WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Sleepwalkers 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.160 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.680 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.360 For today's movie selection, we are returning to the early 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.439 nineteen nineties with what I think is one of the 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.720 weirder Stephen King films you could possibly ask for, and 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:29.000 that is Sleepwalkers, directed by Mick Garris. 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:33.200 Folks, you've heard of the ancient Greek play Oedipus Rex. 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.720 I think we could call this movie Oedipus Garfield. 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:36.560 What do you think? 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:42.480 Maybe? Maybe? Yeah. This is a film that is notable 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:48.400 for its incestuous cat people, but there's a lot more 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.040 going on there. It's a lot weirder than just that, 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.000 as we'll get into. This is one I definitely remember 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.640 the trailers for because I was already a pretty dedicated 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.840 Stephen King reader at this point and pretty much believed 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.200 he could do no wrong. I was just reading like 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.640 nothing but Stephen King books, and I considered the checklist 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:09.880 of his books in the back of the paperbacks, where 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.480 you could like send away for them. I considered this 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:15.680 be something of a syllabus for life. Oh and I 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.920 would do things like and this is this is horrible, 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:20.520 but I would have my lunch money for the week, 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:24.600 and instead of spending it on lunch at school, I 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.560 would pocket it all because at the end of a 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.040 week of not eating lunch, I would have enough money 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:33.280 to blow on a Stephen King paperback. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:35.880 Well, now that I am a parent, I can't quite 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.760 encourage that sort of deceptive behavior. But on the other hand, 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:40.320 that's beautiful. I mean I love that. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.680 This is why I never read Cycle of the Werewolf, 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:46.800 because it was illustrated and therefore cost a little bit more, 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:48.320 and I was like, I can't that's too rich for 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:48.800 my blood. 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.000 Oh man, Yeah, I never got to that one either. God, 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:55.120 I remember that same thing that the old like order 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.280 form pages you would get in the end of a paperback. 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.160 That was whoever came out up with that idea first 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:02.320 is brilliant marketing. 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.200 I kind of I encounter one every now and again 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:06.600 in an old paperback and I'm like, I want to 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.240 send off. I want to see what happens. It's like 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.080 writing into the Mystery Science Theater three thousand fan club. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.040 It's like, I want to do it. You've got that address. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:15.080 It's got to go somewhere. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:17.960 Maybe it's still active. You ever read about those things 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.440 that are like they used to have those telephone tip 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.960 lines for like old computer games in the like late 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:25.559 eighties and early nineties. 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:26.560 At least like nine hundred numbers. 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:28.800 Yeah, you could pay money to call in for like 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.280 tips on how to beat a computer game. And some 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.840 of these lines stayed active for a long time. 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:38.440 Oh wow, Yeah, because it's just automated pre recorded messages, right, 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:40.079 I guess so. Yeah, huh. 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.280 Sorry that took us a feeling. Yes, Sleepwalkers, I agree 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.480 with you, Rob. This is a movie I saw when 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:50.160 I was younger, I think, on on cable and revisiting 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.920 it this week, it was so much weirder than I remembered, 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:57.440 and I remembered it being pretty darn weird. 0:02:58.240 --> 0:03:00.880 Yeah. Same. I must have seen it on cable back 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.560 in the day. I think I rented it on DVD 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.600 at some point, you know, in the past twenty years, 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.679 but I probably didn't give it a dedicated viewing and 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:12.960 you know, enough to really appreciate how deeply bonkers it is. 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:18.360 It's full of tonal whiplash, monster madness. Stephen King late 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.280 twentieth century Americana and also a good half dozen cameos. 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:23.480 Yeah, you can. 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:28.160 Tell this movie has the feeling of like of a 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.320 party for horror nerds. Yeah, Like it feels like one 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.280 of those movies that was for the people making it 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.760 more than it was for the audience. And I'm not 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.600 complaining now being part of the audience, but you can 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.400 tell it was just kind of you know, throwing weird 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.800 cameos in for really no reason at all, except I 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.080 think just for you know, different horror authors and people 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:51.920 involved in in the you know, Stephen King's social circle 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:54.240 to have fun, you know, just oh, I. 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:55.760 Want to show up. I want to be in this movie. 0:03:56.200 --> 0:04:00.120 Stephen King himself shows up of course. And also I 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:02.600 think what you're talking about with the tonal whiplash, where 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.200 it just cuts from like a very serious, somber moment 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:10.840 to the weirdest goofiest one liners you've ever seen, like 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.200 right back to back. It feels just like people playing around. 