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 again, and welcome to Attack of the Final Girls. I'm Teresa. And I'm Juliet. And we're here recording our very first episode of the new year. So happy new year. Happy new year. Because of the wild, popular success of the substance.
in 2024 we decided to kick off the new year right also this i think this episode is going to come out this is going to be our inauguration episode right the one that comes out the closest i think the closest to it yeah it doesn't come out on it inauguration day the week before this comes out the 13th inauguration is on the 20th yep so this will be our our inauguration episode so we decided to do a
a movie about female revenge and it's literally called revenge yes so partially because the substance was wildly popular last year and coralie farge is uh the talk of the town currently we decided to do her first feature film and this was a shutter exclusive so you can watch it now it's in
English, partly. It's in French, the other part. There are also very, very long stretches of this movie with absolutely no dialogue. So if you're somebody... for whom subtitles are a challenge, I would say you will have a limited challenge with this one because there's not a lot of dialogue, nor is there a lot of crucial dialogue that is subtitled.
This movie kind of exists sort of absent of dialogue by and large. Most of the crucial parts of the story are not told through dialogue. Yeah, they're told through blood. Truly. The IMDb summary of this was kind of goofy. It kind of set me up for something that this movie was not. The IMDb summary says, never take your mistress on an annual guy's getaway, especially one devoted to hunting, a violent lesson for three wealthy married men.
This movie had nearly nothing to do with what this just said. Also, I don't even think that was the exact premise. No, it sure wasn't. It is about a mistress who is taken along for what's supposed to be the beginning of a guy's weekend. She's supposed to come and spend time with her guy, Richard, and the female main character's name is Jen. She's supposed to spend time with him ahead of the guy's trip. Then the guys will come after she's already gone. However...
Wires get crossed. They come a little bit early and she's still there. She is sexy and, you know, the men desire her and a terrible act of violence happens. And then afterwards, they leave Jen for dead. And then she's not dead. Right. And not even undead in like the zombie way. She's just not dead. Yeah. And she takes her revenge on the three men. Yeah, I think a better description would be something like, you know, three men commit an act of violence on a woman.
And she takes her revenge. You know, like, there you go. And granted, like, you could say that about so many movies. And I do think it's interesting that Coralie Farja... had not seen I Spit on Your Grave when she made this movie and was taking inspiration from some other films, some actually more male-centered films in terms of revenge and action. But this really does fall in...
to a new interpretation of that classic horror trope of the rape revenge film. And I love that this movie does the rape revenge trope with such a small cast. The beginning part of the movie is sort of through the mail. we kind of get the idea that Jen is eye candy. Although we also get that impression that Richard is going to be leaving his wife for Jen.
There's some pillow talk that kind of gives you the impression that that's what he's been telling Jen. Right. He has a conversation with his wife on the phone and they're talking about some child's birthday party where they're going to be.
serving some egregious bullshit for this child's birthday party i've been on this real housewives of beverly hills kick and there was a point where one of them had a fifty thousand dollar birthday party for their four-year-old and i was like eat the rich uh yeah eat this rich guy too because he's a piece of shit is he a politician is that because stan kind of made like this offhanded comment about having sex with politicians
And I wasn't sure if he was the politician in reference or if Richard is. I don't know. We never get a clear sense of what any of these men do for a living directly. We know that they are all... wealthy, influential. They are men who have enough access to afford expensive toys and go on like frivolous bullshit. Boys getaways. Hunting trips.
Yeah, air quotes hunting trips where I'm like, are you hunting the deadliest prey? Because it kind of seems like that even if you didn't say it. Right. And they're being flown in by helicopter? Yeah, yeah. So we never... exactly know what these guys do i mean i think when i look at them as characters like it could be any number of things these Could be executives. They could be politicians. They could be trust fund. Oh, yeah. You know, sons of wealthy families.
Any number of things. Insert your own male privilege here. Yeah. And Jen is aspiring to be either an actress or a model. We know she wants to go to L.A. to like seek her fortune. But she's not obsessed with hunting. That was one of the weird things that the IMDb summary said that she was like obsessed with hunting or like really good at hunting or something. It's like, no, no, she's not. She's really good at surviving, but she has nothing to do.
Hunting is not something that we get any sort of impression that she's great at or... No, because she's never like... Oh, you guys are here early. I want to come along. Take me along. No, she's very unconcerned with what they're doing until it concerns her. Yeah, because that would be giving sort of like your next that movie from 2011. Yeah, exactly.
