Re-Animator (1985)

Hey, it's your old pal Slim and this is 70mm, a podcast for movie lovers just like you. Disclaimer at the top of the show, we are not experts, but we do love watching movies. With me each and every episode is my close friend and artist, Danny Haas. Hello. And our close friend and movie insider, Protolexis. More like reconsider watching this movie. Every movie that we cover is connected to a theme for that month. And this time it's Haugust. Movies that feature the nude male anatomy.

You can use the chapters in your podcast app to skip to our main discussion from 1985. And the master of horror himself, Stuart Gordon, reanimator. As of recording and as of release, the meetup is weeks away. August 30th, Philadelphia, Film Society East. We are screening a very special presentation of The Thing, John Carpenter.

another master of horror himself and we'll be hanging out afterwards at Glory Bar but there's going to be limited edition Danny Haas prints never to be made for sale no at that screening Danny I will have officially released the poster to the public by now great work as usual thank you yeah I wanted to match our psycho poster from last year so same vibes the thing

Psycho. Horror. We've got to keep doing horror movies, I guess, for these meetups. Maybe that's the key. I'm not going to complain about it. I mean, we'll get into Psycho. in our main discussion later for Reanimator, won't we? Yes, we will. We'll get into it. We will. We will get into it. Never for sale. So you can get tickets now at 70mmpod.com or go to Film Society's website.

Support local. Become a member. And we will see you Saturday night, 7 p.m. And then let's hang out afterwards. Right, Fredo? A little hangout? Yeah. It's going to be a lovely time. It was wonderful. Last year, memories were made. New friendships that will last forever. So that'll happen again. Enemies made. True.

Let's see. I didn't have a jokey topic to start off the show, but have either of you started watching Alien Earth yet? You know, I fired it up while working, and I realized... in the first like five six minutes i can't work to it i'm like getting sucked in i'm like it's going to derail my day completely if i try to put this on right now so i'm going to watch it i don't know maybe i have to record

I'm dying to watch it because the vibes right away. I'm like, okay, I'm listening. So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, I watched the first episode. I'm digging the vibes hard. Loving these vibes. I guess, you know, initially when I heard Alien Earth, I was like, ah, going to Earth, this seemed kind of like the thing that they would never do in Alien.

You know, because isn't this like the finale almost? It feels like the finale of Alien. But then, I mean, hey, if you can write the finale for Alien, go for it. But with the show starting, I wasn't... prepared, I guess, for what we might get in terms of backstory and like world building. And that's something in the alien movies that's always been very limited. You know, it's like you get a.

like a teaspoon of new world with each movie. This is like, the first episode felt like I was chugging 16 ounces of a story. which I loved. I thought it was great. I think there's some crazy swings already setting up this story. And yeah, I loved it so far. Who's the composer for this? Do we know? Bernard Herman. Oh, reanimated. Back again. Another homage to Bernard Herman. No, I'm not sure, but yeah, I love the first two episodes. Very exciting.

Very exciting stuff. Is it being released single weekly now? Yeah. After the first two have dropped? I thought it was going to be like all at once, but I don't know who told me that. They were a dirty liar. Yeah. Someone in our Discord probably. Dirty frigging. falsehood. Yeah. But very good. Yeah, I'm excited to hear what you think, Danny. I mean, I'm sure I'm going to love it. I'm not worried about it. If I had to stop it because of work, I know it's going to be good.

We say hello to some new patrons who joined this week. Jonathan, Albert, Hansel, and another Jonathan joined and became patrons, got access to uncut episodes longer. And it also, we have like almost 80 episodes in the vault only available to patrons. We're going to be recording total recall officially next week. It's only going to patrons. That's crazy. They will be getting the best.

Arnold has to offer next week. Do you remember the last time you watched Total Recall? I think it was last year, actually. After a long hiatus of not seeing it for a long time. So it's pretty fresh for me. I'm looking forward to talking to you guys about it. It should be. It's a nice 4K out there of that movie. Really? Mm-hmm. Okay. Oh, yeah. This will be a first watch for me, so I'm really excited. Oh.

Did you see that Ninja Turtles trilogy was released on 4K? God, Arrow. Yeah. Who knew there were sequels? I know. The third one is a disc that I will never touch. Like, there's no reason to watch. No. Unless there's like a booklet underneath it that I need to take the disc out to get to. But there's just no way. Absolutely not. let's see you rewatched you watched a few things but you did rewatch let's continue this Avatar journey yeah we're getting close Avatar

The Way of Water rewatch. I mean, you've rewatched this quite a few times by this point. This is my fourth viewing. I've watched it every year. I've realized. I look back. Yeah, it's like every summer. I guess I've managed to watch it. And, you know, earlier this year, knowing Fire and Ash was coming out, I wasn't planning on re-watching until closer. But, you know, I put Avatar on the other day, you know, impulsively. I wasn't, you know, just...

My hands guiding me. And I put it on and I was like, gosh, I got to keep going. And I guess the last time I watched it, my son Theo, he saw parts of it. And then he was watching with me again, and the parts that he didn't see were blowing his mind. He was like, this is so epic. And I was like, yes, son, yes. He's so privileged to get it this early in life.

So I'm stoked. And then right after, I was like, you know, there's a trailer for the third one. So we watched that. And that was my first time seeing the trailer. Oh. So I'm riding that Avatar high. Yeah. Right into December. Gosh. It's going to be great. Wow. So that comes out when we're not recording. Crazy. We'll be taking the month off. Crazy to think about. I mean, we might have to talk about this. We'll check with legal.

So we'll have Avatar 3 and then Stranger Things final season. Dang. In that month. Starting at least in that month. God. We're going to be eating in December. So close to eat. What about Brain Damage? You watched a movie that I was not expecting you to watch. You watched this Frank Henenlotter sci-fi horror. Yeah, well, our sister podcast, Bat and Spider, is doing their own hog-related month. They're doing hog tape summer. They always do something fun in the summer.

