Ep. #406 - Ghoulies

[0:00] On this episode, we discuss Ghoulies!

[0:04] Guys, I can't tell you how happy I am to finally talk about a real f***ing movie.

[0:30] Hey everyone, welcome to the Flophouse.

[0:39] I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:40] Hey, I'm Stuart Wellington.

[0:41] I'm Elliot Kalin.

[0:42] And again, as with many of our recent episodes, I cannot wait to tell you later in the show

[0:46] about our upcoming live-ish and live shows tonight.

[0:50] If you're listening to this episode the day it's released, we're having an episode of

[0:53] Flop TV.

[0:54] I'll tell you more about that later.

[0:55] And October 19th, we're doing two shows in Los Angeles at the Vidiots Theater.

[0:59] I'll tell you more about that later in the show, too.

[1:01] But if you don't want to wait for me, go to theflophouse.simpletics.com to get your tickets

[1:05] for tonight's Flop TV show, or go to vidiotsfoundation.org to get your tickets for the live shows on

[1:11] Thursday, October 19th.

[1:12] But Dan, we'll talk about more of that later.

[1:15] What's going on today?

[1:16] Well, today we're doing an episode of our podcast.

[1:19] It's called The Flophouse.

[1:20] Oh, interesting.

[1:21] Okay.

[1:22] Oh, weird.

[1:23] It's a show where typically we watch a bad movie and then we talk about it.

[1:28] Until recently, we had been on strike.

[1:32] The Writers Guild of America had been on strike.

[1:34] SAG-AFTRA, as of this recording, is still on strike.

[1:36] Not the members of the podcast union striking against unfair podcasts.

[1:40] So we had been-

[1:41] No, we're the management of the podcast.

[1:43] We'd be striking against ourselves.

[1:44] Seems like a bad idea, but if I'm not being fair to myself, I think it's only one option,

[1:50] and that's striking.

[1:52] Out of an excess of caution, even though we were not necessarily endorsing these dumb

[1:58] movies we usually watch, we hadn't been doing-

[2:00] Yeah, there's no Flophouse bump.

[2:01] There's no sudden rush to the video store for some reason.

[2:05] I do think that.

[2:06] Check out the Wikipedia page for Castle Freak, dude.

[2:09] Okay, that's a Flophouse bump.

[2:11] There's a cohort of listeners-

[2:12] Ironic since Giorgio of Castle Freak has no bump.

[2:17] There's a cohort of listeners that does watch the movies beforehand.

[2:21] Instead, we have been going back and watching older movies.

[2:25] Now, as I said, we've reached a tentative agreement, but you know what?

[2:30] Not the podcast.

[2:31] We're talking about the WGA.

[2:32] The WGA.

[2:33] No, no.

[2:34] The podcast is still striking against itself, yeah.

[2:35] Yeah.

[2:36] But you know what?

[2:37] The lure of an 80s flashback Shocktober when we watch horror movies was a little too tasty

[2:43] to pass up, even if we don't have another reason to do it other than our own enjoyment

[2:47] right now.

[2:48] So we're doing that.

[2:49] We are reaching back into the 80s.

[2:52] A lot of people's favorite decade for horror movies, specifically, for various reasons.

[3:00] I mean, some of them, for people of our age, just nostalgia.

[3:03] But there are more legitimate arguments to be made, I think.

[3:09] But there are also some movies from the 80s, horror movies, that were not as beloved, perhaps.

[3:16] I would say probably most of them, when it gets down to it.

[3:22] The thing that was such a big horror boon in the 80s, if I'm understanding correctly,

[3:25] was essentially the home video market.

[3:27] Yeah.

[3:28] Finally, you could get horror movies into people's laps, into kids' television screens,

[3:33] through video stores.

[3:34] And it meant that there was a lot of great product that came out.

[3:37] Videodrome was broadcasting them all the time.

[3:39] Yeah, yeah.

[3:40] Well, Videodrome, well, we couldn't find where the broadcast signal was coming from.

[3:43] There were some rumors about where Videodrome was coming from.

[3:45] And if you looked too deeply into it, you had to start putting the tapes in your belly.

[3:48] And then you become a terrible person.

[3:49] You became just a terrible, horrible person.

[3:52] You can't argue with the convenience of it, though.

[3:54] I mean, like, you don't have to carry any extra equipment.

[3:57] Until the format switches over, and then you've got to get your belly taken out and a DVD

[4:01] player put in.

[4:02] Oh, man.

[4:03] At least it's on Laserdiscs.

[4:05] Those things are huge, and that's a big belly.

[4:08] Yeah, it is.

[4:09] But a lot of the stuff that was coming out was also crap, in the 80s horror.

[4:13] Right, right.

[4:14] Which one, which kind will we have watched today?

[4:17] You'll find out.

[4:18] Dan, tell us more.

[4:19] Yeah, we chose to watch Ghoulies, a film that, despite-

[4:22] I feel as though you say at a press conference, before an apology or to a judge, we chose

[4:27] to watch Ghoulies.

[4:28] Well, yeah, we fall upon the mercy of the court.

[4:32] It was 80 minutes long.

[4:33] In our defense, we were led to believe that this would be a Gremlins-type story, and that

[4:39] maybe there'd be a toilet scene.

[4:42] The toilet scene, you know what, after all these years of saying it doesn't happen, it

[4:46] does show up in an insert shot that I wouldn't be surprised if it was added later to justify

[4:49] the poster.

[4:50] Yeah.

[4:51] But otherwise, we'll get into it.

[4:53] This movie doesn't really pay off the promise of Ghoulies.

[4:55] I'm glad that you bring up the poster, because what I was saying was, this is a frequently

[4:59] invoked film on the podcast, mostly because of the poster that has a ghoulie and a toilet,

[5:06] and the tagline, they'll get you in the end.

[5:11] Great advertising.

[5:12] So, it raises a question, are we going to see a ghoulie bite somebody on the ass?

[5:17] Yes.

[5:18] And we're going to find out if that question's answered by the film.

[5:21] And here's the weirdest thing about it to me, is the ghoulie in the poster is dressed

[5:24] like a little kid.

[5:25] He has a little blue t-shirt and red suspenders, and the ghoulies in the movie are Starkers.

[5:31] They do not wear clothes, and I thought it was very, it led me to believe that these

[5:36] ghoulies were going to be kind of like Wisecrack and Jerks, as opposed to what they are, which

[5:40] is just kind of giggling little creepos.

[5:43] I think that later in the series, they do start, I think that outfit may actually get

[5:49] worn in a later movie.

[5:50] I'm not.

[5:51] I mean, you would have to.

[5:52] I mean, by the time they go to college in the third one.

[5:53] What I love is that it's like a half shirt.

[5:56] It shows off his abs.

[5:57] Oh, you know what?

[5:58] He's chopped up.

[5:59] You're right.

[6:00] He looks awesome.

[6:01] I never, I thought that was like a different color on the shirt.

[6:02] You're right.

[6:03] That is a half shirt.

[6:04] So, he's dressed to go to like Muscle Beach or something like that.

[6:08] Yeah.

[6:09] Now, I want to ask you something, and the ghoulies are also ripped like their abs are

[6:13] incredible.

[6:14] They're incredible.

[6:15] I want to find out.

[6:16] I mean, you know, abs are made in the kitchen, so, but they're always eaten.

[6:20] So, I mean, did you make me some?

[6:24] Yeah.

[6:25] Yeah.

[6:26] I wanted to ask you guys, because ghoulies, for all that it has loomed large in my imagination,

[6:31] I have never watched ghoulies.

[6:33] I had not watched it before watching it for the podcast.

[6:38] I think maybe I've seen bits and pieces, but that's it.

[6:40] Have you guys seen ghoulies before?

[6:43] I feel like I definitely have, because, but then it could just be like, it reminds me

[6:49] of almost every other like Charles Band production of this time.

[6:53] Yeah.

[6:54] That's the thing.

[6:55] There's always like a wizard and some other bullshit.

[6:58] I didn't think I'd seen it, but watching it for this, there were things that felt really

[7:01] familiar.

[7:02] I can't tell exactly if I had seen it before or if it's just that Charles Band is, he didn't

[7:07] direct this one.

[7:08] He was going to, but then he just produced it, but they're working in a very familiar

[7:12] vein.

[7:13] He directed, however, Ghoulies 2, which immediately upon, you know, providing a somewhat tepid

[7:21] ghoulies review on Letterboxd, I had people assuring me that Ghoulies 2 was the superior

[7:28] film.

[7:29] Well, I think, so my understanding is that we'll get into the plot of this is that Ghoulies,

[7:33] the first one is not really very much about the ghoulies and that for Ghoulies 2, people

[7:36] were like, uh, we want to see some ghoulies doing stuff.

[7:39] Yeah.

[7:40] Let's have ghoulies in these ghoulies movies.

[7:41] I don't want to see 40 year old college students, uh, trying to get laid.

[7:45] That's Ghoulies 3, Ghoulies 3 college.

[7:47] Ghoulies 2 is the one where it has almost the same poster, but there's two ghoulies

[7:51] popping out of the toilet.

[7:52] One out of the, one out of the bowl and one of the tank and says, they'll get you in the

[7:55] end dot, dot, dot again.

[7:56] We'll get you in the end and to the back.

[8:00] And it's almost like Ghoulies 2 is being like, look, watch Ghoulies 2.

[8:03] You're going to get what ghoulies promised you that you didn't get.

[8:06] And then Ghoulies 3, they could finally have fun and send them to college and they could

[8:09] finish their degree in hotel management or I don't know.

[8:14] Automotive repair.

[8:15] And Ghoulies 4, I don't know anything about.

[8:17] Yeah.

[8:18] Let's find out.

[8:19] Well, let's dig into these ghoulies.

[8:20] Today on the flop house.

[8:21] We made, we picked up a big plate of ghoulies while Stuart was making those ads.

[8:24] Join us, won't you?

[8:26] We explore ghoulies.

[8:29] That's why you must remember this.

[8:31] And just like you must remember this, the join us, won't you comes nine minutes into

[8:34] the episode.

[8:35] So anyway, let's talk about ghoulies.

[8:37] So we open on the titular ghoulies.

[8:40] They're these kind of hideous little beasties who are watching a satanic mass that's being

[8:45] presided over by a warlock named Malcolm Graves.

[8:48] And Malcolm Graves is played by Michael Desbars, who people who had HBO as teenagers in the

[8:52] nineties will know best as the older man that Jamie Presley seduces in Poison Ivy,

[8:56] The New Seduction.

[8:57] Oh, right.

[8:58] So that's where you recognize him from.

[9:00] Malcolm Graves.

[9:01] He wants to sacrifice his infant son, Jonathan, in order to gain Jonathan's youth energy.

[9:05] But Jonathan's mother, Anastasia, stops him.

[9:08] Instead, Anastasia is sacrificed and her death is so gruesome that even one of the ghoulies

[9:12] covers his eyes.

[9:13] And these guys are gross.

[9:15] And baby Jonathan is spirited away into hiding by the groundskeeper Wolfgang, played by Eraserhead

[9:20] himself, Jack Nance.

[9:23] Jack Nance.

[9:24] Now, can you guys describe the ghoulies for me?

[9:25] What do they look like?

[9:26] Because the movie doesn't, it's not like Critters where they kind of hide them for a while.

[9:30] Like, you see the ghoulies right away, pretty much.

[9:32] No, they're, they're little, they're little puppets.

[9:35] They're kind of like.

[9:36] Okay.

[9:37] So Tombo Jijo, that kind of thing?

[9:38] That's what you mean?

[9:39] No.

[9:40] There's one of, there's a green guy that looks kind of like a Madball, but with like a body

[9:44] and arms and legs.

[9:45] Not the band Madball, which looks like old guys from New York.

