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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and

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Speaker 3: we've got something a little bit different for you today.

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Speaker 3: Today on Weird House Cinema, we're going to be talking

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Speaker 3: about The Viewing, directed by Panos Cosmodos, which is not

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Speaker 3: a feature film, but an anthology episode in the twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty two Netflix series Guermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities. Rob,

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Speaker 3: this was your pick. How did you end up bringing

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Speaker 3: us into this zone?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, I certainly, of modern directors, Panos is

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Speaker 2: one of my favorite weird directors and certainly someone who's

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Speaker 2: always been in the back of my mind with Weird

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Speaker 2: House Cinema. I think one of the reasons I dig

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Speaker 2: this selection so much, though, is that it kind of

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Speaker 2: fills a vital gap in modern genre cinema. I don't

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Speaker 2: know if this will make sense or if this is

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Speaker 2: just like me thinking too long and hard about it,

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Speaker 2: but I feel like this movie of the Viewing is

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Speaker 2: in many ways like a B movie creature feature, only

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Speaker 2: without the B movie budget limitations and with everything you know,

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Speaker 2: some being somewhat subjected to a kind of like cinematic reduction,

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Speaker 2: you know, and concentration of the flavors. As we've discussed

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Speaker 2: on the show before, B movies of today, at least

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Speaker 2: to me and I think to us to some degree,

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Speaker 2: they lack the luster of those twentieth century B movies.

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Speaker 2: And we've discussed some of the possible reasons why. You know,

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Speaker 2: is it the technical proficiency or lack thereof sometimes in

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Speaker 2: the B movies, Is it digital film and digital effects

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Speaker 2: versus practical and film, or do these recent films just

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Speaker 2: feel too contemporary.

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Speaker 3: I think a lot of modern B movies are too

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Speaker 3: self conscious and not distinctive enough. They kind of lack

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Speaker 3: some of the character of the B movies of old

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Speaker 3: and have a level of self consciousness that takes some

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Speaker 3: of the fun out. Like I don't know, I mean,

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Speaker 3: I've never gotten deep into the Sharknado series, but is like,

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Speaker 3: I don't know how much of a drive I feel

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Speaker 3: to watch Sharknado five, but I do kind of want

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Speaker 3: to watch Jaws four again.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned fun, and I think that's another key thing,

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Speaker 2: like a lot of B movies from the past, that

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Speaker 2: they are fun to watch this selection. The viewing is,

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Speaker 2: at least to my taste, a very fun viewing experience.

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Speaker 2: Every time I watch it, I laugh a little bit,

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Speaker 2: I geek out over some of the visuals and the sounds,

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Speaker 2: and I ponder over some of the strange choices that

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Speaker 2: are made, and I think all of those things kind

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Speaker 2: of match up with the sort of suite of experienperiences

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Speaker 2: you tend to have with older B movies, though obviously

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Speaker 2: to create this nowadays, you've got to spend a lot

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Speaker 2: more money. You've got to throw in, you know, sort

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Speaker 2: of a mixture of retro esthetics, absurdism in the case

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Speaker 2: of Panos's film, certainly a heightened commitment to style. And

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Speaker 2: I guess it's understandable when we don't see more films

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Speaker 2: of this nature, because yeah, it's clearly expensive to generate.

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Speaker 2: And I guess at the end of the day, there's

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Speaker 2: kind of like a who is this for? Question?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I don't really know. I feel like

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Speaker 3: his most recent feature film, Mandy, was moderately successful, was

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Speaker 3: it not? Or am I wrong?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, Mandy was was successful, at least

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Speaker 2: as far as my understanding of its metrics go. You know,

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Speaker 2: it had several different things that sort of propelled it

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Speaker 2: and got people into theaters or certainly checking it out

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Speaker 2: digitally later. Be it you know, the whole you know,

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Speaker 2: cage rage aspect of it. You learned to see this

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Speaker 2: really walked out performance from Nicolas Cage or certainly the

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Speaker 2: face melting visuals and sounds of the picture. And also

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Speaker 2: it had a very I guess, dependable subgenre styling to it.

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Speaker 2: It is a revenge film, which is not my favorite

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Speaker 2: genre of film, but it's something that you go into

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Speaker 2: a movie like that you kind of know what sort

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Speaker 2: of ride you're in for, and that helps propel you

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Speaker 2: through it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so maybe the revenge film or other genre trappings

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Speaker 3: might explain part of the success there. But I feel

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Speaker 3: like there is an audience for Penos Cosmodos oh and

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Speaker 3: for his style driven approach. I mean, so I've seen now,

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Speaker 3: I guess, all of the major film projects of Penos Cosmotos.

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Speaker 3: So he's done two features Beyond the Black Rainbow from

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Speaker 3: twenty ten and Mandy from twenty eighteen, and this Cabinet

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Speaker 3: of Curiosities episode. I've seen all three now and I

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Speaker 3: don't know of anything else. He's really released. One thing

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Speaker 3: I think they all have in common is that they

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Speaker 3: are primarily texture driven rather than narrative driven. So whereas

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Speaker 3: you assume most filmmaking projects start with the story idea,

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Speaker 3: they start with a script or a story concept, and

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Speaker 3: then they come up with the audio visual elements that

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Speaker 3: are necessitated by that. They come up with sets and

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Speaker 3: costumes and lighting schema and music and other visual and

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Speaker 3: auditory motifs to serve and enrich the story. I think

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Speaker 3: Panos's movies, I mean, I don't know about the process

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Speaker 3: if it really works this way, but it feels like

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Speaker 3: Panos's movies start with the texture. They start with maybe

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Speaker 3: a vision of a room with sunken couches in a

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Speaker 3: circle with a strange sort of pipe organ chandelier hanging

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Speaker 3: above them, and a revolving table covered in lines of cocaine,

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Speaker 3: surrounded by like mirrored orange radiance and AK forty seven

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Speaker 3: silhouetted in gold light. And then there's a specific soundtrack

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Speaker 3: to this. You can you know he's hearing it in

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Speaker 3: his head. There's like a chord progression playing in a dark,

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Speaker 3: saturated moge synthesize tone. Oh, and then you know, for

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Speaker 3: another movie it's like I'm seeing a biker that's only

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Speaker 3: in shadows, surrounded by pink light, covered head to toe

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Speaker 3: in spikes like a puffer fish. But they're not spikes,

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Speaker 3: they're made of rebar.

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Speaker 4: Oh.

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Speaker 3: And there's like a battle between two men wielding ten

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Speaker 3: foot long chainsaws, and so forth and so forth, And

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Speaker 3: it feels like they start with the images and the

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Speaker 3: color palettes, the lighting, the music and all that, and

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Speaker 3: they just kind of fill in a story or the

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Speaker 3: suggestion of a story to link together all of that texture.

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Speaker 3: I'd say, of the three things, maybe Mandy is the

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Speaker 3: most story driven of his works, followed by this episode

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Speaker 3: somewhere in the middle, and then beyond the Black Rainbow

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Speaker 3: seems the least story driven in the most kind of

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Speaker 3: texture driven. But in all cases it seems to me

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Speaker 3: like the plot content is secondary to the sights and

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Speaker 3: the sounds. And let me know in a minute if

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Speaker 3: you disagree with that characterization. But I'll say, at least

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Speaker 3: as far as my perception of his style goes, it's

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Speaker 3: interesting to me that this is not the only film

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Speaker 3: we've covered that feel like it operates this way. But

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Speaker 3: in other cases, for one thing, no, it actually did

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Speaker 3: operate that way in terms of how the film was made,

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Speaker 3: and we know why, and it was because of ruthless

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Speaker 3: concerns about budget and efficiency. So maybe Roger Corman says, oh,

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Speaker 3: hot dog, we got some stock footage and some leftover

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Speaker 3: sets and costumes from another movie. We got them on

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Speaker 3: the cheap. Let's throw together a script that can use

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Speaker 3: this footage of a rocket launching and these sparkly coats

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Speaker 3: and this rented mansion in La and et cetera, et cetera.

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Speaker 3: Panos's movies do not feel like this at all, to

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Speaker 3: the extent that it is actually guided by an ethic

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Speaker 3: of texture first, or production elements first, rather than story first.

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Speaker 3: It feels like a result of a lavish, indulgent passion

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Speaker 3: for the project, completely opposite from the sort of mercenary

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Speaker 3: or efficiency focused attempt to wring every last drop of

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Speaker 3: value out of your rentals and your commissions.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a real commitment to vision, uh, with these pictures.

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Speaker 2: And I love that it that it has thus far

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Speaker 2: been sustained, because when Beyond the Black Rainbow came out,

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Speaker 2: I loved it. You know, it's just a film you

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Speaker 2: can just breathe in and and then came Mandy, and

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Speaker 2: then came this, and and like each time, I'm afraid

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Speaker 2: things are gonna get less weird, They're gonna maybe become

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Speaker 2: more concerned with with these other aspects of cinematic storytelling.

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Speaker 2: But but thus far, no, it's been it's been the weirdness,

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Speaker 2: the visuals and the you know, the sites and sounds

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Speaker 2: well beyond anything you've tested that come first.

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Speaker 3: And to be clear, I don't know that this is

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Speaker 3: how Panos operates. It's just that's how the product feels

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Speaker 3: in the end. I mean, it's it's entirely possible. They

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Speaker 3: do start with the script and then just something about

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Speaker 3: the way, you know, the way he realizes the sights

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Speaker 3: and sounds of that story are so strong they sort of,

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Speaker 3: uh take take the pilot's chair in the actual viewing experience.

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Speaker 3: But then this got me thinking about, well, what are

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Speaker 3: the common themes in the narrative content the stories of

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Speaker 3: Panos Cosmodosi's movies, And they seem to me to all

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Speaker 3: represent a dual infatuation with, but also deep suspicion of

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Speaker 3: the mini strands of the psychedelic and New Age American

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Speaker 3: counterculture of the sixties and seventies. So you've got murderous

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Speaker 3: cults of Manson type hippies. You've got demonic bikers that

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Speaker 3: deal drugs from hell. You have utopian alternative healing institutions

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Speaker 3: that turn into psychotic prisons, like the premise of Beyond

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Speaker 3: the Black Rainbow is sort of like an Esslin Institute

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Speaker 3: workshop took hostages and turned them into psychic assassins. You've

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Speaker 3: got hallucinogen use that is portrayed with a kind of

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Speaker 3: glamorous horror. It's a double edged sword. It's very alluring,

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Speaker 3: but it also causes people to lose their minds and

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Speaker 3: sometimes their souls. And the Viewing in particular has a

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Speaker 3: character who seems to me to be modeled on personalities

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Speaker 3: associated with the Stanford Research Institute, which we've talked about

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Speaker 3: on the show before, but basically, you know, a sort

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Speaker 3: of research program famous for claiming to have found scientific

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Speaker 3: evidence of paranormal powers like telekinesis and remote viewing, sometimes

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Speaker 3: associated with other figures in the broader New Age movement.

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Speaker 3: And this character in the Viewing is explicitly portrayed as

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Speaker 3: a Charlatan. And in general, it seems like Panos's vision

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Speaker 3: is one that's like obsessed with these sort of hippie

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Speaker 3: and new age concepts, but also views mind expansion in

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Speaker 3: all its forms as something that is beautiful and appealing

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Speaker 3: but often is a false promise that leads to suffering

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Speaker 3: and chaos and destruction.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I think that's very fair. I guess some

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Speaker 2: of it is also probably rooted in an exploitation cinema,

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Speaker 2: Like certainly when you think of Beyond the Black Rainbow,

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Speaker 2: instantly reminded of Blue Sunshine, which is very much a

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Speaker 2: you know, post hippies, sort of aging out hippies exploitation

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Speaker 2: film about oh, well, you know that that acid you

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Speaker 2: took years ago, Well, it turns out it'll make you

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Speaker 2: into a bald psychopath. Now, so watch out and think

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Speaker 2: twice about all the things you did ten or fifteen

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Speaker 2: years ago.