So they're doing, and this week I think they did Brain Damage. So they covered this movie. And I had never seen, this is my first Frank Henenlotter movie. So I haven't seen Basket Case or... What's the... Frankenhooker. His two other bigs. Other than brain damage. But I have plans to watch it now because Brain Damage is a ton of fun. There is this insane puppet in this movie. Unbelievable. It's about this guy who he starts having this relationship with this giant parasite that lives.

on his back and uh feeds him a drug that is like the best high a human can have but it also the parasite is requires uh to be fed on human brains so it's a difficult relationship

But they make it work for a while. Just a crazy, wild movie. And actually, it feels right in the same wheelhouse as Reanimator, actually. Like, they're... like watching reanimator you you sidestep and you're in you're in brain damage pretty much so it was actually i feel like it was like the perfect time to watch this watching these kind of back to back

So I gave it three stars. It's a ton of fun. You know, it's like a B-horror movie. That's, I guess, what it's considered. But I don't know. It's pretty funny, too. So it kept me engaged all the time. Love to be engaged. Yeah, Chuck and Dale. over at Bat and Spider doing Hog Tape Summer, but then they're, I mean, maybe people were upset about, maybe they were expecting more Hog in Reanimator. Bat and Spider is doing a movie just for their supporters.

The name of this movie, 1991's Edward Penish Hands. Okay. Look at the poster. I'm going to drop the poster in chat. If you thought Re-Animator was a bust, well... You have some options with Bat and Spider. An amazing. Kirby in chat, that's porn. Yes, it is, Kirby. Yes, it is. So there you have it. Let's see. Danny, what about you? You were watching some famous sci-fi movies. Yeah, Primer. Primer, I watched...

I was just getting antsy to watch. Getting into the fall, I wanted to watch some horror. And I actually thought Primer was a horror movie. based on the poster. Time travel is horrific. Well, I didn't know it was time travel. I actually knew nothing about the film. The poster gave me like Slither vibes. I don't know. So I just assumed it was probably like a horror movie, but... Definitely lo-fi sci-fi. Definitely big brain time travel conversations. But even though I was 100% lost.

Somehow I was still kind of super engaged with what was happening. Maybe it was the direction the cinematography was really rad. I mean, it felt like they were filming on film. Like the grain in this, like it was a gorgeous looking film. And I think maybe not understanding it, but then trying to figure it out, I would just kept me even more engaged with it.

I think that kind of like, I didn't check out even though I wasn't understanding it completely. Um, the time travel aspect, but I just really, I had a great time watching that film. It was a lot of fun. Primer was like clerks for nerds. Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine being a part of that right when it hits the vibe of that conversation. Everyone throwing primer VHS tapes at you to watch.

Is she on VHS? I would love to watch that on VHS. That'd be sick. It's just a guess. All right. That was a good guess. Yeah. I love the scene in that. Whenever I think about that movie, I think of the scene where they're in the car and then he sees his boss.

And you don't really see his boss, but he runs by them. Yeah. And they're like, wait, that's your boss. And then the whole movie unravels at that point. I remember there was something about that scene that has always stayed with me. There was something really scary about it.

But yeah, the way that movie, you're going to have no idea what's going on, but the plot points are so big that you can follow what's happening without understanding it. Yeah. It's really great. The moment for me was when the first time...

I can't remember their names. Not the main actor, director. Edward Penishands. When he pulls out the binoculars and he shows him... himself walking into the I was like oh shit here we go like I was really hype after that I really loved Primer I thought it was great but I also watched Jurassic Park Rebirth get into it Which, honestly, I was shocked at the low scores, which is what kept me from seeing this in the movie theater. Cut it. So when I watched this...

I also watched this while I was working and I literally got nothing done because I was glued to this movie. And then I was just getting pissed off. Like, we get 10 years of this Chris Pratt slop. And then Gareth Edwards serves us up on a silver platter for us and we're slapping it out of his hands. Yeah. Because why? Yeah. It's a gorgeous film. Preach.

It's got a great score that intertwines John Williams' beautiful score from the original film. It's like, what do you want? If you're tired of the franchise, stop going. Get them. Leave this for us, the real fans of Jurassic Park. Leave it for the real ones. Because it's nonstop from beginning to end. The only reason it's not five stars is because I don't like the bad guy trope.

You clock the bad guy five minutes into the film. Oh, yeah. I don't like that. But I had an absolute blast. I thought it was pretty scary. Yeah, it's a great moment. Like the water scenes with the T-Rex, like pretty frightening. Right? Now I'm like, what do people expect? This felt like the most Jurassic Park film that we've gotten since one and two.

Yeah, you could easily say that this was like a sequel to the first one or Lost World. You throw up OG Lost World and this one as like a little trilogy set. Oh. I had a great time. That's the thing. I had a great time watching it. I was just mad I didn't see it in the theaters. Yeah, I thought it was gorgeous. It really was gorgeous. When they announced it, we were excited that Gareth was going to direct it and not write it.

So we didn't have to worry about creator stuff, which I thought, well, at least in my opinion, was a little bit weak. But I think Proto felt the same way. But man, like the outdoor stuff in Rebirth. Have mercy. I think the whole thing was shot on film, I thought. And then they added in minimal backgrounds or whatever, or the dinosaurs. But the stuff in the fields is just gorgeous.

I'm just baffled by the hate that this got, honestly. People need to be shock jocks out there. They need to be shock jocks. Right. You know, say something scandalous. Rage bait. Rage bait. It's very in right now in 2025. And I don't like it. Well, I guess I have to see this now. I would love to see what you think. The creator was gorgeous, right? Oh my God.

