Hello internet and welcome to Nobodies, the horror content podcast where we clean up the ugly things so you don't have to. Our bi-weekly show features two hosts and rotating guest content experts tackling the nitty-gritty complex horror topics with the hope of making the genre more approachable for frequent flyers and newbies alike.
The goal of this show is to highlight diverse voices and perspectives in horror. This is your reminder there may be discourse on this show that will challenge the way you look at the genre. So let's get ready to get ugly. I'm the ghost with the blog, Lonely, and I'm joined by my co-host and partner in crime.
Oh, it's me, projectile varmint. Sorry, I just woke up. It's fucking 8.30 in the morning on a Saturday. I know. I'm usually drinking, as the listeners know, my tea saga. Well, today I have a triple shot. I have a triple shot of espresso to get us rocking and rolling today because, I don't know, I'm usually not that bad of a morning person. I just haven't been sleeping well because of the general state of reality. But I have more banter for you because...
I know you're currently living in Connecticut, Susie, and I'm from Connecticut originally. Have you heard of the kidnapping story? The stepson in the house? Oh, yeah. And actually, Night of the Living Ted came up to me on the street, on our street, and was like, you know, you got to get that mom on the show before anybody else scoops you up. And I'm like, I don't think she's going to be coming on a horror podcast.
I'd be a stupid... so are you ready for this crazy this is crazy so this happened listeners if you haven't heard of this story there was a stepmother who has kept her son or stepson imprisoned in the home for i think over a decade and believe it or not This has actually happened in my hometown, like three blocks away from my high school. And are you ready for this one? I went to Catholic school with a stepsister.
We need to do like a hometown episode because I live next to like I live in the town of the fresh market killer so but we'll save that one for another time yeah tonight we're not talking about any kind of hometown killer We have such a special guest. This one is exciting for me. Our first guest tonight is Adam Stovall. Adam is a NYC-based filmmaker who made his feature debut as a writer, director, and producer with the 2020 haunting rom-com, A Ghost Waits. And this took the top prize.
at Screenfest and Frightfest. and before stepping into the director's chair adam was working film journalism for years serving as a contributing editor at creative screenwriting magazine and contributing writer at indie wire and the hollywood reporter from there he
transitioned into production, where he worked on the set for shows on NBC and TLC, as well as the Gravitas Ventures feature Split. Outside of features, he directs audiobooks, including the Earphone award-winning seven and a half lessons about the brain welcome Adam I am so happy to have you on the show tonight because a ghost weights was in my top for the year it came out so welcome well thank you very much it's really nice to be here
It's such a little, it's such a small film. And, you know, we, I really, when I made it, I just wanted to know if I could make a movie. I, it never, I never really thought that it would have the kind of life that it's had. So it's, it's just an absolute pleasure. to meet people for whom it really resonated. And you say it's a little movie. It is so much more than that. It might be a little movie, but it has made a huge impact. Aw, thank you.
So, Adam, you actually went right into our kind of first question of the night, which is we'd love to hear a little bit more about you. You know, you've been working in and around the entertainment industry for a bulk of your career. But what made you make the jump into filmmaking? Is it always something that you want? to do yes um it's exactly that i i am one of those people i i'm very lucky in that from the time
I was born, I wanted to make a movie. I've known my entire life that that's what I wanted to do. But I grew up in the 80s and 90s in northern Kentucky. So nobody that I knew had ever...
made a movie because, you know, we were middle class. Like, I wasn't going to go to film school. There wasn't a path towards any of that stuff as far as I could tell. So I spent... my 20s kind of trying to do anything else because again since I knew I wanted to be a part of this since I was little I read and listened to every interview I could and in so many interviews actors, directors, you know people
in the industry would say if you can be happy doing anything else do that because this is a really hard road to hoe and I tried. I worked in politics, and I ran restaurants and bars, and I worked for shipping agents. I was in the army for a little bit. I was a quartermaster. Just anything, but none of it really took. I struggle with depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and I had just gotten to a point where I felt like I had done my best. You know, I had...
written for these magazines and blogs. I'd worked on crews for shows and a couple features. And just nothing ever really felt like I was breaking through. Like people would like an idea that I had written, but we could never raise enough money. And even when I was just breaking down. more and more trying to bring the price down we still couldn't raise that money and finally you know i met mcleod andrews on the set of split which was shot in louisville and
We were having a conversation one day. I just said, you know, existentially, what is a film? It is a scene. It is people to play that scene. It is a place for that scene to occur. within and it is recording implements to document the playing of said scene and anything else is extravagance and Because it was just like, okay, if we can't even raise like $70,000, if we can't raise $100,000, what can we raise? And it became clear that I could raise $30,000. So I was like, okay.
Then let's just break this down. Let's Ingmar Bergman this thing and just like, you know, Lars von Frieder just strip everything away. Not that it's totally a dogmy, you know, film, but it is. We did a lot with a little, yeah. Wait, so are you telling me that the final budget for this was $30,000? The absolute final budget was $44,000. Wow.
wow that is incredible that you got all of this out of that and last week we were talking about or a couple weeks ago we were talking about mike flanagan's film absentia and i see a lot of you know similarities between a ghost waits and absentia just with the characters and the conversations so he did it and look where he is now i love i really like absentia a lot and what's funny is I moved in with an old friend in Glendale, and you know the tunnel that they walk through?
I walked through that tunnel every single day to the Starbucks where I would sit and write for a few hours. Give me something. Trade. Trade. Trade for a career, please. Please. That is so awesome. And you know, it's just great. I loved, you know, just listening to you kind of talk about your journey, you know.
navigating the industry as independent filmmaker that's sort of what we're about here when we feature folks on the show and their their projects it's really important to us to talk about independent film and about how artists can navigate this space so tonight we are featuring a ghost alongside some paranormal romance films. And we aren't strangers to horror love stories or paranormal romance here at Nobodies. But for any new listeners...
Paranormal romance is a subgenre of romantic fiction that features supernatural elements like vampires, werewolves, witches, or ghosts. And the primary focus remains on the romantic relationship between the characters. In a little while, we're going to talk about some more films that inspired Adam and your writing on Ghost Weights, including Spring. But just to get us started.
What inspired you to kind of go for a paranormal romance on your first film? Is this a subgenre that you had experience in or something that you're particularly attached to? Hmm. I hadn't actually thought about what... inspired the romance aspect before. And the reason why I ask is because when we think about the whole horror genre as like a whole or even horror comedy as a subgenre, I feel like paranormal romance is still something that is like up and coming. There aren't a lot of.
strong examples of it. So it's definitely unique in that way. So that's why I was kind of curious, what inspired the idea? So I think, okay, so my own journey to horror, I came to horror very late. I was a comedy nerd growing up, and my sister's ex-husband, when they were still together, whenever I would visit, he would say, you know, it's stupid that you've never seen Sisters. Come here. We're watching movies. We're going to watch a Serbian film. We're going to watch, you know.
And that was my horror education was just visiting Sarah and Matt and Matt showing me a ton of stuff. And I was really struck by how. subjective horror is. Back when I was a film journalist I interviewed Guillermo del Toro and he said that horror and comedy are basically the same thing except that at the end of a comedy people celebrate it and say, oh man, you had me cracking up. And at the end of a horror, they wanted it.
diminish it and say like, nah, you didn't get me. But they're like jumping in the moment. And it's just like, yeah, one, people like it when you manipulate them. The other people don't like it, even though they love it. They just can't admit it to themselves. The subjectivity of horror, you know, horror is such a richer and broader genre because it is truly what scares you. Realizing that, I really started thinking about what scares me. probably tied to my recently diagnosed autism, but...
