Too much horror business Driving late at night Psycho 78 Greetings and salutations. My name is Justin Lohr. And I'm Liam O'Donnell. And you are listening to episode 153 of Horror business. There's no way to say it in a unique way applying to the films that we're watching. No, actually. In fact...
There's only one thread between these two movies, Justin. But what a thread. If it wasn't for that one thread, these would be – it would be literally like we chose the most random two movies in the world. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean I suppose I could – become excessively sweaty take my shirt off and stalk women while wielding a large knife and whatever came out of my mouth I could say 153 horror business. Or whatever Michael Ironside sounds like in...
One of the movies we're doing. What are the movies we're doing? We are doing 1977's Kingdom of the Spiders and 1982's Visiting Hours. And... Liam, what is the thread between these two films? My man, Bill Shatner. William Shatner. Bill Shatner. I mean, here's the thing. I would have said Kingdom of the Spiders and Devil's Reign, but I thought we had already covered Devil's Reign, though now I don't think we did. Did we? No, we did the devils.
Oh, okay. So I guess we could have done Devil's Reign. Apologies. But then I was like, oh, you know, I haven't seen Visiting Hours in years. So I just figured out two different Will Shatner movies. And I feel like... I mean, no offense to anybody, whatever. I just feel like Devil's Reign is a more obvious Will Shatner movie. Visiting Hours is... I don't know. I would not have pictured him in it, but he's actually...
For the role he's in, a pretty good fit, actually. I have a lot of feelings on Visiting Hours that we're going to get to. It's a weird movie, actually. Yeah, it's a really weird movie, and it... is apparently a maligned film from what I, from what I saw. A lot of people weren't comfortable with the amount of like violence against women in it, which I'm not going to make excuses for.
But we'll get to what I liked about this movie. I mean, I have mixed feelings on it. I remembered liking it, but I did see it. at like two in the morning at a horror-a-thon. So I'm not sure. There was a whole chunk towards the end that I realized I must have fallen asleep because I didn't remember any of it. But I will say this. I will talk about it in more detail, but as a prelude for people to think about.
For a movie that is in every, not in every, but in many ways trying to give off the feeling of like gritty grindhouse, whatever. There's actually not a lot of blood in this movie. No, no. And it's also. Well, we'll get there. We're going to get there. I found myself at several points being like, this is a really.
Interesting looking movie. I agree. I agree. Okay, we'll talk about it. We got to do some stuff first, though. We do. So first off, we want to thank you, our Patreon subscribers. Thanks. You are the... You are the air within our lungs, the wind beneath our wings, the sparkle within our eyes, and the blood that flows in our veins. The blue chew in our dicks. The Blue Chews, that's you. You're a Blue Chew person. You said that, not me. Anyway. I thought it was funny. And it was good.
All that equates to is you are the money – you put the money in our pockets that help us not lose too much money doing these podcasts. If you would like to join the multitudes of patrons, you can head to www.patreon.com backslash cinepunks. And it's pretty self-explanatory. You go there, you press a button, it asks for your money. You give us your money and then that happens. We also want to thank the...
assholes over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations. Oh, man. Oh, man. Now, Liam, if I said to you, I wanted to get a t-shirt that said... Had a picture of Luigi Mangione on it, and it said, I make it to Meatball, I kill it at a CEO. Fuck. Yeah. Where would you suggest I go?
Get that T-shirt made. I probably would suggest you not do that because that's a bad idea. But I would send you to Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations and maybe let Brad over there tell you it's a bad idea because then I don't have to deal with it. In this house, he's a hero. Brad and Luigi Mangione. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Okay.
So yeah, if you have an idea for a t-shirt that'll get you put on a watch list, you can head to www.xlvacx.com, not just for a quality t-shirt, but also to put them on the watch list. Yeah. Definitely. Which is like a, like a, it's like, you know, it's the cherry on top. Look, we're all quick to turn on Luigi, but how do we know it's not Waluigi? All right. Think about that. Well, for one, for one.
To the best of my knowledge, whoever shot this fucking pig didn't go, wah, when he did it, which is what Waluigi would have done. There's no sound on that video. You don't know. True. He could have gone, wah. When he did it. Oh, man. Yeah, xlvacx.com. We also want to thank our buddy Aaron Dahlbeck over at XX Coffee Roasters. If you want high-quality coffee,
sent to you fresh, roasted fresh, as well as high quality teas. Go to EssexCoffeeRoasters.com, check out all they have to offer there, including their quality merchandise, lots of t-shirts and mugs and that sort of stuff. And as you exit out of there, put in that code, C-I-N-E-P-U-N-X. Get 10% off. Get that 10% off. Of course, we want to, as always, thank our buddy Sharky over at Mechanical Shark Media.
And, hey, yo, I got a company. It's called Rough Cut Fan Club. We do t-shirts. I don't really plug it. I just started. We just started this thing where I talk about it. So, hey, go check it out. It's great. Honestly, I don't know if we'll have something new out because I'm... the less important member of this duo, but hopefully we'll have something new by the time you hear this. Maybe. We'll see. You're the guy who's not Fenris in Dark Throne. Sure, right. The other guy. I'm okay with that.
Okay. All right. Now comes the time in the podcast when Liam and I are stuck in the desert. Somehow we're intimidated by a couple dozen spiders because we're irrational cowards. And as we're nailing the window shut... To keep the tarantulas out, I look at Liam in a panic. And I say, Liam, what have you done involving her recently? That is a very good question. Well, I'll bring up the thing that we have in common first, because I feel like that'll be a place for discussion, which is that.
You didn't even tell me I had to go see it, but I just knew. And then I asked if it was okay if you thought I would like it. But I knew that you were going to see a little movie called Werewolves. Werewolves! The movie's so great, they gave it the most boring fucking title I've ever heard a movie. I mean, is there a way they could have made that?
a less engaging is there a less engaging title that could have I guess like midnight or like full moon no that's already a movie no werewolves it's the worst name anyway I went and saw werewolves in the theater. Basically, if you're like, why did you go see werewolves?
I needed to see something in the theater. You ever get that feeling where you're just like, I got some time right now. I want to get out of the house. I want to go see a movie. That's what we're going to do. So I went and I went and went and saw werewolves with a few other people. Not a lot of other people, I'll say that much.
Although I will say randomly, the theater was packed. And I don't know. I couldn't tell if they were in the theater. And when I say packed, y'all, this was in the morning. I was there at like 1030 in the morning. That's awesome. And I think they were all there to see Wicked, but also maybe that Rohirrim movie was out. I don't know if the Lord of the Rings cartoon was out yet.
So it was either Lord of the Rings cartoon or Wicked. I don't know. But there were people there, and I was really confused. I was like, wow, look at all these people here for werewolves. And then I went into werewolves. They're like, nope, nope, just me and five other people for werewolves. Okay, so. The idea that I have to bust the plot out for folks right now. Tell us, Liam. Tell us the completely reasonable. logical plot of werewolves, of Stephen C. Miller's magnum opus, Werewolves. So...
One time when there was a supermoon – by the way, I think that happens all the time. That's not a weird thing to happen. But one time when there was a supermoon, millions of people turned into werewolves. Billions. They just – Yeah, billions just turned into werewolves, and it was a nightmare. And now, two years later...