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Speaker 3: We may have to do Blue Sunshine one day on

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Speaker 3: Weird House. One of my favorite aspects of it is that,

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Speaker 3: if I remember right, doesn't all your hair fall off

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Speaker 3: at once? Yes, it happens in an instant. It's like

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Speaker 3: a wig that comes off. It's not gradual.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an interesting film starring Zalman King.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but I like that once it becomes clear in

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Speaker 3: that movie that it's the acid that's turning people into

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Speaker 3: to like kill zombies. Then you're trying to do a

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Speaker 3: kind of detective thing of weight. Can we remember who

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Speaker 3: took the acid at this party like twenty years ago.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. The big difference between Blue Sunshine and the works

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Speaker 2: of Panos because Monos, though, I think, is that Blue

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Speaker 2: Sunshine doesn't really, as I recall, doesn't really do much

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Speaker 2: to give you, like even a semi glamorous idea of

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Speaker 2: what the psychedelic experience could be like, like not even

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Speaker 2: like an exaggerated dreamlike cinematic quality to it. Whereas Panos

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Speaker 2: is going to dip into both wells. As you said,

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Speaker 2: you know, there's going to be something alluring and other

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Speaker 2: worldly about it all, but also there's going to be

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Speaker 2: this dark side.

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Speaker 3: Though interestingly, at least to me, while the narrative content

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Speaker 3: has this kind of tight obsession on like sixties and

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Speaker 3: seventies hippie and new age themes, I feel like the

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Speaker 3: texture that he's drawing from is time shifted a little

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Speaker 3: bit later than that, like there's overlap, but it goes

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Speaker 3: a little bit further into like the eighties, the kind

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Speaker 3: of sights and sounds that he seems to be most

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Speaker 3: sourcing from sort of a late seventies and eighties club

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Speaker 3: lighting and synthesizer bath in a way, kind of a

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Speaker 3: tech noir element.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you certainly know you're watching a Panosklausnato's film

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Speaker 2: certainly thus far based to a large degree on the

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Speaker 2: colors and the light and this like searing sense of

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Speaker 2: the lights, like it's like the dead lights, you know,

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Speaker 2: shining out of his pictures at you. I think some

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Speaker 2: of these are called Panos flares. I think that's his.

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Speaker 2: I think I picked it up somewhere. That's his name

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Speaker 2: for some of these these flares you see in his films.

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Speaker 3: I don't know specifically what that refers to, but there

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Speaker 3: are very distinctive types of Panos shots, like he loves

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Speaker 3: a car racing through the dark in the night with

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Speaker 3: the dials illuminated glowing in the dark, and like synthesizer

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Speaker 3: music playing, or like a character in silhouette just like

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Speaker 3: just absolutely washed in colored light from behind so you

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Speaker 3: can't really see their feature is you just see the

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Speaker 3: outline and behind them it is like an orange sun

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Speaker 3: or a pink son.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And another big aspect of is a certainly in

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Speaker 2: play and Beyond the Black Rainbow, and also in play

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Speaker 2: in this film to a large extent, is a kind

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Speaker 2: of I would say, very like Queludian pacing at times,

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Speaker 2: and I think maybe that can be that can maybe

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Speaker 2: be a buried entry for some viewers who really want

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Speaker 2: something that's gonna really snap and move quickly, Like things

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Speaker 2: are not necessarily gonna move quickly in one of these films.

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Speaker 2: It's gonna it's gonna be like a slow burning feeling.

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Speaker 2: There's gonna be maybe some some some time spent like

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Speaker 2: watching a weird character actor like calmly emote for a while,

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Speaker 2: which which I love. But yeah, may not be everyone's

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Speaker 2: cup of tea.

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Speaker 3: Oh, I totally agree. No, that's another distinctive Panos thing.

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Speaker 3: His films, I would say, in comprehensively lack momentum, both

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Speaker 3: in terms of the overall plot and in terms of

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Speaker 3: the moment to moment experience of the scenes. Like in

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Speaker 3: the individual scenes, there's a lot of so like when

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Speaker 3: characters are talking to each other, there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: kind of stopping and starting dialogue. A lot of dialogue

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Speaker 3: scenes do not really kind of like build an intensity

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Speaker 3: and have an exchange of power, like you know, your

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Speaker 3: dialogue writing coach would say, you're supposed to have, but

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Speaker 3: they work in a totally different way. They're more just

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Speaker 3: kind of painting a weird picture of interactions rather than

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Speaker 3: escalating drama. That's not true of every scene, but that's

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Speaker 3: very often true. And then I would say overall, yeah,

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Speaker 3: there are the movies do build up towards something, but

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Speaker 3: they don't have that kind of relentless, snowballing feeling where

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Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I've got to see what happens in

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Speaker 3: the next scene. You have to kind of like submit

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Speaker 3: to one of these films and say like, I'm just

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Speaker 3: ready for it, and I think it's a very fun

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Speaker 3: and rewarding experience, but it Yeah, they don't pull you

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Speaker 3: with that like Page Turner thriller quality, whatever the movie

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Speaker 3: equivalent of that is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this this one. I have to say. When I

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Speaker 2: saw it for the first time, I went in without

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Speaker 2: I think even having seen a screenshot from it. I

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Speaker 2: just I knew that it was Panelsco's mottos and that

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Speaker 2: I was going to be on board for it, but

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Speaker 2: not knowing anything about even what the plot was or

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Speaker 2: what the viewing referred to it did feel very unsafe,

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Speaker 2: you know, like I just really didn't know what kind

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Speaker 2: of story this was going to be. And it's not

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Speaker 2: entirely clear for a large portion of the runtime what

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Speaker 2: kind of story it's going to ultimately be. It's not

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Speaker 2: really into the last say, twelve minutes of the like

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Speaker 2: just less than an hour runtime, that things really come

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Speaker 2: to a head.

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Speaker 3: I mean a lot of this thing is just character

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Speaker 3: is doing drugs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. So yeah, that kind of brings me

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Speaker 2: to my elevator pitch, is that this is essentially House

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Speaker 2: on Haunted Hill, except instead of money and ghosts, it's

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Speaker 2: drugs and face melting encounters.

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Speaker 3: Now, Rob, is this one where you were saying that

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Speaker 3: the trailer spoils the ending.

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't say the trailer spoils anything, per se. I

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Speaker 2: just I kind of wanted for you something akin to

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Speaker 2: my experience with it, where you didn't know exactly what

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Speaker 2: was going to happen.

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Speaker 3: Well, based on your recommendation, I did not watch the trailer.

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Speaker 3: I just went in cold, and I'm glad I did.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I liked not knowing where it was going.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so this is gonna be twenty five seconds of

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Speaker 2: trailer audio. So if you want to skip it, skip

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Speaker 2: ahead about twenty five seconds. Let's have a listen.

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Speaker 1: What are your name?

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Speaker 4: Tonight?

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Speaker 2: I'm going to gift you an eight transcendence.

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Speaker 3: At the greatest expense.

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Speaker 4: Asmarizing all right now, if you would like to experience

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Speaker 4: the viewing before we proceed with the discussion here well

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Speaker 4: as of this recording, the only way to experience it

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Speaker 4: is as the seventh episode of Germeal de Toro's Cabin

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Speaker 4: of Curiosities, as you mentioned earlier, on the streaming platform Netflix.

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Speaker 2: But I really hope it does get a physical release

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Speaker 2: at some point, either on its own or as part

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Speaker 2: of this series, which as we were just talking to

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Speaker 2: JJ about, I think, I think it's it's rather good.

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Speaker 2: It's it's varied, it has some has a couple of

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Speaker 2: other high points as far as my taste go. And

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Speaker 2: also I think there's there's a nice variety. Like some

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Speaker 2: of the the episodes are more thoughtful and character driven.

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Speaker 2: A couple of them are certainly more tales from the

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Speaker 2: crypt ish in their you know, their basic structure. You know,

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Speaker 2: here's a terrible person. He's become involved with some sort

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Speaker 2: of supernatural element and he's going to get.

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Speaker 3: His This is the only ups of this I've actually seen,

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Speaker 3: so if I watch more, I may come back to

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Speaker 3: it in October. Be good seasonal viewing. I don't know

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Speaker 3: if they're going to do another one.

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Speaker 2: I don't know that they've said one way or another.

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Speaker 2: I think Del Toro has said that he's interested in

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Speaker 2: heading it up, but I think I saw a quote

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Speaker 2: where he's like, but if it doesn't happen, I'll also

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Speaker 2: be a little bit relieved because it's a lot of work.

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Speaker 2: So fingers crossed. All right, let's talk about the people

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Speaker 2: involved here, So we'll start at the top here with

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Speaker 2: Panos Cosmontos, the director and one of the writers on

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Speaker 2: this piece. Born nineteen seventy four Italian Canadian film director

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Speaker 2: and screenwriter. He's the son of director George P. Cosmotos,

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Speaker 2: who lived nineteen forty one through two thousand and five,

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Speaker 2: who himself gave us such weird films as nineteen eighty

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Speaker 2: three's of Unknown Origin and nineteen eighty nine's Leviathan.

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Speaker 3: I didn't realize that connection until right before we came

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Speaker 3: into record, but that'll come up again in a minute.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he's also he's he also brought to brought us

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Speaker 2: some some mainstream action films like Rainbow Rambow, or rather

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Speaker 2: First Blood Part two Rainbow. Yeah, Cobra from nineteen eighty six,

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Speaker 2: that's another stallone, and Tombstone from nineteen ninety three, a

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Speaker 2: popular Western. Panos, by the way, who would have been

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Speaker 2: I think eighteen at the time, has a credit on

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Speaker 2: that film some sort of like assistant video operator in

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Speaker 2: the second unit. So, as we've been discussing, Panos's own

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Speaker 2: writing and directing debut was twenty tens Beyond the Black Rainbow,

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Speaker 2: followed by the Nicholas Cage helmed revenge horror movie Mandy.

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Speaker 2: And then comes the Viewing, which I feel takes a

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Speaker 2: slightly more absurdist approach and also dials down like the

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Speaker 2: number of things he's trying to accomplish in the picture,

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Speaker 2: while still going just all in and all out on

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Speaker 2: its main set pieces.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say, And this may just be in

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Speaker 3: part due to its shorter run time, but the viewing

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Speaker 3: takes us on fewer wild turns on the journey than

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Speaker 3: his other two movies do, but the turns that are

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Speaker 3: taken are just as wild. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: As for his next film, I believe it is set

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Speaker 2: to be something titled Necrocosm. I don't know that we

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Speaker 2: really know anything about what this is going to consist of,

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Speaker 2: except that it's supposedly going to be more of a

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Speaker 2: sci fi film, so I'm excited to find out what

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Speaker 2: it could possibly be. Now. His co writer on this

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Speaker 2: is Aaron stuart On. I'm not sure about the dates

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Speaker 2: for this writer, but he was one of the co

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Speaker 2: writers of Mandy, alongside Panos and one Casper Kelly. He

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Speaker 2: was also a staff writer on the twenty twenty two

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Speaker 2: series The Witcher Blood Origin, and as a director, he

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Speaker 2: directed a couple of Decembrist videos as well as a

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Speaker 2: video for Death Cab for Qtie. Now getting into the

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Speaker 2: cast here, yes, heading this up playing the character Lionel

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Speaker 2: Lassiter is Peter Weller for nineteen forty seven American actor

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Speaker 2: and director who's acting or goes all the way back

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Speaker 2: into the early seventies and he's still active today. He

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Speaker 2: started out on Broadway, then did some TV, did a

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Speaker 2: little bit of film, and then starred in George P.

