Ep. #353 - The Turning, with Hallie Haglund

[0:00] on this episode we discuss the turning from the twisted mind of henry james because

[0:08] comes another tale of terror

[0:10] terror yeah that get too scary for you guys should i take a less scary take

[0:17] or more scary take it was it was just scary enough i think

[0:30] Hey everyone, and welcome to The Flophouse. I'm Dan McCoy.

[0:47] Hey, it's me, Stuart Wellington.

[0:48] Hi, Elliot Kaelin here, and we've got a special guest, guys.

[0:52] Hi, it's Hallie Hagelin.

[0:54] The star of the show has returned.

[0:57] And look, we all know you're just waiting for me to shut up so Hallie can say one of her catchphrases like, uh, wheedledy-dee.

[1:07] What's one of your catchphrases, Hallie?

[1:11] Uh, uh, this needs more milk.

[1:15] This needs more milk.

[1:16] A lot of the episodes of the show Hallie are about mac and cheese.

[1:21] But before we get into our show, the network our show's on, MaxFun, is throwing a virtual block party from now until October 22nd, and you're invited.

[1:36] What does that mean?

[1:38] The wieners are on Dan.

[1:39] Well, during block party.

[1:40] Just one.

[1:41] No, I'm talking about hot dogs.

[1:43] Oh, oh, oh.

[1:44] I'm covered in them.

[1:45] Oh, you're wearing that vest made out of hot dogs, yeah.

[1:49] Slather me with mustard because I'm covered in hot dogs.

[1:52] Just like the hit 80s song, pour some mustard on me because I'm covered in hot dogs.

[1:59] That's my catchphrase.

[2:00] Hallie says, this needs more milk and mine's slather me with mustard.

[2:03] It's all food related.

[2:06] During Block Party, Max Fun Shows are releasing episodes that are especially welcoming to new audiences.

[2:13] Well, we fucked it up already, guys.

[2:14] Didn't do that.

[2:15] With all these shenanigans.

[2:16] So the new audience is like, okay, Hallie is the star of the show.

[2:20] Dan is covered in hot dogs.

[2:21] That's his thing.

[2:22] He has mustard on him.

[2:23] Yeah.

[2:24] Yeah.

[2:24] If you like, unfortunately, if you like Hallie the best, and many of our listeners do, she's not normally on the show.

[2:31] She is a frequent guest host.

[2:33] But that's why you've got to listen to every episode because you'll never know.

[2:37] You just never know when.

[2:39] You've got to tune in.

[2:40] Yep.

[2:40] We've gone back through our catalog and deleted any mention in the show notes whether or not you were on the episode.

[2:46] But, yeah, you just got to guess.

[2:48] And I may not come in until the very end.

[2:51] Listen to them all through or as much as whatever metrics podcast listening are measured by.

[3:00] If you listen to them over half, that's probably okay.

[3:03] I don't know.

[3:03] It's the Wild West out there.

[3:06] But anyway.

[3:06] Sit down at the block party, huh?

[3:07] Oh, yeah.

[3:07] Sit down at the Wild West block party.

[3:08] Yeah.

[3:09] If you've been encouraging a friend to try out our show, this is the perfect episode to share with them.

[3:14] It's also a great time to check out shows you've been curious about since they're also releasing episodes geared towards new audience members as well.

[3:22] The Block Party has games, recommendations, a volunteer event, a limited edition poster, and more.

[3:28] You can find out about that stuff at MaximumFun.org slash Block Party.

[3:34] Tell your friends.

[3:35] Tell them to come to the podcast Block Party, and they'll say, nerd, but maybe some of them will come.

[3:41] Elliot is looking very stern.

[3:44] I was thinking, you know, what else I got to do?

[3:48] We're basically still in a pandemic.

[3:51] That's true.

[3:53] Why not attend to a virtual block party?

[3:56] Yeah.

[3:56] We were supposed to have a block party on my block.

[3:59] It got canceled because of Delta.

[4:01] So Dan's stuck with all these wieners.

[4:04] Yeah.

[4:05] Taking on these mustard-filled wieners.

[4:08] So you filled the wieners with mustard?

[4:11] Like you injected them full of mustard?

[4:13] Yeah.

[4:13] It's like a churro.

[4:15] Are churros usually filled with mustard?

[4:19] Covered in mustard.

[4:20] Yeah, that's why we're in Dan's apartment right now.

[4:23] There's plastic sheeting all over the floor,

[4:25] and there's syringes that have been discarded

[4:28] that are partially filled with mustard lying every which way.

[4:31] Dangerous.

[4:32] You're like, Dan, this is for inserting into hot dogs?

[4:35] And Dan's like, yeah, sure.

[4:37] Yes, for churros.

[4:40] So what do we do on this podcast, Danny?

[4:42] This is a podcast where we...

[4:43] Let's tell all those new listeners what we do.

[4:44] It's mostly making fun of you about your hot dogs, right?

[4:47] Yeah, the premise of this podcast, which seemed a lot more unique about 15 years ago,

[4:55] is that we watch a bad movie and we talk about it.

[4:58] And every October, we celebrate Shocktober, the time of the year.

[5:05] It used to be when we watched slightly more horror movies than normal,

[5:08] because the early years were pretty horror movie heavy.

[5:11] These days, they've been sequestered mostly to the month of October.

[5:15] I guess I don't get to pick the movies anymore.

[5:17] It's always Mild Mountain Time and other movies that might make Dan cry.

[5:22] And pretty frequently we've had Hallie on these episodes because she's a horror fan.

[5:28] And I know that a lot of people on Twitter have been wondering, Hallie, have you seen a ghost?

[5:33] No, I haven't seen a ghost.

[5:37] Only, no, I don't even have a joke.

[5:41] You're too sad.

[5:43] You can see why Hallie is the star of the show.

[5:45] Joyce Carol Oates would appreciate you not joking about ghosts.

[5:47] Or should I call her Joyce Carol Ghosts?

[5:50] I won't.

[5:51] So today we watched The Turning, Dan.

[5:53] Yeah.

[5:54] Based on The Turn of the Screw, the Henry James novella.

[6:00] A heavily and frequently adapted novella, The Turn of the Screw.

[6:06] The Innocence, I guess, is probably the sort of the definitive adaptation.

[6:10] That's the best one.

[6:11] The Innocence is a great movie, yeah.

[6:13] And maybe The Turning is, too.

[6:15] Haunting of Blythe Manor, the series on Netflix.

[6:20] Is it based on the—

[6:21] I mean, it's pretty heavily influenced, but I haven't seen that one.

[6:24] So what is the deal?

[6:25] It's just like the original Haunted House story or something?

[6:29] I don't really understand what this movie was supposed to be about, so I don't understand what—

[6:34] This movie takes a very clear premise, which is that a governess is taking care of two kids who seem to be possessed or at least being controlled by the ghosts of two people who used to be at the house and really confuses it up quite a bit.

[6:49] And I have to admit that, and we'll get to it, I guess, but I really want to talk to you guys about the ending because it was one of the few times that I've seen a modern movie recently where I was like, what?

[6:58] I don't even know what that was supposed to represent.

[7:01] You could evoke any moment from the movie, and I would be like, oh, that was the ending?

[7:07] Oh, okay.

[7:08] Like, I don't even remember which moment was the ending.

[7:11] Well, the ending, I think, I mean, we'll get there, is meant to capture the ambiguity of the story, which is the other big thing about The Turn of the Screw.

[7:23] It has been subjected to a lot of literary criticism and interpretation over the years, and you can either read it as a straightforward ghost tale or you can read it as the story of a governess who has gone mad through possible combination of sexual confusion and gaslighting nerves.

[7:49] all these all the typical things that uh in the old days uh in horror stories women were

[7:56] we're going through but you're saying so the turn of the screw is one of the originals of the

[8:00] it's a horror movie or is it all in their head yeah i think i think it kind of yeah yep exactly

[8:07] that's why that's why they say things are twisted elliot is because they're referring to how when

[8:12] you turn a screw you twist it it's just amazing how it's amazing how al goldstein he was so

[8:17] inspired by this story that he went on to find to went on to found screw magazine but he could

[8:22] have easily called it turn magazine because it was the turn of the screw that that inspired him

[8:26] to found screw magazine yeah that's really interesting i'm glad you shared that anecdote

[8:30] so the movie begins night a woman question governess uh flees from a mansion but is

[8:40] stopped at the gate by a ghost yeah saying hey hey do you have your do you have your passport

[8:47] to leave ghost town okay then we find out you need a passport to leave it's your sovereign

[8:53] territory yeah it's a city state that's why beetlejuice has so many pockets to carry his

[8:58] fucking passport oh uh so then we hear over uh we hear a uh tv tell us that kirk cobain has died

[9:06] that's a fucking bummer the clumsiest time period setting i think i've i've seen in a movie in

[9:13] several years at least it was just like oh kate wayne has died let's turn the television off

[9:19] immediately upon hearing that i mean it is right up there within the wedding singer when the guy

[9:23] goes hey jr just got shot in terms of like yeah and there it's deliberately a joke but here it

[9:28] does feel like a jokey way to set up that time period but it's to create that um that aura of

[9:34] I guess, young Doom

[9:36] that I will follow, our main character.

[9:38] And Hallie, here's the thing I was wondering. You've always wanted to see

[9:40] a ghost. Did this movie make you want to be a governess

[9:42] so that you could maybe see a ghost

[9:44] in that job? Because you are not a governess

[9:46] right now, right? I feel like

[9:48] one. You're not a paycheque. No, but it's your own

[9:50] children, so it doesn't count.

[9:51] Well, I kept wondering, is she getting

[9:54] paid? Because we never saw her get a paycheck.

[9:56] It's true.

[9:58] Nobody handed her a paycheck or

[10:00] a bag of money.

[10:01] No, that's true.

[10:03] The kids certainly are not tipping her.

[10:05] No.

[10:06] Yeah, so Kurt Cobain, R.I.P.

[10:10] Mackenzie Davis decides to stop teaching in order to be a rich kid's private tutor under the explanation to make a difference.

[10:20] It's a very weird moment where she's like, this is a rich kid who needs a mother because her parents are gone.

[10:27] I could really make a difference here.

[10:29] It's like, wait, but you're already teaching like a classroom full of not rich kids.

[10:32] Wouldn't it be making more of a difference?

[10:34] No, no, no, no, no.

[10:35] They aren't orphans, Ellie.

[10:37] This is my chance to be the Aristotle to her Alexander the Great,

[10:43] influencing a future world conqueror.

[10:45] And it's like, all right, okay, in a world without Kurt Cobain,

[10:47] I guess anything's possible.

[10:48] Wait, question.

[10:50] Real question.

[10:51] Do we know, did I just miss where it's supposed to be set?

[10:55] I think I assumed it was Seattle because Kurt Cobain was mentioned,

[10:58] but then now in retrospect.

[11:00] You know that was worldwide news.

[11:01] Yeah, exactly.

[11:02] And in local regional news.

[11:05] I do feel like I had a similar feeling, though, and maybe it's just because it's always misty.

[11:12] I thought maybe this was the Pacific Northwest.

