Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Together (2025)
50 Plays17 days ago
Two pod hosts converge into this one episode as Rick and Trav cover Michael Shanks' debut film, Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie.
Recommended
Transcript
Unusual Symptoms and Concerns
00:00:01
Speaker
And something's happening to us. The pull, the thirst in your bones.
00:00:09
Speaker
i can't explain it, but we're sick.
00:00:21
Speaker
No.
00:00:25
Speaker
God, just do it.
Humor and Movie Scene Discussion
00:00:44
Speaker
We are so back. so bad We are so back, baby. Oh man, this is great. Hanging dong. It's not, it but it's not as much hanging it as it is stretching. Yeah. And I think we've called it like, i think I've, I've mentioned it as full frontal and this time it is, it is not full.
00:01:01
Speaker
It's more like half, half frontal. You're 80% of your base. You're just getting just, you're getting pure shaft. Yes. There's no head. There's no base. It's just stretchy shaft. And I love it because it's it's about a one second. It could have easily been a throwaway scene. It's a quick cut.
00:01:17
Speaker
um But just to really let you visualize what the situation is down there. but It was necessary. Yes, it was necessary. If you haven't seen the film, this is not a spoiler. I'm sure you can ah assume that ah in the movie together, directed by Michael Shanks, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, his wife, they have sex in a bathroom stall and they get stuck because Things are getting sticky.
00:01:42
Speaker
And yeah, is yeah you see him try to pull out and it, it shows you, you don't have to just, uh, intuit what's going on based on the description. Smart move though, to let some time pass, like some post coitus time pass. So he wasn't, you know, not too much blood pumping down there. That might have been much.
00:02:03
Speaker
ah he had sponged out at this point. And it I think by it being flaccid, you get the better effect of, oh shit, he's real stuck in there.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah. It's like you overcook a pasta noodle and it sticks to another pasta noodle. You do have to, you know, use a little force to pull it apart. um You think that was really him?
00:02:26
Speaker
You don't see his face. Um... he mean He's a producer on the film. so I bring it up because Alison Brie also, they're a couple. she She has a topless scene at the end of the movie. She does? Franco...
00:02:38
Speaker
is you know his his end of the bargain is that's really him there if it is really him that means we have we have two frank we have we're two for two on franco brothers hanging dong i forget which movie but james franco definitely hangs down and movie really oh man we're gonna we might have to add in a post it's not even a horror film i'm sure but yeah we're back so we started with bring her back we had it in 28 days later like one of the opening scenes like killian murphy We had it again.
00:03:06
Speaker
The most notable, the winner of Men Hanging Dong, and probably Forevermore will be the winner, is 28 years later. Crushing the so great that we started the trend before that movie even released. We were ahead
Nudity in Films: Evolving Standards
00:03:17
Speaker
of the curve. What does this say? I thought about this.
00:03:19
Speaker
but together what is this What does this say about us? You and I specifically that we call it out all the time or movies in general? I think it's great. I mean, we've touched on a few times. Like, I think for too long, there was an unfair standard on, you know, some women would go topless or have nude scenes. And, you know, I guess there's two ways we could go. We're either more conservative and we say, hey, we don't want nudity in films. Or say, you know what? This is 2025.
00:03:49
Speaker
The men can hang some dong. The men can hang some dong. So here we are. We're progressing. So we have not talked yet. We have not yeah we've spoken, but we have not shared each other's thoughts on the film. i if you log the letterbox, I did not look.
00:04:03
Speaker
I haven't. It's so recent. So this okay episode will air Sunday. This is Wednesday right now. We both just saw it today as we're recording and we're getting together just hours after us viewing it separately because I'm in Denver and you're in
Introduction of Hosts and 'Together'
00:04:17
Speaker
Dallas. But um before before we jump into the film, this is the Sunday Scaries. I'm Travis Telerik.
00:04:22
Speaker
I am Ricky Townsend. And as we mentioned at the top of the episode today, we are covering together, which just, well, officially international release is today, tomorrow.
00:04:34
Speaker
so Tomorrow. today was the pre ah Today was the Wednesday preview, oddly enough, because it's official releases on Thursday, which is rare. And then internationally, I think will debut on Friday. I was saying. Well, where? yeah Australia. Oh, yeah. Because that's where the director is from.
00:04:49
Speaker
Michael Shanks. Although... This was one a few weeks ago. i started getting teased. They began screenings a week ago. So I don't, the preview before the preview, I don't know what you would call that, but yeah, I don't know that either theaters.
00:05:03
Speaker
Whenever you get like a, a festival pickup like this, i feel like they're like kind of their release patterns can be strange, by the way, the the disaster artist is the film that, uh, James Franco
Cinemark vs. AMC: A Movie Theater Comparison
00:05:14
Speaker
hung up.
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh dude. I haven't seen that. I haven't either. I really want to. And I really want to see the room. Like I'm aware, there's two rooms for club. Anyways, saw it together today. I saw it a few hours before you here in Denver. I am a Cinemark um loyal member. I have their premium subscription where I get like one free movie past month and I'm accumulating some kind of royalty points which can really only be redeemed for like concessions. And honestly, I love Cinemark for the theater and its closeness to my house.
00:05:48
Speaker
that They have not moved to the modern age in terms of concessions. I think I told you this was actually when I saw bring her back and then final destination bloodlines is a double feature. I did get a hot dog there at the turn because watching back to back movies turn not would not recommend those hot dogs. When are you going to see the light is is AMC just not have the real estate in Denver?
00:06:09
Speaker
the The closest AMC to us, there's one downtown where the parking is absolutely horrible. And then I'm driving like almost 20 plus minutes to the theater. So it truly is for ease of access. My move from near North Park where I'd seen a bazillion movies now up to Plano is like seamless because there's a Stonebriar Mall is like 10 minutes from me. And it also has Dolby and also has IMAX. So, right.
00:06:33
Speaker
You went alone. So did i You sat down. experience. Yeah, well, here's my issue. I've not had this with any of our hormones or moving in a very long time. I tried to I see enough movies where I try to cut out the previews and try to time it where I can stroll in just prior to the movie starting.
00:06:52
Speaker
And usually I could bank on 25 minutes of content, um especially at the cinema, which is what I always I go 20 to be safe. But yeah, I was not safe. I came in like exactly at 25.
00:07:04
Speaker
And i think I missed the first minute or two of this movie. um um What how did you see? What did you see? i came in to Alison Brie and Dave Franco at a send off party.
00:07:18
Speaker
Oh, Alison Brie um for them. Dude. I missed more than a minute or two. Yeah, you missed an entire. You missed the lore. Wait, really?
00:07:29
Speaker
Yeah. right Well, I don't want to get to spoilers yet. Should I read the additional category here um before we get into our categories? because i am judgment I'm so excited.
00:07:41
Speaker
its it's I'm very excited to tell you about it because it factors into my thoughts about the film because it so much leans on. an iconic horror film that you and i both love.
00:07:52
Speaker
And it is um ah an homage to that film. So I missed multiple minutes in itself. Yeah. Oh yeah. You missed like a five minute scene. What are they doing? Maybe they just didn't run previews for this one or something. I was only 25 minutes late to the showtime. Let's do synopsis. And then let's talk about our general thoughts in movie.
00:08:09
Speaker
Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie find themselves at a crossroads as they move into the country. With tensions already flaring, an encounter with an unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah. What'd you think, Rick? I just talked about my first viewing experience. But you didn't say what you thought about the movie. know, but now I'm shifting it. I want your immediate take and I'll come in after you. um There were moments I liked.
00:08:36
Speaker
I was intrigued, but ultimately disappointed. Oh, yeah. know This will be a good up then. Cause I liked it. I think I'm watching maybe too many movies now where I'm finding my opinions trending towards like on a lot of horror and toward 25.
00:08:52
Speaker
And this would definitely be in the like more than disliked bucket. um for I do want to say, this I am going to do some internal investigation on why I feel this way. Mm-hmm.
Differing Opinions on 'Together'
00:09:06
Speaker
Expectations are the devil. And I don't know if I've told you this before, but i like I like hate Rotten Tomatoes. I hate it. I think the system doesn't make sense. Yeah. Or safety. Very hyped on Rotten Tomatoes. It's binary.
00:09:19
Speaker
It still is. After 100 reviews, it's 97%. Yeah. But if you look into those reviews, and think a lot of are like six out of ten seven out of 10s. That's why I like Metacritic, you know, because it's actually valuing...
00:09:31
Speaker
each grade of or they they it's taken an average across all the numbers not just correct well it's a hard work they take a review that is not numerically scored and they apply a numeric score to it whereas rotten tomatoes they're just like as a yes or no um i think i went into this with extremely high hopes that it would be really smart and really original And I don't think it was either of those things.
00:09:58
Speaker
I think it was fun, but I don't think it was fun, but I think it was very formulaic. I thought we were hit over the head with the same metaphors of codependency and anxiety.
00:10:09
Speaker
um I kind of knew, felt like I knew every step it was going to take. And i i kept seeing the thing, the substance. I heard later on a podcast that Shanks, the director, was like trying to emulate Hereditary, which I want to talk to you about, which I didn't see at all.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah. The tone is completely different. This a little too fun for emulating Hereditary. also realized... this This feels weird for me saying this because like, you know, before we even started this podcast, like this whole our whole project, the podcast, not just this episode that I'm very big on like celebrating film and not trying to be a critic.
00:10:45
Speaker
But it's hard when we don't pick movies that we already know we that we love. Right. So with new releases, we're going to fall into this trap sometimes or're or one of us or both might be forced yeah to say some critical views and i don't you know it's really raw right like you don't have time to process no recording same day that we so i want to be as fair as possible but yeah i think that i think aside from what i've already said i think i'm also a little allergic to dave franco and allison brie like really well that i would make this troublesome because i think yeah reasons why i like this film oh you like them
00:11:21
Speaker
i as I like them generally, but also i think part of what makes this film fun is this is a very small cast production. Yeah. Like outside of Dave Franco and Alison Brie, you have ah Damon Harriman playing a supporting role.