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Speaker 2: Coosmatos's nineteen eighty three psychological thriller of unknown Origin, a

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Speaker 2: movie I have not seen, but I've heard good things about.

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Speaker 2: It's a psychological horror film about a man who becomes

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Speaker 2: obsessed with killing a rat that's infesting his home.

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Speaker 3: I don't know, that sounds like a premise of like

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Speaker 3: a comedy. You know, this guy's like, oh, this rat's

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00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:36,520
Speaker 3: driving me crazy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's one of those those plots that

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Speaker 2: could go either way, but anyway. So that was eighty

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Speaker 2: threes of unknown origin. Then in nineteen eighty four he

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Speaker 2: played the title role in the Adventures of Buckaro Bonzai

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Speaker 2: Across the Eighth Dimension, which of course has a deliriously

407
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Speaker 2: weird cast and is a well known weird cult film.

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Speaker 2: In nineteen eighty seven, he became RoboCop, a role he

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Speaker 2: would play again in nineteen nineties RoboCop two. Other films

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Speaker 2: of note, at least to us include the nineteen eighty

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Speaker 2: nine underwater horror sci fi film Leviathan, which was also

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Speaker 2: directed by George Picos Mottos, Cronenberg's Naked Lunch in ninety one,

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Speaker 2: Screamers in ninety five that's based on a Philip K.

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Speaker 2: Dick short story called Second Variety, and he's done more

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Speaker 2: and more TV work in recent decades, including Sons of

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Speaker 2: Anarchy star Trek Enterprise, He's done some Batman voiceover work,

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Speaker 2: and as a TV director, he's been rather prolific there

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Speaker 2: as well. Since the mid nineties, I believe, directed numerous

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Speaker 2: episodes of such shows as Homicide, Life on the Street,

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Speaker 2: Sons of Anarchy, and more.

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Speaker 3: You know, I first came to love Peter Weller as

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Speaker 3: RoboCop and as Buckery Bonzai, as well as in some

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Speaker 3: relatively I think kind of cold performances in B movies,

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Speaker 3: like you mentioned the eighty nine underwater horror thriller Leviathan,

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Speaker 3: where in that movie, one of the things I remember

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Speaker 3: is he wears a hat so stiff it should have

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Speaker 3: still had the price tag stuck to it, Like, you know,

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Speaker 3: he's playing this like underwater drill rig manager, but it's

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Speaker 3: this hat that's like the brim has never once been

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Speaker 3: gripped by a human hand. But yeah, in a lot

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Speaker 3: of these movies I'm familiar with, he's you know, playing

432
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,680
Speaker 3: the handsome cool as a cucumber leading man. But in

433
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:30,920
Speaker 3: his later career, Peter Weller has really aged into a

434
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:36,120
Speaker 3: totally different kind of performer, a sort of reptilian character

435
00:24:36,200 --> 00:24:39,320
Speaker 3: actor who if they were remaking the Super Mario Brothers

436
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:43,240
Speaker 3: movie today, in the style of the one with Bob Hoskins.

437
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 3: I think Peter Weller would be an excellent choice to

438
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:51,960
Speaker 3: play Dennis Hopper's King Koopa. This man, he so easily

439
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:56,680
Speaker 3: inhabits the role of a character who has experienced beyond

440
00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 3: pleasure and pain, beyond good and evil, And you could

441
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,280
Speaker 3: easily make high quality Sawyer family furniture out of him.

442
00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's really fun in this as an immoral, vampire

443
00:25:08,960 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 2: esque rich, beyond conscious rec loose. It would be benefactor

444
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:19,119
Speaker 2: of artists and academics. It seems like a role he

445
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:21,359
Speaker 2: really gets to ease into and have a lot of

446
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:21,800
Speaker 2: fun with.

447
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,320
Speaker 3: He plays a living mummy who encourages you to sin.

448
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:30,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, and but but very convincing and charismatic. And I

449
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 2: think we're talking we're talking about this beforehand, Like how

450
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,879
Speaker 2: many actors today can can use the word daddy O

451
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 2: in a fixture and it's still come off as cool.

452
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,880
Speaker 3: And suave, you know, oh yeah, you yeah.

453
00:25:42,920 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 2: The comparison to Dennis Hopper, I think is key, Like

454
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 2: this is a role you could it would have been

455
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,000
Speaker 2: a different line of lassiter, it would have had certainly

456
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 2: it would have had a different energy to it, But

457
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 2: Dennis Hopper could have played this role as well.

458
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:58,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, that would have been a more high strong line Lassiter,

459
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,800
Speaker 3: I think, m huh, but yeah, I could see.

460
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:05,879
Speaker 2: That all right alone. Alassiter has an attendant. He has

461
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,639
Speaker 2: a couple of attendants, but he has a doctor that

462
00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 2: attends to him by the name of doctor Zara, played

463
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 2: by Sophia Boutella born nineteen eighty two, French Algerian actress,

464
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,040
Speaker 2: dancer and model. If you're not sure who I'm talking about,

465
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 2: if if you saw a picture of her, you would

466
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 2: recognize her. She's been in twenty fourteen's Kingsman, The Secret Service,

467
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen Star Trek Beyond. I think she has a

468
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:30,040
Speaker 2: lot of makeup on in that one. She was in

469
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen's Atomic Blonde, and she was in twenty seventeens

470
00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:37,439
Speaker 2: The Mummy, in which she plays the Mummy battling Tom Cruise.

471
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:39,879
Speaker 2: She's the Mummy in that Mummy movie.

472
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,280
Speaker 3: All right, yeah, so she's on posters in all Does

473
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:44,760
Speaker 3: she defeat Tom Cruise in the end?

474
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 2: I hope so, yeah, yeah, I think so. I think

475
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 2: she defeats him, wraps him up, stores him away, and

476
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,360
Speaker 2: takes over the world. I never saw it, but that's

477
00:26:52,359 --> 00:26:54,879
Speaker 2: my assumption because they didn't do anything else with that series,

478
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:58,399
Speaker 2: so it must have wrapped up. She's also going to

479
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 2: the star in Zack Snyder's upcoming sci fi film, Rebel Moon,

480
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:04,440
Speaker 2: and it looks like she's prominently featured on the posters

481
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:09,040
Speaker 2: for that. But in this she comes off like a

482
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,440
Speaker 2: total vampire, a total seductress. In fact, when I first

483
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 2: started watching this, I just assumed that both Doctor Zara

484
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 2: and Line Lassiter must be vampires. That must be where

485
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,120
Speaker 2: this episode is going. Turns out that's not the case,

486
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 2: but there's still a vampire quality to these characters.

487
00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,679
Speaker 3: Yeah. She has a clear fascination with power and evil

488
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 3: that you can sort of almost like feel in her

489
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 3: mouth when she talks about it.

490
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:36,880
Speaker 2: All right, We also have a character by the name

491
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:40,960
Speaker 2: of Randall Roth played by Eric Andre born nineteen eighty

492
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 2: three American comedian, actor, and musician. Probably best known, I guess,

493
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 2: depending on your age and you know what your interests are,

494
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 2: but probably best known for Adult Swim's The Eric Andre

495
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 2: Show or his role on the second season of HBO's

496
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:57,119
Speaker 2: The Righteous Gemstones. Oh yeah, but he's popped up in

497
00:27:57,119 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 2: a lot of things. Over the years and else of

498
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:01,200
Speaker 2: course he has a stand that career. He does music.

499
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:05,119
Speaker 2: I think that I'm probably, like, not generally the target

500
00:28:05,160 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 2: audience for his comedy, So I wasn't sure going into

501
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 2: this film for the first time exactly what sort of

502
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,639
Speaker 2: performance we'd be in for. But I ultimately thought he

503
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:16,879
Speaker 2: was great in this. He's able to lean into the

504
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:20,160
Speaker 2: more absurd and energetic aspects of the script, like when

505
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,919
Speaker 2: this character is like screaming or running, you know, he

506
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:24,560
Speaker 2: does a great job with that. But I also thought

507
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 2: he brought a lot of believability to the character in

508
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:28,520
Speaker 2: the quieter moments.

509
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, maybe I am more the target audience of

510
00:28:31,840 --> 00:28:34,159
Speaker 3: his comedy. I don't know. I kept expecting him to

511
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,120
Speaker 3: reply to Liona Lassiter saying I don't trust like that.

512
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 3: It is always surprising to me to see Eric Andre

513
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 3: in rolls where he's actually playing a scripted character. I

514
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 3: guess because on the Eric Andre Show, his personality is

515
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:55,640
Speaker 3: like an extreme weather event. It's just totally uncontrollable and chaotic,

516
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 3: and it seems hard to believe that he could actually

517
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 3: just like say his line and being character. But of

518
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,120
Speaker 3: course he can, and he's quite good at it. I

519
00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 3: really really enjoyed him in season two of The Righteous Gemstones,

520
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 3: and I think he's great here too.

521
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a real treat, all right. The next actor

522
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 2: of note here, playing the character Charlotte G is Charlene

523
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 2: Yee born nineteen eighty six American actor, comedian, musician, and writer.

524
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 2: I believe they have improv and musical roots. Their first

525
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 2: film role was two thousand and sevens Knocked Up from

526
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 2: Judd Apatow, and they worked with him on some other

527
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 2: projects as well. Their voice work includes such Cartoon Network

528
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 2: shows as Steven Universe and We Bear Bears.

529
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 3: I think this character is interesting because it is a

530
00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 3: very modest and socially awkward scientist character who is surrounded

531
00:29:47,240 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 3: mostly by hedonists and other various siniesthetes.

532
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah. As we'll get to it, there's a

533
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 2: part where everyone gets their favorite drink, and Charlotte's favorite

534
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,440
Speaker 2: drink is just a ginger ale. But I assume a

535
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:04,360
Speaker 2: really good one, like one of those that comes in

536
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 2: a nice bottle and you know it doesn't have a

537
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,120
Speaker 2: lot of like crazy artificial sweeteners in it where you

538
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 2: can really taste the ginger.

539
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,120
Speaker 3: I too, appreciate a high quality ginger Ale.

540
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,960
Speaker 2: But anyway, this, Yeah, this is a fun performance, adorable, awkward,

541
00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 2: believable in many many nice ways, like as we'll get

542
00:30:21,440 --> 00:30:24,400
Speaker 2: into the dialogue in this at times I think has

543
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:29,520
Speaker 2: an intentional clunkiness to it. Yes, and it's interesting to

544
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 2: see which performers are able to breathe more life into

545
00:30:33,680 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 2: those lines and which and the ones that I'm not

546
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:39,240
Speaker 2: going to say can't but but don't perhaps due to

547
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 2: artistic choices. So I tended to believe Charlotte is a

548
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 2: character which I think pays off in the end. Oh yeah,

549
00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,400
Speaker 2: all right. We also have Steve Ag playing Guy Landon,

550
00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 2: who is kind of a grumpy caricature of a popular novelist.

551
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 2: I don't know who in particular this might be patterned after. It.

552
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 2: It's not Stephen King type character, but it's some sort

553
00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 2: of popular novelist who maybe is not putting out as

554
00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 2: successful of work as he did in previous years.

555
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 3: Well, I'm trying to think what novelists in the seventies

556
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 3: would be showing up on a lot of late night

557
00:31:16,280 --> 00:31:20,440
Speaker 3: talk shows. Is this supposed to be Norman Mahler or something? Maybe?