[11:14] Does the Pacific Northwest have a lot of, like, beautiful manor houses?

[11:19] It could be like a logging magnate of the 19th century built that estate or something like that.

[11:26] I think it does feel like more of a, like, East Coast, the kind of estate you might have found then.

[11:33] I mean, it's an English, it's a story that was originally set in England, right, I think?

[11:36] Yeah.

[11:36] Because Henry James, though American, spent most of his life over there.

[11:40] So, like, it makes more sense that there would be, like, a manor house, but it could be, like, a robber baron house, you know?

[11:44] By the way, is there a reason beyond, I guess, I guess we're setting everything in the, like, recent past because of cell phones?

[11:55] Is there a reason that this took place in the 90s?

[12:00] Well, that's recent past on the human timeline.

[12:03] I mean, on the geologic scale, 70 AD is the recent past.

[12:08] You guys are right.

[12:09] It's the fucking turn of the screw.

[12:12] It's recent past compared to turn of the screw.

[12:14] They wanted to set it at the turn of the century.

[12:16] I just don't understand whether it's not like, oh, remember how there are so many ghosts hanging around in the 90s?

[12:23] We got to get back into that.

[12:24] I mean, there were a lot of ghosts in the 90s.

[12:26] They were the ghosts of decisions made by baby boomers,

[12:28] and they're now still haunting us.

[12:30] Yeah, yeah.

[12:31] And, of course, there were the ghosts of Mars in the 90s.

[12:34] But was that the early 2000s?

[12:36] No, it's the early 2000s.

[12:38] I think it is.

[12:40] They're setting it then so it feels a little bit like the past,

[12:43] but you're right, to get away with not having it.

[12:45] Otherwise, when she showed up, she'd have to be like,

[12:46] what's the Wi-Fi password?

[12:47] And Ms. Groza, the old lady, would have to be like,

[12:51] we don't have Wi-Fi.

[12:52] And then we'd have an interminable scene

[12:54] of her walking around the grounds

[12:55] trying to get a signal on her cell phone.

[12:57] And like, who cares?

[12:58] Said it in the 90s.

[12:59] Why not?

[13:00] You know?

[13:00] I love the 90s.

[13:02] Yeah.

[13:03] Has anyone ever said that?

[13:04] I mean, I think there's like a CD collection.

[13:08] So Mackenzie Davis decides to go visit her mom

[13:12] at a kind of stylish mental hospital.

[13:14] This is kind of when I realized, like,

[13:16] this movie looks pretty good.

[13:19] Like, everything is fairly stylized.

[13:22] Um, the, like this, uh, this is a person, uh, the, the director mainly has, it looked

[13:30] like music video credits and some TV credits.

[13:32] Her first feature was The Runaways about, uh, the band, The Runaways.

[13:36] Oh, okay.

[13:36] Which was pretty good.

[13:37] And so she visits her mother, played by Jolie Richardson, uh, who you would know from, uh,

[13:44] The Patriot and that, uh, BBC, uh, Lady Chatterley adaptation with Sean Bean.

[13:50] She's in lots of stuff.

[13:51] She's part of a long British acting dynasty.

[13:58] As the Amazon trivia told me, she is the fourth member of her family to be in an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.

[14:04] Going all the way back to The Innocents.

[14:06] Yeah, so she's a Redgrave, Julia Richardson.

[14:10] So, like, you know, her family is a British acting royalty, you know.

[14:13] Wait, was Vanessa Redgrave in The Devils?

[14:16] No.

[14:19] I can't remember.

[14:21] It's a good Shacktober name though, Redgrave.

[14:23] Is she her daughter?

[14:24] Is she Vanessa Redgrave's daughter?

[14:26] She is Vanessa Redgrave's daughter, yes.

[14:27] So she's Michael Redgrave's granddaughter.

[14:30] Yeah, yeah.

[14:30] She looks like Vanessa Redgrave because it's her mother.

[14:33] Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

[14:34] Redgrave is a scary – it reminds me.

[14:36] There's a kind of – there's a breed of apple called Gravenstein.

[14:39] Awesome.

[14:40] And whenever I see a sign of it, I'm always like, ah, Gravenstein.

[14:44] Danielle's like, it's not scary.

[14:46] It's an apple.

[14:47] Yeah, so –

[14:48] But it's like Frankenstein with Grave in it.

[14:50] It should be a scary apple.

[14:51] It's like the movie The Apple.

[14:52] I think it's interesting that Vanessa Redgrave was in The Devils, directed by Ken Russell,

[14:57] and then Jolie Richardson was in Lady Chatterley that was also directed by Ken Russell.

[15:02] It's got Ken Russell all over it.

[15:04] So let's get back to this movie, shall we?

[15:05] Ken Russell, the father of Kurt Russell.

[15:07] Exactly.

[15:09] And Kurt Russell, the father of Keri Russell.

[15:12] Anyway, continue.

[15:12] God damn it.

[15:14] So she's in this stylish mental hospital.

[15:17] She's doing art in an empty pool.

[15:19] That doesn't seem safe for a mental hospital.

[15:23] Yeah, I mean, yeah.

[15:25] Or anywhere.

[15:26] Now, do you think a full pool would be more safe for a mental hospital,

[15:31] or should we just get rid of the idea of having a pool in this mental hospital?

[15:34] Well, what's the implication?

[15:35] That they turned, like, an old gym into a mental hospital?

[15:40] Good question.

[15:41] Probably.

[15:42] I mean, I just watched Barb and Star,

[15:46] And it just reminded me of their motel where there's an empty pool where a guy is playing solitaire on a little card table at the bottom of it.

[15:52] I mean, this is the 90s.

[15:54] Maybe this is a statement about how back in the 80s Reagan cut all the funding for the mentally ill.

[16:00] Yeah, so they had to lose their pools.

[16:01] They're like, we can afford food or we can afford water.

[16:05] We can't afford both.

[16:07] So our heroine, her name is Kate.

[16:13] after leaving her mom, goes to this palatial, not palatial, this manor house.

[16:19] It's pretty palatial.

[16:20] Yeah, she walks around a lot.

[16:23] It's, for such a large, well-groomed home and grounds, it is sparsely populated.

[16:31] And it's filled with a lot of, like, sort of foreboding noises.

[16:36] And junk. Hallie's right. There's a lot of brick in this house.

[16:40] A lot of broken dolls in this house.

[16:43] They have a surprisingly large number of rooms dedicated to antique shattered mannequins.

[16:49] It's a pretty gothic story, so I guess you can get away with this stuff when you're creating that kind of mood.

[16:56] But Audrey did point out that it's just like, I don't think in a horror movie,

[17:00] in the first 10 minutes, you shouldn't have a bunch of scary noises.

[17:04] You want to ease into that a little bit, fake your way into, okay, this is at least one foot in the normal world.

[17:12] I mean, it does feel like she does walk through a portal and enter into the, like, fairy land from Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell where there's just, like, diabolical masquerades going on all the time.

[17:23] It really does feel like as soon as she gets to the house, yeah, she's entered a nightmare realm.

[17:27] She's entered the world represented by the illustrations in the original Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark book.

[17:32] Yeah, yes.

[17:33] Like, it does not, yeah.

[17:35] It's an Edward Gore illustration or something from the beginning of Mystery.

[17:40] Yeah, she's in the mystery opening title credits.

[17:42] She should be like, this isn't right.

[17:44] Speaking of illustrations, she meets the, I guess, older housekeeper, Mrs. Gross or Miss Gross,

[17:51] who is exclusively looks like she has been taken out of a black and white photo,

[17:57] kind of like Detox in the season five finale of RuPaul's Drag Race.

[18:01] It's an interesting choice because this is a movie that features ghosts.

[18:07] And yet this woman, who looks like a ghost the whole time, is not one.

[18:10] And has a British accent.

[18:13] She does.

[18:13] And it further confused me about the location.

[18:16] Me too.

[18:17] Yeah.

[18:17] And it's also, it would make more sense if she was a ghost, because the whole movie, Kate would be like, let's do this, Flora.

[18:24] And Mrs. Gross would be like, no, no, she can't do that.

[18:26] And I'd be like, well, why aren't you the governess, Mrs. Gross?

[18:28] Like, you don't seem to do anything else all day except ride Kate's ass about what Flora can and can't do.

[18:34] Like, why did you hire Kate?

[18:35] Like, this is your job.

[18:37] i was confused about the the situation there like like the the flow chart of who's in charge and

[18:45] also like who has uh guardianship of these kids is it that woman or like that's they're owned by

[18:52] the house the house inherited them yeah uh yeah so we meet uh after there's a lot of walking around

[18:59] this property if uh yeah i mean like it's basically a fucking zillow ad um so like a

[19:06] spooky zillow ad like you rent want to rent a haunted house yeah it's what happens when you

[19:11] go to zillow in october all the houses have been decorated they're spooky so funny all the all the

[19:16] listings now ghosts and cobwebs on them yeah it's so hard to buy a house in october because all the

[19:22] real estate listings make them look like abandoned old mansions now all this will be cleared away

[19:27] later right yeah yeah yeah are you looking for a three bed tomb and they're like we have to stage

[19:35] the house when did you want to sell it october oh october okay get me cobwebs get me broken mirrors

[19:40] get me a coffin for a table that's how we have to stage it give me my pun dictionary

[19:46] somebody start peeling the grapes

[19:50] so we've got a whole set up.

[19:51] Well, realtors these days just have a spray

[19:56] that smells like freshly peeled grapes.

[19:58] Yeah, yeah.

[19:58] Let me bring you through to the en suite master death.

[20:02] Master bath.

[20:03] I mean to say master bath.

[20:04] Come on.

[20:04] Oh, I thought you were going to say dead room.

[20:06] Oh, better.

[20:08] Thank you.

[20:08] Better.

[20:09] That's okay.

[20:09] Tell me how to do my job.

[20:10] Sure.

[20:11] Maybe you're the real estate agent now.

[20:12] Okay, fine.

[20:13] Or the squeal estate agent.

[20:16] Here, you put on this vest.

[20:16] Here, you do it.

[20:18] I'll buy the house from you.

[20:19] oh this place is lovely uh i want to i don't like the color anyway goodbye

[20:23] hey we haven't discussed price you can always paint the house come on no no no and now i've

[20:30] transferred the curse onto you you're now the real estate agent for this house i'm free i'm free i'm

[20:34] free i'm just glad you stopped saying squeal estate uh okay so so we meet flora who is a

[20:40] spooky little girl uh we walk around a spooky hedge maze uh then we tour the house uh and we

[20:47] We see a crazy, crazy dummy of a dead grandma.

[20:50] We learn that Flora can't leave the property.

[20:53] You know, normal rich people stuff.

[20:55] Yeah.

[20:55] Flora played by the young girl from the Florida Project, by the way.

[21:00] Maybe that's why they named her Flora.

[21:02] Oh, that's right.

[21:03] She was, I mean.

[21:05] That makes me so sad.

[21:07] I love that movie.

[21:07] I thought I recognized her from somewhere.

[21:08] I think she's good in this movie, too.

