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Hello and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast.

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We're your hosts, Matt Levine and Vincent Hannum.

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And we are talking about all of our favorite monster movies, The Good, The Bad, and The

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Downright Campy and asking if they stand the test of time.

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Traditional Kaiju creature features, space invaders, and everything in between, all strange

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beasts are welcome here.

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Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker

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Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients,

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and residential buyers.

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Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services, follow the Zach Pack on social

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media, and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.

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Link in the show notes.

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On December 25th, 1953, a child is born, a virgin birth.

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Tomorrow all civilization will tremble under his almighty power.

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He must be obeyed.

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Who are Moses and Jesus really?

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Accept me no questions.

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Sacrifices to your God are nothing new.

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Are you going to tell me all those people are meant to die?

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Why did you attack all those people?

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God told me to.

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Thank you all so much for hanging out and listening to Camp Kaiju with us.

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Vincent, so good to talk to you again tonight.

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How are you doing?

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I'm good.

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Although I acknowledge it is election night here in the US of A for our international

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listeners, Sweden.

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We know you're out there.

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It's a night here, November 5th.

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Obviously, this recording will drop a couple of weeks from now, so it may be a very different

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world by the time this is hitting your ears.

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But either way, cheers to you, Matt.

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Cheers to democracy.

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I can't think of a better toast on this somewhat nerve wracking evening.

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Cheers to you.

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Cheers to all of our listeners out there.

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Depending on what transpires later tonight, Sweden might be sounding mighty nice in a

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couple of hours for a little permanent relocation, but we'll see what happens.

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I won't suffocate you all with my political views.

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I won't get too much into that, but yeah, we'll see.

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We'll see what happens later this evening.

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Yeah, yeah.

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But this is not a politics podcast.

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It's a monster movie podcast.

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Matt, how are you doing?

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Doing well.

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You know, October is over with, sadly.

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But as we were just saying, you can watch horror movies any time of year.

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It doesn't just have to be October.

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So even though there's like a special thrill to it around Halloween, I'm excited to talk

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more monsters with you, watch more horror movies.

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And you know, there's a lot of good stuff coming out.

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Yeah, excited for all that good stuff.

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It has been nearly a month since our Wolfman episode.

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There's a lot to catch up on.

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Totally.

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But first and foremost, we just want to thank you again for hanging out and listening to

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the podcast.

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Please rate and review wherever you listen.

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You can also send us listener comments at CampKaiju at gmail.com, on our Facebook page

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or our Instagram page at Camp underscore Kaiju.

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If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, leave us a voicemail at 612-470-2612

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telling us about all of your favorite monster movies and memories.

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We can't wait to hear from you.

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Last but not least, please check out our website, CampKaijuPodcast.com for more reviews and

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special content.

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Also, just want to mention that we have some awesome merchandise at CampKaiju.threadless.com,

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some sweet t-shirts, some stickers, some other fun stuff on there.

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You can also become a patron at patreon.com slash CampKaiju for discounts, priority comments

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and access to any live events, which hopefully we will be having in early 2025.

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More to come on that.

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I would love to get that train going again.

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And real quick before I forget, Matt, on CampKaiju.threadless.com, there is a t-shirt featuring the films, the horror

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films of James Whale, which I have put on the shop.

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So if you want a free shirt, let me know.

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I'll order that for you.

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Oh, man.

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I did not know that there was a James Whale t-shirt in the works.

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He's one of my favorites and I absolutely would love a free one.

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Or I mean, you know, I may be a member of the podcast, but I still want to support it.

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So I'd be happy to pay.

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But if I have the Inside Connections here, I would love a free James Whale t-shirt.

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There you go.

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Other Inside Connections patrons, let us know.

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We're happy to give you something.

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Just a token of our generosity here.

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It's Thanksgiving time.

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It's the holiday season.

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We're working on some end of season four announcements.

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Maybe we'll have a holiday party that we'll invite patrons to, like a Zoom happy hour

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type thing.

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So thank you for your support and stay tuned.

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Indeed.

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And on that subject, we do just want to thank our patrons at Patreon.

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So thank you once again to Jason, Chris, Sean, our anonymous patron, and Peggy.

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We really appreciate you.

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Yeah.

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So what has happened since our last recording?

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Halloween happened.

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Happy belated Halloween.

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Did you have a costume this year?

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You know what?

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We did not go trick or treating just because Ada is 11 months old, but we did have a fun

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little photo session in our house.

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She has a cute little bear costume.

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And the moment we put it on her, I thought she was the gremlin from the episode Terror

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at 20,000 feet from the Twilight Zone.

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The William Shatner one.

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And so I just dressed up in a suit and tie and we took some photos recreating some of

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the shots from that episode.

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That's amazing.

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I cannot wait to see those, man.

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It sounds like that was kind of an unintentional costume.

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She just happened to look like the gremlin from the Twilight Zone.

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She's a lot cuter than that gremlin, but no less terrifying.

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Yeah.

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And, you know, honestly, I find that gremlin kind of cute from the Twilight Zone.

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But Ada's, you know, regardless, a million times cuter, but got to love that gremlin.

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That's awesome.

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I think I'll maybe I think I'll share that photo maybe on our on our Patreon page just

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as an exclusive for our members there.

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That's awesome.

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I can't wait to see it.

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How about you?

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How was your Halloween?

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It was good.

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Watched a lot of horror movies.

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I did not really do a costume this year.

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I kind of slacked off a little bit, but it was good.

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I watched a movie on Halloween night called Angst, which is an Austrian horror movie.

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It's not fun.

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It's extremely disturbing and bleak.

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And I, you know, maybe could have chosen some more uplifting Halloween fare, but it's great.

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I mean, it's very it's scary.

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It's disturbing.

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Like I said, the camera works incredible.

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So highly recommended.

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But yeah, I watched Angst and right around the same time, I tried to catch up on some

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classic horror movies.

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So I watched the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, finally rewatched Creature

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from the Black Lagoon from beginning to end, which I hadn't seen in like 30 years, probably

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when I was a kid.

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Dawn of the Dead.

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Finally saw that one.

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The second movie in the Living Dead series.

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So yeah, just a lot of good horror movies.

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That's awesome.

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I would love to hear your thoughts on those.

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There's not enough time, people on our program, but maybe future episodes.

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Totally.

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And maybe some reviews on our website, too.

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So keep an eye out for those.

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There you go.

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There you go.

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We have a website.

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Which we perhaps could do a better job of promoting.

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I'm putting that on me.

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But I you know, it is there.

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So check it out if you if you want to read some more reviews up there.

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I watched some.

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I watched a ton of movies, but just some some quick ones that stand out.

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I got through number five of the Nightmare on Elm Street series.

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I have a lot of thoughts maybe on a future episode.

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We talk about those films.

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Yeah, I'm currently working my way through Universal's original Invisible Man series.

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And I watched some Larry Cohen movies, including not just God Told Me To, but Q, The Winged

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Serpent and It's Alive.

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So that's a great.

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Oh, sorry.

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No, we're definitely going to talk more about Cohen's filmography on this episode.

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Indeed.

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Yeah.

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God Told Me To is the movie, the highlight movie that we'll be talking on talking about

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on this episode.

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So definitely a lot more to come on that and about Larry Cohen in general.

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Excited to talk about him for sure.

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Some news in the world of monster movies.

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First of all, I just want to say RIP to Terri Gar.

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Of course, she wasn't just in monster movies.

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She was in a lot of great movies over the years.

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Tootsie, for example, Hair.

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She was sorry, Head is actually the movie I was thinking of.

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The monster movie I was thinking of, Young Frankenstein, my favorite Mel Brooks movie.

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She's incredible in that.

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She's so funny, one of a kind.

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So rest in peace to Terri Gar.

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That film is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

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Amazing.

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And I mean, you know, this seems like an obvious thing to say, it's just not dated at all.

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It's still like as funny as ever.

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Like one of my favorite comedies of all time, Young Frankenstein.

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Yep.

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And like a week before Terri Gar died, I saw that Paul Morrissey died, the avant-garde

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director who worked with Andy Warhol on a movie we featured, Flesh for Frankenstein.

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But there was also a Dracula movie in there as well.

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So yeah, another creative legend in his own way.

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Rest in peace, Paul Morrissey.

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Yeah, I feel like the news of his passing was kind of overshadowed a little bit.

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You know, there have been some unfortunate, obviously, celebrity deaths recently and maybe

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was kind of overshadowed by some others.

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But I love Flesh for Frankenstein.

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That was so much fun talking to you and Frank Olsen about that.

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The other, you know, the Blood for Dracula movie that you just referenced, I don't love

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quite as much.

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But I mean, it's a great double feature.

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So Paul Morrissey made some of the sleaziest horror movies in the 1970s.

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Rest in peace.

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So many great monster movies have come out around this time in the history of cinema.

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So I just want to shout out Seed of Chucky from November 2004.

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I really love the Chucky movies, especially the later ones like Bride of Chucky and Seed

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of Chucky.

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I think by that point in the series, they were fully leaning into their, you know, the comedy

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aspects, just how over the top they are, even a little bit of satire in there.

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Seed of Chucky is not really scary, but it's really funny and it's a surprisingly great

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family dysfunction movie.

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So that's that's my recommendation.

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Seed of Chucky came out around this time 20 years ago.

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That's actually my next like tent pole slasher franchise I want to cover.

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Last year I did Friday the 13th.

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This year was Nightmare on Elm Street.

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I think next year I'm going to do the Chucky movies.

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That's awesome.

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I you know, the first one's really good.

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The second and third ones are pretty bad, but then they pick back up after that and

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they get really great.

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So I think you're going to like them.

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I love it.

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Of course, I plan out what movies I'm watching a year from now.

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We have to as a true film lover does.

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It takes planning, y'all.

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My pick is a movie I actually just watched in October for the first time.

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Interview with a Vampire from November 1994.

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This is adapted from the Anne Rice novel from the 70s.

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It stars Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt as two vampires.

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Louisiana pageant vampires.

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And this movie is campy as all get out.

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It is extremely queer, which is is unique for its time period in the early 90s.

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It's a strength of the movie, but how it handles those themes is wildly over the top at times.

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I loved it.

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I would recommend it for any of the any of you interested in such a film.

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I should rewatch that one.

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It's been a long time.

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I did just read Anne Rice's book for the first time about a year ago, and it would be interesting

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to see how the movie and the book measure up.

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The movie also in addition to Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise has Antonio Banderas, Christian

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Slater, Kirsten Dunst.

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Amazing cast in that movie.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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Do you want to talk about upcoming monster movies that come out soon?

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00:13:49,480 --> 00:13:51,480
I just came I just came across the news.

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I've been living under a rock apparently, that a new Predator movie is being released

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next year by Disney, and it is called Badlands.

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It's apparently set in the future.

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The plot details are not widely known, but it is on the release calendar for next year

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directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who did pray the previous film in the series.

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And then just a couple of weeks ago, Toho has greenlit the next Godzilla movie from

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Toho Studios, their follow up to Godzilla Minus One.

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The same director will be leading this one to Kashi Yamazaki.

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So hey, Godzilla cannot be stopped, y'all.

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He is he is the king.

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Yeah, still going strong 70 years later.

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Amazing.

264
00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:43,460
Yeah, 70 years this month.

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So lots of big anniversaries.

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Definitely.

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00:14:47,280 --> 00:14:51,520
That's, that's a good lead in to some of the stuff that we have coming up on Camp Kaiju

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in our upcoming episodes, we'll be talking about Godzilla Minus One just in time for

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for the news of the next movie.

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So excited to talk about that.

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Coming up shortly after that is Attack the Block, a movie I've wanted to see for about

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a decade and haven't watched yet.

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So really looking forward to that.

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Frank Olson will be joining us for that episode.

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Should be a lot of fun.

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And then did you want to mention the other thing coming up on Camp Kaiju as well?

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00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:16,360
Yeah.

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Our next episode that you'll hear after this one is actually a special interview episode

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with author Sean Pryor.

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And he reached he and his team reached out to us to promote his new book called Kaiju

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Unleashed.

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Gorgeously illustrated, takes a lot of stills from a lot of movies.

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00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:45,760
But Sean Pryor gives us the film history of Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah, King Kong,

284
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and Gamera.

285
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I can't wait to see it, man.

286
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It's really detailed and we're excited to talk to Sean.

287
00:15:52,040 --> 00:15:53,040
Absolutely.

288
00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:55,040
And you know, that book, I mean, I'm excited to see it.

289
00:15:55,040 --> 00:15:58,760
I haven't actually seen it yet, but that just sounds like heaven for us, for you and me

290
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,920
and for anybody out there that loves Kaiju movies.

291
00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,360
So really excited to check out that book.

292
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:05,360
Yeah.

293
00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:06,360
So stay tuned, everybody.

294
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It's going to be just a special episode that we're excited to share with you.

295
00:16:10,360 --> 00:16:13,400
So much good stuff coming up on Camp Kaiju.

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Tonight, though, we are going to be talking about God Told Me To, directed by Larry Cohen

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from 1976.

298
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I have to be totally honest.

299
00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:25,960
I brought this movie to the podcast, not really knowing anything about it.

300
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,840
I had seen some Larry Cohen movies before.

301
00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:31,240
I really love It's Alive.

302
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:32,720
I think that movie is great.

303
00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:35,560
I like the stuff, although I think that movie has some flaws.

