You? But you're supposed to be dead. I am dead. Why? Grandpa. Fly. Everything is ready, my darling. Do not be afraid. Soon we'll be together again. This sandwich tastes as dry as hell. Hello and welcome to hello. This is the Doom show. I am Richard. Folks, my grandpa is in the house and his name is Grandpa Jeffrey. Excuse you, Grampire Jeffrey. Oh, man, I blew it already. We haven't talked to each other in a while, so we're a little off. It's only been like six months. It's fine. We got this.
We are talking about Moonrise Kingdom. Yes. Starring Al Lewis from the Munsters. No, no. Oh, wait, we're not doing Moonrise kingdom. I watched the wrong movie. Oh, no, you watched the Wes Anderson and his white linen suit in the criterion closet. Yeah. And I was like, that's a vampire. We are talking about my grandpa as a vampire from 1992. Yeah. This is a children's film. Yes, that good old David Blythe, our friend and yours, very quick to defend a certain scene in one of the movies he made.
We'll talk about that in a second. I'm getting ahead of myself. Yeah. 1992, my grandpa's vampire made and beautiful, very beautiful New Zealand and written by Michael Heath. These two gentlemen made a film called. Death warmed Up, which I know you're. A big fan of from 1984. It has one extremely problematic moment in an otherwise totally run of the mill,
splatter horror movie from the eighties. There's a certain convenience store clerk played by a white person portraying a not white person, and it's brutally unfunny and hideous. And for some reason, he defends it. And the extras, like, we played this scene in India, and they love it. Really. They collectively have gotten together and said, we love it. Michael and David, you guys, you really are funny. You know
our humor. No, they were. They were plotting your murder outside the theater, which is also imaginary because you never played that in India. You're a liar. But anyway, I was wonderfully surprised that there were no racial stereotypes in this movie that I could detect, except for americans and vampires. And the vampires. I can deal with that. But David Blythe also worked on house three, the horror show, which he was fired from, which I like. House three, the horror show. It's a very unusual
film. How much of his footage that he was there for to direct, I have no idea. House three. It's better than house two. Yeah, I I'm sure there's house two defenders out there, but man, y'all are just. You're vibing in a vibe. I can't vibe with. Michael Heath also wrote next of kin, the excellent 1982 Aussie sploitations slasher giallo movie. Yeah, when I saw that, I was like, whoa, buddy. Yeah, yeah.
And he didn't really do much else. I mean, he did, you know, death warmed up this and next of kin, a couple other things, but nothing really of interest to us. What, what a career. Three bangers. Yeah. I'm very excited to get into this little slice of heaven. This is a. A frickin, what do you call it? A vehicle for a very special vampire. Al Lewis, our friend from what was the movie we covered, where Al Lewis was the creepy guy. Frightmare, frightmare. Oh,
boy. I think Frightmare made me trust him less, because there's moments in this movie where I got really scared for the children. I remember. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, you, like, showed me that there was a frightmare. One sheet available on eBay with Al Lewis's, like, horrifying face on the COVID art, just like. And I, of course, bought it. I've yet to hang it up in my home. But one day, that'll be your conversation piece. I love it. So Al Lewis
is kind of the only actor in this. I recognize. Um, you know, when you watch, you know, australian movies or movies from New Zealand, you'll see the same, like, six people over and over. Maybe not even that many. The same three people. Uh, so I was surprised we didn't have, like, all these familiar faces from that popping up. But maybe I just also have lost touch with any, um, New Zealand cinema made after,
like, you know, death warmed up. Well, one thing that I noticed going through everybody's IMDb page is that a lot of them had very minor roles in the Lord of the Rings film, so. Which makes sense, of course. Nice work if you can get it. Yeah. So I'm going to drop a trailer in here. Found a wonderful trailer for my grandpa as a grandpa. And here it is. There are stories told of creatures centuries roaming the night searching for just one thing. Some farm. Grandpa. Cougar. A vampire grandpa.
281 years old. Mozarthouse. He was a beautiful boy. Not running out of time. Help me. Save me. I want to fly like Peter Pan with you boys. Now out into the night. Grandpa. Now. He's cool. Give me five. And five makes ten. He's got the wheel. And here we go. If he just wasn't dead. Sorry, lady. I'm starting to feel very strange. How strange? Maybe he needs food. Two raw meat patties. No. Die, you monster. Die. I am dead. Grandpa. Run. Follow me, boys. Al Lewis from the monsters is
Grandpa. Sometimes grandparents really can be a pain in the neck. So I backed down. I was gonna read the entire republic. It's long, it's way over. It just wouldn't be entertaining. So I grabbed a very succinct one from a beautiful website called I am debuh. And it goes like this. Sent on a trip from California to New Zealand to visit with his eccentric grandfather, Lonnie discovers that his grandpa is a vampire. Unnerved at first, he soon discovers that his grandpa is a good vampire.