00:11:38
Speaker
And I think every other actor or actress in this film has less than two minutes of screen time, um if even. And so, yeah, it's it's a two hander. Yeah, it's just the two of them with Harriman making a few appearances throughout the film. And because that and knowing the background that they are truly a married couple, I think that adds a lens to watch this, which made it more fun for me.
00:12:00
Speaker
See relationship. um a real life relationship and trying to portray some different variation of a relationship in the movie with really it just being entirely carried by the two of them but because of that if you if you don't like Dave Franco or Alison Bray like it is well I didn't know i didn't I didn't know I did until this movie okay and just He always talks like this and everything is strained and why didn't you go there? And he doesn't have a lot of range. And I just started to clock that and I was like, oh no, I'm going notice this the whole time. And she's doing this like kind of quirky but kind of offbeat thing. She's always very quirky. But I will say I would i won't want to be such a negative Nancy.
00:12:38
Speaker
The things I liked, um I do like that it was a personal story from the director. Now we can get into the allegations and stuff because that's interesting.
Impact of COVID-19 on Relationships
00:12:49
Speaker
ah so But knowing that this was scripted during COVID and you know a lot of relationships, and i'm um I'm going to ask you in a bit, like how it what was things like in COVID being stuck in a house with you someone you love? and but ah And then knowing that the yeah that that they're an actual married couple helped.
00:13:10
Speaker
But um I also really was impressed with a lot of with some minor exceptions, a lot of the ah visual effects. Yeah. big Big shout out to an all-female effects team, by the way, led by Genevieve Camarelli, I'm saying that right, and then Maddie Sloan.
00:13:27
Speaker
So um really cool. I mean, I know they were forced to do use CG in some cases. You have to. But ah Shanks is on record saying that in about every scene where they're like fused or something's happening, there it's it's um it's led by a prosthetic. It's like that's the center of the... Got it.
00:13:47
Speaker
And, you know, this is a body horror film. So when you make body horror, you are doubling down on you have to have good effects. The movie will not land and will not work that well without good effects. And so I agree. There was one notable exception for me we can get into. The end. the end It was the end. yeah Yeah, it was the end. But outside of that, like it was fun. It was really cool to watch.
00:14:07
Speaker
What was it like? being cooped up with a family during COVID? Yeah. So we, um i I guess I'd first start with for any relationships, especially budding relationships, having that time, extended periods of time where it's just the two of you is so important. I think a lot of people mistake the health of their relationship when they're surrounded by other people.
00:14:29
Speaker
And you you do have to get comfortable stripping that away to make sure you actually enjoy the other person you're with. And so COVID was that, right? A litmus test. In a vacuum. um For myself, personally, went pretty dang well. We found out we were pregnant March of 2020 with our first child.
00:14:46
Speaker
um So that was a huge, I mean, that we, I think would have been great even without that, that was a huge catalyst of, you know, we we have something to look forward to in the bleak world that was 2020 amidst the start of the pandemic.
00:15:00
Speaker
um We also, we live in a duplex or we lived then in a duplex where Um, one of my best friends and his wife, one Anna's best friends had the unit next to us. So we quickly said, Hey, we're going to be, you know, quarantine buddies.
00:15:13
Speaker
yeah We won't see other people, but we'll see each other. So it was helpful having one other couple. Again, we spent a lot of time just Anna and myself. It was nice having one other couple. Your, your experience sounded a lot healthier than Michael Shanks because he basically said that.
00:15:30
Speaker
living with the same person, being married to the same person, not and he started to lose, he started to question who he was. He said that was his inspiration for the film. Yeah. That's what I'm saying.
00:15:40
Speaker
He's, he's like, i started to lose sight or like maybe not think that have an identity. Well, I think there's truth in that. And I think some of it can be healthy, but like all things in life, in moderation.
00:15:56
Speaker
like I do think a big part of my identity is lot of things of me and in my family. And like if I were to lose that, no. But my identity being based on yeah my significant other, i that is not my entire identity. Clearly,
00:16:11
Speaker
Anna sleeping right now and I'm up recording a podcast that ah she's listened to one of our episodes. You guys are lucky that you have your own separate bodies. yeah Yeah, it would be tough to do the podcast right now if she was a part of me.
00:16:24
Speaker
um But um i think it's a fun setting to explore. i just thought it seemed like an impetus for the film. So i thought I'd ask me me and Emmett did fine, by the way, during COVID.
00:16:37
Speaker
So we should. um Let's be careful about ah spoilers because this is a weird case where people listening to this might be gauging whether they want to see the film or not. So well, let's pivot to production notes then and talk a bit about production of the
Background on 'Together' and Director
00:16:51
Speaker
film. And that's where at least people who still haven't seen it can hang with us for a bit longer until we then go into spoiling a bit as we move to our categories.
00:17:00
Speaker
So, yeah, um this was an independent film. It was it was screened at Sundance this year, this January. ah Yeah. And was picked up by Neon in February to the tune of 17 million, which is a nice, nice little pickup.
00:17:16
Speaker
Michael Shanks, first time director or feature film director from Australia with a VFX heavy background, which I think really helped. um And then obviously led by Dave Franco and Alison Brie married couple.
00:17:29
Speaker
Unless you chamber wrote and directed this. Yes. This is his screenplay. well Like you said, it's his debut for for on the writing side. Yeah, it's his debut on the directing side.
00:17:40
Speaker
So let's talk about, again, it's new enough. We don't have box office numbers yet. and I haven't been able to see budget other than what you said, Neon, acquired the film for. And it was the first acquired film coming out of Sundance as well. I didn't that. This the hot commodity coming out of Sundance this year.
00:17:54
Speaker
But since we don't have a lot to go on, I think we can spend some time on the allegations that surfaced just, what, two months ago or shortly before this film released. Yeah, so it hit the trades, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline.
Plagiarism Lawsuit and Script Evolution
00:18:08
Speaker
I think Variety was the one who had their initial scoop. But in May, ah the production company behind a very, like a much smaller film and called Better Half, which ah screened at the Brooklyn Film Festival in 2023.
00:18:24
Speaker
But aside from that, not much of a splash, doesn't have a release. You can't see it anywhere. It's a rom-com. um with a very similar premise, which I'll get into in a second. But ah it's written, directed by Patrick Henry Phelan, and the producers are Jess Jaclyn and Charlie Beal.
00:18:42
Speaker
I'm not going to mention their names too much because the whole suit is filed by the production company at large, which is Studio Fest. So that's what it's kind of the the nomenclature there.
00:18:53
Speaker
um What do you know about it? Because I have i have everything. It's a plagiarism. It's a plagiarism suit where he's saying this was my movie. His evidence that he alleges is that he sent the script to Franco and Brie was actually had them in mind, sent the script to them. i think he was saying back in 2020. Yeah.
00:19:14
Speaker
yeah So the years provided it to if you look at the suit and it's a very, very robust suit. I mean, I guess I don't look at lawsuits very often, but I saw photos, I saw a lot of words, it was robust. ah and there's emails, screenshots of emails and stuff, and then comparison, like ah comparing frames of the movie together.
00:19:36
Speaker
um So in both Better Half, this is actual text from the lawsuit, in both Better Half and together, the main characters struggle to navigate daily life as their physical attachment progresses as they start to control each other's body parts.
00:19:49
Speaker
While at first they desperately search for ways to detach their bodies from medical intervention to chainsaws, by the end, might want to bleep that out for spoilers but you get what i'm trying to say big difference that they don't mention here is that one is a rom-com the other is a horror film yes um now the timeline is the casting director emails for for better half emails the script and concept to alice and brian day franco in august 2020. um they turn it down and then uh
00:20:23
Speaker
Years go by and the producers, Jacqueline and Beal, go to Sundance. The day before that Together is showing, they hear about it. They're like, oh, that's interesting. It seems kind of similar. It's the two leads that we almost landed.
00:20:39
Speaker
Let's go watch it. And they were just... they say that they were just like completely surprised. And I'm just going to quickly mention the big things that the trades picked up and that what I found was interesting in the actual lawsuit, spice girls, spice girls. We'll get to that. That'll that'll be the last thing I say, but a strikingly similar bathroom sequence where the protagonists become attached to the genitals and attempt to hide their intimate encounter from a minor character waiting just outside.
00:21:04
Speaker
Um, another part where um uh plato symposium is pretty much like rattled off verbatim and then third yeah this is what is picked up mostly i guess it's just funny because it's the spice girls but um spoiler warning spoiler warning fast forward 45 seconds to avoid a spoiler spoiler warning spoiler warning
00:21:36
Speaker
Now, there's an ink there's an incorrect, there's ah there's an error in the suit that I found and that other people have picked up on too. But the suit says that the film ends with the couple pulling out a vinyl, both films, and the vinyl of the the Spice Girls album Spice World as they accept their fate while the song Two Becomes One plays. Now, here's where the error is.
00:21:57
Speaker
um in In Better Half, the frame that you see they do pull out Spice World. But what's incorrect about that is that To Become One was not on Spice World. It was on their debut album, Spice, in 96. Spice World was their second album in 97. They look very similar. The album covers look very similar.
00:22:17
Speaker
and And together, though, it's Spice that they play. They play the debut album, right? I believe. Because you see the vinyl at the very end. Yes, they they play the correct vinyl. So they play Spice 96. Now they look really similar, but it is Spice. They both say Spice at the top.
00:22:33
Speaker
this might Do you think this is just pedantic where in the suit that you know some attorney was being fed information and couldn't differentiate between Spice and Spice World? some public defender guy, just like i don't know, Spice World, whatever.
00:22:45
Speaker
um Yeah, but ah all these things together. And so then... This comes out in May and then the response from the together team, um, from Shanks.
