Weirdhouse Cinema: Spontaneous Combustion

talking about Pyrokinesis movies or something. We end up watching fire Starter too. Ah yeah, I don't. I don't remember exactly how we happened upon it. Maybe we were celebrating Toby Hooper in general. I'm not sure. That might have been around the time that he had passed. Oh yeah, but but but yeah, it was. It's it's fun to

come back to this one. My my inspiration for this was I just I just got it really excited about Brad Dorrith Pictures, and so I came to you and I said, Hey, what what do you think we could do Graveyard Shift, We could do Wise Blood, we could do spontaneous combustion. We ended up deciding on some spontaneous combustion. But I watched all three this week anyway, so I'll refer back to those since those are those are fresh

on my mind. But yeah, I'm excited to revisit this one and just to talk about Brad Dorriff in general, because I think he's he's one of the more amazing weird actors, uh, of earlier of that we have today that's still working today, of certainly of of recent decades. I think I would I would be tempted to compare

him to Peter lorii uh to a certain extent. I mean they're not, you know, not not a similar physical presence, but in terms of actors who were capable of creating a certain weird aura, were drawn to weird parts and we're able to really bring them alive on screen. But so you've watched all three of these movies and what the last like forty eight hours, so you're you're grail

overflow with with dorif juice right now. Yeah. I was pretty lucky to have to take my automobile to the shop two days in a row, and for whatever reason, the lounge there was just the perfect place to watch Brad Dorriff movies as opposed to doing any kind of like rigorous research instead of reading what kind of magazines they gotten there? They don't have any magazines. It's all. It's a it's a brand new facility, so this is it was like being in a brand new airport. I

just had TV screens and stack machines and no magazines. Well, that sounds like a barren waste. I'm glad you were able to bring Brad Doriff with you. But but we should also not ignore the fact that once again, this is a film that was directed by Toby Hooper, and yet most people, probably even most horror fans, have never heard of this movie. Uh and so this is actually one of my favorite kinds of movies to talk about the bizarre, lesser known works of somebody who is amos

for other stuff. Now, I think it's undeniable that Toby Hooper was one of the most revered and influential horror filmmakers of all time. You know you've got He made The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which the influence of that movie on the generation of horror movies that followed really cannot be overstated, but he was also very versatile as a filmmaker, so he made that, But he also made Poultergeist. And it's really hard to think of two horror movies more

different in style and tone than those two. But they were certainly very, very influential, and I feel like each one had its its impact generationally. You know, like people older than me, we're very much in the blast zone of of the original TCM, whereas I I was just old enough to be in the blast zone of Poultergeist. So so I was I was more scarred by poulter Geist and then came to appreciate a Texas chainsaw massacre at a later point. But it's funny because I think

this movie combines elements of both. So Texas Chainsaw Massacre is shocking, brutal, disgusting. In terms of cinematography, it's very cold and detached. People often compare it cinematography to documentary filmmaking, while Poultergeist is is almost in the Spielberg ea zone. It's warm, familiar, lived in almost kind of sentimental um. It has that that suburban you know, bikes on the

sidewalks at dusk, kind of Spielberg thing. Going on, Yeah, Craig T. Nelson throwing his TV out to the sidewalk. But so you've got those two movies and then you've got Spontaneous Combustion released in nineteen nine, so this would have been eight years after Poultergeist, starring the Wild Eyed jack Rabbit virtuoso Brad Dorriff as a man who cannot

stop setting things on fire with his brain. Yeah, and and we'll talk about about Dora that length, because I think one of the great things about this film is that it it does present something of a showcase for Brad Dorriff. That's not to say that that this is a perfect film or that his character arc is perfectly structured, but you get to see a fair amount of range from him in this. You get to see him play

a serious and relatable human being. You get to see him dealing with just extreme outbursts of emotion and by the end of the film essentially becoming a movie monster as well. These are all things that he that he has done, uh, you know sometimes in Isolation and other pictures, but in this, yeah, he gets to do the whole thing. I think it might be good to introduce this one if you're cool with this by reading a short review of the movie from film critic Tie Burr in Spin

in Okay. Burr writes, quote, no one makes bad movies as deliriously entertaining as Toby Hooper, whose career continues at spectacular downhill slide with spontaneous combustion. The man who reached a genre peak with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a commercial peak with Poltergeist now offers this completely incoherent tale of David Bell twitchingly play by Brad Duriff, the son of a couple subjected to radiation experiments in the fifties.

Apparently the tests lower the human bodies immunity to perfectly natural spontaneous combustion, or, in the words of the German scientist with an eye patch, the human body is the most complex electrically spoked combustion engine Vinov, and that is a quote directly from the film I checked. Burr continues that means that whenever things get tense, Brad spouts flames from his elbow. He can also make enemies burn up over the phone. Spontaneous combustion is a lot of fun.

It's got far too many subplots, a nice sense of paranoia effects that are both ikey and ridiculous, and it moves too fast for logic beat that trauma. I gotta say, I think I think Burr's kind of dead on here. Um this I don't know, he manages to I. I agree with him completely, and I also disagree with him. Okay, so I'll cut Tie some slack because he's he's not the kind of critic who is you know, just about

the art films. I looked. I looked into, like, well, what he admires, and he does list Reanimator as as one of his favorite films, quote one of the secret best films in the nineties. So I can't I can't argue with that. Like he he does have an appreciation for the weird. But um, I mean, on one hand, as I've said before, I feel like we've we've kind of reached the point where I think we have to rethink what we mean when we say bad movie. Um. And then and then also, I've seen this this critique

a few different times. That's that spontaneous combustion doesn't make any sense. Um, you know where that is, you know, completely illogical. I don't think that's the case at all. I I think it has Oh well, I can explain the first I can explain aspects of it. It's just not completely confusing. It has a kind of a train wreck of of of a third act. But um, you know, um,

I don't know. Maybe maybe part of it is I'm used to watching films that are, I don't know, logically challenged, and I know that I need to bring my own logic into it. I need to help unravel it a bit. So I mean, it's it's it's basically one of these stories of of a of an individual looking at his own his own past, his own upbringing, and then on on, you know, revealing the conspiracy of it all, and and it will get into into what all that means in the plot of this this film. But yeah, I don't

think it's completely illogical, um well, nor incoherent. I mean it it's it's got its problems, but but complete incoherency is is not one of them. Okay, well, I'm ready to hear you preach its virtues. I have an open heart,

in an open mind. And by the way, no, I mean I'm with Burr on the fact that this movie, I mean, I think in some conventional senses my reaction was, well, yeah, this is a bad movie, and that it has some uh, elements of the plot just don't really gel together, and it feels like multiple different movies sort of crammed together as one, and it doesn't really embrace in of the directions fully and I think there was a strange mismatch, and just in terms of the raw sort of mechanics

of filmmaking, Like, in some ways this movie has some like really good and effective set pieces and and special effects, and in other cases it looks really cheap, like daytime TV kind of stuff. Yeah, I guess here's my criteria for for truly bad film in the in the sense that it is bad and we're not just saying, oh I love bad movies. Is can I drive it off the lot? Does it? Does it function enough? Is there something that is that is actually going to bring this

baby to a stop? Um? And you know, like for an example, that would be something like like Trouble in Mind, which is a film I watched in recent months, and it has so many wonderful aspects of it, uh to it, some some great performances in it, some great style, some great music, but it has what was for me as a viewer like a real tragic flaw and in the establishment of one of its characters in his motivations, just left me unable to drive this picture off the lot.

You know, this one's easy to drive. I mean, this one will drive for you. This is a self driving car. Yeah, So I guess that's how I tend. I tend to look at things. Um. Likewise, there's some there's some perfectly fine cinematic automobiles out there, and you know that there they have all the parts, but they just they have no momentum. For me. I can't drive him off the lot. So, uh,

that's that's where I fall in the matter. Fair enough now, um it was to be fair though when it comes to criticism, all this picture it's critics do include Brad Dorriff himself. Um and and I like the way he looked at it. Sometimes it's I think a little uh, it can be a little more authentic, I guess to you know, to look at from the inside out, you know. Um and Uh. Dora apparently wasn't pleased with the final results. He spoke about it in the edition of Fan Gloria.