304
00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:40,760
Recently, just a couple days ago, I watched Cue the Winged Serpent, another Larry Cohen

305
00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:41,760
movie.

306
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I just happened to spot it on a couple of lists of the most underrated horror movies

307
00:16:47,160 --> 00:16:48,160
of all time.

308
00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:49,720
And I was like, oh, this sounds fascinating.

309
00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:53,160
I definitely want to talk about this on Camp Kaiju.

310
00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:54,720
It is not what I thought it would be.

311
00:16:54,720 --> 00:16:58,040
It'll be an interesting conversation tonight.

312
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:01,560
I was watching this movie and again, I had also never heard of it, which is the beauty

313
00:17:01,560 --> 00:17:02,840
of this show.

314
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:09,840
But the whole time I'm watching it, I'm like, I bet Matt loves this movie.

315
00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:14,440
He won't reveal anything, but you know, I'm like, it's messy.

316
00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:16,240
It's confusing.

317
00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:20,040
It's I don't know, all those things that I like to tease you about.

318
00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:22,800
So I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

319
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:28,680
I did not hate this movie as if I may have given you that impression.

320
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:34,920
I do think it is a messy movie, to use your term, but an interesting movie nonetheless.

321
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:39,240
You know, on paper, this sounds like the kind of movie I would like.

322
00:17:39,240 --> 00:17:45,440
In practice, maybe not so much, but we'll get into that shortly here.

323
00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:51,960
As always on Camp Kaiju, you know, if you love this movie, we don't want to, you know,

324
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:53,100
sound too harsh or anything.

325
00:17:53,100 --> 00:17:57,840
So if you however you feel about God told me to, if you're one of the relatively few

326
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,160
people that has seen this movie, I think it's still kind of unknown a little bit.

327
00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,480
But however you feel about it, please feel free to let us know.

328
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:08,780
Give us your opinion on social media, email, voicemail, however you want to reach out.

329
00:18:08,780 --> 00:18:12,640
We would love to hear what you think about God told me to.

330
00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:18,520
It's coming from the deep, dark recesses of the mind of Mel Brooks.

331
00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:20,720
I love him.

332
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:21,720
Young Frankenstein.

333
00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:31,080
This guy means business.

334
00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:34,080
Starring Gene Wilder as Dr. Frankenstein.

335
00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:35,080
That's Frankenstein.

336
00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:38,080
Peter Boyle as the monster.

337
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,400
Marty Feldman as Igor.

338
00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:44,200
My grandfather used to work for your grandfather.

339
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:46,240
I'm sure we'll get along splendidly.

340
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:47,240
Oh.

341
00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:52,360
Forst Leachman as Frau Blucher and Madeline Kahn as Elizabeth.

342
00:18:52,360 --> 00:18:55,360
What do you want to do to me?

343
00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:58,360
I'm not afraid of you.

344
00:18:58,360 --> 00:18:59,880
Kill the monster.

345
00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:01,920
See Mel Brooks, young Frankenstein.

346
00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:04,520
Yes, I think we could all use a good laugh.

347
00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:06,960
But don't see it alone.

348
00:19:06,960 --> 00:19:15,040
Don't miss Young Frankenstein, personally directed by Mel Blazing Saddles Brooks in black

349
00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:16,040
and white.

350
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:17,040
No offense.

351
00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:25,680
The last time, he took a bride.

352
00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:32,080
But this time, in order to become the parents of a human baby, they'll need just the right

353
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,080
woman, Jennifer Tilly.

354
00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:38,440
Production is underway on the new horror flick, Chucky Goes Psycho.

355
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,240
You know, I should have played Aaron Brockovich.

356
00:19:40,240 --> 00:19:44,040
I could have done it without my Wonderbra.

357
00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:48,160
In planned parenthood, timing is everything, so you'll have to hurry.

358
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:51,000
This shouldn't be a problem for you.

359
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:56,200
This fall, Chucky's back and he's delivering us some evil.

360
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:57,200
Come to papa.

361
00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:10,840
What the hell is going on in here?

362
00:20:10,840 --> 00:20:13,320
She came on to me.

363
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:16,800
No wonder her career's in trouble.

364
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:18,440
Seed of Chucky.

365
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,280
That's my boy.

366
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:31,880
For ten centuries, it has waited to be awakened, to be worshipped again like a god, to fill

367
00:20:31,880 --> 00:20:40,480
the skies, to cast its shadow over the earth, to release its fury.

368
00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:53,200
Today in New York City, the winged serpent rises.

369
00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:56,240
The winged serpent rules.

370
00:20:56,240 --> 00:21:00,840
The winged serpent.

371
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:01,840
David Carradine.

372
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:06,520
This thing has been prayed back into existence.

373
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:07,520
Michael Moriarty.

374
00:21:07,520 --> 00:21:11,840
It was big and there was something in it that looked like an egg, but it couldn't have been

375
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:12,840
an egg.

376
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:23,400
There aren't any eggs in here that are that big.

377
00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:27,360
Man against the fantastic flying forces of a lost age.

378
00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:31,480
Do you like saying a prayer?

379
00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:37,680
Man against the winged serpent.

380
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:47,320
Today in New York City, the winged serpent rules.

381
00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:53,960
The legend has come alive.

382
00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:58,680
Before we dive in, if you are new to this movie and you're wondering if you should check

383
00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,680
it out, hey, you should, but what is it about?

384
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:10,000
It's about a New York City cop who is investigating a string of murders and all these killers.

385
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:16,160
What they have in common is that they all claim that quote, God told me to commit these

386
00:22:16,160 --> 00:22:18,160
violent acts.

387
00:22:18,160 --> 00:22:21,320
And the cop, he is a devout Catholic.

388
00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,200
So this like upends his world.

389
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:29,720
And as he is connecting the dots, the mystery is getting deeper and deeper.

390
00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:34,920
And you know, spoilers are not aliens are involved.

391
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,000
There are alien abductions.

392
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,080
Maybe it's the second coming of Christ.

393
00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:40,120
Who knows?

394
00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:47,160
This movie gets weird real quick and it is worth a watch at least once in your life.

395
00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:48,920
Strongly agree with that for sure.

396
00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,840
Even if you know, it's a little frustrating at times.

397
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:54,840
And worth a watch for sure.

398
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:58,800
And you know, like the spoiler alert is like because even aside from the aliens, there's

399
00:22:58,800 --> 00:23:03,000
another plot twist after that involving the main character.

400
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,040
Even if you know the spoilers, this movie will still like boggle the mind.

401
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:09,600
It is so bizarre.

402
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:14,320
But before we get into that too much, let's talk about the writer, director and producer

403
00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:15,840
Larry Cohen.

404
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:22,800
He got his start in television writing for shows like The Invaders and The Fugitive.

405
00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:29,080
He I think in the three films I've seen of his It's Alive, God Told Me To and Q. He brings

406
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:32,160
that sensibility to his screenplays.

407
00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:36,440
There's a very street level, street savvy feel to them.

408
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,040
He's a fan of police procedurals.

409
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:42,120
He's a fan of detectives.

410
00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:48,400
And at least Q and God Told Me To are all about law enforcement trying to solve these

411
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:49,400
crimes.

412
00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,920
And slightly related, I've also been watching a lot of The X-Files lately.

413
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:59,380
So I also am a fan of the supernatural police crime procedural.

414
00:23:59,380 --> 00:24:04,260
So Larry Cohen, he knows how to craft that kind of story.

415
00:24:04,260 --> 00:24:09,040
He also directed a couple of blaxploitation movies in the 70s, Black Caesar and Hell Up

416
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:10,660
and Harlem.

417
00:24:10,660 --> 00:24:14,400
And in the 90s, he began to focus more on writing.

418
00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:22,200
He penned the Maniac Cop series, shout out Naomi Osborne, and Body Snatchers, Cellular,

419
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:29,120
and a movie I saw in the theaters called Phone Booth with Colin Farrell.

420
00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:33,460
And I remember as like a 10 year old really digging that movie.

421
00:24:33,460 --> 00:24:36,040
And here I come to find out it's Larry Cohen.

422
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:38,400
So my life just came full circle here.

423
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,600
Yeah, it's cool.

424
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,160
He wrote the script for that, I think kind of a long time ago when Phone Booths were

425
00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:45,520
more of a thing.

426
00:24:45,520 --> 00:24:48,920
And by the time they got around to making that movie, like they made it the last phone

427
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:52,960
booth in New York City, which is kind of a fun point in that movie.

428
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:54,560
But yeah, it's a good movie.

429
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:56,640
Like it's directed by Joel Schumacher.

430
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:02,220
It's kind of like a simple B movie setup, but it's really suspenseful, well constructed,

431
00:25:02,220 --> 00:25:06,320
which I actually would not say about some other Larry Cohen screenplays.

432
00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,720
But it's like a very tight narrative construction and phone booth.

433
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,320
So yeah, surprisingly good movie.

434
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:15,000
I haven't seen Cellular, but I've heard similar things about that.

435
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:16,480
It's supposed to be pretty good, too.

436
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:17,480
Yeah.

437
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:20,080
And he only died, I think, in 2019.

438
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:22,800
So not too long ago.

439
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:24,680
Working right up to the end, I think.

440
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,040
Yeah, I think mostly as a writer.

441
00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,520
Yeah, he directed some other movies in the late 80s and early 90s.

442
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:33,560
I think he did a Salem's Lot sequel.

443
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,600
He made a movie called The Ambulance.

444
00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:39,760
And then I think he did like a TV episode of that Masters of Horror series that was

445
00:25:39,760 --> 00:25:41,320
on Showtime a while back.

446
00:25:41,320 --> 00:25:45,040
But towards the end, mostly screenplays that he was working on.

447
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:46,040
I love that.

448
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:47,040
Yeah, one of a kind.

449
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:50,080
It's just a totally unique voice in American horror cinema.

450
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:52,000
Yeah, yeah.

451
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,200
Don't sleep on Larry Cohen, everybody.

452
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,800
Yeah, I mean, I just want to shout out It's Alive one more time.

453
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,480
That's one of my favorite horror movies of the 70s.

454
00:26:00,480 --> 00:26:05,500
And I don't know if you felt the same way, Vincent, but that's just such a powerful movie

455
00:26:05,500 --> 00:26:12,720
about, you know, anxiety over parenthood and just like, you know, what if it goes wrong?

456
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:14,920
What, you know, how do you handle that?

457
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:19,960
Of course, it's kind of like a schlocky monster movie, but there are some adult dramatic themes

458
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:21,320
to that movie, too.

459
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:27,680
No, I first came upon It's Alive in great through the through the horror movie writer

460
00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:29,600
David J. Skal.

461
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:35,320
And he, I think, really wonderfully captured the the essence behind It's Alive.

462
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:42,960
It struck a chord in the early 70s with its themes of these women taking medications and

463
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:48,240
pills and they didn't know what was inside and and the babies coming out deformed.

464
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:50,880
And this was a real scourge.

465
00:26:50,880 --> 00:26:56,800
And Larry Cohen with that film really struck a chord in American society at the time.

466
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:57,800
Absolutely.

467
00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:58,800
Yeah.

468
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,920
And I think, you know, God told me to is trying to do a similar thing.

469
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:06,080
We'll we'll get into whether or not he's successful in just a little bit here.

470
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:07,080
Yeah.

471
00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:08,080
OK, sorry.

472
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:11,560
Thalithomide, thalidomide, thalidomide.

473
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:18,880
The use of thalidomide was a tranquilizer that was marketed to women in the 50s.

474
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:24,880
And it was devastating to to the fetuses of pregnant women.

475
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,200
And these children came out deformed.

476
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,680
So It's Alive kind of taps into that fear.

477
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:33,400
I was not really totally aware of that history.

478
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:37,080
That just makes it even more, you know, unsettling and profound.

479
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:38,080
Yep.

480
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:39,080
Yep.

481
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:40,080
But God told me to.

482
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:41,080
Yeah, God told me to.

483
00:27:41,080 --> 00:27:45,160
I, you know, equally sort of unsettling themes in this movie.

484
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,600
So more to come on that soon.

485
00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:52,480
But just finishing up a little bit with some of the cast and crew of God told me to first,

486
00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:56,880
I just wanted to shout out the music by Frank Cordell, who scored many films in addition

487
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:03,680
to concerto's choral movements, a lot of other music that he composed, really strong soundtrack

488
00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:05,440
in God told me to.

489
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:09,840
It's an interesting backstory, though, because Bernard Herrmann, the great composer who scored

490
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:15,140
so many of Alfred Hitchcock's movies, was supposed to do the music for God told me to.

491
00:28:15,140 --> 00:28:19,040
He had also done the music for It's Alive, the previous Larry Cohen movie.

492
00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:24,440
The story goes that Bernard Herrmann, he did the soundtrack for Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese

493
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,000
the very day that he finished recording the music for that movie.

494
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:29,080
He met up with Larry Cohen.

495
00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,600
He watched the rough cut of God told me to.

496
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:34,120
He kind of envisioned what the music was going to sound like.

497
00:28:34,120 --> 00:28:38,440
He started putting some thoughts together and he died that very night.

498
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:39,440
Yeah.

499
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,800
So Bernard Herrmann obviously could not do the music for God told me to.

500
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:47,040
And Larry Cohen had to kind of find a replacement at the last moment.

501
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:48,040
Yeah.

