Listener Mail: The Night’s Plutonian Shore

love your show. However, I couldn't believe that you failed to mention the new Netflix series in your last podcast. Um Midnight mass So Dorris referend to the fact that we discussed the the old story the Midnight mass of the Dead, and here that this is something called Midnight mass Um. I believe it's from what's his name, the guy did Oculus Mike Flanagan. I think it's Mike Plan again. Yeah,

you're an Oculus fan, aren't you. Well. And as as much as one can be of a film that I think it makes, it wants to make you feel bad. It worked as a I thought it was an effective horror film. Yeah, but I haven't I haven't really watched a lot of his his recent stuff, So I think Occous is the most recent Mike Flannagan thing I've seen. He did the movie adaptation of Doctor Sleep, UM, which I watched not too long ago, and I had very mixed feelings about There's some really good things about it,

some things really don't work at all. I could probably say the same thing about the book, like I read the book Doctor Sleep, and there were things I I really lacked about it and things that I don't know didn't completely work for me. But it's it's a good story anyway. Dorian continues, I had no idea that this was an older idea, and then the show borrowed this, but the take in the show is certainly really interesting. UM T L d R. Jesus was vampire. I hope

you can mention this in your next installment. Best Dorian, Um, I think I have I have to me. I think I'd seen that title pop up in Netflix, but um, I hadn't really investigated further for a few different reasons. First of all, it's I generally watched that kind of thing with my wife, and it's it's it's hard to get her on board with with a horror show. UM. And I was able to successfully get her to watch

The Terror with me. Um uh, the season one of which is an adaptation with Dan Simon's novel, and thus far it's just terrific. So I knew better than to press my look and start looking at another horror series and seeing if I could get her on board with that one. Is that the one that's got Lane Price for Madman in the in the Arctic? Yes? Yeah, Jared

Harris is in it. You got Tobias Menzies. Uh. Yeah, it's got a wonderful cast, and um yeah, it's it's about Arctic exploration and uh and really you could you if you didn't know that the show had a speculative element thrown in. Uh, you'd be watching for a while before it presented itself and then you're reminded, oh, out, there's there's something else going on here as well. But so far greatly enjoying that show. I guess I'm suspicious. I was suspicious of the title though, because Midnight Mass

it sounds dark. But you had that movie come out called Black Mass. It was just about gangsters. It had nothing to do with you know, satanic masses and so forth and witchcraft. Um, and that that that that kind of turned me off. I'm like, uh, I can't trust Hollywood to do anything. Oh yeah, that's one with Johnny Depp as the gangster with really blue eyes. I guess yeah, yeah, I think so. And he's not a warlock at all in it, like why why are you wasting my time?

And it was just kind of a grimy killer. But anyway, Dorian, thanks for bringing that to our attention. Yeah. I had not put one in two together that that might be related to what we were discussing in the show. But now that I know that there's at least some element of the Midnight Mass of the Dead there, I'm I'm interested to check it out. Okay, we got a few more responses to the episode Seth and I did about horror movie music. This first one comes from Sebastian, who's

written in a number of times. Sebastian says hello to the lads from stuff. I'm not sure if anyone wrote into comment on this, but in the very special episode featuring Seth, in which you discussed spooky horror soundtrack music, you briefly mentioned the Devil's Cord also known as a try tone, and briefly mentioned its contentious history with the Church. Now, Sebastian respectfully that we did make reference to the try tone.

I really don't think we said anything about the try tone having any particular history with the church, and even checked my notes to make sure I didn't see anything about that. So it's possible you may be mixing our episode up with something else. But I appreciate all of the thoughts you have that follow nonetheless, because I have at least gotten the impression somewhere along the way that somebody, at some point in time thought that this, uh, this

series of notes was evil. But but Sebastian explains, unfortunately, this history is actually both made up and also modern, and was thoroughly debunked by dreamy YouTuber and funk bassist Adam Neely, and then he links to this YouTube channel.