I was afraid. I never felt like a person. I never felt like I was part of society. It always kind of felt like everybody else was doing something and I was here to kind of observe. And that was that got really lonely. And. I was writing this. I'd had the idea. It was based on a video game called P.T., which is a playable teaser or playable trailer designed by Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima.
and then a web comic, Saturday morning breakfast cereal. And between those two things, that gave me the idea of a person, a character like me reacting to a haunted house. And the romance aspect, I think, was kind of a surprise to me as I was writing it, but it just made sense. You know, I finish it and I show it to some people and a friend of mine was like, oh yeah, of course you wrote that. You were in a relationship with an unavailable woman.
and i was like oh man if you'd been here sooner like you could have helped so much well let's get talking about a movie that also features a seemingly unavailable lady maybe
We're going to start off with Spring from 2014. A young man in a personal tailspin flees from U.S. to Italy where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark primordial secret. And I talk about... this movie all the time because i think this is one of the greatest other than a ghost waits um horror love stories out there
First of all, it reminds me of Dagon, and I just think it is so beautifully shot. I would classify this almost as... cosmic horror it's very bright and saturated it almost feels dreamlike at some time um again it also feels like a memory or like you're daydreaming it's just a gorgeous film and i felt like i was on a dreamy vacation escaping reality watching this film so this was my first time seeing spring
And I have known Susie to be talking about this film for quite some time now. I am not the biggest fan of cosmic horror, as we know. I think from my viewing perspective, this had a ton of potential, but I was not a fan of the pacing and the length. I do feel like this film was about 45 minutes too long. I really liked what was going on here, though. I think the character piece was really interesting. The acting was quite good. I did like the elements of dark comedy here.
The lead actor in particular I thought was very excellent at delivery with most of his lines throughout this film. But a lot of pieces lost me. I think one thing that I felt was super frustrating as a viewer is that and I understand the point of this is to build that relationship and understand why. why this is gonna why the ending comes to be basically but you could pause fast forward and restart the movie at any point and they're having the same conversation
Well, Lonely, Adam and I are older than you and we couldn't pause and fast forward and rewind when we were younger. So that's why we appreciate these movies so much more. This was made in 2014. No, but our viewing experience. Adam, and you can back me up here. This is what we are used to. This is what we grew up with. Also, how do you know Adam isn't 27?
Sorry, Adam, if you're 27, but I feel like you align more with a little bit. I'm 46. Okay. All right. So you are like the same age as me. And I younger. I almost called you a child. Younger viewers need like this quick, fast pace, cut to this, change to that. And I, maybe it's my age or maybe it's what I like. I enjoy these.
deep conversation driven movies and you'll you'll know that with all the movies i talk about i love the character development when it feels real and makes sense and even though this woman was a creature her character just made so much sense to me adam back me up here what are you thinking i'm kind of fascinated by the viewing experience of pausing and backing up and restarting the movie at various moments to see if they're having
same conversation uh my my experience with spring i was covering film festivals for creative screenwriting and i was just seeing so many movies that they get very samey. You just want to burn down the 3X structure. And something like spring is just mana from heaven. when you're in that kind of place where it's just doing something different. It has a different feel to it. It has a different pace to it. And so Lonely, I see your point, Susie, to yours.
Art is a conversation. It's a never-ending conversation. And so... I look at how audiences, how modern audiences and how younger audiences are processing films. You know, yeah, we grew up with VHS and Beta and Laserdisc. We grew up going to the movies. We were we also grew up like TV was something that you watched when it was on. You know, we were at the mercy of what we were seeing. And now what you're seeing is far more at the mercy of you and your time and your sensibilities. I see.
both sides or both perspectives spring I was, you know, you've seen a ghost waits. I was a sad dude. So watching Lou Taylor Pucci be a sad dude who then has to go be a sad dude in Italy and then can't believe that someone. you know, so attractive as talking to him, it spoke to, again, something that I wasn't seeing in other films. Thinking about spring and the story going on here, we have a lot of science fiction. I know Lonely, you do not like science fiction. You think...
Very lowly, lowly of it. Oh, come on. Don't make me sound like a freaking like. but do you think that also may have come so in this movie there's this woman who is actually a creature from 2 000 years ago her family was killed in i think pompeii and every 20 years she can be reborn into a new physical body and the only way that that curse or she's not thinking of it as a curse she's thinking of it as a blessing because she's you know can live forever the only way that that stops is if
she falls in love, which is a little bit fantastical, but I like that aspect of it. Do you think this whole sci-fi idea and the rules, these sci-fi rules, did that deter you a little bit from this movie or it was more the pacing?
I think it was a little bit of both. So I definitely like as I was watching this, like I said to my mother, I'm like, oh, this is a Susie movie because there's a couple there's a couple of things that meet the Susie movie criteria for me. Rules that don't make sense and no one else in the movie seems to care. Like this whole, like the primordial being thing, she does explain it roughly. It's science. It's science-y too.
kind of okay yeah that's well science is part of the science fiction but so our but our main guy and i understand he's just gone through like a life-altering event but he just does not Okay. He's just like, okay, sure. And I mean, I get it because he's like traumatized and he has no one else. So like, why the hell not?
That is something that I don't love about a lot of cosmic horror in particular is that there is these rules that are clearly like you often say, Susie, well, it's a reality similar to ours, but not ours. And that's why these rules make sense. And then the other thing with cosmic horror is at the end. is often and I feel like maybe this is an exception to the rule the ending is not explained thoroughly in a way
Like, we're to assume that's what happens. Like, the sunrise comes and she doesn't turn into a new creature, but is that what happens? He looks down at her, and she's still her. I think this movie was too freaking long.
I'm sorry. This movie was like two hours and 20 minutes. And I loved every minute of it because it reminded me of Before Sunset. And I've never seen it. Like, I'm so glad that you both have been connected because you're making all of these references that I, they're going right over my head. So I'm glad. that you're among like minds, but I think one thing I will give this film, though, is that it...
Body horror and the actual stuff that is like happening in the film, like the transformations and all of that, the actual horror elements are quite strong for 2014, in my humble opinion. I think that the.
like the creature transformations like there is some overlay of cgi but it doesn't look like hokey like a lot of stuff was from that era i mean the film is a great it's good good production quality it's made well like you said susie the shots are gorgeous for me this is just not my pacing you know who else probably loves this film billy d because this is just one of those films that is just paced i don't know
i don't know but they have the same conversation over and over and over he's like i love you and she's like no i don't and we do this like 17 times just go watch before sunrise with ethan hawk and the other person and then Yeah, and, oh, see? Did this remind you of Before Sunrise at all? Oh, sure. And you like that one too, right? We're besties now. Friends forever. Two things, Lonely.
One, because you said the rules don't make sense. Do you ever feel that way in life? Do you ever feel like things are going on and you're just like, I have no idea why everybody just agrees that this is the system, but okay. Well, speaking from somebody who... works in immigration services right now. Yes, I do. And, and the second thing is the ending, you know, I don't, I think that the ending is more interesting than he.
talks for a while and she is so charmed that she chooses to you know she that she falls in love with him and like i think it's right that she doesn't change um because the point isn't
for her to fall in love with him, but more for him, you know, when it starts, there's nothing about life that intrigues him and excites him. And the journey of this is getting him to a point where like you go on a lot of coffee dates and sometimes it's great and sometimes it's not i think at the very beginning there the sometimes it's great doesn't even occur to him it's just you do this day in day out
and like it doesn't make sense and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and even that seems to be part of it. You know, because whenever it doesn't work, then people tell you, oh, God has a plan and everything happens for a reason, which just I find maddening. Yeah, I think it's a far more interesting film. if you kind of divorce it from the trappings of romance, even though that's the flavor of story that it's telling.