[21:11] The movie is not obviously as good as the Florida Project, which is amazing.

[21:15] Yeah, this movie is.

[21:16] Has way less Willem Dafoe.

[21:18] That's 100% less.

[21:19] Who would have been great in this?

[21:21] Very spooky?

[21:22] He should have been Mrs. Groza.

[21:25] Or Kate, frankly, a male governess.

[21:28] Why not?

[21:28] A governor, if you will.

[21:29] I think the problem with this movie is not the acting.

[21:32] I think all the performers do pretty fine in it.

[21:35] But it is, Stuart, you were saying earlier, or maybe Dan was,

[21:39] about how the movie looks pretty good, but it looks all very samey.

[21:42] I think you guys were saying there's no difference between the spooky scenes

[21:47] and the non-spooky scenes and how it looks so it all kind of turns into kind of like a

[21:51] gray glop at a certain point yeah i have a thing about the acting so okay i don't know if this is

[21:57] a i don't know if you'd attribute this to a flaw in the acting or a flaw in the conception of the

[22:01] movie but i thought the kids should have been spookier they're like actually not spooky at all

[22:07] they just seem like normal kids in a spooky house yeah they seem like assholes i mean the the son is

[22:13] an asshole he's an asshole but he doesn't seem like he seems like not not as creepy as he should

[22:20] seem i feel like no i think you're right this is like this is a case like the girl is a sweetheart

[22:25] and the guy who will will meet soon in the synopsis that stewart is so kindly played by

[22:32] stranger things as finn wolfhard yeah finn wolfhard uh our our old uh daily show co-host

[22:39] co-host, a Daily Show writer, Dan Amira, once tweeted,

[22:43] well, wolf hard or wolf home, I guess.

[22:48] And I was one of, like, five people who favorited that.

[22:52] It was really speaking to me versus just normal.

[22:56] I love the idea now of Dan Amira.

[22:57] This will mean nothing to the listeners who don't know him as a co-host of the Daily Show

[23:00] because he's a man who has very little emotional effect when he talks.

[23:04] Yeah, imagine me, but more so.

[23:09] Yeah.

[23:11] But what were we talking about?

[23:14] So she spends the day –

[23:17] So I just – wait, I want to –

[23:18] Oh, the kids weren't spooky.

[23:18] I want to take it – the kids aren't spooky.

[23:20] I want to mention that I think this shows that the children who play the parts, their names are Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince.

[23:25] And their names are spookier than the character names, which is Miles and Flora Fairchild.

[23:29] And I think it's a conception problem.

[23:31] I think that feels like a directing problem to me.

[23:33] That the kids – yeah, I think you're right.

[23:35] They're not – there's nothing eerie about them.

[23:37] And so much of the movie is Kate wandering around the house getting spooked by mirrors and things like that.

[23:43] But when she sees the kids, they're not like – there's nothing ghosty about them.

[23:46] Yeah, Miles is kind of creepy in a teenage boy way of being creepy, not in a creepy, eerie way.

[23:55] It's not like this guy is going to be able to do anything to her.

[23:59] He's very small.

[24:00] He's a small man.

[24:01] And it's not like, is this kid – does this kid have a ghost inside them?

[24:05] It's more like, yeah, this kid is going to go.

[24:07] I mean, at a certain point, every teenage boy has a ghost inside them.

[24:11] Yeah, so we, yeah, like, there's a brief scare where.

[24:15] Allie, it's a block party episode.

[24:17] Please, come on.

[24:18] It's a horror porn called Ghost in the Dick.

[24:23] It's a very weird adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.

[24:30] Yeah, yeah.

[24:31] And the Ghostbusters are, I guess, porn stars that help you get it out of your dick.

[24:34] And they're like, we've got to get that ghost out of you.

[24:36] Yeah, so we have a couple of early scares.

[24:41] There's a point where the first moment after spending the day with Flora,

[24:47] Kate sees a ghost of a woman in the window and has a kind of muted reaction.

[24:52] She seems like a little creeped out, but not like, I mean, she just saw a ghost.

[24:57] You know, what Hallie dreams about.

[24:59] And then she, you know, there's a few other minor scares.

[25:03] Ghost listeners out there, you'd get a much better reaction from yours truly.

[25:08] Quit trying to impress Mackenzie Davis.

[25:13] Hallie, can you give us a taste of what your ghost reaction would be like?

[25:21] That seems like about the same, actually.

[25:23] I know I just sprang it on you, but a ghost is going to spring it on you, too.

[25:26] I can't go all out.

[25:27] My baby is napping in the other room.

[25:29] Oh, yeah, that's true.

[25:30] That's fair.

[25:32] Okay, I like that.

[25:33] She was biting her fingernails for everyone listening.

[25:36] Yeah, so she meets Miles, who's the elder child.

[25:42] We talked about him a little bit.

[25:44] He's a little bit twisted.

[25:45] He's been expelled from school.

[25:47] He's got a bad attitude.

[25:48] He sticks pins in mannequin boobs, you know, normal teenage boy stuff.

[25:52] Kate finds the diary of the former governess.

[25:56] So we get a little bit, she starts to do a little bit of detective work.

[26:00] There's a scene where she's in Miles' bedroom.

[26:05] No, not even his bedroom.

[26:06] It's his music room, and there's a moment with a spider that was pretty cool, right?

[26:11] A little trapdoor spider.

[26:12] Yeah, he just lets the spider crawl in his hand.

[26:15] He's like, hey, man, I got a spider on my hand, basically.

[26:18] And then it's a CGI spider, and then he puts it in a tank,

[26:21] and a CGI trapdoor spider jumps out and eats it.

[26:24] Uh-huh, that's amazing.

[26:25] And you think this is going to somehow be relevant to the rest of the movie,

[26:28] but it's not.

[26:29] Yeah, you think the movie's gonna end

[26:32] with Jake Gyllenhaal opening a bedroom door

[26:34] and there's just a giant spider there

[26:35] and that's the end of the movie

[26:36] and you're like, what?

[26:37] And that guy's making Dune now.

[26:40] It's crazy.

[26:41] Okay, so she then,

[26:46] she hears Flora scream from outside

[26:49] and she runs to the window

[26:50] and sees Flora floating in the pool,

[26:52] appearing to drown.

[26:55] So she runs outside.

[26:56] She jumps into the water.

[26:58] Uh-oh, it's just a honeypot for the ghost because a ghost tries to grab her.

[27:02] She climbs out, and then the kids are there laughing at her.

[27:04] Wait, was it a trick from the kids or a honeypot from the ghost?

[27:06] Who knows?

[27:07] Dan, what do you think?

[27:08] Well, I mean, the ghosts are possibly controlling the kids.

[27:14] In cahoots, says McCoy.

[27:16] It could be like that gif that says, why not both?

[27:18] Yeah.

[27:19] Okay, so we get a couple more ghosts.

[27:23] To be honest, a lot of this plot summary is just going to be like, ghost scare, ghost scare.

[27:28] It's kind of the opposite of House of the Devil, which is super scary, even though it's just a babysitter walking around a house for most of the movie and without much happening.

[27:38] This is a babysitter or governor walking around a house with lots of jump scares.

[27:42] And you're like, all right, OK, where's the next one?

[27:45] Yeah.

[27:45] And like you, once again, she's walking around this big house and it's pretty clean and organized.

[27:52] And you would think, shouldn't there be more like who's taking care of these fucking horses?

[27:57] Well, that's the things they mention.

[27:58] So one of the things that come up is that Quint, the old horse caper, has died.

[28:03] He didn't hire anyone else to take care of it.

[28:05] So I guess Mrs. Grosso was like, another thing to add to my to-do list.

[28:08] I'm already cleaning the house and cooking.

[28:10] I guess I'll take care of the horses.

[28:11] Time to shovel out the stalls.

[28:13] Yeah, we get a little garden horse ride where Kate is learning to ride a horse while Miles whips it a bunch.

[28:20] And it's just kind of like there's a strange power dynamic already going on here.

[28:24] And then they ride their horse to the koi pond where he then stomps on a fish, which is also not cool.

[28:30] Well, he's putting it out of its misery.

[28:32] It was being eaten by a raven.

[28:34] Yeah, that's true.

[28:35] Because you know what ravens love to eat is fish.

[28:37] You see it all the time.

[28:39] I mean, I'm sure a raven would eat some fish if it had the chance.

[28:44] Only one way to find out.

[28:46] I don't know if it's the kind of...

[28:48] Ravens write into, I would want a fish, care of Dan McCoy, care of Hallie Haglund.

[28:54] One, two, three, Los Angeles Street.

[28:55] They can tell me whether, you know, Corvids grab fish from ponds or not.

[29:03] Or whether that's not a thing that a raven would normally do.

[29:07] Yeah, Rodent will have an Instapoll vote.

[29:10] That's so raven or that's not so raven.

[29:12] Yeah.

[29:12] Okay.

[29:16] I got that road led somewhere, Elliot.

[29:17] But also, another confusing detail.

[29:21] So it's like he stomps on this fish and then she's like, Miles, why would you do that?

[29:25] And he's like, nothing should have to suffer.

[29:27] So then you get the sense that that's foreshadowing and that line is going to have something to do with the plot.

[29:35] It does not.

[29:36] It does not.

[29:37] No, that's true.

[29:38] No, like even if there was an evil ghost inside him, at least like that sentiment isn't that evil.

[29:44] Like you should think that this ghost is a good ghost.

[29:47] Okay, well, we'll talk about good ghosts later when we review.

[29:50] good good good ghost um yep so uh there's a there's thank you hallie there's a lot of sequences where

[29:58] i'll take it i'll take it baby

[30:03] there's a lot of sequences where she has a scare and then she wakes up and it's like oh it's just

[30:14] a dream and then there's another scare and you're like how many fucking nested dreams are we having

[30:19] Like, are we all in fucking killing Murphy's mind or something?

[30:24] What's happening?

[30:24] Okay, so there's – Miles makes a weird comment about how Kate has a sexy tattoo and we learned that she has an Ura Burrows tattoo on the back of her neck, which depending on the time and where she got it, that might have been an illegal tattoo, right?

[30:40] Okay.

[30:41] A legal tattoo?

[30:43] I don't understand.

[30:44] Yeah, tattooing wasn't legal in a lot like in New York until I think the mid-90s.

[30:49] Huh.

[30:50] Wow.

[30:51] Interesting.

[30:51] That's the most interesting thing I've heard.

[30:54] Stu's Tattoo Talk Corner.

[30:56] Oh, cool.

[30:56] Wow, I didn't know I was going to be impressing you guys with my knowledge.

[31:00] Right in, of course, was that little knowledge drop Raven or Not-So-Raven.

[31:05] Oh, that's kind of confused the other results, though.

[31:08] Oh, no, I poisoned the well.

[31:10] It's not really related to the Raven thing.

[31:11] Well, that's a Raven colon tattoo issue in the email subject line.

[31:18] We could start a new mailbox for this one, but I guess, okay, we don't need to.

[31:22] Well, I didn't want to, you know, we have to yes and, Elliot, even if it's a confusing issue.

