All right, you ready? Yes, So my co host Balky, I've been told nobody appreciates a good vacation, unlike my friend Eric Balkman.
Where is this coming from? Who?
Who is it going to be here? You know what's funny is I don't remember, but I know someone told me specifically to comment on how much you love vacation.
Ax Oh, Alex, Yeah, yeah, I don't like him.
Yeah at all.
That's a strange way to feel about things. I think it's because I'm very like I don't like people doing like covering for me while I'm gone. So I still work when I'm on vacation, which is difficult because you're supposed to be doing other stuff with your family, and I still have to like work extra before the vacation starts, and then I have to catch up after it ends. So it's a huge disruption that nobody needs. Is that?
Is that the Fantasy Football show? Or is that all the jokes?
Like my because I have two full time jobs, yeah plus this, which isn't really a job. Sure, Yeah, I have two full time jobs where I still I'll have to wake up before everybody else, yeah, Pepper, and work where I can throughout the day and then go to bed after everybody else, you know what I mean. It's just one of those things. So it's yeah, it's I'm still doing shows when I'm down there. I'll be Florida next week. I'm still doing shows when I'm down there.
I'm still doing all this other stuff. But nobody cares.
How about that that he's going to be gonext Basically I brought it up so when I wanted to make a joke, it was successful.
It was hilarious save the tea's because this show is not taking a week off next Yes, I won't be on it, but it'll be fun for the for the listeners to hear what's going on next week?
Yeah, yeah, right now? Or you mean at the end, yeah, because right now we're doing back room Yeah, And that's all that really matters. And this is going to be interesting one because and I'm going to preface this out there right now. I don't want to sound like I didn't like this movie at all, but let's just say one of us has a much higher opinion of what they watched than no, and.
God bless it, why can't we haven thing? Well? Maybe, but this might be better for the for the podcast.
Oh absolutely, And again it's just a matter of and I said, did you buy chance to get a chance to see Cube or no?
No, I no worries.
That's all right, that's all right. But it's just I'm gonna be very interested in your thoughts because I want to start off on all of the positive and there's plenty to talk about in the world of positive.
Here, which, by the way, just real quick, since this is off topic. I did look at the cast for Cube. Yeah, and there's a character in there or an actor in there who was on the Red Green Show. I don't think you know the Red Guys.
I don't know.
It's a Canadian TV show that was on Wisconsin. Well, I mean it was on public broadcast television years ago, like when I was in grade school. And it's it's said at this Canadian lodge, you know, like like a membership lodge or whatever, and it's all these you know, older guys that you know, get into situations or whatever. But anyway, I watched it religiously because I thought it
was hilarious. There's a lot of outdoor stuff, a lot of outdoors humor on there, and I watched it religiously on Thursday Night, and there is an actor in Cube who used to be on The Red, which is weird. I think there's a lot of Canadian actors in Cube. I don't know if it was.
Yeah, it's a Canadian.
Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah.
You know what's funny is I brought it up with W A p LS. John Jordan, and he sent me a picture later on that day of the DVD case to Cube one, two, and zero.
Wow, he has all of them.
He has all of them all, like physical copies of all of them. I was like, right on. And then he's like, I'm going to watch him just because you got me in the movie, so he's seen him before.
Yeah, did did he have share your disappointment with the second one? Yeah?
Okay, no universally, Oh it's sad.
Okay.
One recaptures. It brings time travel in and like if you're going to bite off time travel, like I can watch Terminator two and be like, you know, there's elements of this that don't make sense, but that's okay because this movie rocks, like you really have to do it right. And Cube was like, we don't care at all, We're just we're just gonna put time travel in this and then it's gonna happen.
Yeah, that's yeah. You don't want to play with elements like that, then now there is there is time elements in back Rooms as well. And I think before we get started, we'll just give the premise of this. Yeah you correct me where I'm ron? Yeah?
Please.
This is a film about a literally what it's called backrooms of this furniture store that is supposedly in an extra dimensional entity, extra dimensional area, and these it's just a maze of backrooms with weird objects inside and people are wandering there and there's potentially dangers in there as well.
And it's all based on the YouTube series called Backrooms, which was created by Cane Pixels aka Kane Parsons, and he has a whole there's probably like thirty or forty videos, short videos, some are longer on YouTube about you know, backrooms, and so this was kind of like the big break, the big feature on this as he really expanded on this. But you don't need to really watch those YouTube videos to enjoy this film, did you. I watched a few of them afterwards.
Okay, I didn't see any of them, and I didn't feel like I was confused or lost at any point.
Oh good, then we should talk about this because I feel like I was confused and lost at certain points. Maybe not a ton, but yeah, I just don't have the time to watch all of them right now. Oh sure, but the ones I did see, I don't know, man, Maybe this is just my jam, but this was really I even said to you. Maybe I didn't tell you this. This was one of the few films that I wanted to see a second time. Yeah, and I wanted to see it again before we did the podcast. It didn't happen.
I got wrapped into Spider Noir on video sided to watch that and I didn't have to, but I chose to watch that. But yeah, dude, I just I think everything about this, the lighting, the creepy liminal space aspect of it.
Even just the theming of the whole, the whole, like it was very relatable. Like there's very little dialogue, but I think with the I have there, they really do a good job of driving home like what at least the directors trying to get across the finish line there, in my opinion a ways, airin the Intern reached out to me because she introduced me to the back rooms when she was interning twenty four She's like, yeah, don't you know what the backrooms are. I'm like, this is
the first I'm hearing about it. She tells me about what it is. I said, well, that's the dumbest sounding thing I've ever heard in my life.
What I'm blown away? Not only do you did you not enjoy this film? Well I shouldn't say you didn't enjoy this fil yeah.
Because I will see it a second time, absolutely not in theaters, But I mean this.
Whole aspect, I mean this, this doesn't the whole idea, the whole premise of this doesn't creep you out.
The movie did a better job of driving that point home for me.
How much of the back rooms videos have you seen on YouTube? I have not.
I'm going solely based off of air in the intern's description of it. And then one picture she's like, yeah, look these rooms. She's like, picture this but forever. And I was like okay, and she was like it's called a liminal space, and I'm like okay. I was like, this is what gen Z's into. Like, you guys don't know what the hell you're talking about. And I think it's amazing. I think the idea of this is is
tremendous seeing it enacted with a professional flair. Not a ton of money, but you know, a million dollars behind what was ultimately put together. There ten times the budget of what we reviewed last week on Obsession. I get it now. And I was putting myself in a I always mispronounced his name Chueto.
I think it's the quote me.
I'm just gonna call him Victor sweet going forward so that we can skip.
All that baron morto whatever.
But seeing the way he reacted, I was putting myself in that position.
Okay, well, I just have to say this real quick. I went to Doctor Strange. You went to Four Brothers. Dude was nominated for Best Actor for twelve Years of Slave, and neither one of us went to and I can't even remember what his name was, and that terrible.
He has far more accolades, but for my money, either one of the like from an entertainment value, you know.
Yeah, twelve years. It makes me sad.
Yeah, exactly, that's what I'm saying. Nothing against that movie, but you know, but in any event, trying to put myself in his position, it did. It helped me internalize just how creepy it is, because my biggest real world fear is being perceived as crazy when I know I am beyond a shadow of a doubt right about what I am saying.
Okay, but you know what's scary about that, Ben, And I know this is probably going to hit me at some point in my life because I've had parents, or not parents, I've had grandparents hit with Alzheimers. Yeah. Absolutely, And I feel like eventually that that's going to happen to me, and you will think you are one right, And.
Dude, you need to see Black Mirror. There's an episode. But I don't want to get too far off topic, but that's that's like what you're described, Like, I can feel it in my spine right now, just you even saying that, because that's well.
Some of some of those are like the best kind of horror movies too, where you're you have the unreliable narrator and you're seeing it from that angle and you're like, oh my god, everybody else is crazy this guy's and then like Shutter Island is a perfect example that where you're like, Okay, something's going on here, and and then you're like, oh, my god, it's it's.
