Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Our thoughts on Cuckoo and 2024 Horror so far
What if streaming services are killing the magic of cinema? On this episode of Excuse the Intermission, Alex McCauley and Max Fosberg welcome you to a riveting discussion on the seismic shifts in the film industry. We start with a look back at the electrifying year of horror in 2024, before tearing into how streaming platforms are reshaping traditional revenue models and the theatrical experience. Using heavy-hitting examples like George Clooney and Brad Pitt's "Wolves" and the recent works of David Fincher, Max passionately argues how these changes are stifling filmmakers' opportunities for broader recognition and financial returns.
Next, get the insider scoop on the unexpected theatrical release of "Alien Romulus," a decision that echoes the success of "Prey" and signals a significant moment for the industry. We break down the financial gymnastics behind movie productions, the pitfalls of bypassing the big screen, and why international box office performance matters more than ever. Celebrating the theatrical triumphs of "Poor Things" and "Long Legs," we examine how these films successfully navigate the new landscape of combined theatrical and streaming releases.
Switching gears, we turn our attention to the horror genre's intriguing trends and standout films. From Hunter Schafer’s compelling performances and strong female protagonists to the mysteries embedded in "Cuckoo," we leave no stone unturned. We explore the fascinating resurgence of mid-tier horror, the chilling allure of found footage and stop-motion horror, and how titles like "Night Swim," "Tarot," and "A Quiet Place Day One" are pushing creative boundaries. End the episode with a fun shoutout to our latest Instagram reel and stay updated with Excuse the Intermission on our socials. Join this celebration of horror, innovation, and the enduring magic of movies.
how's it? I'm alex mccauley and I'm max fosberg and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding the year in horror. What a year it has been for scary movies, and we haven't even officially entered spooky season. So on today's episode, max and I will talk about our favorite horror films from 2024 thus far and review the latest thriller, cuckoo, which opened last week in theaters. That conversation up next on the other side of this break.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by the Seattle Film Society. The Seattle Film Society is a filmmaker run project dedicated to organizing, cultivating and celebrating the region's filmmaking community Through screenings, educational opportunities and community initiatives. Seattle Film Society strives to be a centralizing force for Seattle-area filmmakers.
Speaker 1:Their monthly screening event, Locals Only, is held at 18th and Union in Seattle's Central District and spotlights local voices in independent filmmaking. Tickets start at $10 and are available at seattlefilmsocietycom.
Speaker 2:To keep up with the Seattle Film Society, be sure to check them out on Instagram or Letterboxd at seattlefilmsociety or on their website seattlefilmsocietycom Come be a part of the next generation of Seattle filmmaking today.
Speaker 1:All right Max, a rare evening recording for us today and it's kind of fitting considering this week's episode topic. But before we dive into our discussion about this year in horror, let's do a little check-in and maybe talk about some current events, anything at the forefront of your movie mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just kind of, you know, streaming, continuing to kill theaters and movies and just everything that we love. Uh, I think, uh, you know, sounds like you got a bone to pick with somebody well, you know I've just been thinking about it a lot that you know streaming really killed physical media. Physical media back in the 90s, you know, in the early aughts that's how movies made up half of their budget right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've rewatched. I think Damon's stuff has been circulating a lot Did you I? Revisited his Hot Ones discussion about this. Yeah.
Speaker 2:He's got a great point. He said it a couple times and the fact is, you know, in the 90s you could make a $40 million movie, spend, you know, maybe another 10 million on marketing. You make maybe 25 at the box office and then you make another 30 at the when it came to video right and so just distribution of video and that's, and that includes like going to a video store, like for as rental copies and there, always too, was the opportunity.
Speaker 1:We just didn't consider it streaming. It was cable, but you could sell the rights to hbo or to stars or to showtime, and your movie runs on a cable network.
Speaker 2:Right, and so I feel like studios took more chances because it was easier to recoup movies or recoup their money, and then, as budgets inflated, we've got movies now that are being made for $100 million and they have to make, and then they spend another $100 million on the marketing, so then you're already out $200 million.
Speaker 1:Before the movies even hit theaters Right.
Speaker 2:And then there's no life after that. Really, right? I mean, yeah, maybe it'll go to Netflix and maybe Netflix I don't know the purchasing rules for something like Netflix, but they're not going to pay $100 million for a movie to come on their service.
Speaker 1:No, and it's not like it costs the user anything, right Like when Dune 2 went to HBO Max. I have a HBO Max subscription that I pay $20 a month for, or whatever the case may be, but that's not that $20 doesn't go to just dune 2, that's for everything in that streaming service and dune 2 is owned by wb, who owns hbo max.
Speaker 2:So like that you're already robbing peter to pay paul.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're already in wb's pocket, um, so, yeah, yeah, and you know, one of the movies that this kind of has, uh, it's come apparent to or what, what it brought to the forefront of my mind was, was the movie wolves, uh, which was a supposed to be a kind of a comedy, thriller, action movie starring George Clooney, brad Pitt, um, you know, their first team up in years, or re team up in years, um, where they're both kind of like fixers, right, and they come in and they, they have to work together begrudgingly or or not. And you know that was going to have a wide release. It's got two of the most famous, I would think two of the most famous at least brad pitt is like extremely famous george clooney, you know to a different generation, but still like sure george clooney should still be able to open a movie in 2024 right and and now apple has pulled uh wolf's from its wide release.
Speaker 2:It's gonna have a a short week run in select theaters and then just get dumped onto apple, the apple streaming service and where it's gonna fall into oblivion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like all these movies I mean just today I was in a group text thread talking about you know people are talking about david fincher and what you know he's doing, like the squid game, I think a squid game movie next for Netflix, and it's just like you know. Does that excite anybody? David Fincher, who's one of our greatest living filmmakers, and his last two movies are buried somewhere in in a streaming service called Netflix, along with mind hunter. None of those have had physical releases when they should be out there in people's libraries and people's collections. Um and and.
Speaker 1:Now he's just a mind hunter the complete first season.
Speaker 2:I would buy in a heartbeat and now he's doing a squid game movie or something like that. Like I, I just don't understand, I, I just don't get it and maybe, maybe it's a truckload of money and that's just what happens people get defeated Like you can hear it in Damon's voice when he's giving those interviews, vince.
Speaker 1:Vaughn was also just on Hot Ones talking about something similar, and I'm sure with Fincher, who's a noted cynic is like you know what I'm done? I'm done trying to make. Like look what happens when I make Girl with the Dragon Tattoo adapted from some serious IP, really successful books had already had.
Speaker 1:Movies come out overseas, does an American version of it and it flops at the box office and cost a ton of money to make. And after that I just don't ever really think we've seen the same. David Fincher Gone Girl was still ultra successful.
Speaker 2:He did bounce back with that, I suppose, but it's sad because I, you know, a couple months ago I was thinking, like you know what, it's proof in the pudding from this summer's box office that you don't have to be like crazy ip driven to make money at the box office. You can make a 30 million dollar, 50 million dollar movie and and make that money back. People are are ready to go back to theaters, people are back in theaters and so I'm thinking the pendulum is going to swing the other way. But now I'm thinking like, well, anyone who's going to be that middle ground, if something like Wolf's, which again I don't know what the budget is, but I'm guessing it's not.
Speaker 1:It's got to be modest yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe 80 million Maybe. But if those kinds of movies start getting swallowed up by streaming services, then we really are kind of in the end game kind of in the end game.
Speaker 1:Well, and I mean we've talked about it as we've been discussing amongst ourselves and then with friends, that like we're down to basically three different categories of films that can open wide at the box office successfully one of those subgenres we're going to be talking about today horror films still open and do very well. Animated family films always gonna crush right. And then superhero disney, marvel a big ip doesn't have to necessarily be a superhero film, but something that's already known in the culture. These independent, if you will, but original screenplays, these original ideas, these concepts that I don't. I want to see two fixers. I want to see two fixers. I want to see two Michael Claytons Right Quipping, making jokes, having a good time, but also some thrills, some stakes, like I want to see that in the theaters. I'm not going to get to do that much more often.