[9:48] Yeah.

[9:49] And he's like kind of the sloppy swamp ghoulie.

[9:52] And then there's like a furry one that looks like kind of an overgrown rat.

[9:56] Yeah.

[9:57] Yeah.

[9:58] Not the band rat.

[9:59] Not the band rat.

[10:00] I mean.

[10:00] like old hair metal guys.

[10:01] There's, there are various little creatures

[10:04] and right away I wanna get into one of the things

[10:06] that I found unexpected and bizarre about this movie.

[10:11] How moist they are, is that it?

[10:12] They're all covered in kind of goopy goo all the time.

[10:15] No, I was gonna, like,

[10:17] so the typical rap on Ghoulies is that it was-

[10:20] Is, hey, I'm Ghoulies that I'm here to say.

[10:25] People think of it as a Gremlins ripoff.

[10:27] It was in production at the same time as Gremlins.

[10:30] Now, that does not necessarily mean

[10:32] it wasn't in some degree ripping it off.

[10:34] Like, they were like, let's push this Ghoulies film out

[10:36] because we know that this Gremlin script is hot,

[10:38] but it's not a direct ripoff in the most simple sense.

[10:43] It's not, it's not like a mock buster,

[10:45] kind of like we're taking this thing

[10:46] and doing our copy of it.

[10:47] But I think something funny is that

[10:49] you'll read descriptions of it and they're like,

[10:50] it was in production at the same time,

[10:52] but ran out of money, which meant it had to take a break

[10:54] and Gremlins beat it to the theaters.

[10:56] As if there was any world in which these were

[10:59] equal competitors to be hits at the box office.

[11:02] The Steven Spielberg produced Gremlins,

[11:05] which is the best puppet effects at the time,

[11:08] compared to Ghoulies, as if Ghoulies was like,

[11:10] ooh, we could have been there, we could have been that

[11:12] if we'd gotten there just a little bit faster.

[11:15] As you guys point out,

[11:16] I think a lot of people mistakenly say

[11:17] that this is a Gremlins ripoff,

[11:19] but what they don't talk about enough

[11:20] is how hereditary is a Ghoulies ripoff,

[11:23] which I will explain in this four-point presentation.

[11:26] It's a good call.

[11:27] It is basically the same movie in a lot of ways.

[11:30] Let me, before you get to that PowerPoint,

[11:32] let me complete the thought, which was just like,

[11:35] so I still was kind of expecting like this like,

[11:38] oh, rascally little monster critters movie.

[11:41] And Gremlins, the fact that the Gremlins

[11:45] aren't necessarily super terrifying makes sense.

[11:49] Like they will kill you and that's scary,

[11:51] but that's because they're like

[11:52] these amoral mischief creatures.

[11:55] But in Ghoulies-

[11:57] They got mutant madness, yeah.

[11:59] In Ghoulies, you have these little like

[12:01] critters running around, not the critters,

[12:03] those are Krites, of course.

[12:04] Yeah, that's very different.

[12:06] And they are sort of the result of these occult rituals,

[12:12] like these wizards can control these Ghoulies,

[12:16] which are maybe, I don't know, demonic forces, who knows?

[12:19] But it is much less impressive to me as like,

[12:22] I'm a master of sorcery and because of that,

[12:26] I control these Ghoulies.

[12:29] I made this gross little dude, look at that.

[12:32] Am I not your king?

[12:34] All powerful.

[12:35] I mean, I think all children

[12:36] are gross little dudes for a while.

[12:37] I guess that's the greatest power of all.

[12:40] It's the greatest act of art,

[12:43] is the creation of human life.

[12:44] And all art is merely us trying to imitate

[12:47] the power of God, which only exists

[12:49] in the creation of human life.

[12:51] And Ghoulies.

[12:52] And Ghoulies.

[12:53] The greatest work of art is Ghoulies.

[12:55] But the other thing is that the Gremlins,

[12:56] they have so much personality.

[12:58] They have so much charisma.

[12:59] They are real characters.

[13:00] They are kind of, they have a,

[13:03] when you, you can just watch Gremlins

[13:04] hanging out at a bar and it is fun.

[13:06] The Ghoulies have no personality whatsoever.

[13:08] They just kind of are around.

[13:09] They're kind of set dressing and it's very disappointing.

[13:11] Okay, so this baby was saved by Eraserhead.

[13:14] Years later, Jonathan, the baby, has grown up.

[13:17] He's now a college student of indeterminate age.

[13:21] Most of the time, he looks mid-30s.

[13:24] When he first shows up with his girlfriend,

[13:26] yes, when he shows up with his girlfriend, Rebecca,

[13:27] I thought they were a married couple,

[13:29] but it turns out they're just boyfriend, girlfriend,

[13:31] and he's a college student.

[13:32] And he has inherited this large estate from his father.

[13:34] In reality, it is Los Angeles's historic Waddles Mansion.

[13:38] Many things have been shot there.

[13:39] One of the few surviving big mansions

[13:42] from the pre-Hollywood days in Hollywood.

[13:45] Well, this is one of the funny things to me,

[13:46] like this presumably American mansion

[13:49] also has this like medieval catacomb beneath it

[13:53] where you raise ghoulies.

[13:56] The only thing about that is that it's very unlikely

[13:58] that there's that huge a basement in California,

[14:00] an earthquake-prone place,

[14:02] but you could say it was from the time

[14:03] when people were really copying old European styles.

[14:06] Sure.

[14:07] You know, Hearst was literally dismantling old castles

[14:09] and bringing them to be to San Ysidni.

[14:11] And I guess if you're into like raising ghoulies.

[14:14] Look, if you're into raising ghoulies,

[14:16] I mean, it's possible that Jonathan's dad

[14:17] just had that basement put in

[14:19] because he could put the ghoulies in it.

[14:20] Raising ghoulies is not a thing you do on ground level

[14:22] or the second floor.

[14:24] Imagine how much less impressive a magic ritual is

[14:27] if it's happening in the attic or on the second floor

[14:30] as opposed to a basement.

[14:32] Come on.

[14:32] I don't know, is it a creepy attic?

[14:33] Is it one of those ones with like the big round window?

[14:36] Is it one of those ones

[14:37] where the geometry doesn't make sense

[14:38] and there's a witch up there?

[14:39] No, it's a regular attic.

[14:40] You have to stoop a little bit.

[14:41] It's full of old Christmas lights.

[14:42] That's the attic it's happening in.

[14:43] Oh, that's boring.

[14:44] And there's like a wasp nest.

[14:46] It's the attic Chevy Chase goes to

[14:48] in a Christmas vacation

[14:49] where he just gets stuck up there, yeah.

[14:51] You need somebody down below

[14:52] to make sure that the trap door doesn't fly up

[14:54] and get stuck.

[14:56] So anyway, they explore this large estate

[14:57] he's just inherited.

[14:58] They find a grave on the premises

[14:59] that has a pentagram on it,

[15:00] but the dirt's too high to read the name.

[15:02] And later, Jonathan also finds his dad's

[15:05] black magic supplies in the basement.

[15:07] They're just lying around.

[15:08] They have not been put away.

[15:09] They're just in boxes lying around like a basement.

[15:12] So Jonathan and Rebecca,

[15:13] they do what any young college people would do

[15:14] upon encountering, getting a mansion.

[15:16] They throw a party

[15:17] and their collection of weird friends show up.

[15:19] Okay, let me see if I can remember all of them

[15:21] because I don't even know if all of them

[15:22] get names on screen.

[15:24] But there's Dick who is girl crazy

[15:26] and thinks he's God's gift to women.

[15:28] There's a socially awkward young man named Mark

[15:30] who everyone calls Toad Boy.

[15:31] Dick kind of looks like Big Ed from Twin Peaks, right?

[15:35] I can see that, yeah.

[15:36] He's got a little bit of a rockabilly aesthetic

[15:38] and that kind of thing.

[15:39] There's two burnouts whose names I don't remember.

[15:41] And there's Donna played by young Mariska Hargitay

[15:44] in her film debut, I believe.

[15:47] Oh yeah.

[15:48] And we watched one of the burnouts break dance.

[15:49] You may remember her from Beloved Guru.

[15:52] They just met, oh, does she actually appear in it?

[15:55] I don't remember.

[15:56] I know she says her name a lot.

[15:57] No, no, they just use the, it's just such a dumb joke.

[15:59] It's such a, that's how he,

[16:00] that's how his greeting is like Mariska Hargitay,

[16:02] that kind of stuff.

[16:03] Yeah.

[16:04] What a terrible movie.

[16:05] So one of the burnouts break dances for a while

[16:07] and then Jonathan suggests they conjure a spirit

[16:09] just as a lark.

[16:10] They go down to the basement.

[16:11] They do this ritual.

[16:12] Nothing seems to happen.

[16:14] Somebody walks away disappointed

[16:15] and Jonathan doesn't do the spirit dismissing spell.

[16:17] As soon as they're all gone, what appears on the floor?

[16:20] We got a ghoulie.

[16:22] A ghoulie, we got one.

[16:24] A real big problem with a real bad logo goes.

[16:26] I will say that this movie is like 80 minutes long

[16:30] and it takes about 30 minutes to get to the point

[16:33] that Elliot just said.

[16:35] Like I-

[16:36] Yes, I cut out a lot of the part.

[16:38] It is a movie that has its charms,

[16:41] but it is pretty dull

[16:42] whenever there's not a ghoulie on screen.

[16:45] Once the ritual doesn't work out quite as I want it,

[16:48] they go, oh, where's Robin?

[16:49] This other character, Robin.

[16:50] Where's she?

[16:50] Let's go look for her.

[16:51] That doesn't pay off in any way.

[16:52] Who cares?

[16:53] It's just a way to get them out of the room, I guess,

[16:55] that they've noticed Robin has gone somewhere else.

[16:57] The next day, Jonathan tells Rebecca

[16:59] that he is leaving school to focus on repairing the house.

[17:02] On ghoulie-based business.

[17:05] I'm creating these cobblers ghoulies to make shoes.

[17:11] And she reacts the same way he would

[17:12] if he said he's dropping out of school to get into crypto.

[17:14] She's like, ah, I don't know if that's a great idea,

[17:17] but he also gets obsessed with those magic artifacts.

[17:21] He draws ritual markings on the floor

[17:22] and he makes a talisman necklace for Rebecca

[17:25] that's kind of like a safety thing.

[17:26] I think he had one as a baby, I don't remember.

[17:28] All this magic is having a terrible effect on him.

[17:30] He looks old, he looks less healthy.

[17:32] Yeah, it's the magic.

[17:34] Yeah, and he doesn't go outside at all, too.

[17:37] And he conjures some more ghoulies

[17:38] and he tells them to obey him

[17:39] and not let anyone else see them.

[17:42] So, and eventually this is gonna lead to

[17:44] when he's just kicking back in his study,

[17:46] reading books while ghoulies are just kinda

[17:48] hanging over his shoulder, drooling and grumbling.

[17:50] And it's like, this is what the power has given you?

[17:52] Is you just have these gross things

[17:53] hanging on your shoulders while you're just hanging out?

[17:56] Yeah, this is what I was thinking,

[17:57] because what would you guys do if you had

[17:59] a few ghoulies at your disposal?

[18:01] Because it's not like they can get-

[18:02] I would ask them to leave.

[18:03] They don't seem to do that.

[18:06] They don't seem to do much.

[18:07] They can't get anything off like a high shelf,

[18:10] for instance, or what are other things ghoulies can't,

[18:14] they couldn't drive you anywhere,

[18:16] they couldn't reach the pedals.

[18:17] Maybe a couple of them stacked on top of each other.

[18:20] I'd have them go on to World of Warcraft

[18:23] and do some XP mining for me,

[18:25] just to level up my character.