But this, there's nothing, it has nothing to do with her being good at hunting. She's not good at hunting. That's like kind of the point is that against all odds, like Jen. persists yeah yeah well in fact like not to get like too far ahead but one thing that i really really like that they include like way later in the movie
is that she is not ready or prepared for the recoil on the gun, which is a mistake they make in movies all the time. Right. When you have like a character who, and I don't have, I have next to no experience with guns, but I know enough to know like. If you're not used to that recoil, it will fuck you up. Yeah. And we actually kind of see that happen. We see her physical response to the recoil of the gun. And I really appreciate that they kept that in.
both to highlight her vulnerability in all of this. Like, yeah, she's surviving, but she's still very physically vulnerable. And also because it's like way more realistic. Yeah, there are several moments. I mean, she doesn't check to see if the gun is loaded. Right. She's not a great aim.
I mean, there are points when she gets what she's aiming at, but I don't get the impression that she has any sort of hunting expertise. But I do want to mention Matilda Lutz plays Jen. Kevin Janssens plays Richard. Vincent Colom plays... Stan Guillaume Beauched plays Dimitri, and that's pretty much the cast of characters. Yeah. It's pretty small. It's Jen versus Richard, Stan, and Dimitri. Richard is her boyfriend slash...
lover, I don't know, and Stan and Dimitri are his friends. Although I have not watched The Substance again since we originally saw it in the theater, there are many things in this movie that I think... are going to be stylistically sort of Coralie Fargeau's like basically her signature. Yes. One of those things is like the inclusion of a lot of stuff in primary colors. She loves to have sort of that.
competing color scheme in the substance. It's like red, yellow, blue. In this movie, it's more like pink and turquoise and yellow. which goes well against the very harsh landscape of Morocco, which is where this movie was filmed. Even early in the film, there's so many instances where you have like really, really significant, severe clash of color that we later see in the film.
substance so I think that's going to be something that she brings in which is very much a homage to like Kubrick or Argento yeah Argento like there are so many famous filmmakers who use that sort of like color clash to emphasize certain scenes in the movie but specifically She does a really good job of like using those primary colors and really like being in your face with it, whether it be clothing or landscape or furniture.
she does a great job yeah definitely i think in the substance we get a lot more like scenes of like full color saturation where you know you've got like these big like all blues or all pinks or all oranges in scenes and then we have these like moments where typically the green of the substance is like the thing that's popping against other colors or against like the white of the bathroom in this movie it's really cool
Because we get these pops of color against that desert background. So it's like her color work is brilliant. And I think it works really well in this movie. Because sometimes, too, the color pops. are amongst grime like the hot pink pop of jen's earring as she physically gets like grimier and dirtier and is blending more into her surroundings but we still get that pop of that earring it's just it's
It's brilliant. Yeah. And Jen wears those star earrings. And Sue in The Substance also wears star earrings. So I wonder if that's going to be something we see over and over again, too, is like either big earrings or bold earrings, star shaped earrings, whatever.
it is and earrings are important in the substance like there are scenes where an earring is very significant one way or the other and in this movie it is too not only do we see them but also jen gets a part of her ear shot off at a certain point and her earring is just laying on the desert you know with her earlobe still attached so I like those little like small pieces that we see carry through from one to the other because although this movie totally stands on its own it is similar in that
The substance has to do with women fighting in a male-dominated world and then having to... transform to continue to be in that world. Yes. And this movie has to do with something very similar to that. Although it's not Hollywood. It's, you know, this. luxury mansion in morocco with three dudes versus like all of the public and the world you know in this substance but i do like that she tends to deal with similar stories and women being put into situations where
They have to overcome adversity, whether it's perceived or actual. It's a really interesting way to approach movies. I actually wrote as one of the notes, does Coralie Fargeat have a... butt fixation it's not so much a butt fixation as it is like showing somebody from the male gaze which is the very beginning of this movie jen is filmed basically from her ass up
And Richard can't stop talking about her butt. He says some weird shit about it being an alien butt. That was very odd. It was a very strange thing. And we have that very similar thing happening in The Substance 2 where we get...