[31:28] That's fair.

[31:29] Oh, yeah, it's New York City banned tattooing from between 1961 and 1997, it says.

[31:34] Oh, shit, man.

[31:36] You know, what do I do when I'm right?

[31:38] Because I'm not right very often on this podcast.

[31:41] Should I do a little dance?

[31:42] Yeah, do it.

[31:43] Okay, Dan.

[31:45] He's dancing.

[31:45] Wait, okay, he's up.

[31:46] He's doing a Charleston.

[31:48] He's on the table.

[31:50] Okay, stop waving that around.

[31:51] Okay, the pants need to stay on, Stu.

[31:53] All right, okay.

[31:55] Okay.

[31:56] That dance really took a lot out of you.

[31:59] Yeah.

[31:59] Okay, so she's like, okay, this place is fucking weird.

[32:03] I got to get out of here.

[32:04] So she decides to take the kids on a little trip, and the kids are like, okay, but only if our, you know,

[32:10] secret protector says we can go.

[32:12] And so they get in the car and they're about to leave.

[32:15] And I was like, oh, great.

[32:17] We're going to have another location in this movie.

[32:18] No, no, no, not so fast.

[32:20] This is a cheap horror movie.

[32:21] Only one location.

[32:22] So they can't leave.

[32:25] Flora starts to have what appears to be some kind of a panic attack.

[32:30] And then Miles gets very aggressive, which is, again, not cool.

[32:34] Did we mention that their parents died in an accident right by the gate

[32:39] that uh that this is perhaps the source of like this is this is at least an explanation for her

[32:45] uh panic attack uh although you know this being a horror movie you know it's also kind of a red

[32:52] herring where you're like is this person kept here through some ghostly means like why why can't she

[32:58] leave a red herring being pecked at by a raven maybe right into that's so raven or that's not

[33:04] So Raven, care of Dan McCoy, let us know.

[33:06] Okay, so, you know, Kate's pretty shaken up, shook up, shaken, shooken, whatever.

[33:15] Let me check with Elvis.

[33:17] He says all shook up.

[33:18] Okay.

[33:18] So she, you know, she's having a little bit of a crisis.

[33:20] She is talking to her friend, her former roommate, and the stakes are pretty clear at this point.

[33:26] They lay him out.

[33:27] That she could just bail and go back to her old life.

[33:31] She could go back to her old living situation.

[33:34] or she could try and stay there and help the kids and the ghosts.

[33:37] So she decides to try and make up with Flora and Miles.

[33:40] Two mixed results, I would say.

[33:43] Because she pinkies, she made a promise,

[33:45] crossed her heart, hoped to die with Flora, that she would stay.

[33:49] Now, as somebody who doesn't spend much time with children,

[33:52] that kind of a promise seems like garbage to me.

[33:55] But it's legally binding in a kid's court.

[33:57] Kids break those promises all the time.

[33:59] That's what I'm saying.

[34:01] Oh, I think five times today I've made an agreement with my three-year-old, and then he's immediately gone back on it.

[34:08] Kids are, yeah, they're weasels, you know.

[34:10] They'll say anything and they'll do anything.

[34:13] Yeah.

[34:13] They're wild.

[34:15] Okay, so.

[34:15] Round them up.

[34:16] Lock them up.

[34:17] That's what I say.

[34:17] Kids.

[34:18] Put them in kid jail.

[34:20] What's the matter with the kids today?

[34:20] Finally, she starts to do a little bit more detective work on, what is it, Miss Jessup?

[34:26] Is that the former governor?

[34:27] Miss Jessel.

[34:28] Jessel.

[34:28] Descendant, we have to assume, of Georgia Jessel.

[34:30] Yeah, famous father.

[34:31] The old-time comedians.

[34:32] Who has gone missing, and Quint...

[34:36] I mean, Georgie Jessel has long since died.

[34:37] No one's looking for him.

[34:39] Oh, you mean Miss Jessel.

[34:39] Yes, I think, yeah.

[34:40] I'm glad that me getting a fact right

[34:43] has inspired Ellie to correct me on all my facts.

[34:46] Quint, the now-dead groundskeeper stablemaster,

[34:52] so she's doing some detective work on this pair,

[34:54] but really not that much,

[34:56] other than we find out that Miss Jessel

[34:59] was frightened of Quint, that he was

[35:01] a threatening presence, and then we'll learn

[35:03] that he is, what,

[35:05] abusive, assaultive, a murderer.

[35:08] All of the above.

[35:10] Yeah.

[35:10] If the ghosts are to be believed.

[35:12] There's a bunch more ghost dreams. She decides to play a game

[35:15] of hide-and-seek.

[35:16] It's pretty far into the movie.

[35:17] Yeah, it's pretty far in.

[35:19] Yeah, these people are supposed to be

[35:21] the crux of the whole movie,

[35:23] and we just sort of learned

[35:25] who Quint was.

[35:27] Yeah.

[35:29] and i gotta admit you know i've i read the turn of the screw you know back in college and i saw

[35:36] the innocence last year i think uh which was maybe the second time i've seen it in my life so i've

[35:43] had at least some grounding in other like like the original and adaptations of this but i don't know

[35:51] that it would be very clear to me what the deal was with these two characters these uh missing

[35:58] you know like other uh servants if i if i didn't have that background oh yeah it's not a movie that

[36:08] is welcoming to people who don't already know the story of the movie i mean to be honest if you

[36:11] didn't already know the story you might not even know it was a ghost movie until yeah yeah very far

[36:16] into it yeah it it i mean i feel like one of the things this movie suffers from is that we're

[36:21] comparing almost everything to other uh interpretations of it uh other adaptations

[36:28] and it it just doesn't stack up uh so she let's see uh oh uh this is this is a you know she decides

[36:39] to play a game of hide and seek she gets scared a bunch she gets a bloody nose i mean this is the

[36:43] sort of thing where you're like this is ghost house 101 like at this point why are you playing

[36:47] hide-and-seek I totally want to see a show you host now Stuart called ghost house 101 where you're

[36:52] you it's like a haunted house competition show yeah I mean obviously the first lesson is like

[36:57] oh yeah you got some spooky ghost stuff just go stay in a hotel if the ghost follows you then

[37:04] that's a different kind of ghost we can deal with that yeah that's if there's a big stain on the

[37:10] wall don't look in there or maybe do if the ghost wants you to do something with their bones yeah

[37:16] but it's hard to know that until you go into the room and now i can see the commercials that were

[37:20] used it's this ghost house 101 and stewart goes class is in session and that's how that's how the

[37:25] commercial ends if you find the ghost's bones have somebody you don't like deal with them first in

[37:31] case putting them into the stain on the wall causes a negative result yeah you know what the

[37:37] ghost wants almost always you don't know what the ghost not until the third act they're very yeah

[37:43] They're very hard to predict.

[37:45] After the fact, it seems like they could have just told you

[37:47] the thing that they wanted, but they don't want to do that.

[37:50] Ghosts love head games.

[37:51] Do you guys have the same experience I have?

[37:53] Gotta go to therapy.

[37:54] Maybe it's a ghost therapy show, Stuart.

[37:58] Maybe you're a therapist who deals with ghosts.

[38:00] The hardest part is getting them to communicate clearly.

[38:01] Why do you find it so hard to ask for the things you need, Ghosts?

[38:05] Yeah, this is all great stuff.

[38:07] Let's start TMing this.

[38:09] Let's write it up.

[38:10] By the way, Elliot, if you said that already,

[38:13] every once in a while you keep cutting out.

[38:16] So we just have to play a game

[38:18] where we guess what you're saying.

[38:20] I know, my internet connection today is not so great.

[38:22] You've been doing a great job so far.

[38:23] Did you guys have the experience I had

[38:26] on the Haunted Mansion ride as a kid

[38:27] where at the end you look into a trick mirror

[38:30] and there's a ghost in the car with you

[38:32] and it says, oh, he's going to be going home with you.

[38:34] And I was young enough that I thought a ghost

[38:36] might be following us the rest of the day

[38:38] and it really spooked me out.

[38:39] And it was until years later that I was like,

[38:40] there's no way a successful theme park

[38:42] is just going to be throwing ghosts at people.

[38:44] Like, there's no way.

[38:45] Hold on a second.

[38:45] I thought you were going to be like,

[38:47] there's no way a successful ghost

[38:48] would want to come home with me.

[38:49] He has his own life.

[38:51] Yeah, he's got his own stuff.

[38:52] No, you don't know with ghosts.

[38:53] Like you were saying, you don't know,

[38:54] and they're not very clear in their communications

[38:55] that you never know what they want.

[38:56] But it was like, you know what?

[38:58] If this ride was really sending ghosts after people,

[39:01] they'd probably shut it down.

[39:02] They'd probably change it to something else.

[39:03] They'd run out of ghosts.

[39:05] Yeah.

[39:06] So, limited resources is what we're saying.

[39:08] They're having a meeting.

[39:09] The Imagineers are having a meeting.

[39:10] They're like, we're low on ghosts, everybody.

[39:12] Attendance has been very high this year.

[39:14] We don't have enough ghosts.

[39:15] We have to start murdering people.

[39:17] That's one answer.

[39:19] Okay, at least someone's giving me solutions and not just problems.

[39:22] So she gets a package in the mail, opens it.

[39:25] It's from her mom.

[39:26] Of course, it's filled with some spooky art that is basically just like a lot of charcoal smeared on a piece of paper.

[39:33] Yeah, I thought that was going to be something, too, because it had all these holes in it.

[39:37] And I was like, oh, I bet she made those holes with a screw.

[39:42] Oh, that would have been awesome.

[39:47] Famous screw.

[39:49] And then in Planet Hollywood, you could see a famous screw from The Turn of the Screw.

[39:56] Yep, right next to my Bruno sunglasses.

[40:00] Your Bruno sunglasses?

[40:04] Yeah.

[40:05] Worn by Stuart Wellington.

[40:07] yep bruce willis is actually just stewart's alter ego just like bruno yes bruce willis is all too

[40:15] yeah yeah i have to i have to i was bitten by a radioactive egg so i turned into bruce willis

[40:21] okay so uh she of course uh follows a ghost to a pond and she finds miss jessel's dead body in the

[40:31] pond she's like it's time to get the fuck out of here so she goes back to the house where she

[40:36] witnesses a ghostly assault where she watches ghost quint uh strangle uh ghost miss jessel

[40:44] and then uh ghost quint starts to attack her and then uh pushes uh miss gross gross groza

[40:53] uh over the back of the i don't know why elliot has reinvented the pronunciation of this i think

[40:59] just because the way it's spelled yeah so i do want the character to be more interesting than

[41:06] she is. Mrs. Gross is just a bit

[41:08] on the nose as a character in a horror

[41:10] movie. She gets pushed over the

[41:12] balcony. Hello, I'm your boss,

[41:13] Mr. Spooks. Okay, well.

[41:16] So she

[41:18] gets pushed over the balcony, and we get

[41:19] a kind of fun little stunt.

[41:21] And then

[41:23] Kate runs through the house.