A shitty movie. But Thor the Dark No, Thor the Dark World too is a shitty no, no shut. Her Island's great, predictable but great. But but uh thor two when Eric Selvig Scarsguard's dad, he's in a mental institution the entire time, and then he walks out with a bag full of pills and then you see the flock of birds appear from a portal out of nowhere and basically scare the crap out all of them, and he throws that and he uh like looks at him smiling,
and they're like, why are you smiling right now? And he's like, there's nothing better than realizing the whole world's crazier than you are, and shows him throw the pills away and keep walking. I'm like, I love that.
I love that you call him Scarsguard's dad, where I think of stelling Scarsguard as scars Guard and the other guys are his sons. Yeah, you know what I mean.
It's just the you know, it's the context of how I'm talking about it, but get it. But in any event, so the movie helped me understand where the phenomenon stemmed from Yeah.
By the way, do you know the original So the creepy pasta on this is it came from? I can't. According to Wikipedia, it came from somebody posting on like four Chan. I think of like, hey, post a weird post a photo of something that just doesn't feel right to you, you know, So somebody posted this photo. I mean you go in the back Room's Wikipedia. It's it's a shot that looks very similar to what we see in the back Rooms film and and and there.
Which is a hobby lobby in Oscar.
Gosh, Wisconsin, which is what I wanted to bring up. Yeah, so so the so then since then, like stuff has under like they've they've made changes. There was like a race track there or something like a model race car track or something.
A coworker of ours used to go there. It's a very surreal moment for him that everybody's learning about this. He's like, I remember doing this, yeah.
Yeah, and now it's I think that somebody else bought it and they ripped it all up, So it's totally different now. But that's where the original photo stem from, was in Osh Gosh, Wisconsin.
Yeah, which they don't lean into in the movie. Which is disappointing. I think they intentionally keep it vague. It actually reminded me of and it's very Okay, let me start here. I have so many thoughts that I want to say about the setting because the whole concept and I don't know, and I'm going to look at the time now and if you determine what I.
Said as a spoiler, then I'll take it out. Now. It's going to be tough to do this without well maybe we can, but just real quick before you say anything. As long as they're talking setting, Yeah, I love the nineteen nineties.
Well, that's what I want to bring up about it. So the whole concept of the back Rooms, it is essentially a living entity trying to recreate the earth. Is that a fair thing without spoiling anything?
But it's like, I don't know if we know that exactly. We know that there's something supernatural. Can I use the dog analogy that's used in this movie? Absolutely? Okay?
Yeah, So the way they describe it is picture if you've never seen.
This is this is by the way, this is chielte Chel for his character trying to explain the back rooms to his therapist. Yes, and so if there's a point in the movie where he discovers this area underneath his store, right yeah, that he was not aware of, and it was it's a really weird, creepy, uncanny thing. And he's trying to explain this to his therapist, which he had already been seeing a therapist, like this was not his first okay, So she's trying to understand what he's talking
about and what he sees down there. And then he uses the analogy and.
He says, picture if you've never seen a dog, So I described one to you, like I justri like, oh, well, Bashan has has poofy white hair and a nose like this and legs like this. And then I asked you to draw it. You'd get eighty percent of it right, but there would be obvious things because you've never seen it. It's not right, it's not perfect.
It's off.
Yeah, And that's what the back rooms creates. So then because of how I watched movies, the director of this movie was born after nine to eleven. He had nothing to do with the nineties, so he is recreating the nineteen nineties.
Ben Yeah, from stuff being told to him, exact stuff he seen.
He didn't live it, and you and I are sitting there having been, you know, having experienced the nineties at slightly different points of our life, and I'm like, I get that, like just the sheer mundaneness of the nineties because we weren't hyper connected, right, Like, there were elements of it that I was like, oh, this feels like the nineties, and other moments where I was like, well.
The wardrobe, yeah, the furniture, yeah, the cars, the home settings like a CHAA four his home, the therapist's home, yeah, stuff like that. It really brought me back, and I think, and maybe this is why I liked it more than you, is I remember in the nineties. I mean I was I was a teenager beginning in nineteen ninety two, and I was teenager until nineteen ninety eight. So ninety two
to ninety eight, I'm a teenager. That's the thick of the nineties, okay, And your brain probably undergoes the most changes in that time period, right, And so for me seeing this and bringing me back to that definitely stirred up some things and it made it even creepier, sure, to to sort of live out something that I never lived out, but I did live out anyway we're getting well.
Wait, it's it's the kind of theming that I can appreciate though, because I'm like, oh, I get that element of it, and I think he does a very good job. It's a very good approximation of what the nineties are like. I I'll save that for another time, but I use the backrooms as an example in Outside the Box. I'm like, this is like a backrooms version of Outside the Box. It's like someone heard what I do and they're trying to copy it, but they really don't get it.
Now. Now, the other thing that we should bring as long as we're talking about the copying of this, is this. I mean, what's the commentary on AI in this? You know what I mean? There's something like Mark Duplas's character we really don't see significantly until the final portion of the movie, but there's something else going on, like similar to was it the season three is Stranger Things or I can't remember what it was, but we find out
in season three. I think it was the opener that the premiere that the Russians have found the upside down or whatever, and so I think there's something there's a similar sort of aspect to back rooms of like this is kind of known by other people other than the main protagonist and then the therapist and what have.
You, a little bit of world building. If they go the sequel route, there's enough pieces in place where they could expand upon it.
There is an endless I mean, I went I googled because if like some of these YouTube shorts that were showing up in my feed, they're ranking the scariest entities that are in the back rooms, you know, that occupy the backrooms, and it's stuff that's really freaking stuff that shouldn't freak me out, but it did. And then I'm like the rabbit hole I fell down with all these different you know, the creepy pasta stuff that that people come up with, you know, Jeff the Killer and Ted
the Caver or whatever it was called. It's it's really messed up, nightmare fuel stuff, you know. And so then I'm like, I watched this YouTube short ranking like the top five scariest entities in the back rooms. I'm like, well, there's got to be more than that. It's it's it's it's fan fiction. It's it's it's on the internet. It's on Reddit, it's on four Chune it's it's it's everywhere.
So everybody has this huge list. I mean, you can't even and Kane Parsons, granted he didn't come up with all this, but I'm sure he wants to pay off some of this stuff that fans have come up with, you know, for this you there's I mean we could be talking about like Fast X or or you know, something like just do ten movies of this stuff and I'll watch it. Yeah, and I think people will do. It's doing great at the box office.
It's absolutely crushing it, and I mean, I think that's what a lot of the purests, I think that's their main gripe with it. I've heard them call this boomer schlock, this back room a version because they're mad that it doesn't have a lot of this stuff that I'm only learning about, either in preparation for this or literally hearing you say it right now. And I think if that might be my biggest gripe with it. And it's kind of creating esque. But there's such long, creepy moments of
nothing happening. And I will not spoil what the creature is in in this movie.
Well it's I mean, hold on before you say creature.
Entity. No, and no, not that.
I just I feel like to assume that there is only one.
Right, that's my point, But there really is only one. I don't know about that in the movie. Yeah, in the movie I'm talking about there's only one.
I think that there are other things that we don't exactly know what they are, but but they're definitely not inanimate. Yeah, okay, there's other things down there, Yeah, and what they are I don't know. I think they kind of tell you a little bit at the end, but then I'm not sure. We have to talk about the ending at some point too. But there is one dominant, scary sort of thing, yeah, you know down there.
And it's practical that we know of. There's definitely more.
Well, think about this, Think about how this movie opens. Remember it's it's a found footage opening. Yeah, right, And what was there at the end of that found footage that couldn't have been right, you know? Or was it the same?
But I don't know, we don't know, We don't know it, right, Yeah, And like again, you can do it well without having seen it. But there's just there's long lulls of atmosphere building and I would have welcomed maybe like this might be the creting part of me, but like I would have welcomed two or three more things to make me go, oh, I'm unsettled looking at this thing. And I would have
liked to see the imagination. And that could be budgetary for the record, I mean, if you've got a million dollar budget and Victor Sweet is in the movie, that's a big portion of the budget right there.
It's true.
And then you got the rest of the cast, which isn't working for free, everybody behind the scenes. So like, there comes a time when very obviously, assuming the success of this, we're probably going to see a twenty million dollar budget for the sequel here, and I imagine a little bit more fanfare.