502
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,840
Again, Frank Cordell's music is really good here, but you have to kind of wonder what

503
00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:53,960
Bernard Herrmann's score would have sounded like.

504
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:55,720
The film is dedicated to Herrmann.

505
00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,480
I did see that at the end of the credits.

506
00:28:58,480 --> 00:28:59,480
Indeed.

507
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:00,480
Yeah.

508
00:29:00,480 --> 00:29:03,840
And I think, you know, Herrmann and Cohen, I think we're both known for being kind of

509
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,920
difficult to work with, kind of tempestuous personalities, but it sounds like they got

510
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:08,920
along really well.

511
00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:14,240
So, yeah, it's kind of it's touching that this movie is devoted to.

512
00:29:14,240 --> 00:29:17,880
Cinematography in God told me to is by Paul Glickman.

513
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:23,160
I couldn't really find too much information about him, but I think this movie looks good

514
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:25,860
in its grungy, unique sort of way.

515
00:29:25,860 --> 00:29:29,440
Not all the time, but again, we'll talk about that a little bit more later.

516
00:29:29,440 --> 00:29:34,480
So the film was executive produced by Edgar Sherrick and Daniel Blatt.

517
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:38,280
However, both of them insisted that their names be taken off the credits when they saw

518
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,560
the finished version.

519
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:43,560
I don't really know if that's because they thought it was too offensive or they thought

520
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:48,720
it was below their expectations, but in any case, they wanted their names off the credits.

521
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:52,360
I just wanted to talk just very briefly about Edgar Sherrick.

522
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:58,840
He was a longtime TV producer who created ABC's Wide World of Sports in 1961.

523
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:01,040
Kind of an interesting connection.

524
00:30:01,040 --> 00:30:05,720
But then he became a fairly well respected movie producer in the 1970s.

525
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:11,760
He produced Take the Money and Run by Woody Allen, Sleuth, Heartbreak Kid, The Stepford

526
00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:14,760
Wives and White Dog, which is from the early 80s.

527
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:15,880
Really fantastic movie.

528
00:30:15,880 --> 00:30:19,880
So legitimate producer, Edgar Sherrick.

529
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:24,560
His name is not on this movie, but he was behind the scenes for God Told Me To.

530
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:29,240
Talking about the cast a little bit, we have leading this film, Tony LoBianco as Detective

531
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,240
Peter Nicholas.

532
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:35,360
LoBiano just died this year, actually, in June.

533
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:41,160
His career started in the theater and he was in other crime dramas, The 7-Ups and The French

534
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:43,760
Connection and that's where I knew him from.

535
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:47,720
So yeah, that's great.

536
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,120
Edgar totally fits in with this genre.

537
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:51,760
Yeah, for sure.

538
00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:54,440
Deborah Raffin is Peter's girlfriend, Casey.

539
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,440
We have Sandy Dennis, Peter's ex-wife, Martha.

540
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:02,480
Sorry, Matt, if any of these credits, I don't mean to skip over them if you felt strongly

541
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,120
about talking about them.

542
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:05,120
No, not at all.

543
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:10,640
I would want to shout out some movies for the next person on our list, though.

544
00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:11,640
100%.

545
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,280
That is Sylvia Sidney, ladies and gentlemen.

546
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:18,840
She plays Elizabeth Mullen, the woman who is impregnated by an alien and gives birth

547
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:19,840
to Peter.

548
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:23,440
Oh, that's a big twist in the film.

549
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:34,720
Peter, LoBianco, Peter is also the child of an immaculate alien insemination.

550
00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:35,720
Some light stuff there.

551
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:42,080
But anyway, Sylvia Sidney, you immediately know her from Tim Burton's films, Beetlejuice,

552
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:45,360
Mars Attacks, but she also played in movies in the 30s.

553
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:53,160
Hitchcock's Sabotage, Fritz Lang's Fury, You Only Live Once, and a film called Merrily,

554
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:54,720
We All Go to Hell.

555
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:56,880
So I love seeing her in this film.

556
00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:03,040
I didn't realize she was in it, but immediately I leaned forward because she has such a screen

557
00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:07,960
presence even when she's being dramatic and she's very dramatic in this film.

558
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:09,880
Yeah, just captivating.

559
00:32:09,880 --> 00:32:11,480
Yeah, tough role.

560
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:16,320
She's in one scene and she has to do not only a lot of plot exposition, but, you know, I

561
00:32:16,320 --> 00:32:21,480
mean, her character has suffered a very, very brutal traumatizing experience.

562
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:22,880
It's a tough role, tough scene.

563
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:27,760
And she, like you said, she has amazing presence, really incredible in this movie.

564
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:28,760
Yeah.

565
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:30,640
Who else do we have?

566
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:35,600
Rounding out the cast, Richard Lynch as Bernard Phillips, the androgynous alien presence who

567
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,120
compels people to commit murder.

568
00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:47,420
This character is also the child of a, quote, virgin birth whose mother was abducted by

569
00:32:47,420 --> 00:32:48,940
an alien force.

570
00:32:48,940 --> 00:32:55,440
But Richard Lynch, he often played villains thanks in part to his distinct facial scars.

571
00:32:55,440 --> 00:33:01,560
This was a result of a incident in 1967 in which he set himself on fire under the influence

572
00:33:01,560 --> 00:33:02,560
of drugs.

573
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:03,560
Yikes.

574
00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:07,240
He burned over 70% of his body.

575
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:13,360
Honestly, and I'm not being funny, I couldn't tell in this movie because of the way he is

576
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:18,080
lit with that special effect, that glowing special effect.

577
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:22,360
Maybe that was purposeful on the filmmakers part.

578
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:23,640
I don't know.

579
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:27,240
But that either way is unfortunate for Richard Lynch.

580
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:28,240
Yeah.

581
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:29,240
Yeah.

582
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:31,240
We really only see him in glimpses in this movie.

583
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:34,400
And that's, you know, that backstory is kind of an interesting connection.

584
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:39,320
There's just some stuff in this movie about, you know, long haired hippies in the 70s and

585
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:44,440
kind of paranoia, social paranoia over that and like tension between the police force

586
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:48,760
and like, you know, the flower power generation or whatever you want to call it.

587
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:54,360
So I think Richard Lynch was kind of part of that generation a little bit, obviously

588
00:33:54,360 --> 00:33:56,600
in some bad ways and some unfortunate ways.

589
00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:00,520
But just an unexpected kind of real life connection there.

590
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:01,920
Yeah.

591
00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:09,560
So the last credit we have here is Andy Kaufman, who was big at this time as a comedian.

592
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:11,320
But actually, he wasn't quite big at this time.

593
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:14,100
This was his first film role.

594
00:34:14,100 --> 00:34:18,400
He plays the cop who starts shooting people during the St. Patrick's Day parade.

595
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:26,040
I only know Andy Kaufman through like Saturday Night Live references in the 70s and 80s.

596
00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:27,360
But he was popular at the time.

597
00:34:27,360 --> 00:34:31,320
And it's a fun little cameo for people who know who he is.

598
00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:32,320
Yeah.

599
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:37,280
Unexpected little piece of trivia there for Andy Kaufman fans.

600
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:42,160
So getting a little bit into the production backstory of God Told Me To, this was Larry

601
00:34:42,160 --> 00:34:44,840
Cohen's follow up to It's Alive.

602
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:51,040
He was inspired to make this movie by the Bible and in particular by the fact that God

603
00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,920
in Cohen's opinion is the most violent character in literature, like one of the most violent

604
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:56,920
characters.

605
00:34:56,920 --> 00:35:01,440
The story of Abraham being ordered to kill his son, Isaac, is that right?

606
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:02,440
Is that his name?

607
00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:06,800
I have to admit, I'm not super familiar with the Bible, but that was kind of one of the

608
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,560
big inspirations for this movie.

609
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:14,240
Cohen was also inspired by a German book that was popular around this time called Chariots

610
00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:22,280
of the Gods, which is kind of a work of metaphysical sci-fi, maybe nonfiction if you want to give

611
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:24,180
it the benefit of the doubt.

612
00:35:24,180 --> 00:35:29,000
But the book hypothesizes that the technologies and religions of ancient civilizations were

613
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,440
the result of visitations by ancient astronauts who were welcomed as gods.

614
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:39,500
So definitely between the Bible and Chariots of the Gods, we can see how the backstory

615
00:35:39,500 --> 00:35:45,440
of this movie is kind of a weird combination of religious themes, but also alien invasions,

616
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:50,880
which are maybe not alien invasions, but abductions in this kind of alien presence.

617
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:55,280
It's a weird combination that I don't think totally works, but that backstory kind of

618
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:56,520
makes a little more sense.

619
00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:01,520
The film was shot on location in New York City, like many of Larry Cohen's films were.

620
00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:05,900
The lead role was originally supposed to be played by Robert Forster, who I think would

621
00:36:05,900 --> 00:36:09,480
have been great, but he dropped out after several days.

622
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:13,080
He actually cited Larry Cohen's intense directing style.

623
00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,860
Forster said something like, you know, Cohen is one of those guys who just yells at people

624
00:36:16,860 --> 00:36:17,880
on set all the time.

625
00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:22,160
So after a couple of days, Forster was like, I don't think I want to do this, even though

626
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:26,800
he had actually appeared in one of Cohen's plays before called The Nature of the Crime.

627
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:31,040
So after Forster left, Tony LoBianco stepped in.

628
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:35,880
And then Bernard Herrmann, as you said, died right before filming started.

629
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:40,640
Conductor or composer Miklos Roscha passed on doing the score.

630
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:43,920
I've seen this following quote around.

631
00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:50,160
He famously claimed God told me not to and he passed on this film and Frank Cordell signed

632
00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:51,160
on.

633
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:52,160
This is interesting.

634
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:55,880
The alien abduction scenes in which women are sucked up into an alien spacecraft and

635
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:58,640
impregnated by a ball of light.

636
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:06,120
This used stock footage from the British sci fi TV series called Space 1999.

637
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:10,440
Which I really want to see now because that footage in this movie is insane.

638
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:15,760
It looks so strange and like mystifying, bizarre, unsettling.

639
00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:20,280
I don't know exactly what images are taken from this TV series, but I need to track it

640
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:24,760
down because those parts of God told me to are really crazy.

641
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:28,640
Really trippy and visually enthralling.

642
00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:31,560
So it's interesting that that's not even Cohen's footage.

643
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:35,320
It's from a different title entirely.

644
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:36,320
Yeah.

645
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:43,000
There are some other like some cutaway closeups during those scenes to like a vaginal orifice.

646
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:44,400
There's just no other way to say it really.

647
00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:49,440
And like a weird kind of like substance coming out of it, which sounds gross.

648
00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:50,640
You have to see it to believe it.

649
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,240
I would imagine that sentence before.

650
00:37:53,240 --> 00:37:54,240
What's that?

651
00:37:54,240 --> 00:37:55,240
Sorry.

652
00:37:55,240 --> 00:37:56,240
You've never said those words before.

653
00:37:56,240 --> 00:38:00,920
No, no, I probably will never say them again, but who knows?

654
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,640
Unless I'm talking about this movie again.

655
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:04,360
It's very possible.

656
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:08,200
I would imagine that those shots were specially created for God told me to.

657
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:09,200
But who knows?

658
00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:12,840
We'll have to track down Space 1999 and find out.

659
00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:13,840
Yeah.

660
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:18,320
The film was sold to Roger Corman's New World Pictures, which released the film.

661
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:25,160
It did not perform well initially and was re-released under the title Demon.

662
00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:30,200
But apparently this didn't do anything to change its box office fortunes the second

663
00:38:30,200 --> 00:38:31,200
time around.

664
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:36,600
It did get negative reviews upon its first release, Roger Ebert awarded it one star and

665
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:43,960
called it the most confused feature length film I've ever seen.

666
00:38:43,960 --> 00:38:48,160
It has since, however, been celebrated as a cult oddity.

667
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:53,580
Rolling Stone magazine and Time Out both proclaimed it as one of the scariest and most under recognized

668
00:38:53,580 --> 00:38:57,480
horror films ever.

669
00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:03,280
I would say the truth perhaps is in between Roger Ebert's review and this kind of glowing

670
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:07,480
reappraisal, but we'll talk more about that later.

671
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:08,480
I agree.

672
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:09,480
I agree.

673
00:39:09,480 --> 00:39:10,480
Yeah, lots to say later.

674
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,360
We won't front load it here.

675
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,560
We've got to give you all something to stick around for.

676
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:16,800
Exactly.

677
00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:23,480
After this sponsor break from our trusted advertisers, Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach

678
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:28,760
Linder and the Zach Pack powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate,

679
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:33,360
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680
00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:37,720
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services, follow the Zach Pack on social

681
00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:42,000
media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.

682
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,080
Link in the show notes.

683
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:49,040
Before we get back to God Told Me To, Vincent, do we have anything in Minya's mailbox today?

684
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:56,360
Yeah, we have an email from Kaiju Nick, who, if you remember, emailed us his thoughts on

685
00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:59,560
Godzilla versus Megalon.

686
00:39:59,560 --> 00:40:00,560
So Kaiju Nick, thanks.

687
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:07,320
I'm going to read just a little bit of your email here related to the Wolfman.

688
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:12,920
So he says, Dear Camp Kaiju, like many monster kids my age, my history with this great movie

689
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:19,000
started not with the movie, but with a book about the movie, The Wolfman from the Crestwood

690
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,200
House series of monster books.

