WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: Absurd 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:08.239 Hey, you welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is 0:00:08.400 --> 0:00:12.120 Rob Lamb and today we're going to revisit an episode 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.680 that published last year on nine twenty seven, twenty twenty four. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.160 It is definitely a horror film. It is the Joe 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:27.520 Dematto directed George Eastman starring notorious slasher film Absurd from 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.440 nineteen eighty one. Let's jump right in. 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:39.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:47.640 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.320 And this is Joe McCormick. And today on Weird House 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.960 Cinema we are going to be talking about the nineteen 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:58.680 eighty one Italian slasher movie Absurd, directed by Joe Demato 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:03.600 and starring George Eastman. Now, Rob, I understand you wanted 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:09.039 to talk about how this movie typifies a movie subgenre, 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.760 maybe not defined within the movie itself, but the sort 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:17.360 of meta subgenre of the video nasty. 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.880 That's right. We've referred to video nasties before on the show, 0:01:20.959 --> 0:01:23.080 and those of you know what we're talking about, you know, 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:25.200 probably not in your head. And if you don't know 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:26.920 what video nasty is, you might have just you know, 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.520 picked up on context and all, but basically it's essentially 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.800 UK slang for films, usually low budget horror and exploitation 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:37.800 films that were highly controversial during the nineteen eighties as 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.560 they were able to enter the UK distribution market through 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.200 a loophole that allowed the distributors to avoid official classification, 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.360 part of a video gold rush that came with VHS 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.080 technology at the time. This is the description given by 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.320 David Correki's and David Slater in the twenty twenty three 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.880 book Cannibal Error, Anti Film Propaganda and the Video Nasties 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:04.600 Panic of the nineteen eighties. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.880 So this would be sort of an informal list of 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:14.000 films that what were not necessarily illegal, but were singled 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:19.760 out for being obscene or terrible or just worthy of 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.119 moral appropriate approbation in some way. 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.040 Well you kind of get both things. There's like it 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.360 does become formalized, but then there's also kind of like 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.799 an informal list as well. So basically the short version 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:33.200 of how this went down as you had and again 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:38.120 this is a you're involving like new technology, new distribution patterns, 0:02:38.800 --> 0:02:43.040 and also changes in you know, what the public wants, 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.919 and then public anxiety about obscenity. So basically you haven't 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.840 had an advocacy group called the National Viewers and Listeners Association, 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.120 and it made a big outcry about these these films 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.600 that we're making it into the UK on VHS, and 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.840 it led to just a whole saga of politic, moral 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:04.880 panic censorship discussion, and the end result was the imposition 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.160 of state video censorship in the UK in nineteen eighty 0:03:08.160 --> 0:03:11.919 four and the creation of a Director of Public Prosecutions 0:03:12.200 --> 0:03:14.639 DPP list of films that would come to be known 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:18.079 as video nasties. Though I think this term also ends 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.480 up becoming especially outside of the UK and in just 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:27.160 sort of VHS horror exploitation film circles, it becomes something 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:32.000 of a loose term that is used for various sort 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.240 of grimy, low budget, often euro films of the time period. 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.440 Ah okay, So thus my confusion. So some of the 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.720 things referred to as video nasties were actually targeted by 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.360 the law in the UK, and other things just sort 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:51.040 of informally get that title as a kind of descriptor 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:53.120 of what these movies tend to be. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.640 Like, Yeah, because you definitely had a list, you had 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.560 like section one prosecuted films included actually a few different 0:03:59.560 --> 0:04:03.320 films we discussed on Weird House nineteen eighties, Cannibal Apocalypse 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.360 nineteen eighty one's The House by the Cemetery, and today's 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.600 film Absurd, which is also from nineteen eighty one as 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:14.760 His House by the Cemetery. Now, naturally there's some really 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.440 grimy exploitation fodder in that list as well, but there's 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.360 also plenty of stuff that I don't know. It's all subjective, 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:22.599 but it feels, at least to me, kind of tame 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.640 by today's standards. But naturally, the line between art and 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.119 obscenity is always going to be subjective to a certain extent, 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.440 and there's gonna be a point of disagreement in figuring 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.000 out what is what. But apart from these official classifications 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.880 and uproars in the UK, the term video nasty again 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.000 kind of becomes kind of comes to be a badge 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:44.679 of honor for many horror films from this time period, 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.840 especially in later decades. By the time many of us 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.279 were looking these up in books like The Psychotronic Film Guide, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.960 or buying bootleg VHS tapes off of eBay back in 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.640 the day, or learning about them online, you know, browsing 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.279 Internet movie data Bay, looking at various blogs, forums, or 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.039 today venturing around on letterbox dot com. You know, it 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.480 adds that extra bit of intrigue to a title. This 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.000 is a video nasty, this is a curse tape. You know, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:12.200 watch at your own risk. 