[18:26] I feel like most of your time as a ghoulie

[18:28] is when you spent cleaning up after the ghoulies.

[18:31] They're more trouble.

[18:32] The fact that he later used his ritual

[18:33] to get better helpers is a real indictment of the ghoulies.

[18:38] That's a lot.

[18:39] So now he's doing rituals in full warlock robes,

[18:42] holding a magic spear, a magic trident of some kind.

[18:45] He's praying to Paimon.

[18:47] What a hereditary thing.

[18:50] Yep, he is, and he gains the power

[18:52] to make it rain in the basement.

[18:53] Again, I don't see what the benefit of this is.

[18:56] Now you have a wet basement.

[18:57] Water in your basement is literally

[18:58] something you don't want.

[18:59] It's something that people go out of their way to avoid.

[19:01] As a small business owner,

[19:03] water in your basement is a nightmare.

[19:05] You don't want that,

[19:06] but he has the power to make it happen in his own house.

[19:08] Rebecca walks in on him, and it is hilarious.

[19:11] It's like she's walked in on him masturbating

[19:12] to pictures of someone he used to date.

[19:14] She is understandably upset.

[19:16] He is embarrassed and cannot explain it,

[19:18] and he promises, okay, I'm gonna cut it out with the magic.

[19:21] No more magic, I promise.

[19:22] I promise, baby, no more magic.

[19:24] Baby, baby, I'm cured.

[19:26] I'll go to therapy for it.

[19:27] No more magic.

[19:28] Cut to the next scene,

[19:29] and he is lighting a magic candle next to their bed.

[19:32] Jonathan, you haven't even been able

[19:34] to go one scene without magic.

[19:36] He and Rebecca start making love

[19:38] as a ghoulie pops up to watch,

[19:41] which to me would be a major turnoff.

[19:43] Even if they're working for me,

[19:44] I don't want them in the room when I'm having sex.

[19:45] How do you guys feel about it?

[19:46] I know you're a little kinkier than me.

[19:48] I'm a little vanilla.

[19:48] Yeah, I mean, I like an audience.

[19:50] Is it a, yeah, it would have to be

[19:52] maybe a handsomer ghoulie for it to work for me.

[19:56] So you're, so you're, you're, you're,

[19:58] you're a look shaming of.

[20:00] the ghoulie, but just the fact that he's just sitting, I don't,

[20:02] I'm just talking about my, yeah, I mean, let's go over to, let's go to BDSM.org

[20:07] and fill out the quiz and see what it says about ghoulie boy, adult ghoulie finder.

[20:14] Now the, uh, here's the thing about it though.

[20:16] I can understand that the thrill of being watched, but being watched by

[20:19] someone who is giggling the entire time seems off-putting to me.

[20:23] Yeah.

[20:23] That's it's the ghoulie equivalent of like Statler and Waldorf criticizing you.

[20:27] Now that's something, to be honest, to be having sex with Statler and Waldorf

[20:31] are just, are just criticizing me and making jokes.

[20:34] I, the only problem with it is that I would get too hard.

[20:36] I think it'd be too exciting.

[20:38] Yeah.

[20:39] That's your Patrick Bateman in the mirror moment.

[20:42] When's he going to come?

[20:43] I'm just asking when we can go.

[20:44] That kind of stuff.

[20:46] And you're just laughing too hard to continue.

[20:49] Oh, it would be, it would be too close.

[20:51] The duet of pleasures would cancel each other out.

[20:53] Like two perfect waveforms meeting.

[20:55] Yeah.

[20:56] Yeah.

[20:57] All I want to do now is write, is write jokes for Statler and Waldorf

[21:00] to say while they're watching people have sex.

[21:05] Weirdly enough, uh, the Jim Henson company is not into, uh, your, your

[21:09] pitch, uh, Statler and Waldorf.

[21:11] Yeah.

[21:11] But I think Jim Henson himself probably would.

[21:14] Yeah.

[21:15] I mean, in his private life, who knows what that guy was into?

[21:17] Yeah.

[21:17] You know, so, uh, there's, there's gotta be, there's gotta be times when

[21:21] he, when he had sex as Kermit.

[21:23] It had to be, right?

[21:24] Oh my God.

[21:25] I mean, if I was on the receiving end, I've, I would request Kermit knowing

[21:30] that his one sort of vice in life was he was a philanderer, I'm sure there's

[21:35] got to be someone expensive cars.

[21:36] He would buy very expensive cars.

[21:38] Too Kermit for me.

[21:41] Had to have it.

[21:42] Come on.

[21:43] He would just say, is Kermit in the room with us tonight?

[21:46] Uh, he, uh, could be perhaps.

[21:51] You're a really good Kermit.

[21:52] Yeah.

[21:52] You're really good at that.

[21:53] I do a lot at home, not in the bedroom, but.

[21:56] Yeah, you're making it a little easier to be green as you, as you say to me,

[22:03] Elliot, and now Audrey has picked it up too.

[22:07] It was like, sure, laddie.

[22:09] Sure.

[22:13] Would I do this to my friend Rocco?

[22:15] You might rabbit.

[22:16] You might.

[22:17] It's a, Oh, it's a great, it's a great voice.

[22:19] I don't mean it as an anti-Irish slur.

[22:21] I apologize.

[22:21] So anyway, uh, John starts muttering magic incantations while they're in

[22:25] the act and Rebecca angrily storms out.

[22:27] Uh, doesn't notice that the Gulia is watching.

[22:29] She does see the pentagram under the bed though.

[22:32] Right?

[22:32] That magical warding circle or whatever.

[22:34] Now I have to say.

[22:38] Sure.

[22:39] Go on.

[22:39] It's not unreasonable under these circumstances for her to storm out, but

[22:44] the movie narratively seems like it gets to this point pretty quickly, especially

[22:48] considering how much time is spent not doing much at the party.

[22:52] It feels like there should be like a little bit more of like a build to like,

[22:57] it's clear this is a problem this guy has.

[23:00] I know it's weird to come home and see that your, your, your boyfriend is

[23:04] wearing ceremonial robes in the basement and soaking wet for some reason.

[23:10] Nothing bad per se has happened at this point, I guess, is that?

[23:15] No, that's true.

[23:15] Shit.

[23:15] Well, I mean, he's gone back on a promise.

[23:17] He's creeping around.

[23:18] It's more that she's mad that his life is falling apart and he's not

[23:21] taking responsibility for himself.

[23:22] But I agree.

[23:22] Ghoulies is not a masterclass in storytelling.

[23:25] Do you think it would have been better if like this section had been more like a

[23:29] French farce where he's trying to hide the ghoulies from her ghoulies keep

[23:34] almost popping up that I want to see this movie.

[23:37] I'd enjoy it more.

[23:38] Certainly.

[23:38] Yeah.

[23:38] I don't know if it would raise the thrill level or the terror level, but

[23:41] it would be more fun to watch.

[23:42] Sure.

[23:42] Yeah.

[23:43] Yeah.

[23:43] What, where's your terror level at now, Elliot?

[23:46] The terror level, pretty, it's yellow.

[23:50] It's pretty low down.

[23:51] Oh, you're not.

[23:53] You don't have to take your shoes off to watch ghoulies, uh, this level, uh, the,

[23:58] uh, the, I will say that this, I, it's this, this kind of thing is handled much

[24:03] better in the very beginning of a movie called ride with the devil.

[24:06] It's a hammer horror movie.

[24:07] That's not perfect, but there's a point where two friends, uh, show up at a

[24:10] friend's house for dinner and it turns out the date got mixed up and their friend

[24:13] is hosting a satanic mass that night.

[24:15] And the friend is there.

[24:15] He's in robes and robes and they're like, what's going on?

[24:18] He's like, oh, well, you were supposed to go over for dinner tomorrow night.

[24:20] Not tonight.

[24:21] And I always found that very, very funny and also a little scary.

[24:25] They do that.

[24:25] You just show up at your friend's house and run night and realize

[24:27] that he's involved in this stuff.

[24:30] Yeah.

[24:30] It's much like in hereditary where she just finds all these magic

[24:34] books going through her mom's stuff.

[24:35] And the really scary part is not that her mom was involved in magic, but that her mom

[24:38] didn't include her in this aspect of her life.

[24:40] That's the, that's the harsh part.

[24:42] Uh, so now with Rebecca gone, Jonathan just throws himself into full-time warlocking.

[24:46] His eyes start to glow.

[24:48] They start looking like his dad's eyes did in the first scene.

[24:50] And also his pupils, like one of them goes off to the side and I honestly

[24:55] couldn't tell whether that was an intentional choice or just the

[24:58] contacts, not settling correctly.

[25:01] That's a very good question.

[25:02] It's a great question.

[25:04] Uh, again, these are not Grinch stole Christmas level contact lenses.

[25:07] They're not sticking right in there.

[25:08] Um, he decides I guess that the ghoulies are not cutting it in the assistant

[25:13] department and he conjures two kind of gnomes in armor who are named grizzle.

[25:18] And greedy guts.

[25:18] And these are hands down.

[25:20] I will, I will brook no argument, hands down the best characters in the movie.

[25:23] Guys, fight me over it.

[25:25] Fight me.

[25:25] I'm not, I'm not going to, no, they have the most charisma.

[25:29] I mean, like the best performances these days, by the way, just say, yeah, that's

[25:35] true.

[25:37] I would love, um, the ghoulies to be the top performances, but you know, like they

[25:44] aren't given the personality that these are, you know, like these are, uh, two,

[25:49] uh, little person actors in, in armor basically, but they have like a lot of

[25:54] weight.

[25:55] So grizzle is played by Peter Rish and a greedy gut is played by Tamara detro who

[26:00] also tomorrow to throw is, is, I don't know if she's better known, but she, but

[26:03] she also played ET for much of the movie.

[26:06] Wow.

[26:07] Yeah.

[26:08] Oh, they're great.

[26:08] In a costume, right?

[26:10] Yes.

[26:10] And no, she was in the makeup chair for hours and hours.

[26:13] No, she's in a costume.

[26:14] It was, it was all, it was all motion capture.

[26:16] Yeah.

[26:16] Um, and they are, they give the best performances in the movie, their

[26:19] characters, the most interesting, uh, grizzle as portrayed by Peter Rish.

[26:22] And I wonder if this was in the script or not is very reluctant to do the bad

[26:27] things and does not like that.

[26:28] He is under the control of Jonathan.

[26:30] Whereas greedy gut is more eager to kind of like play up to the master in order

[26:35] to get what she wants.

[26:36] And there's like an actual dynamic with them that I find that is interesting.

[26:40] And I wish this movie was called greedy gut and Grizz and was about these two

[26:43] characters in Los Angeles, but it is not.

[26:46] Um, in order to test their power, Jonathan makes them levitate a wine

[26:50] goblets that they can drink it.

[26:51] And, uh, greedy gut starts telling you about a more dangerous ritual that can

[26:55] bring me for great, even greater power, but he needs seven people for it.

[26:58] And grizzle is like, don't tell him, don't tell him.

[27:00] And unfortunately they don't get too much screen time.

[27:02] Now by now, Jonathan is at the stage I mentioned earlier, it was just kicking

[27:05] back reading while a ghouly group just grumbles on his shoulder into his ear.

[27:10] Uh, I would find that very distracting if I'm trying to study a magic book,

[27:12] but, uh, Rebecca returns and convincing sound of white noise.

[27:20] I mean, honestly, I feel like the, the, the sound of a ghouly grumbling in your

[27:25] ear sounds a lot like the vocalists in the bands I listened to.

[27:28] Yeah.

[27:29] That's fair.

[27:29] It's a lot.

[27:30] Yeah.