I think if you take romance in a much more literary sense or romanticism sort of thing, this is about rediscovering the romance of the everyday. And it's okay for you to be alone and for somebody to not fall in love with you because, you know, at the end of the day, we have ourselves.
you know we come into the world alone and we leave the world alone and between you know you make the dash count on the headstone i i think there's a lot more to it um And yeah, the Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight trilogy, it's talking about a lot of the same things. Obviously, those movies get to go a lot farther and dig a lot deeper, and there's no body horror in it, so that aspect is lost. But yeah, I think this is a really interesting movie.
once you kind of get rid of expectation. Susie, I know this is, again, one of your favorite films that's come out in a while. So is there anything else that you wanted to touch on with Spring that we haven't already talked about? Well, you know, that one scene in the alley when you first see the creature transformation, I just thought was like perfect.
But that's all I have to say about spring. We talked about this on the ABCs before, and I talked a lot about why I loved it then, and I probably will love it for a really long time. But I think maybe now it's time to close the book on spring. and open it up to discuss our feature film tonight.
so let's move on to a ghost waits and this film is from 2020 a man's job requires him to clean a house which turns out to be haunted in the course of trying to exercise the ghost he falls in love with her so thinking about a ghost waits what are the major themes you wanted to focus on and portray in the film uh honestly the log line is the biggest theme you are not alone i will watch movies about depression and about autism
and about suicide. And it always kind of feels like the call is coming from outside of the house. It never felt authentic to me. It never felt authentic to my experience of depression. And so I thought, well... That does not cost money. You know, I've been poor for a long time and I'm still depressed. So, you know, I'm pretty sure I can tell the story without a huge budget. And I just was like, you know, if I need this, there's probably somebody else.
You are in good company here because this is a mentally safe space and you fit in. Speaking on the issue of mental health, you can really see some of the scenes in that movie that I'm just thinking about now that directly deal with that. There's one line that Muriel says.
and she says like it's what we've always done and that just resonates as like somebody who also struggles with mental health and even that scene in the attic with the back and forth dream bar scene just also like that sense of like depression and anxiety it just i'm just like so touched with how that fits in the film in this subtextual way and now it's really like making a lot more sense to me
Yeah, I would echo that just so just to get like just a tad personal. So obviously, if you haven't figured this out yet. Lonely is a pseudonym, though I wish that was my real name. And that comes from two kind of media references. One is from the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And my full tagline is Lonely Horror Club.
where that comes from but I've always also called myself sort of a lonely ghost that's kind of what I call myself on the internet so you could imagine the The feelings I felt, you know, watching this for the first time and being like, oh, my God, like it really embodied, you know, that part of myself that I really didn't ever really took the time to to really think about and break down, you know, as a.
Also, as somebody who struggles with mental illness, you know, living with OCD is and PTSD is sort of like a life altering kind of experience. The way you view the world is just very different. And you become used to the way you view the world in that way. Just as you said, Susie, that quilt, like, well, it's the way things have always been done or it's what we've always done.
and you know you relate to both characters in that way you know you relate to muriel you know as this ghost who's been here for years and decades and all that but you also relate to jack and maybe if you don't relate to jack's exact life situation you relate to that feeling, that feeling of being lost and feeling like there's no one around you. I know like as an only child, I moved.
you know two and a half hours away from my family the only person i have is like my husband and my husband's family out there so
The whole theme of loneliness was really poignant for me, and I felt that it was appropriate to address, given the fact that I go by lonely. So I really... really appreciated that and i know adam you addressed sort of like where that film that feeling of loneliness like comes from and where you were writing it so i just wanted to acknowledge that that's really awesome as well
I'm glad I could give you the hug that you needed. One thing also, I'm just like thinking about this film and processing it even more. I've seen it probably five or six times. The place that Jack feels the most at home. As it is in a haunted house that is owned by people that is not him, which is just even more symbolic. So many layers, so many layers, Adam. To talk a little bit more about the writing.
you see you know as the film progresses is that we go from watching something that's very clearly a horror comedy to something that, as we've talked about, becomes incredibly poignant. And that's not to say that horror or comedy is not poignant, but obviously we're dealing with a little bit more of a deep subject matter as we get farther in. And I think from a viewing perspective, I don't think, at least for me, that I...
would have expected where the film was going within the first 20 minutes like after watching the first 20 minutes of the film I wouldn't have thought that that is the ending we would have reached so it sounds like you kind of saw that transition in the tone kind of coming and i'm curious to know if there was ever a version of the film that went all in on comedy like full like full blast if or
Was it always meant to have that tonal shift about that like three quarters of the way mark? It was always meant to have that tonal shift. A thing that I, I remember seeing Mrs. Doubtfire opening weekend with my mom and sister.
Which is exactly the movie that you expect to come up on a horror podcast. But I remember us seeing that and, you know, watching everybody, you know, we're all laughing. And then, you know, it... starts the home stretch and it starts and suddenly there's feelings and I'm watching people cry and I'm like huh so if I make you laugh I can then like really mess you up with truth later on
Did you write yourself into the character in A Ghost Waits, our lead guy? Jack is very much a mixture of myself and McLeod. That character is very close to how we are as people. Or maybe I should say how we were. I think both of us have evolved a lot and changed a lot since 2016, 17 and 18 when we shot it.
Wow, that is, I always forget that. So this film... released in quotes in 2020 but i always forget that that's not when the film was made so that was made like several years ago at that point so we're almost what nine ten years from the original production of the film yes yeah um July, August 2016, we made it during a heat wave at a house with no air conditioning. And that was 12 days. Yes, that was 12 days.
We tinkered with the movie. If you saw it at a film festival and then you saw it at another film festival, it was two different cuts. We kept tinkering through the festival run. I remember telling McCloud at one point, like, it'll never be perfect, but our job is just to make it the best version of itself. Once it hit Blu-ray, that was a whole new cut for everybody. Wow.
Before we get into reviewing this movie more in depth with Dr. Shock, I just want to let you know that I love this movie. Lonely, what was your final opinion? Oh, I really enjoyed the film. i think so i watched all of the films for this and now we're going to jump into the future and bring on our second special guest and that is dr shock he's here to review a ghost awaits with us
Now, me and Dr. Shock go way back, even though this is the first time we've actually talked. So I first started listening to Dr. Shock on horror movie podcast. I have a horror movie podcast shirt. Here's Dr. Shock. Dave Becker has been. podcasting since 2010. He is a current co-host of Land of the Creeps and Jay of the Dead's new horror movies and was a regular co-host on the old version of the horror movie podcast. He has a blog at DVDinfatuation.com.
where he has reviewed nearly 3,000 movies and hosts his own podcast, the DVD Infatuation Podcast, which is hosted on Considering the Cinema. Welcome, Dr. Shack. It's so good to have you here. Thank you. It's good to be here and good to finally talk with you. Yeah, boy, all the way back to Horror Movie Weekly, huh? Oh, yeah. That's a ways back. Well, you did this contest on horror movie podcast and.