Speaker 2:You're really not, and it's going to be really interesting. You know this coming weekend is the new. Alien movie. Now, originally that was slated to be a Hulu only release.
Speaker 1:Right, much like Prey was.
Speaker 2:Right and because of the success of Prey and the praise of Prey, they decided to the praise of Prey, the praise of Prey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let us pray. We praised Prey, we totally did, and we said why wasn't this in the theaters? Exactly.
Speaker 2:And it seemed that Hulu listened. And now they are sending Alien to the big screen, which is Hulu aka Disney Sure.
Speaker 1:This is a Disney release, Absolutely as goofy as that sounds. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's weird and that's a whole other problem that it's going to one day it's just going to be one company that owns everything and that really that's endgame. That is really just like a dystopian. That's when we'll be living in chairs and not getting up. It's gonna be like wally um, but uh, I so I'm very excited about alien and it's so interesting that they even thought for a second that something like even ip rich as alien I mean was going to be on a small screen, only Right, the biggest science fiction intellectual property that there is.
Speaker 1:I mean outside of Star Wars Adult science fiction? Yes, because Lord of the Rings, all that, of course, Sure, yeah.
Speaker 2:But but yeah, so very excited about that. Please go out and see Alien Romulus. Show them that these movies, because again and who knows how much the budget was for Alien- Romulus. Probably.
Speaker 1:Under 100, I guess you think so Around there. I hope so, right, because it's a horror movie. It's Fetty, it's contained. Fetty Alvarez is the director You're not having to pay two huge A-list superstars up front, whatever their demand is.
Speaker 2:George and.
Speaker 1:Brad, I'm sure, are making north of $15 million a movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's really interesting with Wolfe's too. Like Brad Pitt, I think, something I heard on another podcast. This is only the second time his movie has ever gone straight to streaming. The first one was a netflix movie called war machine and he, after that experience, he was like I, I, I make movies for the, for the big screen, yeah, and so it's really I wonder what those conversations were like. Um, but yeah, alien romulus is very exciting, uh, this weekend has a chance to open huge.
Speaker 1:I was was looking at tickets already different theaters that I could maybe catch a Thursday, not a lot out there to fight against it. There really isn't, and screenings are already filled up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good Like on.
Speaker 1:Thursday showings.
Speaker 2:Good, Good, Please go out and show your support because, yeah, stuff like Alien, Romulus and Wolves should live in the theaters. They have to to be able to give studios or tech companies or whatever is running the checks opportunities and to take chances on smaller projects.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's these and now you might be able to speak to this a little better than I can, but at least for being what I would assume is an on-set crew people that craft services, everything like that. With an animated feature you don't need as many people on set. All that stuff's happening in the studio not only be made for our enjoyment, but also just, to, like, keep the industry going. Yeah, we need those movies. Or else it's just like the conglomerates at the top making superhero films and those are well-established teams, or it's smaller Indies and you hope they blow up. Right, you hope that you have your next long legs, which is, I'm telling you nearing a hundred long legs.
Speaker 1:It's got some long legs at the box office, nearing 100 million worldwide, and that's a whole nother conversation.
Speaker 1:We could do a whole episode about where films decide to open as well, right, because when a movie opens internationally, so not only is it playing on, say, 28 to 3,100 screens here domestically, but when it also opens in Europe, in China, in Australia, and the worldwide gross like you look at something like Furiosa Furiosa bombed here did pretty well internationally. That movie ended up with a decent box office total. That goes such a long ways into being able to again get your movie made as a director as maybe someone who's not an american director but working in the hollywood system for the first time, like, I'm sure, your, your ghost, is experiencing that right now, with the success of poor things. Now, what is he going to do after that? We already saw kinds of kindness opens, real small. However, if you're a fan of his, if you're from greece, if you're over in europe and you and you've kind of grown up with his films, whether or not it opened over there, I don't know. I would just looking at the box office of it.
Speaker 1:I can't really imagine that it did, because it probably would have done better better yeah so that again haven't done research on that to talk a full episode about it, but another really really interesting thing too.
Speaker 2:I just don't understand the thinking of if we put this movie on our streaming service, more people will sign up for the streaming service. That's not true. And even if that is true, eventually they will come to the streaming service after the theatrical run. If it's a good movie and people like it, it you're just. You're just losing out on money.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'll be honest too, and a little cynical myself here the moment you put a movie on streaming, guess where else it is? It's out there to be pirated because, now. There's an hd rip, there's a there's an hd version online already.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it is not that hard to type into reddit, to type into google, you know, movie pirate sites totally however when you leave your movie in theaters for two to three months and then you don't sell to a streaming service right away and you release a physical copy, at least for a little while, you can kind of fight the man, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Cause I keep waiting to see when's long legs going to hit streaming and I'm like why am I asking myself this question? When long legs comes out on physical, I'm going to buy that movie, that's another thing Like I uh yeah, I don't know, it's just disheartening.
Speaker 2:It's disheartening. George Clooney and Brad Pitt are getting shoved to streaming.
Speaker 1:What are we doing? And meanwhile, the slate that Disney Marvel this just kind of like big IP umbrella and people are so excited for this. It's like a 24 list. It's a list of 24 films that are all coming out in 24 or for the remainder of 24 and then into 25 and into 26. The box office is going to be in a good place because these are some heavy hitters. But, my goodness, there's nothing original. The Frozen three.
Speaker 1:Zootopia two Incredibles three all the Marvel stuff coming out Toy Story 5 do we need another Toy Story?
Speaker 2:do we need a Toy Story 5?
Speaker 1:as someone who loves Toy Story and like watches them as an adult as someone who loves Barry Jenkins films, I don't need you to make Mufasa unbelievable dude we're doing hero origin stories. Now do we? I understand, give me a scar origin story, maybe, but don't take barry jenkins away from me. Yeah, if he wants to make the movie, he can make the movie.
Speaker 2:Shout out to you, barry jenkins, do what you want, get the bag it was not that long ago that you made moonlight moonlight, one of the greatest films of the 2010s 21st century. Yeah, 21st century.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Probably top 10. Yeah, if not top five. And yeah, yeah, you're making Mufasa now and I don't know. People have kids. I get that. Yeah, people do have kids.
Speaker 1:People got kids, and that's who goes to see movies as families oh, yeah, and by the time you get concessions, maybe pay for parking I feel like an old man on a hill I was out with rdx or whatever your pay.
Speaker 2:You've paid 150 to go to the movies for a family of four I was out with, uh, some of kaylee's friends last night and this topic got brought up and I just went on a just a long rant where I would just started tripping over myself and, like they both, it was like their second time ever meeting me. They both looked at me like I was just some crazy old man on the hill On your soapbox, yeah. And it's tough, it's really tough. But you know, just go to the theater. Go to the theater.
Speaker 1:Well, we went to the theater this past weekend. We were lucky enough to have a theater to go to that was playing cuckoo. I can't believe it wasn't wide 1500 screens, which I don't know what you call that. It's not a limited release, but it's certainly not a wide release. I think a wide release is considered around. Yeah, just like a mid-tier release. Yeah, um, because you look at something like and we didn't bring this up, but it ends with us which was only three million behind deadpool and wolverine this past weekend did 50 million domestically, 80 million worldwide. This is the adaptation starring blake lively that played on. I think it was like 3600 screens, so that goes a long way too that right.
Speaker 2:There is old school marketing. That is brilliant strategy because blake lively and ryan reynolds are both you know. Movie stars.