So many ass shots. Yeah, I think there is something there about the male gaze because it's always very specifically, both with Sue in The Substance and with Jen in this movie, I clocked. It's not just an ass shot. It's very... particularly a certain kind of skirt like a certain kind of like quasi cutesy but also like sexy like kind of tennis skirt design and
Coralie Farjot said that she wanted to subvert the kind of Lolita imagery when she was making this movie. And I think that really factors into it as well. And when you think about sort of the stereotypical, like... cis man fantasy. It is like, you know, a hot girl with long legs and a tiny little short skirt walking around, you know, like, I think that is like, she really is taking that.
imagery, you know, that we've all kind of been ingrained with here in like heteronormative society and saying like, okay, I'm going to give you what you want, but, you know, and then the movie goes on from there. I also love the juxtaposition of the first night when Jen is there with Richard and the guys. She dances on one of them. And the following morning is when the, you know, the terrible act of violence happens against her. But she's dancing. She's playing the music that she selected.
There's wrestling on the television. That justification was so great. So it's supposed to be, I think, what it's supposed to be saying is sort of like this toxic masculine, you know, this feeding into this. And that's what causes what happens the following morning. because she is dancing on Stan.
And then Richard kind of puts a stop to it before she can get to Dimitri. He puts a stop to it, takes her into the bedroom, and then kind of the night is over. Well, the following morning, this is never really answered. why this happens why Richard would leave without telling her but Richard leaves supposedly for a few hours because he has to go drop off paperwork for hunting or whatever the hell and Dimitri is nursing a hangover so he's in the pool
And then Stan is like, OK, let's have breakfast. But he's like really being like very heavy handed about it. And so Jen's kind of like, OK. And she sort of like backs off. She's playing on her phone, whatever. Well, she decides that she's going to go pack and get ready because she's supposed to be leaving ahead of their guys trip. Stan follows her into the bedroom while she's getting dressed and rapes her.
And Dimitri comes in at a certain point. It's clear at that point that she needs help and stands kind of like, you can participate or you can leave. And then. Dimitri leaves and Stan proceeds to rape Jen. And then when Richard comes home, Stan's kind of like, oh, there's been a problem with Jen. She goes to sleep.
And then when she wakes up, Richard's like, here's some money. And also I got you a job in Canada. Which like, what the fuck? She says she wants to go to L.A. Yeah. But he sort of like wraps this thing up because he thinks what she wants and what she's. What's going to pay her off is having a new life somewhere else. And she's like, no, I don't want these things from you. I want to go home. Your friend.
He raped me. Yeah. And I want to go home. And he's like, oh, well, just don't make a big stink. And the other thing is, you know, he has a wife and children. He doesn't want to mess that stuff up. So he's trying to buy her off and it doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't work. She doesn't want that. She wants them to call the helicopter so that she can leave early. And that doesn't happen. He refuses. And.
She tries to run away. She basically is like, no, I want to leave. And she's being harassed by these three men. And they chase her. Richard pretends like... yeah, we'll get you a helicopter sooner, and then proceeds to push her off a ledge and attempt to kill her. She doesn't actually die, although she's grievously injured, like disturbingly injured, but she doesn't die.
So that's really where the movie starts is Richard and his friends think that they've erased this problem and Jen's just getting started.
being a problem yeah so i think that whole like lead-up sequence is really really interesting coralie farja said very specifically that she didn't want to focus or spend too much camera time on the act of rape itself which i really appreciate and actually is one of the critiques of the early rape revenge films in horror is that it's this sort of duality of like, okay, so you've got...
this seemingly empowered woman who is seeking revenge but we also have to see this horrible violence often for like minutes and minutes and minutes way too long in a scene inflicted upon her before we get to the empowerment and there was a lot of talk and continues to be a lot of talk about like is it truly empowering that that kind of a thing and i like that she just didn't go there what i did think was really really interesting and almost
to me, more impactful was in both this scene and then a couple of times elsewhere in the movie, kind of in the lead up to Jen's sort of transformation into revenge mode. We get these... cross cuts of what I see as men willingly refusing to participate in stopping violence against women. Like they know it's happening straight up and they're feeling some type of way about it, but they don't do anything about it. Yeah. Like out of.
self protection out of whatever, they just opt out. And I think that that is actually So realistic and impactful, you know, it's very much like, well, I'm not the one doing the violence, but it's not my place to stop another man, even though like. I have seen, I can hear, I am witnessing, like full body witnessing what is happening.
