WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Absurd 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.120 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.760 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:19.439 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.080 Cinema we are going to be talking about the nineteen 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:27.800 eighty one Italian slasher movie Absurd, directed by Joe Demato 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:32.760 and starring George Eastman. Now, Rob, I understand you wanted 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:38.159 to talk about how this movie typifies a movie subgenre, 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.880 maybe not defined within the movie itself, but the sort 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.479 of meta subgenre of the video nasty. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.000 That's right. We've referred to video nasties before on the show, 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.199 and those of you know what we're talking about, you know, 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:54.320 probably not in your head. And if you don't know 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.040 what a video nasty is, you might have just you know, 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.640 picked up on context and on. But basically, it's essentially 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.320 you can slang for films, usually low budget horror and 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.800 exploitation films that were highly controversial during the nineteen eighties 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.320 as they were able to enter the UK distribution market 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:14.320 through a loophole that allowed the distributors to avoid official classification, 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:20.119 part of a video gold rush that came with VHS technology. 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.000 At the time. This is the description given by David 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.920 Coreki's and David Slater in the twenty twenty three book 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:32.400 Cannibal Error, Anti Film Propaganda and the Video Nasties Panic 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:33.720 of the nineteen eighties. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.000 So this would be sort of an informal list of 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:43.080 films that what were not necessarily illegal, but were singled 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:48.880 out for being obscene or terrible or just worthy of 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.240 moral approbate, approbation in some way. 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.160 Well you kind of get both things. There's like it 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.480 does become formalized, but then there's also kind of like 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.880 an informal list as well. So basically the short version 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:02.320 of how this went down as you had and again 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:07.240 this is a you're involving like new technology, new distribution patterns, 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:12.160 and also changes in you know, what the public wants, 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.040 and then public anxiety about obscenity. So basically you haven't 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:20.960 had an advocacy group called the National Viewers and Listeners Association, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.240 and it made a big outcry about these these films 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:26.720 that we're making it into the UK on VHS, and 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:30.400 it led to just a whole saga of politics, moral panic, 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.280 censorship discussion, and the end result was the imposition of 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.520 state video censorship in the UK in nineteen eighty four 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:41.720 and the creation of a Director of Public Prosecutions DPP 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.000 list of films that would come to be known as 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.440 video nasties. Though I think this term also ends up 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.760 becoming especially outside of the UK and in just sort 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:56.359 of VHS horror exploitation film circles, it becomes something of 0:02:56.400 --> 0:03:00.320 a you know, a loose term that is you for 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:05.440 various sort of grimy, low budget often euro films of 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:06.360 the time period. 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:10.560 Oh okay, So thus my confusion. So some of the 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.840 things referred to as video nasties were actually targeted by 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.480 the law in the UK and other things just sort 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:20.160 of informally get that title as a kind of descriptor 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:22.240 of what these movies tend to be. 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.760 Like, Yeah, because you definitely had a list, you had 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:28.680 like section one. Prosecuted films included actually a few different 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.440 films we've discussed on Weird House, nineteen eighty's Cannibal Apocalypse, 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.480 nineteen eighty one's The House by the Cemetery, and today's 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.320 film Absurd, which is also from nineteen eighty one as 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.880 His House by the Cemetery. Now, naturally there's some really 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.560 grimy exploitation fodder in that list as well, But there's 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:49.480 also plenty of stuff that I don't know. It's all subjective, 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:51.720 but it feels, at least to me, kind of tame 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.760 by today's standards. But naturally, the line between art and 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.240 obscenity is always going to be subjective to a certain extent, 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.560 and there's gonna be a point of disagree in figuring 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.120 out what is what. But apart from these official classifications 0:04:05.120 --> 0:04:08.000 and uproars in the UK, the term video nasty again 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:11.160 kind of becomes kind of comes to be a badge 0:04:11.160 --> 0:04:13.800 of honor for many horror films from this time period, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.919 especially in later decades. By the time many of us 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.400 were looking these up in books like the Psychotronic Film Guide, 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:24.040 or buying bootleg VHS tapes off of eBay back in 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.719 the day, or learning about them online, you know, browsing 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.400 Internet movie data base, looking at various blogs forums, or 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.159 today venturing around on letterbox dot com. You know, it 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.599 adds that extra bit of intrigue to a title. This 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.120 is a video nasty, this is a curse tape. You know, 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:41.320 watch at your own risk. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.239 Now that might lead you to wonder, okay, if this 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.880 is one of those films that was considered so bad 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.320 as to be you know, targeted by the law in 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:53.280 the UK. Is there like, what's it about? What goes on? 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:56.200 Is you know, is it a Texas chainsaw massacre kind 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:59.800 of thing? I think the best way to describe obs 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.200 third is that it must have been pitched as a 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.880 Halloween clone. Halloween came out in nineteen seventy eight, Is 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:09.680 that right? Yeah, just checked, it was seventy eight, So 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.719 this is a few years after that, and there were many, 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.640 many Halloween clones. Halloween was a big hit, and so 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:17.880 a lot of movies tried to copy it. In fact, 0:05:17.920 --> 0:05:22.920 some of the big slasher franchises in the American market. 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.760 I think you could argue began as Halloween clones. One 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.719 might sing, one might point to like Friday the thirteenth, 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.040 and so forth. You know, it even picks like a 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.800 day of the Years as the title. But anyway, so 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.240 I think absurd. It was imagined as a kind of 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.800 Halloween clone, but much more gory and disgusting. Halloween is 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.240 actually fairly light on the blood and gore. You don't 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.640 see a lot of explicit consequences of violence in it. 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.240 It's more, you know, Halloween is much more focused on 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:57.479 the building of tension through proximity and terror and perspective 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.240 and all that kind of stuff. Absurd gets into a 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.520 lot more just gross, explicit sort of meat exercises, but 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.080 it has very similar plot dynamics. So both movies are 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:12.920 about a seemingly indestructible killer who escapes from a facility 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.280 of some kind and strikes out with random murders in 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.080 a nearby neighborhood. Well, actually no, in Absurd it's not 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.080 a nearby neighborhood for some reason. He goes to a 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:25.800 different country. But in both cases strikes out with random 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.960 murders in a neighborhood with no discernible motive. 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:30.960 Yeah, just random killings. 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:35.839 Both movies follow babysitters as the sort of the victims 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:39.880 and protagonists in a way. Both movies have a kid 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.279 who refers to the killer as the Boogeyman. You remember 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.640 that's in Halloween, and they really emphasize that in Absurd 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.840 as well. And in both cases the killer is pursued 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:55.320 by a sort of eccentric, obsessive foreign cleric, and in 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.600 the case of Halloween that's Donald Pleasant, says Doctor Loomis 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:02.720 in this movie, it is a Greek priest. So you 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:04.880 can see a lot of similarities, but you can see 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.799 differences as well. And one that I think is interesting 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:15.400 is exactly what makes Halloween so so effective as horror 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.440 in a way is its restraint, the way in which 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:22.440 it really like takes its time, the way in which 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:24.760 you know, it plays with as I was saying, distance 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.320 and perspective, you know, showing things in the background of 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.680 shots instead of just going for immediate jump scares and 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:34.040 so forth. Absurd is the exact opposite. It does not 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.680 play with restraint. It plays to excess. 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:38.920 Though it does take its time in some of the sites. 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.040 That's true, yeah, but not necessarily in a good way. 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.880 I mean, it'll like really take its time showing how 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:49.040 long a murder takes to complete. Yeah, but no, it 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.280 also does take its time. I mean, yeah, it does 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:53.840 have the killer lurking in the background sometimes as well, 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.560 so in some ways you've got that element going on. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:02.320 It's kind of a Halloween clone, but with Italian excess sensibilities. 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:04.920 On the other hand, I would say this is an 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:09.560 Italian horror movie of the early nineteen eighties. And while 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:12.720 Absurd does earn a number of superlatives, I'm not trying 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.280 to put it down here. One thing I do think 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:17.840 it kind of makes it stand out is it does 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.560 not manage to be as visually exciting as a lot 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.120 of the Italian horror movies of this period that we love. 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.760 In fact, I would say it almost has a pointedly 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:34.320 intentionally drab, lifeless and colorless visual style. The sets all 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:38.079 seem to be various shades of white, brown, yellow, and tan. 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.080 There's not much, really any use of colored lighting that 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.880 I can recall. There aren't any beautiful vistas or stained 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.160 glass effects or anything like that. It is an almost 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.800 intentionally quite drab looking film. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.400 Yeah, I mean de Motto gets into he gets into 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.880 some creative territory with some of the shots, and he 0:08:57.960 --> 0:08:59.599 makes I think he makes pretty good use of the 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.800 location in some scenes. But yeah, this is not a 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.079 movie you seek out for its rich colors or its 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.600 amazing production design. There's not even any monster makeup, just 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.160 no grimy gore. And I think most people who seek 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:15.760 it out aren't going to seek it out for its 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:20.520 reputation as a low budget video nasty and stick with 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.400 it for some of its well absurd choices. You know, 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.079 because despite its reputation. It's not the gorious film from 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.040 this time period, nor is it the most disturbing by 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.720 any stretch. It's worth noting, especially with Dematto here, that 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:38.240 there's no nudity in this film at all, virtually no 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:43.000 sexual content of any kind. So it's amazingly tame on 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:49.679 that side of the exploitation scales, I would say. Yeah. Also, 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:52.360 despite the American title, it's worth noting that it's I 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:54.520 don't know, you could make a strong argument that this 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.800 film is not really absurd. It's not a surrealistic film, 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.679 it's not psychedel But again, I think three things help 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.040 it to stand out from a lot of the other 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.560 slot films of the time period. It's got a fun score, 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.640 there are some weird choices that are made, I think 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.040 some deliberately and some just via the speed of the production. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.360 And then you've got the screen presence, near constant screen 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:19.200 presence of George Eastman. 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.119 Which alone puts this film in a kind of rare category. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:26.200 I mean, everybody, even if you don't know anything about 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.280 like these Italian exploitation movies and you don't know who 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:31.640 George Eastman is, I think if you see a movie 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.160 with George Eastman in it. You're gonna remember him. You're 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:35.640 gonna be like, who was that guy? 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.120 Yeah? Yeah, A lot of times it's a small role. 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.080 He's come up in films before. He pops up, for instance, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.679 in The Hands of Steel that we watched a while back, 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:46.920 and here he gets a chance to shine. 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:49.360 Now, regarding the question you said, the movie is not 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:53.880 even that absurd, I was wondering if maybe the absurd 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:57.040 title refers not to the more common usage like you 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.640 were saying there, comparing it to something that is psychedelic 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:04.800 or surreal. Maybe we often use the word just to 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:09.120 mean like weird, illogical, or unreasonable. I was wondering if 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:12.840 it is not that usage of absurd, but the philosophical 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.800 usage a lah absurdism, the core tenets of which are 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.600 that the universe is meaningless and our lives are meaningless, 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.280 and that much of the struggle of human life and 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.400 so many of our conflicts and contradictions arise because people 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:30.840 are trying to find the meaning in meaningless things. 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:33.960 All right, all right, I hear what you're laying down. 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.000 Well, yeah, so I think the movie Absurd is quite 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:39.800 The plot is quite compatible with the view that life 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:44.079 is meaningless. You know, the attacks are completely random. And 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:47.800 I wonder if George Eastman's problem as a character is 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.480 that he is engaged in a futile search for the 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.360 meaning of life, and that search involves power drills and 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:54.720 bandsaws and so forth. 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.480 It is interesting that he does not have a signature weapon. 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:01.760 He just makes use of what is immediately around him 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.200 and doesn't carry anything with him. 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.040 It's usually powered mechanisms, isn't it Not in every case, 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.200 but that's kind of strange. He likes like a he 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.160 likes a weapon you can plug into the wall. 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.839 Yeah, and he'll drag you through the house to get 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:15.640 to it. It's not just a matter of like what's 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:20.360 immediately around me. It's like did I see an oven earlier? Yeah, 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.920 there's got to be a kitchen around here somewhere. We'll 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.600 spend five minutes searching for it. 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:27.559 So if we haven't warned you enough already, do be 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:30.560 warned that this movie does have some really gross violence 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:32.560 in it. So if you're going to watch it, be prepared. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:34.960 Yeah, And I also, I don't want to oversell this 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.719 movie like sometimes, you know, I'm big on really championing 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.280 a film and saying like there's this is a hidden gym, 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.640 or there's some there are some diamonds in this one. 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.000 This is a film that a lot of people don't like. 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.200 Even we're into into horror, you know, we'll give it 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.160 maybe like mediocre reviews. So if you're on the fence 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:57.160 about seeing absurd there's a very strong chance you're not 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.560 going to like it. So fair warning. This might be 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:01.120 a case where you just want to hear us talk 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.840 about it. But if if you're into this sort of thing, well, 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.320 you know, dive in because there's there is some absurdity. 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.200 There is some weirdness here that I thought was pretty fun. 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.080 Speaking of the absurdity and the weirdness, just a few 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.200 things I want to call out at the beginnings, these 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.840 these strange contradictions in the movie, where there are things 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:23.360 where I don't even know how to characterize them really 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:29.000 because they contain contradictions. One of them is the sets 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:34.360 in this film which have this They are simultaneously opulent 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.920 and squalid, do you know what I'm saying. 