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:17.760 Yeah. Yeah, and then at the same time there are 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:21.279 stretches where it's like it's really serious. And we mentioned 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:25.120 the Incestuous Cat People. I will say that the Incestuous 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:29.640 Cat People is played pretty much straightforward. It's not played 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.120 for laughs. I think if it had been played for laughs, 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.159 the project would have been ruined. I don't think it 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.599 would be watchable. I think it would just be super 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:40.440 hammy and not in a pleasant way. But it's played straight. 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:45.000 The goofiness kind of arises from other aspects of the film, 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.840 and it's a large part of why it still mostly works. 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:51.599 It's played very serious in every scene that takes place 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.039 within the cat people's house. Yeah, but every scene that 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.800 takes place outside of their house has the chance to 0:04:57.839 --> 0:04:59.680 go off the rails into zany town. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.800 That's good. That's a good observation. Now, folks upfront, I 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.600 want to advise everyone that this this is a cat movie. 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:07.400 This is a movie that has a lot of love 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:10.160 for cats. But I need to warn you that there 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.039 is a fair amount of simulated violence against cats in 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.120 the picture. It was. It's all very much above board 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:17.880 as far as I understand. You can read about it 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:22.160 at Humanehollywood dot org. But you know, cats are the 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.280 good guys in this movie, but they got to take 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.600 a beating in order to have that big victory moment 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:27.440 laid in the picture. 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.120 Yeah, it might be under selling it a little bit 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:32.360 just to say some simulated violence. I mean you are 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:35.680 going to see like fake cats ripped in half hanging 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:36.919 from ropes and stuff. 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.240 Yeah, but they're fake. They're fake, they're fake. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:42.479 The cats are all okay, I mean they're all dead 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:44.880 now because the cats don't live that long. But yeah, 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:46.719 but all the cat None of the cats were harmed 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.679 in the making of this picture. But if you're sensitive 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:51.640 to that sort of thing, you might want to skip it. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.039 But also, as you say, ultimately a cat really is 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:56.839 the hero of the film. 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.560 Absolutely, yes, Clovis who will get to in at Clovis 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.200 and his fellow cats are the ones that are gonna 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:08.040 ultimately save the day. So you know, you could probably 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:13.039 put together an elevator pitch that really stresses this. But 0:06:13.160 --> 0:06:15.520 another way to think about this, this is a film 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:21.000 that is deeply about this strange relationship and this strange 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.880 bond between a monster and the monster's mother. So in 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:29.640 a sense, this is Stephen King's Beowolf, except there's no 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:35.880 Beowolf to play opposite Grendall and Grendall's mother. In this case, 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:37.719 we have Clovis the cat. 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.920 Yeah, Clovis is the Beowolf. Clovis is Beowulf. You could 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.240 say that, how does the rest work it. The rest 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:44.760 doesn't work so well. I guess you could sort of 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:48.080 say that Tanya and her family are like Brothgar's mead 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.000 Hall and the monster attacks it, and then of course 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:55.880 they have to hire Clovis, the outside defender, to come 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:56.800 and kill the monster. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.560 Yeah, and Clovis has other motivations as well, as we'll 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:01.880 get into. Clovis really one of the deeper characters in 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:05.440 this picture. This fits a film mostly about monsters and Clovis. 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:08.599 Do you remember the scenes where so Clovis is a 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:10.800 cat who we first meet as the pet of a 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.280 police officer, and he's riding around in the. 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.000 Police car, which he does ride along. 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.440 Hilarious idea to begin with, but also in every scene 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.720 where they wanted to have the police police officer character 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.080 like get out of the car and walk around while 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:27.240 Clovis is still supposed to be in the car, it's 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:30.800 obviously like a stuffed animal in there because it's holding still. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:36.160 Well, you know, cats are famously difficult to direct. You know, 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.920 you can hear this from everyone. The Coen Brothers were 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.000 very very adamant about this. For example, you know, they're 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:44.680 very difficult. It's very difficult to get a cat to 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:46.440 do what you want or anything close to what you 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.920 want in a picture, and this is a picture that 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.000 has scenes with hundreds of cats. I have no idea 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:55.080 how they ultimately pull these shots off. Clovis hits his marks. 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.120 He's a good boy. Absolutely. We'll get into the feline 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.920 actor behind the performance here in a bit. 