Speaker 1:Seen them non-stop the last month they have been non-stop.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, the up to the release of deadpool and then to, and then for blake to have her movie, which I believe she was like part of the producing team on a movie that you would think would go straight to streaming, go into the theaters and make $50 million. Now I know book clubs are like an underground strength in this country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, a little cultish.
Speaker 2:And especially these. I had another. I had another conversation last night about, about this kathleen hoover or karen hoover I I don't know who the author was hoover, mrs hoover, mrs hoover, and she's an extremely prolific author.
Speaker 2:Author and writes a lot of these like dark row, it's called dark romance. Okay, um, novels, um, you know very much like a nicholas, I mean different kind of books than nicholas sparks books, but like having a moment right now, apparently in the book world, okay, um, and especially in book club world you know who's mrs big book club huh reese witherspoon absolutely all she does is swoop up the rights for these stories yeah, yeah, tournament.
Speaker 2:Is she a producer on? This wouldn't surprise me, yeah but again, just perfect strategic marketing to pair it with in the same or, you know, within the same month of deadpool because she's got r, got Ryan and Hugh doing free press for this movie now. And you know who knows, maybe they didn't even need to do that, but like it's working yeah. I'm sure it got a couple more people in the theater than what it originally would have.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. That's just real interesting Little sidebar. But you know we talked about the august box office not being able to stack up to july's. I still don't think it will. But sheesh, when that comes out of the gates and opens at 50 million, deadpool is still making over 50 million. Like I don't think we're gonna get a bill out of this month. Yeah, but romulus does well. Maybe blink twice is a big surprise at the end of the month. Who knows Like we could still be actually looking at a pretty decent month here in August. Cuckoo, their goal is not to make $100 million. Movie opened at $3 million, which is fine 1,500 theaters. It's an original, somewhat independent horror film distributed by neon sophomore director neon continues.
Speaker 1:Continues to just kill it this year, yeah yeah, they're crushing. They're having a huge year so they give tillman singer a shot here. It's the writer. Director of this film. Um, we did not see this together. I saw that we gave it the similar rating, though on Letterboxd. What did you think of Cuckoo?
Speaker 2:I really enjoyed it. I thought it was such a throwback. I think in my review I say it reminds me so much of a John Carpenter movie where it's simple in its premise, where we are in a weird place that we're trying to escape. We've got corruption, we've got light body horror, we've got some sort of mystery and we've got a supernatural element. Hunter Schaefer, I think, is a really great performer. She knocked it out of the park. For me, dan Stevens is like a cartoony villain, but like in the best way possible.
Speaker 1:His German accent is on point.
Speaker 2:He's American right Unbelievable Because he also did a weird accent in Abigail earlier this year, didn't he?
Speaker 1:Maybe? No, I don't really think so. I think he was just kind of gruff.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, he's having a year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I really enjoyed it. I was locked in. I was happy to see I went on a Sunday evening and the theater was pretty full Like there were people in front of me and behind me Really great to see that. But yeah, I loved the setting of it. I think, you know, there are some shortcomings. I, you know, I don't. Really I wish they would have gone a different route with the actual, you know, uh, antagonist that is chasing hunter schaefer.
Speaker 1:okay, I, I thought that could have been scarier or or like more so not the dan stevens character and the other doctors, but kind of the the what are they like?
Speaker 2:they're mind-controlled cuckoo birds yeah, cuckoos, yeah, but cuckoos sure like, why not? Why not like go for broke and like make them actual like bird, human? No, no, no, come on, we don't need that that that really would have like reached back and and and touched some john carpenter stuff like that's true, if it was very, you know if it was kind of over the top theatrical.
Speaker 1:The face of that woman was she. It was a bit geekish.
Speaker 2:That was the yeah it was a light, light body horror yes yeah, um. So yeah, I I really enjoyed it. I I thought it was a good time.
Speaker 1:Uh, you know I I would love to see it again I can't wait to see it again as well, and I think that's because, as with most horror movies that are going to, I I do agree with you like be simplistic as far as, like, we are in one setting, we have one character really who we're following around, and once you understand the rules and stakes of this film, you can track what's going on pretty easily.
Speaker 1:For me, what I think the the strength of this film, the biggest strength of this film for me is the, the back half of it once you understand all those things, because then you were cooking with gas, whereas, like I think the the movie is actually like it's already it's cooking. As soon as it starts like there's a really interesting cold open. That reminded me a lot of it follows where I'm just like oh, here we go, we're off, there's a girl. She's running out of the house we don't know what she's running from, really interesting stuff there and then we meet who's going to be our main character, right, and as soon as we meet the Hunter Schaefer character, obviously we know that like this is a woman in danger now character. Obviously we know that like this is a woman in danger now. And I I appreciate that. I like when a movie kind of knocks me off balance, at first a little bit, and now maybe it's because we're in this isolated mountain setting I'm being reminded of the shining. I don't know, no one told me this, I didn't hear this, but in my head the entire time I was just kind of thinking, like this movie's not going to be the shining, but I it just kind of has all the isolation yeah like if it looks like the shining, if it sounds like the shining like it
Speaker 1:might kind of be the shining, and here we are, like having a character who might be kind of going crazy seeing things. Is it this location that's influencing them to be behaving this way? And and so the shining, of course. Such a good slow burn until it's not, and it really cranks it up. I was hoping, I guess, for just a little bit more kind of tease, like I just wanted I was, if they only could have edged me a little bit, a little bit more.
Speaker 1:I would have been really, really excited and really in. But then once like once we're off, we're off and I loved the makeup in this movie. Music was really good and subtle, hunter Schafer star, and so this movie was a ton of fun. It's right there amongst my top 20 of the year, great entry into kind of the horror canon for this year. It's what's going to kind of spur the rest of this discussion. But as far as, like you know, this it's a lot of the film is spoken in german. We are in the alps, somewhere in the german alps, I believe. So when you think about like how this movie, like what other movies were you sort of thinking about when you watched it, because me saying the shining, that's all environmental Really. You've already kind of talked about the carpenter esque nature of it. Maybe it's a little bit of a marriage of that. Have you ever seen a cure for wellness?
Speaker 1:The, the Gore, verbinski movie no it's another one that it really reminded me of. So how did just kind of, how did it click for you being like because we've gotten the first omen, we've gotten immaculate, we've had a lot of these like female heroines leading the charge of these movies. Are you getting sick of this? Like did? Did it work for you, basically, having just not the same thing recycled, but in terms of what we got?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it totally works. And I I think because, when you find out what, you know what the character is going through mentally as far as, like, she's lost her mother, her father, who has a new family, a strange father, that now she and she's in a new country, right?
Speaker 1:Thanks for getting into this, because I didn't really, with that leading question, I was like I'm about to spoil things. We haven't really talked about a spoiler warning. I guess we should do that right now.
Speaker 2:Spoiler, big spoiler, because here we go yeah, uh, so I, I, I bought into the uh conflict that was going on within uh hunter schaefer's character, as did I, yes, and like you know, yes, the broken family, estranged father, archetype, trope, whatever.
Speaker 1:Angsty teen. Disgruntled teen.
Speaker 2:A trope as old as time, but I thought it was really well done. And, again, I think the mystery of what's going on at this, um, you know, at this uh like ski lodge, mountain resort, mountain resort that that also needs like a a refurbishing. You know was was really interesting, I think the the way dan stevens's character carries himself, but then also just like the subtle way he dresses is really interesting where he's all monocolor.
Speaker 1:Monochromatic, yeah, and kind of like these jumpsuits, which are really interesting because they're mirroring and reflecting what a person in an insane asylum would look like. Totally but chic he looks good in an insane asylum would look like Totally but like chic he like looks good in these jumpsuit type outfits.