The world is trying to recover from the appearance of the werewolves. And now we know somehow. They never quite tell you why we know now. It's going to happen again. It's going to happen again. This is the night. It's going to happen again. Some people have come up with some things, and we follow Frank Grillo, who, from what I can tell, his character is a vet. Like, not a veterinarian. A veteran. A former firefighter.
Yes. And a scientist. A man of many talents, Frank Grillo is. And so this killing machine firefighter scientist has to go join scientist Lou Diamond Phillips and... Not a firefighter. Not a firefighter. No, and random attractive British ladies who I think are supposed to be like wolf experts or something, and they're going to test out their thing. So when did they come up to do this? Now, can I just say...
Justin, the first hurdle here is not their dumb idea, right? I want to get to the very first hurdle. What you have to accept if you're going to watch this movie is that... I don't even talk about the rest of the world. Let's just say in the United States of America, millions of people turned into werewolves.
And then when they turned back into humans, we just reincorporated them into society. We didn't say, well, let's just murder all these people now that they're people, then they won't be werewolves again. No, no, no, no, no. We just said...
Okay, well, that sucked that you did that, but I guess you're just one of us again. I'm sorry, y'all. In this country, they'll kill you if you shoplift. You're telling me in this country, millions of people turned into werewolves, and then we were just like, hey, you know what? Water under the bridge. It's cool.
It's fine. I mean, don't get me wrong. The night of the moon, when they're all going to turn into werewolves again, we do put them on buses to ship them off somewhere, which we never find out where that is, but they're being shipped out. Sure, sure, sure. But it's been two years. For two years, they've just lived among us.
I'm sorry. I'm not saying they shouldn't. I'm saying we couldn't handle that level of forgiveness in this fucking country. There's no way. I get that, like, well, these are our brothers and sisters and children. Yeah, and we'd put a bullet in them. That's what would happen. The moment they weren't werewolves, they would get shot.
Like, that's it. It would be over. Especially because at first, no one knows. I mean, honestly, it's been two years. They still don't really know what caused the whole fucking thing. All they know is that if you get exposed to moonlight on a supermoon... You turn into a werewolf. Yeah. And so obviously they must have come up with some sort of complicated vaccine or genetic solution or, oh, no, actually, they came up with moon screen.
You're going to spray them and then the moon won't get into their skin or something? And as I realized watching this movie, all moonlight is is reflected sunlight. And I know I'm nitpicking. Okay. I know I'm nitpicking. Once it hits the moon, it becomes magic. We all know that. That's a common knowledge. Yeah. Oh, my. Here's the thing, Justin. Can we just say this for a second, y'all?
I get that werewolves are not real, and we're just talking about either fictional ideas or folklore, right? That's what we're talking about. But I really don't think the idea is that werewolves just see the moon. and become werewolves, right? I think the idea is that the moon becomes full on a certain basis, like on a certain time scale. So that's the scale, the waning and waxing of the moon that causes the transformation.
It's not that the light, I mean, if that's what it was, you could just put the werewolf in the basement. Bada bing, bada boom, no werewolf, right? Yeah. But in this movie? In this movie? It's just the moonlight and they just got to wear a moon screen and we're good. Although it turns out it only lasts for like an hour and then they turn into werewolves and then all hell breaks loose and Frank Grilla gets to do a bunch of action stuff.
Justin, this was a fun movie, but this is one of the dumber movies I've seen in the theater in a long time. I wholeheartedly agree. I liked this movie. I think it was... I think they did the best that they code with what they had. Sure, yeah. As ridiculous of a premise as it is, I think the heart of it, like a werewolf apocalypse, part of me says like, fuck it. Yes.
They're, you know what I mean? Like, pedal to the metal, let's fucking do it. But my problem was is that, like, they, not that Frank Grillo and LDP were doing these, like, Oscar worthy performances, but like they're both competent actors. Right. And they very clearly had specific motivations.
for their characters uh i wrote in my review that one of the things i really liked about frank grillo is that um he didn't he very easily could have just been like like a jason statham like fuck at that little doggie and just done like quips the entire time instead this dude was just like i just want to get to my niece's house to protect her and you need to calm down
He's speaking to the people he's with so we can get out of here and we need to have a plan that's reasonable so we can get there. Like I said, he was a Chuck Connors in a John Wayne world, which I appreciate. Now. All of that being said, the fucking werewolves, like, they looked so cool. And there were so many scenes that were legit scary, but, like, you gotta know that when—you gotta fucking know that less is more, baby. You can't show—
This isn't Bad Moon. You can't show the werewolf standing in the middle of a kid's bedroom being menacing with all the lights on, on full display. This isn't dog soldiers where you can look at them and be like, look at these things. These werewolves were scary at a glance. But the more you looked at them, the more ridiculous they looked.
It's not just a look either. It's that they really want to have – it's not clear that anyone stood around and said, hey, what are these werewolves actually capable of, right? When the werewolves collaborate... It doesn't feel like a pack. It feels like a bunch of dudes in the street. When one of the werewolves gets shot in the eye with pepper spray, he walks over to a bird bath and washes his eyes out like he's a fucking dude. And the whole point here is that...
They're all wild, right? No one turns into werewolf and is like, I'm still Tom. You know what? I'm a werewolf, but I'm still Tom. You know, I'm still me. No, they're not. And yet, rather than show them like, wow, they're incredibly smart for beast wolves. No, no, no, no, no. They're basically mildly dumb people. who are now giant wolves. I mean, the one guy figures out how to kill the electricity. Okay, come on. What are we doing here? What is this? It started to feel like the... Don't be wrong.
You don't have to nerd out too hard for the werewolf movie, right? No. But there are certain expectations of like, this is what the rules are. This is how it works. This is what we're doing. And it just felt like they kept cheating in ways that they didn't have to. For example, your favorite part of the movie, the cyberpunks in the mall. My God in heaven. The mall that just happens to have miles of tunnel underneath. What is, what, what? A, why are there so many tunnels under the mall?
B, why are there cyberpunks in the mall being weird and cyberpunk-y? C, why were they in the movie for 45 seconds and there was this big buildup like, oh, then maybe they know something that we don't. They're in the movie for fucking not even a minute to be like, go that way. This, that scene. almost broke me as a human being. That scene was so confusing, I thought I was asleep and was wandering around my house, touching things, loudly saying, I am awake right now. I am awake right now.
Let's make something clear. Like the theory, the thing that it looks like they're trying to show you. They introduced the idea earlier in the movie that some of the people who turned into werewolves two years ago who mysteriously are still alive. They like want to turn back into werewolves. They're like really fucking stoked on it, right? Which is a fascinating, which is a neat. I'm so into the idea. That's a neat idea. And then they go into this mall. And you know what's in the mall, y'all?
All the stores have the grates down, and behind those grates are people who are clearly people who had been werewolves, who now are kind of wanting to go be werewolves, but they're locked up. That's cool. And then these dudes show up. They got the gas mess on. They got ponchos. got weapons you're like oh shit do these people like are they like the underground or they work with the werewolves like what is happening here and then
All this buildup, it's like very much, when we say buildup, it's like visually, right? The camera work, everything. And then Frank Grill goes like, we just want to use the tunnel. So they're like, okay, that's it. That's the whole fucking scene. The whole scene is Frank Grill being like, we want to use the tunnels.