There's an interview in that he cited on the IMDb page, but we looked up the full interview as well, which can be found at archive dot org. Uh, but but I want to read what he had to say. He says, quote, you see me playing my heart out and scenes that are not working, and the reason they're not working is that movie doesn't make sense. Okay, So so he would agree that it does make it. I I disagree. I think it makes a certain amount of sense. He says,

it's almost funny. As a matter of fact, the better my acting was in some of the later scenes, the funnier of the film was I found myself at the mercy of people who didn't know what they were doing. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but my feeling is the producers destroyed it. Toby could have made three different movies with the material he had, and each one would

have worked. But by the time he got it, it had changed from a love story to a suspense thriller about my character's paranoid fantasy, to a guy goes crazy film about this insane killer who becomes a destructive force. It's going to wipe out mankind. We went back and kind of restructured it as a love story, but it didn't really help. The beginning of the film was great, and a certain portion of my stuff was fine, but then it became stupid when all the stuff started out

and all the flame stuff. But uh, so I think he's too hard on him on himself certainly, I think I think Brad Dorff is great in parts of this film and and is able to to do far more with this part and tries far harder with this part than a lot of other actors would have been capable of. Um. But but he's also he's also right. The beginning is is really really good, and I wonder what it might have looked like had they actually had a coherent vision for the picture, if they had like stuck to the

love story aspect. You know, well, to whatever extent there's anything wrong with spontaneous combustion, it is not Brad Dorriff. So I I don't I don't think anybody would say that the problem with this movie is that Brad is not up to par. Right, Like my elevator pitch for this is it's a conspiracy movie, it's a love story,

it's a rage flick. It's it's all over the place, and it has these extreme pivots and Brad Dorriff is able to keep the car on the road at those pivots, at those those extreme you know, turns uh to an amazing degree. There's a towards the end, it's it's very difficult. I think he probably you know, he does as well as he can. But but yeah, the plot really veers in the final act of this film. Can I give my alternate elevator pitch? Okay, go for it. It's The

Incredible Hulk, except instead of green muscles, it's just fire. Yeah. I think that's good. And you know what, I think this is the concept here is ultimately better than The Incredible Hulk because with with Hulk, his rage is both a curse and uh in a in a superpower. It's literally the way he defeats his enemies. And I think one of the things that does work in this film is that you have you do have some really terrifying pyrotechnic u effects with with fire shooting out of people

and being digitally placed people. And then you have Dorris performance which is as as he often isn't in films, just very explosive and emotional. And so there is the combined there is this element of just um, you know, extreme emotional outburst. Um, in a way that is that is uncontrollable, that is that is not beneficial, that cannot be utilized, that can't be claimed as a positive attribute

of himself or controlled by other people. And um, and I don't know, there's something about that that feels more authentic. You know. It's like, this is the extreme emotion as as a pure detriment as opposed to something that you know is bad, but also is the way you defeat the enemy like that the there is no defeating the adversary using this superpower. Well, yeah, I agree with you in spirit and the but he does in fact use his his pyrokinesis to defeat the villains at the end

of the movie. Well, but not the way that doesn't feel meaningful. I mean, not in a way that feels meaningful and not in a way that it really redeems his character, him and everyone around him. Yeah, should we hit some trailer audio? Yeah, let's hear the trailer. Toby Hooper, the director of Poltergeist, Toby Hooper, the modern master of the maccabre, now brings you his greatest achievement In the

Spring of n Okay. Bryan Peggy very soon, Ready Ready, A secret experiment began, an experiment that left one survivor perfect. There's no size of radiation. Now the child has become a man can live a slight favor a man who doesn't know the secret of his pasked Spontaneous Combustion starring Academy Award nominee Brad do Reef, Melinda Dylon, and Cynthia Baine Damiel. Spontaneous Combustion wait to Actually haven't listened to this thing? Does it have a good narrator voice? I

think it has a pretty good narrator voice. Yeah, in a world where a man can call you on the phone and make fire come out of your nose, it does have some pretty good phone sequences right right up there with which Freddie movie had the phone in it. Freddie the first movie. I think a tongue comes out of the phone. Okay, that was the original original nightmare then okay, but it also this movie has a few

things in common with scanners, you know, and scanners. When there's the part where he calls the computer on the telephone and then reads the computer's mind. Oh yeah, I mean that's that's something we have to keep in mind with with psychic pictures is that, Yeah, we we often hold Scanners up as a as a great example, but I always always had a problem with with that, like cool, why is his mind working on the computer? Why is

he able to psychically do computer things? But yeah, I agree, I mean Scanners is great, but it also has parts that do not make any sense. All right, Well, let's talk about the people involved in this, so we'll get back to door in a second, but first let's just briefly discussed Toby Hooper, one more time director screenwriter on this who live nine through and uh, yeah, he's probably

best remembered for ninety four is the Texas Chainsaw massacre. Um. You often see this argument that his subsequent work like never achieve that level, that even though even Poulter Guys being a commercial hit was like was part of an artistic descent. But you know, he he worked a lot. He did a lot of TV and film projects, and I think the quality is maybe up and down. I

think that's fair to say. But he put out stuff like, Uh, in addition to Poulter guyst and TCMI did Life Force Invaders from mars Um, Texas Chainsaw Masker, Too, which I would argue is pretty close to pure genius. Texas Chainsaw Masker two is a disgusting horror comedy. It's almost a satirical reimagining of the first movie, kind of in the way that, um, have you ever seen Evil Dead and Evil Dead Too? You know, the similar relationship with Texas

Chainsaw and Texas Chainsaw Too. Yeah, I mean, I I ultimately think t c M Too was was a great direction. He seemed on some level to realize, Okay, we we can't just reproduce what we did before, we need to lean more into the grim gallows humor aspects of the first film and creates something that takes on old really a more comedic um air. Uh So yeah, TC him is a lot of fun. That's one we could come

back to on the show because it's certainly weird now. Um. The co screenwriter and this was Howard Goldberg born in n not a ton of film writing credits. He'd written apple Pie in Nive in a series of this is kind of a series of vignettes I'm to understand with kind of a secret wild life of Walter Middy kind of vibe. Um. He wrote and directed it, and I was looking at the people involved in it, and I did notice it. Brother Theodore was in it. Yeah, well

your gods are dead and the rats are screaming. Yeah. So I don't know if that comes that just virtue of it being like a New York picture of that day, or if you were filming out in the open in New York, brother Theodore would just appear and start screaming. I'm not sure which. He went on to write and direct two more films, Eden in nineteen six and Jake Squared and Eaton was part of a Sun Dance Institute fellowship. Uh So, Goldberg's done quite a bit of work, some

commercial work, but also off Broadway musicals. So this, you know, he did a lot more, but this seems to be his only foray into paranormal thriller screenwriting. Okay, but I think we need to get to the main attraction here. What's the reason to watch spontaneous Combustion? It's Brad Dorriff baby, Yeah, Brad Dorriff born nineteen fifty. Still still very active. It seems like a guy who who works a lot. I don't know if it's too much, that's that's not for me to judge, but but he works a lot. He's

been in a lot of projects over the years. Um, and he is. He is openly. I've seen him describe himself in interviews as an odd duck who often gravitates to disturbed and strange characters. Uh, and into a certain extent. Is also you know, he's been so successful in certain roles that people keep coming back and offering him those parts too. Uh. But uh, he's able to bring these weird characters to life in an amazing way. So he's been in, He's been in great films and TV products.

He's been in he's been in heavily flawed films. Um, he's been certainly been in worse films than this. You'll find him an independent and international motion pictures. You'll find him in major blockbusters. You'll find him in various horror and sci fi films of just about every caliber. Did you realize that this came out the same year as The Exorcist three? Um? I think I didn't realize it until I was reading that Fangoria interview, because I think

that was to promote Exorcist. And then they also asked him about this picture. Oh okay, yeah, he now he placed the Gemini killer right, and he's captivating in in Exorcist three. Exorcist three is a movie that, um, you might just assume if you haven't seen it, well, it's the third sequel to a movie that did not need a sequel at all, how could it be good? But actually, I mean I haven't seen it in several years, but

I remember the Exorcist three actually being quite good. Yeah, I think if I was to rewatch an Exorcist film, it would be three. I think I think I've I've I've done Exorcist Part one enough I would probably come back for three. But yeah, Doriff is great in it and is captivating. I would say that he is often one off, if not the most captivating things about any picture he's in, you know. I mean, sometimes he's in there with a lot of talented and or weird actors

that are you know, competing for that that honor. But there are numerous examples that come to mind where it's like, oh, yeah, Brad Dorriff's in it. He will make you he will make you remember his part if you forget everything else. For the past couple of days, I just haven't been able to think about anything really except Brad Dorriff leaving the set of Lord of the Rings in character is Grima worm Tongue to get lunch at Subway or something.