Speaker 2:And she keeps getting hurt right Like she keeps hurting herself whether it's a car crash or running into. You know the door.
Speaker 1:The progression from the bandage to the head wrap, to the Furiosa arm. Totally so cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And again I think that adds to the mystery of like is she actually going crazy?
Speaker 2:is she actually going? Insane is is what you know. I thought maybe they were gonna. You know they could have pulled like a sixth sense and been like you. Everyone you've been seeing is imagined and yeah, you've been in this.
Speaker 1:It's these high frequency vibrations and these kind of time loops.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that we're doing I thought those were really interesting too and they didn't get on my nerves at all, which after the first one I was like okay, is this going to happen every time? But then they do it enough, and almost kind of like I love how the person who's in the loop kind of realizes it by the third time who's in the?
Speaker 2:loop kind of realizes it by the third time, and I don't know. I thought it was just a really great element that again brought confusion to you as a viewer, which I think is what it was meant to do. Yeah, most of the.
Speaker 1:Letterboxd reviews that I've read from friends and from people who I just kind of know on the platform that all really enjoyed the movie, are like boy. I don't really know if I understand what was happening here, but I was having fun.
Speaker 1:Not in a way where you know if you're watching. Like I think some of the, some of the thoughts on long legs I don't want to say the consensus, but some people were just kind of like I couldn't buy into the rules, like the rules were just like a little too messy for me, and so at that point I just kind of start to lose interest and I just kind of like take my foot off the gas a little bit in terms of like how much I'm paying attention and how much I'm investing. This film keeps you invested the entire time, even if you're off balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean the confusion that I felt. I think really reminded me of Mouth of Madness.
Speaker 1:In the Mouth of Madness. Oh, that's another great call, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that was really where I was getting the John Carpenter vibes from. Also, like just the setting is brilliant, setting's great.
Speaker 1:I mean we don't get a lot of like mountainy woodsy horrors I feel like Every single time that the camera pans to a landscape shot, my eyes are darting around. A few times I did catch the glasses of this woman yeah, of our main cuckoo, of her, of her glasses, her red eyes, the kind of reflection in the woods. And so I was like, okay, and now that I've seen it, once you see it once early. You're gonna going to look every single time.
Speaker 1:So I really enjoyed that too, because not every, not every movie is going to. It might not every horror movie is going to give you like those little Easter eggs in situations like that. Doing them is purposeful as well, because they want you to search the whole frame. But after you've done it and you found something, then the rest of the time you're going to be doing it.
Speaker 2:And you know you're never even really explained. It's time you're going to be doing it, and you know you're never even really explain.
Speaker 1:It's never really even explained what kind of experiments they're doing. Like dan stevens's character has, like the, the empty pool bedroom, such a weird setting as well, just like concrete, really great, like open basement.
Speaker 1:So bizarre um, he does explain it a little bit, and that's another thing where I want to go back and watch right to really talk, to hear him talk about. We're basically taking kids who have been raised by surrogate parents and then their, their surrogate parents are real parents who have not gone through any sort of experiments, and then what we try to do is bring those children back at a certain age and introduce them to their actual parent, and their actual parent is one of these cuckoos yeah, but like we're never told what it would.
Speaker 2:You know how the cuckoos begin? Like what? What is a cuckoo? You know really? I mean it's. It's a human with this supernatural ability and they're controlled.
Speaker 1:And how is a cuckoo conceived? Not to get too anatomical with it Totally.
Speaker 2:And those are thoughts that run through your head while you're watching it and you're like this is batshit crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes, because Hunter Schaefer's dad and her stepmom and listen, just great performances. Costas, costas or whatever his name is yeah, it's incredible. I always, always love him in a film. But they, they have gone to this. They were at this mountain resort for their honeymoon and so you're like okay, is there some sort of weird? Is there orgies happening here? What sort of yes, like infertilization is happening to make these cuckoos? Your mind's just kind of running wild. Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2:And again, it's a little cuckoo while you're watching it. But like you're kind of, if you're at that point, I feel like you're bought in, you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was Jessica Henwick, too Awesome. It took me a minute to realize that it was her as the stepmom. Oh yeah, because she's kind of like playing up in age a little bit, where in the other stuff that I've seen her in, like in the Royal Hotel last year, like she's, you know, a 22-year-old backpacker, sure.
Speaker 1:She's almost like the Hunter Schaefer character in this movie, but I thought she was awesome. Dan Stevens with his little flute reminded me of we'll get to this next week, but it reminded me of Fassbender in Covenant. He's playing his little flute. Just such a funny little, not like weapon, but kind of just like it almost was, because he would use the weapon to to activate the cuckoos right. Um, so goofy. If you haven't seen the movie and you're listening to this podcast, number one, of course, thank you, we love you, you're crazy, but if you have.
Speaker 1:I hope we're doing a good job talking about it, with not spoiling it because it just we sound crazy crazy talking about flutes and these high frequencies. And also, too, what did you think about the Hunter Schafer's, her stepsister, being like a mute who couldn't really hear in the first place? Like, is that because she's a cuckoo, or all cuckoos like that? Was there any part of that that you were trying to decipher? Well, that.
Speaker 2:So that confused me too, because doesn't she leave a phone message on the message machine?
Speaker 1:to hunter shaver. So is she a mute or has?
Speaker 2:she just like, is she just not not?
Speaker 1:talking paul dano and little miss sunshine. Yeah, not talking, she's like Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yeah, good catch. So a little loose end there. But, you know? Yeah, Again, I do kind of wish they dived. When she was on the operating table I was like, show me, what do you do to these people.
Speaker 1:Yes, like how do you make a? The stepsister? Yeah, she was on the operating table, yeah, and she had the whole like head scan device on.
Speaker 2:I was like all right, here we go. We're going to like I thought that was pretty cool. I kind of wish they would have taken it a step further.
Speaker 1:And you know they chose not to which is whatever.
Speaker 1:But, um, yeah, I don't know I, I it's just a really aberrant, strange, weird movie. It is that really worked, yeah, and it's kind of one of those. It's kind of one of those movies. It's not I wouldn't say it's lynchian at all, but in the way that, like I watched lost highway and I watched lost highway maybe 20 times in my life and I'm like I still don't get it I need to watch it again. Maybe that's going to be kind of how cuckoo is, yeah, maybe where there's just always going to be some some things are just going to be better left unexplained, or like they're left unexplained on purpose, the way I felt, the only reason why I didn't rate it higher on my letterbox four out of five stars, though still, you know, to be highly recommended but I feel like it's.
Speaker 1:I feel like tillman singer, the writer, director. He had this vision in mind for, like that final act. He's like here's how I could see everything going, like I got hunter schaefer, I have whoever, I have my main character, and they're all beaten up and they look like this and we're gonna have this showdown between kind of like the mad scientists, and it's going to be, yeah, it's going to be a little bit carpenter-esque. The score is a little synthy. I have all these different moving parts.
Speaker 1:People are running around chasing each other. There's kind of a shootout. How do I get there, though, now? And so, okay, let me start to backtrack, let me put this into play, and what if these are the experiments that they're running? And if, oh, let me do this and let me do that, and so that's just kind of where I'm sure if I listen to some interviews and I maybe catch them on a podcast or something like that, then I can start to hear a little bit more about, like, what the vision is, because I'm sure it all makes sense in his mind, right, yeah, and so I want to get there, I want to get to that point with this movie.
Speaker 2:It makes sense in a couple of people's minds, because it got made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very true. Neon was all in. Once again, shout out to them Go see Cuckoo. Yes, a lot of fun, cuckoo. It's been a lot of fun watching scary movies in general this year, so we've teased it. I feel like Max and I had to go back and we're like did we already do this? No, we haven't done a horror centric episode yet, but it just feels like on every episode we've slipped in, you know. And now here's another great scary movie from 2024.