I guess, but I mean I don't. I think part of what makes this so great I was bringing this up on your show, this analog horror. I mean, the first back rooms video that you see on YouTube is I mean costs like nothing. And then he used Kane Parsons that he used some I can't remember what programming used to create some other stuff in there. And it's like it's it's lower than low budget and it's scary as all get up. Yeah, and so I think, like, even if you do something like this again, you don't
necessarily need to break the bank. I think part of what was so great about this was that it was so low budget. And you know, I think back of we talked about I compared obsession to undertone done right. Yes, And I think backrooms applies here as well, because this was another thing that you know, I'm unsettled by seeing some of this stuff that obviously seems out of place.
This goes back to the whole liminal, liminal space aspect. Right, So if you're in a backroom, this huge back room and they're mostly empty, there's some random stuff in it, that's creepy because we are we go in rooms that are full of stuff for a reason. We go into a conference room here at the station and it's empty, or we go in a classroom and it's empty. That's a little creepy, right, because there's chairs in there, there's a table. This is set up for human life, and
there's no human life in there. Long hallways in hotels, backrooms underneath furniture stores, deserted malls, spaces that were built to be housing flourishing human life. There's nothing there and it's quiet and nothing's moving.
So is that a comment on modern society? Like I left that theater to go into a movie theater, like the physical theater, to go into the bulk of the theater. Now nobody's standing there.
Okay, yes, Okay.
You go to the mall and you see ten percent of the people that you're using. We've talked about the mall. You go, we did Mortal Kombat. Be like, yeah, you went to the mall, just a freaking hang out. You weren't even going to buy something. It was just everybody was at the mall. That were lines everywhere, people everywhere. Now it's a ghost town. A lot of the gen Z people who grew up on this back room stuff. This is the only version of America they know. Is
almost like a backrooms version of America. Yeah, which is kind of crazy when you think about it, which I love that element.
The way to see this movie is you wait until it's just out of just about to be out of theaters, and nobody knows and you're the only ones seeing back rooms in an empty theater. Mother of God, wear a diaper, you know, just that that kind of stuff. So obviously I'm I'm being a little hyperbolic here, but I think that's that's what did it for me. And then and then at the point, now I didn't, you know, maybe I should have broken it down. I did read some
stuff on the internet. But why are these objects here? Why are they placed in the order they are? Why do they seem a little off. There's a scene with a bunch of laundry. Yeah, and I found this out on the internet afterwards. But in the laundry is a T shirt of one of the characters who enters the back rooms, right, And I don't know if it was a perfect copy of it or you know, if it
was the actually you know, I don't know. Yeah, and and so stuff like that is just it's just like and then you you know, why is there a pool? Why is there a random pool? Why do we have these weird tunnels and passageways that seem to throw off your sense of gravity a little bit and throw off your sense of the There's a staircase, uh that seemingly goes to a door on a ceiling, which you don't have doors like that on a ceiling, like a regular door.
You will be you know, in these close confined spaces in this movie with the protagonist, and then all of a sudden, I'll open up to this wide, huge chasm that that that has that that's not it that that was designed like there's there's actual details in there, and.
It's it's just it's so weird, right.
And so creepy. And the lighting and the way that they you know, you have this feel of like this weird. I mean, I don't know, man, I've always been creeped out by like this weird yellow fluorescent lighting, especially in an empty room. And then the color, yeah, exactly, and the color, like the color of the of this of this right here in this production studio we're in. This is not all that dissimilar maybe your coffee of of the the colors of the of the walls in the
back rooms. And I was thinking back to the there's a line in Ocean's eleven where they're setting up the video camera to get access to all the cameras of the casino and Clooney and pit A watch again and Clooney goes, why do they always paint uh walls that color? And Brad Pitt goes, well, they say, tope is soothing or whatever. And I look at you know, like the this tope ish kind of color, and I'm like, I
not soothed by this. Yeah, I don't know, man, Like I just I'm I'm going off on this right now. But I'm telling you that this element of these of weird structures and yet familiar, and then the way that that the film is shot, the way that it's lit, it's it's super I mean easy to I shouldn't say easy to do, but on the surface it's you know, this is not brilliant Avatar cinematography, and yet it had more of an effect on me than watching something like that.
And I'd argue, and I'm hopeful because you didn't mention this, so you're either going to take all the wind out of my sales or I'm so excited to tell you this. But did you realize that the back rooms recreated the furniture store commercial that was one of the rooms that they were in. Okay, So, like all of it seems random, And that's why I'm going to see it a second time, because I did not realize that. The only reason I did is because it normally that's the kind of shit
I realized. Yeah, but I went with Laura Lee from apl and she was like, did you notice that they redid the pirate the Pirate Clark commercial from the from the opening, And I was like no, when she was like when the shoes were there and the chair was there, and I was like, I didn't put that together at all, Like now I need to look at every scene in the movie anyone.
Else they were creating, because I'm sure if we did break that down. While it seems random on the surface, again, you.
Probably see it at random times throughout the entire movie, even all the way up into the last scene.
It's not random, right, It's by design, right.
But it's by design. It's kind of like I always refer back to this because, like I put this movie in it follows territory. Like I know it's a good movie, and I know I enjoy it, but there's just certain elements I'm like, ah, I just wish it gave me a little more of like the Bend style of movie. And if you watch it follows you look at the TVs and the TVs from the nineteen fifties, yea, the
cars are from the nineteen eighties. At one point, a girl is using a makeup kit like a mirror and she opens it and it looks like she's putting makeup on, but it's a kindle that's not even a thing that exists, so like there's no tech, like there's no way to pinpoint exactly when this movie is happening, and there's like something uneasy about that the entire movie. And this has a similar effect like that, it's stuff you don't even notice.
It's the thing that I was like, wait a minute, those cars weren't around at the same time that that TV was around, and why does she have this? And it's the subtle things. Then you watch it because I've seen a third time, despite the fact I can't stop crap talking that movie.
Also, yeah, and.
You realize that she never mentions her dad. She never talks about her dad in the movie, but there's a picture of them randomly in one of the scenes, and then at one point it takes the image of her dad, but they don't even emphasize that it's her dad in any way. You're just supposed to notice because you notice the picture in the one random scene. And then that's the guy who's following her at one point, clearly implying that there were some nefarious things going on. Back in
the day. And it's the kind of thing where like, if you're kind of watching it, you're like, this movie's fine, be like no, that's attention to detail. That's good filmmaking, and I should appreciate this more than I do. And that's my best way of describing the back rooms as well. There were so many scenes. At one point, the therapist is having a flashback and it almost looks like a crane is dropping stuff on them, and I was like, well,
it's the point of this scene. Like I kept waiting for that to come back into it and like it doesn't, and like, I'm sure it meant something that I don't understand because I didn't notice something else in the movie. But I was sitting there and I was like, wait, what was that? Why is what? Did her mom die there? Or she remembering that? But that's not what it is. Don't worry, I can't spoil anything. Like, that's not what
it is at all. It had nothing to do with the plot, at least in my perception for the rest of the movie.
Do you feel like this film you mentioned the long stretches without dialogue, do you feel like it would have been more of a disservice to have more dialogue, because I feel like the less dialogue in this the better. And I feel and the other thing too, And you're kind of making me realize this is we talk about it. I feel like there's not a lot of dialogue on purpose because we're supposed to notice other details, you know, we're supposed to take in Okay, why is that there? Okay,
what's the purpose of this? Why was this place here? Why are we seeing this? Why are you know? And stuff like that. So I feel like, you know, more dialogue probably would have heard it. And then you know, when we do get that heavy dialogue scene at the end of the movie, I have so many questions.
Yeah, after that, absolutely and like, to me the best dialogue because I found myself thinking, I don't know. If you've watched Room two forty three, which is a documentary about the Shining the making of the Shining, there is it's awesome. It's eight different movie theorists and they talk about what they get out of the movie.
Oh really, And.
