Hello everyone and welcome to the Every Movie Ever podcast.
My name is Ben Grohls.
And my name is Rob McFarlane.
Welcome to the show, a movie podcast slash mental health check-in.
Yeah.
The two broken brained best friends.
Yes.
Talking around their problems, but not about their problems.
Yeah.
Whilst, you know, laughing at movies.
But given that this is a thinly veiled mental health check-in, I feel it's important, Ben,
to ask how you're doing before we get to what we're doing.
I'm fucking fantastic if I'm honest with you buddy.
I have had...
We've always known that.
Oh, thanks babe.
That kind of caught me off guard.
I thought you were going to be mean then.
I was like, oh, okay.
I'm a new man.
Oh, thank you.
I've had the best couple days off of my entire fucking life.
I cannot begin to explain how productive and how fulfilling the last few days have been.
I've had three consecutive days off work.
Oh, it's a rarity.
It's a rarity.
Yeah.
I've had it.
It's been amazing.
Tomorrow is going to suck.
Oh dude, it fucking blows man.
I was back at work today and it was the longest day in existence.
There was 113 hours in today's workday.
It was insane.
I've watched an ungodly amount of Ty West films because I'm fucking obsessed with Ty
West now.
Yeah, of course.
And Bad Ben movies.
I've been watching all the Bad Ben movies.
Foreshadowing.
I mean, maybe.
I don't know about these films.
For the listener who doesn't know what the fuck they are.
Shall we just keep that secret?
Yeah.
Let's just keep that secret.
How are you buddy?
Fill me in.
I am sore.
You're sore?
I'm the mighty sore.
Who the fuck has made you sore?
I will fight them in a car park.
I have made myself sore.
You prick.
I will meet you in a car park.
I've been too eager with my body and I'm now very sore.
I went to the gym.
Oh, okay.
For those thinking that it was something darker.
Sure.
I found a new gym that a lot of my colleagues go to.
All the colleagues that are like, wham, like utterly little hench people.
I'm like, where do you go?
And they're like, oh, we go to this gym.
I went there.
It's fucking heavenly.
It's in the middle of nowhere.
Amazing.
It's got a beautiful view out of like one wall that's just all glass windows.
Yeah.
And because you got a drive there, there's no fucking teenagers.
Oh, I love that.
It's all just adults with headphones on who are happy to help you with the equipment.
That's the one.
See the gyms always risky, man, because you either go there and there's no other cunt
there and you feel amazing.
Right.
Or you go there and everyone there is beautiful.
And it's like, you've all completed the gym.
Go to the library, go work on your fucking brain.
Let the sweaty, weird, out of shape ones.
Yes.
Use this for a bit because you've done this.
You've completed it.
Next level.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
Whereas this gang are like inspiringly beautiful.
Oh, I like that.
I could do that, but everyone's keeping to themselves.
And me being the gym guy that I am, I did back, shoulders, chest, legs, and core all
in the same day.
Why?
That's fucking stupid.
Because I thought I'd get my money's worth, Ben.
It was a fiver and I'm poor.
You know what?
Who the fuck am I to judge?
Fair play to you, buddy.
You've absolutely nailed it.
What are we doing today, buddy?
Today, buddy, we are rounding out Ty West's X trilogy series with the third and final,
maybe the recently released Maxine.
Yes we are.
Now this is spoiler heavy, but good news.
It's available on home streaming.
It is.
If you know where to go.
It is.
I'm not going to make choices for you about where to get your films.
I know where I get mine and you do too.
And it's, it's fine.
We're just, we're fine.
Everyone knows we're all adults here.
All right.
We're all adults.
All right.
And I use a VPN, so it's fine.
Protected.
Oh, you use VPN.
I don't.
Fuck.
All right.
You just raw dog the dark web.
I'm being honest.
I was getting a little suspicious of the amount of hot Russian singles that are in my area.
You know what I mean?
Right.
Okay.
Yeah.
Literally right behind you.
You can feel their breath on the back of your neck.
Oh, they're in my area.
Yeah.
It does blood.
But we've got a lot to get through this week.
We are talking about if Maxine holds up to the previous stellar instalments of the X
trilogy.
We are.
We're also talking why I relate to Maxine Minx on a cellular level.
Does the end of this film make any fucking sense?
Who is the Night Stalker?
And most importantly, did Ty West succeed in his mission to bring sexy back to horror?
I'm assuming when you...
Yeah.
The song was in there.
This is why I left it for you.
You're welcome.
Brilliant.
Yeah.
We're going to be spoiler heavy.
This was recently released, but there are issues in this film that I need to air and
they all happen in Act Three.
They do.
I'd recommend seeing the film first.
Go watch the film.
We don't give a shit.
In which case, find out why you don't have to watch this film or you should have watched
this film by staying tuned.
Go and watch it and then immediately come back to us to validate our existences.
We love you.
Thank you very much.
You've always pulled me into that one and I'm getting less and less okay with it as
time goes on.
It's fine.
Now, 2024, the year that this came out, the year we find ourselves in, the year of our
Lord, it's a stacked year for cinema.
Fuck yeah it is, man.
How many movies can you name that have been mint this year?
Abigail.
The movie.
Long Legs.
Haven't seen it.
Monkey Man.
Fucking Mint.
Civil War.
Possibly the best film of the year.
Ooh, that's strong.
We'll see.
Godzilla X Kong New Empire.
May have misspoken on the previous one.
Thank you.
Dune Part Two.
Definitely misspoken on the previous, previous one.
Thank you very much.
Quiet Place Day One.
Incredible film.
Took me out of spite, surprise, loved it.
Wish we'd covered all the films.
Right?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Couldn't give a shit.
It was absolute dog shit.
Why have they all got American teenage voices?
Doesn't make any fucking sense.
The Avengers.
Haven't seen it, but love the soundtrack.
Fucking incredible film.
Deadpool and Wolverine.
Loved it.
The list continues, buddy.
Now.
I wish it had because I was kind of enjoying that.
A little quick fire podcast.
Yeah, shit.
Yeah, great.
I've planned this out, man.
I had two days off.
Welcome to the fucking fully fleshed out Ben show.
Ready?
The date that this came out 2024 on an estimated budget of one million dollars for Maxine,
by the way, buddy.
I need to put that in perspective because they closed down parts of Hollywood to film
small sets of films.
I mean, I'm not going to say that it's a big deal.
I'm not going to say that it's a big deal.
These famous plays that are already in style, we do have 18 million dollars.
Instead of the
deal.
Wait.
and that shit still blows my mind with a box office of 19.8 million. 19.8 million. That's
fucking banging. Exactly. For what? For a B movie horror? Most successful of the trilogy, buddy.
And this is where I was. This is where I spotted my mistake as well. X came out on a budget of
1 million made 15 million. I said in our Pearl episode that it had a budget of 8 million and
that was, that was an estimated from a website that didn't trust, but also right. Poor research
because I was researching the encyclopedia of fucking pre-war cinema. Yeah. You had the
five hour episode plan that we got 6% of the way through before we had to say goodbye. Yeah.
Yeah. That's the one that'll live forever. Glad the audience know all that work you did. Yeah.
It's great. Time well spent. I'm just going to start a blog when I'm like 75 and blogs no
longer exist. You know what I mean? I'll be the retro. It will be the VHS of Ben's research.
Pearl actually had an estimated budget of 1 million. So each of these three films cost
1 million to make X made 15 mil pearl made 10 mil. That's understandable. Cause of COVID and
the fucking like cinema releases, we had to wait an extra year. It was bullshit. Anyway, I'm,
I'm over it. And then we've got a 20 million, nearly 20 million. Right. From he's cleaned up.
He's like the reverse of he's the opposite of Craig Sala. Yeah. We did this trilogy because
I fucking love B movies. I love eight is horror. I love slashes, the gore, everything about this.