00:22:56
Speaker
Yeah. Shanks. Now his response is, you know, um, he, and he's very dejected. He's like, uh, this is very personal to me. I wrote this a long time ago. I wish i didn't have to clarify this, but I completed the first draft in 2019, registered it to the WGA that its same year in 2020, he got development funding from the screen Australia to further the project. And then in 22,
00:23:18
Speaker
two years after Alison Brie and Franco got the better half script, two years after that, Shank's agent connected Franco and Brie with him and over their love for horror films.
00:23:32
Speaker
So what have, have you picked up on where like the gaps are in information that we need here, Travis? Cause I have some questions, but I want to ah I've kind of given you the bones and want to see what you think about all this.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's, It's early to tell. um i I don't read that many filed suits, especially going to the suit itself you don't as opposed to language. fun I do. I have to. I used to work in mergers and acquisitions before I took this boring job in real estate.
00:23:59
Speaker
um We'd read through a lot of suits in pending litigation. And so some i'm somewhat familiar. And since I don't have all the details here, I guess what I'm going with is my general sense of a plagiarism suit it's it's a very high bar um especially in media to yeah to actually prove your case that something was ripped off or lifted and and we have to remember that we don't most times we don't own concepts you don't own the concept of somebody fusing together you know you don't own being able to use a spice girls song now if there's enough coincidences i think that's where it gets interesting um my whole thing is this
00:24:38
Speaker
integrity and art is like that's a really important thing and i don't want to be in the business of jumping to conclusions on this podcast like i want to have an honest conversation with you about what we might think may have happened but i don't think we can uh fairly get to a conclusion yeah i think we've kind of recited all the facts and well here's here here's here's what i here's what i want to know Shanks says that he wrote, he filed it with a WGA, but it doesn't private any if he doesn't provide any evidence.
00:25:11
Speaker
We also don't know what each script looked like. So there's a world where it's a bit of in between, where like Shanks did write a script that was basically together.
00:25:22
Speaker
Maybe his eye did catch better half. And there are some elements like the Spice Girls stuff that he then added. We don't know. the iterative things that were at screenplays change over time 2019 it's been five years right but there's like it's such a wide array of possibilities like there's a world where shanks never even heard of this thing and it's just like yeah we were all in covid we were cooped up with our partners and like this is a very common thing to think about as an artist and then yeah if you google songs about coming together as one spice girls two becomes one was a pretty big hit it was the third single off their debut album so
00:25:59
Speaker
I see a world where... Sugarland has a song called Stuck on You. Uh-oh, uh-oh, like glue. Me and you, baby, now what we gonna do? Like, that would have been a good option. that it Outside of that, well... We're not getting more? Well, there's there's more songs, but I'm not gonna rattle. I'm not gonna sing everyone off. That's just a deeper cut that I wanted our audience to know. um Now, I have to say something.
00:26:22
Speaker
This story, when it first came... Before Shanks' reply came out and it kind of evened the playing field that they both have good cases and now I... I don't really know what I think. I'm gonna wait to see what happens, if if if this even goes further, it might just be settled out of court.
00:26:35
Speaker
But I have
Personal Story of Paralleled Work
00:26:36
Speaker
a story for you. um And that is that when I was at SMU, I would say we are now closer friends. this prod This pod is bringing us together.
00:26:49
Speaker
I don't think it's strange that you haven't heard the story. Because a lot of my friends that I've... You've kept the story under wraps, is what you're saying? i don't I don't like... I don't publicize it. Okay. Well, this is, but i'm I'm more comfortable now and I'm fine talking about it because like I'm at peace with it and I, anyways, okay. 2009, I made a short film called the keeper and the ghost.
00:27:12
Speaker
I made it on 16 millimeter. Um, it was, uh, black and white four by three ratio, kind of a boxy ratio. And it basically was about a bed sheet ghost um who stumbles upon, or a keeper of the gravesite stumbles upon this bed sheet ghost. And long story short, like it's about regret and love and, and, and redemption and stuff like that.
00:27:38
Speaker
And it's only seven minutes. It's a small little thing, but it it did a little like mini college festival run. It was fun. I'm i'm still proud of it. It was, it was my first time taking it seriously. And a few years go by and people start sending me these trailers for this movie called a ghost story around 2017. They're like, Hey, this looks like, but look at the, I remember seeing your thing at the thing and whatever. And I'm like, i don't sure.
00:28:03
Speaker
It's a bed sheet. There's a bed sheet ghost in Halloween, 1978. Like i don't own this. um but I got sent it like three different people like who didn't know each other all sent me the trailer and I was like, okay, cool, whatever.
00:28:15
Speaker
So then I watched the trailer and it also, the film also has a four, three boxy ratio. um There's a couple frames that look like mine in terms of the way that the yeah characters are blocked.
00:28:29
Speaker
But it wasn't until then the fourth person called me on the phone. It was a director from Austin and they're like, yeah, so have you heard of David Lowery's new film? And i'm like, no. and they're like, it's a ghost story.
00:28:42
Speaker
and I was like, what? I got stopped in my tracks a little bit because the lead in my film was David Lowery's wife. Really? Augustine Frizzell was the lead.
00:28:55
Speaker
Oh my goodness. and Lowery would pick her up on set. And I think I remember him being at the screen. I don't know. And so all of a sudden my mind is like, wait, okay, this I'm trying not to like,
00:29:09
Speaker
I want to make it very clear before I go even further. I'm not on this pod saying that David Lowry plagiarized my short film. I'm not saying that. This is a bombshell. All I'm saying is that i i just like looked at the data and thought it was weird.
00:29:25
Speaker
But I was also like, this is right when... He's a local guy, David Lowry. He's like a hero of the Dallas film community. Everybody loves him. And he was his star was starting to rise. He had just inked a This is a big film. He has Casey Affleck in it, Rooney Mara in it.
00:29:39
Speaker
And then he had just inked a deal to do Pete's dragon around the same time for Disney. So now he's part of the Disney machine. And so I hadn't talked to Augustine in probably a couple of years, but we did keep up over Facebook and stuff. So I just send her a message really friendly.
00:29:54
Speaker
was just like, Hey, congrats on Pete's dragon. And like, she had a directing project she was doing. And I was like, next time you and David are in town, like,
00:30:05
Speaker
would love to take you out for drinks and like hear about it. And then at the end, and maybe this was a mistake. I don't know. I was just like, by the way, like ghost story looks interesting. reminds me of a project that we did together.
00:30:16
Speaker
But I, I couched it in such a inviting, like I, I, I'm being honest and I wish I'll pull it up maybe another time, but like, I wasn't like, Hey, I, I have an issue to take up with you.
00:30:28
Speaker
Blocks me on everything. Blocks me on Facebook. Blocks me on Instagram. Blocks me like never again. Oh my goodness. So that's the end of the story. Like I don't have anything else for you.
00:30:38
Speaker
um That's unreal. i You know, it's it's strange. i go back and look at those frames and they are similar and it's it's a bedsheet ghost. and it's But again, I'm not um' not under the illusion or the delusion that...
00:30:55
Speaker
that maybe he just had an inkling about this before I did. And it's just a coincidence. I'm not, I'm open to that, but it is strange. I'll just say that. That's so c incredible.
00:31:06
Speaker
Dude, your stories. That's unreal. I mean, art is going to definitely have a form of iteration. i agree. But I think that's also why we like some of our favorite directors like their credit, their inspirations. Like here's the films that I watched in, in writing my film or in directing my film.
00:31:25
Speaker
And I think with proper attribution, then that's why they accept it. But it it gets really, really gray areas. There's like three scenarios. It's like, I think I'm less upset that the idea that he may or may not have been inspired by his dumb little short film that I did.
00:31:43
Speaker
i just, I'm more disappointed in the response from Augustine. Like, clearly my message was in good faith. I wonder if they're, people were like, Hey, you guys, we need to build the walls around you.
00:31:56
Speaker
yeah When you get famous and you start to build up your power stars, people come after you. And maybe she saw me as a little guy coming after her, you know, in reality, it was like, I am a little guy and I was proud of my former coworker doing something, but I did have a question like, Hey, what is this?
00:32:14
Speaker
And this is fun, but like, what is it? And, uh, At the end of the day, i don't own the idea of a bed sheet ghost. But in terms of etiquette, I saw David Lowery go on a bunch of press junkets be like, yeah, I was inspired by this painting. I was inspired by the movie Ghost. I was inspired by all these books. Well, exactly. That's what I'm talking about for the attribution part.
00:32:37
Speaker
ah but then then i even I say it out loud it sounds silly because like what if he didn't see it and then I'm there thinking that I even hold the candles anyways but yeah i am as far as together goes I'm curious to see where it lands if it does land these things kind of fade away sometimes yeah but it it it was in my mind a little bit watching this movie but not as much as i thought it would be With this lawsuit coming out before its release, I think it's kind of a shade of what we call the Streisand effect, which is instead of the suit maybe be trying to downplay the film together or keep it from the public eye, it really raised it even more so to my attention where this was not a film going into 2021.
Critique of 'Together' and Technical Quality
00:33:16
Speaker
five that was high up on my list of horror films I was excited for. then when you hear all the attention it's getting from the plagiarism lawsuit, it made me more interested in it. So I'll be very interested to see how it does at the box office.
00:33:29
Speaker
You know, a screenplay is one piece you had already touched on. I think Shanks did actually a really good job directing this film. um The team he brought in or that was brought in to work with him on the FX was great.
00:33:40
Speaker
I thought cinematography was great. There's a lot of really cool overhead shots um of the trees in this wooded area they're in, which I thought was always fun to cut to. And it was visually appealing where um I'm rooted for him. You know, I i've mentioned before, I love horror kids, kind of the minor leagues where we can see new directors sometimes get their start.
00:34:00
Speaker
And so I'm hoping this film succeeds. I'd love to see more from him. I wasn't too, I, this kind of felt like yeah like the overhead shots. I mean, you anybody can do an overhead shot. You just do an over, you just put it overhead.