There's a there's a clip of Stanley Kubrick talking and he says, I didn't want my actors to recreate He holds up like a picture of a family smiling, but like you never know what's happening when the picture is not happening. He said, I don't want the people in this film to recreate the photograph. I want them to recreate a photograph of the photograph. And that has been
such a high level I'm not sure to understand it. Yeah, Like that always resonated with me, and I found myself thinking about that with the concept of the back rooms, which the way, because there's a lot of like one of the major themes is just re redoing your same
mistakes over and over again. And to me, that was my favorite scene of the entire movie, is when the psychiatrist goes in she runs into Clark, the main character, and they have the same conversation word for word, yeah, that they had earlier in the movie, but like much more intense. And I was like, oh, like that. If that scene didn't exist, I probably would have come in here much more angry about this movie. But that scene happened and I was like, Okay, no, this is good.
This is a good movie. I can understand why people like this. And I'd argue it was like forty percent of all the dialog in the movie.
Well you say that, but I mean there was I mean the first half hour or so, there's a lot of stuff going on. Sure, yeah, And that's a lot of that set up. You know, he's talking to the electrician coworkers, he's talking to this film crew, he's talking with his therapist or whatever. Do we ever see his wife? I don't think we ever see.
His Well I don't think so.
So there's a lot of setup to it, which is good because then that that accentuates how the tone of the entire film changes after that.
And this is two movies in a row where we're talking about relatable themes because I think there's very few people. I'm almost sporty, and I find my inner monologue sometimes being like, dude, you're twenty years removed from college, and sometimes you still do the same bonehead and shit that you were doing twenty years ago, Like what's the matter with you? And then you sit there watching this movie You're like, Ah, this movie speaks to me right now.
I think most people can probably relate to that kind of attitude because we always can improve in some way, And like that entire aesthetic of that scene, I don't want to you know, the other people that were in the room with them.
There's Yeah, so it's tough to it's tough to bring that up. But I think we can talk about at least certain things I want to talk about. Yeah, so number one, what do you think happened to the character that we see in that scene? But she doesn't say anything?
Yeah, okay, you know what?
Okay? All right? Now there are things on the plates in that scene, or at least one the plates.
Okay, yeah, I don't remember, you do? Yeah, chewelte chea for his character takes a hand.
Yeah, I remember. Okay, Yeah, what is that? You know what I mean?
Well, I actually I have a theory about that. Okay, but if I I.
Can't say it without it.
I don't even know. I'll be vague. Can you tell me? Thirty two twenty? Okay, I think it's furniture stuffing because that's what's on his mind. It can't be, but that's that's him. He's a furniture store guy. So him, it's a recreation of.
Okay, you can eat that stuff. No you can't, No, you can't. It's it's something else. It's got to be something else. I don't know what it means.
Like I said, I think a lot of the movie went over my head, and I pride myself on it being hard to get I'm tall man, it's hard to get over that head.
Well what okay, So what is the theme you you mentioned, you know, making the same mistake over and over again. I said, it's a commentary on AI.
Yeah, it's the making the same mistake. And I think it's a commentary on gen Z's experience in America that you and I can't relate to as much, but we're
slowly related. Even in the media world. I did radio in a top thirty market that barely had more staff than we do here in Appleton, and in two thousand and three there were so many people working in that building that at Pittsburgh Radio station had a correspondent in the Middle East that we could reach out to any point and bring them on the show to talk about what was happening over there. And now we had one
reporter in general. And just like the reduction the shrinking office spaces, whether you're talking about COVID or the fact that people don't need as many spaces anymore, I think there's just an element of I think he's saying a lot of things about that, whether or not anything is actually said, or whether or not it's just hearkening to these feelings. I have no idea, but I think the overarching theme because the back Rooms duplicates it's about duplicating
your mistakes. It's about doing the same things. It feels repetitive. The movie feels repetitive at times, but in a good way. I think that's kind of the overarching theme of it. I'm telling you that when they role play the conversation with the wife the second time, I was like, Oh, this is actually brilliant because like he knows, he's not supposed to be saying this, and here he is saying it again. I will say though, and I think we might have talked about this off the air last week.
I do think his attitude and the way he carried himself at that point was unjustified. Now, for all I know, he was in the back Rooms for three weeks and there was just a time jump he didn't see. Okay, I found it unjustified. So that was a big issue.
Okay, So a couple of things with that. So number one, when I see this again, when not if I have to pay attention to the time stamps in the videos. Sure, I have to pay attention to what is in what we see in the back rooms compared to what we see in the real world, and how long it takes for us to see a version of that in the back rooms. I think that's important as well. I'm also unconvinced that well, I'm definitely unconvinced. I don't know how
time works in there. Sure, I mean it could work very, very differently. We're talking about essentially another dimension, So I don't know how time works.
Yeah, it's like Interstellar when you're on the island on the planet, Like every time the thing beats, it's another year of my life. Yeah, the did you know that? By the way, like there's a clock ticking in that.
There was this this is Interstellar came out like what two thousand and three, four six, six, okay, well whatever it was, and it was so long an epic that there's so much of that that I and it's one of those Nolan things. Not to pick on Christopher Nolan, because I think he does brilliant things, but man, there's some of his movies, man, where there's just stretches where I'm like, I am not intelligent enough to assume this.
And I personally try watching like that, that'll make you feel so stupid.
So absolutely, yeah, absolutely, but yeah, in any event, so you don't know how the time.
Okay, So I don't know how time work. Except so now Clark, who was the main character, could have been in there, and and and this is one thing I am pretty sure of. I think the more time you spend in the back rooms, the worse it is for your psyche and your sanity. And I think we get you know, this other Mark Duplace's kind of group or whatever. I think they're kind of getting that sense too.
He's becoming a horror icon.
By the way.
I don't know if you've ever seen creep.
Yeah, okay, So here's the other thing I was reading. I think it was on Vulture today because I was getting ready for this, and there was a link to Mark Duplas's creep. Okay, and there was a link They were talking about Mark Duplas's creep in this back rooms article. So I click on the link and it brings up it's like a story. I can't remember what website it is. It's like one of these BuzzFeed type things, and it's
like found footage movies that are actually good. Yeah, right, So obviously blair Witch is like the number one on there. They didn't really rank them, they just listed a bunch. There's an of them, and they're showing screenshots for each one, and I'm like, dude, that this is like two weeks worth of stuff of stuff I need to see. And his creep was on there. But I need to go and read about some of these movies and see because
I'm sure some of them. I'm like, I have to see this, you know what I mean.
Be careful of that, because like, so, I was gonna say, back Rooms is almost like this generation's blair Witch, like something that if I were ten and this came out, I'm like, wait, is the back Rooms real? Because I was twelve when the blair Witch came out and I was like, wait, am I actually watching these people get like it was like a big thing. I'd argue blair Witch isn't a very good movie.
I will tell you this. I didn't watch it until the hype grew to a fever pitch and I was disappointed.
Yeah, I thought it was similar to this, not a lot of dialogue, a lot of build up, but not nearly as engaging or entertaining or yeah.
But I will say too, think about think about what blair Witch it was like, all these unknowns. Sure you know, unknown director, unknown writer, unknown actors, whereas this you actually have. And by the way, I should. I'm gonna get back to Lark in a second, but I want to say this before I forget. So the woman who played the therapist, her name is I believe Renata Rensva rains Yeah, sure, okay whatever r e I n s V pronounce that. Do you know who was originally slated to play this character?
And maybe I Oh, no, I told stirfriy this. I didn't tell you this. Kristin Malatti from How I Met your Mother and the Penguin Fan. She was the Falcone and she was supposed to play the therapist. But there are scheduling stuffs and I've never heard of Branada Rensvit. I haven't no idea what else she's been in or whatever. Okay, getting back to Clark.
So oh, and I do just want to say sorry to interrupt, but the only reason I brought up blair Witch is because Creep and Creep two are worth watching most of that movies suck. I enjoyed both.
I'm going to send you a link to this because I left it. I purposely left it open at work because I'm like, I got to get into this. I'm going to send you a link to it. And I'm sure you've seen and definitely heard of some of these movies, but maybe some of you haven't. And they look they look, i mean look pretty good anyway, and they could all suck to who so so Clark clearly something happens to him mentally, Okay, yes, when he's down.
There, h felt unjustified.
