and I've got a soft spot for him in my heart. I do. Devin Sawa is not good in this movie. And I don't know what kind of I don't know what style of acting he was going for. Do you know what I'm talking about here?
01:51:21
Speaker
I actually think he's good in the first like two parts of it. Yeah. Like where he's being the dad and then where he's driving in with the younger guy, I think he's actually like choosing Elaine. Yeah. Now I get that. I think that after they get into the retail store and all of a sudden he's like an alcoholic and all of a sudden he's like, yeah.
01:51:43
Speaker
a good slash bad dad. I, I, I was so confused because I was like, are we supposed to root for him for being a good dad or is he a bad dad? Because there's a line in it where basically the one girl says, or no, sorry, the one guy, the younger guy says like, um, no, I would never be yours. What did he say? Exactly. No, here. I have it in my thing. Oh no. He says, you see me way too often to be your actual child. And I was like, yeah, yeah, sure.
01:52:10
Speaker
And I was like, damn, like, so is he a bad dad? Like it's it's very all over the place. And I kind of think that way about most of these characters. I have a couple of instances that I'll bring up in a little bit here, but like I totally agree with you. Yeah, I feel the exact same way. And like you said earlier, like Dower Dennis is the best part of the movie. Like Dower Dennis is this this talking bear in the movie who like loved it. Yeah. Who's
01:52:35
Speaker
Dower Dennis has been recalled by whatever company made it because it's saying things that it shouldn't be saying, basically. It's saying, man, I really had a bad week. Yeah. I mean, it is funny. Don't get me wrong, it's funny. And in context of the film, your writer probably is the best part of it. But I wrote down on my notes, I was like, God, even this feels forced. You know what I mean? And I think that's
01:52:59
Speaker
All the stuff that we're talking about in the end here, pardon me, is just like one movie that is just so forced over and over again on that one note that you were talking about that it's just like, God, it's exhausting. And it's not even that long. I mean, how long was this? It was... 84 minutes. It's not even an hour and a half.
01:53:17
Speaker
And by by a minute 40, I was like, oh, my God, is this ever going to end like like this? You know what this could have been? This could have been like a creepy show episode. I was going to say a creepy show episode like a short. This could have been a good short and it could have been like a collection of Christmas shorts. This could have been interesting in there. But as a feature length film with with, you know, two two pretty big names, Devin Sawa and Bruce Campbell, plus voicing by Seth Green, it falls flat.
01:53:48
Speaker
Yeah. Um, I did have a couple of things in my notes. Um, this actually does take place in and around Chicago land because they call out Schaumburg and they call out Santa's village, which is two things that are from here. Um, the reason why I'm that Andrew is the writer and just Andy Groskowiak worked at a toys are us in Chicago. And it's the reason why you hear Bartlett and Schaumburg.
01:54:12
Speaker
Bartlett, where my producer Michael is from. Exactly. Right. There are a couple of things that I had questions for you on. Tell me you might not have an answer, but I just put them in my notes is why is the gay bitchy manager so against that kid? Because I don't I don't understand why. The only thing that I thought there was that he was attracted to him. That's it. OK.
01:54:40
Speaker
That's the only thing that I could deduce from that. And I maybe that's it. Maybe that's not. I don't know. I mean, we don't know if that kid is straight, quite frankly. And also he's not a kid. I mean, like the casting for this, that guy's got to be like fucking like twenty five at least. You know what I mean? And then that's the thing, too, is like, I don't how old are you supposed to be? Like, are you in your 20s at home? Are you in your 20s or are you in your teens? I don't know what the story is. It doesn't make any sense.
01:55:09
Speaker
Um, so I, I don't know, but that's, that's what I thought is just like, maybe he's got a crush on him and like the kids straight and just like him. I don't know. And then the other big question I have is why does Bruce Campbell sacrifice himself?
01:55:22
Speaker
I don't know because he doesn't it doesn't do anything like he just jumps down into that hatch and kills himself. Like I don't it's not like he jumped down there with like a bomb. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I have I couldn't tell you. I don't know. It was such a weird moment because he has like this whole monologue about how he's going to go down with the store. But then he's like, and on second thought, I'm not going to. And then he does. And I was so confused.
01:55:49
Speaker
I'm. Yeah there's just a couple things like why does Devin saw what put on roller skates I don't think he's been bitten. I mean that and then this is the thing it's like what what was the director doing in this movie like what we're.
