Attack of the Final Girls is a podcast about the horror genre, so listener discretion is advised. Please check the show notes for specific content warnings for this episode. And of course, beware of spoilers. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 84 of Attack of the Final Girls. I'm Teresa. And I'm Juliette. And we're here again to talk about horror movies like we do every two weeks. Yes. It's fun times.
Yeah. We're having a great time right now. The horror movies as opposed to the real life horrors. Yeah. We have to dissociate somehow. Yeah. From the real life horrors. And this one, you know. It's supernatural, but it also, unfortunately, has some real life horrors in it. Yeah. There are also some things in this movie I wish I had to deal with the real life horrors. Same. One of which is having a really cool little weird oddity.
cursed object shop it's the dream owning a cursed object shop having a back office where you have all your real cursed items or harmful cursed items or whatever so that we could live our favorite conjuring universe dreams. Absolutely. The Warrens. I was trying to think of their last name. Your Warren family dreams.
Yeah, we're talking about oddity today. 2024 have limited theater run in 2024. It's also a shutter exclusive now. So you can definitely catch it on that streaming service right now. It's an Irish film, Irish. British. I think that like in terms of the city that they're talking about, it's kind of like vague, but somewhere in the British Isles. We'll leave it at that. But a lot of Irish actors and actresses in this one.
I saw it in theaters on a recommendation of our friend Victor. Thanks, Victor, for the recommendation. I saw it and I was like, oh my God, Juliet, you have to see it. But it was so limited that Juliet missed it. So she... graciously saved her first watch for the podcast yeah yeah it is out on home media too like shout out to shutter for
actually putting their exclusives out on home media. Not all companies, Cough Cough Disney, are doing that right now. But yeah, we have it at home, but I purposely wanted to wait to have my first watch be podcast times. Yay. Love that. Thank you for waiting. Because I really love this one. It was one that I put on my best of 2024 list.
I will caveat this by saying I am not typically a gothic horror fan, which I know sacrilege, but often it's slow for me. I find it to be too introspective. I have a hard time with it. Not talking like ham.
horror because that is kind of in its own category for me its own genre really yeah like I respect Shirley Jackson but I have a hard time with like getting in you know save Mike Flanagan because Mike Flanagan could do no wrong in my eyes well episodic Gothic horror, I think, is different than trying to cram a story into a, you know, 90 minute movie.
you know i think i think that was as we've talked about go listen to those uh you know with haunting of hill house the reason it worked is because they were able to stretch it out over however many episodes that was eight ten twelve i think it was eight yeah something like that
yeah yeah so I'll say that and so when I found out what this movie was about I wasn't sure if I would like it but I ended up really enjoying it quite a bit and I feel like this is the type of horror movie especially because I don't want to say it's low budget because it's not really a low budget horror movie, but it does have very limited sets and it only has a handful of actors in it. It does a lot with a little.
And I feel like this is the type of movie that if you are an aspiring filmmaker, like indie filmmaker, this is the type of movie that would really make you feel jazzed about making a horror movie or making a feature length film on. Yeah, definitely. And there's only like five main actors, which I'll go ahead and use this as an opportunity to call them out. The story is about a pair of sisters, twin sisters, one of whom is murdered in her home.
And her twin sister is a psychic medium who is blind. And she comes to the home to figure out what actually happened to her sister because she does not believe the story that she was told. The actors who plays both Danny and Darcy, who are the sisters, is Carolyn Bracken. Declan, who is one of the patients within the hospital, the mental hospital that the doctor works in, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
is played by Johnny French. The Orderly Ivan is played by Steve Wall. Ted Timmis, who is Danny's husband and the doctor at this hospital, is played by Gwilym Lee. Another main character, Olin Boole, another patient from this hospital, is played by Tyg Murphy. And then Yana, Ted's new girlfriend post-death of his wife, is played by Carolyn Minton. So not a whole lot of actors. movie, just a handful. And they really do a lot with just a couple of sets, which I liked a lot. And all of the actors...
are like fairly small actors. This particular director writer also has done, there's another movie that he has, it's also on Shudder called Caveat, also a small kind of shoestring movie. single set type thing but yeah so he hasn't done a whole lot but I think that this is like a pretty good debut in terms of like feature length Absolutely. Yeah. I know this one debuted at South by Southwest last spring and was getting a lot of buzz.