But we don't know. I'm gonna get to I'm gonna get to that in a second. The scene where she is kind of wandering around down there, and there's this screenshot of like she like calls out like hello or Clark or something, and then we just see this empty hallway and then all of a sudden, it's just a real subtle move.
Yeah, yeah, that is it's just so good.
I know you don't.
I mean, it's just to me, it's like the creepy how many people have ever been in a room and you know nothing's in there with you, and you know nothing's moving and your mind and your eyes start playing tricks on you, and then this happened. I just thought it was bro and your backs to a wall, a literal wall. So it's like I gotta go forward. Yeah you know what I mean?
Oh my god, like moving moving through these back rooms like would have been terrifying. I would have been paralyzed by fear and and I'll tell you, Okay, we're gonna talk about the justification for his reaction a second. What was the justification? What was his obsession with going in there? Yeah? I mean that must just be like a different Every human's different. We all want to do different things. I can't imagine if my fingers touched that wall, and not
only that. Yeah, I'm selling that store. I'm getting the heck out of there, and I'm moving across the country. I don't care right that that's you want to get as far away from that as possible.
I wouldn't even sell the store because I wouldn't want there to be a record, because you know, the government's coming after the second they find out you found a portal. So I'm not even I'm just moving on. I'm not telling anybody what I saw. I'm not touching that stuff. Yeah, I'm calling it. I'm calling it a day. And there was a Simpsons episode, a Halloween episode where they find a portal like that and it turns out turns them all three D like they're no longer cartoons anymore.
And I just I just feel like, you know, you don't know if it's good or you don't know if it's evil.
But there could be monsters, there could be demons, there could be anything. But the other side, we talk we talk.
About range of outcomes and fantasy football all the time, you know, like like you can't just put a projection on a player, you can't just.
Score ceilings all that jazz.
Yeah, so think about for like a portal or whatever we saw in back rooms. There's a range of outcomes. Right, Sure, this could be great it's on the other side, but I'm not betting on it. No, that is an extremely, extremely likely scenario where whatever is there is not meant for humans. Dude.
I have to use GPS to get to freaking Nina still, and like do things in Nina. I'm not going in this round round.
No. I use GPS all the time, but it's more so like so I know when I'm going to get to a spot or it's that, and like I know, like around town, I know my way around, but I want to know the fastest way, so I'll always plug it into my GPS to make sure I'm taking the fastest way there. Sorry, but they say that makes you stupider the more I believe that the more you use GPS. Which is unfortunate that I'm getting.
Stupider, but it happens. And being lost.
Okay, let's get back to why you thought the reaction from Clark was not justified and the problem you had with that. Yeah, so I don't We'll dance around this as much as we can without revealing anything.
Go ahead, Oh well, I mean that that that's essentially where I'm coming from, because you follow essentially the movie is Clark's movie for the first hour more than that. Yeah, and then all of a sudden you kind of can tell, oh, we're going to be following the psychiatrist the rest of the time.
This is just only like fifteen minutes ago, yeah.
Maybe twenty yeah.
Uh.
And it doesn't feel abrupt or anything. It's not like you're thrown off or anything like that. But I mean, you see quite a bit of Clark going into the back rooms, coming out, finding friends to go in with, and going back out again and doing all these different things, seen different rooms, seeing different things, and there was no
gradual descent. There was no mister Chips the scarface. It was just like normal furniture salesman guy that has no concept of what's real and what's not, which, like, again, a lot of what is in there would be like, I don't know anymore. So I get that, but it just feels like it happened in like a day.
And I think that's why time moves differently there.
It might, you know, it might, but they don't do anything that tells me that.
And so okay, well here's the other thing, Ben, let's just let's throw the time concept out. I'm like, and I'm speaking just for me, because that's I know who I am. Being down there, Hey, even for a little bit and seeing all that weird stuff, maybe my mind would go pretty quick too, you know, maybe I would start you know, changing, reality would start changing for me pretty quick. Yeah.
No, no, but here's the deal. You're you're Clark in this. You're not You're not Bulky. You chose to go in there, you left multiple times a familiar face. Did he in no way, It's not like he didn't know who she was. Like you're like, oh, thank god, somebody that knows where to go to get out of here. She just is because things happen in the plot. But what he cannot get back, it's not even about getting back. Do you
remember the voicemail that he left her. Yeah, and it to me it seemed like he made his decision like and and and by the way, consider what's going on with this dude's life.
His business is failing. Yes, he's obviously got a drinking problem. His wife does not allow him to live at home. He at one point was a talented architect or an up and coming architect, and now he's running this failing furniture store and he's making these awful, hacky commercials. There's nothing for him, sure on the outside. And yet he finds this back rooms thing, and may maybe he looks at it from the standpoint of, you know, we look at her like, oh, this is bad, this is evil,
this is not good. I don't know, maybe he looked at it from the standpoint of like, this is the coolest thing that's ever happened to him, and he wants to explore and learn more. Maybe he found something that nobody else knows about and he might have stopped. So then you start framing it in your mind. Now, bad stuff did happen, right, Yeah, and he knows bad stuff happened in there, dude. The scene where he is talking to I think her name is Karen, the Finn Bennett's
character's girlfriend, like his assistant manager was that. Her name Karen doesn't really matter, but she's on one side of a wall and she's talking to him. Yeah, and she can see him, and the camera shot is at the very back of the room that Clark's in. He's at the wayfront, and she starts screaming behind you, behind you, and then the camera picks up. Yeah.
Ah, dude, it's just I'm telling you, man, And maybe it's just it's cheap thrills that does it for me, But no, I'm just the little beats that we have that the setup, the execution, more set up, more execution.
It just it just was one thing after another and was just totally engrossed the whole time, totally creeped out. Dude. I tried to watch I told you, I tried to watch some of these back rooms videos on YouTube. I was really unsettled. They are not easy to watch. And then I get done with it and like, god, I want to watch that again. Even though it's not pleasant watching it. It's really it's a sick thing to really try to describe. I don't know, Yeah, I feel it.
And again I don't want it to sound because you're exactly right, and maybe to a certain extent, a certain extent, more dialogue, more monsters, it would have trivialized what was and so the things that were there. The scene we keep talking about at the dinner table, there were other characters there, and like everything that happened in that scene.
I admit I'm not a jumper ever, and I didn't jump this time either, but only out of male ego and pride, because like I felt it in my chest when at one point one character just starts running out of nowhere. It's just like it's like boom, I'm gone, and it was. It reminded me to a certain extent,
but it's not the same feeling. But there's a scene and get Out where one of the characters is sprinting directly at the camera and the camera is essentially acting as another character's eyes, and like the music really isn't even playing, and it's just a person running as fast
as they can directly at you without saying anything. I remember feeling that much chest like oh god, I hate this right now, and I felt that way again, and like that's a nice feeling, because especially with how much of this stuff that I have seen in my life, it's hard to get me there anymore, and this movie did get there. So like, I don't want you guys to think like this isn't gonna be getting some five or six, but I think, as you said, it's important
to keep expectations in check. And I think there was a yeah, a movement around this film that really thought me, made me think I was going to see something transcendent, as opposed to like.
See I did. Yeah to me, this it hit it hit me in all the weird spots in my mind that I had either forgotten about yeah or didn't realize we're there. I don't know, we'll get to it later on. Let's talk about that dinner scene here, so again I'm not going to try to give too much away. We already talked about how the back rooms sort of whatever
they are, whoever they are. I think it's more what are recreating, like the dog analogy we brought for you know, where it's it's it's a recreation of something that's described, but it's not perfect. Okay, Clearly there is an entity down there that is, no doubt mimicking a character in this Yeah, okay, think about the other participants in that inner scene. Who were they? Yeah? Right? Did we find out? Uh?
No, we did not, at least not that I'm aware of.
Again that there was one that was standing up in that scene that to me was not dressed in a way you would expect a person to dress in that time era. I have, I have, I'd have to look at it again, but that's what struck me on it, and I'm like, okay, well, we never saw anything like this previous, at least I didn't remember. And then I see that, and then there's another character sitting down that we clearly yeah, I mean, there was nothing there. So
then you wonder how long? And then I go back to that time stamp from the from the film of or from the found footage that that opened the film, and it's like, my god, how long has this have they known? About this or how long have people how long has this existed?