And Ty West has created a trilogy with some of the best recent examples of these genres, all
wrapped up in the most, some of the most gorgeous, delicious examples of what,
of not what just good horror looks like buddy, but what a good film looks like. It's good cinema.
I got to admit, I'm always slightly suspicious when you plan a trilogy and you're like,
I'm going to lay out everything that you need to love about this particular special interest of mine.
Yeah. I got you. And by about film three and I go, I'm not really getting it. You're like, yeah,
these were really weren't really the picks. These weren't for you. And I'm like, I'm like,
oh, okay. Cool. And then this one fully on board, mate. We'll get to that. But yeah,
which is more than you've been for, I mean, Gerbils gold golden grilled cheese sandwich
that sold it. Some of those, right. So you can die in a fire, but like others,
this is fucking incredible. What's wrong with you? Blood and gold. Incredible. Mad Heidi.
Incredible. Come on. I thoroughly enjoyed these. Like X is a solidly enjoyable film. Pearl is a
legitimately great film. And this one is complicated. We'll get to it. It is complicated.
It is complicated, buddy. But these films are important. They're important for the horror
community. Okay. And yeah, it's not that it's not citizen Kane. Let's fucking take a breath here.
Okay. So horror is in a, I feel like horror is in a sticky situation. The last few years,
it loves being massively hit and miss. And when I say massively hit and miss, I mean, either it's
either like, oh, that was enjoyable. Or it's like, what the fuck was the point in what I just
watched? Is that not a trope of the genre at this point, Ben? I mean, to an extent, yes, but you go
back a couple of decades and you're in an area where if you're sitting there going, what the fuck
did I just watch? You've got a massive grin on your face and you're like, that was the goofiest
shit I've ever seen. It was someone who genuinely had a weird, weird idea. Who just wanted to run
with it. But the passion was in it. Whereas now it feels like a lot of the studios are just churning
out the same old generic bullshit just constantly, just for the sake of getting in like three or four
jump scares. And then that's it. And it's boring. Yeah. It went through a phase of that. It went
through a phase of if it made you jump, it counted as scary. That's exactly what it is. And I know
you've said this in the past and I do wholeheartedly agree with you on a different level, but I do
wholeheartedly agree with you. You've said that horror is difficult because you need to make not
just a good horror film, but a good film. Yeah, you do. You do. And I wholeheartedly believe with
my entire, entire being that Ty West has done this three times over to an extent that has genuinely
dropped my fucking jaw. Well, that's unfortunate. I know. Let's get into the breakdown. You'll see.
I've written this week's breakdown. Here's the jingle.
Okay. So straight off the rip, mate, I'm going to commend you already. I've not read the
breakdown, but I can see that you've titled your fucking act numbers. And this makes me so
unbelievably happy, mate. I know my best mate's kinks for better or worse. I know what he enjoys.
I don't know why I enjoy it so much titles for the act. That does cause a little, it ticks all the
brain boxes. Like it just gives me a good fuzz on the brain. It's fucking beautiful. And thank you
by the way. I love you for putting this in. That's very sweet. I love you too, buddy. I love you too.
Right. Act one. I'll start act one. Going deep with a porn star. It's 1985. The serial killer
known as the night stalker roams the streets of LA. Shoulders are extra padded and parents are
worrying about the adult themes available in kids music and videos these days. We find sole
survivor of the ex murder farm, Maxine Minx, auditioning for a horror movie sequel, trying
to escape her successful, but aging career as a porn actress. We briefly meet her friends in the
adult world, other working women, her gay best mate who runs an adult video rental shop and her
agent played by Gus from breaking bad. This guy keeps popping up and stuff. And every time he does,
I am annoyed to see him. Why? Like he he's an excellent actor, but fuck me. Like that first
role has just become an absolute album. Do you know what? He's the, he's the biracial Daniel Radcliffe
Oh, cause he's a good actor. But every time I see him, I go, Oh, it's that guy. And it just rips me
out. Oh, okay. I see fucking everything. And he's always the calm psychopath. Yeah. Doesn't show
emotion, but is able to, or he's well organized. He's got spreadsheets. Do you know, I'm just like,
I'm fucking over it. Everything you've described is autism. And I'm like, I relate to him on such
a level. And you're like, God, you know, it's the show me. It's just spreadsheets and no emotion in
this. And I'm like, Ben, the only sheets you have ever spread are that of the ladies of Telford.
You have never opened a text. That was a bold statement. Fuck. I'm like painfully single buddy.
Also we're reading from a fucking spreadsheet right now, but yeah. And do you remember how much
you complained when I instituted this system and like, Oh, fucking they're all fucking odd shapes.
They're not, there's no uniform here. Fuck you read on. I said I'm done. I got off track. All
right. Sounds you. All right. Sounds. Let me calm down a sec. Act two, a beautiful portrait of trauma.
Maxine gets the role in the upcoming horror sequel. The same day she begins to receive
cryptic notes, implying someone out there might know her checkered past. We see the gloved hands
of the serial killer stalker and her loved ones. And it's not long before one by one, they begin
to turn up dead branded with pentagrams. A private investigator played by Kevin Bacon, who is fucking
incredible in this film, by the way, he's brilliant. He's revealed to be the source of the notes
stating that on behalf of his employer, that the past has caught up with her and that it's his time
for her to face it as the bodies pile up and the pressure mounts on Maxine. Her already bruised
psyche begins to fray at the edges and her ability to focus on her big break in Hollywood slips.
Given the weekend to sort herself out by the director, she actions a plan to crush
the private investigators dreams. Act three, fuck all of you for thinking this film was relatable.
Okay. Yeah. So serial killer is her mental priest dad who's managed to convince his congregation
to carry shotguns under their robes and film his copycat murders for Christ. Yeah. And then
there's a priest versus cops shoot out. Father Ted gets shot. Yeah. She stands over his defenseless
surrendered body, not so red has a little daydream about how famous she's going to be and how it'll
all be movies about her life and broadly fine. Yeah. Cut back to the present and she's like,
nah, dad, you did save me. And decapitates him with both barrels of the shotgun and full view
of the police. Yeah. Who now surround the second high body count crime scene that she is the sole
survivor of. Yeah. Maxine rejects the daydream. She commits to her vengeful closure in a wonderful
final installment of a trilogy about the unhealthy desire for fame, bringing nothing but pain. But
in this one, the heroin realizes that she should fight her own demons and close off her painful
memories. And rather than running to increasingly bright alights and the hope they'll banish the
shadows in her mind, she's going to reject fame, except no, it doesn't because then it cuts to one
month later and she's still in the fucking film and now she's a star and she's not as faced a
single fucking consequence. So the moral of the story is be a coward all the time until everyone
around you fucking dies, but it's all right because it'll help you get ahead in your own career
because your rivals will die and then judge dreaded your dad so you can double down on your
unhealthy behavior. Fuck this film. Oh, this is going to be a great show, man. I've got so much
to rebut on this, but after hearing your breakdown, bud, I'm going to take it that you hated this film.
No, no, I actually, I actually do very genuinely like this film. Okay. That's good. We'll get it.
We'll get into it. It has issues. Okay. They're going to seem small, but you know, when you see
a nice tiled bathroom floor and it's a big space and every single one of those tiles is perfect.
Yeah. But there's just that bit over there where someone's fucked it up. Right. And now the pattern's
not right. Okay. You could have just gone for crazy paving. Yeah. It could have been worse
and I'd have liked it more. This film could have been worse and I'd have liked it more.
It's nearly perfect. Yeah. As a result. Okay. It fucking annoyed. We'll get into it. We'll get into
it. All right. The 80s setting is yeah. It's a bit hammy. Right. Okay. It is a bit hammy. I'm not going
to disagree with you, but I have, I have Ty West's explanation of this and it's glorious.