[41:25] She tries to get the kids to join her

[41:28] and

[41:29] escape the grounds.

[41:31] But then as she's

[41:34] As she's, what, driving up to the front gate, it cuts back to her opening the package with her mom's artwork.

[41:41] Yeah.

[41:43] So that stuff was all, I guess, a dreamer in her head.

[41:46] Yeah, what the fuck?

[41:47] Is it more interesting to read it as something that did happen, but the house has kind of caught her in some sort of loop of existence?

[41:54] Yes, that is much more interesting.

[41:56] It does feel – because I had the same feeling when I was watching it.

[41:59] I was like, oh, okay.

[42:00] So she imagined all the ghost stuff and the exciting stuff while she was looking at this charcoal drawing full of holes.

[42:07] Maybe it's a commentary on the powerful effects of art can have on people.

[42:13] Like I know when you go to the museum, don't you stare into the paintings and then imagine a whole lifetime of experiences?

[42:18] I imagine myself escaping some ghosts.

[42:21] Imagine trying to escape a ghost house.

[42:24] It's kind of like her tattoo

[42:27] It never ends

[42:28] Thank you

[42:29] This is a great movie, it makes sense

[42:32] You're saying, Stuart, this is more of a

[42:35] Velvet buzzsaw type reading of the movie

[42:37] Where it's art that's so powerful

[42:39] That it kills

[42:40] Yeah, that was a movie I liked

[42:42] This is more of a velveteen rabbit of a movie

[42:44] I liked that movie

[42:45] She's talking about that movie

[42:47] It's basically, what, like a final

[42:50] Destination movie

[42:52] uh but like but with a lot of uh good actors in it uh and not quite as fun as a final destiny

[42:59] whatever um okay so uh then uh she tries to run over to the kids and be like we got to get out

[43:06] of here this is a ghost house let's break out and the kids are like what are you talking about

[43:10] um and she just comes off as appearing like very unhinged and then uh while this realization is

[43:17] hitting her she then wakes up she is now in the mental hospital with her mother where her mother

[43:22] is scritching away on her charcoal well they zoom into her eye i wouldn't say that she wakes up

[43:27] there's a zoom into her eye where she is with her mom in like this sort of black space uh-huh yeah

[43:35] okay i'm sure that uh clarification is going to help the list well i don't i it's not like

[43:41] it's not a dream like it is different this is stew you're i feel like stew you're you're imposing

[43:47] an explanation onto a scene that is very

[43:49] unclear in the movie. Yeah, you guys

[43:51] are both right. And then she

[43:53] approaches her mother

[43:55] who's scritching away with charcoal

[43:57] and then her mother turns

[43:59] and she freaks

[44:01] out. Is it because

[44:03] it's not her mother, it's her? Who knows?

[44:05] Maybe her mom just looks extra

[44:07] twisted. Because we don't

[44:09] see her mother's face. We see the back of her mother's

[44:11] head and Kate screams and

[44:13] then the movie's over. And that's when I was like, wait a minute.

[44:16] So I had to re-watch that little bit of it because I was like, did I miss something while I was doing the dishes?

[44:20] Oh, no, it's exactly that.

[44:21] Yeah.

[44:22] You know.

[44:22] Yeah.

[44:23] Yeah.

[44:23] It's the trunk of the car from Repo Man.

[44:25] Well, it's kind of, I mean, like the movie seems to sort of be doing, so okay.

[44:31] It's playing off the ambiguity of Turn of the Screw, right?

[44:35] It's playing off like, is there a ghost?

[44:37] Is she having a mental breakdown?

[44:42] And it's trying to do, I feel like, a Lady and the Tiger ending where we see both things happen, you know?

[44:50] Like, what if we made a movie, The Lady and the Tiger, and we see the lady behind one door, and then we see the tiger behind the same door, except for the way that movies work, the chronology, you know, like, the thing that we see last takes precedence, right?

[45:05] So, like, the movie seems—

[45:07] That's the clue principle.

[45:08] Yeah, the last ending of Clue is the real one.

[45:10] Yeah, the movie seems to be landing on the idea that she is, you know, has some sort of dementia like her mom.

[45:18] And then, like, that last bit is kind of representing her, like, being terrified, like, that it's true that, like, she is the thing that she was fearing.

[45:29] But it's so confusing the way the movie does it.

[45:33] But that only would have made sense if they had set it up the whole time that, like, every spooky thing was seen through her eyes.

[45:43] And it wasn't.

[45:44] Like, there were tons of events where she would close a door.

[45:47] Like, when she sees the grandmother mannequin and she, like, puts it in the other room.

[45:53] And then she closes the door.

[45:54] And she's not witnessing when the mannequin, like, moves alone.

[45:57] True.

[45:58] We already believe that this house is haunted.

[46:02] So how can we also believe that, you know, it's either both, but, or, or she didn't go

[46:10] crazy, but it's not that she just went crazy.

[46:12] Maybe the movie does want to have it both ways where it is a haunted house and she is

[46:16] mentally unstable and is going mad and it's all like, or here's another, okay, here's

[46:21] another, here's another explanation.

[46:22] Here's where I get my no prize from the makers of The Turning.

[46:25] The reason that that mannequin turns its head like that when she's not in the room is because

[46:31] she's actually telekinetic.

[46:32] There's no ghosts.

[46:33] But she is creating all these things with her mind.

[46:36] She's both imagining it and making it real at the same time.

[46:41] Well, Marvel Comics can send me my no prize.

[46:44] I know this is not a Marvel Comics story.

[46:45] It's a movie made by other people based on our Henry James story.

[46:48] But they can send it to me at my address, which is, is that so raven or is that not

[46:53] so raven?

[46:54] Care of Dan's house.

[46:55] 1, 2, 3, fake street.

[46:56] Hollywood America.

[46:57] Oh, boy.

[46:58] 4, 5, 6, 9,000.

[46:59] This is going to get so confusing.

[47:01] Now, if you had seen the movie Clue in the movie theater and you only got one of the endings, would you have felt a little ripped off or no?

[47:09] Well, that's apparently what kept a lot of people from seeing Clue in the theaters is that they advertised there are three different endings.

[47:16] These are the theaters where ending A is playing.

[47:18] This is where ending B is playing.

[47:19] This is where ending C is playing.

[47:20] And people were like, I don't want to get a bad ending.

[47:22] I'm just not going to see this stupid movie.

[47:24] And so it did hurt Clue quite a bit, you know.

[47:28] And it wasn't until it was on TV and on video that they included all the endings.

[47:31] And people were like, oh, that's funny.

[47:33] So we've reached the end of this pretty simple film.

[47:41] A simple little ghost tale.

[47:43] So I think it's a movie that is reaching towards ambiguity and it manages to instead reach only confusion.

[47:50] Is that how you guys felt about it?

[47:52] Well, certainly in that like, fine, you know, do your ambiguous ending where it's like, okay, one thing happens and then it's revealed to maybe be a fantasy and just the product of her mind.

[48:06] But then to like add a third thing where it's like, let's zoom into her eye and she screams at someone whose face we do not see.

[48:14] That's the part that adds just a little extra cherry of like, wait, why did you do it that way?

[48:21] Like, how many times do you think they had to go back and punch this movie up?

[48:26] Because, like, it feels like the movie wanted to be.

[48:28] Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[48:31] I mean, it's hilarious how much extra work had to go in to make it hilarious.

[48:35] Yeah, Pat Moswalt was in a room somewhere, like, pitching ADR.

[48:38] Oh, yeah.

[48:39] Hey, I'm a ghost.

[48:41] Don't close that door.

[48:42] Oops.

[48:42] Like that kind of stuff.

[48:43] Yeah, oh, man, he'd be great at that.

[48:46] No, but I feel like there's definitely scenes where they were like,

[48:51] okay, go back, add a ghost to that mirror.

[48:54] Add a ghost to the – put a ghost behind her.

[48:57] That was the scariest stuff was only like the ghost in the mirror,

[49:01] the ghost behind her, the ghost in the wall.

[49:03] That was the only stuff that was scary.

[49:05] There's one part I liked a lot actually where there's that ghost hand

[49:08] that keeps crawling onto her shoulder.

[49:09] I mean it did look a little bit like Thing from The Addams Family,

[49:12] but it was – but I thought that was it.

[49:14] When you realize that that hand was not connected to anything, that was really creepy to me.

[49:18] But otherwise, yeah, it's mostly, what's that in that mirror?

[49:20] And there was one point at the end where it was like she got scared at something in a mirror, but I could not – I didn't see the ghost.

[49:26] So I thought it was the ladder that was scaring her, and then she looked again and the ladder wasn't there.

[49:30] And I was like, so is it a dead ladder that's haunting her?

[49:32] She realized that she walked under that ladder earlier, and all the bad luck was terrifying her.

[49:39] What do you guys think of the ghost effects?

[49:43] like the most ghostly part of the movie.

[49:46] Mostly ghostly, yeah.

[49:48] Was the scene where ghost Quint is strangling ghost Miss Jessel.

[49:55] And it was, I was not a huge fan of these ghost effects.

[50:00] They were like very, I don't know, like blurry.

[50:03] Yeah.

[50:04] And I don't know, yeah, just like I guess if I was in the room

[50:10] and that was happening, I would be pretty scared.

[50:12] You certainly would be.

[50:14] The Goosebumps.

[50:14] You certainly would be.

[50:15] The Goosebumps theory.

[50:18] I guess if I was in a room and a blurry guy was strangling a blurry woman, I'd be like a little weirded out.

[50:24] I'd be like, let me see it.

[50:26] Let me see it.

[50:27] It is like a Dave McKean cover for an issue of Sandman where it's like, okay, this is like a blurry picture of something.

[50:34] Okay.

[50:34] Yeah, especially at the end when Quint's ghost is kind of chasing after them.

[50:39] And it looked like they'd taken a picture of, like, Lemmy from Motorhead and just kind of smeared chicken grease on the lens and were just – that was chasing them around.

[50:48] It was – all I could make out was that it was a man with a mustache that was, you know, hard to see.

