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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 2: And I am Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House

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Speaker 2: we're going to be talking about the nineteen sixty two

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Speaker 2: Mexican horror film The Brainiac, starring Abel Salazar Rosa, Maria

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Speaker 2: Gallardo or Guyardo, and Rubin Rojo. And this is one

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Speaker 2: that I saw many, many years ago. I think I

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Speaker 2: watched this with a friend in high school. I remembered

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Speaker 2: very little about it except the exquisitely bizarre design of

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Speaker 2: the monster, and this was such a treat upon revisit.

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Speaker 2: It is so absurd, but it also just takes your

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Speaker 2: soul on a ride, and in counterintuitive ways, is more

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Speaker 2: thought provoking than some viewers may think.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I had seen it previously, I think in a

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Speaker 1: rift tracks form so on. I was not expecting expecting

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Speaker 1: to have my thoughts provoked much at all, and yet

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Speaker 1: that they were provoked, So I will agree with you

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Speaker 1: on that. You know, I haven't referenced Michael Weldon's Psychotronic

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Speaker 1: Encyclopedia film recently, so I made sure to bust it

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Speaker 1: out to look up his entry for the Brainiac and

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Speaker 1: sure enough he also praised the creature design as well

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Speaker 1: as quote surprisingly surreal elements in the picture, and then

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Speaker 1: also adds if you can't find it on television, rent

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Speaker 1: the video cassette, which which which makes sense considering that

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Speaker 1: this is a film that was widely seen on cable

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Speaker 1: television at least back in the day, and probably pre

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Speaker 1: cable television as well, so it had it has had

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Speaker 1: a long long history of popping up unexpected on television

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Speaker 1: sets and then as a rental across various formats.

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Speaker 2: I think before there was as much of a market

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Speaker 2: as there is today for weird, low budget horror film,

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Speaker 2: this was one of the few. This was one of

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Speaker 2: the ones that was on people's radar, along with maybe

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Speaker 2: ed Wood and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean there are various references to it.

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Speaker 1: For example, some of you may be familiar with it

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Speaker 1: because Frank Zappa references it in a song from nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy five called Debra Cadabra. This is the one where

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Speaker 1: he says, make Negro brainiact fingers but with more hair,

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Speaker 1: and he also there's also a line in that says

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Speaker 1: from the puffed and flabulent Mexican rubber goods mask, which

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Speaker 1: I believe must also be referencing the monster in this picture.

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Speaker 2: Now, if you at home are wondering what are Brainiact fingers,

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Speaker 2: how are they different from regular fingers, you gotta stay

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Speaker 2: tuned you'll find out.

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Speaker 1: Essentially, what we have here is a resurrected warlock revenge picture,

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Speaker 1: a subgenre that I honestly love. We've covered various examples

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Speaker 1: of this on the show before, but there are some

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Speaker 1: neat sci fi type. There's a there's some creative use

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Speaker 1: of dissolve effects, and again a monster that is deliciously

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Speaker 1: creative in conception and an execution is you know, at

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Speaker 1: times comical, as low budget monsters often are, but also

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Speaker 1: at times pretty terrifying and always absolutely weird.

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Speaker 2: And this is also an example of inquisition'sploitation. Is the

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Speaker 2: reshorter version of that word.

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Speaker 1: No no, I think I think that's it in quisploitation, maybe,

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Speaker 1: but I don't. I don't feel like that conveys the

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Speaker 1: full meeting.

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Speaker 2: Now, as far as resurrected warlock revenge films go, how

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Speaker 2: does Brainiac square with your other favorites of the genre.

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Speaker 2: I assume you the main one I would think you're

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Speaker 2: referring to there is Horror Rises from the tomb Am.

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Speaker 1: I wrong, That's That's one of my favorites. So though,

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Speaker 1: there was also Piranha Mandir uh Parana Mandir the the

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Speaker 1: the Bollywood horror film from the Ramsey Brothers, a very

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Speaker 1: similar plotline, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other ones,

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Speaker 1: probably some major examples outside of the Weird House episode list.

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Speaker 2: Now, there's a question that has really been interesting me

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Speaker 2: since I rewatched Brainiac here, and that is how sympathetic

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Speaker 2: is the baron we were talking? We just recently last

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Speaker 2: week did an episode on Todd Browning's Dracula in which

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Speaker 2: we discussed changes to the character of Dracula as he

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Speaker 2: has been The story has been retold and reimagined through

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Speaker 2: different adaptations and films over the years, and one of

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Speaker 2: the big changes is that in the novel there's really

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Speaker 2: nothing sympathetic about Dracula. You're not gonna like Dracula in

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Speaker 2: the novel. He's just nasty, horrible, demonic. And then in

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Speaker 2: these later versions you get a more tragic Dracula, Dracula

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Speaker 2: who there are some good things about him, or maybe

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Speaker 2: at least he's got a sad backstory and so you

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Speaker 2: sympathize with him, even if it drives him to dark places.

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Speaker 2: In this movie, I feel like the backstory really rides

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Speaker 2: the knife's edge on whether we should consider the Barren

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Speaker 2: character originally sympathetic or not. There are some things said

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Speaker 2: about him that are both quite evil and quite good,

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Speaker 2: and you don't know which ones to believe because we

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Speaker 2: never see the truth of the matter, so we only

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Speaker 2: see him in revenge mode, and we don't know if

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Speaker 2: he's like truly a wronged man who was just suffering

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Speaker 2: at the unjust hands of the Inquisition and then came

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Speaker 2: back for revenge, or was he always a nasty warlock?

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Speaker 1: True? True to what extent are these charges by the

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Speaker 1: Inquisition valid at all? Again? Are they all just trumped

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Speaker 1: up charges against a man who did some good in

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Speaker 1: the world, And there's some strong questions regarding whether he

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Speaker 1: was a man to begin with. Perhaps we have indeed

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Speaker 1: an alien visitor here who does some good in the

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Speaker 1: world and is punished for it, or it just doesn't

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Speaker 1: know how humans work and does a mix of both,

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Speaker 1: not really understanding how one act falls on the side

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Speaker 1: of evil. In one act that it falls on the

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Speaker 1: side of good.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so I was gonna say, elevator pitch. This is

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Speaker 2: not really an elevator pitch, but it might be a

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Speaker 2: good tagline for like a repackaging of the film, and

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Speaker 2: that is the Spanish Inquisition could not have expected this.

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Speaker 1: Oh that's pretty good, pretty good. The only thing that

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Speaker 1: came to my mind was Dracula. But make it weirder,

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Speaker 1: not that it has much to do with Dracula other

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Speaker 1: than the evil the baron. The Baron of Terror in

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Speaker 1: this picture is dracula esque in some regards. You know,

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Speaker 1: he's a suave dude who does weird eye hypnosis stuff,

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Speaker 1: and you know, enjoys the ladies, enjoys not their blood

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Speaker 1: but their brains. Loves them for their minds, but not

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Speaker 1: in the good way.

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Speaker 2: I think there are some fairly strong similarities.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, but not in terms of like plot or

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Speaker 1: anything outside of that.

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Speaker 2: I think one of the big differences is that clearly

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Speaker 2: Crosses would not work on the Baron of Terror. Here.

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Speaker 2: The brainiac would laugh at your at your crucifix.

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Speaker 1: That's right, all right, Let's hear just a little bit

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Speaker 1: of the trailer audio.

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Speaker 3: The RADIANC, I.

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Speaker 4: Shall return to your world within three hundred years. When

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Speaker 4: that comment completes its cycle, it is once again in

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Speaker 4: these latitudes. Three hundred years later, the Count returns to Earth.

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Speaker 4: In The Brainier, see horrible and insane killings. As the

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Speaker 4: Count turns into a monster and seeks his revenge, see

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Speaker 4: that Count feast from human brains. Don't miss the most

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Speaker 4: horror film film of.

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Speaker 3: The scripture, The Radiac, The RADIANC, The RADIANC, The Rainier,

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Speaker 3: B B B.

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Speaker 1: All right, now, if you want to watch The Brainiac

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Speaker 1: as well, certainly you can follow follow Michael Weldon's advice

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Speaker 1: and watch it on TV or look for the video

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Speaker 1: cassette upgrading that for today. There's a really nice looking

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Speaker 1: blu ray from Indicator. But again, the film has a

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Speaker 1: long history of playing on cable on television. It's been

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Speaker 1: available on DVD for quite a while. The Riff Tracks

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Speaker 1: guys covered it at one point. I didn't give myself

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Speaker 1: enough time to get my hands on a physical copy,

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Speaker 1: so I streamed it on Prime. But even though it

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Speaker 1: was good quality, I could only pull up the non

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Speaker 1: Rift Tracks version at first, and I had to go

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Speaker 1: on the app on my phone to find the unriffed version,

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Speaker 1: added it to my list, and then was able to

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Speaker 1: pull it up in the big screen. I will also

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Speaker 1: point out that the version I watched is is the

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Speaker 1: English dub like the old Kay Gordon Murray English dub.

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Speaker 1: But there's one scene that's completely in Spanish with no subtitles.

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Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, if we watched the same version, I had

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Speaker 2: the exact same search problems as you like. Search often

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Speaker 2: wouldn't bring it up. I had to get it like

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Speaker 2: in my library on one device before I could actually

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Speaker 2: view it on another one. So yeah, same issue. And also, yes,

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Speaker 2: the scene in Spanish in the middle of the movie,

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Speaker 2: it's the scene where the characters are like reading newspaper

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Speaker 2: articles about the brain murders.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Luckily the context is pretty much implied. You don't

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Speaker 1: need to speak Spanish or have a translation to know

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Speaker 1: basically what's going on here.

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Speaker 2: So maybe they were just trying to cut costs on

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Speaker 2: the dub, you know, the scenes that are just a

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Speaker 2: recap of what you've already seen anyway.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and or if you see enough of movies like this,

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Speaker 1: you essentially know what's going on. All right. Let's get

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Speaker 1: into the people behind this film. The director is Chano Iwerta,

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Speaker 1: who lived nineteen oh five through nineteen seventy nine. Mexican

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Speaker 1: film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor active behind the camera

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Speaker 1: from nineteen twenty eight through nineteen seventy four. So while

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Speaker 1: certainly active during the golden age of Mexican cinema, which

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Speaker 1: is roughly thirty six through fifty six, his career expands

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Speaker 1: beyond it in both temporal directions. Among his most well

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Speaker 1: regarded films or nineteen fifties Legotta di Sangria, fifty two's

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Speaker 1: Labestia Magnifica, and fifty seven's El Raton. His genre films

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Speaker 1: include nineteen fifty four As the Witch, nineteen sixties The

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Speaker 1: Witch's Mirror, sixty three is the Living Head, That's a

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Speaker 1: Living Severed Head film, and several Blue Demon Luca movies,

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Speaker 1: beginning with nineteen sixty five's Blue Demon and also including

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Speaker 1: Blue Demon Versus The Satanic Power from sixty six that

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Speaker 1: one co starred El Santo, and then there are two

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Speaker 1: sixty eight films, Blue Demon Versus The Diabolical Women and

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Speaker 1: Blue Demon Versus The Infernal Brains.

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Speaker 2: I think I've gone looking for a couple of these

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Speaker 2: in the past.

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Speaker 1: He also acted again, especially later in life. His credits

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Speaker 1: on this front include two Sam Peckinpah films, The Wild

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Speaker 1: Bunch from sixty nine and Bring Me the Head of

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Speaker 1: Alfredo Garcia from seventy four. All Right, in terms of

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Speaker 1: the script and the story, here we have Fredrico Kiel,

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Speaker 1: who lived nineteen seventeen through nineteen eighty five. Adaptation story

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Speaker 1: credit here Mexican writer who also directed in the early sixties,

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Speaker 1: kicking things off with the first Neutron movie in nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty that we referenced this in one of our recent

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Speaker 1: episodes because this starred Wolf Ruvinsky's and co starred Claudio Brook. No.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Wolf Rovinski's was one of the bad guys, one

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Speaker 2: of the Martians in Santo Versus the Martian Invasion.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, a luchador turned actor, but not a mass lucidor

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Speaker 1: too handsome for.

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Speaker 2: That, so he played kind of like Kirk Douglas.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So there's another Neutron film in sixty three, and

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Speaker 1: career also wrote and directed several Santo and Blue Demon films,

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Speaker 1: as well as some Nostra Damis films and vampire films.

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Speaker 1: He's also acted and is in fact one of the

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Speaker 1: detectives in this film. He was also a cartoonist. Oh,

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Speaker 1: which of the detectives is he? Is he the comic

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Speaker 1: relief one or the serious one? I am not sure.

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Speaker 1: I've will had a note getting it. When we get

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Speaker 1: into the cast here, I found some contradictions on the

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Speaker 1: cast lists between two of the major movie databases, specifically

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Speaker 1: concerning the actresses. I think I got it straightened out,

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Speaker 1: but it also led to me not going as in

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Speaker 1: depth on the supporting cast here.

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Speaker 2: Okay, all right.

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Speaker 1: The other adaptation story credit goes to Aldolfo Lopez Portillo

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Speaker 1: dates unknown, credited on several films from the sixty seventies

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Speaker 1: and eighties, mostly westerns, but also including sixties. There's The

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Speaker 1: Living Head. And then, according to IMDb, Antonio Arelana nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty three through twenty eighteen, uncredited writer on this one.

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Speaker 1: Mexican writer, actor and occasional director. He wrote on several

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Speaker 1: Santo films, including sixty two Santo Versus The Vampire Women.

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Speaker 1: I also have to single out a title from nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety one called El Ninja Mexicano, and that has Germain,

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Speaker 1: Roeblis and Roberto Canito. One name that's going to come

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Speaker 1: up in a minute, and another name we've referenced in

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Speaker 1: multiple episodes on Mexican films. Okay, all right, but the

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Speaker 1: star of this picture the Baron of Terror himself, and

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Speaker 1: I guess the brainiac playing Baron Vastilius Destera and also

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Speaker 1: the producer of the picture. We have Abel Salazar, who

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Speaker 1: lived nineteen seventeen through nineteen ninety five. He also directed

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Speaker 1: fourteen pictures. He played vampire hunter doctor Enriquez in fifty

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Speaker 1: seven's The Vampire and also in fifty eight's The Vampire's Coffin.

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Speaker 1: He also acts in two well regarded old school Mexican

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Speaker 1: horror films, fifty nine's Black Pit of Doctor m and

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Speaker 1: sixty three's Curse of the Crying Woman. He's also in

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Speaker 1: The Living Head and nineteen fifty nine's The Man and

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Speaker 1: the Monster. He produced several of those as well.

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Speaker 2: The Living Head keeps coming up. Maybe this is a

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Speaker 2: sign that we need to go to that.

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Speaker 1: Next Yeah, yeah, the posters look cool.

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Speaker 2: I've also seen a lot of references to the Curse

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Speaker 2: of the Crying Woman. Is the Urona movie? Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: actually I just looked it up. The Malediction de la Youurona.

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Speaker 1: Yes, this is not a film I've seen, but I'm

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Speaker 1: familiar with it just by reputation. It shows up in

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Speaker 1: a lot of lists of films that I've considered checking out.

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Speaker 2: So this guy really kept reminding me of somebody. He's

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Speaker 2: great in the film. He's got a lot of scenes

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Speaker 2: where he actually just doesn't say anything, like other characters

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Speaker 2: are talking at him and he is sitting there silently,

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Speaker 2: either staring at them menacingly or just king and laughing

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Speaker 2: and you know, scoffing at whatever they're throwing in his face.

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Speaker 2: And so he does a lot of that. But also

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Speaker 2: he's got some some some swagger when he talks. But

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Speaker 2: the face he makes, especially when he kind of looks

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Speaker 2: skeptical with one raised eyebrow, he was really really reminding

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Speaker 2: me of Garrett Graham as Beef in The Phantom of

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Speaker 2: the Paradise. Do you see the comparison.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I can see some Garrett Graham there. I

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Speaker 1: also kept thinking of the actor, contemporary actor Patrick Fischler,

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Speaker 1: who's in like Mulholland Drive and a ton of other things.

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Speaker 1: I can see that too, but with more swaggering charisma.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but also disdain, just judgment, looking at people who

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Speaker 2: he who are who are lesser than him.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, so we'll talk more about this performance.

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Speaker 1: On the good guy side of things. We have again

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Speaker 1: Rubin Rojo playing a role. Again. This is a this

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Speaker 1: is there's a revenge element to this, but it's a

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Speaker 1: revenge across time, which we sometimes see with undead Warlock pictures.

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Speaker 1: So in the past he plays Ronaldo Miranda and in

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Speaker 1: the present he plays Marcos Miranda or any other way around.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Marcos is the one in the seventeenth century, the

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Speaker 2: modern one. They say Rinaldo online. I don't remember if

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Speaker 2: they ever say that in the movie. In the movie

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Speaker 2: they call him Ronnie.

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Speaker 1: Okay, dub at least that's the thing about the dove

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Speaker 1: they do. They do streamline some things.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, in the dub he's Ronnie and Victoria Contreras is Vicky.