One of the best looking movies of the year. We all said it. We all said it. I like on Danny's review, someone said, thank you, Danny. And then Danny replied, it's sick what's happening on the site. And it's only the people I follow is really what I'm talking about. My own people I follow. Let's save the stuff I watch maybe for the uncut.

I'm just looking at the clock right now. We can get into weapons. We can get into my Hulk Hogan journey. I have a major update. We will get into it. But we need to talk about Reanimator from 1985. Episode 277.

For August, we're almost done. Next week is the last one. And then we're putting the hogs away. Yeah. Maybe until next year. Zipping them up. Portal, what's this movie all about? Dr. Hans Gruber has done it, reanimated dead tissue. Unfortunately, he died before he could publish his findings. The good news, he wrote them down. The bad news, his assistant... is Herbert West, a real dum-dum. Herbert transfers to Miskatonic University, but his real plans are to continue Gruber's work at all costs.

First a cat, then a body in the morgue, then his roommate's girlfriend's father, and finally his professor and resident creep, Dr. Carl Hill. But when... undead beheaded Dr. Hill learns of his power over the minds of the reanimated corpses, can West stop him from humping his co-worker's daughter? Reanimator. Face humping. Really? My God. We'll get into it. Danny, what's your history with Re-Animator? Is there any? No, no history except I've always loved the poster for it. Yeah.

and um yeah absolutely goaded poster so I've been interested in it and then I just never really got around to it I knew it existed um But to that extent, I didn't know much about it. And I'm not a big HP Lovecraft person either. Oh. So to know that it's a Lovecraft story that isn't really in my realm. But yeah. hp lovecraft i actually i don't even know like uh yeah i think he's like a nazi oh

Oh, HP Lovecraft. Let's just say it out the open. I don't know anything about it. White supremacy. Look it up, folks. However, I can't like off the top of my head name an HP Lovecraft property. Like I just. I've probably seen a ton, but I just don't know. Like, wasn't there an HBO show that was like Lovecraftian? Yeah, it's called Lovecraft. Yeah. It's called Lovecraft. Oh. So in its own way, yes, it was Lovecraftian.

But we'll Google this as we have a discussion. Didn't he name his pet something super racist? Lovecraft Country, Mike Scott says. Oh, there you go. I think he named the cat something racist. Maybe that's why they killed the cat in this film. Is that a Lovecraftian trope? He always kills the cat? I've read some Lovecraft. I think I read The Mountains of Madness.

Okay. That was a good story. I think there's that John Carpenter movie that's based on that. Do I have that right? I think Into the Mouth of Madness. Yes. Maybe. I don't know. The Color Out of Space. Isn't that a lo-fi sci-fi? That's a Nick Cage movie. Maybe I'm thinking of something else. Let's see. Lovecraft Inspired.

I guess Stuart Gordon did a Lovecraft trilogy. From Beyond is, I think, based on a story, and so is Dagon. Dagon? Dagon. So there you have it. But, Pardo, what about your history? Is there any? My history is that I looked at the cover of Re-Animator every single time I went to Blockbuster. Oh. That's basically, this was, you had to go look at the Re-Animator cover.

Yeah, there's something about it that, yeah, I had to see. It's an all-timer. It really is. I always wanted to see this. Yeah, the poster is, yeah, this default poster is just, like, insane. Like, this would be a banger up on the wall. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, Danny's version is also a barrel of green. It's not okay. It's good. It's fine. But thank you. I think I've watched it for the first time.

maybe a couple of years ago. I thought I logged it. Let me see if I had logged it. I guess I just marked it as washed. So maybe I, maybe I snoozed at some point or was working when I had it on the background. And that was all that was all I did. But I just remember Jeffrey Combs, you know, kind of being a cult actor, very famous in the B horror movie circles. And I have seen From Beyond.

The other Stuart Gordon follow-up. I've seen a few of his movies. I have seen Fortress with Christopher Lambert. Junk, in my opinion. But I am fascinated to see some of his other work. I want to rewatch From Beyond. It's very horny. So what he does in this movie, it gets taken up a notch. Jeffrey Combs is in it and also Barbara Crampton.

some BDSM stuff if folks are into that. Good lord. So be sure to check that out. So I was excited to rewatch. I remember this being, you know, sort of like a fun horror movie. So very weapons coded. He has a... a movie with William H. Macy in it. So I'm assuming he gets cucked in it. Oh my God. That's his bit. He just gets cucked in all his movies. That's William H. Macy's bit. William H. Macy cuck month.

cover those movies that happens in. So, Pardo, why don't you lead off our discussion for Reanimator? What's the top of your list? Top of my list. You know, I knew this movie as like a cult movie. I feel like this is a movie people go to like midnight showings for, right? Oh, yeah. You're filling up a theater. People are throwing popcorn and hollering. Yeah.

People are humping in the seats. You know, it just gets wild. People are just living, watching Reanimator. Like Rocky Horror. It's so funny. Yeah. Oh, the gore, the guts. This genre of movie is just like so funny to me. Like, what makes a movie a cult like this? Cultish. Where they love it. They get up in the middle of the night to go see it together. And I guess it's just riding on the effects, baby.

The effects. Yeah. Because everything else is kind of boring. I found a lot of this movie boring. I have to be honest. It's not even that long. It's like less than 90 minutes, I feel like. I know. You want to know the first time I checked the time? How long into the movie? 18 minutes. That's a quarter of the way through. Mike, what is even happening 18 minutes into the movie? That's what I'm asking. What is happening? We're 18 minutes in and nothing has happened yet.

I'm like, I got a week off. This is an 86-minute movie here. And I'm drowning 18 minutes in. I mean, he's got to be, the cat has got to be reanimated by that point. 18 minutes in and you're checking the clock. No, I don't think, I don't think Herbie's even in the apartment yet. 18 minutes in. No, he's got to be in the apartment.