691
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:27,420
And then Kaiju Nick is so great, he gives his own breakdown of this book.

692
00:40:27,420 --> 00:40:29,880
He gives us the good, the bad and the campy.

693
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:31,620
I'll just lead with the good.

694
00:40:31,620 --> 00:40:36,360
There are loads of awesome pictures and information in these Crestwood House monster books.

695
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:41,280
Before the days of VCRs, before cable TV and movie channels, young Kaiju Nick's mother

696
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:45,520
would take him to the library for his very important monster research.

697
00:40:45,520 --> 00:40:50,240
The librarian must have thought to herself, why is our monster section always so empty?

698
00:40:50,240 --> 00:40:54,240
Who could be checking out all these monster books?

699
00:40:54,240 --> 00:41:00,400
Yeah, yeah.

700
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,000
I mean, that's so cool, though.

701
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:04,960
Kaiju Nick, thank you so much for sending that in.

702
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:09,840
I you know, I kind of regret getting into monster movies a little bit later in life.

703
00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:14,160
It wasn't, you know, I didn't like devour them when I was a kid, like like you and Kaiju

704
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:16,480
Nick did.

705
00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:17,680
Of course, I love them now.

706
00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:20,320
And I've loved movies in many different ways ever since I was a kid.

707
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:25,060
But it's just so cool to read about, you know, going to a library and like you can't wait

708
00:41:25,060 --> 00:41:26,880
to get your hands on the next monster book.

709
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:27,880
That's so cool.

710
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:28,880
I love it.

711
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:29,880
Yeah.

712
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:34,080
And these Crestwood books, I know what he's talking about just through the buy and buy

713
00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:35,280
on their long out of print.

714
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:41,160
But they are a series from least according to Amazon, the late 70s, early 80s.

715
00:41:41,160 --> 00:41:48,080
And it would just be like one book dedicated to the the movies of King Kong or Creature

716
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:49,080
from the Black Lagoon.

717
00:41:49,080 --> 00:41:54,360
A lot of the all the Universal Classic Monsters are featured.

718
00:41:54,360 --> 00:41:58,320
They're all out of print, like I said, but if you can get your hands on them, maybe in

719
00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:01,280
a thrift store or something, please do so.

720
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:04,740
They're they're just full of pictures and awesome information.

721
00:42:04,740 --> 00:42:11,360
But as Kaiju Nick does say, a lot of this information is inaccurate in these books.

722
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:16,720
OK, again, just we're we're too young to really know this.

723
00:42:16,720 --> 00:42:22,960
But but we do know that before the Internet and it was so easy to fact check people, a

724
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:27,800
lot of these writers were talking about movies that they themselves hadn't even seen.

725
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:34,680
So rumors get passed in on to other writers and slowly becomes fact.

726
00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:38,040
And then people are going off of urban legends and myths.

727
00:42:38,040 --> 00:42:41,440
And now we know many of these things are debunked.

728
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:47,360
But but yeah, what a what a fascinating little journey for monster kids.

729
00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:48,360
For sure.

730
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:49,360
Yeah.

731
00:42:49,360 --> 00:42:53,620
I mean, those books sound like maybe they're great collectors items, but not to be taken

732
00:42:53,620 --> 00:42:55,440
as reference books, perhaps.

733
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:56,440
Yeah, right.

734
00:42:56,440 --> 00:43:04,200
Well, and well, if you know, if anybody out there does get your hands on a I'm sorry,

735
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:05,200
Crestwood, right?

736
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:06,200
Yeah.

737
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:08,400
If you get your hands on one of those books, let us know.

738
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,400
We would love to hear about it.

739
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:13,040
And thanks again to Kaiju Nick for for sending that email.

740
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:14,040
Yeah, thank you.

741
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:15,040
Yeah.

742
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:18,800
Everyone else, send us your thoughts, comments about any of this stuff.

743
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:23,040
We'd love to feature your voices on the show, especially voicemail if you want to give us

744
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:24,240
a call.

745
00:43:24,240 --> 00:43:28,160
But yeah, thanks either way.

746
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:31,520
How Vincent, how's Peter Laurie doing?

747
00:43:31,520 --> 00:43:33,040
He's actually doing really well.

748
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:35,600
I got a note from him.

749
00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:42,320
He sent it through his I guess you can call it his support animal.

750
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:44,480
But he has a friend named Pierre.

751
00:43:44,480 --> 00:43:53,880
Here's a mouse who channels messages back and forth between my office and Peter's recording

752
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,560
booth with little notes tied on to his back.

753
00:43:57,560 --> 00:43:59,760
Pierre's back.

754
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,240
Anyways, Mr. Laurie is doing great.

755
00:44:02,240 --> 00:44:06,920
He sent a message saying he wants to have a friendship with us.

756
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:08,840
He wants to get to know us more.

757
00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:14,160
So maybe at the happy hour at the end of the season, we can we can share a drink with him.

758
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:16,720
OK, yeah, I'm a little nervous about that.

759
00:44:16,720 --> 00:44:19,200
You know, he kind of gives me the creep sometimes.

760
00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,240
But but he's doing a great job with these reviews.

761
00:44:21,240 --> 00:44:23,480
I guess we have to let him out at some point, right?

762
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,920
Yeah, yeah, we have to own up to that.

763
00:44:25,920 --> 00:44:28,600
He's doing he's doing a killer job this week.

764
00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:35,120
He's going to be talking about the 1920 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

765
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,320
Starring Lon Chaney, senior at No, John Barrymore.

766
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:41,200
Oh, how could I have gotten that wrong?

767
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:42,200
You're wrong.

768
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:43,200
All right.

769
00:44:43,200 --> 00:44:47,160
I must have read one of those factually incorrect reference books.

770
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:51,400
That's a Crestwood book.

771
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:56,000
Well, hopefully, you know, Peter Laurie will gain his freedom from the recording booth

772
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,920
and and join us at the at the holiday party soon.

773
00:44:58,920 --> 00:44:59,920
Yeah, stay tuned.

774
00:44:59,920 --> 00:45:01,720
We can work that one out.

775
00:45:01,720 --> 00:45:03,080
Yeah, for sure.

776
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:11,400
Yeah, I will probably still keep my distance, though.

777
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:17,800
Before Karloff and Lugosi stocked the screens, the movies were no less monstrous.

778
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:25,240
These frightful fingers lurked in the expressionist shadows and danced in the macabre moonlight.

779
00:45:25,240 --> 00:45:27,200
Oh, they laughed.

780
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:29,080
They cried.

781
00:45:29,080 --> 00:45:33,800
They fooled the sensibilities of honest, decent folk.

782
00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:40,880
For in the age of silent pictures, these gruesome ghouls nonetheless cried out with a savage

783
00:45:40,880 --> 00:45:45,480
humanity that took the breath from all who witnessed their devilish delights.

784
00:45:45,480 --> 00:45:48,360
We're in the silence.

785
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:55,080
No one can hear you scream.

786
00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:56,880
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

787
00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:59,560
This is your host, Peter Laurie.

788
00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:05,400
Welcome to Silent But Gaitly, where I review monster movies from the silent era.

789
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:12,280
You may know me from such pictures as Invisible Agent and The Comedy of Terror, two comedies

790
00:46:12,280 --> 00:46:17,560
that really showcase how funny and goofy I can be.

791
00:46:17,560 --> 00:46:24,280
Oh, Pierre, you want to hear a joke?

792
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:25,880
Okay.

793
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:31,720
What is Robert Louis Stevenson's favorite childhood game?

794
00:46:31,720 --> 00:46:35,640
Mr. Hide and Seek.

795
00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:44,720
Pierre, when Bela Lugosi hosts this segment, then Bela Lugosi can make his own jokes.

796
00:46:44,720 --> 00:46:53,120
Until then, I have one, two, three more episodes of Silent But Gaitly to go, and then I will

797
00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:55,560
pass the torch to Mr. Lugosi.

798
00:46:55,560 --> 00:47:00,160
Do not cry, my little mouse companion.

799
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:06,280
You must remain among the living and spread the word of underrated horror pictures.

800
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:13,000
And speaking of which, this week on Silent But Gaitly, we are discussing the 1920 adaptation

801
00:47:13,000 --> 00:47:16,640
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

802
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:20,600
This movie stars the legendary John Barrymore.

803
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:26,720
The screenplay is by Clara Barringer, who based her script off the 1887 stage play,

804
00:47:26,720 --> 00:47:34,320
which in turn was based on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll

805
00:47:34,320 --> 00:47:36,440
and Mr. Hyde.

806
00:47:36,440 --> 00:47:40,920
Barringer's take on the story is influenced almost as much by Oscar Wilde's The Picture

807
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:42,320
of Dorian Gray.

808
00:47:42,320 --> 00:47:48,360
Perhaps there are only so many ways to play, old people being corrupted by their own villainous

809
00:47:48,360 --> 00:47:53,840
alter egos made manifest to spiral into murder and madness.

810
00:47:53,840 --> 00:48:00,640
At the time, reticle reception was mixed, but it was a popular movie for Paramount.

811
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:05,400
At one viewing in New York, an over-eager crowd smashed a door and windows trying to

812
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:07,920
get into the cinema.

813
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:13,040
Most of the praise was lavished on Mr. Barrymore, whose transformation into the monstrous Mr.

814
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:17,680
Hyde was achieved through physical contortions and ghastly make-up.

815
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:24,440
Indeed, his appearance was so frightening, the critic for film magazine, Photo Play,

816
00:48:24,440 --> 00:48:29,200
warned that mothers should avoid this movie for the safety of their prenatal health.

817
00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:35,040
This movie's ghastly appeal would inspire Paramount to return to the story in 1931,

818
00:48:35,040 --> 00:48:41,080
when Fredric March played the lead and even won an Oscar for his unhinged insanity.

819
00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:46,960
Nevertheless, John Barrymore's rendition should not be overlooked for fans of monster

820
00:48:46,960 --> 00:48:48,560
movies.

821
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:54,680
Next time on Silent But Deadly, we discuss another deranged dingbat, everyone's favorite

822
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:56,680
hunchback Quasimodo.

823
00:48:56,680 --> 00:49:01,520
In 1923's The Hunchback of Notre Dame was Lon Chaney.

824
00:49:01,520 --> 00:49:07,200
Of course, thank you Pierre for reminding me.

825
00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:12,960
Please, please you let Matthew and Vincent know that I will indeed accept their invitation

826
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:17,120
to join for a happy hour.

827
00:49:17,120 --> 00:49:22,440
Perhaps I will even prepare a short comedic routine for them and their guests.

828
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:44,120
Knock, knock, who goes there?

829
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:47,800
It's alive.

830
00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:48,800
It's alive.

831
00:49:48,800 --> 00:49:49,800
Can you hear me?

832
00:49:49,800 --> 00:49:52,040
It can't be saved, it's gotta die!

833
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:53,040
It's alive.

834
00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:54,040
It's alive.

835
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:58,400
Why are you so anxious to be the one to do it?

836
00:49:58,400 --> 00:49:59,400
It's alive.

837
00:49:59,400 --> 00:50:00,400
Doctor!

838
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:04,280
Stay the time here!

839
00:50:04,280 --> 00:50:05,280
It's alive.

840
00:50:05,280 --> 00:50:12,520
Now, nobody knows how this thing happened.

841
00:50:12,520 --> 00:50:16,560
It's really a matter of speculation and I think perhaps that's for the best.

842
00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:22,320
After all, if we find out that the cause is medication that we manufacture and it was

843
00:50:22,320 --> 00:50:25,120
administered over a long period of time, won't it?

844
00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:29,080
What do your interests recommend?

845
00:50:29,080 --> 00:50:37,600
Absolute destruction of this thing.

846
00:50:37,600 --> 00:50:44,720
Back to God Told Me To, as the title suggests, God Told Me To and the storyline of the movie,

847
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:49,240
religious zealotry obviously is one of the themes of the film.

848
00:50:49,240 --> 00:50:54,040
People committing violence and atrocities in the name of their god or their religion.

849
00:50:54,040 --> 00:50:58,800
There's even a quote in the movie where somebody says, people who are too goddamn religious

850
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,560
make a lot of trouble for everybody.

851
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:05,560
There are a lot of different ways that this theme appears in the movie.

852
00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:12,340
One of the sub-themes of that is the need for faith, especially during difficult emotional

853
00:51:12,340 --> 00:51:17,480
times or different social conditions, the need for faith either in a god or just in

854
00:51:17,480 --> 00:51:23,040
something to believe in, faith in community, faith in social activism, whatever that faith

855
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:24,040
might be.

856
00:51:24,040 --> 00:51:28,040
Peter is a devout Catholic, as we talked about before, so he has this faith.

857
00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:29,680
He has this religious faith.

858
00:51:29,680 --> 00:51:37,080
He's a true believer and that's why when the kind of villainous, sort of Christ-like figure

859
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:44,240
of Bernard Phillips, the androgynous child of an alien being, finds out about Peter,

860
00:51:44,240 --> 00:51:45,240
Peter's not really threatened.

861
00:51:45,240 --> 00:51:48,800
They don't want to, like Bernard does not want to kill Peter because he's a true believer

862
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:51,880
and that makes him too valuable to the cause.

863
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:57,160
This theme is also kind of repeated when Peter leaks the story to the press.

