Greetings and salutations. My name is Justin Lohr. And I'm Liam O'Donnell. And you are listening to episode 154 of Horror Business. Bidness. Now, you're probably asking why I'm talking in this voice, and this is a tribute to the late, great David Lynch, who today passed away, unfortunately. It's strange to be recording on the day. It's a little weird, especially, like, I haven't really been talking about it online, but...
I finished Twin Peaks The Return. I finished the entire Twin Peaks thing after easily 13 years of slogging through it. I finished it Saturday night and was... Did you watch The Return? I haven't yet. That is David Lynch distilled into an inky black liquid that is shot directly into your veins.
And it is some of the most terrifying imagery I have ever seen. I'm so excited to watch it. So just so people don't think I'm twiddling my thumbs over here. The reason I haven't watched it yet is because Suze had never seen Twin Peaks at all. So we decided to rewatch the original together so we could watch the return. And like most humans, she made it basically through season one.
And then the prospect of season two just didn't really sit well with either one of us. And we never really got past season two. Okay. So have you watched fire walk with me? Okay. You know how fire walk with me was a drastic departure in tone from the first two seasons. Take the kind of like grounded darkness of fire walk with me and mix it in with the surreal hell of like.
Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, and it's just, I don't know, it fucked in my head so bad. Now that all being said, I just wanted to take a quick moment to like...
talk about how I do think David Lynch is like an essential filmmaker in the realm of horror for what he's contributed to it. And I think some of the shit he did is more horrific than any acclaimed horror director ever actually committed to film. Right. And I think that even if you want to relegate him, and I use that term specifically, not...
to denigrate him, but to talk about the way some people treat him, even if you want to relegate him to whatever space you want, art house or psychotronic, which both of which I think are actually positive things. But I think the way some people use those terms, they mean them negatively. You can't ignore the fact that he made some of the most visceral sense. You know what I mean? Like if more horror directors would watch David Lynch films and then quite honestly steal,
some of the inspiration for their own bullshit from those movies, we'd have a much better crop of horror movies than we get. Like he managed to do things without CGI that got under your skin and made you upset in the best possible way. And I think he also reminded us that a movie can be affecting without having a clear narrative, right?
Yeah. And push those boundaries. Don't get me wrong. We've talked about this before, how I think Mulholland Drive is great. And I think Lost Highway is kind of not great, which is, you know, blasphemy for true lynch heads. But I don't think anyone's required to love all of his movies or all of his projects. But I think it's impossible to deny his inspiration and his power, you know? Yeah, I just I just think he has this ability to like really. It's like.
I don't want to spoil anything for the return, but like there are moments where he takes the mundane. Actually, no. I mean, the scene in the scenes in Firewalk with me with the ceiling fan. Right. Where they just show a glimpse as a ceiling fan and you know what and you're like, fuck me. Like that's this is this is upsetting and deeply terrifying.
But I don't know. I just wanted to take a quick moment to acknowledge that. When it came up, I found that through our Cinebunx Discord. I was in the Wegmans parking lot on my lunch break. I had my little cry in the car, and then my Instagram feed is just filled with little stories about him that people have been posting. As a horror podcast and as two horror fans, I just thought we should acknowledge the...
passing of a man whose impact on the realm of horror in a very true sense of the phrase is undeniable. So, yeah, RIP to a fucking legend. He's up there with Angela Badalamente and Harry Dean Stanton and, you know, the other guy.
I found out because I got a text directly from Justin Miller. Yeah. Because we were working on a Mulholland Drive shirt. Are you still going to do it? Unlikely, maybe. Fuck! I mean, we'll do it eventually, but dropping a shirt from a director the day after they die just is not our... I know other people will do that as like a tribute thing. It's not our vibe. We try to avoid appearing as if we're profiting.
on the death of various famous people now this still might fly because these were actually charity shirts we were gonna donate the money to the efforts uh to fight the la fire or mutual aid in la or whatever whatever yeah so we might still do it but it's kind of justin's call and he's more uptight about this than i am like he very much
You remember, we only did those Wings Hauser shirts because it turned out Wings Hauser wasn't dead. And then we're like, all right, well, let's remember that. Everyone thought Wings Hauser was dead and then he wasn't dead. We were like, we literally made shirts to be like, hurrah, Wings Hauser's alive. Yeah, you should make those shirts so I could fucking buy one because, you know, that's literally, I believe it's my number 10 favorite film of all time.
I mean, we're going to make them eventually. Don't let anybody worry about that. It's just hard to know. You know, it's I don't want anyone to perceive that we are profiting off of the tragedy or even if you don't see his death as a tragedy, but profiting off of his passing for our own business. And even no matter how many times we say, well, this is a charity shirt, we're donating the money to charity. People don't see it that way. Right. And we did a shirt.
The only one that we've ever done was just because we both were very emotional when Paul Rubens passed away. We did a shirt to donate specifically because of him. And we got multiple accusations of being ghouls profiting on his death, even though it was, again, a charity shirt. So cool. Awesome. So, you know, we want to avoid that perception. And honestly, like.
It's an awesome shirt. It'll be just as cool later as it is now. So we'll see what we decide to do, but we might do it. We might do it anyway. Can you show me the design? I'll send it to you later. Yeah. You're the best. I'd love you. I love you too. All right. So this is going to be our 2024 year in review episode.
Before we go any further, I should say you guys should head over to Liam's other podcast, CinePunks. They just dropped the episode today. They're 2024 in retrospect. And it's a lot more from what I listen to.
Like it always is. It's a lot more articulate, a lot more spoken, a lot more intelligent than anything I can do. And I'm enjoying listening to it so far. I will say, if people are wondering about having to dip in both, I avoided talking about horror movies in the Cinepunks one because I knew I was doing this episode. So if horror movies came up, I might say like one or two words, but I didn't get into depth on anything related to horror. Though, to be fair, I liked a lot of...
real wussy movies this year. There's only a few horror movies that made it into my top movies list. If you don't mind, because I just put it on Instagram, but no one pays attention to my Instagram. Just to blast this out there, if you guys are interested in my top 10 non-horror films of the year, I just want to run down them real quick, if you don't mind. Do it. Yeah, go for it. Okay, so from 10 up to 1, it was The Bike Riders, Spaceman, Dune Part 2,
Love Lies Bleeding, A Different Man, Darkest Miriam, Off Ramp, Onora, Am I Okay? And a little bit of a dark horse. Many people saw this as a horror movie. I saw the TV glow. I didn't think that was a horror movie. I agree. That movie was my favorite movie of the year. That movie, fucking, I love that film so much.
I feel the same and I don't see it as a horror movie. Yeah. No offense to people who do. It's just, I don't, it's not how I took it in, you know? Yeah. So yeah. Now, I don't, do you want to, did you, have you done anything involving horror recently? So the only thing I want to bring up is I've been trying to read more lately. And that's sort of alternating between trying out audio books for the first time, which I've never really done.
Same. I'll jump on that shortly. But also, just straight books. And recently, Susan's been using the library a lot, and she had a book she got from the library. She started reading it and realized she did not have the emotional resources to read the book. So she gave it to me and said, do you want to read this? It was a horror author I don't know anything about. All right, here we go.
So it's a horror author who I wasn't familiar with previously named Rivers Solomon. And they've written another book besides this one, but this book was called Model Home. Have you heard about this? I have not, no. Oh, man. You know when people say that someone is using the medium of horror to get into...
you know, personal stuff and whatever. And then they say, oh, it's just trauma horror or trauma porn. You know what I mean? Like there's this real thing of like, if it explores human pain, right. Or they're doing something and it's like a metaphor, right? Like this is a, this sort of represents something and we can all sort of see what it is. Model home is the first thing I've ever read where.
Trauma and the experience of racism, classism, gender dysphoria, sexuality, all this stuff is worked into a narrative. And for the entire book until the final finale, like the very end of the book, it's impossible to know, is this a story of a haunted house or something else?
dealing with trauma and has their own issues they're working through and honestly you know is compelling but also very vulnerable we don't know because they don't fucking know yeah and it's literally like if we get to the little bare bones of the book is this person has left their family in texas they live in england with their daughter they have transitioned and now
kind of semi-transitioned back to more of a non-binary. They had transitioned for a long time of living fully as a woman, and now they've decided that they're more comfortable as they, and so it's them and their daughter, and they find out that their parents are dead. Okay. But their parents are specifically dead in what appears to be a murder-suicide. Oh. And they know immediately.
It wasn't that. It was the house. And that's the beginning of the book, and then it goes from there. And literally, it is – I think sometimes when a narrative is so personal, right, it can be distracting because you're getting the way that they talk. And this book does that. You very much get their idiosyncrasies of speaking is how the book is written, even though –
It doesn't stay in some sort of like first person thing the whole time because we do get glimpses of their daughter and her perspective. And we also get glimpses of another perspective that isn't revealed till the end of the book. And those tend to be a little more jumbled. It's hard to know exactly what's going on there till you do. For this, it was only compelling because it helps us understand.