The cinematography is really compelling. I found the story to be very scary, like near real life scary. Yeah. Since it has to do with violence against a woman on her own. And it's sort of a mystery. Yeah. It's not like one of those mysteries where it's a whodunit all the way up to the end. Like you can pretty much figure out what happened as soon as you start watching the movie. But...
It doesn't really matter that you figured it out. It matters what happens afterwards. Yeah. And like the way that it happened is very compelling. Like you kind of know. from the get you know kind of who did it but the way and the reason and the complications around both the crime itself and the covering up of the crime
that's more of what unfolds throughout the course of the movie. Yeah. The beginning of the movie, we're understanding that Dani and her husband have bought this huge manor house in the middle of nowhere. It has... No lights. She's literally sleeping in a tent. They're renovating this house. It costs them a ton of money. And Dani is there by herself because her husband is working nights and is away from her. And she is brutally murdered.
And we're kind of led to believe one thing. We're led to believe that Olin, who comes to the house in the middle of the night and says some really weird stuff to her through the door, we're led to believe that he's the one who commits this act of violence. And not only are we led to believe that that is what the police determine, that's what everybody thinks is that Olin has killed this woman in this house. And then the remainder of this story is set a year later.
A year after this woman's death, her sister is not satisfied with what's happened. Actually, I should say she is like she buys into the story that Olin has done this. However, Olin is found dead. Yes. And. There is the matter of his eye, because Olin is missing an eye, which I will take this opportunity to say that this filmmaker actually made a short film called What Happened to Olin's Eye.
And it is a prequel story about specifically Olin Boole, this character. Which is awesome. Yeah, which is very cool. Like there is definitely some crisscross over between. that short film and also caveat which came out in 2020 but yeah like we're led to believe this one thing her sister is satisfied with this and then she gets this eye and Darcy is able to see into personal belongings and see every she says everything that you need to know about it. So she's able to see through Olin's eyes.
as it were, during the evening of her sister's death. And she finds some other things over the course of the movie that... Allow her to understand what actually happened. And then she calls into service her gigantic wooden golem. Which she so graciously gifts to Ted and Yana. Creepiest gift of all time. Truly.
She uses the golem to sort of help her both understand entirely what happened since she can only see through Olin's eye there at the beginning, but she uses some other things to sort of like figure out. the rest of it so not exactly a mystery but it is sort of like a an unraveling yeah definitely definitely i like i wrote down that the whole to me the whole theme of this movie
is that people aren't what they seem for better or worse. Because with every character, there is something about them where... What we see or perceive about them on the surface is different or is only a fraction of what is actually happening with them. who they are and i think olin is like a perfect starting place for that because you know when we're first presented with olin we are presented we we get to know him in a way that
is scary. And in a way that I think any person, but especially femme people have had an encounter where someone is approaching you kind of randomly, you're scared. You're feeling unsafe. You're like, what's going on? And you're having to make rapid fire judgment calls. is this person genuine are they experiencing a mental health crisis are they here to help me are they here to trick me so they can harm me
And unfortunately, all of our preconceived biases about appearance, about manner, about mental health and neurodivergence factor into that. And that's what we see with Olin from the start. We learned throughout the course of this movie that he is a complicated character. I think overall, the treatment of mental health in this movie was surprisingly compassionate for a horror film. And I can talk more about that a little later.
It was nice to see a horror film that presents a mental health facility and its occupants in a way that is... not what we were seeing in the 70s. But all of the characters have that kind of like, here's what we see on the surface. Here's our perception about them based on our implicit biases. But here's what's actually going on with them. Right. We definitely see Olin as this sort of like frantic...
Scary character, you know, coming to the house in the middle of the night. You know, she's alone. She doesn't have her phone. She can't call for help. Also, there's like this body service out there. And he's saying like, I want to help you, but we're not really sure that he. does want to help her. And like when the title card comes up, we're still under the impression that
Lynn is the one who did bad in this case. And we don't learn until much, much later that he's not the one who did it because we see that he was later murdered in a extremely violent and disgusting way, which is how Ted comes to. have possession of his fake eye. I also find it very interesting that our main heroine, Darcy, is totally blind.
Olin is half blind. Yeah. So he's sort of like half a piece of the puzzle. And then Darcy is able to see the remainder of the puzzle when all of the other sighted people around her are kind of ignoring what's right in front of them. So I found that really interesting. Now, the character who plays Olin, he actually...
does have an issue with one eye and does wear a false eye. He's in that show Vikings. So you'll see him in many of the roles that he has. He's either wearing like an eye covering or he has a scar or something like that. So he in real life, now the character. who plays Darcy is not, but he does actually have a false eye. So like kudos to having, you know, that be a crucial part of this movie.