[27:31] I'm just imagining that one of my like meditation apps has one of the

[27:35] options, like ghouly grumbles.

[27:37] Oh yeah.

[27:38] My, my ways app has the ghouly option for the voice to read the directions.

[27:43] Yeah.

[27:44] I don't understand what that means.

[27:46] I mean, I stopped.

[27:48] Is that a stopped car ahead?

[27:50] All right.

[27:51] Houston street.

[27:52] You can't even get the pronunciations, right?

[27:54] Come on.

[27:54] Ghouly AI.

[27:55] Come on.

[27:55] Uh, so, uh, Rebecca, she's, she's like, can you please leave the house?

[28:00] But the gnomes put a spell on her so that she'll obey Jonathan.

[28:03] She's in kind of a trance and Wolfgang comes in.

[28:05] He VOs every now and then tell you why he's not doing anything.

[28:08] And he's like, Oh, I was powerless to do anything, but watch

[28:11] the evil overtake Jonathan.

[28:13] I feel like it's, the movie is in bad shape when you cannot afford

[28:16] much of Jack Nance's screen time.

[28:18] When Jack Nance is not, they're really not making it worthwhile for Jack

[28:21] Nance to be on, on screen very much.

[28:23] Yeah.

[28:23] Well, I mean, this, this voiceover was so confusing to me because the

[28:28] movie doesn't have it in general.

[28:30] And I guess it's just like the movie needs to remind you that Jack Nance's

[28:33] character is in the movie so that when he comes back later on, you're like,

[28:37] what, when he, when he comes back, zap and magic all over the place, you're

[28:40] like, why didn't he do this earlier?

[28:42] He's always like, Oh, I just couldn't.

[28:43] I couldn't.

[28:44] Uh, Jonathan invites his friends to a dinner party where everyone's wearing

[28:47] sunglasses because he has to wear sunglasses to cover his glowing eyes.

[28:50] And they're all wearing their shades inside.

[28:52] They're wearing their sunglasses at night.

[28:53] So they can, so they can keep track of the visions and ghoulies.

[28:56] Ghoulies are popping up all over the table, but nobody seems to notice them.

[28:59] And the ghoulies are loud again.

[29:00] They're grumbling constantly.

[29:02] They're eating the food as well.

[29:05] Now, just like that song, ghoulies busting out all over.

[29:09] Yeah.

[29:09] That's what the movie was based on.

[29:11] Um, the Jonathan, he casts a spell and this is, I think the best part of the

[29:15] movie, aside from when Rizal and Greta got in it, where this, he casts a spell

[29:20] that suddenly the table disappears.

[29:22] Then he transports them, transports them to the basement and they're

[29:24] all covered in white sheets.

[29:25] Not like clan white sheets, but as it, but like burial shrouds.

[29:28] And it's genuinely very creepy.

[29:30] It's very genuinely strange.

[29:32] The group, the ghoulies are loving this ritual.

[29:34] They are all over it.

[29:35] And everybody starts yelling and yelling and yelling.

[29:38] And the warlock dad, Malcolm, his dead body pops out of the grave, now

[29:41] yelling, having been revived.

[29:43] And then suddenly they're all back at the dinner table.

[29:45] And I thought this whole sequence, this is the best sequence in the whole movie.

[29:49] Yeah.

[29:49] Uh, and John and Rebecca are like, well, everybody, thanks for coming to our dinner.

[29:53] We are leaving to go to sleep, but you can all stay the night, which is a weird

[29:57] thing for the host to do, uh, when.

[30:00] dinner's not really over yet.

[30:01] To be like, mm, I'm so tired, I gotta get my sweepies in,

[30:04] so you guys hang out and be at the house.

[30:06] Maybe it's the kind of thing that rich people do,

[30:08] I don't know.

[30:09] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[30:10] If you got that many extra.

[30:11] Yeah, if you're super rich,

[30:12] just write in and tell us if you do shit

[30:15] like they do in Ghoulies.

[30:16] So, the reason I want people to leave

[30:18] at the end of the night is that we live in an apartment,

[30:21] you know, and there's essentially four rooms here.

[30:26] Yeah, it's what the movie Four Rooms

[30:27] was based on, your apartment.

[30:28] If you live in a mansion, you're like, yeah, whatever.

[30:32] There's probably people living here I don't know about.

[30:35] I mean, there's that scene in Susan Cain

[30:37] where he's like, I believe some stragglers

[30:39] are still in the East Wing, you know,

[30:40] from the party that they had.

[30:41] Yeah.

[30:42] Yeah, so if you had a huge mansion,

[30:45] you'd be like, yeah, fuck it, do whatever you want.

[30:47] Go into my wine cellar, go hang out in my.

[30:50] You three lunkheads, come polish this urn for me.

[30:53] I don't care, I have a mansion.

[30:55] Yeah, I do like.

[30:57] I'll just get a new urn.

[30:58] You break whatever you want.

[30:59] I don't give a shit, Stooges.

[31:01] Yeah, you can go hang out with this weird,

[31:03] life-size Klaus Kinski clown doll that's in one room.

[31:08] It is a strangely furnished and decorated house.

[31:12] It's decorated in creepy modern.

[31:16] But I guess you can do that when you're rich.

[31:18] So, zombie dad is walking the grounds.

[31:20] He's just petting ghoulies when he runs into them,

[31:22] telling them he's their true master, he's returned.

[31:25] The friends pair off and they get attacked

[31:26] in different ways, and this takes a while.

[31:29] I'm shortening it considerably.

[31:31] Mariska Hargitay and, is it Mariska Hargitay

[31:34] and Toad Boy gets attacked, or is it?

[31:36] I think so, yeah.

[31:36] Yeah, yeah, they get attacked in the garden by ghoulies.

[31:39] Dick has paired off with another girl,

[31:41] and he leaves, and he encounters,

[31:43] this is the strangest one of these.

[31:45] He encounters Malcolm Graves, the dead warlock,

[31:48] but Malcolm Graves has taken the form of a sexy lady,

[31:51] and who Dick, who's like, kissed me,

[31:54] and he's like, well, I've never met you before,

[31:56] but I'm so love-happy that when I wander through a mansion

[31:59] and a creepy lady tells me to kiss her, I just do it.

[32:01] Honestly, I get it.

[32:04] But unfortunately, that's a bad mistake

[32:06] because she strangles him with an enormous serpent tongue

[32:09] that shoots out of her mouth.

[32:10] Freddy Krueger style.

[32:11] You live by the sword, you die by the sword,

[32:12] that's what I'm saying.

[32:13] Yeah, live by the French, die by the French.

[32:16] And Robin, another woman, gets strangled

[32:18] by a ghoulie inside a big clown doll

[32:20] that Stuart mentioned before,

[32:22] and my favorite one of these is, of the two burnouts,

[32:25] one of them just gets attacked by ghoulies,

[32:27] the other one, Grizz has to go get a ghoulie,

[32:30] subdue it, and then he just throws it at the other burnout,

[32:32] and you can tell that Grizz does not wanna be doing this.

[32:35] He's regretting it the entire time.

[32:36] He feels bad about it.

[32:38] That's acting.

[32:39] He clearly doesn't wanna do it.

[32:39] Richest character in the movie, Grizzle.

[32:42] Meanwhile, John tells Rebecca, he goes,

[32:45] I hope you can forgive me,

[32:46] and he puts the safety towel and necklace on her,

[32:49] and she falls asleep, and she goes into a sleeping trance,

[32:51] and I think this is meant to protect her.

[32:53] And this is the moment when Dad goes,

[32:55] ghoulies, come to me!

[32:57] And they're all popping up everywhere,

[32:58] and we finally get the insert shot

[33:00] of the ghoulie popping out of the toilet.

[33:02] That's it.

[33:03] We have fulfilled the order.

[33:04] The audience stands up, applauds.

[33:07] Yeah.

[33:08] Miles out of the theater.

[33:09] Yeah.

[33:10] It reaches his feet.

[33:10] It's like, no, there's more movie left.

[33:12] And they go, no, we're concerned.

[33:13] It's all we came to see.

[33:14] We came to see it.

[33:15] It's beating the flash entering the speed zone

[33:17] as the number one stand-up and cheer moment

[33:19] in American film history.

[33:21] 20-minute standing ovation at Con.

[33:23] At James Con's house, you mean,

[33:26] where they hold premier ghoulies.

[33:27] Yeah, at James Con's house, yeah.

[33:28] He's loving it.

[33:29] He is just loving it, yeah.

[33:30] He's telling his buddies, you gotta see this movie.

[33:32] They got these crazy little monsters.

[33:34] Ever since I saw that one of them was in the turtleneck,

[33:36] I had to see it.

[33:40] I really like the way that when he summons the ghoulies,

[33:43] it also summons all of the dead party-goers, I guess.

[33:49] And they just kind of like inch along the ground

[33:52] like weird worms.

[33:53] And I thought that was pretty cool.

[33:54] Like, that's a cool bit of physical work by those actors.

[33:57] Rebecca sees, well, we'll get to it in a moment,

[33:59] but Rebecca sees one of these and is horrified

[34:01] to see her friend kind of like,

[34:03] yeah, like wriggling along the ground,

[34:05] like almost Uzumaki style,

[34:06] the way people's bodies move in Uzumaki comics.

[34:09] And I was like, that is cool.

[34:10] That's a cool, creepy touch.

[34:11] I like that.

[34:12] Anytime a human body is moving in a way

[34:14] that is unnatural for a human body,

[34:17] it can be very effective on film.

[34:20] It's why there's so many, what, palabalus dancers

[34:25] that go into the horror realm.

[34:27] Anyway, that's a modern dance reference

[34:28] that I probably mispronounced.

[34:29] So anyway, all the ghoulies and the dead people

[34:32] are coming out.

[34:33] They're writhing around.

[34:34] Rebecca wakes up to find Jonathan in a trance.

[34:36] She's horrified.

[34:37] She rips off her talisman.

[34:38] She runs to the stairs.

[34:39] A flying ghoulie, like a flying squirrel ghoulie

[34:43] knocks her down the stairs, but she seemingly dies.

[34:47] Knocks her down the stairs,

[34:48] but she has just enough time to rebuke Jonathan.

[34:50] Yes, that's true.

[34:51] Why'd you do this, dude?

[34:53] Or whatever.

[34:54] Yeah.

[34:55] I mean, was it worth it?

[34:56] It's a fair question.

[34:57] Why did you raise all these ghoulies?

[34:59] Why did he do it?

[35:00] I think it's really funny that she's like,

[35:02] before I go, I'm gonna talk some shit.

[35:05] Before I go, tough love,

[35:07] why'd you raise all these ghoulies?

[35:09] I guess the assumption is that there's a corrupting influence

[35:14] like he does the first ritual out of curiosity,

[35:18] you know, youthful, high spirits,

[35:21] and then he's corrupted into like the lust for power,

[35:25] but it all happened so fast.

[35:26] Yeah, yeah.

[35:27] This is some natural Dan generosity coming out right now.

[35:30] Yeah, yeah.

[35:31] How many times did the movie make you cry, Dan?

[35:33] There's no sense early on where it's like,

[35:35] ugh, my lifelong dream has always been

[35:38] to be the king of the ghoulies.

[35:39] Like, I don't know.

[35:40] I was the king of prom,

[35:42] but there were no ghoulies at prom, unfortunately.

[35:45] Then I was the king of Queens, no ghoulies there.

[35:48] I was originally going to,

[35:49] I think if there's any borough

[35:51] that is lousy with ghoulies, it's Queens.

[35:53] Staten Island, my friend, Staten Island.

[35:55] Oh, you got me, like Nicole Mallet-August.

[35:58] The, do you think he was also,

[36:01] like he was going to school for like management,

[36:05] and that's why he's like,

[36:06] I just love being in charge of all these ghoulies.