So he's going into the Starbucks and and they're writing worm Tongue on the cop and oh, man did they do that? Did they have to go to Starbucks? And no, I don't know. I mean that'd be Oh. I guess they probably had catering at the on the set, So that really ruins my fantasy here. No, No, I think the fantasy is still good if if it's like worm Tongue going to catering, it's still still pretty craft services.

Oh did they have to address him as like, oh, would you like another you know, chicken leg, mr, worm Tongue? It would have been cool if if, if they if they made sure that they had Middle Earth appropriate craft services for everybody, So if you wanted to stay in character, you could. You know, you're not gonna have mac and cheese, You're gonna have traditional shire fair. I don't know. Wait a minute, worm Tongue. Would he eat savory pies that

seems too warm and comforting to him? Yeah, it would be well, I think eel would be I don't know if they were you know, I I it's been a while. I don't remember what they were eating, and it was a gondour well no worm tongue was the advisor to King theoden Atas of the horse lords of Rohan. Okay, they were eating like horse cheese and stuff horse cheese?

Is that really? Maybe? I don't know, I don't remember what they were eating it, and that it's been a long time since I've read The Two Towers, but every single meal surfeit of Lamprey's. Yeah, all right, well, let's let's talk about Brad Dorriff. So he what does he look like? He tends to have this rather gaunt look, um, often a kind of boyish quality about him, especially for I mean for really for the most of his career, he able to be retained this kind of unnatural youthful um,

but also kind of sickly power at times. Um. And he uh, his eyes are are generally very earnest and intense. Uh. But but I don't want to limit it to just his eyes, because he tends to really embody a character when he plays it. Uh, you know, it's it's like a full body possession. And his natural voice is this kind of soft spoken um voice with a kind of a slight West Virginian accent to it. But but he's capable of taking on other other accents as well, and

can really also ramp it up. He can. He has a has a lot of range in terms of his his vocal performance totally. There was a fun bio published in The Independent back in two thousand two titles Brad Dora of how Weird is Brad? Which is a wonderful, wonderful name, And it includes this wonderful quote he says, uh, quote, give me a camera and a paycheck, and I'm there. You start out reading the script and you say, I don't know. Then as you're making it, you think, no,

this is really cool. I was wrong. Then you see the movie and you're like, oh, forget it. You were totally right at the start. This is a man after our own hearts. Yeah, but I think it's also revealing, revealing, like he seems to like when he when you're in the part, you're in the part, you know, and uh, it's it's a different situation than the finished piece. And ultimately, I like, you're the actor. You don't have control over that. All you have control over, Uh, is your own performance,

in your own interactions. I think this is actually key to what makes him such a great actor, and especially a lot of these sort of maybe lower grade genre movies, like you never get the sense like he feels he's too good for a part, even if the movie ends up being bad or heavily flawed in some way, even

if the scenes he's acting out are ridiculous. He's commit did He's there, He's in character, and you don't he's not too cool to play the guy who's like elbows are on fire and who's calling into a radio show with like a psychic psychiatrist to make the call screener erupt in flames. Yeah, yeah, totally. So he has I think, uh a hundred and seventy three credits on IMDb right now,

and he's again been just acting for decades. I'm not gonna list all of his credits here, but I thought I might roll through some standouts and we can talk a little bit about some of them as the spirit hits us. So he was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, all right, He was Billy in that one. YEA great great ensemble cast in that that picture for sure. Uh. He In nineteen seventy nine, he was in Wise Blood, playing the character Hazel Moats, which we were just talking about.

I've never seen this one, but I've I've heard that it's great. So it's based on the Flannery O'Connor novel and it was directed by John Houston. Wasn't it yep? Directed by John Houston, and uh, yeah, it's I just finished watching it this morning. It's it's weird, dark, unpleasant, occasionally occasionally funny. It has some comedic scenes and uh, yeah, Dora has just that great intensity in this. Coupled with this, you know, again he's very young and then I think

he's twenty nine, and you know he looks even younger. Um, but he's a yeah, he's a real live wire in this. And on on top of that, you also have he has scenes with Harry Dean Stanton, uh, numerous scenes with Amy Right, who's wonderful in it, ned batty. William Hickey shows up, Um, a younger William Hickey than I'm I'm used to seeing, but but not youthful. I don't know

if a youthful William Hickey actually ever existed. That defies physics. Yeah, but yeah, it's a wise Blood is certainly a Brad Dorif picture that's often held up is a is a truly great film like a uh not like a genre film where you have a cool performance in it, but a but a really solid motion picture. Uh and and and I would agree with that with one caveat, and

that is that the music is occasionally really distracting. It has this uh this kind of wacky semi electric hayseed music playing at times, but only in the comedics sections, not in the generally not in the dialogue driven interactions. Okay, now wait a minute before we we can't forget to mention Dune, right that the David Lynch Dune, the one with the pug. Yeah, that's right. He plays uh the twisted mint at Peter de Vry. Let's say, what is it,

Devrise Devise. I can't remember, however, I think it's maybe Peter de Vries, but it looks like his name is spelled like piter. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he has the big bushy eyebrows like all the Mintet's and the Lynch version vision of Dune. Uh yeah, yeah, he's he's he's funny. It's not a huge part, he didn't last that long. And of course he is surrounded by so much weirdness and so many charismatic actors in that picture. Um,

you know, there's a lot to look at. And even if that picture is ultimately flawed as well, I don't know what flaws you're talking about. David Lynch is doing is a perfect film. T The pacing is incredible, perfect. So let's see six. He was in Blue Velvet. Um, we have to mention, of course, he was in almost all of the Child's Play movies. I mean, he is the voice of Chucky. Um. Oh, is he even in the weird recent ones they did? Um no, that's I think, um Mark Hamill jumped in to do that one. But

he's been in everything else. And there's like an upcoming sci fi series of Child's Play and he's back in that. Brad Dorriff is back in that. So they gotten into time travel and that when the time Chucky, I don't think so. I don't think he's going to space either. Okay, holding out for the Old West Chucky. Now that that could be good. Uh, let's see. Um we already mentioned The Exorcist three in nineteen ninety, but also in nineteen

nine Graveyard Shift. Wait wait, wait wait? Was it was a wait, Exorcist three, Spontaneous Combust and Graveyard Shift all in the same year. Yes, it would seem he's working, he's work, he's good to work. So Graveyard Shift, which is based on a Stephen King short story, really a terrific short story. Um, I I watched I rewatched this this week as well. That's basically a giant mutant rat picture. Is it? Is it a rat or a bat? What?

It's been so long, but this was one of those I think I watched late at night on T and T when I was way too young to do that. And uh, did it have wings in the end or something? Yeah, it's like basically all the gross rodent type things you that fill your nightmares have like bread with each other in the darkness beneath the mill and the result or these is this this big, grotesque monstrosity that has elements of all the creatures. Okay, and um, and I think

it was I can't. I don't recall a fan. I think it was more than just one creature, uh in the story, but in this it's like one big creature and it has a lot of rats. Working for it, but um, it's ah, it's pretty fun. It's a you know, it's a monster flick. It has um Stephen um Mocked in it, who is pretty good in it. He was in Transfers three through five as well. Uh. It also

has Andrew Divoff who was in Wish Master. And I've seen Stephen King dismiss it as an exploitation flick, but I I feel like that's kind of the perfect zone for a giant monster rat movie. I mean, what are you what are you looking for? I wanted more character nuance in my giant rat movie. Yeah, but performance wise, Doraf is the most memorable thing he has this His character is really not that important. He basically is just

a weird character. It comes along to, I think, take up space in the movie and have some interactions with their main characters. But he plays a Vietnam vet who's also an exterminator, who's quick to tell you that he's not some burnout like a character Bruce Dern would play, which is amazing. But yeah, he's he's just um, he's like chewing and spitting Tobacca and um, it's just in ranting uh and and killing rats. He's he's a lot

of fun in that. Yep, it sounds like that would work better as in nineteen seventies style character studies starring John Kazaleah, let's see. Uh. Doroff was in Jungle Fever in Creators four. In um he was in that excellent episode of Tales from the Crypt with Bill Paxton, people who live in brass horses. I don't know this one. I'm sorry. He was on He was on the X Files. Now you can speak to this. He was in an episode called Beyond the Sea. Do you remember this? Oh? Yeah,

Beyond the Sea. Which one was this? Okay, I just looked it up. This one was in the first season, though. I honestly I don't recall this one. And maybe maybe if I saw a part of it. Uh man, it's got a it's got a big Wikipedia page. It looks like it's going have been an important episode. Oh I think this This one had some like character development where you learned about Molder and Scully's back stories. Okay, alright.