Speaker 1:This is going to kind of be a banner year for horror films. It started early. It's continued on throughout the summer. We haven't officially entered what is quote-unquote spooky season, when you get a lot of scary movies opening in theaters leading up to Halloween and we know there's still a lot left, like Alien Romulus, we already mentioned coming out next week. Smile 2, see no Evil is getting great marketing right now. It's before every single movie that you go out and see.
Speaker 1:A24 has more films still to come out this year, and so this conversation is not over. But just looking ahead at the schedule, we're going to have a couple more like film centric episodes, depending on what the releases are, and so we were like let's get this out of the way. Now let's talk about our favorite horror movies from this year and just kind of why we think this has been such a good year. The number one thing I did was I went back and looked at 2023 stinker year for horror movies. Not a lot of great stuff out there, so maybe this was like the pendulum swinging back where it was just bound to happen, but it's just funny that we've gotten so many good ones this year. Is there anything that you can really kind of like account that too?
Speaker 2:Uh, I don't know, I don't, I don't really know. I guess maybe my hope is that maybe some of these mid-tier horror movies that we are seeing come out, that they are just getting more. There's just more opportunity for horrors and maybe more filmmakers are leaning towards that genre because of the opportunity there.
Speaker 1:And and the returns right. We talked about it earlier. I mean I think you can get whether it's neon or a 24, some of these other companies. If shutter's going to buy your movie, you know shutter's going to buy your movie after a certain amount of time. Ifc midnight has produced a couple really good films this year. You're absolutely right. That's got to be enticing for filmmakers to say, hey, why not me, why not do some genre work? You look at the great directors of the past. Everybody kind of gets their start in horror. You look at De.
Speaker 1:Palma you look at Coppola, you look at all these guys. They've all done a horror movie. Scorsese's done horror.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean it's. I think we talk about this all the time. It's evergreen, right Like it's, and it is kind of especially from a I think from a filmmaker's perspective.
Speaker 1:It is kind of an easy footing to start in, as far as like story goes right like you need the act structures there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what it, you know what it needs to be, yeah, uh, which I think is great, uh, for a lot of these movies that we're going to talk about. Uh, the first one I want to bring up and I I don't I can't remember if I've already talked about this on on earlier episode, but Infested which is a French film from Sebastian Vanek, who I believe is tabbed to do the next Evil Dead entry after this film. It was a straight-to-streamer. Of course, shudder, I believe it was a straight to streamer. Uh, of course shutter, I believe picked it up. Um, about a group of people trapped in a apartment building in France and there are just deadly fast reproducing growing spiders no thanks and again like horror, especially something like this.
Speaker 2:It's so, it's so simple, right, and spiders are are such a have always been such a like universal fear universal and like core yeah, fear yeah, right, uh, I I saw one in my bathroom the other night and it freaked me out, um to the people out there who are just like yeah, I trap spiders and put them outside.
Speaker 1:I just don't. I could never. I could never. You know how many spiders there are on this planet.
Speaker 2:They will be fine, you can kill a spider you know, I always say that if it weren't for spiders, we'd be knee-high and bugs which is true which is very true. So, so they serve a purpose, but just not in my home.
Speaker 1:You have the entire outside, the entire outside. Why do you need to be in my house?
Speaker 2:Yeah, In fact outside, under a rock, far away from me.
Speaker 1:Guarantee you're going to get more action.
Speaker 2:This French film is a lot like Attack of the Block Cool, uh, remind me a lot of that where again a group of people stuck in an apartment building. Or even even the last evil dead uh, evil dead rise, that came out last year. Uh, I, I like you know when, when we're trapped somewhere, again it goes kind of back John Carpenter does this a lot as well where people are trying to escape an enclosed area and having giant, not like crazy, like eight-legged freak giant, but like dog-sized spiders.
Speaker 1:It's already like five times bigger than they need to be.
Speaker 2:Yeah and I love in this movie they progressively, progressively get bigger. Okay, as, like our, our heroes, you know, get from one checkpoint to the next, uh, and it's just a really fun it's. It's got great energy, very high energy how the?
Speaker 2:spiders, look, spiders, look great. They never. I think there's there's like one. Most of them are in camera Like we are doing practical spiders. There's a lot of like webbing and hiding and whatnot and honestly, that works really well because everyone knows what a spider looks like and so like just to imagine that as a bigger creature.
Speaker 2:I think is really effective in this film. There's one part towards the, towards the end, where they show like a VFX spider, like I'm guessing, where most of the budget went, and it doesn't look great and it does take a little steam out, but at the same time, these things are they're moving so fast, they're, they're jumping, you know there reminds me a lot of like face huggers right, they're moving so fast, they're jumping. Reminds me a lot of Facehuggers, right, cool Back in the 80s. So yeah, I really really loved this movie and give it a watch, and it's international cinema, so it's different in its structure.
Speaker 1:Anyway, right, it's got a different pizzazz to itazz.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not playing by the same rules right, um, and, and the characters are different and the language is is different, and I just the energy of this film is is really what stood out to me.
Speaker 1:First film that I want to recommend is called chime. This is a film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, his film Cure, which is in the Criterion Collection. It's been in the news a lot recently, or just kind of at the forefront of a lot of people's minds recently. I've seen it talked about on Instagram a ton, I think, because so much was made about Long Legs being a lot like Seven or Silence of the Lambs. People were going one step deeper and saying it's really like cure, that's what it's the closest thing to. So curious I was um his name's been out there and then for having this movie out this year as well. I think it's 45 minutes long, so hard to call it a short film, but it's also not a feature-length film. Obviously really intense thriller that would certainly scare a lot of people. Crazy Alex McCullough was sitting there just grinning ear to ear the entire time had a lot of fun with this one.
Speaker 1:It's about a culinary instructor, a guy who runs a cooking class for adults, guy who runs like a cooking class for adults, and he has a student who is basically refusing to take instruction in his class and he is saying that he hears this chime, this sound in class. When he's there, the teacher can't hear it, no one else can hear it, nothing like that. And then one day in class it just kind of snaps Won't spoil too much as to what happens, but shit hits the fan. Um, and then the instructor starts to hear this chime. It's a little bit kind of like cuckoo right when there's this frequency going around. You don't know where it's coming from. What's supernatural, what's not. And with Curira Sowers films a lot of the stuff usually is a little bit supernatural. So the cooking instructor now he's starting to go a little bit mad and things are already just like weird at home, a little bit different. They get weirder. He kind of has his big mental breakdown, has to end up covering some stuff up.
Speaker 1:Great climax in this film. Really good sound design in this film kind of one of my favorite things. I have it. If you look on my letterbox it's way down there with like the concert videos and the document, uh, the documentaries that I've watched this year, just because I'm like I feel weird putting it up there with all the feature length stuff. So it's down at 45 right now, but this is like one of my favorite things that I've watched this year. It's really good, amazing, yeah.
Speaker 2:Where can you watch it?
Speaker 1:Where did I watch this on? I think it was on. It was on Mubi Mubi, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Mubi.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love Mubi dude.
Speaker 2:Well, if Infested is like high energy and running around and yelling. I think the exact opposite of that this year is In a Violent Nature. Okay.
Speaker 1:I think the last time you brought this up you didn't really go in depth about it and I hadn't seen it yet, but have now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the more I thought about this movie, I think, the more I've really kind of liked it. It is slow, it is methodical. It is literally, uh, a chase and rip off walking through the woods, uh, this, this entity, this creature, this, this evil thing just moving. So then it also reminds me of it, follows right where it's just like it's kind of non-stop.