I'm telling you this movie is a slow start. I'm going to pull it off as we talk to see what exactly is 18 minutes into this movie. We're still introducing characters. That's a falsehood. We had to go to dinner. That has to be a falsehood. I've been through two lectures in this hospital before I've seen a reanimated corpse. Danny, your thoughts on the statement? Prado just gave us. Do you agree? I do agree to a point. I think the story is real thin.

And I 100% agree that the effects carry this film. The body horror in it is phenomenal. When he reanimates that beast of a man. And instead of like taking, when he holds up the saw, like he's presenting a newborn baby and chooses to not sever the spinal cord, but to go through his heart. right through his chest cavity, which I don't even know how that blade cuts that way. No. Just brilliant. It doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make sense. I pulled up.

reanimator on fandango at fandango.com at home whatever the hell the branding disaster is and it was literally the scene where the head is between her legs on the surgical That was the stop mark. But the 18-minute mark is them at, I guess, a dinner party. There it is. They go to the dean's house and the creepo is there. Ugh.

But he has moved in by that point, to be clear. He has moved in. I don't necessarily agree with the boredom stuff for the majority of the movie. I will say that the end... is long like the last you know like 20 minutes or so in the morgue where just like there's the final battle chaos the battle of the five armies

in that morgue and they're fighting like you know the super strong dead nude zombies and then like she gets stuck in the elevator and then like even that is long So, yeah, I agree that this movie is like stretched and I listened to the commentary and they.

he talked about how like he originally wrote it as like a 30 minute like pilot or like TV episode or whatever. And then it like, he eventually got approval for an hour and the guy's like, just turn into a movie. So like, okay, yeah, they're probably filling their padding time a little bit. So I'm not completely against the fact that this is stretched for time reanimator. But there isn't a whole lot that really happens. Yeah. Also, they don't explain a lot.

They don't explain how he made this serum besides working with the other guy that crushed his head in the beginning. That was awesome. Which was awesome. And also like... I liked how the serum just slowly did other things that he eventually found out about. The whole, like, controlling your body with your severed head off the body.

It's brilliant. That was like insane. But then to also be able to control all the other bodies that had the serum as well. It's insane. Well, in the commentary, he said. they cut out scenes that revealed that the evil, is it Dr. Hill? Yeah. Tall, like, creepo. There was, like, a whole hypnotism subplot. What? Like, he was also dabbling in hypnotizing.

people so that like explained how he got control of the head and the body but then also the other nude zombies which i think is kind of cool because or even just like show a hypnotism book on his desk and he's just like patient throw it like that would have been pretty cool Um, I thought, cause it also just like adds to this creepo mystique. Cause I actually, I looked at the dinner scene where the proto looked at the clock at 18 minutes and the daughter comes to the dinner.

table that he's at. And he's just like staring at her during the whole scene. Fucking creep. And, you know, if you think about like the hypnotism stuff, like, okay, yeah, this guy is going to do something evil. That could have been good. I mean, the security guard had more backstory than Dr. Hill. Learn more about him. Boudoir magazine. Boudoir. I mean, one of my first notes was, let's see.

Imagine being a morgue cop, reading the paper and doing jack shit all night. What a gig. What's that guy pulling down a week? He's doing nothing. He's reading the paper for eight hours. He's making more than I make a week.

Like, what is going to, like, obviously something happened in this movie, but like, what's happening in a morgue? You know, this guy's maybe for 30 years never doing anything. I mean, what's happening in a morgue that needs security? That's a great question. The morgue robbers, right?

Watch out for them. Things people want to do with dead bodies. I like how he's like, oh, I'm going on break or something. Yeah. Break from what? Looking at porn at your desk? I have to go take a break. You got to take a break at some point. I'm going to take a dump for 30 minutes. That guy was going to go blow up that bathroom. He needed like a 12-inch TV.

on his desk. Oh my God. Can you imagine? That's true. Like a work approved black and white TV on his desk. Yeah. What a gig. It's true. What a frigging gig. Danny, top of your list. I think I probably could have turned it off before Proto after hearing this rip-off Bernard Herrmann psycho music. The instant those credits hit, I'm like, what? I actually looked to see if...

Bernard did the music for this. Because I'm like, maybe he just recut up something and just like, here, have this. But no, it's just like a, it's a complete ripoff of the Psycho music. Like, almost in entirety. It's insane to me. It is wild how close it is. He does other things. He adds other instruments in, I guess, to make it his own. So I did Google. I was like, why does this sound like the Psycho theme?

And there was like an interview he did where he wanted to homage Herman and, but they forgot to include that like thing in the credits. So there's nothing in the credits at all. And it would have cost him 10 grand to fix the final credits for the movie to insert like, you know, homage or like with love to Bernard Herman or something like that. And like, so there's just nothing there.

which is like it's on the cutting room floor with the hypnotist story yes but yeah it is like I don't know I guess people feel very forgiving of the music overall I feel like I don't know how it's possible Maybe it's just my love for Hitchcock and Bernard. And I guess maybe like it was a low budget horror movie back then. So like.

No one knew for a long time. It's not like people are going to be talking about this movie 40 years from now. No one's going to be rewatching it on a streaming service, whatever that is. But yeah, nowadays it's like, hmm, it's a little odd. A little. But it kind of, I mean, it fits with the movie, I feel like. Like it's fun. That's also what's a bummer. Yeah. Because I felt like if he could have just made something that was psycho-esque, it definitely fit the movie. Like that vibe fit the movie.

But to just rip it off is totally different. It's like he's not untalented. Proto was so zoned out, he didn't even notice the music was the same. I was going to say, like... Well, maybe if this movie wasn't as, you know, if it wasn't, since it's not like a really successful movie, you know, it's just like a, like a Bihar movie. But then I thought like, this is probably like the most successful this movie could possibly have been in terms of like its longevity.