Okay. Ty West has this insane ability, right? And specifically in the X trilogy, cause I've watched
his entire back catalog now specifically in the X trilogy, he's able to transport us to the time
that he sets his films in. Right. Yes. Having the movie that he's making reflect the state of cinema
at the time. And not only has he done it with X and Pearl for the seventies and the pre-war
film. I feel like he's done it again for the eighties in Maxine, right? Maybe, maybe. So
the reason that it feels a bit hammy is because it's not stereotypical 1980s, right? It's not
what people in, it's not people, it's not though, it's not people in leg warmers. It's not like
jazzercise. It's not this shit. It's dude. There's literally a scene where she walks down a street
and the things she passes in the background at 80s, those guys doing Kung Fu, there is this VHS
in the background reading out eighties news reports. She lives in like her stock cube of the
eighties. Nah man, she lives in an amalgamation of what summer of 1985 would be. The cars are
from the fifties, sixties and seventies because people would have old cars. The furniture is
from every era because people would have old furniture. Yeah. The movie store is for, I mean,
the VHS thing is like the boom was in the seventies and the VHS stores were having their heyday in
the eighties. It's successful. I just feel like it's not the subtlety that the rest of the film
has. He's really like eighties, eighties, eighties, eighties, eighties. That's what the eighties was, man. The eighties was loud,
fucking bright pink neon signs, but also. It is consistent with the style. It's just, I find it's
a bit heavy handed at times. It has to be, man. I mean, we've got a memory of the eighties. I was born
in 88, so I don't remember sort of like the summer of 85, but I remember growing up in a house with
furniture from the sixties, seventies and eighties. Do you know what I mean? Like, and everything was
like in amalgamation decades before. I feel like he's done that with this film and it's fucking
perfect for me. I guess, I guess a few weeks ago I used a word that you hadn't heard before and you
got to the point where you were using it in sentences. If you say pastiche, I'm going to
flip this desk. What's it pastiche of the eighties? Good. Yes. Because it should be.
Okay. He's taking a shit load of stuff from the fuck. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
Anyway, for me, I see where you're coming from. I do. I understand it. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah.
For me personally, I'm obsessed with the eighties. I'm obsessed with B movies. I love this sort of
like cheap. It looks like it smells like cheap tobacco. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. That's
what I live for in cinema. That's what I want. I want to watch a film and I go,
that's American spirit right there. That's what it smells like. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I want.
So in this one, we're taking a trip to 1985 downtown LA, Hollywood to all of you uninitiated.
The air is thick with cocaine, stale cigarette smoke and the finest mustaches illuminated by
neon signs from back alley video stores you have ever seen. You know what I mean? It could be
subtler. It could be. And I don't watch, say Todd Howard's Joker and go, I'm really aware that this
is, I'm being told repeatedly through background shots and editing styles of the era. Yeah. It
sets the era where everything's consistent with that era and I can lean into it. Yeah. It's not
being like, it's not like fingers down between my teeth going, eat it, eat it. Yeah. But I think,
that film isn't a sort of schlock horror from the eighties B movie. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah. But okay. That's, that's where I wanted to get you to now. Now that that statement's on record
and in the transcript, which are now available for our many deaf listeners. Yeah. Now that's in
the transcript. I, I wanted to just, I've got you on record. All right. Let the record stay. Deaf
readers, if you're not culturally insensitive, like Rob. I am. That's on record now for all our
many deaf readers. Yeah. I just wanted to get you to a point where it's, it's a schlocky, it's a
schlocky B bit of fun. All right. I get that. I get that. Like, like X and like, like Pearl to a lesser
extent. Right. This is the point. This is what's inspired this movie. The schlocky B movie horror
genre from the eighties has inspired this movie. Let's look at X, right? X is set in the seventies.
It's a film crew making a homemade porno for direct to VHS, which was going through a huge boom at
the time. Right. Yeah. Pearl was set in 1918 war torn pandemic world, starry odd pearl desperate
for anything other than the fucking hell that she is living through. Yeah. 1985. Uh, it's, we're,
we're making a horror sequel, including the story meta. Very Mary, like, oh, we're making a sequel
to a horror movie. And how do we do that? And it's, it's, it's commenting on itself as it is.
It's a, it's a love of like the filmmaking process of its own. It's a snake sucking itself off.
Oh God. I love that kind of thing. To completion. Me too. Let's go. Um, we've got all the struggles
of the struggles of an aspiring actor. We've got a brief look into studio backlots and sort of how
they take these cheap imitations and turn them into something magical. It's peeking behind the
curtain. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Some of our like biggest fucking
films of our childhood is great. Yeah, totally. But with all of this, we of course have all the
serial killer, true crime, culty weird shit that you can get your hands on. Know what I mean? Yeah.
There's a running theme throughout the film that the night stalker is out and about. And we're led
to believe throughout the film that the murders of her friends are being perpetrated by this
existing murderer who's been off killing again for many, many months. So the murders in the film
match up to certain aspects of the night stalkers real life case. So they've sliced it in, which is
fucking incredible. I went down a rabbit hole with the night stalker, the whole Richard Ramirez thing.
It's ridiculous, ridiculous. Do you know how he got caught? Was he not one of those ones that
boasted about it to a mate? No, he, he had a, he was just fucking like walking about the one day
and his picture was released, um, out to the newsstands and on like news channels and stuff. And he
hadn't realized, so he was just walking about doing his thing and then a mob of angry citizens
chased him down and kicked the shit out of him until the police showed up and dragged him off
to jail. That's literally what happened. It was amazing. Anyway. Wow. Yeah. Sorry. That blew my
fucking mind. But you had specific movie inspirations with X, you know, like Debbie
does Dallas, Texas chainsaw massacre, that kind of, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The aesthetics there had that
kind of wizard of Oz meets, uh, whatever happened to baby Jane. Exactly. You've also got a lot of
like palace follies influence in there as well. Cause obviously the whole, I mean, the fucking
film is based around palace follies, right? But the thing that surprised me the most about Maxine
is I was, I was gasping to hear what Ty West had to say about this, what movies he took inspiration
from, uh, which, which sort of direction he was, he was choosing where he got specific elements of
the film from. It's not based on a fucking film. It's not based on a specific film at all. No,
no, it's got like, it's, it's dripping with references to lots of eighties movies. Like,
it is you pointed out when we were chatting the other day, Kevin Bacon plays the private
investigator in this. He does. Yeah. And he's pitch perfect. He's an utter sleaze ball. I'm
so happy with Kevin Bacon being alive and being the man he is and not just doing fucking phone
adverts, but still doing great fucking performances. But he's gone back to where he started. Right.
He started in horror Friday 13th, right? Yeah, totally. But his costume in this is super
reminiscent. I'm like, where do I know that? Where do I know that? And then you're like,
it's literally Jack Nicholson's outfit from Chinatown. I'm like, oh, fucking course it is.
Like to a T I sent you a picture of it. And I was like, I was like, Kevin Bacon, you were like,
eh, there's tons of stuff like this, man. There's loads of nods. Yeah. There's nods,
but it's not a specific. There's not a specific film. It's just a, it's just a general sweep of
80 cinema, which again, I love. Okay. I, I'm not going to lie. I was a little bit disappointed
because I was desperate for time to love Thai West a little bit more. Yeah. And what he said
in an interview was, uh, he said in an interview with Fangoria when they asked him about like,
you know, what, what was the movie that inspired Maxine? And he said so many things because it
could be movies that are LA based or movies about Hollywood. It could also be the Gallo movies.