Speaker 2:And you know, I've been thinking, I was thinking about the ending a lot, because the and the ending goes on and on and on and like kind of tenses you up because you keep thinking like he's gonna jump out and and you know, flip the car or something and and our hero is not gonna get away. But again, this movie just at almost at every turn kind of subverts the normal like slasher horror tropes, and also, too, by really cranking up the violence. Some of the kills.
Speaker 1:When you think a scene's going to end, you're like, oh, that's enough. Yeah, no, no we still are going to pull a girl's head through her own stomach.
Speaker 2:Not a lot of kills in this movie, but memorable.
Speaker 1:Very memorable.
Speaker 2:Pulling a girl's head through her own stomach so that she's kissing her back. It's up there, it's uh, with a hook on a chain, is is pretty amazing. Yeah, you don't forget it. Yeah, um, so this movie, I, I, I just think it's a again, it's a great. You know what it's kind of like it's a great idea.
Speaker 1:It's a great premise and it's kind of like a horror movie. Asmr, you, asmr, you just get some chains changing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a screensaver.
Speaker 1:It is Just footsteps through the forest, crunching leaves, crunching sticks, and then you get some screams. You just get everything. You could almost just play this movie, the audio of this movie, in a haunted house. That would be amazing, I think it would work. Yeah, but yeah, really really love in a haunted house. That would be amazing, I think it would work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but yeah, really really love In a Violent Nature. I don't know if it's streaming.
Speaker 1:It might be on Shudder or Prime. Yeah, one of those.
Speaker 2:But also, you know, I know, you know, horror, I think, is like the one genre that like sequels are kind of inevitable.
Speaker 1:This been greenlit for for number two uh, all right. The next film that I want to talk about is low lives. Low lives is. It was bound to happen, max. We finally got it to happen. Hold on, I might. Max and I are doing video on this episode. I'm going to turn on video for this, because I'm here to tell you that Mubi, not Mubi, excuse me. I'm here to tell you that Tubi finally did it Tubi hit us with a Tubi original and it's pretty fun.
Speaker 2:It's solid, it's called.
Speaker 1:Lowlifes, Lowlifes. You want to talk?
Speaker 2:about it? Are they talking about the people who watch their service? I think they're talking, maybe a little bit.
Speaker 1:This is this is called low life, since it's kind of for the low lives of us streamers out there because yeah, I mean you watch 2b, you're getting ads. But you know what? I kind of like that. Yeah, when I get ads on the streaming service, I'm like I grew up in the 90s with cable television. These are commercials. I feel weird calling them ads. They're just commercials. Whatever, that's a conversation for another time. What's wrong?
Speaker 2:with us? What is wrong with us? Those?
Speaker 1:are just commercials.
Speaker 2:People don't know what commercials are anymore.
Speaker 1:You think we got to click a button to skip commercials back in the day. No, I'll watch ads. I don't care To be original low-lifes. Talk about subverting expectations. That's this movie. Super fun film about a family, really well-to-do family, that has their air streamer, their RV, their camper, they're going through.
Speaker 1:I believe it's Oregon, oregon, like they're doing a West Coast trip. Oregon, california, a little bit of Washington maybe gets mentioned. Regardless, you're in the, you're like in the deep woods of the Pacific, northwest, northern California, that area, anyways, um, we meet some, we meet some back country people and of course, what you think is going to happen is some sort of you know, I've seen it a million times wrong turn deliverance type of story. I will just tell you that the people who you think you need to fear in this film are not the people who you need to end up worrying about pulling some crazy stuff. So it's got a lot of your next energy, some ready or not energy where the people who you don't think are going to be okay, they're just fine and and it's a reversal of fortune for for the people who you were like, oh, they're threatening, no, they're in danger actually.
Speaker 1:Um and so really fun movie that ends up kind of taking place at this cabin, sort of farm house out in the woods. Um, that's super easy watch. It's like 90 minutes long, no major stars attached to it. So you kind of get that disconnect where you're not like, okay, well, even though I'm watching kind of this independent film. I'm still looking at someone who I know from 10 different tv shows or whatever the case may be. So really fun movie to just kind of like lose yourself in um and have a good time with. And it's right there waiting for you on tubi.
Speaker 2:that's fantastic low lives, low lives. I'm gonna have to fire that up. Uh, alex, do you like a? You like a creature feature? Always do you like a found footage film? I love a found footage film well, let me interest you in a little movie called frog man I also something else I love.
Speaker 1:I love hearing you say the word frog, frog, yeah, frog man.
Speaker 2:Uh, this hit uh festivals last year, okay, but officially got released, uh, in 2024. So I'm counting it um, yep. Frog man is just like one of the biggest love letters to Blair Witch I think I've ever seen, but also like cherry picks from a bunch of other found footage films, like Cloverleaf, like Willow Cloverfield. Cloverfield. What did I say Cloverleaf? I have pizzas on the line.
Speaker 1:Great pizza here in Tacoma.
Speaker 2:Cloverfield and Willow Creek.
Speaker 1:Wolf Creek, willow Creek, willow creek, the sasquatch found. Oh okay, never seen that. Oh well, you got double feature on your hand then. Okay, um, got letterbox on the desktop right here on the watch list.
Speaker 2:Frogman is. I'm not gonna sit here and say it's, you know, one of the best movies of the year. It's not even one of the best horror movies of the year, but it is something about. Found footage is just so goddamn effective.
Speaker 1:I love it, like unapologetically.
Speaker 2:They do a great job here where they there's like a story beat where he has a. The our main character has a camcorder, because in the 90s, when he was a kid, he got a glimpse of the frog man he's now being.
Speaker 1:You know he's, he's lived through a student film that you made. Is that what I'm telling you?
Speaker 2:I wish I did. He's lived through 20, 25 years of being made fun of on the internet by these YouTubers and these podcasters who you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is very prescient, this whole film. Huh, Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so it does a great job of like you're switching between a camcorder and an iPhone, so like you've got different aspect ratios, different film grains, which is really fun, because it actually it's smart too because it lets them have a group of people, and but everyone's got a camera, which is very real, right, and so like you're kind of switching between perspectives. We're out in the wood, the backwoods of gosh, I don't even remember. I want to say it's like somewhere kind of south, maybe like Atlanta or somewhere in Georgia.
Speaker 1:Swamps, swamps.
Speaker 2:Near frocks, yeah, in the swamps, but yeah, an amateur filmmaker struggling to turn his passion into a career returns home to Loveland wherever Loveland is Okay, to Loveland wherever Loveland is with friends determined to obtain irrefutable proof that the cryptid legend of Frogman exists.
Speaker 2:We're meeting townsfolk, we are searching for a creature in the woods, we are lost in the woods. There's also like a cult underlying thing going on um this movie like really just kind of like goes for it and there's some. There's some pretty good visual effects in camera that we're dealing with and I don't know frogs I've never really scared me, sure, but but I, I love, I love a good cryptid story.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And uh, frog man does it so well, and and again, found footage is just so accessible to watch. Um, I don't know what it is, and you know we were kind of talking about this on the Shyamalan episode. Like, it is just a really easy way to get someone hooked into a movie. Yep, um, and so I, I please go watch frogman. It's out there, you know. You can rent it on amazon apple, I'm sure, um, but go go find frogman. It's a cool, like 120 minutes maybe that's two hours.
Speaker 1:No, it's long for you is that.
Speaker 2:Is that right?
Speaker 1:no uh, maybe like 80 minutes, like an hour, 20, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's, yeah, it's 80 minutes on the dot excuse me, perfect yeah um, yeah, so it is.
Speaker 2:it is an easy watch and, uh, you know, pretty fucking enjoyable. That's really cool and good scares.
Speaker 1:All right, the next film that I'm happy to have finally crossed off my watch list for 2024, this was one of the big horror films that I was waiting on. It's called the Devil's Bath and this is the latest film from Veronica Franz and Severine Filat, who I think most people are most familiar with because they did the original goodnight mommy, which got a lot of praise within the horror community five or so years ago, not the amazon prime original remake with naomi watts. And then this filmmaking duo also did the lodge, a film that I know has been covered over on Silver Screams podcast, because I was on that episode because it stars my girl, riley Keough.