Right. Like for whatever this cost to make and like the quality of the story or whatever, like the fact that this became a cult movie and here we are. uh 40 years later talking about it yeah i mean it's done well for itself because there's a lot of movies that were probably made of this ilk that no one's ever heard of sure so i don't know it's yeah yeah the um the audio commentary with stuart

Gordon was fascinating. A lot of interesting nuggets. I will say that he has the most monotone voice and he makes the most annoying mouth noises when talking on this. His lips are smacking. He's like... You know, every sentence starts with, we're like, it's just too much for me. Like, it was very hard to handle. But they filmed this in 18 days. Like, the whole thing was done in 18 days. That's wild. And when he was like...

wanting, he, he worked at like a Chicago theater group and all of his friends were like moving away and like working in movies. And he wanted to like do the same things. Like maybe I need to start making my own movie. And like, someone told him that. If you want to have something successful, do a horror movie because if you can make a horror movie for under a million dollars, you'll make your money back. They're just generally the easiest way to make your money back on a movie.

Um, probably because of like eventually what became home video and all that stuff. So that's what he did. And I just found that fascinating. So like someone I think recommended like an HP Lovecraft story to him, but. The way that this story was written, it was like in six.

I guess it was like almost like a manga, like it was published for a magazine over six months or whatever. And the only copy that existed at the time was at the Chicago Public Library in their like, you know, I don't even know what. call it like their private library. Like you had to make a request in the archives. And then you got like a pass to go read it in the library in a special room. Like you couldn't take it out.

and he said that the paper was crumbling when he was turning the pages. So he asked if he could Xerox the pages, and that's what he did. I wouldn't assume that they would say yes to that, but yeah. Also, that sounds worse. I know, you're still like folding all those pages on a Xerox. But I thought that was crazy. You know, 40 years ago, that's like the only way you could get your hands on this story. I thought that was pretty cool. That's interesting. Yeah, that's wild.

um he also tells a story about how the original cinematographer was canned after a week of filming because i think the studio looked at the dailies and they thought that the lighting was just so bad and everything was so dark So I thought that was cool. And then they get to the scene. He's like, this is actually some of the stuff that Robert.

the guy's name that got fired, Ebinger filmed and they kept it in the movie. It's the scenes in the basement where like the cat is flying around. It is so dark in that scene. And I was like, oh yeah, maybe that makes sense why he was fired. But I loved that scene where the light was like swinging and like barely lighting the room.

I thought it looked rad. I guess they thought it was just too dark. Oh, interesting. The whole movie just can't be like this. You get my boy in here that I like, Allberg, I think, and that's what they did. Wow, I wonder if they just misunderstood what was happening in that scene because it's like...

it's perfect for what they're trying to show. I think it's, it's interspersed with stuff that the new DP filmed. So like, there are some scenes where like Herbert is like up against a closet and it's just like pitch black while other scenes with the cat is like. back's broken on the table and it's like well lit how about that cat that cat dummy where they threw the cat against the wall and then like the brains were like left on the wall it was like obviously a puppet it was just

Oh, my God. Anyone who was thrown into a wall, they left like a splatter of blood. Yeah. I think when the reanimated dad goes to steal his daughter, he like throws the, I don't even know the guys, the main guy's name, but he throws him against the wall and he falls. But there's like this huge splatter of blood on the wall. Like that guy's dead. They even did that with the other guy. When he gets hit against the wall, like his head like splats again. It's just fine. Just kind of gets up.

How about him just like, remember the dad, I guess he was like the dean or whatever, but he like gets stomped on, the door falls on him. He just gets effed up by that door. Like he's almost like near death just from the door falling on him. So rough. It bit his fingers off. Oh, my God. That was bad. Nasty. That was bad news. Proto, next on your list. My next was going to be that scene in the basement.

with the with the cat because uh there's a lot of scenes that are just like interesting in how they like shot them i think some of it's like really bad but some of it's really cool. And like, I don't think this scene totally works mostly for the acting. Like I think Jeff was a Jeffrey Combs. Yeah. This guy's a disaster. Icon. This guy is giving the guy from Scanners a run for his money. Oh, my God. No. Come on. That guy was the worst. That guy is the worst. But Jeffrey wanted a piece of that.

But it's such an interesting idea of chasing this cat in the basement. And the way it's set up, I love the idea of it. I think it's cool, but I don't think it fully works. But then there's so many wild scenes. When he does the first autopsy in the room where he's pulling back the scalp to show the skull. Oh, God, yeah. That looked amazing. That was nasty. Yeah, I was like, is this accurate? And when he pulls it out, it shows the spinal cord cavity.

He talked in the commentary that he like essentially hung out with doctors and people that were working in morgues a lot, like in pre-production. And he asked for photos of like specific like injuries.

on dead bodies like burn victims and like gunshot victims so these morgue folks were like more than happy to just like set up a slideshow for him and like hit play and he had to like end up stopping the slideshow he's like I can't this is too much gross so that's like so a lot of the like the color on the dead bodies like the purple and like the dark like blood splotches apparently this was like groundbreaking at the time for like showing dead bodies in a movie wow yeah

That one burn victim at the end there where he was, like, wrestling with somebody just looked like a sheet of paper hanging off his back. Oh, my God. Oh, so gross. That was foul. Yeah, the stuff of, like, the... scalping. So gross. I think that scene might have even been longer and they cut it because test audiences were like, this is too much. The sounds of him pulling his skin. Yeah, it's a lot. Bonesaw. Just so gross. Danny? Let's talk about Dr. Hill, the hypnotist doctor.

The head cutoff moment is incredible when he gets his head lopped off with the shovel. But for the head to be reanimated and the way that they filmed that the whole time. incredible yeah just like the in the pan and um like when he holding his own head like had his stomach holding his own head and walking around was It's one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. And then when they get the girl, Megan, strapped to the table. Yeah.