[36:08] I love administrating the ghoulies.

[36:10] I think that's it,

[36:11] because they're all trying to get power,

[36:14] but it's a very abstract concept of power.

[36:15] Like, I don't know what Jonathan wants to do with this power.

[36:18] I don't understand what it means for him.

[36:20] I don't know what kind of power the ghoulies convey,

[36:21] because they don't do anything

[36:23] other than attack people occasionally.

[36:25] It's not like the ghoulies are stealing money

[36:27] for him or anything like that.

[36:28] Even the gnomes that can levitate things,

[36:30] I don't know what they're bringing

[36:31] to Jonathan's organization.

[36:33] It feels like Jonathan, like many startup founders,

[36:36] doesn't really know what to do with his staff

[36:38] once he's expanded beyond the size

[36:39] he can reasonably manage them.

[36:41] He loses sight of his core mission.

[36:44] I feel like as soon as he summoned the ghoulies,

[36:46] he should have been like,

[36:47] well, they can help me fix up the house.

[36:51] I know you're saying they're gross

[36:53] and they're incapable of doing that,

[36:54] but what if they were capable?

[36:57] And that would at least make sense.

[36:59] Yeah, at least I can see ghoulies crawling around the roof,

[37:01] nailing down shingles and stuff like that,

[37:03] putting down tar paper, but they don't even do that.

[37:05] Yeah, you throw on a little banger,

[37:07] like put one foot in front of the other,

[37:11] like in Revenge of the Nerds.

[37:12] See, now that would be a funny horror comedy

[37:15] where there's like these little creatures

[37:17] that this warlock wanted for like world domination

[37:20] and this guy gets the power for it

[37:22] and he's just using them for chores and stuff.

[37:24] Well, here's, okay, the strike is ending.

[37:26] Here's my pitch, Hollywood.

[37:28] I know I shouldn't be pitching right now.

[37:30] A contractor gets control of Blackmagic.

[37:33] He just is gonna use them to work on houses

[37:35] and the ghoulies are really upset

[37:37] because they want to be wrecking havoc.

[37:39] But what I need you to do is to lay down grout.

[37:41] That's what I need you to do.

[37:42] I don't need you to wreck havoc.

[37:43] Like I'm a contractor, I like my life, I make good money.

[37:46] I don't need, they're like, you could have power,

[37:48] domination, I don't need that.

[37:50] I have what I need.

[37:51] I'm gonna retire pretty, you know, in 10 years.

[37:53] This is what I need right now.

[37:54] And one of the clients who's like real,

[37:57] like a real pain in the ass shows up to the job site,

[38:00] sees the ghoulies, they kill her or him.

[38:04] And he has to, or him, it could be, or them.

[38:07] Or him, gender neutrality, gender equality, yeah.

[38:09] Anyone can be a victim of ghoulies.

[38:10] And then the contractor's like,

[38:11] oh God, I gotta do something with this stupid body.

[38:14] Yeah, now that's your ghoulies movie.

[38:16] Anyway, and it's called Ghoulies Bringing Down the House

[38:19] or something like that, you know.

[38:20] Oh, I love it.

[38:21] Yeah, so, but I agree.

[38:24] It's like not clear why, other than a family curse

[38:26] or the lure of the taboo or the forbidden,

[38:29] it's really not clear why Jonathan's doing any of this

[38:32] or why he is, because I can understand,

[38:34] I can understand the lure of forbidden knowledge,

[38:36] that I can do something that no one else knows how to do.

[38:38] And they don't even know the power to do this exists.

[38:40] But if the, what you basically have is you can get

[38:43] a bunch of greasy, goopy little monsters

[38:45] that just hang around.

[38:46] You can make it rain in your basement.

[38:48] Like that's it.

[38:49] There's nothing more forbidden

[38:50] than a gaggle of tiny, gross people.

[38:53] I feel like I'd be like, ooh, forbidden knowledge.

[38:55] I can do spells.

[38:56] And then I would do it and some ghoulies would show up

[38:58] and be like, ugh.

[39:00] And I'd like throw the spell book away.

[39:02] Yeah.

[39:03] None of these spells are any good.

[39:05] Yeah, it feels like a, he's gone into a bad porn search

[39:09] where what has come up is not what he was looking for.

[39:11] And it's not that helpful for his-

[39:13] Yeah, no thanks.

[39:14] For his objective.

[39:16] All right.

[39:17] So anyway, Jonathan shows up and in the basement,

[39:21] he finds that his dad has set up everything

[39:23] for a magic ritual to steal Jonathan's youth.

[39:25] His friends are all in those winding shrouds.

[39:28] He tries to beat dad with magic,

[39:30] but he can't do it.

[39:31] Come on.

[39:32] This is, it's like the story of Oedipus Rex,

[39:33] but with magic, you know.

[39:34] In this case, he doesn't manage to do it.

[39:36] He can't defeat his dad.

[39:37] His dad revives Rebecca.

[39:39] And from this point on,

[39:39] I was not sure whether his friends were dead or alive

[39:42] because he revives Rebecca

[39:44] and she tries to ensnare him with a kiss.

[39:45] Are they dead or alive final?

[39:48] Yeah, I think that's what it is.

[39:50] Which is the one where they become hit men,

[39:52] where the hit men start killing people

[39:53] and giving all their money to starving children

[39:55] and then they grow wings.

[39:56] Is that the-

[39:57] I think that's the second one.

[39:58] That's dead or alive two, right?

[39:59] Okay.

[40:00] I think the third one is the one where at the end the two hitmen merge together into

[40:03] kind of a mechanical being, and they go and attack the crime boss while he's having sex

[40:07] with his boyfriend.

[40:08] I think that's right, yeah.

[40:09] And it just ends with the crime boss going, uh-oh, and that's the end of the movie.

[40:15] After they've combined into some sort of master assassin mecha machine.

[40:19] Anyway, what an interesting film series.

[40:22] So they fight, but, oh, so Rebecca's like, kiss me, Jonathan, and the gnomes say, no,

[40:29] it's a trap, it's a trap.

[40:30] And there's a moment where Jonathan is like, Grizzle, Greedygut, who are you working for?

[40:34] But then they show they're loyal to him.

[40:39] The dad is attacking Jonathan, and he's about to kiss him and steal the life out of him

[40:43] when Wolfgang throws a magic spear through his back.

[40:46] It's that trident.

[40:47] Wolfgang is back, and at this point, Checkoff's Jack Nance is fired, and he reveals he is

[40:54] chock full of magic.

[40:55] He can teleport.

[40:56] He's zapping lightning bolts all over the place.

[40:58] Why didn't you do any of this before?

[41:00] That's in Jack Nance's contract.

[41:01] You put him in a movie, he's zapping his lightning bolts.

[41:04] I want to say, this might be my favorite part of the movie, where Jack Nance and the bad

[41:10] guy fight, and it's essentially just them grappling with each other.

[41:14] Not that much, really, just they basically have their hands around each other's necks

[41:18] in the classic, we're both strangling each other stance, and animated eye zaps come out

[41:25] of each of them back and forth.

[41:27] They have this magic battle.

[41:29] It wakes up Rebecca.

[41:30] It's shaking the house, bringing down the house, much like in that Glee's Contractor

[41:34] one.

[41:35] Both warlocks vaporize.

[41:37] They both disappear, and Jonathan wakes up his dead friends, and is like, we got to get

[41:41] out of here, everybody, and they flee the house, which does not crumble.

[41:44] They don't have the special effects budget for that, but they all get in their cars.

[41:47] They drive away, leaving Grizzle and Greedy Gut just to wave goodbye to them.

[41:51] I guess they're stuck in the house, and as they drive away, Rebecca's like, oh, is it

[41:56] all over?

[41:58] She goes, yeah, it's all over, but then the ghoulies pop up in their back seat, and their

[42:02] burnout friend goes, oh, and freeze frame on this goofiest of facial expressions, credits.

[42:07] Ghoulies.

[42:08] And that's ghoulies.

[42:11] The movie where the ghoulies were more like incidental set dressing than actual plot mechanics.

[42:16] I feel like most movies would be improved by a little bit of ghoulie set dressing.

[42:20] Oh, sure, sure, all of them.

[42:22] Spotlight, you throw some ghoulies in there.

[42:25] The favorite, throw a little bit of ghoulies in the background.

[42:27] Where are the ghoulies?

[42:28] Yeah, if you're a person who hasn't had access to ghoulies, you know you'd use them.

[42:33] Someone's complaining at the box office, American movies used to have ghoulies in them.

[42:36] I go to everything that's rated G, hoping it's rated G for ghoulies, and it never is.

[42:41] There wasn't a single ghoulie in Elemental.

[42:44] Okay, well, let's give our, oh, yeah, we've got special Shocktober categories.

[42:52] Oh, right, I forgot about this.

[42:56] Is this movie totally scarifying, totally snorifying, okay, or frighteningly funny?

[43:04] And I'll start off, before I get to my judgment.

[43:07] Thanks for jumping on that grenade, Dan, of getting to talk first to give your opinion

[43:10] first.

[43:11] No, before I get to my judgment, two quick things.

[43:14] I want to shout out my friend Ashley, number one ghoulies fan, who happened to have her

[43:20] birthday on the same day that I was watching ghoulies for the first time.

[43:23] And number two, I have a fondness for this movie because our cat Panda, when we first

[43:30] Now this is a cat named Panda, it's not a cat Panda hybrid.

[43:34] Yeah.

[43:35] Man, what I wouldn't give for a cat Panda hybrid.

[43:37] Oh, that's so cute.

[43:40] This was a, Panda named partly that because it was our pandemic cat who visited us as

[43:48] a kitten in our former apartment's backyard and she was dropped off by the cat train,

[43:56] the Panda Express.

[43:57] Mm hmm.

[43:58] It was this adorable small kitten.

[44:00] We lured him inside initially with the intent to eat, to people under the stairs and neuter

[44:07] and return maybe.

[44:10] But who are we kidding?

[44:11] We're keeping that cat and but we lured the cat in and we couldn't find it for a long

[44:17] time and we were trying to keep it separated from Archie.

[44:19] So those diseases, we'd shut it in the bathroom and there was the cat was not there.

[44:25] Like there's no place for the cat to go.

[44:27] There's no place at all.

[44:29] And then we realized that there's like a little skirt underneath the toilet.

[44:34] The cat was lurking beneath the toilet in such a way that we could only see if we put

[44:39] a mirror back to the wall.

[44:42] And for the first like week we had the cat, it would just hide back under the toilet.

[44:48] And so early on, Panda's nickname was Ghouly because it was a toilet cat.

[44:55] And I just needed to tell the tale so that generations to come will understand how a

[45:02] cat can hide under a toilet sometimes.

[45:05] Anyway.

[45:06] So did a Panda get you in the end?

[45:09] That's my heart.

[45:10] Yeah.

[45:11] Yeah.

[45:12] As for Ghouly's, I will say it has a lot of elements that I enjoy.

[45:19] And you know, let's let's take the silly Shocktober categories off the table for a second.

[45:26] I kind of like-

[45:27] Why even put them on the table in the first place, Dan?

[45:29] Because I enjoy the way they make you frantic.

[45:32] I kind of like this movie because I am sentimental about schlocky horror of the time.

[45:43] And you know, some of the elements are fun to look at as like silly low budget practical

[45:49] effects and such.

[45:52] As a movie, I find it pretty slow considering it's 80 minutes.

[45:57] And a lot of that I think has to do with a lot of these unanswered plot questions that

[46:01] don't give it a strong plot driver other than they're just Ghoulies wandering around.

[46:06] But not even that much.

[46:09] But I still sort of like it just because I like this kind of thing.

[46:13] What do you guys have to say?

