May there are folks. It is Wednesday, October the twenty second, and we have made it to our top ten favorite horror movies that you might not know about, and number ten on our list today might be a bit of a tough sell. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Roabes. This is maybe the or second one of the second lowest Rotten Tomato scores.
Correct. This one is of distinction in that the critics gave it a very low rotten Tomato ah, but the audience gave it a high Rotten Tomato score, which I always think is the perfect combo, because if the critics were looking for something I always keep using this word elevated, but some sort of you know, yes, an elevated horror movie experience. But if the fans just wanted to have some fun and they loved it, I know that's going to be a certain kind of movie we're going to enjoy.
Always said that that is almost how you find a horror movie. Critic hat it, audience loved it. That's for me, and I don't know if we've ever missed on one.
No, I think when the audience loves it in spite of the critics. It's exceptionally good.
All right, so this one is special in that category. And tell the folks robes number ten on our list as we count down. Number ten movie is countdown.
Yes, that seems appropriate. Yes, its release date was just actually almost exactly six years ago, October twenty fifth, twenty nineteen. It's an hour and thirty minutes, just a ninety minute just I don't know, explosion of fun. That's how I would describe it. And this is our only PG thirteen. Yeah, horror movie. In fact, I feel like if you were known that ahead of time, you wouldn't have watched it.
Maybe so I've known about this one for years. I don't know why I found it, But PG thirteen, I'm thinking back to the movie. We've watched it again here in the last couple of days. How tough some of the death scenes are? The scares? Huh? Maybe not.
It's creepy. I definitely have a few jump scares in there, but it's not gory to the point where or foul enough that it got that many rs. So, in fact, that is and was among some of the complaints.
By folks that was scary enough for gory And yes that.
The PG thirteen held it back, which I agree it probably did, but it helped, I think significantly at the box office because.
I didn't know until this moment it was PG thirteen.
Yeah, and now you're like, second guest, No.
I love that I didn't know that because I probably held it against it in some way been prejudiced against the movie. I am really loving that. I didn't know until this moment.
I'll be honest. I didn't know until I did the research either. I assumed it was a rated R. But it does speak volumes for the box office. This is the reason why some movies do PG thirteen because obviously you get in a much younger group of folks who can come in, spread word on social media, et cetera, and your movie can do Gangbusters that way, even though you might piss off some diehard horror fans who like
things a little bit grittier. But box office forty eight million dollars internationally, twenty five point six domestically, So it did really well.
World back, that's a hit for that budget.
That's a hit six point five million for the budget. That's it. So yes, this did really well, and the rating could have had a lot to do with it. The cast was great though, so her name you might not know, Elizabeth Layle. She's the star. But if any of you listening love the Netflix series You, which I have been obsessed with, she is beck in You, so you will know her face. She's been in a couple other movies as well. Jordan Callaway such a cutie. Had
not seen him before, haven't seen him since. But that's her co star.
Oh black guy, yeah, oh yeah, look the Nelly look alike.
Yes, yes, I love them together too. I was rooting for them the whole time. And then Ta Litha Elena Bateman again a name you might not know, but if you are a horror movie fan, she is the little girl who has polio in Annabel Creation. So she's the star of Annabel Creation, which I think is one of the best of the Conjuring adjacent movies. It's so good. If you haven't seen that one, we didn't include it because it's a part of our classics. The whole Conjuring
series would take up the entire list pretty much. But she is the star of Annabel Creation. So some familiar faces and I think some great acting.
She's how many years older right in this one? Than Annabel.
Well, I actually went back and looked because I was like, wait, she was a little girl.
She was playing more of a hardcore teenager in.
This correct But the difference is only I believe three years. But that's the difference between being a little girl and being a teenager. We've seen it happening with savine O. God Like, think about it at she was nine three years ago. Now she looks like she's eighteen.
So it was don't go that far.
Well, she kind of does.
She kind of does.
The director justin deck. So anyway, the Rotten Tomato score the aforementioned. The critics gave it a twenty six percent.
That's is it the lowest on our list.