He was in Death Machine in nineteen He was an alien resurrection And I like the way you just paused on this one, like you're you're waiting for me to Okay, Alien Resurrection, I have to admit, is a movie that I don't just hate, but it like literally makes me feel sick to think about. I'm not even kidding, just the concept of alien resurrection. Someone's a kind of like winding mountain road, backseat car sickness, h y asthma to come over my brain. I'm literally not joking. It is

packed with weird actors. You have to give it that, Yeah, yeah, alright, Ron Pearlman, right yeah, Ron Pearlman, um uh, Michael Wincott, um, Dan Hidea. It's a it's gotta it has a fun cast. Okay, let's let's move on though. Okay, The Prophecy three, The Ascent. Didn't see that one in two thousand, but then of course the Lord of the Rings the Two Towers in two thousand and two. Right, yeah, there you go. He

was on Deadwood, memorable role there. He's worked with Werner Herzog several times, including My Son, My Son, What have You Done? From two thousand and nine. I haven't seen that one, but this started to make me wonder is there any overlap with with Kinsky here? Does Doriff almost have some some very slight notes of Kinsky Barry about him. Um. I mean certainly insofar as Herzog worked with him on several times, and he does have that kind of natural intensity.

But I don't think it's fair to compare anybody to to klas Kinsky. Um. No, I'm not, no, no, no, for I'm not suggesting a moral comparison or that or that Brad Douroff would have been known for, you know, bellowing freak outs about the catering or something, coming back to the catering once again. But an a right, yeah, Well, I guess I'll stop the expansive list at this point. But basically, he's worked with a number of of of great actors and great directors, um and um, and it

seems to continue to do so. Interestingly enough, the actor of Fiona Doroff is his daughter. She seems to be carrying on the tradition of playing both weird and serious roles. Um. She's been in the stand she played Uh. I'm to understand kind of a strange character in that she was in Tenant and she's also a part of the Chucky franchise now, so that's kind of cool keeping it in the family. Although I'm trying to look at who she was in Tenant. I haven't seen I have not seen

it yet. Oh Tenant, Um, Okay, I don't recall which character she played, but Tenant. It's one of those movies I know. I've talked about ones like this on the show before that are almost everything that comes to mind to say about it is a criticism, and yet I really enjoyed it. It was. It's it's very fun. It has that great Christopher Nolan action style, just like each set piece is enormously enjoyable and attack till sense. But I think you could lever some quite legitimate criticisms against

the coherence of the plot to revisit a theme from earlier. Okay, well, I'll probably get to it at some point next time. I'm in the mood for a cerebral yet incoherent time travel adventure. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Now, Brat Dorriff is not the only actor in this picture. There are some other people of note. What if he was, though, Well, that would be something. Um. I mean, I think there's at least one Werner Herzog picture where he's the only actor,

if I'm remembering correctly. It's more it's not a traditional narrative type thing. But he can go it alone. Okay, but who else? Is? One thing I gotta say before we get into the cast is this movie has way too many generals in it. This is overloaded with these like old men standing around, you know, scheming about whatever this this conspiracy is. Yeah, it's hard to keep track of of who the villain is, who the sub villain is. Ultimately,

especially if it's like a conspiracy mad science yarn. You need that mad scientist like that, you need your central villain, and this this film is you can get lost trying to figure out who that is supposed to be. I agree.

I think that could have been one way to significantly improve this film, just to lockdown who is the villain of like one central villain who maybe has a recognizable henchman, instead of this sort of gaggle of skunkworks dudes, who are you know showing up in various points and you're trying to remember is that the guy from earlier? Is

that somebody different? Yeah? Yeah, And I guess the the counter argument would be, well, it's supposed to be about paranoia and conspiracy and that involves you know, it involves everyone in your life. But yeah, I I still think it would have. It would have been a smoother ride had we had it focused more on a single villain. But anyway, the first person of note is the love interest. Uh.

The character is Lisa Wilcock, Sam's new girlfriend. Sam is um is Brad Dorrith's character played by Cynthia Bain who was born in nineteen sixty three. She played Tracy Pumpkinhead and she did a lot of TV work as well. Pumpkinhead. That's a movie with a creature that deserves a better movie to live in. Ultimately, it's not a great film, but a really beautiful monster design. Oh yeah, beautiful monster. Um.

Now Cynthia Bayne, it's interesting. She eventually transitioned into into being an acting coach and she runs Cynthia Bayne's Young Actors Studio in Studio City, California. Uh so, yeah, it seems to be her. Her whole thing eventually became helping young actors improve their craft. Cool alright. Um. The first of the mini villains in this um we have the character Dr. John Marsh played by John Cipher for nWo

veteran actor. I'd say the most the role that I knew him from previously was he played man at arms in the Seven Masters at the Universe movie, had a mustache in that. Do you remember him? Yes, yes, yes, I do remember him. He You know what, I was comparing him a little bit to Leslie Nielsen while I was watching this. He has notes of Nielsen Berry, he does, he does, because yeah, Leslie Nielsen, Um, especially if you

think of Leslie Nielsen pre naked gun like, pre police squad. Uh. He had that that very serious tone that was maybe a little a little too dry, and that's why it ultimately lent itself so well to parody. All Right, we have d Young playing Rachel Sam's ex wife. Born nineteen fifty five, Multiple star trek Roles, a lot of TV work, played Dr Irene Shulman on melrose Place, so that means anything to anybody, But she was also She also had

small parts in Spaceballs and The Running Man. Now this next guy, I was trying to remember what it was I recognized him from, and I couldn't figure it out unless I was just recognizing him from the last time I watched this movie. Yeah. William Prince, who plays lou Or Lander the father figure and his ex wife's grandfather. The thenections between the characters gets a little weird at times. Anyway, he lived nineteen thirteen. Uh, he's our shadowy conspiracy villain.

I think he's supposed to be the top villain, but it takes us a while to get to that revelation. He was a character actor with roles on The Stepford Wives Network, a lot of TV across the decade. I think one of the things that was I was getting the same having the same lights come on from me. I'm like, what if I seen this guy in And I don't think I had really seen him in anything else, remembered him from anything else. But he kind of has

similar notes to William Hickey. He's like William Hickey light notes of Hicky Berry. Yeah, of course I've seen Network, so I might have seen him in that, but I just don't remember him from Network. You know, there are other other stars burn a lot brighter in Network. Right.