558
00:31:20,960 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 2: Maybe? So, Now Steve Age is an actor that's going

559
00:31:24,360 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 2: to be familiar to a number of you. Born nineteen

560
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 2: sixty nine, another noted comedic performer, best known to many

561
00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 2: for his recent work on some of the James Gunn

562
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 2: DC shows and films. I haven't watched any of those,

563
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 2: but I think he has a recurring character on those.

564
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,239
Speaker 2: I know him mostly from his role as Steve, one

565
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 2: of the neighbors I believe, on the Sarah Silverman program

566
00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 2: that ran two thousand and seven through twenty ten. He's

567
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,120
Speaker 2: also done a lot of voice work as well, because

568
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 2: very distinctive work, and like I say, is definitely a

569
00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:58,560
Speaker 2: great comedic performer and can breathe a lot of life

570
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:00,479
Speaker 2: into a comedic role.

571
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 3: He plays a role that conspicuously swears a lot.

572
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, swears a lot, and I think ultimately has

573
00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:12,320
Speaker 2: kind of like a B cinema feel to it, because yeah,

574
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:14,880
Speaker 2: this is a character. This is the character where the

575
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 2: clunkier lines of dialogue feel intentionally clunky. Yes, but in

576
00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:21,120
Speaker 2: a way that kind of works.

577
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 3: He talks kind of like a like he was written

578
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,680
Speaker 3: to sound like a detective in a in a hack

579
00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 3: seventies cop movie.

580
00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely one of the performances in the film.

581
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 2: Every time I watch it. I kind of like, I

582
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 2: kind kind of think it over a lot, and I'm like,

583
00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:42,160
Speaker 2: what is what is it about this this performance that like,

584
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 2: why does it feel this way? You know? And and

585
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 2: I kind of go back and forth onto what degree

586
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:51,160
Speaker 2: it works and I think I'm landing currently, Yeah, in

587
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,880
Speaker 2: the area that it that it absolutely works, but it

588
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:56,160
Speaker 2: is it's supposed to have this kind of B cinema

589
00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 2: clunkiness to it. Now. We also have a character the

590
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 2: name of Targ Reinhardt played by Michael Fario, Canadian actor

591
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 2: with extensive Shakespearean theater credits. His TV credits include Himlock Grove,

592
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 2: Rain and Chucky The Child's Play TV series. He has

593
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:17,719
Speaker 2: a recurring role on that. Yeah, in this he's a

594
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:21,520
Speaker 2: fraudulent psychic. Was that what you would say?

595
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:25,120
Speaker 3: Psychic? And I think just sort of like New Age

596
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:30,160
Speaker 3: movement figure it seems so. The character is named targ Reindheart,

597
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 3: and I think this absolutely must be named after Russell

598
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 3: targ the American parapsychologist and physicist who was famous for

599
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,920
Speaker 3: being one of the researchers affiliated with the Stanford Research

600
00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,400
Speaker 3: Institute trying to prove the validity of various paranormal phenomena

601
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 3: like remote viewing. And so this character seems to me

602
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 3: to be a caricature of first of all, like a

603
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 3: combination of paranormal evangelists like targ and hal put Off

604
00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 3: and people, but also of their most famous subject, Uri Geller.

605
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 2: Okay, absolutely, and I think there is some there's there's

606
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 2: mention of bending spoons with with one's mind, yeah in

607
00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 2: this in this film. But yeah, this this is a

608
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 2: very pompous and ridiculous, over the top character. It's clearly

609
00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:21,320
Speaker 2: here mostly to just be mocked and for comedic effect,

610
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,160
Speaker 2: and u And is successful in that role.

611
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,879
Speaker 3: He multiple times is caught talking about that which he knows,

612
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:30,960
Speaker 3: not like he's trying to apply in on architecture and

613
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,560
Speaker 3: then like he doesn't actually know anything about architecture.

614
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of Guy Landon's lines are him just

615
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,920
Speaker 2: you know, poking fun or at or calling this character

616
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:43,880
Speaker 2: out on his bs. We also have a character named Hector,

617
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:47,080
Speaker 2: who we ultimately don't know much about. He has this

618
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:49,040
Speaker 2: great moment where it looks like he's going to tell

619
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 2: us his story, but then he gets cut off and

620
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:54,280
Speaker 2: doesn't get to tell the story. But Hector is played

621
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,719
Speaker 2: by sad Sadiki Pakistan born actor with TV and film

622
00:34:58,800 --> 00:35:01,000
Speaker 2: credits going back around two thousand seven. He's popped up

623
00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:04,280
Speaker 2: on such shows as Nikita, Orphan, Black Star, Trek, Discovery,

624
00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 2: The Handmaid's Tale, and DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

625
00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 3: I like his vibe. I like ye. Hector has a

626
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:14,560
Speaker 3: lot of scenes of just kind of standing there looking

627
00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,000
Speaker 3: at the rest of the cast and kind of gently

628
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:18,200
Speaker 3: smiling or nodding.

629
00:35:18,280 --> 00:35:18,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all.

630
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:19,920
Speaker 3: It's a good vibe.

631
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:22,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like I think low key, the best humorous

632
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 2: character in the film. He's used very well.

633
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:28,360
Speaker 3: Wait does he the one driving the van when he

634
00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 3: tells everybody they have to stop talking and listen to

635
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 3: the audio program?

636
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, I believe he is. All right now, mild spoiler,

637
00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:40,480
Speaker 2: there will be a creature suit in this in this film,

638
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,840
Speaker 2: and the actor in that creature suit is Kevin Keppi,

639
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 2: a six ' five character and creature actor whose credits

640
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,759
Speaker 2: include another installment of Cabinet of Curiosities and also the

641
00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,400
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two movie Smile, in which he plays a

642
00:35:55,480 --> 00:36:00,480
Speaker 2: character credited as Nightmare Mom. So, like I said, I,

643
00:36:00,160 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 2: if there's anybody that is in a creature suit in

644
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,760
Speaker 2: a picture, I always want to call him out because

645
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,439
Speaker 2: I get the impression. I'm not sure what all went

646
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,479
Speaker 2: into making the creature we see later in the film work,

647
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:15,920
Speaker 2: but it looks like there's some good physical performance at

648
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 2: the heart of it.

649
00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:19,839
Speaker 3: Well, you said six five character and creature actor. Did

650
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 3: you mean this actor is six foot five inches or

651
00:36:23,680 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 3: you are rating this person six out of five?

652
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:29,880
Speaker 2: No, he's six foot five so okay, he's based on

653
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:31,720
Speaker 2: the images I've seen of him, he's like a tall

654
00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 2: slender man, which you know, as we've seen it seems

655
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:41,279
Speaker 2: to work well for a lot of modern physical horror characters.

656
00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,840
Speaker 2: Like back in the old day, in the gorilla suit days,

657
00:36:44,160 --> 00:36:47,080
Speaker 2: which you really wanted was more of like a short,

658
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:51,680
Speaker 2: thick individual who could really occupy that gorilla suit. And

659
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:54,640
Speaker 2: then the gorilla suit still has a place in modern monsters,

660
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,960
Speaker 2: I think, but it seems like, you know, past few decades,

661
00:36:58,000 --> 00:36:59,799
Speaker 2: some of the real standouts have been more of the

662
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:03,400
Speaker 2: that the tall, lanky sort. Finally getting to the music

663
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 2: on this one, which is the music is always an

664
00:37:06,040 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 2: important part of a Penos Cosmatos film. Beyond the Black

665
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:14,320
Speaker 2: Rainbow featured the work of Sonoia Caves, the solo project

666
00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:18,239
Speaker 2: of Black Mountain synth player Jeremy Schmidt. Mandy featured one

667
00:37:18,280 --> 00:37:22,799
Speaker 2: of the final scores of Johann Johansen, and this one

668
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:28,200
Speaker 2: is scored by experimental electronic artist Daniel Lopatin born nineteen

669
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:31,680
Speaker 2: eighty two. He also did the score for twenty nineteens

670
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 2: Uncut Gems, which that's the Adam Sandler film that I

671
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 2: thought was depressing but quite good and had a great,

672
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:42,000
Speaker 2: great score.

673
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 3: It's a downer and it's highly stressful, but it's a

674
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:45,640
Speaker 3: great movie.

675
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:50,480
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. Lopattin also did twenty seventeens Good Time, twenty

676
00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,440
Speaker 2: fifteens Partisan, and twenty thirteen's The Bling Ring. I think

677
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:58,400
Speaker 2: that was a Sofia Coppola film. And his main solo

678
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,680
Speaker 2: project is one O Trick Point Never or opn. I

679
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,920
Speaker 2: believe he's signed a warp. I'm not familiar with his discography,

680
00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 2: but but JJ is JJ chimed in here and and

681
00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 2: set a straight on how to pronounce this one O

682
00:38:13,320 --> 00:38:15,799
Speaker 2: tricks point Never. I'm gonna have to have to check

683
00:38:15,840 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 2: it out. I haven't. I haven't really checked anything out

684
00:38:17,680 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 2: beyond his work for this particular film, but it's I

685
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 2: feel like that the score for the viewing it has

686
00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 2: some nice range to it. At times there's kind of

687
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:31,440
Speaker 2: this like an Andy's tape loop kind of a thing

688
00:38:31,520 --> 00:38:35,600
Speaker 2: going on, like some some looped flutes playing. Other times

689
00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:39,200
Speaker 2: it's like a driving eighties pot feel, or other times,

690
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:42,000
Speaker 2: of course, it's glittering synths and much more.

691
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,400
Speaker 3: There's also just kind of an eighties bass club loop

692
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 3: that plays a bit while they're they're hanging out on

693
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 3: the couch.

694
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:51,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and then and and it's it's varied in

695
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:56,360
Speaker 2: part because this music also makes up the custom soundtrack

696
00:38:56,400 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 2: that Lionel Lassiter has commissioned for for his house, so

697
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,319
Speaker 2: it's a lot of fun. Anyway. You can find a

698
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 2: mash up of all of his music for the viewing

699
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,840
Speaker 2: in the track The Viewing Suite, which was released on

700
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:14,200
Speaker 2: the Cabinet of Curiosity soundtrack. You can stream that wherever

701
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:14,839
Speaker 2: you get your music.

702
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 3: Did you ever get the sense that when Lionel Lassiter

703
00:39:17,640 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 3: was bragging about the things he had people make for him,

704
00:39:21,080 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 3: it was kind of like Panos was in the character

705
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 3: bragging about the things he had people make for him

706
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:28,760
Speaker 3: for his movie His House.

707
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:32,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess in a sense you could apply that

708
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:35,280
Speaker 2: to Panos, but also Gama del Toro. You know. Gama

709
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:37,879
Speaker 2: de Toros, you know, is well known for being sort

710
00:39:37,880 --> 00:39:40,920
Speaker 2: of like the maestro at the center of the film,

711
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:44,200
Speaker 2: bringing on a lot of like very talented individuals to

712
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 2: help craft you know, not only you know, the performance

713
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,200
Speaker 2: of the roles, but certainly like all the artistry, bringing

714
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,520
Speaker 2: in you know, well known illustrators and so forth to

715
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:56,960
Speaker 2: help bring something alive visually. So in a way, Lassiter

716
00:39:57,080 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 2: is kind of like this darker vision of a Panel

717
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:03,400
Speaker 2: or a Guillermo. And in a way though that whereas

718
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 2: whereas Panos and Gammon Adota are both trying to create

719
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:10,720
Speaker 2: something for the world to consume, Lionel Laster is creating

720
00:40:10,800 --> 00:40:14,680
Speaker 2: something entirely for his own enjoyment at least. I mean,

721
00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:16,840
Speaker 2: he also seems to want to you know, send people

722
00:40:16,840 --> 00:40:18,880
Speaker 2: off in the world to do great things, but he

723
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,120
Speaker 2: also wants some things just for himself.