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.119 Now, that might lead you to wonder, okay, if this 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.760 is one of those films that was considered so bad 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.200 as to be you know, targeted by the law in 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:24.160 the UK. Is there like, what's it about? What goes on? 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.839 It is? You know, is it a Texas chainsaw massacre 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:30.560 kind of thing? I think the best way to describe 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.080 absurd is that it must have been pitched as a 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.760 Halloween clone. Halloween came out in nineteen seventy eight, is 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.600 that right? Yeah, just checked, it was seventy eight, So 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:42.960 this is a few years after that, and there were 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.400 many many Halloween clones. Halloween was a big hit, and 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:48.760 so a lot of movies tried to copy it. In fact, 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:53.800 some of the big slasher franchises in the American market. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.680 I think you could argue began as Halloween clones. One 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.520 might sing, one might point to like Friday the thirteenth, 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.920 and so forth. You know. It even picks like a 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.680 day of the year as the title. But anyway, so 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.120 I think Absurd it was imagined as a kind of 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:13.719 Halloween clone, but much more gory and disgusting. Halloween is 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:17.120 actually fairly light on the blood and gore. You don't 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:21.520 see a lot of explicit consequences of violence in it. 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.120 It's more, you know, Halloween is much more focused on 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.360 the building of tension through proximity and terror and perspective 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.080 and all that kind of stuff. Absurd gets into a 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.400 lot more just gross, explicit sort of meat exercises, but 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.960 it has very similar plot dynamics. So both movies are 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:43.800 about a seemingly indestructible killer who escapes from a facility 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.160 of some kind and strikes out with random murders in 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:49.960 a nearby neighborhood. Well, actually no, in Absurd it's not 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:51.960 a nearby neighborhood for some reason. He goes to a 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:56.680 different country. But in both cases strikes out with random 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.880 murders in a neighborhood with no discernible motive. 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:01.839 Yeah, just random killings. 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:06.719 Both movies follow babysitters as the sort of the victims 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.760 and protagonists in a way. Both movies have a kid 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.160 who refers to the killer as the Boogeyman. You remember, 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.520 that's in Halloween, and they really emphasize that in Absurd 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.720 as well. And in both cases, the killer is pursued 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:26.200 by a sort of eccentric, obsessive foreign cleric, and in 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:29.480 the case of Halloween that's Donald Pleasance as doctor loomis 0:07:29.920 --> 0:07:33.640 in this movie. It is a Greek priest. So you 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.760 can see a lot of similarities, but you can see 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:39.680 differences as well. And one that I think is interesting 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:47.040 is exactly what makes Halloween so effective as horror in 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.440 a way is its restraint, the way in which it 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:53.640 really like takes its time, the way in which you know, 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.440 it plays with as I was saying, distance and perspective, 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.000 you know, showing things in the background of shots instead 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:02.119 of just going for immediate jump scares and so forth. 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.960 Absurd is the exact opposite. It does not play with restraint. 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:07.560 It plays to excess. 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:09.800 Though it does take its time in some of the sites. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.920 That's true, yeah, but not necessarily in a good way. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.760 I mean, it'll like really take its time showing how 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.920 long a murder takes to complete. Yeah, but no, it 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:22.160 also does take its time. I mean, yeah, it does 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.720 have the killer lurking in the background sometimes as well, 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:27.440 so in some ways you've got that element going on. 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:33.200 It's kind of a Halloween clone, but with Italian excess sensibilities. 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:35.800 On the other hand, I would say this is an 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:40.440 Italian horror movie of the early nineteen eighties, and while 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.600 absurd does earn a number of superlatives, I'm not trying 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:46.160 to put it down here. One thing I do think 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:48.480 it kind of makes it stand out is is it 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:52.240 does not manage to be as visually exciting as a 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:54.600 lot of the Italian horror movies of this period that 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.160 we love. In fact, I would say it almost has 0:08:57.600 --> 0:09:04.680 a pointedly intentionally drab, lifeless and colorless visual style. The 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:08.439 sets all seem to be various shades of white, brown, yellow, 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.440 and tan. There's not much, really any use of colored 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.079 lighting that I can recall. There aren't any beautiful vistas 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.560 or stained glass effects or anything like that. It is 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:23.680 a almost intentionally quite drab looking film. 