I'm just going to like go in the pool or I'm going to go be sad about it in front of the TV or I'm going to go space out. Like I think those scenes are so very impactful. Yeah, rather than Richard confronting his quote unquote friend, he decides that he's going to try and solve the problem. Yeah. Versus like, hey, why the hell did you rape my girlfriend? Yeah. You know, like instead of that and being mad at him, he immediately.
redirects his anger towards Jen. Like, oh, you don't want this solution that I've provided you that you didn't ask for? Well, then you have to die. Right. We have to clean up this problem. Yeah, she's the problem. Right. Not the rapist. Exactly. And there are moments in the film where it's very victim blamey. Like, well, you shouldn't have danced like that. You shouldn't have dressed like that, you know. But Jen is a...
person who is allowed to do whatever the fuck she wants and not have an expectation of being assaulted for that. And apparently the dudes have not gotten a memo on that. So it is an uncomfortable scene, but I do also appreciate that the gravity of the situation is there, but we don't have to be exposed to a long scene involving that. Not that I'm saying that... there's not a place for those type of scenes. But often when we see those in movies, it's...
a male director. I'm thinking Last House on the Left. That's an incredibly hard movie to watch, the original and the remake, to be frank. So yeah, I absolutely agree. I think that... It is done in a way that still makes you feel the gravity of the situation, but also does not belabor the point because...
Really, the story revolves around Jen persevering past that. And also, we're kind of meant to handle it the same way that the dudes do. They just are just like, oh, well, we just keep going. And we do too as viewers. We're meant to see this through the male gaze of like, oh, well, we know that that's happening, but we don't care. Right. You know, we're just going to keep it moving past that. Yeah.
Something that's extremely important about that scene and the fact that it's not Stan who pushes Jen off or Dimitri who pushes Jen off of the cliff. It's Richard, which indicates to me that Richard never really intended to. divorce his wife oh yeah my my note from that section is richard is the biggest sociopath of them all it had nothing to do with stan assaulting jen no that richard was going killer he was ready before and after
this to push her off of this cliff to clean up the problem. He was ready to do that. He didn't care about her. He cared about how this dalliance of his would have affected his real life. He didn't give a shit about it. That's what I wrote. I was like, it wasn't about his assault. Richard was ready to do this before, during, and after. All it took was one small indiscretion. It could have been literally anything. It didn't have to be Stan assaulting her. It could have been...
anything it could have been her pushing back and saying hey i want to stay an extra day it could have been her saying hey i got food poisoning and i've been shitting my brains out for five hours i want to go home early anything that would have you know gotten them diverted off of the plan would have been enough for Richard to say oh well I'm gonna push you off this cliff yeah and again we don't know what Richard
does in the real world but we know that he has a lot of power and a lot of privilege and i think that because of that power and privilege jen is in essence disposable to him he could get another jen You know, he can get rid of this one and, you know, move on and be a rich dude. And then when he decides he wants to, you know, fuck off and have another mistress, I think his presumption is, well, I'll just find another young hot.
girl in a short skirt that I can take out to my little desert hideaway. He views her as just utterly disposable because even after she's pushed off the cliff, they go back to the house and Stan and Dimitri are both like, whoa hey like hold up i'm feeling some type of way about this about what happened with jen and richard's like who i don't even know who you're talking about like he's so done already
And the guys that we're supposed to believe are like the air quotes sleazy guys that are the problem here are the ones that are. the roles are kind of reversed as the movie goes on like yeah they're still participating but you see just a little more of a hint of like regret and reflection on their part and Richard's just like nah
Like I'm done. Yeah. He's like, we're going to go clean this up. He was way too prepared for this. He's like burning her clothes. You know, he pushes her off this cliff and they see that she's been impaled on this tree. And he's like, we're going to go clean that up. You know, when they go out to hunt, they're not. even in he's not even in a hurry yeah i mean they are out in the middle of nowhere but he does not seem stressed nope like
It could absolutely be that Richard has done this before. That's what I was going to ask if you thought maybe he had done this before. He definitely seems the do too much coke and like kill a sex worker in a hotel kind of vibe. I don't know if he has done it before, but I know that he has. He is way too prepared to bail himself out. So even if he hasn't done it before.
He's definitely gone through the motions of thinking about what he would do. Also, the fact that he was like super not into taking the peyote leads me to believe he's like, no, I want to be present of mind so I can do what I have to do. Yeah. And that's terrifying. Also, I've never been offered peyote by any pilots that I've encountered.