Turns out the cord was never banned by anyone and never considered an evil or dark sound and sniping from Adam Neely's hard word, I linked to the medieval French composer Perotons Catholic Christmas him Vita un omniss, which is both loaded with try tones and also was commissioned by the church, and it is also beautiful and Sebastian includes

a link for us to listen to. But if people aren't as familiar with classical music, you can you can also pretty quickly bring the try tone to mind if you think about the song off of Black Sabbath's first album. I think the song is called Black Sabbath. It's the one that goes down, down down. I think you know what I'm talking about, right, Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah, and Aussie's going, oh no, please God

help me. Um, but a Sebastian goes on his Storically, the tri tone was noted as being quote vivacious and forceful in ascent funereal, and sad and decent. In fact, Neely also found a modern instance of melodic sequences of the tritne chord, being the opening three notes of the Simpsons theme and the name Maria in the self named song from a West Side Story, both being very forceful and vivacious. Indeed, the chord was also known as the

Devil's chord, but for a different reason. In this arrangement, the four and five of a major scale are played along with the root, and if you know your music theory, then you know that they're a half tone apart. As a result, singers will tend to try to sing a slightly flat fourth and a slightly sharp fifth to overcompensate for the similarity. The chord doesn't summon or invoke the devil, it's just devilish lye difficult to get acquired to perform it.

The assumption that historical people didn't have a sense of humor or metaphor came in in the nineteen sixties when heavy metal musicians were looking for things to incorporate to make things seem more forbidden, and a chord called the Devil definitely struck a chord and then we get a winking face emoji. The rest is modern mythology. This reminds me of an episode of Look Around You about Music. I guess with the one about music, or it was

the one that dealt with synthesizers. I can't remember the season one or two, but it's probably season one where they were talking about these, uh these notes diabolique I think they were called, and uh it's this uh this added little box at the end of the keyboard that's actually locked and you have to unlock it to access these like these three Maybe it was three, but it just just a very small number of keys that you could play. Look around you. That show, by the way,

if you've never seen it is worth looking up. It's absolutely yeah. Even just a summary of the premise is pretty delightful. It is simply short educational films of the kind you might see in a British elementary school class room, except they are full of deeply incorrect information. Yeah and just uh yeah, just weirdness and absurdities. It's a it's a fantastic vibe, all presented for the most part very dryly.

Sebastian goes on, as for music, if you really want something to appear darker or spookier more so than a minor key, you should really consider using different modes, especially the lacrean, where basically no two notes sound good together. But that's probably more music theory than your average stuff to blow your mind listener is ready for without a full episode of preamble, I mean talking about music theory

without without auditory examples. In general, I find it's very difficult, and more so difficult because I don't understand a whole lot of music theory. I'm I'm only uh literate in the most basic music theory sense like. I think the extent to which I understand music is the extent to which you could say you're literate if you can only

sort of read like road signs and stuff. Sebastian says in the last listener mail, you also mentioned dark Christmas music, and my favorite will always be Coventry Carol, which is about the Christmas prophecy ending with King Herod's slaying of the babes. It is a Christmas carol in a dark key about witchcraft and genocide, all framed on the background of a census which was used as a tool of oppression.

How metal is that? Yeah, I'm looking at the lyrics here Harold the King and his raging charged he hath this day his men of might in his own site, all children young to slay, and not not the not the good Christmas kind of slay, not a sleigh ride, but the the killing kind. That's music to eat candy canes by Um. Sebastian goes on one thing for Weird

House Cinema. This has never come up on the show We're basically Anywhere, but I noticed recently that Tom Waits and Ron Pearlman vaguely resemble each other and it's a pity that they never played brothers or cousins in anything. Sebastian, I have noticed this before. You're not the only one, but Sebastian goes on. Both of their filmographies are almost entirely good fodder for weird house cinema, so it didn't

seem too off topic. I suppose I could say Tom Waits would make a hilarious dark Bomba Dil with a swap out for Pearlman playing a magically powered up warrior version of the character, assuming Bomba Dil were like a wood spirit version of Sailor Moon, but that would be more of a Yodorowski vision of the tail. M hmm, Well, there's a lot of a lot of process there. I don't really have an answer, um except I don't know. It's it's hard to imagine Tom Waits or or Pearlman

in the role. I just I can't say I like both of these guys a lot uh in the roles that they are right for. But yeah, I mean, Pearlman is is Bomba Dial would be a very kind of grumpy growley Bomba Dial Pearlman is. I think Pearlman is just way off Tom Waits. I don't know that that could work with the right kind of irony doll Marvy door. Yeah. Finally, Sebastian says, I'm hoping you're planning on Dune themed episodes at some point to go along with the new adaptation.