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.280 Yeah, I mean de Motto gets into he gets into 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:28.760 some creative territory with some of the shots, and he 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:30.520 makes I think he makes pretty good use of the 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.440 villa location in some scenes. But yeah, this is not 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:36.800 a movie you seek out for its rich colors or 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:41.199 its amazing production design. There's not even any monster makeup, 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.800 just no grimy gore. And I think most people who 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:46.480 seek it out aren't going to seek it out for 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:51.280 its reputation as a low budget video nasty and stick 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.240 with it for some of its well absurd choices, you know, 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:58.959 because despite his reputation, it's not the gorious film from 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.920 this time period, nor is it the most disturbing by 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.600 any stretch. It's worth noting, especially with Dematto here, that 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.120 there's no nudity in this film at all, virtually no 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.880 sexual content of any kind. So it's amazingly tame on 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.600 that side of the exploitation scales, I would say. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:19.920 Yeah. 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:23.120 Also, despite the American title, it's worth noting that it's 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.320 I don't know, you could make a strong argument that 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:29.680 this film is not really absurd. It's not a surrealistic film, 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:33.559 it's not psychedelic. But again, I think three things help 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:34.920 it to stand out from a lot of the other 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.440 slot films of the time period. It's got a fun score, 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.520 there are some weird choices that are made, I think, 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.920 some deliberately and some just via the speed of the production. 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.240 And then you've got the screen presence near constant screen 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:50.080 presence of George Eastman. 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.000 Which alone puts this film in a kind of rare category. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.080 I mean, everybody, even if you don't know anything about 0:10:57.320 --> 0:11:00.520 these Italian exploitation movies and you don't know who George 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.640 Eastman is. I think if you see a movie with 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.280 George Eastman in it, you're gonna remember him. You're gonna 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.200 be like, who is that guy? Yeah? 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:09.640 Yeah, A lot of times it's a small role. He's 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.960 come up in films before. He pops up, for instance 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.520 in Hands of Steel that we watched a while back, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:17.800 and here he gets a chance to shine. 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.240 Now, regarding the question you said, the movie is not 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:24.760 even that absurd, I was wondering if maybe the absurd 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.960 title refers not to the more common usage like you 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.520 were saying there, comparing it to something that is psychedelic 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.680 or surreal. Maybe we often use the word just to 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:40.040 mean like weird, illogical, or unreasonable. I was wondering if 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:43.720 it is not that usage of absurd, but the philosophical 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.680 usage a lah absurdism, the core tenets of which are 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.480 that the universe is meaningless and our lives are meaningless, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.160 and that much of the struggle of human life, and 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:58.280 so many of our conflicts and contradictions arise because people 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.720 are trying to find the mean in meaningless things. 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:04.840 All right, all right, I hear what you're laying down. 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.880 Well, yeah, So I think the movie Absurd is quite 0:12:07.920 --> 0:12:10.680 the plot is quite compatible with the view that life 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:14.959 is meaningless. You know, the attacks are completely random, And 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.680 I wonder if George Eastman's problem as a character is 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.360 that he is engaged in a futile search for the 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:24.240 meaning of life, and that search involves power drills and 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:25.640 bandsaws and so forth. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.360 It is interesting that he does not have a signature weapon. 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.640 He just makes use of what is immediately around him 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:34.080 and doesn't care anything with him. 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.920 It's usually powered mechanisms, isn't it Not in every case, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.360 But that's kind of strange. He like a he likes 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.040 a weapon you can plug into the wall. 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:44.760 Yeah, and he'll drag you through the house to get 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:46.520 to it. It's not just a matter of like what's 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:51.280 immediately around me. It's like did I see an oven earlier? Yeah, 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:53.800 there's got to be a kitchen around here, somewhere. We'll 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:55.160 spend five minutes searching for it. 0:12:55.559 --> 0:12:58.439 So if we haven't warned you enough already, do be 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.440 warned that this movie does have some really gross violence 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.440 in it. So if you're going to watch it, be prepared. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.880 Yeah, And I also, I don't want to oversell this 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.599 movie like sometimes, you know, I'm big on really championing 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:12.160 a film and saying like there's this is a hidden gym, 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.520 or there's some there are some diamonds in this one. 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:17.880 This is a film that a lot of people don't like. 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.960 Even people we're into into horror. You know, we'll give 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.720 it maybe like mediocre reviews. So if you're on the 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.880 fence about seeing absurd there's a very strong chance you're 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.360 not going to like it. So fair warning. This might 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:31.800 be a case where you just want to hear us 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.800 talk about it. But if if you're into this sort 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:38.240 of thing, well, you know, dive in because there's there 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.040 is some absurdity. There is some weirdness here that I 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:42.080 thought was pretty fun. 