But I do think that's kind of a weird thing that your helicopter pilot's like, hey, I'm just going to drop you off in the middle of nowhere in Morocco. Also, here's some peyote. OK, so the first second you see the kind of handoff, I was like, is he hitting? have a condom that's what i thought too because it's like crinkly yeah i was like that's a little forward bro but i i guess we're sensing the vibes here and then i realized it was peyote and i was like that's even weirder yeah yeah
I don't know. Maybe that guy's just like, oh, I've recreationally used drugs with you before. So here's something weird as like a parting gift. I don't know. I would be like, this is strange. And then, right. throw it away or something i don't know i'm not into like receiving recreational drugs from like the people that i pay to perform a service i don't know like if i went in to like get my oil changed and the guy was like here you go here's some like I'd be like,
Cool. I'm throwing this away immediately. Last time I got my oil changed, I did have the dude at Valvoline give me his whole conspiracy theory about what was going to happen after the inauguration. Oh, my God. So that was almost like receiving drugs from someone.
and I was just trapped in my car like oh god oh no like can I just watch tiktok on my phone please can I please just associate and you do the work that I'm paying you to do yeah you don't interact with me literally outside of that at all i just want to watch my silver springs memes please for the love of god oh my god that is wild yeah Well, I'm glad you got your oil changed. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Sorry that you were subjected to another dude's opinions about. I was just like, wow. That's.
also like why do you want to tell me this long story like please don't I know what about this I know makes you want to tell me literally anything yeah I try to have resting bitch face for that reason yeah
Good thing about resting bitch face, although I did not want or ask for this, nor did I mean for it to happen. I went to go eat at a local... chicken place so we're sitting there this was like monday before last so we're sitting there eating we order we get our drinks or whatever and then it's taking a minute for the food like not weird long yeah just like normal nobody was like you know like nobody was doing that
But the manager guy was like behind the window. They like pass it through the window to the front counter. Well, the manager guy was there and I accidentally made eye contact with him. Like not on purpose. We were just talking about something and then I made eye contact.
And I was like, oh, I didn't mean to. So we're just sitting there. And then he comes out like a couple minutes later and is like, oh, I'm so sorry for the time it's taking. I went ahead and refunded you guys for your meal. And I was like, I was like. what we did not nobody said that like nobody was upset about the food weight like it was not an inordinate amount of time like I didn't look at my phone or anything
Was it weird? Yeah, I did offhand say to Steve, like, oh, you know, we came here at lunchtime. But it wasn't a normal comment. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you know, because it's it's over by UD. So it's super busy there. Yeah. And so I was like, oh, it might be busy because of lunchtime. But it wasn't because the meal had taken a long time. It was just like an observation of what time it was. Yeah. And then it came out.
And was like, oh, we refunded your food. Sorry, it took so long. And I was like, it literally did not take long. Nobody said anything. Like, I wasn't mad. The service was incredible. Like, I wasn't mad or anything. And the guy just like.
comped our food and when he brought it out he was like oh so sorry for the wait again and i was like oh i think this is because i have resting bitch face because steve was facing me so they couldn't see him at all so that's why i'm making the assumption that they thought i was pissed whoops
So we got free lunch. I did not want free lunch, though. Right. I wanted to pay for it because it's a local restaurant. And I wanted to support the local restaurant. But instead, they just gave us our food for free. Whoops. So unintended, I guess, good consequence of that. I guess, yeah. But if they close down, I'm going to feel bad. You're going to be like, it was because I made some sort of like nasty face apparently was not on purpose. Anyways.
Speaking of like awkward conversations, I did want to clock when Stan asks Jen. He starts coming on to her and she's like trying to deflect and she's just like, hey, you're not my type. And then he goes. why am I not your type? And I was like, Oh, my God. Every femme person has to answer this question. I hate it. I hate it so much. I like that younger generations are just like the vibes are off. Yeah. And that's like the whole last answer.
Yeah. Like that is a whole last answer. Yeah. You don't have to answer. You don't have to tell somebody why. Yeah. Like you're not my type should be the end. Right. Like that's a period at the end of that sentence. Yeah. Like you're not my type. I don't like you. I literally just met you last night and I thought we were having a good time. That's why I danced up on you. But I don't owe you anything. Yeah.
And then she like scrambles to say, like, I like taller dudes. Yeah. And then he's like, well, I was good enough for you last night. And it's like, no, dude, dancing up on somebody is not an indication that they want to like be with you or get married to you. Also, that dude is.
married yeah so what the hell yeah it was rough to to watch that like unspooling and for her to just be like oh i like taller guys because richard is like there is a scene when san is actually asking him like i'm sorry or saying like i'm sorry what happened He's like maybe an inch and a half taller than Stan. Yeah. So clearly not the real reason, but also like, shut up. Yeah. Like, I don't want to be with you. End. Yeah.