That's it. That's the whole thing. Well, it does leave off the fact that his name is Grandpa Cougar, which the Republic Pictures home video vhs tape mentions no less than three times. Cougar. Cougar. Cougar, cougar, cougar, cougar, cougar. There's a really weird review. I'm not gonna read it. There's two user reviews for this film, and the second one is the person detailing when he rented this film. And it is a very, very strange short story, very detailed about the.
In particular, very unflattering portrait of the person working at the video store. That's just bizarre. And also, they hated this movie, which. You can't hate this movie. Oh, my God. So here's your spoiler warning. We are totally going to spoil this movie. Not the entire movie, but we're going to spoil, you know, the. The big moments. In order to not do a audio commentary or longer length episode today, um, we're going to do ten scenes, ten key scenes from this film.
Jeffrey's picked five and I've picked five. We're going to go back and forth. That way we give you the good stuff and you can go in there and investigate on your own, which. Spoiler alert, I kind of recommend this one. Thank you, Severin kids, for putting this out. So, Jeffrey, you want to open us up? Give us the fun stuff? You bet. Let's open up with the opening of the film.
This is a perfect opening to me. We have, like, this chill, twinkling Jim Manzi music on the score as Gramps just sort of flies through the air over and down to a cardinal carnival like this. Every movie should start with this. This specifically. It's just such a good vibe. I'm already smiling. It reminds me a lot of the scenes of the worst witch flying around as she's, you know.
Have you ever seen the worst witch? Oh, of course. Yeah. Okay. She's. There's just like, long, like, three minute long scenes of her just flying around her room across the countryside. And this is much like that. It's not long enough, but it's okay, because when he goes down, it's to go to this carnival. He immediately encounters his. I guess it's his daughter, right? Like, the aunt is his daughter. Yeah, daughter. And her kind of boyfriend, Ernie. Ernie. And Ernie, like,
wants. He hates this man. Even before he knows he's a vampire, he hates this man. And then the feelings are mutual. I mean, we do. He is kind of weird. And we learn that he, like, smells like moldy chops and, like, is always playing the magic flute. Anyway, he. Ernie says to him, go buy yourself some tutti frutti and just throw some money at him. But instead of doing that, because he doesn't eat food, he's. He's a grampier. Gramps goes on a dark ride called Davy Jones's locker.
And I guess it's like a boat, dark ride, and he's going through it, and it's really intense. And he's, I think, in a boat that's right behind two kids. And one of the. One of the kids, one of the kids is told by her boyfriend it's not real. And she says it is real. Oh, yeah, of course this ride is real. But also, when Gramps is going through this and starts to have, like, a coronary, we're told that he is. He goes through this ride often. He's known as, like, the crazy weirdo who rides Davy
Jones's locker. This is our introduction to the film. And this character, he's just like, this weird old man who can fly and goes through a dark ride to have a heart attack. Great opening. He gets hit by the car. So he rides out of the ride, right? While having a coronary on the hood of this little car and these kids just screaming. It is freaking hilarious. Surprisingly, this movie is going to drop a few great slapstick
moments that I was. I was expecting to never crack a smile or laugh during this film, but that is one of the moments that made me laugh. The kid Lonnie, who's the grandson, he comes back from America. I just want to say, lietta called this. Have you seen the scary godmother movies? The CGI? No. Okay. There's an evil character named Jimmy who is the villain of both of the scary godmother made for tv CGI movies. And the kid, Lonnie, looks just like him. It's frickin hilarious.
Interesting. I looked at his career. He hasn't done much, though. He was in a movie called the witching of Ben Wagner, which I've heard of that. Yeah. It looks cool. Yeah. It was around the same time as. This, so I might have downloaded that and forgot about it. So he's visiting to visit Grandpa because grandpa's not doing so well. But then he gets treated to something that I want to try, which is Oz dinner.
Tell us about Oz dinner. So this is, I guess this is, I think, the first day that he's there. They are treated to this dinner where they are just slopping tomato sauce all over their dishes. I don't even know what they're eating. It's unclear to me. Oh, I can tell you. Okay. It's basically bangers and mash. So it's just sausages and french fries. Okay, well, it's largely tomato sauce. They taste these.
These wonderful New Zealand containers of ketchup that look just like tomatoes, and they're just, like, squeezing all of it out. It's at the same time that fake Uncle Ernie comes into the scene and, you know, like, Lonnie and Kenziora, his friend, they need to, like, talk about, like, whether or not he actually is, is the uncle, because it seems like him and the aunt, they're like. They're, like, having sex, maybe, which is something
that these children talk about. But as he's working his way into aunt's bedroom, he does this disgusting, like, swiping of the food off of their plates. These two children he is not related to by blood. He's just sticking his hand, his filthy little Ernie hands, into their plates full of sopping wet tomato sauce. It's disgusting. Yeah. Ernie is my secret hero because he is literally the worst and most repugnant guy in the whole movie.