I'm not sure if the director wrote with that in mind specifically or if it was sort of a like, wow, now we have this character and we can we can do this with this character. But it's it's pretty interesting that that whole excited. Dichotomy between characters. Yeah. Well, and I love that Darcy uses that to her advantage. Like she is. She's great because she really.
especially when she's dealing with ted and yana really plays up on oh here's what i know you think of me as a disabled person as a grieving person as a woman And I'm going to use that like I'm going to claim it and own your opinions of me and my identity. And I'm going to use that. to my advantage to get what I want. And I thought that was really brilliant.
presents uh both to ted and to ted and yana when she first shows up to the house as being frail and sad and confused when really she's coming in there with a whole ass plan oh yeah like she is ready to go she's sassy she's fully capable um you know she owns her own store yeah that she inherited from her mother but you know, nonetheless, she owns her own store. She gets to and from her store just fine. I think the only, really the only thing that was stopping her inside of
Ted and Yana's home is that she had never been there before. And also, so separately, we're led to understand that Darcy had had some health issues. Yes. She had a brain tumor and that she was supposed to be having regular checkups and that she wasn't doing that. So that was sort of like a...
kind of a bargaining piece is that Ted knows about this and could use it against her later on to say like, oh, you know, maybe her brain tumor has come back or what have you to try and kind of undermine her. But she... Like straight up asks at one point if Yana thinks she looks stupid because she said that she thinks her sister was stupid because she let a random man into the house at night, which she didn't actually end up doing.
But yeah, I love that. Like the sass was there. Yana treats her like absolute garbage the entire time. So to see her kind of kick back was like, yes. Yeah. Well, Yana is an interesting character, too. I was actually very pleased at the end. Like, yeah, Yana treats Darcy like garbage. And Yana is very obviously... the other woman you know um it's very obvious that she and ted were definitely you know fooling around while danny was still alive that said
I do like that she was not punished for something she didn't do. You know, she was not just because she was having an affair with Ted. Like. Fine, whatever. But she was not involved in the murder at all. And once Darcy figured that out.
she was not punished right you know which i think is important you know we often see that in some of these revenge movies where the other woman who is Yes, making a conscious choice to get involved with a married person, but also, you know, I feel like there's... some shred of victimhood there too uh is then like blamed for the whole thing right now and is
punished and seen to be like set up against like the woman that's getting revenge you know especially in a female revenge film and that's not the case yeah i know yana is allowed to leave yeah you know and danny actually encourages her to leave yes way of being a ghost yeah it is a very interesting like you can tell that even though danny was the jilted wife you know and then the dead wife
There was no instance where Yana was going to be harmed because of that, with the exception of being scared. Like, she was scared, obviously. But the golem doesn't come after her. Darcy is just, you know... Kind of like sword fights with words with her. But that's about it. Yeah. Ultimately.
Yana also leaves Ted like he's she leaves him high and dry, too, which like good for you. Yeah. Yes, you're a bitch, but also like good for you. Right. Right. It can be both. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I mean, it was a weird situation. though like to to be like okay i'm in this house i'm not super comfortable in this house somebody died here i don't like being here by myself also your dead ex-wife's sister showed up and wants to stay the night yeah it's pretty weird yeah
I probably would have been a little bit more accommodating, but it is kind of weird. It is weird. Yeah. And then she can't find her keys, which I would have freaked a lot harder if I couldn't find my keys. Yeah. Yeah, and their cell phone breaks. Like, ugh. Yeah, no. I would not be happy. She did meddle with the Golem, though. She did take the tokens out of the Golem. Well, that was her mistake. Yes, absolutely.
If you are in the presence of a giant wooden golem or anything containing seemingly cursed objects, don't fuck around with that. No. This is in line with our other advice, which is don't mess with the veil. Yeah. Like, if there is an object containing obvious spell work, just leave it alone. Leave it alone. Like, first there's hair, then there's like... pictures like scrolled and wrapped in twine then there's a tooth and then there's blood like yeah look we all know what this is
If I saw the hair, that would be my first. I'd be like, okay, all right, that's hair. I'm done. Respect. I'm going to back away slowly. Also, Yana goes to put her hand inside of the Gollum's mouth. I'm like, why would you? do that she's clearly never seen a horror movie before well right yeah because even if you don't know it's a golem like have you seen like saw like that thing would probably just clamp down and then billy comes out
It's time to play a game. Exactly. Like it could just be a giant nutcracker, but like, yeah, don't put your fingers in there. What is there to be gained by putting your hand in the mouth of a giant wooden statue? Nope. No, thank you. Ugh, I hate it.