00:34:12
Speaker
It looked like it's, to me, this looked like a car commercial to me. Most of it it was just like flat lighting. It was a lot of shots, flat lighting and like, like mid daylight kind of just, I don't know. It's fine. It wasn't bad. it was just, I just didn't stick out to me.
00:34:27
Speaker
Can I tell you what you missed? Yes. Okay. So let's jump to, so for those who haven't seen the film, we're going to, jump into our normal categories but let's tee it off first with tell me how this film starts rick because i'm genuinely curious so it starts off in that same forest that you see allison brie and dave franco in um except that this time it's at night it's the only like nighttime part of the movie everything else is it oh i guess there's some interiors yeah there's a lot of interior stuff but a lot of it's in daylight yeah um
00:35:00
Speaker
and people are like these i don't know what nationality they are they might be hispanic they might be peruvian i don't know but they're like looking for something they're looking for somebody they might be looking for their dogs and we cut to two dogs ah they either slipped into that hole or they ran down there oh and they both were drinking out of that water and then um they find the dogs, they climb back up and then it cut to the dog's behavior was very strange. They were both staring at each other, like frozen before they were being playful. And you're getting like a minute or two of footage. It's just the, the after effects of them drinking from this water.
00:35:44
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. You missed a whole, I mean, it's a whole sequence, not just a scene. It's like, it's like two scenes. so they're like staring at each other. And immediately I was like, Oh, the thing, this is the thing because the thing starts off with a dog acting very strange. Yep.
00:35:58
Speaker
from a foreign, from, it's interacting with a foreign entity, whatever. And then protagonist or the the patriarch of the family, he like hears something weird in his basement where he keeps the dogs.
00:36:13
Speaker
And there's like some shaking and it's like, what the heck? And you see like a shape of the silhouette and then his flashlight shines on them and it is like a horrific amalgamation of like flesh and fur and fangs i'm so upset i missed this that that's what i go to see the movie for okay you would have liked it you there'll be a clip later yeah but it was ah long so long way of saying like very clearly a nod to the thing okay um The way that the ah creature looked, the fact that it's dogs. There's a callback then later in the movie. Alison Brie is talking to a student who, like you said, I think she's um Hispanic.
00:36:52
Speaker
ah And see the girl's drawing a picture of two dogs. That's funny. thats funny i didn't even catch that. Alison Brie goes, oh, are these your dogs? The girl says, not anymore. which is Oh, so that's the girl. That's the girl who... Very interesting. Alison Brie shrugs it off. That would be a very... ah ah unique response for like if you're not passed away or that's clearly being the question like what does not anymore mean and adopted i will agree i know i've i've said i've critiqued the acting a little bit i i do want to say that i agree that i think the directing was pretty inspired yeah the way that the limbs fuse together and the way that the bodies move towards each other through gravity and then like just sheer bone crunching force of yeah nature
00:37:37
Speaker
um The script, i I think my problem, Travis, was that like this felt like a movie that, until the end, which I actually did like, like the third act, this felt like a it was just vehicles to move us towards set pieces.
00:37:55
Speaker
That things didn't really matter. It's just like, let's get to the next weird set piece. And once I got into that rhythm, I was a little better, more fine with it. But like the dialogue in between I felt was pretty heavy handed. Like you don't believe in me. And like, I just want to do this and we can't be together, but we have to be together. Like they just,
00:38:16
Speaker
said the thing versus letting you figure it out and then there wasn't a lot of the wiggle room for interpretation so i get bored in movies like that but thankfully these set pieces kind of like with final destination are what keep you going and i yeah was interested to see what weird thing going to happen next i just it wasn't as ah you know there wasn't as much to say or or speculate like you'd have in hereditary thing and It's a movie about codependency and there's two ways you can show that, right? It's in the context of their interactions with other people or it's what Shanks decided to do here.
00:38:56
Speaker
Truly again, just keeping Bree and Franco in the film. And that is who you're watching. And if it's just the two of them and you don't have the context of for most of the film, other characters interacting with them, you know, a lot, a lot has to come out via the form of dialogue. So you can maybe make it more subtle.
00:39:15
Speaker
um And I see your point, but I also think that, you know, I i liked it. if you're I mean, i'm in the moment i'm I've looked at the reviews. I'm definitely in the minority. yeah like I mean, you see like slash that is where you could always argue, do people's actions even matter here? We're just moving from one set piece to the next. And that's what some people like about horror is you don't always need this ah huge focus on maybe the transformation of the characters themselves, but you do...
00:39:45
Speaker
way the plot more to move everything forward now there's yeah great horror films which i think buck that trend and and they you know they du I just wanted this i wanted a smarter script. It was a fun script. It was not a smart script.
00:39:59
Speaker
Yeah, I can see that point. um Let's jump into our categories. Let's start with horror rating. ah Sorry, our scarometer. I still can't get this right. You say scarometer. I say scarometer. We should just keep saying it however we want to say. um Out of 10, how scary was this for you?
00:40:17
Speaker
i gave it a four wow okay so this is probably the most we've been apart then because i thought this movie was riddled with jump scares but also frightening set pieces and dread inducing scenes and so it's not hereditary like we said it's it's more fun but i i think i'm closer to like a barbarian so like a six for me you know with this though i want to quickly reflect since this is new Did we start to conservatively because we
Scary or Not? Comparing Horror Films
00:40:48
Speaker
it's all relative. We gave the ring an eight.
00:40:51
Speaker
That has been our scariest film to date. And I'm worried that are there really enough films out there where there are some nines? There are some tens that I know. scarier do I thought about bottoming out at threes. We don't have anything below a three yet.
00:41:06
Speaker
Jaws. I think. What we should do, let's get to like a dozen. Let's get to 12. Okay. And see what happens. We have to reset then. Because I'm keeping my own letterbox list of these because that's how I like to it.
00:41:17
Speaker
And yeah you should do that too just so you can like... I do think there will be a moment where we start to... Because we agreed we can relitigate these. the rings up there with one of the scary films i've seen do think that i'm sure we can pick out a few films that are scarier so maybe they're deserving of one point higher than the ring but to be two points higher than the ring i know i don't know if that film exists it's it's a good point <unk> okay that but yes so you're out of four i'm gonna say question about highlights though travis because this we don't have any deaths really um
00:41:48
Speaker
And it is such a movie compiled of scenes of their fusing or mishaps. I would assume i'd assume highlights are gonna step over into jump scares, cantaloupe, you know what i mean?
00:42:03
Speaker
i i think you're right. So I think we just both limit ourselves to one, or if we agree on one, we could have one shared one because I think it's impossible to do this without stepping on some of those other categories. But to start, if you're okay with me starting,
00:42:16
Speaker
Highlight of the film. um A lot of this was captured in the teaser, but it is the night where i think Alison Brie has now um drank from the water as well.
00:42:28
Speaker
And so they're both afflicted by their bodies, essentially overpowering their their brains, their nervous system, their willpower. And it is the middle of the night. They're sleeping in two separate rooms across the hall from each other.
00:42:40
Speaker
And they start getting pulled towards each other. This force is... you know, overpowering them to the point where it's contorting their bodies and they're slowly moving towards each other. But I love this full set piece for that long Tron Hout bit where they're slowly moving towards each other.
00:42:55
Speaker
Their hands start to fuse into each other's. ah But then it gets more comedic because they, you know, they find the muscle relaxants. snorting I think it's one of my favorite lines of the movie, but...
00:43:07
Speaker
They're trying to eat like as many of them as possible after they spilled them out all over the ground. And Dave Franco just yells like, it'll be quicker if we snort them. And they start crushing them up. It is a great league. It's just utter chaos.
00:43:20
Speaker
And then that goes straight into it's the morning. Now um Dave Franco wakes up second. Alison Brees has been up for a while. She is ready to go. She has bottle of alcohol. She is just forcing Dave Franco to chug down because they're still connected.
00:43:33
Speaker
She takes it. All right. Well, I would, um I would earlier in the morning that would, that goes into a cantaloupe for me. Okay. Oh really? See, that was maybe an easier scene for me to watch because of the comedy involved.
00:43:46
Speaker
um But yes, that whole set piece with them sawing their arms apart and then ending with, as soon as they finished sawing, we have this like flash cutaway to their, now just sitting on separate sides of the kitchen floor, like eating snacks with their arms wrapped up.
00:44:01
Speaker
So I love that whole, you know, it's probably 10 minutes of the film from, you know, the this overpowering force sending them towards each other, how they deal with it. And it's maybe not as scary, at least to me, as other parts of the film, but it was so cool. That's why I love the effects, love the dialogue. It was where I was most engaged during the film.
00:44:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's the that is probably the strongest part of the movie. You get laughs, you get scares, you get progression of the story. hmm.
00:44:32
Speaker
Just because we're on the subject, I'm going to jump to my cantaloupe if that's all right, because it is a highlight, too. But sex in the bathroom stall is like my favorite scene. And it's also um The cantaloupe for me. because i was like ah you knew they were going to get stuck.
00:44:46
Speaker
like You knew right when they started. They're in a compromised situation. There's so many things to be cringy about. They're in the kids' bathroom. didn't get that at first.
00:44:57
Speaker
I didn't either until you said the child walked in. um well At first, I thought i thought that... ah it's better Boys' bathroom. well no I thought that she was in the women's bathroom and the the teacher came in to the women's bathroom and that was going to be a huge dull knife for me. But then I realized, Oh, she accidentally went into the boys.
00:45:16
Speaker
and ah It's just great because, and there is a bit of weight behind this because it's alluded that they haven't been intimate for a while. And so this is an important moment for them and especially for her, because she's the one that's been feeling neglected and, and ah you know, not to be too graphic, but like,
00:45:37
Speaker
that's just, it's a sense of position to be in um you know, having sex in a weird place or in ah in a tight quarters and any mishap, whether like you, you know, maybe you lose a condom or you, you you pull a hamstring or something. And there's that just stop down moment of like, what do we do?
00:46:00
Speaker
Well then add into the effect that he literally cannot, he cannot, they cannot remove themselves of each other. I'm just thinking of what parts are stuck together. How does that work?