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.040 Yeah, yeah, Like the one of the key, the key 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.640 set in the film, the key location is this obvious 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.520 Italian villa, you know, and it's clearly has old bone 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:53.640 spacious interiors, but the way that the space is decorated 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.360 at times feels very sparse and slapped together. And it's 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.280 also we'll get back to this more, but this is 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:03.880 essentially presented to us as an American home where Americans 0:14:03.920 --> 0:14:08.200 live and are ready for some American football. And i've 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:12.480 this with suits of armor inside that. Yes, yes, so 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.360 it's it's a weird missmash And I think this is 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.040 ultimately one of its charms, you know, you know, at 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.000 least watching it as an American, you know, it is 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:22.800 seeing the sort of mismatch of things. 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.560 Another thing, what is going on with people's accents in 0:14:26.560 --> 0:14:30.760 this movie. The babysitter is a great example. She seems 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.920 to go from I've heard I hear English accent at 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.800 some point, like a very a very formal kind of 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:41.720 received pronunciation accent. Sometimes I hear Irish, sometimes I hear Italian, 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.840 sometimes I hear American. It is all over the place. 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:47.800 Well, you have to remember Absurd as a prestige picture 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.840 with an international cast, so you know it was you know, 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.360 it's not, but it was conceived and produced not so 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:57.760 much for native Italian audiences, but to be shipped out 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.520 to various international markets, each of their own particular and 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.200 shifting censorship standards, And so we have a predominantly Italian cast, 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.680 but with some like UK and I guess, and I 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:12.560 guess largely UK talent thrown in there as well as 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.480 this American setting, though again everything was filmed in Italy. Okay. 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:18.640 I was just thinking before we get to the elevator pitch, 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.320 I was thinking of like three different ways of categorizing 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:26.720 mad slasher villains in movies like this. One is the 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:30.000 question we already addressed of is there a motive or not? 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.360 Sometimes the motive of the slasher is like revenge or something, 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.680 and other times there is no motive. This is a 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.400 case of no motive, firmly on the random violence into 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:39.920 the scale. 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.360 Yeah. Yeah, this is on the Halloween end of the spectrum, 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:46.440 as opposed to say the burning or Nightmare on Elm Street, 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.760 where there is some symbolans of vengeance bound up in 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:51.040 the motives of the killer. 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:52.880 Yeah, or the original Friday the thirteenth. 0:15:53.000 --> 0:15:55.000 Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, that's right. I kind of forget 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.840 because he kind of becomes just a mindless killing machine 0:15:58.000 --> 0:16:01.080 and the franchise later on, certainly by the time he 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:01.880 takes Manhattan. 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:07.040 Yeah, exactly. Okay, that's criteria number one. Criterion number two 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:11.920 is the form, the form and costuming of the slasher villain. 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:15.040 Do they wear a mask or are they physically altered 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:19.520 in some way this case, no, he's just Georgie Sman. No, 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.480 no makeup, no mask, no nothing. He's just a guy. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:23.400 Yeah. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.800 I mean an interesting looking guy, but just a guy. 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:28.760 Yeah. For much of it, Like he's just wearing like 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:31.840 jeans and a shirt. Like, he's just wearing like and 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.000 I'd assume he's just normal clothes. Okay. 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.360 Third distinction I would make is is this mad slasher 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:41.720 the beneficiary of any kind of supernatural intervention or magic? 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.520 And in this case, I would say, once again, no, 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.480 this is a super powered slasher. But it's not like 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.560 in the later Halloween sequels where we discover that Michael 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:57.200 Myers is some kind of like reincarnated Celtic deity or something. No, 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.360 he's just a guy, except we get a science fiction 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.280 explanation for why he is so strong and why bullets 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.760 do not stop him. It's it's because he was the 0:17:06.800 --> 0:17:08.960 result of some experiment in a lab or. I think 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.280 they say there was a contamination. They don't get deep 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:16.320 into the explanation. But he is a product of science, 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:17.080 not magic. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.439 Yeah. Yeah, The explanation is a little garble. There's some 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.240 contradictions there we'll get into, but essentially it's like a 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:27.000 weapons X program. He has a mutant healing factor. It's 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.399 explicitly stated. He's kind of like the Italian or I 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.080 guess the Greek saber tooth here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:36.760 So I feel like all three of these distinctions push 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:41.600 it more into the philosophical absurdism side of the scale, right, 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:46.080 that he is just a man like he's not physically 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:51.000 represented in any unusual way, that his motives are non existent, 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:55.040 it's just random, and that there is no magic or 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:59.080 supernatural intervention of any kind. He's just a product of 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:00.760 a science experiment gone wrong. 