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.960 Speaking of the absurdity and the weirdness, just a few 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.080 things I want to call out at the beginnings, these 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.720 these strange contradictions in the movie where there are things 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.240 where I don't even know how to characterize them really 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:59.520 because they contain contradictions. One of them is the sets 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:05.240 in this film which have this They are simultaneously opulent 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:07.800 and squalid, do you know what I'm saying? 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:10.880 Yeah, yeah, like the one of the key The key 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.520 set in the film, the key location is this obvious 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.439 Italian villa, you know, and it's clearly has old bone, 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:24.520 spacious interiors, but the way that the space is decorated 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:28.240 at times feels very sparse and slapped together. And it's 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.120 also we'll get back to this more, but this is 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:34.760 essentially presented to us as an American home where Americans 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.760 live and are ready for some American football. 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:38.280 Ye. 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:42.720 And I've this with suits of armor inside that. Yes, yes, 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.080 So it's the It's a weird missmash And I think 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.800 this is ultimately one of its charms, you know, you know, 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:51.840 at least watching it as an American, you know, it's 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:53.680 just seeing the sort of mismatch of things. 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.360 Another thing, what is going on with people's accents in 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:01.640 this movie The Babysit is a great example. She seems 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.800 to go from I've heard I hear English accent at 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:09.280 some point like a very formal kind of received pronunciation accent. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.280 Sometimes I hear Irish, sometimes I hear Italian, sometimes I 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:15.720 hear American. It is all over the place. 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.680 Well, you have to remember Absurd as a prestige picture 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:23.040 with an international cast, so you know it was you 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.120 know it's not, but it was conceived and produced not 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:28.480 so much for native Italian audiences, but to be shipped 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.320 out to various international markets, each with their own particular 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.240 and shifting censorship standards. And so we have a predominantly 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:39.480 Italian cast, but with some like UK and I guess, 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.080 and I guess largely UK talent thrown in there as 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.320 well as this American setting, though again everything was filmed 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:46.720 in Italy. 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:48.840 Okay, I was just thinking before we get to the 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.160 elevator pitch. I was thinking of like three different ways 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:57.000 of categorizing mad slasher villains in movies like this. One 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.600 is the question we already addressed of is a motive 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:02.960 or not? Sometimes the motive of the slasher is like 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.160 revenge or something, and other times there is no motive. 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.600 This is a case of no motive firmly on the 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.800 random violence into the scale. 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:13.240 Yeah, yeah, this is on the Halloween end of the spectrum, 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.320 as opposed to say the Burning or Nightmare on Elm Street, 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.640 where there is some symblance of vengeance bound up in 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:21.920 the motives of the killer. 0:16:22.080 --> 0:16:24.920 Yeah, or the original Friday the thirteenth. Yeah, oh yeah, Yeah, 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:25.280 that's right. 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.040 I kind of forget because he kind of becomes just 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.280 a mindless killing machine and the franchise later on, certainly 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.760 by the time he takes Manhattan. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.920 Yeah, exactly. Okay, that's criterion number one. Criterion number two 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:42.880 is the form, the form and costuming of the slasher villain. 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:45.920 Do they wear a mask or are they physically altered 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:50.400 in some way this case, no, he's just George Eastman. No, 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:54.280 no makeup, no mask, no nothing. He's just a guy. Yeah. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:58.080 I mean an interesting looking guy, but just a guy. Yeah. 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.000 For much of it, like he's just wearing like gene 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.680 and a shirt, just wearing like I'd assume he's just 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:04.520 normal clothes. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.680 Okay. Third distinction I would make is is this mad 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:12.600 slasher the beneficiary of any kind of supernatural intervention or magic? 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.320 And in this case I would say, once again, no, 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.359 this is a super powered slasher. But it's not like 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.439 in the later Halloween sequels where we discover that Michael 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:28.080 Myers is some kind of like reincarnated Celtic deity or something. No, 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.200 he's just a guy, except we get a science fiction 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.160 explanation for why he is so strong and why bullets 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.040 do not stop him. It's because he was the result 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:40.040 of some experiment in a lab or I think they 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.160 say there was a contamination. Now, they don't get deep 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:47.200 into the explanation. But he is a product of science, 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:48.640 not magic. Yeah. 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:52.840 Yeah, the explanation is a little garble. There's some contradictions 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:55.520 there we'll get into, but essentially it's like a weapons 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:58.920 X program. He has a mutant healing factor. It's explicitly stated. 