This is, you know, an adaptation of Dracula that says Dracula is cool and Van Helsing is your crappy uncle. The line is, Lonnie, do you think Ernie and your and your aunt are doing it? And Lonnie goes, anything's possible. Anything's possible in New Zealand. It's a running joke to the movie, man. Oh, my God. It's so funny. Is he really your uncle? No. Ronnie. Hmm. Do you think Ernie and your aunt are doing it? What do you.
Man, anything's possible. So he goes, they go up to see Grandpa, and, you know, grandpa's ailing from his heart attack, but these kids, they inspire him. And what happens when they inspire him to get out of his sick bed? He's really upset. That again, aunt and fake uncle Ernie won't let him play his vinyl records. And particularly, he really likes the magic flute because, you know, Mozart, he was a beautiful boy. Does this imply that grandpa, like, knew Mozart,
was, like, friends with Mozarte? Yep. And, like, was an admirer of Mozart's beauty. I don't know. Anyway, he has the kids put on his. His, uh, his record, and he does this wonderful little jaunty dance. Holy shit. Where he lights candles with his fingers. Because in this world, vampires have candle lighting powers. And the boys just assume that it's a magic trick. But no, I think it's, like, one of his powers as a vampire.
At the same time, like, watching him in his, like, pajamas, doing his little dance. The boys don't really know what to do. So it's clear that, like, they weren't given very good directions at this time because they just sort of. I think Lonnie starts bringing up his hands and, like, fake conducting the orchestra. And then Kenzura just sort of, like, starts doing a little ditty. It's great. Then for some reason, the blinds come up and there's sun out there, I guess. And it nearly kills grandpa.
What a scene. The scene where you can, like, if we had audio from that filming that day, you could literally just hear the director, like, no, keep dancing. Because every time the camera comes to them, someone points it. The kid, the other one, Caziora. Very weird name this kid has. He, like, remembers he's supposed to be dancing every time they cut to him. And it's so awkward in the best way. It's such a, like, honest kid thing. It's. Oh, man. They had no clue what they were doing.
It's awesome. But this is where I believe this happens. After this, wherever Lonnie and Casiora, if I'm saying that right, that they start to think, hey, grandpa's kind of weird. Maybe he's a vampire. And Casiora is really pushing this hard. So they decide to test it out by garlic. No. Ooh, holy water. Let's go get some holy water. So the next day, or the same day, no idea what time means in this movie. They go to
the catholic church and. But Lonnie's not. I'm not doing this. So our pal Casiora takes a cup and goes in just a cup from a fast food place and just dips it right in the holy water. And this priest sees him, and he hides the cup behind his back, and he's like, all right, kid, what are you hiding behind your back? And the kid's like, nothing, sir. He's like, you wouldn't lie in front of in God's house, would you? And the kid's like, it's a milkshake. Okay, show me the milkshake.
You get the sense that the priest, for a moment, is like, oh, it's just a milkshake. Okay. Man. It's really bizarre. But then he drops the cup and they have to flee. It's a very weird scene. Like, what is this priest's problem with somebody coming in and taking the holy water? Like, who cares? I think it's what it's there for. You know, it's a lost boys situation. Come on. Grandpa does die his first death,
as opposed to the many deaths we're going to die soon. So they're having a funeral party, and Lonnie's already there, but they invite good old Caziora to come over. And he comes over in his school uniform to grieve with his friend. And we get a character that I begged. I was literally begging the movie to not go there. There's a lady who's inebriated at this party.
She is drunk. And I thought because she starts flirting and the boys are trying to have some punch at the punch bowl, get some snacks. Casiora is literally shoving crackers in his mouth or something, and they think this lady's looking at them, flirting with them. Jeffrey. She was. She indeed is. Yes. Like, winking lasciviously kissy faces and then literally wagging her tongue at these boys. And I was begging the movie to stop it.
It was very upsetting. Yeah, I don't think we fully highlighted the fact that these boys are, like, eleven years old. It's out of control. Out of control. And then the boys start. After the party's over, they start playing a keyboard. Now there's a keyboard left. Just randomly sitting there. And I wanted to go to eBay and see what these things are worth nowadays. This is a Casio E 20. Excuse me? A Casio. A Roland E 20. And let's see. Oh, that's not
bad. You can get one for 400. That's downright affordable. Yeah, they're right. They jumped to 600 immediately. There must be something wrong with that $400. So these boys are with their dirty fingers, just slamming their fingers all over this keyboard, just destroying it. But it's this. I love this scene with them again. Kids being kids, just dancing awkwardly. The Lonnie shows off his one sick move he learned from, like, an R and B video spinning on one heel and like.