00:46:10
Speaker
What is that pain level? It was hard for me to watch, but I was also laughing a lot. So, yes, it was very hard to watch. It was it was when they do, you know, Alison Brie essentially says like, um I think she apologizes then just shoves him off her. I was so scared.
00:46:25
Speaker
exactly He didn't seem he seemed like he was in pain, but not overwhelming Dick ripped off pain. And so I think they were very fortunate where, you know, they they could have dialed that up more. But I guess it would have.
00:46:37
Speaker
got in the way of too much of the rest of the movie progressing after that or had to be somewhat um a minor minor inconvenience yeah not something major that'd be a lot of blood loss and needs his blood for the rest of the movie yeah that's that's definitely a cantaloupe well since you're mentioning yours i'll walk through my cantaloupe scenes um again this is watching the gaps in your finger hardest to watch scenes and then after we can move to jump scares um Mine was when Alison Brie wakes up in the bed and tells DeFranco that he's on her hair, that he's on her hair.
00:47:11
Speaker
And you see Dave Franco's face, but the lights are still off. Oh, yeah. You could tell you're like, oh, my God, like he's possessed by whatever this force This is a ring callback. Yes, exactly.
00:47:22
Speaker
Because the lights get turned on and he has his whole esophagus just stuffed full of her hair that she has to slowly start pulling out of his mouth. He's still somewhat possessed, so he's not even helping her. She's like manually just trying to rip her hair back out of his mouth while he's been choking it down.
00:47:40
Speaker
um That was. That was cringy. I think the worst part about that for me was he has the final strand. It's like coming out of his gum or something. it's Yes, that's like the next morning or shortly thereafter he's pulling hair out of his teeth. So that that was mine. One other honorable mention though, just because I thought it was Peculiar. I don't know if I'd say it's a dull knife, just very peculiar. Right when they move into the home, Dave Franco smells the rats. he He mentions later as a story about, you know, dead animals in the house that he you get so used to it. It happens gradually where you don't always notice the the rot and the decomposition.
00:48:17
Speaker
But when him and Allison Breed move into this new home here in the sticks, He immediately goes to the light fixture. I think he can tell that something is dead up there. Something smells horrible.
00:48:28
Speaker
um He takes off the mounting of the wall, the light fixture from the ceiling, which is dangerous that's, you know, that's raw electrical there. And he just starts raw dogging, like sticking his hand up there without a glove, without a flashlight, just feeling around.
00:48:44
Speaker
um he He does come to to I think when he starts to pull out what we find out is a bunch of attached rats. He does have foresight to grab like a very small piece of bubble wrap at the very end to pull those out. resource like What is he doing? Just like.
00:49:00
Speaker
Put his hand up there with no protection, no investigation. like that we got the closure of seeing him just like throw it into a valley. It's a very odd scene. He just chucks them afterwards. as a He throws a... oh You're not going to bury them.
00:49:14
Speaker
and it's It's too gross. It'd stick up your trash can too much. so I can't really fault him for just being like... you know going to return these guys nature it looked like some cursed crown that the the demon paimon from hereditary might wear i think it was more than two rats who drank the water in this instance i think there was like three or four who were they had a little together cave water orgy yeah a little um or maybe four of them um so those are those are my cantaloupe awards um i think those are all very valid so i'm okay if we have different mean bathroom
00:49:48
Speaker
I think it would have been bathroom for me had the damage been worse, but I think since they get out of there relatively ah yeah unarmed, I was able to breathe a little easier afterwards where it'd be hard for me to recover after eating a few fistfuls of Anna's hair. so oh Let's let's talk about jump scares. So add a lot again. I probably thought this one was scarier. thought there were some pretty good ones here. And sorry, it's not just jump scares. It is the Ben Gardner jump scare award. Respect the name. Let me correct myself. So have a few, but it sounds since you have fewer, maybe if you want to lead then I could kind of fill in the blanks with what I like the most. My honorable. Yeah, it's funny. So I shout out to Chad, my my my fellow solo
00:50:34
Speaker
movie watcher with me. um He was seated one seat away from me. And then when more people came in, he sat right next to me and then we met each other. Just another. You actually introduced each other. Yeah. yeah we We do. do Real recognizes real. When you go to the movie theater and like we both are by ourselves, you know, prime seating, really nice guy. Shout out to Chad. Actually he, he said he would listen to the podcast later. So, um and sorry, Chad. I, know I, cause I, I think right after we spoke about the film,
00:51:02
Speaker
I didn't say I loved it or anything. he he liked it lot more than me, but I didn't, I was still processing what I thought. And so Chad, if you're listening you're surprised that I'm a bit more negative, I'm sorry. I, I, Chad, I feel you.
00:51:13
Speaker
It's a better film than Rick's giving it credit for. it But, uh, yeah, thanks for listening, dude. And we're going to try to see weapons together. Cause we're both, he had his wife isn't interested in seeing weapons. So might,
00:51:24
Speaker
He's like my surrogate for you, Travis. Yeah, that's what Anna used to love. I mean, she watches a lot of horror with me still, but if it's involving kids, she's a little sensitive now with our daughters. So this is one I might have to yeah see that one pre-screen before see but um um before. But Chad, i acknowledged that the rest of the theater, including Chad and the people next to me,
00:51:45
Speaker
There was a lot of jump scares for some, and this is not a flex by any means. i am a scaredy cat a lot of the times. but For some reason, these were telegraphed. Like I just saw them coming. none of them really got me. The only one that really got me was the the rat, honestly, the one you just mentioned.
00:51:59
Speaker
Right when you find it, it squeaks or something. And that I didn't like that. It reminded me of my side yard. That's right. It's not fully dead. No. And that squeak me. forgot about that one. I didn't have that on my list.
00:52:10
Speaker
ah So I'll let you take the lead on this just because i acknowledge there's a lot of them, but but I'm more curious which one's got you. Yeah. So my favorite...
00:52:21
Speaker
um again it's not an out of nowhere jump scare like we talked about the ring does so well but you it is just a scary scene overall that gradually gets scarier and scarier so it reaches a climax is when they spend the night in the cave and dave franco wakes up and you know the the sound editing on this they're making it a very audible very loud great sound that ail and exhale yes it really was it really was um And it's progressively getting louder as he's he's almost hyperventilating as he wakes up in the cave.
00:52:53
Speaker
And then it flash cuts to Alison Bree's face, who she does not look okay. And her breathing is like the... And it was terrifying because it's so loud. It's a quick cut.
00:53:08
Speaker
um And her face does not look... I think the scariest looking faces are when it's... not like heavily edited or someone trying to go like way above and beyond it's when it's just slightly off from normal right i think that's what the film smiled it so well is i think a lot of those smiles you watch smile too recently way too exaggerated but just like this is not a normal smile um It's like if AI tries to generate an image of someone smiling, right? And so you kind of get a face like that from Alison Brie, which definitely made me jump.
00:53:38
Speaker
So that's my winner. um Honorable mentions. ah Maybe it sounds like I didn't miss context for this, but there's some backstory where it sounds like Dave Franco's character, again, Dave Franco's Tim, his parents,
00:53:53
Speaker
um his dad passed away and his mom was still living with the corpse of his dad in their bed and he like walks in on them i have a lot that i'll have more to say about this okay but there is a scene very early on i think it's the first night where they go to sleep um where i don't even think they've moved into the house yet and alice and breeze starts you know mumbling some weird stuff about like i think i wrote in my notes but like you know, resenting me doesn't make you less of a failure. And it's clearly in his head, like he's tripping out.
00:54:25
Speaker
Then she says something like, we can't fall asleep with them watching us. And it shows on the foot of the bed. There is a couple where heavily edited, but terrifying looking faces like dead corpses laying on the other side of the bed. And so Dave Franco tries to lift up his bed sheets to cover his face and his mom i i understand it as quickly you know appears her face comes right on up from beneath the bed sheets which is scary because as someone you know i think we can all agree you can't be harmed in real life if you ever throw your bed sheets over your head that is a safe space i think even murderers respect that to see someone was not respecting fringe on that space is is terrifying that is supposed to be when you're safe when you cover yourself with your comforter what was going on with mom
00:55:10
Speaker
what's happening there i mean i can understand why again to the movie maybe why tim why dave frank has a tough time in relationships it did not look like his parents had a healthy relationship or even mentally that healthy i think it's a little too late in the film as well a doctor asked him do you have any history of mental health problems in your family i think tim dismisses it tim needs more clear goals in life too He doesn't seem like a take charge kind guy. We need to talk more about Tim's lifestyle here in a bit. But that scene was a jump scare.
00:55:44
Speaker
And then my my last one, I guess, rounding it out, was... um when Frank goes on his computer researching the missing couple. I think it's the second night where he's digging in a bit deeper. I think this is when he pieces together that their location. he like able to extract data from the photo to figure out their location. That was such bullshit. a that was I'm like, dude, you just control, you right clicked on a photo and then found a geotag or something. It's like, a here it is. that There's my longitude and latitude where this photo was taken. I'm just like, what are you doing?
00:56:17
Speaker
i Yes. Yes. That was like immediately just right clicks. was able to get the geotag on Facebook photo. um But Alison Bree's character, I think it's her first night since she's drank the water.
00:56:28
Speaker
And while he's researching, suddenly she appears on the other side of that. glass door oh yeah that was good that that got me that got me too and that was that was more of an out of nowhere jump scares yeah that was good that was good um so yeah a handful of jump scares i think those are the most notable but that's again the reason why i found this film scary i thought i had some pretty well executed ones there no one dies in this movie nope that's two for two i have an honorable mention because i don't think we see them die yeah the the the
00:57:02
Speaker
very sorry looking monster at the end. Yeah. The, the lost, I'm assuming that is the last couple who was there right before them. When Dave Franco goes back to the cave, I guess they've been there the whole time. Just didn't want to introduce themselves the first time they were in the cave. um We're a little camera shot i just shy What are they yeah what they waiting for? it wasn't that big of a cave either. Maybe they were just 10 feet. to the site Maybe they were trying to find, there wasn't the right lighting yet. And they know that,
00:57:33
Speaker
you know it's probably tough to have to decide on what what angles to show. You're one body at this point. Again, talking about motives, I'm not even sure what they were trying to communicate. today Kill me is what they're trying to say.