I guess it means the new movie. Uh. I don't know what else would mean. Obviously means the new movie. Um. When I was a kid in the nineties, whenever I was asked if I were a Star Trek or Star Wars fan, and back then it was still aggressively guarded as a false dichotomy, my answer was always Dune. Good answer, Sebastian. Uh.

The the email continues. Unfortunately, I don't think a movie adaptation will ever do the material justice and will always land in favor of an animated mini series, something like the moody atmosphere of Samurai Jack's gorgeous matt backgrounds as he wandered the Earth, somehow blended with the frenetic surrealist modernism of the old Eon Flux cartoon. Science fiction and fantasy are usually only as good as their worst special effect, and honestly I trust animators more than cg artists anyway,

keep up the good work, Sebastian. Well, I mean, obviously, I'm excited to see the new Done film. I guess by the time this publishes, it will be it'll be out in the States. Uh so you're you're listening to to the me of the past that has not actually seen it yet. But I'm excited for it and I have I have high hopes that it will deliver. As for upcoming episodes of the show about Done related topics, I think we're going to try and get into this a little bit in November, UM, so, so stick with us.

Hopefully everyone will still be enthusiastic about Done um during the month of November, and we'll we'll we'll explore something. We we have several ideas. I am also extremely excited to see the movie. I yeah, I mean, I guess you could both be very excited to see the movie and think that it could be great, while also believing that it will be sort of hard for any movie ever to really fully capture the feeling of the novel. But I guess you could. People could probably feel that

way about any novel. I mean that may be true, specially of something like Doing, But I don't know. I'm I'm very excited for the movie. Yeah, yeah, I mean obviously, a book like this, it means a lot a lot to a lot of people, and it's had a lot of time to to find a sort of finalized form in your mind. Uh So, yeah, you have to go into it with with without you know, too lofty of expectations.

You know, you're not going to get your perfect mental vision of doing it's it's someone else's and more than one person's, uh, a vision of what this world would be like. So yeah, I'm I'm open to it, and I'm looking forward to it, all right. This next one comes to us from Nick. Nick writes, in a recent episode, you said you couldn't think of a single example of major key music being used non ironically in a horror film. I think I have an example for you, theree film

The wicker Man. It's famous soundtrack includes British folk songs and nursery rhymes and original compositions by Paul Giovanni, including the sublime Willows theme. The music is primarily in major key and upbeat, although it is often haunting an eerie in a way you can't put your finger on. No doubt, there is an ironic significance to the music, But I don't think it's the obvious bait and switch sort of

irony you were talking about. The cheerfulness of the music is genuine, just as the cheerfulness of the inhabitants of Summer Isle is genuine, notwithstanding their sinister intentions toward the hero. Really, the music of The Wickerman is the key ingredient in its unique weirdness and creepiness. It's certainly unlike most horror music, just as the film itself is an atypical horror movie best regards. Oh my god, Nick, how did I not think of this? The Wickerman is one of my favorite

horror movies. It's definitely a favorite in in our house. I know it's one of my wife's favorite as well. We we tend to watch it not in October actually, because it's it's seasonally appropriate for me first. We we often watch it. We watch it most years on me first. And Yeah, the music absolutely makes the film. The corn Riggs in Barley Riggs song every time we watched the movie. For weeks afterwards, we're walking around the house corn Riggs

and Barley Riggs. Yeah, it's it's unstoppable. I haven't seen it in a good while, I should fire it up again. I mean, as for whether or not there is an irony intended in the music, I mean, I certainly feel a sense of irony in the music. I think a lot of the pleasure of the movie lies in the cheerfulness of the Pagans and it you know, uh, the way Christopher Lee just kind of confidently booms out joyful pronouncements in front of the crowds of of masked islanders.