And them very menacingly agreeing. Like, they're being menacing, but they just agree. There's no conversation. There's no evidence. There's no, you know what I mean? Like, if I'm a crazy cyberpunk guy who's got a bunch of these werewolves trapped in my mall, right, they haven't turned yet.
guys, but they could turn. And then I'm all like, I'm so protective and I'm not going to let anyone in. I need a conversation. We got to have a tete-a-tete here if we're going to let you use our tunnels, which by the way, why are the tunnels there? I don't know. I think they really just wanted Frank Grillo to fight a werewolf in a tunnel. That's all this was a setup for. Which is fine. Which is fine. I get that. I...
All I wanted from this movie was approximately 90 minutes of Frank Grillo being like, I've had enough of these goddamn werewolves. These werewolves. That's what I got. I can't complain. There were several – I honestly do think my least favorite misstep in this entire movie was talking about people who wanted to go back to werewolves. When they're experimenting on – they have the four people. They have – The scientist, her husband or whatever.
He's the stoic Asian guy. Then they have just a random woman. And then he's two fucking new metal dipshit boners who every fucking second they were on screen, I was cursing God and my parents and just. oh my God, they were so annoying. But the whole idea is like, they kept focusing on this guy, the stoic Asian guy. Meanwhile, you have this woman who kind of alludes to coming from like a lower class.
who was like, I've changed my mind. I don't want to turn into a war of, could you please get me out of here? And her performance is so pitiful and empathetic that I was like, this is what they should be focusing on. Like the terror of possibly losing your humanity and becoming a – like that is something I want to know about. Not about fucking the reject from a corn video, you know.
Oh, look at me, I'm evil. I'm ready to turn into a werewolf. Like, my, Jesus Christ, I was so ready to just body slam my TV out the door at that guy. My least favorite part was the fact that we were shown... multiple shots of a character checking to see how many shells they have for the shotgun. They have nine shells. That's all they've got. They've got nine shells. And then at a certain point when there are werewolves on the roof, they just start shooting.
At the roof. And this is in a movie where we've already established if the moonlight touches you, you turn into a werewolf. Dude, not only that, I'm watching this movie and I'm like, how are these people this? Okay. To the best of my knowledge, there are no werewolves. I have more guns in my house right now and more ammunition in my house right now than these people did at any point in this movie.
And it's not like Frank Grillo's a pacifist, but he's just like, all right. No. We got this one shotgun and he's nine. Well, it'd be different if it was like there's a shortage, right? But the neighbor is covered in guns. He's got a million guns. He's got guns out the wazoo. gorilla's like well i don't like that asshole so i'm only gonna have the one shotgun and nine shells and then
You know, his his sister-in-law is like, well, I'll just shoot at the ceiling. I'm sure that'll get the werewolves. No, it's not going to get the werewolves. What's wrong with you? That's like another weird like characterization is like. You know, it's like, OK, they have this guy who is like clearly fucking pumped up for shit to go bad so he can, you know, show off his toys and flex his boner and all this shit. And then you have Frank Grillo who's like, I think the best.
course of action is to simply be prepared and and deal with these threats as they come along not to actively engage with these fucking things and invite i'm like okay that's a reasonable cool thing to do but then He does nothing to prepare his sister-in-law for that. And instead it's like, here's a shotgun and nine, nine, nine shells. Liam, I don't know if you know this about shotgun shells. Are you ready for this? What?
There are more shotgun shells in a box of shotgun shells than nine. That's what I'm saying. Like, just buy a second box of shells. What is so hard about this? Or if you know you have a limited, okay, we need the limited because it's going to make it more exciting. Okay. but she's been trained by Frank Grillo not to just shoot randomly into the wall, right? Anyway, I'm picking on silly things. It's just...
They it's because they make these things seem important for the plot that when they end up just being stupid, it's distracting. Right. Whereas if they had just been like. Oh, it doesn't matter. Like, we won't show you the shells five times, so you know how many there are. We'll just say there's a shotgun and then, oh, there's only so many shells. Oh, no. Like, it becomes less like this was an important thing. And there's just a number of decisions like that.
where I just was like, this doesn't really matter. Why is this happening right now? But on the other hand, was a lot of Frank Grillo and werewolves. Okay, moving on. Just speaking of Frank Grillo, have you seen a little show called Creature Commandos? Is that out now? Oh, yeah, it is out. There are three episodes ready to watch. On HBO Max? Yes, sir. I'm watching that as soon as we're done recording. Well, I'll tell you what. I liked Frank Grillo in this werewolf movie.
I like this Creature Commando show. I'm not sure Frank Grillo is an accomplished voice actor. Can I just say that? It's just his voice. Now, I want to say something here. There's going to be a live-action Creature Commandos movie. Okay. And everyone who does a voice on the show is going to do that character in live action.
which I think was a smart choice because they're like, here they are in a silly universe, but we're going to use these same people again. So it makes sense. And Frank Grillo is a good choice for the character he's playing. But everyone else on the show is good in the booth. They are good at voice acting. And Frank Grillo, who I don't think is a bad actor overall, he clearly has not done a lot of voice acting for cartoons. He just sounds stiff. He sounds stiff the whole time. It's really weird.
Yeah, I can't think of one thing. He's like one role like that that he's done. Yeah, I mean, maybe he has in some things. I haven't seen him, but it's just he just stands out so far in the first two episodes. At least I haven't watched a third one yet that he is. much more stilted than the rest of the cast. Not bad. Again, he doesn't ruin it, but it's like everyone, I mean, he's in a show with Alan Tudyk, right? The king of voice acting.
How can he hold up to Alan Tudyk being a fucking mastermind? And then everyone else is really good, too. So whatever, whatever. It's a little distracting. But overall, for those of you who don't know, Creature Commandos... It's basically like Creature Commandos is the suicide squad if they only used monsters, basically. So even though that, you know, James Gunn is rebooting the DC universe, right? He's decided to make his show.
which was technically in the other universe, is still going to be canon, you know? And so remember on his show, is it Amanda Waller? Yes. Amanda Waller's daughter outed her and the Suicide Squad. So Congress passed an act that she can't do that anymore. But she focuses on the idea that it's specifically in the acts as humans. So she goes to like the part of.
bell reeve prison that's all the like weird monster things and she's like okay well i can just do a suicide squad with these guys but we'll call them the creature commandos and Frank Grillo is playing the father of the guy who died in the Suicide Squad movie. I don't remember. Flag, basically. It's his dad. Oh, cool. Yeah, it's like a really good character point. Again.
This is a James Gunn project, so let me just say, just in the first two episodes, we get character development and pathos and actual emotional stakes and totally ridiculous humor. blue humor, and also the older character fucks a very hot young woman. And the older character looks a lot like James Gunn. So just take all that in for yourself, however you want to think about that. It's literally this hot princess. Now, I will say...
Savvy watchers like myself have pointed out online that as much as it seems a little odd that the stand in for James Gunn is now fucking this young hot lady. I think many of us are thinking. Okay, there's nothing normal about that. Like, she's going to be a monster. Or there's going to be something weird. You know what I mean? Like, there's clearly a trick going on here. And so that feels very James Gunn to me to be like, yeah, then the old white-haired guy fucks the young girl.