That was a silly, silly thing. So I talked a little bit about the cinematography earlier, but I want to kind of go back to that because a lot of the framing that happens in this movie, especially while we're in this manor house, which... is not a set it's a real house yeah especially when we're in the house is like very claustrophobic and frustrating and fixed and you know that there are things that are happening on the outskirts of the framing that make you anxious
And I really love that. Yeah. It was wonderful. Yeah. It's like the way that light plays around in this movie, too, really makes it feel like a haunted house. Yeah. Like you're... you're directed to look in certain instances is it a jump scare type movie not really there's a couple of jumpy bits in here but it's really mostly like what you're not seeing or what's like hovering just on the outside of the frame
Yeah, likewise with the Gollum. I love that they did the Annabelle thing. Well, the original Annabelle thing. They kind of screwed this up later on where it's not like Chucky. Like you're not seeing little feet running around and this, that, and the other. You just keep getting these like shots where you're like, did it, has it moved? Yeah. Did it? like I think it's still in the same position but it's just stone still like that's what I always loved about the original Annabelle movies is like
Every once in a while, you might see like maybe she's slumped over a little bit or she's moved half an inch, but it's like you're not seeing her getting up and running around. And I think, you know. This movie gets there with that, but it gets there at the appropriate time. Yeah.
Yeah, I agree. It's a symbol of dread. Yeah. Which we come to dread the item because, first of all, we don't see it for a long time. I mean, unless you saw the trailer. If you saw the trailer, then you know what the thing looks like. But in the course of the movie, we only see like it's in a box. They look at it and they're kind of like, what's going on? But we don't get to see what's in the box until later.
And then when it's out of the box, it's just like this black presence sitting at this table for no reason. It's such a weird thing. But I like that sort of like object horror. Oh, yeah. Where it's like, you know that there's something messed up here, but you're not sure what and you're not sure if this thing is meant to do harm. Like if it's an evil thing or if it's not an evil thing. So. Yeah. Well, we get that nice tease at the beginning in the oddity shop where.
You know, Ted comes in and Darcy, before she realizes it's him, is saying like, oh, all the objects here are cursed, so don't touch them. You know, don't think about trying to steal them. And Ted, you know. is touching everything because he obviously doesn't believe and i think we as an audience for i would say about half of this movie or at least a good third of it are also kind of in that Ted position of like, oh, like, is this really a supernatural situation? Or is this just like...
This is what Darcy believes or what she says as part of the conceit of her store. But no, it's it's legit. Yeah. And maybe not everything. But like definitely some things as we see later on in the movie, too. So the really fascinating thing about this movie and what I love so much is that Darcy is a bad guy.
Accidentally. Yeah. Yep. So Darcy... uses she's able to based off of the tokens that she's put into the golem's head and I'm calling it a golem it's not really a golem golems are made of like mud or clay this is made out of wood but it is like a proxy
like thing so it is and i i think it's nice to acknowledge it as that um just because you know golems do have a very important place in horror cinema history but don't often get acknowledged as such and haven't had as much done with them so yeah i think it's okay to kind of Yeah. Acknowledge that it's filling that role, at least, that trope. It's doing the dirty work. Yeah. So Darcy is able to connect to the golem.
And she uses the golem to kill Olin. She murders Olin because she wants to take revenge for the murder of her sister. And even up to the point when Ted brings her Olin's eye, she thinks that she's done the right thing. And then she touches the eye in her apartment and realizes that she's done. the wrong thing yeah and is like overcome but also she feels betrayed because now she understands that this wasn't the person who did it and now she needs to find out more information
And considering Ted was like all too happy to be like, oh, yeah, Olin, one of my former patients, he was the one who came out here and murdered my wife, which would all make very practical sense in terms of his job and all that. Darcy comes to understand. why Olin was there, why he was in the, you know, in the, and unfortunately, she's not able to touch anything of his prior to his death. But like, what a fascinating way to
sort of think, oh, I'm doing the right thing, I'm taking the revenge, and then, oh, shit, I didn't do the right thing. My tool that I use... I messed up and now I have to fix it. And how do I fix it? Yeah. And it's interesting because in a way, it's easy to think of this movie as.