01:56:04
Speaker
The director does indeed control everything. Like, that is why a director exists, is to direct the film. And this director just seems to not be there. Like, I don't know what else to say. It doesn't make any sense. So I want to say a couple of things that are positive about the movie that I like. I think that the creature design and all of like that's not bad.
01:56:25
Speaker
I thought that that was pretty good, even when Emmet, I think his name is, when he morphs into like his final form. It's pretty gross. It's pretty grimy. But then there are also parts where like where the the the end creature kind of like what it honestly, whatever it was, whatever kind of thing, what it reminded me of was the shunting from society. OK, yeah. And when it busts through the roof, through that glass on the roof, it was so bad.
01:56:54
Speaker
I was like, why does this look like this and everything else looks so good? Like, I don't understand. Yeah. Um, I thought that the, I thought the end bit with like the huge creature was pretty cool. And I did actually like that there was like another one in the background as like they were like driving away. Like there were like several of these, like, um,
01:57:13
Speaker
Cloverfield type monsters like out in the world. I think that those were kind of well done and I liked the idea of them looking up at them and being like, it's all the shoppers. That was pretty funny. A couple of things in the script I thought were more smart than others. I thought that when Devin Sawa was dropping off his kids and he's like,
01:57:34
Speaker
you know, you know, heroes work on holidays, you know, like firefighters and ambulance drivers and everything. And then he looks at the stepdad and he's like, Grant doesn't work. I thought that that was pretty funny. That was funny. And I did think that it was a little bit of a funny homage that they show. I think I'm not sure exactly which Chucky movie it is, but they show a Chucky movie on the TV in the break room. And that's kind of like a subtle hint to like, Hey, Devin Sal was also in
01:58:02
Speaker
the Chuckie show, which I thought it was pretty funny. Um, the only other thing that I want to call out is like, I think was a fun moment is when the one older woman, she's like kind of looking out the window. She's like, Oh, the police are here. And then the police just drive through the door and take her out. That was funny. That was good. I mean, you know, look, with anything I'm,
01:58:25
Speaker
I'm grateful to anybody who gets out there and gets creative and makes something like, yeah, it's hard to make a movie. I'm not saying that this is easy. I have never made a movie like, don't get me wrong here. And I don't mean to just shit all over this thing. It's just I got to call a spade a spade and like, it just didn't quite get there. It's just it never got there. And, you know, the way that I look at this is like, you know, this movie, this movie should have been saved in so many ways.
01:58:50
Speaker
and it just wasn't. It wasn't saved by Devin Sawa. It wasn't saved by Bruce Campbell, for God's sake, who I think was really underused. And if they can't save it, I don't think anything can. Do you know what I think? A movie like this that I think if people are looking for a movie like this that maybe is a little smarter and a little better, I think maybe Cooties, the movie with, oh God, Lord of the Rings kid.
01:59:20
Speaker
Not Noah, Elijah Wood. Elijah Wood, isn't it? And a bunch of people. I think that that movie is kind of the same. It's of the same ilk as this, but I think that one's a little funnier and a little better. But like the same type of idea. You know what I mean? Makes sense.
01:59:37
Speaker
And I think that this movie, like, honestly, I think that there is something here. I just don't think it quite had the energy. And I don't know if that was a pandemic thing or like what, but it just didn't quite go there when it needed to go there. Yeah, I get that. And I don't know. It just I wanted to like it. Unfortunately, when I saw a chicken soup for the soul production, I was that was also weird to see. I was like, I was like, wait a minute. What?
02:00:05
Speaker
What the fuck? I mean, what the fuck are you talking about? Yeah, like, oh, they do movies now. That's funny. And what did you rate Black Friday?
02:00:16
Speaker
You know, I think that this movie, like I said, it's right in the middle of the road. So I gave it a three point five. I said, um, this one's just one note when you want it to be fun. It's just not. And when you want it to be violent, it's not. It's just not for me. I gave it a three. And I said there was just no saving this movie, not from Devin Sawa, not from Bruce Campbell and certainly not from the Hallmark Channel worthy writing. Yeah.
02:00:42
Speaker
So, folks, that is Black Friday. We just sadly cannot recommend that one to you, but I feel bad whenever we don't like a movie, but it's just, it is what it is sometimes. I like everything, you know? So, folks, look, stay tuned, and we'll be right back to close the show. Over 2,400 pounds of dough, 231 pounds of honey, 70 pounds of spices, 350 eggs, and 66 pounds of sugar. That does look good. Oh, that looks yummy. Yeah, I know. That would never last in my house. I'd be like,
02:01:11
Speaker
Who ate the caboose? It would be a problem. It would be a problem.