You gave away like 30 of your DVDs and that DVD booklet is in my car right now. And I'm just saving it, waiting for my kids to be able to watch that because we have a DVD player in the car. Oh, that's awesome. great i didn't i i had forgotten yes you're right it was it was like a book with about did i did you pick the movies i think i did i did and i picked mostly anime oh nice all right so a part of you lives on in my minivan
Very cool. I'm glad to hear that. Why does he need to live on Susie? He's right here. Oh, okay. So why don't we get into a discussion of a movie where someone didn't live on or two people didn't live on. So what are our opening thoughts on a ghost way? And since you're the guest, Dr. Shock, why don't you lead us? Well, I tell you what, first off, I love that it was in black and white.
and i'd seen this before and i was really impressed with it i think i might have even made my number 10 of my top 10 movies horror movies of 2020. i was so impressed with it But watching it again today, I don't think you could have made it in color. I don't think it would have worked nearly as well in color as it works in black and white.
uh i because i think it kind of needed that that sort of atmosphere i think it needed like the bright colors would have sort of just it wouldn't have worked as well i kind of i love that it was in black and white so much for coming on i i loved how it opened because it does open uh with sort of a a scare in a way uh when you you first see muriel
um she's she's frightening this family away and you don't actually see what's going on it's just quick shots and and the um like a close-ups and then all of a sudden a wide shot and you hear people yelling in the distance and no get downstairs and getting out you know and
And then you get that shot. But then she's sort of pleased with herself and brushing her hair back. And then you realize, OK, this is going to quite be it's not going to be a horror movie per se. It is funny. I think there are some funny. funny moments in it. But ultimately, I think it's just this sweet love story about two people, two very lonely people who find each other.
And that's what I think I connected the most with when it was over, was that it was just a very sweet love story. Well, you're mentioning the black and white.
the black and whiteness of it and I think it really made that more personal and almost like smaller and cozier having it black and white and it made me feel like I was in the house there and They made that house seem very unassuming, like that is not what you would have thought of as a haunted house, which worked perfectly in this movie because it just like.
turn the whole idea of haunted houses and the systems behind hauntings upside down, which I thought was super clever. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, because you're right. This is just a small little house. And she said she's at one point she's been there a long time. And I did find myself wondering, I mean, is it since it was built? Because it doesn't look like it's an incredibly old house.
Right. That's what I thought was really interesting when they get into the ghost assignments, like how ghosts are assigned to houses. Because I think when we think when we are thinking of, you know, haunted houses, we're usually going two ways.
you know, decrepit old house with a ghost in it, or we're thinking a more contemporary, you know, insidious style, you know, haunted house. And in this movie, we have sort of neither. This looks like a... a pretty common like Airbnb type house that you see in any you know cul-de-sac like there's nothing particularly charming about it it's very basic so I think it's interesting that there's a ghost here at all like I don't think it would be a house that you would walk in
and be like oh yep definitely there's a ghost here so it's interesting yeah because she also seems to be an older era ghost. I think they may, when they talk about her backstory, do they reference, is it like 1920s, 30s? Actually, from what I understand, at one point, they do say 200 years. Okay. That would put it into the, well, that would have put it into the 1800s, like the early 1800s. So early, what would that be, 19th century.
Well, I was going to say, then that goes back to the point where has she been haunting? I wonder if it also, maybe we're reading way too far into it, right? But I'm like, well, is it the property? Has she been on this? Like, has there always been a house on this property, maybe? It could be that it could be that, you know, because it wasn't her house. She was assigned to it. And we don't exactly know how that works. I mean, she says it's her house. She's gotten to know.
but she might have only been there since it was built and she may have been somewhere else at another point um you know that that's what i was seeing it as because you have that one It's almost like I was thinking like the Sylvia Sidney Beetlejuice scene where she goes up and there's this office there and there's somebody at a desk who has.
you know like like sort of okay this is your assignment um you know like when uh when when alec baldwin and gina davis go to sylvia sydney and beetlejuice and she gives them a book and here this will tell you what to do and and how you can get how you can keep people out of your house so i get the feeling that you know because because she didn't realize it wasn't it didn't
call for her like she was thinking she was assuming the house called for her where it was you know they're saying no it was just sort of a random assignment um so it's almost like she was misled in that way um and when they tell her it was almost like it was breaking her a little bit and her character completely changes after she's like wait a minute what is my purpose
yeah what what am i what am i really doing here what am i you know and and and i like how the uh how the the the main character the the guy he he asks okay well why why are you doing it well it's what we do It's what he has several people that and the only answer is, well, it's what we do. You know, nobody really knows why. It's just what we do.
So when we spoke with Adam, I know one of the big themes that he had brought up, not only in the making of A Ghost Waste, but also carrying through the film is this theme of loneliness. And I know we talked a little bit about it, Susie, but. You know, Dr. Shock, where do you see the theme of loneliness and these two characters and how it moves the story? Well, I like how they they give us the little bit of the time.
with uh with uh jack uh who was played on pretty well he was a co-writer wasn't he wasn't mcleod stevens he was he was the co-writer for this wasn't he yeah um he's his handyman And he's just going up, but he's on the phone. He's trying to find somebody to stay with. And he calls this one friend of his and he gets the message. And he's like, it's all right if I can crash on your couch.
um and uh you know let me know and then you know no problem if i can or whatever never calls him back leaves another message and ends up asking oh by the way who is so and so because he's talking about you know in the message he mentions this this a significant other you know if it's a wife or a girlfriend or whatever and he doesn't even know him well enough to know that this guy's seeing somebody
So that, you know, then he's on the phone with this woman and she's like, thank you so much for all the help you gave me. It was it was it was a lifesaver. And he's like working on a toilet at the time. And he's like, hey, is it OK if I come over and stay with you for a while?
Well, I don't know, you know. And well, you know what? Thanks again. And if there's anything I could do for you, just let me know. And then hangs up. And he's like, I literally just asked you, which that made me laugh. I thought that was. pretty funny scenes like i literally just asked you for help and you you know the i know you have a guest room i helped you put the bed together you know nobody is this guy nobody seems to want to help him
Even his boss, at one time, he tries to have a sort of serious conversation with his boss. Like, how did you know your wife was the one? And he's like, it's not something you ask your boss. Like, they don't even have that relationship. It's just a straight up. boss employee relationship this poor guy doesn't seem to have anybody who who he can turn to um and then you get muriel who
Well, you find out he saw this in the same boat. You find out from her boss. She comes down. She's talking to Jack at one point, Miss Henry, played by Amanda Miller, about, you know, what happened to Muriel. And it turns out she's very much alone as well. Now, she's thinking that the goal is for her to be alone, that this is her house, and she's sort of taking solace in learning. There's this great scene where she's talking about learning about the house.
And every now and again, she thinks she knows every corner and she'll see one little detail that she's never saw before or never seen before. And all of a sudden, it just sort of renews her love of this house. But then meeting Jack, she realizes, yeah, okay, I have the house, but that's all, and I don't have anything else, and I don't even have the connection to the house that I initially thought I did. I've developed a connection, but it was based on a lie.
it was based on something i was told that was not true uh so that's where it's sort of built on you get these two people who are sort of destined to be together i loved how he ran out of there didn't have his keys and went back into the house now you think he's going back into the house to get his keys
This is the second time, and I've seen this movie twice now. Both times I thought he was going back in to get his keys. He wasn't. He was going back in to confront the ghost and saying, I'm not going anywhere until the job is done. And she's saying the same thing, like she's not going to do anything else until her job is done. Exactly. Yes. So they're at a stand. They're at this standoff. But then they start talking and things start happening.
great scene and i i like the the music the use of music in this was was really good i love the use of music in this movie as well um and what they were able to do with it because that's almost in a way that's how they first connected He had played that one song on the radio, then he found a guitar. The other family, they left and they left everything behind. They just ran out of there. They even left their truck. They were just running to get away from Uriel.