The anxiety, the trauma, the disassociation. There's so much going on in this book, not just psychologically, but then also with layers of these folks who have moved from the north, specifically Brooklyn, to Texas. And it's like their parents have decided, like, we have money. We have, like, very important jobs. We're going to live in this white neighborhood, this very exclusive white neighborhood. And no one's going to tell us we can't.
And also The House is Haunted, maybe. It is unbelievable. I really loved it. I have to say, it is a hard book. By the end of the book, I might have wept a little bit.
So if you're someone who likes horror but doesn't like it when there's trauma, not because you think it's cheap, but because it reminds you of your own traumas, this might not be the book for you. I'm going to put a big old content warning on it. Nothing graphic happens like, you know what I mean? There's nothing gross like someone, you know what I mean? But it deals with issues that are, if you have any experience with, are going to be hard to read about, right?
And again, it doesn't get into anything gross, but the reality of the pain in those situations is part of the narrative. And it's a very important, very meaningful part of the narrative. So you can't skip it or anything. You know what I mean? Yeah. I just want to put that warning out there that if you have sensitivity, especially on issues of, let's say, abuse of various forms, I would...
Maybe think twice before reading the book or find – there's a lot of websites now that will let you know the sorts of things in a book so you can decide for yourself if it's worth reading or not. The other thing I read, and this actually I listened to, so I'm trying to work out what that means. I finally caught up with Grady Hendrix's The Southern Book Club's Guide to Killing Vampires. Oh, I'm not familiar. I think that's what it's called. Anyways, have you read any Grady Hendrix books? I unfortunately have, no.
Oh, man. Grady's the best. We had him on Cinepunks before. I love his Paperbacks from Hell book. But meeting him is when I started reading his fiction. And the first one I read was We Sold Our Souls. I think that's right. We Sold Our Souls, which I was inclined to read because a friend of the show, Evan Vallella, was a...
uh, let's say resource for the book. Basically a big chunk of the book is set in Allentown. And so Evan got to read an early version of the book to make sure it all worked. Pretty cool. Pretty cool for Evan. Uh, and so that's sort of, and that really kind of started our connection to Grady was that. And so, uh, yeah, so I've just really appreciated him. And I even went to, anyways, I don't want to get into a whole thing about him.
Point is, just because there's a lot to say, he has done these live shows when books come out where he takes the research he did for this horror fiction novel. He'll still have all this research. He turns it into a one-man show so you can learn about what he learned. He has at least three books that are directly inspired by the Satanic Panic and the ways. We Sold Our Souls. He had already done a bunch of research on the Satanic Panic.
But We Sold Our Souls is about – it kind of relates to the transition from the way that the conspiracy community took stuff from the satanic panic and eventually those ideas became QAnon, right? And for him, the conspiracy community was for a long time –
a fun, eccentric thing for him to look at and be, not make fun of, but be kind of charmed by. It's interesting that people feel this way and have these ideas. And now, in his opinion, and I think he's right, it's all angry QAnon racism. It's almost impossible to find any conspiracy conversations that don't boil down to Trump, Illuminati.
Brandon, Hunter Biden's laptop. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This was actually before Hunter Biden's laptop when I saw him talk about this. But it was during the Trump administration. Anyways, point is, I had read a bunch of his other books. I would definitely recommend We Sold Our Souls. But my favorite so far is he has one. I forget what the full name is. It's something about selling a haunted house. And it's great. And I loved it. But I had never read. I still haven't read My Best Friend's Exorcism, which is really good.
but this vampire book I hadn't read before and Suze had read it and loved it. But, uh,
I finally figured out how to make Libby work on my phone. So I was like, oh, I'll try it out as an audio book. And, oh, man, I love it. Like I said, I've never done an audio book before, and I loved it. It was a lot of fun. It made me feel very good, actually, to do it that way. Not that I don't still love podcasts, but it was nice to have something other than a podcast to listen to when I'm cooking or whatever, you know? Yeah, and it's great. I love Grady Hendrix. I just think he's a great author, and if people haven't read him, check it out, you know?
Yeah, I've always kind of, because he's done a few events at the Mahoning Drive-In, and I've always wanted to make it a point to maybe go see him, and I never have. So maybe I should read some of his books beforehand. I think you would like his books. I think each of them has their own sort of thing that I think you would find interesting. Also, it's worth keeping in mind, being a horror author is like his third career.
Like he's done so many things. He's just such an interesting nerdy guy. If people are familiar with the New York Asian Film Festival, a big section of the New York Asian Film Festival evolved from this Kung Fu action movie fest. I forget what it was called. It was like Hong Kong explosion or something like that. That was exclusively planned and booked by Grady Hendrix for over a decade.
And now he's one of the people who runs the New York Asian Film Festival because they kind of absorbed his festival. Right. And it's a part of the festival. He's incredible. He's the fact that he even is put out the paperbacks from hell, which is just like really well researched book about the history of horror paperback covers and all the various artists and cultural influence around them.
He did that while still being an expert on Asian action cinema. And you know what I mean? Like, he's just such a nerdy dude with so many research interests. And I just find him compelling as well as, like, really charming in an interesting way. And had a lot of emotion in what he writes. And I don't know. Anyways, check it out. I think you would like it. Okay. Yeah. I'm definitely here for that.
Before we thank our sponsors, we've done this, we're out of whack. Oh, that's true. I kind of forgot that we didn't do the sponsor thing yet. It's okay. Reject doesn't care. Fuck Reject. He's, you know what, he has, I'll give him credit for this. He's the reason I finally decided to finish Twin Peaks because he took me to see Fire Walk with me. And I was like, fine, I'll watch this because after this is Mulholland Drive, which is like a, you know.
I have an unhealthy fascination with that movie. I don't know why. What is it about that movie that I love so much? I'm sure there's something in there. I don't know. We'll figure it out. But he's the one who's like, just watch this and you'll like it. So we went to Vank.
our patreons on patreon.com or patrons if you would like to become a member of our patreon community connect to patreon.com backslash cinepunks uh you're not just helping this show you're helping several other shows like cinepunks and the carnage report and i feel like an idiot for forgetting the other one arrows plus massacre yes which i haven't listened to yet and i'm very oh i think you would like it yeah cinema smorgasbord is my other one too cinema cinema smorgasbord
Also, check out Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations. Or don't. Get something screen printed. Get a sweatshirt. Get a Mulholland Drive t-shirt screen printed for me, because Liam's too much of a fucking coward to do it. I didn't say we weren't going to do it. It might just be a little bit.
I'm just fucking with you. Also, be sure to check out Essex Coffee Roasters. Liam, you're a coffee person. I sure is. Do you... Do you appreciate freshly roasted, freshly ground coffee? I sure do. Of course you do. Of course you are. You ought to go there to EssexCoffeeRoasters.com and order yourself some
ground-to-order coffee. Roast it to order. Roast it to order. Because you grind it yourself, right? I mean, I don't know, actually. I guess you could order it ground, but I don't know why you'd want to because the minute you grind it, it has a much lower shelf life. So, like, when people buy already pre-ground coffee, the coffee is undoubtedly stale by that point. Gotcha. But I'm sure in his wisdom, Aaron Dahlbeck would be like, hey, you want this coffee ground?
You know what? That's on you. And let's say when I was checking out, I wanted 10% off of my order. It's impossible. There's no way I can get 10% off of my order. Is there? You just put it into the code CINE, P-U-N-X. You're going to get 10% off. 10% off! There you go.
There you go. And also you should check out Mechanical Shark Media. Our beloved friend Sharky. Our dear friend Sharky who I used to be fucking mortally terrified of until I actually met him and hung out with him and I realized he's a big teddy bear. He's a softie. He's got all heart. He could probably still kick the shit out of me. But he's an intensely creative person and you need help with your project. Your...
Let's say you're making a music video. Let's say that Liam finally gets his Tool tribute band off the ground. He is going to go to Mechanical Shark Media to help, and Sharky's going to do a bunch of little stop-motion animation.
fucking Quay Brothers puppets to run around. You are committing him to way too much right now. I don't know what he's going to do. Just say Sharky and then move on. Let's just move on. I want to point out that Liam didn't deny he has a Tool tribute band in the works. I just want to say he did not deny that. You must have been high. Fuck you. I don't get high. I get low. And also, if you like t-shirts, which you do,
Liam has a thing he does sometimes. I don't even know. What is it called? Rough Cut Fan Club. Rough Teenage Fan Club. DuckTales Fan Club. DuckTales. Maybe I am high. Where the fuck did I get that from? You must have been high. Yeah. So, yeah. And now...
This is all we've been... Oh, I want to say, because you made me think of this with your diving in the audiobooks. I recently discovered that they have audiobooks on Spotify. So I have been tackling something I should have tackled decades ago. I started listening to... You have no idea what I'm about to say. The Dark Tower Saga by Stephen King. I assumed you had read them. Nope. What? I know!
That sounds crazy to me. It's very crazy. Did you just read stuff about them? I feel like you know things about the series. I know. So here's the thing. I remember reading Insomnia. Have you read Insomnia? So there's the scene when the little alien guys are telling Raph, and they're like, look, existence is like this. It's some kind of tower. It's not light. It's dark. And I remember being like, that's the dark tower they're talking about.