So one of the funny things though about William Prince's character in this movie is that there's no there like, is no question at all when you first meet him whether he's going to end up being the villain of the film, because when you first meet him, they won't let you see his face. He's like he could be a Dick Tracy villain called shadow Face. He's just sitting in a room where every other actor is fully lit and perfectly visible, but he's covered in a complete shroud

of darkness, which looked extremely funny to me. Alright, another character, and this is another scientist character, uh is Nina the German Scientists played by Melinda Dillon born nine probably most famous and visible as Ralphie's mom from the three film A Christmas Story. Yep, interesting casting decision, yeah, but she also had memorable roles in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Magnolia and of course Harry and the Henderson's. Um, we

have a general character show up? Yeah, this is probably by Dale Dy who was born nineteen four. Um. He should basically your gray haired mustachio general in this uh. In real life a former marine, so he played a lot of characters like this. Anytime you need like a stiff military authority figure year, you would often often turn to Dale Die, who was in Platoon Band of Brothers born on the fourth that you lie, Um, and you list platoon twice? Did I mentioned that? Did did I

say it twice? Or just listed twice? So you just listed it twice, which is appropriate. Oh well, I mean it was. It was a big one though. That's interesting. He kicked off his his acting career in eighty six in both Platoon and Toby Hooper's Invaders from Mars, so like one foot in both both lanes. I guess Invaders from Mars is a little scene Toby Hooper movie. But if I recall, it's like a an alien invasion movie, but it's sort of for kids. It's like a you know,

childhood adventure movie. I remember getting the vibe. It's been a long time since I watched it, but I got this sort of for kids vibe for it, like as a child watching it. I wasn't sure how how I was supposed to feel about it, And I don't know if that was intentional or if it was just miscalibrated. Um. But then again, that was also of a thing back in the day, right, I mean, I would I would classify Gremlins, um, even though it is often held up, I guess is a classic. I think that one is

totally all over the place. Oh yeah, I actually I saw. I quite love Grimlins, but I absolutely agreed it's totally all over the place. But you know what I love, Rob, I love the fact that we're not out of generals yet. No. No, we have a lieutenant general and it's he has no name, but he's played by Dick Buckus Buds Yes, yep, yep, born two American football Edge and Dick Buckus of the Bears, um who was in Gremlins too, by the way, along with various other TV shows. I think he tends to

sort of play himself, if not actually play himself. Is this the general who in the hospital scenes was just like eating a big play to Buffalo Wings. I don't remember him at all, but that sounds right, That sounds app like appropriate use of the actor Dick Buckus. So, Brian and Peggy are on fire and he's like, I need more blue cheese. All right, We're almost done with the cast here, but we have just a few essentially

cameos to point out here. The first of all, we have John Landis of the director, who has a cameo as a radio technician who catches on fire. John Landis who who directed like American Werewolf in London and stuff. Yeah, so he he spits fire out of his mouth because Brad Doorff calls him on the phone and gets mad. Yeah, though he's not even mad at Landis's character. He's mad in another it's at Landis. Landis's cameo character here is just the in the wrong place, at the wrong time,

caught in the cross fire. This is also a Dick Warlock picture. By the way, God love Dick Warlock. Every time I see his name in the credits, I get excited. Yeah. He he plays Mr Fitzpatrick in this. I'm not sure who that is, but basically he's a stunt player. Um and you you do see him show up in films of the day of that period, and it's generally just notable because he has just such a fun name. Yeah. He was also part of the extended Carpenter hallo verse.

He was in Halloween two. He may well have played Michael Myers in Halloween two. Um, I might be remembering that wrong, but he's definitely in Halloween three, in which he plays an ancient Druid robot assassin. Now this is an interesting because of the next cameo is another director, like like Landis, but this director's cameo serves as this director's only acting credit. Uh. And this is the director

Andre de tof Um, who has it. It's Cameo playing doctor VanderMeer in this what I was supposed to I think he's supposed to be a European or a German scientist of some sort that shows up in the early stages of the picture. Um, but he has He has several lines like it's not just a walk on walk off situation. He has some really fun lines in this picture. He has the most ludicrous monologue in the film. Yeah, and he was. He was not an actor. He's primarily

right a director. He was. He was born in Hungary. Um, he's He directed various pictures, including nineteen fifty three's House of Wax starring Vincent Price. One thing I read about this was that so this was a very prominent three D movie. But I believe it's the case that he actually couldn't see He couldn't perceive three D films because he was missing one of his eyes. Right. He wore an iPad like he wears an eyepatch in this picture. And you if you didn't know anything about him, he

might assume that's just part of the character. But I know that that was really war one. Um. He was. He was also a writer. He wrote the story that nineteen fifties The Gunfighter starring Gregory Peck was based on, and he served as second unit director on seventy eight, Superman, nineteen sixty five, Thunderball in nineteen sixty two, Lawrence of Arabia.

Wow Um. As far as music goes, Graham Revel did the music composer here born nineteen fifty five, an established film score come poser who I don't think I recognized his name, but I've seen plenty of pictures that he scored. Um. We briefly discussed him on the episode for Ghost in the Machine. That's right, Yeah, that was one Ghost in the Machine. I cannot remember what we even said about the score for Ghost of the Machine, if it was good or bad or just kind of you know, I

think you were mostly unimpressed. I think you were like I would have liked it, Cynthia. Yeah, that's well, that's you know, that's often my note on things, And yeah, that's that's basically the same here that though he worked on films like The Crow, The Chronicles of Riddick, which is a picture I really enjoy, but I also don't remember it's um it's music at all, So not that you obviously need to notice the music so much in

emotion picture. I guess there's an argument to be made for the music doing it's a job and not standing out too much, but I don't know. For me, I like it to stand out. The score that plays over the opening credits has a moment in it that reminds me of a moment from the score in Aliens. There's

sort of a two beat pulse that like done Dune skittering. Alright, I'll mention one more person involved in this, and that's because it has a lot of This picture has a lot of fire special effects in it, and it's often pinpointed as being one of the more notable things about the picture. Michael Weldon in The Psychotronic Video Guide praises the fire effects. So it appears to be there was

a whole crew here, but it appears to be. Uh in a large part of the work of Stephen David Brooks, who is optical and visual effects supervisor and second unit director on this film, and he went on to write uh. Toby Hooper's adaptation of Stephen King's The Mangler, m Okay, I've never seen that one, but that is about a killer industrial Laundry Machine. I think, yes, yeah, it has I think it has Robert England in it, and I

think that one is Stephen King approved it. It gets kind of weird when you get into like which adaptation Stephen King likes and doesn't like. And granted it's totally his his place to to make those judgments, Um, you know, not not not saying it isn't, but sometimes it can feel a little uneven on us. Doesn't really correlate to how good the movies are. Yeah, yeah, Like sometimes I think it's like, to what degree he had input in it?

And you know something, it's and it's It also comes back to what we're talking about with with Dora earlier. When you're on the inside of something, your your perspective is different. So the thing that isn't important to them may not actually come through to your experience of it, but it was important to their initial creation or their performance in the picture. Yeah. Uh, but I gotta say so this was made the effects budget doesn't appear to have been the the greatest of all time, but I'd

say the effects are pretty strong. Like they are, even if they don't necessarily always look realistic, they are effective for the staginess of the story. Yeah. I one thing I'd forgotten about this picture was just how terrifying some of the fire effects are. Um Like, they feel dangerous, they feel unsafe. I mean not in a sense where I'm I'm second guessing the work of the stunt people, but just in like, within the context of the movie,

fire feels like a dangerous thing. And a lot of times you can in pictures, you you get so used to seeing like a a burning burning man effect, a fire suit effect, you know, a man on fire, and at times if you're not familiar with what is involved in that, if you don't become like a connoisseur of the man on fire, you can forget like how impressive that stunt is, how dangerous that stunt is, and um and to a certain extent, you can lose respect for

just how dangerous fire itself is. Sure. And then of course Brad Dorriff is often screaming and and fully emoting in these fire scenes, which I think adds to the effect. Right. That actually maybe the most blood curdling aspect of it. It is more so than the visual effects. Yeah, Brad dorf crossing the red line. Yeah, all right, Well, I guess it's high time to get into the plot on

this one, all right. Well, in keeping with some of the recent episodes, I don't think we're gonna do like a scene by scene of the entire movie, but but I think it does help to uh look a little bit more closely at the beginning, which is one of the strongest parts of the film. So we we open in the fifties with some nuclear testing. Yeah, it has

an extended prologue. Takes opens up in nineteen Nevada Desert hydrogen bomb testing site, and we have the classics song I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire by the ink spots hit playing in the background, which is a bit on the nose but also just perfect. Um. This would, of course, the same song would be utilized in a very similar way much later by the Fallout games. I think in the commercials are opening videos for for

one of those games. Uh So, I don't know if this actually inspired them or if it's just pure coincidence, but it's it's well used in this picture that I was wondering the exact same thing, whether this movie might have somehow inspired the cheeky atomic age parody style of the fallout games. Yeah, yeah, because we see some of that here, Like they're establishing and a certain to a certain extent, you know, this idealized version of what the fifties were. Like. We have these these two love birds,

Brian and Peggy Bell. They've been injected with a special serum serum. They're very much in love. Generals and German scientists are watching on there somehow connected to this um atomic detonation that's about to happen there in some sort of a bunker, and we see that this is the Samson Project. Yeah, this is the Samson Projects. So they're like in a fallout shelter underneath this this bomb test range.