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Speaker 1: Okay. Well. Rojo lived nineteen twenty two through nineteen ninety

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Speaker 1: three Mexican actor, perhaps best known for his award winning

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Speaker 1: supporting role in nineteen forty eight Soldad. He also played

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Speaker 1: Matthew in the nineteen sixty one American Bible epic King

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Speaker 1: of Kings, which I think mostly it had a large

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00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:59,600
Speaker 1: American cast, but also made use of multiple Mexican actors

286
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Speaker 1: as well. Rip Torn plays Judas in That By the Way.

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Speaker 1: Rojo's other credits include fifty six is Alexander the Great,

288
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Speaker 1: sixty three Santo in the Wax Museum, seventy nine's The

289
00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:16,159
Speaker 1: Whip Versus Satan, and nineteen sixty nine's Romero starring Roald Julia.

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Speaker 2: I feel like we haven't seen the last of him.

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Speaker 2: No offense to to Ruben, but he's not really the

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Speaker 2: highlight of this film. He is there to just be

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Speaker 2: the good guy. He doesn't have a whole lot to

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Speaker 2: do often.

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00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the kind of ghosts for most of the

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Speaker 1: rest of the cast. Really, I mean everyone is this

297
00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,600
Speaker 1: kind of fulfilling a basic role and you know, doing

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00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:42,000
Speaker 1: a good job within those roles. But yeah, this is

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00:17:42,040 --> 00:17:43,439
Speaker 1: about our villain and our monster.

300
00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:46,360
Speaker 2: It's Brainiac's world. We're just in it, that's right.

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Speaker 1: Okay. We have Vicky as you referenced earlier, or Victoria

302
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Speaker 1: Contrena's contreras. This is our leading lady. This is one

303
00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:01,160
Speaker 1: of the situations where I found some confusing casting information

304
00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:04,760
Speaker 1: between the databases, but I believe I have it correct here.

305
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 1: Played by Rosa Marie Gallardo. Her other films include sixty

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00:18:09,119 --> 00:18:11,480
Speaker 1: one's Mark of the dead Man, sixty five's Creature of

307
00:18:11,520 --> 00:18:15,120
Speaker 1: the Walking Dead, sixty fives she Wolves of the Ring.

308
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Speaker 1: That's a luchadora movie. In nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 2: Ruby Okay, so she is usually going to be in

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Speaker 2: the same scenes as Ruben Rojo. Again, they're mostly they're

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Speaker 2: the good characters, but they're mostly just reactive. They're like

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00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:31,439
Speaker 2: young people who are studying astronomy and they're just sucked

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Speaker 2: into the world of the Baron of Terror, and they

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Speaker 2: kind of hang around in that world until finally he

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00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:40,000
Speaker 2: tries to suck their brains out, and fortunately they're saved

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Speaker 2: at the last minute.

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Speaker 1: That's right now. One of the victims is noteworthy, at

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Speaker 1: least one of the victims credited just as bar Girl.

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Speaker 1: She is the you'll know when we come to this scene.

320
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Speaker 1: She is a lady hanging out at the bar that

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00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:59,480
Speaker 1: the baron ends up killing and brain gobbling. Played by

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00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:04,720
Speaker 1: Erodny Welter. She lived nineteen thirty through nineteen ninety eight.

323
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Speaker 1: Mexican actress with a ton of Golden age credits. She

324
00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:11,600
Speaker 1: was in the Lewis Bunnell film The Criminal Life of

325
00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:15,639
Speaker 1: Archibaldo de la Cruz from fifty five, but she pops

326
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:19,000
Speaker 1: up in various horror films. She's in the Lucidora film

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Speaker 1: The Panther Women from sixty seven. Her other credits include

328
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Speaker 1: El Gampiro sixty one's The Devil's Hand and The Vampire's Coffin.

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00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:27,720
Speaker 2: She has a good scene in fact, one of the

330
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Speaker 2: ones I was just talking about in a minute ago,

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Speaker 2: where people talk at the baron and he doesn't say

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00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,400
Speaker 2: anything back to them. She's drunk at a bar and

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00:19:35,560 --> 00:19:38,040
Speaker 2: is I guess, falling in love with him while he

334
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:40,920
Speaker 2: just stands there staring at some place like behind her head,

335
00:19:40,960 --> 00:19:45,120
Speaker 2: over her shoulder, and then suddenly he brainiacts out, and

336
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Speaker 2: we'll describe what happens.

337
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:49,160
Speaker 1: Later, but yeah, she gets a great scream in, that's

338
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Speaker 1: for sure.

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00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:53,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a brainiac process. He goes into processing mode.

340
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:57,199
Speaker 1: All right. The lead detective, the Commandant, is played by

341
00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 1: David Silva, who lived nineteen seventeen through nineteen seventy six.

342
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,840
Speaker 1: Pretty standard performance here, but he was an opera singer

343
00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:08,520
Speaker 1: and actor with some great connections, connections to some shining

344
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,359
Speaker 1: gems of Mexican weird cinema. He pops up in The

345
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Speaker 1: Batwoman from sixty eight, which we previously referenced.

346
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 2: Really fun flick starring one of the Martians from zetto

347
00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:20,920
Speaker 2: in Yes, the Martian Invasion. Yeah, yeah, it's little Lichadora

348
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:25,600
Speaker 2: film with fish people in it. But Silva also appears

349
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Speaker 2: in both Alejandro Jodowski's Al Topo from seventy and Holy

350
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Speaker 2: Mountain from seventy three. I don't recall him in that,

351
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:36,800
Speaker 2: but that would make sense. He feels like he's from

352
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:39,800
Speaker 2: a different world than most of the cast. This is

353
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Speaker 2: the serious one, right, not the comic relief cop. The

354
00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:45,160
Speaker 2: comic relief cop is Benny.

355
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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the serious one. I'm pretty sure. He's

356
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Speaker 1: also in a pair of weird films from Juan Lopez Montezuma,

357
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Speaker 1: The Mention of Madness from seventy one and Alokarda from

358
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Speaker 1: seventy seven. They are both those both star Claudio Brook.

359
00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,199
Speaker 1: I have not seen Alacarta yet. It's supposed to be

360
00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:08,680
Speaker 1: pretty terrific. I've seen The Mansion of Madness and it

361
00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:12,159
Speaker 1: is super weird as well. I would say almost Holy

362
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:14,800
Speaker 1: mountain Es, well, not Holy mountain esk its. Holy Mountain

363
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 1: is kind of on its own level, but let's say

364
00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:20,239
Speaker 1: it has a lot of surreal elements. It is a

365
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,320
Speaker 1: film in which the inmates run an asylum, and the

366
00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:27,399
Speaker 1: leader of the of the asylum folk is played by

367
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Speaker 1: Claudio Brook in a very spirited performance.

368
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Speaker 2: That's a recipe for fun.

369
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Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, now, just a few other characters. There's

370
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 1: another double role here, someone who is an inquisitor in

371
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:42,679
Speaker 1: the past and is a victim in the present. This

372
00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:44,760
Speaker 1: is the one that gets to make some really crazy eyes.

373
00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:49,480
Speaker 1: Played by Germain Roeblis Live nineteen twenty nine through twenty fifteen,

374
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,400
Speaker 1: Mexican actor in horror movie legend in his own right,

375
00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:55,960
Speaker 1: the Vampiro movies that I mentioned, well, he plays Count

376
00:21:56,200 --> 00:22:00,680
Speaker 1: Caro di luvade Le Lavoud in those. He plays Nostradamus

377
00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:03,600
Speaker 1: in the Nostradamus films, which I don't know much about,

378
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:05,960
Speaker 1: but it looks like they center around an evil Nostradamus,

379
00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:10,639
Speaker 1: and he's in the Living Head as well. Also pops

380
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:13,119
Speaker 1: up in the Jess Franco film from seventy one, She

381
00:22:13,280 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: Killed in Ecstasy.

382
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,120
Speaker 2: This is the guy who plays in his modern of course,

383
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:19,080
Speaker 2: he's one of the inquisitors, as you said, but in

384
00:22:19,119 --> 00:22:23,080
Speaker 2: his modern form he is the professor. He's a professor

385
00:22:23,119 --> 00:22:25,680
Speaker 2: of history, and he gets to invite the baron over

386
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:28,600
Speaker 2: to his house to meet his beautiful daughter and then

387
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,879
Speaker 2: talk about the history of the Inquisition. What do you know,

388
00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:33,879
Speaker 2: it's just his area of specialty.

389
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:37,480
Speaker 1: It's not going to go well. And one, I'll say

390
00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:40,040
Speaker 1: a couple of others here. This film was not directed

391
00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:43,399
Speaker 1: by Renee Cardona, but just because he didn't direct it

392
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: doesn't mean he can't show up anyway. He also plays

393
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: one of the inquisitors, slashed like doomed aristocrats that is

394
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:53,959
Speaker 1: ultimately killed by the baron.

395
00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 2: He's like the head inquisitor. And then in the modern

396
00:22:57,600 --> 00:23:00,480
Speaker 2: day he's the guy who's an industrialist coming up with

397
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:01,960
Speaker 2: new metal alloys.

398
00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 1: Yes, let me show you my alloys in the basement.

399
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, you want to see my alloys?

400
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:13,359
Speaker 1: Bro. And then there's there's one more one of the

401
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 1: let's say. Senora Mensis is played by Ophilia Gomin. She

402
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,720
Speaker 1: lived nineteen twenty one through two thousand and five, Spanish

403
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 1: actress whose other films include sixty two Is the Exterminating

404
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,639
Speaker 1: Angel and The Man in the Monster. Now. I mentioned

405
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,480
Speaker 1: Kay Gordon Murray earlier, who lived nineteen twenty two through

406
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:37,359
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, producer and distributor of the English dub

407
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,440
Speaker 1: of this film. Murray is a familiar name here because

408
00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 1: he was responsible for the US theatrical distribution of several

409
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:47,080
Speaker 1: different Mexican films back in the day, including fifty nine

410
00:23:47,119 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 1: Santa Claus and sixty three's Doctor of Doom. I think

411
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: that's maybe his voice is the inquisitor during the opening sequence.

412
00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:58,399
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, I was gonna say, it's very similar. The

413
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 2: so we get some narra in the prologue of the film,

414
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:03,480
Speaker 2: and I'll talk about this in a bit, but it

415
00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:08,360
Speaker 2: felt familiar. It felt like the narrator from Santa Claus.

416
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,800
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, like it would be. The voice should be saying, Lupita,

417
00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: do not sentence the baron to death.

418
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

419
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 1: And then finally, the composer on this picture is Gustavo

420
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 1: Caesar Carrion, who lived nineteen sixteen through nineteen ninety six.

421
00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:27,880
Speaker 1: Mexican film composer who worked on a number of horror films,

422
00:24:28,160 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 1: including several of the titles we already mentioned, The Witch

423
00:24:31,040 --> 00:24:34,880
Speaker 1: Is Mirror, El Vampiro, Curse of the Crying Woman, and more. Now,

424
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,159
Speaker 1: this guy recently came up on my radar because I

425
00:24:37,200 --> 00:24:41,200
Speaker 1: was reading a twenty twenty four interview with jess Oborn

426
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 1: of Electric Wizard in Psychedelic Baby magazine, and they're asking

427
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 1: him a lot of questions about, you know, old horror

428
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:53,480
Speaker 1: movies as these as they tend to and he said, quote,

429
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: I'm really into the music from Mexican horror films. It

430
00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,840
Speaker 1: has a strange mix of sinister orchestral music with primitive

431
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:04,240
Speaker 1: electronic noise like Gustava Caesar, carry on. It's really cool stuff.

432
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:07,280
Speaker 1: And I have to say I think that largely pans

433
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: out at least early on in the film. The music

434
00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:13,560
Speaker 1: is certainly very sinister and orchestral, very dramatic. But then

435
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 1: when the sci fi elements start bleeding into the picture,

436
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 1: we do get some electronic elements, like a little dash

437
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:20,880
Speaker 1: of space music here and there.

438
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:24,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I can see how that's also a change

439
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 2: from the kind of core of that band's musical musical

440
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 2: movie kind of crossover space, which I would say is

441
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 2: something like The Witchfinder General.

442
00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:37,920
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Having said, I am curious to check out

443
00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:40,960
Speaker 1: some of his scores for these other films of note,

444
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,040
Speaker 1: like Curse of the Crying Woman. I wonder if if

445
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: those have any of these electronic elements, or if this

446
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,760
Speaker 1: is just a case where's he's scoring this film and

447
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, a comet shows up astronomy factors into

448
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 1: the picture, so we need to add some sci fi noises.

449
00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:56,959
Speaker 1: I wonder if those are present in these other pictures

450
00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:00,880
Speaker 1: or not. So I would say, for myn a more

451
00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,399
Speaker 1: memorable score than a lot of the Mexican genre films

452
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,159
Speaker 1: from this period have been in that we viewed for

453
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:10,240
Speaker 1: Weird House Cinema. Well, they're not counting Santa Claus. Santa

454
00:26:10,240 --> 00:26:13,560
Speaker 1: Claus has very memorable music, but in a different way.

455
00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:17,640
Speaker 2: You know, a really great ending of this film would

456
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 2: have been if instead of death for the baron, he

457
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,399
Speaker 2: just became Santa Claus. Did you see that transition? It

458
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,200
Speaker 2: would make sense Santa Brainiac. Yeah, I think it would work.

459
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:30,880
Speaker 2: Someone should do it. He sees you when you're sleeping,

460
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 2: he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been

461
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:34,840
Speaker 2: bad or good. I mean Brainiac would know.

462
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, you need to leave a bowl of brains out

463
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 1: for him in a little spin.

464
00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:50,399
Speaker 2: All right, you ready to talk about the plot.

465
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: Let's get into it.

466
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:57,000
Speaker 2: So the credits play over some very nice Goyademonia illustrations.

467
00:26:57,359 --> 00:26:59,879
Speaker 2: We've got some kind of winged imp with a lion

468
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,800
Speaker 2: head sprouting out of his crotch, who appears to be

469
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 2: swooping around in the air or terrorizing the peasantry. There's

470
00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 2: also imagery of the tortures of the damned. We get

471
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 2: penitents writhing in agony and these naked wretches fusing into trees.

472
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:17,520
Speaker 2: So I think there's a bit of Dante stuff going

473
00:27:17,520 --> 00:27:21,160
Speaker 2: on here. Also, there's a really good one under at

474
00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 2: one point in the credits of two Witches. So of

475
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 2: these witches cruising on a broom, two on one broom,

476
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 2: and then an owl in the background looking at them

477
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 2: like you're overloading that broom, and then the title, of

478
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 2: course appears. It's not Brainiac in the original. The original

479
00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,399
Speaker 2: title is El Baron del Terror, The Baron of Terror.

480
00:27:42,560 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 2: But plenty of sick six sketches with the credits, also

481
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 2: witches with melting mask faces, a lady with breasts on

482
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:54,119
Speaker 2: her back, more gargoyles, feathers and talons in places they

483
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 2: shouldn't be, and predator head groins. Now, when we come

484
00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:01,120
Speaker 2: to the action, we're told it is the year sixteen

485
00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 2: sixty one in a bleeding type face. I like the

486
00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 2: what do you call it, the kind of glowing white,

487
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,000
Speaker 2: bleeding type script that appears in this because it's also

488
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,840
Speaker 2: kind of italic. So it's like swooping away from the camera. Yes,

489
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:18,679
Speaker 2: And we're in a hall under great stone arches and

490
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,800
Speaker 2: a hanging crucifix, and there's a chair in the middle

491
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,959
Speaker 2: of the room in which sits a man in shackles

492
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 2: and leg irons, the kind of the ball and chain

493
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,359
Speaker 2: that drags behind you. This we will learn is Baron

494
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:35,680
Speaker 2: Vitellius Desterra. He is surrounded by frightening figures covered crowned

495
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:40,000
Speaker 2: ankle and black cloaks and hoods with their faces hidden

496
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 2: behind masks. So these are the Inquisitors. And then begins

497
00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:50,320
Speaker 2: this monologue from a booming, reverberating voice, which again reminds

498
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:52,440
Speaker 2: me of the narrator in Santa Claus. It's like, you

499
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 2: take that, but you replace the Christmas chair with pontifical menace.

500
00:28:57,800 --> 00:29:01,040
Speaker 2: And the voice says lou Pita, No, says we the

501
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 2: grand Inquisitors, protector of the faith against heretic sins of

502
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:09,040
Speaker 2: apostasy in the city of Mexico, and all the states

503
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 2: and dominions in the Province of New Spain and its

504
00:29:11,920 --> 00:29:15,840
Speaker 2: vice royalties in governing bodies through royal audiences in all

505
00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 2: the cities and states, do proclaim that the other inquisitors

506
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 2: and I have attended this hearing in the secret Chamber

507
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 2: of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition in Mexico to

508
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 2: do justice in the trial that has been initiated against

509
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 2: the aforementioned Baron Vitellius of Astera of unknown origin, who

510
00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 2: has repeatedly refused to state same, aware of the edicts

511
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 2: and merits of this trial and the evidence and suspicion

512
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 2: resulting thereof. And my lord, this is like a real legal,

513
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 2: legal kind of contract language reading of the fine print quality,

514
00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 2: isn't it.