And I know all about like – I know the – I don't know how it ends. I don't know whatever. But I know that it all ties in with like all my favorite elements of Stephen King. But I am fucking – I'm about halfway through The Wizard and the Glass right now. That is amazing. That is so fucking good. So yeah, that's – aside from the movies we're going to talk about in a few minutes, that's all I've been – oh, and I –
I've been watching Dexter Original Sin. I finished Twin Peaks, so I started Dexter Original Sin. It's good. I gotta say, I didn't think they could make Dexter interesting again after those lackluster two last seasons, but the fucking, the revival was good, and this is good so far. But yeah, other than that, I've just, you know, horror, I haven't really been, you know, I've been just hanging out.
So I guess we're going to take a quick break and we come back. We are going to get into our our favorite films of 2024. And I'm really excited to talk about this because I think Liam and I are going to have a lot of interest. We always have interesting discussions. And I look forward to that. OK, so we'll be right back. Who are you to wave your finger? You must have been out. You're practically right
So here's my top. I mean, straight up, I only have a horror list because I knew we were doing this. And so that's, like, pushed me to make it happen. I felt kind of bad listening to the Cinepunks episode, and I was like, oh, man, I really hope I don't, like, outshine Liam. Oh, you straight up will, but that's okay. That doesn't bother me at all because anyone who listens to the show regularly knows you watch more new horror than I do. And that's not, like, on purpose. I don't watch that many new movies.
And then when I do watch new movies, it's easier if it's something that Suze can watch with me, which horror is not one of those things. So the fact that not counting or including, you know, Runners Up or whatever, if I just put together a list of movies I kind of like this year, I didn't think it would be 23, but it's 23. I liked 23 horror movies. I liked 106. Exactly. So that's what I'm saying.
I just was like, shit, I can't believe I got up to 23. It's pretty good for me. I feel pretty good about that. Now, I didn't just watch three of the horror movies. I probably watched, if I'm thinking, if I'm adding it up right, I think I probably watched like 50, maybe a little less than 50 new horror movies. There's just a bunch I didn't like this year. I just didn't love everything I watched this year. Oh, there was, there was, there was a, excuse me, there was a, there was a, too many that I didn't like. But I'm just going to start with my top 10. Here's my number, my number 10.
Here we go. Daddy's Head. Have you seen this movie? Bro. 100% have I seen it. Here's what I need to do. Give me a sec here. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. It didn't – oh, it is. It's in my – in fact, it's my number eight. I only watched it – what's funny is I knew you liked it, right? And I wanted to watch it. And then Doug hit me up before Halloween like, let's –
just pick two random new horror movies to talk about on cinema sports board before Halloween. And I just immediately was like daddy's head. Now, do I think this might be the worst named horror movie of, well, let's put it this way. The worst named horror movie I actually liked of 2024, because if you'd taken all those weird, like to be level horror movies, some of those have terrible names, awful names, but when it comes to like movies that are actually good.
Come on, why is it called Daddy's Head? That's not great. I can one-up that. I watched this movie with my father. And you guys don't really know my dad, but my dad is... Let's just say that I am unknowable to my father, and my father is unknowable to me. Our love for one another is undeniable and very real. But we're watching this, and I'm like, oh, oh. And he's like, what the... This isn't...
Nothing happened. Why are you like this? But, oh my god, this movie fucking shook me. I like, there was a thing about this movie that kind of like, you know, the new thing is like, oh, grief is a source of horror. Oh, it's grief is the trauma. And I think this kind of inverted that, because it sort of, it did have an element of that.
But it also had the element – I appreciate that the mother in this movie was dealing with losing her husband and also dealing with a stepson who fucking despised her. I agree. And that's bad enough. Like that right there could make a decent drama film. And then you add this thing that is just –
haunting them um and it's got a blend it was a blend of like everything that like kind of gets into my skin like there was a touch like the uncanny valley um it was it was one of those movies where i don't think the the effects the creature effects were all that great but they knew it so they didn't really show it that much which i appreciate
I feel like what little you saw was mostly effective. There's only a couple moments where I was like, maybe not great, but I don't know. A couple times the stuff that they showed us was kind of fucking weird in a way that was more upsetting than if it had been more realistic or whatever. Yeah, it was just enough of a glimpse to be like, I don't think that's what I saw, and I'm going to hope that's not what I saw.
But yeah, either way, I really enjoyed it. Daddy's Head, my number 10. I feel that. I liked it a lot, obviously, because I put it a little bit higher on my list. I think number 10 is sort of a contested position for me because there's a bunch of movies here that could go in that position. I feel like I have a little bit of a recency bias on this one, but I really liked Humane.
That was my number nine. There you go. I watched it very recently. So just, you know, people kind of get this. But just to be really clear, I had to catch up on a few horror movies before we did this because I realized, like, I haven't even seen that many movies this year. And this is one of the ones from your list that I thought, oh, that looks interesting. Let me check it out. And when it started, and it was very clearly a...
like a message movie, like a movie with a clear kind of point. And then as it went along, it had a certain kind of like satirical edge to it. I thought, ugh, this is going to be too tedious for me to like it. And it ain't correct. It's effective the whole time. Like I really kept waiting for it to like get corny. And even as Veronica Mars' dad came in and started doing his Veronica Mars' dad thing,
He is funny and menacing at the same time in a way that you don't usually get in a mood. Usually the minute the bad guy, quote unquote, starts to be funny, you're really walking an edge. It's really possible that the movie is going to lose itself. And somehow he managed to have actual moments of levity and still be a scary man in a way that worked for the movie. And so, yeah, I really liked it a lot.
You know, I really toyed with putting either Immaculate or The First Omen in that position instead of Humane because both those movies surprised me. I thought they were going to be bullshit and they weren't bullshit. But I don't think I like them as much as Humane. I think Humane was just good on its own. Whereas both of those, there was a little bit of my own expectations that made them better. Fair enough.
So that was my number nine. I'll agree with everything Liam said. I appreciate the little touch of social commentary. I appreciate the fact that it kind of like dabble in the absurd while also maintaining like a kind of dramatic edge to it. And I just thought it was like this like a kind of bleak commentary upon like the way.
Not the way we treat each other in society, but it was more the way that movie wrapped up. It was more about not what we're willing to do to survive, but what we're willing to live with to maintain our current level of comfort, which I think is far more terrifying than...
Then the whole, like, what would you do to survive? Like, it's like these people weren't doing shit to survive. They were doing shit so their lives would be the same, which I think is so incredibly fucked up. Mm-hmm. Yeah. My number nine is Nosferatu.
Nosferatu. I've heard of that movie. Did you not like it, Laura? I liked it quite a bit. Ah, okay. Okay. Well, we might hear more from you on that. For me, some people are going to be annoyed it's so low. Some people are going to be annoyed it's on the list at all. For me, I suspect I'm going to actually like this more the more times I see it. The first watch, I liked it a good deal. But...
There was also something I felt a little bit of distance from it, too. It didn't get under my skin the way I think maybe it affected other people who maybe connected to it a little bit more than I did. But I was really impressed by it. I think it's beautiful. I think many of the things that are off-putting to other people, I find that they're value-added, not negatives.
I am really impressed with the changes that were made. I think they were good for the most part. And I don't know. I don't know if I'll love it like it's going to be one of my greatest of all times or anything like that. But I am pretty happy with it now, and I only imagine getting more the more times I'm given the opportunity to watch it. I also, the first time I saw it was on 35mm. That helped. That was good. Oh, cool.
Um, all I'll say about that, cause that movie does appear a little bit higher on my list is at the moment, um, I went and saw this with a friend of the podcast, Liz, and, um, I told her beforehand, I was like, look, you know, just heads up. I'm, you know, I, I, I get very easily scared at stuff. So I apologize if I'm like embarrassing at all. And there was like certain scenes when she would just like grab my arm.
There was one scene in this movie where she actually had to do, like, are you okay? Like, it's the scene, there's the gif going around of Lily Rose Depp where she's, like, shaking. And then she, like, stops and her eye, like, that scene was, like, so upsetting to me. Because it was like, if this goes on for a few more seconds, like, I'm going to have to get up and walk out of the theater. There was just something about that scene that fucked with my head so bad.
I feel you. Yeah. Okay, what's your number eight? Number eight, Long Legs. I am also a Long Legs defender. I don't think I liked it quite as much as you did, but it's definitely one of the movies this year that I enjoyed a good deal. I get some of the complaints about it, but overall I think it's better than some people are giving it credit for.
uh that was a movie i liked more in retrospect like the more i thought about it and i would watch some videos like analyzing it um oz perkins use of silhouette is so scary oh my god in heaven um we talked about this when we did the the black hood's daughter yep like this the shots in this of like the veiled dolls where you can just see the eyes
I think that is scarier than any moment that Nicolas Cage is on screen. Don't get me wrong, Nicolas Cage is upsetting because he's Nicolas Cage. But yeah, there was something about this movie and the idea of people being influenced by an external force to just commit these horrifying murders and do these atrocious things.
That external force just gets away with it. I just find that such a terrifying concept. I agree. And Oz Perkins is great, and I can't wait to see the monkey. My number eight is Daddy's Head, as we said. If anyone out there has strange daddy issues, let this movie hit you right in the soft spot.