And uh and one thing that was funny here was they have to inject themselves with some kind of serum right before the bomb goes off while they're strapped to these chairs. And you see them just like jam in just a stabbing motion with the needles into their own arms. Yeah, there are multiple scenes with injection. This This is not a good film for people who have needle phobias, especially because some of the needles are full of glowing green goop. Yeah.

Well the green the green glow is how you know it works right. Another thing I wanted to mention though, which is I already alluded to the sort of wildly varying visual qualities of this film. Some things and it look really good, and some things in it look very cheap.

And so some of the things in the early part of the movie, which overall the beginning I think is very effective and funny and works well, but it instantly also looks like a movie made in nine and I was wondering, like, what is that quality that so many movies even want a good movie vs of the early nineties have this look. It's almost kind of a TV style cinematography. I would compare it to some of the kind of velveta sets and camera behavior that we saw

in those Charles Band movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it certainly does um that. But at the same time, they have this atomic age news short that that plays in this portion of the film where they yeah, where they create this uh, this kind of retro news vibe, you know, like like today we have Brian and Peggy involved in this, you know, with the you know, the the nice overdone narration,

and it's like Starship Troopers. They're doing their part. Yeah, yeah, it's like you know, military propaganda, and it's really well done. It it feels more or less authentic to the fifties and less. But Okay, there's a nuclear test, bomb goes off. They've injected themselves with the serum man and Brian and Peggy survive. And then they find out, oh, after the

after the test, they're going to have a son. Uh. So we we cut to them in the hospital with their with their newborn baby, and Brian brings in a plastic merry go round as a gift for the child, uh and and a little note that says, like to my son, and then it says, for my son on the day of his birth, may your life always be a merry go Round. And as he's like handing this to his wife, Brian's like, isn't it amazing what they're

doing with plastic these days? A strange comment, I thought, But it's got doctors in the hospital like running a Geiger counter over the baby. Obviously they think, you know, something's up. I guess with all of the anti radiation serum that these people have been taking um and they're running a Geiger counter over the baby, and they're like, wow,

normal as can be. But they note that there is a perfectly circular birthmark on the back of the baby's hand, and this will come into play as the movie goes later on. But so anyway, we're seeing the parents and and their baby interact. Baby baby do Iff is visiting with his mom, and then oh, the nurse comes to take the baby away, and then something happens. This is like the we get the inciting childhood trauma scene that you have to have in so many movies these days.

So you know where Bruce Wayne's parents they're murdered with a gun in crime alley, and in this movie, Brad Douroff's parents are murdered by fire by a pyrokinetic baby. I will say that this is what it feels like the first time your child cries uncontrollably, though, it feels like like everybody's on fire. So since this this scene works really well. Well wait, actually, now now that I step back, I have a question because here's one of the things that maybe you can set me right on

that I didn't understand about the movie. The the mechanics of how people were getting set on fire was unclear to me because at first I thought it was, oh no, the baby's upset the baby is crying, and because the baby's up that the baby uses its pyrokinesis powers to set its parents on fire. But also there's stuff about how people just naturally spontaneously combust and that the serum that the parents were taking might have made that happen

to them. So could it be that actually the baby Brad Douriff, didn't do it, and they just spontaneously combusted because they had taken the injections. Um, I guess it's possible. Yeah, Um, I don't know. The way I read it was that it's very much the baby, but but it's but it's like if you have some sort of like you know, firepower that is attached to your um emotional states. I mean, a baby is the exactly the wrong creature to have that power. You know. It's it's it's just going to

experience its emotional states. It's just a maximum level with with with no regard for the safety of anyone else in the vicinity. Um So, it would be the kind of thing where it would just you know, catch everybody on fire. Um So. I mean, to a certain extent, I feel like this the film's extended metaphor of emotional outbursts as a fire, and um, you know, and and the idea that when we're engaging emotionally, you know, we're having an impact on other people, either visibly present or

you know, even over the telephone. I think it to a certain extent makes sense, but I also realized that maybe reading too much into it. Sure. Uh so we're in a shadowy room now where the this this burning has happened, but Brian and Peggy have burned up, and they're just like charcoal bodies now, and you've got a circle of top brass and these and these skunkworks dudes all chatting. They're standing around chattering about the flame child.

They're saying like it's unbelievable. All the boister is gone, even the mirrow. And then another one says, it would take a temperature of six thousand degrees syntegrade to do something like this. It's the cleanest kill I ever saw. And that line gets repeated in the movie, and I don't understand because it doesn't look clean at all. It looks like a total mess. Yeah, it's a it's a weird it's a weird critique to have the whole scenario. Boy,

that's a clean kill. But then again, we're not part of the military industrial complex, so maybe maybe maybe within that realm, it makes more sense to say this, I guess. But then so they're standing around doing this. But then the best possible thing happens. Andre to Toath comes in. They introduced him as Dr Vandermeir. He just comes kind of creeping into the room delivering this amazing monologue. He starts off saying, was there any plastic in the area

this would affect it? And they were like, yes, it all melted. And they say how would you know? And they say, well, this is Dr Vandermeir, you know, like obviously that's how he knows he's Dr VanderMeer. Yeah, and

he has this wonderful line, one of my favorites. Way he says, the bodies burned from the inside with fury, and the sound the sound like an angel screen is like he typing it up in his report, Like that is that what when they declassify these documents from I don't know whatever kind of program Darper or whatever this is it is? Is he that how he's talking in them? I guess? So, yeah, Um, it's not the most unnatural thing I've heard in the movie this year, but it's

it's but I like it. I like it, So he says, we get this amazing monologue. He says, the plastic melts, everything else remains with little or no damage. Bed covers, clothing articles made of cotton are particularly invulnerable. The human body, you see is the most complex electrically sparked combustion engine we know of. It is difficult for us to comprehend spontaneous combustion. We would not have the same reaction to a radio catching fire s c H. And he says

s c H several times. S c H is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but the odds of its striking any particular individual are millions to one. I believe the complex series of vaccines your subjects were given, combined with radiation from the blast, dramatically reduced those odds to one to one.

He's absolutely certain. Yes, it was just a hundred percent chance you will spontaneously combust which the way he's introducing it here, it's the The pseudoscience of the movie is that, like the body's natural tendency is towards spontaneous combustion, and if you don't always have some kind of process going on inside that prevents you from catching on fire. It's just going to happen. And so these injections to protect them from radiation, uh, suddenly changed all that got away

with the body's natural defenses. But it's funny. After all, this one of the one of the skunk buddies standing around the bed. He just goes like yes, and then Dr Vandermere says, oh, you've got this line here, Oh the fire from heav and he's certainly here today. What does it mean? I don't know, but so he and then he gets back on the acronym again. He's like

so excited. He says s h c uh. And then he starts stabbing at one of the charcoal heads with a fountain pen and he kind of digs around in there a bit and then pulls out a skull, which I might add is really tiny, even though it is supposed to belong to an adult, and it's obviously like a toy skull of some kind. And he says like he's got this big you know, lotto ticket winner smile, and he says spontaneous human combustion. Yeah. The size of

the skull freaked me out. When when I watched this both times, I think because it's like the baby may have burned the people up, and then he's like pulling a baby skull out of the like the mother's remains. It's like, it's it's very weird, and it takes took me a little while to figure out both times that oh, it's just supposed to be a normal human skull is just too small. Yeah. And then meanwhile you cut to the flame child himself. He's alone in a hospital bassonet,

crying into the darkness. You feel for this child, but we immediately get one of those fade to adulthood transitions, and this flame child is now a grown man, complete with They show you his circular birthmark on the back of his hands, so you know it's him, and he has grown up to be Brad Douriff and he's auditioning to play in the Shakespeare Show. And this is this

is a wonderful scene for for several reasons. First of all, you have you have Brad Dorriff, who who's a great actor, playing a guy who is maybe an okay actor right like he's or at least a guy who's like doing a read of a script. So It's always kind of interesting when you see that, like some like a really talented actor playing a scene where they are they're playing an actor who is not fully comfortable with the material yet, and also kind of like breaking up halfway through it

and laughing. It's also a very humanizing scene. Like this film, more than a lot of horror pictures and thriller pictures I've seen, it introduced our protagonist, and I instantly care about him, like I'm instantly invested, Like this guy seems alright, he seems normal. Look at all this this this fun in life in him. Yeah. Sure, I mean I think we're supposed to understand that he is a bad actor, not just not as great as Brad Dorriff. Yeah, yeah,

but you're you're probably right. I think he's supposed to be a teacher right at this uh this college, Yeah, I think. So they don't say what he teaches, or if they do, I missed it. Is he the theater teacher or is he just he's just gonna be no, no, no, no, okay. But so here's a question I had at this audition.