It could also be the gritty Hollywood movies like angel of ice squad, anything that's sort of very
craft forward, like from Hitchcock to department. Okay. It was never anything so specific to say,
oh, it's going to be like this, but it's recreating a world. You're not only recreating the nostalgia
of the world and the realism of the world. You're also recreating people's memory from media of the
time. So it's an amalgamation of all these different things, but that's what's fun about
this trilogy. They can all be very different and they can all represent different areas of filmmaking
as part of the same style, but they can still have the connective tissue of both cinema and then the
through line of the themes of the character, which is fucking gorgeous. And I applaud this man so
fucking much. It's a great quote. Unreal. I feel like the loss of the subtlety in the presentation
of the era and the loss of the subtlety by leaning into the tropes of the era plays against the
quality of the film. Okay. He's so dedicated to not only being written in the eighties, not only
representing the worries and fears of the eighties, but also showing you all of the sort of eighties
tokens and symbols. Okay. Here's some guys doing Kung Fu. Here's the video store. Here's the neon.
Here's Reagan. It then also on top of that leans into the filmmaking and storytelling techniques
of the eighties. And it continues to do that much more than X or Pearl does. And I think the subtlety
of those films are what I appreciated. The subtlety of this film is what I appreciate about it.
Okay. There's a wonderful thing with Maxine herself, right? In that we've often said on this
show, like what doesn't kill you gives you nightmares. What doesn't kill you makes you cry
at fireworks. Yeah. It makes you panic attack in public. What doesn't kill you makes you suspicious
of partners whose only crime is like having a life outside of you. Right? Or what doesn't kill you
means you can't go out without feeling like you need a pint in one hand and a bag in the pocket.
Exactly. Yeah. We've all been there. Right. We've established time and time and time again that shit
happens to you and you are less capable of stuff afterwards. A hundred percent. But what this film
does so excellently is it shows that trauma doesn't make you incapable. Right. Like in many ways it
makes you more capable. It's just what you're capable of may not be healthy. Exactly. Or healing.
Yes. You're more capable at doing what's necessary to keep yourself safer than you were before. Yes,
buddy. Even if the methods of doing that aren't good for your long-term health. Fuck yes, man.
I wholeheartedly agree. Maxine after the events of X can look after herself. She can defend herself
against all sorts of horrific shit. There's a scene where a guy tries to rape her at knife point and
it goes so fucking terribly for him. Oh, don't. And all of his shopping falls out of his bag. Dude,
in the cinema there was an audible groan of every person in there just going, oh,
at the exact same time. Cinema is so good at taking that double-edged sword of trauma
and only showing one side. Yeah. It's like this survivor, it's a super hardcore,
nothing fazes them. They're certified badass. They don't take shit anymore because they've
been through it. Or this victim is a broken shell and they're weak and incapable of functioning
until they're forced to step up by the events of the film. And what I love about this film is by
showing both, it's not thrown down your neck. It's a little subtle delicate dish. Yeah. It's
like the little lightest, gentlest of fingertips only hand stuff of a film until you get to the
third act and you get punched right in the genitals by a priest shoot out. Okay. I hear
what you're saying. I do. And I agree with everything you've just said. And I can completely
understand where you're coming from with everything you've just said. The one thing that I'm going to
do now is I'm going to do my little horror flex, right? Right. Because I've been thinking about
this a lot. And when I watched this trilogy, my initial thoughts were X is my film. Yeah. Pearl
is your film. Yeah. And Maxine is going to be a mixed bag. And I genuinely cannot believe how
you're not wrong. Yeah. I can't believe how much I fucking nailed that. I honestly, I shocked myself.
So you were saying about X being subtle in the seventies and stuff like this. I agree with you,
but because it's in rural Texas, outside of LA, horror in the seventies was much slower paced.
It was much subtler. I mean, you watch Halloween, it's the pace in slow. It's a slow build. You
watch stuff like fucking it's a man in a bush staring at teenagers for two hours and then one
person gets killed. It's amazing. It's fucking incredible. But also you've got stuff like the
Hills have eyes, which is about literal mutants, you know, like an incest family in the mountains
subtle as anything. It's slow burns and that's 70 cinema. And what he's done with X is he's
mirrored that. Yes, he has. And he's done these people build in their own film in that climate.
Right. It's a Maxine mirrors its era as well. It does by being faster paced and sillier and louder.
But it's not just faster paced and stuff though. It's, it's exactly mirroring what Hollywood,
what downtown Hollywood would have been like. It would have been full of fucking Kung Fu studios.
It would have been busy. It would have been like over the top to the point of almost deafening and
sickening because everyone there is desperate to make it. It's perfect for Maxine. I don't know if
I trust that representation. I think it's too concentrated. It's a stock cube of the eighties.
Exactly. That's what eighties horror is. Where every year. Right. That's what eighties horror is.
Eighties horror is sort of like, it's, it's a big buildup of huge special effects. It's, it's
testicles being stomped on, but it's not just implied now. Now it's full on the screen. Shit's
being stomped on. Kevin Bacon had a full erection in Friday the 13th, by the way. I've gone through
this so many times. I know that my friends have sent you a picture of me doing a fucking Ted talk
whilst watching Friday the 13th. I got a photo from one of your mates that I, I at the time didn't
really have any fucking conversation history with at all. And it's just you in front of a large
screen television pointing at Kevin Bacon's penis, love sausage, his yogurt thrower in some tight
pants. I was, and just, and just the line we're now getting a Ted talk. Yeah. I was fuming. I was,
we paused the film and I was yelling in my friend's living room about Kevin Bacon's anonymous
erection that no one's, no one talks about. He said in an interview, it was a sock. It's not a
fucking sock. It's sharp. How many sharp socks do you own Rob? It doesn't make sense. Anyway,
sorry, I'm off topic, but anyway, that's what I mean. It's loud. It's loud. It's in your face.
It's downtown Hollywood. Now we're in the belly of the beast. This is it. Yeah. Everything is here.
Everything stems from here. So it's going to be this bustling melting pot of everything that you
can think of just fucking bubbling and overflowing and people being like cast out like their fuck
all. Cause it's meaningless. If you're in the belly of the beast, you're in, that's it. Yes.
You have to fucking thrive there. It's nothing but loud panic, intense constantly. I know I lived
in London for 15 years. I lived there for a year and I fucking hated it. Do you know what I mean?
I went to Japan and it was less busy. Like I was in a city in Japan and it was less,
it was calmer than London. I hated it, but I feel like he's done a fucking incredible job of
representing the decades, the subtlety. So I'm not saying it's not impressive. I'm not saying it's
not impactful. I'm not saying of course it's not a wonderful distillation, but it is a distillation.
It's not an accurate representation. And I love this as a distillation. It's great. Yeah. But as
a place for a relatable character to live, I'm like, why are they in a comic of the teenage
mutant Ninja Turtles? Yes buddy. This leads me to my next point fucking perfectly. Because
subjectively, I know that that's not your cup of tea. Yeah. I know you like the subtle storytelling.
You like the sort of the deep impactful stuff that sort of almost whispered over a nonchalant
fucking throw away gorgeous scene, right? That's gorgeous. Hide it from me. It's it's hide and
see exactly. I want to be punched in the face by the toxic Avenger. Like I want to be slapped in
the mouth with fucking Kevin Bacon's erect penis from Friday the 13th that no one's ever fucking
talking about. I want it. I want it in and around my face. Get it on me. So the fact that this film
is so hit and miss for both of us, like there's different areas of this film where I'm like,
this is fine. Like the, the slow buildup in the beginning where it's sort of like almost a beautiful
gritty cop drama. You find it beautiful. I found it a little slow and that's fine. Oh, that's fine.
Because the back drop of it was so big and so loud. And I was like, there is so much
possibility to just do the most audacious stuff right now. Like that's just the audacity that
this film could have. And it doesn't. And it was annoying me. Yeah. I related to Maxine Mink so
fucking much in the third act. It was unreal because it all came to light. I know that we
differ on this, right? We both grew up without dads. We both grew up without dads. All right.