724
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:31,799
Speaker 3: All right, Well, I guess this is the part of

725
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:34,280
Speaker 3: the episode where we would normally talk about the plot.

726
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:37,760
Speaker 3: But as we talked about earlier, number one, Panos films

727
00:40:37,760 --> 00:40:42,280
Speaker 3: are not especially plot driven, so I don't think this

728
00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:44,439
Speaker 3: This doesn't feel like one where it really makes sense

729
00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 3: to me to recap the plot in minute detail. Maybe instead,

730
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 3: I think we should like focus on the series of

731
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:55,000
Speaker 3: sets and set pieces that emerge in succession throughout the

732
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:57,560
Speaker 3: runtime and discuss how they're used.

733
00:40:58,160 --> 00:41:00,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have we don't have, Well, I said, we

734
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:04,640
Speaker 2: don't have very many set pieces in this film, but

735
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:07,960
Speaker 2: the ones that we do have are are pretty splendid

736
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:09,680
Speaker 2: and we get to spend a lot of time in them.

737
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,600
Speaker 3: Now, at the beginning, we get the characters before they

738
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:19,759
Speaker 3: go to Lassiter's mansion, gathering in a parking garage, so

739
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,120
Speaker 3: they all the all the main characters, the four main

740
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:26,360
Speaker 3: characters have been summoned to Lassiter's house house on Haunted

741
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:29,879
Speaker 3: Hills style with a formal invitation. They don't know each other,

742
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,759
Speaker 3: and they don't know him, though it seems they I

743
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 3: think all know about him. He seems to have a

744
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,120
Speaker 3: reputation for being rich and powerful, though people don't know

745
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:39,520
Speaker 3: how he made his fortune.

746
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,839
Speaker 2: Yeah, there seems to be. They describe him as being

747
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,920
Speaker 2: someone that used to see on TV one assumes all

748
00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 2: the time, and now he's become more reclusive and more mysterious,

749
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 2: and yeah, suddenly there's an invitation to attend a viewing

750
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:56,480
Speaker 2: at his fabulous Sandpiper House, which you get the impression

751
00:41:56,560 --> 00:41:59,000
Speaker 2: is like the house itself is famous because it is,

752
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:02,279
Speaker 2: you know, no doubt, and you know, designed by some

753
00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:05,879
Speaker 2: truly gifted architect and every aspect of it has been

754
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:09,840
Speaker 2: tailored to Linel Lasseter's a specific tastes.

755
00:42:10,239 --> 00:42:12,279
Speaker 3: What do you think about setting the meeting of these

756
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 3: characters in this dark parking garage at night? Something about

757
00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:22,600
Speaker 3: that just seems like such a powerful allusion to films

758
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:26,000
Speaker 3: of the eighties that seemed to me very obsessed with

759
00:42:26,160 --> 00:42:29,280
Speaker 3: the parking garage as a threatening atmosphere.

760
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess some of that is

761
00:42:33,040 --> 00:42:38,080
Speaker 2: what post Watergate, right, that parking garages are where, you know, shadier,

762
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:41,520
Speaker 2: secretive dealings go on. The parking garage is also the

763
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:45,839
Speaker 2: it's the underworld that we have created to allow our

764
00:42:45,920 --> 00:42:51,000
Speaker 2: vehicular obsession to take over everything. And it's it's interesting,

765
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:52,840
Speaker 2: this is the the main view we get of the

766
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:56,520
Speaker 2: outside world of this film. That we do get a

767
00:42:56,560 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 2: wider view at the end of a city of the

768
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:02,480
Speaker 2: city scape, but the city scape is also going to

769
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:06,640
Speaker 2: be very parking deck esque, you know, like sort of

770
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:10,440
Speaker 2: just grimy, dismal, concrete, kind of a world devoid of flavor.

771
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we meet the characters they meet. I think

772
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:20,640
Speaker 3: it's when Charlotte the astrophysicist arrives and meets the other characters.

773
00:43:20,640 --> 00:43:23,440
Speaker 3: They sort of introduce each other and they say, what

774
00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,439
Speaker 3: do they all have in common? They don't know each other,

775
00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:30,560
Speaker 3: but they say they've all been on late night talk shows.

776
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:33,279
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh man, this just seems like so

777
00:43:33,440 --> 00:43:37,240
Speaker 3: much in the Panos lane. This like seventies New Age lane.

778
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:42,239
Speaker 3: You're imagining people who would show up on a seventies

779
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:46,719
Speaker 3: late night talk show to talk about how they've you know,

780
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 3: discovered psychic powers are real or something. I'm kind of

781
00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,839
Speaker 3: imagining it's the show where they interview the TV set

782
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 3: containing Professor Brian Oblivion and videodrome.

783
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:02,359
Speaker 2: So not even like a second or third guest on

784
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:04,640
Speaker 2: say Late Night with David Letterman back in the day,

785
00:44:04,680 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 2: but like somebody you would see on some other strange

786
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:12,359
Speaker 2: talk show that is in the even later that comes

787
00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:13,360
Speaker 2: on after Letterman.

788
00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 3: I don't even know if that's a real thing. I

789
00:44:16,120 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 3: have an impression that it was that there were like weirder,

790
00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,719
Speaker 3: sort of more off brand talk shows that would have

791
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 3: the like really zany guests and everything. Back then, you know,

792
00:44:26,239 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 3: you got your mainstream I don't know, Dick Cavit and stuff,

793
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:32,239
Speaker 3: and then you've got the stuff that comes on late

794
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 3: at night. Is that even real? I don't know, but

795
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 3: Panos has convinced me that's part of part of history.

796
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:40,160
Speaker 2: I think it may have been the case, especially in

797
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:41,640
Speaker 2: markets like LA and New York.

798
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:41,919
Speaker 4: Yeah.

799
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:46,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, like what is in Ghostbusters too. Peter Vinkman runs

800
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 3: a weird talk show, doesn't they And I feel like

801
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,759
Speaker 3: that must be sort of parodying something that existed.

802
00:44:53,480 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'd be interested to hear from folks who

803
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:58,160
Speaker 2: grew up in those media markets that can can speak

804
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:01,200
Speaker 2: to that. So anyway, these are these are characters who

805
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:04,839
Speaker 2: they're used to getting the invitation and accepting, apparently without

806
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:08,840
Speaker 2: really too much thought into the patter. And they have accepted,

807
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:10,879
Speaker 2: they say, yeah, I'll go to the Sam Piper House

808
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,439
Speaker 2: and neat line all asciter. And so the van has

809
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:15,400
Speaker 2: come to pick them up.

810
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 3: Now the van is being driven by the character Hector,

811
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 3: and this is the part where they're initially talking as

812
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:23,280
Speaker 3: they load into the back of the van and drive along.

813
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 3: But at some point Hector tells them to stop talking

814
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:27,440
Speaker 3: and they have to listen to it. I think he

815
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:31,520
Speaker 3: calls it the audio program, but it's like the Lassetter

816
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 3: has some music that they are specifically assigned to listen

817
00:45:35,200 --> 00:45:37,560
Speaker 3: to on the on the right of the house, more

818
00:45:37,560 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 3: synth music. And I don't know that I like that.

819
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:43,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was kind of wondering if at one point

820
00:45:43,719 --> 00:45:46,759
Speaker 2: it was going they were going to have like some

821
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 2: Peter Weller voice over there and that was gonna be

822
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:51,240
Speaker 2: the audio program. Then they decided that the synth music

823
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:53,680
Speaker 2: work better. But yeah, at any rate, I like it.

824
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:55,680
Speaker 3: No, this is just that this is the music he

825
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:58,600
Speaker 3: wants them to listen to. And I think it's somewhere

826
00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:02,400
Speaker 3: around here that we also first get our glimpse of

827
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 3: Peter Weller's character Lionel Lasseter himself, where we see him

828
00:46:07,520 --> 00:46:11,440
Speaker 3: in an environment just flooded with orange light, with his

829
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:16,680
Speaker 3: head almost looking kind of triangular, surrounded by wispy gray

830
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 3: or white hair, and he looks like an absolute lizard,

831
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,920
Speaker 3: kind of a vampire, kind of a mummy. Or also

832
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:28,880
Speaker 3: I thought of a very specific movie analog, which is

833
00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:33,600
Speaker 3: he looks like the witch in the Stan Winston movie Pumpkinhead.

834
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:38,239
Speaker 2: Hmmm. I think that's that's a strong possibility, because I mean,

835
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:42,120
Speaker 2: Panos loves his weird colored lights, but he also includes

836
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:45,400
Speaker 2: many homages to different films, and you know, this seems

837
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 2: kind of like one of those sort of rub the

838
00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:51,239
Speaker 2: fur films, certainly from the you know, the decades of

839
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:52,520
Speaker 2: interest to this filmmaker.

840
00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:55,640
Speaker 3: And I think we've talked about on the show before

841
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:59,759
Speaker 3: that Pumpkinhead kind of has some shortcomings in terms of storytelling,

842
00:47:00,080 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 3: but has some great visual flare. There are a lot

843
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:07,560
Speaker 3: of scenes with really excellent horror atmosphere and lighting and

844
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:09,840
Speaker 3: a good, tall, spindly creature that I think you could

845
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 3: compare somewhat to this one later on.

846
00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:13,440
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good point. That's a good point.

847
00:47:13,680 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 3: But anyway, so they are taken to the mansion, to

848
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 3: the Sandpiper House, and they are summoned to this living

849
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 3: room with a circle of sunken couches in the middle

850
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:32,160
Speaker 3: of the floor. And I think this room, I again

851
00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:34,799
Speaker 3: just get the feeling that the vision of this room

852
00:47:34,920 --> 00:47:38,080
Speaker 3: was a major reason this episode was made, so I

853
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:41,279
Speaker 3: think we should describe it in great detail. So it's,

854
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:43,600
Speaker 3: like I said, in the middle of the room, there

855
00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:47,520
Speaker 3: is a table and it is surrounded by sunken couches

856
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:50,759
Speaker 3: with sort of leather what do you call that kind

857
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:54,719
Speaker 3: of stuffed leather backing. And then in the middle of

858
00:47:54,719 --> 00:47:57,760
Speaker 3: the room there is a chandelier of sorts that looks

859
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:02,320
Speaker 3: like an inverted conical mound of organ pipes or maybe

860
00:48:02,360 --> 00:48:06,400
Speaker 3: like a columnar basalt hanging from the ceiling, so the

861
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:09,440
Speaker 3: ceiling slopes inward toward it, and then it forms a

862
00:48:09,520 --> 00:48:12,120
Speaker 3: kind of almost like a like a nozzle or a

863
00:48:12,239 --> 00:48:15,600
Speaker 3: nipple in the middle of the ceiling of these like

864
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:20,640
Speaker 3: you know, pillars all around. On the floor, there is

865
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:24,800
Speaker 3: this decorative motif that's like these big U shaped bins

866
00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:29,920
Speaker 3: like giant horseshoe magnets with long bars coming out. It

867
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:32,560
Speaker 3: seems kind of a maybe kind of an Art Deco

868
00:48:32,680 --> 00:48:38,279
Speaker 3: suggestive design. And then the room is is a wash

869
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:42,040
Speaker 3: in gold and orange light. And then on the walls

870
00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:46,560
Speaker 3: there are these back lit circular panels that have guns

871
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:49,400
Speaker 3: mounted in them. So there's like an AK forty seven

872
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:52,440
Speaker 3: that you only see in shadow because it's got gold

873
00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:54,359
Speaker 3: light blasting from behind it.