00:57:45
Speaker
They're trying to say put me out of my fucking misery. In most body horror movies, if there is an imagination that is what they're asking for, i just didn't hear them say it. I just saw them crawl over. They can't talk, dude. than him yeah why did Why was their fusing so much worse than Jamie? That's why I brought it up because That was my exact question.
00:58:02
Speaker
um We've seen some very successful fusings. It sounds like the cult that lives in the region has had myriad of successful fusings of two into one. did not happen for this couple.
00:58:14
Speaker
I don't know if one of them resisted. Maybe their relationship was not strong enough where they actually hadn't found their soulmate or the person they were supposed to fuse with. And so their bodies somewhat rejected it. and now they...
00:58:28
Speaker
this freak amalgamation with two separate heads. But, um, yeah, I don't know if they died, but knowing they probably wanted it to die, i will give them an honorable mention for best hope they die death.
00:58:40
Speaker
You know, not often are we pro suicide, but in this case, you know, euthanasia, i guess it'll be hard. Have you seen the movie stuck on you? you This is your second Stuck Gun you mentioned. ah Okay, no, well I'm not talking about the Sugar Land song. This is the movie with um Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear.
00:58:54
Speaker
Greg Kinnear, yes. um So they make it through life. you know There's a lot of conflict on how they're going to live as conjoined twins, but they they're able to make it. And so maybe there's some hope, I guess, for that couple.
00:59:07
Speaker
um They don't look as aesthetically pleasing as Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear do. and stuck they seem very cleanly stuck together yeah there was like an extra arm hanging out of their stomach and that's that's hard to go through life like that and a breast like a single breast they had him in the middle so they each they had three breasts like collectively like each had a one had a left one had a right and then i think i only saw one hanging low so it might have been the guy got two the girl got one Wait, dude, hold on. I thought we were talking about Stuck on You. oh you doing a great kidny I was like, youde they have like separate torsos. But dude, so I'm matt i've not seeing the movie. I've just seen the damn poster. And then you're telling me that there's like these secret limbs and breasts hanging. those yeah I'm like, that is a swing on that movie. What the fuck?
00:59:58
Speaker
ah It was the two of them and some lady who... I was actually getting disgusted thinking about this funny... Stuck on You is a comedy. It's slapstick comedy. It is not funny anymore. You're like, there's a breast hanging low. I'm like, all right, this movie just got dark.
01:00:15
Speaker
um No. Sorry if I'm confusing our audience. it was That's all I had to say about that. want to give a shout out to Dynamalgamation. I didn't know where to fit them in later. It looked like Pig Bear Man from South Park.
01:00:27
Speaker
You mean man and bear pig? Man bear pig. Half man, half bear, half pig. Yes. Or the thing that one of the experiments gone wrong in Cronenberg's The Fly when it's like the monkey inside out.
01:00:40
Speaker
Yes. Yes. It definitely, again, talking about attribution and for this film. And we've mentioned few different films it pulls from. yeah This was very much a Cronenberg amalgamation. But I have to say,
01:00:52
Speaker
it's without the slick, subtle societal more stuff. It's sure. The practical. Oh, you only like body horror. If it's speaking to something larger in society, if if we're talking about k Cronenberg, that guy's a masterclass at that. is so good.
01:01:08
Speaker
is so good at poking at this little subversive things that are right underneath our skin and about our kinks and our guilt and our sick, whatever's going on our head.
01:01:18
Speaker
This was just like, Oh, codependency. And then we're going to make a fun movie about it. So I think body horror can be just, I'll watch. I didn't say that. I'm just saying, I'm saying when you mention Cronenberg's name, there is a big difference.
01:01:30
Speaker
The similarities are. What's the first Cronenberg film we're going to cover on the pod? And why is it Videodrome? Oh, I thought you, I thought it'd be the fly. You to do the fly? The fly is definitely the better movie. Videodrome. When you talk about talking about societal undertones. Oh yeah. feel like Videodrome. Well, we also have, ah this is going to be,
01:01:49
Speaker
I'll just step on it now, but one of my winners ah for the movie was going to be snuff film because the ring barbarian bring her back and now.
01:02:00
Speaker
Kind of a snuff film watching that weird little ritual in and together. So yeah, video drone would be a nice lineage. That's true. VHS tapes. um Maybe that's another hanging dong VHS tapes. Those are two things we're looking for in our horror movies.
01:02:16
Speaker
Anyways, so no deaths though in the movie. So yes, that's trying to find something there. um Don't go in there, Ward. I had one. Probably the same one. is one Yeah. I had a, maybe I don't stay in there, but they end up in a cave because of the rainstorm.
01:02:34
Speaker
And it when they do escape the cave, it actually seems pretty easy for them to just climb out. So I do not understand why they decided to stay an entire night in a creepy subterranean cave they fell into. It makes no sense. My only guess is that it was slippery because it was raining.
01:02:50
Speaker
Yeah. I guess that has to be it. But like... they they felt oddly comfortable yeah they're like joking around they're like in that case hey pass the water and they find like church pews and stuff in that and they've started to realize like the cult bell symbols and they're just like we'll spend the night here so yes and then drinking the water thats oh that's my that's that's stagnant water in a cave that's what that's that's my that is my don't go in there so it's similar to yours mine was literally just don't drink the water yeah So big you have, you have rainwater just capture it, capture the rain, this rainwater.
01:03:26
Speaker
If they're only in there for one night, the little bit of water they brought in with them, they would have been fine. They weren't going to die dehydration. Like within minutes of being down that cave, he's like, fuck it, I'm drinking this water.
01:03:38
Speaker
Dude, her compared to his brother in 127 hours where he gets his arm caught, yeah like guyd this guy did not last eight hours. Yeah. Before like... Franco, oh man.
01:03:49
Speaker
I miss... Okay, so hot take. I like James Franco and his films better than they Franco. I think he is the better actor. i think he's made poor life decisions, which is why we don't see him anymore.
01:04:01
Speaker
But he was the better actor. i I miss James Franco. I wish he didn't fuck it up so badly and be such a creep with young girls because differentiating the art from the actor. was good. He was good.
01:04:12
Speaker
This movie could have been better. You want to talk about Woody Allen too? Yeah. Who else do it? Roman Polanski. Kevin Spacey is one of your guys. Let me just list a few of my favorite Hollywood influences. But really good here.
01:04:27
Speaker
um ah Yeah. Dave Franco making some poor character decisions in that cave. um Best Lines. i I have a few and I love Best Lines for new releases because it's not on IMDb yet. like We can't just pile on with other common in takes. yeah, you have to work hard to.
01:04:45
Speaker
So how many how many? do you have? because we could We could alternate? um I said my favorite already, which was it'll be quicker if we snort them when they that have all the most relaxed and scattered everywhere. So I'll let you take one. I think I have three others.
01:04:59
Speaker
Okay. Two others. and I mentioned the dogs one already too. i only have two others. All right. I have three. So I'll do one. You do one. I'll do one. um One of the funnier lines, and i wasn't laughing too much. and And then this one came up and i was like, oh, this is great. It was an,
01:05:14
Speaker
It's such a thing that happens in relationships too. And she's, it's after something, they reveal something about the situation. and she finally just goes, okay, okay, okay. You were right. You were right. All right. I was wrong. You were right. Like, cause she was saying like, this is crazy. This is, this is all in your head.
01:05:29
Speaker
You're being an idiot. You're being dramatic. And then they fuse and then she chops. I think that's after she saws them. Is it when they're sitting there? I don't know. but do you remember that line? She's like, yes. okay, okay, okay, okay. You were right. You were right. yeah And it's like very quickly said. So like, cause you, you know that you're about to get a told you so or, yeah Oh fuck. You know, I like Alison Brie. So I know you said you don't love this. I don't like Dave. I dislike Dave Franco more than I do Alison Brie. I think I i really like Alison Brie in this. I think Dave Franco neutral for me, but the fact that he's really married to Alison Brie is why I think it works well.
01:06:07
Speaker
but All right. What's next line for you? um ah yeah these are all just funny lines and again it is it is a pretty funny movie um it went she's confronting him i think it's like the second time they got stuck after the kiss and she's like wait I thought you said that was mildew when do I know anything about mildew I don't even know what that fucking is which is again relatable funny it was well placed humor like yeah mildew I can chalk something liked it It was very on brand because that character never struck me as smart.
01:06:42
Speaker
Yeah. He just didn't seem like a smart guy. And it's perfect for him to do. think there's few lines of movie like that, which frame me very well. It's relatable. Again, another real estate shout out as I try to get to. Yeah.
01:06:53
Speaker
lot of homebuyers always very concerned about mildew, very concerned about like anything that's slightly wet, which is funny because then... You try to dive down to like, are you allergic? Are you even aware of what the health consequences are? Because I mean, you do not want mildew in your home. What Blue Pebble is saying right now is little mildew never hurt nobody. But it's funny, it's one of those issues where I think people always rush to raise the flag. And then if it's there, don't really know how to handle it. The way that my apartment complex eye rolls Anytime I brought up the work mildew, I told me all I needed to know about yeah you people, yeah real estate people. Sorry, Tony, my clients are listening to this. Again, right we're going to work to make sure the home's in good shape.
01:07:34
Speaker
It's not a burn. It's not a burn the house down situation if there's a sign that there might be some mildew in one note spot of the house. Read the fine print. um Okay, what do you got?
01:07:44
Speaker
My next two aren't funny. i thought they were actually pretty salient. You make them funny if you say they're not funny before, but go for it. Well, no, they're they're just... it It captured the mood, I thought. well um When Dave Franco is trying to explain to Millie what is happening to him, i like it the way he phrased this. He's like...