864
00:51:57,160 --> 00:52:02,340
His police superiors tell him that, you know, they should keep this under wraps so they

865
00:52:02,340 --> 00:52:04,440
don't start hysteria.

866
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:05,800
Peter is frustrated by this.

867
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:10,560
He's suspended by the force, so he leaks the story to the press and not surprisingly, mass

868
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:12,760
hysteria does ensue.

869
00:52:12,760 --> 00:52:19,440
Residents of New York City are afraid, they're shocked that all these murders are being committed

870
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:22,760
in the name of God and it leads to riots on the streets.

871
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:28,240
It leads to more violence between the police and protesters.

872
00:52:28,240 --> 00:52:34,460
So there are numerous ways in this movie that religious fanaticism leads to violence.

873
00:52:34,460 --> 00:52:37,080
That's probably the main theme of the movie.

874
00:52:37,080 --> 00:52:43,240
I would argue, however, that like by the time we find out that it's actually not God or

875
00:52:43,240 --> 00:52:46,880
even really anything religious, although you could say that Bernard is a Christ like figure,

876
00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:51,460
like I said, when we find out that it's an alien presence instead of a God like presence,

877
00:52:51,460 --> 00:52:55,480
I feel like that kind of dilutes that theme a little bit.

878
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:56,620
You know what I mean?

879
00:52:56,620 --> 00:52:58,520
The movie's not really about religion anymore.

880
00:52:58,520 --> 00:53:00,520
At that point, it's about aliens.

881
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:03,520
Like it's hard to sort of like balance those two things.

882
00:53:03,520 --> 00:53:05,160
Right, right.

883
00:53:05,160 --> 00:53:10,480
And it is kind of difficult to put into words, but I think that that is related to why I

884
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:17,560
felt a little perplexed, but also underwhelmed by this film.

885
00:53:17,560 --> 00:53:24,800
Just in that the first like those religious themes are so strong.

886
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,280
They're so tight that you're right.

887
00:53:27,280 --> 00:53:36,680
It doesn't, there was a way to blend it more intricately in with the alien abduction idea,

888
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:42,160
because I do like that potential parallel of, and you mentioned this earlier in the podcast,

889
00:53:42,160 --> 00:53:49,080
but exploring the origins of religion as a cosmic force.

890
00:53:49,080 --> 00:53:54,160
I mean, the History Channel's Ancient Aliens loves to talk about this stuff.

891
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:59,440
Like now this stuff is in the, it is talked about a little bit more mainstream than it

892
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:00,440
was in the 70s.

893
00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:07,000
I see where Cohen's going with that theme, but like you say, I don't think, I think it's

894
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:08,360
too disjointed.

895
00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:10,040
Yeah, totally agree with that.

896
00:54:10,040 --> 00:54:16,960
I think if the film had been able to infuse those two themes, you know, like an alien

897
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:23,240
presence and the sort of pervasiveness of religion on this planet, that would have been

898
00:54:23,240 --> 00:54:25,480
really fascinating and effective and powerful.

899
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,960
But, but as it is like halfway through this movie, I was like, wait a minute, is this

900
00:54:28,960 --> 00:54:30,560
a satire of religion?

901
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:32,320
Is it about fanaticism?

902
00:54:32,320 --> 00:54:36,320
Is it an, you know, an alien sci-fi thriller?

903
00:54:36,320 --> 00:54:39,620
Is it one of the other things that we'll talk about in a minute here?

904
00:54:39,620 --> 00:54:41,560
It's just kind of all over the place.

905
00:54:41,560 --> 00:54:46,040
And you're right that sometimes I do like that sense of messiness and the idea, like

906
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:50,320
the sense that like there are so many ideas that the movie can hardly like contain all

907
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:51,400
of them.

908
00:54:51,400 --> 00:54:54,640
But here it's, I would say it's pretty frustrating.

909
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:59,840
It's kind of disappointing that like the movie starts with such a fascinating theme and then

910
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:03,560
in my opinion, kind of abandons it halfway through.

911
00:55:03,560 --> 00:55:12,560
I think where it kind of jumps off the tracks a little bit is when Peter himself gains psychic

912
00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:17,360
abilities, then it's like, oh, now we're having fun with his ability to influence people and

913
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:23,400
get people to hurt people just like the Bernard character, but like, how does that, how does

914
00:55:23,400 --> 00:55:35,260
that choice support this idea of religion as a cosmic divinity or fanaticism?

915
00:55:35,260 --> 00:55:38,000
It just seems like a lark that we go on.

916
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:39,000
Yeah.

917
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:42,160
You know, is, is Peter a Messiah figure now?

918
00:55:42,160 --> 00:55:44,120
Is he a disciple of Bernard?

919
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:45,720
Like where's the tie in?

920
00:55:45,720 --> 00:55:51,280
There's no tie in apparently for me, I guess if it's there, I missed it, but yeah.

921
00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:53,280
No, I agree for sure.

922
00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:59,400
And you know, I do think the theme of faith, which again, Peter represents because he is

923
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:00,400
a true believer.

924
00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:05,040
He's a devout Catholic and that's why he's so troubled by this, by the serial killings

925
00:56:05,040 --> 00:56:06,460
early on in the film.

926
00:56:06,460 --> 00:56:12,080
You know, when we find out that he is one of these alien beings himself, it's not about

927
00:56:12,080 --> 00:56:13,080
faith anymore.

928
00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:16,880
He doesn't have to have faith in anything because he, he himself represents that cosmic

929
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:18,280
force, you know?

930
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:23,440
So you know, I mean, this could have been like a really fascinating analysis of faith

931
00:56:23,440 --> 00:56:27,640
and the need for faith in the modern world, but that's another theme that I think the

932
00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:32,360
film just kind of drops because it goes for this like plot twist instead.

933
00:56:32,360 --> 00:56:33,360
Yeah.

934
00:56:33,360 --> 00:56:38,400
One last thing I want to say about that is, you know, the movie largely depicts religious

935
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:44,640
devotion and to like, to an extreme of fanaticism, but I don't get that from Peter.

936
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:48,220
I just get like the sense he's a good guy trying to make his way in the world.

937
00:56:48,220 --> 00:56:55,200
He has some, some personal demons, but as a religious person, he's just, you know, working,

938
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:56,200
working through it.

939
00:56:56,200 --> 00:57:00,720
So I found him very relatable, kind of an everyman in that sense.

940
00:57:00,720 --> 00:57:07,120
And there's a, there's a exchange in dialogue he has with his superiors on the force and

941
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:12,360
they're trying to keep all this, you know, tamp down the religious aspect tamp down.

942
00:57:12,360 --> 00:57:17,000
And they say to him, people who are too religious make a lot of trouble for others.

943
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:23,920
And I just found that an interesting nugget of prejudice against people who might be more

944
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:27,200
faithful in their religion than others.

945
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:31,240
You know, I can't help but wish that the movie had kind of focused on that tension, which

946
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:36,940
I think in 1976 in New York would have been extremely, you know, urgent.

947
00:57:36,940 --> 00:57:42,480
I guess, like again, a very kind of socially turbulent time where you have like conservative

948
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:47,760
and radical elements kind of like fiercely coming together in big cities, you know?

949
00:57:47,760 --> 00:57:53,660
So yeah, you had this theme of like, you know, the police superiors are kind of anti-religion

950
00:57:53,660 --> 00:57:55,200
to a certain extent.

951
00:57:55,200 --> 00:58:00,000
You have Peter who still has this Catholic upbringing that's very much a part of his

952
00:58:00,000 --> 00:58:01,000
personality.

953
00:58:01,000 --> 00:58:06,720
And that kind of tension could have been really powerful, but I think by the, yeah, at the

954
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,880
point we find out that he himself is one of these like cosmic beings, I think that becomes

955
00:58:10,880 --> 00:58:14,120
less interesting instead of more so in my opinion.

956
00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:15,120
Yeah, yeah.

957
00:58:15,120 --> 00:58:21,120
I mean, he should have like a real crisis of faith almost that isn't there.

958
00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:22,120
Yeah.

959
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:27,560
Because Brian, he'd be almost like, is there a God or is it, are we just worshiping aliens

960
00:58:27,560 --> 00:58:28,560
this whole time?

961
00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:30,760
Like, I feel like his world would unravel.

962
00:58:30,760 --> 00:58:35,960
And maybe it does a little bit, but not to the extent I would have liked to have seen.

963
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:36,960
Totally.

964
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:41,760
I think we, I think we get a sense in that, of that in the scene where he kind of bids

965
00:58:41,760 --> 00:58:46,760
farewell to the two women in his life, his ex-wife and his girlfriend.

966
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:48,560
That is my favorite scene in the movie.

967
00:58:48,560 --> 00:58:51,960
It's really extremely well acted, very well written.

968
00:58:51,960 --> 00:58:54,880
There's like a lot of emotional depth to it.

969
00:58:54,880 --> 00:58:58,240
And at that point I was like, all right, maybe this is going somewhere, you know?

970
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:05,600
Like he is so like, unsure of who or what he is and like unsure of like a cosmic force

971
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:09,720
or pattern or whatever, that he does seem totally lost in that scene.

972
00:59:09,720 --> 00:59:13,000
But then, excuse me, there's still like 20 minutes left in the movie after that.

973
00:59:13,000 --> 00:59:15,200
And it goes way off the deep end after that point.

974
00:59:15,200 --> 00:59:19,880
So I think like maybe there are moments where Cohen tries to get at that, but then he goes

975
00:59:19,880 --> 00:59:25,000
in a different direction and kind of kind of ruins that a little bit, in my opinion.

976
00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:27,080
Maybe not ruins, weakens.

977
00:59:27,080 --> 00:59:28,840
Yeah, waters down.

978
00:59:28,840 --> 00:59:29,840
Yeah, exactly.

979
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:33,280
Well, the biggest one for me, and I see you've got some other notes I'd love to hear your

980
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:42,640
thoughts on, is the, as I saw it, anxiety around unorthodox sexuality.

981
00:59:42,640 --> 00:59:44,440
So in this movie, it's two things.

982
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:46,800
It's the quote virgin births.

983
00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:52,080
And there's a doctor and you know, there's people who don't understand who you don't

984
00:59:52,080 --> 00:59:59,200
or confused by that, but also more predominantly the I don't want to get too hung up on language,

985
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:06,040
but I do want to be conscious of my language here in the movie, they use the word hermaphrodite,

986
01:00:06,040 --> 01:00:08,200
which is dated at this point.

987
01:00:08,200 --> 01:00:14,160
I believe intersex is the generally preferred term for those born with sexual organs of

988
01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:16,140
both male and females.

989
01:00:16,140 --> 01:00:19,480
But the Bernard character is such a person.

990
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:28,720
There's a lot of fear around the Bernard character and the way his intersexuality is portrayed

991
01:00:28,720 --> 01:00:35,800
is interesting to me because I don't think Larry Cohen intended it to be any sort of

992
01:00:35,800 --> 01:00:42,800
prejudice or offensive depiction of such a person.

993
01:00:42,800 --> 01:00:50,280
But with that said, I just can't help but think of like, oh, the monster is an unclassified

994
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:54,200
quote unquote sexual entity.

995
01:00:54,200 --> 01:01:00,280
It's like, I'm not an intersex person, but if I were, I might have opinions about that.

996
01:01:00,280 --> 01:01:01,280
Totally agree.

997
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:02,360
It does not day well at all.

998
01:01:02,360 --> 01:01:07,560
I was going to save some of this for my bad category because it's not the only unfortunate

999
01:01:07,560 --> 01:01:09,360
representation we have in this movie.

1000
01:01:09,360 --> 01:01:16,680
But I do think that the film presents this intersex character as scary or creepy or other,

1001
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:22,400
like just because it does not like abide by these, you know, like binary gender norms.

1002
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:27,160
There's a line in the movie where one of the doctors is saying that as a baby, he couldn't

1003
01:01:27,160 --> 01:01:31,560
tell if Bernard was male, female or something else entirely.

1004
01:01:31,560 --> 01:01:36,840
And that's kind of meant to be like a dun-dun-dun moment in the movie, you know, and it's like,

1005
01:01:36,840 --> 01:01:39,360
oh, that's that does not come off very well.

1006
01:01:39,360 --> 01:01:43,640
Like, and you know, Bernard, it would be one thing if the movie kind of had some sympathy

1007
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:49,040
for Bernard and kind of presented him as this victim because he didn't have a choice.

1008
01:01:49,040 --> 01:01:55,080
Like he was birthed by this alien being and he kind of is a victim himself.

1009
01:01:55,080 --> 01:02:00,000
But the movie kind of does present him as this, if not villainous or evil, then at least

1010
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:04,520
like, you know, otherworldly force.

1011
01:02:04,520 --> 01:02:07,520
And I don't think that's a very good representation.

1012
01:02:07,520 --> 01:02:12,880
But yeah, you're right that that is like a big theme in the movie for sure.

1013
01:02:12,880 --> 01:02:13,880
Yeah.

1014
01:02:13,880 --> 01:02:14,880
Yeah.

1015
01:02:14,880 --> 01:02:17,200
Thanks for saying that a little more articulately than than I.

1016
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:18,920
Oh, I don't know if I did.

1017
01:02:18,920 --> 01:02:23,640
I mean, it's, you know, it's tricky to talk about in this movie because not only was it

1018
01:02:23,640 --> 01:02:29,160
made about 50 years ago, but also it's like, you know, this movie is so messy and so all

1019
01:02:29,160 --> 01:02:30,160
over the place.