Yeah. Like, clapping his hands and it's just so cute. But unfortunately, or fortunately, it resurrects grandpa. Their energy feeds him. You know, it's the magic flute. That's kind of what they were channeling there. The beauty of Kenziora. Majestic. Majestic stuff, everybody. Okay, so my favorite scene of the movie, except for the scenes that Jeffrey picked, is when the kids and Grampy grampire
go flying. They go flying, you know, because Grampa reveals that the moonlight gives him power, which is why this movie was originally called Moonrise. Very catchy. Very catchy title. I like it. I mean, moonlight might have been a good title, too. Yes. Or I'm powered by the moon, said grandpa. That one rolls off the tongue. So. So Auntie and Ernie are having their date, their special night in, drinking champagne. You know, she's in a very vulnerable place because she
just lost her father. I hope Ernie's a nice boy and doesn't take advantage of her, but they're having a nice date, and the boys and grandpa are flying over the city, flying over whatever in the full moon. And then a cloud covers the moon, and they drop like stones from the sky and hit that metal corrugated roof. And I burst out laughing. It made me laugh so hard. I just loved that. That was my favorite thing. I. God bless it. And this is what I think I'm too jaded from
Fright house. Or is it frightmare? Fright house. Oh, yeah, you're right. It is called Fright House, not frightmare. Yeah, sorry. Fright house. I must be too jaded because I got so creeped out with him with these boys. And Al Lewis wasn't a bad person. It's just like my grandpa. I would not. I would not want to be alone with my grandpa. He was. It was something. I won't go into it. He was a character, a kooky character. That's putting it
as nicely as humanly possible. But, yeah, I just get so weirded out. I mean, just listen to Lonnie. Lonnie says that grampire is. Excuse me, grandpa Cougar is his favorite cool guy. I. Maybe I'm just jealous. I just have to ruin it because I didn't have a cool grandpa. Damn. So now that they know that grandpa is a vampire, they have to hide him, because Ernie has discovered grandpa alive and well and vampin, stone cold vampin, and he wants to kill him, wants to drive a stake through his heart.
So the boys concoct a way to hide grandpa. So they take him to Kaziora's house and hide him in the shed. But what happens when they do this? Well, in the middle of the night, we have grandpa giving way to his vampiric impulses in sort of a classic dracula or Salem's lot tradition. He approaches the window of Kenziora's bedroom and starts sort of, like, outside of it.
And by the way, Kenziora's room is really cool. He's got lots of cool, like, horror posters up, including, I think it's a famous sponsors of filmland cover with Vincent Price and madhouse. And then also our girl from Lair of the white worm, a beautiful poster of her in snake form. That kid's a Ken Russell fan. This kid is me. I am Ken Ziora, but so we've got grandpa Cougar going outside the window, and he says, thirsty, thirsty,
while bearing his dentures. And then we do a quick cut to the kitchen where Kenziora is giving him a glass of water. Dude, that joke hit so hard. I love that bit. That reminded me of, like, that would be the best joke in the disney version of this movie. Like, that was a great joke. Yeah, it feels like a joke that the
movie was sold on. Just like, you know, you can imagine the pitch meeting where they're like, you know, he's outside the window, but then he really just wants a glass of water like grandpas do. He does the whole glass of water. And then he says, one more, please. And Caziora's dad hears him. He has to pretend he's sleepwalking. I found that part very funny. That was great. Oh, wait, he should have given him the milkshake from the church. No, that would have killed him. Oh, right,
because there was no milkshake. There was no milkshake. Wow, he fooled you. Damn, got me good. So the kids, through an insanely weird thing of Katziora's family going on vacation, they go to McDonald's. Now, I looked up commercials for New Zealand McDonald's, and I found the most New Zealand McDonald's thing ever. They call it Maccas. So it's called Maccas over there. They call it maccas. I wish the sign said maccas instead
of McDonald's. That'd be great. But I found a commercial that just lists a bunch of New Zealand things that, you know, people in New Zealand would understand in this jaunty little song. So here's this beautiful McDonald's commercial. It's wonderful. Arnold and raisin beasts. Chili bins. Cricket wins. Basties. Gold teas. Silver ferns. Carriedries. Kiwi burger, love one, please. With a slice of watties. Beetroot, 100% pure beef. Patty and an egg from farmer brown. It's the original Kiwi burger.