Literally, my only criticism of the movie is that while I'm sure it worked for filming, having them in a house so pretentious did give me a little bit of emotional distance from the characters in the film. That house was like Tony Stark's summer getaway. I was watching it. I was like, what the fuck is this? I mean, I think the house works for the narrative, especially because it's a very cold house. But watching it, I'm going, who the fuck are these rich?
pieces of shit that they're living in this shitty house. It was this kid that got to be sad about it. His dad's dead. So what? He's got all the money in the world. All the money in the world. Yeah, maybe not. I don't know. Okay, number seven. My number seven was Cannibal Mukbang. So I didn't get to watch it yet. I hear good things. Tell us about it. What even is this? Because I bet you a lot of people haven't even heard about this yet. So I wrote a review for this.
I apologize. I forget which festival I watched it for. But my favorite thing about this movie is that it, at first, for the first act, it is every inch the manic pixie dream girl set up. It really is kind of like a goofy, silly comedy.
Um, this like kind of loser introvert guy meets this like super cute girl. She's like taking him out of his shell. And I was first watching this and I was like, where are they going with this? And then, um, the reason it's called cannibal mukbang comes out and it's a complete inversion of the manic pixie dream girl trope in which.
The focus becomes – I feel awful. I forget the character's name. She's fantastic. The focus becomes entirely on her, and instead of there being a character with no real depth helping a male character solve his problems, we are now presented with a character with some would say too much emotional depth. Sure. And a whole boatload of problems of their own.
Um, who clearly loves the male character, but is, let's say, unconcerned with solving his problems that she doesn't really see as problems. Sure. Yeah. Um, it's incredibly gory. It's incredibly sweet. Um, there is fantastic chemistry between the two actors. Um, and I just thought it was like, I just thought it was a refreshing movie in, in, in a time where like, you, you know, like,
The whole idea of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is this, like, really beat-to-death trope that is somehow still going on. I just thought this film was a very effective takedown of that trope. And not just in a way that it, like, you know, inverted it, but also kind of showed why it was, like, fucked up. And kind of, like, tore it apart. And, um...
Use the inversion of it as a source of horror. Like, what if you meet this person who is everything you're looking for, and they obviously care about you, but they have all these horrible issues of their own, and those issues are now your issues. And I just thought that was a really compelling story. I feel that. I'm excited to watch it. It sounds...
When I first heard about it, it put me off a little bit, but the more that I've heard people talk about it and I've read things about it, I really want to see it. The poster looks like a corny 80s romantic comedy poster. It is super cheesy, but it also has this really sweet undercurrent. When they first meet, there's nothing sinister, and it feels like...
It really does feel like a blossoming relationship that I thought was incredibly realistic. The chemistry is amazing. It's a very sweet movie. But then it gets into really dark territory that I think uses the sweetness early on to just make it that much darker and tragic and fucked up. I'm excited. I'm excited to check it out. Okay, number seven, right?
My number seven is Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Chime. You did an inhale. I was like, is Justin going to say something? No, I've heard about this movie. My friend of the podcast, Kelly MacDonald, whose partner Brian we've had on here to talk about Christmas, Bloody Christmas, Cure is one of her favorite movies of all time. And at least, I'm saying literally at least once a month, I get a text from her with...
Have you watched Cure yet? Why haven't you watched Cure yet? Why do you hate me for not watching Cure? So when you guys were talking on CinePunks about this, I was kind of curious to talk about this with you.
I mean, I love Cure. I think both Cure and Pulse are great. He's made a lot of other movies besides Cure and Pulse. I have not seen them. So I don't want to limit him down to just his one-word horror movies, per se, because he's done a lot of other things. But here he is with another one-word horror movie. It's only 45 minutes long. Oh, okay. It has the vibe of Cure. But...
It is a very short, very simple movie where there is a setup and a payoff. And that's it. There's no complexities. There's no explanation. It's barely a narrative. Things just happen in a way that kind of makes sense. And then it kind of ends ominously. It honestly feels like an unfinished movie. Like there was going to be a movie and he didn't finish the movie.
It also, for some reason, was very effective and got under my skin and made me feel very uncomfortable. I felt very uncomfortable watching this, and I couldn't help but put it very high on my list because I think it made me the most actually uncomfortable of the horror movies I saw this year. Interesting. I really do. And it's not going to work for everybody. If people don't already like his vibe, this is like...
You know, much in the same way that some Lynch things are so Lynch that you're like, OK, all right, we're really doing it on this one. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's this. This is so much. If you love Cure, if you love Pulse, those are very different movies in a way, but they have a similar kind of tone thing going on. But I will say this also reminded me of other Japanese directors as well. There's a little bit of.
uh uh mikay in this okay just in some of the there's certain moments that are extreme moments that are filmed in a way that is so blunt and unemotional despite their extremity that it felt kind of mikay to me like it's just like yeah this is what's happening now is this is this upsetting for you what's happening oh well sorry this just this is what happened okay we're gonna we're just gonna keep going
You're okay, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, there's no drama to there's no, I mean, I don't want to say no drama, but it's like, it's not despite there being plenty of filming techniques to make other things seem more haunting. There's a few moments that
should be very extreme or maybe feel like they should be that are just so blunt that they just made me feel even more uncomfortable than if they had been like loud violins and a close-up, right? I appreciate that. I like that approach. It's very stark. Again, I wouldn't recommend people start. If you haven't seen any of this dude's movies, I wouldn't start with this one. But for me, it made me a little bit unhappy, so I got to put it on the list.
I like that about you, Liam. That's why we're friends. I'm just saying. All right, number six. Number six for me was Smile 2. Okay, okay. Have you seen it yet? Yeah, I think we talked about it. We did talk about it. I really like this movie. I think it could grow on me. I didn't love it at first, but I didn't dislike it either. I just was kind of like, okay. I think...
On rewatch, it could grow on me. I don't imagine I could rewatch it, though, because it really got under my skin in a way that I did not appreciate. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if anything needs to be said about this movie more than I already said. I think it's got some incredible performances. Some of the imagery is just like...
Dude, I'm not going to lie, that scene towards the end when you see the thing's face, when it's on top of her, the creature design was just... I just thought it was deeply upsetting. I honestly, I forget the actor's name, but I found her... Is it Naomi? I forget, yeah. I just thought she was a much more compelling protagonist than...
And again, I liked the first movie. I just thought she was a much more fleshed out, compelling, someone you could invest in emotionally in this film. And I think that kind of went a long way in this movie. And I also think some of the sequences were a lot more creative, like the scene in her apartment with the dancers.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That fucked with me so bad. Just the sight of those people just shifting positions when she wasn't looking, I think was scarier than any of the weird creature effects. There was just something about that that really put me in a place that I was like, yeah, I don't know if I'm not the biggest fan of this right now. But I am, because that's the whole point of R. Yeah. All right, so that's number six.
Yep. What's your number six? A little Irish movie called Double Blind. Did you see this? I have never not even heard of this movie. Oh, let me recommend it to everybody. Double Blind. I think it came out in Ireland in like 2023, but it didn't come out here till this year. I really only checked it out because my friend Mike suggested it just generally, not to me specifically. And I just wanted to, you know.
Try out some horror movies I hadn't heard about much. And I liked it a lot. It's one of those science gone wrong. A bunch of younger people are in a sleep study. No, I saw this movie. Okay, I'm an idiot. Yeah. I liked that. I liked it a good deal. I really thought it was effective. I really appreciated the tension of them together. I don't know. It really got to me at the time. It's been a little bit since I watched it, but I really liked it. So, yeah.
I don't know. Double blind. It's not deeply upsetting or anything like that. There was something about the tenseness of it plus the feeling of not being able to trust yourself or anyone else. Everyone is so sleep deprived and they're all paranoid and they don't trust each other. And then...
It turns out their paranoia of the people doing the study was utterly and completely justified. Yes. Yeah. All that just really, really worked for me. So I don't know. I was really sold on it. Before I go on to my top five, I just want to do a couple honorable mentions that I'm not going to get too far into. I had done a review of a film called Crumb Catcher. I interviewed the director.
Fantastic movie. Just because a movie didn't make it to my top ten doesn't mean fuck the rest of these movies. But this was a movie I think everyone should check out. Same with Falling Stars. I love the first omen. I did a review and interview with the director of a movie called Frogman I thought was quite good.
And I'll post all these on my Instagram and the Harbiz's Instagram, you know, so you guys can check them out. Maxine. I really liked Maxine. I did, too. I did, too. I loved the fucking New Order needle drop at the end, but, you know, that's just me. A little movie called Mysterious Ways. A movie called Complex Forms I wrote a review of. You can check that out at cinepunks.com. Late Night with the Devil.
I dug it. Stop Motion, I also dug it. A movie that, you know, this was one of the bigger horror movies of the year, and I'll give it a lot of credit because it kind of took the world by storm, Terrifier 3. I appreciate how much that movie kind of like swept over America and made a bunch of people really uncomfortable. A little movie called Mr. Crockett. Another film I wrote a review,
I've wrote a review for called Hunting Matthew Nichols, Immaculate. I love that movie. Animale. And then a movie called Delicate Arch, which I – these are all movies I've reviewed. If you guys want to go on CinePunks and look them up and check it out. And Carnage for Christmas. Have you seen Carnage for Christmas? I haven't watched it yet. It's a lot of fun.