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.440 But oh, folks, you might be confused because we've been 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.560 talking about the monsters in the movie as cats and 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.000 then also about cats. So this is a movie, to clarify, 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.000 that has a lot of straightforward animal cats in it, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.160 just like the cats you're familiar with. But then also 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:23.200 the monsters are where cat vampires. They're half human half 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:25.240 cat magical beings. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:31.720 Yeah, kind of like hairless cat human hybrids that are 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:37.360 also energy vampires and shape shifters and wizards in their 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.120 own right. Yes, we'll learn in the second half of 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:40.520 the picture. 0:08:40.600 --> 0:08:43.680 Yeah, the movie keeps introducing new powers for them, even 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:45.960 in like the last five minutes of the film. I 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:48.560 think it's literally five minutes from the end credits that 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.760 we learned they can they have telekinesis we have not 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.000 seen up until this point. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:53.559 I mean, it makes a lot of sense because we 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.319 learn that they are old, they are ancient, they're long lived. 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.920 I mean, they're essentially demigods, like the children of bast 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:02.920 and so forth. 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:05.720 All right, should we do some trailer audio? 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.480 Yeah, let's listen to the trailer for this one. Just 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.480 a bit of it. We'll get some of that great 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:18.840 early nineties narration. You cannot be in love with this girl. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:21.440 I don't know me, Tanya. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:27.480 Behind their smile is a secret. Come in, don I 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.640 have something for you. I don't know who you are, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:33.520 but I know you're not who you say you are. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.000 Behind the secret is a hunger. 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:38.240 Does it have to be her? 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:44.920 And behind it all is the imagination of Stephen King. 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:55.839 He killed one of my men. He was scared of a. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:16.959 Cat, Stephen King's Sleepwalkers. 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.800 All right, So if you're wondering, well, hey, where can 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.920 I watch Sleepwalkers before proceeding with the rest of the episode, 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.280 or maybe you want to, you know, get a copy 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.280 of it for later. Well, this was a major release, 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:35.120 and a successful release of that, I should pinpoint this 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.480 movie made money. You can easily get your hands on 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.599 a digital or physical version. I rented the standard no 0:10:41.760 --> 0:10:45.960 frills Blu ray from Atlanta's own videodrome and picture looks great. 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:48.480 That's a great way to go about it. But Shout 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.920 Factory put out a special edition in several years back, 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.200 and I think this one's absolutely the way to go 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:55.760 if you can get your hands on it. I couldn't 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:58.280 get it shipped to me in time for this episode, 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:02.199 but it features new poster art by Devin Whitehead that 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.880 is absolutely amazing. It has Clovis the cat front and 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.839 center leaping out at you. I love this. 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.839 Yes, Clovis is leaping out of a big wad of 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:17.360 pink magic energy. Also, the two main monsters in the 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:22.040 film are the Sun Monster, are Grendall, Charles Brady and 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.920 Grendall's mother Mary Brady. They're leaping out of the magic energy. 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.400 And then also a car, yeah Transam, right, the Blue 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.480 trans The Blue trans Am is the central cool car 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:34.520 in the movie, and of course that has to go 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:37.360 on the poster. The car is a major character in 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.240 the film, Yes it is. 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.719 And oh man, some of you might be wondering what 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.880 kind of sucker pays extra to get like a cool 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.160 cover on a Blu Ray re release. Well I am 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:50.840 that sucker. I am the kind of person who does that, 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:53.920 And I'm very tempted to find a copy of this 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.760 and get it shipped to me. But also yet, Devin Whitehead, 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.040 you can look him up on Instagram, Devin draws. He 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.920 does a lot of these postss for re releases of 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.880 films and it's all amazing for it. Oh. I should 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:06.880 also add the Blu Ray also has a ton of 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:10.040 extras that look really cool that I am also jealous 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:11.600 that I wasn't able to get my hands on before 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:12.360 we recorded here. 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:14.960 I would like to learn more about this production, especially 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.200 given the cameo party elements we've already talked about. 0:12:18.920 --> 0:12:22.240 Yeah, yeah, I do have a couple of details about 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.080 that as we go on. But yeah, I don't know 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.800 exactly how all of it came together other than Stephen 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.320 Kingscott buddies and you know, he calls him in. You know, 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:32.199 you might have a cameo in a picture. You might 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.120 get to jam with him in a rock and roll band. 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.640 It just varies, all right. Let's talk about the people 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.360 behind this movie, starting at the top with the director. 