And he starts playing that song on the guitar and you hear her sing along one of the verses, like sing one of the verses. And he looks around like he's he's heard something. That's almost like the first time you realize that. okay, there's a little more to her than just scaring. You know, there's something else. And you find that she did have a musical background, you know, is in her backstory. But I just, I liked how they developed both of those characters.
They gave you a little bit. They gave you enough about Muriel to realize that, you know, she didn't have what she thought she had. You get enough about Jack that he really has nothing. He has nowhere to turn to. And then you just sort of watch them come together. You just sort of watch them naturally come together. And it doesn't, you know, they're both doing their job at first and then.
You just get that great scene at the table where they're just sort of passing the time. You can tell they're just going back and forth. That's where it became a really sweet love story. And that's also where I thought it was very interesting because they throw someone else into the mix at that point.
What you're discussing now, this beautiful love story and this build up in the conversations, that totally happens throughout the movie. But with that, we have this attic scene. And I want to talk about that attic scene.
dream scene where he is talking to himself as a bartender and i got such shining vibes from that when i first saw it i was like this is absolutely the lloyd the bartender scene yeah yeah and then they also make oh maybe it's in the same scene susie but the dialogue of the bar scene there's something about the the ghost he asked the ghosts or the vision of himself like what are you whatever and it mentions that like oh i have many forms and one of them is a giant spider
And I'm like, oh, that's another Stephen King reference. That's an It reference. Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. And now I wish we had asked Adam, like, hey, did Stephen King come into play here? Were you inspired all by Beetlejuice? But I guess that one makes a good movie. is you know bringing inspiration and then you have that little spice of comedy in there when he's like well what was that like being a tidal wave and he's like well you could say wet.
And I actually was like, okay, that's kind of funny. Right, yeah. It was that subtle humor throughout the entire movie that just, like, very subtle. The one that got me was when he throws the Jenga.
When he's, like, he goes, the pizza, he gets the pizza delivered, then he walks away. And then the pizza's gone, and he throws the Jenga blocks. That was my, that one got me. I was like, yeah, that's probably right. Well, he looks at his phone, and he goes, yep, I ordered a pizza. And then, boom, he just knocks him.
knocks him all over the place yeah um i think i think the my laugh was when he was on the phone with that girl i already mentioned that one and she's like anything i could do and she literally said like hung up without answering his question of whether he could stay there by basically answering and saying no you can't come over But she said her like like how what she would do is find out people's weaknesses, what it is that that what or find out what what she could use against them.
to drive them out. And that was that whole scene with him talking to himself, the bartender scene. The first thing she says is, you have nobody. And she's picked that up by listening to him on the phone. oh yeah and at first you think when she's coming back to scare him out of the house with the other ghost which you're about to bring up i actually thought that muriel had like a whole change of heart and was like wait
I shouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I need to go back to my original like purpose. And I thought she was actually like going to turn on him and scare him out of the house by just like degrading him with like, nobody cares about you. You are nothing. You have no. And then the tables get flipped on the guest ghost that was brought in. Right. And I want to say her name was Rose. I think it was Rose. Definitely you get the feeling she's a much.
They sort of hint at the fact that a much more recent ghost, not quite as seasoned as Muriel, because she has these... You know, she's just really into it. I mean, she's like almost like a poltergeist in the way she's going after this guy. Just every time, you know, you know, there's a point where he's talking to Muriel in the kitchen and he's like, what is she doing here?
Ariel went off to talk to Miss Henry saying, hey, what did you bring heroin for? You know, I was doing this like, well, you needed some help and they gave this back and forth. Meanwhile, poor Jack's getting like tortured in the house by this by this rose. And Muriel comes back and they're in the kitchen and talking to Jack. And he's like, can you get rid of her? And she's like, well, something along the lines. I don't know where she is. He goes, well, I'll tell you what. I'll walk around.
corner i guarantee she'll be right there in front of me he walks around she's screaming he jumps he goes wow why did i do that i knew she was gonna be there that was that was another time i thought that was really funny he's like all i gotta do is close the refrigerator door right yeah Yeah, exactly. She's going to be there. And, you know, it's funny because Mural even says, oh, no, she's she's crude or her methods are crude or something.
you know because she's she's just like way too into it or way too in you know way too intense um you know building it up to too much i guess right out of the gate um And then the two of them have a conversation. And the whole idea is that both Muriel and Jack want her gone, obviously. Jack, for obvious reasons, and Muriel, because...
It's her house and she's also realizing that she doesn't necessarily, not she hasn't said anything like this yet, but you get the feeling she's realized she doesn't necessarily want. jack to leave either she just hasn't gotten to that point yet where she's willing to admit it to herself so they have this sort of common enemy in rose and i think you know what it is they go back and and they decide they're going to work together
And then they go down and you see them sort of both standing there. They're working on Jack. But then she uses that telepathy to plant that in Jack's head. Some people are afraid of failure. So that's what they're going to use. So that's his trigger that, okay, now if I were Muriel and we somehow make Rose feel like a failure, she'll get the hell out of here. I love that. See, I thought that was really cool. Lonely. I haven't even really sensed your thoughts about the whole movie in general.
Yeah, well, that's because I try to be nice when there are other people in the room. No, I'm just kidding. I really enjoyed the movie. I did. I definitely, so as we talked about, so in the order in which I watched these films really set a ghost weights up to be very successful. because i watched um thirst first and was not we'll get into that if we get there but that was not my fave and then i watched spring which as we know not not not my cup of tea
So I was already, you know, two for two. So this is the palate cleanser. Yeah, this had to be the palate cleanser. And I honestly, I really did enjoy it. And I think I came out of the film enjoying it. But then the more I learned from Adam, you know, how the film.
was written and the themes that it appealed to it just meant more to me like it just i liked it that much more and i know i already went on my my rant about ghosts and everything earlier in the conversation but I think this film is a very nice little caveat to me being lonely because... As I said, you know, my persona is this lonely ghost and here we have it. You know, it's the way I think it's so interesting the way the film displays ghosts, because just like Jack.
Jack has people who know him. He's not a nobody. People know him. He works for somebody. People answer his phone calls but they don't really know him or care. Life just continues to go on. He's just sort of in the background. And isn't that... just the truth about ghosts as well like we occasionally know ghosts are there or we see that ghosts are there but we go about our lives the ghosts don't change our lives so it's just very it's so well written the more and more you look at it and the more
layers you pull back so i'm a big fan of this especially in an indie production this is really really cute it's really really stunning and i think it's it feels warm and cozy like it's nice i'm a fan i never would have watched it on my own accord especially
looking at the the poster never would have chosen to watch this on my own so i'm really glad that you brought it up and you continue to champion the film because i do think a lot of people would like it and you know what else i think is interesting about this film is
This is not a film that I feel needs to be remade on a blockbuster budget, because sometimes you watch an independent production and you're like, oh, if they just had this, if they just had more money, more actors, a big name, whatever, the film would be that much better. But I don't think this.
would have the same appeal it wouldn't be it wouldn't have that cozy it wouldn't be that warmth yeah yeah if it was like plasticky so first of all if if there was any money behind it it wouldn't be in black and white that wouldn't be allowed You know, because you have to fight like crazy to get a black and white movie. I mean, Tim Burton had to fight like crazy to make Ed Wood in black and white, even though it was set in an era when there was nothing but black and white.
obviously black or black or black and white was at least more common when they were you know from the time they were making at the time period they were representing in edward you you they do not just automatically allow black and white studios scared to death of it because they think people are going to think oh it's an old movie i think that's so interesting too like we
look at a lot of art house that has come out in the last you know 10 years and there's a lot of beloved like art house films that are in black and white oh yeah and i still think that's so interesting that yeah my mother yep a lot of the girl who walks home that one
yeah a lot of blockbusters don't it's still interesting that they are staying so far away or even the lighthouse the lighthouse is black and white even if i'm not a lighthouse fan i mean it was a people love that movie and um yeah a very interesting little fact about black and white i guess The themes felt old, but the way it was given to us felt very new and fresh. I've never seen anything like this before. No, I agree.