02:01:23
Speaker
Well, that does it for Episode 111 of Friday the 13th Horror Podcast. But before we go, we're going to play a little game. And this game is themed right after Christmas. Yes. And Maddie, today, based on a very popular podcast that I like to listen to, that is they play a game on their call that had it or hit it.
02:01:46
Speaker
Um, our version is going to be slay or nay. Yes. And I'm going to read to you a couple of things that people do around the holiday season. And I want you to either say slay. Like I love that. Okay. Or like nay. Like get out of here. Like, okay. Got it. Sure. All right. The first one is multiple Christmas trees. Personally nay.
02:02:17
Speaker
OK, and do you want to do you want to do? I mean, look, I've got I mean, I mean, look, I live in a one bedroom apartment in Europe now, which are substantially smaller than one bedrooms back where I used to live. Right. So I have I put up the Christmas tree today. It's it's like a pencil kind of tree. You know what
Holiday Traditions and Personal Grievances
02:02:35
Speaker
I mean? It's pretty it's compact because I live in a small place. If I had multiple here, like that would that would be dumb. Like there's nowhere to put them. But also like, I don't know.
02:02:47
Speaker
I think that if you've got a big ass house where you've got like, I don't know, a couple of living spaces, I guess I could kind of see it. But I mean, also too, I sort of like the idea of having one Christmas tree. It's like one that people come around and that's where all the gifts go and that's where you sit around it and that kind of thing. That's how it hits for me. What about you?
02:03:09
Speaker
I agree, I think, you know, listen, to each their own, and I'm not trying to shame anybody, but why you gotta have so many trees? Why you gotta have a tree in your bedroom? Why you gotta do that? I don't get it. I don't really understand that. So, I mean, look, if that's you, like, you know, okay, you do a baby, but I don't really get it. You know, whatever. I don't get it. Just celebrate, celebrate your life. Anyway. All right. Slay or nay. Leaving decorations up.
02:03:38
Speaker
through January one million thousand percent nay okay so you take them down right after new year's uh as soon as i can for new year's like like literally new year's day i'm like you're down bye it's over or i might wait until epiphany which is like january 7th basically i might do that that's where i'm at
02:03:58
Speaker
When people leave their lights up outside until February or sometimes even the fucking March, I'm like, what is wrong with you? We're done. It's over. Move on to the next one now. Thank you. Listen, I am a person who likes my stuff the way I like my stuff. And so Christmas is a fun little like, oh, let's move the furniture around and we're going to put the tree here and da, da, da, da, da.
02:04:22
Speaker
But when it's over, it's time to go, baby. It's time to go. It's time to go. It's over. Yes. Thank you. I don't want to pay those electric bills anymore. One thousand percent. Exactly. Come on. All right. And then your last slay or nay. Okay. Secret Santa. Oh, I mean, look, it.
02:04:44
Speaker
I say nay, if I'm being honest, because it never ends up good. It never does. And like the last time that I did it, quite frankly, was when I got my Secret Santa a really nice gift, a really nice gift. And the Secret Santa, for me, gave me a bunch of bullshit. And I was like, you didn't even take this seriously.
02:05:06
Speaker
We didn't think we'd even agree that we're getting each other really nice gifts. That's what we're gonna do. And they spend 100 bucks or whatever we said. And like I got a bag of shit and I was like, thank you for not putting any thought into this. Perfect. So, and that's just kind of how it always is. Like somebody's gonna take it more seriously and somebody else won't. And that means that there's always going to be somebody who's disappointed. That's just how it is.
02:05:30
Speaker
Yeah, you can take your secret Santa's and your white elephants and shove them right up your butt because I hate it. Right. Exactly. I always end up with junk that I'm never going to use and it always ends up either cluttering up my space or going in the trash. So you can keep it. You can keep your ten dollar gift. I don't really give any two shits. Get out of here with secret Santa completely agree with you on this. One thousand percent.
02:05:56
Speaker
Oh, I liked sharing grievances. Me too. It's like what did my friend, I had this old friend who I haven't talked to in years, but her name was Liz. And her family would air grievances at Christmas and they would throw chestnuts at each other. My God, I love that. That's hilarious. It's absolutely wacky. Totally wacky shit.