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:45.760 It's Mick Garris born nineteen fifty one, American horror filmmaker 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.839 and general horror officionado during the late seventies. He worked 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.240 his way up through various forms of sort of cinema 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.640 adjacent media, including a local LA cable access interview show 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.000 called Fantasy Film Festival, in which he interviewed such filmmaking 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:03.120 or as John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg. You can actually 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.480 find uploads of this on YouTube. 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:06.559 Is he a good interviewer? 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.640 Ah, you know, I didn't. It seemed like he was. 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.840 I didn't watch enough to really get a sense of it. 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.559 But he seemed to have a good rapport with these 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:21.160 various directors. Like a lot of his peers, mc gerris 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.559 grew up making like eight millimeter films, but his first 0:13:24.679 --> 0:13:27.960 credited industry directorial work came in the form of making 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:31.400 of documentaries for such films as nineteen eighty ones The Howling, 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.160 eighty two's The Thing, and nineteen eighty five's The Goonies. 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.160 Huh, this is sort of making sense. Okay, So he's 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:43.720 interviewing horror filmmakers, he's doing making of documentaries about their films. 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:48.160 It almost seems like one of those fan turned creator arcs. 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.480 Yeah. Yeah, I mean all creators were fans at one point? 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:56.440 Are they better have been? So from there he goes 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.839 on to direct a pair of TV show at the 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:03.719 Duds Anthology episodes in nineteen eighty six. One airs on 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:07.160 the Magical World of Disney. It is titled Fuzzbucket and 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:09.720 it's an imaginary friends story, you know, for kids. And 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.240 then he also did an episode of Amazing Stories titled 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.520 Life on Death Row starring Patrick Swayzee. He followed this 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.720 up with nineteen eighty eight Critters Too The Main Course, 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.480 followed by some more TV work, including Psycho four, and 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:29.000 then this film, the first Stephen King film based entirely 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.440 on an original screenplay by Stephen King. 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.840 That is interesting. So this is the first one not 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.400 adapted from a novel or from some other media, And 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:45.080 I wonder if that difference contributes to the kind of loose, exploratory, 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:47.160 playful feel of this movie. 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.680 Yeah maybe so, Like it's I don't know that a 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:53.840 lot of information is really out there about how the 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:56.200 story came together. I think there's I've read some stuff 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:57.880 that seemed to indicate it might have been an old 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.360 story idea that King either or didn't get published or 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.640 didn't finish or you know, rework for some reason or another. 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:06.840 But you know, you can't help but watch it and 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:11.040 wonder what form it would have taken had he actually 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.320 written it as a novel. You know, what point of 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.040 views would we have. How much Clovis pov would we get. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.320 I bet we would have had some nest King definitely 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:21.440 would do animal povs in some of his books. 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.560 I kind of wonder if it would have less of 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.400 the free wheeling zaniness if it were an adaptation of 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.840 a novel, because when you're adapting a novel, there's kind 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:34.480 of this feeling of responsibility, you know, taken to varying 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.800 levels of seriousness by different directors, but some feeling of 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.840 responsibility to the source material, whereas this being its own 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.360 original thing, you could just kind of let it all 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:45.240 hang out. 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.520 I do. I have a strong suspicion that if we 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.920 had seen Sleepwalkers as a novel, we would have had 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:54.560 a lot more insight into the mindset of the character 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:59.560 Charles Brady, the grindele monster of the pair, and sort 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.280 of his place as a character kind of caught between 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.320 two worlds, between the world of predatory monsters in the 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.200 world of living humans that are their prey. 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.200 That is hinted at in the movie, though it doesn't 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:15.080 feel like it really, it doesn't feel like the movie 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.360 really takes that theme seriously, if you know what I mean, 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.840 Because you know, he has a few lines about like, oh, 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.040 you know, am I actually falling in love with this 0:16:24.120 --> 0:16:26.600 girl who's soul I'm trying to steal by sucking pink 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:31.080 magic out of her mouth? You know, it suggests that 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.640 in the dialogue. But then also he has shown to 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:38.080 be essentially a totally heartless, soulless character who just like 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.520 wants to like run down children with his car for fun. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.840 Yeah, and I think that's that's that's kind of a 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.240 big missed opportunity with this film, And that's where the 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.480 film really breaks down, is that is that we don't 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.600 we don't really explore his character all that much, and 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:58.080 he just we tease the possibility that there's more there, 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.240 but then he does just become a mini called Madman Killer. 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.680 So the Madman stuff in the movie or mad Monster, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:05.760 especially when you get to the Mary stuff later on, 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:08.600 is some of the most memorable stuff in the film. 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.920 Like it gets so wild. 