Hokey pokey. Mari Hacker Kiwi burger. That's a taca. This McDonald's sequence, I can't talk about it. It's too crazy. Jeffrey, you're gonna have to handle this one well. So first off, I think, you know, we have to acknowledge this is a full scene in this McDonald's. This is, you know, 1991 prime New Zealand McDonald's. It's a vibe. It's a whole vibe. But first off, I just love the fact that this definitely required McDonald's,
like, consent and involvement because it's really. They were putting it on display here. And so I love that, like, after fumbling with Mac and me in the eighties, they're like, we're going to rebound. We're going to. We're going to bring this around. My grandpa is a vampire. This is the one. This is the one. It's going to work out this time. And it did, actually. Yeah, they part of a great film. We got a cameo here from a weird Ronald statue in
the front door. That's, like, waving. We also have a cameo from Captain Crook, a McDonald's character who has sort of fallen by the wayside. But my favorite part here is just what's going on with grandpa and the kids. Grandpa is not doing so well. They have disguised him in a dirty yellow bucket hat and sees big sunglasses. He reminds me a little bit of Christopher Lee and howling, too, with these sunglasses. They're not quite as, you know, crazy, but they're close. They're full
on Oakley's. They're like, full on that yellow band with the super mirror reflection on the. On the shades. They're pretty stylin'yeah. I mean, as Lonnie says, grandpa, you look cool. He doesn't really, though. In fact, he looks like he's dying. See, that's the thing. One thing we have not talked about is, like, other than the pajamas, al Lewis, this entire film is in, like, 17th century garb. Like, he looks like sort of dressed like a fop or like
someone who would, like a courtier or something. It's hilarious. Yeah. Someone who would try to seduce Mozart. Oh, no. Oh, no. So the boys go to the counter and order themselves some big Macs, but then order some two raw meat patties for Grandpa, which they then squeeze into a cup. And, you know, they just say, like, well, they should say they don't, but they should just say, like, grandpa, it's a milkshake. Here you go.
They plug his nose because Grandpa doesn't want the blood, so they plug his nose and just funnel it into his throat. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. There is also crazy, a sort of closing moment in the scene, which I don't. Maybe New Zealand. Our New Zealand listeners will understand this reference because I sure do not. I didn't. I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. So. So Grandpa, or I think, you know,
Uncle Ernie Bustin. That's what happens. And points at Uncle Grampire and says, that's a vampire. And some random guy who's eating at the McDonald's just says, yeah, mate, and I'm John Collinse and we're supposed to get it. I don't get it. I looked up John Collins, New Zealand, and there was like, a politician and I think maybe an athlete. I didn't get much from that. It's got to be the cricketer. The cricketer. There you go. Yeah. But. But then again, he died in 1943.
Weird. There's. There's a rugby guy. Yeah. Well, you know what? It made the New Zealand dads roll over with laughter. I just wish. Wish we had been raised right, then. We know and we'd laugh along. That's right. They managed to get Grandpa out of the McDonald's and they end up at the talent show. So this is a big talent show. One of the characters we've sadly left behind is good old Caziora's sister, who hasn't even. She didn't even look at Lonnie
before she had a crush on him. Or does she see him and describe him as river Phoenix or something like that? Yes. They say he's like river Phoenix. Yeah, kid, I've met river and you ain't no river. No, it was very sweet. But she's doing a sort of a hawaiian, I'm guessing, or just an islander dance. I got confused because I'm, you know, a goofy white person. When they were dressing up in the lays and everything, I didn't know. I'm having a
cultural, like, brain fart, so just ignore me. But anyway, they're doing a song on stage and of course grandpa crashes it, literally destroying the stage. And then the cop who's been trying to catch him and Ernie end up flying through the air and hooked on the top of the stage in the lighting rig and sparks are shooting out of all the lights. And I assumed that Ernie and this cop were dead. They were just dead meat. But no, no, it all works out, this whole thing.
The stage crashes, people are screaming. It's insane. We think Grandpa's dead again because the light rigging falls on him in this big debacle. Oh, my God. So then the end of the movie comes and the kids have to say goodbye to grandpa again. He's going to go out and be a real vampire now, presumably actually killing people, drinking their blood, etcetera. It doesn't make a lick of sense. It is so baffling.