That's it. I'm with Richard. Yeah. I danced on you because I thought we were having a good time. Yeah. That's it. What the fuck? Yeah. I love, though... that disgusting chewing is a hallmark like you pointed this out too like asshole dudes chewing like open mouth chewing disgusting shit is a definitely going to be a corley farshot like hallmark oh yeah it's a thing It's a thing. Dennis Quaid, open mouth chewing shrimp. He said that he had to eat like seven pounds of it.
to get the right shot yes like for that shot and I was like imagine Demi Moore like I would be like I'd be like okay I'm not eating for like at least four days after this I can't I can't watch this this guy's eating like candy bar or something yeah but like he opens his mouth you see half chewed food in there zero percent zero out of ten would not recommend yeah can't do it no no thank you thanks i hate it
No, it's the worst. Watching dudes open mouth chew literally makes me want to hide forever and never eat again. It turns my stomach. it's gross it's so gross not to jump too far ahead but she does an amazing job of taking very mundane like semi not a big deal things and turning them into being a big ass gross deal oh yeah yeah yeah yeah like the chewing of the food yes later when stan gets glass in his foot like oh my god yeah everybody stepped on some shit got something stuck in their foot
Watching Stan dig that glass out of his foot literally made me want to get sick. Oh, I know. We were both like yelling during that scene. she does it in the substance too yeah like you know people get shots all the time i mean julia doesn't get shots all the time no but like
That's a common, semi-common thing. Sure. You know, it sucks, but like it's a semi-common thing. I don't have a huge problem with needles, but I was like... rolling in my theater chair in the substance like I can't watch and it was like that in this movie too like watching him dig that out of his foot and then like you know some other stuff that's not
as small potatoes like watching jen you know cauterize her own wound with a beer can no thanks yeah i hate it i think that is the cool thing about like both this movie and the substance that coralie farjot does really really well is that she does body horror in a way that's so effective because she starts to ratchet up from like normal shit You know, like normal, like uncomfortable, like human, like, like nobody, you know, things that are generally unpleasant. And she just ratchets up.
typically getting to a sublime place of violence or horror or imagery. But it's also just like... so adjacent to reality that it's all the more uncomfortable like even at the end like some of Richard's wounds I really loved them because the effects were not real they were not realistic they were definitely like ridiculous like that side wound that is not like a real side wound a human being would get and then be up walking around able to saran wrap themselves oh yeah
And yet it didn't feel like movies where you have unrealistic wounds and you're just like... That could never happen. Like she builds the worlds of her film and the body horror so well that you're just like, oh, yeah, that's a thing that happened. Yeah, like when Jen gets impaled on the tree. Right. I'm pretty sure that nobody. would be able to survive that.
I say that, though, and then I think of the 127 Hours guy, and I'm like, oh, shit, people do survive some pretty hellacious shit. I mean, the human body can do amazing things, but also, oof. Yeah, like, Jen is impaled on this tree. upside down, hanging upside down.
overnight and then she burns down this tree so that she the branch that she's on can snap off and then she's just like chilling with this tree branch in her for a long ass time yeah and bleeding so much like when they're out during the nighttime like following the trail of blood i'm like there's no way there is no way yeah that's too much blood that's way too much freaking blood she weighs like i'm not trying to comment on her size but she weighs like
Maybe 110 pounds. She's very, very, very small. Like, I think that she actually was a model prior to this. She's very small. I don't know how much blood a normal person has, but she doesn't have as much as I've got. I'll tell you that. And there was way too much blood on the ground. So, like, it's like she's ratchet. it up and there were also parts where i was like how long is a bitch that she ate yeah like she hasn't had a snack in so long she had some beer and the peyote yeah you're in peyote
The breakfast of champions. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner of champions. Because I think she's out there for like a day and a half or something. I think so. But I was like, man, I wouldn't last out there without a snack. I'll tell you that. Yeah, no kidding. She doesn't have water. It looks like it's hot. It's the desert. I mean, I know there's a part where Stan's like, I got to be in the air conditioning in my car for a while.
It's way too much blood. Like, she definitely would be dead by this point. She would have just fallen over and probably not been able to get back up. And then the guys would have, you know, gotten to her. But we don't care. Right. We want her to succeed. Yes.