Everyone thinks it's hot. But then guess what? She's a monster and he tried to kill him. And I'm like, OK, yeah, that sounds like James Gunn, actually. And to be fair, she's an adult, but it's just like she's drawn as like this traditionally sexy person. And it's not like.
But he just looks old, right? He just looks old. And I'm like, okay, okay, James Gunn, what are we doing here? Why is this a thing? But the more that I watched the show, by the end of the second episode, I was like, okay, I think something is going to go wrong here in a way. that is going to make this even funnier that this happened. And I'm looking forward to that. Anyways, Creature Commandos. The Bride, who's the Bride of Frankenstein, is great. David Harbour is Frankenstein. He's great.
as in that role. And Alan Tudyk, I said, is in it. He's Dr. Phosphorus. And just a little bit we get of him is very good. It's very, very good. So yeah, it's funny. It's fun. I hear there's going to be some crazy like. sort of cameo things because james guns trying to get people excited for his dc movies so yeah unlike what these companies usually do which is like you gotta hold back the good stuff you can't put the good stuff in the tv shows james guns like no that's stupid i'm gonna
whatever the fuck i want i'm pretty sure his superman is going to be on the next season of harley quinn which is like not even dcu but he just is like doing like the next season of harley quinn she's moving to metropolis with poison ivy and they're just going to be in Metropolis. Sick. Awesome. James Gunn definitely had some input on that. You know what I mean? Because that's his first DC movie is going to be Superman. So I think he's trying to get people stoked on Superman, which, you know.
Good luck. No, most people like Superman. I'm being unfair. Okay. I like Superman. I like All-Star Superman. I was just going to say, I like Grant Morrison's Superman. Right, exactly. And Mark Miller's Red Son. will forever go to bat for red sun. Right. But that's like literally the anti. So like the two versions of super radio like is, uh, Grant Morris, a super, which is basically like,
The extreme Superman, it's like extra Superman. You know what I mean? It's like the most Superman Superman or the anti-Superman. And normal Superman, you're like weird on. It's almost like he's a really cool character in theory, but almost always badly executed.
I actually don't think he's a cool character in theory. Well, I like Grant Morrison's theory, which is like he is a god. He could kill everything and everyone. So you have to focus on him being witty because it's not that interesting that he could just. destroy everything. You know what I mean? It's just not interesting that he's invincible. It's why, not to go off on a crazy tangent, it's why I love...
It's why I am forever fascinated by stories of Superman-esque figures gone bad. Like fucking Mark Waid's Irredeemable. Right, right, right. Like the reboot of Supreme Power. fucking bunch a bunch of other ones yeah mostly those two but um yeah that's either here nor there though
That's whatever. Well, regardless, Creature Commandos, check it out. I recommend it to everybody listening. I really like it. We'll see where it goes. Maybe it'll jump off the rails, but so far it's got to be really excited that maybe James Gunn is going to do some cool things in this world. Yeah. That's all I got. That's all you got. I watched a movie on Shudder that I thought I was going to watch to dunk on and to hate. I ended up really liking it.
It's a little movie called The Exorcism, starring Russell Crowe. Oh, okay. This is his, like, he's in the movie about the exorcism, and it's haunted or something, right? Is it? Or is it his? You know what I mean? Right, right, right. So I think this movie was kind of panned because it was the second movie he did where he was an exorcist, except in the first one where he has a weird Italian accent that...
I don't want to touch with a 10-foot pole. This one actually has things like... character development and stakes and you're invested in these characters and an interesting plot that goes beyond just like, hey, exorcisms are real, the Pope, Russell Crowe. It's a shame. I don't think this movie, it's not going to get much exposure, but I really liked it. And then I watched another movie on Shudder called Mads.
Oh, yes. I thought the trailer for that looked really good, but I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. It's all one shot. That's cool. It is wild. It's mostly that. It's mostly a film that you will enjoy from, like, a technical perspective, like how they pulled it off. It's, you know, not the most original plot, but that's fine because you're seeing... 90 plus minute movie in one shot, which is fucking fascinating. Um, and then this isn't really horror related.
I mean, it's horrific. Have you watched the Jean Benet Ramsey, John, on Netflix? No. I didn't even know that was a thing. It's three episodes. That shit is chilling. Really? It fucking scares me more than like shit on like aliens and whatnot. And this is like, you know, like... I'm 41 years old. I was old enough when that happened. I wasn't like a tiny little boy in my short pants.
on my father's knee while he railed against the injustice system, the justice, the injustices of the justice system. I was a teenager when that happened. I remember when that happened. But watching this and the way they would describe, like, the crime scene. And I was just like, I feel like my house is going to get broken into tonight. And I'm going to find a dead little girl in the basement somehow. Oh, no. Yeah. But.
It is – it's fucking fascinating. It's so good. It's also like an exercise in like the court of public opinion and how easily that can be swayed by just like – You know, assholes like Geraldo Rivera, a few well-meaning but very, very badly. uh how do we say the badly executed ideas by local reporters in boulder at the time and then one asshole detective who seemed to think that like she was in
Like a fucking Frank Miller comic book. You know, they're in this woman. She's like, and I looked into his eyes and I was counting mentally the bullets in my guns because I didn't think that we would get out of that room alive. None of us. And I knew that. I'm like, shut the fuck up. He's not like.
you know, the Terminator, like this is a grieving father that you're, you're clearly like hamming it up for this interview. And I don't know, it was, it's, but it's on Netflix and it is, it is, it is something else. I'll have to check it out. I'm kind of back and forth on those things, but I'm very curious about that one. Yeah. I also – did I watch anything else?
No, that's about it. That's that's all I've done recently. OK, OK. So we're going to take a quick break and we come back. We're going to talk about 1977's eco horror film. Kingdom of the Spiders. We'll be right back. An unknown species of horror is born as science fiction becomes science fact. If you find any problems out there to go, please. Just keep it to yourself. He's over at Kobe's. He's found another 20 or 30 hills just like the one we burned.
I mean, this right here is scientific phenomenon. As you know, all species of megalomorphs are cannibalistic. If you put them together, they'll kill each other off. They just don't colonize like ants or bees do. Deadly predators searching, destroying anything in their path. Why did they come? What do they want? In the tradition of the great science fiction thrillers, Dimension Pictures presents Kingdom of the Spiders. Starring William Shatner, Tiffany Pauling, Woody Strode.
And introducing Alphabese Davis. Spiders in this area have organized themselves into an aggressive army. I've never said anything like it. One minute they weren't there and the next minute they were everywhere. Jump! Atta girl! Why haven't we heard from the sheriff? He must know we're trapped in here. I'm telling you, I don't think we should chance it. Kingdom of the Spiders. The next victim could be you.
And we are back to talk about 1977's Eco Har William Shatner vehicle, Kingdom of the Spiders. Now. So one of the things I liked about this movie is that it was filmed in Sedona, Arizona, where famously I thought I shat my pants in front of a bunch of Swedish hikers. I didn't, but I thought I did. This...
movie. I know I was texting with you, Liam, and I may have given it off that it was stupid and ridiculous. And it is ridiculous. And it is stupid. But I still fucking love this movie. Oh, I'm a huge fan. This... The entire. Like, OK. Arachnophobia works because the spiders in arachnophobia are those like orb weavers that are like.
you know, fast and aggressive and whatever. And I'm like watching this movie and maybe it's just because I know like how tarantulas actually are. I'm sorry, tarantulas. But it's so funny how there is these scenes of these people panicking and running from a house. And there's just like maybe 100 fake spiders on the ground and then like four real spiders. And. I don't know if you're like, I get that these spiders are intimidating because of how big they are, but like, they're just like Muppets.