My body de-wrecked it. That was one of the grossest... I couldn't believe what I was watching, what I was witnessing. Stop. It was nasty. This is some bat and spider nonsense. This is why I can't. You didn't enjoy a father serving up his own daughter to a beheaded undead colleague? When he's holding his own head between her legs, I couldn't do it. I was like checking out.

That was one of the nastiest things. Sorry, I unplugged my headphones at your statement by accident. I'm trying to plug it back in now. It's okay. Plug in your headphones. Anyway, I loved everything with Hill, though. I thought his creepiness was great. I thought... I really love the effect of his head just kind of being placed in other places. Him needing to like suck up more blood to like, I guess, survive. That was ridiculous. And then just mind controlling everything was so funny to me.

Yeah, the scene too where like the two-way mirror when he's talking to the dean and like he's just like holding his head up in the reflection. Oh my gosh. So funny. I love how they earlier they had this set up like. this is a two-way mirror. You cannot see or hear you from the other side. The only thing they explain in this movie is how a two-way mirror works. It's also crazy, like... You would think, how did they get away from the cops? Like, what story did...

Herbert Tell to like get out of any of that stuff and not only that but like Hill just takes ownership of the dad and puts him in a padded cell. A padded cell attached to his office.

That was so crazy. Which also doesn't make sense. How about when he like... the she leaves the room and he opens the door as if to like go into the room but there's like a hallway that you don't even see and two employees first enter the room and I was like what is how big is this office this is crazy I love the idea that the dad goes to the apartment, the undead dad, who like can't walk straight, grabs his daughter and then brings her back to the morgue somehow.

Like the amount of times that these undead have left and gone to a new location and nothing has happened in between. Are they driving cars? Like what is happening? It's like Michael driving the station. Yeah. The scene with her tied down is like literally insane. That's gotta be like the most talked about scene in related to film history. Maybe in film history. It's gotta be on some AFI list. But like, she gets such a raw deal.

Because she dies at the end of this movie after all of this stuff. Or does she? Well, she, I mean, you are, you are left to assume I would think, but like, he like saves her in the elevator. And then he can't save her. And then he like goes to get the serum. It's like, oh God, this poor girl. Like what a way to go out after all that. Yeah.

I thought she looked like that actress, Barbara Crampton. She looks like Bryce Dallas Howard. Really? I thought they were like distant relatives or something. She was giving me Scar Jo vibes a little bit. Oh. Okay. I don't see any of that. But okay. Let's see. What else do I have on my list here? I actually love Jeffrey Combs. Okay. he's got nothing. He's giving nothing. I thought he had it. I mean, he's, he has it. He's like, he's such a great character actor in this movie. Like he, he,

You know, there's one scene where he's walking around in a trench coat or whatever, and it feels like an alternate universe, like Batman villain prequel movie. Like Herbert West is some... Batman villain and this is his origin story. Like that's how just like kind of over the top and weird and like a caricature he feels in this movie. And I mean that as like a big positive. So I like the character.

And the journey, I mean, he starts out as like the guy you're rooting against, but then somehow you're like- Wait, when do you start rooting for him? Well, he finally, he's the first one that walks in on the headless head scene.

to try to stop that from happening. Remember, he waltzes in. Endless head scene. And then you're like, thank God, Herbert West is here to save the day. Yeah. What did you think of the character and Jeffrey? I actually liked him, too. I didn't mind him. I just thought he was just... an oddball but he performs it so well the scene that I was just like that kind of I think kind of set the tone for me

when he was sitting, or at least set the tone to where I could settle in with this guy being ridiculous, is him listening to Hill's first lecture and he's like snapping those pencils. It made no sense. What are you doing? You're wasting pencils. But then after that, I'm like, oh, this guy, he's crazy. But he plays it so well. I mean...

every bit of his creepiness and I don't know. I liked him. I didn't mind it. I mean, it fits the movie. It doesn't stand out as like everything in this movie is amazing, but Herbert, like every, it's all. It's all on equal playing field. What are you doing when you find a dead cat in your roommate's mini-fridge in the room?

Are you saying you can still stay here? It's insane that he like still let it happen. And what does he even say? He's like, I'm going to tell the dean that you're porking his daughter. You're going to lose your scholarship. and then he's like ah damn okay you can stay you freak I like that he was like I put it in the fridge because I didn't want to smell up the house and I was saving it for you or something stupid like that but then he does go to the dean like

right after, right? Like the next day. He goes to the dean to tell him, I can't remember what is- Yeah, what's his name does? Not Herbert. Right, right, yeah. The roommate, like the good guy. He turns himself in, right? Or he turns in Herbert. But then he almost gets expelled. For even telling the dean this. Yeah, the dean was losing his shit. He was experimenting with reagent, which is wild. The cost of being truthful. That's a good point. What lesson is there to be learned, folks?

Ask the question. Proto. Final point. Let's see. What are the big ones? What are the big ones? As you search, one note that I wrote down was Dr. Hill, when he finds Herbert and he steals all his information right before he gets murdered, he's wearing a trench coat. He looks like he could, like that trench coat, if they made an X-Men movie in the 80s, he could be Magneto in that outfit that he had on. Okay. Yeah. All right. What are you trying to say?

You know what I'm trying to say. Yeah, that scene in the morgue with the four dudes going at each other. And then the one of them is naked. Just wild. Oh, yeah. So the hog, I mean, everything you want to say about this movie, tasteful hog, once again. Very tasteful. In this. Barely noticeable. I mean, you blink, you might have missed it.

Right. So I think that was done in a real nice way for the most part. I think it was also like spray painted. He says in the commentary that like you can't show penis. Oh. Or you get an unrated or an X rating. I can't remember what he says in the commentary. So they had to spray paint black hair. Excuse me. There was a lot of spray painting done to try to cover up what was on screen. To cover the hawk? Yeah.

do you think back then when they had to like rate these or i guess even now do you have to like go frame by frame just to see like to be sure because you're watching it at full speed you might miss it you know and then you Like, where do you draw the line? And what can you even see on those, like, monitors back then in the 80s? Can you see anything? That's true. 480p? 280p? Who was the hognark? He also said that, like...