01:08:04
Speaker
I'm thirsty all over for you unless we're together. Like he's thirsty for her and he can't satiate it unless they're like touching each other. Yeah. Sounds like you like the screenwriting here.
01:08:14
Speaker
Well, maybe that was Patrick Flanagan or whatever that guy's name is. so whether it's Michael Shanks or Patrick Henry Feline, good job to one of you two who wrote that. Um, yeah, well, I, have more comedy. It's an exact same thing as my last one, but when they're lost in the woods, Dave Franco gets out his phone.
01:08:32
Speaker
He's like, this way's north. Oh yeah. And then immediately like, what do you do with that? And that again is very relatable. Cause I, I have a compass on my app or a compass on my iPhone. Sometimes I look at it, but like,
01:08:44
Speaker
If you don't know what direction you came from. Yeah, if you don't know the entrance is north. What are you going to do with that information? Again, Dave Frank and Plange is a dumb character. ah My last one, i don't know if there's... It was just a fun experience for me because it finally clicked to what the character of Jamie meant.
01:09:03
Speaker
And it's when he says, yes, we used to be too. was like, oh this fucker is a combined... yeah He is the... Ultimate. Wearing two wedding rings. Got two wedding bands And I just got a little, you know.
01:09:16
Speaker
Were you misled? I thought he was going to be a creep a bit for Alison Brie. So I was a bit shocked with the, ah when you found out he was gay. His partner a man. Because I thought they might tie in somehow, you know. I think there's, Dave Franco's a bit uncomfortable the first time.
01:09:32
Speaker
ah Jamie comes over to their house. Seems like maybe there's something there with him and Alison Brie. And so little misdirection. yeah You had one more line? No, that was it. and That was it.
01:09:43
Speaker
um All right. Well, Duel Knives. I know you have a feeling. How is not just a struggling musician, but literally an out of work musician, like the guy missed his only gig.
01:09:56
Speaker
Yes. And a teacher doing anything in 2025. How are they affording anything? This is the house hunters trope. like Yes. The house is in the middle of nowhere. i sharpen crayons and our budget is 1.5 million.
01:10:11
Speaker
And he's got he's got this nice little editing setup. They seem very comfortable. and again, i don't give a shit that it's middle nowhere. It's nice trees. They got neighbors.
01:10:22
Speaker
It's 2025. She is a looking like a state ran school. yeah Is that just like a public elementary? it sounds like she had some real like bona fides could have been teaching. and They were clearly skimping on the appliances that one lady was not happy about her coffee. yeah Oh, what that she took her coffee mug. She took the mug.
01:10:45
Speaker
That was her mug. Oh, I thought she used her coffee maker. oh i i think it was just taking her mug either way i just didn't see i'm very confused on how they were recording that lifestyle yeah maybe in this alternate reality it's one where we paid teachers a little better and so she has a living wage enough to support both her and her uh partner her boy partner partner boy partner um yeah that that was one of mine i mean tim For their relationship, it is you know they have some deep rifts and issues they're sorting through in the film.
01:11:21
Speaker
i would attribute I would not say those are evenly attributable to both
Character Critique and Horror Themes
01:11:26
Speaker
characters. Like Tim, Tim was a bum. Yes. It was an absolute bum. Like, you know, I agree with Alison Bree's friend when she questions like, why are you still with him 10 years later? Cause he lost his job. wasn't very much. His parents bum. Maybe we're seeing him at a weaker moment where, you know, kudos to her for standing by him through that. But from the glimpse we see of Tim, like he's, he's really not bringing much to the table. What goes better together than horror movie made past 2010 and trauma.
01:11:55
Speaker
Yeah. Is that why Jenks is saying it's like hereditary because that like little nugget of past family trauma, I don't get it. It doesn't really tie to the main. Look at some of the litany reviews. You'll see it mentioned that it,
01:12:09
Speaker
I don't get that. I would not call this elevated horror or kind of go into the same body horror dynamic. dynamicic Yeah, that but it's a bit of a rom-com, a slightly rom-com.
01:12:20
Speaker
So I just saw, I don't think I've got time to cover it this year. I just saw Hard Eyes this week. Um, so it's a good year 2025 for horror rom-coms. There's also
Humor in Movie Portrayals
01:12:28
Speaker
companion, which is somewhat of a rom-com vibe as well.
01:12:32
Speaker
And it's a, you know, a fusion of two genres that I don't actually see too many of horror rom-coms. And I'm, I'm loving all of them that have came out this year. I think they're all like pretty fun.
01:12:43
Speaker
Yeah. I'll have to look outside 2025 see what else could fit the bill there. But, um what's an adult number problem um, they move into this house again, it's 2025. They say the internet's not going to get installed for a week. They scheduled the guy for over a week out after they moved in. I'm like, no, no, no. Again, I'm, I'm really flexing lot of real estate in this episode, but I work with a lot of people moving to new homes.
01:13:06
Speaker
I would ask if my client is unwell, if they waited over a week to get their internet installed in the new house. He was way too relaxed too. Oh yeah. He's like fiddling with his guitar. He's like, yeah, I'll get it. Take care of a week. It's like, what else are you doing? Do you like drive your ass to the modem store and take care of it?
01:13:22
Speaker
Yeah. Go get a hotspot. yeah i That blew my mind. so um but um yeah as one and That was really my only...
Trends in Proposals and Gender Roles
01:13:31
Speaker
There's some issues with the movie, sure, but as far as... have a couple more.
01:13:39
Speaker
right The future is female. We've treated women poorly throughout most of history. It's finally time for the score to get even. Time's up. Me too.
01:13:50
Speaker
All that. WNBA, go Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. I say that to say I have no problem with Millie proposing to Tim. I have no problem with it. Okay. That is as long as it's something that they both know they're kind of comfortable with, which sounds like she's going to spoil hard eyes real quick.
01:14:12
Speaker
The girl in hard eyes proposes to the guy as well. So this is becoming a common trend in horror movies this year. Very progressive. Look, there's nothing wrong with it A, um i have two issues with it. A, clearly she didn't like run this by him. There's actually three issues. A, she didn't run by the role reversal. He's very taken aback, clearly, because he's like, what the fuck are you doing?
01:14:32
Speaker
Two, you don't propose in front of multiple people unless you double run this by your partner. like My dad has always taught me, Rick, when you get engaged, however many times it takes,
01:14:50
Speaker
Do it in private unless they explicitly say like, yeah, I love the cowboys. And then third, if you're already doing these swings and misses, like I'm going to be the girl and do it, which sounds like it didn't go over well. I'm gonna do in front of people. And then you're not going to have a fucking ring. It's just lazy. It's just a clam with the hands.
01:15:11
Speaker
There's no ring. Yeah, I'm with you on some of those notably public proposals. um I think they are okay. There's a time and place for them, but it's kind of the Sun Tzu art of war.
01:15:22
Speaker
Like, you need to know that battle is won before it's even begun. You need to be 110% confident. A gazillion percent chance. And so clearly she wasn't there. um and But i I will push back a bit on, like...
01:15:35
Speaker
We both proposed once. oh I'm a big fan of surprise proposals. like Anna had no idea what was coming when I proposed. and so I did not want to... i mean We had talked generally about our future together.
01:15:48
Speaker
but i Not explicitly enough to say likere we're going to get married. I didn't say though. i didn't say I had issue with surprise. I had an issue with gender swapping without maybe, maybe that's more unclear. I'll take that one out. It's more so you think, you think he could feel, i think he thought he was going to, I read into it. Maybe I was projecting, but I was like, and think he expected to be the dude to do that.
01:16:14
Speaker
So, but then what's with the no, how's he going afford? How's he going to afford the ring on his $0 a month, babe? Dude, sign his fender and sell it to some like rupee.
01:16:25
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think he was in a, he was on a label. um i don't know. I'd give ah as, Alison Brie being the one financially supporting the couple, I do think it was her decision to say, like, I'm willing to essentially join financials with you. Like, I should make
Financial Roles in Relationships
01:16:43
Speaker
this a union more so than his.
01:16:45
Speaker
I think if he was proposing to her, I understand. maybe this ah This is a Power Rangers move. This is what you do to be a Power Ranger. Sorry, I just missed a few. the The open clam, the dragon i think it's Dragon Ball Z is what you're looking for. It's both. She was about to send a Kamehameha his way. um And that is that's lame. Like, if you're to do that,
01:17:04
Speaker
hey on the spot too if you're swept up with the emotions i could even be a fan of that but have the ring ready or so something a bit more even a ring pop with you there to a ring pop something physical okay what what else you got uh i only had one more um
01:17:21
Speaker
kind of two you tell me if any of them are worth talking about one is fine odd he didn't like tell her that he walked in on his mother like taking care of her dead dad and she's looking at him all <unk> she's like i'm surprised he didn't tell me this and he's like yeah i'm surprised you did tell me you had your college film project ripped off until right now so well these are lot people we're not being we're not close to marriage travis sorry okay okay um Second one was, what's the plan at the end with opening the door?
Film Endings and Practical Effects
01:17:50
Speaker
Like, are they just going to forge this new life with her parents? Oh, when they surprise her parents? said What's going to happen there? Like a good gender gender neutral. I thought that was it looks like a teenager. Like it doesn't look like an adult anymore. just open the door like I'm not, I don't like to play over what I would have done, but I'm going to play it here.
01:18:08
Speaker
Much better choice just to show the reaction of the parents. Be like, well, like I don't, we didn't need to see whatever that was. Yeah, I'm with you. I think that would be funny. Or even like, you know, they're holding a dish, like drop the dish.
01:18:19
Speaker
yeah Boom. End credits. I'm with you. I didn't unless it was good. Like if it would have been an amalgamation, that would have been funny to show. But if it's just like some new actor who's supposed to look like both of them, like a teenager.