Okay. Right. We're bringing daddy home. Okay. Right. Yeah. We're bringing daddy home because
this fucking film is essentially just daddy issues completed one-oh-one. You know what I mean? Like
it's the, the Xbox achievement fucking, yeah. Murder daddy. You know what I mean?
Like that's the thing. You grew up without a father. It was never, you never missed your father.
Right? No. So, so, uh, my mom decided, decided, made an active decision to be a single parent.
Okay. Um, they were both very young. My dad decided, but she gave my dad the choice. She's
like, look, we, neither of us were intending to have a child. A child has happened and I'm
choosing to keep it, but that kind of removes your bodily autonomy. So what do you want to do? You're
19. You're signed up to uni. What's the plan, my dude? Yeah. And he went his way. And as a result,
I never, I was never, I never felt rejected because he'd never met me. Right. Of course. Uh,
I, and when people say, oh, you know, do you miss having a dad? I'm like, well, do you miss wings?
I've never had wings. Well, well, exactly. Like I, I, I didn't grow up needing that structure. I'd
never put roots on a wall that then crumbled. Yeah, of course. Or a wall that then fucked off
to get milk and never came back. Sure. Like I grew, I grew with all the support I had and that
level of support never changed. Exactly. Right. And that's a fucking, that's glorious because look at
the man you've become today. I couldn't be prouder. Love you. A 35 year old barely employed podcaster.
Yes. See what I mean? Fucking smashing it, mate. Smashing it. I love every inch of it. All three.
It's perfectly average. Right. My, whereas my dad left when I was six, I was very conscious of the
fact that he was leaving. Uh, and even when we did have contact with my dad, he would drop me off at
babysitters, which was arguably the worst time of my life. Yes. Funny to laugh about it now, but that
was at the time very, very dark sort of like weird situations. Fine. I can't imagine it being funny
at the time. That would be weird. Right. So I get the babysitters and like, never guess what Fred's done.
So I grew up with the rejection. I grew up, it's left me with like deep inset sort of fundamental
abandonment issues, like weird unresolved. The worst thing you can do for a child get be there
and then not be there or pretend to be there. And then just go, nah, which is fine. You know,
he did his own thing. He taught me a great lesson. He taught me how not to be a person. And I'm forever
grateful for that lesson. I just fucking wish it would have been done in a gentler manner.
That would have been lovely. You know what I mean? Right. So we have, we have a difference in the,
the dad thing because mine's very theoretical and yours is very practical. And now I relate to
Maxine Minx, whereas she is in the belly of the beast in the third act of this film. She's made
it. She's been cast in the pure and two. She's been chasing this for her entire fucking life.
She gave the audition of a lifetime. Yes. Brilliant. Just that even that little,
when she's direct to camera, the whole monologue there, fuck me mate. That was beautiful.
Not quite Pearl, beautiful, but it was beautiful. She's been cast in, she's doing this thing. Her
life is catching up behind her past is catching up behind it. And then out of nowhere, this fucking
Belen just shows up and he's just sort of like, Oh, I'm with all the guys that are like Hollywood
has stolen our daughters and you're going to be the star of my film. I is stupid. It is, but I
get it. I get it because it's like her unresolved trauma from her father is now there and so fucking
prominent that it's not just affecting her. It's affecting her entire life. And because it's
undelt with it's unprocessed, it's just this raw bundle of mess that is now fucking up everything
that she's worked for, which is a very sort of like, it's a very on the nose way of saying
deal with your shit before your shit deals with you. Yeah. You know what I mean? Very on the nose.
And it's also completely untelegraphed in this series. Yes. Because X is this character, this
priest is a background setting on the television. It's not even indicated that that is her father.
It's just, he's a priest on the television. Right? Yeah. There's a mention that it's
a bit of a father briefly. Right. Okay. I must've missed it. Pearl is then about the desire for fame.
So the through line throughout this entire trilogy has been someone's desire for fame
and their inability to feel like they are enough and their desire to go get that validation
externally. Right? Yeah, definitely. Then this film is all about that. And then suddenly it's
daddy issues and it's like watching Godzilla versus Kong for two movies and then fucking
Thanos shows up in film three and they go, Oh yeah, but do you not remember there was a
shot of him in the first film for a bit. It'd be like if watching the empire strikes back
and it turned out that the dude with the shit on his head that's Lando's mate is actually Luke's
father. I mean, kinda, kinda it's just, it's, it's a blind side. It's like, Oh, now it's about this.
Yeah. And we're going to tell it with shooting preets and it's silly. It's frivolous. It's
fucking nonsense, but it's a fun way to look at trauma.
But we don't, I don't know if I need that. I don't know if I need that. I made about the father
thing. You don't need that. Whereas I deal with my traumas by laughing at them and I deal with it in
a fun goofy way. And I take the piss out of them a lot because I feel like laughing about stuff
takes all the power away from it. It's a safer place today. Okay. So when the daddy issues show
up and I'm like, Oh, this is relatable. And then it turns out it's a priest shoot out and she
chooses to shoot her father in the face with a double barreled saw off shotgun rather than
go and be the famous fucking star that she is literally on the cusp of being. I'm like,
yes girl. Right. We need to get to the ending cause I'm still, Ty West has still left me confused
about what he means, but, but before I get to that, I want to put this fucking fun stuff to bed.
Cause this always comes up, right? Where it feels like I know you don't disallow me, but it feels
like commentary generally says that I'm not allowed to dislike something or criticize something.
If something is fun, I shouldn't take it too seriously or I'm thinking too much, but here's
the thing I can't control. I know you don't. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Sounds like I was going to say,
don't do, don't put this on me. I fucking, I support you all the way. You yell at me about
the most weird shit ever. You phone me while striving to yell at me about films I've not seen.
And I'm like, okay, but, but like this, this thing of, Oh, it's just fun. You know, you don't get it.
It's just fun. You're taking it too seriously and you're thinking too much to which I say, like,
I'm not in control of how much I think I don't, I don't get to say when I'm thinking enough or not.
My brain is either on or it's off. Right. Yeah. You put me down in front of, I mentioned Godzilla
versus Kong, right? My brain is off. It's not coming on because I've made my choice. Yeah,
exactly. If you put a, if you put a nuanced film down in front of me, it's going to activate.
The thinking cap comes on and I start to relate to the characters. Yeah. Right. Their experiences
become my own. I start to empathise and I start to invest in their narrative and I'm, I'm feeling
what they're feeling. I'm putting myself in their shoes and I'm living with that character as my
surrogate. If I'm in that space and I then suddenly see a monkey twatter lizard in the face with an
aircraft carrier because it's fun. It's the genre. I'm like, huh? Yeah. And then I'll wait. You
shouldn't have expected that from this movie. It's a, it's a B movie. It's a bit of fun. It's
schlocky. And I'm like, but Ty West has laid out the little trauma snacks and the little hors d'oeuvres
of human insight and got the little social commentary barbecue all nice and hot. But
apparently I'm the cunt cause I picked up a place. All that stuff I talked about earlier,
like the nuance and the care and the selfie is his choice. So when I'm watching that film and
I'm wrong footed into, Oh, actually none of that relatable stuff that you did is happy. It matters
because it's a fucking 2d cutout of a person who can apparently decapitate a priest in full view
of the police with no consequence. I'm like, I've got a point on this, but yeah, right. But if it's
fun and it's exactly the same worth and meaning as the last bit of fun with different clothes on,
yeah. It's a, it's a two hour anesthetic to the world that takes up some time when my brain
doesn't have to be on and that's fine, but it's never going to be better at that than say tremors.