02:06:20
Speaker
I do want to call out the podcast that I got that idea from. It's called I've had it. Oh, nice. If you've never seen or never heard of that show, go check it out. It's really funny. Two ladies basically just share grievances over an hour and a half. And it's I love that. Yes.
Reflections on Podcast Growth and Community
02:06:37
Speaker
Well, I actually went and saw them live at one of our local here. So that's so cool.
02:06:43
Speaker
but I just wanted to give a little credit where credit's due because I came up with the idea. I just renamed it. All right. So that does it for episode 111. A couple of things, you know, if you want to support the show, if you thought that this last two hours, because I think this one's going to come in at two hours, was worth a dollar. You can go on patreon.com slash Friday 13, or you can go to Friday 13 slash dot com slash support just to support the show. I mean, we'll call you out on the show.
02:07:12
Speaker
You know, we have a new patron this month. Zephyr in the sky is their name. And so, you know, we'll, we'll shut you out. But like, listen, this show takes a lot of energy out of us and it's, it does come with, it does come, it does come with its rewards. Obviously we shared a lot of those rewards at the beginning of the show, but like, you know, we do have to pay for stuff. So if, if you thought that all this content was worth just one dollar, you can come become a Patreon and just
02:07:42
Speaker
Help us out a little bit. I don't know if you want to stick around we gotta make a little bit of money Yeah, you know, it's it is it is honestly a serious help and you know, look we are a proud independent podcast We are not on a network and we prefer it that way to be quite honest So like, you know, whatever you give to us we promise it goes right into the show whether it's renting movies or going to a conference or
02:08:05
Speaker
I mean, you name it, to get new equipment, whatever. That's where your money goes. And so if you want to see Fraga keep getting better and better, you can help us get there.
02:08:13
Speaker
But if you are already a patron or if this money isn't your thing, that's OK. Another way that you can help us, of course, is just by leaving a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It would be really helpful if you're a Spotify listener to go in and review us there, because just love to see more people do that. But we don't have a ton of Spotify reviews, so we'd really appreciate that. Yeah, Spotify is growing for us. We grew about 15 percent over last year on Spotify, so that's really cool.
02:08:42
Speaker
But I would love to see that audience grow even more, because I know not everyone just does Apple Podcasts. But wherever you listen to podcasts, if you can leave a review, tell other people about us, that's, of course, very, very helpful. Yeah, of course. So I do want to say this will be our only episode for December. We're going to take a couple of weeks off to enjoy the holidays and need some needed rest from basically doing the show biweekly.
02:09:08
Speaker
But we'll be back in the new year to bring in our annual kind of like wrap up show of the whole year, which will be really, really fun, because let's be honest, twenty twenty three was much better than the last two years. It was. And look, and it will kick off a whole new season for our show in twenty twenty four of, you know, of really great stuff. I'm looking forward to some more series from us, Andrew. Yeah. And, you know, as always, just exploring horror films that we would have never explored without doing the show. So it's going to be a lot of fun.
02:09:38
Speaker
If you have any ideas for the show, please reach out because we would love some. I mean, our well is is pretty deep, but it could always use more water. So if you have any ideas for blank blank is terrifying. Send them over. We're happy. We're happy to look into it.
02:09:54
Speaker
And look, as we come to an end on 2023, what a year. And this is closing out our fifth year of podcasting, too, which is wild. And looking back, Andrew and I got to go on a really cool trip in New England to celebrate our fifth year and to celebrate our 100th episode of the show. We had some amazing guests on the show, most recently, Peaches Christ. We finished out our international series this year.
02:10:23
Speaker
Um, did we finish out another series too? Didn't we finish out our monsters series actually last year, but blend together. I mean, look, I mean, we've, we've done a lot and we, we've done a lot of exploring and we've, you know, social media has been crazy and wild and fun. And you know, we've gotten to meet more of you in person. I mean, just really incredible time. And so just to reiterate what we said at the start of the show, like we're just so thankful for, for all of you out there and to be in community with you. That it really means a lot to us.
02:10:50
Speaker
And I hope that as your year comes to an end that you are able to look back and be happy with how the year wins and that your health is with you and that you've got people around you that love you and that it all ends well. And we start 2024 with a lot of hope and goodness. That's what I hope for you. Yeah. And I hope for you that you will get slayed.