It's okay that there's an inordinate amount of blood. Or the fact that she is able to pull out this tree branch, cut herself further open after taking peyote, cut herself further open, take out this tree branch, cauterize the wound. Yeah, no. Probably not going to happen. Yeah. The area in which she's impaled, there's definitely going to be some like stomach stuff.
gut stuff happening, leakage, whatever. Yeah. Like how she doesn't have sepsis. I do not know. Yeah. Like it would have had to like go perfectly in between all of the things. I don't think that's how it works. It's wild. And watching her do that is also quite horrendous. Yeah. Especially because she's high on peyote. I know you mentioned while we were watching this, neither of us want to...
do recreational drugs in good, safe situations. Right, yeah. Let alone in a cave in the desert. Yeah, no thank you. While three men are hunting you. Or just two men, I guess, at this point. And you're... You still have the tree branch that you were impaled upon stuck in your body. Like, nope.
Yeah, Richard tells the story when Stan and Dimitri are like, let's take it. Richard's like, no, this Polish dude took some and then sawed off his own leg and he didn't even care. He didn't feel it. So, of course, Jen.
channeling the polish dude is like i'm going to take it and then take this tree branch out and she does and it's awful and then she cauterizes the wound and seals it with a beer can and she gets a sweet phoenix burn brand thing on her which is very cool for imagery but also yeah yeah so the special effects i'll talk a little bit about the special effects in this movie Pierre-Manuel Kos worked on Titan and on Crawl, the 2019 movie Crawl. And then Letitia Killary did...
The substance. She worked on the special effects for the substance. The special effects are great. They are... Over the top a little bit on purpose in the best possible way, similar to the substance. Dimitri, after he's been killed and then like left to swell in the water overnight, not realistic.
But very cool. Yes, definitely. It looks realistic in that the human body could do that just probably not after, you know, eight hours or whatever. Right. Yes. The gunshot wounds are pretty intense. The part where. After having taken the peyote, Jen wakes up several different times and sees her own head get blown off was wild and really good. All of it is practical. There's nothing that's CGI in this entire movie, and I really like that. Yeah.
It's nice to see something done in such a way where like anything that's been edited has been done like for photographic effect versus like creation. Yes. So like. The scene when Jen is riding the four-wheeler through the desert and it's like dark and her hair is all nasty with blood, but her earring is very pink, that you can tell is like probably not.
wasn't shot that way it was probably like emphasized yeah but it's really good yeah i enjoyed all of the special effects i thought they were great every single one of them yeah the score to this is a banger Not as much of a banger as the substance, but similar. If you like that one, you'll like this one. I absolutely agree. I thought it was so good. She has such an ear for it. Like the music.
is done in such a way that it absolutely amplifies what's happening on the screen. Weird dystopian moment. I was at Planet Fitness the other day and they were playing Pump It Up from the Substance. I was like, what the hell? And my partner was like...
oh, it's probably just somebody pranking you. And I was like, if they're pranking me, they're pranking frigging everybody who goes to Planet Fitness because Planet Fitness has a bunch of televisions everywhere that like play a channel where it's just music and then like...
watching people like snowboard down mountains and shit. Like it's one of those, like sort of like the weather channel, except it's like pop songs and like songs of the day. And then like cool videos of people doing weird shit. Yeah. And then they're playing Pump It Up and I'm like, is this the vibe you want to bring to the Planet Fitness? Do you know what that song's about? Right? They're probably like, oh, this one's popular.
It works for Jim. Do you know? Has anyone told you? Is this a vibe that you want to bring to the gym? I don't think so. I'm just going to dress up like... Never mind. I don't want to give anything away because eventually I do want to cover the substance. Yeah. But I love that towards the end of this movie, Jen is covered in mud and blood and disgusting.
And it's giving Juliette Lewis from the end of From Dusk Till Dawn. I love that. Very much so. I did read that one of Corley Farge's inspirations is Drive. And it is also very much, I would say, a parallel to the end of Drive where like the driver is basically like half dead. Yeah, that makes total sense. So I love that. She also referenced Under the Skin, which I could see.
She has this real gift of like paying homage to other people's stylistic choices or like a story, you know, and then taking it and making it her own while also like synthesizing, you know. a lot of other ideas and kind of making them into a brand new one. Yeah, very much so.
So towards the end of the movie, Stan and Dimitri are dead. Dimitri dies pretty much instantaneously, but Stan takes a little bit longer. There's a cat and mouse chase scene where she's chasing Stan. Stan's chasing her. I love that. When Richard gets back to that.
the house he decides screw it i'm going back to the house i'm calling the chopper i'm out like gonna use my rich guy privilege and just act like nothing happened right exactly exactly so he does and he's like i'm gonna go back to the house she's probably dead He doesn't know. He has no idea, but she's probably dead, whatever. And then he gets naked to go into the shower and...