Right. Yeah. A careful here. Cause you're talking about arguably one of my favorite franchises on
the fucking planet, but tremors is incredible because it's a well written, incredibly paced,
perfectly put together fun film. If I wanted to just put on some fun, you're not going to
beat tremors for me. Okay. You've saved it and I'm back on board. I know this is fine.
So like that accusation of I'm not having fun with movies, I can always have fun with a movie.
Love on a leash is one of my favorite fucking films, right? But to a certain point, I'm looking
for more than just like fun. Otherwise it's just going on endless dates with different filmmakers
and just being grateful that I got fucked. Okay. I fully understand where you're coming from. And
my, my rebuttal to this is a, you're not in control of what you find fun. You just have fun
when you have fun, right? This is why I fucking love doing this podcast with you. Cause you make
me think in different ways. And what I, what I aim to do is to show you enough of these movies
that are my wheelhouse so that you could, you can some point see why I'm so obsessed with this
era of filmmaking. I'm not trying to force it on you so that you enjoy it. No, no, you don't. You
do a really good job of bringing stuff that I get my brain around and I enjoy. I want to,
I want to try and challenge this is a mint film. I love this film and I understand. I will be
rewatching this. Yeah, it's fucking, it's one of them, but I understand wholeheartedly why the
third act fucks you off. And this is why I was desperate to do this trilogy. Um, the way that it,
that it shifts gears is very eighties, right? And it's easy to say that because it's, it's like a
throwaway statement of, oh, it's fine. It's just the eighties, but it's, it's almost like a, it's
almost like a trait, like a personality trait of 80 cinema where it goes from, from silly or intense
or fucking paced as one thing. And then it completely U-turns and turns into something
ridiculous. Like tremors. Let's take tremors for an example, right? Yeah. Small town live in,
oh, what are we doing? We need to get out of the town. We need to move on. We need to better
ourselves. This is, this is, you know, it's not doing, it's not doing anything for us. This is
something that we need to get out into the big world world, find some wives, have some fun,
do this, that and the other. And then 20 minutes later, you're fighting a giant fucking worm.
You know what I mean? Brilliant. Yeah, exactly. You're fighting a grab void that's inspired.
Exactly. But it's, it's that pace. I think it's because it comes along so quick. Yes. And it
doesn't lead you down, doesn't lead you down a sort of lane. With this, I'm like, who's the
night stalker? What's the trauma? What's the metaphor here? There's no metaphor. It's,
it's a freaky priest and shotgun, shotgun congregation. And I'm like, exactly. You ca,
you can have both. You can. Something doesn't have to be, something doesn't have to be one or
the other, but you need to stitch it together better than this. It's a, it's a country priest
who's, who's operating under the guise of the night stalker because that is what was happening
at the time. And they started mixing in like copycat murders for the priest. And he was filming
it to make his own film, to try and win Maxine back to be like, you can be the star of the
church's film and you can be the redemption arc that we all needed. You can re-instill the Christian
faith in our, in our parish. I've, I've got an unfortunate analogy for exactly how this film
affected me. Okay. It was a conversation I had many years ago with a very attractive Australian
woman. Okay. We were chatting for ages. She's really smart. She's really funny. I was feeling
super insecure. And as the night went on, we got a little drunker, we got a little higher and I was
like, this is really good. And then at a certain point in the night, she said, if you come back
to mine, I'm on my rags, but you can throw it up my shitter if you like. You're Australian,
absolute Aussie classic. Right. If I could count the number of home and away episodes where that
exact line was spoken, I would be in the tens. You know what I mean? Now I'm, I'm not saying it
was a massive turnoff, but I didn't go back to hers because we'd started on a very different,
right. That's the fucking, that's Maxine. That's Maxine. Right. Yes. Ty West throws up the shitter.
If she'd started with that, I'd go, okay, I know what this is. I probably would have gone back to
hers. You could have geared yourself up to it, right? Right. It was the two or three hours of
erudite conversation. And I'm like, oh wow. Right. Followed by that. I'm like, oh, and at a gear,
change too many. You're sitting there thinking, right. I, right. So what philosophical,
what philosophical author can I look to for my wedding speech when I eventually marry this,
right? Exactly. And then she turns around and she's like, well, I'm on my rag, but you can chuck it
up my shitter. And you're like, oh, it's none of them. Yeah. It's Dr. Zuse. Both are great.
Both are great. Both are great. And I'm big fans of both styles. Sure. Sure. But if you're going
to mix them together, we're going to need, I'm going to need some warning. Yeah, exactly. It's
like a zipper. You know what I mean? The zippers are long for a reason. It takes a while to put
both pieces of fabric together. I get you. Yeah. Wholeheartedly. Literally that. See,
literally that. With me mate, scared of zippers, scared of zippers. So it's just fucking just whack
them together. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's a reason you're circumcised. Yeah. Zippers.
Speaking of zippers, I'm about to fucking, I'm about to blend these two bits of fabric together.
All right. You're about to zip it up. I'm about to zip it up. Right. Is the ending of the film
real or fake? Is it a dream scenario or is it real? Because I have a fun thought experiment
for both angles and I think it's a very fun thing to leave open-ended at the end of this film.
So what I would like to be the case is Ty West having made a minor error in the editing.
Okay. Not in unintentional, like, oops, I accidentally hit shuffle. Yeah. Just in terms
of like, he would have had his reasons for putting it this way, but I don't think it works as he
intended. Okay. What I liked is when she has her daydream about being a big star and then she goes
on to shoot her dad in the head and all of the stuff of her having a life after shooting her
dad in the head in the movie industry is all dream world. Right. And it's just an awkward edit
where we have dream sequence, goes back to shooting the dad and then we go back to dream
sequence after a hard fade out and a fade in saying one month later. Right. That doesn't
work for me because that makes it seem like this isn't dream sequence. Okay. The exception of the
fact that the director, Elizabeth Bender played by the ever gorgeous Elizabeth Debicki, incredible
turns to Maxine and says, okay, we've got one more shot left in the dream sequence. Yes. And
I'm wondering whether or not that was that way you were going to go with it. So I have a different
theory. I love you. I have a different take on this because I like, I love the idea of it being
real. I love the idea of the police seeing her shoot her father in the face with a double barrel
shot. I'm going to go, well, he has just run around and murdered like fucking nine other people. So
at worst it's a fire. That's not real. Of course it's not real. Rob, look at the film we've just
watched. All right. But what I'm sorry, it's fun. Oh, I'm sorry. Do you not like having fun?
Do you not like the movie? God, you just don't get it. Fuck me. I don't get it. What an absolute
fucking credit and go back to Nolan. You cunt. So what I'm saying is, is like, I like the idea of
it being real because that's stupid, right? That's just, it's so outlandishly stupid, but it's also,
and I'd mean this in the nicest way with no, I'm not throwing hate on anyone, right? But sometimes
when I look at the news and I see the American justice system in practice, it wouldn't surprise
me. It's lucky day. Yeah. It is. It's like some shit happens and I'm like, they did what? And
they're just out now. It's a raffle. It's great. It's a, it's a church raffle. It's like, it's insane,
but that would be very fun because then it would make, it would be a funny comment on the American
justice system, which again, I think is fun. I liked the idea that it's a dream sequence because
in the, in the end sequence where they're where the moment you've just mentioned where she turns
around is like, we've got one shot left in the dream sequence. And she asks Maxine, well, what
do you want to do next? She goes, well, I just, I just never want it to end. And then it hard cuts
to a prosthetic head of her that's been decapitated on the bed, implying that her character arc in the
Puritan two is dead and done. Right. Yes. So there is no next step, but it's her looking at it going,
Oh, it looks so real. And it, you know what I mean? And it's, it's that kind of like, yeah.
And then I think the obvious one is when the camera pans out over Hollywood and the Hollywood
sign has been replaced with Maxine. Like that's probably another big fucking giveaway, right?