They sent it in to the MPAA to be rated, and he was like, if we cut everything they wanted to cut, the movie would have been 40 minutes long. So to his studios or distributors' credit, they released the movie unrated. which was like unheard of back then. And they still ended up getting distribution and like screening the movie. It's fascinating to like look back on, you know, unrated.

movies that just would have been like a death sentence for these things. Like, I guess they would have lacked distribution. He says that Vestron, is it Vestron Video? back then was like a company. He says they put the hypnotism subplot back in on an R-rated release, which like made it R-rated. And when you, he said that when the movie was rated R,

it makes it illegal to screen the unrated version anywhere. And I was just like, what? Like just the logistics of it were just so bizarre. So he ended up fighting. the MPAA to remove the R rating. He's like, please make it unrated again, which obviously was another thing that was like unheard of. And they did. They removed the R rating. So continue screening the movie. Very bizarre times back then.

Yeah. Like, does anyone even think about rated movies anymore? Like, how often do we think about it when we watch a movie? Barely, really. I don't really anymore think of what it's rated. Right. That's interesting to think about, too. Danny? I think it was Proto's final point. Did you already say it? Yeah, I kind of went, yeah. Okay. Danny? I don't really have much. That we haven't covered. Security guard. Love him. Yeah, I'll give my rating. Do it. I'm at three stars. Okay.

I had a good time watching this. It's fun. It's silly. It's disgusting. It's gross. I think it's worth the price of admission for all of the prosthetics and the talking head. I thought that stuff was so funny and actually really well done. I thought the whole decapitated head that's still alive talking and I thought that was really well done and really fun. So yeah, three stars. Good time. Had a good time.

Okay. How could he talk, though, without his voice box? I know. The Reagent. I know, Proto. The Reagent. Nobody knows how it works. You saw the reagent glowing. I don't know what that could have done. Had a peek at that notebook. Dr. Hill. Dr. Hill looks at the notebook for five seconds. Yeah, I see how he did this. Yeah, it's so easy to comprehend. Why did I not think of this? Mike Scott in chat, bring back practical effects.

I mean, the thing, August 30th in Philadelphia, we will be celebrating practical effects. Goated practical effect movie. Limited edition poster by Danny Haas. Available only at that screening. Let's see. Let's go through the rest of my menchies, my honorable mentions. Okay. About burning a hole through a skull. Yo. Yeah. Herbert was like...

Almost a goner. I don't understand how Herbert's brain wasn't pouring out of his head. Right. I don't know how long it takes for a laser to heat up to get through. Yeah, that was crazy. Very nerve-wracking. It's just the biggest Morgan history. Like that set that they built. It just looks gigantic. Morgue slash classroom. Rest in peace, Rufus the cat. Okay. Cat backpack.

It looked like he was wearing a cat backpack at one point. Don't expect it to tango. It has a broken back. Poor Rufus. Rufus! Rufus! Rufus. Dean gets effing stepped on that door. Oh my God, what a way to go. He was like almost instantly dead. Like he was getting thrown up against the wall, but he was long dead. I think you hear him squish under that door. There's some noises for sure.

I think it was practical sound effects. How did he get away from the cops? Couldn't, I couldn't believe how he was just like. Remind me where the cops were. I mean, the dean is dead. Oh, the first, the beginning? Yeah, like when the dean is all effed up. Yeah, why isn't he in jail right away? How do they not get jail time? We're like, at least in jail for a few weeks. Shovel in his effing neck.

That was awesome. It was awesome. Oh, my God. When the body goes to the morgue and it's wearing this fake head from his office. Oh, my God. The fake head. I wanted to screenshot that so bad. The security guard not even flinching. Is that you, Dr. Hill? I mean, Dr. Hill is doing that whole walk from memory because his head is in the bag. That's true. He can't see anything. He can't see anything. That's right. The power of hypnotism. God. We need this hypnotism storyline added back in, please.

Dude's head is so horny. I mean, he was like licking the blood as she was like writhing on that tail. He's just like looking over like a total creep. Oh my God. He was so horny. I was crawling back inside myself watching that scene. I mean, the shot, the long shot of her on the table with his head like at her knees is too much. It's too much. Unrated.

I mean, to be at this stage in your life, like you are a reanimated corpse trying to form an undead army, but you're taking a break to get off right now. Maybe that's his ultimate goal is just to get off. Maybe. I mean, you're even him, the actor. Remember, his body is like moving his head up to her head, like down her body. And his tongue is like going like this on her boobs.

We need the wide shot of what's going on. He's got to apologize when they yell cut. He's like, Barbara, I'm so sorry. Barbara, you know I'm sorry. I would never do that. Meanwhile, this isn't me. Oh, my God. That is a meme. My God. Cripes. Can't breathe. Barbara, please. You know I would never.

Nude zombies going ham. They crush and toss his head. Oh my god, that was so cool too. When he finally gets his head crushed. Oh yeah. Let's see if I have any other... notes there's a I mean there's a funny like he tells a story about how Arnold oh the the team that worked on this movie came over from Terminator the first

terminator really and none of them had any idea like how it was going to turn out so they actually screened they went to go see it in theaters and they're all like blown away like they had no idea like cameron had the juice i guess why would you assume that cameron had yeah at that point um so eventually like arnold they screened this movie for arnold schwarzenegger and he loved it and he like recommended this director to do the movie that i mentioned earlier with lambert fortress

Because I guess Arnold was at some point attached to it. Maybe it was butt. But he tells a story about how they took an elevator after the screening to go up to the studio heads. And... Arnold and these bodybuilders are in this elevator, and there's a secretary that was in there before them. They had no idea, so she was cramped in the corner. And he's like, Arnold, Arnold, and his monotone voice is like, Arnold. turns around and says to her, do you want to get naked? What?