I agree 100%. And I also agree with you, Lonely, that this is not something I would ever want to see remade. on like a with with a with a with a bigger budget or with uh bring a star in for it or anything like that i think this is sort of just a a perfect uh just a perfect moment i think it was done just as well as it could be done the first time around? I think we're missing a very key question here.
so susie you and i answered this question many moons ago in season one but we're talking about ghosts dr shock do you believe in ghosts like can we start there well how did we not start on that question I would have to say yes, because I did have a house that I lived in. I had several experiences in the house. And I would not have said yes before living in this house, but we were there for five years when my kids were very young. And we had a couple of instances.
Yes. Oh yeah. They, they were, I mean, they were very young. They didn't have the experiences. Those were their imaginary friends. um the the one i i won't go into i'm not going to go into all but the one that really got me was my we were on our way out to dinner one night my wife is upstairs
My computer was in this back room and the washer and dryer was right next to it. That's how we had to do the setup because of the way this house was laid out. So my wife's upstairs getting ready and I knew if we didn't get to dinner at a certain point. we would not get a table. So I'm getting a little antsy and I hear her upstairs and she had the shirt she wanted to wear in the dryer.
So I'm at my computer. I'm getting really antsy. I'm getting really nervous. All of a sudden, walks behind me and I turn around and I'm going to say to her, are you ready to go? I mean, I'm telling you, I felt the wind walk behind me and I turn around and she's not there. There's nothing there.
And I'm just sitting there for a minute saying, did I really feel that? Maybe I maybe I just imagined it. Maybe I just imagined it. So then she finally does come downstairs and to get the shirt. And I look at her and I say now. You didn't just walk behind me. And of course she didn't. I just heard her walk down the stairs. There's no way she could have done it and run back upstairs and come back down. Now, she lived there as a child.
you know this was her grandfather had owned this house and her mother and her and her brother lived there as a child so this is her second time living in this house well she just sort of smiles at me and goes no why and i said
and oh by the way also in the room was the kids toy box by the way there was a bunch of stuff in this room along with my computer as well as the cat's litter box which was great when it would come in and take a every morning as i'm sitting there trying to get you know on my computer uh but anyway I said, I'm telling you, as I'm sitting here, someone walked behind me. And the minute, the second I got me out of my mouth, in the middle of the toy box.
The Tickle Me Elmo started to laugh. Not the Tickle Me Elmo. No, not him. It started to laugh and I said, let's get the hell out of here right now. Time for dinner. Wow. That was where I first started to actually experience it. And then there were two or three other times after that where I might have experienced something before. I just never picked up.
up on it that was the first time i started to sort of experience it in that house so the bottom line is yes i do um i do believe that that there that there are ghosts So if you haven't seen A Ghost Waits, go out and watch it. We are not going to spoil the ending for you. It is an amazing movie. It deserves your attention.
And that brings me to our last movie of the night, which Lonely apparently thinks does not deserve your attention, and that is Thirst. Hold on. Let me get the synopsis up, folks. This is what happens when you time travel. You lose your synopses throughout the space and time continuum. Thirst, from 2009, follows a priest through a failed medical experience. A priest through a failed medical experiment is stricken with vampirism and forced to abandon his former life. I mean,
Let's have somebody else start because I don't want to start us off on the wrong foot. So Susie, you actually recommended Thirst for this episode. So why don't you start and talk a little bit about, you know, why you recommended the film alongside these other ones and what your opening thoughts are. Well, I recommended this film because it fit with our category. I do not. Let's not get this confused. I do not like thirst. I think it is kind of.
It just gave me like an icky feeling, especially the romantic part about it. Whereas Spring, I love the romance. A Ghost Waits, I love the romance. In Thirst, I was like, oh. like cringe it was cringe but i know dave you love this film or you really like it i do really like it i'm a please i'm a i'm a park chan wook uh fan uh first off i do i did like old boy but i did not like this i i just thought again it's it's sort of um
I understand what you're saying about the love story because because he's a former priest and he's going after his friend's wife and she's sort of a bored housewife. And that's where the. The love affair is coming in. Wait, the friend's wife? I thought it was the daughter. No, it's the friend's wife. It's the friend's wife. Yeah.
Oh, well, I missed that part. So maybe that's why it was kind of creepy. You thought he was going after the daughter. No, no, no. It's it's it's the wife. Yeah, it's his wife. Susie, what you probably got confused is like there's this weird – like when they were kids, this was the friend's like stepsister kind of in quotes. So that's –
That's probably where they have the same mother in quotes. So that might be where you were getting confused with the daughter situation. But it's it's the wife. OK, well, that I still didn't like it, even if it's the wife. I thought it had the right amount of gore. I thought it had some good special effects. I did like the performances of the two leads. Kang Ho and Kim Ok Bin. I thought the characters are what made it.
They became the focus of the film, and the changes that they undergo throughout it, I thought, is what made it one that I really enjoyed. The changes they underwent, that's what I really liked about it. Again, it's been a while since I've seen it. So I can't speak too specifically like picking out scenes. But I really did enjoy the movie. So about this movie. So this priest volunteers to get.
infected with a virus to see if he can help come up with the cure right yeah so one of the questions you had to go through before being able to commit to this experiment was martyrdom versus suicide so it poses an interesting question why why did he volunteer why do you guys think he volunteered for this Did I completely just miss so much in this movie? I didn't get that either. That's another part of the film that I didn't understand. I just thought it was almost like his duty.
as a priest to sort of- To die? Not to die, but to volunteer. to become infected himself to see on the chance they could have a cure. They could get a cure. Okay, but he could have done so much more. not being dead or infected, but he did end up experiencing, you know, some kind of maybe miracle, who knows? Well, no, it's a miracle that he survived, but what it was is...
they had to give him a blood transfusion. And where did the blood come from? Did we ever figure that out? It came from a vampire. How? How does a vampire get the blood taken? Susie, you're asking a lot of questions that need answering for someone who didn't have any questions on anything in spring. Okay, well, help me out here. Supposedly the blood that he received was donated by a vampire.
Okay, so a vampire trying to spread their vampirism. Possibly, yes. I did enjoy, I didn't know if I enjoy it, but I appreciated the high level of body horror when he was getting those little pox all over him. That was... Yeah. Realistic looking, very gross. I thought it was insane body horror for 2009 too. Yeah. Like the fly body horror almost. That level. Yeah. So can we talk about.