Right. But mainly the head. So I feel, I feel like we're probably on the right track or we're
wildly off. Unfortunately, whichever version is true, we've seen this film multiple times.
I've literally watched it about six times now. Yeah. We've really dug into it. We've really
given it some thought. And if Ty West wanted there to be a clear answer, he hasn't done that
successfully. No, I think it's, and I trust Ty West enough to know that he probably, he probably
means he doesn't want there to be a clear answer, which is why it's so jumbled. I have a, I do have
a quote from Ty West for this. I've, I read countless articles. I've done so much research
into this film, just none of which has made it to the show, but he has turned around and been sort
of like, I don't sit down to make a movie with a meaning behind it in place. It feels too much
like propaganda and it feels, it feels like it can stifle the creative spirit a little bit,
which is great. And I can, I can agree to that. And he was like, if people want to extrapolate
meanings from my films, that's incredible. That's perfect. Art is subjective and it's, there's,
there's stuff laid in there from my own experiences. There's stuff laid in there from my
own filmmaking experiences. It's just, it's a, it's a fun story that's told in a way that's able to
be accessible to anyone and everyone for whatever reason. You know what I mean? He's right. I just
always hate that answer. What's it mean? What do you want it to mean? Like you're right. That's
correct. That's how artworks, but just fucking tell me. Yeah, just come in. You tell me what
you wanted to say. Nothing. Right. Exactly. You speaking of your research, Ben, we should actually,
we should probably, I mean, I know it's a thinly veiled mental health check, but we do have to
throw enough movie podcasts. Well, I mean, we're running low on time. Do we have some, right? Do
we have any facts? Who is, who is Ty, who is Ty West? Cause we've done three of his films now.
I don't know where he's from. I don't know who he is. He's a writer, director and editor from America.
Next. Brilliant. Who's Mia Goth? We were going to come back to that. Brilliant. Why, why is he
making this trilogy? Filmmakers do that. They just make films, mate. Right. I mean, technically that
is, that is all the answers to my question. You're welcome. In the most technical, in the technical
sense of the, yeah. And there you go. We're out of time for the meat of the episode, buddy. So
welcome to all of my research. That's, that's a stun for the meat of the thing. Are you ready
for a game? I'd love a game. You want a game? Yeah. So me and you had a little, me and you had a
little, a runabout in discord the other day where I'd planned out this really nice, simple for
question, you know, like fun, goofy little eighties thing. I can't remember how, but you insulted me.
And I was like, you know what? Fuck you. I'm just going to do another Buzzfeed just to annoy you.
You're such a... So welcome to Buzzfeed. Yeah. This quiz is called, you're a fake horror
fan. If you can't pass this eighties pop quiz. I definitely can't. Right. It's okay. It's kind of,
it's it's fine. I've done it. I got a hundred percent. No biggie. Of course. In the shining.
Yeah. What does Danny nickname his power? Does he nickname it the shining? Does he nickname it Tony?
Does he nickname it Timmy or does he nickname it Dr. Sleep? Timmy? Unfortunately buddy, that is
wrong. He nicknames it Tony. Oh, for fuck. I mean, come on. It's the same sound. It's not Dr. Sleep
because that's that dog shit, you and McGregor movie that I got 10 minutes into. I did the same
thing. I got 10 minutes in. I was like, this is wank. I've spoken to so many people that love that
film. I'm going to have to give it another go. I've spoken to about 20 people about the film and one
of them thinks it's incredible. Yeah. And the other 19 were like, eh. Okay. Well, at least I'm in good
company. You know what I mean? Right. Question two, buddy. In Poltergeist 1982, the ghosts steal
Carol Anne through which household structure? Is it the TV? The television. Is it the window?
Is it under the bed? Or is it the closet? They're here. Yeah. What answer are you going with there?
Carol Anne. You sticking with TV? Come to the light, Carol Anne. No, it's the window in it
because the tree comes through the window. Okay. It's the closet. Unfortunately, buddy. I'm sorry
about that one, mate. Are you? All right. I'm a fake horror fan. I mean, you're only two questions
in, but this is 38 questions in the last boys, 1987, all the half vampires can be saved by doing
what? Going out in sunlight, killing the head vampire, killing the head. Thank you, buddy.
Love you. Saw that one for three. Okay. There you go. For the first time in the Changeling 1980,
a wealthy family murders their son and replaces him with an orphan. Where does the father hide
the remains of his son? Is it the local river? Is it his basement? Is it in a well or is it
in Europe? I'm, I've not seen the Changeling, so I'm going to say in Europe confidently with full
chest. Okay. Full chest. I'm going to say it's in a well. I'm afraid buddy. Sorry about that one,
buddy. From the ring. Here we go. Fine. In sleep away camp 1983, one of the best films ever made
for Lisa Rose. Love you. Uh, please come on our show in sleep away camp 1983. What was Angela's
original name? Was it Ryan, Thomas, Cameron, or Peter? I'm going to say as a man who's not seen
sleep away camp, it's Peter. It is Peter, buddy. Fuck us. Dude. That might, honestly that might get
for Lisa Rose on the show. You know what I mean? If she ever hears this fucking yes, buddy in the
haven't even seen the film and I know all about it. Smashing it in a nightmare on Elm street. What
is the main character's name? Sarah, Nina, Nancy, or Susan? Uh, Nancy is fuck you, man.
Who's been watching horrors behind my back? Hey, uh, haven't seen that one either. Do you know what
I love about this quiz is it's testing whether I'm a thing that I've never claimed to be. Oh no, no,
no, no. This is just for my enjoyment. And honestly, you're killing the vibe. Like I was really excited
about this. You get them all right. And I'm like, yay. Proud of you inside. I'm like, fuck you.
Fuck you. In gremlins 1984, Billy breaks two out of the three rules for caring for his gremlin pet.
Which rule was not broken? He doesn't feed it. He feeds it after midnight. He gets it wet. He does.
So out of the other two options, is it no bright lights or no squeezing?
He doesn't squeeze it. He doesn't squeeze it. But which is that what you're going with? No squeezing?
No squeezing. He doesn't break the no squeezing rule. It's no bright lights. I'm afraid buddy.
No bright lights. You ready? In the howling. That's what I've actually seen. If I've seen them,
yeah, I get them wrong. Have you ever seen, okay. Have you ever seen Friday the 13th?
No. Fuck you. Have you ever seen the howling? No. All right. Well, good. You probably get both of
these right then. In the howling, Karen White loses her memory and is sent on vacation after
what traumatic event is she, is it after being bitten? Is it after meeting Eddie brackets a
werewolf? Is it her husband cheating or is it losing her job? Losing her job. Unfortunately,
it's meeting Eddie a werewolf. And then last but not least, and buddy, I'm not going to put too
much pressure on this one. This is my favorite franchise. This is one of my favorite franchises
of all times. So if you get this wrong, friendship over. All right. Lastly, in Friday the 13th,
Mrs. Voorhees reveals herself to, uh, lastly in Friday the 13th, Mrs. Voorhees reveals herself
through a monologue towards the end of the film. What does she reveal about the significance of
the date and how it relates to Jason? Is it his birthday? It's an unlucky day. Is it her birthday
or 13 is Jason's favorite number? Uh, I'm going to say 13 is Jason's favorite number because it's
his birthday. Oh, can't, but also I'll take the second bit. It is his birthday. It is his birthday.
Yes, that is it. All right. Well, I think friendship saved on that one. I'm looking chalk that one up
to a win. You only got a couple wrong, but the couple that you got wrong were the easiest ones.
And the ones you got right were the ones where I was like, so go fuck yourself. I guess.