1020
01:02:30,160 --> 01:02:32,040
It's like Larry Cohen, what are you trying to say?

1021
01:02:32,040 --> 01:02:36,840
Like, I wish that, you know, I don't always like a movie to like sort of just like give

1022
01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:40,200
you the theme on a silver platter, but I do wish it were a little bit more coherent in

1023
01:02:40,200 --> 01:02:41,200
this case.

1024
01:02:41,200 --> 01:02:42,200
Co-inherent.

1025
01:02:42,200 --> 01:02:43,200
Nice.

1026
01:02:43,200 --> 01:02:52,040
Anything that leads to a bad director pun is all right by me.

1027
01:02:52,040 --> 01:02:55,400
That does kind of lead into what I think is the more effective theme in this movie, which

1028
01:02:55,400 --> 01:02:58,280
is like dysfunctional families in general.

1029
01:02:58,280 --> 01:03:03,320
Pretty much any family relationship in this movie is severely dysfunctional and messed

1030
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:04,320
up.

1031
01:03:04,320 --> 01:03:09,760
You know, you have Peter and his brother, quote unquote, Bernard.

1032
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:13,640
I won't give away like the very end of this movie because it is kind of shocking, but

1033
01:03:13,640 --> 01:03:18,920
like there's a pseudo incestuous kind of like plot twists there.

1034
01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,360
That's very bizarre between those two characters.

1035
01:03:22,360 --> 01:03:27,660
You have Peter and his mother, Elizabeth, who they have an extremely difficult conversation

1036
01:03:27,660 --> 01:03:31,240
in the in the home that she lives in.

1037
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:34,520
Bernard's mother attacks Peter as soon as he tries to interrogate her.

1038
01:03:34,520 --> 01:03:39,180
You have Peter's difficult relationships with his ex-wife, who suffered three miscarriages

1039
01:03:39,180 --> 01:03:44,760
because of him, and with his girlfriend, who he just sort of abandons all of a sudden.

1040
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:50,080
You even have the man who is compelled to kill his wife and his children.

1041
01:03:50,080 --> 01:03:56,200
I mean, every family relationship in this movie is very difficult, to say the least.

1042
01:03:56,200 --> 01:04:01,020
You even have a line where Martha, the ex-wife, says of Peter, he was always frightened of

1043
01:04:01,020 --> 01:04:04,040
having children and irrational fear.

1044
01:04:04,040 --> 01:04:08,120
And the first thing I noticed or thought of is like, oh, that's basically the theme of

1045
01:04:08,120 --> 01:04:09,120
It's Alive.

1046
01:04:09,120 --> 01:04:12,320
Let's carry it forward into this movie.

1047
01:04:12,320 --> 01:04:16,000
And then the second thought was, is that a totally irrational fear?

1048
01:04:16,000 --> 01:04:21,800
It's a wonderful thing to be a parent and a wonderful, amazing, loving thing, but also

1049
01:04:21,800 --> 01:04:24,840
full of anxiety and uncertainty.

1050
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:26,920
Am I going to be a good father and stuff like that?

1051
01:04:26,920 --> 01:04:31,000
So that to me is the more effective theme in this movie.

1052
01:04:31,000 --> 01:04:32,000
Yeah.

1053
01:04:32,000 --> 01:04:38,920
And I think maybe because it does reflect the culture in American life in the 1970s.

1054
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:42,120
Perhaps the fallout of the counterculture of the 60s.

1055
01:04:42,120 --> 01:04:49,000
We had disillusionment in institutions and the family unit, the traditional nuclear family

1056
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:51,800
was falling apart.

1057
01:04:51,800 --> 01:05:00,040
And I think faith in traditional religious institutions were also compromised in that.

1058
01:05:00,040 --> 01:05:08,600
This movie made me think about cults and specifically the Jonestown Massacre, which was 1978.

1059
01:05:08,600 --> 01:05:10,440
So it was after this film.

1060
01:05:10,440 --> 01:05:15,800
But I think that all lives in the same world.

1061
01:05:15,800 --> 01:05:21,640
It also made me think about the son of Sam killings in New York City, where that killer,

1062
01:05:21,640 --> 01:05:30,240
I was just going to say where Sam said, but I'm not going to call him Sam, David Berkowitz.

1063
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:32,040
Good old Sam.

1064
01:05:32,040 --> 01:05:38,200
Where David Berkowitz claimed that, I think it was his dog told him to kill these people.

1065
01:05:38,200 --> 01:05:41,560
Those killings were happening at the time of this movie's making.

1066
01:05:41,560 --> 01:05:45,120
So maybe Cohen was aware of that.

1067
01:05:45,120 --> 01:05:53,520
But whether it's in film or real life events, there was a huge, I think, degradation in

1068
01:05:53,520 --> 01:05:55,320
American life.

1069
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:57,000
Absolutely.

1070
01:05:57,000 --> 01:06:01,080
And I also just wanted to raise the Manson family murders, which, you know, I mean, like

1071
01:06:01,080 --> 01:06:05,440
that kind of, you know, he started his following in like the late 60s.

1072
01:06:05,440 --> 01:06:09,560
So that was definitely a huge scandal at the time as well.

1073
01:06:09,560 --> 01:06:12,920
Maybe not a coincidence that it was called the Manson family, but it was like the most

1074
01:06:12,920 --> 01:06:18,160
like, you know, sorted, twisted family you could possibly have.

1075
01:06:18,160 --> 01:06:19,160
But I think you're totally right.

1076
01:06:19,160 --> 01:06:23,880
I think like at this countercultural moment where, you know, it was at the tail end of

1077
01:06:23,880 --> 01:06:27,560
this kind of, for lack of a better term, I'm just going to say flower power again, like

1078
01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:29,800
the kind of like countercultural movement.

1079
01:06:29,800 --> 01:06:34,560
You had this sense that like everything was breaking down a little bit, that these forms

1080
01:06:34,560 --> 01:06:40,080
of traditional morality could not really be relied on anymore.

1081
01:06:40,080 --> 01:06:42,680
And I think that's what God told me to is getting at.

1082
01:06:42,680 --> 01:06:47,920
And it's extremely messy and like frustrating way.

1083
01:06:47,920 --> 01:06:50,480
Yeah, yeah.

1084
01:06:50,480 --> 01:06:52,480
More to say later.

1085
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:53,480
Totally.

1086
01:06:53,480 --> 01:06:54,480
Yeah.

1087
01:06:54,480 --> 01:06:57,840
I mean, there are a lot of other themes in this movie, too.

1088
01:06:57,840 --> 01:07:03,160
You know, you have anxiety over mass shootings, which, you know, I think had happened a little

1089
01:07:03,160 --> 01:07:08,080
bit like before 1976, but certainly were more prominent afterwards.

1090
01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:13,200
But it kind of in retrospect, like this is it taps into that fear of like how easy it

1091
01:07:13,200 --> 01:07:19,520
is in the United States for zealot or a madman to buy a gun and just take out his, you know,

1092
01:07:19,520 --> 01:07:22,640
carry out his agenda in public or whatever.

1093
01:07:22,640 --> 01:07:25,120
That theme has only become more dire over the years.

1094
01:07:25,120 --> 01:07:29,480
And this movie kind of taps into that in an early stage, I would say.

1095
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:30,480
Yeah.

1096
01:07:30,480 --> 01:07:31,680
Targets came to mind for sure.

1097
01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:34,200
Yeah, that first scene is harrowing.

1098
01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:35,640
That's in my good later on.

1099
01:07:35,640 --> 01:07:40,280
But some really taught thrills in this movie.

1100
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:41,280
Yeah, absolutely.

1101
01:07:41,280 --> 01:07:42,280
Yeah.

1102
01:07:42,280 --> 01:07:43,280
Yeah.

1103
01:07:43,280 --> 01:07:44,280
Cool.

1104
01:07:44,280 --> 01:07:48,000
Well, yeah, let's let's get into our breakdowns then the good, the bad and the campy.

1105
01:07:48,000 --> 01:07:52,080
There's a lot for each category with God told me to.

1106
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:56,000
Do you do you want to start first or should I start with the good stuff?

1107
01:07:56,000 --> 01:07:58,280
Yeah, I'll start just real quick.

1108
01:07:58,280 --> 01:08:01,120
You know, things that stood out to me were we're the beginning.

1109
01:08:01,120 --> 01:08:10,180
The first maybe third of this movie as the killings mount and Peter is looking into them.

1110
01:08:10,180 --> 01:08:12,040
It's a great crime drama.

1111
01:08:12,040 --> 01:08:14,940
A lot of good thrills, a lot of good action.

1112
01:08:14,940 --> 01:08:22,640
The one scene where Peter confronts the father who is just talking about killing his family

1113
01:08:22,640 --> 01:08:23,760
without remorse.

1114
01:08:23,760 --> 01:08:29,600
It's a really haunting monologue delivered so nonchalantly.

1115
01:08:29,600 --> 01:08:36,560
Really terrifying, honestly, when you realize that you don't have to play a killer like

1116
01:08:36,560 --> 01:08:44,280
a big wild haired freak that often in real life, the killers are the unassuming individuals

1117
01:08:44,280 --> 01:08:45,280
in our lives.

1118
01:08:45,280 --> 01:08:49,080
And I was like, oh, that's like I said, haunting.

1119
01:08:49,080 --> 01:08:57,160
Yeah, the abduction sequences, as we talked about, were weird and trippy and and very

1120
01:08:57,160 --> 01:08:58,640
memorable.

1121
01:08:58,640 --> 01:09:00,160
Obvious Sydney rocks.

1122
01:09:00,160 --> 01:09:01,160
Yeah.

1123
01:09:01,160 --> 01:09:05,840
So like there was a lot in the beginning of this movie that really stuck with me.

1124
01:09:05,840 --> 01:09:07,040
Yeah, totally agree.

1125
01:09:07,040 --> 01:09:11,880
The first third to maybe even like the first half of the movie, I was pretty much on board.

1126
01:09:11,880 --> 01:09:13,320
There's a lot that I liked about it.

1127
01:09:13,320 --> 01:09:17,840
There's a lot of there are a lot of twists and turns in that first half of the movie

1128
01:09:17,840 --> 01:09:21,680
that work and then some twists and turns that don't after that.

1129
01:09:21,680 --> 01:09:24,100
But it is very compelling.

1130
01:09:24,100 --> 01:09:29,600
You know, the footage of New York City in 1976 is so vivid and colorful.

1131
01:09:29,600 --> 01:09:33,780
And you really do feel like you're on the sidewalks and on the streets like in this

1132
01:09:33,780 --> 01:09:35,960
city at this time.

1133
01:09:35,960 --> 01:09:37,880
A lot of handheld camera work.

1134
01:09:37,880 --> 01:09:39,560
It just it looks really great.

1135
01:09:39,560 --> 01:09:41,560
You know, it's it was shot on a low budget.

1136
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:43,600
So some scenes maybe don't look so good.

1137
01:09:43,600 --> 01:09:49,680
But but even those kind of add to like the raw, rough aesthetic, which is very effective.

1138
01:09:49,680 --> 01:09:51,840
I think the performances are really great.

1139
01:09:51,840 --> 01:09:56,360
I think Tony Lo Bianco as Peter is very committed.

1140
01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:58,200
You know, he brings a lot of depth to the role.

1141
01:09:58,200 --> 01:10:03,240
Again, a guy who is questioning who he is and like what like.

1142
01:10:03,240 --> 01:10:06,640
At least at first, it seems like his philosophies are just falling apart.

1143
01:10:06,640 --> 01:10:12,260
And I think he does a really good job of conveying that anxiety and then just the wealth of thematic

1144
01:10:12,260 --> 01:10:13,480
material in this movie.

1145
01:10:13,480 --> 01:10:19,740
I think there's some bad stuff about it, which I'll get into soon, but it's extremely ambitious.

1146
01:10:19,740 --> 01:10:24,560
And I think just like the amount the amount of themes that we talked about in the previous

1147
01:10:24,560 --> 01:10:29,040
section are a sign of how complex this movie is.

1148
01:10:29,040 --> 01:10:33,640
And you know, maybe Cohen doesn't stick the landing, but I always appreciate it when filmmakers

1149
01:10:33,640 --> 01:10:36,900
like go for broke, give it all they got.

1150
01:10:36,900 --> 01:10:39,520
And it's better to try and fail than not try at all.

1151
01:10:39,520 --> 01:10:45,240
So there is just like a dizzying amount of ideas and themes in this movie.

1152
01:10:45,240 --> 01:10:46,240
Yeah.

1153
01:10:46,240 --> 01:10:48,600
So this movie is only 90 minutes.

1154
01:10:48,600 --> 01:10:49,600
So you're right.

1155
01:10:49,600 --> 01:10:50,600
I'm all the way through the movie.

1156
01:10:50,600 --> 01:10:51,600
I'm with you.

1157
01:10:51,600 --> 01:10:54,120
But that's like 45 minutes into the film.

1158
01:10:54,120 --> 01:10:58,600
And it was at that point where I was like, you know, I was appreciating the slow burn

1159
01:10:58,600 --> 01:11:04,720
before, but now I feel like time's almost up and I haven't seen anything supernatural.

1160
01:11:04,720 --> 01:11:06,120
Yeah.