They just look like spider Muppets. And there's so much, so much of this movie is dependent upon people acting their fucking asses. Yes. Yes. While being menaced by a spider. And it is just something about that just punches through. This movie isn't even so bad it's good. It is just like a phenomenon of like, what the fuck? Because... Okay. They kill a cow. These spiders do, right? I didn't imagine that. So... That's... No, no, no, no. The...
When we see them kill a cow, that's the third cow that they've killed. Possible explanation for cattle mutilations. I don't appreciate it. But. Yeah, this movie is just like this exercise in absurdity in the best way because there's no winking and nodding at the camera. There's not even any of like the William Shatner being like over the top and insane. Like he's...
relatively level-headed in this movie. It's everyone else who was losing their fucking minds. Like, I... The scene that got me where I was like... Holy shit. Was the scene in the town when the spiders are crawling amok and this town is just in fucking may, like people are like crashing cars and shit.
I can't, these are not abnormally large spiders. This is not eight-legged freaks where they're the size of dogs. This isn't even like arachnophobia, like where they're like slightly, these are just regular tarantulas. There's just a lot of them. Well, we should say the premise – we just keep talking about the spiders. We should say the premise of the movie is that –
Due to factors like possibly pesticides and other things. Yes. The tarantulas are acting not like tarantulas. If you really think about it, the premise is only what if tarantulas, a solitary. uh, non-communal docile spider.
What if it acted not like that? What if they basically became hostile ants? Like, really, that's what they are, right? They make a colony. They work together. They communicate. And they attack anything that threatens them. Even if it doesn't really threaten them, they just think it might.
threaten them, they just go after it, right? And when we say go after it, it's not like you see them attacking. What you see a lot of times is... you don't see them and then suddenly someone has a bunch of them on them and it the idea being is like if you get enough of
tarantula bites at once you're you're fucked right so like which is not unreasonable no that's no that could happen no and and to be fair i will i will say this i am more nervous about spiders than you are right i i think you're a little bit like Spiders, whatever, it's fine.
I'm a little more nervous. So at first, when Shatner is running around, I'm feeling the opposite of what you're feeling because you're feeling like this is ridiculous. I'm like, hey, dude, that's a lot of spiders, and I get that you have boots on, but...
I think you should be more concerned about the spiders, actually. That's too many spiders to be just hopping around, doing whatever. His vibe is very much like, this is not a big deal. And to be fair, it really seems like they're only attacking... in very focused individual ways. However, Justin is right. They turn a corner.
And what could be seen as maybe like a thousand or less, very aggressive, but a thousand spiders may sound like a lot to you. It's really not that much in the grand scheme. It's not with a city at stake. Suddenly becomes what looks to be...
Two, three, four million spiders? Like that's what it's – if they're taking over the whole town, that would take – because tarantulas, as you said, are not that big. It would take – for one dude to get fucked, right? If you're in a house and there's a thousand tarantulas and suddenly – are aggressive, yeah, you're fucked, man. That could happen. They could really get you. I'll go further than that. If you're in a house and there are 50 tarantulas, you are outgunned.
I feel like you could step on a lot of tarantulas. Like, I really do. And at a certain point, that is the vibe. Like, Shatner's just stepping on tarantulas here and there. But, like, yeah, you get to a certain number of tarantulas and it's like, fuck. At least for me, I'd be like, we're going to get in the car and we're just going to drive away. And everyone else could figure out their own shit. I'm done with this.
Fuck these things. Until there are so many spiders that they're breaking the windows of the building because there's so many of them. Until there's that many, Shatner's still like, I don't know. This feels like an isolated incident. to me it's like what are you talking about this is Armageddon but I agree it only works because everyone is losing their minds and
What's more, we do get one scene of Shatner doing the Shatner thing, but because it's Shatner and because his ego is partly... If you told me this was a vanity project, which I know it's not, having watched some of the special features, but if you told me it was Shatner... in his vanity project, I would believe you because he literally survives a massive spider attack.
just by being a gritty motherfucker. Like, first of all, the whole thesis of the movie is that he's a tough cowboy. I'm already out. Like, we've already pushed incredulity beyond measuring. He's a tough cowboy who's also a very smart veterinarian. And, you know, this animal dies. They don't know why it dies. And they're worried it's like a flu or, you know, sickness among the cows. So they send off the stuff. And then this hot lady shows up. Right.
And, of course, Hot Lady's a scientist because that's always how it is. And Hot Lady's like, oh, I'm a – bug expert I forget what the term is for that and I'm here because this is crazy because that was that was venom from a spider but it's like it doesn't make sense and then she's just gonna but so here's the
Fun part of the movie for me, Justin, but also the bummer of the movie. So I'm going to do the joke first, and then I'll explain why it's a bummer. Okay. So the joke here is, what's more aggressive in this movie? The spiders or Shatner's libido?
Dude, he is so horny. It's disgusting. It's like, guys, it's like, and for me, it was all fun and games. The first few times, this is the third time I've watched this movie. The first few times, I'm like, look at this fucking Shatner. Like the whole movie, he's like.
I'm a sexy cowboy and everybody wants to fuck me. And I'm just going to flirt with this worldly city girl until she gives in and wants to fuck me. And it's definitely more aggressive than it should be. But also it's like, come on, Shatner. It's like. such an ego thing right it became a bummer for me justin when i watched on my uh well my blu-ray of this an interview with that actress who
basically suggested that Shatner's on set performance was the same as his character in the movie, which she did not appreciate. And they did not hook up because she found him irritating, but he was trying to fuck so bad. the whole movie and i'm like oh no that's a bummer actually dude this scene where he's like rolling around literally rolling in the hay with his brother's widow and she's like oh
I forget his brother's name is like Jim or John. And he's like, don't call me by my brother's name. It's like, well, maybe don't fucking roll in the hay with your brother's widow. You fucking deviant. Oh, 100%. And what's more is when he gets so.
pissy with her that she called him by the name and he already like he doesn't assault her but he definitely pushes her in a way that's more than friendly right he's just like get away i can't believe and then as he gets up he kicks her leg in the most petulant
Yeah. And not when I say that, you're going to think, oh, Shatner's an abuser in the movie. No, no, no, no. It's the kick your two year old gives you because they're mad. Like that was what was so funny about that scene is like we've already ruined the image of him as a.
tough cowboy in the first scene we see him as a tough cowboy because he acts like such a petulant child with this woman again this is sounding like I'm criticizing the movie I'm just criticizing Shatner's performance which kind of adds to the movie because like well everyone else is going around being like really
chewing the scenery to make sure you know they're afraid of these spiders Shatner cannot figure out the only scene where he is affected is he's in a basement he's fucking covered in spiders and he still survives by the way but that's the only scene where he's like oh the spider Every other time he's like, well, you know, it's a few spiders, but, you know, it's fine. Maybe we can make it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's ridiculous. Except weirdly.