[46:14] Yeah, this is definitely a movie I kind of liked because it's got Ghoulies in it.

[46:19] It's got an old dead warlock guy.

[46:20] There's all kinds of magic.

[46:23] There's like a party and some party animals and there's a weird clown man.

[46:28] Thumbs up.

[46:29] What a good movie.

[46:30] Yeah.

[46:31] I hate to be the I hate to be the negative Nancy here, but I'm going to say that Nancy

[46:36] totally horrifying.

[46:37] I think I find it totally snorefying.

[46:38] I think there are moments in it.

[46:40] I like that ritual scene that we talked about.

[46:42] I like grizzling greedy gut.

[46:43] I think it's you could do you could certainly do worse if you're looking for a less than

[46:47] 90 minute 80s kind of not that exciting horror movie.

[46:52] But I mostly found it snorefying.

[46:54] And also, as many people have said, it's not how it doesn't.

[46:58] And as we said, doesn't do a lot with the Ghoulies.

[47:00] And it's hard to hard for me to overlook the fact that it's called Ghoulies and the Ghoulies

[47:03] are there and they don't really do much of anything.

[47:05] I don't want to watch Jonathan becoming a warlock.

[47:07] I want to watch these ghoulies doing some ghoul stuff.

[47:09] Mm hmm.

[47:10] It should be called.

[47:11] You remind me of that Simpsons where Homer has angered like the mob for some reason.

[47:21] And then the the Yuzuka show up and there's like a little Yakuza, sorry, Yakuza.

[47:29] Apologies.

[47:30] I forgot the word.

[47:31] There's like a little guy.

[47:32] And Mark, that's right.

[47:33] He's going to do something real cool.

[47:34] Do something.

[47:35] Oh, I missed it.

[47:36] Yes.

[47:37] Go inside.

[47:38] You just hear him scream and then knock everybody out.

[47:39] Yeah.

[47:40] And I feel like that's your attitude towards the ghoulies.

[47:41] Like, oh, man, those ghoulies show up again.

[47:42] Do something cool.

[47:43] Well, I feel like this movie is.

[47:44] Yeah.

[47:45] Yeah.

[47:46] They're going to do something awesome.

[47:47] Then they don't.

[47:48] And this this movie is very old fashioned exploitation.

[47:49] Stuff in the way that the title and the poster promise something so different than what you

[48:03] get in the movie.

[48:04] Yeah.

[48:05] And if this movie was called Warlock Son or something like that, or like, you know, Blood

[48:08] Curse or something, and it didn't have a ghoulie sticking out of a toilet with the tagline,

[48:13] they'll get you in the end.

[48:14] We wouldn't.

[48:15] No one would remember this movie.

[48:16] No one would ever think about it.

[48:18] If there was an accurate poster and an accurate title, this movie would have been forgotten.

[48:21] It's all about the poster and the title and the promise therein.

[48:24] And it fails to deliver on that promise.

[48:26] That's what I'm saying.

[48:27] Ghoulies.

[48:28] Please back your knife and go.

[48:29] Yeah.

[48:30] Oh, no.

[48:31] I may watch ghoulies, too, and report back to you whether it is indeed.

[48:34] Please do.

[48:35] Actually, we call that last chance.

[48:37] Ghoulies.

[48:38] Yeah.

[48:39] Yeah.

[48:40] Tom Ghoulie.

[48:41] Yo.

[48:42] We'll still give them a chance to win back.

[48:43] Win back a slot.

[48:45] That should be a future.

[48:46] Many is you should watch ghoulies two and three and tell us.

[48:48] Tell us about them because, you know, after ghoulies, too, you're going to have to watch

[48:51] them go to college.

[48:52] OK, I accept that assignment anyway.

[48:55] Let's move on.

[48:56] Yeah, let's do it.

[48:58] In addition to the kind support of listeners like you, you can support us through Maximum

[49:05] Fun dot org, although Maximum Drive will be coming up in a while, you don't have to wait

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[49:15] It's not.

[49:16] It's not.

[49:17] It's not a law.

[49:18] No.

[49:19] It's not a settled law.

[49:20] We also have sponsors.

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[50:49] Now it's no secret that the Flophouse are,

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[50:58] And only for biological reasons,

[51:01] God cursed me with the inability

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[51:04] And so, and cats, they sense that in me

[51:07] and they love to test it.

[51:08] They always single me out and they go, who's this guy?

[51:10] Let me rub myself on him a lot.

[51:13] He seems like a bad boy.

[51:14] Yeah, he's a bad boy.

[51:15] His eyes are red like a bad boy.

[51:17] Oh, his eyes are tearing up like a bad boy.

[51:19] He's coughing like a bad boy.

[51:21] So it means a lot to us that we are sponsored by Smalls,

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[51:41] Now they've even included an ability for you at checkout

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[52:57] This is a promotional jumbotron.

[52:58] Very exciting.

[52:59] And this message is from the makers of Field of Screams.

[53:02] Writer directors, Evan Runkle and Alex Mode

[53:05] would like to announce Field of Screams,

[53:07] a micro budget independent horror movie

[53:09] being filmed in Flophouse star,

[53:11] Hallie Haglin's home state of Colorado.

[53:13] The film is about a group of friends

[53:15] who get accosted by killer scarecrows

[53:16] when cleaning out an old farm.

[53:18] To learn more, visit our Instagram page,

[53:20] Field of Screams Film.

[53:22] To help make our movie one everyone kind of likes,

[53:24] support our Kickstarter running from October 1st

[53:27] through November 5th.

[53:28] So go and support the Field of Screams Kickstarter

[53:31] running from October 1st through November 5th

[53:34] to help them achieve their micro budget

[53:37] Colorado horror dreams.

[53:39] And you know what?

[53:40] There's other stuff that you can do online

[53:42] besides just supporting independent filmmaking.

[53:44] You can also support the Flophouse

[53:46] because tonight, if you're listening to this episode,

[53:49] the day it's released, tonight, this very night,

[53:52] October 7th,

[53:53] ♪ Tonight, tonight, there's Flop TV tonight. ♪

[53:59] Oh, yeah.

[53:59] And we'll be talking hot dog and hamburger.

[54:04] Tonight, it's the long awaited

[54:06] American meat double feature.

[54:08] Tonight, October 7th at 9 p.m. Eastern,

[54:10] 6 p.m. Pacific.

[54:13] What's p.m.?

[54:14] You'll have to tune in tomorrow.

[54:15] What's the set with you?

[54:16] Good question.

[54:17] We're gonna be talking about hot dog the movie

[54:19] and hamburger the motion picture.

[54:20] And boy, we're gonna have some stuff to talk about

[54:24] because this is some rotten meat.

[54:30] Especially the hamburger portion.

[54:30] Elliot has been eating these films by now

[54:32] and Stuart and I have been putting it off

[54:34] until closer to the show, I believe.

[54:36] I like it to be fresh.

[54:38] I like it to be fresh too,

[54:39] but Elliot has to talk about both these movies.

[54:43] So he needs to-

[54:44] Yeah, I'm very interested to see

[54:46] how you're gonna try and summarize this.

[54:48] Yes, this is two movies.

[54:49] I gotta cut the summaries way down.

[54:51] And hot dog the movie, I'll give you a sneak preview.

[54:54] I was watching it and I was like,

[54:56] well, it's not my kind of movie.

[54:57] I don't really like it.

[54:58] These characters are kind of jerks.

[55:00] And then I watched hamburger the motion picture

[55:02] and I was like, oh, we're far out there.

[55:05] They'll hot dog the movie.

[55:06] Like it's, oh boy.

[55:09] So you'll get to hear all about it.

[55:10] We're also gonna have a new PowerPoint presentation

[55:12] from one Daniel K. McCoy.

[55:15] We're gonna take questions from our viewers

[55:16] and answer them live on the air.

[55:17] It's a live broadcasted show.

[55:19] Just go to theflophouse.simpletics.com

[55:22] to join us tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific,

[55:25] or go to theflophouse.simpletics.com in the future

[55:28] to watch the recording of the show.

[55:30] And you can also watch the recordings

[55:32] of our previous two episodes

[55:33] and you'll watch the recordings of all of our episodes

[55:35] as they come up.

[55:36] Flop TV is a monthly first Saturday of the month show.

[55:39] And if you get a season pass,

[55:40] you can get a little bit of a discount

[55:42] on the ticket price for all of them

[55:43] and you'll get access to those recordings

[55:46] so you can watch them at your leisure.

[55:48] And those recordings will stay up

[55:50] as long as the show is running.

[55:51] But hey, let's say it's not enough

[55:53] to see us online in your computer screen.

[55:56] You wanna see us in person.

[55:57] You wanna smell us.

[55:58] I wanna smell Dan.

[56:00] You wanna smell Dan from a slight distance.

[56:02] I'm kidding, lie.

[56:03] You say you can do it

[56:05] because we're gonna be doing, as we've said before,

[56:07] two live shows on Thursday, October 19th at Vidiots,

[56:11] the theater in Los Angeles.

[56:13] Go to vidiotsfoundation.org

[56:14] and you'll see that we're doing two shows in one night,

[56:16] 6 p.m.

[56:17] We're talking about Speed 2, Cruise Control.

[56:19] And at 8.45 p.m.,

[56:20] we're gonna be talking about Three Men and a Baby.

[56:22] And who's gonna be joining us

[56:23] to talk about Three Men and a Baby?

[56:25] It's gonna be Three Men and our baby, who is?

[56:28] Hallie Haglund?

[56:29] That's a weird way of-

[56:31] Our little baby, Hallie Haglund.

[56:32] We'll be with these three men

[56:33] and she's gonna be joining us

[56:34] for the Three Men and a Baby show.

[56:35] Each of those shows will be totally different

[56:38] from each other.

[56:38] Each will have new presentations and stuff.

[56:39] Right, guys?

[56:40] You're doing two different presentations for each?

[56:41] I am doing two new different presentations.

[56:46] I am too.

[56:47] So feel free to come and see both shows if you want.

[56:49] That'd be great.

[56:50] Or just see one if you're in the Los Angeles area.

[56:52] Go to vidiotsfoundation.org for those shows

[56:56] on Thursday, October 19th.

[56:57] It'll be really fun.

[56:58] And I'll mention, as I mentioned last week,

[57:00] as we're recording this,

[57:01] the Writers' Strike seems to be ending,

[57:03] which is fantastic.

[57:04] I'm very excited about it.

[57:06] The SAG Afterstrike, as we're recording this,

[57:07] is still going.

[57:08] And even for writers and other entertainment workers,

[57:11] it's gonna take some time before the work starts up again.

[57:13] So if you'd like to help people in this exciting,

[57:16] but also a little still uncertain,

[57:18] post-strike for the writers,

[57:20] pre-end-of-the-strike-for-the-actors time period,

[57:23] please go to entertainmentcommunity.org for donations.

[57:26] We really appreciate everybody who's donated so far.

[57:28] Thank you so much for your support.

[57:30] Thank you for making it possible

[57:31] for entertainment professionals

[57:33] to continue keeping their heads above water

[57:35] while they wait for the bosses to pay us what we deserve.

[57:39] It's been very much appreciated.

[57:41] And that, ours, that, that, that.

[57:44] And those-

[57:44] And that are it.

[57:45] And that are it.

[57:46] Those are our sponsor spots for today.

[57:48] And as Bill Mooney says in the Twilight Zone,

[57:50] that's all the TV there is.

[57:52] ♪♪♪

[57:58] The human mind can be tricky.

[58:01] Your mental health can be complex.

[58:02] Your emotional life can be complicated.

[58:05] So it helps to talk about it.

[58:06] I'm John Moe.

[58:07] Join me each week on my show,

[58:09] Depression Mode with John Moe.