There are five characters in the scene, and every single one of them is wearing an anti nuclear arm band, which is so it's an arm band that's like a no smoking sign, but with the radiation symbol instead of the cigarette. So is this a gathering of like the anti nuclear repertory company? Why is this an anti nuclear theater troupe? I mean, I guess it's just supposed to be the vibe on campus. I don't know. I know Toby Hooper taught at one point, Um, what in Austin?

I think, so, I don't know if he's like pulling in some of that. I also had the feeling throughout the film, especially I think from this point on that this picture was trying to say something about nuclear energy, was trying to be to to to make a statement, like an anti nuke statement, in ways that never completely worked and maybe handicapped the script at times. Oh yeah, yeah, I think this is supposed to be an anti nuclear movie, and not just against nuclear weapons, which you know, there's

a very understandable point of view. Is also clearly against nuclear power as an energy source, which makes me think, what could this movie could could have got some funding from big coal. Um, but he's uh so he's bad at acting, and he fails the audition, and and oh and every like everybody associated with the nuclear power plant in this movie is evil. Um, but he's bad at acting. He fails the audition. His girlfriend tells him he's bad.

This is this is Lisa uh. At some point he asks her about I think he's astrological charts and she's got some info for him. I think she also has pills for him that she gives him right right, She's really into astrology and he doesn't completely take it seriously. But they have a great chemistry these two. Like this is thinking back to Doris quote that we read earlier. I I wish this had stuck to the love story because they had these two had some nice chemistry together

and and I'm instantly invested. I want them to succeed and overcome whatever, you know, kind of fire baby stuff is happening in the background. So to explain the situation of the film, like what's generally going on, I think we should probably try to describe this scene at the at the restaurant, and then the following the like the outside the limo thing, because this is where you sort of figure out the relationships between the characters. So Sam

correct me if I get anything wrong here. Sam has an ex wife named Rachel, whose grandfather uh lu oh Lander and that's the prince character from the beginning is always asking about him, always asking about his headaches and his migraines. But also Lou Olander uh raised Sam? Is that right? Yeah, he's some sort of father figure. Yeah, he's I don't know, I don't recall to what degree he was involved in raising him, but he is. He seems to be the most important male figure in Sam's life, Okay,

but it was hard to figure that out. So I think he was basically Sam's. Um, Yeah, some kind of mentor figure or father figure to him. And end he's and he's the grandfather of Sam's ex wife. But then when Sam gets to the restaurant, first of all they try they stick him with the bill. His ex wife is like, I have to leave, you'll pick up the

tab um, and then Sam follows her outside. She gets in a limo with the grandfather with Lou and then um, they see a news story on a TV that's playing in the limo that talks about this woman named Amy who had died the previous night. She has some association with a nuclear power plant and she had died the previous night after an incident resulting from smoking in bed. And then uh, we find out and then he's like, what, but I just had a heated argument with her the

previous night, so it's really kind of telegraphing. Um. But then he he gets stuck with the check after they leave, and he's very angry about this, and then his finger catches fire. Yes, uh and I should It's it's pretty effective, I thought, because it's not just like a like a you know, like, oh my inger's on fire, Like it's shocking, it's painful. There's this it's kind of like his his the tip of his finger becomes phosphorus for a second. Yeah, Doriff's all in and it's like yeah, it's like a

quick match, you know. Fush. So here from here, he goes to his doctor's office, and we find out that his doctor is forgetful and incompetent. It doesn't really pay attention to ask him the same questions over and over again. He says that he tried. He says that the doctor told him he needed to get his tonsils removed, but he didn't have tonsils anymore because they'd already been removed. Um. And so he electrically shocks the doctor, apparently by accident

while shaking his hand, a tribute to the static electricity. Yeah, and I think they're setting up some recurring themes that will be happening throughout the rest of the plot, which is that Sam, first of all, keeps having little incidents in which like his fingers or parts of his body catch on fire, or he's in the vicinity of fire, like he lights a match or something and it blazes

up into an inferno. And then on the other hand, there are repeatedly stories about somebody who Sam had a conflict with later turns up burned to death in their home right, And this this first incident of we don't see it, but that eventually we're seeing these sequences where yeah, they're they're graphically burned alive, and then he learns about

it after the fact. Now I don't know exactly how this connects to the concept of spontaneous combustion, because here it seems like he's pyrokinetically doing this to people unconsciously, like he's not trying to, but it's a result of him getting mad at people, I guess um. And and yet he's driving around in his car listening to like

the radio that's talking about these spontaneous combustion conspiracies. Yeah, like if it was two, if this took place today, he would be listening to conspiracy podcasts NonStop about things like spontaneous human combustion. But it's on the radio, which is I don't render what radio station that is. But also so the thing they're talking about is like they don't want you to know about spontaneous human combustion. You're not supposed to talk about it. If you know about it,

they'll shut you up. But this is one of those conspiracy theories where like it doesn't even pass the uh okay as if plausibility test, Like what shadowy power would be trying to contain the secret of spontaneous combustion? Kui bono? Right? You know who's benefiting from keeping this a secret? Is this making somebody money? Or I don't know. I guess that if I'm being generous, I would say that, yeah,

I'm sorry, I can't. I have nothing. No. It reminds me of like the people this is what I've actually heard before, like the people who say like flat earthers, who say, oh, the government wants you to think that the Earth is round, and it's like, oh wow, you know, if they can just convince us the earth is around, then they'll really what. I don't know, they were really powerful. Yeah,

I mean, I don't know. Part of it, I guess could be the film's trying to play into the idea that he is, like there's there's legitimate paranoia building, but I guess and anytime you're crafting a fiction way or you you want there to be paranoia but also a legitimate conspiracy going on at the same time. It's kind of a difficult thing to bounce, especially for the viewer, like where are we what are we supposed to? Where

are we supposed to cut it off? You know? Right? Well, this movie is very much in the spirit of the Nirvana song. You know, just because you're paranoia, don't mean

they're not after you. Yeah, yeah, So yeah, he quickly becomes he growing paranoia throughout the picture, growing realization that people are burning up, that he's had um you know, emotional flare ups about and uh and everything just escalates and Doris character Sam, at the center of this um is just having an increasingly difficult time holding it together. M And I like that this movie does uh sort

of emphasize the role of media here. I mean, this is nine, but it doesn't seem coincidental that, like literally every piece of TV or radio media he consumes is either about spontaneous combustion, paranormal stuff, or an evil nuclear power or plant. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of ahead of its time in this picture. Then it's it's kind of forecasting the social media age. But eventually he ends up like trying to call into this radio show because Lisa wants him to. Lisa's like, oh, I know this guy

who's got a radio show, dr persons. He is a radio call in psychic psychiatrist. Do I get that right? Yeah? I believe so okay, And she she has him call in because she specifies, She's like, you can call in. I'm a supporter. I donated seventy five dollars, which you know you have to give. You have to give otherwise the whole thing goes dark. But he calls in on this amazing like light up neon phone. Yeah, pink, I believe like it's an odd choice because it really dominates

the whole scene. Now, this radio host is like, yeah, I can tell you got some You've got some evil spirits in you or something. But he wants he really wants to talk to the guy. Uh, and he gets cut off somehow, And this is how I think he accidentally sets John Landis on fire. What is it that happens here? He's like trying to call back and Landis, his character, answers the phone. He's like, he can't talk

to you, he's on the air or something. And then like Landis is horrifically on fire, like it's a it's an intense fire scene. He literally breathes fire like a dragon shoots out of his mouth. Well yeah, well that part is is ludicrous. But then but then after that, there's a scene where he's just this like a man on fire in the room, like bashing into the walls and into the glass, And that's rather frightful, especially since I think there's no sound in that scene. It makes

it even more disturbing for some reason. Now, from here, there's sort of a progressing revelation of the fact that every single person in Sam's life is like a plant by this conspiracy, that he really doesn't have any genuine relationships. Like he finds out that Lisa, his girlfriend, is a plant. She was like put in service as his girlfriend by lou Lander to like, I guess, monitor him and give