515
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's like c Span for the Inquisition.

516
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:58,920
Speaker 2: Here, and it will go on and on. There is

517
00:29:59,160 --> 00:30:03,240
Speaker 2: a Macaw absurdity to the sheer volume of text we

518
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 2: get in these verdicts and proclamations. In the opening scene here,

519
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 2: there are even moments where it feels like the voiceover

520
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 2: artist is like reading fast to try to get through

521
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,280
Speaker 2: it all. And originally I was torn on whether to

522
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 2: like actually read everything from the scene, because I did

523
00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 2: transcribe it or just summarize. I think I'm just going

524
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,240
Speaker 2: to summarize, starting at one point because it's too much

525
00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 2: to read. But by the way, I do just want

526
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 2: to say before I go on, I love the posture

527
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,480
Speaker 2: of the inquisitors because it's almost a superhero pose. You

528
00:30:33,520 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 2: get multiple of them standing there in the black cloaks

529
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,440
Speaker 2: with like their you know, facing forward, feet at shoulder width,

530
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 2: and then the arms folded. What do you call that?

531
00:30:43,320 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 2: You know, they're on their hips, the hands on the hips.

532
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, very judgmental.

533
00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,360
Speaker 2: So this part I will read. The prosecutor comes in

534
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 2: and he reads from a scroll and it says the

535
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 2: following report on the sentence and the trial by torment,

536
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:01,840
Speaker 2: that this Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition instituted against said

537
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,800
Speaker 2: Baron Vitelius for heresy and the instigation of heresy for

538
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 2: practicing dogmatism. And I was like, huh, and that what

539
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 2: they're doing. But like, even with that line for practicing dogmatism,

540
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 2: even the voice actor sounds a little confused, like he

541
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,239
Speaker 2: just stops for a second as if to check and

542
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,200
Speaker 2: make sure that's really what the script said.

543
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, does that mean magnetism with dogs?

544
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, no, so there's kind of a pause. He's like,

545
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 2: for practicing dogmatism, and then he goes on for having

546
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 2: used witchcraft, superstitions and conjurations for depraved and dishonest ends,

547
00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 2: for having employed the art of necromancy, invoking the dead

548
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:47,959
Speaker 2: and trying to foretell the future through the use of corpses,

549
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 2: which I think that's the same thing as necromancy. And

550
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 2: then there's a long pause and he says for having

551
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:58,000
Speaker 2: seduced married women and maidens. And here we cut to

552
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:00,640
Speaker 2: Vitellius and he gives a big old smile. Well, yeah,

553
00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 2: So to summarize what follows, Vitelius gets sentenced to torture

554
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 2: and told that if he should be maimed or have

555
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:12,360
Speaker 2: blood drawn or die during the torture, that's going to

556
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 2: be divine proof of his guilt. Then they read he

557
00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:20,600
Speaker 2: doesn't say this. They read out that they previously sentenced

558
00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 2: him to torture, and he told them that he welcomed

559
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 2: as much torture as they were, you know, as much

560
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 2: as they could give him. He was like, bring it on.

561
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 2: And then they describe all the tortures they did on him.

562
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 2: It sounds like they did some form of strepato as

563
00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 2: well as stretching on the rack quote, and with his

564
00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 2: arms and legs almost torn from his body, he continued

565
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 2: to make jest of our holy authority, which doesn't make

566
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,920
Speaker 2: you sound cool when you say that. It makes the

567
00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:53,600
Speaker 2: inquisitors sound like the loser. But they decide he needs

568
00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:56,959
Speaker 2: more punishment, has not had enough yet. But before they

569
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 2: get to that punishment, there is a twist because, as

570
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 2: the person presiding over this trial says, and now, as

571
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 2: if our justice had not been sufficiently ridiculed, a witness

572
00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:14,360
Speaker 2: has come before this tribunal to defend the accused. This

573
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:18,320
Speaker 2: is the epitome of all brazen defiance. Lord inquisitors, now

574
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 2: tell me, are we going to stand for it? But

575
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 2: then they just bring the witness in anyway, and it's

576
00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 2: Ruben Rojo, who's going to play another character later on,

577
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:33,240
Speaker 2: but he comes in as the character Marcos Miranda. He's

578
00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 2: a guy dressed in a black doublet and a puffy

579
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:39,160
Speaker 2: caller who is here to vouch for Baron Vitellius's character.

580
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 2: Now here's where things I think get kind of interesting,

581
00:33:42,440 --> 00:33:45,760
Speaker 2: because up until this point I hadn't really thought about

582
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:50,239
Speaker 2: whether the Inquisition's accusations were supposed to be true or not.

583
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:53,720
Speaker 2: But this guy comes in and says, no, no, no,

584
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,920
Speaker 2: the baron is a good guy. He says that, he

585
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:00,320
Speaker 2: says that the baron has helped the downtrodden people in

586
00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 2: this new land of Mexico, and that he has dedicated

587
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,360
Speaker 2: himself to the promotion of the fine arts and sciences.

588
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:09,839
Speaker 2: And I was just thinking, oh, yeah, I'm sure these

589
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:13,000
Speaker 2: hooded inquisitors are greatly put at ease by that love

590
00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,839
Speaker 2: it when you help the downtrodden and promote the arts

591
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 2: and sciences. That's what they're into.

592
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: And to be clear, like, there's no reason this guy

593
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 1: would We're given no reason to believe he would be

594
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:24,719
Speaker 1: lying here, Like he seems like a you know, a

595
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 1: complete babyface. He's like, yeah, he's I knew him back

596
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,279
Speaker 1: in Europe, and he's yeah, he's he's a good guy.

597
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 1: He seems like he's, uh, he's really tried to help people.

598
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 2: Yeah. But then so immediately from the end of the testimony,

599
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:41,560
Speaker 2: without a moment's pause, the head inquisitor says, Marcos Miranda,

600
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:44,439
Speaker 2: the force that you have tried to perpetrate has earned

601
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:49,719
Speaker 2: you the punishment of two hundred lashes. What Yeah, which

602
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 2: she'll be applied immediately in the torture chamber.

603
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,640
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah. And so then he's just taken off to

604
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 1: be whipped, and the trial two hundred lashes.

605
00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:03,400
Speaker 2: I think, I think that is a death sentence. And

606
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:07,360
Speaker 2: before he's led away, Miranda and Vitellius make brief eye contact,

607
00:35:07,400 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 2: but they never talk to each other, so we don't

608
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 2: know anything about their relationship. So the inquisitors very briefly

609
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,320
Speaker 2: compare notes and then render a guilty verdict. But didn't

610
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,279
Speaker 2: they already I thought that was part of the proclamation.

611
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,800
Speaker 2: It was already like he's guilty. But they do it again,

612
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 2: and they sentence him quote to be dressed in the

613
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 2: clothing of shame, bearing symbols of fire. He will undergo

614
00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,400
Speaker 2: personal debasement before the people, All his lands and his

615
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,720
Speaker 2: possessions will be confiscated, and finally he will be burned

616
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 2: to death in an open field. So, okay, things are

617
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 2: not looking good for the baron. But then ooh, there's

618
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:47,640
Speaker 2: an interesting twist. Vittelius, who has not really said anything yet,

619
00:35:48,080 --> 00:35:52,360
Speaker 2: hits them with some sublime truculence. He says, if my

620
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:57,560
Speaker 2: body is to be burned, it will be without chains. Yeah,

621
00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 2: and then he uses sorcery to make the chas on

622
00:36:00,680 --> 00:36:04,880
Speaker 2: his legs disappear and reappear around the legs of his captors.

623
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:07,359
Speaker 2: So he like stands up to walk out of the room,

624
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,480
Speaker 2: and the captors awkwardly hobble after him, dragging the iron balls.

625
00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:14,359
Speaker 1: It's pretty cool. I mean, we're overthinking it. We might

626
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 1: wonder why he hasn't used these powers to escape already,

627
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 1: but yeah, you know he's using it to dramatic effect

628
00:36:20,400 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: here at any rate.

629
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it does kind of suggest that if he

630
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 2: were so inclined, he would be able to magically escape

631
00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 2: his punishment altogether, but he chooses not to. It's implying

632
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,759
Speaker 2: that the baron is willingly facing this unjust sentence. He's

633
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 2: willingly going out to be burned at the stake. And

634
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:44,680
Speaker 2: when I realized that, I started noticing a number of

635
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:49,319
Speaker 2: parallels here. This might sound crazy, but are the filmmakers

636
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:52,560
Speaker 2: trying to tap into some kind of parallel between Baron

637
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:57,000
Speaker 2: Vitelius and Jesus at his trial before Pilot. We can

638
00:36:57,560 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 2: think about all this, okay, think about the similar these

639
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 2: in the stories he helps the downtrodden, he is accused

640
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:08,160
Speaker 2: of sorcery and immorality by the religious leaders of his time.

641
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:13,279
Speaker 2: He faces an unfair trial, faces torture, and then cruel execution,

642
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,040
Speaker 2: during which he is dressed in garments of mockery. So

643
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:19,480
Speaker 2: I think a crown of thorns versus the clothing of

644
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,960
Speaker 2: shame that they just talked about. And then to get

645
00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,879
Speaker 2: to what we know is coming in the movie, these

646
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 2: characters will die and then later rise again to render judgment.

647
00:37:32,560 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 2: So it's kind of a shocking number of similarities here.

648
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:38,320
Speaker 2: But then I don't know exactly how it would connect

649
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:41,480
Speaker 2: the passion of Christ to the fact that this guy

650
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:44,040
Speaker 2: has tube fingers and eats people's brains.

651
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:48,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, that may be separate from this, but yeah, I

652
00:37:48,200 --> 00:37:49,960
Speaker 1: think these are strong points. I mean, this wouldn't be

653
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,000
Speaker 1: the only example we can look to where a Spanish

654
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 1: filmmaker has incorporated some elements of Catholicism, be they thematic

655
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:03,400
Speaker 1: or visual, into some sort of a horror picture.

656
00:38:03,880 --> 00:38:06,399
Speaker 2: So at this point in the story, what are you thinking, Rob,

657
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:10,640
Speaker 2: Are you thinking that the baron is actually he's what

658
00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 2: his friend said here, that he's actually somebody who is

659
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,759
Speaker 2: a nice guy who's trying to help the downtrodden and

660
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 2: is mostly just doing things to help people and is

661
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,640
Speaker 2: being unjustly accused by the Inquisition or is he actually

662
00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:27,799
Speaker 2: a wicked warlock and sorcerer who is manipulating people and

663
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:32,080
Speaker 2: so forth. I mean, the strange parallels to Jesus would

664
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:35,799
Speaker 2: imply that the filmmakers had the former in mind, but

665
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:38,799
Speaker 2: that also doesn't really square very well with the rest

666
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 2: of what happens in the movie.

667
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't give us anything to build upon this

668
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,360
Speaker 1: idea that he may have any decency to him, you know,

669
00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: which is kind of a missed opportunity. Or I don't know,

670
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:52,879
Speaker 1: maybe they weren't permitted to go there, But that would

671
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,359
Speaker 1: have been rather interesting if we hit later on, when

672
00:38:55,360 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 1: we see his return in the nineteen sixties, if we

673
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:01,480
Speaker 1: see him at least in small all moments reaching out

674
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 1: to the poor and helping the downtroten instead of just

675
00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:10,480
Speaker 1: just making social calls and getting seeking revenge and eating brains.

676
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,359
Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyway, the staging of the execution is pretty cool.

677
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:18,240
Speaker 2: So it's an indoor for outdoor shot sets with creepy

678
00:39:18,239 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 2: crooked trees, this big crowd of onlookers in the night.

679
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:25,800
Speaker 2: They're all huddled together behind hooded inquisitors carrying luminous torches,

680
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,799
Speaker 2: each one putting off this huge tower of flame, and

681
00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:34,319
Speaker 2: they have Vitelius dressed up in mockery as some kind

682
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,600
Speaker 2: of anti pope in a pointed hat.

683
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, all the all the hallmarks of of a

684
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:46,080
Speaker 1: classic cinematic witch burning here, you know, vengeful Christianity in

685
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 1: its most base and dark form, the withered trees kind of,

686
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 1: you know, matching up with this idea that here is

687
00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:59,120
Speaker 1: just a fruitless, decadent, degregated faith before us.

688
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:01,399
Speaker 2: There are bunch of movies I can think of from

689
00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:04,520
Speaker 2: the sixties and seventies that have this as their prologue,

690
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:08,480
Speaker 2: like somebody gets executed by the Inquisition and it looks

691
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 2: soften like this. I'm thinking of Mario Bava's Black Sunday. Yeah, yeah,

692
00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,399
Speaker 2: and of course horror rises from the two. Well it's

693
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,680
Speaker 2: time to burn in then, that's right. Well, so he's

694
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 2: at the stake and Vitellius makes eye contact with Marcos

695
00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 2: Miranda in the crowd. I guess Miranda already got the

696
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,080
Speaker 2: two hundred lashes and now he's just out there watching.

697
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:29,440
Speaker 1: I guess he has to watch.

698
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, And we hear chatter from some people in the crowd,

699
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:36,480
Speaker 2: so like, there's one guy who's standing there with some

700
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:39,239
Speaker 2: ladies next to him, and he says to one of

701
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:41,560
Speaker 2: the ladies that fiend will pay dearly for all his

702
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 2: sins now for what he did to you. But the

703
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:46,480
Speaker 2: lady doesn't say anything, so I don't know what she

704
00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:49,640
Speaker 2: thinks about it. We also see a couple of older

705
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:53,200
Speaker 2: ladies apparently filled with glee. They're just excited to see

706
00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,960
Speaker 2: this witch burning, and they're gossiping about how quote the

707
00:40:57,040 --> 00:41:00,480
Speaker 2: Viceroy's baby is in tears because they're burning her boy friend.

708
00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:03,239
Speaker 2: But then the other one says, be quiet or they'll

709
00:41:03,280 --> 00:41:06,720
Speaker 2: burn you too, so climb it of fear, I guess.

710
00:41:07,560 --> 00:41:09,400
Speaker 2: But then they go on to burn the baron and

711
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:12,440
Speaker 2: we get some great dramatic music here. It's it feels

712
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:18,360
Speaker 2: very similar to Night on Bald Mountain, like with the fluttering,

713
00:41:18,440 --> 00:41:23,360
Speaker 2: bat wing kind of violins, and Vitelius is a pretty

714
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:26,759
Speaker 2: darn calm while getting burned at the stake. For the

715
00:41:26,800 --> 00:41:29,240
Speaker 2: first half of the cook he mostly keeps a straight

716
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 2: face but occasionally looks amused. Then suddenly on the score

717
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:39,319
Speaker 2: there is a familiar musico dramatic cliche that I'm not

718
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:41,919
Speaker 2: sure I've ever given much thought to before I would

719
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 2: call it something like the sound of magic. You probably

720
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:48,759
Speaker 2: recognize what I'm talking about, rob It's often done on

721
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 2: the harp with a kind of rolling glissando up and

722
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:55,440
Speaker 2: down the scale on the harp that lets you know

723
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:58,759
Speaker 2: that we're often that we're entering a dream world, or

724
00:41:58,800 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 2: that a magical train information is taking place here. It

725
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,839
Speaker 2: doesn't sound like a harp. I think it's some kind

726
00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:07,319
Speaker 2: of mallet instrument, like a marimba. It's kind of a

727
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:12,600
Speaker 2: soft mallet sound. But now I'm curious, people listening with

728
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:16,400
Speaker 2: musical knowledge, is there a name for this convention like

729
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:20,480
Speaker 2: the dreamy rolling glissando that lets us know that something

730
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:21,840
Speaker 2: magical is taking place?

731
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:25,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, magical or surreal, dream like and so forth. Yeah,

732
00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:30,000
Speaker 1: it's certainly a common musical cue anyway.

733
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,200
Speaker 2: What it corresponds to here is that the baron suddenly

734
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:36,400
Speaker 2: looks up in the night sky and happens to see

735
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:40,600
Speaker 2: a comet from our point of view, a very blurry comet.

736
00:42:40,920 --> 00:42:43,640
Speaker 2: This is not the best special effects in this part,

737
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:45,480
Speaker 2: because it looks more like a dead bug on a

738
00:42:45,520 --> 00:42:49,799
Speaker 2: car windshield that got smeared by the wiper blades. Yeah,

739
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:53,800
Speaker 2: we've seen some better space effects in movies from this period.

740
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 2: But Marcus Miranda, the Baron's character witness, sees the comet too.

741
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 2: Does this mean something like? What's his role here? And

742
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,840
Speaker 2: again doesn't seem at all in pain or bothered by

743
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:09,080
Speaker 2: the two hundred lashes? And so they both see the

744
00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 2: comet and there's kind of an exchange like what does

745
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 2: it mean? Something's happening? And then comes the I Curse

746
00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:19,280
Speaker 2: You sequence, in which the Baron changes his He shifts

747
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:22,879
Speaker 2: his attention from the comet to one by one, each

748
00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:27,560
Speaker 2: of the four primary inquisitors, So, looking between them, he

749
00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:31,560
Speaker 2: uses his powers of sorcery to see through their masks

750
00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 2: and to learn their true identities. And then he promises

751
00:43:35,040 --> 00:43:38,480
Speaker 2: that he will return in three hundred years, riding upon

752
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,680
Speaker 2: the comet above to punish their descendants. And the enemies

753
00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 2: are in order. Baltasar of Menaces, who is wearing a

754
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:51,280
Speaker 2: hilarious puffy barrister wig. I think this is Renee Cardona.