[50:52] i don't think i only thought the only thing that i thought was scary was when they would show miss

[50:59] jessel just like she would walk the kate would walk by and miss jessel would be like her drowned

[51:07] body would be looming or something like those those quick optic things were scary to me but

[51:14] but the yeah like seeing the assault and stuff was not particularly effective yeah

[51:21] And that's coming from somebody who wants to see ghosts

[51:24] I'm here, I'm your audience

[51:26] And again, show us again, Hallie

[51:29] How you'd react to that ghost

[51:30] Yeah

[51:31] She's chewing on the fingers again

[51:34] Okay

[51:35] Good stuff

[51:37] Okay, well, is this

[51:38] Let's do our final judgments

[51:40] Yeah, why not

[51:41] Oh, and it's Shocktober

[51:42] So I'm pulling them out of the closet

[51:44] The old Shocktober judgment category

[51:46] Is that, wait, let's hear a spooky closet sound

[51:49] As you pull them out of the closet

[51:50] yep so was this movie wait wait okay that was the closet opening okay is this movie totally

[51:59] scarifying was it totally snorifying or was it frighteningly funny oh and again these are

[52:09] terrible terrible categories that are confusing um i want to say like for a large part of this

[52:16] movie i was like this isn't so so bad honestly like i it it is definitely just kind of like

[52:24] pro forma ghost movie making uh but i like mackenzie davis a lot the the kid from um

[52:33] uh florida project whose name i forget brooklyn something uh brooklyn prince i think is her name

[52:39] very very good uh child actor i've liked finn wolfhard and things like i think that the movie

[52:46] looks pretty good even though there's the blurry ghost smeariness of it but i the it's just

[52:54] it really falls apart more and more as it goes along and uh yeah i i think it's like

[53:02] reaching for being a better horror movie and not just like forgettable schlock because why would

[53:10] you choose oh we're gonna adapt turn of the screw if you were just gonna you know cash in on making

[53:17] a horror movie but it doesn't make it there so i go i guess i'll go with snorifying yeah i think

[53:22] i'm gonna back you up on that one dan i think it was pretty snorifying it like it's stylish it it

[53:27] i i get the feeling like it was a a project that they're like hey we have the rights to this let's

[53:33] remake it it's a horror movie it's pretty easy and the uh the director tried to had a specific

[53:41] vision or the screenwriter had a specific vision and they i think they gave it their go but i don't

[53:47] i don't think it really worked out like it's it's stylish it i think they tried to go at least at

[53:53] one point we're trying to go for the the psychological like woman is losing her mind

[53:58] uh take on the story but it i think it ended up being kind of a mess i just want to say uh off of

[54:04] that uh i did do some background reading uh the reason this originally got put into you know

[54:10] development was steven spielberg wanted to do a new turn of the screw adaptation and i don't know

[54:16] whether he ended up being involved with the version that finally got made i but like it has

[54:22] a pedigree like there were like yeah they you know that's where it came from anyway elliot

[54:26] no i agree uh i agree with both you guys i think when as the first half of the movie i was like

[54:32] okay this is fine like this is a fine straightforward kind of but if if i had never seen a

[54:38] horror movie before if i was like a if it was a sleepover if i was a teenager to sleep over then

[54:42] i could be like oh this is fun but then it kind of it went off the rails and in terms of confusion

[54:47] and it just becomes very one-note.

[54:50] So yeah, I would have to call it snorifying,

[54:52] but it's fine sleepover fodder for 15-year-olds, 14-year-olds,

[54:58] I don't know, 7-year-olds?

[54:59] Probably not 7-year-olds, but something like that.

[55:02] Hallie, what do you think?

[55:03] Wow.

[55:04] I hated this movie way more than you guys did.

[55:07] Wow.

[55:08] This movie was offensive to me.

[55:10] I feel like the fact that it did look good

[55:13] and the fact that it had big people in it

[55:15] made it all the more offensive because it was like when you watch something that's really

[55:21] popular with a bunch of people and you're like i don't get it why does everybody else like this

[55:25] it's like this this you know the patina of should be good that completely obscures that like nobody

[55:32] put any thought or any effort into making this like like all of the flaws of it are are things

[55:38] that could have totally been avoided if if any effort were put in it i don't even understand

[55:43] you know it's like there's no plot it doesn't matter where you dip in or where you end the

[55:52] film or where you start the film because it's all just like this like shitty mood piece sort of that

[55:58] like the the chain of events has no coherence and like it it makes me mad that that whoever

[56:06] made it was like well we can get away with it as long as we like put some big stars in it and like

[56:11] the wardrobe is good and you know we have some cool music so i i was deeply offended it was more

[56:17] than horrifying wow and this is you know i think hallie represents more probably the

[56:24] general audience member out there who has not been numbed by by so many bad movies like the

[56:30] three of us have but at least like you know what it left me thinking because i also watched that

[56:36] awkward moment with you guys do you remember oh yeah you loved that movie you thought it was

[56:40] Because it made me think it was even better because I was like, there's a movie McKenzie Davis should be doing, which she was in.

[56:46] I was like, now that's quality because at least some stuff that we watched that's really bad.

[56:51] Even movies that I've said I didn't like on this are at least weird and bad.

[56:56] Like this isn't even weird.

[56:57] This is just stupid.

[56:59] Sorry.

[57:03] Oh, we almost broke a helmet.

[57:06] If ever the movie that I did,

[57:08] it's not the movie I expected you to get so mad at,

[57:10] but yeah.

[57:11] And it made me think of that movie,

[57:15] the,

[57:15] the Louise,

[57:16] uh,

[57:17] the,

[57:18] the,

[57:19] the Steve Mnuchin's wife movie that I watched last time was like way better

[57:25] than I gave it credit for.

[57:26] Okay.

[57:29] Add it to the box.

[57:30] Way better than I gave it credit for raves,

[57:33] Hallie Haglund.

[57:35] And then on that awkward moment, it says, Mackenzie Davis should be doing this.

[57:38] What?

[57:39] Upon seeing worse movies, I realized it wasn't so bad.

[57:46] Hey, excuse me, everybody.

[57:59] I just wanted to say a few words about the beautiful couple.

[58:04] I've known you two for a long time, and you get along like peanut butter and chocolate.

[58:12] Or, you know, like comedy and culture, like Maximum Fun Podcasts.

[58:18] Actually, they're having a block party from October 11th to October 22nd, and that's kind of like your party, right?

[58:27] You have a community of friends and family,

[58:29] and MaxFun has a community of shows and audiences that support them.

[58:34] You're having a new start with your life together,

[58:37] and MaxFun will be putting out new episodes

[58:41] that are especially welcoming to new audiences.

[58:43] So it's a great time to introduce your friends to your favorite show

[58:47] or jump into one you haven't tried before.

[58:49] Is he still talking about podcasts?

[58:50] And they're setting up a volunteer event where we can help out our local communities.

[58:54] Plus, Maximum Fun is going to have games, prizes, episode wrecks, so much other fun stuff.

[59:00] What's wrong with Kyle? Is he okay?

[59:02] Anyways, anyways, sorry for getting carried away there.

[59:07] If it's all right with everybody here, let's all raise our glasses for a toast.

[59:14] To the Max Fun Block Party, which you can learn more about at MaximumFun.org slash block party.

[59:22] And don't forget to join in on October 11th.

[59:25] Actually, that sounds pretty cool.

[59:27] Hey, The Flophouse is sponsored in part by Storyblocks.

[59:33] Storyblocks makes it possible for creators to keep up with the growing demands for modern video content

[59:40] so you can bring all your stories to life and stop sacrificing your vision due to time, budget, or resources.

[59:48] Storyblocks' unlimited all-access plan gives you unlimited downloads of the over 1 million-plus assets in their library.

[59:55] You can try out multiple options quickly and find the perfect fit so you can create more and spend less.

[1:00:01] Restock is their commitment to increase representation in stock media by hiring creators from marginalized communities to create content that is more reflective of the diverse world we live in.

[1:00:14] Stay on budget while telling the best version of your story with the most affordable subscription plans and tools on the market that scale to meet your needs.

[1:00:23] For the Super Mario Bros. show, which unfortunately is – by the time you listen to this, you will no longer be able to watch it.

[1:00:34] You snows and you lows, I'm sorry to say.

[1:00:38] But I did another intermission little video.

[1:00:43] I used all Storyblocks stock footage, confident and comfortable knowing that this is stock footage that I had access to, didn't have to pay extra for, could find whatever I wanted for whatever silly idea I had, and it was a great experience.

[1:01:01] So you, too, can explore their library and subscribe today at Storyblocks.com slash flop.

[1:01:08] That's Storyblocks.com slash flop.

[1:01:12] The Flophouse is also sponsored in part by Smalls.

[1:01:16] Give your feline friend protein-packed meals they'll crave with Smalls.

[1:01:23] Now, Smalls is fresh human-grade cat food delivered right to your door.

[1:01:28] All cats are carnivores.

[1:01:30] They need fresh protein-packed meals.

[1:01:33] Conventional cat food is made using low-quality, cheap meat byproducts,

[1:01:37] grains, and starches coated in artificial flavors.

[1:01:40] No thank you.

[1:01:41] with the help of cat nutritionists now i'm assuming that's humans uh who are trained in

[1:01:48] cat nutrition and not cats who are nutritionists but it's not clear let's not assume smalls

[1:01:54] develops complete and balanced recipes for all life stages give your cat what it needs

[1:02:00] their smalls recipes are gently cooked to lock in protein vitamins minerals and moisture better

[1:02:07] quality ingredients means a better healthier life for your cat since switching to smalls cats have

[1:02:12] experienced improved digestion and less smelly litter box right dan uh softer and shinier coats

[1:02:20] plus better breath uh yeah so just go over and take a short quiz on smalls.com slash flop to

[1:02:29] customize your sampler and then if you use the code flop you get a total of 30 off of your first

[1:02:35] order. That's right, that's

[1:02:37] smalls.com slash flop

[1:02:39] with code flop.

[1:02:41] And I also have a Jumbotron

[1:02:44] to read. That's right, Jumbotron.

[1:02:45] It's the biggest tron there is. Jumbo,

[1:02:47] jumbo, jumbo, jumbo, jumbo,

[1:02:50] jumbo. Oh, where'd Ellie go?

[1:02:51] Jumbo, jumbo, jumbo, jumbo.

[1:02:53] I was falling down a cliff, sorry.

[1:02:57] I was on a merry-go-round. I'm back around now, though.

[1:02:59] This is a message from

[1:03:01] Angela, and it says,

[1:03:03] to my husband, Genji, happy

[1:03:05] second wedding anniversary.

[1:03:06] Sad we can't be together

[1:03:08] on the actual day,

[1:03:09] but I'm pretty sure

[1:03:09] you'll save the Flophouse episodes

[1:03:11] for us to listen to together.

[1:03:12] Even though 75% of our marriage

[1:03:14] has been during a pandemic,

[1:03:15] it's been a beautiful journey.

[1:03:16] Here's to adventures

[1:03:18] with our newborn,

[1:03:18] Love, Angela.

[1:03:20] Aw.

[1:03:21] How sweet.

[1:03:23] That's adorable.

[1:03:23] That's really nice.

[1:03:25] Well, thank you

[1:03:26] for getting a Jumbotron.

[1:03:29] If you want to get up

[1:03:30] on the Jumbotron,

[1:03:31] you can go to

[1:03:32] maximumfun.org

[1:03:34] slash jumbotron

[1:03:36] and there are different rates

[1:03:37] whether you have a personal

[1:03:38] or a business message

[1:03:39] but that's how you do it

[1:03:41] and now we should just

[1:03:44] get back to the show

[1:03:45] unless you have Elliot

[1:03:46] it looks like you have

[1:03:46] something to plug

[1:03:47] I'd love to plug one thing

[1:03:49] long time listeners will know

[1:03:50] or just fans of me

[1:03:51] will know that I recently

[1:03:52] had a series from

[1:03:53] Aftershock Comics

[1:03:53] called Maniac of New York

[1:03:55] it's a horror slasher comic

[1:03:57] with a little bit of

[1:03:58] a satirical edge

[1:03:59] that's right

[1:04:00] it's a little bit of a

[1:04:02] Jason Takes Manhattan

[1:04:03] but better

[1:04:04] anyway uh the trade paperback collection of the first five issue series will be coming out mid

[1:04:09] october i think october 13th i'm not sure about that ask at your local comic book store and

[1:04:14] there's a second series coming out soon issue number one of volume two it's called maniac of

[1:04:18] new york the bronx is burning is now available for pre-order so go to your local comic book store

[1:04:22] and tell them i want maniac of new york the death train which is the trade paperback of the series

[1:04:28] that came out already and i want issue number one of maniac of new york the bronx is burning

[1:04:32] That's the way it's applied.