Darcy's quest for justice for Dany, but I think there's also some justice for Olin in this too. Because Olin was wrongfully killed. He was actually... trying to do the right thing in part because we as we get to know him throughout the movie through flashbacks It seems like he was trying to atone for and move further in his rehabilitation for some things he had done in his past that had their reasons.
were maybe societally wrong but also justified yeah and so we see uh through the flashbacks like this is a person who is who is cognizant of what they have done, of their past deeds and their future opportunities, and really takes this moment to... Kind of make a big, bold step and do like the right thing and is punished for it, both in the justice system sense and then.
loses their life for it yeah and and olin spent 17 years in a hospital yeah because of he killed his mother so like he has served his time that that's kind of the way i think about it it's like Carceral justice aside, whether or not you think it's right or wrong, it's a consequence that we all face for many different things.
And in my mind, if you've done the time, then that's it. You know, like, okay, debt to society paid. That's the end of your contract. Like, you have a societal contract to do the right thing. If you violate that contract, then you have consequences. You fulfill those consequences.
Done. Like, you know, dust it off. Like, that's good. Well, unfortunately, Olin is in a sort of transitory period where he's at this hospital that Ted works at. And then he's going to eventually go into a halfway house to be reintroduced back into. society at large. And he is caught in the middle of this terrible thing. He also incidentally overhears this plan.
Yes. Because the two idiots that are committing this plan are talking about it in their office where there are events that other people can hear, which like, why would you do that? Yeah. But he accidentally hears it and that.
ends up being to his detriment because of the way that he presents the information. Because he says, I heard it in the walls. Right. Which... is not untrue right he did um it's just the presentation of that and knowing he was in a you know in a mental institution for a while is it does not go well for him yeah but And Darcy ends up paying with her own life. Yeah. So it's sort of like this messed up.
back and forth of like initial person dies then this person dies and then this person dies and then another person dies and then maybe another person dies the effects are felt in waves it ripples out to other folks on the poster the sort of tagline of this is every murder lives on so that's kind of true it is kind of true it does live on in many ways in terms of the actors like
I want to say that the actor who plays Ivan has a fully evil face. It's too good. It's way too good. His face looks evil as hell. The actor who plays Ted is like... The British drama guy. Yeah. He's basically Benedict Cumberbatch. Yeah. Looks a lot like him. He does. Yeah. But he looks good. Like he does. Well, and I mean, that is an interesting thing about.
ted is you know although like yes i feel like i'm hearkening back to our revenge episode like he fits the kind of richard bill like he's attractive he's a professional he obviously is in a job with money and he's like secretly like the biggest fucking sociopath on earth I did think it was interesting, his conversation with Ivan when they're planning the plan, where like at first Ivan is like, okay, but like you could divorce her.
The psychopath. Yeah. Yeah. The literal like murderer who is also shown to like be abusive towards the people in the mental health facility like. I was like, you know, you like divorce is an easy, normal option. And Ted's like, no, can't, can't do it. Gotta be murder. Gotta be murder. And then Ivan like takes it a step further.
Yeah, that was the most bizarre conversation. It's like, who's going to be eviler or more like totally unhinged when they're like plotting this murder? I love that because Ted later is like, I don't want her hurt. is what he says i just want her dead exactly yeah he doesn't say that part but like they're bargaining over a woman's life yeah whether or not Ivan is going to defile her beforehand. And Ted's like, no, you cannot do that. Like, OK, Ted, on your moral high ground.
being the one who is asking somebody else to murder your wife yeah like no we're just gonna kill my wife you're gonna kill my wife I'm not I'm not doing it I'm just asking you to do it yeah and the Olin thing was like sort of an un
planned twist like they didn't know that Olin was going to go to the house or make contact with her ahead of time it just so happened that they were able to use him as a scapegoat because he had been there well and because he did the thing he said he was going to do which is that he went to town to call the police. Right. Yeah. Because eventually, and again, to give Olin some credit, he really, really tries, you know, to...
come in the house to help Danny. You know, he even says, like, you can stay right here. I will come in. I will look around. And she's just like, nope, nope, we're not doing that. Which, like, good for you. Yeah, like, legit, you know, understood. But he does say, he's like... I will go to town and call the police. And in the beginning, we're left wondering, like, well, oh, he said that and then he got in a window and murdered her. But actually, he went to town and called the police.