01:18:35
Speaker
So just like what there the weird haircut? I don't know. It just was. Yeah. Whatever. That was. um Yeah. Maybe not the note. I would have ended the film on the specific shot.
01:18:51
Speaker
Okay. um Winners and losers. um I already mentioned the practical effects, which I guess yeah could also be a stream. Let's talk about briefly, we we both agreed earlier in the episode.
01:19:05
Speaker
I really love the practical effects in this movie. Other than when they do conjoin. Yeah, this is the chance for like the most notable like what we've been waiting for, right? This is the climax.
01:19:16
Speaker
You kind of know it's going to happen the entire film. And so the fact that they went, it looked like heavy CGI air with final conjoined his eyes are moving around like googly eyes.
01:19:27
Speaker
Yeah. And I love all the the close shots, those really tight shots of each body part. And I'm glad. I mean, I think it was smart. It was smart. i didn't coming together They didn't hold back with the nudity. I think that's important because it's just, you know, that nothing's off the table. And yeah, graphic. It looked like a lot of really cool effects up until the zoom out where you see the entire form merge together.
01:19:49
Speaker
Yeah. When you have something like Monstroso or whatever her name is in the substance, you know you can do something better that. Monstro Alyssa Sue. She was you know probably the reason why most people who hate that movie hate it, that specific shot of her. But that is the type of body horror that keeps me coming back.
01:20:06
Speaker
There's a very reductive thing going around. I saw two articles say that this was like the substance of this year. What is your response to that? Because I think the only similarity is... all the only similarity is that it's two people sharing a body and a body horror.
01:20:21
Speaker
Aside from that, they're very different movies. they're trying say different things. The tonality is different. the substance. you You have to think about how that film pops. The color, the visuals. like That was meant to be and in your face very fun um like heavily indexing on that and it it looked just more polished honestly like i i love shanks doing together hair but if we're talking spectrum no i i do not consider this the substance of no i think it's like i think it's a it's a lazy comparison um but but both were great practical effects barring the other one that you're mentioning that's winner our winner plato man
01:21:00
Speaker
He's still relevant, still rocking the symposium. I like that. So you say no deeper meaning, but I did like there's some context in meaning given to this historical context and like, you know, philosophy.
01:21:13
Speaker
And so it's it's weak and it, you know, it's only brought up in that one scene. i agree. um Winner. Fixing your wet iPhone, but put it in a rice bowl. Love to see that. umlthough I've done it before.
01:21:27
Speaker
I can I got something controversial he is tell you i dropped my not my air pods but my air pod case into Turtle Creek like a a month or two ago.
01:21:40
Speaker
I was so upset. I chat GP the shit out of this YouTube. for on the rice board I did the triple threat. I did Google chat GPT and YouTube. I was just like, give me it all the information. OpenAI and Alphabet rolled me out.
01:21:52
Speaker
No rice. They said, they said go to Home Depot and get silica gel packets and just cover it for like a day. And it still works now.
01:22:03
Speaker
Two months later. It was in the water for like 45 seconds. The case, which I thought was pretty impressive. okay, well, maybe I need up my game. Although, again, with young kids, they're definitely at that stage life where they see a silica gel packet and they're like, what is this tasty treat? They're like, if it's not a Tide Pod or a silica gel packet, I don't want it.
01:22:23
Speaker
Exactly.
Real-Life Couples in Films
01:22:24
Speaker
um i had Another winner, Facebook status updates. Facebook's back, baby. In this day and age where I thought the only people who were on it were like, you know, our parents or even few living grandparents. Took the plunge. um Yeah, there the social media...
01:22:39
Speaker
ah medium of choice in this film is Facebook, which I thought was pretty funny. But it didn't look like Facebook. Oh, that was 100% Facebook. No, I know it was, but it it had a different UI. Have you been on Facebook recently?
01:22:51
Speaker
Does it look like that now? i don't know. i'm sure but that's good i I'll ask my mom. do facelift every so often. was clearly Facebook, though. Loser bathroom stall sex.
01:23:03
Speaker
Like, yeah, it just made it seem even less appealing it already. Yeah. Yeah. Just i I share to keep my personal anecdotes, but i i will say been there, done that.
01:23:15
Speaker
It's one and done. Yeah. Yeah. ah you've seen one you've seen them all and especially if you've been drinking the forbidden water he probably shouldn't do it um i didn't see dave just going to the toilet bowl afterwards hey i'm thirsty i'm a pussy compared to my brother who can stay without water for 127 hours i can't go more than 40 minutes we add another winner um again one i've mentioned but real life couples playing a couple in a movie together.
01:23:44
Speaker
i think that's fun. You have some other samples? Nope. did did did not have enough time to do other research. you have any? I didn't do any research on this, but I have one top of mind that is a blossoming romance.
01:23:56
Speaker
ah Liam Neeson. Yes. Pamela Anderson. Yes. Naked Gun. I love to see that. That's what I was going to say. Dude, they both have had a lot of hardship. and This is being serious. Oh, You know, he was married to Natasha Richardson.
01:24:06
Speaker
I know. She died in Vail. She died here in Colorado. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then Pamela Anderson has been just kicked around her whole life, look yeah treated like a bimbo, which is actually a very smart, wonderful person. love this new chapter for Pamela Anderson. and said You know, she's not wearing makeup anymore. she's she so i mean She's the lead actress in this film, so I haven't seen it yet. Very excited. Naked Gun comes out this weekend. I'm seeing it Friday, actually. Yeah, I think tomorrow's the preview.
01:24:30
Speaker
Fun fact about Liam Neeson. In Janice Dickinson's tell-all autobiography, in one of her chapters, she mentions Liam Neeson as her lover because she was with him for a little bit. And she said, when he zipped down his pants, an Evian bottle popped out. And I was just like, oh my God, this man is blessed.
01:24:50
Speaker
but So Liam Neeson is packing and now you know that and it's him and oh God, who's the Mad Men? Yeah, John Hamm and Willem Dafoe also just know the photo. Five, six, dude. You do not know.
01:25:04
Speaker
no the first legend. I had no idea. You not seen this video. He is like a improv in the 70s jumping around like a hobgoblin on stage and it is so distracting.
01:25:17
Speaker
It's like a goddamn cobra got loose. It's like an iguana on a leash. Okay. I'll save it for after the app. But yeah, it's pretty dude. which I have to give you one quote.
01:25:29
Speaker
ah He's been in a few horror movies recently. um And they always have to him on our hanging dong list. They have to use prosthetics to make his penis look smaller. No. but How do you do that? You pack it in? Dude, Lars von Trier, the Danish filmmaker, is on the record saying his penis is so huge it's confusing.
01:25:52
Speaker
Oh, man. I did not know that. Okay. the The first two I'd heard, that is news to me. Yeah. um Okay. I got another loser. Dave Franco's band. Just. Shots. Shots. Shots. Shots for them, dude. Just didn't get on the train. Didn't tell anyone. You better be dead.
01:26:11
Speaker
ah Winners. ah Plagiarism lawsuit lawyers. They're just, they're going to come out on top either way on this. They're getting paid. um Okay.
Effective Movie Marketing
01:26:22
Speaker
Scream King, Scream Queen. Who do you think won this film? I give the Scream King slash Queen to the Neon marketing team. The movie they sold me, i was very excited for.
01:26:36
Speaker
I still had a good time, but they made this movie seem like a lot better than it was. And I think it'll help sales. I think it'll help early entry and it's going to help word of mouth.
01:26:48
Speaker
And a marketing team did a great job with the posters, with the trailers, with the everything. market Yeah. i am I forget if we've talked about this before, but it's been somewhat of a down year for Blumhouse, which was, you know, for the last almost 10 years now, I think.
01:27:06
Speaker
Like their niche is horror. And I think part of why they're down... is Neon and have been figuring out how to pick great horror films to distribute. or you pick Are you picking Neon?
01:27:20
Speaker
um Yes, I'm going to agree with you. i I didn't really have one, so that's why I wanted you to go first. Because I think... you know this is maybe a larger statement about the industry, which is why I'm agreeing with you, is they're doing a great job of getting butts in seats and picking good films to do it Savvy acquisition. $17 million to get this film is... It's not cheap, but it's not egregious. you know like I think it was a good number. And i'm I really want to see the numbers. I know we saw the earliest film Showtime possible. Maybe on next week's pod we can do a follow-up.
01:27:51
Speaker
I think it'll do well. I feel like it's going to do like... 50. Oh, wow. That would put it at just one of the higher grossing. I think that might even be like a top five horror grossing film of all year. So number one is sinners at 350 or whatever.
01:28:06
Speaker
Yeah, we got sinners. Do you know what number two is? 28 years? No? No. Bloodlines. Final Destination Bloodlines, baby. We are going to cover that later this year. Did it hit 200? Oh, yeah. They're over 200. I think they're up to the point where they've grossed more than all five original films. Dude, hey, I am. It's not quite that. I'm making headway with Mr. Wong, by the way. would be awesome. Well, done.
01:28:29
Speaker
Don't tease it too much yet, but we're were trying to get some real guests on the pod soon. um Anyways, I think that's going to do it for us this week. um We're doing another new release next week. One of our, yeah even more so than together, one of our most anticipated films of the year in weapons.
01:28:46
Speaker
ah Zach Krieger's second film, which is following. Or second and a half. po on barbaran Yes, yes. He co-directed. You can listen to him go on the record and say he's not even counting. Oh, really? Himself. Yeah.
01:28:58
Speaker
That's like James Cameron saying Piranha 2 The Spawning doesn't count as his first film. Anyways, thank you guys for listening. The Sunday Scaries dot pod.
01:29:09
Speaker
Follow us on Instagram. and like Subscribe to our podcast.
Closing and Social Media Encouragement
01:29:13
Speaker
We see a few who are lingering listening to all the apps and aren't subscribing. We have geolocation services. We'll eventually figure out who you are.
01:29:20
Speaker
Make sure you click subscribe. Please give us a five-star rating. Help us keep growing. We'll see you guys next week when we cover weapons. Bye.