So now we're in my top five. My top five is a film called The Build-Out. This is a movie starring Jenna Connell. You might know her. She was the girl who doesn't get solved in half in the first Terrifier film. She's one of those actors who pops up in really random movies.
And even if the movie kind of sucks, she's always a blast to watch. She was in Renfield for a minute. She was in, I think, The Bye-Bye Man, which is unfortunate because even though she's great, that movie was whatever. This movie was, I mean, it was undeniably horror because it had a lot of horrific shit going on, but there was a really...
Really, really solid emotional core to this movie that I thought was, like, so moving and so relatable and got me so emotionally, like, invested in it that, like...
anything that was remotely bad that happened to this people that anytime there was anything remotely bad that i thought was going to happen it filled me with such like dread and almost like paternal concern for these characters that i spent the whole movie being like don't let anybody die like don't i don't even want them to see anything scary because i don't want them to get upset um but that that was uh
Yeah, that was that was just a movie that like when I first saw it, I was like, oh, that was that was good. And then like it was one of those movies like three days later, I'd be lying awake at like two in the morning to be like, I was just thinking about the build out. Holy shit. And not like a weird way. I'm not I'm not a weirdo. I just want to clarify that. I like that. Not in a weird way. Not a weird way. Yeah. But yeah, the build out like it's it's just a really a really.
I don't know. There's something like bittersweet about it. And it was just like a like a powerful film that also was like incredibly dreadful. So, yeah, the build out. Check it out. I saw it on your list. I didn't know anything about it, so I'm excited to check it out. My number five is a movie I've talked about a pretty good deal, I would say, a movie called Cuckoo.
Yeah, I love that you guys were talking about this on Cinepunks, and I just want to clarify, Josh, they're crypto-terrestrials. They're not aliens. Yeah, thank you. They lived here the entire time. They walk amongst us. They're inhuman in our midst. They've been here all along. And I didn't want to make a big deal of it at the time. He also says there's some...
Time stuff, it's, as we've discussed previously, perception of time. What we're seeing is the perception of time by the characters. Time itself is not affected by the cuckoo's voice. Just our perception of time is affected by the cuckoo's voice. Yeah. All that to say, I love this movie. Tillman Singer, you know, I'm a fan. Luz is one of my underrated classics, movies that I continue to find people who've never heard of it.
Yeah, I just thought this movie was great. I thought Hunter Schaefer was great. I feel like Dan Stevens has really shown that he is a psychotic person. And he's able to play just the craziest characters. I don't know. I just thought this was a very effective movie that I have seen twice now. And I would go upstairs and watch it with Suze right now if she was willing to watch it. Like, I just really find it very satisfying to watch. So, yeah, Kuku. Loved it. Yeah.
I like that. I like that a lot. My number four is a... I don't know why this movie's been so divisive. Because I thought it was fantastic. Strange Darling? Yeah, I have... It's not on my list. I kind of don't love the end. We talked about this before. I don't love the end. But I think there are people who are interpreting the movie as...
more as like anti-feminist and i don't know that that's true i don't know that i think there's just questions about the narrative and whether it encourages the audience to not trust women basically i
I'm going to disagree with that, and I'm going to tackle that. That's going to be my second point to take down. My first point to take down is I've seen people say that this movie hinges on – it's just a twist. It's just a twist that people think it's great, and it's like, no, no, no, no. The entire setup where they're talking about their – like, this is a very –
the scene where they're talking about like what their boundaries are and they're talking about like the safe words and all that, that is such an intimate and vulnerable. That is such an intimate look into like people being vulnerable with each other in such a realistic way that that kind of like, not to get TMI, but that's a conversation I've had with partners before. And that really spoke to me to the level of like,
Oh, we actually care about each other to the point that we're going to, we're going to talk about this beforehand. So none of, so neither of us get uncomfortable and we want this to, we want, we want, we both want the other person to feel safe. And I just thought that was so realistic. And so this sounds saccharine, like tender, I guess. Um, and then like the twist I thought was, I, I, I,
I mean, I kind of saw it coming, but I was still like, that was pretty cool. And, you know, it doesn't hurt that it has a really haunting cover of Love Hurts in there, so. Yeah. So, yeah, that – I just – I dug it. I really enjoyed that movie, and I think it's a lot more than what people are making it out to be. It's a lot more than just the twist. I also think it's more than the twist.
And what's more, I think anyone who was paying attention to the trailer should have had a sense of what the twist probably was. But how the movie got there was utterly surprising to me. Oh, my God, yeah.
But, yeah, I get people's concerns with it a little bit. Like, I'm more in the camp of I would like to see more things that this director does in the future to get a feeling of, like, is there something maybe happening here? You know what I mean? Like, you know, the example I'll bring up, which some people will hate, but I'll bring it up anyway, is Bone Tomahawk, right? When Bone Tomahawk came out, we were all like, yeah, it's pretty great.
A little weird. Should we be concerned? And everyone was like, nah, it's probably fine. And then as time went on, it's like, it probably wasn't fine, actually. Like, now, it seems like maybe it wasn't fine. But we didn't know at the time. You know what I mean? I think that's only taken in the context with, like, the director and his regrettable political views. But that's what I'm saying.
I don't know this director or if they have regrettable political views. So they may have made a very effective film with the idea of something that maybe doesn't come across completely. But I get why people are worried that it doesn't pass the sniff test. And again, I'm not saying I totally agree with that, but I would like to know, like, okay, what's this guy going to do next? Because whatever he does next might influence how I feel about this movie. That's a fair point. I just, to me, I think that it was more like,
I think we should take an inversion of a common horror trope at face value, which is all I really think this director is trying to do. Because I didn't really get any, like, with Bone Tomahawk, I kind of got vibes that this is a little, like, you and I have talked about this. Yep. The whole, like, Bone Tomahawk was a modern cannibal, like a cannibal, like a cannibal Faroe film.
I've always had a problem with those movies. Even before I knew about that director's political leanings, I was like, this is kind of a fucked up movie. You combine the savage indigenous stereotype with just the, let's say, kind of over-the-top level of violence. And I was already like...
50% of the way there with being, like, uncomfortable with that movie on a visceral level. This was just a movie that I was like, oh, that was a clever version of a common horror troupe. You know what I mean? Like, and I'm completely open to the idea that maybe there is something there that is anti-woman and is, you know, anti-feminist. Like, I'm not saying that's an impossibility. I'm just saying, to me, I didn't get any of that from this film.
I feel you, buddy. I feel you. But you know me, Liam. I'm a sucker for a pretty face. My number four. We're in number four, right? Is that right? Yeah. My number four is a movie called The Vordulac. This movie I had wanted to see and I didn't get to. So tell me about it. It starts off with a character who is so. Fru-fru French aristocracy from a certain time period. The man shows up. His face is pure white. He's got a fake beauty mark on his face.
And red lipstick. He's got a auburn powdered wig on and he's wearing this blue kind of like, you know, dandy boy outfit. And he's in like Eastern European fucking wilderness where nobody.
Everybody's nice enough to him because they've heard of France, and he's a diplomatic envoy. They're better than me. So they know maybe we shouldn't fuck with this guy because he represents a king. But for the most part, they're like, who is this fucking frou-frou, danding around, whatever. So when it first starts, I'm like, oh, this is a comedy. I didn't realize this was a comedy. And you could feel that way at first.
especially because a lot of the vibe at first is he's a fish out of water, but his fish out of waterness is actually, I think meant to disarm you and put you at ease a little bit so that when the Vortilax shows up and it is in fact a puppet and then the rest of the movie, you're watching them interact with a fucking terrifying puppet.
possibly a marionette, I'm not sure, but you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're already like, oh, well, okay, I guess I'll take this puppet at face value because this is a comedy, right? Oh, no, my friend. This is a folk horror tragedy. It is dark. It is sad. It is filled with dread. And while I would never say the puppet was scary, it was...
effectively unnerving. This movie's going to scare the shit out of me, isn't it? It might. I'm not saying it's going to. It might. There's a certain sound effect that will fuck you up, and when I first heard it, I thought, okay, our...
Well, to be clear, y'all, Vortilac is not exactly a vampire. Vortilac is like a revenant who does drink blood, but he focuses, they focus on family members. They're attracted to people they love. Their love causes them to come back from the dead and feed on the ones that they love. The Vortilac is the brother to the Ilac, which if you have read Stephen King's It, that's what the kids think Pennywise is at first, and they were wrong. He's a glamour. Right. So all that to say.