1161
01:11:06,120 --> 01:11:13,740
And I went into this movie expecting some sort of other other worldly being.

1162
01:11:13,740 --> 01:11:16,360
So I think the burn is too slow.

1163
01:11:16,360 --> 01:11:28,320
I think especially compared to Q and It's Alive, I think Cohen, I think, you know, should

1164
01:11:28,320 --> 01:11:34,400
he have, I don't know, I think he could have dropped those supernatural seeds earlier and

1165
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:37,880
given us some insight into what's going on.

1166
01:11:37,880 --> 01:11:41,720
There was some, and maybe it's because the film is only 90 minutes.

1167
01:11:41,720 --> 01:11:43,800
I feel like certain moments were rushed.

1168
01:11:43,800 --> 01:11:50,040
I didn't quite make the connection with Peter when he apparently realized he was also an

1169
01:11:50,040 --> 01:11:54,000
alien as he goes to seek out his adoption records.

1170
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:58,320
And at first, it wasn't clear to me that it was his adoption records he was looking for.

1171
01:11:58,320 --> 01:11:59,320
Totally agree.

1172
01:11:59,320 --> 01:12:00,320
Yeah.

1173
01:12:00,320 --> 01:12:03,020
So it was just like, so like, I feel like I just missed some through lines.

1174
01:12:03,020 --> 01:12:06,780
You know, part of it might be on me because I thought this was going to be a monster movie

1175
01:12:06,780 --> 01:12:09,100
and it's probably not really so much.

1176
01:12:09,100 --> 01:12:15,080
So maybe I chose the wrong Larry Cohen movie to bring to the podcast, but I love that you

1177
01:12:15,080 --> 01:12:20,000
did though, because you know what, we can only go up from here talking about It's Alive

1178
01:12:20,000 --> 01:12:23,680
and Q and any others.

1179
01:12:23,680 --> 01:12:24,680
I love this.

1180
01:12:24,680 --> 01:12:28,080
I love that it opened the door for me to see more Larry Cohen movies.

1181
01:12:28,080 --> 01:12:29,080
Yeah.

1182
01:12:29,080 --> 01:12:35,720
Last thing I'll add is I feel like the girlfriend and wife characters and that subplot were

1183
01:12:35,720 --> 01:12:37,320
underutilized for me.

1184
01:12:37,320 --> 01:12:42,600
I didn't have like they were kind of abandoned towards the end of the movie.

1185
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:43,600
Yeah.

1186
01:12:43,600 --> 01:12:47,240
I was like, well, there goes the most interesting characters.

1187
01:12:47,240 --> 01:12:48,800
Yeah.

1188
01:12:48,800 --> 01:12:52,720
You know, we're totally in agreement here.

1189
01:12:52,720 --> 01:12:56,960
Like I said before, that scene where he's like in the midst of his realization of who

1190
01:12:56,960 --> 01:13:01,360
or what he is, and he has to say goodbye to both of them.

1191
01:13:01,360 --> 01:13:02,360
That's a really good scene.

1192
01:13:02,360 --> 01:13:05,800
But then like the rest of the movie, they're kind of just like ancillary characters.

1193
01:13:05,800 --> 01:13:08,520
Yeah, it's disappointing.

1194
01:13:08,520 --> 01:13:10,320
Yeah.

1195
01:13:10,320 --> 01:13:12,320
So I totally agree with everything you said.

1196
01:13:12,320 --> 01:13:17,160
I think like, you know, this movie doesn't really know what it is.

1197
01:13:17,160 --> 01:13:20,720
Like Cohen maybe started with a concept when he wrote the screenplay and just like made

1198
01:13:20,720 --> 01:13:23,380
it up as he went along.

1199
01:13:23,380 --> 01:13:26,680
And it doesn't really hold together because of that.

1200
01:13:26,680 --> 01:13:32,960
I think like the movie's numerous themes, which often are pretty bleak and heavy.

1201
01:13:32,960 --> 01:13:38,520
I mean, you know, the flashbacks of women being forcibly impregnated, like that's extremely

1202
01:13:38,520 --> 01:13:39,520
bleak stuff.

1203
01:13:39,520 --> 01:13:45,040
And that like does not really mesh very well with the crime elements or with the kind of

1204
01:13:45,040 --> 01:13:48,520
fantastic sci fi elements of the story, in my opinion.

1205
01:13:48,520 --> 01:13:51,920
Sometimes you can pull off that combination, but I don't think this movie is really able

1206
01:13:51,920 --> 01:13:53,820
to do that.

1207
01:13:53,820 --> 01:13:57,360
And that kind of leads me to what are my biggest issues with this movie.

1208
01:13:57,360 --> 01:14:02,560
And I do want to say that, like, normally I'm not the kind of person who is like looking

1209
01:14:02,560 --> 01:14:08,840
for what's the word, red flags or like, you know, I'm not trying to like virtue signal

1210
01:14:08,840 --> 01:14:10,000
or anything like that.

1211
01:14:10,000 --> 01:14:12,920
Like I, you know, this movie was made in the 70s.

1212
01:14:12,920 --> 01:14:15,720
Some things about it are not going to date very well.

1213
01:14:15,720 --> 01:14:20,280
But I do think this movie, I would argue, is both transphobic and racist.

1214
01:14:20,280 --> 01:14:22,200
And I know that sounds harsh.

1215
01:14:22,200 --> 01:14:24,320
Like we talked about the transphobia a little bit.

1216
01:14:24,320 --> 01:14:30,740
I do think the Bernard character is supposed to be creepier on settling because, you know,

1217
01:14:30,740 --> 01:14:34,520
their gender is a little bit indeterminate, ambiguous, androgynous.

1218
01:14:34,520 --> 01:14:36,640
That part of it certainly doesn't date very well.

1219
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:41,240
But then we also have this subplot that we haven't even talked about at all yet, where

1220
01:14:41,240 --> 01:14:46,560
one of Peter's fellow cops, who is a black man, seems to be a corrupt cop.

1221
01:14:46,560 --> 01:14:51,040
He does like kind of back table or like under the table dealings with this drug dealer named

1222
01:14:51,040 --> 01:14:52,040
Zero.

1223
01:14:52,040 --> 01:14:57,680
Zero ends up killing this black cop character who I don't think even has a name.

1224
01:14:57,680 --> 01:15:02,240
It's the end of the movie after Peter realizes that he is an alien with psychic powers, goes

1225
01:15:02,240 --> 01:15:08,200
to this kind of pool hall, which seems to be, you know, in the ghetto somewhere.

1226
01:15:08,200 --> 01:15:12,320
I mean, this kind of harkens back to Larry Cohen's first two black exploitation movies,

1227
01:15:12,320 --> 01:15:15,340
Black Caesar and Hell Up in Harlem.

1228
01:15:15,340 --> 01:15:22,560
So Peter goes into this pool hall and he indirectly forces Zero to kill all of his like minions

1229
01:15:22,560 --> 01:15:24,920
or whatever and then kill himself.

1230
01:15:24,920 --> 01:15:29,200
And I feel like the movie is asking us to accept that because first of all, these characters

1231
01:15:29,200 --> 01:15:31,440
are criminals and drug dealers.

1232
01:15:31,440 --> 01:15:34,880
And like, I feel like the movie is asking us to be like, oh, it's okay.

1233
01:15:34,880 --> 01:15:37,200
He can kill all of them like it doesn't matter.

1234
01:15:37,200 --> 01:15:39,160
And of course, they're also characters of color.

1235
01:15:39,160 --> 01:15:43,560
And I feel like, you know, the movie is also asking us to be okay with that, to still have

1236
01:15:43,560 --> 01:15:49,720
some empathy for the Peter character because the characters that he indirectly kills are

1237
01:15:49,720 --> 01:15:52,840
insignificant, not as important.

1238
01:15:52,840 --> 01:15:57,560
I really, really, really hated that ending, partially because of like those stereotypical

1239
01:15:57,560 --> 01:16:04,600
representations, which if not racist, are at least sloppy and unconvincing because we

1240
01:16:04,600 --> 01:16:08,920
do not buy it all that Peter and this black cop character are friends.

1241
01:16:08,920 --> 01:16:13,120
Like the movie has never shown us any kind of connection between them.

1242
01:16:13,120 --> 01:16:17,960
So that was the scene where I was like, I don't think I like this movie.

1243
01:16:17,960 --> 01:16:23,840
Like it's poorly constructed and has some, not just dated, but I would say maybe hateful

1244
01:16:23,840 --> 01:16:26,320
representations.

1245
01:16:26,320 --> 01:16:28,520
And I know, again, that sounds harsh, sounds over the top.

1246
01:16:28,520 --> 01:16:30,960
That's usually not the kind of like judgment that I try to do.

1247
01:16:30,960 --> 01:16:35,120
But yeah, there's a lot in this movie that didn't sit well with me.

1248
01:16:35,120 --> 01:16:37,120
I'm with you 100%.

1249
01:16:37,120 --> 01:16:42,120
At the very least, it's just it's like, again, this is a beat that I'm missing.

1250
01:16:42,120 --> 01:16:43,480
It's a through line.

1251
01:16:43,480 --> 01:16:51,200
The fact that Peter and his black partner are supposed to be close and somehow Peter

1252
01:16:51,200 --> 01:16:56,920
knows about the drug dealer Zero and where to find him.

1253
01:16:56,920 --> 01:17:01,360
It's like, OK, is there a scene missing where all that was laid out?

1254
01:17:01,360 --> 01:17:06,480
You're making me do mental leaps here, Cohen, that you haven't earned.

1255
01:17:06,480 --> 01:17:07,880
Yeah.

1256
01:17:07,880 --> 01:17:10,040
So like that on its surface.

1257
01:17:10,040 --> 01:17:14,920
But like you say, it's coming out of the black exploitation tradition of the 70s.

1258
01:17:14,920 --> 01:17:19,080
We could talk about a white man directing these films.

1259
01:17:19,080 --> 01:17:20,600
But that was the genre at the time.

1260
01:17:20,600 --> 01:17:23,480
For better or for worse.

1261
01:17:23,480 --> 01:17:31,520
But in this movie, and God told me to, it feels obligatory, cliched and not done any

1262
01:17:31,520 --> 01:17:32,520
justice.

1263
01:17:32,520 --> 01:17:34,000
I just don't buy it.

1264
01:17:34,000 --> 01:17:37,520
And like, by that point, it's like, wait a minute, what happened to your themes about

1265
01:17:37,520 --> 01:17:41,120
like religion and like faith and like fanaticism?

1266
01:17:41,120 --> 01:17:43,120
Like by that point, all that just goes out the window.

1267
01:17:43,120 --> 01:17:44,500
You know, it's very disappointing.

1268
01:17:44,500 --> 01:17:45,500
That's what I mean.

1269
01:17:45,500 --> 01:17:46,500
It's a lark.

1270
01:17:46,500 --> 01:17:49,080
Like we just go on a tangent now.

1271
01:17:49,080 --> 01:17:55,720
That's apart from the more cohesive themes we were told this movie would be about.

1272
01:17:55,720 --> 01:17:56,720
Exactly.

1273
01:17:56,720 --> 01:17:57,720
Exactly.

1274
01:17:57,720 --> 01:18:00,600
And there's barely even a monster in it.

1275
01:18:00,600 --> 01:18:03,240
But maybe that's my fault more than Larry Cohen's.

1276
01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:06,000
But you know, so again, a lot of a lot of good and bad.

1277
01:18:06,000 --> 01:18:07,700
What about campy?

1278
01:18:07,700 --> 01:18:09,340
Any campy stuff you want to bring up?

1279
01:18:09,340 --> 01:18:13,080
The whole last like 10 minutes of this movie is camp central.

1280
01:18:13,080 --> 01:18:14,920
It is so over the top.

1281
01:18:14,920 --> 01:18:18,400
Folks, this is where you're getting your money's worth.

1282
01:18:18,400 --> 01:18:25,200
I mean, offensive or not, I've just never seen anything like this on a screen before.

1283
01:18:25,200 --> 01:18:28,120
The potential incest that happens.

1284
01:18:28,120 --> 01:18:32,120
Vaginal orifices the size of my television screen.

1285
01:18:32,120 --> 01:18:34,560
I was like, what is happening?

1286
01:18:34,560 --> 01:18:40,520
I was on an acid trip on it and then everything burns down and there's fire and brimstone.

1287
01:18:40,520 --> 01:18:46,360
And then the movie ends with the Peter character looking at the camera.

1288
01:18:46,360 --> 01:18:47,360
He's under arrest.

1289
01:18:47,360 --> 01:18:50,160
He's going to jail.

1290
01:18:50,160 --> 01:18:56,360
And the movie freezes on his face and gives us a little title like what happened to him?

1291
01:18:56,360 --> 01:18:58,360
Like where is he now?

1292
01:18:58,360 --> 01:19:00,360
Text at the bottom.

1293
01:19:00,360 --> 01:19:01,980
Which to me is so cliche.

1294
01:19:01,980 --> 01:19:05,280
Like you see that in comedies like Animal House.

1295
01:19:05,280 --> 01:19:09,440
But to see it take done seriously, I was like, what?

1296
01:19:09,440 --> 01:19:13,960
I expect like a Benny Hill music to play at that point in time.

1297
01:19:13,960 --> 01:19:14,960
Totally.

1298
01:19:14,960 --> 01:19:15,960
Yeah.