He doesn't even do the voice. It's like the worst retelling of the story. Like, let's get naked. Like, add something to it. Please. But yeah, I think Arnold was maybe like Dr. Hill back then. A horny man about town. Something to think about. Yeah. I have fun with this movie. Three and a half stars. Okay. It's a hoot at certain points, but it does drag a bit. I mean, there's not a lot there. Practical effects off the charts. Fun movie. Fun horror. What more can you ask for?

Yeah, I'm in agreement with you guys. It was a good time. It was a fun time. Yeah. I had fun with it. Anything else? Oh, I love the transition, the no, no, no, to the yes, yes, yes. I mean, that's some great directing right there. I don't even remember that. I don't know what you're talking about. Remember, they're kissing no, no, no, and then they're porking in bed. Yes.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Right under the Talking Heads poster. Right. Wink. You get it? Talking Heads. Oh. That's good. Wink. I mean, layers. The depth of this film. Like the fuse. Yeah, I think we covered everything pretty much. Yeah, I'm at two stars for this. You know, I say I was bored. I'll be honest. There was a lot I was bored with. I thought the acting was terrible at times. It was just like the way it was directed. But I mean, can you really, can you, you know.

It's not, that's not what it's about, bro. You know, it's about the blood and the guts, the practical effects. Those were all great. Two stars. Okay. Okay. I did like the scene too where like the Dean. It's like reanimated and they get caught. And then... Heart-dropping a Photoshop in chat.

He even added our logo to the top corner of the John Lennon butt shop. I'm calling Adobe. We got to pull his license. Can we get a handle on this? We got to pull his license. It just took Art an hour to do. That's why Art's been silent in chat. what was I saying? The scene where like, you know, they get caught in the morgue and everything's just like haywire. He like collapses the main guy and just like from shock. I thought that was pretty, pretty nice.

I was actually afraid the hog we were going to see was Dr. Hill's. Oh, God. Severed body hog. Right. Severed body gets on the table or something. Yeah, honestly. I thought that's where we were going. Any reviews, Pro? Tagged reviews? Yeah. Noel launched it. and they said the opening credits featuring a diagram of an external rectum pretty apt description of the movie Our friend Dave, he hosted a watch party this week for this. Yeah, he's always out there doing it. He's doing the hard work. Yeah.

He gave it three and a half stars, and he said, sometimes I wish someone would stick a Q-tip in my skull hole and poke my brain till it goes numb. What the? That was a gross scene. I don't even understand what that scene was about. Right? Yeah. I don't know what you're going through right now, Dave, but we're here for you. We're here for you, Dave. Katie said, let sleeping hogs lie. It's almost time, Katie. We're almost through hogs. We've almost made it. We can move on.

Emma said, fun times, some goofs and gaffs. Ultimately, not for me. More boob than hog. That's true. That's a good point. Dr. Hill was definitely... I'm seeing a lot more boob. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every week we give out a free year letterboxed patron. Disclaimer, I'm a letterboxed employee, but I don't speak for letterboxed. Tag your review like our friends from just mere moments ago. And we have a tag review for birth. What the? Birth? Wow. Who's watching birth in 2025?

Michael Bolin is watching Birth. The music drove me insane, which is probably on purpose. Kind of wish they went all the way with the plot to see if they could stick the landing. Not in a weird sexual way. I know why they didn't. Glazer has a knack for casting, though. Birth four stars from Michael. Congratulations. Four stars. I gave birth two stars. 2020, March 18th, we did that. Goodness gracious. That's a long time ago.

Toast modern in chat, birth, redux, when? Never. There you have it. Kibosh that idea right now. There you have it.

Let me pull up our next movie. Yeah. One Last Hog. One Final Hog. Diego's Luna. Oh. 2001. E2 Mama. Tambien by Alfonso Cuaron, the greatest living director. Oh, okay. In my opinion. So the little description here says, life has its way of teaching. In Mexico, two teenage boys and an attractive older woman embark on a road trip and learn a thing or two about life, friendship, sex, and each other.

Okay. 4.21 Letterboxd. That's high. It's streaming on Hulu and Netflix right now. Is it the highest rated movie we've covered this month? I feel like that's higher than Boogie Nights. Let's see. Boogie Nights. What's the average rating on Letterboxd? 4.2. Oh, okay. We have Tide Boogie. Okay. We have Tide Boogie.

Folks, just remember the meetup weeks away. By the time this is out, it's like a week away. Buy tickets. Come hang out. Come to the movie. Have fun. Come to hang out afterwards down the street. Get some chicken fingies. Get yourself like a... We just saw the menu too, baby. We approve the menu. We approve the menu. We are ordering more food. Double. Before anyone asks. Double. We're ordering more food.

Yeah. The only place to get the poster will be at the movie screening. They went fast after the movie. People were hungry. People were hungry for posters and for chicken tendies. Yeah. Pardo, closing thoughts this week? Closing thoughts. You know, I gave this movie two stars, but you have to mix it up. I just want to encourage everybody. You can't always go for the four or five stars. Sometimes you need the protein. You need your veggies. You need those two stars, those practical effects.

So maybe you didn't, maybe two stars is too low for you, you know, with the reanimator. Maybe I scared you away. I mean, check out Brain Damage right in there. You know, these kind of movies, they feed something, something that we all need. So if you've been holding back for too long, just get in there. You bet on a shirt. We'll see everybody next week for E2 Mama también.

70mm is a tape deck production featuring original artwork provided by Danny Haas. Spiritual Guidance and V'ger, the robot who loves movies, provided by Pertalexis, producer at large. Dale underscore A, and music composed by Cinematric. Prints and other merch are available on 70mmpod.com. This episode was mixed, edited, and produced by me, Slim.

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