All that to say, the Vortilac is otherworldly, and so they use this very well-worked marionette. I've never seen anything as effective as this fucking thing. And, you know, this family is slowly pulled apart because the patriarch of the family doesn't believe that their father...
is dead. They believe he's just returned. He's returned from killing Turks. It's great. He's killed some Turks, and now he's back. But the rest of the family and the Frenchmen, the Frenchmen, they immediately know, no, something's fucked up here. Oh, I was talking about the sound effect. So there's a sound effect, and it's kind of like a weird slurpy sound. And I thought, is that what it sounds like when he sucks their blood? That's so lame. I'm not into that. No, no, no. One of the legends of the Vortilac, right, is that they
get their saliva back by sucking on their funeral shroud. So when you see them coming out of the grave, they have like their shroud or their clothes in their mouth and they're going on it.
Oh, I don't like that. Oh, it's so fucked, dude. And they use it effectively so many times. And it's a goddamn nightmare. And I think you could actually, because of the tone of this movie, it truly has like a campiness to it there. If you wanted to be detached from it, you could watch it as a comedy the whole time. Because everything sort of hits certain notes. But I...
guarantee it's not meant to be funny in fact the few parts of the beginning that are funny are just to slowly make you more and more uncomfortable until by the end it's like well this is a goddamn nightmare cool i'm in a nightmare i've we've gone to eastern europe with the dandy frenchman and the situation is so dire that this weird horny effeminate person like you know he's like he's like
he spends half the time being grossed out by everything and walking around with his pinkies in the air. And then the minute he sees an attractive young lady, he's like, let's go be alone so you can do the nasty with me. You know what I mean? Like he's a, he's, he's a cat. He's a, he's a bad dude. Things become so dire that he is like the hero, you know, he's going to be heroic because.
There's no other choice. There's no one left. Somebody has to do something. You know what I mean? Like that's the vibe of it. It's so desperate. And there's a lot of interesting folklore and folk horror stuff going on. I thought it was a brilliant movie. I really loved it. Interesting. I appreciate that. All right. So I guess we're at number three. Number three. My number three is a little film called Black Eyed Susan. I wanted to watch this and I couldn't. It wasn't available in any of my services.
Yeah, this was a festival pick. I think this was a Fantasia Fest or Fantastic Fest. God, this movie was deeply horny in a not good kind of horny way. It kind of dove into a lot of questions that I have a personal fascination with, like concepts of personhood.
you know, loosely taught, you could, you could look at this film in a way and you could, it's so, the implications of this film are so far reaching. You could probably work animal rights into this movie. That's how like, um, but I also like, so there's, there's concepts of personhoods. There's talk, there's concepts about like, they do it.
a kind of deep dive into the concept of like consent and BDSM. Um, there is a lot of, it raises a lot of like uncomfortable moral questions about like, should we placate pedophiles by giving them these artificial children? And is that any, is that morally preferable to letting them have access to quote unquote real children?
But I think the thing that made this so fascinating is that like there's all these like uncomfortable ideas swirling around this relationship between this man and this robot that is – it's a very real relationship. Like this guy is uncomfortable because of how realistic this – so the plot of this movie is that there's this sex doll.
named Susan, that is imbued with this hyper-advanced AI that aces the Turing test to the point of where it's like an uncanny valley. It's not even in the uncanny valley thing. It's just like, are you sure she's not real? Like, are you sure this is a robot? And they're using this guy to kind of calibrate her for different relationships. And as the movie goes on...
He finds that he's falling in love with her, and she is saying that she's falling in love with him, but is that just her programming? Is she kind of having like a Terminator 2 moment where she's becoming like...
becoming self-aware at like a geometric rate so there's all that going on and then there's this like weird corporate conspiracy when he finds out what our true purpose is that i think that is what the true horror of it is um but there's also scenes where early on we see this this this doll who is um for all intents and purposes a fucking human being being violently assaulted um so i'm gonna say
I love this movie. It's my number three horror movie of the year. But fucking trigger warning because there are some very realistic depictions of sexual assault in this movie. But this is a movie I couldn't get out of my head for days. I couldn't stop thinking about this. It took me a minute to write a review because I had to sort through my feelings about it. I just overall thought it was just this.
Incredibly complex and wonderful film. Terrifying and upsetting, but in the best way. Okay, okay. I think it looks really interesting and I really want to see it. It's also, I don't know the exact way it's shot. I think it's shot the same way that Danny Boyle shot 28 Days Later.
But it has a look to it too that lends it a very – like I've talked about how if you've ever watched like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and it feels like, oh, this is like a home video I shouldn't be watching. That's how this movie feels. Like a lot of it feels like you're watching like tests that have been – like test sessions that have been videotaped between this –
between this doll and this guy and it's a lot of the stuff early on where she's trying to figure out what is the most human thing i can say and what is how is the most human way i can react that is it's vaguely off-putting and vaguely sweet and i think the combination of that just makes it like a very unsettling uh experience i feel that
It's funny how many of these movies were like, it made me so uncomfortable, you should watch it. That's movies with Justin Lohr. All right, my number three movie is a movie called Red Rooms. Oh.
That was an interesting response. No, I like this movie. It didn't make my top 10, but I wrote a review for it. I had gotten a screen for it. That was an experience. So tell me your thoughts on it. For people who don't know what it is, it is a movie that explores, in my mind, both our obsession with true crime as a culture. but also the need to honestly know, to experience, to participate in something very dark and bad.
And the movie somehow manages to be very upsetting while not really showing you most of the horrific violence that it is about. What it is more about is a young lady who is obsessed with a trial. She's obsessed and she's gotten very deep into this thing and she cannot let it go. And it starts to threaten her way of life, her livelihood, her safety.
But she just cannot stop. And I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but it is, again, a movie that can make me that. It's not clear that there's any danger to her in a direct way. Most of the movie. Right. And it's not clear that.
there are even that high of stakes at certain parts and yet i was very thrilled and entertained but also made uncomfortable by this movie and i felt like there was a lot at stake for her for her well-being for her emotional well-being for her fucking soul really you know what i mean like for the essence of who she is it's it's a it's a it's a movie that is
It is not about good and evil in the flu flu way. I mean, I shouldn't say this as a person who is connected to church, but in the flu flu way that we mean with religion. Because I think that that's often an obfuscation of what's really at stake. This is a movie where a person is wrestling with something that they feel unhealthily obsessive about.
But they know that it's probably bad and that there's a better decision to make. But they aren't sure if they can fucking make that decision. And I just I don't know. I found it really compelling. I found it really interesting. And I feel like the foil in the movie of the other young lady she meets at the trial. I think that I think there's something there to think about what that says about different ways of viewing the world. Right. So I will say I.
Wrote a review for that movie, and I'll say the thing that I found most fascinating about it is that I didn't think that our protagonist was in any sort of real danger at any given time. I think the real threat came from her is that she was so obsessed with diving into the fucking depths of humanity and seeing that the worst that humanity had to offer, and she thought she was prepared for it, but...
You know, to be cliched, she wasn't ready when she looked into the abyss for something to fucking look back at her. I mean, part of the movie, I mean, it's easy to just make her seem like she's only a voyeur. Part of the weirdness of the movie is that one of the victims looks like her to an uncanny degree. And so that's part of her obsession with what's happening.
Anyway, I really liked it. I also think the other – I believe the other girl's name was Clementine. Yeah. I thought that was a commentary upon our kind of shitty obsession with true crime. Yeah, I think the whole movie kind of relates to it, honestly. Well, I forget the protagonist's name and I feel awful about that. I think she had more of a –
actual fascination with, with human nature, which I don't get it, but I can appreciate it that, that there's, there's something compelling her to like lift the rock up and see what's under there. And then being like, Oh, I'm ready. And then being like, Oh fuck, I'm way not ready. I think Clementine's character kind of spoke to the, the fucking bullshit serial killer fandom that is like, so how people talk about like, um, okay. So, uh,
Last year, part of my niece's Christmas present was we did a VIP meet and greet with the guys in the last podcast on the left. So afterwards they had like a, you know, for like the 10 of us who were there, they had like a question and answer session. Most of the questions were marry, fuck or kill John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer or whatever. And the dudes on the show were just like, do I have to marry? Can I just kill all of them? Like, do I?
They're not, you know what I mean? Like these people aren't worth, they're not deserving of fucking fandom. Like, and I think that is, that is such a pervasive, uh, like there's nothing wrong with being an enthusiast of true crime. There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn more about, you know, my dad is a big true crime person. It's, it's, it's totally fine. But when you cross the line of like, like this girl's character is like, even though there is a mountain of evidence against this guy.
this girl's like there's no way he could have done it look into his eyes you can tell and it's like oh no i've looked into his eyes he looks like the goddamn devil um and i just i thought that movie was like kind of a fascinating culture on both a fascinating comment commentary on that culture and the um our sort of like compulsion to uh you know shine the light out in the woods and just see what's out there
Agreed. Are you ready for my number two? Sure. A Quiet Place, day one. I didn't see it. Oh, you didn't see it? Bro, I hate these movies. I know this one is different, but I just was like, I'll get to it eventually. But Liam, this one has a cat and the cat lives. I mean...
It has Lupita Nyong'o, who is one of my favorite actors in the world. And I plan to watch it at some point. But it's hard to watch a prequel for movies I don't like. It's really hard. This is true. No, I get that. I think I will watch it eventually just because enough people have said it's a different thing.