755
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:55,440
Speaker 2: There's Alvaro Contreras who looks like a cool dude. Actually

756
00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:58,040
Speaker 2: he looks like he could. He kind of has a

757
00:43:58,040 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 2: biker look, okay. Sebastian of Pinoa, who's kind of weasily

758
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,600
Speaker 2: looking guy with a goatee and another big white wig.

759
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:08,360
Speaker 2: This guy gives a nasty little smile. This is the

760
00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 2: guy who's a descendant will be the professor. And then

761
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:15,560
Speaker 2: Helendo of Vivar who no wig, no smile, don't don't

762
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:18,840
Speaker 2: remember a lot about this guy. And you know, the

763
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:22,640
Speaker 2: Baron promises. He says, I shall exponge your foul lineage

764
00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:26,840
Speaker 2: from this earth. So here we get. Suddenly some years

765
00:44:26,920 --> 00:44:29,920
Speaker 2: flash up on the screen and so it says sixteen

766
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:32,759
Speaker 2: sixty one, that's where we are. Then it says seventeen

767
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:36,480
Speaker 2: sixty one, and I was like, oh, is it going

768
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:39,880
Speaker 2: to show us this same place at each of those years,

769
00:44:39,880 --> 00:44:43,280
Speaker 2: Like we'll see it across the different centuries time machine style.

770
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,560
Speaker 2: But no, for some reason, it just counts each century

771
00:44:46,600 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 2: on the screen with the number and doesn't change anything.

772
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:52,280
Speaker 2: It shows us seventeen sixty one, eighteen sixty one, nineteen

773
00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:56,160
Speaker 2: sixty one aka modern day. That's right. So we arrive

774
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:59,839
Speaker 2: in modern Mexico nineteen sixty one at a hip Nike

775
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:03,640
Speaker 2: club with couples out dancing to soft jazz music. And

776
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:05,600
Speaker 2: here we're going to meet our main characters in the

777
00:45:05,600 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 2: modern day. Who wouldn't you know, it are both descendants

778
00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:14,040
Speaker 2: of characters from the violent prologue. We get Victoria Contreras Vicky,

779
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 2: who is descended from one of the inquisitors, and Ronnie Miranda,

780
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 2: descended from the baron's friend or character witness, who we

781
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:25,160
Speaker 2: never really learned anything about, so as we will find

782
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,640
Speaker 2: out the two. These two are both young astronomers, but

783
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:31,920
Speaker 2: they're also an item. So they're dancing to the music

784
00:45:32,040 --> 00:45:35,040
Speaker 2: in a close embrace, and they're so entranced by each

785
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:37,600
Speaker 2: other's company that they almost forget they have a date

786
00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 2: at the observatory, so they notice the time, and then

787
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:42,520
Speaker 2: they kind of rush out of the place. They explain

788
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,719
Speaker 2: to some friends that they've got to go leave the

789
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 2: club to meet their mentor, Professor Milan, who is helping

790
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 2: them search for what Ronnie calls a real star tonight

791
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:56,279
Speaker 2: because the weather is very clear, So they go to

792
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,720
Speaker 2: the observatory, where the professor begins quizzing them on comets

793
00:45:59,760 --> 00:46:03,720
Speaker 2: with the patronizing tone. I'm gonna say, on one hand,

794
00:46:03,920 --> 00:46:08,240
Speaker 2: I appreciate the presence of the astronomy and the observatory

795
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 2: plot line in the movie because I like the themes

796
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 2: of sort of crossing the streams of fantasy and science

797
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:19,560
Speaker 2: fiction in horror that it brings in, So I like

798
00:46:19,640 --> 00:46:21,839
Speaker 2: what it does for the atmosphere of the film. On

799
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:25,000
Speaker 2: the other hand, I have to say that the observatory

800
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,600
Speaker 2: scenes are by far the most boring thing in the movie.

801
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:29,879
Speaker 2: Every time we go back to Professor Milan, I am

802
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:33,239
Speaker 2: not excited. Usually he's going to spend most of the

803
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 2: movie just opening letters from people who do not confirm

804
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:39,640
Speaker 2: that they saw the same comment as him, and just

805
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 2: acting forlorn about that.

806
00:46:41,880 --> 00:46:43,720
Speaker 1: It kind of comes back to something we said in

807
00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:46,120
Speaker 1: a recent episode of Weird House Cinema, a film like this,

808
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:50,800
Speaker 1: you need various middle aged experts that you go to

809
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:53,239
Speaker 1: to get just additional tidbits on what you may or

810
00:46:53,239 --> 00:46:54,720
Speaker 1: may not be facing in your monster.

811
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:57,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. So this setting and the character they kind of

812
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:02,319
Speaker 2: indirectly infuse the plot with some nice scientific energy, but

813
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,920
Speaker 2: at the same time that it doesn't make for great

814
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:09,560
Speaker 2: moments on screen generally, Like when the two younger characters

815
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 2: first arrived there with Professor Malan, he just starts quizzing

816
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:17,200
Speaker 2: them about comments. He's like, how many miles you know?

817
00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:20,840
Speaker 2: How many miles close does the Halle? Does Halle's comment

818
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:23,840
Speaker 2: come to the earth? And you know, the guy says,

819
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 2: and he's like, oh, good job, you know, you know,

820
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:29,640
Speaker 2: your comment trivia. But also he's treating them like kids,

821
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:33,320
Speaker 2: but they're adults and they're also supposed to be astronomers themselves.

822
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, he's talking to them like their high school

823
00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:36,720
Speaker 1: students or something.

824
00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:47,480
Speaker 2: Anyway, Professor's on the hunt tonight. He's got a big

825
00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,640
Speaker 2: stack of decaying cottices on his desk that he shows them.

826
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:54,600
Speaker 2: He explains he's been looking through them, and they all

827
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,439
Speaker 2: tell of a comet that appeared three hundred years ago

828
00:47:57,520 --> 00:48:01,840
Speaker 2: in sixteen sixty one, and based on Professor Milan's calculations,

829
00:48:02,160 --> 00:48:06,040
Speaker 2: the comet should appear again tonight at two thirty six

830
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:09,759
Speaker 2: am local time, which means right now. So they go

831
00:48:09,800 --> 00:48:14,600
Speaker 2: to look through the telescope. It seems not correctly aligned.

832
00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,319
Speaker 2: The first thing they see is the Andromeda galaxy, and

833
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:21,480
Speaker 2: then eventually they're looking around and finally Victoria locates the

834
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,399
Speaker 2: comet while the other two are complaining about not being

835
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 2: able to find it. We get some dramatic horn stings

836
00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:31,920
Speaker 2: in the soundtrack and the comet. First it looks like

837
00:48:31,960 --> 00:48:34,440
Speaker 2: a comet, then it suddenly turns into a firework. It's

838
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,600
Speaker 2: shooting sparks everywhere, and it crashes down in a field nearby.

839
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:41,400
Speaker 2: And so we see a local man driving a car.

840
00:48:41,719 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 2: He comes to a stop to watch an astonishment as

841
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,120
Speaker 2: the as the comet comes down, and the way it

842
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:50,800
Speaker 2: falls is pretty funny. It's a big paper mache boulder

843
00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:54,040
Speaker 2: with jagged edges, and it just falls straight down and

844
00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:58,320
Speaker 2: hits the ground like a sack of flower. But then

845
00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:04,799
Speaker 2: something you might not expect happens. Slowly, the comet itself dematerializes,

846
00:49:05,480 --> 00:49:11,120
Speaker 2: leaving in its place a being a beast of unspeakable horror. Uh,

847
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:12,799
Speaker 2: this is the part where we're going to have to

848
00:49:12,960 --> 00:49:18,160
Speaker 2: describe what the titular brainiac looks like. So rob, let

849
00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:20,200
Speaker 2: me know if I leave out any important details, but

850
00:49:20,200 --> 00:49:22,640
Speaker 2: I'm going to try to I'm gonna try to run down.

851
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:23,920
Speaker 1: A list, all right, Here we go.

852
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,319
Speaker 2: So the brainiac is bipedal size of a tall man

853
00:49:28,080 --> 00:49:32,800
Speaker 2: with a loose fitting rubber mask of a goblinoid character.

854
00:49:33,160 --> 00:49:35,760
Speaker 2: And I have to emphasize loose fitting on the mask.

855
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:39,799
Speaker 2: This is not a this is not a tightly organized

856
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 2: monster makeup face. Like the mask is dangling and jiggling

857
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 2: off of the head.

858
00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,680
Speaker 1: But also pulsating which I really like. Yes, and I

859
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:52,520
Speaker 1: would say in addition to goblin esque, it also has

860
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:56,160
Speaker 1: certain satanic elements to it. Like it feels, you know,

861
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:59,600
Speaker 1: kind of like a you know, a classic illustration of

862
00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 1: a death.

863
00:50:00,560 --> 00:50:04,359
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of a goblin baphomet so like

864
00:50:04,600 --> 00:50:09,240
Speaker 2: long pointy ears drooping at the tips, a long, sharp

865
00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:13,560
Speaker 2: beak like nose, shaggy black hair and beard, and it's

866
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:16,200
Speaker 2: kind of patchy, doesn't look healthy, but it is. Also

867
00:50:16,640 --> 00:50:20,440
Speaker 2: there's a lot of it, a lot of hair, deep hollow,

868
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:24,720
Speaker 2: empty eyes that are just sagging, like it's not tight

869
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:28,840
Speaker 2: around the eyes of the actor underneath. Instead you just

870
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:33,120
Speaker 2: see that there are spaces behind the eye holes. And

871
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:36,279
Speaker 2: then at the mouth there are two narrow fangs like

872
00:50:36,320 --> 00:50:39,000
Speaker 2: those of a venomous snake, protruding from the upper jaw.

873
00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 2: The mouth is often hanging open, and then out of

874
00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:47,920
Speaker 2: the mouth extends a foot long, floppy, forked rubber tongue,

875
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:52,000
Speaker 2: again like that of a snake, except usually not flicking

876
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:54,120
Speaker 2: in and out of the mouth to taste the air

877
00:50:54,239 --> 00:50:57,440
Speaker 2: like a snake's tongue. It's just hanging there, just jiggling

878
00:50:57,480 --> 00:50:58,440
Speaker 2: when the guy moves.

879
00:50:58,880 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, ye, there are elements of this creature that also

880
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:03,840
Speaker 1: remind me a bit of crampus, you know, yes, yeah,

881
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 1: for sure, the lolling tongue, though in this case again

882
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:07,959
Speaker 1: it is forked and that'll be key.

883
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 2: So then we got to go down to the hands.

884
00:51:12,040 --> 00:51:16,560
Speaker 2: Each hand is a sort of flesh clamp with exactly

885
00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:20,279
Speaker 2: two fingers per hand that can close together in a

886
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 2: pincer motion. These fingers are, as we see, not solid

887
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:30,800
Speaker 2: but hollow. They are some kind of flaccid tube fingers,

888
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:34,880
Speaker 2: so think soft, squishy tube claws.

889
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:39,799
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they are. They're the most bizarre detail of

890
00:51:39,880 --> 00:51:44,520
Speaker 1: this creature design. And they're completely mysterious because we have

891
00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:47,000
Speaker 1: no idea what if anything they're doing, Like does he

892
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:50,440
Speaker 1: breathe through those holes the ends of the fingers, are

893
00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:52,400
Speaker 1: they indeed finger I mean, he does use them to

894
00:51:52,480 --> 00:51:56,680
Speaker 1: grasp and to grab, but are those indeed apertures for

895
00:51:57,200 --> 00:52:00,360
Speaker 1: you know, anything he doesn't see. He doesn't feed with them.

896
00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:03,040
Speaker 1: Maybe they're for drinking water. Maybe he hears through them.

897
00:52:03,040 --> 00:52:04,920
Speaker 1: I don't know. But he also has ears on his head.

898
00:52:05,160 --> 00:52:07,160
Speaker 1: So many questions all unanswered.

899
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:11,440
Speaker 2: Do liquids come in or go out through the tips

900
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:12,440
Speaker 2: of those fingers?

901
00:52:12,640 --> 00:52:15,160
Speaker 1: Yeah? Or what goes in? And now I don't know

902
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:23,520
Speaker 1: it's but it's you know, it's bizarre and strange, and

903
00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:25,960
Speaker 1: I love it. It's because again, it's just a monster

904
00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:28,520
Speaker 1: design that is really going for it. They just really

905
00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:31,720
Speaker 1: set out to create something here that is unlike anything

906
00:52:31,719 --> 00:52:33,879
Speaker 1: we've seen before. And I don't know that we've seen

907
00:52:33,960 --> 00:52:37,160
Speaker 1: much like this since it's as bizarre as anything that

908
00:52:37,239 --> 00:52:42,320
Speaker 1: has been in a monster movie in the subsequent decades

909
00:52:42,360 --> 00:52:42,719
Speaker 1: for sure.

910
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 2: So when the Brainy act first appears, he's wearing the

911
00:52:45,960 --> 00:52:49,200
Speaker 2: Barren's clothes from sixteen sixty one, but they're very tattered,

912
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:51,719
Speaker 2: so I guess it's been a rough ride on the comet,

913
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:54,279
Speaker 2: assuming that's where he was. I'll have questions about that.

914
00:52:55,120 --> 00:53:00,760
Speaker 2: But he quickly fixes his clothing situation via the terminator method.

915
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:03,120
Speaker 2: He steals clothes from a chronolocal.

916
00:53:03,520 --> 00:53:06,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, he kind of like teleports the clothes off of

917
00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:10,640
Speaker 1: the guy onto himself, but not the underwear because Brainiac

918
00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:11,280
Speaker 1: goes commando.

919
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:14,799
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So the Beast advances on the man

920
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:17,759
Speaker 2: who pulled over to see the comet crash down. He

921
00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:21,680
Speaker 2: then begins to hypnotize him, and we will see that

922
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:25,400
Speaker 2: the Brainiac has some of the same powers as Dracula,

923
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:30,560
Speaker 2: including a hypnotizing glare, which interestingly is signaled on screen

924
00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:34,080
Speaker 2: with the same effect we highlighted in Todd Browning's Dracula

925
00:53:34,160 --> 00:53:37,760
Speaker 2: last week, where the face is mostly kept in shadow,

926
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:41,240
Speaker 2: but a focused beam of light falls over the eyes

927
00:53:41,360 --> 00:53:43,560
Speaker 2: that lets you know that the hypnotizing is going on.

928
00:53:44,040 --> 00:53:47,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say it's not quite as like it's perfectly

929
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:52,920
Speaker 1: executed in Dracula. Here it feels less perfected, but it's

930
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:54,000
Speaker 1: still it's still great.

931
00:53:54,239 --> 00:53:57,200
Speaker 2: But there's also a difference because in Dracula it's a

932
00:53:57,280 --> 00:54:00,799
Speaker 2: static light. This effect is like just a that goes

933
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:05,280
Speaker 2: over Dracula's own face when he's working his evil magic.

934
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:10,279
Speaker 2: In Brainiac, the light flashes on and off, so it's

935
00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:13,080
Speaker 2: a pulsing light. But also we see the focused light

936
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:18,880
Speaker 2: effect on both the monster and sometimes on his victim. Also,

937
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:22,400
Speaker 2: you alluded to this earlier rob In time with the

938
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:26,319
Speaker 2: flashing hypnotic light, there is another pulsing effect, which is

939
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:31,480
Speaker 2: a rhythmic inflation and deflation of the monster's rubber mask.

940
00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:35,359
Speaker 2: So the same way that a sleeping person's chest may

941
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:39,440
Speaker 2: rise and fall as they breathe, the Brainiac's face slightly

942
00:54:39,480 --> 00:54:42,240
Speaker 2: balloons and then collapses on a pulse.

943
00:54:42,719 --> 00:54:44,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty ambitious for the time. I mean, this kind

944
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:47,279
Speaker 1: of thing would become more of a hallmark later on.

945
00:54:47,520 --> 00:54:51,400
Speaker 1: You and I both recently rewatched Joe Dante's The Howling,

946
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,160
Speaker 1: which makes great use of this kind of like pulsating

947
00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:58,719
Speaker 1: you know, bladders inside of you monster mask. You know,

948
00:54:58,760 --> 00:55:01,400
Speaker 1: this is a lot cruder, but it is kind of

949
00:55:01,400 --> 00:55:02,479
Speaker 1: a sign of things to come.

950
00:55:02,840 --> 00:55:06,120
Speaker 2: Mm hmm. One last thing we should know. Brainiac does

951
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:09,400
Speaker 2: make noises. They are essentially the growls of a lion

952
00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:10,239
Speaker 2: or a big cat.

953
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:12,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're very effective, though I thought they were quite creepy.