It's very teary. Earlier in the movie, I really did like when the kids were, like when Lonnie was actually crying over his dead grandpa before he came back. And then it has that phone call with his mom. I'll be okay, mom. Oh, man. Brutal. And I think that's just the movie broke so many times. I think. I think the funny thing about the ten scenes that we picked out is that each time the movie came to a complete standstill and then kept going like,
that was something else. It's slightly episodic in its structure, let's say. Yeah. The producers on this, two of the producers, Judith Tyre and Murray Newey, worked on a film that very unusual called Jack Be Nimble, which I don't know if you've seen that one. It's from 1993. Yeah, it was on. Put out on Blu ray pretty recently. Yep. Yep. Just came out. It is very unusual. I recommend that one. It's just very atmospheric. Kind of artsy. Maybe not kinda. Maybe very
artsy. But I. I remember liking it a lot. It was one of those ones I caught on cable and was like, what is this? That might have even been a Turner classic. Movies in the middle of the night movie. Oh, could I mention a couple other things quick, please? Just about the music in this film. Oh, yeah. I didn't even look up the music. Yeah. So the music is by Jim Manzi, who is a well known composer for a bunch of different movies, including Night of the Demons, two Bloodsurf,
one of my favorites from a whisper to a scream. That one actually got a vinyl release recently from. Wow, somewhat a few years ago from terror vision. What else did he do? Leatherface, Texas Chainsaw, three tales from the dark side, stepfather two, make room for daddy. Nice. Yeah. Jim Manzi. Cool. Damn. I dropped the ball in the music. Thank you. But I also wanted to point out the closing song for the film by Andrew Fagan, who is the ex frontman of the New Zealand band the Mockers. And the
song is called I still want you. And it's a total, total bop. I love this song. Leeta asked me to turn it off. I loved it. Oh, man, it's like a perfect. Like sugary power pop song. I tried to find it on YouTube. YouTube or Spotify. It's not there. But, uh, he. Andrew Fagan himself did post the official music video on his Facebook page so you can view it. I'm gonna look up the mockers I love. I just assume based on the age of the person composing, that maybe
it's punk or new wave or something or. No, I think it's sort of just like power pop. Oh, okay. Okay, cool. Yeah. Cuz I think it's somewhat similar to what you get there with. With this song. Yeah. Because there. There's a great playlist of Ozzy, of Ozzy and New Zealand, new wave and punk. Mm hmm. I don't know if that playlist is still. I'm assuming it's still sitting up there. And it was crazy. Like, there's so many bands he never, never crossed over to over here, you know, they can't all be
freaking split ends, you know? You know, it's a whole different country. What? Yeah, it's the 51st state. Okay, do we have any trivia about this movie? I could not find Jack or squatt about this movie. I mean, a little bit about the film itself, particularly that it was first developed and produced as a children's radio program. Oh, wow. So Michael. What was
his name? Michael Heath or something? Yeah, he wrote this as a. As a play that was broadcast in New Zealand, and from there, they used that as the inspiration for the screenplay. The entire. All five episodes of it are included on the Blu ray from Severin. I've not listened to them, but I wonder how they differ from the. The final film. I'd be very curious to find out, but I think maybe some of the episodic structure kind of plays in with
that, too. I wouldn't be surprised. They did a little cheating and didn't fill in the gaps so good. The other thing that I found out from the special features and such, particularly the interviews with Karen Lewis, who is Al Lewis's wife, was that he was thrilled to be a part of this movie. This was not like him slumming it or just like playing. Playing into an expected role. He was like, oh, oh, this. I might actually get this role because.
Because I've been Grandpa Munster in the past, I'm already well known as a vampire. I get to do this. I get to go on vacation to New Zealand. Apparently, after he read the screenplay, he was buzzing with excitement. He was so thrilled to be a part of this. And I think you can tell I'm not surprised. It really gives us all in it. At his advanced age, that absolutely makes perfect sense. This does not feel like a cashier paycheck and go home thing. He was all in for this magic.
As confusing as it was. I mean, he was also excited to have a starring role in a film. You know, like, somebody like him. You might end up on the poster art for Fright house, but you're not necessarily pulling a lot of heavy duty work. But in this film, he does. And I think he appreciated that. But speaking of Al Lewis, his Wikipedia page has got a lot of fun stuff on it. I learned a lot about him today. Me too. So, yeah, Al Lewis of the Munsters fame, which was a whole two years in
the mid sixties. And of course, they had some reboot movies that came later. I love Munsters. Go home. I had no idea. I really, really love that movie. It's just so outlandish and bizarre. Like, speaking of not having enough plot to do a whole movie, and yet here we are. You know, that's great. But, yeah, he was. He was a free speech proponent. He was. He was very outspoken. Apparently. He was somewhat something of a regular on Howard Stern. He was. Yeah, I remember when he used to. Call in,
I was not a Howard Stern guy. I know basically the setup. And then I remember seeing the. The frickin biopic, and I was just like, I'm out. But he went into politics. He was a Green party almost nominee. He actually ran under the name Grandpa. He tried. He tried to run under the name Grandpa Lewis, but the court said he couldn't do it. Aw. But he got 50,000 votes. He didn't get the nomination, but he got close. Better than I would have done. They won't let