It's uh that that's where a lot of the fun lies. And I think the same that same spirit is there in the jolly music. Like I feel like the sense of irony it takes to appreciate the music in that movie is exactly what the the supposed protagonist of the movie lacks. When when you know, Christopher Lee says to him, does the sight of the Young will refresh you? And you know, and he's he's just a grump. He says, no, it does not refresh me. All right. This next message

comes from Lee. Lie says, Hello, my friend a film composer and I a sound designer, just finished listening to your episode on Scary Music and loved it. We had a couple of thoughts about the episode. We wanted to share one in regards to the minor key being dissonant. I theorized that the minor third doesn't occur in the overtone series until very late. He wanted to point out that children's music and modern pop uh tend to have

minor thirds because they're easier to sing. I'll have to take your word for it on that, because I again don't don't fully understand what that's referring to there. But then this next point, I thought it is a great one. Lee goes on. We were surprised you didn't mention the d s ear a a four notes sequence, an octave displacement, a broad distance between high pitches and low rumbles, common

in spooky films. These might be fun research tangents. Yes, we can definitely come back to this, especially I've been thinking about the DS era. So this is a four notes sequence that you will recognize from Probably initially your brain will lock onto it in one movie score, but then you'll notice it all over the place, usually in dire, dark kind of scenes, especially in horror movies. It comes from medieval monks Chance, I think from from funeral Chance,

but it's used in all kinds of film scores. One place it's very iconic is it's the first four notes in the classic main theme to the Shining by Wendy Carlos. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. You you hear versions of that and a lot of different bits of film composition. So I agree that could absolutely be something that's really fun to explore in more detail in the future because it has a lot of different It pops up all over the place, and has interesting historical and religious themes

associated with it. Now you I think you mentioned off Mike ear there that we also see this in the Simpsons theme song or some version. Oh no, that's the tri tone, that's the try tone. Okay. I was wondering about it because, um, in a second, this particular listener mentions another film that I'm pretty sure has Danny Elfman music, and I was wondering if there's something about Danny Elfman's

music that is that tends to be inherently creepy. I was just thinking about this because we just watched Beetlejuice for the first time with with my son, and uh, great first of it. Well yeah, well forty of so the music is is is great but also my son did not like the music. He in fact, he requested that the movie be be turned down somewhat and subtitles be put on because the music was too much for him. Uh.

He also was not particularly fond of the film. There's a lot of stuff in Beetle Juice that doesn't really hold up, you know, and it has that Uh Beetle Juices is wildly inappropriate. Um the character he's not a good ghost and he does not learn anything. Um. That being said, there there there's a lot of interesting stuff in the film. I did like the many of the

sets and costumes and some of the ideas well. It was one of those confusing things where they made a kid's cartoon out of it, which makes you just sort of assume, if you haven't seen the movie in a while, that it's appropriate for children. And I don't think it is, Like, yeah, Beetle Juices. Beetlejuice is like a nasty, weird, unpleasant character. Yeah, he's a creeper, you know, and he tries to take a child bride. It's, um, it's it's a weird film.

But but yeah, it does have one of those signature Danny Elfman scores that um it, you know, moves along. It seems to have a fair amount of energy, but also uh, you know, feels kind of brooding and creepy. Well, I guess connecting to what you're saying. Lee also says we also talked to another composer friend, and Edwards scissor Hands is the closest we could come to a horror flick that has a main theme and a major key.

I honestly don't remember it all what the music and Edward scissor Hands is like, but I mean it's definitely Danny Elfman. It is Danny Elfman. But but yeah, nothing's coming to mind on that. I don't mean that as an insult. I just mean I don't remember. I mean I might be able to if you played it for me, I might be able to guess that it that that it is in fact a Danny Elfman score. They there's a certain sound that's undeniable. I guess I tend to think of a lot of kind of beeps and boops

and stuff. Is that the is that the music theory name? I don't know. Yeah, Annie Elfman score tends to sound like a like like a weird black car riding across a strange landscape. Um, that's or maybe it's just because I've just heard it's I've I've so associated it with Tim Burton films, So that's just kind of it, all right. Before we move on to some weird how cinema stuff here, I have a quick bit of listener mail from Discord. Yes, yes we do. We do have the stuff to blow