954
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:15,920
Speaker 2: So, in an attack pattern that we will see repeated

955
00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:20,040
Speaker 2: many times, the brainiac approaches his terrified victim, who is

956
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:24,640
Speaker 2: somewhat hypnotized or frozen in place, grabs him about the

957
00:55:24,680 --> 00:55:28,040
Speaker 2: neck and shoulders with his tube fingers, and then goes

958
00:55:28,080 --> 00:55:31,600
Speaker 2: around behind the victim and then pokes him in the

959
00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:34,680
Speaker 2: back of the head with his floppy forked reptile tongue.

960
00:55:35,440 --> 00:55:37,520
Speaker 1: And then, as we'll find out, this is how he

961
00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:40,879
Speaker 1: sucks out the brains of his victims, which course, yeah,

962
00:55:40,880 --> 00:55:43,920
Speaker 1: which is fabulous. Again, they really went for it, they

963
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:48,040
Speaker 1: went They took sort of the basic vampire myth, and

964
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:49,680
Speaker 1: they're like, they said, well, what can we do to

965
00:55:49,719 --> 00:55:51,600
Speaker 1: make this stranger? What can we do to make this

966
00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:55,600
Speaker 1: more grotesque? And yeah they pulled it off. Now, one

967
00:55:55,640 --> 00:55:59,400
Speaker 1: of the big questions that I end up asking myself

968
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:02,799
Speaker 1: throughout the rest the picture, is this what we see

969
00:56:02,840 --> 00:56:07,920
Speaker 1: here the brainiac? Is this the Baron's true form, his

970
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:11,960
Speaker 1: true alien form? Or is this something? Or is this

971
00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:14,920
Speaker 1: his transformed body from having been taken up to the

972
00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:19,719
Speaker 1: comet and been in space aboard a commet for decades

973
00:56:19,760 --> 00:56:21,000
Speaker 1: and then return to Earth.

974
00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:24,240
Speaker 2: This is such a good question. I had the exact

975
00:56:24,320 --> 00:56:27,440
Speaker 2: same thoughts. I actually made a list of questions here

976
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:32,440
Speaker 2: or ideas. So my question was what is the brainiac

977
00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:34,680
Speaker 2: or the baron? What is his nature? And what is

978
00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:38,200
Speaker 2: the source of his power? So to review what we

979
00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:43,120
Speaker 2: know before execution in sixteen sixty one, the Baron had

980
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 2: at least some powers of sorcery. Some of these powers

981
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:50,160
Speaker 2: we see directly, such as the power to dematerialize and

982
00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:53,360
Speaker 2: materialize objects like the chains on his legs, remember that,

983
00:56:54,280 --> 00:56:57,520
Speaker 2: and then also the power to see behind masks. He

984
00:56:57,880 --> 00:57:01,759
Speaker 2: is alleged to have other powers by the inquisitors. We

985
00:57:01,840 --> 00:57:04,600
Speaker 2: never see whether that's true or not, but powers like

986
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:09,839
Speaker 2: necromancy and using some kind of seductive entransment, though that

987
00:57:09,880 --> 00:57:12,880
Speaker 2: could be a parallel of the hypnotism we see later.

988
00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:16,120
Speaker 2: Then he gets burned at the stake with a comet

989
00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:20,080
Speaker 2: flying overhead. Then when the comet returns, it lands on

990
00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 2: Earth and transforms into him or releases him. Now he

991
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:29,240
Speaker 2: has something we've never seen before, a secondary brain goblin form,

992
00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:33,000
Speaker 2: and can transform back and forth between the humanoid barren

993
00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:36,439
Speaker 2: form and the brainiac form at will. Now he can

994
00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:40,800
Speaker 2: also turn invisible, He can hypnotize people, and he can

995
00:57:40,840 --> 00:57:43,600
Speaker 2: do the tongue thing and suck out people's brains. So

996
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:48,000
Speaker 2: the question is, did something about him change on the

997
00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:51,960
Speaker 2: comet journey or was he always the brainiac? Did he

998
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:55,240
Speaker 2: physically ride the comet all that time? In which case,

999
00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:59,400
Speaker 2: did he encounter something in space or did the return

1000
00:57:59,440 --> 00:58:02,440
Speaker 2: of the comet simply resurrect him here? Is it like

1001
00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:05,600
Speaker 2: he's been here the comet coming back brought him back.

1002
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:09,600
Speaker 2: So and also I guess secondary from all this is

1003
00:58:09,600 --> 00:58:12,480
Speaker 2: his power based on fantasy or science fiction.

1004
00:58:13,240 --> 00:58:16,840
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we have no idea. These questions are never answered,

1005
00:58:17,440 --> 00:58:19,520
Speaker 1: but I think that's part of the appeal of the film.

1006
00:58:19,520 --> 00:58:23,600
Speaker 1: I think is is just such a bizarre character, such

1007
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:26,320
Speaker 1: a bizarre monster, and we're just left to wonder at

1008
00:58:26,320 --> 00:58:30,120
Speaker 1: how it all pieces together. And maybe that's quite accidental.

1009
00:58:30,280 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 2: I don't know, you know, I'm timpto to say that

1010
00:58:33,200 --> 00:58:36,800
Speaker 2: he was merely a master of some minor tricks and

1011
00:58:37,040 --> 00:58:40,040
Speaker 2: you know, master of the arts and sciences back in

1012
00:58:40,040 --> 00:58:43,760
Speaker 2: the seventeenth century. Then he somehow got himself aboard a

1013
00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:47,040
Speaker 2: comet rode it around space a long time and encountered

1014
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:51,080
Speaker 2: strange alien beings who gave him these additional powers. He

1015
00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:53,560
Speaker 2: brought them back, Maybe he fused with them and brought

1016
00:58:53,600 --> 00:58:54,880
Speaker 2: all that back to Earth with him.

1017
00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:58,680
Speaker 1: I like that, that is. I lean towards that explanation.

1018
00:58:58,760 --> 00:59:00,800
Speaker 1: But we also have the whole thing about him being

1019
00:59:00,800 --> 00:59:01,680
Speaker 1: of unknown origin.

1020
00:59:02,160 --> 00:59:03,200
Speaker 2: That's true, yeah.

1021
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:05,280
Speaker 1: And that could just mean that he was a foreigner,

1022
00:59:05,440 --> 00:59:07,560
Speaker 1: but he could also mean he could be from space.

1023
00:59:07,600 --> 00:59:08,000
Speaker 1: I don't know.

1024
00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:11,439
Speaker 2: There's one part later where he claims that he never

1025
00:59:11,600 --> 00:59:14,520
Speaker 2: had any ancestors, and I didn't know if that's just

1026
00:59:14,560 --> 00:59:17,479
Speaker 2: a weird translation of a line or if he means

1027
00:59:17,520 --> 00:59:18,120
Speaker 2: that literally.

1028
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:20,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, that he's not of this.

1029
00:59:20,320 --> 00:59:24,600
Speaker 2: Earth anyway, So brainiac. In this scene he steals the

1030
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:29,200
Speaker 2: guy's clothes via like clothes teleportation, victims clothes under his body,

1031
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:34,320
Speaker 2: and also of course transforms himself out of brainiac mode,

1032
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:37,320
Speaker 2: so he's no longer a giant Harry Reptilian brain goblin.

1033
00:59:37,720 --> 00:59:41,720
Speaker 2: Now he has the suave face of the original Baron Vitilius.

1034
00:59:42,000 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's good to go. Now he has the tools,

1035
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:48,280
Speaker 1: he has a mission. He's in the wilderness, but you

1036
00:59:48,280 --> 00:59:50,200
Speaker 1: know he can remedy that pretty quickly. I think.

1037
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,480
Speaker 2: Also right here, Victoria and Ronnie arrive on the scene

1038
00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:56,200
Speaker 2: because they're looking for where the comet landed, and they

1039
00:59:56,280 --> 00:59:59,920
Speaker 2: run into Baron Vitellius, and they just stand there saying nothing,

1040
01:00:00,120 --> 01:00:02,080
Speaker 2: looking at each other for a long time.

1041
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:06,360
Speaker 1: Yes, but then we get we get some excellent dialogue here.

1042
01:00:06,640 --> 01:00:09,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. The Baron is like, allow me to explain myself.

1043
01:00:10,000 --> 01:00:12,240
Speaker 2: I always just walks at this hour of the night.

1044
01:00:15,240 --> 01:00:18,320
Speaker 2: And then Ronnie explains that he and Vicky are astronomers

1045
01:00:18,320 --> 01:00:22,280
Speaker 2: and they're hunting a meteor, and I think Vicky is like, oh,

1046
01:00:22,360 --> 01:00:24,680
Speaker 2: don't bore him. There's no way he'll understand what you

1047
01:00:24,760 --> 01:00:28,960
Speaker 2: mean talking about a meteor. But then Baron Vitellius is like, no, no,

1048
01:00:29,080 --> 01:00:31,760
Speaker 2: I too have great interest in astronomy, so I know

1049
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:32,720
Speaker 2: what meteors are.

1050
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:37,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like, astronomy is actually my weakness, which is

1051
01:00:37,760 --> 01:00:39,760
Speaker 1: is At first I had to at for a second.

1052
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:41,600
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, does that mean it's like garlic? And

1053
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:43,800
Speaker 1: I'm like no, No, that just means he's like, that's

1054
01:00:43,800 --> 01:00:46,840
Speaker 1: how into astronomy he is. Yeah, that's his weakness. So

1055
01:00:47,200 --> 01:00:49,480
Speaker 1: that's something to keep in mind for, you know, any

1056
01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:51,360
Speaker 1: job interviews folks have coming up. If you get to

1057
01:00:51,360 --> 01:00:54,360
Speaker 1: asked that question, well, what's your biggest short following or

1058
01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:57,320
Speaker 1: your weakness or whatever, you can say astronomy. I'm just

1059
01:00:57,320 --> 01:00:58,400
Speaker 1: too into the stars.

1060
01:01:00,280 --> 01:01:01,120
Speaker 2: I'm a brainiac.

1061
01:01:01,400 --> 01:01:01,600
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1062
01:01:02,280 --> 01:01:05,600
Speaker 2: At first they exchange information one they give each other

1063
01:01:05,720 --> 01:01:09,080
Speaker 2: their cards. But the baron goes out after this to

1064
01:01:09,120 --> 01:01:12,160
Speaker 2: prowl the city. He's on a brain hunt. So he

1065
01:01:12,240 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 2: goes to a restaurant which appears to still be open

1066
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:18,880
Speaker 2: at three am or whenever. This is the bar crowd

1067
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:21,560
Speaker 2: is winding down. This place does look very cool. There's

1068
01:01:21,560 --> 01:01:24,960
Speaker 2: a backsplash behind the bar that's like this big, round,

1069
01:01:25,720 --> 01:01:28,760
Speaker 2: kind of translucent window with these weird symbols on it

1070
01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:32,280
Speaker 2: and an upside down brandy bottle. It's cool.

1071
01:01:32,680 --> 01:01:37,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, like what we see of presumably Mexico city

1072
01:01:37,320 --> 01:01:39,880
Speaker 1: nightlife is very very swap and charming here.

1073
01:01:40,080 --> 01:01:42,640
Speaker 2: So in this place, there is a single woman drinking

1074
01:01:42,680 --> 01:01:45,480
Speaker 2: by herself at the bar. All the other patrons have left,

1075
01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:48,320
Speaker 2: and there are a manager and a bartender closing up

1076
01:01:48,360 --> 01:01:51,360
Speaker 2: for the night, like drying glasses and counting money, and

1077
01:01:51,520 --> 01:01:54,080
Speaker 2: the baron walks into the place. He approaches the woman

1078
01:01:54,280 --> 01:01:57,919
Speaker 2: for some reason, he turns invisible as he's walking up,

1079
01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:01,520
Speaker 2: and then he appears again, like becomes solid again when

1080
01:02:01,560 --> 01:02:04,560
Speaker 2: he reaches his destination, which is standing right next to her.

1081
01:02:05,120 --> 01:02:06,880
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure what the point of this was, but

1082
01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:08,800
Speaker 2: I think it's just to show off another one of

1083
01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:11,840
Speaker 2: the baron's powers he can turn invisible.

1084
01:02:11,560 --> 01:02:14,520
Speaker 1: And of course to highlight again that the effects guys

1085
01:02:14,520 --> 01:02:16,640
Speaker 1: can do dissolve shots.

1086
01:02:16,800 --> 01:02:18,640
Speaker 2: Yea, they use this.

1087
01:02:18,600 --> 01:02:20,920
Speaker 1: All the time, whether it's stripping the clothes from a

1088
01:02:21,000 --> 01:02:23,840
Speaker 1: victim in a field or just making him go invisible

1089
01:02:23,880 --> 01:02:26,280
Speaker 1: for no real reason. We also saw it earlier when

1090
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:29,120
Speaker 1: he was seeing the faces of the hooded judges.

1091
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:32,680
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So the woman talks to the bartender into

1092
01:02:32,760 --> 01:02:35,200
Speaker 2: giving this new guy a drink even though they're trying

1093
01:02:35,240 --> 01:02:37,880
Speaker 2: to close, and he didn't ask for one. In fact,

1094
01:02:37,920 --> 01:02:39,680
Speaker 2: not only did he not ask for a drink. The

1095
01:02:39,720 --> 01:02:43,400
Speaker 2: baron says nothing in the scene. He doesn't talk, but

1096
01:02:43,440 --> 01:02:46,960
Speaker 2: the lady at the bar starts talking to him and

1097
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:50,800
Speaker 2: then seemingly forms a very intimate connection without him saying

1098
01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:54,040
Speaker 2: anything back. He just stares and drinks kangnac out of

1099
01:02:54,080 --> 01:02:58,240
Speaker 2: this very cute tiny glass, and she's like, you don't

1100
01:02:58,240 --> 01:03:00,960
Speaker 2: say anything, You're just looking at me, and then she says,

1101
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:03,240
Speaker 2: I don't want you to stop looking at me, and

1102
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:06,240
Speaker 2: he's obviously not looking at her. He's like staring over

1103
01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:09,640
Speaker 2: her shoulder at the wall, and then she goes in

1104
01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:13,720
Speaker 2: for a kiss dramatic music sting. He doesn't react at all.

1105
01:03:14,200 --> 01:03:17,160
Speaker 2: Finally she gets mad and tries to walk away, so

1106
01:03:18,120 --> 01:03:21,200
Speaker 2: it's brainiact time, nothing else to do. The light flashes

1107
01:03:21,200 --> 01:03:24,840
Speaker 2: on the baron's eyes and he transforms. The woman at

1108
01:03:24,880 --> 01:03:27,800
Speaker 2: the bar screams in terror and he grabs her and

1109
01:03:27,840 --> 01:03:29,760
Speaker 2: he does the tongue to the back of the head

1110
01:03:29,800 --> 01:03:32,320
Speaker 2: thing and then drops her body to the floor with

1111
01:03:32,360 --> 01:03:32,880
Speaker 2: a thud.

1112
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:35,840
Speaker 1: So more brains for the brainiact.

1113
01:03:35,520 --> 01:03:37,920
Speaker 2: Right, And then we got straight to the morgue, so

1114
01:03:38,280 --> 01:03:41,600
Speaker 2: we're seeing bodies on slabs, and here we meet several

1115
01:03:41,640 --> 01:03:44,720
Speaker 2: more recurring characters. There's the Morgue attendant, who I think

1116
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:48,600
Speaker 2: shows up a couple of times. Surprisingly handsome and cool

1117
01:03:48,680 --> 01:03:52,600
Speaker 2: looking fellow with horn rimmed glasses, a thin mustache, and

1118
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:54,080
Speaker 2: very neatly parted hair.

1119
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:56,320
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know why this guy is in our star,

1120
01:03:56,440 --> 01:03:58,400
Speaker 1: because he has all the hallmarks of one.

1121
01:03:58,680 --> 01:04:02,840
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then the two cops we mentioned, the inspector detective,

1122
01:04:03,040 --> 01:04:06,920
Speaker 2: the gruff, stoic bald man. He's very strongly built, with

1123
01:04:06,960 --> 01:04:10,280
Speaker 2: a fedora low over his eyes. He's serious. And then

1124
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:14,360
Speaker 2: there is Benny, his partner or subordinate, who's the goofy

1125
01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:18,560
Speaker 2: comic relief cop. And the first action we get of

1126
01:04:18,600 --> 01:04:22,440
Speaker 2: this guy is him offering impossible theories to explain the crimes,

1127
01:04:22,840 --> 01:04:25,040
Speaker 2: and then when his partner's like, no, that doesn't make

1128
01:04:25,080 --> 01:04:29,080
Speaker 2: any sense, he desires to quit the investigation. But while

1129
01:04:29,080 --> 01:04:31,760
Speaker 2: they're looking at the bodies here, the morgatendant tells them

1130
01:04:32,080 --> 01:04:34,080
Speaker 2: that he's never seen murders like this in all of

1131
01:04:34,080 --> 01:04:37,120
Speaker 2: his career. He says, quote, the skulls of these two

1132
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:42,880
Speaker 2: victims show two perforations. Possibly the murderer used an electric drill.