me be Grandpa Richard either. He opened an italian restaurant called Grandpa's Bella Gente. Did he really? Yep. Wow. And the only other trivia I have about him is that he lent his likeness to a video game called Midnight Mutants, which you could have played on the Atari 7800. And I believe you can play it on emulators now. And he's all over the artwork. He's all over it. And then in the game, he breaks in and, like,
texts. You know, he's looking all vampy. And then he plays some texts and says, thirsty. Thirsty. You defeat him by giving him a glass of water in the game. That's all I got in Al Lewis. Yeah. I mean, this man is so interesting. I found more stuff. He had a number of jobs early in his career. Although one thing about him is that apparently he, like, lied pretty often, like, made up stuff about himself, so who knows if these
are all true? Oh, I like this. But he apparently worked as a salesman, a waiter, a pool room owner, a store detective, a circus clown and vaudeville performer, a basketball talent scout, and a hot dog vendor. This is all before acting. I believe only one of those is unrealistic. Which one is that? The talent scout. But, I mean, anybody. I suppose all you have to do is just look for tall people. Well, apparently he was a high school basketball player, and quite sure that. I don't
know. I don't know. That's just what he said. For, like, a year and a half, I played basketball, like, every day with my best friend, and it was one on one, and I was hideous, but I did it. So I technically was a player of basketball. And then you discovered Kobe Bryant, right? Yep. Yep. I saw a tall guy. So I saw LeBron James and said,
you go, man. To secure his iconic role as grandpa Munster, he apparently lied about his age, most likely during that audition process, because he was born in 1923, which actually makes him one year younger than Yvonne DiCarlo, who plays his daughter on the show. That's amazing. But I guess, like, he just sort of, like, dressed up, looking old and
just sort of always had an old aura to him. But that's why, you know, when it was the nineties and he still looked basically the same, it's because, oh, he was actually an old guy then. He was also. So another important thing about pretty much his entire life is that he was an unapologetic, self proclaimed communist and a labor agitator. He would, you know, when he called up to Howard Stern, he would often talk about, like, you know, being on picket lines and, like, fighting scabs,
like, physically fighting. So, yeah, real cool guy in that respect, for sure. And one last little thing is he does have a connection to italian horror, which, of course, is important for us. He had the role of assistant. This is the character's name, I guess, in Ricardo Freda's 1957 I Vampiri. So he appears in that film. Yeah. I look for him. Not an important role, but he is there. Dude, I haven't seen that in years. That's incredible. Oh, I do have one thing.
There was. I found a VHS cover. I printed it out for Grampire. It was one of the alternate titles on VHS. That's beautiful. It says, sometimes grandparents can be a real pain in the neck, and some ghouls just want to have fun. Wow. Wow, wow. So how do you feel about this movie, Jeffrey? It's a perfect film. No notes. Nice. It's very like, you know, this is a film infected by, by moonlight. It is one that is dreamlike in some respects. Again, that episodic structure kind of
just has us floating in and out. The main character is alive and then dies and then comes back and then drifts off. And all of these sort of experiences the kids have with him are wholesome and funny. And this is a film that, if I had seen it as a kid, would have absolutely been one that I rewatched constantly. For me, it would be up there with like, little monsters and earnest, scared stupid. All of those perfect children's horror films that made up such a part of
my DNA. This one absolutely would have been one because it's amazing. Yeah, I could see this being alongside. Did you say Ernest scared stupid? Of course. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Be wonderful. I really enjoyed this a lot. The energy pretty much stays through the whole thing, and the mind blowing stuff is just so unbelievably mind blowing. It's also pretty like they brought the suspiria lighting to this freaking movie. The house is almost always just covered in gel lighting inside and out.
Like I thought, you know, at the, at the carnival that, you know, that that would be the only, like, kooky lighting setups in the moon. Nope, dead wrong. It looks great. Some of the jokes are perilously unfunny, but this, the stuff that does work. Surprising, very surprising. Made me laugh. A slapstick just kills. The movie's charming and then it's unsettling sometimes. Al Lewis, as always, is just a huge pain in the ass. That is a recurring theme and I think
in his entire career. Lyette and I were watching the second Colchak movie. Colchak, the Night Strangler. Not the vampire one? No, they're both vampire ones. The strangler is also a secret vampire one, but Al Lewis has a very small part in it. I forgot that he's in it. Yeah. Yeah. He's a homeless guy living under the streets of Seattle and let's see what else. Yeah, I was impressed. I did ask you, is this the weirdest thing we've ever covered?
I mean, seriously, this ranks as maybe slightly weirder or maybe less slightly weirder than the face with two. I mean, the, the, was it the face with two left feet? Yeah, yeah. The, the Travolta sploitation movie we covered many years ago now. Grampire, not normal boarding house. Normal. Seriously? Yeah. I think the director, the team who made boarding house would blink in the face of my uncle's a vampire. Not really sure what to do. They might be jealous of the production values.
Yeah. Before we go, I wanted to have a little segment, a new segment on the show where we each pick a film that we've recently seen and loved. I'm calling this segment of recently seen and loved any genre. What do you got, Jeffrey? What have you seen lately that you just loved? It could be one you revisited or even, like, a first time watch. What do you got? Yeah. So a first time recent watch that I think thematically kind of matches up with this film pretty well. And that it's extremely.