[58:11] It's in-depth conversations about mental health

[58:13] with writers, musicians, comedians, doctors, and experts.

[58:17] Folks like Noah Kahn, Sashir Zameda,

[58:19] and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.

[58:21] We talk about depression, anxiety, trauma,

[58:24] imposter syndrome, and perfectionism.

[58:26] We have the kind of conversations

[58:28] that a lot of folks are hesitant to have themselves.

[58:31] Listen, and you won't feel as alone,

[58:33] and you'll have some laughs too.

[58:35] Join us on Depression Mode for Maximum Fun

[58:38] at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

[58:42] ♪♪♪

[58:46] Hey, this is Daniel Baruela,

[58:48] Technology and Data Specialist.

[58:49] I'm here with...

[58:50] Kira Gowen, Ad Operations Specialist.

[58:52] And we are both worker-owners here at Maximum Fun.

[58:55] October is National Co-op Month,

[58:57] so we're celebrating our brand new co-op and others

[59:00] with an event called...

[59:01] Co-Optober!

[59:03] Starting with a live Q&A on YouTube,

[59:05] where Maximum Fun worker-owners will answer your questions

[59:08] on Friday, October 6th.

[59:10] And much more to come.

[59:12] We also want to tell you about some incredible

[59:13] limited edition merch exclusively available

[59:16] to Maximum Fun members until the end of October.

[59:18] If you're already a member of Maximum Fun,

[59:19] you've shown that you care about our shows

[59:21] and what we do.

[59:22] If you also want to help launch us

[59:23] into this new cooperative era

[59:25] and show off your support,

[59:26] go ahead and get yourself a hat, pin, or shirt.

[59:29] We work with some of our favorite artists

[59:30] to make them really special.

[59:31] For details on merch, all of our upcoming events,

[59:34] like Meetup Day, and more,

[59:36] visit MaximumFun.org slash Co-Optober.

[59:40] That's C-O-O-P-T-O-B-E-R.

[59:43] Happy Co-Optober!

[59:47] What do we do next?

[59:48] Next, we're going to take a couple of letters from listeners.

[59:52] I mean, they've been sent already.

[59:54] Don't send them right now expecting them to be answered

[59:57] on this episode, because that can...

[1:00:00] not happen in this time flow.

[1:00:04] If you have a time treadmill, you could send them back in time.

[1:00:07] But these are other letters from listeners.

[1:00:11] This first one being from Jason Lessing withheld.

[1:00:14] Voorhees?

[1:00:15] Alexander?

[1:00:16] Yes, it's Jason Voorhees being more talkative than usual, saying...

[1:00:19] Well, he's writing.

[1:00:20] He can do that.

[1:00:21] Yeah.

[1:00:22] Yeah.

[1:00:23] The series has gone downhill.

[1:00:24] Canonically.

[1:00:25] I'm a huge fan of this show.

[1:00:26] It's like Boba Fett.

[1:00:27] I had to take a pen in a hand and put my machete down from that hand to complain to you about

[1:00:31] your recent program.

[1:00:32] I've listened to nearly every episode of The Years, except during part of the pandemic

[1:00:37] when I didn't commute to work, which is my listening time.

[1:00:41] I'm only now working my way through those episodes and wanted to point out something

[1:00:45] about the final program.

[1:00:48] When Jerry Cornelius is about to transform...

[1:00:50] Listeners may remember the final program was our episode with Joel Hodgson and Matt McGinnis.

[1:00:54] Uh-huh.

[1:00:55] Thanks, Smiley Stan.

[1:00:56] The final program.

[1:00:57] When Jerry Cornelius is about to transform and says a Humphrey Bogart quote, is it possibly

[1:01:03] a veiled reference to the creature from British folklore, the boggart, which is often described

[1:01:09] as a bestial human?

[1:01:11] This is just one of those things that I guess we'll never know but have to say, huh, about.

[1:01:15] Which brings me to a question.

[1:01:17] Are there movies for which suddenly, years or even decades later, you learned a cultural

[1:01:22] or other reference that suddenly makes a scene in the movie make more sense?

[1:01:27] Stay strong.

[1:01:28] Best wishes, Jason.

[1:01:31] I had a hard time with this because I know that this has definitely happened to me.

[1:01:36] But yeah, it's more of a case of like, I know that something...

[1:01:40] I knew that something was a reference and like, well, eventually I'll know what this

[1:01:44] reference is.

[1:01:45] Like when I saw Spaceballs for the first time, I had not seen Alien.

[1:01:49] I was too young to see Alien when I first saw Spaceballs.

[1:01:52] But I was like, oh, OK, this chest bursting thing is the reference to Alien.

[1:02:00] I'm aware generally that this is a reference.

[1:02:04] And I feel like a lot of things like that happen with The Simpsons where I'm like, this

[1:02:06] is referencing something, but I don't know what yet.

[1:02:09] Well, that's I was going to say, it happens a lot with TV show jokes.

[1:02:12] And my example of that was it was only this year that I watched The Simpsons Mr. Plow

[1:02:17] episode and was like, oh, this scene is a reference to Sorcerer.

[1:02:21] That's what this scene is.

[1:02:22] Because certainly when the episode first aired and I was a kid, I had not seen Sorcerer.

[1:02:26] And like you, I saw Alien after Spaceballs, but I kind of knew about that scene.

[1:02:30] So I got the joke.

[1:02:31] But as a kid watching Simpsons, I didn't know a thing one about Sorcerer.

[1:02:34] I didn't know it existed.

[1:02:35] So yeah, there was just this scene that was that I didn't quite understand why they were

[1:02:38] doing it.

[1:02:39] You know?

[1:02:40] Yeah.

[1:02:41] Like in Homer at the Bat, there's the scene where he hits the home run and it breaks the

[1:02:45] lights and the natural movie, which I still haven't seen.

[1:02:48] But now I'm aware, like, oh, that's why it's not particularly funny right there.

[1:02:52] Academy Award like highlight reels to know the natural.

[1:02:56] Yeah.

[1:02:57] It's weird that Dan didn't see the natural, but he's seen every episode of Supernatural.

[1:03:00] Uh, does the thing have like 16 seasons or something?

[1:03:07] It's a hugely successful show.

[1:03:09] People love it.

[1:03:10] Yeah.

[1:03:11] Yeah.

[1:03:12] Well, I feel like there was an episode of this, not of a reference that makes the scene

[1:03:14] makes sense for that, imbues it with more meaning from a recent episode we did when

[1:03:18] we talked about the net and how there's that opening scene where the guy commits suicide

[1:03:22] in a park and how that's very much playing off of the then relatively recent suicide

[1:03:26] of Vince Foster and how as a kid I didn't really know that.

[1:03:31] But but now I look at it and I go, oh, I see adult audiences would have probably picked

[1:03:35] that up.

[1:03:36] But I know that for various reasons, no one is allowed to acknowledge the existence of

[1:03:41] Woody Allen.

[1:03:42] But the first thing that came to mind thinking about this was a joke in the movie Sleeper

[1:03:46] where they talk about how there was a nuclear war that was caused and they say when a man

[1:03:50] named Albert Shanker got a hold of a nuclear warhead and for years I was like, don't get

[1:03:56] it.

[1:03:57] Don't know what that means.

[1:03:58] Don't understand it.

[1:03:59] Like, I don't know what that joke is.

[1:04:00] I don't know if that's a real person or not.

[1:04:01] It doesn't make sense to me.

[1:04:02] And it wasn't until many years later when I read a book about when John Lindsay was mayor

[1:04:05] of New York that there was a whole section about Albert Shanker, who was the volatile

[1:04:09] leader of the United Federation of Teachers Union.

[1:04:13] And so it's like this is a joke that seems painstakingly designed to be understood only

[1:04:18] by people who were involved in 1960s New York public education controversies.

[1:04:23] So it's like it's a joke that even at the time was probably not understood by a lot

[1:04:27] of people.

[1:04:28] But certainly by now, there's there's almost no way of getting that joke, you know, unless

[1:04:31] you've researched New York controversies of the time, you know.

[1:04:35] Yeah, this is a tough one.

[1:04:37] Like, I feel like there's got to be a million examples.

[1:04:41] And as I like work my way back through older movies, I see more and more examples of this

[1:04:45] sort of thing.

[1:04:46] But nothing's nothing sticking to my brain right now.

[1:04:49] There are definitely movies.

[1:04:50] And again, I can't think of any at the moment, but there are definitely movies where I saw

[1:04:53] something not realizing it was a reference, but liked it, but then saw the original many

[1:04:58] years later and was like, oh, OK, like I didn't realize they were ripping something off or

[1:05:04] doing an homage or whatever.

[1:05:06] Well, this is from Joe Lasting Withheld versus Volcano.

[1:05:11] Yeah.

[1:05:12] Yeah.

[1:05:13] Joe V. Volcano.

[1:05:14] That legal.

[1:05:15] There's a movie I watched the first time this year.

[1:05:18] I've been trying to fill in watching movies that I was too young to see when they came

[1:05:21] out.

[1:05:22] Yeah, I was aware of them being out.

[1:05:23] And I watched over the volcano.

[1:05:24] And I'm like, this movie is does not really understand itself.

[1:05:28] I was I was I was very confused by it.

[1:05:30] It has its proponents, but I've always found it like.

[1:05:36] A little inexplicable, like it's like it's the whimsy doesn't land in a way that makes

[1:05:41] sense to me.

[1:05:42] But I think because it has no jokes in it, it's a whimsical movie that has no funny parts

[1:05:46] in it.

[1:05:47] Yeah.

[1:05:48] It's like and it's it's so bleak and it's hard to but it's hard to buy Tom Hanks as

[1:05:51] a guy who's like on the edge of not not by not accepting life anymore.

[1:05:55] You know.

[1:05:56] Yeah.

[1:05:57] Anyway.

[1:05:58] But anyway.

[1:05:59] So Joe V. Volcano, I apologize.

[1:06:01] I shouldn't badmouth you.

[1:06:02] Yeah.

[1:06:03] Yeah.

[1:06:04] Joe V. V. writes, hearing Dan announced this episode brought back a flood of memories.

[1:06:12] This is in response to the Legend of the Titanic episode.

[1:06:16] As I had seen some clips of this movie in my misspent youth, I couldn't wait to hear

[1:06:21] the floppers react to this piece of ill-advised cinema.

[1:06:24] But something was off.

[1:06:26] Why did the scene with the rapping safety dog get a mention?

[1:06:29] Did they miss it somehow?

[1:06:31] Was I getting Mandela affected?

[1:06:33] As it turns out, I was thinking of the other Italian animated children's film retelling

[1:06:38] the sinking of the Titanic with anthropomorphic mice, Titanic colon.

[1:06:43] The legend goes on.

[1:06:44] Oh, my mistake.

[1:06:46] I'm pleased to report that our shared reality is stable.

[1:06:49] And I was just confused, although it is weird.

[1:06:52] They made two of them and there's a link to the rapping dog and there's an alternate English

[1:06:56] release where the dog raps.

[1:06:58] It's party time over and over.

[1:07:00] But Joe says very Mr. Worldwide and he refuses to acknowledge it.

[1:07:06] Not only that, there's a there's a sequel to the Legend of Titanic, which is under a

[1:07:10] whole nother.

[1:07:11] That's a whole nother movie, as far as I'm able to tell.

[1:07:13] It's called that.

[1:07:14] And that one, I briefly scrubbed through it on to because it came up right after I watched

[1:07:19] Legend of Titanic.

[1:07:20] That's what it recommended to me.

[1:07:21] And they go looking for the wreck of the Titanic and they find more people.

[1:07:25] And there's a whole storyline of underwater people and they learn how to breathe underwater.

[1:07:29] I feel like we might have to watch it at some point.