The toe-licking? Yeah, I was gonna say, can we talk about the sex scenes? Because why the hell were they that long? And gross! Is that a cultural thing? Toe-licking and sucking! Like, I don't... I don't watch a ton of Korean films. I mean, even the ones I have seen, like the sex scenes were, I don't know, very comparable to. No, I don't. Yeah, I don't. I don't know that I can point to any other.
korean films that have like that's what maybe maybe punch him i haven't seen the handmaiden and i'm wondering if that but that's not a horror film i hope not um they just wanted to make us uncomfortable no it could be But it was not, it was so, okay. It was not sexy. It wasn't. And I think that, well, this could probably go back to the fact that.
him becoming a vampire is supposed to also turn him away from like his priestly way of life and one of those things is sex and it really and it's an interesting take on sex when we look at the vampire subgenre because usually Usually, when we think about sex and vampires, there's a lot of conversation about, you know, sex is like liberating.
as a vampire usually someone becomes a vampire and now they can kind of live their best life in a lot of ways and that's not what happens with our main character here and sex becomes like this deviant still continues to be a deviant thing for him especially in the fact that he's sleeping with his you know his friend's wife really right yeah so question for you both i'm watching this film and
It feels like for one part of the film, maybe our main character, the priest, is the villain. But then the tides change and it might feel like the wife is the villain. Are they both the villain? or is it neither what were your thoughts on that well i'm still stuck on the fact that i thought it was the daughter yeah the daughter yeah uh i don't know dr shock you take that one i would say that i would think
You sort of look at both of them on that level of maybe both of them being like antiheroes. Is that what you were thinking, Lonely? I think what's really hanging up on me here is so we have this. little subplot about her husband, her actual husband. And she leads the main character to believe that she is being abused. And then we find out that that is not the case. But there's not a lot of, there's not enough, in my opinion, narrative to understand why she lied about that.
Yeah. Other than that, she's just a bored housewife. That's what I came away from, that she's a bored housewife, you know, and that she was using that because maybe thinking because, you know, he's he's. a priest or still might have, you know, she's thinking that, you know, he's, she's just trying to figure out, I guess, the best way to get his attention, to get, to win him over, to get, I don't know.
Like I said, it's been a while, but that's what I would think. It's like she feels like she would need something like that to get his attention. Or maybe it's one of those things where there's got to be another movie where this is like talking about the board housewife thing. Maybe that's the whole thing is that they want... Well, I guess...
The only foil that's coming to mind right now is Edward Scissorhands, which is not a good foil. But, you know, it's the same kind of idea is that you have these bored housewives like trapped in like this bubble and anything remotely interesting or dangerous. is going to pique their attention until something else comes along it's like this very vapid kind of outlook so yeah it's it's interesting it's very interesting and then you know not to spoil the ending or anything but
Like, how are we supposed to feel about that ending? Because, like, nobody wins. Not a single person wins. That's not uncommon. in uh in uh not just korean films in a lot of um in a lot of foreign horror films um you know for a lot of them and very in a very bleak uh way or very not always bleak but just maybe some open-ended uh like it doesn't always tie all the tie everything together it wasn't satisfying like i said unfortunately that's that's that's
We get used to watching movies in this country that tie everything up and give us the type of ending either we want or that we're saying, okay, it's not the ending we wanted, but at least it wrapped everything up and we're sort of satisfied by it. And again, I'm talking about, I haven't seen this movie in five years. And so it's, and that was the first time I'd seen it, to be honest with you. Well, you remember more than I do after watching it two nights ago.
Okay. I just missed, I missed a bunch here, but it's fine because even if I had watched it as that, the wife, I'm like thinking about it. That movie was so unsatisfying and I will never watch it again. What about you lonely? No, I wouldn't watch it again. And I also wouldn't recommend it. It's one of those things where I always, sometimes I walk away from a film and I think, oh gosh, I hope this isn't somebody's first entry point.
to anything right like i don't want this to be someone's first entry point to korean horror and i don't want it to be someone's first entry point to vamp to the vampire subgenre because it's not going to leave a good taste but so many people love this movie lonely it's not just dr shock it's like
Highly praised. And I'm sure it's got a lot to do with the cinematography. And again, I'm sure there's something deep rooted here that, you know, just as a Western audience, we just don't get. And we probably never will to a certain point about like the goal and the.
you know when this film was made the impact that it had and you know i i can accept that but it's just i don't know but the sex scenes and the fact it was so long this movie was two hours yeah like you know how i feel once we start pushing you know
110 minutes i'm like you better have something good something good to say or we're we're done here so well we are done here because i don't want to talk about thirst anymore okay let's move on let's move on dr shock do you have any films that you think could fit in this paranormal romance subgenre because i got nothing for deep cuts or surface wounds um
Yeah, I think so. You know, it's something we had talked about. Again, this is more along the lines of the vampire. I was a big fan of Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive. I like that one a lot. I like the idea of how they approached vampirism. There's an interesting one called, I don't know if you've seen it, called A Ghost Story.
I think with, I think Casey Affleck is the star of that one. Yes. Oh, I have seen that one in the house where, yeah. Yes, and then it looks good. Where nothing much happens. Well, they're wearing sheets. Yeah. And the whole idea is. You are a ghost until there's a reason you're here. There's a reason you can't move on.
and it's sometimes it's like something that it's just as basic and and and that's the idea of this is that you're you're you're here as a ghost until you do one thing and what you find out and it's not always the most vital thing it's not always something incredibly important. Sometimes it's just something between you and another person.
And I like the way that they played that one out as well. Looking back. Well, you know, here's here's one with vampires again. And it's a very interesting love story. Let the right one in. Oh, that's a lonely favorite. Yeah, that's. that to me i think that's one of my all-time favorite films um and it's interesting because it's not a typical love story sort of looking outside of
Well, you know, let me throw this one out there before I get outside of horror. I would say Nosferatu, but only the remake. Only 2024's Nosferatu. The other ones don't really fit. But they throw this little story twist into 2024's Nosferatu that you could say, huh, maybe that one. And I'm guessing, have you both seen that one?
Oh, have we seen it? We watched all three Nosferatus and compared them side by side. So, yes, we're, dare I say, we're Nosferatu experts. Oh, there you go. Good. All right. that's great but in this new one they do add a little twist in there that could maybe make it fit you know into that um uh okay getting like i said getting a little bit outside of horror there there's a classic movie called A Matter of Life and Death. It was directed by Michael Powell and Emrick Pressburger.
It's interesting. It's set during World War II. David Niven plays a fighter pilot whose plane is going down. And he makes radio contact with a woman on the ground, played by Kim Hunter. And they have this exchange and David never knows he's going to die. And they have this little exchange and she starts to cry. And it's almost like they make this connection. Well, he ends up surviving somehow.
But he wasn't necessarily supposed to or he wasn't supposed to be there. And then him and Kim Hunter have this relationship. Well, then they come down and say, hey, you were supposed to die. So he now has to defend his.
life. He has to go up to heaven and defend his life in order to continue it with Kim Hunter. And what's really interesting is that the scenes set... in the real world or in color and it's heaven that is in black and white and it's a it's i think one of the great movies of all time really to be honest with you it's it's wonderful um
And I threw in here just sort of as fun, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, the animated Corpse Bride. Oh, yeah. I thought that would fit in there as well. I have one movie for deep cuts tonight. i think i've talked about this movie a couple times it's called the transfiguration from 2016. it's got 4.2 ratings on imdb and it's about a troubled teen named milo who has a fascination with vampire lore and he meets
the equally alienated Sophie and the two form a bond that begins to blur Milo's fantasy and reality. So we don't know in this movie if Milo is a vampire or not, and it's just a cute, very small love story. And actually, I didn't go into them yet, but I do have a best and worst. Lonely, do you want to take us into best and worst? I'm sorry. Did I jump the gun here?
No, you are ahead of the game because I don't have a best or worst. Neither do I. Neither do I. Well, my best is spring, obviously. Yeah, well, my best would not be spring. We frequent. We frequent the paranormal romance genre. So I think people have heard enough of what we do and don't like. So why don't you tell us? We always start on the lowest note possible. So tell us your worst and then tell us your best.
okay well my worst would be a 1982 film directed by kevin connor called the house where evil dwells uh this stars edward albert susan george and doug mcclure And you know, just set it up. This writer, he's Ted Fletcher, played by Edward Albert. He's putting the finishing touches on his newest novel. And him and his wife, Laura, played by Susan George, and their daughter, Amy.
uh amy barrett plays her uh they decide to take up temporary residence in japan to help you know give him a little bit of peace and quiet so we can finish this book um his uh his Old friend of Ted's, Alex. Curtis, played by Doug McClure. He's lived in Japan for years, and he's able to find them an authentic Japanese house for them to stay in, one that dates back several centuries.