Yeah, I just and like the movie was messing with me so much at that point that I thought the sitting down I couldn't tell. Like I remember staring very vividly at the character that was sitting down. I'm like, is that person moving right now?
Yeah?
I turned the lights on the I was like, oh my god, all right, he's moving now.
There's a scene dude in back room. Like the video, the first video I saw, I might have been the first video that Cane Parsons came up with where the person recording is flipping a light switch on and off multiple times on top of a staircase and he's looking down and I'm like, stop flipping, just leave it, just leave it on. Stop because I know what's going to happen here.
It's just so I'm telling you, I can't really, I can't really explain what this movie did to me. And I know that sounds stupid and lazy and hyperbolic or whatever, but there's just I just think I found my jam here when it comes to horror.
I love it.
And it says something because again I have not seen any of the shorts. Yeah, There's a very famous short which I might have even sent you before because I tell anybody with ears to watch it. But it's called lights Out and it won like a short festival ten ish years ago, and they ended up turning it into a PG thirteen horror movie called lights Out that sucked. It was awful. It was awful for an hour and
a half. The ninety second short it starts with her flicking the lights on and off and what ultimately it chills me to my business on YouTube. Yeah, we'll watch it after, Okay, cool. It's very short. It really hits home in a lot of ways, and it's just done
in a way that's so creepy. And then they completely missed the mark in the movie, and having not seen the shorts here, it feels like they captured that sincere dread you felt in the ninety seconds or however long the YouTube shorts were four ninety minutes or however long the movie is roughly ninety minutes.
Sometimes bigger and well. I say this about SNL sketches all the time. Sure people always ask me. You're like, oh, did you see this SNL movie? You see this? No? I have no interest because one joke yeah, well it's not necessarily one joke, but it's just one idea. It's one theme, and you play it out and it's not meant to be ye, ninety minutes. It's meant to be four or five minutes, and then that's it, right, And that's why a lot of SnO movies quite frankly.
Suck exactly, you know, but they make a lot of money. So sure, sure, but this one I think did capture. Like again, there were moments when I was creeped out. What sucks is I don't know that I could really put a finger on why I walked out of there, like in my and I think we disagree on this of the double feature of horror that we basically have done. Yeah, I even though it was more predictable, more wrote feel like I got more out of obsession, whereas you were kind of leaning, okay towards.
So we were talking about in one of the companies I work for, we have a you know, slack the yeah, okay, so we use slack for that, and we have all these different channels and I don't remember what got posted in the random channel, but somebody mentioned a movie and or no, I think I just brought up somebody mentioned a movie, and I brought up, yeah, backrooms is really good, guys, and a bunch of people in their commented that they had also seen both Obsession and back Rooms, and I
was the only one that liked Backrooms better than Obsessions. Yeah, you know. Everybody else said, oh yeah, backrooms was pretty good, and and a lot of they had seen a lot of the stuff that Caane Parsons had done on YouTube prior to this, but they're like, yeah, Obsession. I'm like, you know, it was good, but I just think that creepy aesthetic in back rooms, that the use of negative sound.
It just way more unique, yeah, way more. It just it hit me a lot harder, you know, no doubt about that. And maybe that's an age thing, age two an age thing too as well for me, because you know, I've worked in I used to work at the Mayfair Mall in Milwaukee, and I've been down there where it's just all this empty, weird, you know, so I've it's
in the Valley. I think I brought this up the Valley Fair Mall, which I don't think was around when you moved here, but that was another like older mall, and and a lot of places were closed, and it was it had a feel of like, you know, think about the mall from Stranger Things, Well, what happens to that thirty.
Years later, twenty years later? What does that look like? It's creepy.
It's like a time capsule and and it's it's just I don't know, man, like just it.
It's this liminal space thing. I think it's something I never heard about before back rooms, right, and now you fall into that more and more, and it's just like, oh man, this is it. This is creepy, and I think you know what it is to a lot of horror movies will show you the monster, right, They'll show you what the antagonist is. They'll show you what they're fighting or whatever. Sometimes I think when you don't see that, your imagination is a.
Much more As an adult, I agree, yeah, into that.
You create something in your in your mind that's and then how often does that happen where you actually see the monster at the end you're like, oh, yeah, but what like what could happen? What could be there? Not knowing? I think that's what right there.
There are the few moments, like I always say, I don't want to say it's the scariest thing in ma I think I can imagine scary things like the xenomorph in the movie Aliens is a terrifying creature to me, I'm like, brilliant. Yeah, there's a handful of times, but no, I couldn't agree with you more. I think the imagination absolutely running wild, especially at this stage of my life, hits way harder than anything that a director could show
me in terms of trying to scare me. It's like my mind, but you do get me.
But you know what's funny about that bench is let's say somebody gave you ten million dollars and they said, you create a horror movie, right, you would create a horror movie based on what's in your mind, and then you'd watch it and you and you'd be like, you know, you'd make the whole thing. You get done with post and that's all finished and go and you watch it and you'd be like, Nope, yeah, I don't like this.
And I think it's because like we want it. I don't know, it's just a matter of like you kind of know what's in your mind, you know how it's gonna play out, and even when you put the monster on paper or on film. When you put the monster on film, I do think that it lessens the impact of watching it. I know of you know, wondering what it could be, and then when you actually see it, you're kind of like.
Oh, yeah, I will say though, there is a twenty twenty three remake of the two thousand and three movie Wrong Turn, Yeah, which you know that came out during the Jessica bal remake of Texas Chains on my screen. I may have talked about this if I talked about this, or I may have.
Okay, I know you mentioned the Wrong Turn, No bring it up, because I don't remember what you said about it.
So there's a scene it's like a community of people. They drop the because, to be real, the whole backwards Appalacha thing is very disrespectful to the people of Appalachia, so they drop that whole element of it. And it's just like a community of people that look normal that are just really fucked up, and they either will graphically
kill you or they condemn you to the darkness. And when you are condemned to the darkness, they take your eyes out and they take your tongue out, and then they throw you in the super dark cave condemned one character to the darkness, and all you see is the
viewer is a cave entrance. That is that the director lit it in a way where it quite literally looks like you're just like walking out into outer space, like it's so black that I was like, and then they don't go in, and I was like, I remember sitting there and watching it with my brother. I was like, Oh, I kind of wish they would have showed us what's in there, but I'm kind of glad they didn't because
I'm actively terrified by what that would look like. Then twenty minutes go by and turns out they are going to go into the darkness to rescue their friend, and you're gonna see what's in there. Yeah, and it was one of the creepiest images that you could ever put
on films. It lived up to it wholeheartedly. And this is not an endorsement of the movie because overall, even though it was not good, but this scene was really This scene is so anytime we'll be like remember that scene in Wrong Turn twenty twenty three, like we will still talk about remember the Darkness, because like that hits so hard because like I let my imagination run wide.
I'm like, Ben, picture yourself in there, no eyes, no ability to talk, and you're trying to feel your way through this dark cave with other random people that have been punished in there before, and you're like, what would that be like? And like I had my own perception, And then you get there and like the first thing you see is like an old guy sniff in the wall because the only thing he can do is use
his sun. And I was like, all right, I'm already more creeped out than I was in my mind and we have just got in here, like it's where it goes from there, And I was just like, okay, well that was a pretty well done moments like it can happen, is my point. But it's very few and far between.
Yeah, I should say there's exceptions.
Yeah sure, but and again it might be in movies where you're like, well that was super forgettable other than that moment, but that moment absolutely will stick with me until I die. And that was kind of.
Can't see, you can't taste, you can touch and smell. What's the other sense here? Oh and here ye here?
Yeah, that's it? Oh my god. And when their friend hears their voice.
Oh my god, all right, I gotta watch this. All right, so what are we at on time?
But let me bring it back up.
I have to, I have to bring this up. We have to talk about the ending, because I thought the ending to me seemed kind of like I knew what was going on. But then I read some stuff on the internet that was like, they're talking about it's kind of a nebulous ending and it's kind of an open ending. Did you view it that same way too? What did you think you were looking at in that final scene?