The scene that like made my skin crawl. Right. Like, and again, not that I'm not afraid of spiders. I am just weirdly like tarantulas. I'm like, I've had enough experience with them. And I've been out West enough where I'm like, yeah, they're whatever. Like they'll come up and they'll do the things with the feet, but they're not going to fucking bite you. They're just, they're there.
Right. It's the tiny spider. Not tiny, but it's like the, like I said, the orb weavers, the black widows, the brown recluses, the ones that run really fast. I don't like them. So... you're what and this is a movie that's packed with spiders and the creepiest thing is when like there's a scene like relatively early on where like Shatner is talking to his sister-in-law and she's like what kind of man doesn't take his uh his brother's widow
And she says it's kind of like buying the cow and giving the milk away for free, which I don't think is an apt metaphor, but fuck it. Let's roll with it. He says, well, maybe someday I'll decide to milk that cow. And then she says, just make sure your hands are warm. Liam. I wanted to fucking vomit at that seat. That was so uncomfortable. And there's a – his niece is right there. Yep, yep, yep, yep. His niece, by the way, who is just –
Like, I get that this was the fashion of the time, but she's just not wearing pants and she's a little kid, but it's just like so many shots of her skirt, basically. I didn't like, yeah. No way. I get it. Let's be clear, y'all. She's like five years or six years old, something like that. And all the shots are from below because you're seeing the spiders. It's because of the spiders. But it's a lot. And at one point...
In what's supposed to be a playful way but did not look playful, Shatner smacks her on her little butt, her little kid butt, and it's supposed to be like, I'm your fun uncle. And it did not look like that at all. It looked like, who is this awful man? Who is this awful man? Why is he touching me? As an actual uncle, I would never. I mean to a degree of metaphysical certainty, I would never smack my niece in the ass in a playful way. That is so fucking weird.
I get it. There's a certain age where they're so small that I think there are uncles who would be comfortable with that. Shatner cannot sell that. He cannot sell that this is a normal thing. would do no matter what the culture of the time is he looks like a creep when he does it and and you know this poor little girl this whole movie is just her screaming because of spiders or trying to be cute and it's like
Anyway, there's so many things to laugh at about the movie. I don't want to sell it like it's a bad movie. I have fun every time I watch this movie. It is... Utterly entertaining. I hate that Shatner is like his character. That part pumps me out a little bit. So that's a little bit of darkness. If you ignore that bit of darkness.
I love watching him be a weird pseudo scientist cowboy the whole movie. It's great. While this woman who actually knows things is like, well, no, it's this. And every time she corrects him. As the audience, you know she's – it's not like, well, I relate to this cowboy, but this weird city woman, she keeps saying these science words. No, no, no, no, no. She's clearly the only one who has any concept of what's going on. and everything he says, he sounds like an asshole.
Right. Like, it's never like, no, I don't know. Shatner's got a point here. He's always just like, I don't know. It doesn't seem that bad. It's just spiders. I'm sure it's an isolated incident. And every time it's just like, motherfucker, there's a giant mound of spiders. Like, what are we talking about?
talking about it's like it's like shatner spiders don't make mounds there is a spider mound this is not typical spiders are not eusocial arachnids what are you doing I mean, they see the spiders kill a bull, and Shatner's still like, well, you know. And it's like, wait, what? That'll happen. What is happening? Yeah, so it's fun. I will say the part that is, though, the hardest to sell.
is the ending, right? Where it's like, we really, we truly are in the kingdom of the spiders because everything's covered in spider webs. It's just like, I get that it's like a dark, this is the seven, it's a seventies movie, right? And so of course they're just like, and the ending. is you know without any hope at all but like at this point it's like
I don't know. I still think they could get away somehow. Oh, no. The spiders have covered Sedona and Verde Valley. What are the myriad crystal shops and fucking hippies going to do? Oh, no. It's just like, yeah, you have to. I do think this is a movie that if you are afraid of spiders, this could get you. Like, I could see this being a thing like when there's all these tarantulas falling out of the air vent. I could get that. Yeah.
My friend – the homie Brad at LVAC is deeply arachnophobic. I would not recommend this movie to him. Right. But just on its own, it's just – To me, it's just more fun. There are a couple of really creepy moments. And I do think when the guys fly in the plane and the spiders get them, besides the fact that it's like, motherfucker, why didn't you check in the plane? When someone's like, we need you to spray the whole valley.
And the worst poison we have, the absolute, it's illegal for us to even be using this poison, but we need you to get the whole valley. Because there's all these aggressive spiders. The fact that no one in the movie, and especially not this airplane guy, ever thinks, let me just check and make sure there's no fucking spiders in here. No, he just gets in the plane like, okay, cool, sounds good. I'll spray the whole valley with the cancer.
poison and that's fine and then bada bing bada boom there's spiders in the plane and they get them the idea of trying to fly a plane while multiple spiders are biting you that did freak me out a little bit i was kind of like oh no i oh no I would trash the plane. If there was like five spiders on a plane with me, attacking me, I'm crashing a plane to make it end sooner. Yeah. Or open the window and just be like, get the...
fuck off me and throw them outside. See, I talk all this shit now, but if I see a spider, I'd burn my house down. Well, yeah, it is true, though, that I mean, and they show you that that tarantulas are. when for the most part they are docile, right? She finds one and she puts it outside. It's not a big deal. And I will say the movie could have done a little more to establish that like...
If the spiders aren't threatened, they're not going to go at you, right? Whenever they're doing stuff, it's like they feel threatened. And so they're going to start taking people out. And then the apocalypse on the town is like, all right, these humans keep trying to burn us out and kill us. will just kill everyone and that'll protect us. What do we know, Liam? What did Scholar...
And Edgman Supreme Carl Buechner tell us, this is what happens when a war has two sides. Right, right. So you're saying the spiders are going block by block. I am. Yes, they're taking back what's theirs. A web storm to purify? Is that what we're saying? I would say that the laws of man have no meaning past the setting of the sun.
Because they don't. Because they cover the town in fucking webs. I do love how the ending, they turn the radio on, and it's like, we're here in sunny, and they're like, maybe everything's okay. And then they look outside, and it's like, everything's webbed up. It's like, yeah, but... You know, this isn't the mist where we don't know how far these things, you know what I mean? Where they're like, what the fuck? How far does this go? It's like the next town over is fine. You know.
Let's use the phone and be like, hey, there are these aberrant spiders who have taken over the town, apparently. It does feel like one guy with a flamethrower could probably take care of this problem, but... That's all it would take. Literally, that's all it would take. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, Kingdom of the Spiders. It's fun. It's a blast. It's a stupid, silly, fun movie. I love it. I'm glad I own it. But yeah, you got to go in with a little bit of like...
Oh, nothing about this is going to make any sense. I mean, I will say I love the finger wagging of it all. Why is this spider apocalypse even happening? Because we use pesticides. It's the pesticides. Not a bad message. Not a bad message. It really helps.
in some ways yeah yeah i like it so anyways king of the spiders i like it i think people should check it out yeah we're going to take a quick break and we come back we're going to talk about 1982s um of course this is canadian slasher film visiting hours we'll be right back in this hospital your next visit may be your last Visiting hours so frightening you may never recover. Starring Lee Grant, William Shatner, Linda Pearl.