And was subsequently arrested by those police. Yep. When all he was trying to do was help. Poor Olin. I know. Justice for Olin. Justice for Olin. That's the name of this episode. Justice for Olin. And it does make me kind of want to go back and watch the short film about him. Yeah. Because I think it's the same actor who's actually in that one. He was great. Yeah. I like him a lot. I don't watch Vikings, but I'm just like, I would like to see a bit more stuff. Yeah. He's a good actor. Yeah.
We talked a little bit about Darcy's little oddity shop, but she comes fully prepared post- olin's murder she comes fully prepared with this cute little accessory that she puts his eye in yeah i love it and it's like this little leather pouch that she like ties to her like the waist of her um dress and i just think That's so adorable. Yeah. She's ready for all eventualities. Yeah. Her shop is really cute, too. Yeah. It comes with baggage, obviously. Yeah.
And there's actually, so Easter egg, if you've seen Caveat, there's actually a bunny in the movie Caveat. And that bunny is in the back room of Darcy's shop. So, yeah, I'm like fully ready for a full on like oddity expanded universe, you know, like conjuring us where they've done different movies with the different objects in the Warren's museums. Like, go for it. There were other things on those shelves.
I'm ready. Yeah. Somebody take over that shop. Yeah. I think I saw one of the clappy monkey things too. So I know we're already getting a monkey movie, but. I can always do more. Could be separate. Could do a prequel about Darcy and Danny's mom who ran the shop, who I love when Darcy just says about the Gollum, like, oh yeah, a witch gave this to my mom as a gift.
Yeah, for their five-year wedding anniversary. Yeah, like just super cash. Like, yeah, this local witch. This was their anniversary present. Yeah. The local witch. The lore there is really good. Yeah. And unfortunately, Ted burns it, but it's fully feels like one of those objects where like it reassembles itself mysteriously, you know, I think that that would be hilarious to like see. like Adventures of the Wooden Golem. Yeah, totally. Like where else has this thing been? Like what?
You know, it was gifted to her mother and then it was given to her. When did she bond with it? Has she always used it or was it like just, you know? In this particular instance, or has it done more harm for her? How long has it been around? Who carved it? You know, like how far back in Irish folklore does this guy go?
I have questions. Good idea. That's a good idea. Let's write the director of this movie. Let's write him. His name is Damian McCarthy. So we'll just write him. Damian McCarthy, call us. We have thoughts. We got ideas. okay so last thing i want to ask you a question because now that i've watched this a second time i i still don't know for sure okay do you think darcy knew that she was going to die when she went to the house because the bell came after.
question so we're talking about the bell at the end so after darcy's death she falls through the trap door and and dies and then she can well she's like struggling and then she connects to the golem golem kills ivan and then Ted kills Ivan later by way of another one of the patients. Darcy dies on the floor. But then several days after. there's a package that comes and it's the bell that Darcy was telling Ted about earlier in the movie that's haunted by an evil bellboy.
So I could go two ways with this. It's interesting because we don't fully know if Darcy can see the future. We know that she can see the sort of life of an object. So the past. We don't know if she has premonitions for the future. So I could see it going a couple of ways. I could see it as a... She knew, like she straight up knew she had a premonition. She planned for this. You know, this was all foretold or foretold enough that she knew have a backup plan.
B, she didn't know, but she is obviously a very prepared person. Darcy's probably a Virgo because she plans the plans. So she had a backup plan. Or she was just planning for the possibility that Ted would kill her or Ted and Yana, because remember that we. I understood it that Darcy doesn't know if Yana's in on it when she first arrives. So she might have also just been thinking like, hey, I might be up against...
Two murderers in a house in the middle of nowhere. I am a blind person. So I am at a disadvantage against two. people uh so i am going to create a scenario with a backup plan so i don't know it could have been any one of those so I think she knew she was going to die. I have flip-flopped on this. Originally, when I watched it, there's a line where she says that she had planned to kill Ted, but now she just wants to expose him.
I think that she had planned to kill Ted long before. But I think when she realized that Ted was not the, although the orchestrator of the death, he was not actually the person who had murdered. her sister, that she had sort of changed that plan ahead of time. But she also knew that she was at a very large disadvantage because Ted is cited and she's not.
I think she knew that she was going to be a mortal peril, that if not by the hands of Ted, by the hands of Ivan, if she wasn't able to, because it seems like the connection process between her and the golem is like sort of intense, you know, like. It's not just like she snaps her fingers and then she's in it. Like she has to concentrate very hard.