Well, I've got a I don't know if I can say this. If you think it's spoiling to answer this question, don't answer it. Do you think she's out.
The way that the way that that conversation that she had in the final scene makes me think that that is.
That's my question, because.
There's okay, so I believe she is out of the back rooms. Okay, I don't believe she is free of the backer, free of what happened to her in the back rooms. And I don't think she's free of like I think she is staying where she is for a little bit, for a little while. Mark Duplace says his character says something to the effect of like, whatever or whoever is making the decision about her future, it doesn't seem like it resolves itself in that movie. I agree
now that the final shot, it's gonna be difficult. What are we looking at? Are we looking at? Is that the back rooms?
Yeah?
That is for sure.
I think all we're looking at it's just like the broken purple chain shoes. I think that's her. What's what's the guy from the league's name? He keeps saying duplas, Yeah, the league I forgot. Yeah, I think that last scene is the copy of the cort.
That's what I think too. That's what I think too. And then and then and then the stuff I've read, some of the stuff I've read, is that that's not a copy.
I think they misinterpreted the movie. I might be wrong, Like there's absolutely a chance I missed something because that that That's how I've kind of been positioning myself.
Yeah, the podcast, I mean, I mean I never I never considered it until I read that, and then I'm like, okay, and there's obviously a big flaw with that. Well, okay, I don't want to ruin this. Let's talk about that. Off here. Yeah.
Sure, but that's.
Another thing that kind of like obviously sets it up for and and this is the other thing I'll bring up. And I had it on my phone. I wanted to I wanted to make sure I got to this. So in reading about this film, oh, by the way, two hundred and sixteen million words world wide, it's a twenty four's highest grossing film to date, and Kane Parsons is now the youngest filmmaker to reach number one at the US box office. Wow. And it's the second highest grossing
horror film twenty twenty six. I wonder what the top one was, Oh, Obsession, Dude, Obsession is number one, back Rooms is two, and dude, this is hilario. We Okay, so this is the top ten grossing horror movies of twenty twenty six so far. Obsession, back Rooms one, and two. Three is Scream seven, which, yeah, exactly, number four. I
don't really think this is a horror movie. Scary Movie is number four, which we're going to talk about in a couple of weeks, right, Send Help is five, sure, and then Lee Cronin is The Mummy, which I.
Haven't seen the interest in that, honestly, Bone Temple.
Is number seven. Cool. Number eight is Iron Lung, which I've never heard.
Of another YouTuber.
Oh okay, yeah right, Number nine return to Silent Hill. Have you seen this? Okay? And I assume that's the Silent Hill sequel or whatever. And then obviously Ready or Not To is number ten. Okay, So that's that's the top ten, which we've we've talked about. We've done a lot of these for the podcast. Okay, I know it's cool.
Before you move on, I don't know if you've seen any of the controversy so well, not of what quote fingers controversy the makeup artist in Obsession.
Oh yeah, you told me about this?
Yeah yeah, they just came out yesterday, probably because of how many people cause the ruckets. She made seven thousand dollars for essentially twenty days.
Oh no, you didn't tell me about this? O keep going.
Yeah, so okay, let me start. She complained, for lack of a better term, publicly, she was like, yeah, so I agreed to work on Obsession and they paid me seven thousand dollars to do makeup and again it was for like twenty one days. So like I'm I'm not crying a pity party for her, but she's like, and then we made eight hundred million dollars and I feel
like maybe that this should be disseminated. And they just came out earlier today or maybe late yesterday, the creative company behind Obsession, and they said, we're gonna package fifty million dollars if we're gonna spread it out amongst all of the people that helped make this movie, because Iron Lung was completely funded by a YouTuber and when Iron Lung ended up way exceeding all expectations since he didn't have to answer to a production company, he just paid
everybody like more because he didn't expect to make that much money. And when that story went viral, because I've never seen Iron Lung, but after I heard that, I almost want to go support it, just to support those kind of actions.
What's what's it about? Do you know? No idea?
He's he's like a video game streamer, like the person to direct ith. He records himself playing video games. And apparently Iron Lung is like a character he created for one of the He plays a lot of horror games and so it's a character he created and they wrote directed film and like the actors are just his friends. But like he did, he went to like NYU or something. He has some chops at making a movie. But it's by no mean you're not gonna mistake it for Spielberger.
But but he has some chops. And apparently this just exploded. And I only found out about it because I told you there was a thing that was like six horror movies made by YouTuber YouTubers, then one that failed, Like I was like, someone do a well. One of the six that succeeded was Iron Long. I'm like, I haven't even heard of this movie, and.
So what what? So was obsession back rooms? Iron Lung the one that nobody knows about? And then do we know the other two?
I'd have to find it.
Speaking of Spielberg, Aaron Sorkin is where I went with this because I just saw this trailer three hours ago. Do you know there's a companion movie coming out in October? To the social network? You knew about this? I found out about it today Today's You're today, Your's today years old? When I found about this? Have you seen the trailer for it? Oh? Looks good man?
Does it?
So it's about the Facebook whistleblower who I can't remember her name, sure, but she came out with all these documents she released and all this nefarious, semi nefarious stuff that Facebook was involved in, seemingly always choosing profits over what's what's. So you have Mikey Madison who won the Best Actress two years ago for playing that hooker or whatever. I can't remember the name of it. Oh god, it, this is gonna drive me. It's a It's a one
word movie which was nominated for Best Picture. It didn't win Best Picture, but she won for Best Actress for it, and I can't anora that's what it was. So she was Anura. Now we also know Mikey Madison from the Scream franchise and she was in uh, What's on Time in Hollywood? So she plays the whistleblower. Jeremy Allen White from The Bear is the journalist that is sort of like investigating this story, and it a brilliant, I think,
brilliant casting. You have famous method actor Jeremy Strong playing Mark Zuckerberg, and I'm telling you, man, it is like looking at the real Mark zucker It's just he's totally awkward, the way you could tell he's on the spectrum a little bit. I and Bill Burr is in this too, which I mean, it's a really good cast. Sorkin wrote it, he's directing. It comes out in October. I'm very excited.
Yeah, well, well I'm sure we'll have time for that one on the list here. You know, I just got to say, this is a testament to this movie is that's the most off topic we've gone for an hour. We almost exclusively stuck the back.
Rooms for an hour. Yeah we did. We don't do that. Well. I liked it quite a bit. So this is the other thing I want to say. So last month Caane Parson says he's not finished with back rooms? Why would he be sure? And then the other thing I found there was there's a scene and it's just a little payoff. I think it's called The Oldest View is sort of like where he got his start. It's a four part YouTube series again space finding an finding a mall underground
or whatever. And there's this this the wheel Giant or the Rolling Giant I think it's called is the Big bad in this And anyway, so I fell into that rabbit while I was reading about that, I'm like, God, I gotta watch this too, and uh, there's a little payoff with a character in that that's in back Rooms kind of but not really. I'll tell you about it after. It's not a big deal anyway, he said. There's already
things in the works right now. He's saying he's going to continue the YouTube series back Rooms, okay, and then, just a couple of days ago, Deadline Hollywood said that Caine Parsons is interviewing potential screenwriting partners to help him do the sequel right now. He said that that's not true, although it probably is true in Hollywood, and he wants to. We said this with Obsession too, with who directed Obsession,
I'm gonna forget the guy's name, I never remember. Yeah, but another YouTuber famous YouTuber are now famous, Curry Barker. Curry Barker said that he wanted to do an Obsession television series. Yeah. Caane Parsons is exploring back.
Room television series irons Hot. Yeah, and it's not Curry Barker worked. He was in a later episode of Always Sonny.
I read that who did he play?
They did one where they like went to like the the Chucky cheese equivalent of their youth and he's the one who like takes their uh they have to sign like waivers about any injuries. And he's sitting there and he's like, yeah, I just I don't care if you signed it or not, Like, yeah, yeah, I saw that
pomp interesting and uh it was sent to me. Actually, there is a short of him buying something else from the girl who sold the Wishing Willow at the beginning of Obsession, well before Obsession was ever made, and it's him and the actress who sold the Wishing Willow in like a ninety se YouTube.