But unfortunately, the house was also the scene of a grisly murder some hundred years ago when a samurai killed both his wife and her lover, then fell on his own sword, immediately took his own life as well. And it isn't long after they've moved in that Ted and Laura begin experiencing these strange things. But the truth of the matter is the spirits who haunt the house, who happen to be those three.
have more in their minds than just mischief. They're trying to bring about a repeat of history as to what happened to them. Now, as a horror film, this thing is, it's a joke. The dialogue is sometimes – I was scratching my head and saying, what the hell? There's a scene where Alex, Doug McClure, is driving the couple out to the house. And he says, look, there are rumors that the house might be haunted.
Well, you know, Susan George's character is gets a little nervous. I don't know about this. I go to a haunted house. But her husband calms her down, says, hey, honey, don't worry. Modern ghosts are friendly ghosts. I'm like, what the hell does that mean? And it's just a very weird, very strange dialogue. There's also... What really got me, though, is the way they make these ghosts look. They make them look like these...
They're all in white and you can sort of see through them. There was a TV show in the 70s put out by Hanna-Barbera called The Funky Phantom. That's what these ghosts look like. The ghost in the funky phantom. And that's all I could think of. You have to watch the trailer because it's it pretty much shows the entire movie, I'm assuming. And the ghosts are literally the cheesiest looking samurai. Yeah. Like they're samurai ghosts. They're really, really bad. Yeah.
i mean there's there's a you talk about a sex scene there's a two minute sex scene in this with with uh with um susan george and eddie eddie albert that generates no heat whatsoever there's no chemistry between these two um i'm a susan george fan i like a lot of of her movies like you know
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. And she was in Straw Dogs, the Sam Peckinpah movie. I think she's an actress. When I see her, I'm like, oh, wow. She was even in a movie called Venom with Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski that I thought. It's not a great movie, but I thought I loved it. I liked her in it, but she couldn't even save this. I mean, I tell you what, don't watch this. Watch repeats of the Funky Phantom.
Well, let's move on to some betters, some bests. What was your best in this genre? The one that I had as a best is a 1987 movie directed by Vim Vendors called Wings of Desire. The story here, it's about Damiel, played by Bruno Gans, and he's an angel who has been sent to Earth to observe mankind. But what he finds is, well, just to set it up, he comes down with his partner, Casio, played by Otto Sender. And they spend their days and nights watching over the citizens of Berlin.
And as an angel, he's neither seen nor heard. So he allows him to move freely throughout the city, intermingling with others. And he's eavesdropping on their conversations and observing what they're doing. Well, one day, Damiel visits the circus where he spots a tightrope walker named Marion. I'm sorry, or is it Mark? Yeah, Marion, played by Solvig Dahmerton.
Well, he instantly falls in love with her and decides to do what very few angels before him have done. He wants to become human. He knows it will cost him eternal life. But he's convinced that the joys with her will be well worth the sacrifice. Now, this movie takes a look at humanity from the point of view of an outsider, someone who knows our ways and customs only through observation.
And though it means the end of life everlasting for him, the only life he's ever known, he's going to make this change. And we identify with his desire to become mortal. And a lot of the credit for that, why we understand it is. because of Bruno Gans himself. He brings this childlike innocence to Damiel.
um you know who sees beauty where others might see something else might see pain or anguish he's he sees something beautiful in there um there's a key scene where he and cassio are sitting around comparing their notes for the uh for the day the end you know at the end of the day comparing what they've seen and damio finally confesses his his wish to his partner at that point he says he wants to and this is a quote to be excited not only by the mind but
but at last by a meal you know he wants to experience something uh he wants to to feel to smell to another exact quote guess without always knowing Angels seem to have a sense of, you know, what's going to happen. He wants to live like a, like a, he wants to live a life where he doesn't know what's going to happen. Where he's like, he'll be surprised. So he's looking to change.
to become human um and Bruno Ganz plays it wonderfully and what's really interesting is Bruno Ganz he's great in this but the performance he's most known for You know, like I say, he's playing an angel here and he's playing it like childlike. His most popular, his most famous performance is as Adolf Hitler in 2004's Downfall. That tells you the level of actor he is. He's that good of an actor.
So Dr. Shock, I've actually seen this movie. Oh, okay. This is a great movie. I think I had watched this because I was super into Twin Peaks. And I found out that this film was like a pretty big inspiration for Twin Peaks. And I watched this, and I think it's important to note that this was remade in 1998. By City of Angels, right? Yes, with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.
Which is just bizarre. Yeah, I didn't know that was the remake of this one. And I also liked how Wim Wenders explored the city of Berlin because this is 87. The wall was still standing. So this movie seems so much older, too. It does. It does seem older than that. It does feel because it's black and white. This is another black and white film.
Yeah. And, you know, it's funny because you never know which side of the wall they're on. Are they on, you know, are they on the East or West Berlin? But ultimately, it doesn't matter because they as they show in this movie, people are the same on both sides. They have the same problems. They have the same worries. They have. same uh everything so you have these characters in this city um i think are what make it a great movie so dr shock thank you so much for coming out tonight it was
Awesome to finally have a conversation with you and talk movies. I hope we can do it again. And while I'm waiting, where can the listeners find more of you and your work? well as you had mentioned at the beginning um first off is the my blog dvd infatuation.com i'm still reviewing over there i started that back in august of 2010. uh with the goal to review 2500 movies i reached that goal in 2018.
um it's taken me another seven years to get 500 more but i'm almost i'm closing on 3 000 now and that's dvdinfatuation.com uh as i'm on uh on x at dvd infatuation formerly twitter i'm on facebook as well instagram uh as far as podcasts i uh i'm a co-host uh we're on land of the creeps which you can find at land of the creeps
Blogspot.com. Also on Jay of the Dead's new horror movies, where there are 10 hosts in all, actually. I'm one of 10 over there, and it's Jay, my old buddy from... horror movie podcast and horror movie you know weekly horror movie i've just been with him for a long time uh greg
from Land of the Creeps. Greg Amortis is there, and just a lot of us, and we have a great time. So that's Jay of the Dead's new horror movies. And I also have my own podcast, the DVD Infatuation Podcast, which you can find over on... Jay's Considering the Cinema feed. And, you know, I talk about, sometimes get into horror there, but mostly talking about just any movie, just all movies in general on that one.
that's that and thank you very much this was this was it was it was great to finally talk with you uh susie and uh and and to meet you uh lonely and i i'm looking forward to talking with you again in the future And you can find my horror reviews and rants for Lonely Souls over on Instagram at Lonely Horror Club. I try to post reviews whenever I can when I'm not at risk of losing my employment entirely.
and cause problems on the internet whenever possible you can also find my writing on my website lonelyhorrorclub.com thank you dear internet for tuning into episode 57 of nobodies if you can believe it this is the last episode of season two. Oh my gosh. What? I got the season finale? You are the finale. That's how special you are. Best finale. Love that.
as always sources additional reading and all of that fun stuff will be in our show notes call us if you want to leave us a message you can give us a call at 617-431-4322 and keep up with our antics on instagram at nobody's horror podcast and last but especially not least we would love if you could like subscribe or leave a review wherever you get your podcasts