874
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:58,040
Speaker 2: Yes, and yet there's a hint of Aztec architecture to

875
00:48:58,080 --> 00:48:59,120
Speaker 2: the whole thing, isn't there.

876
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:02,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's that's what the character targ says. He's

877
00:49:02,400 --> 00:49:06,760
Speaker 3: like musing about how it's as tech inspired or something,

878
00:49:06,800 --> 00:49:09,359
Speaker 3: and is repeatedly called out for not knowing what he's

879
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:10,879
Speaker 3: talking about.

880
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:15,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, this, this whole space is just splendid, like you

881
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 2: when you first roll into it, and and as you

882
00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:21,919
Speaker 2: roll into this this kind of a point of view shot,

883
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,400
Speaker 2: it feels like this is a space you're exploring in

884
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 2: the film Baraka. You know, it feels otherworldly and kind

885
00:49:30,080 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 2: of sacred. It also feels like maybe it should be

886
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:38,319
Speaker 2: on Iracus, you know it. Oh man, it's just such

887
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:40,520
Speaker 2: a strange and lovely set.

888
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:42,840
Speaker 3: Now when they first arrive, I think it's interesting that

889
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:49,640
Speaker 3: Lasseter's people start a succession of treats which are like

890
00:49:50,280 --> 00:49:52,840
Speaker 3: it starts with a drink of choice for each person,

891
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,480
Speaker 3: but progresses into alcohol and drugs that there. It's like

892
00:49:56,520 --> 00:50:00,399
Speaker 3: a it's almost like a tasting course of different sort

893
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:04,359
Speaker 3: of enticements for the mouth, most beverage based and then

894
00:50:04,440 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 3: drug based. So the first thing that they see when

895
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:10,719
Speaker 3: they get there is they're asked to sit next to

896
00:50:10,719 --> 00:50:13,760
Speaker 3: your favorite drink. So for Targ, it is a beer

897
00:50:13,840 --> 00:50:16,400
Speaker 3: that he dubs superb, And I was thinking, is beer

898
00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:19,560
Speaker 3: really Targ's drink? I don't know, But then The funniest

899
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,920
Speaker 3: one for me is landon sits down. He tastes something,

900
00:50:22,920 --> 00:50:25,800
Speaker 3: he's like, wow, it's the perfect screwdriver.

901
00:50:27,239 --> 00:50:32,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is so strange because a screwdriver. I mean,

902
00:50:32,040 --> 00:50:34,880
Speaker 2: if memory serves screwdrivers, just vodka and orange juice.

903
00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:36,799
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, that's what it is. That's a I don't

904
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:38,719
Speaker 3: want to insult. I mean, you know, if people enjoy

905
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:41,080
Speaker 3: screwdriver or whatever, but I think of it that's a

906
00:50:41,239 --> 00:50:44,399
Speaker 3: utility drink. That's something I think of, like, I don't

907
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:47,719
Speaker 3: know college students drinking. It's it's not usually the kind

908
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:50,080
Speaker 3: of thing where people would be like, oh, it's amazing,

909
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:51,640
Speaker 3: superb screwdriver.

910
00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 2: Yeah it's And I guess that's why it's so funny,

911
00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:57,480
Speaker 2: because yeah, I don't even think the proportions are necessary

912
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,239
Speaker 2: for the screwdriver, like on a lark here. I went

913
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:02,640
Speaker 2: to Imbibe Magazine's website and I was like, Okay, I'm

914
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:04,480
Speaker 2: gonna put in screwdriver and see if it comes up,

915
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:07,480
Speaker 2: because sometimes they have they'll still have some very simple

916
00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:11,759
Speaker 2: classic drink cocktail cocktail recipes listed there, but nothing comes

917
00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 2: up for screwdriver. They're just like, get out of here,

918
00:51:14,560 --> 00:51:16,719
Speaker 2: looking for a screwdriver on this website.

919
00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so there's that. But then also with the

920
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:24,879
Speaker 3: other characters get as interesting. Charlotte gets just a ginger ale.

921
00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:27,560
Speaker 3: I think we mentioned that earlier. It says it's great

922
00:51:27,600 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 3: ginger ale. And then for all there, Andre's character gets

923
00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 3: some Lapsong souchong tea. No, I don't know anything about that.

924
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:37,640
Speaker 3: But Robbie, do you have an opinion on what's the

925
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:39,200
Speaker 3: perfect Lapsong sou chong.

926
00:51:39,920 --> 00:51:42,680
Speaker 2: This is not a tea I have any knowledge off,

927
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:47,200
Speaker 2: so I can't. I don't know. There are so many

928
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:51,240
Speaker 2: teas and I am only familiar with the very slim

929
00:51:51,400 --> 00:51:55,239
Speaker 2: selection of them. But I do like the detail where

930
00:51:55,280 --> 00:51:56,920
Speaker 2: he says it's just the right amount of honey as

931
00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:02,239
Speaker 2: sweetener sore. They're their host line. Lassiter here seems to

932
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:07,040
Speaker 2: have just a supernatural knowledge of what their exact desires are.

933
00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:10,319
Speaker 3: I just looked it up. It israel. Lapsung sou chong

934
00:52:10,640 --> 00:52:14,520
Speaker 3: is a black tea made with camillia sinence sleeves, that

935
00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:17,800
Speaker 3: is smoke dried over a pine wood fire, cold smoked.

936
00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:21,960
Speaker 2: Hmm, well that sounds quite good. That yeah. Targs beer,

937
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:23,759
Speaker 2: He's like, it's it's a perfect beer.

938
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:25,080
Speaker 4: It's so cold.

939
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:30,400
Speaker 3: Okay, well anyway, but like I said, there's sort of

940
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:33,720
Speaker 3: a series. It's like it's like a tasting course menu,

941
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:37,040
Speaker 3: you know, there is a series of temptations. So after

942
00:52:37,120 --> 00:52:39,840
Speaker 3: this they are treating, a lassitter comes out and he

943
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:43,040
Speaker 3: tells the story of this amazing whiskey from Japan that

944
00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:46,640
Speaker 3: has survived bombings and earthquakes, and then they pour it

945
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 3: for all of them, and uh, they put There's a

946
00:52:49,200 --> 00:52:51,680
Speaker 3: detail about the table that you can just see as

947
00:52:51,719 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 3: one of these like textural details that was was imagined

948
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:58,800
Speaker 3: early on that the outer rim of the table rotates around,

949
00:52:58,960 --> 00:53:03,040
Speaker 3: so like doctor Zara pours these drinks, they just sort

950
00:53:03,040 --> 00:53:05,719
Speaker 3: of like get rolled around the table to their recipient.

951
00:53:07,200 --> 00:53:10,200
Speaker 2: I've also read the glasses they drink this whiskey from

952
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 2: are supposedly the same glasses that we see in Blade Runner.

953
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:16,120
Speaker 3: Oh really, oh supposedly.

954
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:18,840
Speaker 2: I have not fact checked it, but it sounds appropriate.

955
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 2: It sounds like the sort of detail that would be

956
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:30,400
Speaker 2: present in this film.

957
00:53:30,480 --> 00:53:33,919
Speaker 3: Now, as the characters talk in these scenes, I thought

958
00:53:34,000 --> 00:53:37,239
Speaker 3: that there was something different about the viewing compared to

959
00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:40,400
Speaker 3: the two penes Cosmatos movies I've seen, which is that

960
00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:43,279
Speaker 3: in this one there seem to be a kind of

961
00:53:43,719 --> 00:53:47,800
Speaker 3: conscious attempt at anti realism in some of the acting

962
00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:52,040
Speaker 3: and dialogue and characterization. Like this was not true of

963
00:53:52,080 --> 00:53:55,200
Speaker 3: the two movies, but characters here sometimes speak like they

964
00:53:55,239 --> 00:53:59,239
Speaker 3: are deliberately avoiding verisimilitude, if you know what I mean, Rob,

965
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:02,560
Speaker 3: there's a kind of like I found it enjoyable, but

966
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:06,640
Speaker 3: a kind of awkward, stiltedness and unnatural quality to the

967
00:54:06,719 --> 00:54:10,040
Speaker 3: rhythm of some of the conversations that plays into the comedy.

968
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:12,520
Speaker 3: And this is not something I would say about either

969
00:54:12,560 --> 00:54:17,040
Speaker 3: of Panos's movies, in which again, in those movies sometimes

970
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:20,360
Speaker 3: have an unreal quality, but it's more dream like, whereas

971
00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:24,760
Speaker 3: this is more a kind of intentional B movie awkwardness.

972
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:27,040
Speaker 3: It seems like a unique choice here. I don't know

973
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:27,840
Speaker 3: what you think about that.

974
00:54:28,360 --> 00:54:30,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's that seems to be part of

975
00:54:30,719 --> 00:54:34,400
Speaker 2: the intention here, that, yeah, an intentional B movie awkwardness

976
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,799
Speaker 2: to at least some of the performances, And I you know,

977
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:40,000
Speaker 2: I think it might also you could also look at

978
00:54:40,000 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 2: it from another direction too, and look at like this

979
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 2: is ultimately a film about like people and their desires

980
00:54:46,400 --> 00:54:49,800
Speaker 2: and the things that they are grasping for, questing after

981
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:53,279
Speaker 2: in life and two of the characters, really, the two

982
00:54:53,520 --> 00:54:58,120
Speaker 2: that often feel the like the clunkiest are also the

983
00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:02,359
Speaker 2: ones that are the most full of it, Target Landing,

984
00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:05,080
Speaker 2: you know, they're Landon is just there to sort of

985
00:55:05,120 --> 00:55:09,040
Speaker 2: like puff up his chest and take things out on Targ.

986
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:14,080
Speaker 2: Targ is there to sound brilliant and insightful certainly, you know,

987
00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:16,680
Speaker 2: despite the fact that his whole identity is tied up

988
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:21,480
Speaker 2: in just a lie and just nonsense. And so those

989
00:55:21,480 --> 00:55:24,840
Speaker 2: are the characters, Yeah, that stand out the most with

990
00:55:24,920 --> 00:55:25,960
Speaker 2: this clunk equality.

991
00:55:26,360 --> 00:55:28,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, And it's interesting to see like how

992
00:55:28,880 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 3: the characters behave in the scene, Like so as they're

993
00:55:32,520 --> 00:55:35,080
Speaker 3: given you know, the drinks and the drugs and stuff.

994
00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:39,920
Speaker 3: So it progresses from from this onto them smoking things

995
00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:44,120
Speaker 3: and snorting things. And guy Landon's just like on board,

996
00:55:44,160 --> 00:55:48,560
Speaker 3: he just wants it all, and it's interesting. Targ sort

997
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:52,560
Speaker 3: of tries to resist but then gives into it. Charlotte

998
00:55:52,600 --> 00:55:56,279
Speaker 3: seems to not naturally have a very indulgent personality, but

999
00:55:56,760 --> 00:56:00,560
Speaker 3: is also just curious in this situation. Whereas Roth is

1000
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:03,440
Speaker 3: an interesting character because this is the Eric Andre character.

1001
00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:07,960
Speaker 3: He is trying to trying to resist the life of

1002
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:10,560
Speaker 3: like he's trying to quit smoking. He's trying to resist

1003
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:12,840
Speaker 3: the life of drugs and alcohol and all that that

1004
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:15,040
Speaker 3: he is so accustomed to.

1005
00:56:15,640 --> 00:56:17,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, he knows that that there's a line, and he

1006
00:56:17,880 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 2: crosses that line, he's not going to be able to

1007
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:23,600
Speaker 2: control his consumption. But he has enough self control to

1008
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:25,880
Speaker 2: sort of stay away from that line, or try to

1009
00:56:26,160 --> 00:56:27,759
Speaker 2: for most of the run time here.