your mind Discord. Um, it's always tricky to steer people towards it because I think you need a link for it. So if you want the link for the Discord, just email us. You'll find the email address at the end of this episode. Anyway, Fletch on Discord shares her Nay. The hunter mentioned in today's episode on Weather and Ghosts featured in an old BBC show, Robin of Sherwood, that

leaned pretty heavily into pre Christian British myth. It also had Sean Connery's son Jason as a second incarnation of Robin in later seasons, and a young Ray Winstone as Will Scarlett. The music for the show was done by Klanad, the band in You was in before her solo career, uh and they included a YouTube compilation of various bits that featured her the Hunter. I had to look this

show up. It looks looks pretty fun. I noticed that Richard O'Brien shows up in it and plays a wizard for a number of episodes, and combine that with a cool score, and I'm potentially interested. Looks like you can you can access it via some streaming sides today. Well, I was trying to look up and see if I've seen Jason Connery in anything. Looks like he was in wish Master three. I didn't. I didn't see wish Master three. That's so that's one where you don't even have the

original wish Master in it, right. I think that's one where you get up. Yeah, you get a different a different gen care actor in that they've perverted the original

spirit of wish Master the first. I the first wish Master is worth watching for the first ten minutes or so because it has this prologue that's uh, that's that sets out to be this kind of um Arabian Nights horror story where there's just like out of control gin magic and people are transforming into bees and skeletons are walking and uh, it has a really fun flavor to it and you're you're watching and you're thinking this, this is pretty great. I could I could watch this movie.

And then that ends and you're transported to just, you know, your typical modern day horror movie environment, and it, you know, it quickly gets a little bit repetitive and I need to be smester to this thing and get us to modern day l A two. I don't know which one it is. That was too for sure. Yeah, so yeah, it's it's it's one of those movies. But I highly recommend the first ten minutes of wish Master. It's pretty fun. Lots and lots of practical effects are thrown in there.

It's it's it's really cool. Jason Connery, however, is not in it. Well I'm gonna have to check out this hernad the Hunter link. Okay. This next message comes in response to the Ghosts of the Wind and Rain episode. This is from Ann and says, Hey, Robert and Joe. I love the show. I've been listening for several years and I've written in as well. I'm especially appreciative of the six episodes a week format, so thank you. I have a huge affinity for the paranormal, multicultural folk tales

and mythological creatures. I balanced these fanciful and supernatural topics with your podcast, so whenever the scientific and fantastical elements meet, I'm all ears. In reference to your ghosts in the Wind and Rain episode, you question if there are skeptics within the paranormal field. My answer is yes. Many of the investigators and those who are interested in the topic refer to themselves as quote open minded skeptics. They try

to find non paranormal explanations for paranormal events. Take that approach how you will. Personally, I've never had any supernatural experiences as far as I know. Uh. And then, on a different topic, the monster Fact episodes are delightful. I have a possible topic for you, the var Uh. I'm sure how to say this, the Var Dogger or Var Tiger.

Besides being a heavy metal Christian band from Norway, disease of course, Uh is a Norwegian term for a spirit predecessor of Vartigare is likened to an auditory dopple ganger that occurs before the arrival of the person that is being imitated. Thank you for all your research that you put into your topics. The content is always engaging and thank you for taking time to read my email and interesting. Yeah, I'm not familiar with that one, but I'm always excited

to find out about new fulkloric creatures and monsters. Regarding paranormal investigators who are skeptical of the reality of paranormal phenomena, I guess it's true that that such figures must exist, and you know, there are skeptics of various sorts who dabble in this kind of thing all the time. I guess we were wondering about if this is somebody's main gig, if if they'd be likely to take a skeptical approach um.