1133
01:04:42,960 --> 01:04:45,120
Speaker 2: I say this because the person who did it was

1134
01:04:45,200 --> 01:04:49,640
Speaker 2: quite skilled. Just look at these two orifices, and they

1135
01:04:49,680 --> 01:04:53,200
Speaker 2: look he really there is a tone of admiration here,

1136
01:04:53,400 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 2: like he's appreciating the work. And then he tells them

1137
01:04:56,880 --> 01:04:59,080
Speaker 2: the most amazing thing has happened to both of these

1138
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:03,280
Speaker 2: bodies of brains were sucked out through the two holes.

1139
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:06,840
Speaker 2: And the doctor tells them that this means the person

1140
01:05:06,880 --> 01:05:11,000
Speaker 2: who did it must be an expert in anatomy. And

1141
01:05:11,040 --> 01:05:13,120
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, yeah, because how else would they know that

1142
01:05:13,160 --> 01:05:14,720
Speaker 2: the brains are inside the skull?

1143
01:05:16,240 --> 01:05:18,080
Speaker 1: I mean, it is interesting to think there are other

1144
01:05:18,120 --> 01:05:21,880
Speaker 1: ways to get to the brain, but the brainiac chooses

1145
01:05:21,920 --> 01:05:23,880
Speaker 1: to just make his own holes, not to use any

1146
01:05:23,920 --> 01:05:26,160
Speaker 1: of the various other holes that are there, and in

1147
01:05:26,200 --> 01:05:29,320
Speaker 1: a roundabout way, do lead to the brain. The police

1148
01:05:29,360 --> 01:05:30,280
Speaker 1: with a little help, with a.

1149
01:05:30,240 --> 01:05:34,480
Speaker 2: Little Yeah, well, one of the police inspector responds to

1150
01:05:34,480 --> 01:05:37,320
Speaker 2: this by saying, I wish they'd find some way to

1151
01:05:37,400 --> 01:05:41,040
Speaker 2: control the subjects of man's studies. A maniac with a

1152
01:05:41,080 --> 01:05:42,840
Speaker 2: lot of knowledge is a threat.

1153
01:05:43,360 --> 01:05:44,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, clearly that's the problem.

1154
01:05:45,040 --> 01:05:48,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an interesting perspective, Like the most important part

1155
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:51,720
Speaker 2: of law and order is preventing maniacs from doing research.

1156
01:05:53,240 --> 01:05:56,080
Speaker 2: We also learned from the two cops that last night

1157
01:05:56,160 --> 01:05:58,880
Speaker 2: there was a major bank robbery, and I think we

1158
01:05:58,880 --> 01:06:01,280
Speaker 2: can assume it was the Bear and acquiring funds for

1159
01:06:01,320 --> 01:06:02,560
Speaker 2: his mission of revenge.

1160
01:06:02,920 --> 01:06:04,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of feel cheated. We didn't get to

1161
01:06:04,720 --> 01:06:05,800
Speaker 1: see that sequence though.

1162
01:06:05,960 --> 01:06:09,240
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's kind of like in the face behind the mask, right,

1163
01:06:09,280 --> 01:06:10,600
Speaker 2: we never actually see the heist.

1164
01:06:10,800 --> 01:06:12,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to see the heist, don't skip the heist.

1165
01:06:12,840 --> 01:06:14,480
Speaker 1: But they're like, they know what a heist is.

1166
01:06:16,080 --> 01:06:18,080
Speaker 2: Okay. So from here, the rest of the movie I

1167
01:06:18,160 --> 01:06:20,600
Speaker 2: think can be split up into like two or three

1168
01:06:20,720 --> 01:06:24,200
Speaker 2: main plots. You're going to have the baron locating and

1169
01:06:24,240 --> 01:06:27,480
Speaker 2: then getting revenge on the descendants of all of his enemies,

1170
01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:30,400
Speaker 2: generally by sucking their brains out, sometimes by other means.

1171
01:06:31,200 --> 01:06:33,640
Speaker 2: Then you're going to have the police investigators trying to

1172
01:06:33,640 --> 01:06:36,680
Speaker 2: solve the case. And then you also have Ronnie and

1173
01:06:36,760 --> 01:06:40,600
Speaker 2: Vicki being brought into the Baron's high society social circle

1174
01:06:41,080 --> 01:06:43,840
Speaker 2: and then being in danger. Of course, because Vicky is

1175
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:46,160
Speaker 2: a descendant of one of the judges.

1176
01:06:46,680 --> 01:06:49,000
Speaker 1: Two of these plots are more interesting than the other.

1177
01:06:49,080 --> 01:06:52,600
Speaker 1: I would have to say that the police investigation, aside

1178
01:06:52,600 --> 01:06:56,680
Speaker 1: from one kind of hammy bit of comedic relief. I

1179
01:06:56,720 --> 01:06:59,280
Speaker 1: don't know. I always felt a little slow for me.

1180
01:06:59,680 --> 01:07:03,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. The police scenes are usually over pretty quick.

1181
01:07:03,120 --> 01:07:04,800
Speaker 2: At least they're sprightly.

1182
01:07:05,280 --> 01:07:05,760
Speaker 1: That's true.

1183
01:07:06,280 --> 01:07:09,200
Speaker 2: There is a scene where Baron Vitellius visits the local

1184
01:07:09,400 --> 01:07:13,440
Speaker 2: historical site of the inquisition executions. He goes to the

1185
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:15,760
Speaker 2: place I guess where he was burned, and then he

1186
01:07:15,800 --> 01:07:19,440
Speaker 2: also goes to the city archives and learns the names

1187
01:07:19,480 --> 01:07:21,760
Speaker 2: of the judges in his trial. But I was like,

1188
01:07:21,800 --> 01:07:23,400
Speaker 2: what is the point of the scene. I thought he

1189
01:07:23,440 --> 01:07:26,240
Speaker 2: already knew them. He said these names three hundred years ago.

1190
01:07:26,960 --> 01:07:29,840
Speaker 1: Now he was three hundred years ago. Maybe he for kayle, Yeah,

1191
01:07:29,920 --> 01:07:33,240
Speaker 1: you know. I mean i'd seen this movie before and

1192
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:35,040
Speaker 1: it was less than three hundred years ago, and I

1193
01:07:35,080 --> 01:07:37,640
Speaker 1: forgot everybody's name, but they weren't.

1194
01:07:37,680 --> 01:07:39,400
Speaker 2: It wasn't your inquisition trial.

1195
01:07:39,840 --> 01:07:40,120
Speaker 1: True.

1196
01:07:41,320 --> 01:07:43,880
Speaker 2: After this, he goes out on the street and then

1197
01:07:43,920 --> 01:07:47,320
Speaker 2: he meets a sex worker on the sidewalk, lights a

1198
01:07:47,360 --> 01:07:50,040
Speaker 2: cigarette for her. They make out a little bit, but

1199
01:07:50,120 --> 01:07:52,400
Speaker 2: then he turns into brainiac and eats her brains.

1200
01:07:52,640 --> 01:07:54,760
Speaker 1: I feel like he's missing out on so many moments

1201
01:07:54,800 --> 01:07:58,400
Speaker 1: for like authentic connection with people. Yeah, and or to

1202
01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:01,200
Speaker 1: help the downtrodden, you know, Yeah, these would have been

1203
01:08:01,240 --> 01:08:01,920
Speaker 1: good seeds for that.

1204
01:08:02,600 --> 01:08:05,240
Speaker 2: He goes brainiac mode too early, Like if he got

1205
01:08:05,240 --> 01:08:07,040
Speaker 2: to know people, maybe he wouldn't want to suck their

1206
01:08:07,040 --> 01:08:10,640
Speaker 2: brains out. He could then again, maybe this is his

1207
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:12,320
Speaker 2: way of getting to know people, if we go with

1208
01:08:12,360 --> 01:08:16,760
Speaker 2: the alien theory. Actually, this raises a question. When Brainiac

1209
01:08:16,800 --> 01:08:19,040
Speaker 2: eats people's brains, does he gain their knowledge?

1210
01:08:19,400 --> 01:08:24,680
Speaker 1: Hmmm, maybe maybe he does? Or yeah, I don't know.

1211
01:08:24,760 --> 01:08:28,520
Speaker 1: Maybe I would like to think that maybe it's just sustenance.

1212
01:08:28,560 --> 01:08:31,879
Speaker 1: Though there's so much I feel like like a Gimmel

1213
01:08:31,920 --> 01:08:34,400
Speaker 1: del Toro or someone like that could could really have

1214
01:08:34,520 --> 01:08:38,679
Speaker 1: come in and done like a really thoughtful, heartfelt remake

1215
01:08:38,800 --> 01:08:42,320
Speaker 1: of Brainiac and explored some of these questions.

1216
01:08:42,600 --> 01:08:46,640
Speaker 2: Hmm, yeah, like the Chronos take on Brainiac.

1217
01:08:46,960 --> 01:08:47,400
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1218
01:08:47,840 --> 01:08:50,439
Speaker 2: Anyway, After this, there's a scene with the two cops

1219
01:08:50,479 --> 01:08:52,840
Speaker 2: having lunch in a cafe while they talk about the case.

1220
01:08:53,240 --> 01:08:55,760
Speaker 2: There's one I took a screenshot here of one of

1221
01:08:55,800 --> 01:08:58,920
Speaker 2: the cops says, as usual, Benny, his brains have been

1222
01:08:58,920 --> 01:09:03,679
Speaker 2: sucked out, and then Benny Wheelern has ordered calf brains

1223
01:09:03,720 --> 01:09:06,080
Speaker 2: to eat at the cafe. That's just on the menu here,

1224
01:09:06,160 --> 01:09:08,200
Speaker 2: but then when the waitress brings his plate, it seems

1225
01:09:08,240 --> 01:09:10,280
Speaker 2: he has lost his appetite. Yuck, yuck.

1226
01:09:10,760 --> 01:09:12,640
Speaker 1: They don't play this scene up as much as I

1227
01:09:12,680 --> 01:09:17,400
Speaker 1: feel like other movies would have, but I still appreciate it.

1228
01:09:18,160 --> 01:09:21,800
Speaker 2: The inspector also concludes, based on the fact that the

1229
01:09:21,800 --> 01:09:25,120
Speaker 2: brains have been sucked out that quote, the killer must

1230
01:09:25,200 --> 01:09:27,080
Speaker 2: be a schizophrenic.

1231
01:09:27,160 --> 01:09:30,600
Speaker 1: Okay to doing throwing anything at the wall here to

1232
01:09:30,600 --> 01:09:32,120
Speaker 1: see what sticks.

1233
01:09:32,280 --> 01:09:36,760
Speaker 2: I guess, okay, and then oh. We also get the

1234
01:09:37,120 --> 01:09:39,799
Speaker 2: first of these mini scenes, the recurring subplot where Professor

1235
01:09:39,840 --> 01:09:43,200
Speaker 2: Miland can't get any other observatory in the world to

1236
01:09:43,320 --> 01:09:46,320
Speaker 2: confirm his his sighting of the comet. So he's like

1237
01:09:46,479 --> 01:09:50,280
Speaker 2: opening letters from Moscow, from Paris, from everywhere, and they're

1238
01:09:50,320 --> 01:09:53,640
Speaker 2: all saying Nope, didn't see a comet. But anyway. In

1239
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:56,320
Speaker 2: this first scene, while the three astronomer characters are opening

1240
01:09:56,400 --> 01:09:59,400
Speaker 2: all the letters from around the world, they also get

1241
01:09:59,439 --> 01:10:02,360
Speaker 2: an invitation to attend a fancy party at the home

1242
01:10:02,439 --> 01:10:05,720
Speaker 2: of Baron Vitellius. So let's go to the party. It

1243
01:10:05,800 --> 01:10:09,040
Speaker 2: is a fancy black tie affair with champagne and caviar.

1244
01:10:09,920 --> 01:10:13,640
Speaker 2: The butler keeps announcing the arrival of new guests, including

1245
01:10:14,000 --> 01:10:18,000
Speaker 2: all of the descendants of the inquisitors who condemned the baron. Yep,

1246
01:10:18,960 --> 01:10:21,040
Speaker 2: so one is a young lady about to get married,

1247
01:10:21,160 --> 01:10:23,519
Speaker 2: one is an older dude who's a professor of history,

1248
01:10:23,640 --> 01:10:27,760
Speaker 2: one is an industrial magnate. And then of course our

1249
01:10:27,800 --> 01:10:31,439
Speaker 2: heroes arrive. I got to laugh here at first at

1250
01:10:31,840 --> 01:10:35,120
Speaker 2: the picture of our astronomers arriving, because first of all,

1251
01:10:35,520 --> 01:10:38,840
Speaker 2: Vicky's outfit it looks like she works at the toy

1252
01:10:38,880 --> 01:10:42,240
Speaker 2: factory at the North Pole. And then she also has

1253
01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:45,400
Speaker 2: two dates. She has both of the astronomer guys, one

1254
01:10:45,439 --> 01:10:46,040
Speaker 2: on each.

1255
01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:48,200
Speaker 1: Arm, representing the sciences.

1256
01:10:48,600 --> 01:10:51,760
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also, at some point during this fancy party, the

1257
01:10:51,760 --> 01:10:55,360
Speaker 2: baron has to sneak away to the coat closet basically

1258
01:10:55,360 --> 01:10:58,559
Speaker 2: to an adjoining room room to eat brains out of

1259
01:10:58,600 --> 01:11:01,360
Speaker 2: a big golden chalice. The spoon. He's just got a

1260
01:11:01,560 --> 01:11:03,880
Speaker 2: it's like locked inside a chest. He just has a

1261
01:11:03,880 --> 01:11:06,000
Speaker 2: big old grail of brains.

1262
01:11:06,520 --> 01:11:08,919
Speaker 1: I love this, but it also just raises more questions.

1263
01:11:08,920 --> 01:11:11,600
Speaker 1: Whose brains are these? When has he been harvesting or

1264
01:11:11,600 --> 01:11:14,599
Speaker 1: did he harvest these? Like he did he maybe buy

1265
01:11:14,600 --> 01:11:18,080
Speaker 1: these off the black market or you know, got them

1266
01:11:18,120 --> 01:11:20,200
Speaker 1: from a morgue or something. We don't know, but he

1267
01:11:20,280 --> 01:11:26,000
Speaker 1: has a sizeable little cauldron, little bowl of brains here.

1268
01:11:26,120 --> 01:11:28,559
Speaker 2: And they're basically intact, which would not be the case

1269
01:11:28,600 --> 01:11:30,920
Speaker 2: if you sucked out the brains through those tiny holes

1270
01:11:30,960 --> 01:11:31,800
Speaker 2: in the back of the head.

1271
01:11:32,200 --> 01:11:34,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's constantly going in for little nibbles and bites.

1272
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:37,040
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's like it's like I do

1273
01:11:37,120 --> 01:11:38,880
Speaker 1: when I'm working here at the house. You know, I'm

1274
01:11:38,880 --> 01:11:42,360
Speaker 1: just constantly snacking on snacknecks or something, and he's the

1275
01:11:42,360 --> 01:11:43,320
Speaker 1: same with his brains.

1276
01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:45,160
Speaker 2: So there's a scene at the end of the party

1277
01:11:45,200 --> 01:11:47,920
Speaker 2: where everybody tells the baron what a wonderful time they've had,

1278
01:11:48,200 --> 01:11:51,320
Speaker 2: and they all make plans to see him again. It's like, oh, Baron,

1279
01:11:51,600 --> 01:11:54,040
Speaker 2: once't you please be at our wedding And he's like, oh, yes,

1280
01:11:54,160 --> 01:11:58,120
Speaker 2: I will be there. So I think we can run

1281
01:11:58,200 --> 01:12:02,679
Speaker 2: kind of quickly through the various revenge scenarios. The first

1282
01:12:02,720 --> 01:12:07,280
Speaker 2: one is maybe my favorite one. The Professor of History Depentoha.

1283
01:12:07,720 --> 01:12:10,440
Speaker 1: This one's really good. This one's legitimately creepy.

1284
01:12:10,280 --> 01:12:12,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the guy just happens to be a scholar

1285
01:12:13,040 --> 01:12:16,400
Speaker 2: of the Inquisition, and also, wouldn't you know it his

1286
01:12:16,640 --> 01:12:20,760
Speaker 2: beautiful daughter Maria, also a brilliant historian of the Inquisition.

1287
01:12:21,600 --> 01:12:23,439
Speaker 2: So like, they bring the baron to their house and

1288
01:12:23,439 --> 01:12:25,559
Speaker 2: they're like, look at these papers we have about the

1289
01:12:25,600 --> 01:12:28,479
Speaker 2: trial of the whoa baron Vitilius. He had the same

1290
01:12:28,560 --> 01:12:32,559
Speaker 2: name as you. That's that's pretty weird, isn't it. Yeah,

1291
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:35,439
Speaker 2: there's one line where the professor says religion was not

1292
01:12:35,640 --> 01:12:37,960
Speaker 2: extremely enlightened at that time. Baron.

1293
01:12:38,400 --> 01:12:41,080
Speaker 1: Yeah. Baron's like, yeah, I know, quite.