Speaker 1:So this is their latest film. Really fun, not fun, it's a depressing movie. Really welcomed return to folk horror, which I feel like a lot of people were fatigued on back. I would say, maybe around the turn of the decade, 2020, 2021-ish because A24 had really come on the scene. The witch is everywhere. Right, you're starting to get more films that are kind of like oh, we'll just set our horror film in colonial times or medieval times or whatever the case may be, 1700s, 1800s. We'll introduce some supernatural, supernatural maybe, some demonic elements and let's kind of go with that. You know, evil livestock there's so many different funny little like memes out there, um, that they kind of like pick at this trope that I feel like it's sort of died down now and so this is the right time for it to come back. Two years ago was the last time I think this was done really well, and that was with the film you won't be alone. That movie stayed in my top 10 that entire year. Love that movie. So another recommendation for that film.
Speaker 1:But the devil's bath takes place in 1750. You're in the German wilderness, the German countryside, in a small community where a woman has married a man. The man is in control of a little bit of property. He's got a good family, kind of an overbearing mother-in-law though, for this new bride, and so you're already sort of feeling like she's maybe being forced into this relationship a little bit. And then you come to find out through some nice subtleties in the filmmaking that, like her husband is, he's a little sexually frustrated with her and perhaps struggling with his own identity a little bit. So an interesting concept again for the times in which we're at all these little things. So she's feeling like she's sort of less than as a wife. Mother-in-law is not making her feel great. She's been taken out of her family's home. She's in this new area and depression starts to set in. And of course, back in 1750 in Germany, anywhere in the world we didn't have a word for depression. We had things like she's in the devil's bath. That's really what the devil's bath is code for in this film.
Speaker 1:The movie starts out with a bang with another woman who's clearly experiencing some depression, some postpartum depression, and it's a wild scene, just like I'll let you know. This movie starts out crazy, um, but then the the way that we slowly turn up the heat on on agnes that's our main character here and really see her spiral into into a little bit of madness mostly sadness, though is really well done, like it's we're talking about here on this horror episode, because if you're going to rent this movie in a video store you'd put it in the horror section. It's got a name like the devil's bath. Some of the imagery in it is pretty upsetting at times, but it is just like so melancholy and really slow. It's two hours long, so it's a bit of a lengthy film, but just a really good, well-made movie with like incredible craft. Like you feel like you're in 1750s, in in the 1750s. The costume, the, the subtle music choices, um, everything, just like the way you can. It's like while watching the film you can smell the way that people had to smell all these little things that you're like that would drive me crazy too, or like if I was depressed, like I would just feel like there's no way I could get out of this.
Speaker 1:So a really good movie that didn't quite live up to the hype is being one of the scariest of the year because, like if you're doing your own research on the side, if you're listening to this pod and then you're gonna, you know, type in to whatever you're gonna search on best horror movies of the year. You're gonna see the devil's bath, because that's how I came across it. This is not scary in the way that, like some scenes in the first omen, or like, for me, long legs, like in a way that those movies are scary. This is just unsettling. It's. It's made to make you feel your emotions and just like understand that horror can purely be psychological and that's what this movie is really good at doing. So, happy to finally watch it, can recommend it, but not for people who want to watch like a fun popcorn scary movie like go watch abigail, or go watch tarot.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give another little plug for tarot. There's other movies that you can go out there and like have fun with. This is a much more serious approach.
Speaker 2:Well, it sounds like a perfect double feature with my, my final film that I'm going to talk about, which is one that was on my. I think it was on my most anticipated uh list when we did that episode back in March or January, whenever that was Um and that is handling the undead. Okay, uh, this is directed by Thea, his 10 doll, his Vendal, I think that's. I apologize, um, it's uh, I think that's.
Speaker 1:I apologize. I think that's an apology. I think that's an apology.
Speaker 2:It stars the actress from Worst Person in the World, who is a great performer. Again, though, going into this with a, it's got a great poster where it's like Handling the Undead it's got a great poster where it's like handling the undead.
Speaker 2:It's an upside-down cross and it's our main actress looking scared. So going in I was like, okay, this is going to be like a Euro zombie flick, like that sounds really interesting. Let's fire this up. It is much more serious and depressing and downtrodden that it it's about. It's about how we deal with with death and and mourning our, our dead loved ones. Uh, one day in this movie, one day, like some of the undead rise, come back to life and come back into you know who their families lives and and they kind of have to figure out you know what they are and and what they are, who they are and what they want. The undead they're very much just like breathing corpses, like they're not. They're not zombies trying to eat people. They're not. It's not played for laughs at all. It's a very serious movie. It's a little slow, um, but it's again.
Speaker 2:The craft behind it is is really well done. There's great cinematography. The the script is sparse, but like in the kind of the best way where it is a lot of just acting with mannerisms and physical emotion, so kind of a different speed or a different flavor of horror. I don't even know if you would call it a horror. It's much more of just a, just a drama like a trauma drama, um, but uh, kind of an interesting take. Just create a new subgenre. I think I did. I think I did trauma drama, um, and uh, yeah, uh. So I think you know, if you, if you're out of all the other recommendations to watch and you need to fire something up, uh, give this one a watch. Um, you might take a nap during it, but oh well uh, the last one I'm going to talk in depth about.
Speaker 1:I don't. It'd be really hard to fall asleep during this film. Um, and now I know you started it and maybe you just started it too later. You had something else to do. But I gotta give one more plug for stop motion yeah, how much of stop motion did you get through?
Speaker 2:I am so the the little girls involved. Okay, great we're. We're using meat yeah, oh, you're in, you're in the thing, yeah yeah, and and to be fair, I wasn't falling asleep or anything this movie, movie, fucking rocks.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I just I was like I need to, you know, give it my full attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can't lock in right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, can't lock in right now. Yeah, okay, fair, the first half of this movie is fantastic. I can't wait to see where it goes. The stop motion is amazing.
Speaker 1:This is what I'm saying. I know our guy, matthew Rush, said the same thing when we talked about it a little bit. But this is like a two-for-one special. You get an amazing stop-motion film inside an amazing body horror, terror story, yeah, where a little bit of trauma, drama too, with the mom in this movie. But my goodness, stop motion just it's an ifc original film I believe it's on shutter right now just goes so hard.
Speaker 1:Like this movie is for the sickos. It is so gross and you is impossible not to wince while watching this movie. But in a way that is not like, say, maybe some of the kills in in a violent nature, yeah, where, like, this movie is fascinating in how gross it is and how cool it is. You're, you're admiring the craft and I feel like in, even in, even in, maybe something as quote, unquote, highbrow, as like Hereditary or Midsommar, you're maybe noticing the use of miniatures and kind of the way that maybe someone like Ari Aster or Robert Edgar is like composes his screen and the architect of it, how everything looks or whatever composes his screen and the architect of it, all, the you know how everything looks or whatever.
Speaker 1:But in stop motion you're literally just watching, like this visceral stuff and you are in awe of it, of how cool it it all looks and so I think stop motion is just like such a unique movie when I actually take a step back and think about recent horror films that have come out like nothing's done this right. This was a really original movie and so for me I mean, looking at my list right now it's 22 on the year and I have some other horror films that I'm going to go through here but when I re-watched this like I should, I could probably put this above a quiet place day one, you know like just for sheer excitement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a quiet place in originality, right like a quiet place, day one, you know, like just for sheer excitement. Yeah, like a quiet place in originality right like a quiet place.