When was the last time you sat in a movie theater and felt the cold fingers of fear creeping up your back? 20th Century Fox presents a movie so intense So frightening, you may never recover. Visiting Hours, starring Lee Grant, William Shatner, Linda Pearl. Rated R. Once, every few years, a movie comes along that is so chilling, so terrifying, it sets a new level of fright. It will reach you in ways you cannot predict because it is so intense.
so frightening you may never recover. Visiting Hours. Starring Lee Grant, William Shatner, Linda Pearl. Rated R. And we are back to talk about Visiting Hours, which was originally titled The Fright. Liam, have you seen this movie before? Well, so, as I suggested earlier on... I have seen it, but it was at Harathon like really late at night. In fact, that was the year that you came. I think you left like 10 minutes into this movie because you're just like, I'm.
done I'm falling asleep yeah and I thought I watched most of this movie and thought it was pretty good I will reveal now to the listening audience that was not the case because watching it now fully awake, there are large portions of this movie I do not remember a moment of. But I could not forget the beginning with Michael Ironsides with all that shit. face being a weirdo that was great that was insane like it's just like what the fuck kind of i didn't even realize that was him at first
Right. Yeah. It's not clear when you first see him. It's like, wait, what's happening? So my favorite thing about this movie is there are so many shots. Like that hospital that they were at.
I love the look of that hospital because it seemed to get like bigger or smaller depending on like – and this is all creative camera work. They all – they did it all with camera work. There's one scene where Michael Ironside is like walking away from it and they have – It's like a close-up, but it's done from a distance, and they probably use like a 70mm lens to kind of get close to them, but it makes...
The way it's shot, it makes the hospital look impossibly large behind him. And I was watching this and being like, oh, that's so fucking brilliant. Like it really lends this sense of like unreality to the movie because it's like – it just – it makes – It gave it almost like a dreamlike feel, like the location of a dream. And plus the hospital has this like strange, brutalist architecture to it. So even shot normally, it would probably look very striking.
But all the scenes involving that hospital as his background were just fucking gorgeous to look at. Yeah. Yeah. I think what's strange about this movie is that it combines so many weird things. Like, it is in some ways a message movie, right? It's a movie specifically about... like patriarchy and misogyny, right? Yes, yes. About the conflict of a world where women are, you know, we...
Women are treated as if they have equality when in reality they don't and there's still a lot of violence and anger against them. Right. That's sort of the context of the movie. And yet it also. while still being a message movie, wants to be one of the grimiest exploitation movies. It's literally like, let's take a TV movie and smush it together with the New York Ripper. And we'll just see what comes out. And what comes out is a crazy thing.
Partly because, and again, I don't want to say there's not violence in this movie. There's a lot of violence in the movie, and there's a scene where Michael Ironsides is being very brutal to a young lady that is... Hard, hard to watch. I'll say content warning. It's rough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yet for a movie with this much like slasher DNA and exploitation DNA.
weirdly not a lot of blood you don't see a lot of what's going on and when people are hurt they keep getting hurt in like very rational understandable ways like people get keep getting stabbed just like in the stomach real quick Right? Yeah. It's not a lot of like – throat slit with blood pouring everywhere or, you know, head split apart or anything like anything that we now associate, like all those more extreme gore aspects, all that is gone. And there's a bit of a vibe of like,
You know, I'm a sassy reporter. And oh, side note, Bill Shatner in this is the. producer of the feminist reporter who's kind of an asshole but like not fully an asshole you know you know what i mean like she needs a man friend and that man friend needs to be not fully on board right he needs to be a little bit
Yeah. What's up with you dames anyway? But also it's clear that maybe they used to fuck. And so like there's still like an intimacy there between them. He very clearly cares about her in a genuine. Yes. A genuine. non-asshole he like values her as an actual human being even if he is like man broad these days like them and the vapors they're just too much i think you could say that the movie needed some misogynists who were not murderers right like he
He very much loves her. And it is true. There are people who benefit from and enjoy patriarchy who still love women. They're not fully like, oh, fuck all the way. But there are plenty of characters who are not murderers who seem more similar to Michael Ironside, the murderer, who, to be clear, he is targeting this person. He already kills people. He kills women.
But he targets the main character of the movie because she's trying to – there's a famous case going on in the narrative where a woman has killed her husband because – or does she kill him or just attack him? I think she kills him, right? She kills her husband because he's an abuser. And she's trying to say it's self-defense. It was self-defense. So she's trying to help this woman be acquitted. And just the idea of it.
is too much for michael ironside now we eventually get a backstory which by the way i didn't need i would have been okay with him just being an awful man who does awful man things. But we do get a backstory where it's like his mom assaulted his dad and he never really got over it or whatever. But why did his mom insult his dad? Because his dad was a... who was trying to grip her up. And they also, they very strongly allude that he was molesting Michael Ironside. They keep it vague.
But I think that might have been what was going on. Yes. Yeah. It's not clear, but it's part of – and that's the other thing. The movie, as much – every time the reporter – not every time, but most of the time the reporter is on camera. It feels more like an acceptable movie in the 80s, right? Maybe not quite TV movie, but it's like a sassy lady and she's angry and she wants it. None of it feels like grimy.
for the most part when she's on screen then we go to Ironside and he's really the door and part of his stuff It just feels like psychosexual drama. It feels like, you know, something that normal people could watch. And then it becomes one of the grosser movies you'd see on 42nd Street. Yes. And it's like that wire being walked by Michael Ironside I think gives the movie a really interesting dynamic even as –
When I was done with it, I thought, I don't know if you can have your cake and eat it too. I don't think you can make a respectable drama that it's also violent and horny. I don't think you can have all these things together. I don't know if it all works. I don't know, man. I kind of think it does. I'm not saying it absolutely doesn't. I just – I was a little unsure when the movie was over if all of it worked together. But –
I would buy the Blu-ray of this movie if I could find it anywhere. Like, this is a movie I will rewatch. I'm just not sure. I guess what I'm saying is like, it's better than popcorn, obviously. Well, literally anything is. Right. But is it like... I think it's flirting with being a great movie, actually. You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying to say, is that the performances are strong, the camera work is strong, but there are so many weird...
I don't even want to say tonal shifts because that will give people, it's like vibe slash genre shifts in the movie. And I think it all works, but it's not, it's a little, it feels a little messy to me.
It gets – it does get kind of convoluted once his attention shifts away from the reporter to the nurse. Once that happens, it gets kind of muddled because it's like – It makes a move towards this nurse and her family, but it keeps like – it keeps – feeling like it has to remind us about the reporter and you're like yeah yeah we know she's still there and it just it just feels kind of like well who's he going after like what is is this this this guy is like um
You know, we get that he's shitty, but it just felt like it was bouncing all over the place in regards like there was all these like – I shouldn't say all because there's like two or three at the most. These like plot threads. At their like trying to weave together. Yeah. That I think it was ultimately successful, but barely. Right. Yeah. Well, I think.
I agree with that a lot. I think the part that got effective with the nurse for me was when she's at the hospital and the I guess she's supposed to be like a punk girl that he beats up, assaults, is there. And they're trying to like just get attention of the police to realize that he's probably at the nurse's house. Right. And it's so difficult to do that for them. That part was effective. But even then, when we got to her house.