[1:04:33] And on the subject of comic books, right up now, depending on when you're listening to this, but at least for the time being, there is a Kickstarter going on for the Psycho Goreman comic book magazine, which I have contributed a short story to.

[1:04:52] Which character did I write about?

[1:04:53] Of course, the character I did the voice of, the iconic hero of the movie, Tube Man.

[1:04:59] So, yeah, if you want some space terror with a host of amazing creators and me, you can go check that out at Kickstarter.

[1:05:08] Just look up Psycho Goreman.

[1:05:11] I contributed to that Kickstarter because I wanted to see that story from Stu.

[1:05:15] Yay.

[1:05:15] Bring my dream to life.

[1:05:17] Let us move on to letters from listeners, listeners like you, the listener.

[1:05:29] circular like the oroboros on her neck um this is from eric last name withheld

[1:05:35] and eric writes just after i listened to your boss baby episode on which you asked

[1:05:41] uh what an orchestra contractor is i happen to read this piece and there's a link in polygon

[1:05:47] about the fellowship of the ring score to quote it orchestra contractor isabel griffiths was

[1:05:54] responsible for finding musicians for the unusual instruments composer howard shore hoped to use

[1:06:00] so they're basically casting directors for the musicians musicians recording the score

[1:06:05] so that mystery is solved but eric also has a question i would like to increase my awareness

[1:06:12] of world horror cinema are there any particular films or directors off the beaten path that you

[1:06:19] would recommend did the czech new wave ever venture into genre territory um uh i would like

[1:06:28] to one that came to my mind uh was uh is it pronounced vi i don't it's spelled vi uh do

[1:06:36] you know what i'm talking about v the uh viy the uh it's a russian horror movie aliens with mark

[1:06:44] singer no it's it's a russian horror movie it's from uh 67 um i think it was 1967 not 67 ad yeah

[1:06:54] i think it was the first making movies then they didn't even have a russia then it was the first

[1:06:58] horror movie to be made in russia it's uh sort of derived from russian folk tales and it it's a you

[1:07:06] know someone has to the rest is just life in russia a priest has to uh or movies you in america

[1:07:18] movies scare you in russia we scare movies there's there's a witch that has died and a priest has to

[1:07:26] uh watch over her three nights in a row uh in the tomb and uh things get uh nuttier and nuttier

[1:07:35] over those nights it's a very like for 1967 it has very impressive effects i think and it has

[1:07:42] sort of some of the same spirit that you see in something like evil dead 2 or hausu where it's

[1:07:47] just like let's throw a lot of stuff at the screen it takes a little more to warm up than those

[1:07:54] movies which are gonzo all the way through but it's a it's a very fun movie if you want to look

[1:08:00] for like a classic foreign horror movie and it is on tubi yeah what are you grinning about

[1:08:07] hallie you're laughing at me i'm just sitting conso in a horror movie that would be great

[1:08:14] i mean chickens at you yeah i mean do you think it's one of those movies it's him and camilla

[1:08:20] and they checked into like a haunted hotel oh i i mean i feel like there's i mean there's a lot

[1:08:27] of countries that have long horror traditions whether it's japan uh you know south korea has

[1:08:34] uh a long tradition of great uh like slashers and thrillers super violent stuff uh obviously

[1:08:42] there's a lot of italian filmmakers whether it's you know your uh your zombie movies or your giallos

[1:08:49] or whatever and then there's of course the the whole french wave of uh of like torture uh as

[1:08:56] like new extreme french horror yeah the extreme french horror stuff if you like the really gross

[1:09:01] stuff uh so yeah i mean i think there's a ton of great stuff out there uh and also i feel like i

[1:09:08] feel like shutter is a really good resource actually because they uh they have such a well

[1:09:13] curated collection of uh stuff from all over the place uh especially uh a lot of foreign language

[1:09:20] stuff that you might not normally see elliot do you have do you have any check new wave horror

[1:09:25] specifically addressing

[1:09:27] Check New Wave

[1:09:28] the two things

[1:09:29] I mean I don't know

[1:09:30] all the Check New Wave movies

[1:09:31] but the ones that

[1:09:31] most clearly to me

[1:09:33] are like horror movies

[1:09:34] is one is a movie

[1:09:35] I recommended on the podcast

[1:09:36] a while back

[1:09:36] called The Cremator

[1:09:37] which is not a

[1:09:39] supernatural horror movie

[1:09:40] but is a

[1:09:40] person being driven

[1:09:42] into murderous madness

[1:09:43] type of horror movie

[1:09:44] and there's this very

[1:09:45] ominous atmosphere to it

[1:09:47] and there's also

[1:09:48] Valerie and her

[1:09:49] Week of Wonders

[1:09:50] where it's sometimes

[1:09:51] called Valerie's

[1:09:52] or sometimes just

[1:09:53] Valerie and the

[1:09:54] And that is more of a dreamlike kind of horror-y movie where there's like a vampire rat man and this girl who is approaching like maturity and dealing with all sorts of dreamlike things.

[1:10:06] That's more of a – it's not one of my favorites, but it's a – that's more – it's a little – both more straightforward horror and also stranger.

[1:10:12] And there's also – if you just want short stuff, there's the animator Jan Spankmeyer who stuff is not specifically horror, but it is very scary.

[1:10:21] he uh came out of that that same world uh of czech filmmaking at the time and he was he's been

[1:10:27] working you know for decades and decades and decades and uh has a lot of scary shorts and

[1:10:33] features to his name so those are the ones from the czech new wave i'd recommend uh the cremator

[1:10:37] is the one of those that i like the most i think although i like uh spankmeyer's stuff a lot he has

[1:10:42] a lot of good stuff too uh do you have anything hallie if not we can no it was almost as wistful

[1:10:49] when you said you hadn't seen a ghost.

[1:10:50] Well, okay, there's one more letter

[1:10:53] from Gwen, last name withheld,

[1:10:55] who writes,

[1:10:56] I write to you today about how Elliot's Star Wars trivia

[1:11:00] saved me money.

[1:11:02] Yes, real money.

[1:11:03] My girlfriend and I stopped by...

[1:11:05] It sounds like something I'm supposed to invest in now.

[1:11:09] It saved me real money, and we'll tell you how.

[1:11:11] My girlfriend and I stopped by a merchant booth

[1:11:14] at a local convention,

[1:11:15] and the dealer had a game of geeky trivia set up

[1:11:18] with the prize for a correct answer being a 5% discount.

[1:11:22] Though not a Star Wars trivia expert myself,

[1:11:25] I picked that category specifically because the vendor warned me

[1:11:28] it was the hardest one they had.

[1:11:30] My question was,

[1:11:32] who was the male Aqualish thug that partnered with Dr. Evazan,

[1:11:38] became a successful smuggler,

[1:11:41] and bullied Luke Skywalker in a bar on Tatooine?

[1:11:45] You know it, Ponda Baba, baby.

[1:11:47] Yeah, out of the four possible answers, I chose Ponda Baba because it was the only one I could remember hearing Elliot talk about on the show.

[1:11:54] And because of that angelic voice singing with nasal sweetness in the back of my mind, I won.

[1:11:59] So don't give our favorite...

[1:12:01] Be careful with who you pick to be friends is the story of Ponda Baba.

[1:12:05] Don't give our favorite walking wiki article too much guff.

[1:12:10] His antics might someday save you some cash.

[1:12:13] Sincerely, Gwen, last name withheld.

[1:12:16] you know what elliot uh i don't know that elliot saved me cash but his antics certainly have uh

[1:12:24] helped make me money so uh yeah by getting you jobs yeah certainly yeah yeah so you see elliot

[1:12:31] you know i don't know rub his head for luck i don't know what i'm saying no my hair is already

[1:12:36] falling out don't do that uh but here's the thing about panda beba the guy is already dealing with

[1:12:42] the hard fact that his face

[1:12:44] looks like a butt and he can't speak

[1:12:45] basic English.

[1:12:46] He has to be interpreted through his friend, Dr.

[1:12:49] Evazan, who is not a reliable narrator.

[1:12:52] So he's just got to feel bad for the guy.

[1:12:54] Now he's got one less hand.

[1:12:55] Poor guy. Poor walrus face.

[1:12:57] Yeah.

[1:12:58] That's what I say, too. Cool. Poor walrus face?

[1:13:02] Yeah. That's my other catchphrase.

[1:13:04] Yeah, the song from

[1:13:06] Oklahoma, Poor Walrus Face, is dead.

[1:13:08] Just claiming catchphrases.

[1:13:11] Okay, well, let's cap this episode off

[1:13:15] with recommendations of movies that you could watch

[1:13:19] that are better than The Turning, let's say.

[1:13:21] Is that possible?

[1:13:23] Just last night, I watched the original The Fly from 1958

[1:13:29] starring Vincent Price and two more generic people

[1:13:35] in the actual leads of the movie.

[1:13:36] And, you know, it's a very silly movie in a lot of ways.

[1:13:41] Like, it seems like the first half an hour is just the scientist transporting various things from one side of the room to the other.

[1:13:49] You have to remember, Dan, back then, transportation technology was new.

[1:13:52] Now we have transporters, and it's like, whatever.

[1:13:55] You know, let's use them to assassinate Jesus or something.

[1:13:57] But back then, it was a totally new technology.

[1:13:59] Yeah.

[1:13:59] Well, there are a lot of filigrees in the story that aren't necessarily necessary.

[1:14:03] It all has, like, this, like, framing device of, like, why did this woman kill her husband?

[1:14:09] And it turns out, spoiler alert, it's because he's the fly, the titular fly.

[1:14:13] Is there a part where after getting mushed together with a fly, the dude gets a little bit sexier?

[1:14:20] I mean, it depends on what you like.

[1:14:23] Do you like a big, hairy sort of like claw hand and big fly eyes?

[1:14:28] Okay, well then, yes, he got sexier.

[1:14:30] Just like Jeff Goldblum.