It's an extremely goofy comedy with, like, weird humor, but that, you know, sort of, like, subtly probes at deeper themes. Like, you know, this one deals with. With loss and death in some ways. Right, in the family. And the one I'm going to talk about deals with themes of growing up and moving on. It is OC and Stigs from 1987. The Robert Altman comedy. One of his most hated films is, I think, wonderful. I loved it. Really? Yeah. I've never heard of it. That's insane. It's so good.
It was recently put on Blu ray by radiance films in the UK, and I use that as my opportunity to finally check it out. You know, it's in that period from Altman's career when he was, like, interested in doing comedies and, like, you know, more overt comedies. He did this. He did, like, beyond therapy, which I think is maybe one that people hate even more than Osean Stiggs. But Osean Stiggs is great. It's about two teens who are like, oh, man. It's hard
to describe the sort of humor that they engage in. They are like two little beetlejuices who are just wreaking havoc on the world. Particularly this. This guy in their town who is a. What is he? I think he's. I think he works with an insurance company and is just like a real big slime ball. They, like, basically have dedicated their lives to, like, making him and his children to
cause pain for them. And so it's their experiences over a summer as they're just sort of, like, going through their random episodic adventures and causing trouble. Strongly recommend it. Most people will hate it. I think you might like it, though. Oh, my God. You could be making that up. That sounds crazy. That's basically Lonnie and Kazuria. Kazura's freaking extended universe. Yeah. Nice. So I picked my first film I watched in 2024 I was trying to get some of those first time watches in I love
end of the year taking a look back. And so I write down all my first time watches. And the very first film of this year was a little japanese horror movie called don't look up from 1996, directed by Hideo Nakata. This was two years before Ringu. And this movie is scary as hell. It is about a movie studio that's haunted and a film crew is in there making a wartime drama slash thriller and they are being set upon by a ghost that's, that's taken up residence in that
particular movie studio. And it's a great movie if you love movie making. Like if you just love the way that movie magic is portrayed on screen and when they, you know, lift the veil and you see this intimate scene with these two people who are having like, this emotional moment, and there's 30 crew members just outside of the frame making this whole magic happen, the fact that Ringo is so lauded, which is a great film, I think Ringo is a perfect film, but yet for some reason,
don't look up has been forgotten. It does have an open ended ending. I think that might be why some people don't talk about it more, because it leaves your imagination going. And you know, that's a fine line with horror movie audiences. They get real upset if you don't explain the mechanics of stuff. But man, I highly recommend don't look up. It is if you love Ringo, you will love don't look up. It is great. I don't think I've ever heard
of anybody bring it up before. So yeah, I need to check it out. It's, it's just complete. I love movies about movie theaters. I love like, what is that one with John Goodman matinee? And I love movies about making movies like that. Stuff's just like, especially when it's done really well, where it's cynical in the way that it reveals the mechanics, but it's heartfelt in that you see people really putting their all into it. Nice. And like I said, it scared me.
It got me. Got me good. That's it, man. We did it. Congrats to us. Did you have anything you wanted to promote while you were here? Did you have any like, sick URL's to drop? Www.mustache.org yeah, man, check out my podcast. It's called Super Chillers. Oh yeah. And you can follow it on most platforms at super underscore chillers. And you can check it out on any podcast. Well, probably not any, but like most podcast providers if you type in super chillers, we talk about retro
ya teen horror from the eighties and the nineties. And you know what? It's fun stuff. It's funny. I make jokes. There's a lot of preparation that goes into it. It's a. It's a hard podcast to make. I even edited. Wow. You should listen to the podcast. So sorry for your loss of time, folks. I am a huge fan. I'm so madden at how much better super chillers is than this show. I listened to those episodes numerous times.
Him and his co, Jeffrey and his co host, Katie. They are so like, the rapport is great and they just love the material. Even when the material is kind of unlovable, they really bring it. And yeah, it's. I'm, you know, I've started reading YA horror novels. I never read them when I was the age range, so I welcome. I'm going back and reading stuff, and it's fun as hell. Yeah, Katie and I are a real Lonnie and Kenziora, and you are our grandpa. Well, same body type, for sure.
Same bucket hat, same athletic ability, and sunglasses. All right, folks, thanks for listening and. See you later, mashed potato. Oh, goodbye to you in Auckland. Dream weird, everybody. Ooh, wait, is that the magic flute? That's my ringtone. I gotta go, folks. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. If you'd like to write into the show, send an email to doomedmoviethon mail or hit us up doomedmoviethon on Instagram, ormedmoviethon on Twitter or at doomedmoviethon
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you know, about my love of movies. Over on Amazon.com just look up Richard Glenn Schmidt and you'll find Giallo Meltdown, a movie Thon diary, giallo Meltdown, two cinema somnambulist, or doomed movie Thon, the book. Hello, this is the Doom show. As a proud member of the Legion podcasts network, go to legionpodcasts.com and check out the other great shows over there.