And and one thing I know is that, though I think this is not who you are talking about, there are some people just a heads up, who, like I've looked into before, who describe themselves as skeptics. But then when you start listening to the stuff they're saying, they're actually just full blown ghost realists. They're just like and then there was a demon possession here, and you know, and so they're just fully on board. But I guess trying to get extra sort of cred by calling themselves

skeptical interesting. But I'm not saying that the people you're talking about are like that. I'm just saying I know there are people like that. I mean, I think a part of it again comes down to the the entertainment value of it. I think what we're talking about before, like it seems like there's going to be a tendency

to lean into the idea of I want to believe. Uh. You know how interesting a ghost hunter is that if they have a poster on their wall that says, I, I don't really want to believe, I don't believe, and I don't particularly expect to find evidence supporting uh, the existence of these things. Yeah, but I guess one of the one of the things I should drive come and drive driven this phone before is that I guess if there's a balance of the two energies, you know, if

there's sort of a what if this is real? But then you you base that. In fact, I think that was one of the big failings of of the the episodes of UM of Unsolved Mysteries that I watched when I was a kid that would get into some sort of paranormal topics where either they didn't or I certainly don't remember them getting into the skeptical counter arguments. Um. Maybe they did, and it just did not have as much of an effect on my young brain as the

as the what if arguments. But I felt like I didn't encounter any kind of like proper skeptical reaction to these ideas until I was a grown person. I remember, well, again, this is just going to be off kind of vague memories mostly, but I remember them sort of coming out both angles of some of these stories. But it felt like at least through the uh, I don't know, music and editing choices and stuff, and there was very much a finger on the scale for whatever the weirder interpretation was,

because you know, it's more fun. Yeah, Actually it's not necessarily more fun. It's just easier to make that side fun. It takes more work to find the fun in in naturalistic explanations. That's the moral of today's episode. There is fun in naturalistic explanations for weird stuff. It's just you just gotta work to find it. Now, here's a question I and I I have not watched an episode of

Unseelf Mysteries in quite a long time. But of course most of the content on Unsolf Mysteries was about unsolved mysteries. They were about crimes perpetrated by humans, and the and the a quest for justice, you know, asking people if you have any information about these crimes, you know, called in or write in. I forget how you know how they were reaching out to who love viewers? But uh in those cases they I don't remember them opening up the vault and saying, um, we don't know if people

did this. It's possible they were aliens or big feet as reference in our other episodes, we can't rule out cryptids or aliens. Folks know those episodes tended to or those of those uh sections of the of the show, those those segments, they tended to be pretty sure that

humans were the were the reason that bad things were happening. Right, So Robert Stack is narrating this event where I don't know, somebody, some guy gets like a bag thrown over his head and he's thrown into the trunk of a car, and nobody knows where he disappeared to And what if it was an elf that did that? Could have been an elf, could have been a ghost. We don't, We don't know. This is actually a really good idea for a reverse show.

We should keep this in the back pocket, or all we do is explain very naturally explicable phenomena in terms of bizarre supernatural occurrences. Yeah, I kind of want to wish I could go back in time and um and kind of prank call then number that they had. I could have been like, yeah, I have information regarding that missing person's case you profiled an episode, uh, you know,

three twenty two or whatever. I'll be like, God, yeah, I think it's probably those alien beings capable of faster than light travel because they can pretty much do anything, so they probably were the ones responsible for that that kidnap. Are you familiar with Dragger? Okay, we got one last message about weird house cinema, Rob, Do you want to do this one? Alright? Pat writes in you guys are

the best. Thank you for Halloween three. Well we we we can't take all the credit for Halloween three season of the Witch. But I know what, I know what Pat saying. Pa continues in the discussion, you mentioned the lack of explanation from Michael Myers. I remember reading a novelization of the movie that has a Solwin prologue which explains that he is an ancient curse. This is true? Is he is he a curse. I just said they

they get into that in later movies. I don't know how clearly anybody came up with that idea, but by say, the sixth movie, definitely. Maybe it's there in the fifth one too, I'm not sure. Somewhere in those horrible later sequels they start saying, oh, yeah, he's some kind of ancient druid magic thing. I don't know. Okay, why did they never do a lepri con crossover. That would have been perfect? Oh that would have been good. Yeah, except I think the leprechron sequels have so much more class

than the later sequels. Yeah, all right, Um, anyway, Pat continues blood sacrifice to ancient Irish gods at the Autumn Festival is at the root season of the which provides answers to the questions about Michael Myer's behavior. The sequel, therefore, is an extension of the narrative. There is more than a hint that the ancient Irish gods find modern Halloween celebrations to be an insult. This is why the children must be punished. Thanks ever so much for the wonderful entertainment, Pat.