There's too much of a desire to gotcha in this movie a little bit, right? Because it's like she's gotten there and things were already going down. But she gets there. And nothing's happening other than he left some weird things for her. And we just have to wait for him to burst out. And I think the.
The first Michael Ironsides burst out from something is sick. It's killer. It's unbelievably effective. He's got shit in his face. He's got his shirt off. He looks like a psychopath. Like, that really works. By the time we're at the nurse's house, I'm like, he's going to jump out from somewhere. He's done it so many times now. He's just going to jump out. I don't think we need it again.
I think it would be more menacing if he already had her child or something. And then there's this weird moment where he doesn't. hurt her child which is like kind of consistent for the character i guess but it felt a little like we don't need you to humanize him at this point we've got enough of that all right like it just felt a little weird it felt a little weird in that moment i will say um
Another thing I really appreciate about this movie is like this sort of like whiplash depiction of who Ironside was as a human being. Yes. Like there's the scenes where he's just like walking around just like dressed as like a guy. And it is frightening in how bland it is. Like I was getting like big, big Dahmer vibes there. Yeah. And then when he's like, you know, when he brings that young woman home. And he, like, is almost like a weird S&M leather daddy. Yeah.
Which was so disconcerting from what we saw earlier that I was like, no, fuck it. I'm on board. I'm on board with this like this guy who is like dropping the mask of respectability and just becoming this like fucking weird deviant. It feels to me like the movie incorporates a lot of things that we know now about serial killers without actually knowing it, right? The movie...
It simply can't have some of that information. Like we didn't know this in 1982 about all these people. But the idea that like he can put on the mask of being human and he's the most relatable when he's pretending to be someone else. And then when he reverts to him.
self to his actual self it's a fucking nightmare of uncontrolled emotions and weird he and and they really push the idea that when he is himself and he's his murder self he's both an abusive husband and a petulant child right yes and he embodies both even though he's not a husband he's not married to anyone and you know he we do get that idea of him as a child and so like when he interacts with these women
it alternates between the two of like you have this coming and then like why won't you do what I want or you know I mean it's like very much it's weird the whole it's it's weird that that is so effective and now knowing more about what these often more often men are like it's almost haunting because it's like oh they just happened to nail this without having all the information that we have now they really nailed that aspect of his character yeah
It's crazy. Yeah, I think this is a good movie. I think, like I said, it feels like it shifts gears a lot, and I wonder if that's going to work for a lot of people, but I think it... It only was weird to me because it felt like the decision – I don't know if the decision to hold back on some of the violence was –
A respectability thing of like, we don't want to overwhelm people. Because 82, there were some pretty violent slasher movies. Or if it was a decision like, we don't have the special effects budget to bring in the serious gore. You know what I mean? I don't know why that was the decision, but it really adds a weird angle to the movie where it's tough, but it's not quite as crazy as it could be. Yeah.
I'm inclined to think it was probably, I don't know, something about it just says that they knew their limits. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's probably true. Well, I don't know. I know a lot of people who love exploitation films and love made-for-TV movies. This is your movie, man. This is really a marriage of those things. They got the emotional drama going on with this lady's career. and her relationship with Billy, Billy Shatner, you know? Yeah.
And I tell you what, if you're also someone who's like, I want a movie with police, but I want them all to look stupid. This is this is another one of those. Every cop in this movie is a fucking idiot and none of them can help this report. I mean, the whole hospital. My man walks in and out like. It's nothing. There is no security in this hospital. It's amazing. It is quite literally like the.
I don't even they're just the worst security guards of all time. One guy is literally sitting with his back to the door. Yep. Yep. It's so funny, too, because it's like. I think the one thing I would say is that for a younger viewer watching this, I wonder if they might think, how is he getting in and out all the time? I used to work at a hospital. I used to work at Pennsylvania Hospital.
both like in an actual job and in like a volunteer position. And back in the day, Justin, you could just walk in and out of hospitals like this. It's like so funny because today, like if you were walking around the city and I was like, yo, I got to take a shit. The last place you'd say is, well, let's go to Pennsylvania Hospital, and you can just wander in and use the bathroom.
Fuck, that's not going to work, man. There's security on every door. But when I was in high school, yo, I'd walk past Pennsylvania Hospital to just go and take a shit all the time. I'd walk in just to buy a drink. I need something to drink. I'll just go to Pennsylvania Hospital, buy something at the gift shop. You could just wander in and out of that place. It was like so easy. And so like that aspect of the movie, I'm like.
This feels so unreal now, but it feels like it probably was real then that they think they have security. There's no way, man. He just has to put on glasses and stick his hair back and no one knows it's him. Yeah. I mean, to be fair, they don't have a picture, right? So it's like, what can security even do? They're going to stop everybody in the hospital? Well, they can now because they've got gates and metal detectors. But back in the day, that wasn't happening. There's too much free flow.
checking it yeah I yeah I don't it's but it didn't strain it didn't it didn't strain any sense of like credibility I was like no fuck it this guy could pull this off oh yeah 100% Yeah, I don't know. Something about this movie just fucking grabbed me. I don't know what it was. It just... No, I like it. I'm glad that you liked it. I really thought because it does have a little bit of that griminess to it, and I wasn't sure if you would be into that or not, I really thought...
oh, Justin might be annoyed with me with this movie. I thought you'd be stoked on Kingdom of the Spiders and then bummed on this movie. So the fact that you liked it makes me happy because I think it's really good, even if it's weird and it has weird aspects to it. Yeah. All right, well, that was Visiting Hours, and that's the episode. Thank you guys for listening. If you are so inclined to do so, be sure to head to www.patreon.com backslash cinepunks.
Subscribe. Become a Patreon. Be sure to check out our sponsors at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations at www.xlvacx. Essex Coffee Roasters at essexcoffeeroasters.com. And give the homie Sharky some... business at mechanicalsharkmedia.com. And, you know, Rough Cut Fan Club. Rough Club Shirts. Rough Cut Shirts. Jesus Christ. RoughCutShirts.com. I think it's RoughCutFanClub.com now. Is it RoughCutFanClub.com? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's not DryRot.com, so. Yeah. Oh. No disrespect to DryRot.
Lots of – oh, also we should say that there is a – at Sokal's on December 27th, the holiday hangout for – We have LA Parallel Creations. They're wrestling. They're weird. Chris rejects weird wrestling thing because he's a fucking strange person. He's having that. You know, December 27th. Be sure to check it out on Instagram for all that. I like you pretending like you don't love those things. I do love those things. Yeah, they're great. Yeah. And until next time.
Fuck CEOs. Fuck United Healthcare. Our homie is a hero. And yeah, I know their family's grieving. Fuck them. Find Waluigi. He's the one who did it. Free Haluigi, find Waluigi. This is a setup. Yo, yo, yo. Did you see the clip of that dude's lawyer? That guy's lawyer is amazing. He literally is like, I haven't seen any evidence. He's done anything. Have you seen evidence? You should tell him to send it to me. I'm like, fuck.
Dude, the best fucking lawyer. Yeah. That's what money will get you. Sorry to derail us right before the end there, but I just, it's true mensch. Oh, yeah. Absolute. A paisan is what they say. Yeah. Yeah. All right, homies. Peace. Bye. This is Jeffrey Combs, you know, reanimator from beyond, etc. You're listening to Horror Business.