It's not the same thing. It's a different thing that like, okay, I'll give it a try. But like, man, I, I, we've talked about this before. I think those other ones with that dude who I don't like are way overrated. I, we, you know, my, I have a complicated, you know, I like those movies, but I think John Krasinski should never be allowed to talk about film ever again.
i'm not wrong i don't care i will die on that hill i i i like i like a quiet place it fucking scared me but hearing john krasinski talk in interviews i'm just like you are the fucking antichrist um no i i don't know i just i just i really love this movie um i i just it just it made me feel really good in a way that like it it made me feel
scared in a way that I love, you know, like, um, I don't know. I just, just something about this movie, like really, really like got to me and, and, and, and gripped me in a, in a nice soft spot in my body that, you know, movies don't often do. And I, I just, I just, I don't know. It was like, I was deeply touched by it. I was scared. I thought all the performances were compelling. Um, there's a, there's a neat cat in it and he lives. So, you know, spoiler alert.
That's fine. It's the greatest movie of 2024. Fuck you, Liam. I really do plan to watch it eventually, but I couldn't do it. My number two is a Korean film called Exuma.
I, oh God, I wanted to watch this and I didn't. And I regret it so bad because it looks amazing. And literally, literally every person I knew whose opinion I respect on Har was like, you gotta watch Exuma. And normally I'm like, actually I don't. But this time I was like, fuck, maybe they're all on to something. So tell me about it. So it is a, it's a South Korean film that explores.
kind of like the local spiritual practices and ideas. So a young lady and her, it's not clear if they have any sort of relationship besides that they work together, but her and this man are sort of like witches slash priests slash sorcerers to like the rich and famous. They go around to people because the sort of
vibe of the movie is while Korean society might pretend they're not superstitious actual rich people in South Korea are like fully invested in all the superstitions and they're willing to pay for it and so she goes around breaking curses and investigating various bad happenings or whatever and she's brought in for a case where
A child has gone through, like a newborn, has gone through every medical test, and the doctors can't explain why this child is so upset and is crying so much. And through a series of chants and rituals, she figures out that there's some ancestor in this kid's past who is unsatisfied, unresting. He's basically... Sending a curse forward, they call it like a firstborn curse, so that each firstborn under each patriarch will be haunted in some way. And this child's...
father was the firstborn and he basically has learned through therapy and drugs to suppress the fact that he constantly hears voices and screaming all the time and he just thought he was crazy and they're like oh no no you've just been cursed by your great grandfather usually when a curse comes this strong the whole line just dies off so it doesn't keep going but somehow you've all managed to survive and so
She contacts these two other gentlemen back in Korea for help who are – the term they use is geomancer. So basically in feng shui, you know, there's a lot about directions and placement of things and flow of energy and different elements or whatever. So this geomancer, he helps people figure out where to be buried.
where to build their building, what direction the building should face. He's basically like doing high-level feng shui for stuff, right? Yeah. And so they're like, okay, this spirit is unhappy. It's very likely he's buried somewhere that is not great. So we should start there. So we need these guys' help. And things slowly go out of control. The mythology of it all goes way beyond whatever happened with this one guy. And it involves...
literally the separation between North Korea and South Korea and fascist sorcerers from Japan during World War II. And it somehow does all these utterly magic, like there's literal weird magic, spirit, ghost, and other stuff going on in this movie. And it all feels as realistic as an episode of the X-Files, if not more.
You know what I mean? Like, none of it's filmed like, oh, look at this. It's all filmed in a way of, like, the aesthetics of it feel like a 90s, like, speaking of true crime, serial killer movie. Like, it's that kind of vibe.
But it's magic and ghosts and stuff and dead people coming back and all this weird shit. And it does it so well. And it's all a mystery. Like, it's just you're watching them try to figure it out and try to stop whatever's happening. And it somehow sells every moment. I just found it compelling and sad and tense. And it's really long. And I did not feel at any point that it was dragging. It's a really...
effective movie. Now, I think with so much different elements going on, people who are more skeptical of supernatural horror, it's asking a lot of you to keep going with it, but I think it's worth it. For people like us who actually like supernatural horror, it's great. Yeah, I'm kicking myself now for not watching this before we did this episode because...
Fucking stupid. Damn it. I mean, we've established on this show before that you hate Koreans, but otherwise, I think you would like it. No, I don't hate it. You just hate Bong Joon-ho, right? No, I don't. I thought you didn't like his movies. Yeah, because you don't like The Host. You don't like... What's the movie that he won? Parasite? Parasite. You don't like Snowpiercer. I don't think you like any of his movies.
I just mean I hate him. Okay. I don't mean you literally hate him. That was just what I said when you were telling me all the movies he did that you don't like. I'm like, you just hate Koreans. I know what it is. No. No. But there are Korean horror movies that you love, right? Are there Korean horror movies that you love? The Wailing and what was the movie we did an episode on about The Mimic. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking terrified me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you feel about A Tale of Two Sisters?
Again, we did an episode on that. Scared the fucking good and great bejesus out of me. That's what I thought. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think you would like this, then. I think you'd be into it. All right. What's your number one, man? Let's do it. The big unveiling. What's your number one? You go first. Okay. My number one is an Indian film called Brahma Yugam. Brahma Yugam. Yeah, I should spell it, actually, because there's probably a lot of people going, what the fuck?
B-R-A-M-A-Y-U-G-A-M. Now, I will straight up tell you, it could be Switch and Exuma could be number one and Brahma Yugam could be number two. Brahma Yugam is, like a lot of Indian films in my mind, so fucking, like, I just feel like a lot of Indian films are so fucking long and I don't know why they're so long. And often when they are so long, it's because there's a dance sequence.
Not just like one either. I don't know. Did you ever watch RRR? No, I haven't. That's like the Indian film that a lot of Americans watch, so that's why I bring it up. There's like four dance sequences in RRR, and that's an action movie. You know what I mean? There's no dance sequences in Brahma Yugam, but it's still like...
2 45 maybe i think something like that it's a long movie it's a black and white movie it's a movie set in the past uh well no just two hours no two hours 20 um uh here's the deal it is uh a period piece set like
I forget what century they say exactly, but it's like slightly before British invasion, basically. And a servant is escaping from a lord's house, not because his lord is bad, but his lord has fallen in battle. And so the servants are leaving before they become victim to the attacking warlord.
I don't know if it's a warlord or a various royalty, whatever it is. So he's escaping with his friend. While they're in the woods, they see some pretty haunting mystical creatures. And eventually, because he sees these horrifying, scary things, when he finds a mansion, which is pretty dilapidated, doesn't look like a mansion you'd want to go into, he goes anyway because he's just like, I got to get the fuck out of here. And he meets the lord of the house and the lord's chef.
And the Lord of the House welcomes him in. And when he reveals that his job in this court was he was the singer, there's a special term for it. It's like a special kind of singing. I don't know enough about Indian culture to explain it, but it's like the songs he does are considered very holy and important to the culture and to what they're doing, whatever. So he wants to hear the songs. He loves this guy singing. He says, stay here. But the chef is immediately hostile. And so this guy's thinking, well, fuck, like what's going on here?
And it eventually becomes clear this Lord of the House is not who he is presenting himself to be. And all I will say is that, yes, this is a supernatural horror film, but it all feels much more like a myth. You know what I mean? Almost like a fairy tale. But it is shot in the most gorgeous black and white. It builds towards a really crazy, intense crescendo.
that then kind of falls apart, not falls apart in the sense of the movie, but falls apart because suddenly it is revealed that none of these characters can really trust each other. And so what was feeling like an adventure in which an uneasy alliance is leading to the destruction of evil actually becomes a paranoid thriller for 20 minutes of various characters betraying each other.
And then at the end, there's a stinger about colonialism. So there you go. It's so different than everything else I watched. It is so long, but still, I was sucked into it. I'll be honest, I would not know this, but my friends Mike and Gene, Mike Bukowski, people might know him as an artist. Unfortunately, a lot of people would know him because he drew one of the...
Oh, fuck. What is the band? God damn it. It just went out of my brain. Oh, Comeback Kid. He drew the first Comeback Kid cover. Oh, with the heart? Yeah. Okay. But he does other stuff now. He does like horror art and stuff like that. And he has another job too. But his partner, Gene, also does art. And they're just really nice people in Philly that I really love. They recommended it to me. And I checked it out just because they seem so sold on it.
but a little skeptically because I'm like, oh, man, two-hour Indian film? I don't know about this. And, you know, there's three people in the movie. Technically, there's more than three, but there's three main characters in the movie, and a lot of the movie is just the three of them. And I was wrapped up, man. I really loved it. I really think it's a haunting, weird movie, and also some of the most gorgeous black and white I've seen in a long time. So Brahma Yugam.
I might have put it at number one simply because no one's ever heard of it and I want to hype it up to people, but it is still one of my favorites. Honestly, I really think it's just a tie between that and Exuma as my two favorites of the year. I got you. Are you ready for my number one? Yes, sir. You have probably been able to deduce it. What is it? Nosferatu. I thought so.
I'm glad. I was worried it was going to go the other direction, where you were going to be like, oh, I hated it. I'm like, oh, no. No, no. I just, I walked out of the theater after seeing this movie, and I was like, yeah, that was everything I wanted it to be. I didn't find it, like, there was moments that I found, like, kind of scary.