1299
01:19:15,960 --> 01:19:17,640
And he's looking directly into the camera, right?

1300
01:19:17,640 --> 01:19:20,480
There's a freeze frame and that's how it ends.

1301
01:19:20,480 --> 01:19:22,880
Yeah, a little ridiculous.

1302
01:19:22,880 --> 01:19:23,880
Yeah.

1303
01:19:23,880 --> 01:19:25,200
How about you?

1304
01:19:25,200 --> 01:19:29,080
No, that was on my list of campy also for sure.

1305
01:19:29,080 --> 01:19:33,680
The only other thing I really had in the campy category were like the shots of the women

1306
01:19:33,680 --> 01:19:38,640
in flashbacks, which are in kind of this cool like black and white style.

1307
01:19:38,640 --> 01:19:41,360
I mean, stylistically, I think they're really well done.

1308
01:19:41,360 --> 01:19:45,800
But there are these shots of like women kind of like floating up into the spaceship and

1309
01:19:45,800 --> 01:19:46,800
they look cool.

1310
01:19:46,800 --> 01:19:50,280
I'm not really criticizing them, but they definitely have kind of like a campy old school

1311
01:19:50,280 --> 01:19:55,240
sci fi vibe to them, which again does not really mesh very well with what is about to

1312
01:19:55,240 --> 01:19:58,240
happen to those characters after they're abducted.

1313
01:19:58,240 --> 01:20:04,200
But those shots, which are kind of all done like in camera on like practical special effects

1314
01:20:04,200 --> 01:20:08,800
can be in in like a very stylish and effective way, I think.

1315
01:20:08,800 --> 01:20:09,800
Yeah.

1316
01:20:09,800 --> 01:20:13,160
Aside from that, there's not there's not too much camp here because like it's just so kind

1317
01:20:13,160 --> 01:20:14,920
of bleak and unsettling, I think, you know.

1318
01:20:14,920 --> 01:20:15,920
No, it's true.

1319
01:20:15,920 --> 01:20:20,200
I was really struggling until the end when things just blew up in my face.

1320
01:20:20,200 --> 01:20:24,480
I do want to mention this is just an interesting this does blow my mind.

1321
01:20:24,480 --> 01:20:31,000
So go on this journey with me in God told me to.

1322
01:20:31,000 --> 01:20:35,120
I believe it's Peter's mother's character, the Sylvia Sydney character, or it might have

1323
01:20:35,120 --> 01:20:40,520
been the other mom, one of the moms that were turning home from the World's Fair in New

1324
01:20:40,520 --> 01:20:41,520
York.

1325
01:20:41,520 --> 01:20:45,680
This is like 1936 or something.

1326
01:20:45,680 --> 01:20:52,600
And they make reference to a large sculpture called the Trilon and Paris sphere.

1327
01:20:52,600 --> 01:20:54,160
OK.

1328
01:20:54,160 --> 01:21:01,120
Now the night before I watched God told me to, I watched an episode of the X-Files where

1329
01:21:01,120 --> 01:21:08,160
that same sculpture, the Trilon and Paris sphere figured as a plot point.

1330
01:21:08,160 --> 01:21:11,120
And it was just one of those things where it's like I've never heard of this, but now

1331
01:21:11,120 --> 01:21:13,680
I've heard of it twice.

1332
01:21:13,680 --> 01:21:18,840
Now I've heard of it three times because I googled Trilon and Paris sphere.

1333
01:21:18,840 --> 01:21:26,320
And what comes up is the Trilon cinema in Minneapolis where you work and it's film magazine

1334
01:21:26,320 --> 01:21:28,600
called the Paris sphere.

1335
01:21:28,600 --> 01:21:30,800
Indeed, which I used to co-edit.

1336
01:21:30,800 --> 01:21:35,480
Yeah, that's uncanny.

1337
01:21:35,480 --> 01:21:39,440
And you know, the Trilon is named after that sculpture in the New York World's Fair as

1338
01:21:39,440 --> 01:21:42,040
is Paris sphere named after that, too.

1339
01:21:42,040 --> 01:21:44,240
That's an uncanny coincidence.

1340
01:21:44,240 --> 01:21:45,240
I don't know.

1341
01:21:45,240 --> 01:21:49,040
Like, again, my brain just went on this trip.

1342
01:21:49,040 --> 01:21:51,840
I was like, what the hell is the Trilon and Paris sphere?

1343
01:21:51,840 --> 01:21:54,560
Because now I've heard of it three times.

1344
01:21:54,560 --> 01:21:57,520
I don't know if those sculptures are still around anywhere.

1345
01:21:57,520 --> 01:21:58,520
Like in New York?

1346
01:21:58,520 --> 01:21:59,520
They're not.

1347
01:21:59,520 --> 01:22:00,520
No.

1348
01:22:00,520 --> 01:22:01,520
It's too bad.

1349
01:22:01,520 --> 01:22:05,320
I was going to say you're going to have to make a, you know, an exodus or not an exodus

1350
01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:06,320
journey there to.

1351
01:22:06,320 --> 01:22:07,320
Pilgrimage.

1352
01:22:07,320 --> 01:22:08,400
Yeah, that's the word I was looking for.

1353
01:22:08,400 --> 01:22:10,520
But sadly, you cannot do so.

1354
01:22:10,520 --> 01:22:14,320
Yeah, so that was a fun connection to make.

1355
01:22:14,320 --> 01:22:15,320
Yeah, weird.

1356
01:22:15,320 --> 01:22:19,200
I'm trying to recall what episode of The X-Files that is, because that's my favorite TV show.

1357
01:22:19,200 --> 01:22:21,720
I feel like I must have seen that episode.

1358
01:22:21,720 --> 01:22:25,760
Season two, episode 12.

1359
01:22:25,760 --> 01:22:28,600
It's a woman cop.

1360
01:22:28,600 --> 01:22:33,580
She's pregnant and she's having nightmares about a killer.

1361
01:22:33,580 --> 01:22:36,560
But it turns out she's the one committing the murders.

1362
01:22:36,560 --> 01:22:38,920
Yeah, that sounds familiar now.

1363
01:22:38,920 --> 01:22:40,560
Yeah, it's a pretty good episode.

1364
01:22:40,560 --> 01:22:44,840
Is the this is really this is very tangential.

1365
01:22:44,840 --> 01:22:47,360
Is the woman cop is her name BJ in the episode?

1366
01:22:47,360 --> 01:22:48,360
Yes.

1367
01:22:48,360 --> 01:22:49,360
Yeah.

1368
01:22:49,360 --> 01:22:50,360
I remember that episode.

1369
01:22:50,360 --> 01:22:54,520
And Mulder makes a really groan worthy comment about that.

1370
01:22:54,520 --> 01:22:55,520
Yep.

1371
01:22:55,520 --> 01:22:58,920
That's exactly why I recall that episode, which maybe is not great.

1372
01:22:58,920 --> 01:23:02,560
But I but it yeah, now it's coming back to me.

1373
01:23:02,560 --> 01:23:03,560
Wow.

1374
01:23:03,560 --> 01:23:07,040
Well, what a strange coincidence, man.

1375
01:23:07,040 --> 01:23:08,920
Yeah.

1376
01:23:08,920 --> 01:23:11,960
Thanks to God told me to for bringing that all together.

1377
01:23:11,960 --> 01:23:12,960
Seriously.

1378
01:23:12,960 --> 01:23:16,680
Well, I think it might be time for our rating.

1379
01:23:16,680 --> 01:23:23,040
As usual, on Camp Kaiju, we do have four ratings that we give that we give movies on here.

1380
01:23:23,040 --> 01:23:24,720
Number one, it's a timeless classic.

1381
01:23:24,720 --> 01:23:27,080
It definitely stands the test of time.

1382
01:23:27,080 --> 01:23:30,160
Number two, there may be some antiquated moments, but overall, it's great.

1383
01:23:30,160 --> 01:23:32,160
It stands the test of time.

1384
01:23:32,160 --> 01:23:36,440
Number three, it may be historically significant or just fun, but it does not stand the test

1385
01:23:36,440 --> 01:23:37,680
of time.

1386
01:23:37,680 --> 01:23:43,160
Number four, it is not worth revisiting and definitely does not stand the test of time.

1387
01:23:43,160 --> 01:23:46,760
Okay, I'll go first since it's your pick.

1388
01:23:46,760 --> 01:23:48,800
I'll give you the last word.

1389
01:23:48,800 --> 01:23:50,020
All right.

1390
01:23:50,020 --> 01:23:58,160
I think there are some if not fun, some good moments where I was engrossed in the film.

1391
01:23:58,160 --> 01:24:03,920
It did not stick the landing, but even the ending bonkers.

1392
01:24:03,920 --> 01:24:09,280
So I'm going to say it does have some worthwhile moments, but it does not ultimately stand

1393
01:24:09,280 --> 01:24:11,280
the test of time for me.

1394
01:24:11,280 --> 01:24:13,200
I don't need to revisit this.

1395
01:24:13,200 --> 01:24:20,280
And honestly, if you want to watch a Larry Cohen film, I can tell you at least two others

1396
01:24:20,280 --> 01:24:22,320
that are just better movies.

1397
01:24:22,320 --> 01:24:28,880
They're more they're constructed more cleanly, efficiently, and just yeah, just less offensive

1398
01:24:28,880 --> 01:24:29,880
too.

1399
01:24:29,880 --> 01:24:31,440
Word for word, I agree with everything you said.

1400
01:24:31,440 --> 01:24:34,400
I would also give it the same rating.

1401
01:24:34,400 --> 01:24:37,400
I do think it's historically significant in some ways.

1402
01:24:37,400 --> 01:24:41,080
It's a fascinating depiction of New York in the 1970s.

1403
01:24:41,080 --> 01:24:42,560
It is interesting for a while.

1404
01:24:42,560 --> 01:24:44,720
It does have themes that are so fascinating.

1405
01:24:44,720 --> 01:24:51,060
You want them to be more, you know, smoothly constructed, smoothly put together.

1406
01:24:51,060 --> 01:24:57,080
But overall, it's a very frustrating movie and it culminates in some, yeah, some depictions

1407
01:24:57,080 --> 01:25:01,600
and representations that just really leave a bad taste in your mouth and you can call

1408
01:25:01,600 --> 01:25:03,200
it presentism if you want.

1409
01:25:03,200 --> 01:25:08,880
But you know, I mean, those parts in the movie and just how kind of sloppy it is in the end

1410
01:25:08,880 --> 01:25:11,640
prevent it from from really being all that great.

1411
01:25:11,640 --> 01:25:13,960
So this movie does not stand the test of time.

1412
01:25:13,960 --> 01:25:18,600
But like you said, Vincent, I would say three other Larry Cohen movies that I've seen are

1413
01:25:18,600 --> 01:25:20,340
worth watching instead of this one.

1414
01:25:20,340 --> 01:25:23,320
So Cohen's great, just maybe not this one.

1415
01:25:23,320 --> 01:25:24,320
Still check it out.

1416
01:25:24,320 --> 01:25:25,320
It is one of a kind.

1417
01:25:25,320 --> 01:25:28,960
Those are, but you may not want to watch it again after that.

1418
01:25:28,960 --> 01:25:32,080
Beautiful, beautiful note to end it on.

1419
01:25:32,080 --> 01:25:33,080
All right.

1420
01:25:33,080 --> 01:25:34,760
Well, thank you all for listening to this episode.

1421
01:25:34,760 --> 01:25:40,480
We'll see you next time for our special interview with Sean Pryor about his book Kaiju Unleashed

1422
01:25:40,480 --> 01:25:43,800
and then join us for Godzilla minus one.

1423
01:25:43,800 --> 01:25:46,280
Dun dun dun.

1424
01:25:46,280 --> 01:25:47,960
Thank you again for hanging out.

1425
01:25:47,960 --> 01:25:50,120
Please rate and review wherever you listen.

1426
01:25:50,120 --> 01:25:52,780
You can also share this podcast with a friend.

1427
01:25:52,780 --> 01:25:58,480
Send us listener comments at CampKaiju at gmail.com, our Facebook page or on Instagram.

1428
01:25:58,480 --> 01:25:59,840
Links are in the bio.

1429
01:25:59,840 --> 01:26:07,280
If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, please leave us a voicemail at 612-470-2612

1430
01:26:07,280 --> 01:26:10,080
telling us about your favorite monster movies and memories.

1431
01:26:10,080 --> 01:26:16,000
Finally, please check out our website, CampKaijuPodcast.com for more information.

1432
01:26:16,000 --> 01:26:20,320
Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul with Mignas mailbox music by Ben Cook

1433
01:26:20,320 --> 01:26:21,320
Feltz.

1434
01:26:21,320 --> 01:26:25,720
Thanks again, friends, and until next time, stay campy.

1435
01:26:25,720 --> 01:26:30,760
Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack powered by Coldwell Banker Realty,

1436
01:26:30,760 --> 01:26:35,880
your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential

1437
01:26:35,880 --> 01:26:36,880
buyers.

1438
01:26:36,880 --> 01:26:40,360
Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services.

1439
01:26:40,360 --> 01:26:45,840
Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities.

1440
01:26:45,840 --> 01:26:46,840
Link in the show notes.

1441
01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:49,840
Why did you attack while I was coming home?

1442
01:26:49,840 --> 01:26:51,640
God told me to.