1010
00:56:28,320 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 3: But also it's funny that throughout this there's this kind

1011
00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:38,160
Speaker 3: of puffery, people building themselves up, like Lasseter and Landon

1012
00:56:38,200 --> 00:56:41,239
Speaker 3: and these people trying to impress everyone else. Last, at

1013
00:56:41,239 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 3: one point he starts quoting proverbs to encourage everybody else

1014
00:56:45,120 --> 00:56:49,160
Speaker 3: to indulge. Like he says, every person has two lives,

1015
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:52,160
Speaker 3: the person they were before and the person they were

1016
00:56:52,239 --> 00:56:56,319
Speaker 3: after they realized they only have one. I don't know

1017
00:56:56,360 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 3: if that's a real proverb, but.

1018
00:56:58,680 --> 00:57:01,399
Speaker 2: It sounds convincing coming from You're like, yeah, I guess

1019
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:04,640
Speaker 2: I should have space cocaine. Because of course, the we

1020
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:07,760
Speaker 2: learned that doctor Zaras like has this, you know, this,

1021
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:10,520
Speaker 2: this kind of shady background is involved in essentially like

1022
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:15,359
Speaker 2: mad blood science, and this this space cocaine that she's

1023
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:18,320
Speaker 2: providing everyone with has like some it's like high grade

1024
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:20,960
Speaker 2: and has some sort of like blue additive to it

1025
00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:24,760
Speaker 2: that is going to make everyone's experience perfect because ultimately,

1026
00:57:24,800 --> 00:57:28,200
Speaker 2: as we learn, Lassiter is here to yes, to pump

1027
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:32,800
Speaker 2: everybody full of illicit substances, but also to encourage them

1028
00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:36,240
Speaker 2: and to get everybody synced up for a singular experience,

1029
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:40,680
Speaker 2: the titular viewing of a particular object.

1030
00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:43,320
Speaker 3: And what is that viewing. Well, he gets them into

1031
00:57:43,360 --> 00:57:47,600
Speaker 3: the chamber to look at the obelisk. Now, I think

1032
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:49,920
Speaker 3: there are a few rules of the chamber with the.

1033
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:55,600
Speaker 2: Obelisk, or one rule, and that is there's no smoking

1034
00:57:55,680 --> 00:58:00,880
Speaker 2: in the obelisk chamber. We do learn this the hard way.

1035
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:04,720
Speaker 2: But other than that, I think it's just whatever goes.

1036
00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:07,720
Speaker 2: You're allowed to touch the obelisk, apparently, and you're encouraged

1037
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:11,960
Speaker 2: to look at it and to discuss your ideas concerning

1038
00:58:12,000 --> 00:58:12,680
Speaker 2: what it might be.

1039
00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 3: Well, I like, how did I remember this correctly? That

1040
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 3: really there is no information on what the obelisk is

1041
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:22,480
Speaker 3: or where it comes from? Is that right?

1042
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:27,120
Speaker 2: Yeah? Lassitor tells us that he obtained it like at

1043
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:29,840
Speaker 2: the ultimate cost and at great expense and so forth,

1044
00:58:29,920 --> 00:58:32,600
Speaker 2: that you know, but that's it. And when they ask him, like,

1045
00:58:32,640 --> 00:58:35,280
Speaker 2: what is it He's like, I have no idea. So

1046
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 2: it's a complete anomaly. There's no if. There's no discussion of,

1047
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:41,520
Speaker 2: oh well this fell from the sky, or this was

1048
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:44,280
Speaker 2: discovered you know, on the bottom of the ocean or

1049
00:58:44,360 --> 00:58:47,720
Speaker 2: in the deepest caverns of the Earth. No, here it is,

1050
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:50,920
Speaker 2: I have obtained it. Take a look at it. You

1051
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:52,360
Speaker 2: tell me what you think it is.

1052
00:58:52,880 --> 00:58:56,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, there is zero information about it except here it is.

1053
00:58:56,080 --> 00:58:57,920
Speaker 3: I have it, and now you're looking at it.

1054
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 2: Tests that they've run have been inconclusive. You know, X

1055
00:59:02,440 --> 00:59:06,720
Speaker 2: rays tell them nothing. But for some reason they do

1056
00:59:06,840 --> 00:59:08,760
Speaker 2: have this idea that you should not smoke around it.

1057
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:11,360
Speaker 3: That's just common sense. I mean, So, what is it.

1058
00:59:11,360 --> 00:59:17,680
Speaker 3: It's like a large black object with many different surfaces

1059
00:59:17,800 --> 00:59:21,480
Speaker 3: and indentations and projections. In a way, it looks almost

1060
00:59:21,560 --> 00:59:23,320
Speaker 3: like a bit of xenomorph biology.

1061
00:59:24,040 --> 00:59:26,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's kind of a gieger S quality to it.

1062
00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:30,440
Speaker 2: But also it does look like some sort of strange rock.

1063
00:59:30,480 --> 00:59:32,120
Speaker 2: It looks like a space rock, and it's kind of

1064
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:34,440
Speaker 2: described as such. And I think that's the if you

1065
00:59:34,480 --> 00:59:36,280
Speaker 2: had to guess, you might think, well, this fell from

1066
00:59:36,280 --> 00:59:39,880
Speaker 2: the sky. Clearly this is some sort of space object.

1067
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:44,040
Speaker 2: And they start talking about it, and they have everyone's

1068
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:46,800
Speaker 2: reaction to it is a little different, you know. Guy

1069
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:49,360
Speaker 2: Landen is like, this is a rock. I'm done. I

1070
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:51,120
Speaker 2: don't want to look at this thing where and I

1071
00:59:51,160 --> 00:59:53,280
Speaker 2: think most of the other characters, though, I begin to

1072
00:59:53,320 --> 00:59:55,320
Speaker 2: see that there is something special about this There is

1073
00:59:55,360 --> 00:59:59,400
Speaker 2: something that is that is sort of calling out to

1074
00:59:59,440 --> 01:00:00,040
Speaker 2: them from it.

1075
01:00:01,160 --> 01:00:04,840
Speaker 3: And then everything goes off the rails when eric Andre

1076
01:00:05,920 --> 01:00:08,840
Speaker 3: blows some cannabis smoke into it.

1077
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:14,000
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, it kind of inhales the smoke and then yeah,

1078
01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:17,200
Speaker 2: things get really crazy really quickly. This is like the

1079
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:23,280
Speaker 2: last twelve minutes of the picture. Here. It starts, there's

1080
01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:26,640
Speaker 2: sts clearly there's a psychic effect, and he's like, yeah,

1081
01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:30,120
Speaker 2: eric Andre's character is like, I think I broke your rock, dude.

1082
01:00:30,600 --> 01:00:36,800
Speaker 2: And it starts crumbling, cracking open, and a strange substance

1083
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:40,040
Speaker 2: is in the middle, some a creature, a substance, some

1084
01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:43,920
Speaker 2: sort of orange gelatinous form, and at this point it

1085
01:00:44,520 --> 01:00:48,200
Speaker 2: reminds one a lot of The Blob, especially the early

1086
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:50,560
Speaker 2: scenes in both the original Blob and the remake, where

1087
01:00:51,000 --> 01:00:57,200
Speaker 2: this hard rocky substance cracks open and a Blob creature emerges,

1088
01:00:57,560 --> 01:00:59,800
Speaker 2: only instead of it being kind of like red, and

1089
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:01,600
Speaker 2: this one is bright orange.

1090
01:01:02,120 --> 01:01:07,680
Speaker 3: It is a giant orange wax clam that then from

1091
01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:11,600
Speaker 3: which project a couple of the main features of it.

1092
01:01:11,640 --> 01:01:15,120
Speaker 3: These things that are like horns but sometimes don't appear

1093
01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:19,680
Speaker 3: to be rigid like. They morph between being flexible arms

1094
01:01:19,760 --> 01:01:23,040
Speaker 3: like the arms of an octopus, and then being like

1095
01:01:23,080 --> 01:01:25,840
Speaker 3: the rigid corkscrew horns of a mountain goat.

1096
01:01:26,520 --> 01:01:30,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, or like the horns of a ram or something. Yeah.

1097
01:01:30,400 --> 01:01:33,919
Speaker 2: It the monster in its varied forms. It definitely spoke

1098
01:01:33,960 --> 01:01:36,480
Speaker 2: to me in terms of the blob, the arc of

1099
01:01:36,480 --> 01:01:44,200
Speaker 2: the Covenant, the horns of Golgadarath, tentacles, slug antennae, and

1100
01:01:44,200 --> 01:01:46,800
Speaker 2: and yeah, some other elements as well, and at the

1101
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:48,400
Speaker 2: whole time that the whole time though, and a lot

1102
01:01:48,400 --> 01:01:50,840
Speaker 2: of this is also due to you know, the sound design,

1103
01:01:50,960 --> 01:01:54,920
Speaker 2: the lighting, everything else, but the creature designed too. It

1104
01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:59,360
Speaker 2: feels completely under otherworldly with all without seeming too much

1105
01:01:59,440 --> 01:02:03,560
Speaker 2: like anything I've seen in other films. As we've discussed before,

1106
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:06,320
Speaker 2: with modern monster movies, it can be kind of a sameness,

1107
01:02:06,720 --> 01:02:10,480
Speaker 2: kind of a built by committee quality to it, and

1108
01:02:10,760 --> 01:02:15,600
Speaker 2: this creature or whatever it is feels wholly different. And yeah,

1109
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:20,320
Speaker 2: there's just a strong, like WTF feel for this entire encounter.

1110
01:02:21,000 --> 01:02:23,560
Speaker 3: Oh, but there's also so much melting to happen here.

1111
01:02:23,680 --> 01:02:25,160
Speaker 3: It's a melt to remember.

1112
01:02:25,880 --> 01:02:28,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they're scanning. Everybody gets scanned. Everyone in the

1113
01:02:28,760 --> 01:02:33,120
Speaker 2: room is scanned, and then some people start melting. One

1114
01:02:33,160 --> 01:02:38,800
Speaker 2: person's head explodes, and really, ultimately everyone is going to

1115
01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:44,480
Speaker 2: either melt, explode, be absorbed by orange slime, or run

1116
01:02:44,520 --> 01:02:45,680
Speaker 2: screaming for their lives.

1117
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:50,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, and obviously we're deep into spoiler territory here. But

1118
01:02:50,400 --> 01:02:55,200
Speaker 3: in the end, it is Lasseter who is absorbed by

1119
01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:57,440
Speaker 3: the creature. So the creature like sort of slithers, it

1120
01:02:57,560 --> 01:03:00,800
Speaker 3: like wounds him psychically, and he collapses, is on the floor,

1121
01:03:01,320 --> 01:03:04,920
Speaker 3: And this is after it has melted Landing and targ

1122
01:03:05,160 --> 01:03:09,960
Speaker 3: and doctor Zara I think, And yeah, they all get

1123
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:13,640
Speaker 3: melted by it or they explode, and then it goes

1124
01:03:13,720 --> 01:03:17,120
Speaker 3: up to Lasseter and it takes him within the mass

1125
01:03:17,160 --> 01:03:20,360
Speaker 3: of the wax and then he sort of I guess,

1126
01:03:20,360 --> 01:03:23,640
Speaker 3: becomes the scaffold or the skeleton for this creature to

1127
01:03:23,680 --> 01:03:25,320
Speaker 3: become vaguely humanoid.