[1:07:31] There's like a battle between flying fish and things like that.

[1:07:34] So that sounds pretty good.

[1:07:35] I might have to do it.

[1:07:36] Yeah.

[1:07:37] It's a weird cottage industry of of, yeah, mice movie.

[1:07:42] Yeah.

[1:07:43] I'll try.

[1:07:44] You know, I'll try anything once.

[1:07:46] Will you?

[1:07:47] Yeah.

[1:07:48] Why not?

[1:07:49] I don't know.

[1:07:50] So those were the letters.

[1:07:57] Let's move on.

[1:07:58] Are we going to watch that other Titanic movie, too, or no?

[1:08:02] Let's do them all.

[1:08:03] OK, let's do all of the Titanic mice on the Titanic theme month.

[1:08:07] Yeah.

[1:08:08] My static.

[1:08:09] Yeah.

[1:08:10] That's going to just be the new podcast is us watching Titanic movies.

[1:08:15] So look for that.

[1:08:16] Everyone.

[1:08:17] They said the podcast was unthinkable.

[1:08:21] Let's recommend some movies that we actually liked that might be a better use of your time.

[1:08:32] I was maybe going to go older just because the SAG-AFTRA strikes are still ongoing.

[1:08:39] But I was looking at movies I've seen lately, and it's been a real dry spell in terms of

[1:08:45] me enjoying stuff.

[1:08:48] But I did like the new film that got sort of dumped to Hulu, the No One Will Save You

[1:08:57] starring Caitlin Dever.

[1:09:00] Fucking great.

[1:09:02] Essentially wordless, like just there's no no dialogue.

[1:09:06] It's like a Jacques Tati type thing, like a lot of little misunderstandings.

[1:09:10] Yeah, kind of.

[1:09:12] Like quirky business with props.

[1:09:14] With like a little cottagecore aesthetic.

[1:09:18] It's more unnerving suspense with some kind of amusing off the wall choices that I don't

[1:09:27] want to spoil.

[1:09:28] Yeah.

[1:09:29] I'll watch it.

[1:09:30] Don't tell me.

[1:09:31] It's really good.

[1:09:32] It's really good.

[1:09:33] The movie is, you know, like really tightly directed.

[1:09:38] The effects for, you know, like looking a little silly, fakey sometimes like are also

[1:09:48] some indelible images, I think, in the movie.

[1:09:51] And Caitlin Dever, who I think is a really strong actor, is terrific at really letting

[1:09:59] you inside.

[1:10:00] character's head without dialogue.

[1:10:02] So that's my recommendation.

[1:10:05] Yeah, that's a great one.

[1:10:07] I'm gonna recommend a little bit of an older movie,

[1:10:09] a movie that I never saw when it was released

[1:10:12] and only watched it just this past weekend,

[1:10:15] is The Birdcage, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.

[1:10:20] It is about a gay couple whose son is getting married

[1:10:26] and he's getting married to the daughter

[1:10:29] of a right-wing senator played by Gene Hackman.

[1:10:34] Obviously, it is an older movie,

[1:10:36] so not all of it is going to work.

[1:10:38] Hank Azaria playing a Guatemalan, like,

[1:10:41] rent boy character is probably not the most sensitive.

[1:10:47] He is very good at it.

[1:10:49] Yeah.

[1:10:50] It's very funny to see these movies

[1:10:52] where at the time it was like a super progressive movie

[1:10:54] and now it's like, ugh.

[1:10:57] What I will say is I feel like,

[1:10:59] obviously there's a ton of little performances,

[1:11:02] both from Christine Baranski, who's great,

[1:11:05] Diane Wiest, who's always great,

[1:11:07] but it's been so long since I've seen Robin Williams

[1:11:14] and he brings such vulnerability to this character

[1:11:19] and I choked up a little.

[1:11:22] He's so good.

[1:11:25] He's such a good actor

[1:11:26] and he's wearing the fucking hottest fits

[1:11:28] I've seen in a movie in a long-ass time.

[1:11:31] What I wouldn't give for his wardrobe.

[1:11:32] Oh, I can see you really enjoying that wardrobe, yeah.

[1:11:36] And even Gene Hackman, who could be playing,

[1:11:39] I mean, this is basically just a French farce,

[1:11:43] and he could be playing a very broad, simple character,

[1:11:47] but even he adds a little bit of vulnerability

[1:11:50] to his shitty right-wing Senator character.

[1:11:55] And I don't think it all works,

[1:11:57] but I think the stuff that works is really good.

[1:12:00] Yeah, I wanted to say about Robin Williams,

[1:12:02] I feel like he sort of became famous

[1:12:07] and a lot of people prefer him

[1:12:10] being totally off the leash.

[1:12:12] I like him when someone leashes him a little bit

[1:12:15] and I like that they made the choice to,

[1:12:20] Nathan Lane and Hank Azaria are playing

[1:12:22] very broad characters and he is the grounded one

[1:12:26] sort of on that end of the family

[1:12:28] and he does it so beautifully in that movie.

[1:12:32] It was amazing.

[1:12:35] I'm gonna recommend a movie

[1:12:36] that's also about marriage and parents.

[1:12:38] Very interesting.

[1:12:40] I recently watched the movie, Late Autumn.

[1:12:43] This is a Japanese film from 1960s.

[1:12:45] It's directed by Yasujiro Ozu,

[1:12:47] who most people would know from like Tokyo Story,

[1:12:50] one of the great, great directors of Japanese cinema.

[1:12:53] And Late Autumn is a story that is sometimes funny

[1:12:59] and sometimes serious and the stakes in it feel very small,

[1:13:02] but the way the characters are drawn

[1:13:06] and kind of the generosity of spirit applied to all of them,

[1:13:09] kind of like what Stuart's talking about,

[1:13:12] I found very beautiful.

[1:13:13] And by the end of it,

[1:13:14] I just found it to be just an emotionally beautiful movie

[1:13:16] and a very, like a very sweet movie,

[1:13:18] but a very powerful movie.

[1:13:19] And so the story is that there's a widowed woman

[1:13:22] and her daughter, and her daughter is now 24.

[1:13:25] And the male, these three male friends

[1:13:28] who were friendly with the husband slash father

[1:13:31] who died before the movie started,

[1:13:33] they decided it's time for this daughter to get married.

[1:13:35] She's so pretty.

[1:13:36] She's such a nice girl.

[1:13:37] It's time for her to get married.

[1:13:38] And they start trying to set her up

[1:13:39] with young men they know.

[1:13:41] And at a certain point they decide,

[1:13:43] well, we're going to have to get the mother

[1:13:44] to get married too.

[1:13:45] And they are just kind of three meddling guys,

[1:13:48] but they're not villainous about it,

[1:13:50] even though they're insensitive about it.

[1:13:52] And as it goes on, you get a deeper kind of understanding

[1:13:56] of the relationship between the mother and the daughter

[1:13:58] and how much the daughter does not want to get married

[1:14:01] because she feels like that will leave her mother alone

[1:14:03] when she moves out to live with her husband

[1:14:06] and how much she thinks she is supporting the mother

[1:14:08] and how much the mother feels like

[1:14:09] she is supporting the daughter.

[1:14:11] And it's all very like,

[1:14:13] there's no scenes where characters kind of like

[1:14:15] have a big yelling fight or something like that.

[1:14:17] You know, characters kind of get,

[1:14:19] understand things that he's understood before,

[1:14:21] but it's all, it's in that Ozu style of very subdued

[1:14:23] for the most part, but I thought very beautiful.

[1:14:25] And it's got this color cinematography

[1:14:28] that's really gorgeous and very sweet.

[1:14:30] And just one of these movies where,

[1:14:32] when I finished watching it, I was like,

[1:14:34] oh, like I've gotten like a big dose of like human emotions

[1:14:37] and like human, of humanity.

[1:14:39] And it felt very inspiring and fulfilling that way.

[1:14:43] So that's Late Autumn.

[1:14:45] There is one of those things, those moments when like,

[1:14:48] we watch a bunch of movies for the flop house

[1:14:51] and then you'll watch a movie that actually

[1:14:54] makes you connect with humanity.

[1:14:55] And you're like, oh, what happened?

[1:14:59] Is that the sky?

[1:15:00] Yeah, I bet you that Ghoulies and Hot Dog and Hamburger

[1:15:03] have only suffered by the fact that I watched

[1:15:05] Late Autumn right before, because it was like,

[1:15:08] I know what this art form is capable of.

[1:15:09] Like it's capable of like making me feel like

[1:15:12] I'm a part of this human family,

[1:15:14] that we all share the same basic emotions

[1:15:16] and we can connect over that.

[1:15:18] And then I had to watch this garbage, you know?

[1:15:20] Yeah, yeah.

[1:15:23] Well, that's also the magic of film.

[1:15:25] Film can be a statement about human life

[1:15:28] and family connections and what we owe

[1:15:30] to our neighbors and our friends.

[1:15:31] It can also be a movie about a bunch of morons skiing

[1:15:34] for like 90 minutes straight.

[1:15:38] And that's what the flop house is about too.

[1:15:40] Like, would I want to see Charles Banz drive my car?

[1:15:43] Probably.

[1:15:47] But your expectations would be different.

[1:15:49] Same, it's entirely the same movie,

[1:15:52] but at the end the Ghoulies pop up in the backseat.

[1:15:54] Oh my God, it would be so good.

[1:15:58] That's as good a note as any to end the show.

[1:16:02] Before we go, remember that if you're interested

[1:16:05] in any of those live shows, a shortcut,

[1:16:07] just go to our website.

[1:16:09] They're all listed on the events page.

[1:16:10] And our website is?

[1:16:14] Flophousepodcast.com, sorry.

[1:16:16] If you Google the Flophouse Podcast,

[1:16:18] that's how anyone gets to anything.

[1:16:20] Go to flophousepodcast.com.

[1:16:22] I once saw an ad on TV for an exterminator

[1:16:25] and it said Google and then their name.

[1:16:26] And I was like, oh, just don't be lazy.

[1:16:29] They're just being honest, you know?

[1:16:31] They're honest about the way we live today.

[1:16:33] That's what you want out of an exterminator.

[1:16:35] Out of an exterminator, yeah.

[1:16:36] You'll find links to those shows.

[1:16:37] And again, tonight, if you're listening to this,

[1:16:39] the day it comes out, we'll be doing

[1:16:40] our hot dog and hamburger episode.

[1:16:46] If you don't wanna do that, but you wanna help us out,

[1:16:48] leave us a nice review on iTunes, podcasts.

[1:16:54] Don't say mean things, why?

[1:16:57] Why?

[1:17:00] Also go over to MaximumFun.org.

[1:17:01] Check out the other podcasts on there.

[1:17:03] If you like podcasts, I'm sure you'll find

[1:17:06] at least one other thing that appeals to you.

[1:17:09] And also thank you to Alex Smith, our producer.

[1:17:12] You can find him under the name HowlDotty,

[1:17:16] doing various stuff on the internet.

[1:17:19] But for now, for The Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:17:22] I've been Stuart Wellington.

[1:17:24] I'm Ellie Kalen.

[1:17:25] Bye!

[1:17:29] Ha ha ha ha!

[1:17:30] Eek!

[1:17:40] I'm recording.

[1:17:41] Okay, so we didn't record me saying fat natties, right?

[1:17:44] No.

[1:17:46] We're talking about nanny eyes, and yeah!

[1:17:49] People think you're talking about neeps and tatties,

[1:17:51] so it's okay.

[1:17:56] Maximum Fun.

[1:17:57] A worker-owned network.

[1:17:58] Of artists-owned shows.

[1:18:00] Supported.

[1:18:01] Directly.

[1:18:02] By you.

Ep. #406 - Ghoulies

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