I think we might have had one in the teens. I'll have to go back and check screepers. But the audience score is at seventy two percent. That's good, so a much big difference, and again I think that's a bell weather of success in terms of watchability. All right, critics, consensus, here we go, and prepare yourselves for some bad reviews
here that we are going to completely disagree with. But the critics consensus reads countdown may offer a few fleeting jolts for horror fans with barren ces, but it lacks enough wit or creativity to have a lasting impression.
It lacks enough wit in creativity. I don't take too much issue with what they're saying, because did you read the synopsis yet?
You skipped right over the gift over the synopsis?
Yes? Good, and then we'll get back to that review and it'll make sense. So good.
Okay, here's this, sorry, thank you for that. When a young nurse downloads an app that claims to predict when a person is going to die, it tells her she only has three days to live, with time taking away and death closing in, she must find a way to save her life before time runs out.
Okay, obviously that's ridiculous.
That's an awesome, awesome premise for a movie.
Though, for a supernatural mystery thriller thing. That's exactly what kind of a teeny bopper. It has to do with phones, apps, time, How much do you have left? Do you want to know how you're gonna die? And you yes? All of those things get you kind of worked up, and it's a part of the experience of this movie. So now go to the review.
Thank you all, right, I get that. So sample critic reviews, and it did take some time to find a good one among the critics, but I did find a couple. Countdown is pretty damn fun and does an exit one job of tapping into technology driven terrors for the modern age that completely surprised me and left me thoroughly entertained to boot is exactly.
What I would say entertaining movie.
Yes, here is another. This is I put it in the good category. I didn't like this movie at all, but damn I had a good time.
Okay, that's fair. All right.
Here's another one. You could get drunk and laugh at it.
That's fair as well.
Here is another one. Think Final Destination plus flatliners, but minus all of the fun.
Okay, that's too much. I don't even want to think about what they were trying to say.
Disagree too, because it is fun. It is a fun movie period. Here's another negative review by a critic. Countdown relies too heavily on jump scares, but still fails to distract from a gimmicky premise, a poorly developed script, and thin characters.
It's a gimmicky concept. Yeah, I have an app I download and it tells me exactly when I'm going to die. I that's a gimmick.
I loved this movie because of that, and I actually loved the conversations people were having when they found out they had eighty more years to live. Yeah, but they found out they had seventy two. And then it was all in group settings. When was at work? When was that? I think it began at a game, like a college drinking game. But yeah, you know, especially if you were that age, you absolutely would have downloaded that app.
Everybody would be curious about that app because you would think, there's no way it's for real, so I might as well just have some fun with it. And then it gives you a number, and then what are you gonna think? Oh my GOHI what if it's right. It's just that it makes you have those types of conversations. So if it sparked something in you and the people around you, the movie did a good job gimmicky or not exactly.
And within the first few minutes of the movie, someone finds out that they're gonna die in a matter of hours, so it sets off I think a very fast pace based situation where you have a pretty immediate death and I have to say, I was riveted the entire time, and I couldn't wait to figure out how someone was going to try and escape their death that so far as you watch the movie unfold, no one is able to and then all of a sudden you get the
main character, TikTok, TikTok. So, yeah, you're at the edge of your seat.
Do you have any other negatives in the Uh?
Well that was just from the critics. I do have some negatives. Well, actually I found some, so it was easy to find positive ones'm on the audience. The negative ones just got so mean. I just didn't feel like put them in there, and I didn't want to turn off anyone listening from watching because of these snobby critics.
Well shown what from the audience reviews, the people who took issue with it. It was there a theme to.
Boring, that it was gimmicky, that it wasn't scary enough, that it wasn't gritty enough.
It's it wasn't that's okay.
It's like bubble gum.
It was a bubblegum horror movie. Yes, that's it.
It's like yeah, And there's a time and a place for them. And that's why I think we definitely wanted to include it because I think it's fun sometimes to have a bubblegum horror movie. And this is, yes, exactly what it is. Sample audience reviews. Here's a couple fun ones. This is one of those movies that I know is not very good, yet I can't help enjoy throwing it on every five or six months.
Was it comfort Yeah, so it's.
Like chicken soup for horror movie fans.