1128
01:03:26,040 --> 01:03:27,920
Speaker 2: Yeah, becomes this. And this is where we get the

1129
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:32,280
Speaker 2: creature suit, because we have a tall bipedal creature with

1130
01:03:32,400 --> 01:03:35,600
Speaker 2: kind of a zombifide face, and the two tentacles remain

1131
01:03:35,720 --> 01:03:38,920
Speaker 2: but on the shoulders, continuing to quest around as if

1132
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:41,000
Speaker 2: continuing to sense and take in data.

1133
01:03:41,600 --> 01:03:46,160
Speaker 3: Then Charlotte and Roth they both escape. They make it out,

1134
01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:48,920
Speaker 3: though Roth stops to try to do more drugs on

1135
01:03:48,920 --> 01:03:53,320
Speaker 3: the way out, but they make it out. Oh, Hector

1136
01:03:53,360 --> 01:03:56,240
Speaker 3: comes in. He gets the gold Ak forty seven and

1137
01:03:56,360 --> 01:03:59,920
Speaker 3: tries to shoot the monster, but he is like zaz

1138
01:04:00,000 --> 01:04:02,080
Speaker 3: apped electrically and explodes.

1139
01:04:03,000 --> 01:04:06,560
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, the creature clearly has just vast reservoirs of power.

1140
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:10,560
Speaker 3: So we see our two survivors like get into an

1141
01:04:10,640 --> 01:04:14,120
Speaker 3: eighties or seventies sports car and then drive away and

1142
01:04:14,760 --> 01:04:17,800
Speaker 3: drive away with such acceleration that eric Andre's like face

1143
01:04:17,880 --> 01:04:21,840
Speaker 3: is rippling like in a wind tunnel. And then they

1144
01:04:22,280 --> 01:04:24,640
Speaker 3: they make it out. But then we see the creature

1145
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:28,320
Speaker 3: with I guess Lassiter inside it. I don't know if

1146
01:04:28,400 --> 01:04:30,680
Speaker 3: Lassiter is thought to in some way still be alive

1147
01:04:30,840 --> 01:04:32,800
Speaker 3: and a part of this creature, or if it's just

1148
01:04:32,840 --> 01:04:35,720
Speaker 3: sort of like used him, like the thing does maybe

1149
01:04:36,560 --> 01:04:41,080
Speaker 3: as a as a format, as like a template. But

1150
01:04:41,200 --> 01:04:43,840
Speaker 3: now it walks out of the mansion and then we

1151
01:04:43,880 --> 01:04:46,760
Speaker 3: see it like walk into a sewer and then emerge

1152
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:49,240
Speaker 3: out the other end of the sewer line walking into

1153
01:04:49,480 --> 01:04:52,920
Speaker 3: a big a big like aqueduct, a big what do

1154
01:04:52,920 --> 01:04:55,840
Speaker 3: you call it? Like the canals in LA, big concrete canal,

1155
01:04:56,040 --> 01:04:58,600
Speaker 3: drainage canal, and it just walks out into there and

1156
01:04:58,760 --> 01:05:00,080
Speaker 3: is now among.

1157
01:04:59,800 --> 01:05:02,920
Speaker 2: The Yeah, this kind of again, this kind of like

1158
01:05:03,040 --> 01:05:09,200
Speaker 2: concrete dismal version of LA. And immediately we begin to

1159
01:05:09,200 --> 01:05:11,800
Speaker 2: see lights start to go out in the city as

1160
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:14,480
Speaker 2: if like it's immense energy and it's a like electrical

1161
01:05:14,480 --> 01:05:19,200
Speaker 2: disturbance is already knocking out power like just by like

1162
01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:21,680
Speaker 2: it doesn't It's hard to figure out what the creature

1163
01:05:22,600 --> 01:05:25,880
Speaker 2: thinks or wants to get out of this. Like, clearly

1164
01:05:25,920 --> 01:05:28,120
Speaker 2: it's going to destroy the world, there's no question about that.

1165
01:05:28,520 --> 01:05:30,800
Speaker 2: The question is does it want to destroy the world

1166
01:05:30,920 --> 01:05:33,760
Speaker 2: or is it just there to record the world, to

1167
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:37,680
Speaker 2: sense the world and in doing so will inevitably destroy everything.

1168
01:05:39,320 --> 01:05:42,560
Speaker 3: Is there a reason for the differential fates of the characters,

1169
01:05:42,600 --> 01:05:46,440
Speaker 3: Like why do Landen, Zara, Lassiter and Rheinhardt melt or

1170
01:05:46,440 --> 01:05:50,840
Speaker 3: get absorbed or whatever? And why do Roth and z escape?

1171
01:05:51,280 --> 01:05:55,720
Speaker 3: Is it based on something about them individually? Does that

1172
01:05:55,880 --> 01:05:59,600
Speaker 3: mean something do those two in a sense refuse to

1173
01:05:59,640 --> 01:06:03,439
Speaker 3: look at the arc like Indian Marion. I couldn't really

1174
01:06:04,040 --> 01:06:06,080
Speaker 3: tell if there was anything like that, but I wonder

1175
01:06:06,120 --> 01:06:08,960
Speaker 3: if somebody out there has an interpretation of that sort.

1176
01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:12,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd love to hear what folks think about this.

1177
01:06:12,480 --> 01:06:14,040
Speaker 2: The best I could come up with. And I also

1178
01:06:14,120 --> 01:06:16,360
Speaker 2: have to realize that there may be no reason to it.

1179
01:06:16,360 --> 01:06:18,760
Speaker 2: It may just have to do with likability of characters

1180
01:06:19,120 --> 01:06:22,360
Speaker 2: and or coolness of characters, like obviously Laster has to

1181
01:06:22,400 --> 01:06:24,640
Speaker 2: become the monster that sort of thing. But I was

1182
01:06:24,680 --> 01:06:26,760
Speaker 2: also thinking it might ultimately have to come down to

1183
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:30,080
Speaker 2: desire and grasping. So the creature is an explorer, it's

1184
01:06:30,160 --> 01:06:33,360
Speaker 2: questing with its feelers. And so my read is that

1185
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:36,920
Speaker 2: Land and Reinhart and Zara they're found wanting. There's something

1186
01:06:36,960 --> 01:06:40,480
Speaker 2: inauthentic about their relationship with the world and their desires

1187
01:06:40,520 --> 01:06:44,320
Speaker 2: in the world. Roth and Charlotte they desire too much,

1188
01:06:44,400 --> 01:06:47,640
Speaker 2: or perhaps their desires are very specific and therefore they're

1189
01:06:47,680 --> 01:06:50,920
Speaker 2: able to get away. But Lassiter, he's in the Goldilocks

1190
01:06:50,960 --> 01:06:54,120
Speaker 2: zone for some reason, perhaps because he has just overarching

1191
01:06:54,200 --> 01:06:57,760
Speaker 2: general interest in everything. So he's the perfect fit for

1192
01:06:57,880 --> 01:07:02,000
Speaker 2: something that has come to like experience slash record slash

1193
01:07:02,040 --> 01:07:03,800
Speaker 2: destroy the entire.

1194
01:07:03,600 --> 01:07:06,439
Speaker 3: World perfect it is canon now.

1195
01:07:08,720 --> 01:07:10,919
Speaker 2: But yeah, that's the viewing and the lovely thing about

1196
01:07:10,960 --> 01:07:13,880
Speaker 2: the viewing, it's the whole picture is like going into

1197
01:07:13,920 --> 01:07:19,080
Speaker 2: the the the Obelisk Chamber. There's no smoking, and it's

1198
01:07:19,120 --> 01:07:21,200
Speaker 2: about like, what do you take out of it? What's

1199
01:07:21,280 --> 01:07:27,320
Speaker 2: your interpretation of what transpires? An interpretation is not entirely necessary,

1200
01:07:27,360 --> 01:07:30,560
Speaker 2: but you know, because it's ultimately a wild, weird ride

1201
01:07:31,280 --> 01:07:34,280
Speaker 2: that I enjoyed quite a bit. But yeah, it also

1202
01:07:34,400 --> 01:07:38,320
Speaker 2: raises questions and you might well wonder, well what comes next?

1203
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:42,840
Speaker 2: And I like a nice open ended, strange, like weird

1204
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:47,440
Speaker 2: ending like this where yeah, our main likable characters have escaped,

1205
01:07:48,120 --> 01:07:51,320
Speaker 2: but it doesn't seem like escape is in store for

1206
01:07:51,360 --> 01:07:52,280
Speaker 2: the world itself.

1207
01:07:52,720 --> 01:07:55,200
Speaker 3: Right, there's no smoking in the Obelisk Chamber, which is

1208
01:07:55,240 --> 01:07:56,560
Speaker 3: now the entire universe.

1209
01:07:58,360 --> 01:08:00,960
Speaker 2: Maybe in the sequel, he's just that the creatures going

1210
01:08:00,960 --> 01:08:04,120
Speaker 2: out to find more dope smoke. That's that's the whole plot.

1211
01:08:04,360 --> 01:08:05,200
Speaker 2: I'd be down for that.

1212
01:08:05,200 --> 01:08:07,760
Speaker 3: Right, all right, that's all I got on the viewing.

1213
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:10,440
Speaker 2: All Right, Well, we're gonna go ahead and close it

1214
01:08:10,480 --> 01:08:14,000
Speaker 2: out here, but we'll remind you that Weird House Cinema

1215
01:08:14,040 --> 01:08:16,760
Speaker 2: occurs every Friday in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind

1216
01:08:16,800 --> 01:08:19,720
Speaker 2: podcast feed and you were you were invited to join

1217
01:08:19,800 --> 01:08:23,040
Speaker 2: us each each week for that. We're primarily a science

1218
01:08:23,040 --> 01:08:27,320
Speaker 2: podcast with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a short

1219
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:30,680
Speaker 2: form artifact or monster fact on Wednesdays, and on Mondays

1220
01:08:30,720 --> 01:08:34,639
Speaker 2: we do a listener mail episode, So write in, we'll listen,

1221
01:08:34,720 --> 01:08:36,880
Speaker 2: we'll read your listener mail, and we may read them

1222
01:08:36,920 --> 01:08:39,640
Speaker 2: on the program. If you want to check out all

1223
01:08:39,640 --> 01:08:42,200
Speaker 2: the movies we've covered on Weird House Cinema in the past, well,

1224
01:08:42,240 --> 01:08:43,920
Speaker 2: you can go to letterbox dot com this L E

1225
01:08:44,000 --> 01:08:45,880
Speaker 2: T T E R B O x d dot com.

1226
01:08:46,160 --> 01:08:48,719
Speaker 2: We have a profile there weird House and you'll find

1227
01:08:48,720 --> 01:08:50,680
Speaker 2: a list of all the films we've covered, and you

1228
01:08:50,680 --> 01:08:53,599
Speaker 2: can do like neat things there, like divide them up

1229
01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:56,840
Speaker 2: by decade, divide them up by genre, and so forth.

1230
01:08:56,840 --> 01:08:57,599
Speaker 2: It's a lot of fun.

1231
01:08:58,000 --> 01:09:01,280
Speaker 3: Huge thanks to our excellent audio for new Sir jj posway.

1232
01:09:01,360 --> 01:09:02,960
Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us

1233
01:09:03,000 --> 01:09:05,479
Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1234
01:09:05,479 --> 01:09:07,800
Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1235
01:09:07,960 --> 01:09:10,880
Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at stuffd Blow your

1236
01:09:10,960 --> 01:09:18,760
Speaker 3: Mind dot com.

1237
01:09:18,880 --> 01:09:21,800
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1238
01:09:21,880 --> 01:09:24,679
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1239
01:09:24,840 --> 01:09:28,080
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