So it's blasphemy. Tricker trading is blast for me? And Michael Myers has been sent by the ancient Irish gods to punish us. He's like a modern day Kuhlan who's coming out. He's doing his warp spasm all the way through the Halloween season to just embrace the modern, secularized Halloween world with a knife, you know, low energy warp spas um. Yeah. I think this is maybe a question we're going to have to solve in some future Weird

House Cinema episode. We're gonna have to like fully track down and systematize the mythology of the Halloween series and figure out what order people came up with, what ideas, and how it all fits together. I think it'll be brutal. What's the what's the prevailing wisdom nowadays? Is he just like a revenant? Or or maybe I guess Jason is more of a revenant. What's Jason revenant? I don't know what Michael Myers is, honestly, I mean, and I think that's the best way. I mean that that's the spirit

of the original movie. Is like he's completely inexplic a bowle. He doesn't make any sense. It's just like, uh, it's a terror from out of nowhere. And for no reason, and that's what makes the first movie so good. Yeah, yeah, I think the impulse to over explain is something that must constantly be resisted by by sequel filmmakers. I mean, how often when we when we find out the true backstory behind whatever thing it was in the original movie

of some series, is that really satisfying? It's it's pretty rare. Yeah, I can't come off offhand. I'm having trouble thinking of an example of it ever ever really working or even if it does work, Um, you know, you're creating something, you end up creating something new, and you end up taking people off, uh for example Highland or two. You know a film that did. We both find a lot of enjoyment, and I mean part of I think ultimately they came up with a pretty good, uh sequel idea there.

I think that was a pretty good direction to go in. But it's a direction that inevitably was going to take off fans of the original because it was such a diversion from what they knew, and that the first Thilander film does have a lot of mystery. Why are their immortals? And nobody knows? They just are and they do this thing isn't it so much more fun to wonder about

that question than to have it answered? Yeah, and then again, I guess, you know, especially today, you end up with if something is popular, than fans are going to form their own theories, and then if those theories don't turn out to be true or partially true, then that can also add to some of their discomfort with with a piece of media. So yeah, the mystery is is often

the best. I mean, these are these are often creatures and things that come out of the unknown, and that's that's part of the fabric of what makes them interesting. But I think we've already spoken and now it's Cannon. He's co Colan and that can't be taken back. Uh. The only way to defeat him is with the sting right, That would be neat to the butt right right, Well, I guess he would kill with the sting right to the but that's that that would be the way it

would work. Yeah. Has he ever killed with a sting? Right? I don't think any of it think the major flashes have killed with stingrays. There is a really profoundly troubling lack of stingray presence in in modern horror films. I mean you could do it too, because all you have to do is have your slash or go to a local aquarium where there are touch tanks. I mean there's also potentially, at least in the movie, you can have a shark tank there and shark versus Michael Myers or

versus Jason. I mean that that sounds fun. I would probably watch that. Oh my god, it's the perfect perfect franchise crossover, Halloween meets Deep bluesy Michael Myers versus super smart sharks, right right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can get behind the idea. Yeah, especially like what if they end they have the brain of Jason. That's the thing. Is that a smart brain. It's well, I don't know if it's smart. It's it's it's very focused when it once it gets going, it's hard to It doesn't let an

idea go disciplined. He's got sticktuitiveness. Okay, Jason has all those job interview qualities. Yeah he does. Okay, I think we gotta call it there. All right, We're gonna go Yeah, we'll go ahead and close the book on this one. But we'll be back next week with more listener mail. On Monday followed by New Core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, New Artifact or Monster episodes on Wednesday, and then on Friday. That's weird, how cinema, that's our time to discuss a

strange film. Uh yeah, that's that's it. What what do you have to add there, Joe? Nothing? Oh well wait, yeah, okay, we can do that. Um. So, if you want to get in touch with us, send us an email. Have your own thoughts featured on a future listener mail episodes. Uh no, promises. We get a lot of email, but well, you know, you know, you write us something good, we'll do our best to include it. Um. You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

Oh and thanks to Seth. As always, we're all out of order at the end here thanks to our producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. Again. That email address is contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.