Congratulations. Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. We, uh, we got time for comment corner. We've got,
I think we've just got time for comment corner. Yeah. I've, I've only got a brief. I've got a
brief one. You give me your brief one. Cause I've got two absolute belters this week and they're
both fucking gorgeous. Give me, give me your belter and then I'll, I'll do a brief one in the middle.
All right. So we'll do a belter sandwich. Belter sandwich. The first one's from Mika Ha Ha.
He messaged us and said, Hey, have either of you ever seen under the silver lake? I still haven't
had a chance to check it out yet, buddy. Apologies. I think that movie is criminally underrated and I
don't use this term often brackets. The exception being Nolan, but I think David Robert Mitchell is
an absolute genius. I think if you two reviewed this film, it would give you loads to talk about.
Great suggestion. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. He then goes on to say also
would love for you guys to extend your podcast episodes into an hour and a half. I'm just saying
your podcast has saved me from my mental unhealth recently. It's so enjoyable. I've been on a,
I've been on a tear whilst I work. So thank you both for getting me through this tough time.
You really don't know what it means to me. And I read that. What's her name? Uh, that was,
that was Mika Mika. Ha ha. He is Mika. Ha ha. Okay. So Mika, ha ha. Go fuck yourself. Go fuck
yourself. All right. Didn't expect, I didn't, didn't, didn't expect this to go this way, but
I have long wanted to extend the show. I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy hanging out with my mate, Ben.
The record is the best is the highlight of my week. I love recording, right? If I could record
for two hours with Ben, I would. The fact that listening to him and I chat about our problems
and how the movie of the week has helped us or given us some insight, hearing that that,
which is very much a thing we do for us helps other people is genuinely one of the most meaningful
interactions I have going on in my life. The fact that it's helped you is it really does mean a lot.
And I am really so grateful for you listening. We used to do a 40 minute show and I used to be able
to edit the show from records into a ready to go show in about 10 hours. We went up to an hour.
It takes about 18. Go to a two hour mate. I would kill myself within a week. You asking for a longer
show is a direct attack on my wellbeing. And you are not forgiven. No, all jokes aside, buddy. Thank
you so much for getting in touch. It does mean the world. We would also love a longer show until
we find some way of making this make any sort of income for us. We're just at max capacity.
I think we could stop turning down sponsorships for a start. You know what I mean? We could probably
start doing them. The second somebody asks us to cover a half decent film and isn't a sex predator,
yeah, we'll be fine. Yeah, I agree. We had Studio Canal. That was great. Studio Canal was great.
Yeah, that was good. Everyone else has been like, have you seen this random bit of footage that I've
snipped together over some indie songs or have you seen this known predator that we've tried to
Alan Smithy off the credits? Yeah, it is a lot like that. I also feel like Studio Canal would have
worked with some more if they were like, here's our catalog, pick a film. And we picked the one
Vietnam War movie and I spent an hour crying in the episode. You know what I mean? That was essentially,
I think we shit the bed on that one mate to be honest. If you want to hear the failed sponsorship
attempts, go to our Discord, join up. There is a full bonus video review of a movie that we were
asked to sponsor and on review we realized we couldn't release because it would be the end of
the podcast. Yeah, we would have been like sued into the ground. It's fine though. It's fine.
I've got a comment here on one of our little reels that we did about, for those of you listening that
don't follow us on socials, Ben and I both watched the Scarecrow scene with Mia Gothenet and we both
had very different reactions. Mine was to dress up as a scarecrow and stand in a field. And mine was
to go and fuck a scarecrow in a field. That was implied. I don't know how heavily you committed
to the bit. Nah, this is all implied mate. You know what I mean? Right, nice. Yeah, yeah. Classy,
classy. I kept it clean. It's a classy joke about fucking a scarecrow. Mine was just me standing in
a field dressed as a scarecrow. I worked quite hard on my costume. And then Lady Birdie 1983 got
in touch and just went, had a feeling you were outstanding in your field. Amazing. I fucking love,
I love her so much. Much like the previous comment, it made me furious. Yeah, fair. I was really
annoyed that I hadn't thought of that and put that in the reel. One absolute star. I fucking love her to pieces.
Okay, I have, I have another one here from, I can't say your surname buddy. So I'm just going to call
you Wayne. I'm going to attempt it. I'm going to attempt it. It's Wayne Pesaila. The P might be silent.
Okay with that? Yeah. I mean, buddy, I love you and this message is gorgeous. Thank you so much.
But your, your name is a fucking nightmare. I'm dyslexic as shit. I'm just going to put that one
out there. All right. I love you. Name's a nightmare. Wayne got in touch and said, listen to your pod for
the first time. The Alien 3 one. Love the passion, love the insight. And then in brackets, even though
I pretty much knew most of it. All right, buddy. All right. All right. We try. All right. Not everyone's seen
the film before. We've got to see a good introduction. But then he, he went, you want to say, I disagree with your
views, but that's art for you. Also absolutely love how you guys got so candid and open about your mental
health. Thank you. I've volunteered for a men's mental health org here in Australia for the past
five years. He's put in brackets, the, the organization that he volunteers for and it's the
mail hug on Instagram. Go and check it out. Great group. Nice. What you two are doing is bang on the
money, keep it up and look after yourselves. By the way, Alien 3 is a fucking masterpiece, especially
after the utter shit storm during production. So there's one for you, buddy, because that's incredible.
There you go. Singing from your sheet. What I love most about that. I disagree, but that's art for you.
Exactly. What would, if that's not, if that's not what we're trying to get across with every episode.
I'm gonna fucking hour on that from this, from this film right here. You know what I mean?
Here's why I passionately hate this film does not mean you're wrong to enjoy it. Exactly dude,
Wayne, you fucking get it. I love you wholeheartedly. Also thank you so fucking much for getting in touch.
You're an absolute diamond. Great job with the mail hug. We love you and support you wholeheartedly.
That was comment corner. If you want to get involved, you know what to do. Find us on Instagram,
TikTok, Discord, Facebook, I can anywhere, send us a send us an email. Every movie ever UK at gmail.com.
Do it right now. Look, just type out an email, Ben Robb, cunts send. That'll be fucking hilarious.
Probably read that out. That's next week's comment corner. Get it sent right now. Make our fucking week.
Until then, unfortunately, we are vastly over time. I'm sorry. So no, it's been a busy episode.
And it's been fantastic. It's been lovely. And I've loved every second of it, as I do every week.
Oh, me too. But we are sadly out of time. What are you rating Maxine before we get to the outro?
Because I can feel the outro coming. Eight. Eight. Okay. Wow. That's way more than I thought it was going to be.
It's a perfectly tile bathroom with one cocky tile that I'm just going to look at forever and go,
pisses me right off. It gets me angry, but it's a brilliantly made film that fucks it at the end.
All right. That's fair. I'm going to rate it an eight because it's a perfectly tile bathroom with
one fucking title at the end. And I'm like, God, I love the guy who put that there. He could have
made it perfect, but chose to do just chose violence. And I love that. You know what I mean?
So it's an eight for me as well. Amazing. So thank you for your time with us, especially at the start
of the week. An hour isn't a short amount of time to spend with us, regardless of what some
scheming little bastards might say. I love you really buddy. I'm just going to cosplay as society.
I'm going to cosplay as society while Ben gives you a little motivational pep talk.
Ben has an emphysema attack. What the fuck is this? Jesus Christ. Sorry. What were you saying?
Oh, I was just saying Godzoo.
Now listen, we can take tons of things from Ty West's X trilogy and to wrap it out,
I think the main important lesson that we can take is just keep fucking following your dreams.
It doesn't matter if your past is coming around to haunt you. You can deal with it. Do you know
what I mean? You can shoot your dad in the face with a double barreled sawed off shotgun. You can
do it. The police saw her do it. She still fucking went on to be a star. We could do the same. Fuck
it. You know what I mean? I think the message is fuck you dad.