Speaker 1:Day one is operating on a different scale than stop motion is stop motion is more impressive, honestly, with what it, with what it's doing. So just one more plug for that film. But now what I want to do because I know that these, like these were some deep cuts that we talked about but just to sort of go through everything that's on my list here and I'll just some like a quick little, like hot or cold read from you, because this is really why we wanted to do this episode right now, because here's everything that's come out so far this year. So, like the bottom of my list, I have night swim, we're out on night swim. I have Night Swim, we're out on Night Swim, but Night Swim is fun. Yeah, I saw the TV glow, trauma drama, trauma drama. But you ran it in the horror section. Right, good movie. Yep, monkey man, action thriller, not really horror, but it plays in the same league. Okay, I think, maybe Low Lifes there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we talked about it already. Tarot Again. Let me tell you if you have a young family, if you grew up in the 90s and you were a fan of Urban Legend, if you were a fan of the first Scream movie, if you understand that just a group of teenagers who have found themselves in some trouble and are going to end up getting picked off one by one is like kind of a bread and butter type recipe for horror and you want to have fun with the pg-13 movie that has some pretty creepy creatures in it. Watch tarot, yeah. Yeah, no one talked about tarot when it came out. Tarot's fun. I think that damsel the millie, bobby brown, sci-fi horror okay on netflix.
Speaker 1:Really good creature stuff with the dragon. Okay, it's a thriller, it's a revenge story. Has a lot of the same trappings as some of my favorite horror movies. Good movie abigail. I think everyone knows at this point how much fun abigail is under paris shark movie yeah yeah, came out of france a couple of ago.
Speaker 1:Really funny that that was released before the Olympics, when you have people swimming in the Serene River and in this film you got sharks swimming in it, so fun movie there, really good. One Late Night with the Devil, which we've talked about before on this episode. And now we're starting to get into like the top 20 of the year for me A Quiet Place Day, one Trap. Yeah, get into like the top 20 right um of the year for me a quiet place day one trap. Yeah. Now we got cuckoo. Yep, immaculate. Yep. Maxine I've loved maxine. I think the beast when we talked about the beast a little bit, the back end of that movie plays like a home invasion type horror film yeah trauma drama for sure trauma drama film, and then you get to like my top five of the year.
Speaker 1:Two out of the five spots taken up by horror films, I got long legs at five. I'm gonna defend long legs until the day I die. Yep, then, perhaps the best movie of the year outside of challenger's dune, and maybe a handful of other things depend on your personal taste first we'd get to it the first element. What more can, can we say?
Speaker 2:we've been singing this movie's praises all year long, in fact, every single time I see my mom she she's just like you really love that omen movie. All you talk about on your podcast these days that omen movie.
Speaker 1:Shout out mary. It's the first omen. Okay, shout out respect mom Mary. It's the first Omen. Okay, shout out, mary, respect. On. Shout out Nell, tiger Free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man she's. I cannot wait to see what she does next. So this is out on physical.
Speaker 1:now we have to get a copy before it's unavailable, because I don't know how long the Blu-ray of this film actually will be available. This is the first physical and now this is. I was reading all kinds of stuff on the blu-raycom forums about this because people didn't know if this was going to happen. This was the first time that a film that was distributed by 20th Century Fox under the new Disney banner this was the first time one of their films went to physical really.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's frightening, a little bit frightening, and so people, and it took a long time like this was out of theaters and on hulu.
Speaker 1:like as soon as it came out of theaters it went on to hulu after after a month or something like that. And then people were just like are we going to get a physical copy of this? Is it going to be 4K? What's it going to look like? Is some boutique people? And then people are like, no, no boutique dealer is going to be able to touch it because it's owned by 20th Century and so you'd have to pay a boatload of money to get those rights away from Disney, pay a boatload of money to get those rights away from disney, and then it's a funky looking release, but it is like a legit blu-ray copy. Okay, I think it's like 30 on amazon, but like I'm willing to get it so that I can just have it, because if that disappears off of hulu, like what do?
Speaker 2:we do. It's gone kind of crazy that the mouse owns alien, that owns the future of Alien and the Omen.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I'm saying this, but shout out to the mouse for putting this out there.
Speaker 2:Well, keep doing it, keep doing it.
Speaker 1:Just people watch the First Omen, so we can stop talking about it, somebody get in our DMs, send us an an email, leave us a comment on this instagram post and just be like I watched it, I liked it. Or text me literally at this point I'm ready to just I more people. No one's done this yet. We've talked about it on every episode. I need more people to see this movie yeah, it's still.
Speaker 2:Uh, if it's not number one, it's, I think it's still number two.
Speaker 1:You have a number two behind dune. I checked today just to see where it's. It's just yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:I think it's still number two you have a number two behind you. I talked today just to see where it's. It's just yeah, it's. It's such a thrill all the way through and just so craft like everything. Just the way it's crafted is I'm like is it a five-star movie?
Speaker 1:just amazing it's like it's insane how good it is yeah, it really is no business being as good as it is, if it wasn't for the ending.
Speaker 2:Just that last 10 seconds.
Speaker 1:So good. Okay, so that's going to do it for us in this week's episode. Join us next week as we discuss another big one. We've already talked about it Alien Romulus. The release of Romulus gives us an opportunity to revisit, perhaps, maybe max and i's most shared favorite franchise yeah, I think, so, yeah, I I think. Yeah, the alien series is kind of where you and I really like bridge the venn diagram has a huge yeah, the gap right there or a huge overlap in the middle, like it's very creature feature.
Speaker 2:It's very sicko, it's very uh the sign, the sci-fi lore yeah, it's the science fiction of it all amount that, like I can handle yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's franchise ip so terrifying, like the wonderful world of xenomorphs it's perfect there's. There's nothing better than the xenomorph. I don't think in in movie.
Speaker 1:You know movie history it is like the perfect mech, the perfect. What are they? I think in it's either in prometheus or something like that, but like they're, like, it's the perfect organism yeah, that's what david calls it yeah it's a killing machine.
Speaker 1:That's the best part about it. Thank you, hr geiger. So yeah, so I cannot wait to just the next week. It's gonna be machine. That's the best part about it. Thank you, hr Geiger. So yeah, so I cannot wait to just the next week. It's going to be slimy, it's going to be stinky. I went back. I was like when was the last time I rewatched Alien? It was about a year ago and my Letterboxd review was just like the Nostromo had to stink, it had to smell so bad.
Speaker 2:I saw whatever release they did in theaters this year Nice, it was fantastic on the big screen.
Speaker 1:Bring some cigarettes, start smoking them Also the original.
Speaker 2:Alien might be one of the most old movies that I've seen on the big screen Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've definitely caught it in theaters before. It's a great one, and I wouldn't be surprised if other places are doing repertory screenings. Yeah, out there right now, maybe not tied to an anniversary, but with the release of alien um, so cannot wait for that again. We want to remind you, um, about garbage night, august 22nd, down at edison square, 7 pm. We're showing the crow the crow. The end of august has the new crow coming out. So I don't think that's trauma drama. I don't think that's horror.
Speaker 2:That's going to be garbage. That's just garbage. That's going to be awesomely bad. I wonder which movie is going to stink more. That would be a great way to we should compare.
Speaker 1:What stinks more? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:What piece of garbage smells worse?
Speaker 1:I have a feeling it's going to be the Bill Skarsgård one, oh, the first one's awesome. We hope you enjoyed the little Instagram reel, the little promo that we made for you guys.
Speaker 2:That was released today on our socials, shout out.
Speaker 1:Sal Shout out, our boy Sal, down at Edison Square for a great job there directing us.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That was a lot of fun, so until next time, please follow Excuse the Intermission on Instagram, maybe watch for some video clips from this episode. Follow the two of us on Letterboxd to track what we are watching between shows, and we will talk to you next time on ETI, where movies still matter.