1294
01:12:40,840 --> 01:12:45,160
Speaker 2: Aware anyway, So they're like, hey, you know he had

1295
01:12:45,160 --> 01:12:46,880
Speaker 2: the same name as you. This guy must have been

1296
01:12:46,880 --> 01:12:49,880
Speaker 2: one of your ancestors. And then, in a kind of

1297
01:12:49,920 --> 01:12:54,000
Speaker 2: shocking twist, the baron just straight up announces himself. He's

1298
01:12:54,120 --> 01:12:56,200
Speaker 2: like he said, this is the scene where he says,

1299
01:12:56,280 --> 01:13:01,440
Speaker 2: I never had any ancestors. I am the Baron Itilius Destera,

1300
01:13:01,720 --> 01:13:06,320
Speaker 2: and you are the descendants of one of the inquisitorial judges,

1301
01:13:06,360 --> 01:13:08,080
Speaker 2: and now I will destroy you.

1302
01:13:09,320 --> 01:13:12,200
Speaker 1: And this is a great revenge sequence. Again legitimately creepy

1303
01:13:12,280 --> 01:13:17,680
Speaker 1: because he hypnotizes petrifies the father, and then I mean

1304
01:13:17,720 --> 01:13:21,360
Speaker 1: he hypnotizes them both. But he's just frozen there, wide eyed.

1305
01:13:21,760 --> 01:13:24,680
Speaker 1: This is your Maine roadless that referenced earlier, but he's

1306
01:13:24,720 --> 01:13:28,400
Speaker 1: just frozen in place, petrified with these wide eyes as

1307
01:13:28,400 --> 01:13:32,639
Speaker 1: he watches the baron feast on the brain of his daughter.

1308
01:13:32,920 --> 01:13:33,080
Speaker 4: You know.

1309
01:13:33,120 --> 01:13:36,280
Speaker 2: Well, first he kisses the daughter and she's like, oh,

1310
01:13:36,320 --> 01:13:38,559
Speaker 2: I'm in love with the baron now makes a face

1311
01:13:38,560 --> 01:13:41,920
Speaker 2: indicating that I guess she's probably hypnotized. And then he

1312
01:13:42,000 --> 01:13:45,160
Speaker 2: turns into the brainiac and then sucks her brains out,

1313
01:13:45,560 --> 01:13:48,400
Speaker 2: and the guy and the professor is just standing there

1314
01:13:48,439 --> 01:13:51,400
Speaker 2: with like his eyes are like they're like a mile tall.

1315
01:13:51,880 --> 01:13:54,679
Speaker 1: Yeah. So this this scene hits pretty hard, like even today,

1316
01:13:54,720 --> 01:13:57,559
Speaker 1: so I feel this must have terrified folks back in

1317
01:13:57,600 --> 01:13:58,200
Speaker 1: the sixties.

1318
01:13:58,640 --> 01:14:00,280
Speaker 2: And then Brainiac burns down the house.

1319
01:14:00,640 --> 01:14:04,960
Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, he the trashes the office. Let's you know,

1320
01:14:05,000 --> 01:14:07,519
Speaker 1: we don't see a lot of like really overt rage

1321
01:14:07,520 --> 01:14:10,080
Speaker 1: from him over all of this, but here we do.

1322
01:14:10,800 --> 01:14:13,360
Speaker 2: Later, the cops are on the scene and the inspector says,

1323
01:14:14,080 --> 01:14:17,160
Speaker 2: the line is quote these people were burned. Only that

1324
01:14:17,200 --> 01:14:20,240
Speaker 2: doesn't fool me. It's clear that the madmen extracted their

1325
01:14:20,280 --> 01:14:21,160
Speaker 2: brains as well.

1326
01:14:21,680 --> 01:14:22,120
Speaker 1: All right.

1327
01:14:24,040 --> 01:14:26,160
Speaker 2: Also at this scene, this is where we get some

1328
01:14:26,560 --> 01:14:29,519
Speaker 2: more comic relief with Benny. He he's like yelling at

1329
01:14:29,560 --> 01:14:32,680
Speaker 2: the people who are doing the forensics, and he's like,

1330
01:14:32,720 --> 01:14:34,880
Speaker 2: I've got to examine these bodies to find out who

1331
01:14:34,960 --> 01:14:37,640
Speaker 2: drilled those holes in their skulls. It was probably some

1332
01:14:37,760 --> 01:14:39,639
Speaker 2: maniac who thought he was cracking a safe.

1333
01:14:41,080 --> 01:14:43,519
Speaker 1: Maybe that joke lands a little better in the original Spanish,

1334
01:14:43,600 --> 01:14:44,000
Speaker 1: I don't know.

1335
01:14:44,080 --> 01:14:50,040
Speaker 2: Maybe The next murder is that of the industrialist Manaises,

1336
01:14:50,200 --> 01:14:55,360
Speaker 2: the one descended from Baltazar Demoneses. So they're in his

1337
01:14:55,479 --> 01:14:59,240
Speaker 2: lab with he and with him and his wife, and

1338
01:14:59,280 --> 01:15:02,479
Speaker 2: they're talking about collaborating on a new alloy. And then

1339
01:15:02,479 --> 01:15:05,680
Speaker 2: the BRAINI act does a similar thing here. He's like, hypnotize,

1340
01:15:06,360 --> 01:15:09,559
Speaker 2: kiss the lady, turn into beast mode, eat the wife's brain,

1341
01:15:10,000 --> 01:15:13,400
Speaker 2: except in this case, instead of eating Maneesa's his brain,

1342
01:15:13,600 --> 01:15:18,000
Speaker 2: he hypnotizes him to jump into his own industrial furnace

1343
01:15:18,400 --> 01:15:21,599
Speaker 2: ugh ooh yeah. And then skipping more lightly along toward

1344
01:15:21,640 --> 01:15:25,040
Speaker 2: the end, we get a third revenge scene, which occurs

1345
01:15:25,120 --> 01:15:28,599
Speaker 2: after the wedding of the targeted individual. It's a young

1346
01:15:28,680 --> 01:15:32,040
Speaker 2: lady getting married. It's going to be eating some brains

1347
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:34,360
Speaker 2: as well. But this is all building up to the

1348
01:15:34,400 --> 01:15:36,680
Speaker 2: final confrontation, because we know in the back of our

1349
01:15:36,720 --> 01:15:40,400
Speaker 2: minds all the time that one of the descendants today

1350
01:15:40,560 --> 01:15:43,840
Speaker 2: is Victoria Contreras, and so he's going to be coming

1351
01:15:43,840 --> 01:15:47,240
Speaker 2: for Vicky soon. So in the final showdown, the baron

1352
01:15:47,280 --> 01:15:51,400
Speaker 2: invites Vicky and Ronnie to his house. And now how

1353
01:15:51,439 --> 01:15:53,840
Speaker 2: does he get them separated? Like he sends Ronnie to

1354
01:15:53,920 --> 01:15:56,599
Speaker 2: the other room to look for something or.

1355
01:15:56,600 --> 01:15:59,600
Speaker 1: Oh, he says, I would like to give Vicky some

1356
01:15:59,720 --> 01:16:02,920
Speaker 1: jewel and it should just be her that comes with

1357
01:16:03,000 --> 01:16:05,040
Speaker 1: me into my study where I keep all the jewelry.

1358
01:16:05,160 --> 01:16:07,280
Speaker 1: It would be wrong for you to try to influence

1359
01:16:07,400 --> 01:16:10,920
Speaker 1: her on which piece of jewelry she chooses. Yeah, and

1360
01:16:11,200 --> 01:16:13,080
Speaker 1: you know, Ronnie's like, well it makes sense to me.

1361
01:16:13,520 --> 01:16:17,240
Speaker 1: Carry on, then that's normal. Yeah. So of course he

1362
01:16:17,280 --> 01:16:21,920
Speaker 1: gets there into the into his study or his office there,

1363
01:16:22,200 --> 01:16:24,559
Speaker 1: and I don't even remember if there were any jewels,

1364
01:16:24,600 --> 01:16:28,599
Speaker 1: because he almost immediately launches into villain dialogue and an

1365
01:16:28,640 --> 01:16:32,920
Speaker 1: attempt to seduce, slash, hypnotize, slash ultimately eat her brains,

1366
01:16:32,920 --> 01:16:33,720
Speaker 1: we assume.

1367
01:16:33,760 --> 01:16:37,799
Speaker 2: But she is saved, so this turns into a scuffle.

1368
01:16:38,120 --> 01:16:42,639
Speaker 2: Of course, Ronnie hears her screams and comes running. But then,

1369
01:16:43,080 --> 01:16:47,880
Speaker 2: in a really surprisingly brutal twist on the side of

1370
01:16:47,920 --> 01:16:51,639
Speaker 2: the good guys. The cops show up. Our inspectors, both

1371
01:16:51,720 --> 01:16:54,880
Speaker 2: Benny and the more serious cop arrive on the scene,

1372
01:16:55,320 --> 01:16:58,960
Speaker 2: both wearing backpack flame throwers.

1373
01:16:59,320 --> 01:17:05,599
Speaker 1: Yeah, like full blown space movie flamethrowers on their back

1374
01:17:06,040 --> 01:17:08,360
Speaker 1: and yeah they and then just light him up. And

1375
01:17:09,400 --> 01:17:12,599
Speaker 1: I mean, I was about to say, unfortunately, sadly, from

1376
01:17:12,640 --> 01:17:16,000
Speaker 1: some perspectives, the baron dies a second death by fire.

1377
01:17:16,479 --> 01:17:19,160
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe it when I saw the flamethrowers. They're

1378
01:17:19,200 --> 01:17:24,719
Speaker 2: running in like it's like Drake and Vasquez, like.

1379
01:17:24,000 --> 01:17:28,360
Speaker 1: Rock wearing a huge honking flamethrower apparatus.

1380
01:17:28,479 --> 01:17:28,519
Speaker 4: Is.

1381
01:17:28,600 --> 01:17:32,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no setup for there's no like, there's no like,

1382
01:17:32,560 --> 01:17:34,280
Speaker 1: you know, there's no bit where they're like, you know,

1383
01:17:34,479 --> 01:17:37,759
Speaker 1: we just got those new flame throwers in over the precinct.

1384
01:17:39,400 --> 01:17:41,120
Speaker 1: I don't know why we did all that training on them,

1385
01:17:41,160 --> 01:17:43,000
Speaker 1: and we're probably never going to use them. There's nothing

1386
01:17:43,040 --> 01:17:46,320
Speaker 1: like that's just suddenly they're here, a turbo team with

1387
01:17:46,479 --> 01:17:47,640
Speaker 1: flamethrowers ready to go.

1388
01:17:49,439 --> 01:17:51,360
Speaker 2: And the baron is not part of the turbo team.

1389
01:17:51,600 --> 01:17:55,280
Speaker 1: No, he's not. He gets toasted, burned to a crisp

1390
01:17:55,320 --> 01:17:58,000
Speaker 1: and brainiac form. Then we get a like a dissolve

1391
01:17:58,040 --> 01:18:01,439
Speaker 1: effect into do we go right to skeleton or you

1392
01:18:01,479 --> 01:18:03,200
Speaker 1: go to I like, charred humanoid form?

1393
01:18:03,240 --> 01:18:08,160
Speaker 2: First, I think it's charred skeleton with like no feet, right, no.

1394
01:18:08,200 --> 01:18:10,320
Speaker 1: Feed or hands. That really threw me, and it made

1395
01:18:10,360 --> 01:18:12,519
Speaker 1: me think about the brainiac fingers all over again. I

1396
01:18:12,560 --> 01:18:14,439
Speaker 1: was like, were those maybe those are just he had

1397
01:18:14,479 --> 01:18:17,120
Speaker 1: no hands in their tubes? Yeah, like there were no

1398
01:18:17,200 --> 01:18:20,479
Speaker 1: bones in there. And then again a million questions about

1399
01:18:20,520 --> 01:18:22,160
Speaker 1: exactly how all of this works.

1400
01:18:22,520 --> 01:18:26,479
Speaker 2: So question, did we miss something? I wanted to compare

1401
01:18:26,560 --> 01:18:30,000
Speaker 2: notes with you? Was there something I missed in the

1402
01:18:30,040 --> 01:18:33,120
Speaker 2: movie that explains more about what the brainiac is and

1403
01:18:33,160 --> 01:18:35,519
Speaker 2: where he comes from? Did that scene just go buy me?

1404
01:18:36,560 --> 01:18:39,439
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Now I am to understand there's

1405
01:18:39,479 --> 01:18:43,880
Speaker 1: a director's cut of this, but I also have not

1406
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:47,400
Speaker 1: read anything to imply that it really answers any of

1407
01:18:47,439 --> 01:18:49,880
Speaker 1: the questions we actually have. I think it was maybe

1408
01:18:49,920 --> 01:18:53,920
Speaker 1: just some more character stuff, But I could be wrong,

1409
01:18:55,400 --> 01:18:58,400
Speaker 1: But it's my understanding that none of these outstanding questions

1410
01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:01,120
Speaker 1: about the nature of the beast are really answered.

1411
01:19:01,479 --> 01:19:04,919
Speaker 2: Listeners, If there are answers to our questions about the brainiac,

1412
01:19:05,000 --> 01:19:07,760
Speaker 2: things we don't know, but you do right in let

1413
01:19:07,800 --> 01:19:11,280
Speaker 2: us know. Contact at stuff to blow your mind dot com.

1414
01:19:12,320 --> 01:19:14,600
Speaker 2: Tell us what are we missing about The Brainiac?

1415
01:19:15,200 --> 01:19:17,439
Speaker 1: Yeah? I also wish I'd been able to see it

1416
01:19:17,680 --> 01:19:20,880
Speaker 1: in the original span, in the original Spanish with subtitles.

1417
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:23,120
Speaker 1: Not that something like that couldn't be lost in the

1418
01:19:23,160 --> 01:19:26,640
Speaker 1: subtitles as well, but you know there's always the possibility.

1419
01:19:26,960 --> 01:19:29,320
Speaker 2: Oh you know, sometimes I like the original language, but

1420
01:19:29,360 --> 01:19:33,280
Speaker 2: a movie like this, I love a dub. Dub really

1421
01:19:33,320 --> 01:19:34,600
Speaker 2: works well for Brainiac.

1422
01:19:35,000 --> 01:19:38,479
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, you are right, And also the dub

1423
01:19:38,479 --> 01:19:40,280
Speaker 1: is a part of this film's history. This is the

1424
01:19:40,320 --> 01:19:45,040
Speaker 1: way so many English speaking moviegoers actually saw the picture

1425
01:19:45,200 --> 01:19:48,240
Speaker 1: over the years on television late at night, trying, you know,

1426
01:19:48,479 --> 01:19:54,360
Speaker 1: themselves flabbergasted by this strange monster that shows up and

1427
01:19:54,360 --> 01:20:00,960
Speaker 1: starts sucking brains out of people's necks with a fork tongue.

1428
01:20:06,080 --> 01:20:09,040
Speaker 1: As is sometimes the case, after we watch a film

1429
01:20:09,160 --> 01:20:11,879
Speaker 1: discuss it on Weird House, we have even more thoughts

1430
01:20:12,040 --> 01:20:15,920
Speaker 1: about the film and maybe we dig into some additional resources.

1431
01:20:16,520 --> 01:20:19,360
Speaker 1: That was the case here with The Brainiac.

1432
01:20:19,760 --> 01:20:20,959
Speaker 2: Okay, what's the subject.

1433
01:20:21,280 --> 01:20:24,599
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, there's the matter of the inquisition. Now,

1434
01:20:24,600 --> 01:20:26,880
Speaker 1: some of you might be wondering, well, okay, the inquisition

1435
01:20:26,960 --> 01:20:31,080
Speaker 1: that was obviously active in Europe and certainly in Spain.

1436
01:20:32,600 --> 01:20:36,160
Speaker 1: We're talking about Mexico here, we're talking about New Spain. Yes,

1437
01:20:36,320 --> 01:20:39,120
Speaker 1: the Tribunal of the Holy Office, the Inquisition in New

1438
01:20:39,120 --> 01:20:42,639
Speaker 1: Spain was established in fifteen seventy one and wasn't entirely

1439
01:20:42,680 --> 01:20:45,800
Speaker 1: disbanded till eighteen twenty. So the basic time frame we

1440
01:20:45,840 --> 01:20:48,960
Speaker 1: see in the early part of the picture here is reasonable.