[1:14:33] yeah but even with the silliness of it it is it's a very like i found it also very sad like it's an

[1:14:41] inherently sad story of like this person who's like you know like trying just to you know come

[1:14:47] up with a new invention makes one mistake like sees how he's you know devolving sees how like

[1:14:54] you know he can no longer be the husband he wants to be like hope draining away it's as goofy as it

[1:15:01] is it also is strangely effective as a horror movie and i had always remembered i saw it once

[1:15:07] before i always remembered it as being a black and white movie but i was wrong it is in glorious

[1:15:13] technicolor it's actually very pretty uh that way um so uh if you've never seen it if you or if

[1:15:20] you've only seen the remake check out the original the play it's it's it's fun anyone else uh yeah

[1:15:25] and this isn't a horror movie uh uh i and next week i am going to visit uh my friend elliot in

[1:15:34] los angeles and so to prepare for that i watched uh i watched a movie from 1985 directed by william

[1:15:41] friedkin called to live and die in la that's exactly what my life is like out here stew so

[1:15:45] i'm glad you watched that you know you'll be ready for it uh it's yeah it's great um it you know it

[1:15:52] like it's all the things that people say about it are true the soundtrack by wang chung totally rips

[1:15:57] the car chase is incredible like i remember like uh i you know i was watching this movie this

[1:16:05] morning while very hungover and it got to the car chase scene at first i'm like oh yeah okay yeah

[1:16:11] this this is pretty good i guess and then you know a couple minutes in i'm like i audibly said

[1:16:16] i love movies yeah it's just fucking great man and like you get to see willem dafoe hanging out

[1:16:24] in a gym working out it's awesome watch that shit that's that movie i recently re-watched it and

[1:16:30] it's like the movie is so to watch a movie set in a world with almost no morality it feels like

[1:16:35] or like where the characters are so morally compromised the entire way through like it's

[1:16:40] such it's a bracing movie that way yeah yeah you don't know who to root for and they're all

[1:16:45] constantly fucking up it's great yeah and and it's and it's a world where the the villain is

[1:16:51] constantly going to uh an art dance uh show that his girlfriend's performing in

[1:16:56] that's great he's he's super supportive he's a great supportive boyfriend the bad guy character

[1:17:02] that is it is a very is a fascinating character yeah uh the guy in there a lot of turtlenecks

[1:17:08] mock turtlenecks or a lot of turtlenecks i said a lot of turtlenecks i also uh i also there's a

[1:17:15] sequence where early on where willem dafoe is counterfeiting money and it's very like technical

[1:17:20] about the process and i just love that kind of shit man like having recently watched thief there's

[1:17:26] a lot of technical shit in that and it's like i don't know like i love the like the the physicality

[1:17:32] of watching the process i don't know i thought it was awesome well it reminds me of what a friend

[1:17:37] of mine once said about when he finally saw the original dawn of the dead and he was like here's

[1:17:40] what i like about that movie they mess up all these zombies and they go we got to clean this

[1:17:44] up and then you watch them get the janitor's supplies and clean it up and then put the

[1:17:48] janitor's supplies away like like the things that show you the like the physical actions you have to

[1:17:53] go through to complete a task like you know what did you guys did you guys watch that show the fall

[1:17:57] with jillian anderson and uh i watched the first jamie dornan is in it yeah yeah yeah i watched the

[1:18:05] first season that was that was so good about it they did all that they had all these scenes where

[1:18:11] it was like you know you'd have someone rushed into a hospital room and they were doing triage

[1:18:16] on them and then they'd show like the attendant cleaning up the room afterwards it's just like

[1:18:21] covered in blood yeah all the all the sort of technical stuff that they never show you

[1:18:25] that's cool show me the stuff yeah show me the stuff that's stewart's catchphrase

[1:18:32] You've got all of our catchphrases now.

[1:18:34] Yeah, from Georgie McGuire, the Asylum Pictures ripoff of Jerry McGuire.

[1:18:40] Show me the stuff.

[1:18:42] Elliot, why don't you recommend a movie?

[1:18:44] It goes, and then at the end, she says, you had me at high there.

[1:18:48] That's how it ends at the end.

[1:18:50] So I'll recommend a movie now.

[1:18:52] So this is, it's not, I guess, a horror movie, but it is a frightening situation to be in,

[1:18:57] and it also involves car chasing, so it fits between both.

[1:19:00] And I recently took a revisit to the movie Breakdown from 1997

[1:19:05] starring Kurt Russell and J.T. Walsh.

[1:19:07] That's a fun one, yeah.

[1:19:07] Kathleen Quinlan.

[1:19:09] And it was one of these movies I remembered seeing as a teenager

[1:19:12] and being like, that was fun.

[1:19:14] And I wanted to go back and see if it was as good as I remembered it.

[1:19:16] And it was.

[1:19:17] Kurt Russell and Kathleen Quinlan are a married couple.

[1:19:20] They are driving to their new home in San Diego, I think.

[1:19:24] And along the way they run afoul of a trucker played by J.T. Walsh

[1:19:27] who it turns out is a super bad guy criminal who kidnaps people.

[1:19:30] And Kurt Russell has to find the inner savage in himself to fight back and turn the tables and save his wife.

[1:19:39] And it's just like a super-taught, small-scale thriller.

[1:19:43] It's really good, directed by Jonathan Mostow, who also made a Flophouse movie, Surrogates.

[1:19:48] So don't go see Surrogates.

[1:19:49] Go see Breakdown.

[1:19:50] Yeah.

[1:19:52] I just remember it having just like one of those classic thriller premises, you know?

[1:19:57] Yeah.

[1:19:58] It's just like let's make it as simple as possible for the audience to –

[1:20:01] Give this hero glasses to start with so he can be civilized and you know those shits are going when he goes all crazy.

[1:20:09] He's going to lose those glasses.

[1:20:11] It will not affect his vision at all.

[1:20:12] So I don't know why he was wearing them.

[1:20:14] But yeah, their car breaks down.

[1:20:19] This trucker offers to take his wife to go use a pay phone and then she disappears and everyone pretends they never heard of her.

[1:20:25] And that's it.

[1:20:25] and then they've got to do great and it's like uh and it's one of those movies where like uh they

[1:20:30] do a really good job where each time you think that they're like okay they got it they don't

[1:20:35] got it something terrible happens again they got another obstacle to get over uh and it's only 93

[1:20:39] minutes long it's great anyway let's break down uh hallie what have you got uh okay my recommendation

[1:20:45] um is okay i had never actually seen this movie i had only used it as an ots pun when we were at

[1:20:54] the daily show but i explain what an ots is that's that's a nice inside look behind the curtain it's

[1:20:59] an it's an over the shoulders it's the way we title the we would title the pieces and they were

[1:21:04] uh you know clever little takes on movies you recognized um the men who stare at votes for

[1:21:12] instance when there was the the al gore uh george w bush hanging beds thing that was a one of the

[1:21:20] classics during the long process uh when the obamacare health bill was being debated we went

[1:21:25] through all of the hell all the hell titles so we did drag me to health and health razor and health

[1:21:31] razor 2 and we ran out and it was so hard to do more of them because it went on for months but

[1:21:35] yeah that's what we call those otss right so i finally actually saw the movie we need to talk

[1:21:42] about kevin have you guys ever seen that yeah it's so good it's a very good movie yeah my husband

[1:21:50] suggested and i was like nobody actually watches that movie right just use it for puns the title

[1:21:56] exactly but um you know if you yeah it's it's while not uh under the whore well you won't find

[1:22:05] it in the whore section at blockbuster boy if you have a kid pretty harrowing to imagine uh yeah i

[1:22:13] also think that now uh out of the four of us only elliot has not recommended it's great to talk

[1:22:19] about kevin i also maybe i'll do it next time i also love a world where tilda swinton and john

[1:22:24] c reilly are married okay that was the only thing that i was like i love him as the weird uh goofy

[1:22:30] clueless husband casting like i thought it totally worked in the hours but in this one i was like no

[1:22:37] this isn't it till this one is too sophisticated for this guy but he's got that like that like

[1:22:43] cool bde you know and you know where you can find we need to talk about kevin

[1:22:47] where it's on tubi that's right every movie's on tubi it turns out

[1:22:52] yeah well this is where we reveal the the entire run of the flop house it's been a stealth

[1:22:59] advertisement for Tubi.

[1:23:00] Man, Tubi, you can get in on this.

[1:23:01] That's where they spent all of their money.

[1:23:03] I mean, they should.

[1:23:06] That'd be fine.

[1:23:06] Somebody was like, hey, you guys maybe should

[1:23:10] advertise on the Flophouse.

[1:23:11] And they're like, why? They're already talking about us all the time.

[1:23:14] Yeah, we're giving away for free.

[1:23:15] We call that the Popeye's conundrum.

[1:23:17] They're getting the milk for free.

[1:23:20] And as Hallie knows,

[1:23:22] we need more milk.

[1:23:27] So, Hallie, what movie that you've talked about for years but you've never actually seen and you're going to go after next?

[1:23:32] I don't know.

[1:23:34] Do you guys hear my baby screaming?

[1:23:36] That's what I'm distracted by.

[1:23:39] Sorry.

[1:23:40] Well, then let's let you go.

[1:23:41] Is it a real baby or is it a ghost?

[1:23:45] It's to get me out of this question.

[1:23:48] Okay.

[1:23:51] Yeah, let's let Hallie go.

[1:23:53] What do we do at the end of the show?

[1:23:56] We let Hallie plug anything she wants to plug.

[1:23:58] Dan, are you one of the new listeners who's joining us at the block party?

[1:24:02] I heard an ad for this on Alonzo's show, and I was like, this is for me.

[1:24:10] Now, Hallie, do you have anything to plug?

[1:24:12] I mean, this is the only thing I'm doing this episode.

[1:24:16] So I plug, you know, rewind, listen to it again.

[1:24:23] And you're going to have those T-shirts with your catchphrase coming out soon.

[1:24:26] Yeah, exactly.

[1:24:27] On my Etsy store.

[1:24:29] Oh, nice.

[1:24:31] Handmade.

[1:24:31] Well, thank you to Alex Smith for being our producer, making this sound as good as we do.

[1:24:40] And thank you to Maximum Fun.

[1:24:44] Go to MaximumFun.org to look at other podcasts on the network or listen to them.

[1:24:49] If you look at them, they won't do much.

[1:24:51] But if you, you know, hit play and listen to them, you'll be edified and you'll enjoy yourself.

[1:24:58] Yeah.

[1:24:58] And if you're a new listener who is just tuning in from the block party, we have a whole bunch of episodes, years and years of them.

[1:25:04] Don't go too far back.

[1:25:06] But, you know, whatever.

[1:25:07] Check it out.

[1:25:08] Some are worse.

[1:25:09] Some are better.

[1:25:09] Who knows?

[1:25:10] Just take a chance.

[1:25:11] Some need more milk.

[1:25:12] Sorry.

[1:25:13] But for the Flophouse, I've been Dan McCoy.

[1:25:19] I'm Stuart Wellington.

[1:25:21] I'm Hallie Haglund.

[1:25:23] I'm Elliot Galen.

[1:25:24] Bye.

[1:25:26] Boing.

[1:25:27] Bye.

[1:25:28] Boing.

[1:25:29] From the twisted mind of Henry James,

[1:25:34] the horror master who brought you The Golden Bowl.

[1:25:37] Hail, you sick fucks.

[1:25:51] MaximumFun.org

[1:25:57] Comedy and culture

[1:25:59] Artist owned

[1:26:00] Audience supported

Ep. #353 - The Turning, with Hallie Haglund

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