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.600 Well, building on that and in lieu of an actual 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.560 elevator pitch, I'm going to read a quote from Albert 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.680 Camu the myth of Sisyphus. Thus, I draw from the 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:16.639 absurd three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:21.879 my passion. Bravo wow, I mean it is revolting. So, 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:24.919 and I think we're gonna we're gonna skip trailer audio 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.760 on this one. In part because the trailer is just 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.960 music and screaming. I believe, oh yeah, I would be 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.320 inclined to include it if we had a narrator saying absurd, 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:35.400 but they don't. 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:37.800 I'm going to go on record here and say, even 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.480 for horror movies, I do not like trailers that are 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.320 just full of screaming. Not a fan. I like a 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:47.760 narrator or at least some clips of dialogue and ominous music. 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:49.840 This is the screaming. Save it for the climax of 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:52.560 the film. I'm I'm not interested in hearing just three 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.600 minutes of screaming to preview a movie. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:59.560 Absolutely all right. So if at this point you're like, okay, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.760 and I do actually want to watch Absurd before finishing 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.760 this episode, well, then more power to you. Now. The 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.760 thing is Absurd has circulated under various titles and with 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:13.119 various cuts for a long time. The region free severin 0:19:13.200 --> 0:19:16.320 Films BLU ray is hard to beat, though, featuring both 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.880 the original Italian cut that comes in at eighty eight 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.600 minutes and the uncensored US cut, which comes in at 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.200 ninety four minutes. The discs also features a handful of 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.320 informative interviews which I'll refer back to, and it has 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:32.359 the whole the entire score on CD as a bonus disc. Now, 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:34.480 if you are not into the physical media, you don't 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.679 have access to it, don't have time, and so forth. 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:40.360 You can also stream the US cut and it has 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:42.760 the box art for the Severeign release, so I guess 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.560 it's connected to that. You can stream it on TOV currently, 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:48.240 at least in the United States. I own the disc. 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:50.840 It's great. I think once I'm done with it, I'm 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:53.800 going to be donating it to Videodrome here in Atlanta, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.040 so if you're local, you can rent the disc there. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:06.879 All right, let's get into the folks who made this film, 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.240 starting at the top with the director, the producer, and 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:13.440 the cinematographer. It's Joe Tomato, who lived nineteen thirty six 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:17.000 through nineteen ninety nine, a truly legendary name in the 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.960 realm of Italian exploitation and trash cinema. We have mentioned 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.720 him numerous times on the show, often in connection to 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:28.320 other actors who are working in eurocinema or in Italian cinema, 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.480 sometimes also for things that he did besides directing. For instance, 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:34.840 he was at least one of the producers on troll Too. 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.160 Was he involved at all in Shocking Dark? 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.320 You know, I don't think he was, but we will 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.840 have a Shocking Dark connection here in just a bit. Okay. So, 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:46.119 Joe Tomato is one of the many monikers that he 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.320 used for his directorial work over the years. It's just 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.280 the one that seemed to stick the most. But his 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.480 birth name was Artista day Masa Chesi. We're going to 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.680 keep referring to him as Joe Tomato though. So Joe 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.040 Tomano did everything in film at one point or another, 0:21:03.400 --> 0:21:07.119 in part because, you know, based on an interview, the 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.359 interviews that I've seen with him, in interviews with George Eastman, 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.680 who worked with him multiple times, he's a guy who 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:15.720 loves cinema and you know, love the craft of cinema. Anyway, 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:17.879 I think he often said that he was not an 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:20.440 artist and did not see himself as an artist, but 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.359 he clearly, like you know it, was really into the 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.080 craft of making films and all. But also he was 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:29.400 notoriously cheap and was generally operating on a shoe string budget. 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.159 You know, make it fast, make it cheap. Eastman has 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:35.080 pointed out in interviews that like if they could do 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.359 it with one take. They would do it with one take, 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.159 you know. And he wasn't the type of director to 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.159 instruct the actors at all. So if it was a 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:45.159 good actor, you know, you might get a good performance. 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:47.640 If they were green, it was going to be as 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:49.879 green as it came out, you know. It just wasn't 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:53.880 his thing, Eastman says, And to instruct and build upon 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:55.240 the performance. 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:57.200 One take, that's what I love that. That's like the 0:21:57.720 --> 0:21:59.640 ed would rule, right, you know, why do it again 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:00.520 when it's perfect? 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:02.840 Yeah? Yeah, And we've got to We've got to crank 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:06.240 this out, you know. Yea. So yeah. These were the 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.879