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.679 He's kind of like the Italian or I guess the 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:03.720 Greek saber tooth here. 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.399 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I feel like all three of 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:11.720 these distinctions push it more into the philosophical absurdism side 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.959 of the scale. Right, that he is just a man's 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:19.879 like he's not physically represented in any unusual way, that 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.080 his motives are non existent, it's just random, And that 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.080 there is no magic or supernatural intervention of any kind. 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.639 He's just a product of a science experiment gone wrong. 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.479 Well, building on that and in lieu of an actual 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.840 elevator pitch I'm going to read a quote from Albert Camu, 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.000 the myth of Sisyphus. Thus, I draw from the absurd 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.160 three consequences, which are my revolt, my freedom, and my passion. 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:49.719 Bravo wow. 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.160 I mean it is revolting. So and I think we're 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:57.000 gonna we're gonna skip trailer audio on this one, in 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.560 part because the trailer is just music and screaming. 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:01.280 I believe, like, oh yeah. 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.280 I would be inclined to include it if we had 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.280 a narrator saying absurd, but they don't. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.680 I'm going to go on record here and say, even 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.360 for horror movies, I do not like trailers that are 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.199 just full of screaming. Not a fan. I like a 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.639 narrator or at least some clips of dialogue and ominous music. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:20.720 This is the screaming. Save it for the climax of 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.800 the film. I'm not interested in hearing just three minutes 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:25.840 of screaming to preview a movie. 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.480 Absolutely all right. So if at this point you're like, Okay, 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:32.919 I'm in I do actually want to watch Absurd before 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.439 finishing this episode, well, then more power to you. 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:36.240 Now. 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.480 The thing is Absurd has circulated under various titles and 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.600 with various cuts for a long time. The region free 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.920 Severn Films Blu ray is hard to beat, though, featuring 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.600 both the original Italian cut that comes in at eighty 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.359 eight minutes and the uncensored US cut, which comes in 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:56.040 at ninety four minutes. The discs also features a handful 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.959 of informative interviews which I'll refer back to, and it 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.560 has the whole the entire score on CD as a 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.080 bonus disc. Now, if you are not into the physical media, 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.000 you don't have access to it, don't have time, and 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.840 so forth. You can also stream the US cut and 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:13.399 it has the box art for the Severign release, so 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.320 I guess it's connected to that. You can stream it 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.439 on toov currently, at least in the United States. I 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.320 own the disc. It's great. I think. Once I'm done 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.120 with it, I'm going to be donating it to Video 0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:25.960 Drome here in Atlanta, so if you're local, you can 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:36.520 rent the disc there. All right, let's get into the 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:38.800 folks who made this film, starting at the top with 0:20:38.840 --> 0:20:42.600 the director, the producer, and the cinematographer. It's Joe Demato, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:46.320 who lived nineteen thirty six through nineteen ninety nine, a 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:50.000 truly legendary name in the realm of Italian exploitation and 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.199 trash cinema. We have mentioned him numerous times on the show, 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:57.119 often in connection to other actors who are working in 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:01.720 eurocinema or in Italian cinema. Sometimes forth also for things 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:03.840 that he did besides directing. For instance, he was at 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:05.720 least one of the producers on Troll Too. 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.040 Was he involved at all in Shocking Dark? 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:10.200 You know, I don't think he was, but we will 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:13.720 have a Shocking Dark connection here in just a bit. Okay, So, 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:17.040 Joe Tomato is one of the many monikers that he 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:20.199 used for his directorial work over the years. It's just 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.119 the one that seemed to stick the most. But his 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:28.359 birth name was Artista day Masa Cheese. We're going to 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.920 keep referring to him as Joe Tomaca. So, Joe Tomato 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:34.080 did everything in film at one point or another, in 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:38.359 part because, you know, based on an interview, the interviews 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:40.240 that I've seen with him, in interviews with George Eastman, 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.560 who worked with him multiple times, he's a guy who 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.600 loves cinema and you know, love the craft of cinema. Anyway, 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:48.800 I think he often said that he was not an 0:21:48.880 --> 0:21:51.320 artist and did not see himself as an artist, but 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.280 he clearly, like you know it, was really into the 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.960 craft of making films and all. But also he was 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.240 notoriously cheap and was generally operating on a shoestring budget. 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.040 You know, make it fast, make it cheap. Eastman has 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:05.960 pointed out in interviews that like, if they could do 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:08.240 it with one take, they would do it with one take, 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.040 you know. And he wasn't the type of director to 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:14.040