Well that but that makes sense because he was doing stuff. You know, he's creating stuff like comedy stuff usually, but with that same those same actor Like just this very cool.
I mean, this is very interesting. And I think it's as long as they hired the right people. I feel like we're at the beginning of a trend.
Yes, that's I think that's a good way to wrap up here, Like are we on the cusp of seeing? And we said we I think we teased this a little bit with Obsession. Are we on the cusp of seeing? And somebody said, maybe it was you Ben who brought this up? Where did I read it? Somebody said, something about when I think it was either Obsession or back Rooms is coming out and they're like, yep, somebody's gonna make.
Yeah I said that. Yeah, and now they're making an Obsession universe.
Like it's like but they but they made it seem like this is going to be a disaster when it comes out and nobody's gonna see it. Right, No, that's what this guy was saying. Somebody's oh there, Now, somebody's gonna make a ninety minute or an hour and forty five minute movie about this that nobody's gonna like and everybody liked it.
Yeah, so as long as you do it well at it.
So I think I think that that's the thing that I'm very excited about is seeing this next generation of filmmakers kind of grow up and create stuff that you and I haven't considered, stuff that we didn't grow up about. Stuff we didn't grow up with, things and thoughts and stuff, you know, not saying that social anxiety, which is much
more at least more talked about now. I think it was always prevalent, but like utilizing stuff like that, you know, in your films and and you know, just a this this whole fresh viewpoint of people creating stuff that they've never seen before, that that maybe we've never seen before, stuff that that gets its try out on YouTube. And maybe that's good because only only the the best are surviving. This isn't a case where, oh, this big filmmaker who's done this is gonna get a bunch of money from
this production studio to make a movie. And maybe it's good. Maybe it's not Hollywood. It famously over the last fifteen twenty years many have accused it of running out of ideas. Sure, and so what do they do. They go back to the stuff that's bankable, That the stuff that makes money. It's why we have fifty seven Fast and Furious. It's why we have Toy Story five coming up, so they know what works.
Chris Nolan said as much yesterday. He's I mean, granted, it might just be, you know, head up his own ass kind of thing, but he said Odyssey might be one of the last movies like it. He said, it's going to be a long time before another studio gets a green light to do something like this. So like, and I think you're thought on.
He is right, though, I mean with stuff like that, I mean, like, unless you are a select I don't know, maybe twenty directors. It's maybe twenty Yeah, probably less, Yeah, probably less. You're not going to get a budget like that. So what's great about this for Hollywood is that ever, you can see not only this stuff on YouTube first, but you can see the reaction from from users and what the comments are saying, how many likes it's getting,
how many views it's getting. There is your focus group right there, and it's not even a focus group, it's the focus universe. Yeah, this is what people are going to do. So I think that's exciting. Yeah, I agree, as long as you know.
I read an article yesterday that said fifty five percent of all Internet traffic is bots at this Well.
That could be, that could be. I don't know. But but and and and there's no guarantee that taking a series like this and turning it into a feature film, there's no guarantee that it's going to do.
I show you Lights Out will be all right.
But but but by my point of saying all this is, I feel like we are in a much more fertile testing ground than we have been in a while. And because of the success of Curry Barker, because of the success of Kane Parsons. We are going to see more opportunities for young filmmakers to and whoever created Iron Lung, we're going to see more an opportunity to see fresh stuff. Yeah, and which backrooms is fresh. But there's this weirdly nostalgic uncomfortability. Yeah,
discomfort I should say that comes with it. That just makes it so enjoyable. You know.
It's kind of ironic that in the longest stretch of no Marvel movies, that's when you see all the creativity perkle. It's true, probably a lesson that might be learned there as well. Yeah, that like when the superhero stuff stopped, they're like, okay, fagin, let's try this backrooms thing and see what happens. Give it a million bucks. If it fails, whatever, will bounce back for a twenty four. We'll be fine. And that's when you take these chances. It's exciting. It's
exciting for sure. You go first nine and a half, Okay, cool, Okay, I can't give it a perfect ten because there's no I always feel like, no matter what I've seen, there could always be something better. Yeah, I mentioned all the stuff about this.
I would this is not a scary movie. No, it is a creepy movie. It is an uncomfort movie. It is an original movie, which I really love the way it was lit, the questions it had me asking before, during, and after. I love movies that play with my head like that. I love knowing that I could probably see this a bunch of times and still find stuff that I didn't realize. I love the idea of this leaving itself open to potential future films, you know, in this
this whole weird universe. I just feel like there are very few movies that affected me the way that this one did. I've been scared before, I've been creeped out before, I've laughed before, I've been you know, emotionally involved into a drama before. As far as the creepy scale, which is obviously the scale i'd measured this one on, it was at the top. I just it was God, it was just so so cathartic and enjoyable. Nine and a half.
I absolutely love that, and I mean I enjoyed it still as well. I'm going seven status. I think seven is completely reasonable. I thoroughly enjoyed it as well. But as we started this podcast off, I told you about it last week as well. I did. There was just something and like I said, that's the Cretan in me, and it was it was maybe it was that that somber,
cathartic nature. But when I've seen a movie like Cube that deals in liminal spaces and has that kind of conversation but from an entirely different perspective with a group of strangers, and I think I said it on the podcast before, but I'm a sucker for any movie descriptions with six strangers are stuck in a blank.
Yeah, like this is insert here.
And I was like, all right, well and see what's going on here?
I mean, I grant I haven't seen Cube yet, but to me, my understanding is the pacing of that movie is much more frenetic than than Packrock.
Cube is essentially picture back rooms, but in every room that Clark discovered, there's a new saw trap and.
Yeah that they have to figure out how.
Yeah yeah, And I was like, oh, this is and you don't know why you're there, and you don't know is it an alien? Is a government?
Is why? Why is any.
Are you even there exactly? And and how do we get out of here? And just where it goes from there and so like, to me, that is the quintessential version of this. But I have a feeling that like true movie people be like, oh, Backroom's excelled in all ways. Maybe I have no idea, but like that's more my speed. Not to say that this wasn't good. And there is a creepiness to it similar to the movie Creep. It's a little bit more of a slow burn creep, but
it absolutely is that. I gotta check out Creep. Yeah, I think you would enjoy it, at least the first one. The second one is basically saying.
Are there only two? Yeah?
Okay, yeah, they they wrap it up. Yeah, but at any event, that's gonna do it for that one. Balky's out next week. Yeah, we're doing he Man next week. Still though, Laura Lee from W A p l Is going to be checking that one out with you. You see a lot of these movies with Laura No, okay, no, I know you have a few in the past. Yeah, yeah, and we she does a single thing now on Tuesdays, which kind of some extra stuff that kind of eats into it. But she was all about the back are
you going to see it? I'm like, yeah, you want you want to tag along?
So but so he Man next week on off topic with me and and Laura. I feel like probably grew up in the era.
She rah, yeah, and I've been saying, I've said it on the she said, Uh, you know, I didn't even need to know that that Jared Leto was cast as Skeletor I can tell by his mannerisms.
That's funny. It's so wild because I had all the action figures when I was like, I think the first action figure, Well, no, I had probably a Gobots. I think we're first. But then I had a bunch of he Man. I mean there's audio cassettes and video cassettes of my dad interviewing me and my brothers back in the day asking us what we wanted for Christmas and
our birthday. We want the Castle of Gray Skull, he Man, and we're doing the and I'm like, but all that's I mean, that was like forty years ago now for me. So I would have to brush up on it at this point, and I probably still will see he Man for the nostalgic aspect. But there's so much of that universe that I forgot.
So absolutely, and I I said, I'm getting big time. The reviews are mixed, it's bombing in the box office, but I'm getting big time G I Joe, first G I Joe movie off of it, so I'm hopeful for that. When Balke comes back, we'll be doing scary movie.
Gary movie, which by the way, uh Stirfry was super pumped for that one.
Yeah, didn't live up to it for him. Yeah, I was gonna bring that up with you off the air. It seems like it whipped. But I mean like we'll see it anyway, like fourth highest grossing horror movie of twenty twenty six apparently, so we'll get you guys then. Thanks for listening.