It's a comforting movie. It's not going to scare the hell out of you. You're going to catch something that you missed once before. It's not even one you have to sit down and even pay close attention to. You can go into the kitchen and grab another drink. You can maybe even take a bathroom break and keep it rolling and you'll be fine. It's one of those movies.
It's highly digestible, and it's one you can watch over and over and over again. So I thought that was a good point. Okay, here's another one. Better than I thought it would be. It is helped with a pretty nifty final act and some humorous supporting characters. A slow start and bland main characters. Not get down a star, but this is a horror film that suffers from its
PG thirteen rating. If the and I don't know this word, if the quinnoessences of breaking the user agreement were more severe, the film would tension up and the scare.
Factor were more severe.
Okay, fine, fine, they wanted more terror, they wanted more horror. That's okay. So here's another one, and this is I actually think a lot of the people who went on to write these reviews read the critics reviews before they watched the movie. So this next one, I honestly expected to dislike this movie, but it was so much fun to watch. The characters had some genuinely funny moments, and there were even a few scenes that really creeped me out. I agree. I felt the same way. Here's another one.
Not too bad. Could have been better, but hey, we needed a thriller horror movie and it delivers on its version of what could possibly happen. And with things in today's age, why not have an app that's going to tell you if you're going to die in four hours? You know you have downloaded it to lol make a good point.
I think a lot of people might do so, and it sparked those conversations. It was fun. Ask yourself, right now, ask the person sitting next to you as you're listening to this, would you download an app that would tell you exactly when you're going to die?
We have had this exact conversation, and my answer at this age is absolutely no.
Yeah, my answer is the same because it would change the way you live. Right. Life is more beautiful because we know this one right here, this could be our last podcast exactly.
But if you actually know in twenty twenty nine I'm going to die, that is terrifying. I don't want to know that.
And how is it going to happen?
Right? And even if you do get another fifty years, say still the last five you're like TikTok, it's always going to be weighing on you. No, no, no, no, no, no, it's better not to know, all right. When we come back, we're gonna tell you why I've made our list, who it's for, who it's not for, what to parrot with, where to watch it, and a ts for number nine. Continuing our conversation about number ten on our horror hitless Countdown to Halloween, it is countdown the name of the movie.
It's PG thirteen, It's horror, supernatural, but it is so much fun. If you're looking for something super super, super duper scary, maybe this one isn't for you. But here's why it made our list number one. It's fun. It's a fun horror movie. They aren't always fun, but this one keeps things fairly light. It's entertaining. We love the premise of the movie. Well acted and just a good time all around.
It's a fun movie there. It's rare to have fun horror movies. Even the jump scares okay, fine, some you see them coming. Some of the stuff is predictable. We've watched loo horror movies, yes, and that's okay to have this movie be what it is. But this is a rare one that you're not necessarily scared. You're not hiding under anything. You're kind of smiling at the screen and at the characters. And who's insult there that say that there was not a lot of depth through. Yeah, well
they were saying. I mean they were fun and what they should have been, and just young folks who found and they were odd pairing as well. That worked. I loved all of it.
I did too. It reminded me a little bit of another gem that we love that we didn't include on the list for whatever reason. But Happy Depth Day. That's a great It reminds me a little bit of that movie. So who is this for? Well, you don't get to say this very often, but it's good for the whole family. But seriously, you could watch this with your teenagers and even the people who put out the ratings of movies. Whoever those people are at the National Picture Association, I'm
not sure agrees Pg. Thirteen. So actually, if you have older children in the house, maybe even some tweens, this one is fun. They're interested in dipping their toe into horror movies, this is a fun one to do it.
Yes, this is a good introductory horror movie. It's also this is why I recommend with a big group you got fun with this one, because even the people are a loud a little bit, and then you're young at the screen, you're not going to miss anything necessarily. I think this is the fun when you get everybody having a debate. Yes, you'll be talking during and after, Yes, about the scenario.
And I love the we talk, but I love the conversations that come about. Do you start talking about do you want to know what's the best way to die? I mean, you just get into these I know it sounds funny to say those are fun conversations, but the what ifs and the just speculative conversations that ensue are worth it in and of itself. Now, who's it not for? I think we've made it pretty clear anyone who is looking for highbrow horror, this is not your movie.