him these pills, these homeopathic pills he's been taking. So there's clearly a conspiracy afoot, and it encompasses every single aspect of Sam's life, right, um, And I would say, like one of the flaws in the in the final portions of the film is that in a conspiracy film, this conspiracy story, I feel like there should be uh an impression of narrowing as you reach the end, you know, the idea that, like the parent, the paranoid fantasies are real,

the conspiracy is real, and therefore everything should take on this simpler form, at least to the mind of of the individual at the center of everything. And instead it I mean, things do streamline a little bit, but they're still kind of all over the place. You still don't know who is our central uh adversary for the longest Yeah,

that's right. And in the last third of the movie really turns into a spiral into chaos, a kind of you know, a destructive spiral thing where he just Brad doorf just keeps like getting in raide to buy things and setting people and things on fire. And setting himself on fire, like it's also really hurting him, Like he'll get mad about something and and fire shoots out of his arm and there's like blood squirting everywhere and sparks coming out of his face and uh, like it's it's

rough on him too. Yeah, And I think that's that's something I do like about the picture is that the firestarter in this is not untarnished by the flame. And and something about that works really well with the sort of loose metaphor of of unchecked emotions, you know, the idea that like all this is not just a matter of you hurting everyone else around you and having no control, you're also hurting yourself. You're destroying yourself in the process. Yeah,

and that it can't be harnessed. He's not like, uh, he's not like the X Man guy who X Men guy who's got the firepower who can just like direct it, you know, like Magneto does. It's more like an uncontrolled outburst that just harms everything in its path. Yeah. So the Pyro emotional breakdown here really begins on an hour into the picture. And yeah, this is where I think

the wheels come off quite a bit. Um dorof carries his character remarkably well with these pivots, and he makes this transition is perhaps as believable as as humanly possible

for an actor. But it's still a rough transition because up and until now, I feel like we've been rooting for him, you know, he Dorif presents a sympathetic character for the most part, the one who is really struggling, and then when the character goes off of the rails, it's uncertain, like who we should be pulling for here.

It's also uncertain whose side Lisa is on. Like there, there's certainly been pictures that I've seen, stories that I've I've I've read where you have the character you're rooting for and then they become the villain and there's somebody else who you're hoping they don't hurt um, but they But I feel like Lisa for the most part, feels that that that role. But you're also unsure is she in on it? Is she part of the conspiracy or not? Is she is she an innocent or or is she

part of it? Well? We do, I mean so we know she's a plant, like she was put in his life in order, you know, to help manipulate him in this way, but you also get the feeling that she didn't understand the full extent of what was going on and that she has grown to truly love him. I think. Yeah,

so it gets a little nudey there. But but you know, one of the interesting things was I watched Wise Blood after this, and Wise Blood has a similar trajectory with with a Hazel character, Because I mean, you don't, okay, Hazel is not as as likable a character as Sam. Hazel is. U is an intense and in many ways awful character who is obsessed with with with various things, but you still are on some level rooting for him

until he goes off the rails and murder somebody. So uh, in a way, I guess you know, this similar trajectory for both characters, but with with Sam, you really do care about him early on in the picture, so it makes that pivot all the worse. I did enjoy so I thought that the ending of this movie was somewhat anticlimactic, though I also in an at least an ironic way, enjoyed the Uh. The the sort of Bond villain speech

that lou Olander gives at the end. Yeah, the basic idea is is this whole thing with the Samson project with uh, with the two individuals who went into it, and they ultimately had this job. This was always the plan to produce a a fire baby, allow that fire baby to grow up, and harness the power of fire baby, control fire baby, and use those fire baby powers as a weapon of some sort. Right. He says, you were America's atomic man, you know, like the like you're the

next uh atomic weapon. Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, like, even if you're just looking at this from like, what's the most effective weapon to destroy people with? He seems

less useful than atomic weapons. And this makes me feel like this is a case where perhaps the aspirations of this of of the the writers here to say something about nuclear power and nuclear weaponry, that perhaps it got in the way of of crafting a better trajectory for the character, because I ultimately feel like it would have been better if we had maybe a slightly more uplifting ending where maybe he becomes kind of the atomic man and he saves the day or it becomes like a

you know, angel of pure light and transcends or something. But I kind of get the sense like that they I can imagine a situation in the writing room or the you know, the writing table, where it's Toby Hooper and Goldberg there, and I imagine I'm saying, well, like, no, no, no, that's not what we want to say about about nuclear power. That's not what we believe about nuclear power. So we're

we're not going to do that with the character. Maybe I'm totally off, but that's I couldn't help but think about that watching this ultimately, though, I don't really know if the anti nuclear thing is like a is like a genuine sentiment of the filmmakers and something they're trying to communicate to the audience, or if it's more of a plot device true it's yeah, or if it's just kind of like it was on their mind so it ends up filling up the background, So it's it's, it's

it's it's kind of like if there's pepsi in the background a lot of the times, it doesn't mean the picture is trying to say something about pepsi cola versus Coca cola. But there's another confrontation after the confrontation with with lou Olander where he does the thing where he like melts into a puddle of light and then turns into a hand made of light and reaches out and

grabs fire off of Lisa to save her. Like he says, I can take your fire, and he takes it, and then he's got that and that that scene was weird and kind of confusing. I like the idea. I can see where it would have worked really well on paper, you know, and even the words sound kind of nice, I can take your fire for you, you know. But at that point in the in the film, everything's going off the rail, so it's it's it doesn't make as much of an impact, but it's kind of a fire

apotheosis at the end. And but instead of coming up, going up and becoming a star constellation in the sky, his apotheosis is melting into a puddle of light and becoming one with the radiation, the sparks and the fire at the center of the earth. Well, you put it like that, it sounds pretty beat of yeah, in the

actual picture, it's not really beautiful, though there is. I do enjoy the sequence earlier towards the end where he's, uh, he's walking into the mansion there to confront Loo and there's all this blue light and um and Brad Doff's character Sam is like is he smoking? Like his whole body is kind of smoldering a little bit. I did really like that. I thought that looked pretty cool. I think I'm gonna stand by what I said earlier. Ultimately, I think this movie is pretty much incoherent, and yet

it's absolutely a blast. I mean, Toby Hooper knows how to make a fun movie that is not boring. Uh And and Brad Doriff is tremendous. Uh. Yeah, I definitely agree that Brad brad Dorff is great in this Um though I don't know if you've never seen Brad Dorf in a film, I don't know where to even tell people to start. The thing is, you probably have seen Brad Dorrif in a film. He's just not the kind of actor that you can, um, you can avoid seeing.

He's shown up in something, and he's probably was probably memorable in it. All Right. You you're probably wondering, well, where can I watch Spontaneous Combustion? Well, it's available on DVD and Blu ray from Sunset Films. Sometimes you'll find it on streaming as well. Um, And if you happen to live in Atlanta, you can go to Atlanta's only video store, Video Drome. They have a copy of it, I believe on DVD. Rent it, but do not don't set it ablaze with your with your psychic powers. Be

careful with the case. They say plastic can make that happen. Yeah, yeah, and be careful calling into video drume about it because you can cause fire that way. I don't know. It might even be dangerous to listen to this podcast with those powers, because you could make us burst into flames right here. Please don't. All right, we're gonna go and close it out there, but we'd love to hear from you. I'd love to know what are your favorite Brad dorriff rolls.

He's been in so much UH and there's so much I haven't seen him, will probably never have the opportunity to see. So if there's something, if there's a particular gym uh to be found in um in another uh cinematic husk out they are, If there's a there's some some some really prime Brad Dora, if it's worth enduring U the flaws in another picture for let us know about it. I would, I would, I would like to be enlightened. Please light our fire all right, if you

want to listen to Weird House Cinema. It publishes every Friday. In the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed were primarily a science podcast, and we put out episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also do a short form artifact on Wednesdays and a listener mail on Mondays with a rerun on the weekend. And hey, if you want to go to Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com, that'll shoot you do the I heart page for our show.

You'll find all the episodes there. There's a store button there and if you want to go there, you can buy some merch with some of our logos on it, including the Weird House Cinema, Loko, Huge Things. As always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other to suggest topic for the future, just to say hello, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

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