Then he is naked and afraid in this like very long continuous shot of him going through the entire house and thinking that she's there. And I love that. I love watching him. be vulnerable. After we've seen Jen be vulnerable this entire movie, she's literally in underwear. Right. Carrying a rifle through the desert and like fighting for her life, getting shot at. avoiding starvation and dying of thirst in the middle of nowhere.
And she goes there and makes him feel vulnerable. And I also like that she is never like fully nude in the movie. Right. But Richard is multiple times. Yes. Yes. And I was like. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, not that I care, but I just like to see that he is fully vulnerable. Yeah. And that does flip the script on, again, horror tropes. And we've talked about this before. It is rare that we see male nudity in horror films or in any film, quite frankly.
In the same way that we so often see female nudity. And again, talking about cis bodies, we won't even get into trans bodies here because we just don't see that at all yet. And people haven't really... gotten comfortable with how they want to portray trans bodies in film unclothed. But yeah, women's bodies are so often shown in states of vulnerability, in states of titillation.
And typically you only get male nudity in sex scenes. Yeah. Period. If you get that. If you get it. Full frontal is like very rare. Yeah. And this movie does have full frontal male nudity. I just thought the entire time, like, way to make a guy feel vulnerable. And perhaps that is because he's carrying a gun. And if he were clothed, we would not feel like he is vulnerable. I think so.
Yeah. So to like strip him down and make him totally naked walking through this house, I think is like really trying to underscore the point of like, she has all the power in this moment. He's the one that's going through the house on the defense, you know, thinking that she could be around any corner. And she's not. She's not around any corner because she's outside the house. And she ends up shooting him so hard. I don't even know how else to say it. Like, he is just...
I mean, this is a high powered rifle and she just like blows a hole in his side through this like blue like film on this door. I love it. It was. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Such a cool scene. And there's just... Like before she does that, he sits down on the couch and accidentally turns on the TV and it's the shop club infomercial. Yeah. Which is hilarious. It's so funny. And it's playing throughout the whole rest of the chase. The chase is great.
like who's going to be the one to do it first you know because obviously at this point Jen has kind of a leg up because
Although she was grievously wounded, she has cauterized her wound and we're meant to understand that she's okay for the time being. And Richard is bleeding like a stuck pig all over the place. There's this white all over this house. He's just... drenching it in his blood and it keeps you on your toes you really are like oh she's gonna do it oh no he's gonna be the one yeah you know and uh the entire time the shop club is playing like it's all great all of our buy our baubles and jewelry
Capitalism. Yeah. It was great. I think that the moral of this movie, though, is that we need to just arm all femme people. We're not going to be able to take any guns away. we're gonna see that here shortly i mean obviously like the inauguration is about to happen but i think what this movie tells us is like no give all women rifles teach them how to use them i think that there would probably be a lot less instances of men thinking like
oh, we can erase this problem by killing this person if they were like, oh, I don't want to get my dick blown off. Yeah, that is true. Did I just solve the problem? You might have solved it. No, I didn't. I'm aware that the problem is more nuanced, but it worked in this movie. Right. Gave her a rifle and she was like...
I'll take care of myself. Yeah, I get it. She did. Although she didn't have a rifle when she killed Dimitri. Right. She just had a knife. Yeah. So I think to just say arm all the women. I think that's. Yeah, that's about right. Coralie Fargeat has this really, really good talent of doing a story about a woman.
bouncing back from being preyed upon by men and having this sort of transformation into a survivor. Yeah. Or... if it's not like being a survivor as it is in this movie it's about acceptance like self-acceptance yeah i think it's about
perseverance yeah you know and sort of like the the undying will because i think that's where this movie and the substance really have a lot in common is there is an undying will there is something that just about you know all of the women involved in these movies refuses to relent Yeah, in spite of losing all of the blood. Yes. In the body. Yes, all of the blood is gone. What are we talking about next time? Okay, so next time.
Next time, for something completely different, we are going to go to 1987 and watch a movie called Slaughterhouse Rock. Oh, boy. I will just set the stage for you. This movie has everything. This movie has cannibalistic demons possessing soldiers. It's got nightmare scenarios in a former prison. And it's got the ghost of heavy metal singers and Tony Basil is in it. Wow. It's a lot.
It's a lot. It's not anything like this movie. Nope. 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...
I'm Juliet. And I'm Teresa. Until next time, stay scary.