1441
01:20:49,439 --> 01:20:53,639
Speaker 2: Yeah, and now this doesn't answer the questions that we

1442
01:20:53,720 --> 01:20:57,080
Speaker 2: have about whether, within the narrative logic of the film,

1443
01:20:57,360 --> 01:20:59,720
Speaker 2: the baron is actually supposed to be guilty of the

1444
01:20:59,760 --> 01:21:03,479
Speaker 2: crime he's accused of. But on the question of real history,

1445
01:21:03,520 --> 01:21:06,880
Speaker 2: I did want to quickly note that the people who

1446
01:21:06,960 --> 01:21:11,320
Speaker 2: were in reality persecuted by the Mexican Inquisition the Inquisition

1447
01:21:11,360 --> 01:21:15,559
Speaker 2: in New Spain were generally not accused, not certainly not

1448
01:21:15,640 --> 01:21:18,479
Speaker 2: guilty of, and generally not even accused of the kind

1449
01:21:18,520 --> 01:21:23,519
Speaker 2: of unspeakable occult crimes we see in inquisitionsploitation movies, you know,

1450
01:21:24,240 --> 01:21:28,600
Speaker 2: demonic lechery and violence, you used warlock powers to do

1451
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:32,559
Speaker 2: murder and that kind of thing. Instead, it's a much

1452
01:21:32,920 --> 01:21:35,679
Speaker 2: sadder and more tragic thing that these were just generally

1453
01:21:35,760 --> 01:21:40,880
Speaker 2: religiously non conforming people, primarily people who were accused of

1454
01:21:41,040 --> 01:21:45,320
Speaker 2: secretly adhering to a religion other than Catholicism, such as

1455
01:21:45,360 --> 01:21:49,600
Speaker 2: pre Hispanic Aztec religion or Judaism. A big target of

1456
01:21:49,680 --> 01:21:54,160
Speaker 2: the Mexican Inquisition were people who were called conversos, Jewish

1457
01:21:54,240 --> 01:21:58,320
Speaker 2: people who had been first forcibly converted to Catholicism, but

1458
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:03,799
Speaker 2: then subsequently were suspected of continuing to practice Judaism in private.

1459
01:22:04,520 --> 01:22:07,280
Speaker 2: So for an example of the latter, you can look

1460
01:22:07,360 --> 01:22:09,840
Speaker 2: up the story of a guy I was just reading about,

1461
01:22:09,840 --> 01:22:14,240
Speaker 2: a guy named Luis Carva Hall, the younger, notable for

1462
01:22:14,360 --> 01:22:18,040
Speaker 2: keeping memoirs of his experiences which were just recently recovered

1463
01:22:18,080 --> 01:22:20,840
Speaker 2: I believe in twenty sixteen. He was a member of

1464
01:22:20,880 --> 01:22:25,040
Speaker 2: a prominent family in New Spain, the Carva Hall family,

1465
01:22:25,280 --> 01:22:28,879
Speaker 2: which were governors of part of the colony at one point,

1466
01:22:28,920 --> 01:22:32,880
Speaker 2: and he in fifteen ninety six was tortured and executed

1467
01:22:32,920 --> 01:22:35,559
Speaker 2: at the age of thirty for keeping the Jewish faith

1468
01:22:35,600 --> 01:22:38,880
Speaker 2: in secret, along with many members of his family. But

1469
01:22:38,960 --> 01:22:41,840
Speaker 2: you can also look up the story of Carlos Omotokschin,

1470
01:22:42,439 --> 01:22:44,680
Speaker 2: a man who was burned at the stake by the

1471
01:22:44,720 --> 01:22:49,559
Speaker 2: Inquisition in fifteen thirty nine for practicing the traditional Aztec religion.

1472
01:22:50,439 --> 01:22:55,160
Speaker 2: So they're basically religiously non conforming people of various sorts

1473
01:22:55,160 --> 01:22:59,280
Speaker 2: and just general heresy. What the inquisitors decided was heresy

1474
01:22:59,400 --> 01:23:02,320
Speaker 2: not having the right religious beliefs and practices.

1475
01:23:03,720 --> 01:23:07,200
Speaker 1: Now for a little additional context about the use of

1476
01:23:07,360 --> 01:23:11,800
Speaker 1: history in this picture and this picture's place in the

1477
01:23:11,840 --> 01:23:16,799
Speaker 1: history of Mexican cinema, I turned to Doyle Green's Exploitation Cinema,

1478
01:23:16,840 --> 01:23:20,680
Speaker 1: A Critical History of Mexican Vampire, Wrestler, ape Man and

1479
01:23:20,760 --> 01:23:24,080
Speaker 1: similar Films nineteen fifty seven through nineteen seventy seven.

1480
01:23:24,560 --> 01:23:27,000
Speaker 2: That's an enticing title to me, But I was trying

1481
01:23:27,000 --> 01:23:29,200
Speaker 2: to think, have we watched a movie that covers all

1482
01:23:29,320 --> 01:23:32,040
Speaker 2: three of those? I think Doctor of Doom might that

1483
01:23:32,080 --> 01:23:36,360
Speaker 2: would definitely include Wrestler and ape Man, maybe also Mexican

1484
01:23:36,439 --> 01:23:41,120
Speaker 2: Vampire sort of Yeah, I don't know, brain ish.

1485
01:23:40,800 --> 01:23:43,360
Speaker 1: That we need to be on the lookout. We need

1486
01:23:43,400 --> 01:23:46,120
Speaker 1: to be on the lookout for that special picture, the

1487
01:23:46,120 --> 01:23:49,960
Speaker 1: Goldilocks picture. Anyway, I was reading through this book, and

1488
01:23:50,400 --> 01:23:53,519
Speaker 1: Green has a couple of books dealing with weird Mexican cinema,

1489
01:23:53,600 --> 01:23:55,200
Speaker 1: and so I've added them both to my card. I'm

1490
01:23:55,240 --> 01:23:56,840
Speaker 1: gonna have to pick them up to really dive in

1491
01:23:56,840 --> 01:24:00,320
Speaker 1: in greater depth. But his general thesis here is that

1492
01:24:00,680 --> 01:24:04,519
Speaker 1: while many may be quick to dismiss Mexican genre films

1493
01:24:04,520 --> 01:24:07,760
Speaker 1: of this era as mirror cheap entertainment and as responses

1494
01:24:07,800 --> 01:24:10,880
Speaker 1: to American and British cinema trends, there's a lot more

1495
01:24:10,920 --> 01:24:13,519
Speaker 1: going on here. So again, the golden age of Mexican

1496
01:24:13,560 --> 01:24:16,519
Speaker 1: cinema blossoms during the end of the Second World War

1497
01:24:16,880 --> 01:24:19,800
Speaker 1: and into the post war era, followed roughly by the

1498
01:24:19,840 --> 01:24:23,400
Speaker 1: period of cinema explored in his book, and during this time,

1499
01:24:23,479 --> 01:24:27,160
Speaker 1: he argues, Mexico is wrestling with its identity, seeking to

1500
01:24:27,200 --> 01:24:30,519
Speaker 1: forge a modern future free from the shackles of its past,

1501
01:24:30,840 --> 01:24:34,639
Speaker 1: many of which are tied to European colonialism. As such,

1502
01:24:34,880 --> 01:24:38,400
Speaker 1: the threats in these movies are often creatures of the past,

1503
01:24:38,520 --> 01:24:44,000
Speaker 1: interwoven with historic horrors, be they vengeful inquisition, burned warlocks,

1504
01:24:45,160 --> 01:24:48,840
Speaker 1: as tech mummies, or something else. And on the flip side,

1505
01:24:48,880 --> 01:24:51,000
Speaker 1: we see the emergence of a new sort of hero

1506
01:24:51,160 --> 01:24:55,000
Speaker 1: in icon El Santo, as well as his Luchador and

1507
01:24:55,080 --> 01:25:00,120
Speaker 1: Lucidora kin like blue demon mil Mascaris, Glory of Venus

1508
01:25:00,160 --> 01:25:04,920
Speaker 1: the Batwoman neutron and maybe, if we're being generous cops

1509
01:25:04,920 --> 01:25:07,120
Speaker 1: with flamethrowers and also astronomers.

1510
01:25:08,360 --> 01:25:10,639
Speaker 2: But let's be real, brainiac is not about the good

1511
01:25:10,720 --> 01:25:12,160
Speaker 2: guys right.

1512
01:25:13,439 --> 01:25:18,160
Speaker 1: Now. Specifically, on the topic of the Brainiac, Green has

1513
01:25:18,200 --> 01:25:21,280
Speaker 1: this to say. He writes, quote, the past is a

1514
01:25:21,320 --> 01:25:26,519
Speaker 1: period of unchanging violence rooted in irrational superstition, reflected in

1515
01:25:26,600 --> 01:25:30,920
Speaker 1: both Baron Vitilius's use of black magic and the oppressive

1516
01:25:30,960 --> 01:25:34,840
Speaker 1: religious dogma of the Inquisition in New Spain. Again, the

1517
01:25:34,880 --> 01:25:38,559
Speaker 1: Baron's resurrection does not simply represent the dangerous return of

1518
01:25:38,560 --> 01:25:42,439
Speaker 1: superstition and irrationality, but carries with it the reminders of

1519
01:25:42,479 --> 01:25:47,760
Speaker 1: an unfortunate chapter of Mexican history, the Inquisition and Spanish colonialism,

1520
01:25:48,160 --> 01:25:51,160
Speaker 1: and their dangerous legacy for the present. And of course

1521
01:25:51,200 --> 01:25:54,080
Speaker 1: this makes the use of Goya's art prints from Los

1522
01:25:54,080 --> 01:25:58,519
Speaker 1: Copricos the Whims series. I think it's like a whole

1523
01:25:58,560 --> 01:26:01,960
Speaker 1: bunch of different illustrations which I think has come up

1524
01:26:02,000 --> 01:26:06,559
Speaker 1: on the show before that harshly satirized religion, superstition, and

1525
01:26:06,600 --> 01:26:10,439
Speaker 1: a seeming decline of rationality in Gloya's modern world.

1526
01:26:11,840 --> 01:26:14,080
Speaker 2: I do think it's interesting what Green points out in

1527
01:26:14,080 --> 01:26:16,960
Speaker 2: this passage. You read about the vision sort of the

1528
01:26:17,000 --> 01:26:20,040
Speaker 2: worldview of Brainiac being one of a kind of total

1529
01:26:20,160 --> 01:26:24,040
Speaker 2: rejection of the past, that in the prologue there are

1530
01:26:24,080 --> 01:26:29,160
Speaker 2: no good guys. Really, assuming that we take the side

1531
01:26:29,200 --> 01:26:31,640
Speaker 2: that the Baron was not actually like the nice of

1532
01:26:31,680 --> 01:26:35,400
Speaker 2: Jesus figure who was just railroaded, that if it is

1533
01:26:35,520 --> 01:26:38,640
Speaker 2: more what it looks like, where the Baron is a

1534
01:26:38,640 --> 01:26:42,000
Speaker 2: bad evil warlock and the inquisitors are also bad. It's

1535
01:26:42,080 --> 01:26:46,439
Speaker 2: just a place of oppressive superstition and dogma beating you

1536
01:26:46,520 --> 01:26:50,000
Speaker 2: down from both sides. And really the only hope is

1537
01:26:50,040 --> 01:26:52,439
Speaker 2: a kind of modern future. And so it is a

1538
01:26:52,560 --> 01:26:55,400
Speaker 2: very modernist kind of worldview that comes through in the

1539
01:26:55,439 --> 01:26:59,599
Speaker 2: film that does actually seem to have positive views about

1540
01:26:59,680 --> 01:27:02,519
Speaker 2: like about science and humanism and so forth.

1541
01:27:02,920 --> 01:27:05,000
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And we have to remember that the barons

1542
01:27:05,120 --> 01:27:08,240
Speaker 1: the mission of vengeance here is against the descendants of

1543
01:27:08,280 --> 01:27:10,639
Speaker 1: the people who wronged him, you know, so, like everything

1544
01:27:10,680 --> 01:27:14,439
Speaker 1: he does in the present is completely vested in the

1545
01:27:14,479 --> 01:27:15,599
Speaker 1: past and its horrors.

1546
01:27:16,479 --> 01:27:18,680
Speaker 2: I guess one question that raises is how are we

1547
01:27:18,760 --> 01:27:22,600
Speaker 2: supposed to feel about those descendants. We like Victoria Contreras,

1548
01:27:22,640 --> 01:27:26,960
Speaker 2: we like Vicky, but the other targets of his vengeance plot.

1549
01:27:27,160 --> 01:27:29,679
Speaker 2: What kind of feelings are we supposed to have about them?

1550
01:27:30,439 --> 01:27:32,960
Speaker 2: I feel like the movie doesn't really nudge us very

1551
01:27:33,000 --> 01:27:36,000
Speaker 2: far one way or the other. They're presented kind of neutrally.

1552
01:27:36,720 --> 01:27:40,479
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, in retrospect, it would have been perhaps more

1553
01:27:40,560 --> 01:27:44,640
Speaker 1: interesting if we'd explored ideas in either direction. You know,

1554
01:27:44,720 --> 01:27:48,080
Speaker 1: like maybe some of them are horrible and entitled and

1555
01:27:48,120 --> 01:27:50,880
Speaker 1: are like you know they and you know, we see

1556
01:27:50,920 --> 01:27:56,280
Speaker 1: like the accumulation of vast wealth over generations, while you know,

1557
01:27:56,360 --> 01:27:59,720
Speaker 1: others are our heroes and so forth. And in many ways,

1558
01:27:59,720 --> 01:28:03,360
Speaker 1: that would also fit the pattern we've seen a lot

1559
01:28:03,360 --> 01:28:06,280
Speaker 1: of revenge films. Right, start with vengeance against those who

1560
01:28:06,320 --> 01:28:08,640
Speaker 1: seem most deserving of it. Then you work up to

1561
01:28:08,680 --> 01:28:10,840
Speaker 1: the ones that seem least deserving of it, and that's

1562
01:28:10,840 --> 01:28:15,559
Speaker 1: where our revenger meets their downfall. Yeah, not to take

1563
01:28:15,600 --> 01:28:18,479
Speaker 1: away from the Brainiac. Still still a marvelous picture.

1564
01:28:19,040 --> 01:28:20,920
Speaker 2: Okay, that's all I've got on Brainiac.

1565
01:28:21,880 --> 01:28:23,639
Speaker 1: All right, Well, it's a fun one. Like I say,

1566
01:28:23,800 --> 01:28:26,720
Speaker 1: one of the one of the most unique monsters in

1567
01:28:26,960 --> 01:28:30,559
Speaker 1: all of horror cinema. I think it's quite a quite

1568
01:28:30,600 --> 01:28:34,040
Speaker 1: an accomplishment there, because you know, there there have been

1569
01:28:34,080 --> 01:28:36,880
Speaker 1: so many strange monsters over the years. Obviously, there's also

1570
01:28:36,920 --> 01:28:41,759
Speaker 1: a lot of sameness, and while the Brainiac creature certainly

1571
01:28:41,880 --> 01:28:45,439
Speaker 1: riffs on various existing monster tropes, it really goes off

1572
01:28:45,439 --> 01:28:47,800
Speaker 1: in its own ludicrousal direction and it is to be

1573
01:28:47,840 --> 01:28:51,240
Speaker 1: celebrated for that. All Right, we're gonna goe and close

1574
01:28:51,280 --> 01:28:53,799
Speaker 1: this episode out, but we'd love to hear from everyone

1575
01:28:53,840 --> 01:28:57,760
Speaker 1: out there, Yes, share your thoughts on the Brainiac and

1576
01:28:57,880 --> 01:29:01,559
Speaker 1: also just you know, Mexicans honor a cinema in general.

1577
01:29:02,560 --> 01:29:06,160
Speaker 1: We've been on something of a kick with these recently,

1578
01:29:06,479 --> 01:29:08,640
Speaker 1: so there are any favorites you have that you'd like

1579
01:29:08,720 --> 01:29:10,840
Speaker 1: us to consider for the future, just write in and

1580
01:29:10,880 --> 01:29:13,720
Speaker 1: recommend those titles. Just a reminder that Stuff to Blow

1581
01:29:13,720 --> 01:29:15,840
Speaker 1: Your Mind is primarily a science and culture podcast, with

1582
01:29:15,880 --> 01:29:19,640
Speaker 1: core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, short episodes on Wednesdays

1583
01:29:19,640 --> 01:29:22,080
Speaker 1: and on Fridays. We set aside most serious concerns to

1584
01:29:22,160 --> 01:29:25,360
Speaker 1: just talk about a weird film here on Weird House Cinema.

1585
01:29:25,560 --> 01:29:27,760
Speaker 1: You can go to letterbox dot com if you want

1586
01:29:27,760 --> 01:29:30,719
Speaker 1: to follow us there that our username is weird House

1587
01:29:30,760 --> 01:29:32,200
Speaker 1: and we have a list of all the movies we've

1588
01:29:32,200 --> 01:29:34,320
Speaker 1: watched thus far, and sometimes a peek ahead at what

1589
01:29:34,360 --> 01:29:35,040
Speaker 1: comes up next.

1590
01:29:35,560 --> 01:29:39,320
Speaker 2: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway.

1591
01:29:39,720 --> 01:29:41,360
Speaker 2: If you would like to get in touch with us

1592
01:29:41,360 --> 01:29:43,879
Speaker 2: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1593
01:29:43,880 --> 01:29:45,960
Speaker 2: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1594
01:29:46,120 --> 01:29:48,840
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact Stuff to Blow your

1595
01:29:48,840 --> 01:29:56,240
Speaker 2: Mind dot com.

1596
01:29:56,360 --> 01:29:58,920
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio.

1597
01:29:59,240 --> 01:30:01,280
Speaker 2: For more podcasts, it's from my heart Radio. Visit the

1598
01:30:01,280 --> 01:30:04,400
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

1599
01:30:04,400 --> 01:30:05,080
Speaker 2: favorite shows.