The scene in the kid's bedroom towards the end, I thought, was like, there goes Bill Skarsgård again. Like I said, I think Lily Rose Depp's performance, when she's in the grips of Mania, is like, what the fuck?
I keep seeing people shitting on her performance, and I'm like, what the fuck movie were you watching in that case? So many people, dude. It's like one of the more popular takes is like, I thought it was pretty good, but, you know, she was, you know, horseshit. I'm like, what are you? You know what her performance reminded me of? And this might just because I have Dexter on the brain right now. The Exorcism of Emily Rose is an okay movie.
but jennifer carpenter in that movie is so fucking scary i agree i agree i watched it once and i was like i don't ever want to see that again because it's upsetting like just the way that she contorts her body and like the fucking the way she grimaces and the look she gets it it honestly felt like it was like a human being being possessed by something inhuman but i
I think the thing that I like the most about it is that it was a diversion away from the other Dracula movies where, you know, like my favorite interpretation of Dracula is overall probably the Francis Ford Coppola version. But the one thing I don't like about it is Keanu Reeves, not because his performance, which is whatever.
a weak point in the movie, but how like he shows up at Dracula's castle and all this inexplicable, terrifying shit is happening. And he's just like, Oh, that's just the country folk and their customs. I'm, I'm the one who's at fault for misinterpreting it. And, um, Nicholas, is it Nicholas Hoth in this movie? Nicholas Holt. Nicholas Holt. The second he sees.
He gets to this castle. He is shitting his pants in fear. And I thought that was such a smart move to have him be like, what the fuck is going on here? And also, you know, I know that there's been a kind of backlash against like vampires for being like, oh, sparkly and suave. They're talking about Twilight. That's the only movie in the past. The only vampire movie in the past.
40 years where the vampires have been, you know, oh, they're emo and whatever. I really, really, really liked the animalistic, inhumane, like, feral nature of Orlok. Like, the way he drinks from people's chests. I don't know what it was about that aspect of it, but that was just so fucking creepy and weird.
And then the way this movie looks is just it's just beautiful. Like all the weird friend of the podcast, Brad Hogarth of LVAC. What up? Fuck your boss was talking about there'd be all these like long tracking shots that would end with a turn on like a 90 degree angle to a character. And I just I just thought that was such an interesting choice. Yeah.
And then you read about like this, I forget the cinematographer's name, but he was like talking about how there were all these shots that they wanted to do that Robert Eggers was like, all right, we're going to do this. And he was like, we can't do that in this castle. And he's like, we'll make it happen. And they had to like devise these camera rigs to get these shots.
And I was like, there's something that's like about the dedication to creating the impossible to match your vision. Exactly. That is so insane and manic that I'm like, I fucking love it. I just think that's, I just think that's so awesome. And also that last scene of, of like, um, of, uh, or lock on top of what's her face. I feel bad. Can't remember the character's name. And he's just like screaming and blood is pouring out of his mouth. Like, God damn. That's going to stick with me. Yep.
Yeah. And I forget. I think it was actually Chris X. Like, imagine walking in and seeing that. And then you're you just see naked Count Warlock just melting in the sun. And you're like, well, here comes years of therapy. But no, I thoroughly enjoyed that movie. I like that it kind of imbued a sense of like horniness.
and eroticism into the vampire genre, while also having the vampire remain, I would say, absolutely repulsive. And, I don't know, I just thought it was an extremely well done... And a bold choice with the character design, because Max Schreck in the original is such an iconic...
Like, that's such an iconic look, you know what I mean? Like, that's, and the fact that they went with something completely different, and, you know, apparently I'm not very well versed in, you know, Wallachian, you know, 14th century Wallachian fashion, but, like, that's what Dracula would have looked like. And, um, yeah, I don't know, I just, I thought this movie was a masterpiece from the back.
I feel you, man. I also enjoyed it. I feel like I need to see it again. For whatever reason, I didn't connect to it as much as I wanted to. But I don't understand the severe backlashes. It's not just that people hated it, because any movie that is good is going to have its haters.
But the people who hated it, I'm surprised that, you know what I mean? Like the, it's the folks who I've seen hate it that I'm like, really? You didn't like it. Okay. All right. Sure. Like, you know, not, I'm not going to name names, but like one of my coworkers went and saw it and she's like, yeah, I fell asleep and walked out with a half hour left. And I was like.
you're a smart person who we generally see like you're not just some like neophyte who doesn't watch movies like we generally agree about a lot of shit like music and movies and books and shit like you thought it was that bad because like and it's it's like she had like and then she explained why she thought it was bad and i was like those are all valid reasons that i just don't get like it's not like nerds on facebook who were like
824 ruins horror movies, and, oh, you know, the best horror movie of all time is, you know, The Monster Bubbling Lake 6, or whatever. But, like, I mean, even the other day when, again, to bring him up, Brad at LVAC, he went and saw this, and he and I were talking about it, and he was like, that movie, it was amazing. And I was like, yo, this is the clip, and I found it on Instagram, and I sent to him of, you know, Lily Rose Depp having her fucking seizure, and he was like,
did you read the comments on that post? And I was like, no, I never. He was like, okay, good. Because it's literally people being like, this is the worst movie I ever saw. And it's like, really? This is worse than The Room? This is worse than Heaven's Gate? This is worse than fucking Manos, The Hands of Fate? Like, get the fuck out of here. All of it is exaggerated. It's always people who just are mad that other people liked it and they didn't like it. Yeah.
It's all people who were like, oh, there's this thing that a lot of people like. I'm going to automatically hate it. Like, fuck you. So now that we're done with our love of 2024, what are you looking forward to in 2025? Uh, I don't know.
know actually what are you looking for i don't actually know what's coming up that she wait a minute you you before we started recording you were like oh there's something what was the thing we never got to whatever it was that you uh didn't love that i liked uh that was cuckoo oh i didn't know you didn't like it
It's not that I didn't like it. I just – I mean it was fine. I just wasn't like – I think I had my expectations set too high for it honestly. So I will say that's probably on me. I thought it was fine but like I was so hyped on that movie and when I watched it, I enjoyed it. But I wasn't like – it didn't like blow me away that like you and Josh were just like – you guys were like enamored with it and that's fine. I get – I understand why you were. It's just that movie didn't really hit me as hard as it hit you guys.
Word. I get it. Something mean. Just insert whatever joke I'm making about you here. That's fine. I'm a piece of shit. No, you're not. Stop it. I was an accident. I understand. Stop it. For 2025, sometime this weekend, my mom and I are going to see The Wolfman. Oh, yeah? I'm not interested at all. Why should I be excited about The Wolfman? So here's...
I don't even know if this is beef. I don't know what this is. I saw the trailer. I was like, I'm interested. I don't know why they're calling it The Wolfman. Because when I think The Wolfman, I think, you know, Larry Talbot being like, hey, you like those earrings? Little girl? Hey, check it out. Here's my dad. He's going to beat me to death with a cane. Like, there's a very distinctive...
Like, the Wolfman is all about a guy going where he shouldn't go and getting into some business he shouldn't get in, and then that happens. This movie just looks like Night of the Living Dead with a... You know what I mean? Like, it has the classic, like, we're trapped in a house with something that looks familiar. We can't go outside because there's a monster out there, and it turns out that the real threat's here all along. It's like a classic zombie setup. Like, you know, people are with a real threat all along.
But I don't know. I'm just – I'm – again, I keep going back to Brad. Brad was like, I don't want to see that movie because it looks too scary for me, which I think is the most adorable thing in the world. But no, yeah, my mom texted me and asked me if I wanted to go see that, so I'm going to see that with her. I'm really excited about the new Oz Perkins movie, The Monkey. Yeah. And then there's just been – I should have done research as to what I'm looking forward to, but like –
You know, I'm sure there's some stuff coming out that I'm going to like. I feel you. I'm interested in a few things, but nothing. I think the monkey is the only thing that I'm really excited about. Interesting. I'm sure once festival season comes along, I'll find like a thousand movies that I'm going to like lose sleep over and watch. But, you know, that's, you know, that's how it do. It is what it is.
Well, that was our best of 2024. Thank you so much for listening. If you guys want, be sure to send us your 2024 list and we'll laugh at them in text message and talk about how much of a stupid piece of shit you are because you disagreed with us. And if you disagree with any of our lists, here's what you do. I want you to compose like a note thing on your phone, like in the note document, write out why that's wrong, and then delete it because I don't care.
I feel that. I'm just kidding. If you have anything to say, my DMs are open, ladies. So not for Liam, for me. Yeah, that's right. So thank you for listening. Thank you, Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations.
for sponsoring us and having faith in us. Thank you, Essex Coffee Roasters and Aaron Dahlbeck. Aaron, I want to say that the weird riff you do and struck down by me by Bane, it just sticks with me. It's amazing. I love it so. It's very unconventional. I love it so much. Sharky, you're a fucking king among men. Thank you for the Instagram messages you sent me today to make sure I was okay. I appreciate that. And...
Free Palestine and rest in power, David Lynch. That's right. All right. Peace. Bye.