And that very well would have meant, you know, the difference between living and dying. Now, in her case, she, you know, was lured through this trap door. I think that she knew she was going to die. And so ahead of time. She was like, let me just add insult to injury. Even if she had been successful, how long would it have taken for Ted to go to the police? Like how long before he was compelled to, you know.
admit to what was happening if she was able to do whatever it was that she was going to do to expose him because that's the other thing we don't know what piece of the puzzle she was going to use to expose him right yeah because there's no records as far as we know and there is a bit where you know he tries to convince us the viewer that she's not all together there like maybe she's grasping at straws based on the fact that she's had brain tumors in the past and he
says like hey the police detective that worked on this is like satisfied with the ending like I'll call him and he can go back over the evidence which separately in my brain I'm kind of like what possible evidence do they have to to commit to say that Olin did this
especially if he wasn't there and he didn't have any blood on him. And there's no obvious signs that he was ever in the house anyways. Yeah. I mean, that seems very like corrupt cop. Yeah. Like maybe it was a payoff situation. Yeah. But. Now that I watched it a second time, I think that Darcy having lost that connection with her sister was ready.
To go like she was ready to sacrifice herself or knew that that was a very strong possibility. And that's why she sent the bell. Yeah. Do you think that the ghost in the bell is meant to.
kill ted or meant to haunt him so he never forgets about what he has done and and loses everything through some kind of madness of an ongoing you know haunting oh i think it's a very a uh a very like cask of amontillado situation i think that it's meant to haunt him i think in this particular case the ghost isn't malicious enough to actually like do bodily harm
But I think that Darcy wanted to never, ever let him forget. Yeah. And technically he does it to himself. He didn't have to ring the bell. Right. Yeah. Darcy never rang the bell. Nope. So. I think that he got away, but he will never rest. Yeah. So it's kind of poetic justice. Oh, I think so. I mean, like. Ivan died. We're led to believe that Ivan died based off of the last scene of him, you know, getting his toe bitten off. Yeah. Which gross. But yeah, I think that.
I think she just wants to torment him forever and never let him forget like both his own hubris, which hubris is like a big theme surrounding a lot of Gollum stories. So it makes sense. Yes, it is. The hubris that he thought. would get away with it, the hubris of controlling another person or another object in Darcy's case, because she did and she messed up.
Yeah. And that was her own hubris. She thought she had everything pieced together and that she was doing the right thing and she wasn't. Yeah. And then the hubris of thinking that everybody's dead, so I'm good to go. And you're not. I like it. I like it a lot. I do too. I think it's complex. I think it's like a real nice small gothic horror story. I loved it. Yeah, it was great.
Okay, what are we watching next time? Okay, well, up next, again, for something completely different. We've been swinging wildly in all directions lately, but that's okay. It's a vibe. We like a variety. Yeah, we like variety. Well, obviously, you know, the entire... horror and cinema community was rocked by the death of David Lynch recently. So of course, we're going to do a David Lynch movie. Get ready to have your minds blown with Eraserhead.
A movie I haven't watched in quite a while, so I'm ready. I've never seen it. Oh, wow. This will be my first time. Okay. I've seen lots of David Lynch, but not Eraserhead. Okay. So I'm excited to watch this one. Yeah. It's a fun one. Because this, I think, was like one of his first features. Yeah. So it's like fully early baby David Lynch. Yeah. Fully, fully committed to.
the the bit of being david lynch and i have found out so many more things about him lately like after his death that i didn't know because all you know i'll be honest i'm not i was not a huge David Lynch fan in general, like I've watched a lot of his work. But I also understand that maybe it's not for me entirely. But
Some of the things I found out about him since then have made him a much more fascinating figure in my brain. Yeah. So now I'm kind of like going back through and watching some stuff with that sort of lens on. And I am enjoying it quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to watch this one too. Thanks for listening to attack of the final girls. Find us online at attack of the final girls.com and hear bonus episodes at patrion.com slash attack of the final girls.
We're Attack of the Final Girls on Instagram and TikTok. Our theme music is by House Ghost and is available on Rad Girlfriend Records. Be sure to subscribe on your favorite podcasting app so you don't miss an episode. And rate and review on Apple Podcasts so more... where people can find the show. I'm Juliet. And I'm Teresa. Until next time, stay scary.