Again. There's just place. There are places for this sometimes, right, sometimes I want to hear Kendrick Lamar sometimes just gimme Yin Yang twins right place for all of it? Doesn't
that all right? This high thing? So that was no insult to either one of them brothers, right, But what I'm saying is just I'm surprised, as we've gone through this process, just how few folks critics are willing to accept that there is a lane for this type of movie, for this type of thing that's just kind of a teeny bopper fun ride.
Yes, and it's teeny bopper and fun, But I really do think I thought it was clever. I thought the premise was interesting, I thought the acting was good. I thought the scares were compelling and.
Sufficient sufficient horror movie.
That's yes, but I just I love this, So yeah, it's not for you if you're looking for something, you know, like Nosferatu, like this is the opposite of that. Right, all right, food drink pairing, you know what you need to just keep the fun atmosphere. I'd say have some beer flowing, some popcorn, keep it light and fun. And you mentioned this is a great party group movie, so if you're having some sort of up on Halloween movie fest, this would definitely be included. I think it's just fun.
I don't know why this is the first one where this is popped into my mind. Candy. This is a candy Swizzlers sitting out, some gummy bears and whatever you do, chocolate, Eminem's peanut m and ms. Yeah, it feels like that kind of a movie.
DJ coming to the table with some food pairing. I like that. I won't bring up the raisinets and popcorn because that set you off last time. It's a salty sweet snack and it's fun.
People.
People don't didn't make it up. I learned it from other people who showed me the way.
Wow where you all had a commune together.
It was the party in the I think I actually was oh, yeah, I was in high school. I'd have friends buying the raisin ets.
Oh, this is just something you did in a weird circle.
No, we thought a weird circle. I think this is a well known thing that people do. They put raisin ets in their popcorn.
Raisinets are the things that are covered in chocolate. Is it hard?
They're true, there's a hard case.
Case, That's what I'm saying. So, but they look like hard things. You put those in a bucket of popcorn? Correct?
So good, so good, by the way. I also think this is a movie you can watch alone and have a blast party of one. There aren't many movies that you can do that. But I think I actually watched this the first time by myself, and I've watched it so many times I can't even remember funny enough the original showing. But I feel like I watched it alone. Don't hold me do it. But it's definitely okay to do so. Now, where can you watch it? This was
a little bit of a problem. Yeah, we searched and I even tried to buy it because I loved the movie so much. I thought, we'll just keep this in our arsenal, our library of horror movie. No I couldn't even I couldn't find a place to buy it. So Amazon Prime right now is showing it, but you have to watch it with commercials. That's a bit of a bummer, I know. But it was on Netflix. It just went away, so maybe it'll come back. Just I'm absolutely gonna keep my eye out, in fact a watch list so that
when it becomes available, I can purchase it. Okay, that's fun because this is how much I love the movie, and we watch it enough that this is one to buy, true because we will go back to this like what kind of mood am I end? Ooh I'm in a countdown mood? Yeah, we are definitely like that. And by the way, here is a pro tip. Stay for the credits. There is a fun additional scene that was actually it made me love the movie even more. I forgot about it until we rewatched it, and I was like, oh,
I love when movies do that. And when you see people not leaving, you're like, oh, at the theater.
Don't see that a lot in horror movies.
It doesn't happen often. And it was comedic and funny and it just worked. The whole ending worked, so stay for that also, please stay tuned for tomorrow where we have number nine on our countdown to Halloween, and this one is a complete departure from countdown. It's still fun, it's still entertaining, but it's it's definitely rated R and it's highly reviewed.
It's twisted, it's a little sadistic, and Thor himself plays a.
Starring Yes, it's so funny. I had written in here as a tease. Has a devilish twist with some excellent award winning actors.
Twist. This is a twisted movie.
There are twists within the twist.
Oh my god, this is such a twisted movie.
And cannot give one more hint. This movie is set in our favorite setting for a horror movie. And with that, everyone, thank you for listening. I'm Amy Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.