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:16.320 Now. From what I've read, Garris was King's pick to 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:19.040 direct this picture. There was somebody else that they were 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.560 talking to about it, but they were pushing for major 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:26.080 changes the King didn't want, and so Garrison Kings seem 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:29.480 to have a good remote creative process going on. I've 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:31.879 seen some interviews where Mike Garris talks about this, and 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:33.879 they would like it was facts based. They were like 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.439 faxing the script back and forth and making some changes 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:39.840 here and there, and then they didn't actually meet in 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.280 person until they filmed the cameo later on in the picture, 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:44.560 and the. 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.280 First thing Stephen King said to him was. 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:55.199 Piano fax machine joke. The partnership here would continue with 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:59.760 Garris directing the nineteen ninety four TV mini series The Stand, 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:04.080 the nineteen ninety seven adaptation of The Shining, two thousand 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.359 and four's Riding the Bullet, two thousand and six is Desperation, 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:10.320 and twenty eleven's Bag of Bones. Now I have to 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.800 admit I don't think I've seen most of these. I've 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.359 seen parts of the Stand, and I know that that 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.800 TV mini series version of The Stand has its followers. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.159 And of course I loved the book that was a 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.080 core King text back in the day. 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.560 I remember, I don't know if I ever watched the 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.360 whole thing of that adaptation of the Stand, but I've 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:35.720 seen parts of it. It has the very famous opening 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.760 where you're at the government lab and it's playing Don't 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:40.440 Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cold. 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:43.640 Oh yeah. But anyway, I believe that Mick Garris has 0:18:43.720 --> 0:18:47.480 the record so far for feature film adaptations of Stephen King. 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:50.399 On top of this, he's also directed episodes of Tales 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.400 from the Crypt and Masters of Horror, which he also created. 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.480 His screenplays and story credits also include nineteen eighty seven's 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.680 Batteries Not included, nineteen eighty nine is the Fly Too, 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:06.359 in nineteen ninety three's hocus Pocus. Garris has also written 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:10.440 some novels, but not nearly as many as the gentleman 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:12.960 behind the screenplay here, and that of course is Stephen 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.320 King born nineteen forty seven, the King of Horror himself, 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.840 the most successful horror novelist of all time and one 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:23.800 of the most successful novelist period, still writing, still publishing. 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:27.359 And you know, we can't hope to cover everything that 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.600 Stephen King has done here in this episode. So let's 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:33.160 sort of place ourselves around the year nineteen ninety two. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.679 So at this point he'd already published something like twenty 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.960 five books under his own name and that of Richard Bachman, 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.320 as well as something like forty four short stories and 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.720 this and this all included some of his best known 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.000 work and some of his best work. And on the 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:54.200 film front, there were already multiple adaptations, including Stanley Kubrick's 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:58.320 The Shining from nineteen eighty. Other adaptations that he'd been 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:01.840 more involved in personally, generally on the writing side, but 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.320 sometimes acting as well include eighty two's Creep Show, eighty 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:09.359 five's Cats Eye and Silver Bullet, nineteen eighty six is 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:14.000 Maximum Overdrive, which is also his sole directorial credit, eighty 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.800 seven's creep Show two, and nineteen eighty nine's Pet Cemetery. 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:21.200 Acting in Creep Show being the central character in one 0:20:21.240 --> 0:20:22.160 of the vignettes there. 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:27.119 That's right. His Oscar snowed performance is Jeordie Verel in 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:31.000 Creep Showyeah, not a cameo, but the title character in 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:38.040 that segment. A wild a wild performance for sure, But 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:40.640 generally when he appears in something, it is a little 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:44.000 cameo and it actually his His screen credits go back 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:48.280 to nineteen eighty one's Night Writers, directed by George Romero, 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:50.720 in which he played the HOGI man. 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:55.800 I would say legitimately in Sleepwalkers. His cameo is one 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:57.560 of the funniest parts of the movie. 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:04.399 It's quite good. Yeah, King King cameos. They vary in 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.360 length and intensity, but the King can be a lot 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.719 of fun. He shows up in Sons of Anarchy at 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.920 one point. Oh yeah, remember that he's what a he's 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:14.640 like a cleaner or a fixer. 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:16.800 Yeah, he's like a weird guy who tries to cover 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.520 up crime scenes, I think, But yeah, in this movie 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:22.200 he plays a weirdo. 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:22.760 Of course. 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:26.119 He plays like this strange, creepy owner of a cemetery 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.240 where the monster attacks the main girl in the movie, 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:33.800 and after the attack is over, he's walking around talking 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.120